The Fall of Thomas Montague, Earl of Salisbury, Slain at Orleans by a Piece of Ordnance

What fooles bee we to trust vnto our strength,
Our wit, our courage, or our noble fame,
Which time it selfe must nedes deuour at length,
Though froward fortune could not foile the same:
But seeing this goddesse guideth all the game,
Which still to chaunge doth set her onely lust,
Why toyle wee so for thinges so harde to trust?

A goodly thing it is, surely, good report,
Which noble hartes doe seeke by course of kinde:
But seeing the date so doubtfull and so short,
The way so rough whereby wee doe it finde,
I cannot choose but prayse the princely minde
That preaseth for it, though wee finde opprest,
By foule defame, those that deserue it best.

Concerning whome, marke, Baldwine, what I say,
I meane the vertuous, hindred of their brute,
Among which nombre reckon well I may
My valiaunt father Iohn lord Montacute,
Who lost his life I iudge through iust pursute:
I say the cause and not the casuall speede
Is to be wayed, in euery kinde of deede.

This rule obserued, how many shall wee finde
For vertue’s sake with infamy opprest?
How many againe, through helpe of fortune blinde,
For ill attemptes atchieued, with honour blest?
Successe is worst oftimes whan cause is best:
Therefore, say I, God send them sory haps,
That iudge the causes by their afterclaps.

The end in deede is iudge of euery thing,
Which is the cause or latter poynt of time:
The first true verdict at the first may bring,
The last is slow, or slipper as the slime,
Oft chaunging names of innocence and crime:
Duke Thomas’ death was justice two yeares long,
And euer since, sore tyranny and wrong.

Wherefore, I pray thee, Baldwine, way the cause,
And prayse my father as hee doth deserue?
Because earle Henry, king agaynst all lawes,
Endeuoured king Richard for to starue
In iayle, whereby the regall crowne might swarue
Out of the line to which it than was due,
(Whereby God knowes what euill might ensue.)

My lord Iohn Holland, duke of Excester,
Which was deare cosin to this wretched king,
Did moue my father, and the earle of Glocester,
With other lordes to ponder well the thing:
Who seeing the mischiefe that began to spring,
Did all consent this Henry to depose,
And to restore king Richard to the rose.

And while they did deuise a prety trayne,
Whereby to bring their purpose better about,
Which was in maske this Henry to haue slaine,
The duke of Aumerle blew their counsaile out:
Yet was their purpose good there is no doubt:
What cause can bee more worthy for a knight,
Than saue his king, and helpe true heyres to right?

For this with them my father was destroyde,
And buried in the dunghill of defame:
Thus euill chaunce their glory did auoide,
Whereas theyr cause doth claime eternall fame:
Whan deedes therefore vnluckely doe frame,
Men ought not iudge the aucthors to bee naught,
For right through might is often oueraught.

And God doth suffer that it should bee so,
But why, my wit is feeble to decise,
Except it bee to heape vp wrath and wo
On wicked heades that iniuries deuise:
The cause why mischiefes many times arise,
And light on them that would men’s wronges redresse,
Is for the rancour that they beare, I gesse.

God hates rigour though it furder right,
For sinne is sinne, how euer it bee vsed:
And therefore suffereth shame and death to light,
To punishe vice, though it bee well abused:
Who furdereth right is not thereby excused,
If through the same hee doe some other wrong:
To euery vice due guerdon doth belong.

What preach I now, I am a man of warre,
And that my body I dare say doth professe,
Of cured woundes beset with many a skarre,
My broken jaw vnheald can say no lesse:
O fortune, fortune, cause of all distresse,
My father had great cause thy fraud to curse
But much more I, abused ten times worse.

Thou neuer flatteredst him in all thy life,
But mee thou dandledst like thy darling deare:
Thy giftes I found in euery corner rife,
Where euer I went I met thy smiling cheare:
Which was not for a day or for a yeare,
But through the raygne of three right worthy kinges,
I found thee forward in all kinde of thinges.

