[Page] IN all delibrations of moste priuate actions, the very heathen are wont, first to consider honesty, and then profit. Some of thē also many times, not without some blind regard to a certain di­uine nature which they vvorshipped before the altar of the vn­knovven God. Oh the strange Christianity of some men in our age, vvho in their state consultations haue not so much respecte to Pietie as those first men had to honesty, nor so much regarde to honestie, as they had to profit: & are therfore iustly giuen vp of the Lord our God to seeke profit vvhere in deed it is not, and de­ceiued by theyr lusts to embrace a shewing & false Good in stead of that vvhich is the good End of a vvise man. Yea, vvho neglec­ting the holy and sure vvisedome of God in his vvord, vvherein are the onely honorable enstructions for polytyques, and ho­nestest rules of gouering our houses and ovvne person, do beate their braines in other bookes of vvicked vile Atheistes and sette before them the example of Turkish and Italian practises, wher­by the Lorde many times thrustes theyr hands into the neste of vvaspes and hornets vvhile they seek the hony of the svvete bee.

Thys sicknes of mynd haue the french dravven from those Ea­steern partes of the vvorld, as they did that other horrible disease of the body: and hauing alreadie too far VVestvvard, communi­cated the one contagion, doe novv seeke notably to infecte our minds vvith the other. And because this infection spreeds it selfe after an other maner from the first, they haue sent vs hither not Satan in body of a serpent, but the old serpent in shape of a mā, vvhos sting is in his mouth, and vvho doth his endeuour to se­duce our Eue, that shee and vve may lose this Englishe Paradise. VVho because she is also our Adam & soueraigne Lord or lord­ly Lady of this Land, it is so much the more daungerous & ther­fore he so much the more busily bestirres him.

Novv although the truth be that vppon further ripping vp of this serpentine attempt, vve shall find the Church notably vnder mined by the Pope: the verye foundations of our common vveall dangerously digged at by the french: & our deere Queene Elizabeth (I shake to speake) ledd blyndfold as a poore Lambe [Page] to the slaughter: yet should not my feare be so great, knovving her Maiesties vvisedome sufficient to teach her, in such a matter as this, neither to trovv a Frenche man nor once here speake a dayly hearer of masse (for she may knovv him by his hissing and lisping) but that some English mouthes professing Christ are al­so persvvaders of the same. And though this ship fraughte vvyth Englands bane, vvere already vndercrossed saile vvith the freshest gale of winde in her sterne that can blovv in the skye for our best port: yet had vve counter puffes and counterbuffes ynough to keepe him aloofe and to send him backe againe into the deepes, if he had none but onely french maryners and onely french tac­kle. But alas this ship of vnhappy loade hath emong vs & of our selues (I vvould, not in Princes Court) those vvho with all theyr might and maine helpe to hale it in: and, as though the blustring vvindes of our enemies malice and the broade sayles of our sins were not sufficient to giue it a speedy passage hither, our ovvne men vvalke on thys shoare and lay to theyr shoulders with faste­ned lynes and cables to draw it in. This is our mischiefe, thys is the swallowing Gulfe of our bottomles destruction: els myght vve thinke our selues impregnable. It is not the feeble assault of this carpet squire that vvold make vs come to the vvalles or once shut the gates against him.

Therefore albeit I wote vvell you vnderstand already in gene­rall, what is that great calamitie thus imminent ouer our heades whereof I speake: and albeit the bare consideration of some fevv apparant circūstances of thys strange sought mariage by Fraunce vvith England, do suffyciently moue and affecte euerye Christian hart, in respect of the hurt to the Church of Christ: euery Eng­lish hart, in respect of the detriment to England: and euery honest affectionate hart of anye her maiesties louing true seruant in re­gard of the greate daunger thereby comming to her royall Per­son: yet to thende our mindes may be the more earnestlye stir­red vp, by more particularly vveighing the euills of this matter, vve vvill enter into the partes of thys practise and gage the verye bellye of this great horse of hidden mischiefes & falshoode meant [Page] to vs. And according as those not halfe taughte Christians and halfe harted Englishmen vvhiche persvvade and sollicite thys french mariage, haue in theyr mouthes nothing but the churche and common weale, pretending hereby eyther against their own conscience or of some other humor that blindeth them, to bring greate aduauncement to religion and aduauntage to the state, vvith many smooth wordes of I wot vvhat, assurance to her ma­iesties person: I will likewise dravv al my reasons to those chiefe heads of Religion, and the Pollicie, shevving & prouing, I hope, that this is a counsaile against the Church of Christ, an endeuor of no vvell aduised Englishman, as vvell in regard of the commō state, as of her maiesties good estate. to euery of which it is per­nitious and capitall. In the ende I vvill aunsvvere such of theyre aduerse or peruerse reasons as shall be lefte vndisproued in thys my proofe.

And first if a man vvould here bring in the Church to speake The church. for her selfe, standing vpon the doctrine of her Prophetes and Christ the Lord, leaning vpon the piller of truth, vvhose crovvne and garlond is to suffer rather then to vse any vayne helpe of mā against Gods lavve: mild thoughe she be without all gale in her hart, and haue no vvords in her hony swete mouth but of a most louing mother: yet vvould she with sharpe reproofe take vp these goodly procurers of her vvelth as very practisers of her vvoe, she vvoulde call them to account vvhy they take her holy name in their mouthes, and she vvould scarce repute them for her chyl­dren vvho vvill nedes forsoth be her fathers. for (to reason vvith these Politiques in their ovvne professyon) can they thinke anye counsaile holesome to the state or becomming good counsai­lours, which can not be once deliberated of, much les put in ex­ecution, without both despising of the Prince and contemptuous breach of the country lavves? they must needes say noe, if they haue any sincerity or playne dealing left. at least they wyll saye nay for feare. And think they that any their vayneglorious de­uise can proue to the lyfe or health of the church, which is offered her with shamefull dishonour to her spouse, vvith the separating [Page] her from her Lord God, and vvith the treading vnder foot of that precious lavve, vvhich îs her holy rule for order, and soue­reigne preseruatife againste all headlong confusion? if they say yea, vve say nay, and proue it nay. Namely that this procuration of mariage, is a breach of Gods lawe, and not onely for the sinne thereof is against the church because it hasteneth vengeaunce, but vve shevve by demonstratiue reasons that it goeth to the ve­ry gorge of the Church.

I trust, I shall not neede to proue to these mens consciences this Maior proposition or Maxime, that is to say, Syn prouoketh the wrath of God, and that greate sinnes call down great plages, and mighty sinners are mightily punished. This argument, The vvorld sinneth, such a citie sinneth, such a land sinneth, such a try be, such a kindred, such a family, such a soule sinneth, Ergo, the Sin draweth vengeance. vvorld, such a city, land, trybe, kindred, family, soule, shall feele the vengeance of that high lavvgeuer against vvhom they sinne: is a most necessary consequence.

This next though it be but the Minor in order and vvill not perhappes vvithout farther proofe be yelden vnto by thys kynde This mari­age is sin. of protestātes: yet is it as true as the former, that is, that it is a sin, a greate and a mightye sinne for England to geue one of Israels daughters to any of Hemors sonnes: to match a daughter of God vvith one of the sonnes of men: to couple a Christian Ladye, a member of Christ, to a Prince & good sonne of Rome that An­tichristian mother citie. For the inuincible manifestastion ther­fore of this truth, let vs first consider England as a region purged from Idolatry a kingdome of light, confessing Christ and seruing the liuing God: Contrariwise, Fraunce a den of Idolatrye a kingdome of darkenes, confessing Belial and seruing Baal. Then let vs remember vvhat was the first institution of mariage, which Iustitution of mariage. is set before vs, as a directory rule for vs in our mariages for euer, and vvhereunto Christ teacheth vs playnly in al cases and other incidentes of mariage, to looke back, vvhen, vpon a case put of mariage, he aunsweres. IN THE BEGINNING IT VVAS NOT SO. The first mariages were betvvene payres in Religion, and in the [Page] feare of God. And the first vvritten commaundements that are giuen by Moses touching mariage, haue their regard to that first The first Lavves. institution, as it were to the oldest lavve. The vvhich Moses rightly vnderstanding and according to the interpretation of al lawes vvhen they bid or forbid any thing, do therevvith forbid or bid the contrarye: He also in Denteronomie forbad those matches Deut. 7. 3. vvherein the sonnes of God vvere giuen to the daughters of mē, adding thys reason. for, saith he, such mariages wil make thy chil­dren to fal from me. And this place at once, may expound those other many places vvhere it is sayd, least they make thy children to commit Idolatry, to be added as a certaine punishment by the iudgement of God, and not for a doubtfull reason as some vvould fayn haue it, that seke to dravv the lavves of God to their lustes, who should rather rule theyr lustes by the lawes. VVhich pure institution of mariage S. Paul also continues: when enlarg­ing the holy vse thereof to all sortes of men, he yet hath this re­straint, that it be in the Lord; that is to saye, in his feare, as it was from the beginning, and according to his former commaunde­ments in his vvorde.

It is more then enough to breake the holy ordinaunce insti­tuted of God, vvhich ought to gouerne vs without further enqui rye of reason or commodity. But as the holinesse of his lavves is The end of holy maria. holesome to vs, euen in this life by obedience: so doth theyr trās­gression breede vs infinite incommodities. For the ende of this holy kind of mariage is our mutuall helpe and vpholdiug one an other in the feare of God. vvhich appeareth by the reason of for­bidding those vnholy mariages, vvhich is, least, sayth the spirit of God, their sonnes drawe your daughters or their daughters your sonnes from the Lord. Nowe as the one comes to passe vvhere The hurt of vnholy ma. thorder of God is kept: so the contrary effect must iustly followe vpon neglect. especially if such a mariage be made in a gospellike land vvhere the lavv of God is preached, and contrarye to war­ning giuen out of Gods booke. Then vvithout peraduenture all blessing is taken awaye, and the plague follovveth. And to teach our politiques by reasonable argumentes, what other reasons [Page] haue the lavves of all lands to ioyne like to like in mariage, but for the norishing of peace and loue betvvene man and vvife, and for the vvell bringing vp of the children in euery familye, vvher­by to make them profitable members in some seruiceable voca­tion: considering that families are the seedes of Realmes and pe­tie partes of common vveales, where if there be good order, the vvhole land is vvell ordered: and contrary, as in anye instrument if euery string or many strings be out of tune, the whole musick is marred, and who so vvill preserue any entier, must conserue euery part: so if the families be distempered and out of tune, the vvhole land is disturbed.

Thinke you that the common vveal can haue this care for her lesse partes, and thus prouide for the vvell trayning vp of her chil dren, & that the church of England vvherin this holy lavv of reli­gious matching & marying the faithful vvith the faythful is giue by Christ, to this end, that their children might be sanctified, and holily brought vp in christian religion: thinke you I say that the church wil easely depart vvith her deere daughter her daughter of hiest honor, Elizabeth the Queene of England, vvho is the tēple of the holy ghost: and vvill not hold her fast in her louing armes as being loath to giue her to a straunger, one that hath shevved no signes of regeneration, and her selfe vvant thassistaunce of a faythfull husband, and her children of her body, if any she haue, vvhich receiue outvvard sanctification and entry into the bosom of the church thorough the promise of their faythfull parentes, be in danger to be profaned before they be borne, and to be cor­rupted after they are borne and thorovvout al their education?

S. Paul speaking of contrary couplings together, compareth them to the vneuen yoking of the cleane Oxe to the vncleane The dispa­ragement of such maria­ges. Asse, a thing forbidden in the lawe. And here againe the lawes of men vvhieh medle but vvith the distribution of the things of this life, haue learned this equitie of the lavves of God, that it is a greate disparagement for health to be ioyned in mariage vvith any foule disease, for beuty vvith deformity, youth vvith decre­pite age, or to tender a townes man daughter to a gentilman of [Page] birth. A citizen of Rome vvoulde hold foule scorne to mary a Barbariane. And the common vvealthes of England & Fraunce I dare say, vvould meruail if eyther our Queene or Monsieur be­ing both great princes borne, and of high linage, should seeke or consent in mariage vvith any lovv borne or contemptible per­son. Haue the lavves of common vveales prouided thus vvel for men? the vvorld, standes it thus vppon her slippers of reputation, in obseruing what is comely in mariage and honourable for ech personage: and shall the lavves of God, trovv you, be of none effect? or shall it not be much more ougly before God and hys angels, vvhen an Hebrew shal mary a Cananite' there is no such inequalitie as that of religion: no such disparagement, as not to be faythfull no such dignity of Principality, as to be a good chri­stian: and no such slauery, as to be a Barbarian from Christ Iesu.

