¶ The Funerals of King Edward the sixth.  
❀ Wherein are declared the causers and causes of his death.  
❀ EDVARDUS SEXTUS GRACIA, ANGLIE, FRANCIE ET hiberny REX. ET C AETATIS SVAE. XV.   portrait of Edward VI ❀ Wisdom four 
❀ He pleased God, and was beloved of him, and therefore hath God removed him from sinners among whom he lived. Yea suddenly was he taken away, to the end that wickedness should not alter his understanding. Though he died young, yet fulfilled he much time, for his soul pleased God, therefore hasted he to take him away from among the wicked.   

¶ William Baldwin to the Reader.  
GReat hath been the doubt among many, ever since the death of our late virtuous sovereign Lord King Edward the sixth, by what mean he died, and what were the causes of his death. This doubt is fully resolved in this book, penned before his corpse was buried, & endeavoured since by many means to have had been printed: but such was the time, that it could not be brought to pass. Wherefore now at length (good Reader) it is set forth, both to take away all doubt in this matter, and to exhort thee to leave thy sins, and naughty living: Lest, that as they were in part the undoubted cause of that most godly princes death, so they becum the destruction of our virtuous Queen his sister, and the utter ruin of this whole realm. For as thou shalt perceive by this true Treaty, our innumerable sins were the chief, yea the only cause why God so soon took good King Edward from us: which surely if we do not speedily repent and amend, I dare not declare with how grievous and heavy plagues God himself will purge and punish them. Wherefore I earnestly beseech thee, as thou lovest the Queen, the Realm, yea thine own body and soul, amend thy life. God grant this may persuade thee.  
Amen.  Love and live.  

¶ The Funerals of the most noble and godly Prince King Edward the sixth.  

