This king hauing inioied as great prosperitie as fauourable fortune could afoord, & as great troubles on the other side as she frowning could powre out; yet in both the states he was patient and vertuous, that he maie be a patterne of most perfect vertue, as he was a worthie example of fortunes inconstan|cie. He was plaine, vpright, farre from fraud, wholie giuen to praier, reading of scriptures, and almes|deeds; of such integritie of life, that the bishop which had béene his confessour ten yeares, auouched that he had not all that time committed anie mortall crime: so continent, as suspicion of vnchast life ne|uer touched him: and hauing in Christmasse a shew of yoong women with their bare breasts laid out pre|sented before him, he immediatlie departed with these words:
Fie, fie, for shame; forsooth you be too blame.
Before his marriage, he liked not that women should enter his chamber, and for this respect he com|mitted his two brethren by the moothers side, Iasper and Edmund, to most honest & vertuous prelats to be brought vp. So farre he was from couetousnesse, that when the executors of his vncle the bishop of Winchester, surnamed the rich cardinall, would haue giuen him two thousand pounds, he plainelie refused it, willing them to discharge the will of the departed, and would scarselie condescend at length to accept the same summe of monie toward the in|dowing of his colleges in Cambridge & Eaton. He was religiouslie affected (as the time then was) that at principall holidaies, he would weare sackecloth next his skin. Oth he vsed none, but in most earnest matters these words: Forsooth and forsooth.
He was so pitifull, that when he saw the quarter of a traitor against his crowne ouer Criplegate, he willed it to be taken awaie, with these words:
I will not haue anie christian so cruellie handled for my sake.Manie great offenses he willinglie pardoned, and receiuing at a time a great blow by a wicked man which compassed his death, he onelie said;
For|sooth forsooth, yée doo fowlie to smite a king annointed so. An other also which thrust him into the side with a sword when he was prisoner in the Tower, was by him pardoned when he was restored to his state and kingdome. Not long before his death, being deman|ded whie he had so long held the crowne of England vniustlie; he replied:
My father was king of Eng|land, quietlie inioieng the crowne all his reigne; and his father my grandsire was also king of England, and I euen a child in my cradell was proclamed and crowned king without anie interruption; and so held it fortie yeares well-neere, all the states dooing ho|mage vnto me, as to my antecessors: wherefore I maie saie with king Dauid; The lot is fallen vnto me in a faire ground; yea, I haue a goodlie heritage, my helpe is from the Lord which saueth the vpright in heart.