Perhappes some man vvill defende these vneuen Irreligious mariages, by abusing that place of 1. Cor. 7. But vvithout any o­ther helpe, that text it selfe is selfe sufficient to deliuer it self from that violence: and the lavv of God from the beginning & to the end all one, vvith the obedient practise of Gods children, and the plages vpon the transgressors: do euidently shevv, that Paul there speaketh onely for the continuance of such mariages as were first not vneuen, being made in time of infidelitie on both partes, and by the aftercalling of one party are become vneuen: for thè cō ­tinuance I say, of such mariages, and not vneuenly to yoke any Christian which is free to one not faithfull.

Novv as by reasons it appeares vnlavvfull, so by examples it Examples. may appeare hurtfull. Those good men of whom vve loue to be esteemed the children and follovvers, Abraham and Isaac had Gene. 24 3. Gene. 28. 1. euen a religious care not to haue their sonnes matche vvith the Cananeans dwelling at theyr next doores, but sent further of for the daughters of God. VVhat a diameter of religion vvere it for vs dvvelling emong Christians, to admit from ouer sea, the sons of men in mariage? The children of Iacob vvere so vvell taughte Gen. 34. 14. bytheir father in the religion of their grandfather & great gran­father, that they could ansvver, vve may not giue our sister to the [Page] vncircumcised, that is to say, vve can not or vve may not lawful­ly: for that vve onely may, vvhich by the lawe of God vve may. Those ill men to vvhome vve vvoulde be ashamed to be resem­bled, made this maner of mariage. The old vvorlde vvhich thus defiling it selfe was therefore vvashed in the vniuersall flood. And Esau, whose fault yet was in this poynt lesse then ours, for they wythout care of Religion tooke the fayrest and such as perhaps vvere next hand: vve should, in this match, send further of for our mariage and haue not so much respect as to the fayrest. be­ing so far giuen ouer of God, as to forget euen that part whyche we would gladliest please. And emong those good men whome we set for holy examples, this maner of mariage vvas euer no­ted by the scripture emong theyr faults. As the Israelites which thus fel away from the seruice of God, and withal out of his pro­tection. As Samson and Salomon whose vertues we must imi­tate Iudg. Psal. Salomon. and not these their sinnes.

VVhere Salomon might serue for all examples, and hym will I chiefely name and namely vrge (speaking novv of kingly ma­riages and courtly mariage makers) because he vvas a king, and also because, that godly Courtier Nehemiah doth notably ap­ply it in a stronger case: vsing Salomons sin în this maner of vn­holy Nehe. 13. 23 mariages, as a reason to separate the Israelits frō their wiues vvhich they had already maried, yea and by vvhome they had had children born to thē: thinking it an ilfauoured noise to heare theyr children gibber in the streetes halfe Hebrewe halfe Ash­dod. I pray you marke then how much more force Salomons ex­ample hath to disswade a mariage that is yet but in parle & not concluded, to make no such fayre reckoning of a babe yet vn­borne whose shape we see not, and how much more ilfauoured it vvere for vs that in our churches speake the language of Ca­naan to ioyne vvith thē that in their masse mumble the straunge tongue of Rome. And if woman, that vveaker vessel, be strong enough to dravve man through thaduantage vvhiche the deuill hath vvithin our bosome, (I meane our naturall corruption and proonesse to Idolatry) hovv much more forcibly shall the stron­ger [Page] vessell pull vveake vvoman considering that vvith the ine­qualitie of strength there is ioyned, as great or more readinesse to Idolatrye and superstition. And if the husband vvhich is the heade be dravven aside by his vvyfe ouer vvhome neuerthelesse he hath authoritye and rule: hovve muche more easely shall the vvife be peruerted by her husband to vvhome she is subīecte by the lavve of God, and ovveth both avve and obedience, hovve soeuer the lavves by prerogatif or her place by preeminēce may priuiledge her.

And here note this, that euery vvhere it is set dovvne hovve the vvicked peruerted the good, but no vvhere that the better part conuerted the wicked. for euen the ill ralke or other con­uersation of ill men, corruptes good maners. And sith Salomon a peereles king, beloued of God, as Nehemiah saith, so furnished in vvisedome and of vvhome there vvere such certaine demon­strations that he was the child of God, dyd yet thys foulye fal by ioyning himselfe in mariage vvith Idolatrons vvemē, in so much as diuers now thinke they find almost as many reasons to call in some doubt his saluation: I pray God it may seeme fearefull in the eyes of all other Princes and princesses, vvormes to him in wisedom, to do the like fault, for dread of the like sequele. VVher­by it appeares how vaine that promise is of theirs, who say that Monsieure shall be instructed in our religion, and drawen frō his, by going with our Queene to hers: besides that we woulde be loath, with so certaine great peril to our Queene, who is emong men and vvomen the chiese to vs: to attempt the vncertain win­ning of him who is emong all men the least to vs. And if there were in him any hope of tollerable inclination to religion it wold rather shevve now in the time of his sute to our Queene, by that meanes perhaps thinking to be lesse lothsome to her and les ab­ominable to her people. but we haue no cause to hope it. for he vseth no protestant in the matter of mariage, although for some other colour he hath seemed to make some reckoning of some in some respect. And if there were hope, yet in so vnaduised rash­nes to venture against the word of God, we may well looke for [Page] Gods iudgement to come betwene, and punish our folehardines that he which loueth peril may abide and perish therein.

But these discoursers that vse the word of God with as little conscience as they doe Machiauel, pycking out of both indiffe­rently what may serue theyr turnes, perhaps they will thinke to escape all hetherto sayd, by calling in question (for their mouthes are their owne to dispute of any thing without care of resolutiō) Papist. whether to mary with the Papist that worshippeth the Lord of Heauen and earth? be against those interdictions in the law which seeme to compas in no more but the Canaanites Iebusites &c. And mere pagan nations: and whether to mary with the papist Cananite. Pagan. who in generall termes protesteth Christ, be to mary in the lord.

To answere these men whose doubts procede euer of theyre lust, to giue themselues liberty, and not of a conscience affrayd to offend God, I might say, that if to confes the Lord of heauen and earth, be ynough to auoid those interdictions then might we en­termary with Turks, Iewes, Moscouites, and diuers other painni­mes: and, as far as I remēber, with some of the Cannibals. Looke the storyes of the new Indians. And albeit the Papist protest Christ in word, yet sith the vnity of the Church is noted to be herein that Christians be the houshold of faith, in the fundamen­tal doctrine whereof, what it is, what is the vse, worthines, & wor­king thereof, the papistes dissenting from vs as farre as they that scatter wher we gather, it wil be hard to make them of one faith­ful houshold with vs.

But to yeelde them a degree somevvhat nearer vs then Cana­anites, compare them with the Moabites and the Ammonites, who were cosens to Israell by the flesh and had Lot for theyr fa­ther: Moabite. Ammonite. Ishmalite. Edomite. or let them stand with Ishmael Abrahams bastards son, yea at once let them be in regard to vs with Edome, Israels twinne brother, both which had the circumcision of flesh: yet vvas it not lavvful for the Isralites to mary with them: & in Salomon, name­ly, it is counted emong other his sinful mariages, that he maryed King. 1. 11. with those nations. But that we may yet giue somewhat more to these strayners for lustes sake at a gnat and swallowers of a Ca­mel [Page] through conscience (for they are more precise to doe pope­ry wrong, then to doe the gospell right) let vs I say, suffer the po­pish churche to be made more of then she is worth, let vs take her at the best and in as good accompt as any learned gospeller hetherto hath set her and let her haue the allowaunce of two or three graines to be massier then the Edomite and finer then the pagane, to hang in an euen ballance and to be of one assaie or touche with the Idolatrous and trayterous Israelits that fel from Idolatrous Israelites. God and were false to the house of Dauid theyr king: yet shal pa­pistes be to light and to drossie to mary with vs. For neither was it lawfull nor luckie for the Iewes to mary with those Ieroboa­mical Israelites, for al theyr ontward circumcision, and though they worshipped on the hill of the patriark fathers.

For this purpose reade well the storye of Iehoram king of Ie­huda the son of good Iohosaphat that made a notable reforma­tion in Gods house. and for all his fathers sake you shall see it ob­iected against him and rendred as a reason of his other great out­ragious sins, that he had maried in the house of Achab king of the Samaritane Israelites. The wickednes and sinne of vvhyche kinde of mariage, as it is euinced by the very word of God and punishment vpon the person of Iehoram: so îs it proued by the horrible punishments following vpon his generation. For Aha­ziah or Ochoziah son of Iehoram, by reason of the Quene mo­ther Athalia, fell in such a leag vvith the king of Israell that ta­king Athalia. his quarel, he fel with him vpon the svvord of Iehu. After vvhose death the Queene mother and dovvagier Athalia, plaied Rex and slew al the princes of the blood and peeres of Iudah. All which murdures began, and are set downe to haue com for that mariage with the daughter of Achab, whose seede the Lord had sayd to purseu to the rote. VVherby it appeares that whoso mat­cheth with any vvicked race, doe make themselues and their sede partakers of the sinnes and plagues of that race and their aunce­sters. And because the match of fraunce with thitalian Athalia & hir furies in that lande, especiallye those at the mariage of her daughter Margeret, vvill of themselues applye them selues in [Page] euery respect to agree vvith her of Iudea, and proue the sin and punishment of such vvicked vvilling matches betvvene Christi­an true Ievves and popish bastard Israelites: I onely name it and leaue it to the trembling consideration of all, especially of suche as it neerest toucheth, vvhom I besech, in Gods name, to stand vveightily vpon it.

These things do necessarily infer the third proposion, vvhich is the conclusion or finall sentence of Gods punishment against Conclusiō againste England. this poore church, for this sinne if it be committed. Faire there­fore is their pretext of peace to the Church, vvho seeke that thing that must be the cause of such a vvoefull effect.

So that if our mariage makers be not so spirituall, as that the sin vvhich this mariage hath simply in it selfe and of it selfe, one­ly for being against Gods lavv, can not make them yeld to con­fes the daunger it bringeth to the church: let vs compel them to come in by looking at the tayle of sinnes and punishments that this venemous serpent of sin draggeth after it.

It is not in Gods church as in the Grecian host. there, delirant reges, plectuntur Achiui. but vvith vs, Regis ad exemplum totus The Kings sin striketh the Land. componitur orbis. The sin of the Prince maketh the people to sin, vvhereby euery one beareth his sin, and the Lord findes matter ynough in Prince and people to vvrap the one and the other in the same calamitye. In reasoning it is truely sayd, one absur­ditie begetteth an other. euen so hath sin a fruitfull generation. and as the vertues are sayd to be chained together, so is neuer one vice or sin alone.

But specially the breach of this lavve of God, in vvhom soe­uer priuate person it lighteth, dravveth not onely a certaine fal­ling avvay to the goodman or goodvvife of the house so vngod­ly maryed, but a daunger also to children, seruants, and euery re­teiner of that houshold. much more manifold is the danger, vvhē the honorable dame and (as in humblenes I may say) the good­vvife of Englād shold be so (which God forbid) vneuēly matched It vvere more perilous to the ouerthrovv of Religion in thys faythful houshold of England, then if in one day vvere consum­mate [Page] the like mariages of a hundred thousand of other her sub­iects. for the straightest and roundest going Prince shall vvyth much a doe keepe his people vpright, especially in Religion. But let the Prince laake neuer so little, and the people vvil halt right dovvne. The Princes fal is like that of a mighty Oake, vvhich beares dovvn vvith it many armes and braunches, therfore is it often recited in the scripture, that Ieroboam sell avvay frō God and all Israell vvith him. again, for the sins of Ieroboam vvhere­by he caused all Israell to sinne against the Lord.

Novv if the French fautors of this mariage, vvhich can enlarg theyr pollicy and mince the vvord of God as they list, vvill yet cast about an other croked by vvay to meete vvith this great in­conueniences, that, forsooth, it shalbe capitulated, onely lavvful Monsieurs masse no priuate mas. for Monsieur and a fevve of his nation to haue theyr miserable mas vvithout the admission of any Englishman: surely these mē neyrher measure this article at the standarde meatvvande of the Lord, nor vveigh the easines of performing it in a vvise mannes ballance. For, I pray you, doe but goe vpon the Tamis and see vvhat companies goe to the french mas: enquire vvhat num­bers flocked in at backfield gates to the portugale mas: hovv the Spanish massers had theyr customers more then ynough: and you shall easily see the loose reckoning of these men in matters of so great valeue. they vvill kepe better bookes of theyr crovv­nes. do they see deputed Ambassadors, hable to break our high­est lavves of Gods honor, in themselues and in so many of our nation: and can they think as they speake, that so great a prince, the husband (vvhich God forhid) of our Queene, and perhaps (vvhich God defend) honored vvith the name of our king for our Quueenes sake, shall not and vvill not giue him selfe hys ovvn conditions for his ovvne religion, to hym and his, and so many of ours as vvill seeke it at hys hands?

