And but with fifteen hundred men do land,
Upon a land with many millions stor'd;
So much did high-presuming courage stand
On th' aid home-disobedience would afford.
Nor were their hopes deceiv'd-for such a hand
Had innovation ready for the sword,
As ere they near unto the city drew,
Their pow'r beyond all former greatness grew.

Muse, what may we imagine was the cause
That Fury works thus universally?
What humour, what affection is it, draws
Sides of such pow'r to this nobility?
Was it their conscience, to redress the laws;
Or malice to a wrong-plac'd sov'reignty,
That caus'd them (more than wealth or life) desire
Destruction, ruin, bloodshed, sword, and fire?

Or was the pow'r of lords (thus interplac'd
Betwixt the height of princes, and the state)
Th' occasion that the people so embrac'd
Their actions, and attend on this debate?
Or had their greatness, with their worth, embas'd
The touch of royalty to so low rate,

As their opinion could such tumults move?
Then pow'r and virtue, you contagious prove.

And Periander's levell'd ears of corn
Show what is fittest for the public rest;
And that the highest minions which adorn
A commonweal, (and do become it best)
Are Zeal and Justice, Law and Customs, born
Of high descent; that never do infest
The land with false suggestions, claims, affrights,
To make men lose their own for others' rights.

But now against this disproportion bends
The feeble king 19 all his best industry;
And from abroad, Skales, Lovel, Kendal sends,
To hold the city in fidelity;

The city, which before (for other ends)
Was wrought to leave the part of royalty:
Where though the king's command was of no pow'r;
Yet work these lords so, that they took the Tow'r.

And from thence labour to bring in again
The outlet will of disobediency;
Send terrour, threats, entreaties, but in vain.
Warwick and March 20 are with all jollity
And grace receiv'd. The city's "1 love did gain
The best part of a crown: for whose defence,
And entertaining still, stays Sal'sbury 22,
Whilst March and Warwick other fortunes try;

19 The king (from Coventry) sends the lord Skales, the lord Lovel, the earl of Kendal, to London, with others, to keep the city in obedience.

20 The earls of March, Warwick, and Salisbury, landing at Sandwich, were met by the archbishop of Canterbury; who, with his cross borne before him, accompanied them to London, an. reg. 38.

21 The affection which the city of London bare to the duke of York, was an especial mean for the raising of that line to the crown.

22 The earl of Salisbury left to keep the city.

Conducting their fresh troops against their king,
(Who leaves a woman to supply his stead :)
And near Northampton 23 both embattelling,
Made now the very heart of England bleed:
Where what strange resolutions both sides bring,
And with what deadly rancour they proceed,
Witness the blood there shed, and foully shed;
That cannot but with sighs be registred.

There Buckingham, Talbot, and Egremont,
Beaumont and Lucy 24; parts of Lancaster,
(Parts most important, and of chief account)
In this unhappy day extinguish'd are.
There the lord Grey 25 (whose faith did not amount.
Unto the trust committed to his care)
Betrays his king, born to be strangly toss'd;
And late again attain'd, again is lost.

Again is lost this outside of a king 26,
Ordain'd for others' uses, not his own;
Who to the part that had him could but bring
A feeble body only, and a crown;

But yet was held to be the dearest thing
Both sides did labour for so much, to crown
Their cause with the apparency of might; [right:
From whom, and by whom they must make their

When he himself (as if he nought esteem'd
The highest crown on Earth) continues one;
Weak to the world; which his religion deem'd
Like to the breath of man; vain, and soon gone!
Whilst the stout queen, by speedy flight, redeem'd
The safety of herself, and of her son:
And with her Somerset " to Durham fled;
Her pow'rs suppress'd, her heart unvanquished.

So much for absent York is acted here,
Attending English hopes on th' Irish coast:
Which when, unlook'd for, they related were,
Ambition (still on horseback) comes in post,
And seems with greater glory to appear;
As made the more by b'ing so long time lost:
And to the parli'ment with state is led,
Which his associates had fore-summoned.