WHen bitter Winter forced had the Sun  
Fro the horned Goat to Pisces ward to run,  
And lively sap, that greneth gardens soot,  
To fly the stock to save her nurse, the root,  
And sleety Cech that blowth by North fro East,  
Decayed the health and wealth of man and beast,  
The almighty mind that raineth three in one,  
Disposing all things from his stable throne,  
Beheld the earth, and man among the rest:  
Moved by the cry of such as were oppressed.  
And when he had the maynland thoroughly viewed,  
With mahometry and Idol blood imbrued,  
Wherthrow his Law and Gospel were defiled,  
His love, his awe, his worship quite exiled,  
He turned his eyes from that so fowl a sight,  
And toward the Isles he cast his look a right:  
In hope that where true knowledge did abound,  
He should sum lovelier sight have quickly found.  
But when he saw all vice most vile and nought  
Most rifely swarm, where truth had most be taught,  
In England chief, which he of special grace  
Had made his word and chosen's resting place,  
And had for that cause powered on it such store  
Of wealthy gifts as none could wish for more,  
joint with a King, of such a godly mind,  
As seldom erst he elsewhere had assigned,  
All woe and wroth he flung away his face,  
And to himself he thus bewailed the case,  
To see this people should their sins forsake,  
I have looked so long, until mine eyes do ache.  
To hide their mischiefs waring more and more,  
I have winked so long till lo my bryes be sore.  
My throat is hoarse, my lips have lost their skin  
Through fervent cry to fray them from their sin.  
Might gentleness have moved them to relent,  
What have they wished, that hath not straight be sent?  
Sith than they pass for neither threats, nor love,  
Nor easy plagues whereby I do them prove,  
What else remains but to destroy them all,  
The young, the old, the mighty with the small.  
christ hearing this, and moved with the tears  
Of virtuous folk, (for whose sake God forbears  
The wicked sort although their sins be great)  
For his elect on this sort 'gan entreat.  
If justice due (dear father) should have place,  
I know it booteth not to sew for grace:  
But though their sins all measure far exceed,  
Yet stay thy wrath, have mercy on our need.  
And sith through faith a meinie of them be mine,  
Grant leave this once to water this thy vine:  
That done, if so their fruits do not amend,  
As barren brambles bring them to an end.  
When christ our saviours merciful request  
Was sunk into his father's tender breast,  
He neither granted it, nor yet denayed  
But fatherlike thus to his son he said:  
To sew for mercy I marvel what ye mean,  
For such a sort as have reject us clean.  
Behold the heads, what else do they devise,  
Save in our name to cloak their covetise?  
Thine heritage they have thee whole bereft,  
Except thy shirt, let see, what have they left?  
Thy gold, thy plate, thy lodging, yea thy lands  
That are the poors, are in the richest hands:  
They waste, they spoil, they spill upon their pride  
That which was given the needy corpse to hide:  
And thou liest naked starving at their gates  
While they consume thy substance with their mates.  
As for their law whereby men should have right  
Is ruled hole by money and by might.  
And where the rich the needy should relive  
They do their best to beggary all to drive.  
What titles forge they falsely to their lands,  
Until they wrongly wring them from their hands?  
How join they house to house, how farm to farm?  
How lease to lease, the silly sort to harm?  
How raise they rends, what incomes, yea what fines  
Exact they still though all the world repines?  
How suffer they their grain to rot and door  
To make a dearth when I give plenty store?  
And where they brag they do thy word advance,  
Have they not spoiled or fliste all maintenance,  
That thereto served? what kind of Clergy land  
Or fee, is free now from the Lay man's hand?  
What gentleman, what merchant, yea what swain,  
But hath or may have a parsonage or twain?  
I loath to name the vileness of the rest,  
So sore my heart their robbery doth detest.  
Is this the way our Gospel to defend?  
No no, we see to well what they intend.  
But pass we this, and mark their godly lives,  
How do they keep their promise with their wides?  
For what respect do they their marriage make  
Save riches, honour, or promotion sake?  
Alas how are our Orphans bought and sold,  
Our widows forced to marry where they nould,  
What vow, what oath, what bond most strongly knit,  
Doth hold, where gain may grow by breaking it?  
And when our preachers tell them aught hereof,  
What do they then save either threat or scoff?  
Which causeth such as would thy manhood spoil,  