But vvether thys be their grosse ouersight, or vvhether they vvink vviles agaynst religion I vvil not novv dispute: this is more then vvonderful, that such as pretend outvvard profession of re­ligion should make so irreligious accompt of Religion: Oh the [Page] vvickednes of our professors and the hypocrisie of our protestan­tes. Is not Idolatry the highest treason that can be agaynst the Lords ovvn person? doth it not go directly to the poynt he stands most on for his honor? do our lips say that vve are zelous of gods honour, and tender ouer hys church, & can our harts rest in quiet and not tel her maiestie hovv great a dishonor it ys to haue one mas, and vvhat a plague it menaceth to the church? vve doe not loue her, whatsoeuer we say vvhē flatteryng hyr, perhaps, in o­ther vanytyes, vve do not fall dovvn before hyr vvyth teares, be­vvaylyng the vvrath of God kyndled agaynst hyr, yf by hyr adui­sed permyssion, and by meanes of hyr maryāge, God should be so hyghly dyshonored in thys kyngdome, vvhervvyth he hath honored her. Take not the vvord of God in your mouthes, you that breath suche lukevvarme counsayl. halt no more on both sides. If God be God let hym be so honored. If Baal be your god take you to hym altogether. honest men serue one mayster and hym vvholly, and our mayster vvyll be so serued or not at all.

Of all sinnes ingratytud ys odyous vvyth God and man: no vnthankfulnes lyke to ours, vvho hauyng bene thus long mayn­teyned in peace: and in the begynnyng hauyng all natyons our enemyes, haue novv many faythfull borderyng freendes, and are rych at home through our peace and by the blessing of God: wil novv svvarue from the Lord, and trust to our ovvn deuises, and make leage vvith them, and suffer theyr Idolatry in our land, that neuer lesse loued vs then novv, vvhen they looke fayrest. Good Lord (if it be possible) make vs vvyse vvythout experience of our soly. Thys vvere to set vp altar agaynst altar, and vvyth Antio­chus to offer the foule svvine in the holy sanctuary, for this sin of Idolatry committed, great iudgements haue bene executed vpon the transgressors. vvhereby all they that beleue the story of the scripture, and are not stark Atheistes, must confes that thys feare vvhych vve feare is no vayne feare.

The old vvorld vvas drovvned, the people of God often giuen Iudgemēts for Idolatry. vp into theyr enemies handes, and in the end, the tvvelue tribes of Salomons kingdome rent a sunder, and a perpetual translatiō [Page] often tvveluethes out of Salomons posterity for euer. Ieroboam vvhen he set vp alters in the land of Israel contrary to Gods law, he would haue bene loath that any man should haue sayd he cō ­mitted Idolatry or made the people Idolatrous: yet that sin fol­lovved, and he throvven. out of Gods fauour, noted with a foule blot for a ringleader in sin often reputed in the scripture, his kingdom cam to naught, & the vvhole people suffered a transmigrati­on irretornable in Affiria. The onely feare of thys sin hath made the heares of many good mens heads stand right vp. Dauid durst not take the Idoles name in his mouth, he would then haue sha­ken to haue set vp an Idole to be worshipped.

The memory of Asa is with a holy prayse, for that his mother 1. Kin. 15. 13 2. Chr. 15. 16 Maacha hauing set vp a woden Image in a groue, he would not suffer her to haue her vvicked religion to the dishonour of God, but vvithout reuerence of her superstitious request deposed her from her dignity vtterly, and brake downe her Idole, stamped it, and burnt it at the brooke Kidron. In which story I pray you ob­serue these two circumstances, king Asa the son, to his own mo­ther, and the maner hovv he did it, euen with despight to Idolatry and zeale to God. The Lord send Queene Elizabeth the euerla­sting commendation of Asa for many such notable actes. Elize­us protesteth by othe that he woulde not once talke with Ioram King of Israel had it not bene in the presence of Iosaphat. Priuate men are bidden to flye from Idolatry, & Princes beare the Lords sword to make it flee and to chace it far away. If therefore they vvill have his hand to hold vp theyr svvord, they muste let ther svvord serue him chieflie. But most notably the feare of thys sin euen before it was committed, and hovve ielous therefore they should be that are in authority, appeares in the ende of Iosue, where the children of Israell feared least the Lord vvould impute to them as all one faulte to commit Idolatrye in them selues and not to remoue it in their brethren. VVhich made them vvhē the the tribes of Ruben, Gad and the halfe of Manasseh, after the cō ­quest of Canaan, at theyr departure home, ouer Iordan, had sette vp but one Alter, of a good meaning in deede and for a monu­ment [Page] of theyr vnity in Religion vvith theyr brethren, but suppo­sed of the reste of the trybes to be set vp to the dishonour of the Lord and contrary to his lavv, vvhych commaunded but one al­ter throughout the land: they the other ix trybes & a halfe whose lotts vvere fallen vvithin Iordane, assembled themselues, and, had not theyr rulers and princes that went Ambassadors ouer to Gi­lead, broughte a reasonable and a religious satisfaction by the Reubenites answere, vvere ready to fal out vvith theyr brethren vvhome othervvise they loued, rather then to vvincke at the dis­honor of theyr heauenly father.

The reason of vvhich theyr doing I beseech all gouernours to marke, vvhich vvas, they feared least thorough that one Altar the anger of God should also haue consumed them. Novv if one Al­tar, set vp in the vttermost corner of that land, threatned destruc­tion to the whole: and the offence of tvvo trybes and a halfe, made all the rest to feare: if these Israelites feared so much at the building of an Altar vvhych vvas meant to the honour of God, and onely contrary to the outward shevv of the vvordes of the lavve: shall not vve tremble at thys Alter vvhich all the cha­rity in the vvorld can not conceiue vvell of, as that vvhich hath none vse but to serue the deuil? good Nehemiah for one piece of thys our sin found in the people, feared the wrath of God & pro­claymed publike fasting & prayer Let vs folovv his example that the Lord may be still our God and remember vs to do vs good. Much more haue vve to shake, for that thys our turning frō God in straunge mariage and permitting strange Gods (vvhich the li­uing God turne from vs) should be more foule and more grosse thenany of those former, vvhiche neuerthelesse deserued and had such plagues. For it cannot (I dare say) be shevved in all the holystory that those people of God, in the vvorst mariage emōg them, did yet euer make any precedent pact or articulat cōdition aforehand vvith the Idolaters that they should quietly agaynste the lavves of theyr holy land commit Idolatry, but rather at firste the Idolaters dissembling theyr ovvne or making semblant of the true religiō, fayre & foftly vvan by little & little through fa­miliarity [Page] & mutuall conuersation of lyfe after mariage by a stea­ling insinuation or flattery and creping persvvasion (daungerous therefore to haue any sort of felovvship vvith the vvicked) an o­pen exercise of theyr paganisme. But if any man perswade our Prince in vvhose handes the Lorde hath put and holden a soue­raigne scepter of peace novv twenty yeeres and more, and by vvhose handes the Lord hath quite expelled Idolatrye (he make her and vs thankfull for it) vppon cammunication of thys mariage to indent vvith man, hovv farre God should be honou­red: vvhat is thys but to sinne more then the supposed sin of the Reubenites, & to excede the transgressions of Salomon or Ieho­ram euen to erecte an Idolatrous altar, not in a corner of the Realme but on the hyghest hyll of the land, in London vvhich is our Ierusalem, and to make an open fault: not of infirmitye, but by addised composition agaynst the Lord and hys truth: not in tvvo shires and a halfe, but in the greatest part of the realme and head of the land, our prince. in so much as it should be safer to set vp a thousande hyll alters for hedgecreping Priestes other where rather then thys high Altar so neere the Court.

The sinne of Achan, though not in thys kind, proues that the sin of one man, and hym pryuate, doen in secrete and buried close vnder the ground, gaue forth such a stench in the Lords no­strels as was contagious to the vvhole host. and hys garmente brought the plague emong them. Much more shall the hygh sin of a highest magistrate doen and auoued in open son, kindle the vvrath of God and set fire on church and common weale.

And this fire if it fasten on our church, it is like wild fyre or fire from heauen that all the seas can not stoppe nor quench but the flakes thereof wyll flye ouer sea and keepe hauoke in the churches The hurt of this church hurts others both on thys side and beyoind seas. Our neighbour vvel builded church of Scotland must needes think hir selfe to haue some what in hand vvhen our wall is aburning. The infant churches in the lovv countryes shall loose a nource of vs. The elder churches in Especially the french churches. Garmani a sister of strength.

And vvhen I remember the poore orphane churches in france [Page] I must needes giue the pryce of godlesse impudencie to those, vvhich vvyll needes forsooth mayntaine thys mariage as a mean to assure religion in fraunce, and to preferue the professors there from more massacres. These men haue lyke vnkind mothers, put (as it vvere) theyr owne child. the church of England to be nour sed of a french enemy and friend to Rome, and novv very kindly they take in both armes the church of fraunce, and giue it a priuy deadly nipp, vnder colour of offering it their teates, vvherein is nought but vvind if not poyson. As therefore the ennemies to Gods truth seeke those churches ruin, throug hatred to religion: so should we, who are members of one body vvith them, haue a care of them as of our selues. The enemies think there kingdom of Antichrist can not stand, vnles Christ be put out of these churches: let vs knovv, as those reformed Churches next vnder God and theyr owne forces, haue stoode by good neighbourhood, e­uen so that there standing is our necessary strength.

Certainly the Pope seeth vvell that one great staye vvhy ney­ther the French King in Fraunce, nor the Spanish king in the low countryes, can destroy religion, is the helpe and avve of other Princes confessing the gospell, emong which our Queene is in regard with the chiefe. A game he seeth as vvell, that next vnder God, one greate cause vvhy hys interdictions against vs, take no place in England nor Ireland: and that those kings to whom hee hath giuen our land as it vvere to vvhom soeuer occupanti, can not come to take possession of vs: is, because that they of the re­formed religion in both those countryes are as a brazen doore, and an yron wall, agaynst our popish enemies. and therefore by thys match, he seekes to sunder them from vs and vs from them, and so by vnbarring our brazen doore and treading dovvne our vval, to lay open hys passage to vs. I vvill not therefore vouchsafe this straunge suppositon of these persvvaders, the place of an ob­iection to be aunsvvered in the ende, but vvill vse it for an other mayn reason of proofe in thys part, that thys mariage is agaynst the church, because it is agaynst the churches of Fraunce. the vvhich it must needes kill in the place, as they say, and vvithall [Page] giue our church a deathes wound.

Here is therefore an imp of the crovvne of Fraunce, to marye vvith the crovvned Nymphe of Englande. It is proued alreadye that his comming shakes the church in Englande, and hovv shall he stablish the religion in France. VVhat is France to the church France. of God, and to England for religions sake. Fraunce is a house of crueltie especially against Christians a principll prop of the tot­tering house of Antichriste, and vvithout vvhich our VVesterne Antichriste had bene ere this sent to his brother Mahomet into Greece vvhether he long sence sent his maisters the Emperoures of Rome. The long and cruell persecutions in Fraunce, the ex­quisite torments, and infinite numbers there put to death, doe vvitnes hovv worthy that throne is, to be reckoned for one horn of that persecuting beast the primitiue Empire.

Thys man is a son of Henrye the second, vvhose familie euer since he maryed vvith Catherine of Italie, is fatal, as it vvere, to Valois. Medices. to resist the Gospell, and haue bene euer oney after other, as a domitian after Nero, as a Traian after domitian, and as Iulianus after Traian, VVhose manifest cruelties and detected trecheries against Gods church, haue bene seuerally sealed with his visible markes of vengeaunce, vvritten, not vpon the vvall, but succes­siuely on theyr carcasses, vvith a heauēly fingar: not by torch light but at noone day in the eyes and eares of the vvorld. in so much as Baltazar the father had hys Maneh grauen in the apple of hys eye: and that in the eysight of Anne du Bourg vvhose death for Henry the. 2 professing Christ he had voued to see. His first son had his Tekel told in his eare vvhych rotted hym vvhyle he was yet aliue. And Francise. 2 Charles. 9. his next sonn had his Phares marked in euery vent of hys body: that as he had shed Christian blood vvith Iulianus, so he mighte take of hys owne blood in his hand and saye with Iulianus Vicisti Galiaeè. VVho vvould not tremble to come nere this kindred so vvrathfully marked of God? vvho vvould become one vvith thys generation so hatefull to men? let vs bost in this Galilean and de­fie Iulian. let vs vvith confidence glory in the crosse of Christ and Henry. 3. not vouchsafe to ioine vvith these apostate princes. This present [Page] king, besides the sinnes of his auncesters haue giuen the Lorde cause enowgh of personall actious by hys owne excesses. VVhich though the Lord doe not yet bring in vppon hym thorough hys long suffering, yet assuredly there is a measure of hys wickednes measured out, and a tyme for his iudgements, vvhensoeuer the Saintes of God haue filled his bottle vvith teares. The plague common to the house he hath. That is, he vvants one of his loins to sit vpon his seate. So that vve see by proofe in three brothers that the Lord wyll not leaue one of Ahabs house. An ill dispo­sed body he hath, a suspitious and fearefull mynde euen of hys friendes.

