Book V, Chapter 29

THIS third of that same Name, as yet in Nonage for a time,
Although a King was vnder-kept by some that ouer-clime:
Queene mother & proude Mortimer, familiar more than should,
Did and vndid more than they might, not lesse than as they would:
Till Edward, better counselled, hong Mortimer, the death
Of many a Peere, who Earle of March, and haughtie for his birth,
Was Lord of nine skore dubbed Knights, his other traynes except,
For greater pompe than did his Prince this Lord of Wigmore kept.
But more he had bene happie though lesse hautie in his Halls,
More honour in humilitie than safetie in walls:
Proud Climers proue not monuments, saue onely in their falls.
The senselesse pride of Fooles therefore, whome reuerently we ride,
Should lessen, at the least because that earth their earth shall hide.

The Countrie purg'd of Fleecers, and of Flatterers the Court,
The King became a Mars for Armes, a Iupiter for Port:
Th-Olymp[…]ds, the Pythea, and the prowesse of the Earth,
Did seeme euen now, and not but now, to haue in him their birth:
East, South, and North, gaue ayme farrc off, admiring so the West,
As if that Mars discarding them had set our Realme his Rest.
Philip Valois, & Dauid Bruz, of power and courage more
Than any French or Scottish Kings since or of long before,
Confedrate with three other Kings and Princes farre and neere,
Warre all at once on Edward, but did buy their warring deere.
Dauid debelled, left his land, but lastly did returne,
And, whilst our King did war in France, much did he spoyle & burne,
And proud of mightie Troopes of men, of vnresisted prayes,
And Edwards absence, prosperously he on aduantage playes,
Vntill, not sending hence for helpe, the Queene did muster Knights,
And with the Foe, though tripled-wise, victoriously she fights:
The Scots for most did perish, and their King was Prisner taine,
And Scotland wholly for a pray to England did remaine
Meane while was Paris scarcely left, to rescue Philips Goale,
Whom Edward ferrits so from hold to hold as Fox from hoale,
That Melancholie he deceast, and valiant Iohn his sonne
Was crowned King of France: and then the wars afresh begonne.
But after many fieldes, vnto the Foes continuall wracke,
The French King captiuated to the English Monarke, backe
His Victor sayles, the Prince of Wales, Edward surnamed blacke:
The flower of Chiualrie, the feare of France, and scourge of Spaine,
Wheare Peter, dispossest of Crowne, was crownde by him againe.
Fower yeeres the French, eleuen yeres was the Scotch K. prisners heere.
Whose, & the Dolphines ransomes were as great as good their cheere.

PRince Edw. Iohn of Gaunt, & all their Fathers sonnes might boaste
Of famous Sier, and he of sonnes matchlesse in any Coaste:
Howbeit, King and Prince at last, misled by counsell ill,
Through Taxes lost a many hearts that bore them earst good will:
Thence finding Fortune contrary to that she was before,
Yeat either dying seaz'd of French and Scottish Conquests store:
Yea Callice late, and Barwick yet of their Exployts is lest,
Though Sonne before the Sier and both of liues long since bereft.

When Barwick was besieged, and stood brauely at defence,
Sir Alexander Seiton, theare chiefe Captaine, had pretence
To linger forth the Siege till Scots should draw the English thence
In rescue of Northumberland, and therefore sent his sonne
A Pledge of treated Truce: and when the guile-got Truce was done,
And Barwick not releeued nor resigned, as it ought,
Two sonnes of Seiton were before the walls besieged brought,
They ready for the Iybbet and their Father for his Graue,
For eyther he must yeeld the Towne or them he might not saue.
In griefe he then his Countries cause and Childrens case reuolues:
But, partiall vnto either, he on neither Choyce resolues,
To be a loyall Subiect and a louing Father too
Behooued him: but both to bee was not in him to doo.
Nature and honour wrought at once, but Nature ouer-wrought,
And, but his Ladie it preuents, to yeeld the Towne he thought.
O what pretend you Sir, quoth she, is Barwick woorth no more
Than error of such loue? I ioy that I such Children bore
Whom cruell Edward honoureth with such a cause of death,
For that especiall cause for which we all receaue our breath,
Euen for their Countries cause they dye, whose liues for it be dewe,
Why see their faces, (constantly she did their faces viewe)
The same, my Seiton, seeme so farre from dreading any woe,
As if they skornde that Barwicke should redeeme them from the Foe.
Full deere they were to me vnborne, at birth, and borne, and now,
And Mother like I moane their death and yet their death allow.
Moe Sonnes and such you may beget, your honour if you staine,
Defected honour neuer more is to be got againe.
Preuent not then your selfe, your Sonnes, and me so great a blis:
Adiew, & dye (sweet Sonnes) your soules in heauen shall liue for this

With such perswasions did she win her husband from the walls:
And Edward executes their Sonnes, and to assault he falls
So long that Barwicke yeelds at length, and still vs master calls.