And rob from thee the merit of thy roil,  
To hate thy word, and count our prophets evil,  
wishing them both together at the devil.  
Are these thy vine? thy flock canst thou them call  
That steal thy lands, thy goods, thy glory and all?  
When for these sins I sent them late the sweat,  
How low they crouched, so hard they did entreat,  
What earnest vows they made they would amend,  
But as you see nought less they did intend:  
For I no sooner had withdrawn my curse,  
But they as soon were fallen from ill to worse.  
For where they vowed to fly and set aside  
Their covetise, their oaths, their fare, their pride,  
They raised their rents, their fines, their merchandises,  
And glut their paunch with dainty wine and spices,  
The Idollyke with pounced silk and gold,  
Arrayed their wives and children young and old:  
As for themselves who marketh their attire,  
Would think them Gods more like than brittle mire,  
And shall we suffer so perverse a nation  
To scorn and mock their God on such a fashion?  
No no my son, that were against all right,  
Yet for thy sake, I will not stroy them quite,  
But for to try them once at thy request  
I will but touch their king, and warn the rest  
To amend their lives, which if they do delay  
I will take their king, their comfort life and stay:  
And if they set his death to at their heel,  
I will power down plagues till every one do feel.  
This said, he called to his servant Crasy cold,  
Whom the Icy king kept prisoner in his hold  
Beneath the Poles, where under he doth dwell  
In grisly dark like to the deep of hell,  
In rocks and caves of snow ●nd ●●●ttred ice  
That never thaw, and said hi● in this wise.  
About five Climates henceward to the South  
Between the maynland and the Ocean mouth,  
Two islands lie, scarce distant forty mile:  
Whereof the larger and more Eastward isle  
Caldoro Britain once, till time that people's sin  
Drove out themselves & brought strange nations in,  
Is now divided into portions three,  
And in the same three sundry peoples be.  
Of which the best and civil like in sight,  
But worst in deed, the english nation hight  
And they indwel the Southpart of the land.  
Fro the midst whereof (mark well, and understand)  
A River runneth Eastward to the main  
Sea arm, that parteth it and France in twain.  
About this river many mighty Bowers  
Are comely built with Castles, halls, and Towers,  
In which the King and Rulers commonly  
In Winter time with all their households lie.  
To one of these I will thou high in post,  
To that I mean where as the prince is most:  
I thought to bid thee mark the great resort,  
But do not so, for other bear a ports  
As great as he, and greater otherwhile:  
But take this note, which will the not beguile,  
The mournful cheer of many a suitors face  
Will show the sure which is his biding place.  
And when thou hast his place and person found,  
I will thou shalt his healthy body unsound:  
But see thou hurt him not unto the death,  
Thou shalt but stop his Loungpipes, that his breath  
Constrained, may cause the cough breed in his breast:  
Else what shall cure or quell up all the rest.  
But in this feat I charge the see thou look  
Thou harm him not while he is at his book,  
Or other kind of virtuous exercise:  
Neither yet at game so it ve void of vice.  
But if this Winter time thou mayst him mark  
To ride all day all armed about the park,  
Or else at dice, or tennis out of time  
To overwatch or toil himself, for such a crime  
Strike hardily, but not to hard, I say:  
This is thy charge, about it, go thy way.  
Scarce was this errand thoroughly to him told,  
But forth he came this shivering crazy cold,  
With Ysikles bebristled like a Boar,  
About his head behind and eke before.  
His skin was hard, all made of glassy ice,  
Overheard with door frost, like grey Irish Frise,  
His arms and legs, to keep him warm I trow,  
Were scaled through with flakes of frozen snow,  
And from his mouth there reekt a breath so hot,  
As touched nothing that congealed not.  
And when he had arowsd himself a while.  
And stretched his joints as stiff as any style:  
Because he would his charge no longer slack.  
He got him up on blustering Boreas back,  
And forth he went: but his horse so heavy trod,  
That all the world might know which way he road.  
For in his way there grew no manner green,  
That could in three days after well be seen.  
His breath and braying was so sharp and thryl,  
That floods for fear hard cluddered stood full stil.  
The seas did quake and tremble in such sort,  
That never a ship durst venture out of port.  
The holtes, the heaths, the hills became all hoar,  
The trees did shrink, all things were troubled sore.   