Touching thys prynce novv offered to thys church in mariage, if he be behynd in mischiefes, remember he is younger in yeeres, Monsieur. and neuer came to that hability by myght of a kingdome to per­forme his inborne malice to the church. and the discredit of hys brethern haue notably hindred hym that vvay. Neuerthelesse, so farre as his place vvould suffer, he hath bene vsed to doe that ser­uice to Rome, and damage to the church, that he vvas fit for. At the mas sacring mariage he vvas not old ynough to execute any thing, but vvas set by hys mother to cry and vveepe at the cruel­ties: that so shevving some misliking of them, hys credit might be saued for such another desperate match. all the rest of the credites of the king then, and hys mother, brother, and sister being lyttle enough to colour that mischiefe. since that tyme he hath bene set a vvorke in Fraunce and Flaunders. diuers counterfeit fallings out betvveene hym and his brother, and suddein appeasings. VVhen he fled from the Court to Dreux, declaring hymselfe protector of common liberty, he quickly made first a truce, and then a peace, vvhereby to frustrate the gathering and keeping together of that great armie of protestants. If hys meaning had bene but indiffe­rent to religion, he vvould not haue bene at that stately assembly and signed with them, the abolishing of religion in Fraunce. He vvas content to be vsed to pull townes out of the protestantes hands, and in warres agaynst them, namely La charite & Issoire. where, after hys reuolt, he committed such abominable cruelties [Page] and beastly disorders as if he novv meant neuer so good fayth & had neuer so honest a mynd in these matters: yet is it not lyke that this mans foule hands should lay one stone of Gods church Yea so farre is the Lord from blessing such a disloyall hand in his publicke seruice, to the saluation of others: that he curseth hym in publick and priuate, in towne and field, euen in hys ovvn soule and body to euerlasting death, vnlesse he make open acknovv­ledgement of so open and shamefull outrages, and perseuer in vvell doing. After thys he leapes ouer Paris vvalles as fleeing frō the Court: and tooke on hym the voyage into Flaunders vvyth shew of some tollerable mind to religion or at least to helpe the oppressed professors: vouing vvith diuers solemne othes and ma­king others to sweare, that they vvould neuer come at the court againe and yet presently vpon his retorne, he left his poore court all amased at Alencon, and vvith tvvo or three gentilmen onely posted to yeeld himselfe into the kings hands vvith these words. Syr I yeeld my selfe to you to dye at your feete, in your seruice, assuring you that neuer vvill I be estranged from you: vvith moe lyke vvords, such as detect greatly the French lightnes and french falshood in hym, generall to all papistes of that nation. The king vvith many embrasings and caresses gaue hym the best vvelcome in the vvorlde. On vvhich day also came to the Court the Duke Guise the great ennemy to the church of God vvith fiue or sixe hundred horses vvith vvhom vvhatsoeuer vnkindnesses he had seemed before to haue, he novv entered into a present familiari­aritie and open kindnes.

VVhen vve speake therefore of Fraunce and of the practises there against the church: of their some time mitigated nature to­vvards Queene. Religion or of dissentions in apparance: and bruites of ie­lousie, vvhich the Queene mother puts as visarde vpon her prac­tises: vve must cast our eye wholly to her, as the very soule where­by the bodies of the king, of Mousieur, of theyr sister Marguerit, and of al the great ones in Fraunce do moue, as a hundred hands to effect hyr purposes. And vvhen we speake of Queene mother, vve muste straightvvayes present before vs but a body or tronk Pope. [Page] vvherein the Pope moueth, as hyr soule, to deuise and haue exe­cuted vvhatsoeuer for the appetit of that sea. euen as Necroman­cers are sayde to cary about a dead body by the motion of some vncleane spirit. And thys soule of Fraunce, as it hath bene moste eager and obstinately bent against Christes church in all thinges vvherein she entermedled: so aboue the rest hath she bene a dā ­gerous practiser in mariages. For to begin vvith the mariage of her other daughter into Spayne, in the lyfe of her husband, vvhat France ma­rieth vvith Spaine and Piemont. tyme a sister of hys vvas maryed into Piemont, & so three greate princes linked in a threefold cord (as it vvere) by that alliaunce: all the world knoweth, that the capital capitulation and article of inprimis (as I may say) in that threefold mariage, was, against God and his annoynted. which strong cord, though the Lorde vvhich is in heauen laughed to scorne and turned to the strang­ling of the tvvisters thereof, insomuch as the father dyed present­ly, and the daughter liued but a shorte tyme after and with small ioy: yet hath not thys spyder left to twist once more.

And albeit in the mariage of the first daughter she spedde not Parisien mariage. so well, by reason there was no sin of the church in it (for they yoked themselues asses to asses) yet in ioyning thys latter sister vvith the king of Nauarre, she had better luck, because our sins ioyned with hers, in that we ioyned one of our Oxen to one of her shee asses. In thys tragedy she played her part naturally, and shewed howe she gouernes all Fraunce. Her daughter Margerit vvas the stale to lure and allure them that othervvise flewe hyghe houering a far of and could not be gotten. her son, then king, was in all the haste become a father to the Admirall and those of the religion. Monsieur that then was and now king, he played false semblant, as though he had bene merueylons angry at the mari­age & at the grace which the Admiral and the rest of the religion found with the king. Monsieur that now is, he played the childes part or weeping part, reseruing hys credit as is a foresayd, til a ri­per age, all thys whyle the mother as setter forth of thys earnest game, stoode holding the booke (as it were) vppon the stage and told her children and euery other player what he should say. the [Page] last acte was very lamentable. A king falsifyed hys sworne word: The mariage of a kings sister embrued with blood: A king mur­dered hys subiectes: many noble & honourable gentilmē shame­fully vsed: valiant men surprysed by cowards in theyr beddes: In­nocents put to death: vvemen and children without pitye tossed vpon halberds and throvvne downe wyndowes and into Riuers: learned men killed by barbarous souldiers: the seyntes of God ledde to the shambles all the day long and all that weeke long, by vyle crochetors or porters: the church of Christ rased, the ve­ry nest egge broken, as farr as mens mischeeuous reasonable wit cold reach: and, that which was worst, those that liued, were compelled to forsweare theyr God: and little ones Christened before to Christ, were novv dipped agayne to Antichrist.

He therefore that loueth the church, can not think this ma­riage to promise any happynes to Gods church in Fraunce. Noe certenly as touching the church, it hath that mischeuous ende set vnto it by them, which the former mariages had. God graunt we harken not in thys match to the present French king and his brother: least by abusing vs also inmariage thorough our sinnes, vve thorough vnaduised policie fall in the same snare vvith our good brethren: and the king with hys brother for so abusing vs, be ga­thered to theyr fathers and buried vvith them in the same graue or hel of infamie, by Gods manifest iudgements vpon them. And which is all the good can come to the churches of Fraunce by thys mariage, the Queene mother, seeing novv all her foure sons after a sort to be kinges, fynd that delphick ansvver of her fami­liar spirites subtilly fulfilled: so as she may chalenge no longer life of the deuill, but that he to vvhom she hath giuen her selfe, muste rid that Realme and those poore churches of her.

A man vvould thynke that thys matter needed not to be anye vvhit set forth, but that the very name of the Parifien mariage should a fray any protestant of Eugland or Fraunce from euer lo­king for any good to come, by committing this il. yea the scour­ging rod vvhich followed so hard at the heeles of that sinne, and vvhere iudgement began at Gods house, should as a thonderclap [Page] of Gods vvrath astonish all politiques. And if Thadmerall & the hundred thousand men vvemen and children, vvhose innocente blood solemnized that mariage, myght be sent to vs againe frō the dead: they would, out of theyr heauenly loue to Gods church heare on earth, lyuely and hottly diswade thys kind of mariage: they vvould lay forth the harmes of that mariage: with such re­uiued afections as their wounds would bleede afresh and theyre headlesse bodies speake (as it were) before you. But vve haue Moses and the Prophets, vve haue Christ and his Apostels: if we beleeue not them, we shall be taught by late experience, and go the way of our Parisien brethern. Yea though thys mariage be­ing made, should not haue, towards vs, that malicious bloody ef­fect vvhych is meant, and that it should but vveaken vs, as that of Spayn did, alas neuertheles for the poore protestantes in france: there ruin were present. for we saw when, before the great mur­der, there vvas a new coloured freendship made with our Queen such as vvith other Princes (in respecte whereof both she & they vvere notably abused and vvronged by the massacer following:) that friendship serued first to bleare the eyes of the French pro­testants, and after to put them quite out. which single friendship vvith the Queene, if it made the french king the bolder to enter­prise the murder, how far will he presume hauing a brother in the hart of our Court to refresh the remembrance of his alliaunce & to stay any contrary aydes from hence, vvhyle he seise vpon hys protestants and vvorry them lyke sheepe.

And if Monsieur had any sinceare meaning to relieue the pro­testants, he would employ all that credit and familiarity vvhych he now hath, whyle he is present vvith the king, to the protestāts Feeble hope of Monsi­eurs change. good: euen now when as they seeme to haue some neede of him. He meanes nothing les: and that he means the contrary, may ea­sely be gathered by the manye blasphemous speeches and cruell threatnings agaynst reformed religion, proceeding from suche as bene in the trayn of hys present legate a latere in England. hys ill vvyll also to helpe the protestants, may appeare, that wher as there haue bene since the last peace many violences, murders, & [Page] outrages, and iustice for those facts denyed, and establishment of churches, vvithstood, all against the edict: yet Monsieur, shevved neuer to haue any common compassion, such as some man wold haue vpon beastes, when he saw them ouerburdened. In fraunce, he hantes the mas, and is hanted onely of papistes. In Flaun­ders, he ioyned himselfe onely with the Papistes, and strengthned that tumultuous parte of the VVallons from whence all the pre­sent disorder there, comes, and thaduantage to the Spaniard by mutuall discention. hys messenger here, though he be in continu­all conuersation with the kings Ambassador, and at one table: yet can not one mas serue them, but they must haue three or four Priestes, that doe nothing but goe from the tauarn to mas and from mas to the tauarn. A miserable hope therefore of the maisters change to good.

And to conclude thys part, vulesse he had some extraordina­ry purpose and some Italian Quintessence of mischiefe meante to be compassed against the church of Christ, in vvhich seruice the Pope will employ hys catholike and hys christien sonne and all his sonnes, and they like obedient fooles doe hys will. it could not be possible that hee woulde speake of comming hether with any meaning. For pope, mother, and brother, and all papistes vvould resist it. and he himselfe for his owne part, would cast with hymselfe, that, being next king of Fraunce, if he should be here at the death of hys brother, he might beholden for a noble hostage till they had restored vs our manyfold wronges. and againe on the otherside, it might put hym in danger of hys French king­dome, being there but slendrly beloued for his famelie and for his person, and where other greate houses for valure in theyr per­sons, and perhapes title of theyr auncesters would be iudged by the vvise and by the multitud more worthy to reign ouer them. and so perhaps we might keepe a gage that they would not care to redeeme. The hazardes to himselfe and his state, muste needes tell vs, that it is a commoditie by our extreeme incommoditye, vvhich he seekes. especially to Gods Church agaynste whych all the kynd of them haue sworne enimitie.

