all cryed out, no, no. Then he asked them, whether they would have the Earl of March, eldest son of the Duke of York, by that parliament proclaimed King, to reign over them? who with great shouting answered, yes, yes. Then several captains and others of the city, went to the Earl of March, at Baynard's Castle, to acquaint him what had passed; who at first seemed to excuse himself, as unable to execute so great a charge: but encouraged by the Archbishop of York, the Bishops of London and Exeter, and the Earl of Warwick, he at last consented to take it upon him; and soon after he was generally proclaimed King and here writers end the reign of King Henry the Sixth, though there were several changes. For sometimes he was a King, and sometimes none, yet he was never well settled, though he lived twelve years after. King Henry was then in the north, and raised an army to oppose Edward, but is defeated by the Lord Falconbridge. Upon which Henry and his Queen go to Scotland, and raise more forces, but are again beaten. And now King Edward sits three days together in the King's Bench in Westminster Hall, to hear causes and regulate disorders. And the Earl of Warwick is sent into France to treat of a marriage with that King's daughter: but in the mean while the King marries the Lady Elizabeth Gray. At which Warwick grows discontented, and joins against King Edward, and surprising him, takes him prisoner, but he soon made his escape. King Henry was taken in disguise and sent to the Tower of London some years before. And now Warwick going to France, brought a great army over, and proclaimed Edward an usurper; who thereupon endeavoured to raise an army, but could not, and therefore fled out of England into the Duke of Burgundy's country, and King Henry is taken out of prison, where he had been nine years, and again proclaimed King. But King Edward, by the assistance of the Duke of Burgundy, lands an army in Yorkshire, and marches towards London, where he was joyfully received. And in the year 1471, and the eleventh year of his reign, King Edward made his entry into the city, and had King Henry delivered into his hands. The Earl of Warwick having notice thereof, marched with his army toward St. Albans, and King Edward follows him, carrying King Henry along with him; where the Earl of Warwick and many others are slain, and Henry's party utterly routed. And now was the time for King Henry to be delivered out of all his troubles; for the bloody Duke of Glocester entering the Tower of London, where he found King Henry nothing at all troubled for all his crosses, struck him into the heart with his dagger, and there slew him. And now within half a year's space, we find one parliament proclaimed Edward an usurper, and Henry a lawful King; and another proclaiming Edward a lawful King, and Henry an usurper; that we may know there is nothing certain in human affairs, but uncertainty. In the fifth year of King Henry the VIth it rained almost continually from Easter to Michaelmas. In his seventh year the Duke of Norfolk was like to have been drowned passing through London bridge, his barge being set upon the piles, so overwhelmed that thirty persons were drowned, and the Duke with others that escaped, were fain to be drawn up with ropes. In his seventeenth year was so great a dearth of corn, that people were glad to make bread of fearn roots. Next year all the lions in the Tower died. In the thirty-third year of his reign, there was a great blazing star, and there happened a strange sight, a monstrous cock came out of the sea, and in presence of a multitude of people, made a hideous crowing three times, beckening toward the north, south, and west. There were also many prodigious births, and in some places it rained blood. About this time the draw-bridge on London bridge was made, and Leadenhall was built to be a store-house of grain and fuel for the poor of the city. In the first year of this King's reign, a parliament was held at London, where the Queen-mother with the young King in her lap, came and set in the House of Lords. In this King's reign printing was first brought into England by William Caxton of London, Mercer, who first practised the same in the Abbey of Westminster, 1471. This King Henry lost his kingdom when he had reigned thirty-eight years, six months, and odd days. The day after he was murdered he was brought to St. Paul's church in an open coffin bare-faced, where he bled, and from thence carried to Black-friars, where he also bled, and lastly was buried at Windsor. In the first year of King Edward the Fourth, Walter Walker, Grocer, living in Cheapside, was beheaded for speaking some words against King Edward. In his fourth year there was a great pestilence, and the Thames was frozen over. In his fourteenth year, John Grose was burnt on Tower-hill for regilion. The same year King Edward in his progress, hunting in Sir Thomas Burdel's park, slew many deer, and among the rest a white buck, which Sir Thomas hearing of, wished the buck's head, horns and all, in his belly who moved the King to kill him. Upon which words he was condemned to die, and being drawn from the Tower of London to Tyburn, was there beheaded. Next year George Duke of Clarence, King Edward's brother, was drowned in the Tower in a butt of Malmsey. In his twenty-second year some thieves for robbery in St. Martin's le Grand, were drawn to Tower Hill and there hanged and burnt, and others were pressed to death. In this King's time, Richard Rawson, one of the sheriffs of London, caused a house to be built at St. Mary Spittle, for the Lord Mayor and aldermen, to hear sermons in the Easter Holidays. King Edward the Fourth being dead, his eldest son Edward, not above eleven years old, was proclaimed King, but never crowned; for the Duke of Glocester hearing of his brother's death, came to London, and having got the King and his brother the Duke of York, into his hands, sends them to the Tower, and murders Lord Hastings, who