The while king Henry conquered in Fraunce
I sued the warres and still found victory,
In all assaultes, so happy was my chaunce,
Holdes yeelde or won did make my enemies sory:
Dame Prudence eke augmented so my glory,
That in all treaties euer I was one,
Whan weyghty matters were agreed vpon.

But when this king this mighty conquerour,
Through death vnripe was both his realmes bereft,
His seely infant did receiue his power,
Poore litle babe full yong in cradell left,
Where crowne and scepter hurt him with the heft,
Whose worthy vncles had the gouernaunce,
The one at home, the other abroad in Fraunce.

And I which was in peace and warre well skilled,
With both these rulers greately was esteemed:
Bare rule at home as often as they willed,
And fought in Fraunce whan they it needefull deemed,
And euery where so good my seruice seemed,
That English men to mee great loue did beare,
Our foes the French, my force fulfilled with feare.

I alwayes thought it fitly for a prince,
And such as haue the regiment of realmes,
His subiecte’s hartes with mildnes to conuince,
With justice mixt, auoyding all extreames:
For like as Phœbus with his cherefull beames,
Doth freshly force the fragrant flowres to florish,
So ruler’s mildnes subiect’s loue doth norish.

This found I true: for through my milde behauiour,
Their hartes I had with mee to liue and die,
And in their speach bewrayer of theyr fauour,
They cald mee still good earle of Salisbury,
The lordes confest the commons did not lye:
For vertuous life, free hart, and lowly minde,
With high and lowe shall alwayes fauour finde.

Which vertues chiefe become a man of warre,
Whereof in Fraunce I found experience:
For in assautes due mildnes passeth farre
All rigour, force, and sturdy violence:
For men will stoutly sticke to their defence,
When cruell captaines couet after spoile,
And so enforst, oft geue theyr foes the foile.

But when they knowe they shal be frendly vsed,
They hazard not their heades but rather yeelde:
For this my offers neuer were refused
Of any towne, or surely very seelde:
But force and furies fyt bee for the fielde,
And there in deede I vsed so the same,
My foes would flye if they but heard my name.

For whan lord Steward and earle Vantadore
Had cruelly besieged Crauant towne,
Which we had wonne, and kept long time before
Which lieth in Awxer on the riuer Youne,
To raise the siege the regent sent mee downe:
Where, as I vsed all rigour that I might,
I killed all that were not saued by flight.

When th’erle of Bedford, then in Fraunce lord regent,
Knewe in what sort I had remoued the siege,
In Brye and Champayne hee made mee vicegerent,
And lieutenaunt for him and for my liege:
Which caused mee to goe to Brye, and there besiege
Mountaguillon with twenty weekes assaut,
Which at the last was yeelded mee for naught.

And for the duke of Britayne’s brother, Arthur,
Both earle of Richmond and of Yuery,
Against his oth from vs had made departure,
To Charles the Dolphin our chiefe enemy,
I with the regent went to Normandy,
To take his towne of Yuery which of spight,
Did to vs daily all the harme they might.

They at the first compounded by a day
To yeelde, if rescues did not come before,
And while in hope to fight, wee at it lay,
The dolphin gathered men two thousand score,
With earles, lordes, and captaynes ioly store:
Of which the duke of Alanson was guide,
And sent them downe to see if wee would bide.

But they left vs, and downe to Vernoyle went,
And made their vaunt they had our army slayne,
And through that lye, that towne from vs they hent,
Which shortly after turned to their payne:
For there both armies met vpon the plaine:
And wee eight thousand, whom they [flew, not] slew before,
Did kill of them, ten thousand men and more.

When wee had taken Vernoyle thus againe,
To driue the Dolphin vtterly out of Fraunce,
The regent sent mee to Aniovy and to Mayne,
Where I besieged the warlike towne of Mawns:
There lord of Toyser’s, Baldwin’s valiaunce
Did well appeare, which would not yeelde the towne,
Till all the towres and walles were battered downe.

But here now, Baldwine, take it in good part,
Though that I brought this Baldwine there to yeelde,
The lyon fearce for all his noble hart,
Being ouer matched, is forst to flye the fielde:
If Mars himselfe there had ben with his shielde,
And in my stormes had stoutly mee withstood,
Hee should haue yeeld, or els haue shed my bloud.

