Monarchiae Britannicae singularis Protectio.  
OR, A BRIEF Historical Essay Tending to prove GOD's especial PROVIDENCE Over the BRITISH MONARCHY, AND More particularly over the Family that now enjoys the same.  
By HAMLETT PULESTON, A. M. and Fellow of Jesus College Oxon.  
LONDON, Printed by R. D. for the Author. 1661.   

Reader,  
AMong the manifold Discouragements, which have so long prorogued, and had well nigh altogether stopped the Publication of this Treatise; one is, the multitude of Erratas (too many for so small a Pamphlet) it is accompanied withal, most of which thou shalt find here amended; and for the remainder, as mis-placing or omitting of Commas, and some other few literal mistakes, I leave them to thy Candid and favourable correction.  
Pag. 2. line 30. for Normandy read Norway. p. 6. l. 2. for Prince r. King. p. 10. l. 27. deal and. p. 12. l. 23. deal too. l. 24. for nad r. and. p. 13. l. 14. for my r. our. p 22. l. 14. deal his. p. 33. l 15. r. though not. l. 19 deal Sister. p. 35. l. 25. r. beginner. p. 36. l. 11. for as yet r. as if. p. 43. l. 23. for yet r. if. p. 44. l. 21. deal been. p. 46. l. 1. for by r. buy. p. 48. l. 29. r. unto. for Practisers r. Practices. p. 51. l. 12. r. But Bruse urging. l. 18. r. upon the Popes. p. 53. l. 26. add Mary the Daughter and Heir of james the fifth. p. 55. l. 10. for divert r. direct.   

IT is observed by Edmond Howes a diligent Compiler of our Country's Annals, That in this Island there hath happened five remarkable alterations, and each of them always about the period or revolution of five hundred years, whereof in his Historical Preface, he gives this ensuing account.  
1. The first alteration, says he, was presently upon the death of Gorboduc, seventeenth in descent from Brute, Founder, according to him, of the British Monarchy. This Gorboduc had caused his youngest Son Porrex to be jointly crowned with his eldest Son Ferrex: These two fall at difference among themselves; the younger kills the elder, him the Mother, her the Multitude, hence Civil Wars; at length Malmutius Dunwallo Duke of Cornwall, having subdued all Competitors, translates the Kingdom to another line, which continues without any memorable interruption, until  
2. The second grand alteration, in the Reign of Cassibeline, forty fourth Successor of Malmutius, begun by the invasion of julius Caesar, General of the Romans in Gaul, but not perfected before Claudius the Emperor's time, from which date the Aera or computation of the Romans absolute Dominion here is to commence, whose departure, recalled by their Domestic dissensions, and Fore in inundations, carrying with them also the ablest of the Britain's, was the occasion of  
3. The third famous alteration; for the Britain's bereft of their own proper strength, and destitute of the accustomed aid of their Champions the Romans, were necessitated to implore the assistance of the Saxons, a people of Germany, against the Picts and Scots, who grievously infested the Northern borders.  
To these Saxons Vortigern, the late elected King, an Author of these Stranger's employment, in contemplation of their service, most improvidently allots, first the Isle of Thannet, than all Kent, afterwards more to inhabit; besides his marriage with Rowena the Daughter of Hengist, one of their principal leaders, gave them so firm a footing, that they not only could not be removed, but even forced their Landlords the Britain's into the least, most desert, and most mountainous parts, whilst these new intruding guests enjoy the greatest, the best, and richest share, which they portioned into an Heptarchy, or seven petty Principalities, who contending among themselves for superiority, and wearying out one another with mutual discord, administered opportunity unto  
4. The fourth, and indeed a twofold alteration, (but in regard of its immediate connexion is reckoned but as one) first by the Danes, a people likewise of Germany, who after many conflicts obtained the Sovereignty, but did not long retain the same. But the second (which took its original almost, where the other determined) and chiefest mutation, both for its continnance and universality, was that by the Normans, a Nation primarily issued out of Normandy, but then possessing the South of France, who introdnced a general innovation in all things but Religion, which also suffered its vicissitude or turn in  
5. The fifth and last alteration under Henry the eighth, who gave the first blow unto it, by his withdrawing his obedience from the Romish Sea, in whose communion England had persevered since its first conversion, and by suppressing Monasteries who were the main Pillars and Supporters thereof. But his Son Edward the sixth, proceeds further to the abolition of the Rites and Doctrine of that Church, which were yet again restored by his Sister Mary, and again excluded by her Sister Elizabeth, who was therein imitated by her Successor, james, conjoiner of the two separated Kingdoms, England, and Scotland, which our Author makes a parcel of this last alteration, and where he concludes his general History of the several revolutions of this Island, from the first foundation of a Monarchy here, until the time wherein he wrote.  
But since there hath happened another alteration no less, if not in some respect more considerable than any of the former, when not only the Person but the Office, not only a King, and that in an unparallelled manner, but even Kingship itself was destroyed, (a design that was never so much as attempted by our Ancestors) and instead thereof, an unheard-of kind of Commonwealth erected, which was soon suppressed by an insolent Usurper, who thought under a different title to have established the whole power to him and his; But by God's providence, and the perfidiousness of his own Relations, his purpose was defeated, his Son dethroned, a shadow of a Commonwealth retrived, once more dismissed, again revived, and finally dissolved, the old Government renewed, and lawful Heir recalled; and all this came to pass within the space of twelve years, yea most of it within the circuit of one year, whereof we can only say with the Psalmist, This is the Lords do, it is marvellous in our eyes.  
And truly, if we consider things impartially, there is great cause of admiration, that God should not only preserve among us for so many ages a Monarchy, (the best of Regiments in general, and in particular most agreeble to the situation of this Country, and constitution of the people,) but even continue it, maugre all the Plots and policies of men to the contrary, in that very blood and Family, which as far as creditable Genealogy will extend, hath been first known to have been invested therewithal.  
For we may safely affirm, that our present King Charles the second, (in whose posterity we trust it will remain as long as the Sun and Moon endures) deduces his pedigree in an indisputable line, from all that ever did or could pretend a title or interest to the Crown, which we think can hardly be verified of any Prince besides, this day in the Christian world.  
For proof whereof we appea I to such of our Chronicles only as are undoubted and beyond exception. Passing by therefore the Catalogue of British Kings from Brute to Cassibeline, not as altogether untrue, but as very uncertain; passing by those likewise we find mentioned during the Romans abode here, whose custom it was to permit native Kings indeed in their Conquered Provinces, but only as instruments of Tyranny, and wholsy depending on the authority of the Empire and its Prefers: We shall take our rise from the Saxons rule, and especially at that time, when from a multiplied Estate it grew towards an Union; And yet we cannot omit one passage we find Recorded of Cadwallader last King of the Britain's on this side Severn; who at his death prophesied that his Race should recover the Dominion of this Isle again, which was fulfilled in the days of King Henry the seventh, and more completely of King James, as will appear when the series and progress of the Story doth bring us thereunto.  
The Saxons, as hath been already hinted, made a sevenfold partition of the Land they had wrested from the Britain's, but the Kingdom of the Westsaxons (whose first stone was laid by Cerdic) did so increase in superstructure, that in the end it overtopped all the rest.  
Ina, the fifth descendent of Cerdic, was the first advancer of it to this prel emenency; but he died without issue, and the due order of the succession was somewhat disturbed, by the intrusion of four or five one after another, of the Blood-Royal indeed, but not in such a propinquity, as was Egbert Nephew but once removed from Ina, of whose right and promising forwardness, Britric, the last of the Usurpers, had so quick a sense, that he contrived the destruction of young Egbert: Which to avoid, he was enforced to retire unto the Court of Offa King of Mercia Or Middle England, but finding small security there in regard his Enemy had married Offas' daughter, he escapes thence into France, whence after the Tyrant's death, he returns to the enjoyment of that Kingdom, which had been so long, and so unjustly detained from him.  
This Prince (which we the rather note because of the affinity he hath with the Condition of our Sovereign that now is) had by an exiles experience attained such a measure of prudence, and all other perfections, that he much improved the West-Saxon Empire, which was now well near arrived to its Meridian and height, when it suffered a most terrible Eclipse by the interposition of the Danes, who made their first irruption in his predecessors days; and though they were valiantly resisted, and frequently repulsed by him and his Successors; yet did they never after cease from afflicting one part or other, till they had reduced the whole to their subjection, in which posture they held it but a little while, as hath before been intimated, and shall be more amply showed in its due and proper place.  
Egbert being dead, Aethewolph his Son of a Bishop became a Prince, and though his Education and Profession had rendered him a greater Votary than Warrior, yet did he give the Danes a most memorable overthrow. He had four Sons, who were all Kings in their turns, but the glory of the rest was Alfred, the youngest, no less famous for Arts than Arms; in the first his Son Edward surnamed the Elder, is reported to have been inferior, but in the last did equal, if not exceed his renowned Father.  
This Edward often worsted, but could not totally extirpate the Danes, who rcruited with fresh supplies from their own Comntry, made daily more and more encroachments upon the already-tired English Nation, whose case at that time especially required some strong prop or stay to sustain and keep up its declining and tottering estate.  
And upon this account it was that Athelftane Edward's bastard Son, being at full maturity and ripeness, was preferred before his legitimate one Edmond then in minority (the reason also that some succeeding Princes were for some time laid aside) but Edmond being now come to Age, after his Brother Athelstanes death (the nobleness of whose life recompensed the blemish of his birth) was admitted to his Father's Throne, which he did wisely and courageously manage, but was too soon deprived of it, and his life together, by a villainous Affassinate, in his own house at a festival, whilst he went about to rescue his Sewer from the violence of that barbarous hand.  
The more than ordinary hopes conceived of this brave Prince being thus untimely nipped in the bud, his no-lesse-deserving Brother Eldred was elected King, notwithstanding Edmond had left two Sons behind, whose tender years in those troublesome times were thought uncapable of so weighty an employment.  
But upon the death of Eldred, the Sceptre (which is a thing to be taken notice of in precedent and subseqent ruptures of this nature) reverted to the right Heirs, viz. the Sons of Edmond: And first to Edwin the eldest, whose dissolute and degenerate courses made sudden room for Edgar the youngest, who matched any of his Predecessors in worth, and excelled them all in power, for he quieted, and kept under, Danes, Welsh, Scots, insomuch as he is accounted, at least from the Saxons entrance, the first absolute Monarch of this entire Island.  