THese were the dayes when English armes had eu'rie where request,
And Edw. knights throughout the world had prick & praise for best.
Not Knights alone, but Prelates too, & Queenes: whereof were twain,
The quondam & in esse Queenes, by Armour honour gain:
By Warre the Queene that was did cease her husbands tragicke Rayn,
And by the Queene then being was the Scotch King Prisnet tayne.
It followes then, that as the Pawnce doth circkle with the Sonne,
So to the vice or vertue of the Prince are people wonne.
O that our Muse might euermore on such a Subiect ronne:
But Vulcan forgeth other Tooles, and sharpneth deadlier swords,
For little els then ciuill warres our following Penne affords.
French Expeditions badly thriue, whereof we cease to speake:
Not forraine, but Domestick warres, grew strong to make vs weake.
Melpomen here might racke her wits, Sylla & Marius hate,
Pharsalian Fields were gentle Frayes, regarding this debate.
The second Richard, sonne vnto the blacke Prince (Edward dead)
Was crownde an Infant, and from him the Stratagem was bread.
The bace attempts of Ball, of Straw, of Lyster, tag, and rag,
Of Villains, Of-skoms, Clownes, & knaues that checkmate durst to brag
With Richards self, & to their deaths his chiefest Princes drag.
Till Wal[…]ths girdle-Armor made the Armes of London more,
Because his courage chiefly gaue an end to that vprore,
And what-so-els Occurrants much may interrupt our Vayne,
Digesting Yorke & Lancaster, acquiring eithers Rayne,
Our Penne shall not endenizen: Now drops it sacred blood
Of Men-Gods, English Potentates that in this Faction stood.
Richard begun that ciuill warre, that till the Seauenth from him
Did last: though often fields with blood of Citizens did swim.
Against the Nobles the vphild innoble, and his Peeres
And Commons went alike to wracke, nor God nor man he feares.
In fewe, Ambition, Auarice, and Counsell lewd had wrought
In him a nature worser than into the world he brought:
Whereby, and thus, himselfe and house at length a down-fal cought,

Twixt Mowbray D. of Norffolke, and the D. of Hertford, sonne
To Iohn of Gaunt, close Conference of better dayes begun.
The King (sayd Henry Hertford) more remisse than doth beseeme,
Leaues France to French, Scotland to Scots, and vs to woes extreeme:
His Flatterers doe fleece the Crowne and Commons, not a State
Doth or dares counsell, ancient Coats that on the Crowne should wate
Giue aime to bastard Armorie: what resteth then but this?
Plucke downe those grating Harpies that seduce our King amis,
If worthles still, set vp a King worthier than he that is.
The other, saying little then, immediatly reueales
The secrete, and before the King his Foe-made frend appeales:
Whose Gauntlet raysed by the Duke defendant, at the last
It grew to single Combate, when the King his Warder cast,
And to the Duke of Norffolke iudg'd for euermore exile,
And selfe same law Duke Henry had, saue for a lesser while.
Thus That did This, but This and That their Iudge did thus begile:
And to his Coffers did escheate a world of wealth, a Pray
Vnto his Parasites, which thriu'd by other mens decay.

Meane while (whose actious life had lawd) did Iohn of Gaunt decease:
So to the banisht Duke his Sonne fiue Cronets did increase.
But with his kindly aire the King withheld him all the same:
Till entring, ayded by his friends, he wonne beyond his clame:
For Richard was imprison'd, and by Parlament put downe,
And Henry Duke of Lancaster elected to the Crowne,
The Lyne Lancastrian frollicke, but the house of Yorke did frowne.
For to those Hydra-kinded warres that after did ensue
Those Families gaue name: though first the Diadem was due
Vnto the house of Clarence, till to Yorke that interest gre we
By marriage, here omitted: for we onely giue a viewe
How Yorke mis-raigning Lancaster did enter, then how This
Was dispossest, That repossest, and how their Vnion is.