And com'n into the chamber of the peers,
He sets himself down in the chair of state;
Where such an unexpected face appears
Of an amazed court, that gazing sat
With a dumb silence, (seeming, that it fears
The thing it went about t' effectuate)
As if the place, the cause, the conscience gave
Bars to the words their forced course should have.

23 The battle of Northampton.

24 The duke of Buckingham, the earl of Shrews-` bury, the lord Egremont, John viscount Beaumont, sir William Lucy, slain.

25 The lord Edmund Grey of Ruthen, who led the van-guard of king Henry, withdrew himself, and took part with the lords.

26 The king is conveyed to London; the Tower yielded up to the lords, and the lord Skales (who kept it) murthered.

27 The duke of Somerset.

'Tis strange those times which brought such hands for blood,

Had not bred tongues to make good any side;
And that no prostituted conscience stood,
Any injustice to have justify'd;

(As men of the forlorn hope, only good
In desperatest acts to be employ'd)

And that none in th' assembly there was found,
That would t' ambitious descant give a ground:

That ev'n himself (forc'd of necessity)
Must be the orator of his own cause.
For having view'd them all, and could espy
None proff ring once to speak; (all in a pause)
On this friend looks with an inviting eye,
And then on that, (as if he woo'd applause)
Holding the cloth of state still in his hand;
The sign which he would have them understand.
But see'ng none move; with an imperial port
Gath'ring his spir'ts, he rises from his seat;
Doth with such pow'r of words his cause support,
As seems all others' causes to defeat.

"And sure, who works his greatness in that sort,
Must have more pow'rs than those that are born great.
Such revolutions are not wrought, but when
Those spir'ts do work, which must be more than men."

He argues first his right, so long withheld
By th' usurpation of the Lancasters;
"The right of a direct line, always held
The sacred course of blood; our ancestors,
Our laws, our rev'rent customs have upheld
With holy hands. Whence when disorder errs,
What horrours, what confusion do we see ;
Until it be reduc'd where it should be?

"And how it prospers with this wretched land,
Witness the universal misery,

Wherein (as if accurs'd) the realm doth stand;
Depriv'd of state, wealth, honour, dignity:
The church, and commons, underneath the hand
Of violence, extortion, robbery.
No face of order, no respect of laws :

And thus complains of what himself is cause;

"Accusing others' insolence, that they
Exhausted the revenues of the crown;
So that the king was forc'd only to prey
Upon his subjects, poor and wretched grown:
And that they now sought Ireland to betray,
And Calais to the French; which he had known
By th' intercepted notes of their own hand,
Who were the only traitors of the land;
"And yet procur'd th' attainders most unjust
Of others' guiltless and unspotted blood,
Who evermore had labour'd in their trust,
And faithful service for their country's good;
And who with extreme violence were thrust
Quite out of all, spoil'd of their livelihood,
Expos'd to all the miseries of life;
Which they endur'd, to put off blood and strife,
"But since," saith he, "their malice hath no end,
But t' end us all, and to undo the land;
(For which the hateful French gladly attend,
And at this instant have their swords in hand)
And that the God of Heav'n doth seem to bend
Unto our cause, whereto the best men stand;
And that this blood of mine so long time sought,
Reserved seems for something to be wrought:

"It rests within your judgments to upright
Or else to ruin utterly the land:

For this be sure, I must pursue my right
Whilst I have breath, or I and mine can stand.
Think whether this poor state, b'ing in this plight,
Stands not in need of some up-raising hand;
Or whether 't is not time we should have rest,
And this confusion and our wounds redress'd."

This said, he turns aside, and out he goes;
Leaves them to counsel what was to be done :
Where though the most part gather'd were of those
Who with no opposition sure would run;
Yet some, more temp'rate, offer'd to propose
That which was fit to be consider'd on:
Who, though they knew his claim was fair in sight,
Yet thought it now lack'd the right face of right:

Since for the space of threescore years, the crown
Had been in act possess'd, in three descents;
Confirm'd by all the nobles of renown 22,
The people's suffrages, oaths, parli'ments;
So many acts of state, both of our own,
And of all other foreign governments:
"That wrong, by order, may grow right by this;
Sith right th' observer but of order is.

