APPENDIX II, p. 23.

LEGITIMATION OF JOHN OF GAUNT'S CHILDREN BY
KATHERINE SWYNFORD.'

Rolls of Parliament, vol. 3, p. 343, A.D. 1397, 20 Ric. II.

pur Beaufort

(m, Q).

The Pope, out of

reverence for

John of Gaunt,

having legitimiz'd

his children by

Katherine Swyn

ford,

the King also

legitimizes them

28. FAIT a remembrer, que le Maresdy, le quinzisme Legitimation jour de Parlement, le Chaunceller, du comandement de Roy, declara, Coment nostre seint Pere le Pape, al reverence de la tres excellent persone du Roy, & de son honorable uncle le Duc de Guyen & de Lancastre, & de son sank, ad habliez & legitimez Mon Sire John de Beauford, ses freres & sa soer. Et pur ceo nostre Seigneur le Roy, come entier Emperour de son Roialme d'Engleterre, pur honour de son sank, voet, & ad de sa plenir Roial poiar hablie, & fait muliere, de sa propre auctorite, le dit Joħn, ses ditz freres et soer. Et aussi pronuncia & publist l'abilite & legitimation, solonc la by the following fourme de la Chartre du Roy ent faite. Laquele Chartre Charter, read in feust lue en pleine Parlement, & baillez a le dit Duc, pere a dit John & ses ditz freres & soer; le tenour de quele Chartre s'ensuit: "Ricardus, Dei gratia, Rex Richard II Anglie & Francie, & Dominus Hibernie, carissimis Consanguineis nostris nobilibus Viris, Johanni, Militi; to John, Henrico Clerico; Thome, Domicello; ac dilecte Nobis Henry, Thomas, nobili Mulieri Johanne Beauford, Domicelle, germanis precarissimi Avunculi nostri nobilis Viri Johannis Ducis Lancastrie natis, ligeis nostris, Salutem & benivolentium nostre Regie Magestatis. Dum interna consideracione pensamus, quot incessanter & quantis Honoribus parentili & sincera dileccione prefati Avunculi nostri, & From our love 1 John of Gaunt died in 1399,

Parliament:

and Joan, children

of our uncle John,

Duke of Lancas

ter, greeting!

for our said Uncle

and your own excellence,

who suffer from

defect of birth,

sui maturitate consilii, undique decoramur congruum arbitramur & dignum, ut meritorum suorum intuitu, ac graciosa contemplatione personarum, vos qui magne probitatis ingenio vite, ac morum honestate fulgetis, & ex regali estis prosapia propagati pluribusque virtutibus, munereque insigniti divino, specialis prerogative munimine favoris & gratie fecundemus. Hinc est, quod dicti Avunculi nostri, genitoris vestri precibus inclinati, we empower you, vobiscum qui, ut asseritur, Defectum Natalium patimini, ut hujusmodi Defectu, quem ejusque qualitates quascumque presentibus volumus pro sufficienter expressis, non obstante quod quecumque Honores, Dignitates, Preeminentias, Status, Gradus, & Officia publica & privata, tam perpetua quam temporalia, atque feudalia & nobilia, quibuscumque nominibus nuncupentur, etiamsi Ducatus, Principatus, Comitatus, Baronie, vel alia Feuda fuerint, etiamsi mediate vel inmediate a Nobis dependeant seu teneantur, prefici, promoveri, eligi, assumi, & admitti, illaque recipere, retinere, gerere, & excercere, provide, libere, & licite, ac si de legitimo thoro nati existeretis, quibuscumque Statutis seu Consuetudinibus Regni nostri Anglie in contrarium editis, seu observatis, que hic habemus pro totaliter expressis, nequaquam obstantibus; de plenitudine nostre Regalis Potestatis, & de assensu Parliamenti nostri, tenore presentium dispensamus. Vosque & vestrum quemlibet Natalibus restituimus & legitimamus."

to take and hold all honours and

fees, as if you had

been born in

lawful wedlock.

You and yours we therefore

legitimize.

[For a translation of this document, and an account of Katherine Swynford and her family, see Excerpta Historica, 152-9, 427-8.]

Men might have sene through both his chekes,
And every wang toth, and where it sat.