When this fell horseman with his grisly stead  
Had passed Iseland, and made forth such speed,  
That many Skots bad: Fool isle ta the Churl,  
That slew their lambs and cattle with his whirl;  
He passed York, and came to London straight,  
And there alight to give his horse a bait.  
Where ere he had three days in stable stood,  
Be eat so much, the poor could get no wood,  
Except they would pay after double price,  
For Billet triple under common cise.  
But Crasy cold lurked all this while at court,  
To watch his time when he the king might hourt:  
And when he saw him on a morning, sweat,  
And call for drink to cool his tennis heat,  
He slily crept, and hide him in the cup:  
And when the King, alas, had drunk him up,  
Into his stomach downward he him got,  
And there parceyving all the inwards hot,  
And that each part full greedily did pluck  
To save itself, all succour it might suck,  
He mark the chill that went unto the Lounges,  
And thoroughly mixed his virtue there amongs:  
And cooling it, so stopped the pipes therewith,  
As to dissolve pure nature wanted pith?  
This done, to London straight this fiend he came,  
And there infected diverse with the same:  
Whereof most part not over charyly tended,  
Recovered well, and thoroughly are amended,  
And sum whose nature physic overpress,  
Are gone to God, and sleep in quiet rest.  
When Crasy cold this cruel fear had wrought,  
He took his steed that had him thither brought.  
And forth he road to him that sent him hither,  
And so forth home, or else I wots not whither.  
Right sore ackrasde, within a day or twain  
The King 'gan sick, and of his breast complain.  
The juice congelde that in his Lounges lay raw,  
Did stop the pipes, wherethrough the breath should draw▪  
By mean whereof his stomach waxed faint,  
Till nature holp through medicinal constraint,  
Did make a way by purging part thereof,  
Whereof ensued a sore and vehement cough,  
With reaching oft, as if the heart should break,  
Whereby the vital blood became to weak.  
For help whereof physicians did repair,  
And for his aid did keep him from the air:  
But when the King awhile was missed abroad,  
His lovers mourned, the preachers laid on load,  
Who seeing the prince plagued for the people's sin,  
Exhorted all amendment to begin.  
Fore warning, if we would not turn in time,  
His grace should die, and we should bear the crime:  
And after his death such cruel plagues ensue.  
As all should feel, and then to late, should rue.  
The Magistrate was plainly told his fault.  
The man of law was warned not to halt:  
Request was made the church goods to restore,  
Or put to the use that they were taken for.  
Leasmungring Landlords, such as raised rend,  
Were moved to bate their Lands to ancient stint,  
The waste, the fare, the vaynnes of attire,  
Extortion, malice, covetous desire,  
All Papistry, with fruitless gospel boast,  
Was cried against, and damned as wicked most.  
And to be brief, fro the lowest to the highest,  
All were desired to live the law of Christ.  
With earnest threats, from God the living Lord,  
In whose just eye all sin is sore abhorred,  
That if we did not these our faults repent,  
The King should die, and we to late lament.  
But out alas, how were these preachers heard?  
The heads withdrew their presence, all afeard  
Lest sum good motion might amend their mind.  
By whose example, the people (nought by kind)  
took heart of grass the preachers to despise:  
And slandered them with shameless forged lies.  
God's bitter threats they made a very mock,  
His prophets eke a common jesting stock,  
As for amendment, none at all was seen,  
But into wurs all ills were turned clean.  
When God had suffered all these things a space,  
And saw at last how all refused his grace,  
And that no threats might cause them to retire,  
To stay the stroke of his consuming ire,  
He fully agreed to take this blessed child:  
For speed whereof, he utterly exiled  
All means by which he might recover force.  
Than did his grief so sore assault the corpse  
That every vain and muscle 'gan to swell,  
Which bred a pain much like the pangs of hell:  
In which the piteous Prince a pining lay,  
In hope all hopeless, many a woeful day.  
But God which saw the terror of the pain  
Wherein so long this innocent had lain,  
Because he would for it provide an aid,  
He called Death, and thus to him he said:  
Dispatch at ones, to Greenwich see thou high,  
Where my elect, King Edward, sick, doth lie  
In painful pangs, wherein he hath be long,  
Not for his own, but for his people's wrong:  
Enforce thine arm, and with thy cruel dart  
Cleave me in twain his virtuous godly heart.  
What, weepest thou Death? Cease fool, & hold thy tongue▪  
What though he be both beautiful and young,  
So learned a prince, so manly, and so meek  
As seldom had, nor eft shall have his like?  
He is to good for that ungracious Realm:  
Wherefore dispatch, go strike thy stroke extreme.  
Take no compassion on his tender youth,  
His wit, his virtue, or earnest zeal of truth.  
But wotst thou what, let not thy form be such  
An ugly shape, as to the worldly ruch  
It oft appears: But lovely, as it is  
To such as long for everlasting bliss.  
With comely shape, and smiling cheer, I say,  
Go lewse his soul, have done, and go thy way.  
When doubtful Death had heard this hard devise,  
He trymd himself in his most comely guise,  
Like Mercury in every kind of grace,  
Save that he had a much more lovely face:  
And forth he flew, and got him to the bed,  
Wherein the King lay neither quick nor dead,  
But in a trance: for why his deadly grief,  
And nature strave, to prove who should be chief.  
But when week nature had consumed her best,  
She yielded her, and so the struggle ceased.  
Whereby the King came to himself again,  
And seeing death, he turned away amain:  
For why his youth, and yet unfloured breath,  
Can not consent to so unripe a death.  
Drye Death himself with pity moved thou,  
Had much to do to hide his inward woe:  
And seeing the lovely prince so sore afraid,  
With smiling there to cumfort him, he said.  
Most noble King, abash not, but assent,  
Nor God the almighty hath me hither sent:  
Who much lamenting this your woeful case,  
Would have you come to solas with his grace,  
In life, in bliss, in everlasting glory,  
From worldly things all vile and transitory,  
From this your state uncertain and unsure,  
Unto a Reign that shall for ay endure.  
No sooner had our sovereign heard of this,  
But lo, his ghost (which long had longed for bliss)  
Would needs away: Howbeit his careful mind  
For this his realm, which he should leave behind,  
Did move his grace to pray death stay awhile,  
To th'end he might himself both reconcile  
To God his king, and also recommend  
His realm to him for ever to defend.  
And while that Death for this cause gladly stayed,  
He set him up, and thus to God he prayed.   

