LONDON KING CHARLES HIS AUGUSTA, OR, CITY ROYAL. Of the Founders, the Names, and oldest Honours of that CITY. An Historical and Antiquarian Work. Written at first in Heroical Latin Verse, according to Greek, Roman, British, English, and other Antiquities and Authorities, and now translated into English Couplets, with Annotations. PSAL. 142.5. Memor fui dierum antiquorum. Imprimatur, Na. Brent. LONDON. Printed for William Leybourn, 1648. TO THE READER, Courteous Reader, THou art here presented with an Historical Poem of the antiquity of this (yet) famous City; where thou shall find the Ancient Honours with the several Names, and Founders neatly cast into this elegant composure as well be fits so excellent a Subject. For the Author, it seems, he was not ambitious that his Name should grace his Work, but rather that his Work should grace his Name: for let me tell thee, it came from the Study of that accomplished Poet of our Time, Sir Will. Davenant, whose Ingenious Fancy hath spun him such a woof, of immortal praise, that shall never be eaten through, with the all-else devouring teeth of Time, or blasted by the poisonous breath of envy. And now I shall clear the Title from some aspersions which malice might be ready to cavil at, because, happily, it may be thought not Calculated for the Present Times; yet who knows not that LONDON hath always had the honour to be, (as well as to be called) The City Royal; and I hope, Learning is not so much forgot, but by that easy figure it may still be termed, the City loyal; and then why not King Charles his Augusta? although, for more than the last Lustre of years it hath been Divorced from its greatest lustre, namely, the presence of Him, who only made it Famous. To conclude, May it be the prayer of all Loyal Subjects, and true Citizens, that it would please the Almighty, Isa. 1.26. to turn that Prophecy, into an History amongst us, viz. that He would restore our Judges as at the First, and our Counsellors as at the Beginning; that afterwards, it may be called the City of Righteousness; the faithful City. Vale. Polid. Virgil. Anglicae Hist. lib. 7. Caeterùm, tantùm abfuit, ut Londinenses Cives, qui fidelissimi erant, armis & viris muniti, adventu hostium territi sint, ut apertis partis adversùm eos [DACOS] confestim irruperint, ita ut illi minimè sustinentes subitò cesserint. The valour of the Citizens at the siege of LONDON by the DANES, under King CANUTUS. Anno Dom. MXVII. BUt so far was it off from the Citizens of London, who were most faithful, and furnished with arms and men, from being frighted at the enemy's approach, that forthwith setting their City Gates wide open, they sallied out against them in such a manner, that they being utterly unable to endure the shock, suddenly fell off and went away. The English of the Latin Verses to the KING, To make the TRANSLATION complete. Fame's old reserves my verses subject be, Who London built, most sprosp'rous King for thee, (Thine Empire's glory, splendour, and defence, Now braver in our there born * Alluding to the Star which appeared at noonday. The Latin word, in the original, is Astriferi, which signifies, or insinuates, far more aptly than the English, a Prince who brought a Star with him at his birth, though happing a day over. starry Prince) Walled like an Harp in form (an omen sure, That peace, and happy rule should there endure) Whence the name grew; and what the changes were: I sing in brief. Things found, not feigned are here. Th' Isle's Mother-town, where Cynthia had her seat, Our Auspurg once, because Imperial great, I show to be such still, as fits thy fame, And now Eternal, if thou sayest the same. " Old things have ever with the Great their grace; " And greatly make for Kings of ancient race. None more than Thou, by whom all claims are barred. I tell not which is true, but what is heard. " He's blest who can part doubtful things from sound. Meanwhile than these none certainer are found. As none, dread Sir, than I more thine can be, Who art his son who was a God to me. KING CHARLES HIS AUGUSTA, OR CITY ROYAL. HE built this City, who the Nation a NENNIUS (who wrote about eight hundred years since) in Mr. Seldens Manuscript, diligently compared by himself with Sir H. Saviles, Sir Robert Cottons, & M. Cambdens' copies. Sir john Prise, Humphrey Lhuyd, & all the Welsh, with innumerable other of our Nation, their followers. brought, (As we by all our old known books are taught, And to deny them faith our manners shames) Upon the rising bank of royal Thames; That valiant Worthy, who did not belly, With deeds degenerous, his ancestry, Equal to Kings of Troy, for parts and fame, Most lucky dismally who rightly came From the same stem where Julius Caesar grew, The Sylvian glory and surnamed new, Of his known flight (with b Pliny, and before him Diodorus Si●●●● who writes that 〈◊〉 the Lucanian Languuge BRU●● signifies fugitives, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 flight the word doth suit) In old Lucanian who was