In a word, he was happy in his life, and Reign, but most unhappy in his Issue, for having two Sons, Edward and Ethelred, by several ventures; the Stepmother Elfred made Edward a Saint to make her own Son Etheldred a King; and though now by this removal of his Brother, whereunto possibly he might not be privy, none had any nearer title to the Crown than himself, yet did that innocent blood lie heavy upon him and his seed, nor could it, according to St. Dunstan's predictions, be expiated, but by a long avengement.  
In promoting of which divine justice, the Danes were the principal instruments, who had lain still under Edgar, but taking advantage of Ethelreds' unsettled condition, who by reason of this forestalling the Crown was termed the unready, forced him first to purchase an ill-kept peace, and then to relinquish his illgotten Kingdom, of which death only prevented Swain, his expeller, to take actual possession, and accumulate this to the Danish Crown.  
But Cnute the Son of Swain perfected his Father's design, and afforded Ethelred now returned out of Normandy, whither to avoid the storm he had betook himself, so sharp an entertainment that oppressed with grief for his bad success, he quitted this, and made another world his second place of refuge, leaving his Son Edmond Inheritor of little else, but the miseries of an unfortunate house.  
Yet did Edmond, for his valour, and hardiness in War, surnamed Ironside, hue himself out with his Sword the moiety of a Kingdom. For after the effusion of much blood on both sides, and to stop the shedding, of more it was agreed between the two Competitors (Cnute and Edmond) to try their right by single combat, in proper person, and the overcommer to take all. But there proving equality in the fitght, there was likewise made equality in the command between them; yet did not Edmona long enjoy his share, being circumvented by the practice of Edric Earl of Stratton, the Arch-traitor of those times, whose falsehood had ruined the Father, and now his ambirion destroys the Son, for which Cnute invents a suitable reward, causing his head to be set upon the highest place of the Tower of London, therein performing his promise of advancing him above any Lord of the Land, which was the mark that this faithless wretch aimed at, and now attained, but in a far different sense from that which he had vainly proposed to himself.  
Cnute being thus rid of a Rival, denied copartnership to the Sons of Edmond, as pretending the whole to appertain to the Survivor, and for fear they might prove thorns in his side, he sent them far enough out of the way, into Swedeland, say some, there to be murdered, but they were mercifully preserved, and conveyed to the Court of Hungary, where Edmond died without issue, but Edward had by Agatha Daughter to Henry the fourth Emperor of Germany, a Son named Edgar, and a Daughter called Margaret, who was the cause, as hereafter shall be showed, that the Saxon stem which now seemed withered, doth once more reflourish, though inocculated we confess, upon another stock.  
Notwithstanding this transportation of edmond's Sons, yet did not Cnute hold himself sufficiently assured of his new accquired Kingdom, till he had married Emma widow of Ethelred, whereby he gained the love of the English: but the promise he made in marriage, that the Children begotten on her should succeed, was for some time frustrated by the preoccupation of Harold, (sir named Harefoot,) the eldest son of Cnute by a Concubine: but his reign was brief, as likewise was that of his Brother Hardi Canute, the lawful Son of Cnute and Emma, with whom expired the Danish Dominion here, which had been but of a short duration, though their incursions and molestations had continued for a longer space.  
Edward styled the Confessor, to distinguish him from Edward the Elder, and Edward the Saint, was next King, being the Son of Emma also, but by her first Husband Ethelred the Unready, and did in some sort restore the Saxon blood: For in truth there was a nearer relation to the Crown extant, though not so near at hand for the present, to wit, Edward, surnamed, by reason of his Foreign education, the Outlaw, the Son of Edmond Ironside, the eldest Son by his first Wife of the above mentioned Ethelred the Unready, who ought by the Law of Nature and Nations to have preceded. Yet did the Confessor, wanting Issue himself, do his Nephew the Outlaw so much right, as to recall him with his Children out of their Banishment in Hungary, and designed him his Successor, but the Outlaws death before the Confessors, prevented that determination.  
Nevertheless the Confessor without delay pronounced Edgar the Outlaws Son, and his own Grand Nephew Heir apparent, and gave him the surname of Etheling, which in those days were only peculiar to such as were inhopes and possibility of a Kingdom. And more than so, this poor Etheling never was: For first he was debarred by his own Guardian Harold the Son of Goodwin Earl of Kent, who disdaining the title of Regent (which he was only constituted) assumed that of King; Afterwards by William Duke of Normandy, who though he pulled down Harold, yet did he not set up Edgar, laying claim himself to the Crown, by virtue of a pretended Donation from his Cousin Edward the Confessor, which had been too weak a plea, had it not been justified by a long sword, which hath ever since given him the appellation of William the Conqueror.  
Robert the eldest Son of the Conqueror should by right of primogeniture have succeeded his Father in all his Dominions, but having proved a Rebel at the French Kings instigation, he had only the Dukedom of Normandy assigned to him, and the Crown of England was bequeathed to his Brother William surnamed Rufus, who dying without any legitimate offspring, and Robert being absent in the Holy-land, Henry the youngest Son of the Conqueror as Duke of Normandy, but eldest as King of England, seized upon it, and to ingratiate himself with the Natives, and to corroborate his Title, he Married Maud, Daughter of Margaret by Malcolme King of Scots, Sister to Edgar Etheling, Son of Edward the Outlaw, Son of Edmond Ironside, Son of Ethelred the Unready, Son of Edgar the peaceable Son of Edmond, Son of Edward Senior, Son of Alfred, and by which means the Royal seed of the Saxons became to be replanted in the English Soil.  
For this Henry the first had (not to mention his Son William who perished by water whilst he was young) by the foresaid Maud, a Daughter of the same name, whom he first espoused to Henry the fifth, Emperor of Germany, afterwards to jeffrey Plantagenet Earl of Anjou, by whom she had a Son called Henry, in whom did fully concur the Norman and Saxon Race.  
But the true hereditary succession was some what intercepted by Stephen Earl of Bologne Son of Adela the conquerors Daughter, from whom he could derive but a slender title: For had the conquerors line Masculine failed, then ought Theobald Earl of Bloys, Stephen's Eldest Brother by the same Adela, to have been prelated; And therefore his surest Tenure proceeded from his Election by the Nobility, who notwithstanding their natural Allegiance, and twice repeated Oath (and among them Stephen himself is reckoned to be one that had sworn Fealty) to Maud and her Heirs in the Reign of her Father Henry, admitted this stranger, and that for no other reason, though other were alleged (as that Maud was a woman, and consequently uncapable of anointing; that she was married out of the Realm, without the consent thereof, which if of any moment should before their solemn engagement have been taken into consideration) than that he being a Creature of their own erecting, was more obliged to them, and would upon all occasions be more ready to gratify their aspiring humour.  
Yet wanted not the Empress and her Son adherents both within and without the Kingdom, to assert their right, who raised such a cloud of trouble to, Stephen that he could not dispel it during his whole reign, so that at length he came to a composition, and his own Son Eustace whom he had designed his Successor being already dead, he adopts Henry fitz-Empresse, and proclaims him heir apparent, with this Proviso; That he himself should enjoy the Crown as long as he lived, which was not a full year after this peaceable agreement.  
Henry the second of that name is now possessed of the Throne, (in process of time adding the Lordship of Ireland to it) and that upon a triple account.  
First by virtue of the late Treaty with King Stephen, Secondly by title of conquest, as being great Grandchild to William the Norman; but Thirdly, and chief, by the equity of his Mother's claim, who was the true descendent of the long-rejected but now restored Saxon lineage.  
He took to wise Elinor, the repudiate of Lewis the seventh King of France, by whom he had large Dominions in that Kingdom: but notwithstanding it augmented his estate, yet was it the occasion of much trouble and vexation to him; For the French King jealous of his growing fortunes, and his own Queen of his fidelity to his marriagebed, incited his Sons, Herry, Richard, Jeffrey, and John, to frequent rebellions, to whom nevertheless upon their submissions he was entirely reconciled.  
Henry Sans issue departed this life before his Father. Richard succeeded in the Throne but died childless also; Jeffrey, though extinct himself before it came to his turn, had yet left a Son in being, Arthur Duke of Britain, who ought to have been considered of; but him John prevented more too, by power & favour of the Nobles, than by any colour of Justice, ●ad whilst the young Prince endeavours the recovery of his right, he is taken prisoner as he besieged the Castle of Mirabell in France, conveyed to the Tower of Rouen, and there killed, if not by the hands, yet at least by the command of his inhuman Uncle.  
However the course taken to be thus rid of a Competitor was utterly unlawful, yet being gone, john becomes the lawful proprietor of the Crown, but pays dear for the manner of this his amiss procured purchase. For the Pope excommunicates him, his Subjects for sake him, the French King invades him, and bereaus him not only of his large Territories in France, but also of the greatest part of his Kingdom of England, and he dies miserably, not without suspicion of Poison; a just judgement upon him for his enormous Acts, especially the murder of his innocent Nephew.  
Now though God shown himself a severe inquisitor for blood, yet did he seem appeased with the punishment of the person that was guilty of it: For he so disposed the hearts of the English Nation, that they generally withdrew themselves from the French party, and notwithstanding the iniquity of the Father, most willingly embrace the Son, than a minor, as naturally inclined, says my Author, to love and obey their Princes.  
Such this Prince Henry the third found his Subjects at his first admission, whilst he was governed by a wise and faithful Council, but afterwards suffering himself to be ruled by strangers, that more intended their own than the public good, he so alienated the English affections, as they were earnest at first to promote his interest. To the former he adds new grievances, to wit, reiterated breach of Charters granted by his Predecessors, and himself, whence such discontents are engendered, that at length there is begotten between the King and his people an actual (commonly known by the name of the Barons) war. Hereof Simon de Monfort Earl of Leicester, on the Baron's side was head, who in a set Battle takes King Henry and his Son Edward prisoners, but Edward escapes, collects an Army, defeats and kills Leicester, and redeems his Father, the beginning of whose reign was overcast with a French mist, the middle was very tempestous by reason of the Baron's commotions, but the Catastrophe or latter part was serence, and concluded in a perfect Calm.  
Edward the first of that name since the Norman conquest, having proved the deliverer of his Father from captivity, makes an expedition into the Holy-land to perform the like office to the Christians there, that were grievously afflicted under the Turkish servitude: but the news of his Father's death quickly recalls him from further prosecution of that honourable enterprise, wherein he had no less honourably demeaned himself.  
And as he had increased his own and Country's reputation abroad, so doth he likewise enlarge their power and jurisdiction at home, by subduing most of Scotland, and totally reducing of Wales, of which last, because it was then first annexed to this Crown, it will not be impertinent to afford the Reader a brief and summary relation.  