[Page] For the Lords name sake therefore, Oh christian Queene E­LIZABETH, take heede to your selfe and to the churche of Iesus Christ for vvhich he shedde his blood, and vvhich he hath shielded vnder your royall defence. shevv your selfe a zealous Prince for Gods gospell to the end. forefee, in a tender loue to this people committed to your gouernment, the continuance of the truth emong them and theyr posterity. And for so much as in any great plague that can come to thys chutch your maie­stie must haue your part being a chiefe member therein, as by being in the bosome thereof you receiue of the graces bestowed emong vs: haue a care euen of your selfe and for your selfe also, we instantly beseeche you, to keepe thys sin far from you by ad­mitting no counsail that may bring it neere you: and in that cō ­mon confession of sins vvith the shaking of thys rod driues vs all to deny some of your delites also, & enter with the whole church into iudgement of our selues that we be not iudged of the Lord. And sith the Lord hath vsed you as a meane to spred and enlarge Christes kingdome in other churches, and to harbarough the persecuted Christians in your owne kingdome: stop your maie­sties eares against these forcerers & theyr enchanting counsails, which seeke to stay thys happy course of yours, and to prouoke Gods anger agaynst you, pray agaynst these dangerous tempters and temptations, and know assuredly, to your comfort, that all the faythful of God pray for you, and whē you are in your secrete most separate closet of prayer, they ioyne with you in spirite.

The Lorde endue you with wisedome accordinge to that you haue neede of, at this speciall tyme. and considering the state of princes is, in this one point, more vnhappy then the poore mans degree: that they haue none ennemies that dare tell truth, and commonly such as bene theyr chiefe fauorites yea, too manye churchmen, vvhich haue particular priuileges to speake truth (a cruell and impious betraying of a sacred prince) studie rather for smooth delicate wordes then for playn rough truth: so much the more I beseech the Lord of hys mercy to supplye theyr vvant of dutie vvith such extraordinarye store of counsail in your ovvne [Page] breast, and graunt you such a principall spirite to discerne spirites and to sift counsayles, that you may smell a flatterer from a loyall counseller, proue all and approue the best. And seeing the very place of a prince doth bring him some disaduantage through our old Adam, vvho when he is lift vp, will hardly yelde to the good poore aduice of them that speake truth in a bare simplicitie: the same Lord fill your royall hart vvith such a tractable and easie swetenes of a yelding nature, that you readely and humblye may hearken to all good counsayles sent you from God and such as feare God and loue your Maiestie. Yea, that you may know, that it makes most for your safety, to encourage and make muche of playne honest speakers, and to put out of hart all flatterers. For true playne men are the best spyes of a prince, they watch when you sleepe, and wyll ryng a timely a larum in your eare, before the danger approche. flatterers neuer watch but when you wake and that they may be seene, they vvill lull you in securitye til the sin and punishment therof be heard at the doores. The Lord de liuer you from them euen as from Rauens and Dogs. And who­soeuer Two tryals of these per­svvaders. The first. dooth moste hottlye follovve thys sute ot french mariage with your Maiestie, seeke to satisfie your selfe moste gracious Queene, vvith what fayth and loue he can doe it. let thys be one fyre to trye him in, that vvhereas mariage is the moste important matter euen to the priuatest person that hee can doe all his life long, as that which makes most to an happy or vnhappy life here. and therefore euen the meanest body will not enter thys weigh­ty consultation of mariage, vvithout speciall prayers to God for hys direction: if these men, vvhyle they deale in this high mari­age so neerely concerning your owne person and so muche im­porting the vvhole church in these partes of the worlde and the state of England, haue perswaded not onely your priuate praiers, but, according to your publike place, haue also proclaimed or wished to be proclaymed publik solemne prayer to God through the land, that he might send the best issue to thys counsayl: then haue they not neglected a great helpe in thys thyng and haue cō ­sidered of thys matter as the consequence thereof requires.

[Page] Againe, let this be a second tryall (for it vvere well done to trye The second tryall. them seuen times) if heretofore through out all your younger yeeres they haue continually bene thus earnest and taken euerye good occasion to persvvade you to mariage, hanging vpon your skyrtes (as it vvere) and lying at your feete, for to vvin you to mariage, alleaging reasons for churh and common weale as they novv prrtend: then may you thinke they novve haue also a good meaning at least, and are but deceined but if hertofore they haue bene eyther domme or slovv speakers in this cause, whē all good men vvished it, and vvhole parliaments humbly besought it, whā they that be most religious prayed for it of God and prayed it at your hands aboue others, no appointing you to one as though there had bene but one husband in the vvorld, but leauing it to your godlie considerate choyce any vvhere: if in that meane vvhile, these present perswaders rather tended theyre owne enri­ching and aduauncement making no greate reckoning of thys matter, or if they haue not very vehemently and continually thorowe out your reigne enforced it vvith the same heate they novv doe: I can not see vvhat good thing can thus sodenly bring them about to thys earnest thought of mariage, and that vvyth this man pressing you vvith him as the onely fit man, after so many yeeres of your raygne and at these yeeres of your life: but that they be very Balaams, perhaps not of malice but blynd, not se­ing vvhat harme they seeke euen to themselues, and are abused by some Balac, and that Romish archbaalam, vvho, by Gods mercy, hauing in vayne assayed all other engins to ouerthrovve this church of God, by excommunication, interdiction, absol­uing our neyghbour kinges of any auncient leage or late oth of societie, and dissoluing the fealty and loyalty of subiects, and ha­uing don hys vvorst by all forcible meanes of that holy leage of hostility decreed in the last Tridentine session: doth novv remē ­ber an older Canon of constance vvhich is that fayth may not be holden vvith such as he takes for heritikes. And therefore as one at his vvits end, resolueth vpon thys conclusion, slily to styr vp one of hys honourable sonnes to ioyne, in mariage with our [Page] eldest daughter vvhich before hand he meanes, though it be a­gaynst his ovvne savv, to dispence vvith. knovving assuredly by the experience of that old false prophet, that vvhē the Lords long suffering had passed by, many of the Israelites sins: yet so soone as they vvere won in, to mary vvith the Moabites, the vvrath of God vvould forthvvith breake out vpon them. the Lord graunte vs to bevvayle this sin, and to preuent this iudgement.

Hovv are vve blinded that since the Lord spared not the whole vvorld but couered it vvith vvaters from heauen, yet Englande thinkes to be somevvhat in Gods sight, a poore Ilande surroun­ded already vvyth the Occean seas, vvhich can (if the Lorde doe but vvhistle) come tombling in and deuour vs vp. he brake in vp­on his own people, vvhom he had hedged in vvith priuiledges: & yet vve that vvere, as other nations, presume to sin and hope to escape his hand. he found away, out of his gracious promises, in iustice to plague Salomon the king of his ovvne holy mountain, to vvhose person also he had so bound himselfe: and yet vve that are but maisters of a molehyll in the vvorlde excedinglye defiled thorough our many transgressiōs, think not to bear our own sins. Salomon for these very sins lost ten partes of his ovvne kingdom vvhich he had in quiet possession and had lost the vvhole but in regard of the holy promises to Iudah: and vve leape at a king­dome yet in the hands of our enemies and thinke to gaine ano­ther kingdome to vs or our heyres, by displeasing, vvith the selfe same sins, the same reuenging Lord. Noe noe, thys counsel is not of the Lord, because it is a vvisedom agaynst his church, and if he be against vs who shall be for vs?

Novv as this counsail, for so much of it as toucheth the church, can not proceede but out of the mouth of some hyred or at the least & at the best, some blinded Balaam: euen so, for those particulars thereof vvhich concerne the comon vveale and our Queene, it might vvell enough come from rash Rehoboams [...]oung counsailors, vvhom there lustes vvill euer keepe young Common vveale. [...]hatsoeuer yeeres and experience they beare on theyr backs: [...] not from that remnant of Salomons sages, vvhom the feare [Page] of God makes vvisely old betimes. Hauing therefore thus farre sayd of the church:

Let vs see vvhether theyr country loue by not as little as their religious conscience, so as a man may not say, such sayth, suche A forraign match. fruites. The daunger therefore of a foraigne match, is not so ap­parant or so light, as it can be easily espied or prouided for by a­ny assurances. And if vvisedome might foresee the many lurking perils, yet this may vve vvell looke for, that such a kinde of mari­age being already proued to be a high breach of Gods lavv: the same Lord vvyl! iustly take avvay all vvisedome from our vvise men and courage from our valiant men. I humbly therefore be­sech the Queene and alher wise, valiaunt and good men, rather to keepe avvay the cause of this danger then to trouble them­selues vvith prouision that in comming he should not hurt.

It is naturall to all men to abhor forreigne rule as a burden of Egypt, and to vs of England if to any other nation vnder the son First, it agreeth not vvith thys state or frame of gouernment, to Forreigne againste kind. This state. Lawes of England. deliuer any trust of vnder gouernment to an alien, but is a poy­son to it. when vve receiue any such for a gouernour. And that is euident by our lavves and auncient customs of the lande disa­bling any alien to inherite the highest gouernement of vs. vpon this reason, no doubt because a senceles and careles forreiner, cannot haue the naturall and brotherlike bovvels of tender loue tovvardes this people vvhich is required in a gouernor, & which is by birth bredd & dravven out from the teates of a mans ovvn mother country. according to the vvisedom of that high politic call lavv of God: Chuse a king from emong thyne ovvne bre­thren. and if thee vvant of an English hart doth disable any from ruling the ship of our Realm: shall a French hart be kindlike y­nough to rule our Queene vvhich is the sterne of our shyp? no, the place of an alien is far from such truste by the iudgement of our naturall lavves. vvhich appeares in considering thē by the [...] seuerall degrees. First, for an alien vvhich is an alian enemy, [...] lavve doth not so much as protect his lyfe (a thing other [...] Aliē enimy. highly and deerly regarded in our lawes, if in any other [...] [Page] but makes him all in one predicament vvith the case of premuni­ri. and though the lavv of armes bid him be raunsomed, yet our peacible lawes aske no subiects blood for arresting suche a priso­ner and killing hym in cheapeside. And let thys alien be an alien friend, yet if he be not denized, the lavves can not abide him to be mayster of one foote of ground within the Realme. the rea­son Alien friend vvherof is, they are not inheritable to the lavves of our land or answerable or able to demaund by the lavves, any thyng from the meanest subiect. Yea vvhen they haue theyr best footing here and are accompted members vvith vs of thys body by endeniza­tion or enfraunchisment, yet haue those our vvise forefathers that haue left vs England to rule and dvvell in, had euer such a Aliē denizē. vvatchfull eye to straungers as they vvould not in theyr dayes of peaceable gouernements, and vve, according to theyr custome, doe not in these dayes suffer any straunger though denized to beare any office touching the peace and ordering of the lande. he is not trusted vvith a iustiship of peace or petie constableship. much lesse vvould they make hym Admirall of the nauie, Con­stable of the tower, or Gardian of any castel or peice of strength. In tyme of poperye vvhen the Romane prelate vsurped vpon our prince for conferring benefices, Abbeis, and such liuings here, to Priors aliens Italians, French, and other alians at hys pleasure, yet vvould the kings of those blindest dayes suspect treachery in these holy Ab­bots and Priors whom othervvise they made theyr Goddes, & vvould vvithout feare of sacriledge, sequester theyr profites vnto the kings cofers and seize the lande of those holye alians, leaste they might perhaps vvage foreigne soldiar vvith English pay, a­gaynst the king of England. vvhereof they gaue manifest experi­ence to king Henrye the fift vvho hauing founded an Abbay vvherein he put French fryers, and in a visitation, as theyr founder fynding them negligent in theyr deuotions: he asked the good father of the house vvhat vvas the cause. vvho ansvvered flatlye that they could not naturally pray for him, that had bene enemy in himselfe and his auncesters to them and theyr forefathers and to theyr land vvhich by kind they loued. so much nature remai­ned [Page] in those of that vngracious spirit. Novve if a founder of a beggerly rable of fryers, could not haue theyr prayers, vvhich at that tyme vvent a begging and vvere neuer so deere but a man might haue a long paternoster for a peny: hovv deinty vvoulde they be of theyre monye to Englishmen and hovve liberall in almes to ayde theyr ovvne countryes and countrymen? Likewise in the dayes of king Edvvard the first, certaine aliens richly beni­nificed, refused to ayde the king in hys vvars: for vvhich obstina­cie, albeit the Pope vvould not let him depriue them, yet vvas he so bould as to put them out of his protection, leauing theyr liues out of defence or reuenge by lavv. For these reasons, to thys daye it is expressed in the most large and most benificiall Legitimatiō made to any alien, that he shall not dvvell in Barvvick, Hampton or such maritime or other towne of trust. and all for feare leaste that theyr loue towardes theyr own countryes, or hatred to ours bredde in theyr bones, should neuer out of the flesh. So that vve see no alien is made so legalis or ligeus to the crovvne of Eng­land but with some restraint to him in respect of the state, which can neuer so kindly matriculate him as the childe vvhich she hath born in her owne vvombe

And we are the more loth to put our shoulders vnder this burden any more, because already vve haue felt the weight of the little finger and smarting whips of thys incommoditye. vvhich vvould seeme yet so much the more irksome to vs, if novve after moe then tvventy yeeres svveete fredome therefro, we shoulde be pressed dovvne vvith the heauy loynes of a vvorse people & beaten as vvith scorpions by a more vile nation. In vvhich respecte it hath bene alwayes yelden vnto her maiestie, for the chiefe and first benifite done to thys kingdome, that she redee­med it and yet, not she but the Lord by her, from a forraine king: according to the worthynes vvhereof, it hath bene from time to time notably set forth in monumentes of ecclesiasticall story, and ciuil cronicles, as a singular commendation to the happy begin­ning of her reigne: yea it made her subiectes in loue with her the very first day, & hath encreased it mightely to thys houre. wher­of [Page] it seemes they haue little regard vvho seeke to staine the entry of her second twenty yeeres and to blemish the prayse therof by the contrary of that vvhich caused the first to be so highly extol­led and by bringing vpon her people a more daungerous forrei­ner and more to theyr discontentation, to leaue them in worse case then they vvere found.