wise, ye● Brut●. Of him our famous c Scorbie-grasse, which the Romans call Britannica. h●●● took also ●ame, If true it be that from a Kings it came, As he who was Vespasians d Pliny. friend sets down. By flight fates drew the way for Brutus' renwon, " As for Aenoa●. Crowne●●o cowerds' 〈◊〉, " No more than unstirred flames the roof attain. This was his Troy, his Trinobants chief seat, His empire's top, by him in time made great. But being found for ships a port secure, (Th● Wels● a ship call e Mr. Camden in his Britannia. Lhong) it did enu●●, In after-ages far another name, Even London, which it beareth still the same. And this, if some wise men rove right, is true; Dinas, in Welsh a City. Thus it grew. f Mr. Selden, and many of the Welsh. There other are who think it called Lhan-Tain, And of Diana's temple there did gain, That famous title: Lhan, a temple is, And Tain, Diana▪ London grew from this. Now, more than stories, if conjectures weigh, (A thing to which even common sense saith nay) Of all conjectures this to me seems best. For under her, as Goddess, to the West, Beyond the Colt's land, where the Sun goes down, That brave heroic Prince, born to renown, Great Brutus barvely came, and fixed his seat, Within the Ocean's bosom, fixed that great, Imperial state, beyond the world's known end, Shut out, where he his own known world did tend. Nor Tamisis, but Tainisis is Tames, If rightly called; Diana's name it names. This, many of our britains (they are those, Whom we call Welshmen) for a truth depose. And what thou hast, my Williams, in this case, Most aptly found, my memory must embrace. Thou art opinioned; that as the name, Of London, from the great Diana came, So, that it was with this word Lin, put to, Which signifies a Pool, where waters do, As here they did, cause lakes: and this is plain; Because the Tames g The Pool is a place so called in the River of Thames near to the Tower of London where ships ride thickest at anchor, & lies before the marshy meadows & standing waters in the runn● lands of Redderiffe, which seem to have all thereof been under water or a Pool. near part doth still retain, The title of The pool. Lhyn-Tain is then, A town there fixed, where to Diana, men, Had hallowed a lake. To strengthen this, Lin, and not Lon, in stephan's h Stephanus (who wrote above a thousand years since in Greek) in his Book of Cities. And Marcianus in his circum-navigation of Britain, saith that the Citizens were of Lindoninon called Lindonines, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Lindonion is, By which that ancient Greek did London sign, Among the Cities which then most did shine. But not alone this City took her name, From Diana ', but the island took the same. For lofty Britain is of Bro combined, With Tain, and as Diana's land designed. Which the fit wedlock of those words begets; For Bro is land. And that rough shire which sets, Out far into the sea the huge head so, Is Penbroke called, of Pen an head, and Bro. Diana's oracles such credit won, (As those from which Brutes empire first begun) That so his Britain's did her name adore, As Ephesus itself did never more. Muse, what those were assist thou me to sing. From Troy's last fires whose fame through heaven should ring Aeneas flying ignorant what fate Attended for him in the Latin state, Raised, in his passage, upon Pelops shore, By her direction, near where Boea wore, Her towers in forehead of an halfround Bay, A City called i Paulanias' in Laconicis. Etias, called, they say, Of his dear daughter, who that name did bear. As unto him, so to his grandchildes' heir, (Troyes other glory, and his whole lines grace) The huntress Cynthia favourable was. Brute, flying out of Italy, doth stray, In unknown Seas, foreseeing he should sway, In some brave seat, and General of a Fleet, Wherein above three hundred sail did meet, With fair winds somewhile, other while with fowl, He from the Admiral did all control. Weary with Sea-work, he doth ride at last, Under a slender Island, lying waste, Which in th' old British book Lergecia is. In ages past a Temple stood in this, Whose ruins scarcely stood: the walls were clad, In shallow grass; and too much light it had, The roof turned window through. Yet th' altar there Remained, and did Diana's title bear. Brute forthwith knew her, when he this did see, His houses friend, and patroness to be, A Goddess whom he had not served in vain. " Without divine help men no good attain. With due rites honouring her, and offerings store, He humbly did with humble words adore. This speak I'on the British books report, Which into Latin turned, and taught to sort, With common fame, may not disinherited be. They tasting of a spirit high, and free, Aswell in sense, as number, he, in vain, (Who, while he k G. Buchanan in his Histories of Scotland. lived, did in verses reign, Historian turned) them blames as fiction mere, Who well his own might wish the verses were. And would to heaven these Welsh records in prose, Were equal in their