was true to Edward, and then endeavours to prove the two children of Edward illegitimate, whereby he at last attained the crown by the name of Richard the Third, and afterwards persuades Sir James Tyril to murder the two young princes in the Tower, who getting two vil lians as bad as himself, they come to the children's chamber in the night, and suddenly wrapping them up in their cloths, and keeping down by force the feather bed and pillows hard upon their mouths, so stifled them that their breaths being gone, they surrendered up their innocent souls; and when the murderers perceived first by their strugling with the pains of death, and then by their long lying still, that they were thoroughly dead, they laid their bodies out, and then called Sir James Tyril to see them, who presently caused their bodies to be buried under the stairs. But these murderers came all to miserable ends; and King Richard himself, after this abominable act, never had a quiet mind, but was troubled with fearful dreams, and would sometimes start out of his bed and run about the chan.ber in a great fright, as if all the furies in hell were about him, as he did the night before the battle of Bosworth Field, where he was slain by King Henry the Seventh, who succeeded him to the crown. King Richard took away from Jane Shore, one of King Edward's concubines, all her goods, to the value of above 3000 marks; and afterward caused her to do pennance before the cross, for her inconstancy, with a taper in her hand: when, though undressed, yet she appeared so fair and lovely, and likewise so modest, that many who hated her course of life, yet pitied her course usage, since she used all the favor she had with King Edward, to the good of many, but never to the hurt of any. And truly she had cause to complain against Richard for being so severe for her offending against the seventh Commandment, only, when he did no pennance for offending heavily against all ten. But perhaps he got some good fellow to be his confessor. After Richard back) was slain, venth was pro- fifth year it was of London the conserva Thames, from to the waters of JANE SHORE. (called CrookHenry the seclaimed King, were made selaws; as that for people to sue in ris, without attornies, &c. no person that or act of Par- Medway. In the seventeenth year of his reign, John Shaw, Lord Mayor of London, caused his brethren the aldermen to ride from Guildhall to the water-side when he went to Westminster to be presented to the Exchequer. He also caused kitchens and other conveniences to be built in Guildhall. This king was the first that ordained a company of tall proper men to be yeomen of the guard, and to attend the person of the king, to whom he appointed a livery and a captain over them. In his eighteenth year, king Henry being free of the Tailor's company, as divers kings before had been, namely Richard the second, Henry the fourth, fifth and sixth, Edward the fourth, and Richard the third, as also eleven dukes, twenty-eight earls, and forty-eight lords. He therefore now gave them the name of Merchant Taylors, as an honourable title to endure for ever. L The 22d of August 1485, the very day King Henry got the victory over King Richard, a great fire happened in Bread Street, London, in which was burnt the parson of St. Mildreds, and one person more. In his tenth year, in digging a new foundation in the church of St. Mary-hill in London, the body of Alice Hackny, who had been buried one hundred and seventy-five years before, was found whole of skin, and the joints of her arms pliable: the corps was kept above ground four days without annoyance, and then buried again. In his twelfth year on St. Bartholomew's day, there fell hail stones measured twelve inches about. The great tempest which drove King Philip of Spain into England, blew down the golden eagle from the spire of St. Pauls, and in the fall, it fell upon the sign of the black eagle in St Paul's church yard, where the school house now is, and broke it down. This King was frugal from his youth, the city of London was his paradise, for what good fortune soever befel him, he thought he enjoyed it not, till he acquainted them with it. His parliament was his oracle, for in all matters of importance he would ask their advice; yea, he put his prerogative many times in their hands after he had lived fifty-two years, and reigned twenty-three, he died April 22d 1508. Henry the Eighth, his only son, succeeded him. In the ninth year of his reign, in May eve, there was an insurrection of the young men and apprentices of London against foreigners; for which riot several of them were hanged, and the rest, to the number of four hundred men, and eleven women, tyed in ropes one to another, and in their shirts came to Westminster Hall with halters about their necks, and were pardoned. In his twenty third year, Richard Price, a cook,was boiled to death in Smithfield, for poisoning divers persons in the Bishop of Winchester's house. One Cartnel the hangman of London, and two others, were hanged near Clerkenwell, for robbing a booth in Bartholomew fair. About this time Queen Ann of Bullen was beheaded in the Tower, with her brother, and divers other gentlemen. In his fifteenth year, after great rains and winds, there followed so sharp a frost that many died of cold, some lost their fingers, some toes, and many their nails. In his twentieth year there was a great sweating sickness, which infected all places in the realm. In his thirty-sixth year a great plagne was in London, so that Michaelmas term was kept at St. Albans. A Priest was set in the pillory in Cheapside, and burnt in both cheeks with F and A for false accusing. In his thirty-fourth year, Margaret Dary a maid-servant, was boiled to death in Smithfield for poisoning three households where she lived. This year there were four eclipses of the Sun and three of the Moon. King Henry deceased when he had reigned thirty-seven years and lived fifty-six. |