Wales (the small remnant of this Island that was left to the Britain's the ancient possessors of the whole) had hitherto, though not without much difficulty and struggling, contained under their own proper Princes: But the fatal period of their liberty, which they had so long, so stoutly maintained, against so potent a Kingdom, as this, is now arrived. Llewellin the then Prince of that Cnutry, being summoned to our King's Coronation, refused to appear, saying, He too well remembers the end of his Father Gryffin, who came in safety to London, but never returned thence.  
This neglect, Edward makes the ground of a quarrel, enters into hostility against Llewellin, forces him to a submission, whereof he soon reputes, flies out again, is overcome and slain in fight, his head cut off, and that Merlin's Prophecy might be fulfilled or eluded, which, as he interpreted, had promised him the Diadem of Brute, it is Crowned with Ivy, and set upon the Tower of London.  
After the death of Llewellin and his brother David, (whose head was shortly sent to accompany the others in the same place) Edward contrives the perpetual union of these two, too long divided, Nations. And though he found the Welsh Nobleses very cautious how they brought their necks under a Foreign yoke, yet doth he accomplish his ends by this neat and Artificial devise.  
He conveys secretly into the Castle of Carnarvan, his Queen great with Child, whom when he understood to be delivered of a boy, he Assembles the Welsh Nobles, and proposeth to them, whether they would accept of a Prince of his Nomination, that was born in their own Country, could speak ne'er a word of English, and against whom for Life or Conversation no objection could be made: Whereunto when they had assented, he produces his own little Son Edward, to whom the aforesaid qualifications did exactly agree; Hence the custom took its original of investing our King's eldest Sons in the Principality of Wales: but because there may here seem to have been a mixture of force and fraud, we shall endeavour, when order brings us to it, to find out a more unexceptionable Title, whereby our Kings lay claim to that Dominion.  
Edward the second (called Edward of Carnarvan for the cause but even now rehearsed) much degenerated from his Father's Nobleness, and lost not only Scotland, which his Father had well-nigh gained, but ever England itself, being deposed by his own Wife Isabel, having only this comfort left him, that his Son Edward was to succeed in the Throne.  
Edward the third of that name, Son of the late deposed and shortly after murdered King, was, when he came to years of Discretion, God's Instrument to revenge his Father's death, even upon his own Mother the Queen and her Minion Mortymer, who was the Author and Procurer of the same.  
But the chiefeft passage of this Prince's Reign, and that of nearest Alliance to our Subject in hand, which is to declare the Titles our Kings have to the Kingdoms they possess or challenge, was his claiming and almost obtaining the Crown of France. The occasion and State of the difference was briefly thus.  
Philip de Valois the then King of France, had with some what too much rigour demanded, and with too much Imperiousness received the Homage of our Edward for some pieces which he held in that Kingdom. But Edward's high Stomach could not digest the indignity, as he conceived of this humiliation, considering but somewhat of the latest, that he had a better right not to fragments only, but to the whole, than the person to whom he had so lowly abased himself: For Edward was the Son of Isabella, Daughter of Philip le bell or the fair, formerly King of France, whereas Philip, the present injoyer, was Son to Charles of Valois but younger Brother to the foresaid le bell, only there is one frivolous impediment in Edward's way, to wit, the French Law Salic, which debars Females & their Descendants from the Crown: but this entail Edward is resolved to cut off with a good Sword; And to this purpose he enters France with a strong Army, and gave the French two such famous overthrows at Cressy and Poitiers, that they put that State into a dangerous Consumption, which without all doubt would have turned to an Hectic , had the War been prosecuted with the same heat where with all it was begun.  
A great allay to these prosperous proceed, was the untimely death of Edward's eldest Son (Edward) Prince of Wales, but better known by the name of the Black Prince, to whose prowess the former Achievements in France were chief owing, who having made an inroad into Spain to reinthrone their K. Peter, brought thence Victory and a mortal Disease, which quickly made an end of him, leaving behind him a young Son, Richard of Bourdeux, to whom Edward the Grandfather, yet living, confirmed the succession by Parliament, lest his aspiring Son john Duke of Lancaster, Richard's Uncle, should, as one observs, have supplanted him, as King john did his Nephew Arthur in the like case.  
But what john of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster failed in, his Son Henry of Bullingbrook Duke of Hereford effected: By deposing his Cousin German Richard the second, who is rather noted to be an unfortunate than vicious, a seduced than of himself Tyrannical Prince.  
It will be no deviation from the matter, but rather requisire in regard of the light it yields to the clearer and more distinct knowledge of the following confusions, to speak somewhat more particularly of the manner of this Henry's compassing the Crown, the claim he laid to it, and the course he took to settle the succession in his own house, this being the Fountain from which flowed the most bloody and most tedious Civil Wars that ever England endured, this being the great ball of contention between the White Rose and the Red, between the Yorkish and Lancastrian Family.  
Henry the fourth of that name among the English Kings, was, as hath been noted before, the Son of john of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster, fourth Son of King Edward the third; His Father was suspected, but he is detected, of higher thoughts than it became a Subject (he being then but Duke of Hereford) to entertain.  
For justification of himself, Hereford appeals to his Sword, and offers combat to Thomas Mowbray Duke of Norfolk his Accuser, who courageously accepts thereof: But as they were about to join issue, King Richard interposes and banished them both, out of the Realm, Norfolk for ever, Hereford for ten years; four of which the King struck off as of special favour, when he came to take his solemn leave of him. But Hereford himself doth much more abbreviate the time, and doth long anticipates even the last indulged date of his return: For he re-lands the very same day twelve month he departed, and found many Abettors of his quarrel (which at first he only pretends to be the recovery of his Dukedom) especially the Earl of Northumberland, whom King Richard at his late going into Ireland, where now he is, because the Earl demurred to accompany him in the Voyage, had caused to be proclaimed Traitor, and so made him that, which otherwise perhaps he would not have been. But Henry's Power more and more increasing, and Richard's daily decreasing, till at length it languished into nothing, Henry discovers, that it was somewhat more than a bare Dukedom that he aimed at: A Parliament is called, in which King Richard as is pretended, not only voluntarily surrenders, but is also violently degraded, and Henry, both by his and the people's appointment, installed in his Room, who upon the day of his Coronation, caused it to be proclaimed, that he claimed the Crown of England, First, by right of Conquest; Secondly, because King Richard had resigned his Estate, and designed him his Successor; Lastly, because he was of the Blood Royal, and next Heir Male to King Richard. Heir Male, rather Hae es Malus, says Edmond Mortimer Earl of March to some of his Familiars, as knowing the lawful right to be inherent in himself, though for the present it must give place to a stronger possessor. For this Edmond was the Son of Roger, the Son of Edmond Earl of March, by Philip Daughter of Lionel Duke of Clarence, who was elder Brother to john Duke of Lancaster, King Henry's Father. Hereof Henry is very apprehensive, and having dispatched Richard to Heaven before his time, wished Mortimer there also, and in order to his hastening thither, refused to procure his liberty and enlargement, but suffered him to continue in a loath some Dungeon, though he had been taken Prisoner in defence of his Country against Owen ap Glendower, the famous Revolter of Wales, who therefore the more hardly used him, that thereby his Kinsman King Henry might be moved to redeem him, but therefore King Henry would not redeem him, because he well hoped by this hard usage to be rid of him, who was like to prove the greatest prejudice to his crazy and counterfeit Title. For it was obvious to all, however for fear dissembled by most, that the issue of Lionel Elder Son of King Edward the third, aught to have preceded john of Gaunts the younger Son of the foresaid Edward; And hence it was, that Henry doth not solely rely upon his Father's right, which he knew to be infirm, as long as any of Lionels off spring remained, but joins to it that of his Mother Blanch, Daughter and Heir to Henry Duke of Lancaster, Son of Edmond, nicknamed Crook-back, eldest Son, as was alleged, of King Henry the third, but by reason of his deformity pur by the succession, which was for that cause conferred upon King Edward the first, though but the younger Brother; But the truth is, in this pedigree there is an Error in the very Foundation, for though our Henry were so descended as is specified, from Edmond, yet the said Edmond was neither eldest Son to Henry the third, nor yet a deformed person, but a proper Gentleman, and a great Commander, therefore entitled Crook-back, or rather Crouch-back, because he had took upon him the Cross, and according to the Custom of those days warred in the Holyland.  
Thus appears the invalidity of Henry's claim, whether from the Father, as unsound, or the Mother, as suspicious, and deceitful, or from King Richard receding, as extorted by force in restraint, and so of no force, or of consent of the many, there being no Custom in the English Nation for popular elections, or by Conquest, which in a Subject against his Sovereign is Insurrection, and Victory high Treason, as was well observed by the Bishop of Carlisle in his speech in that very Parliament, where this business was agitated and transacted.  
Nay further, there is a tradition, that john of Gaunt (Father of this Henry) was not at all the Son of King Edward, but that the Queen being delivered of a female child, knowing how unacceptable it would be to her Husband, exchanged it for a boy with a Dutch woman, who had been brought to bed about the same hour: This the Queen at her death confessed to William of Wickman Bishop of Winchester, who acquainted none with it but john of Gaunt himself, and that when he perceived john to affect the Crown, in which case the Mother had left the Bishop free: But this being but a report, and grounded on uncertainties, would have been no bar to Henry's title, had it been clear in all other respects.  
Henry, as he had injuriously obtained a Kingdom, so doth he laboriously preserve the same; for the manifold conspiracies against him testify that quiet is not a Concomitant of usurped greatness; and was in a manner bereft of his Crown, before he was of his life: For he being seized upon by a deep fit of the Apoplexy, his Son Henry seized upon the Crown, whereof, when the Father reviving demanded the reason, his answer was, That in his and all men's judgement there present, he was dead, and then says he, I being next Heir apparent to the same, took it as my indubitat right; Well said the King, and sighed, Son, what right I had to it, God knoweth; but saith the Prince, If you die King, I doubt not to hold it, as you have done, against all opposers.  
Which expression this incomparable King Henry the fifth did make good even to supererogation: for abandoning his youthful extravagancies, whereof he is severely taxed, he embraces more solid courses, and to vent any discontented humours at home, which by standing still might corrupt, and gather putrefaction, he meditates a war with France, and awakens the English title to it, which had lain dormant ever since his great Grandfather's days.  
But whilst he is in preparation for this great affair, he either makes or discovers a plot against his life, by Richard Earl of Cambridge, who had married Anne Sister and Heir of Edmond Mortimer, Earl of March, before remembered, who was the true heir of the Crown, and was the true cause of Earl Richard's execution: for it cannot be imagined that money alone would induce so noble a person to so foul an undertaking. And the event shows that there was somewhat more than Bribery in this attempt, when we shall find the Son of this late executed Earl, dispossessing his Son; who was the Author of his Father's Tragedy.  
