The Fall of King Richard the Second, Deposed and Murdered in Prison

Happy is the prince, that hath in welth the grace
To followe vertue, keeping vices vnder,
But woe to him whose will hath wisdome’s place:
For who so renteth right and lawe asunder,
On him at length all the worlde shall wonder:
High byrth, choyce fortune, force, nor princely mace,
Can warrant king or keyser fro the case:
[Shame sueth sinne, as rayne drops doe the thunder:
Let princes therefore vertuous life embrace,
That wilfull pleasures cause them not to blunder.]

Behold my hap, see how the seely rout
On mee doo gaze, and ech to other say:
See where hee lyeth, but late that was so stout,
Loe how the power, the pride, and rich aray
Of mighty rulers lightly fade away:
The king, which erst kept all the realme in doute,
The veriest rascall now dare checke and floute:
[What moulde bee kinges made of, but carion clay?
Behold his woundes how blew they bee about,
Which while hee liued, thought neuer to decay.]

Mee thinke I heare the people thus deuise:
Wherefore, Baldwine, sith thou wilt declare
How princes fell, to make the liuing wise,
My lawlesse life in no poynt see thou spare,
But paynt it out, that rulers may beware
Good counsayle, lawe, or vertue to despise:
For realmes haue rules, and rulers haue a sise,
[Which if they breake, thus much to say I dare
That eyther’s griefes the other shall agrise
Till one bee lost, the other brought to care.]

I was a king, who ruled all by lust,
Forcing but light of justice, right, or lawe,
Putting alwayes flatterers false in trust,
Ensuing such as could my vices clawe,
By faythfull counsayle passing not an hawe,
As pleasure prickt, so needes obay I must:
Hauing delight to feede and serue the gust,
[Three meales a day could scarse content my mawe:
Mee liked least to torney or to just,
To Venus sport my fancy did mee drawe:]

Which to mayntayne, my people were sore polde
With fines, fifteenes, and loanes by way of prest,
Blanke charters, othes, and shiftes not knowne of olde,
For which the commons did mee sore detest:
I also solde the noble towne of Brest,
My fault wherein because mine vncle tolde,
[(For prince’s actes may no wise bee controlde)]
I found the meanes his bowels to vnbrest,
[The worthy peeres, which his cause did vpholde
With long exile, or cruell death opprest.]

None ayde I lackt in any wicked deede,
For gaping gulles whome I promoted had,
Would furder all in hope of higher meede:
There can no king imagine ought so bad,
But shall finde some that will performe it glad:
For sicknes seldome doth so swiftly breede,
As humours ill doe growe the griefe to feede:
[Thus kinge’s estates of all bee worst bestad,
Abusde in welth, abandoned at neede,
And nerest harme when they bee least adrad.]

My life and death the trueth of this hath tryde:
For while I fought in Ireland with my foes,
Mine vncle Edmund whome I left to guide
My realme at home, rebelliously arose
Percyes to helpe, which plied my depose:
And calde fro Fraunce earle Bolenbroke, whom I
Exiled had for ten yeares there to lye:
[Who cruelly did put to death all those
That in mine ayde durst looke but once awrye,
Whose numbre was but slender I suppose.]

For comming backe this soden stur to stay,
The earle of Worcester whome I trusted moste,
(Whiles I in Wales at Flint my castle lay,
Both to refresh and multiply myne hoste)
There in my hall, in sight of least and most,
His staffe did breake, which was my householde stay,
Bad ech make shift, and rode himselfe away:
[See princes, see the strength whereof wee bost,
Whom most wee trust, at neede doe vs betray:
Through whose false fayth my land and life I lost.]

My stuard false, thus being fled and gone,
My seruants sly shranke of on euery side,
Then caught I was and led vnto my foen,
Who for theyr prince no pallace did prouide,
But pryson strong, where Henry puft with pride
Causde mee resigne my kingly state and throne:
And so forsaken and left as post alone,
[These hollow friendes, by Henry soone espyed,
Became suspect, and fayth was giuen to none,
Which caused them from fayth agayne to slyde.]

And strayt conspyrde theyr newe king to put downe,
And to that end a solemp oth they swore,
To render mee my royall seate and crowne:
Whereof themselues depriued mee before:
But late medcynes can help no sothbynde sore:
When swelling flouds haue ouer flowen the towne,
To late it is to saue them that shall drowne:
[Till sayles bee spred a ship may keepe the shore,
No anker holde can keepe the vessel downe,
With streme and stere perforce it will bee bore.]

For though the peeres set Henry in his state,
Yet could they not displace him thence agayne:
And where they easely depriued mee of late,
They could restore mee by no manner payne:
Thinges hardly mend, but may bee mard amayne,
And when a man is fallen in froward fate,
Still mischiefs light one on another’s pate:
[And meanes well meant all mishaps to restrayne
Waxe wretched mones, whereby his ioyes abate,
Due proofe whereof in this appeared playne.]

For whan the king did know that for my cause,
His lordes in maske would kill him on a night,
To dash all doubtes hee tooke no farder pause,
But Pierce of Exton, a cruell murdering knight,
To Pomfret castle sent him, armed bright,
Who causelesse kild mee there against all lawes,
Thus lawles life to lawles death ey drawes:
[Wherefore bid kinges bee rulde and rule by right:
Who worketh his will, and shunneth wisedome’s sawes,
In snares of woe, ere hee bee ware, shall light.]