dignity to those. " But diamonds in heaps of dirt do shine, " And barbarism base unfoldeth lights, divine. Nor would that Prelate, l Geffrey, born at Monmouth in South- Wales, Bishop of St. Asaph, about 400 years since. who so clerkly could, Turn Verses, fain in prose (if fain he would) Such foolish things as some there found are thought. He therefore only m This seems to be most true. For first Nennius (that disciple of Elnodugus) compendiously memorizeth Brutus' fatal birth, his casual kill of his Father, his sailing into Greece, and Gall, and that this Island took the name of Britain from him. Then again, an old book found in the library of the Abbey Beck in Normandy, by H. of Huntingdon, (who was born about five hundred years since) in his travail to Rome, and the old Welsh copy of Walter Archdeacon of Oxford which Geffrey of Monmouth translated into Latin, contain the same things thoughout (witness Mr. Lambert, in his Preambulation of Kent) which Nennius briefly touch, and they deliver at large. Therefore Geffrey of Monmouth cannot be so much as feigned, to have feigned them. But of these things elsewhere, both more exactly, and more copiously. gave us what was brought; And that his duty was. The faults which be, There age, if nothing else, pronounceth free. BRUTUS' Orison, and Vow. Huntress divine, from whom wild boars do fly, Who tracest through the turn of the sky, And glades of hell, unfold terrestrial fate; Say where it is thy will to fix our state. Seat us where we thine endless praise will sound, And temples rear with queers of virgins crowned. Sweet sleep then seizeth on him, and sweet dreams Present to his tired soul their pleasing themes. For she appeared, and this fair answer gave, Which from the true, translator here we have. DIANA'S Oracle, and Grant BRute, beyond Gall, where Phoebus stoops to rest, A land is lodged within the Ocean's breast, Which once wild giants held, now vacant lies, Most fit for Thee Thine There t'encolonize. Reach This. For Thou shalt ever This enjoy; This shall to Thine be made a second Troy. Here, from Thy loins shall royal offsprings grow, To whom n A Prophecy nothing less than a lie. For the whole World of the Britian Islands which very lately were under King James, is now obedient to his son King CHARLES. The whole World moreover was subject of old to Constantine a Britain who was Emperor, or Caesar Augustus. The Oracle therefore is fulfilled in both those respects▪ and in a more high, (of which the spirit of the Oracle thought nothing, but as one of the sibils or Balaam might) that is to say, the Empire of the faith of Christ, by means of that blessed Emperor, being through all Nations most freely spread and settled. the whole world's globe shall homage owe. Hence came it, that so constantly, and long, Chaste Cynthia's honour was the Britain's song. " Who wouldst be sonthing, set thine heart to know " Things long since past: who doth not, old may show " But is an infant. That which makes men wise, " Is the records of ages to revise, " The sacred shrines, and cabanets abstruse, " Of hoary date, worn out of Vulgar use. Thus divine Plato was in Egypt told, And hath in his Timaeus it enrolled. To hearth ' whole Island dedicated was. For where St. Paul's o Sulcardus, an ancient English writer. most stately church haht place, Her temple stood, under p Geoffrey of Monmouth, of the Original and acts of the Britain's, lib. 2. cap. 1. The seats of the three Arch-flamins were at London, York, and Caer Leon. Sedes Arcbistaminum in tribus nobilloribus civitatibus fuerant Londoniis, Eboraco, & in Urbe Legionum. th' Archflamins charge. The giants Dance (so called) that structure large, On Plains of Sal'sbery, the same doth show, Where made stones are more hard then stones that grow The common sort that heap doth Stonage name; And albeit heavens whole force beats the same; As disobedient; undemolisht still, Yet bears it up the head, and ever will, Though part be swallowed by the yielding ground. It hath two rude rows of huge stone set round, (Rude ones indeed unless time makes them such, The art worn out, and of the substance, much) From under whose vast pile late times did dig, The antlers of a dear extremely big, Whose sacrificed body flames had fed. Such were the offerings which to Cynthia bled. He, whosoever, holdeth, that the same, Was raised t' immortalise q In the book called Nero Caesar. Bunducas name, That martial Queen, shall have no foe of me: For, without Phoebe's wrong, it well may be. Thus Britain ever more that Virgin's style. Britain, th' Atlantic Oceans fairest Isle, Itself the Ocean's mistress, and sole Queen, Which she to curb from her white cliffs is seen. The circling Seas chief darling, pearl more clear, Then is the Moon when she doth full appear: Although the British pearls look pale, r Pliny in his Naurall History. and wan, For grief they took, since so far Caesar ran, As to break through the secrets of her Seas, Nor have they yet recovered their disease; Unlike