Henry having thus eased himself of a great Pretender, proceeds to his intended design on France, where he so prosperously speeds, that he is constituted Regent, & declared Heir apparent of the doting French King, whose Daughter Katherine he marries, & by her hath a Son named Henry, of whom the King is said to have thus prophesied; I Henry born at Monmouth, shall small time reign and much get, and Henry born at Windsor shall long reign and lose all.  
And so indeed it came to pass through the secret operation of all-disposing Providence, which is seldom propitious to the owners (how good in themselves soever they be) of ill gained inheritances beyond the third succession. And hereof our present Henry the sixth is a great example, who was the meekest and most religious of all our Kings that had been before, and yet for no other transgression that we know of, than the original Sin of his Grandfather, Henry the fourth, meddling with the forbidden fruit of a Crown his ere it was ripe for him, is he chased out of the terrestrial Paradise of all his Kingdoms, and sent to be a partaker of a Celestial one, somewhat more early than the due course of nature had designed him for it.  
For that covert fire which had a long time burned in the breasts of many, to see the Lancastrian race enjoy another's right, doth now break forth into open combustion, of which Richard Duke of York is the prime incendiary, the Son of Richard Earl of Cambridge, who was beheaded in King Henry the fifth's reign, for supposed Treason, the Son of Edmond Duke of York, the fifth Son of King Edward the third.  
But Duke Richard waves all pretensions by the Father's side, as not being ignorant, that john of Gaunt (from whom our present Henry is directly descended) was elder brother to his Grandsire Edmond, and therefore in Parliament only produceth his title by the Mother, as being the Son and Heir of Anne, Sister and Heir of Edmond, Son and Heir of Roger Mortymer Earl of March, Son and Heir of Philippe, the sole Daughter and Heir of Lionel Duke of Clarence, the third Son of Edward the third, and elder Brother of john of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, Father of the Usurper Henry the fourth, Grandfather of Henry the fifth, who was Father to him, who now (says Richard) untruly styleth himself King Henry the fixth.  
Besides his holding forth his claim to the Crown in this demonstrative, and undeniable manner (which yet the judicious could only penetrate) the Duke addeth many Rhetorical aggravations, which were more suitable, and intelligible to vulgar ears; As that the King was simple, and of weak capacity; that he was Governed by the Queen a stranger, and Woman of an unsufferable ambition; that the Privy Counsellors were naught and corrupt, through whose faithlessness and inabilities, France was lost, and England disquieted, and that greater judgements were to be expected, if the true Heir were any longer debarred from his lawful right.  
The Duke by these plausible arguments had so engaged the multitude unto him, that he is able to dispute his Title in the Field with the King, whom he takes Prisoner, and calling in his name a Parliament, it is there concluded, that King Henry during his life, should retain the name and Honour of a King; that the Duke of York should be Proclaimed Heir apparent to the Crown, and Protector of the King's Person and Dominions; that if at any time King Henry's Friends, Allies, or Favourites, in his behalf should attempt the disannulling of this Act, that then the Duke should have present possession of the Crowu.  
But this was more than what his destiny had allotted for him, for he was shortly after slain at the Battle of War field by Queen Margaret, who was of a more Masculine Spirit, than to acquiesce in the forementioned dishonourable Conditions; and because it was a Crown that the Duke of York chief affected, She caused his Head to be cut off, set upon a Pole, and Crowned with Paper: but the death and disgrace of the Father, Edward Earl of March, his Eldest Son doth speedily revenge to the utter ruin of the Lancastrian party.  
Nor will this Edward, as did his Father, await another's leisure, and prove expectant of a Crown in reversion, but immediately assumes it by the actual deposing of King Henry, whom he takes Prisoner, and commits to safe custody in the Tower of London.  
But there was an accident which had well-nigh nipped the white Rose in the bud, and restored the red Rose to its pristine vigour.  
Edward the fourth, late Earl of March, now King of England, sends his great General the Earl of Warwick to treat a Match between him, and the Lady Bona Sister to the Queen of France. But our youthful King in the mean time consulting only his own affections, takes to Wife, the fair Lady Grace, Widow of Sir john Grace of Groby; which so inceses warwick, that he Rebels against his Master, beats him not only out of the Field, but also out of the Kingdom, delivers King Henry from his Prison, and reseats him in his Throne; but all this is but as Lightning before Death; Edward returns from beyond Seas, fights with, defeats and kills the Earl of warwick, routs also Queen Margaret newly landed, and the relics of her Lancastrian Associates, takes her and her Son Edward Prisoners, which last is stabbed by Richard Duke of Gloucester, King Edward's Brother, and not long it is, but the Father Henry is dispatched by the same hand in the Tower of London, whither he was remanded by King Edward after this fortunate and victorious success.  
The cruelty of Richard Duke of Gloucester, whose nature was more crooked than his body, did not terminate in the blood of the Enemies, but gins to practise on his Friends and nearest Relations: For perceiving that King Edward by reason of his incontinency, whereunto no English Prince was ever more subject, was not long lived, he secretly plots the attaining of the Crown for himself; And for the more expedite compassing this ambitious design, he first incenses King Edward against their common Brother George Duke of Clarence, not only exaggerating the hainousaesse of his former disobedience (which had been pardoned) but insinuating a blind Prophecy, that one whose name began with the letter G. should prove fatal to Edward's posterity.  
Hereupon the Duke of Clarence is committed to the Tower, and there, by Richard drowned in a Butt of Malmsey, however it was given out that he died of a discontented passion.  
But the Ominous G. which the King so much dreaded, was found in the sequel to appertain to Gloucester himself, who was the Contriver of this mischief, and Butcher of Edward's innocent Sons, of whom, after the King's decease, he was made Protector.  
The young Prince (Edward the fifth) was at Ludlow, when his Father, Edward the fourth died, from whence his Mother was over desirous to have him forthwith conveyed to London.  
But his Uncle the Duke of Gloucester meets him by the way at Stony-Stratford, and having secured all his faithful Attendants and Kindred by the Mother's side, takes into custody the person of the young King, which was the game that this mighty hunter did mainly intent.  
Yet was there one obstacle to his aspiring ends still behind, to wit, Richard Duke of York the King's Brother, in Sanctuary with his Mother at Westminster, whom to allure thence (for to do it by Violence, was accounted Religion in those days) he employs the Archbishop of Canterbury to persuade the Mother, and in case she proves obstinate, to interpose his Authority, to part with her Son, under colour, that he might be a companion, and great lenitive of the Melancholy disposition of his disconsolate Brother.  
Gloucester having thus compassed the Wardship of both his Nephews, makes show as if he would proceed to the Coronation of the Elder, but whilst the Lords of the Council are debaring of the time and manner of it, he arrests, and on a sudden makes shorter by the Head the Lord Chamberla in Hastings, whom though he had used as a forward Coadjuter in depressing of the Queen's Relations, yet knew him to be altogether averse from yielding any Countenance to the disinheriting of his Master's King Edward's Children.  
Hastings thus removed, the Duke of Buckingham (who had received several disgusts from his Brother-in-law Edward the fourth) is pitched upon as the fittest agent to carry on this Devilish attempt; who having prepared the Mayor and Citizens of London, comes in their name, pretending Bastardy, and insufficiency of Edward's race, to make a tender of the Crown to Protector Richard, and in case of refusal, with threats to elect some other worthy and deserving Person. Richard in seeming amazedness makes strange at first of this by himself-devised proposal, but after some importunity, grants his, forsooth, unwilling consent, not without a dissembled regret of his Nephew's condition, whose murder in the Tower doth immediately ensue.  
Buckingham (supposed not privy to the making away of the harmless Princes) upon this and other distastes, retires from Court to his Castle of Brecknock, where, with his prisoner Morton Bishop of Ely, he contrives the Match between Henry Earl of Richmond, and Elizabeth Daughter of Edward the fourth, which proves Richard's downfall, and the union of the Yorkish and Lancastrian line.  
Henry Earl of Rickmond, was the Son of Margaret, Daughter of john Duke of Somerset, Son of john of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster, by Katherine Swineford, relict of Sir Oars Swineford; and though this john, and other Children, were born before espousals, yet was the issue made legitimate by Act of Parliament, and confirmed by a Bull from Rome.  
Of this Henry there goes a tradition for current, that in the heat of the Civil Wars between the House of York and Lancaster, Henry the sixth having espied him in the presence, laid his hand upon his head, and in a Prophetic manner said, Behold this youth, who is to enjoy that for which we now contend.  
Which his Mother observing, and treasuring up in her heart, sent him into Britain in France, as into a safe Harbour, to be there educated and preserved till the sury of the tempest were over, which then did so terribly rage's throughout the Land.  
Richard the third earnestly Solicits the Duke of Britain to deliver up Richmond's person to him, which was well-nigh effected, by the treachery of Peter Landoys, the Dakes especial Favourite; But Richmond having timely notice of this Clandestine negotiation, flies to the French Kings Court, (for at that time the Dukedom of 〈◊〉 was a distinct Principality) from whence having sworn to consummate the projected marriage with the Lady Elizabeth, he hastens to redeem poor England from the jaws of an usurping Tyrant.  
Richmond Lands at Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire, where he was hearty welcomed, and readily assisted by the Welsh, from whose Princes he was descened, as being the Son of Edmond of Haddam, the Son of Owen Ap Teudor, who could in a direct line derive his pedigree from the Noble Race of Cadwallader, last King of the Britain's on this side Severne, as hath been before touched; though a modern Writer, more for the jest sake, than out of reality, says he was a Gentleman of no extraordinary lineage, but lineaments, which he makes to be the motive that induced Katherine of France, Dowager of England, after the death of Henry the fifth, to take him for her second Husband.  
Richmond having much increased his Army among his Countrymen, marches forward as far as Bosworth in Leicestershire, where King Richard meets him, and there the great controversy is finally decided in Battle; Richard is slain, and Richmond by a kind of military election saluted, and in a manner Crowned King in the Field.  
Henry the seventh (for so must we now call him, that was but lately Earl of Richmond,) sensible that the tumultuary approbation of Soldiers did of itself give him neither just or durable possession, knowing likewise the weakness of the Lancastrian plea in opposition to that of York, maries, according to his solemn preingagement, Elizabeth eldest Daughter of Edward the fourth, which brought security to his estate, and happiness to the Kingdom, the two Roses, whose divisions had put the English to much expense of blood, being thereby concorporated, and for ever after linked in a most firm and indissolvable knot.  