16

1

The Plowmans Tale was first printed separately by Thomas Godfray in folio, without date, but about 1532-35, probably under W. Thynne's care. Why it was omitted from the edition of 1532 does not appear, unless F. Thynne's report of his father having been compelled to omit the Pilgrims Tale from his first edition be a mistake, based on the fact that the Plowmans Tale was omitted from that edition for some such reason as is alleged, though printed separately at the same press. From this separate edition (of which the only remaining copy, formerly Askew's, Farmer's, and Heber's, is now at Britwell) it was reprinted in W. Thynne's second edition of Chaucer's works in 1542, and separately in octavo by W. Powell, about 1547-8.-H. Bradshaw.

2 Mr Skeat printed this prologue from the undated edition (of 1550), in his Notes to Piers the Ploughmans Crede, p. 45-6. E. E. Text Soc.

Our Host saw

he was not a monk from a cloister.

¶ Our hoste behelde wele all about,
And sawe this man was sunne ybrent1;
He knewe well by his senged snoute,
And by his clothes that were to-rent,
He was a man wont to walke about,
He nas nat alway in cloystre ypent;
He coulde not religiouslyche loute,
And therefore was he fully shent.

20

24

¶ Our host him axed, "what man art thou?"
Syr (quod he) I am an hyne,

The Plowman

said his work was For I am wont to go to the plowe, And erne my meate yer that I dyne.

to sweat and earn To swete and swynke, I make auowe,

his family food.

28

My wyfe and chyldren therwith to fynde;
And serue God, and I wyst howe;

But we leude men bene full blynde;

32

¶ "For clerkes saye, we shullen be fayne
For her lyuelod swet and swynke,

But Clerks told

him to sweat for them,

for nothing in return.

him,

And they ryght nought vs gyue agayne,
Neyther to eate ne yet to drinke.
The[y] mowe by lawè, as they sayne,2

They could curse Us curse and dampne to hell[e] brynke;
Thus they putten vs to payne
with candles queynt and belles clynke.

They took the

"They make vs thrallès at her lust, And sayne2 we mowe nat els be saued; They haue the corne, and we the dust;

corn, and left him who speaketh ther agayn, they say he raued."

the dust.

The Plowman says he'll tell

what he heard a Priest preach.

¶“what, man!" quod our host, "canst thou preache? Come nere, and tell us some holy thynge."

¶ "Syr," quod he, "I herde ons 5 teache

A prest in pulpyt a good preachynge.'
"Saye on," quod our host, "I the beseche."
"Syr, I am redy at your byddyng,

I praye you that noman me reproche
whyle that I am my tale tellynge."

Thus endeth the prologue, and
here foloweth the fyrst parte
of the tale.

48

52

APPENDIX IV.

[Ashmole MS. 766, leaf 5, back.']

A discourse vppon the lord
Burghleyghe his creste.

[BY FRANCIS THYNNE.]

[Lord Burghley's Crest, blazond, a sheaf of golden corn, supported by two lions rampant, the left one white, for silver, the right one, blue: the whole surrounded by the Garter, with its motto' Honi soit qui mal y pense'.]

(1)

When burninge sonne with gleames of golden lighte
had closd his spredinge beames to take his reste,
And darksome shade had brought in dolefull nighte
with sable clooke vppon his slepinge breste,
with cristalle starres twinklinge in azurd skye,
whiche slombringe dyes, to rest-ful bedde Í flye.

(2)

The tyme, I gesse, when Titans ruddy chaire did kepe his course in equall peysed weyte, with lowe descent enforced to repayre

6

to Libras house, where Equinoctiall strayte with juste proporcions cuttes the night & daye in nombred howres a-lyke for Phebus waye.

10

12

(3)

When dolefull mynde & wery lymmes were layed
to quiet rest in softe and careful bedde,
my wretched state my moorninge brest dismayed,
hopelesse of helpe, since craftye faythlesse hedde
had wouen the meane by powre for to subdue
that honest harte whome enuye did pursue.2

16

18

1 The whole 88 leaves are by Fr. Thynne, whose name also appears at the end of the book. All is in verse. The hand is difficult to decipher.-G. PARKER.

2

Compare the thrice-repeated motto on p. xlix, above. Note the bookes, his 'surest frendes,' p. 106, 1. 99, and his mention of Chaucer, p. 114, 1. 411.

[leaf 6]