those pearls, which that triumphant Prince, Did gather here, and brought away from hence, To deck the breastplate, he to Venus vowed, In Venus' s Suetonius in his Julius Caesar. Temple, Rome thereby made proud. But ever under Virgins was our Isle. The blessed Virgin had it in her style, After Diana had the title lost: The maiden mother Delias' glory crossed, " Light drives out darkness, mild the fierce outweares, Protectrix here above one thousand years. This moved King Arthur to advance in t William of Malmesburie, in his Latin Histories, published by Sr. H. Saevile, and dedicated, with the works of some other our oldest Historians, (by that rare gentleman) to Q. Elizabeth, printed in one great Volume, at London, first, and since beyond the seas. Mr. Camden makes it clear, that this most victorious Britian Prince, King Arthur, was interred at Glastenburie. shield, The Virgin's semblant, who from every field, Returning victor vanquished in fight, The Saxons powers (in vain, through fate's despite, The Britan's bravery withering in his death) And crowned her forehead with a u Nennius (who also writteth of the picture in his shield) nameth the twelve several places where King Arthur obtained those twelve several victories, in the like number of set battles. twelufold wreath. England was after called, Our Lady's dower. And we have seen it under maiden's power; Eliza Maiden Queen, her title reft: Diana ' to Marry, Marry t' her it left. Eliza so was by another name, Enstyled x The Art of English poesy, a book dedicated to herself. Sir Walter Raleighs English Poem entitled Cynthia, and dedicated to that Goddess Queen, as Mr. Camden every where calls her. The most famous, and most learned Poet of our Nation, Mr. Spenser, in his Colin Clowt's come home again, mentions Raleighs Cynthia, with much honour. Cynthia; nor amiss the same. In the mean time, they will have London be, Lhan-Tain of her, that the names pedigree. Let various fancies, under face of truth, Take whom they will. My Muse things sure ensu'th, Our World's chief City loves not names blind born, And what's not like her royal self doth scorn. The brother german of that paramount Prince, Great Cassibeline, (who drove y Julius Caesar himself, (though not so clearly) in his Commentaries, and all other who have written of his war in Britain, though some of them more magnificently, for Cassibelines glory, as Lucan, than some others have done. Caesar hence, And made Rome's Eagles back to take their flight, His Trojan wheels swift thundering through the fight) His brother, royal Lud, when once he had, The aged City with new buildings clad, Made all things new, the marble gates, and walls, Then Dinas-Lud, or z Gildas, the Historian, whom Monmowth citys, and Polydore Virgil confesseth to have read. Lud-Dine he it calls, (The old name changed, which was at first new Troy, Whose prints the Trin●bants in theirs enjoy) Lud-Dine, of Lud, refounder of the same, By use, and time, softened to London's name. Nor is the word, Lud, barbarous, being found, In Hebrew names, by a Gen. 10.27. Moses self renowned. Therefore, though Sem's Lud was no ' kin to this, Yet to the word thence splend or added is. This, of all Cities in the British clime, Because, for majesty, it was the prime, (Old seats a kind of majesty retain) And finally, because it was the main, Of all, which being Rome's, our Seas did wall, Those times b Ammianus Mercellus. Augusta (nor did falsely) call. King c A Greek coin of the Emperor Claudius, in Octavius Strada, and in the English Nero Caesar, where it is explained. Etiminius, or d Svetonius. Adminius (he, Who, King Cun' ob●lines son was, one of three) His court kept here, when e Dion Cassius. Beric sold our land, To Claudius Caesar, who did Rome command, And by his right of conquest gained therein, Made Rome's walls f Pomeria protulit. Old Inscriptions extant in Gruterus, and Rolinus, and the best ancient authors. wider than they carst had been. London was, long before g Cor. Pacitus, Annal. lib. 14. Cornelius wrote, A place for trade, and concourse most of note, And known to Rome for such; and long before, To the bold h Julius Caesar writes, that the Britain's sent aid to the Galls: and Strabo, that the Veneti, in Gallia, had sea helps from hence, in their war against Caesar, for preserving their Mart here, which was no where more likely to have been then at London, which, in Nero's time, was above all other Towns of ours most famous. Venets on the Celtic shore: Which bred such envy, that the fates thought fit, With Rome's self, in mishap to equal it, Under one tyrant both to cinders turned, That want only, this miserably burned. But London's greater glory hence did spring, That the first Christian, i The old British book translated by Monmouth. Lucius, was her King. The realm, k Hereof I have long since written a small book, unpublished. and London, for a sign of this, One cross display, gules in argent is. A glorious standard (God) and good indeed, When the brave