HAve mercy on me father dear, O Lord, and God of truth,  
O let thy mercy hide the sins, and frailty of my youth.   

I have transgressed thy law to oft, full woe is me therefore,  
But for thy son my saviours sake, my silly soul restore.   

My flesh doth crave to keep the life, full loath to lose the light:  
But Lord, do thou as shall seem best, to thine almighty sight.   

And when thou hast received my soul, which troubles overwhelm  
Be merciful (most merciful) to this my wretched Realm.   

Preserve thy truth, maintain thy word, power plenty of thy grace,  
On all such hearts as thou shalt set, to govern in my place.   

Thus Lord, I render to thy hands, myself, my flock, my seat,  
Do with them all thy blessed will, for Christ's sake I entreat.   

Amen ꝙ death, and with his piercing dart,  
He struck in twain the kings yet praying heart.  
But Lord how glad the ghost was of the stroke,  
For when it saw the prison gate was broke,  
Fast forth it flew, and up to heaven went  
To rest with God in joys that never stint:  
The soulles body about the bed did sprawl,  
While they about it on the King did call,  
Adawing him as if he were in swoon:  
But all for nought, he had his deadly wound.  
And when the blood, that went to help the heart,  
Had sweltered it, and left each other part,  
Than waxed his face and hands all pale and wan,  
And when the bludles parts to cool began,  
To heavenward his hands and eyes he cast,  
Down fell his jaws, his heart strings all to braced,  
And still he lay, for lively heat was passed.  
Thus died this King, this guiltless blessed child,  
In body and soul, a virgin undefiled,  
The sixteenth year of his unperfect age.  
Woe wurth us men, whose sins let run at rage  
Have murdered him: woe worth us wretches all,  
On whom the wreak of righteous blood must fall.  
woe worth our sins, for they, alas, have slain,  
The noblest prince that did, or eft shall rain.   Sapien four ☞ Thus the righteous which is dead, condemneth the ungodly which are living, and the youth that is soon brought to an end, the long life of the unrighteous.  

¶ An exhortation to the repentance of sins, and amendment of life, which were the cause of the kings death, & will be the destruction of the Realm if God be not the more merciful unto us.  

ALl English people what so ever ye be,  
Rulers, and subjects of every degree,  
Whose horrible vices have moved the wrath  
Of God so to scourge us, as lately it hath,  
By bringing our sovereign to soon to his end,  
Repent your misliving, and quickly amend:  
For that was the cause of the King's death in deed,  
And will be his heirs to, without better heed.   

Repent O ye Princes, your greedy desire  
Of honour and riches, whereby set on fire,  
You rob under colour of Christian professson,  
From Christ and his poor, their right and possession.  
You oppress the people through sale of your lust,  
Repent, recompense to, and learn to be just:  
For this was the cause of the King's death in deed,  
And will be the kingdoms without better heed.   

Repent you prelate's your seeking promotion,  
Your greedy gathering, your lack of devotion,  
Your to much care for your children and wives,  
Your whorish abusing, your wife loathing lives,  
Your popish errors, your fowl dirogation  
Of Christ his manhood, his merits and passion:  
For this was the cause of the King's death in deed  
And will be his heirs to, without better heed.   

Repent O you subjects, your disobedience  
To God and good Rulers, your great irreverence  
To true religion, your elders and teachers,  
Your mocking and scorning of gods holy preachers,  
Your common swearing, transgression of laws,  
Your troubling your neighbours for every light cause  
For this was the cause of the King's death in deed,  
And will be the Queens without better heed.   

Repent you officers all the deceits  
You use in your payments and in your receipts,  
Your bribe bought audites, your subtle surveyings,  
Your thevish accounts made by crafty conveying,  
Your robbing the rulers that put you in trust:  
Repent, recompense to, hence forward be just.  
For that was the cause of the King's death in deed,  
And will be his sisters, without better heed.   

Repent you false lawyers your racking and straining  
To make all laws serve to your greedy gaining,  
Your robbing the rich, your undoing the poor,  
Your making the law and justice an whore,  
Which no man embrace may until she be sold  
For great men's favours, or high heaps of gold.  
For this was the cause of the kings death in deed,  
And will be the kingdoms without better heed.   