This worthy knight both hardy, stout, and wise,
Wrought well his feat: as time and place require,
When fortune failes, it is the best aduise
To strike the sayle, least all lye in the mire:
This haue I sayd to th’end thou take no ire,
For though no cause bee found, so nature frames,
Men haue a zeale to such as beare theyr names.

But to retourne, in Mayne wan I at length,
Such townes and forts as might eyther helpe or hurt,
I manned Mayon and Suzan’s, townes of strength,
Fort Barnard, Thanceaur, and S. Cales the curt,
With Lile sues Bolton, standing in the durt:
Eke Gwerland, Suze, Loupeland and Mountsure,
With Malycorne, these wan I and kept full sure.

Besides all this I tooke nere forty holdes,
But those I razed euen with the ground:
And for these deedes, as scely sheepe in foldes
Doe shrinke for feare at euery litle sound,
So fled my foes before my face, full round
Was none so hardy that durst abide the fight,
So Mars and fortune furdered mee their knight.

I tell no lye, so gastfull grewe my name,
That it alone discomfited an hoast:
The Scots and Frenchmen well confesse the same,
Els will the towne which they like cowards lost:
For whan they sieged Beauron with great boast,
Being fourty thousand Britaynes, French, and Scots,
Fiue hundred men did vanquish them like sots.

For while the Frenchmen freshly assaulted still,
Our Englishmen came boldly forth at night,
Crying: “Sainct George, Salisbury, kill, kill, [kill:”]
And offered freshly with their foes to fight,
And they as Frenchly tooke themselues to flight:
Supposing surely that I had bene there,
See how my name did put them all in feare.

Thus was the Dolphin’s power discomfited,
Four thousand slayne, theyr campe tane as it stood,
Whereby our towne and souldiers profited,
For there were vitayles plentifull and good:
This while was I in England, by the rood,
To appease a strife that was right foule befall,
Betweene duke Humfrey and the cardinall.

The duke of Exeter shortly after died,
Which of the king at home had gouernaunce,
Whose roume the earle of Warwicke then supplied,
And I tooke his and sped mee into Fraunce,
And hauing a zeale to conquere Orliaunce,
With much a doe I gat the regent’s aide,
And marched thither, and siege about it layde.

But in the way I tooke the towne of Yayne,
Where murdered were for stoutnes many a man:
But Baugencey I tooke with litle payne,
For which to shewe them fauour I began:
This caused the townes of Mewne and Iargeman,
That stoode on Loyer, to profer mee the keyes,
Ere I came nere them, wel nigh by two dayes.

See here how fortune froward can allure,
What baytes shee layeth to bring men to their endes:
Who hauing hap like this, but hopeth sure,
To bring to bale what euer hee entendes?
But soone is sower the sweete that fortune sendes:
Whan hope and hap, when health and wealth is highest,
Then woe and wracke, disease, and neede bee nighest.

For while I, suing this so good successe,
Layde siege to Orliaunce on the riuer side,
The bastard (cuckold Cawnie’s sonne I gesse,
Tho thought the duke’s) who had the towne in guide,
Came fiercely forth, when hee his time espyde,
To rayse the siege, but was bet backe agayne,
And hard pursued both to his losse and payne.

For there wee wan the bulwarke on the bridge,
With a mighty tower standing fast thereby:
Ah, cursed tower, that didst my dayes abridge,
Would God thou hadst bene furder, eyther I:
For in this tower a chamber standes on hie,
From which a man may view through all the towne
By certayn windowes iron grated downe.

Where on a day, now, Baldwine, note mine end,
I stoode in viewing where the towne was weake,
And as I busily talked with my frend,
Shot fro the towne, which all the grate did breake,
A pellet came, and droue a mighty fleake
Against my face and tare away my cheeke,
For payne whereof I died within a weeke.

See, Baldwine, see the vncertayne glory,
How sodayne mischief dasheth all to dust,
And warne all princes by my broken story,
The happiest fortune chiefly to mistrust:
Was neuer man that alway had his lust:
Then such be fooles, in fancy more then mad,
Which hope to haue that neuer any had.