"And then consid'ring first how Bolingbroke,
Landing in Yorkshire but with threescore men,
By the consent of all the kingdom, took
The crown upon him, held for lawful then:
His uncle York, and all the peers betook
Themselves to him, as to their sov'reign; when
King Richard's wrongs, and his propinquity,
Did seem to make no distance in their eye.

"Nor was without example in those days;
Wherein (as in all ages) states do take
The side of public peace, to counterpaise
The weight of wrong, which time may rightful make.
No elderhood Rufus and Henry29 stays
Th' imperial crown of England t' undertake:
And John before his nephew Arthur speeds;
Whom, though depriv'd, Henry his sou succeeds.

"Edward the Third made sov'reign of the state Upon his father's deprivation was.

All which, though seeming wrongs, yet fairly sat
In their succeeders, and for right did pass."
And if they could so work, t' accommodate
And calm the peers, and please the populace;
They wish'd the crown might where it stood remain,
Succeeding inconvenience to restrain.

Thus th' ancient fathers of the law advise,
Grave baron Thorpe, and learned Fortescue;
Who though they could not fashion otherwise
Those strong-bent humours, which aversive grew;
Yet seem'd to qualify th' extremities,
And some respect more to their sov'reign drew;
That, during life, it was by all agreed

He should be king, and York should him succeed.

28 Non confirmatur tractu temporis, quod de jure ab initio non subsistit.

29 William Rufus and Héry I. preferred before their elder brother,

Which presently enacted, was (beside)
Proclaim'd throughout with all solemnities,
And intermutually there ratify'd
With protestations, vows, and oaths likewise;
Built up with all the strength of form, t' abide
Whatever oppositions could arise;
And might have seem'd sure and authentical,
Had all this body of the state been all.

But in the rise of his out-springing lust,
Now in the last of hope receiv'd this fall;
Now that his working pow'rs so far had thrust,
That his desires had but this step to all.
When, so near home, he seem'd past all distrust,
This unexpected wreck doth him befall:
This successor th' inheritor foregoes;
The play-game made of fortune, and his foes.

For others' sius, ere he knew how to sin) Brought only but to see this exercise

The branch of kings, the true son of the crown; To whom no father can but leave his own.

The king, as husband to the crown, doth by The wife's infe'ffment hold; and only here Enjoys the same for life by courtesy ; Without pow'r to dispose it otherwhere, After his death, but as th' authority, *Order, and custom of succession bear: And therefore Henry's act cannot undo The right of him whom it belongs unto.

And this unnatural intrusion here
Of that attainted blood, out of all course,
Effected with confusion and with fear,
Must be reduc'd to other terms of force.
These insolencies justice cannot bear:
The sword (whereto they only had recourse)
Must cut this knot so intricately ty'd,
Whose vain contrived ends are plain descry'd,

Thus they give out-and out the sword in hand
Is drawn for blood, to justify the same;
And by a side with many a worthy mann'd:
Great Somerset, Exeter, Buckingham,
With Clifford, Courtney, and Northumberland,
(Lords of as mighty courage, as of name)
Which all against York's forced courses bend;
Who having done, yet had not made an end:

But to another work is forc'd to go,
The last turmoil lab'ring ambition had;
Where pride and over-weening led him so,
(For fortunes past) as made the issue sad.
For whether safer counsel would or no,
His yet unfurnish'd troops he desp'rate led
From Sandall-Castle unto Wakefield Green,
Against far mightier forces of the queen.

Where round enclos'd by ambushments fore-laid,
Hard-working for his life, (but all in vain)
With number and confusion over-laid,
Himself and valiant Sal'sbury are slain;
With whom the most, and dearest blood decay'd
Of his courageous and advent'rous train:
So short a life had those long hopes of his,
Born not to wear the crown he wrought for thus;

Of blood and wounds, ends ere he did begin:
Whose tears, whose moan, whose lamentable cries,
Could neither mercy nor compassion win.
The branch of such a tree, though tender now,
Was not thought fit should any longer grow.