But as in a body, that hath been troubled with a Cronique Disease, though recovered, yet are there still some peccant humours to be purged out: so, notwithstanding this Union and Recorciliation, there remains dregs of discontents, whereof the Queen Mother was the supposed Parent, and Margaret Duchess of Burgundy the known Nurse; the first, because she thought her Daughter not sufficiently respected (for King Henry is not accused to have been over uxorious or indulgent to his wife) the other, being Sister of Edward the fourth, bore an endless hatred to any of the Lancastrian Race.  
The first Spirit they raised to disturb King Henry's quiet, was one Lambert Symnell, a stripling, but so instructed by Simon a Priest, who had higher directors, that he could well personate the young Earl of Warwick (Son of George Duke of Clarence) whom the credulous Irish greedily entertain and acknowledge for their King: And when Henry to detect the forgery, had publicly shown in London the very Earl of Warwick whom he kept his Prisoner, they retort the fiction upon himself, and give out he had suborned a counterfeit on purpose to delude the simple multitude.  
But this Pageantry quickly vanished, the Conspirators are dispersed, and Lambert taken, who had the honour to be first made a Turn-spit in the King's Kitchen, but was afterwards preferred to be one of the King's Falconers.  
This was but the Prologue as it were to a more deep contrived Comi-Tragaedy that was to follow, whereof the restless Duchess of Burgundy was the Inventor, and one Perkin W●rbeke the principal Actor. But the Name and Scene is somewhat altered: His Cue assigned him, is to play the part of Richard Duke of York, second Son of Edward the fourth, who is feigned to have miraculously escaped the hands of his bloody Uncle.  
Perkin was so good a proficient, and had learned, and could repeat his lesson so exactly, that not the silly Irish alone, but the French, and Scotish Kings, with many of the Nobility and Gentry of England, were, or would be deceived.  
Nay, Sir William Stanley himself, Lord Chamberlain, the King's especial favourite, is so far tr●panned, as to utter this improvident Speech (which was construed high Treason) that if he certainly knew that the young man was the undoubted Son and Heir of King Edward the fourth, he would never fight, or bear Arms against him; for which he became headless, though he had been the chief help and setter of the Crown upon King Henry's head.  
Perkin at length is taken, and committed to the Tower, where soliciting the Earl of Warwick to make an escape, he hastens both his own merited, and that poor Earls undeserved execution.  
Henry having thus composed his affairs at home, seeks honourable matches for his children abroad; and marries his eldest Daughter Margaret to the Scotish King, providently foreseeing, that in case his issue Male failed, this conjunction might be a means to associate the separated Kingdoms, (as his own had the Roses) and so remedy the inconveniences of two distinct estates in one single Island.  
Arthur his eldest Son, Prince of Wales, was espoused to Katherine Infanta of Spain, but he dying before consummation, we mean as to conjugal duty, his brother Henry by dispensation from the Pope, takes her to wife, who on the wedding day was attired all in white, in token that she was a pure and spotless Virgin.  
It is conceived that the young Prince (who henceforward is to be styled Henry the eighth) had never any great fancy to the Lady, as somewhat his Superior in years, but did ra●●●r comply with his Father's will, than his own inclinations: However for a long time he lived with her in an outward loving seeming respectful manner.  
But at length satiated with her company, whom from the beginning he had not truly affected, he meditates a divorce, and hopes by money and Cardinal Woolseys' interest in the Court of Rome, with speed to effect the same. Woolsey, (who by his obsequiousness to the King's pleasure in all things, had from a mean condition mounted to the highest degree of favour and power that a Subject is capable of) is reported to be the first that injected the scruple into the King's head, touching the unlawfulness of his marriage with his Brother's Wife, which once in, could not in haste be put out again. But in the prosecution the King and Woolsey had different ends: Woolsey to revenge himself of Charles the fifth, Emperor of Germany, and Nephew to Katherine, who had been a backfriend to Woolsey in his attempted advancement to the Popedom, and by proposing a match to the King out of France, he thought to ingratiate with that Crown, which might be more auspicious in promoting his towering designs. But the King had another, though not so deep a reach, which more concerned his own private satisfaction, than policy or reason of State.  
For he desired to be unyoked from his old Queen, that he might make a new one of one of her maids of honour, Anne of Bolen, with whom he was desperately in love: which the Cardinal smelling out, proves cold in the business, delays to exercise his legantine power, instigates the Pope to, recall the cause to himself, and proceeds slowly therein; all which is performed accordingly, but it concludes with the ruin of Woolsey's and the Pope's Authority. For impatient of these procrastinations, Henry discards the one, and renounces the other, rejects Katherine, marries Anne, grows weary of her, of incest with her own Brother, cuts off her head, in whose room the very next day succeeds Jane Seymour, who dies in Childbirth; And so he continues shifting and putting away, or to death, his Wives, as well as other Subjects, till his own appointed time came, a little before which it is recorded that in great Agony he should say unto Archbishop Cranmer, Is there any mercy for him, who never spared man in his wrath, nor woman in his lust?  
In his life he little regarded, but rather endeavoured to defeat by Parliament, the titles of his Daughters, Marry by Katherine of Spain, and Elizabeth by Anne of Bolen, with both whose Mothers he had been grievously displeased, and seemed more inclinable to the offspring of his youngest Sister Marry, (Dowager of France) by Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk, but at his death, by his last Will and Testament, he constituted his Son Edward by Jane Seymour, his next immediate heir, and then in case they died issueless, the Lady Mary and the Lady Elizabeth to succeed in their order. Henry the eighth being dead, Edward the 6th. of that name, his Son, is at nine years of age proclaimed King, and Edward Duke of Somerset by the Mother's side ordained his Protector, whose candid nature exposed him to the cunning wiles of Dudley Duke of Northumberland, which at last brought Somerset, his Brother Thomas marquis of Hertford Admiral of England, and even the King himself to their untimely ends.  
The Fox (Northumberland) observing the differencee between the Protector and the Admiral, begun by th' womanish emulation of their Wives, doth underhand so foment it, that the Admiral is brought to the block, and the Protector not long after follows, which renders the Pupil King, more obnoxious to Northumberlands ambitious practices, now that his two faithful Uncles, who should have supported him, are removed out of the way.  
Northumberland taking advantage of the King's weakness of mind and body, (where unto he is shrewdly suspected to have contributed) advises him to make a Will, wherein the King declaring that he was past his minority, (thoughot above sixteen years of age) and that it appertained to him to dispose of the Kingdom as he pleased, doth disinherlt his Sisters Mary and Elizabeth, as Persons of whose legitimation there was a question as likewise the issue of his eldest Aunt Sister Margaret married to the Scotish King, as foreiners and aliens, bequeathing the Crown to his Cousin Jane Granddaughter to the Duchess of Suffolk, the youngest Sister of his Father King Henry the eighth.  
Gutlford (Duke Dudleys' Son) was husband to this Lady Jane, who upon the death of Edward was proclaimed Queen, but Marry the eldest Daughter of King Henry, by the assistance of the Norsolk and Suffolk Gentry, recovered that which both by birth and her Father's appointment, was her undoubted though for a small time detained right.  
Notwithstanding Mary by the Protestants aid attained the Crown, yet her Education in the contrary profession, and the memory that for her Mother's sake it suffered its first detriment, obliged her to recall the Catholic Religion that had been banished in her Predecessors days, keeping, as one wittily observes, the Kingdom by pater noster, which she had gained by Our Father which are in Heaven.  
Her zeal and over-ardent desire to extinguish that which she thought Heresy, kindled many fires in this land, for which she hears ill among the vulgar to this day, and bears the brand of tyranny, though of herself she was of a mild and merciful disposition.  
Among other passages, her severity to her Sister Elizabeth is much taxed, of whose sincere devotion, though outwardly conformable to the Romish Church, the Queen much doubted, and fearing a relapse of things after her own death, could have been content that her Sister Elizabeth, though the youngest, had had the Precedency therein; But Philip King of Spain, Queen mary's husband had other thoughts of and intentions towards Elizabeth, whom he preserved from her Sister's violence, and designed for his second, we would say, third wise, for he was a Widower, when he married Mary, by whom he now gins to despair of issue, and by reason of her Dropsy, perceives she was in no wise immortal here.  
Queen Elizabeth at her first entrance makes show as if she would tread in her Sister Ave-maries steps, whereby she so charmed the Catholic Clergy and Nobility, that they created her no disturbance: And she did further so temporize with King Philip, that he was a great favourer of her admission, hoping shortly to be a Copartner with her both in Bed and Kingdom.  
But the lancy which Philip, though no Babe, had builded in his brain, quickly appears to be but an aerial Castle; for Elizabeth soon undeceives him, and other Romanist, who had promised themselves other matters, by declining Marriage, disowing the Pope's Jurisdiction, and reducing Ecclesiastical Affairs to the same state and condition liar Father and Brother had left them in.  
The averseness of this Queen to Matrimonial Bondage, as she accounted it, gave occasion to that great and by her always disliked dispute about the Succession: That it belonged of right to Mary Queen of Seets, Daughter of James, the fifthe Son of Margaret eldest Daughter to King Henry the seventh, none could reasonably deny; but Ma●y, say the State Politicians of thosetimes, will prove another Mary, and our Religion will be depressed, if she be advanced to the English Throne: Her own Subjects have expelled her upon that account; and shall we accept of her for our Princess, whom we have so much disobliged by detaining so long a Prisoner?  
For this unfortunate Queen, having been educated in France, did after the decease of her first Husband, the Dolphin, return into Scotland, of whose fashions, by reason of her foreign breeding, being somewhat ignorant, she could not consequently but be guilty of some miscarriages, which her Enemies so aggravate, that they stir up the people to a sedition, seize upon her Person, force her to resign to her Son James (by Henry Lord Darly, Son of the Duke of Lenox) not full eighteen Months old, of whom Earl Murray (her Bastard Brother) is made Regent, who was the beginning and continuer of all her troubles.  
Marry, late, and by right still, Queen of Scots, after this extorted and therefore invalid resignation, fearing further attempts against her life, escapes out of the loathsome Gaol where she was secured, and betakes herself into England for succour, sending news to her Cousin Queen Elizabeth, imploring not only present protection, but also such convenient aides, as might restore her to her Kingdom, of which she had been forceably deprived by her Mutinous and Rebellious Subjects.  
