Book VII, Chapter 35

NOw let vs poste-alone to Mars and Mercury repair,
At least so farforth as wee maye without controwlment daer.
Richard the third, Henry the Seauenth (last subiects of our pen)
Was slaine, was crownde, with hate, with loue, as worste, as best of men:
So not with Yorke and Lancaster doth wonted enuie raigne,
Nor can Aeneas Off-springs now of Orphansie complaine.
But that Cadwalladers Fore-doomes in Tuders should effect
Was vnexpected, saue that God doth destinies direct.
Els Owen Tuder had not wiu'd Fift Henries noble Queene:
Nor had they of their bodies Earles Penbrooke and Richmon seene:
Nor Margret, Somersets sole heire, to Richmon had beene weade:
Nor they the heire of Lancaster, Henry the Seuenth, had bread:
Nor he of Yorks Inheritrix, Elizabeth, had sped:
Nor they vnited either house all other titles dead.
Yeat, eare this vnion, Either so ariued to their right,
As Psiches on an errant sent to Hell by Venus spight.
Worse Ferrymen than Charon, Hoods contagious more than Styx,
Worse Porters than fowle Cerberus were pleas'd, past, stood betwix.
How therefore Either dangerously their Labyrinth did passe
Shall not be ouerpassed: Thus their seuerall fortune was.

Henries the fourth, the fifte, and sixt successiuely did raigne,
Vntill fourth Edwards sword to him did lawfull Empier gaine:
Lancastrians droupe, the Yorkests had their long expected day:
Sixt Henry and the Prince his sonne, by stabbes were made away:
The foresaid Margaret, sole heire of Somerset, earst wife
Of Tuder, Earle of Richmond, had by him a Sonne in life,
To whom, from her, the Crowne-right of Lancastriās did accrewe:
He from his English foes himselfe by secrete stealth withdrewe
To little Brutaine, wheare he found the Duke a frendfull trewe.
This Henry Earle of Richmond, now poore Lancasters Remaine,
Was by fourth Edward practis'd home by many a subtell traine:
Whome once the gentle Duke (beguilde with promises vnment)
Deliuered to the English-men, with whome he homewards went.
Forsaken Ladd for yet he was a Ladd) what did remaine
But certaine death, so to assure his foes vncertaine raine:
Which to establish many a Prince of his Allies weare slaine.
But him eare broughta-boorde, the Duke (aduised better, stayd,
And him (as if by c[…]nce escapte) to Sanctuarie conuaid.
The Lambe so rescued from the Wolfe, that priuiledged place
Assured him till Edwards death, and then he hoped grace.
But he that was Protector of his murthered Nephewes than
Vsurped England, and became a Monsture not a man:
Richard the third omitting all his tyrannies beside)
To be possessed of the Earle by many a message tride.
Great wealth was sent, greater assum'de, but nothing might preuail:
The gracious Duke abhord to set his guiltles frend to sayle:
But furnished with money, men, and armor shipt him thence
To winne his right: yeat churlish Seas did lett such kind pretence[…]
Full hardly Richmonds threatned Ship escapt our armed Shoore,
For Richard of the Riuall got intelligence before.
Return'de, the Duke did sicken and Landoise did beare the sway:
And he for Masses great was brib'de Earle Henry to betray,
Yeat through wise Bishop Murtons meanes by stealth he scap'te away.
In trauell then from Brutaine to his Grome himselfe was Grome,
By interchaunged rayment, till to Angers they weare come.
The French King, pittying his distresse, pretended asked aide:
And secrete platformes for his weale his English friends had laide.
Henry in France, at home his Friends bester them, and the Foe
Meane time with hope, with fraud, with feare imployde his witts also.
Now of the Earles conspiracy the totall drift was this:
Elizabeth the daughter of fourth Edward vow'd he his,
And she was vow'd to him, if God with victory him blisse:
Our wounded Englands healing balme, for thus thereof ensew'de:
The factious Families vnite, the Tyrant was subdew'de,
And thence the surname Tuder doth Plantagenet include.

AS hardly as her husband did Elizabeth escape:
For why? like Stratageme for both did bloody Richard shape.
Whilste that her Father liued, now a King, and now exilde,
Her Crosses then did happen from such victors as weare milde.
But now the same that murthered her Brothers to be King,
That did withfraud begin and then with bloud conclude ech thing,
That flattred friends to serue his turne, and then destroyde the same,
That was her Vncle, yeat did hate her Mothers very name,
That thought he liued not because his Neeces weare vndead,
Theis now (and blame her not) in her a world of terror bread.
But of vnpriuiledged bloud yet had he store to spill,
Yet sanctuaries weare not forc'te, yet but expecting ill.
Theareofte the Queene her Mother, Shee, and Sisters would reporte
Their happie and vnhappie da[…]es, the fewer of first sorte.

Happy was I (the olde Queene said) when as a Maide vnweade,
Nor Husbands weale nor Childrens woe mistempered my head.
Yeat I, beloued, loued and so left that free estate,
And thought me happyer than before, for louely was my Mate,
Iohn Gray (a sweet Esquier for his prowysse dubbed Knight)
Was, as behoued, all my ioy: who, slaine in factious fight,
Your Father, Daughters, late my Lord and Husband now in earth,
From me had many a secrete curse, as motyue of his death:
Lancastrian was my husband, and that faction had the wourste,
So, to releeue my Widdowhood, I kneel'd to whom I curste.
Edward (for Henry was depoes'de, and Edward seaz'd the Crowne)
(I wot not for what forme of mine) did raise me kneeled downe,
And gaue me chearefull wordes, and tooke me curteously aside,
And playd the ciuell Wanton, and me amorouf[…]y he eide:
His plea was loue, my sute was Land: I plie him, he plies me:
Too baece to be his Queene, too good his Concubine to be
I did conclude: and on that point a while we disagree.
But when I was his Queene (sweete King) not for I was his Queene,
But for himselfe, and for the loue that passed vs betweene,
I held me happiest vnderheauen: yea, when his aduerse Line
Discrowned him, I had inough that I was his, he mine.
Then, after fortunes often change, he died, and I suruiue
A life exceeding death for griefe and greefes Superlatiue.
My heart, ah Sonnes, my heart (deare Hearts) was dead eare yee did die:
Too yong weare yee to censure of your vncles tyranny.
Then wept shee, and her daughters wept: their onely talke alwaies
Was passed ioyes, or present woes: nor hope they better daies,
But in Earle Richmonds good successe, that now a power did raise.

Too soone had Richard notice that Earle Henry would ariue,
By precontract his eldest Neece Elizabeth to wiue:
And well he knew in Yorks descent she was immediate heire,
And Henry like in Lancaster: a Match for him to feare.
Which to preuent he flattered his Neeces from their mother:
Who, fearefull Ladies, did expect like deaths as had their brother.
And as they feare did he affect, which for the troubles then
Was vneffected: now behou'd to winne him loue of men.
Yeat casts he how he might conuay to him his Neeces right,
Soone compassing his Wifes dispatch, whose life stood in his light.
Then plyes he his amazed Neece to his infectious bead
Of her abhor'd, Shee in conceite by faith fore-plighted spead.
This marrage motion gawles her more than any former griefe:
Her selfe, Friends, Realme, Conspiracie, & all it toucht in breefe,
And therefore death, late feared, now she fantaseth in cheefe.
Meane while did Henry land, incampe, fight, and subdewe his Foe,
And, marrying her, long ciuill warres in England ended so.