Repent you merchants your strange merchandises  
Of personages, prebends, avowsons of benefices,  
Of lands, of leases, of office, of fees,  
Your monging of victuals, corn, butter, and cheese:  
Your carrying out good wares, and bringing such in  
As serve to no purpose, save breeding up sin.  
For this was the cause of the kings death in deed  
And will be his sisters without better heed.   

Repent you caitiffs your raising of rent  
Your fines, your incomes, yet never at a stint.  
Your turning of tillage so much into pasture,  
That towns and townships are ruined past cure:  
Your wasting of woods, your engrossing cheap wares,  
To make dearth of plenty, to increase others cares.  
For this was the cause of the King's death in deed,  
And will be the kingdoms without better heed.   

Repent you judges your partial judgements,  
Your quitting the guilty, your quelling innocentes  
For meed, for dread, for spite or for pleasure.  
Repent you Rufflers th'abuse of your treasure,  
Your oaths, your fury, your else many a crime  
Beside the expense of your bodies and time.  
For these were a cause of the King's death in deed  
And will be the kingdoms without better heed.   

Repent you Lechers your dissolute lives,  
Your causeless divorsing your true wedded wives,  
Your crafty alluring the silly to sin,  
Your buying of Orphans to wed to your kin,  
Your forcing of widows unwilling to marry  
To cause breath of wedlock, sith needs they must vary:  
For this was the cause of the kings death in deed,  
And will be the kingdoms without better heed.   

To conclude, let each man of every degree  
Bewail his offences what so ever they be,  
And ask God forgevenes, and make recompense  
To those he hath harmed through any offence:  
For sure if we do not, such plagues will ensue,  
As never came yet upon heathen nor jewe.  
For our sins were the cause of the King's death in deed,  
And will be the kingdoms without better heed.   

Sith we all already are guilty of murder,  
Cease we all for God's sake, to sin any further,  
O sleys not our sovereign, our most noble Queen,  
Whose match in virtue hath seldom be seen,  
But pray the almighty her life to defend.  
Repent, recompense, pray, pay, and amend.  
For if our sins send her to her brother,  
Swift vengeance will follow, let none look for other.   ❀ sirach the ten Because of unrighteous dealing, of wrong, of blasphemies, & sundry deceits, a Realm Shallbe translated from one people to an other.  

An Epitaph. ☞ The Death plaint or life praise of the most noble and virtuous Prince, King Edward the sixth.  

THe noble heart which fear might never move,  
Wherein a mind with virtue fraught did rest,  
A face whose cheer alured unto loove  
All hearts, through ties which pity whole possessed,  
The brain, which wit and wisdom made their chest,  
Fulfyld with all good gifts that man may have,  
Rest with a princely Carcase here in grave.   

Whose virtuous gifts immixed with the mind  
As godly fear, with constant zeal to truth,  
Such skill of tongues, and arts of every kind,  
Such manhood, prudens, justice joined with ruth  
As age seld hath, though here they 'greed with youth,  
Are from their wemles undefiled host,  
Goen hence to heaven with their godly ghost.   

Of which two parts belinkt in lace of life,  
It pleased the Lord to lend us late a king:  
But out alas our sins they were so rife,  
And we so unworthy of so good a thing,  
That Atropos did knap in two the string  
Before her sisters sixteen whirls had spun,  
Or we the gain of seven years rain through won.   

woe worth our sins, our sins, our sins I say,  
The wreak whereof hath rest us such a loan  
As never realm the like recover may,  
In princely gifts, the Phoenix bird alone.  
Oh happy he, but we full woe begoens.  
Whose heinous sins have slain the guiltless guide,  
Whose souls the heaven, whose corpse this hearse doth hide   
Finis.  
¶ King Edward sickened the first day of February, at Whitehall, and on the sixth day of july next following, died he at Greenwich, And was buried in Westminster church. Anno. 1553.  

❀ EDVARDUS SEXTUS GRACIA, ANGLIE, FRANCIE ET hiberny REX. ET C AETATIS SVAE. XV.   portrait of Edward VI