Elizabeth at first gives good words, and sends her large attendance, which were yet but in the quality of an honourable Guard, but afterwards more and more abridges her liberty; at which hard and unworthy usage of a suppliant and Heir apparent of the Crown, some English Lords and Gentlemen conceiving a just disdain, project and propose to her means of deliverance, whereunto she (as all other living creatures are) most greedy of natural freedom, doth readily assent; but these are prevented; and her Actions interpreted as yet tending to the destruction of Queen Elizabeth for which she is tried by certain delegated Commissioners (who much resembled a late thing called an High Court of Justice) is by them found guilty, and shortly after beheaded at Fotheringham Castle in Northamtonshire; but the true cause why she suffered, was expressed to herself by the Earl of Kent, (one of her Judges,) a little before her reputed Martydom; Madam, says he, if you live our Religion is in danger, of which words she desired the Auditors to take special notice, that confessedly it was not Treason, but Religion for which she was to die.  
james the 6th. King of Scotland, Son of the late executed Mary, now come to years of discretion, expostulates with Queen Elizabeth about his Mother's death, but the Queen puts it off upon the precipitation of her Secretary Davison, intimating, that if he stirred in the least manner to revenge, it would irrecoverably hazard his hopes of the Succession, of which yet she gives him but a very saint assurance. But in her declining age, some about her, who had been  before to intermeddle with so ticlish and unpleasing a point, grow more peremptory, and press her to a positive declaration, to whom her answer was, It is the King of Scots due, and let him have it.  
Conform whereunto james King of Scotland, immediately after her death is proclaimed King of England, both which he converts into the name of Great Britain; and now is Cadwalladers' Prophecy, before remembered, exactly completed, that his Race should recover the sole Dominion of this Island; for King james, besides his direct descent from King Henry the seventh, brought another, but higher title, if the former had not been sufficient, from Banco a Nobleman of Scotland, whose Son Fleance fled from the tyranny of Macheth the Usurper, into wales, and there married the Prince his Daughter, by whom he had walter the first of the renowned Family of the Stewards: but for the particulars of that conjunction, we refer you to the British and and Scotish Historians.  
King james arose in this our Horizon with much clearness, notwithstanding Raleigh's missed, and the smoke of the Gun-power-plot, which were soon dispelled: but his setting was obscured by a little Cloud which shortly did overspread the whole Land.  
He had married his eldest Daughter Elizabeth to Frederick Prince Palatine of the Rhine, who unadvisedly gaping after the Kingdom of Behemia, lost not only it, but his own patrimonial possession.  
King james who had more of Solomon than David in him, solicits restitution, rather by Treaty than Arms, and as the most conducing means to his peaceable ends, entertains an overture of a match betwixt his Son Charles Prince of Wales and the Infanta of Spayn, to whose King, the Palatinate was by the Emperor configned over.  
But the English Parliament takes exception at this intended Spanish affinity, and as if Religion were at the Stake, declaims against it; Notwithstanding the King sends his Son into Spain, who returns thence without a wife, yet in his passage thither, had an accidental sight of her in France, who was by Heaven his designed Spouse.  
As soon as james was dead, Charles his Son is proclaimed King, who immediately marries Henrietta Maria youngest Daughter to Henry the great King of France, of whom, as was just now hinted, he had a transient view in his voyage to Spain, which when this Princess understood, she is reported to have said, That he needed not to have gone so far for a wife.  
But now the seed of discontent, which had been sowed in his Father's time, did begin to bud forth; Scotland yields the first-fruits, which also too much thrives in the English Plantation. The Scotish Nobility enter into Combination against Episcopacy, and the Service-book, which they allege to be obtruded upon them.  
For redress of these imaginary grievances, the Scots with swords in their hand approach his Majesty to present a Petition, as is given out: A Parliament in England is called to compose differences, which rather increases them, for which it is soon dissolved: The Scots Invasion continues, but at length a Pacification is made; another Parliament is convened, which working so far upon the King's necessities, extorts from him an inseparable jewel of his Prerogrative, to wit, a privilege, not before asked or granted, not to be discharged without their own consent.  
In strength of this concession they proceed to other unseasonable demands, which together with the tumults of the City, occasioned the King to retire Northward, and being denied entrance into Hull, (for which Sir john Hotham did afterwards receive his reward from those that employed him) he repairs to Nottingham, where, understanding that an Army was form under the Earl of Essex at London, and then on their March to bring him back, as it was given out, to his Parliament, he sets up his Standard Royal; but the appearance not answering expectation, he directs his course towards Shrewsbury, where by the confluence of the loyal Welsh, his small forces are so increased, that he is able to confront the Earl of Essex, then at Worcester, who retreats into Warwickshire, and is overtaken at Edge-hill by his Majesty, where the first signal battle is sought, in which both sides were great losers, and yet both sides assume the victory to themselves.  
The war continues doubtful for three years, but the Battle at Naseby in Northamptonshire proves fatal to the King's affairs; for after that succeeds little else, but the ruin of his party in all places, and surrender of most of his Garrisons, till he was necessitated in disguise to leave Oxford, his prime, and well-nigh alone remaining hold, then in a manner beleaguered, and betake himself for Protection to the Scotish Army.  
The Scots, though they had received all possible satisfaction as to their own concernments, yet could not refrain from intermeddling in the English distempers, and were at that time besieging Newark upon Trent.  
They at first received the King with all seeming promises of security as to his Person, but having carried him with them to Newcastle, do there barter him with the English for 200000 l. a price, which, as the French Ambassador observed, did far exceed that which judas received for betraying of our Saviour.  
From Newcastle his bought and sold Majesty is conveyed, by Commissioners deputed for that purpose from the Parliament of England, to his house at Holdenby in Northamtonshire (perhaps that he might be within prospect of that uncomfortable place Naseby, where was given him his irreparable overthrow) there to reside during the pleasure of the two Houses: But not long it was ere Cromwell (whose pulse at that time says a then penman, began to beat a Lordly pace) by his instrument joice surprises him in his bed, and when joice told Cromwell that he had the King in his Custody, then, quoth Cromwell, I have the Parliament in my pocket.  
Cromwel's end in seizing on the King's person, was not only for countenance of his Independent proceed against the opposite Presbyterian faction; but after their depression the better to be enabled to destroy the King himself for his own advancement.  
For having once entrapped this Royal Lion, he doth daily more and more entangle him within his toils, and never thinks him fast enough, till he had got him in his pitfall of the Isle of Wight: whether he had alured the good King, who thought others as free from guile, as he knew himself to be, by setting before him the danger he was in, while he remained at Hampton Court, how he lay open and exposed to the wicked machinations of the Agitators of the Army, who intended to Act that, which he poor Soul did even tremble to utter.  
But what the King hopes to find a temporary Sanctuary, proves to him a constant prison, from whence he is not to be delivered but in order to his Trial and Execution, the Barbarity of which fact, as we cannot, so neither need we aggravate, the whole world both then, and still detesting the Authors and Actors of that abominable Tragedy.  
Charles the first being thus execrably murdered, his eldest Son Charles the second ought to have succeeded; but the wicked Regicides not only disavowed his Title, but proceeded to abolish even Monarchical Government itself, introducing in its place a Free-State, or Commonwealth (empty notions to delude the Vulgar,) and leaving no course unessayed to debar the Right Heir, whom God, Nature, and the Law of the Land had designed to; yea, and the People's wishes (notwithstanding the  popular pretences) had already seated in his Father's Throne.  
And as they are careful to secure themselves at home, so are they no less active to defeat His Majesty's preparations abroad: Cromwell is sent into Ireland, who but too soon brings under that almost happily recovered Kingdom.  
From thence he is recalled to invade Scotland, where an Agreement (such an one as it was) had been made with His Majesty: Thither Cromwell comes, ere it was sufficiently provided to entertain so trouble some and unexpected a Guest.  
This, with some intestine feuds among the Scots themselves, yielded Cromwell a cheap Victory at Dunbar, and was the cause of the overhasty rendition of the impregnable Castle of Edinburgh, (not without suspicion of Treachery in the Governor, thereby facilitating Cromwel's passage into Fife, which necessitated His Majesty, before His Affairs were fully settled there, to a disadvantageous March into England, where coming as far as Worcester, he was so surrounded, that a Battle was imposed upon him upon most unequal terms, there being no proportion between the multitude of the Rebels, and paucity of the Royal Army.  
Notwithstanding the loss of the Day, numerousness of the Pursuers, eagerness in the pursuit, large promised Reward to the Taker or Discoverer, great threatened punishment to the Harbourer, or Concealer, His Majesty most miraculously escapes, which opened a Door of Hope to his Friends, that he was not in vain thus wonderfully preserved, but that there was some greater future Good intended to Him and these Nations than the present face of things did seem to promise or portend.  
For, though His Majesty's Person, by His safe getting beyond Sea, was somewhat more secure, yet was there but small visible appearance of strength, either foreign or domestic, whereby He might be suddenly enabled to regain His lost Kingdoms; nay, those very slender presumptions which remained of better times, did daily more and more lessen and decrease, till Divine Providence (which is never wanting to afflicted innocency in its greatest extremity, but always maketh choice of such seasons to manifest its power and goodness in) was pleased to interpose, when all other means had failed, and were vanished into nothing, and bring that to pass by an unthought of Instrument, which humane considerations had rendered improbable, if not impossible to be effected.  
It would be superfluous to dwell long upon particulars, which are so fresh in all men's memories, and the only Theme of all Tongues and Pens; how cold a Reception after this great Deliverance His Majesty met withal in the Court of France, how unworthily he was dismissed thence; how not invited into the Spanish Territories, till the breach with Cromwell was unavoidable, and there rather afforded succour to them, than procured any from them; how His Wellwishers were totally subdued in Scotland, and constantly upon every rising betrayed and suppressed in England: All which misfortunes, with many others, being laid together, to believe that His Majesty should so soon, and so easily obtain the quiet possession of His Dominions, required a greater portion of Faith, than the World at that time for the Majority was stocked withal.  
But among all the Wounds given to the Royal Cause, none pierced deeper than that it received in Cheshire, which though it might seem but as a slight scar in regard of the small quantity of blood that was then drawn, yet by reason of that far greater effusion that was feared would ensue, it was concluded little less than mortal, for it is not to be doubted that yet those merciless Empirics (who had once more undertaken the Cure of the Body Politic) had continued in any longer practice they would have so exhausted the vital spirits (we mean the Nobility and Gentry of the Land, who were for the most part engaged in the design, though not in the particular Action) that it should have pined away in a most desperate Consumption, and never have been able to have held up either head or hand again.  