English, here l Matthew of Westminster, and other old ones. made Pagans bleed, And Saracens there (that Antichristian sect) In m Henry of Huntingdon, Matthew Ranis, ●o●eden, and others. Cordelion's days, with blessed effect. Great are these glories, and enough: but more, Do here ensue. That Monarch, who first wore, And first did spread in Roman arms the cross, And therewith his own standard did embosse, Called Labarum, n The coins of Constantine the Great, and of other Emperors, after him, do show the figure of that heavenly sign, with which he adorned the Imperial Banner, or Standard, most richly wrought and set with stones of greatest price, and beauty. Eusebius in Constantine's life. The figure in those coins is who crowned Christ's fold with rest The empire carrying with him from the West, He whom new Rome did worthily adore, Constantinoples' name unknown before) Was born o Fitz-Stephan, an old Topographer of London, first published in print by that memorable Citizen, Mr. john Stow. With these few small drops, drawn hither out of my fuller annotations upon the Latin verses, of which these are the translation, I have sprinkled their margins, as with a kind of dewle salt. For, the noble matter may relish so the more kindly, and be the more fi●tly understood, by the learned, and ingenuous reader. Both which aims of mine will hold good, I hope; who professing myself to be herein an Historical Antiquary, have truly declared myself to be such, as the duty of mine office did oblige. The contrary whereof, what it were else, then, under the colour of being an Antiquary, to destroy antiquity, I must confess, I know not. The most able Censor among the Greeks, Dionysius Halicarnassaeus, (familiar with Pompey, the Great) in his judgement upon the best Greek Historian, Thucydides, is so far from condmning the inserting of Nationall traditions into Histories (such as those of Brute, and some other of ours here are) as he plainly confesseth it to be a duty. His one words are; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. That among all men, aswell in general, concerning places, as in particulars, concerning cities, such memorial were preserved, as came by hearsay; which sons receiving from their fathers, they again endeavoured to commend by their sons to posterity. They therefore who would write of such, aught to write so, as they find them received of old. Thus, and much more to that purpose, upon which the justification of Herodotus (whom Cicero styles the Father of Histories) depends, hath that Dionysius written there, and written truly. That the things in that British book, which Geoffrey of Monmouth translated, were of such a traditional kind, his dedicatory Epistle to that valiant, and learned Prince, Robert, Earl of Gloucester, natural son to King Henry the first, King of England, clearly declareth. This was the reason which moved Herodotus (without fearing, or caring, to be reputed fabul●●●, by the rash, or ignorant, for his so doing) to recite what he commonly found in traditions among Nations, commonweals, or Cities, touching their own originals, as knowing it to be his duty, as an Historian. Therefore, he tells us, that one Targitau●, the son of Jupiter, by the daughter of Boristh●nes, had three sons, Lipo-xais, Apo-xais, and Colae-xais, among whom he divided all Scyt●●a, which so became first to be empeopled. The same cause also moved Cornel. Tacitus to remember unto us, that the old Germans derived their beginning from God Tuisto, whose three nephews by his son Mannus, shared Germany among them, and were of that Nation the first reputed parents. The like (but with much more likelihood) our oldest British traditions report, of the tripartite division of this great I stand, between Lycrinus, Camber, and Albanact, the three sons of Brute, Julius Silvius Brutu● father of the Britain's, and founder of London. in London, of a British Queen. For which, and that the place was worthy seen, To suit the change, Augusta 'twas proclaimed: Before his days not to be found so named. Wherhfore, great City, willingly I grant, This freeman unto thee, who well may'st vaunt, Thyself thereof, because he proved the man, Who, first of Emperors, the Title won, And great surname of Great. Then let it be, An omen apt, that mankind's Chief, in thee, The chief of Cities, should be happy born: Which, boding nothing, yet does both adorn. But if she had not heretofore been taught, That stately style, now certainly she ought, When royal Charles the British empire sways. London, which royal Lud did newly raise, And newly name, now ought Augusta be, Well able to make good that old decree. The world too narrow for the same she bears, With lofty crest she rolls the heavenly spheres. Then, till the Thames shall cease to ebb, & flow, The ground to bear, and skies about to go, (The heavens, and earth to her most friendly both) Eternal flowers the state thereof shall , Far (if God will) beyond the reach of spite, And, never braver, is Augusta right. FINIS.