Warwick 33, with other genius than his own,
Had here to do: which made him see the face
Of sad misfortune in the self-same town,
Where prosp'rous winning lately gave him grace:
And Marg'ret here, this martial Amazon,
Was with the spir't of her self in place;
Whose labours fortune ev'n to pity stir,
And b'ing a woman, could but give it her.

The reputation and encouragement
Of Wakefield glory waken'd them to this:
And this seems now the full accomplishment
Of all their travail, all their combrances.
For what can more disturb this government,
When York extinct, and Warwick conquer'd is?
Directing Sal'sb'ry left without a head,
What rests there now that all's not finished?

31 The second battle at St. Albans.

king's side.

Thus for the sick preserving Nature strives
Against corruption and the loathsome grave,
When out of Death's cold hand she back reprieves
Th' almost confounded spir'ts she fain would save;
And them cheers up, illightens, and revives,
Making faint sickness words of health to have,
With looks of life, as if the worst were past;
When straight comes dissolution, and his last.

So fares it with this late revived queen;
Whose victories thus fortunately won,
Have but as only light'ning motions been
Before th ruin that ensu'd thereon.
For now another springing pow'r is seen,
Whereto (as to the new-arising Sun)

All turn their faces, leaving those low rays
Of setting fortune, which no climber weighs.

Now is young March more than a duke of York:
For youth, love, grace,and courage, make him more;
All which for Fortune's favour now do work,
Who graceth freshest actors evermore;
Making the first attempt the chiefest work
Of any man's designs that strives therefore.
"The after-seasons are not so well bless'd;
For those first spir'ts make their first actions best."

Now as the Lybian lion, when with pain
The weary hunter hath pursu'd his prey
From rocks to brakes, from thickets to the plain,
And at the point thereon his hands to lay
Hard by his hopes, his eye upon his gain,
Out-rushing from his den, rapts all away;
So comes young March their ends to disappoint,
Who now were grown so near unto the point.

The love of these important southern parts,
Of Essex, Surrey, Middlesex, and Kent,
The queen had wholly lost; as they whose hearts
Grew ill affected to her government,
Upon th' uncivil and presumptuous parts,
Play'd by the northern troops grown insolent;
Whom though she could not govern otherwise,
Yet th' ill that's wrought for her, upon her lies.

"So wretched is this execrable war,

This civil sword-wherein though all we see
Be foul, and all things miserable are,
Yet most distressfull is the victory;
Which is not only th' extreme ruiner
Of others, but her own calamity:
Where who obtains, what he would cannot do:
Their pow'r hath part, who help him thereunto."

The city", whose good-will they most desire, (Yet thereunto durst not commit their state) Sends them not those provisions they require; Which seem'd restrained by the people's hate: Yet March's help far off, and near this fire (To win them time) forc'd them to mediate

"The queen, after the battle of St. Alban's, sent to the mayor of London for certain provisions: who, willing to furnish her therewithal, the commons of the city stayed the same, and would not permit the carts to pass. Whereupon the lord mayor sent to excuse himself, and to appease the displeasure of the queen. *

Jasper earl of Pembroke, and James Butler, earl of Ormond and Wiltshire.

35 The battle of Mortimer's Cross, where Owen Tudor, father to the earl of Pembroke, who had married king Henry's mother, was taken and beheaded.

36 The earl of Warwick, after his overthrow at St. Alban's, retires with all the forces he could make, and joins with the young duke of York; who coming to London, and received with all joy, a great council was presently called of the lords spiritual and temporal; where king Henry was adjudged insufficient for the government of the realm, and to be deprived of all regal authority; and the duke of York elected for king, and after proclaimed by the name of Edward IV. March 4, 1460, at the age of eighteen. And so Henry VI. after he had reigned thirty-eight years, eight months, was deposed.

Glory with admiration ent'ring now,
Open'd that easy door to his intent,
As that there needs not long time to allow
The right he had unto the government;
Nor Henry's injuries to disavow,

Against his oath, and th' act of parliament.
"For here the speedi'st way he takes t'accord
Diff'rence in law, that pleads it with the sword."