Matters being thus in a manner grown helpless, and most men heartless, it is high time for God himself to appear in the Bush; which he doth, but not in such a fire as he appeared in unto Moses in the Wilderness, which consumed not the Bush, but in such a fire as in jothams' Parable, went out of the Bramble and devoured the Cedars of Lebanon; that is, God sent a spirit of division between Lambert and the rump-Parliament (for by that contembtible appellation was it commonly called;) so that they are now no less earnest to destroy, than they were lately zealous to build up each others fallen and decayed Interest.  
For Cromwell had long ago cashiered that infamous Conventicle, and though Lambert for a long while after remained an especial Creature and favourite, yet perceiving, that that office of Protectorship, which he, out of hopes to have been old Nol's second, had in its primitive institution been contrived elective, was converted to hereditary, he became discontented thereat, and was discharged of all Civil and Military Employment: But Oliver being laid in the dust, & his son Richard, like a Puppet, set up in his room, Lambert full of indignation and ambition awaited but his first opportunity, to pull down this painted and Counterfeit Idol, which opportunity soon offered itself in a Parliament of Richard's calling, where, the Elections having been somewhat freer than formerly, much more of the old English courage was to be discovered, than in any of oliver's juntos, that is, they would not suffer themselves to be overruled by the dictates of an Imperious Army, whereat the Great Officers took much offence, first Remonstrating against, and then compelling Richard to dismiss that comparatively honourable Assembly.  
But Richard's own Obsequies (as to his mock-dignity) immediately attended this their funeral Pile; and the Relics of the long (and long forgotten) Parliament were conjured out of the Grave, whither Oliver had sent them packing, to be as it were his Administrators, whom all thought so surely dead, and safely buried, that there had been no danger of this no less unlooked for, than unwelcome Resurrection.  
This Skeleton, or Carcase of a rotten Parliament, did so stink in the nostrils of all people, that there was a general inclination to be rid of it, but the good intentions for that purpose were in most Counties blasted before they were ripe for execution, only in Cheshire, as hath been hinted, a competent Party embodied themselves, against whom Lambert was sent with triple their force, whose puny Conquest over a few forlorn Gentlemen, disheartened through the disappointment of Friends in other places, was termed by one of Lambert's Parasitical Officers in his own presence A Crowning Mercy, alluding to Cromwel's expression, which he used in his letter to the Speaker after Worcester business: This being passed over by Lambert with a kind of an assenting silence, compared with antecedent and ensuing Actions, did clearly evidence that he had the like a spiring project in his pate, and that he accounted not the thousand pound bestowed on him, to by him a jewel, by his Masters (in which capacity he was resolved they should not long abide) a sufficient reward for the great pains he had taken in gaining this in itself little, and, abating the consequences, inconsiderable victory.  
But General Monck, Commander in chief of Scotland, had far other and more generous Resolutions, which found a success answerable to the prudence wherewithal they were managed, for making it the Ground of his proceed to restore the now a second time ejected Rump-Parliament, and afterwards to complete their imperfect number by readmitting the long ago secluded members; he doth first by Independent assistance dissipate the anabaptistical and fanatical Crew, and then by Presbyterian concurrence overthrow the Independents themselves; dexteriously applying the several factions in their order to one another's ruin, till at last by an inverted Method, as it were, he reduces us to that most happy posture we were in before the beginning of this causeless and unnatural Rebellion.  
And now this Hydra-Parliament, which had been once before legally by the King's death, and twice violently by tumultuous Soldiery, is now at last finally dissolved by themselves, (a privilege they had long before extorted, though till now unwilling to make use thereof) and a better chosen in their stead, who at the time appointed (notwithstanding Lambert's flash in the interval, which proved but as lightning before death) convened, and according to their duty did forthwith proclaim their undoubted Sovereign, and sent Commissioners to invite him home to the Exercise of his Regal Government; which hath filled our mouths with laughter and our hearts with mirth, and occasioned the composing of this little Treatise, the Author having no other mite whereby he might testify his particular contentment in the midst of so public and universal rejoicing.  
But the Reader is to be advertised that this unfortunate Embryo (conceived between His Majesty's being voted and coming in) laboured far longer under the Press than under the Pen, and when with much a do it had been produced, it was so deformed and misshapen, that a resolution was once taken to have stifled it in the birth, and never to have permitted such a disfigured brat to have seen the light; but upon second thoughts it hath liberty to wander abroad, not out of any foolish fancy that it will find acceptance, but out of a consideration that it will be no greater cruelty to expose it to the wide world, than to suffer it to perish in a private Study.  
And yet to make some satisfaction for former errors and delay, we shall now add what hath hitherto been wholly omitted, or but superficially glanced at; to wit, His Majesty's extraction from the Scotish, and what is chiefest, from the British Race, that of the Saxon and Norman having been the principal, if not sole subject of the precedent discourse.  
The Scots, according to their best Historians, came originally out of Ireland about 300 years before the Incarnation of our blessed Saviour, under the conduct of Fergus the first, who was also King there (which if so, then hath our King, lineally descended from that Fergus, a better Title than that of bare modern Conquest, even unto that Kingdom) and possessed themselves of the North-western parts of Britain: And it is remarkable, that notwithstanding a Custom begun in the very Infancy of their State, and continued about a thousand years, that if the Son, which frequently happened, were under age at the Father's death, the next of the blood-Royal should be, not Guardian, but King, not only during the minority of the Orphan, but even during his own natural life, whereby these Tenants pur vie had too fair, or rather too foul, opportunities to change their manner of hold into fee-simple; yet did the true Proprietor, though for a while disseised, still recover his patrimonial right, as may be made evident out of Buchanan himself, who was yet a greater friend to an Elective, than Hereditary succession.  
Kenneth the third, and Malcolm the second were the first Alterers of this suspicious Custom, Ordaining, that from thenceforward Children should succeed their Parents immediately, and have only Governors (such as the Parents in their life time should appoint) to oversee them and their Kingdom, until they attained their maturity, whence it came to pass, that for the future interruptions were much rarer, the regular course of Nature more duly observed, and a greater restraint put into the Practisers of aspiring and ambitious kindred.  
Nevertheless, Machbeth, Grandson to Malcolme the second, though but by his youngest Daughter, invaded the Sovereignty, and having murdered the lawful King Donald related to the said Malcolm in an equal propinquity, and that by the eldest Daughter (Beatrice,) did for a while usurp, but he was expelled and slain by Macduffe Thane, or Earl of Fife, and Malcolm the third, Son of Donald, installed in his Father's Throne. This is that Malcolm, who as he found refuge in the English Court, under the Protection of Edward the Confessor, when he was forced to withdraw himself from Macbeth's persecution, so did he afford the like succour in the Scotish to the Confessor's Nephew Edgar Etheling, when he was driven out of his Country by William the Conqueror, and took his Sister and Heir Margaret to Wife, by whom he had a Daughter named Maud, who being married to Henry, the Conqueror's Son, was, as hath been before declared, the Bond whereby the Saxon and Norman Line were connected and entwisted together.  
But we cannot dissemble what few take notice of, to wit, that the better, that is, the more Masculine Bloud-Royal of the Saxon Race (which in comparison of the Norman, though both founded in Conquest, was much to be preferred, by reason of its much elder prescription) did still reside in the House of Scotland: For, Margaret bore to Malcolm (besides that Daughter Maud) three Sons, Edgar, Alexander, and David, who (to pass over the Intrusion of Donald the Brother, and Duncan the Bastard of Malcolm, because each did soon expire) were all Kings in their Order, but only David had Issue, from whom the Kings of Scotland have ever since, however they have always abstained from their claim to the English Crown upon that account, derived an undoubted and not to be disputed descent.  
Henry (David's only Son) departed this life before his Father, but left three Sons behind him, Malcolm, William and David, (which last was Earl of Huntingdon in England) whereof Malcolm the 4. succeeded his Grandfather, him being childless his Brother William, him his Son Alexander the second, him his Son Alexander the third, and him should have his Grandaughter Margaret, who was bred in, and sent for out of Norway, but that she died before her arrival on the Scotish Coasts.  
And now (the rest being extinct) recourse must be had to the Offspring of the late mentioned Earl of Huntingdon, when, lo, two Grand Competitors appear, john Balliol, who fetches his stock from the eldest Daughter (Margaret,) and Robert Bruise who confessedly came from the younger (Isabella;) but alleges, that he is in a nearer degree of Consanguinity to Earl David, than the other either did, or could pretend himself to be.  
The Controversy, in regard of the Potency of both Parties, being not capable of a decision at home without the danger of a Civil War, it was referred to Edward the first, King of England, who rather brought Oil to increase, than Water to quench the flame, and was resolved to bestow it on him only, who would profess homage, and swear fealty unto the English Crown.  
To this Imperious demand, Balliol, though conceived superior in Title, yet proving meaner in Spirit, did readily condescend, which Bruse, whose Plea was thought weaker, but Courage found greater, did utterly refuse to assent unto.  
Whereupon Edward pronounces sentence on Balliol's side, who is acknowledged King by many of the Scotish Nobility, but rather out of fear of Edward's power, than any satisfaction or delight they took in this dishonourable, and as they esteemed it, unworthy submission.  
Yea, Balliol himself doth soon repent of it, and bids defiance to Edward, who now afresh cajols Bruse, urging the performance of promises; he returned a scornful Negative: As if, says he, we had nothing else to do, than to conquer Kingdoms for you to enjoy.  
Balliol at last surrenders himself unto Edward, and is by him sent Prisoner into England, and there detained until the Pope's Intercession and Engagement that he should create no further trouble in Scotland, he is released, and retires into France, where having resigned his whole right to his Counsin Bruse, he spends the remainder of his days in a more quiet and contented estate.  
But Robert Bruse (Son of Robert the Author of the Contention, which he lived not to see finished) was little pleased with Eeglish Edward's fishing in disturbed streams, and therefore he sets up trading for himself, at first with small probability of thriving, but afterwards he caught the prey where at he aimed, which was almost ravished out of the mouth of his Infant-Son David, by Edward Balliol, Son of that john, who had once renounced it; but it was again rescued by Robert Stuart the Viceroy; and Balliol with his Issue, if he had any, failing, the Brusians became legal Owners of that Kingdom, whereinto at the beginning they seemed to have made but a violent and forcible entry.  
