Now then after these so great afflictions falling vpon this realme, from the first beginning of quéene Maries reigne, wherein so manie men, women, and children were burned, manie imprisoned and in pri|sons starued, diuerse exiled, some spoiled of goods and possessions, a great number driuen from house to home, so manie wéeping eies, so manie sobbing harts, so manie children made fatherlesse, so manie fathers bereft of their wiues and children, so manie vexed in conscience, and diuerse against conscience constrained to recant; and in conclusion, neuer a good man almost in all the realme but suffered some|thing during all the time of this bloudie persecution: after all this (I saie) now we are come at length (the Lord be praised) to the seuentéenth of Nouember,Nouemb 17. quéene Marie endeth. which daie as it brought to the persecuted members of Christ, rest from their carefull mourning, so it ea|seth me somewhat likewise of my laborious writing, by the death I meane of quéene Marie,Quéene Eli|sabeth begin|neth hir reigne. who being long sicke before vpon the said seuentéenth daie of Nouember, in the yeare aboue said, about thrée or foure of the clocke in the morning, yéelded hir life to nature, and hir kingdome to quéene Elisabeth hir sister.

As touching the maner of whose death,The maner of quéene Ma|ries death. some saie that she died of a timpanie, some by hir much sighing before hir death supposed she died of thought and sor|row. Wherevpon hir councell seeing hir sighing, and desirous to know the cause, to the end they might minister the more readie consolation vnto hir, fea|red (as they said) that she tooke some thought for the kings maiestie hir husband, which was gone from hir. To whome she answering againe; In deed (said she) that may be one cause, but that is not the grea|test wound that pearseth mine oppressed mind: but what that was she would not expresse to them. Albe|it afterward she opened the matter more plainlie to mistresse Rise and mistresse Clarentius (if it be true that they told me, which heard it of mistresse Rise himselfe) who then being most familiar with hir, and most bold about hir, told hir that they feared she tooke thought for king Philips departing from hir.Q. Marie tooke thought for the losse of Calis. Not that onelie (said she) but when I am dead and o|pened, you shall find Calis lieng in my hart, &c. Which one supposing to be true, hath left this report:

Hispani Caleto. oppidulo amisso contabuit vxor,

Quam cruciatu aegro confecerat anxia cura.

And here an end of quéene Marie, and of hir persecution, during the time of hir misgouernment. Of which quéene this trulie may be affirmed and left in storie for a perpetuall memoriall or epitaph for all kings and quéenes that shall succéed hir to be noted,More Eng|lish bloud spil|led in quéene Maries time, than euer was in anie kings reigne before hir. that before hir neuer was read in storie of a|nie king or quéene of England since the time of king Lucius, vnder whom in time of peace, by hang|ing, heading, burning, and prisoning: so much chri|stian bloud, so manie Englishmens liues were spil|led within this realme, as vnder the said quéene Ma|rie for the space of foure yeares was to be séene, and I beseech the Lord neuer may be séene hereafter.