Gather'd to see his muster'd companies,
Stood all the flocking troops of London streets,
When Falconbridge (with gentle feeling) tries
How strong the pulse of their affection beats;
And reck'ning up the grievous miseries,
And desolation which the country threats, [king;
Ask'd them," whom they would have to be their
To lead those troops, and state in form to bring?"

Whereto, with such an universal shout,
"The earl of March," the multitude replies,
As the rebounding echo straight throughout
(From tow'r to tow'r reverberated) flies
To th' ears of those great lords, who sat about
The consultation for this enterprise.
Whose care is sav'd, which most they stood upon;
For what they counsel how to do, is done.

And nothing now, but to confirm him king,
Remains (which must not long remain) to do:
The present heat doth straight dispatch the thing,
With all those solemn rites that 'long thereto :
So that what York, with all his travailing,
Force and intrusion, could not get unto;
Is now thus freely laid upon his son,
Who must make fair what foully was begun.

Whose end attain'd, had it here made an end
Of foul destruction, and had stay'd the blood
Which Towton, Exham, Tewksbury did spend
With desp'rate hands, and deeper wounds withstood;
And that none other crown brought to contend
With that of his, had made his seem less good;
How had this long-afflicted land been bless'd!
Our sighs had ended, and my Muse had rest.

Which now (but little past half her long way)
Stands trembling at the horrours that succeed;
Weary with these embroilments, fain would stay
Her further course, unwilling to proceed:
And fain to see that glorious holiday
Of union which this discord re-agreed,
Knows not as yet what to resolve upon,
Whether to leave off here, or else go on.

THE

HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR. BOOK VIII.

THE ARGUMENT.

King Edward pow'r against king Henry led,
And hath at Towton-field the victory :
From whence king Henry into Scotland fled,
Where he attempts his state's recovery:

Steals into England; is discovered;
Brought pris'ner to the Tow'r disgracefully.
And Edward, whilst great Warwick doth assay
A match in France, marries the lady Grey.

ON yet, sad Verse-though those bright stars from

whence

Thou had'st thy light, are set for evermore;
And that these times do not like grace dispense
To our endeavours, as those did before:
Yet on-since she, whose beams do re-incense
This sacred fire, seems as reserv'd in store
To raise this work, and here to have my last,
Who had the first of all my labours past.

On, with her blessed favour, and relate
With what new bloodshed this new-chosen lord
Made his first entry to th' afflicted state;
Pass'd his first act of public with the sword;
Engor'd his new-worn crown; and how he gat
Possession of affliction, and restor'd
His right unto a royal misery,
Maintained with as bloody dignity.

Show how our great Pharsalian field was fought
At Towton' in the north; the greatest day
Of ruin that dissention ever brought
Unto this kingdom. Where two crowns did sway
The work of slaughter-two kings causes wrought
Destruction to one people, by the way
Of their affections, and their loyalties;
As if one for these ills could not suffice.

Where Lancaster, and that courageous side,
(That noble constant part) came furnished
With such a pow'r, as might have terrify'd
And over-run the Earth; had they been led
The way of glory, where they might have try'd
For th' empire of all Europe, as those did
The Macedonian led into the east ;
Their number being double at the least.

And where brave York comes as completely mann'd
With courage, valour, and with equal might;
Prepar❜d to try with a resolved hand
The metal of his crown, and of his right:
Attended with his fatal fire-brand

Of war, Warwick, that blazing star of fight!
The comet of destruction! that portends
Confusion and distress, what way he tends.

What rage, what madness, England, do we see?
That this brave people, in such multitude
Run to confound themselves! and all to be
Thus mad for lords, and for mere servitude!
What might have been, if (Roman like, and free)
These gallant spirits had nobler ends pursu'd,

1 Edward being proclaimed and acknowledged for king, presently sets forward towards the north, to encounter with king Henry VI. who, in Yorkshire had assembled a puissant army of near sixty thousand men; and at a place called Towton, about four miles from York, both their powers met; where was fought the greatest hattle our stories mention in all these civil wars: where both the armies consisted of above one hundred thousand men, and all of our own nation.