THE PROPHECY OF MOTHER SHIPTON In the Reign of King Henry the Eighth.  
foretelling the death of Cardinal Wolsey, the Lord Percy and others, as also what should happen in ensuing times.  
LONDON, Printed for Richard Lownds, at his Shop adjoining to Ludgate. 1641.   

The Prophecy of Mother Shipton, in the Reign of King Henry the eighth.  
WHen she heard King Henry the eighth should be King, ●nd Cardinal Wolsey should be at York, she said that Cardinal Wolsey should never come to York with the King, and the Cardinal hearing, being angry, sent the Duke of Suffolk, the Lord Piercy, and the Lord Darcy to her, who came with their men disguised to the King's house near York, where leaving their men, they went to Master Besley to York, and desired him to go with them to Mother Shipton's house, where when they came they knocked at the door, she said Come in Master Besley, and those honourable Lords with you, and Master Besley would have put in the Lords before him, but she said, come in Master Besley, you know the way, but they do not. This they thought strange that she should know them, and never saw them; then they went into the house, where there was a great fire, and she bade them welcome, calling them all by their names, and sent for some Cakes and Ale, and they drunk and were very merry. Mother Shipton, said the Duke, if you knew what we come about, you would not make us so welcome, and she said the messenger should not be hanged; Mother Shipton, said the Duke, you said the Cardinal should never see York; Yea, said she, I said he might see York, but never come at it; But said the Duke, when he comes to York thou shalt be burned; We shall see that, said she, and plucking her Handkerchieffe off her head she threw it into the fire, and it would not burn; then she took her staff and turned it into the fire, and it would not burn, than she took it and put it on again; Now (said the Duke) what mean you by this? If this had burned (said she) I might have burned. Mother Shipton (quoth the Duke) what think you of me? my love said she, the time will come you will be as low as I am, and that's a low one indeed. My Lord Percy said, what say you of me? My Lord (said she) shoe your Horse in the quick, and you shall do well, but your body will be buried in York pavement, and your head shall be stolen from the bar and carried into France. Then said the Lord Darcy, and what think you of me? She said, you have made a great Gun, shoot it off, for it will do you no good, you are going to war, you will pain many a man, but you will kill none, so they went away.  
Not long after the Cardinal came to Cawwood, and going to the top of the Tower, he asked where York was, and how fare it was thither, and said that one had said he should never see York; Nay, said one, she said you might see York, but never come at it. He vowed to burn her when he came to York. Then they shown him York, and told him it was but eight miles thence; he said that he will be soon there: but being sent for by the King, he died in the way to London at Leicester of a laske; And Shipton's wife said to Master Besley, yonder is a fine stall built for the Cardinal in the Minster, of Gold, Pearl, and precious stone, go and present one of the pillars to King Henry, and he did so.  
M●ster Besley seeing these things fall out as she had foretold, desired her to tell him some more of her Prophecies; Master, said she, before that Owes Bridge and Trinity Church meet, they shall build on the day, and it shall fall in the night, until they get the highest stone of Trinity Church, to be the lowest stone of Owes bridge, than the day will come when the North shall rue it wondrous sore, but the South shall rue it for evermore; When Hares kinle on cold hearth stones, and Lads shall marry Ladies, and bring them home, then shall you have a year of pining hunger, and then a dearth without Corn; A woeful day shall be seen in England, a King and Queen, the first coming of the King of Scots shall be at Holgate Town, but he shall not come through the bar, and when the King of the North shall be at London Bridge, his Tail shall be at Edinburgh; After this shall water come over Owes bridge, and a Windmill shall be set on a Tower, and an Elmetree shall lie at every man's door, at that time women shall wear great hats and great bands, and when there is a Lord Major at York let him beware of a stab. When two Knights shall fall out in the Castle yard, they shall never be kindly all their lives after; When all Col●●● Hag hath borne seven year's Crops of corn, seven years after you hear news, there shall two judges go in and out at Mungate bar.  
Then Wars shall begin in the spring,  
Much woe to England it shall bring:  
Then shall the Ladies cry well-away,  
That ever we lived to see this day.  
Then best for them that have the least, and worst for them that have the most, you shall not know of the War over night, yet you shall have it in the morning, and when it comes it shall last three years, between Cadron and Aire shall be great warfare, when all the world is as a lost, it shall be called Christ's crossed, when the battle gins, it shall be where Crookbackt Richard made his fray, they shall say, To warfare for your King for half a crown a day, but stir not (she will say) to warfare for your King, on pain on hanging, but stir not, for he that goes to complain, shall not come bacl again. The time will come when England shall tremble and quake for fear of a dead man that shall be heard to speak, then will the Dragon give the Bull a great snap, and when the one is down they will go to London Town; Then there will be a great battle between England and Scotland, and they will be pacified for a time, and when they come to Brammammore, they fight and are again pacified for a time, then there will be a great Battle at Knavesmore, and they will be pacified for a while; Then there will be a great battle between England and Scotland at Stok●…e, Then will Ravens sit on the Cross and drink as much blood of the Nobles, as of the Commons, than woe is me, for London shall be destroyed for ever after; Then there will come a woman with one eye, and she shall tread in many men's blood to the knee, and e man leaning on a staff by her, and she shall say to him, What art thou? and he shall say, I am King of the Scots, and she shall say, Go with me to my house, for there are three Knights, and he will go with her, and stay there three days and three nights, then will England be lost; and they will cry twice of a day England is lost; Then there will be three Knights in Petergate in York, and the one shall not know of the other; There shall be a Child borne in Pomfret with three thumbs, and those three! Knight's will give him three Horses to hold, while they win England, and all Noble blood shall be gone but one, and they shall carry him to Sheriff Nuttons Castle six miles from York, and he shall die there, and they shall choose there an Earl in the field, and hanging their Horses on a thorn, And rue the time that ever they were borne, to see so much bloodshed; Then they will come to York to besiege it, and they shall keep them out three days and three nights, and a penny loaf shall be within the bar at half a crown, and without the bar at a penny; And they will swear if they will not yield, to blow up the Town walls. Then they will let them in, and they will hang up the Major, Sheriffs and Aldermen, and they will go into Crouch Church, there will three Knights go in, and but one come out again, and he will cause Proclamation to be made, that any man may take House, Tower, or Bower for twenty one years, and whilst the world endureth, there shall never be warfare again, nor any more Kings or Queens, but the Kingdom shall be governed by three Lords, and then York shall be London; And after this shall be a white Harvest of corn gotten in by women. Then shall be in the North, that one woman shall say unto another, Mother I have seen a man to day, and for one man there shall be a thousand women, there shall be a man sitting upon St. James Church hill weeping his fill; And after that a Ship come sailing up the Thames till it come against London, and the Master of the Ship shall weep, and the Mariners shall ask him why he weepeth, being he hath made so good a voyage, and he shall say; Ah what a goodly City this was, none in the world comparable to it, and now there is scarce left any house that can let us have drink for our money.  
Unhappy he that lives to see these days,  
But happy are the dead Shipton's wife says.  
FINIS.