For whereas all these kinds of aliances with realmes are con­tracted for mutuall support, thys aliance presently in talk, hath no such hope. These Frenchmen gaue such tryall of theyr loyall ali­ance and of theyr profitable neighbourhood to the Grecians, ei­ther vvhile they were yet in Galatia from vvhence their french Frenchmen. bragge is to come, eyther els in theyr vagabond time while they sought a place to set their foote on, that an Emperour of Greece burnt them vvith this caremarke vvhich they cary till this day:

According to the vvhich counsell of Greece, the true and na­turall old English nation neuer esteemed nor loued the French: they haue it sonck so deepe and deepely layd vp in theyre hart, as the sauour wherewith theyr yong shels were seasoned to the son from graundfather to father, who in teaching thē to shoote wold haue them imagē a frenchman for theyr butt, that so in shooting they might learne to hate kindly, and in hating learne to shoote neearely. Out of thys inbred hatred it came, that Frenchmen a­boue other aliens beare thys addition in some of our auncient chronicles, Charters, and, statuts to be the auncient ennemies of England. And can it be saufe that a straunger and Frenchman, should as owner possesse our Queene, the chiefe officer in Eng­land, our most precious rych treasure, our Elizabeth IONAH and ship of good speede, the royall ship of our ayde, the hyghest tovver, the strongest hold, and castle in the land?

It will not be receiued for aunswer to affirme barely, that thys feare is without ground of truth, because, forsooth, the Realme Alteration of gouern­ment. must still be gouerned as before. vve knovv that de iure it shoulde be so. But in matters of kingdomes, who can say that de facto it [Page] shalbe so? will any perswader of thys mariage offer himself a gage of lyfe and death, that it shall be so? If he and many moe vvoulde yet are they no counterpoise to the Queene and Realme, whose life and good estate comes here to be warranted. For if he marye her vvith that good loue on both parts, which I wish with al my poore hart betweene her maiestie and her godly husband when­soeuer and whōsoeuer she shall marye: yet shall he beare a greate swaye vvith her, vvho beares all the swaye vvith vs. and if he doe not loue her (the Lord keepe her from prouing) then must shee feare hym. so as for feare or loue, he will rule her and the whole land for her sake. And thys is done many times without taking on him supreme authority. for if he doe but eyther giue or sel, af­ter the French manner our chiefe offices: he may rule thoughe not as head, yet by those his promoted creatures, as by so manye hands and feete. and though he be not president in the counsayl, nor once admitted to sit personally in the chamber: yet vvoulde it be no hard thing for him to thrust in at the doore such coun­sailors in whose mouth he may speake, and by them, as by hyred spialles, to know what is doen at that bourd: and as by knightes at his post to passe or repulse vvhat him pleaseth.

The example of the king of Spayne serues for me in this case, and not for those which woulde make vs beleeue he stoode for a K. of Spayn. cypher in Algorisme. For how many great matters obteyned he? and it is knovven too well, what pensionars he had of that hono­rable company of counsailors, againe, at that time, the mariage with Spayne was not so dangerous nor offering such cause of su­spition as nowe. for there was not yet come into the worlde out of the smokye pyt of hell any such holy leage as absolueth a­forehand all conspiratif oathes giuen vs. Fraunce and Spayn were then in wars: they are since allied by mariage of a French daugh­ter, by whome Spayne hath a daughter: and the lest alliance in the vvorld bindes them together against religion. And thoughe I esteeme the king of Spayne for a loyall king of inuiolate fayth & vvhole honor in respect of the French king: yet am I so farre off from sound truste in eyther of them both, that considering howe [Page] Spayn doates vpon that dronken harlot of Rome, I vvould be loath that eyther Frannce or Spayne shoulde haue such a Porter here to let them in at a posterne gate, as Monsieur is. Yea I do not onely set thys popish French fayth behind the Spanishe ho­nor of promise holding: but I affirme without doubting, that it is not so safe to contract this neere alliance with these French, as to make some other commun amitie with those Moores beyonde Spayn. whose barbarian religion and region, though it be farther from vs then Fraunce: yet doe those mores hold more Fayth with straungers then these French doe vvith themselues.

A most illcome guest therefore to all sorts of men here. for to take thys vvhole land in a lump, and to make no difference of pa­pist or protestant: I am sure the deuoutest papist that hath an Englysh hart left to knok vpon in his breast, wyllbe afrayde to call Monsieur his mayster. But a most daungerous guest to thys quiet of the state must he needes be, that to the griefe of the greatest Contrary religion. part and chiefe strength of the lande, requires open exercise of a contrary religion, for him selfe and hys, giuing great hope therby to others of obteyning some indifferent Interim. Now to proue that any alteration in religion or expectation to haue religion al­tered, is a politique bile enflaming the peace of a setled and euen state: I might haue sufficient authority, to some men, out of mac­ciauel. But I loath once to take vp hys best textes thoughe they were vvritten in golden letters of the fayrest text hand. Hereon vvill I onely rest for thys poynt, that to alter our good religion, or to giue any premission to so wicked Idolatry as is hys, takes a­vvay Gods blessing from the state, whose prouidence it is wher­by Rulers reigne and states doe stand. And let him, pardie, that holdes himselfe the best politique, hold thys with me for a corner stone and most luckie principle in policie: that, as to bring in and hold true religion, procureth Gods protection, and worketh sub­iects obedience of hart farre aboue all other lawes or feare of lawes: so, to put out Gods gospell and to bring in Idolatrye, or to enlarge Antichrist and streighten the passage of Christ, doth shut all bessing from heauen: so as the Lord shall curse our counsayle [Page] and cast vs in our vvisedome of ouerweening. In vvhich behalfe, we haue somewhat already felt of that iudgemēt for our fault of once deliberating so vngodly a thing. for wisemen in marieng of theyr children will most willingly seeke houses of auncient a­mitie, and carefully doe auoyd the seede of olde enemity, which is heriditarie, as other diseases are. and we are not so wise in ma­riage of our common vveale. for what house is more aunciently enemy to her maiesties royall auncestors and thys land, thē that of Valois? what king more out of leage or longe truce with thys Valois. state then he of Fraunce? as he who can not be content onely to vsurpe a kingdom from vs, but is impatient that our prince shold so much as beare the true title thereof. And if we vvere such en­nemies when vve had but ciuill quarrelles and onely, vter regna­ret, hovv should not our hate be multiplyed, vvhen it is de aris et focis, and consequently, vter sit et viuat? And if entermariages e­mongst themselues in theyr ovvne family, can not stay this furye of theyrs, but that for religion onely and none other quarel, their very pitie is cruelty euen vpon theyr ovvne bovvels, murdering and massacring one another by thousands and ten thousandes: hovv shall any mariage make them friendes to vs, vvhom they re­pute as olde enemies and haue yet bleeding in theyr chronicles the dishonors and vvounds heretofore giuen from hence to their kinges & aunceters? No no, vvell sayd that vvise Troyan Timeo Danaos vel dona ferentes: and vvell may a simple Englishman say, timeo gallos, namely Valesios, nuptias ambientes especiallye such mixt mariages, vvhich vve knovv to be othervvise agaynste theyr ovvne conscience.

It vvere vvell vve learned that conscience of them, if not of conscience, at least by horror of those streames of french blood Examples modern. that vvas shedde throughe such a mariage in Paris: assuring our selues, that if they vvent vp to the knocles in french blood, they vvyll vp to the elboes in English blood. And that cruelty raged not onely on the poore and selye ones, but it tooke the noble men and great princes by the throate. Yea the king of Nauarre hymselfe who vvas the spouse in that infamous mariage to the [Page] end of the world, had the deadly sword hanging ouer his head by a tvvine thred, and had felt the poynt thereof if he had not to hys dishonour (the Lord be honoured in his repentance) renied hys God. Frō these mē, that haue eaten the people of God as bread, haue bene fleshed in murdering of multitudes, & drunk the blod of noble men, vvhy should any good manner stay a good louing subiecte from fearing the same daungers and cruelties from the same men to our Queene? and soe, a vvretched confusion in this land, if for the sins thereof, she should come in theyr fingers to be a doleful bryde in theyr bloody brydchambers: vvhich God for his Christes sake preuent Amen.

Beside thys late experience in our eyes of theyr daungerous dealings in mariages emong them selues, vve may learne, if vve Examples auncient. be so happy, by the auncient hurts that Englande haue receiued through royall intermariages vvith that nation: and by the rules vvhich the vvise English counsellers of those times haue set down as a state vvisedome for their succeding counsellers. yea vve may see, that these mariages vvith Fraunce or vvith any other partes of that present dominion, before or sence it vvas united to that crovvne, haue alvvayes endamaged England, and sometime Fraunce to. so as, for most part, they might be reckoned emong those ill bargaynes that no bodye gaynes by, and therefore be Henry first lyke cursed from aboue. Such vvere the mariages, vvhere Henrye the first gaue his daughter Mault the Empris, in second mariage, to the Earle of Angeovv, and hys sister Aelix (as some chronicles call her) to Steeuen Erle of Bloys. for thereof sprang the losse of a kingdome to Mault during her lvfe, by being so farre out of the land in another country, vvhen she should haue accepted it here: thereof sprang the periuries of Steuen king of England entised to a kingdome through the commoditie of hys neere place vvhych seemed to prouoke him and therefro came the ciuile miseries to the people, vvho through the incertaintye of a gouernor, were in field and armes one agaynste another. with lyke blessing dyd Henry. 2. Henry her son take to wyfe Eleonor daughter to the Erle of A­quitaine and Poictou, vvho through her ovvne vvickednes and [Page] the freendes she made on the otherside, entertained many yeares an vnnaturall warre betweene hir owne husbande and hys and her children, Henry, Rychard, and Iohn, And yet thys vnhappy Henry the father, must goe and take Marguerit the daughter of Lewis the eyght for a vvyfe to hys son Henry, and for his son Ri­chard Prince H. Rychard. 1. tooke Aelix an other daughter of Fraunce, vvhich alliances proued such assurances to Henry the second as his last fiue or sixe yeeres vvere nothing but an vnkinde stryfe with his ovvne sons and especially hys sonne Rychard made open vvarre against him and vvan from him a part of Normandie, by the helpe of his tru­stie friend Lewes the French king. After thys, vvhen Rychard him selfe was king, not vvithstanding all the French friendships and alliances: at vvhat tyme he vvas taken prisoner in hys returne from Ierusalem, the French king vvas not ashamed to excite Iohn the brother of England to seize himselfe of the crovvne. The sayd Iohn vvhen he vvas king marieng the daughter of the Earle of Engolesme in Fraunce, and his son Henry the third hauing ma­ried R. Iohn. 1. Henry. 3. first a daughter of the Earle of prouence, and secondly french Marguerit sister to Phillip the fayer: found in the seueral dayes of theyr raignes, the French king to be no better then a pricke in theyr sides, taking part against them and prouoking theyr people to be, as it vvere thornes in theyr feete. Edvvard the second suc­ceding Edvvard. 2 his auncesters aswell in theyr vnhappy folly, as in theyre kingdome: vvill needes marry vvith Isabel daughter to the same Phillip. vvhich proued such an assurance to hymselfe, as that hys French vvife vvas able to bereaue hym first of hys son carying him into Fraunce, and hauing there made a strong part, could re­turne and bereaue her husband of hys liberty and kingdome, and in the ende of hys lyfe to, after a vvretched captiuitie vnder hys owne son.