Robert Stuart (even now remembered) was David's Sister's Son, and consequently his Heir, he having no Children of his own; but David, notwithstanding old benefits, upon some new displeasure, was inclinable to have put him by, had he not been over-persuaded by the Nobility, who were as well sensible of Robert's worth, as that his Grandfather Robert the first had, before his Son David was born, designed him to the Kingdom; Nay, the Fates themselves, if credit be to be given to some Scotish Chronicles, had long ago destined no less: for, they report, that Macbeth (the after Tyrant) and Banco (one of Robert's Progenitors) walking in a Wood, encountered with three women of more than humane aspect, who saluted Macbeth, than a private person, King of Scotland; whereat when Banco shown himself aggrieved, they told him that Macbeth should only the King himself, which presently came to pass, but that the succession was reserved for his Posterity, which, though somewhat with the slowest, is now at length exactly fulfilled.  
For, this Robert was the Son of Walter, the Son of john, the Son of Alexander, the Son of Walter, the Son of Alexander, the Son of Alan, the Son of Walter Stuart, (the first of that Surname and Office in Scotland) the Son of Fleance, the Son of Banco, whom Macbeth, to defeat the Prediction, slew, and sought to do the like to his Son Fleance, who prevented his bloody intentions by fleeing into Wales, and there, as it hath already been touched in gross, he married Nest (by whom he had that first and famous Walter) the Daughter of Giffith ap lewelyn, the Son of Angharad, the Daughter and Heir of Meredith, the Son of Owen, the Son of Howel Dha, the Son of Cadelh, the Son of Rodri Mawr, the Son of Esylht, the Daughter and Heir of Conan Tyndaithwy, the Son of Rodri Moelwynog, the Son of Edwall Twrch, the Son of Cadwallader, last King of Britain, and first of Wales, beyond whom, in point of pedigree, we dare not wander; but must here erect our Pillars, and fix our Ne plus ultra, lest by wading further we should be swallowed up in the vast Abyss of an unbounded and fathomless Ocean.  
And here we might likewise put a period to the whole Tract, as having traced this Robert's lineage in the Brettish Story, as far as with any confidence we can well proceed; and being able with much more ease and assurance to resolve our present Sovereign's into his (for Charles the second is the Son of Charles the first, the Son of james the sixth, the Son of Mary, the Daughter and Heir of james the fourth, the Son of james the fourth, the Son of james the third, the Son of james the second, the Son of james the first, the Son of john, whose name upon the Assumption of the Kingdom was converted into Robert the third, the Son of the aforesaid Robert the second, etc.) but that it is demurred by some:  
First, Whether Nest (Walter's Mother) were an Heir, or no?  
2. Admitting that she were, whether her Ancestor Cadelh were the eldest Son of Rodri Mawr, who being King of all Wales, was the first that did make a partition thereof?  
George Owen Harry in a Book entitled [The Genealogy of the high and mighty Monarch James by the Grace of God King of Great Britain, etc.) Printed 1604. favours Cadelh with the first Column among Rodri's Sons; but D. Powel in his Chronicle written before, and taken out of most Authentic Records, is peremptory in vindicating the Birthright to Anarawd Prince of North-wales, and maintaining, that though his two Brothers, Cadelh Prince of Southwales, and Mervyn Prince of Powis were sharers in the Inheritance, yet did they hold from him and his Children (or aught so to have done) as from Lords Paramount; and therefore we must only adhere to Anarawd's line, and wave his Majesty's descent from all other Princes of Wales, which were either but Usurpers, or at the best but of the youngest House, and Vassals and Homagers to the Princes of North-wales.  
In doing this we shall begin before the Fraction, even with Cadwallader himself, and so by Anarawd come down to his Majesty, not meddling with Intruders upon any other score, than as we have hitherto done; to wit, to show that sometimes such there were by God's permission, but never intended for perpetuity, the succession always in the end (these Impostors not withstanding) revolving to the genuine and legitimate Heir.  
Cadwallader, then surnamed Bendigaid, or the Blessed, having lost the greatest part of his Kingdom to the Saxons, did, by the persuasion of his Cousin Alan King of Little Britain, betake himself to Rome, and there lived and died in God's Service, bequeathing to his Posterity the forerecited Prophecy, That they should one day be Masters of his whole Isle again: But Ivon the Son of Alan governed next after him, his own Son Edwall Twrch, that is, the Roe, being unable, or unwilling to divert the Helm in such turbulent and tempestuous weather.  
Yet did his Son Rodri-Moel-Wynog undertake it, and left it to his Son Conan Tyndaithwy, whose Daughter Esylht was his Heir; but she knowing how unfit feminine shoulders were to sustain so great a burden in those Martial times, took to Husband a Noble Prince Mervyn Vrych, by whom she had Rodri Mawr, or Roderick the Great, who more consulting private affection than Reason of State, made that unpollitick Division of Wales, which being united, was scarce able to defend itself against the Invasions of the Saxons, their implacable and continually encroaching Neighbours.  
Now though much of the Demean were defalcated from Anarawd by his Father Rodri, yet did the Fee and Chiefeship remain to him and his, which his Brother Cadelh did sparingly enough acknowledge, and his Son Howel less; for he not only withdraws his Allegiance for Southwales, but after the death of EdwalVoel, the son of Anarawd, seizes upon North-wales itself: yet is he commonly styled Dha, or the Good, not certainly for such undue acquisitions and unjust detentions, but for the excellent Laws he made, a thing not unusually practised by those who have less of equity on their side to warrant their illgotten and unlawful Possessions.  
Howel Dha being dead the Principality returned to jevaf and jago, the Sons indeed, but yet but the youngest Sons of Edwal Voel, no respect being had by them of their elder Brother Meyric, whose Son Edwall nevertheless obtained it, having waited the leisure not only of Howel and Cadwalhan, the sons of jago, but also of Meredith ap Owen ap Howel Dha, who followed his Grandfather's steps, and committed a second Rape upon North-wales, herein the more excusable, that he took it from one who had himself no other plea, than that of force and extortion thereunto.  
But Edwall ap Meyric having, after the exercise of some patience, gained what his Father was injuriously deprived of, left both his bad and good Fortune to his son jago, or james, viz. to the defrauded for a while, by an Abator, or two (Aedan ap Blegared and lewelyn ap Sitsylht) but afterwards to recover his Paternal Right; which yet he doth not long enjoy, but loses it, with his life, to Gryffith ap Lewelyn ap Sitsylht; and his Son Conan (to preserve his life) is forced to flee into Ireland, where marrying with Ranulht, Daughter of Alfred King of Dublyn, he had by her a Son called Gryffith, who will be found another Medium, besides that of Fergus, whereby more of the Irish Bloud-Royal is transmitted into His Majesty's most Princely veins.  
And if, as doubtless it will be, it be objected, that neither of these foundations are of sufficient strength to build a claim to a Kingdom upon, it not appearing that Fergus or Alfred were Kings of Ireland entirely, but supposed to be of parcels only; or that Ranulht, Alfred's Daughter was also his Heir: Our Answer is, that we do not lay the whole stress of our King's Interest to that Kingdom upon such weak and infirm undersetters; but affirm, that the most considerable part of the Inhabitants, as English, Scotch, Welsh, are undoubtedly His Majesty's natural Liege's; and as for the original Natives, whom Conquest hath made Subjects; this however seemingly imperfect Title joined with that, obliges them to continue so; especially seeing it is such a Conquest as hath been confirmed by more Centuries of years, than those within the compass of which jephtha demanded of the Ammonitish King, why he had not all that while recovered his now too late challenged Land: And as concerning the Title itself, as bad as it is, a better it is presumed cannot be produced by any pretender whatsoever.  
But to return from our digression (Ireland lying somewhat out of our Road, which is principally confined to Great Britain) Prince Gryffith ap Conan ap jago, with the assistance of the Irish, reprieves that Country which properly belonged to him, out of the Talons of Trahern ap Caradoc, the last of the Usurpers, there having been since Iago's death no fewer than four, to wit, Gryffith ap lewelyn ap Sitsylht, he that ejected and killed jago, Blethyn ap Convyn, his Brother Rywalhan and this Trahern, whom Gryffith the lawful Heir slew at the battle of Carnarvan, and after a long and prosperous Reign had this felicity superadded to his former, that his eldest Son Owen was his Successor, which happened not to Owen himself, but his firstborn jorwerth Drwyndwn, upon a pitiful Cavil that he had a deformity in his nose (which his surname doth import) was laid aside, and his younger Brother David preferred before him.  
Yet did that most noble and valiant Prince lewelyn, the Son of jorwerth Drwyndwn dispossess his usurping Uncle David, and not content to have repaired late losses, proceeds to resume former alienations, by reannexing to his Territories those several fragments of Wales, which the weakness or improvidence of his Predecessors had suffered to be pared away from their already too slender and scanty Dominions.  
And here two ways offering themselves to bring us to our journey's end, we are at a stand which to elect, that of Mortimer's, or of Owen Tudvr's Race: We have indeed engaged in the beginning of the progress to prosecute that of Sir Owen Tudyr's; but an unexpected rub hath fallen out in our passage, which we did not foresee when we made that promise, viz. that Gryffith ap lewelyn (the Father of lewelyn ap Gryffith, the last Prince of Wales, the Father of Catherine, the Mother of Eleanor, the Mother of Margaret, the Mother of Meredith, the Father of Sir Owen) was but the base Son of lewelyn ap jorwerth ap Drwyndwn, and therefore his attempt to drive out his lawfully begotten Brother David, was altogether lawless, as likewise was his son Llewelyn's keeping out Gulladys Dhy (or the Black) the Sister and Heir of David, because she was married to an English man, namely, Sir Ralph Mortimer, Lord of Wignsor, by whom he had Roger Mortimer, the Father of Edmond the Father of Roger, the Father of Edmond, the Father of Roger, the Father of that Edmond who married Philippe the Daughter and sole Heir of Lionel Duke of Clarence, third Son of King Edward the third, and by her had that Roger, from whom to make another deduction to His Majesty, would be but an idle repetition of what hath been already declared, and is obvious to every one that hath but heard of the great Controversy between the Yorkish and Lancastrian House.  
But be it how it will, whether Mortimer, or Tudyr's Right be the firmest, certain it is, that both these different lines do centre in the same point, wherein the Roses met, and from thence, like Rivulets that have formerly been divided, do unitedly flow unto His Majesty; so that he need not (as the French do) sodder up a broken Title with a devised Law salique repugnant to the Law of Nature, or use so poor an evasion, as the King of Spain is said to do, when the Duke of Medina Sidonia once in a generation tenders a Customary Petition to have the Kingdom delivered up unto him as his due, the Answer is, that the place is already full; but may dare the whole World to show a more unexceptionable claim than his, unto the Imperial Crown he now wears: And long may it flourish upon his head, and the head of his Posterity, even unto the end of the World. And let all the People say Amen.  
FINIS.