So that of old, the alliances of Fraunce dyd set husbande and vvife together by the eares as in Henry the second and Edvvarde the second: the father and son together, as they did Henry the se­cond and hys three sons, Henry, Rycharde, and Iohn: brother a­gainst brother, as Rychard and Iohn: the king and hys people to­gither, [Page] as they did king Iohn and Henry the thyrd against the people: and as they did aftervvard in Rychard the second, & Hen­ry the sixt. vvhich the duke Thomas of Glocester in his tyme Richard. 2. vvell foresavv: and therefore vpon treaty of the like mariage for Rychard the second, vvho hauing novv raigned. xix. yeeres, and being thyrtye yeeres olde, fell amourous most vnkindlye and vnkingly vvith a french girle but eyght yeeres of age, daughter to Charles the sixt, French king: he the same Thomas of Gloce­ster vncle to the king stept vp and vvithstode that match: hauing belike in these former experiences obserued the truth of that ge­neral rule set dovvne vpon the French, by that Greeke Emperor. And because I find the vvords of thys Duke set dovvne more ex­presly in a French chronicle then any vvhere els, I vvill vse theyr A vvitnes vvithour ec­ception. ovvne vvords as the fittest testimony in thys case. The alliance of Fraunce (sayth that Duke in that french story) hath bene the ruine of England, and this nevve frendship betvveene these kings (sayth the Duke) shall neuer make me loke for any assured peace attvvene thē, for (sayth he) ther vvas neuer yet any trust or religiō or truth in the vvord or promises of the French. VVhat an aunci­ent & hereditary disease of disloyalty is this in the royall seate of Fraunce, especially since the Maiors of the housholde became kinges? And though thys Dukes voice in thys counsell vvere o­uerruled by the multitude, or rather by the lust of the king: yet did the king and his people and their children feele hovve true it was in sequele. For first thys externe amitie with Fraunce, bred home enemitye in England. It cost vs for an earnest penny the tovvne of Brest in Britanie, by meanes of the kings outlandish Queen. And poore king Richard vsing in priuate connsaise alto­gether the French companions, such as his vvyfe brought: began to disdeyne his ovvne naturall kinsmen and subiects, and finallye follovving ouermuch the cruell and riotous counsel of such mi­nions, namely the Constable of Fraunce and Erle of S. Pol vvhō the French king sent of purpose to king Rycharde his son in lavve polling the people and putting to death such nobles as his french counsail put in hys head, in the end he vvas quite vnkinged by [Page] Henry of Lancaster, afterwardes Henry the fourth. vvho during the tyme that he platted thys enterprise, founde hospitalitye in Fraunce for all king Rychards alliance vnder his father in lavves nose. The French match it vvas vvhich vvithin one yere brought the king to dishonorable captiuitie, death, and deposing. vvhich appeares, for that in story it is rekoned, emong other thinges that alienated from him the loue of hys subiects, so farre as when he vvas taken, hys enemy vvas fayne to saue hys lyfe by garde from hys ovvn people, and also it is obiected agaynst hym that he had made thys alliance vvith Fraunce, not calling to counsail the thre estates of England. Euen the last mariages vve made vvith France Henry. 5. vvere lyke vnhappy to the end. Henry the fift that noble king had the alliance of Katherin daughter to Charles the seauenth of Fraunce, and after had the possession of Fraunce, first by right of descent and mariage, then by conquest of sword, and lastly by couenant agreed with king Charles and his peeres. yet coulde he none othervvise hold theyr loue, but hauing theyr necks vnder hys yoke. VVhych vnion of possession and right, to that realme, Henry. 6. vvas aftervvard fortified by crouning hys sonne Henry the sixt in Paris and by a nevv match betweene hym and Marguerit daugh­ter of a French Charles, as most men saien, vvhich cost hym first for a princely brybe, the dukedome of Angeow and Ereldome of Main, and after many miserable destructions of our English che­ualry & people lost both the new cōquired title & ancient heridi­tarye dominions on that side, and finally vvrought an ignomi­nious depriuation of Henry the sixt from this realme. I think, I might set dovvue all such matches, as vnhappy ones: and contra­rivvise those matches nothing so vnhappy, but for the most parte prosperous, vvhich were made eyther at home or in other places, as vveren al those mariages made since Henry the sixt as by Ed­vvarde Home mari­ges happy. the fourth her Maiesties greatgraundfather, and by her maiesties graundfather and by her father.

And if a sister or daughter, vvho had no or dinarye counsail al­lowed her out of France, could yet continually preuaile so much to the trobling of the state and deposing of the king here: vvhat [Page] peril is it to dravv hether a brother, vvho is to haue his ordinarye counsail, and some gard of force and continuall-intelligence with the French king, and is also to be a leader and executer of any de­uise himselfe, vvhich a French woman could not doe so vvell. the daunger therefore in thys match is encreased beyond that in the former matches. for there the party, for or by vvhom, the danger came, vvas a vvoman, and therefore vveaker: the party to vvhom the match fell out so hurtful, vvas a man, and therefore stronger: here the peril strenghtned for the party bringing the perill out of Fraunce is a man: and the partie endaungered is a vvoman These thinges deserue vvell the vveighing, and may not be passed ouer vpon euery lisping vvord and crouching curtesie of a French Ambassador or other flattering petie messenger. And if our wise and renoumed forefathers of England passed vvithout stombling o­uer the threshold of suspecting the french aliance, euen then whā the french men professed & held the lavves of atmes vvyth theyr enemies as soldiers: let vs not be nicely fearefull to passe the boūds of honorable modestie, in iudgeing of the present princes vvhich professe to deceiue and break fayth vvith such as vve are, yea let vs boldly & vvisely cast this doubt that they vvhose frendships vvhē they had not so il purposes, but thought it their honor to match with vs, wrought vs yet thys woemust nedes novv hurt vs according to their hateful falshod in dealing with vs, whō they esteme, according to their doctrin of Rome, no better then dogs.

Novve as there is daunger on the parte of the French for great troubles to follovve by thys mariage, as vvell for that they haue nevv fangled and stirring common wealth heads, lusting af­ter Innouations, as also for the ielousie of tvvo so neere borde­ring kingdomes: euen so vvill it be harder then yron for English­men Englishmē. K. of Spayn. to digest with quiet stomake, the french insolencies and dis­daynefull brauades. For if the Spaniard comming in vppon hys honor, and being an auncient friend, at that tyme of one religi­on, did neuertheles beare away harde intreadie for hys vnwonted pryde towards vs: more danger vvill theyr be, least these needie spent Frenchmen of Monsieurs traine, being of contrary religion [Page] and who are the scome of the kings Court, which is the scomme of all France, vvhich is the scomme of Europe, vvhen they seeke, like horseleaches, by sucking vpon vs to fill theyr beggerly purses to the satis fieng of theyr bottomlesse expence: the poore playne and rude Englishman firste giue him the elbovve in the strete, then the fist and so proceeding to farther bicquerings in pryuate quarrels, great troubles ryse of small beginnings. for as touchinge the humble, mild, persecuted, and religious Frenchmen, that we receiue him as a vvelbeloued brother, and that our old grud­ging nature against the french in this respect, is expelled, as it wer vvith a fork. that comes by the force of religion, the Lord hauing wrought it in our heartes. But against these irreligious, haughtye and faithlesse frenchmen, that bring in a religion contrarye to ours, & haue no cōscience nor loue to vse vs kindly, our English nature vvil return a main to his own course. which thinges also may euidtēly appeare to any mā, that wold but mark how sadly & heauily & with hovv sorovvful coūtenances all the multitude of English both nobilitie & comminaltye looke, casting vp theyr hands & eyes to heauen vvhen they doe but talke of the matter.

This stinging straunger of Fraunce muste vve keepe vvarme in our bosom at our ovvn intollerable charge, which is another rea­son not to be neglected, sith treasure is a principall sinevv of any A charge to the Realme. state: and therefore vvould not be wasted, much lesse therevvyth to buye our own harme. For they are ouer credulous to be belee­ued, vvho vvith the emptie name of Monsieur, and of the French kings brother, wold promise such other fooles as list credit them, mountaines of golde and great gaine to thys royall state, by hys vvorshipfull reuenues forsooth bringing in king Phillip (vvho serues them in thys deuise for all in all) for theyr example. Fyrst vvho knowes not thys in generall that euery prince, though ne­uer so rich, will hoard vp hys owne treasure, and spend of the straunge purse. and it is a notable policie for our french enemye, by this meanes to weaken the verye knees and hammes of our Realm. Novv, that vvhich other princes do of worldly vvisedom: Monsieur must doe of meere necessitie. for let his receiptes be [Page] great for a subiect, yet shall they not be sufficient to maintain his mind in state of so great a priuce & companiō to our Queen. for euē alreadie his debtes & expences are sayd to be farther at odds with his reuenues, thē many yeres receipts can yeld the arerages.

But these perswaders, as men hauing theyr eyes daseled vvyth the golden sun, are ouer affectioned to thys match and can not see that Monsieur hath not moe countyes then king Phillip had archdukedomes: nor so many dukedoms as king Phillip had kingdomes: and that he is not able to dropp halfe testons for king Phillips pîstelas: nor vvith siluer to weighdowne his gold: as also that king Phillip for al those dominiōs & mines of treasures, was content to be pingling vvith our purses: made Queene Mary to aske moe extraordinary and frequent subsides and taskes, then had bene seene in so short a raigne: further causing her to borow more loanes of hundred powndes, forty pounds tvventy pounds, and ten poundes of her subiects, then vvere euer payd agayn by a great sort. thus gleaning the monie from the subiects, & by arme­fuls lading out of the eschequer, that both the land and the Es­chequer was left as empty to the Queenes maiestie that novv is, as it vvas many a daye. The very bodyes of our men, vvere fayne to be employed in hys seruice and forraigne warres there to a­bide the formost force and to be as a vvall betvvene the honora­ble Spainard and the Canon. vvhich vvars nothing in our ovvne quarrell, besides the present losse of noble men and good soldiars there at the place, cost vs in a backe reckoning, the richest and strongest towne of vvar that the Queene then had. And yet must vve haue king Phillip broughte in for example of a gainefull ma­riage to England. In dede vve had great cause to thank the Lords mercy, vvho deliuered vs from that king his power, as vve had to thank our sins that vve vvere giuen into hys hand. but vve may say vve scaped a scouring. for, but that he vvas newly setled in his owne kingdome, and could not tary to be warme in his bedd here, the end vvould haue ben vvorse then the beginning, he wold haue holdē hard, if not for the soile of the kingdom, yet for the nauie, for the ordinance, and other chiefe moueable treasures [Page] and reall Ievvels of the land. All vvhich thinges come in a more daunger with thys Prince, because if he be king of fraunce, he shalbe neerer and readier by colorable polices to vvythdravv by little and little all thinges from hence in her Maiesties lysr, & by force to chalenge them, if (VVhich God say nay to) she shoulde be hys vvife and dye before hym.

There is another daungerous daunger in thys forreine french match that aryseth yet far higher, in that he is the brother of Monsieur heir asparāt of Fraunce & the dan­gers therby. childles Fraunce. So as, if Henry the thyrd novv king, should dye the morrovv after our mariage, and Monsieur repare home, as we may be svre he would, into hys natiue country a larger and better kingdom: then, by all likelihode, eyther must our Elizabeth goe vvith him out of her ovvne natiue country and svvete soyle of England, vvhere she is Queene as possessor and inheritor of thys imperial crovvne vvithall regall rights, dignities, perogatiues, pre heminences, priuileges, autorities, and iuredictions of thys kingly office and hauing the kingrike in her owne person, into a forrain kingdome vvhere her vvritt doth not runn & shalbe but in a bo­rovved Maiestie as the moone to the sonn, shining by night as o­ther kings vvyues, and so she that hath ruled all this vvhile heere shalbe there ouer ruled in a straung land by some belledame not vvithout avve perhapps of a sister in lavv, and vve hyr poore sub­iects that haue bene gouerned hetherto by a naturall mother, shalbe ouerlooked at home by some cruel and proud gouernour, or els must she tary here vvithout comfort of her husband, seing her selfe despised or not vvifelike esteemed and as an eclipsed son diminished in souereinty, hauing such perhappes appoynted to serue hyr and be at her commaundement after the french phrase, vvhich in playn English vvill gouerne her and her state.

In thys great matter vvhat an illuding ansvver is it agayn by the particular example of the king of Spayne to put avvay thys Spanish K. reason grounded vpon these tvvo generall rules. The first is, that a straunger mighty king brought into a realme to ayde them as strange ayd. vvas the Turke and his sarasins, or vpon any lighter occasion, vvill hardly be gotten out againe. The second, a straunger king [Page] dravven in by our sins and sent by Gods iustice for our punish­ment, is not ridd vvithout Gods extraordinary help. Novv syr, because vve vvere once happily dispatched of Spayne, therefore vve shall once againe commit thys gross follye and contemne that generall rule of policie. And because the Lord in mercy dyd once deliuer vs from Spayn, therfore vve vvill tempt him agayn by deliuering our selues into the hands of Fraunce. Alas for these men, if king Phillip had neuer maryed Queene Mary and if thys matter had ben to dispute xxvij. yeeres agoe, then had they had no one reason for theyr side, nor no ansvver to escape any of our arguments. and thys absurd manner of reasoning is very Maccia­uelian logick, by particular examples thus to gouern kingdoms and to set dovvn general rules for his prince vvhereas particulars should be vvarranted by generals. But there mayster vvrested hys vngratious vvit euer to the mayntenance of a present state, and these foolish schoolers put forth theyr gross conceipts to the o­uerthrovv of thys present, in hope of, I vvot not vvhat, futur common vvealth of their ovvn head. Some subtilty ther is also in this French ma­riage more dangerous thē spanish. aunsvver, that vvhen vve are to deliberate of Fraunce vvhych is the more nere and more auncient, therfore more daungerous enemy, to anoy vs vvith his forces and to hold vs if he once haue vs: they bryng vs in example Spayn, a more remote potentate & an auncient friend, one that vvas at that tyme of one religion vvith thys kingdom, and therfore not so pricked to hasten some chaung in our state, as thys man, vvho being ledd by Antichrist must not endure vvith any patience that state vvher Christ is. Moreouer our dispofitiō more ready to vvarr with Fraunce then vvith Spayn, is holpē by more continual occasions giuē of both sides, by more cōueniencie of means to perform sodenly, vvhich vvill make them let no opportunity slyp, that may bring so com bersome a neighbour vnder thē as vve are. And better may they do it novv, then might the king of Spayn then. for thē was Spain at vvars with Fraunce, neyther vvas it lyke that Fraunce would haue bene holden by any frendship while he should haue suffe­red a more pnissant neighbour set hys foote heere, vvhom he [Page] might so easely let by helping vs. But now is there no enemity betvvene Fraunce and Spayne to let thys practise: they are of kin by the flesh, and by theyr religion. and the holy leage ties them togither in that respect as it vvere faggotstiks. And in truth Spayn being so far and Fraunce so nere, Fraunce hath great ad­uantage in thys cōparison and cannot be so letted of Spayne, as Spayn may be by him.

These daungers vvherein this daungerous pactise of mariage vvrappeth Queen Elisabeth in hyrlyfe time and hyr England to­gether alike, vvill, I doubt not, moue those in authority to auoyd them and others that are priuate to pray against them most ser­uently. But these calamities, alas, end not vvith thys age. For wher as these persvvaders lay for a chiefe ground theyr certain expecting issue of hyr Maiesties body vpon thys match and the com­modities therof ensuing, therby perswading thys strange con­ceipt: I vvill at once dispatch that reason that might be obiected agaynst me, & make it a chiefe argument (for I esteeme it my se­cond politique reason) to diswade the French mariage especial­ly. If it may please her Maiestie to cal her faythfullest vvyse phi­sitians and to adiure them by their conscience tovvards God, theyr loyalty to hyr, and fayth to the whole land, to say theyr knovvledg simply without respect of pleasing or displeasing any, and that they consider it also as the cause of a realm and of a Prince, how excedingly dangerous they find it, by theyr learning for her maiestie at these yeeres to haue hyr first chyld, yea hovv fearfull the expectation of death is to mother and chyld: I feare to say vvhat wyll be theyr aunswer, and I humbly besech hyr Ma­iesty to enforme hyrselfe throughly euen in hyr loue to the Issue dange­rous to the Queene. vvhole land, whych holds deere hyr life and peace, and vvhich as it hath hetherto deutifully sought hyr mariage whyle hope of issue vvas, desiring it as the chiefest common wealth good, and vvithall that feare God English or straunger vvould haue reioy­ced to see that the reigne of Queen Elizabeth might haue ben dravven foorth, as I may say, in hyr faythfull ligne: yet dare we not novv otherwyse craue it, but so as it might be by such afa­ther [Page] as had a sound body and holy soule, and yet not thē neither, onles she may first find it to stand with her lyfe and safety:

And vvhen I think more earnestly of thys matter, me thinkes it must needes come first of a verye French loue to our Queene and land, to seeke thys mariage, euen now so eagerly at the vtter­most tyme of hope to haue issue, and at the very poynt of most Note. daunger to her Maiestie for childbearing: whereby they think, if her Maiestie haue issue, to see eyther the mother die in childbedd (vvhich the Lord forbid) and the land left again as theyrs hath bene, to an infant: or els to see both mother and childe put in a graue, and so the land left a spoyle to forrein inuasion, and as a stack of vvood to ciuill vvars. All is one to them sauing that they desire the vvorst to befall vs. And if there be any perswader of this straunge mariage, in whom remaynes yet a simple mind but missed or miscaried, I desyre hym or her, and I charge thē as they vvill answer to God of theyr truth to their Mistres of England & English brethren, that they close theyr hand and put theyr fingar to theyr mouth, and vvaigh better hereof as vvell by the lavve of God, as of humane policie vvhich must, no doubt, agree vvyth Gods law. I cousell them to consider these daungers common to them selues vvith all other. and if they looke vvell about them, they shall find thys mariage a right vnhappy one, and on no side happy, vvheresoeuer they turne them.

For let it be that he haue issue by her and that none but feamal only: vve haue hazarded our kingdom for putting it in the hands of the father, vvho vnder colour of some tutorship to hys daugh­ter, Issue female onely. vvill haue her into Fraunce and so eyther adioyne this land to Fraunce, or mary her to some French or other stranger at hys ly­king: and all this vvhyle vve neuer the neere possession of our old right in Fraunce whych vve so much desired. for the Salique lavve barres hyr quite. And though she should come and dwel in England, yet her bringing vp being in Fraunce, her father will nousell her in hys own religion, and so she comming home shall striue to staplish popery, as the late Queene of Scotts did when shee came out of Fraunce: vvherupon ensued those bloodshedds [Page] and redde vvarres: besides the ilfauoured examples of the French Court and kings, vvhich vve vvould be loath our English princes shall learne and bring home hether.

If thys issue by Monsieur should be a son and but one sonne: then vvill he translate his Court into Fraunce, and leaue thys Issue male one & onely Viceroy. poore prouence to the mannaging of a viceroy, the greuances whereof are ynough set foorth by referring you to the procon­sulates of Rome vnder that Empire: to the vndergouernours in the former monarchies. to the viceroyes and Luogotenenti of Spayn in Naples-Cicil and here nerer in the lovv countryes. VVho like boares in a fat nevv broken vp ground, by sovving first some seedes of dissentions to breed partialities in the coun­trye, doe roote out the auncient homegrovving nobilitie, and turne vnder perpetuall slauery, as cloddes, the country people, yea and perhaps in the end, caught with the liquerishnes of go­uernment, seize thēselfe of the absolute kingdome, and deceiue their mayster, so did the auncient Monarchies melt: so did this pre sent Empire lose her prouinces and is novve become lesse then a kingdom: and so may this auncient kingdom be transferred to a rebellious seede. Such rough plovvers doe our sins deserue, to plovv deepe furrovves on our backs, if the Lord in mercy looke not on vs. I am not ignorant that some passe easily this incom­moditie Mark vvell these Eng­lishmen. of viceroy affirming it to bring honor not perill. for (say they) thys son being born here, shall be king of both kingdomes with great honor, as hath bene heretofore. But they be svveete Englishmen if you marke theyr English. vve reason of the disho­nor and seruitude vvhich comes to the nation, and they ansvvere of the honor that comes to the prince. more lyke Basciaes to the great Turke, then Christian commonvvealthmen. as though our Christian and naturall Queen could thinke any thing profitable to her, vvhich might any way though a farr off, tend to the perpe­tuall bondage of hyr people: here though they subtilly let slippe the assured hurt vvhich hereby falles to the common weale: I wyl not forget to shew hovv incertain, yea and hovv certainly peril­lous to the prince, thys honor is wherewith they flatter hyr.

[Page] Holy king Henry, as they call hym, vvhom I suppose they wyll bring in for example, vvas crovvned in Paris: and yet lost all on that side before he was a man, as I remember, or soone after, and before hys vnhappy death, he lost thys land also. vvhich losse of both came by striuing for both. So that he may with more rea­son Henry the sixth no good exam­ple to per­svvade by. be recorded emong those fallen princes at the lowest of Boc­caces vvhele, or in our English booke of fallen Maiestrates, then to be reconed vp by any faythfull English man for a patern of i­mitation to our present Queen Elizabeth. VVho so vvyl auoyd those feareful effects, must auoyd the cause from vvhence they procede and not bring such examples to be followed. This example of Henry the sixt, vvould proue like to our present case if it vvere pursued. For, the complection and constitution of Monsi­eur, is not to liue long, but to leaue his child in the cradle, for the reasons hereafter remébred. And if the byrth of thys child should any vvay endanger our Queen: the poore infant if he ouerliued shold haue tvvo ouer great scepters to play withall: euen as Hen­ry the sixth had. and so much the worse as there are euen novve one or tvvo houses in Fraunce vvhich vvould easely be saluted as kings, and of whom both Monsieur and the king that novve is, may vvell stand in feare. perhappes these men wold prouide that this chyld should be borne in Monmouth and not at vvinsor and then they would think all sure. Me thinks they should runn head­long on this remedy that are blinded in thys euill. Thus it comes oftentimes to passe, that flattery vvoundeth princes euen vvyth the very self thinges it so fairely beareth in hand.

And if he should haue a son and a daughter, so as both of them Issue male and female. ouer liuing theyr parents, the son should be actually king as vvell of hys fathers as of his mothers kingdome and then dye wythout issue: hys sister yet liuing: is it not more then probable in this case that the next prince of the blood in Fraunce vnder pretence that England vvas once vested in the blood of the French king and vnder theyr gouernment vvyl drawe it also by thys vnity of pos­session vvith the crown of Fraunce, vnder the law Salique and so quite vnqueen the desolate sister? for the least color in the worlde [Page] ioyned vvith the sword in a stronge highminded kings hande, makes a good tytle to a kingdome, euen agaynst father, mother, wyfe, brother, and sister: as storyes witnes, and according to that vvhich is sayd, No fayth in matter of a kingdome. Much more a­gaynst that poore daughter vvhich then should be a straunger in the house of Fraunce. The actuall possession of her brother, vvyll make no tytle: neyther wyll it be any plea, to say that by our lavves, lands descended from the mother are guyded to the heyrs of the part of the mother. but our issue must be battel, vvhich is a tryall most incertain, most perilous to the daughter vvho being out of possession, shal haue much adoe to find equiualiant cham­pions.

And if thys Monsieur should haue by our Queen, two sons or moe: it must needes breed forrain vvars and ciuill partaking tho­rough Two sons or moe. disagreement of the brethren, vvhyle the younger looking back to the tymes of william the first, vvould chalenge to haue kingdomes and such regall dominions deuided emong chyldren, as the Conquerer did vvith England and Normandye: and the elder knovving himselfe according to the present lavves heire to both vvould clayme both: vtterly denying this carpet conqueste of Monsienr to be any conquest lyke that of VVilliam. And so that miserable ciuill dissention in England renued after hir, which in the peacemaking mariage of her noble grandfather, and in the person of hyr royall father, and in continaunce of that ligne in hir hitherto is happyly quenched. He that confesseth all these incō ­ueniences and weenes to prouide for them with his penn in hys studye, or by acts of parliament, or by any other conditioning of oathes and sworn promises contested at theyr hygh altar of their masse, forgets the many experiences of sayths most solemnly ge­uen, falsified. on the other side he that scornes thys our particula­rizing of thys matter and putting of the case, vvhat if he haue is­sue male onely, or female onely, must be put in mind agayn, how vnlyke it is for her to haue any: hovv daungerous for her to haue but one: and hovv her yeeres doe necessarily denye her many. he must also remember on the side of Monsieur hovv fruteles a race [Page] that is. his eldest brother had none: his seconde brother but one & that a daughter: hys thyrd hath none: all of them being a forced generation by phisick after many yeeres, vvhen theyr mother feared to be put avvay as barraine. No vvhere therefore are vve to match vvith lesse hope of issue. And if it seeme curiositie that we proceede further in thys case, as to say what if Monsieur should haue both male and femall, or diuers males: I require of hym but so much foresight and casting of doubt for the happy staying of thys crovvne in the English ligne of our auneient kings, as noble men and other great landed ones at thys day haue. vvho in their vsuall conueighances do marshall the fal of theyr inheritances by limitation vpon limitation euen to the tenth son of theyr body begotten and to the tenth nephevv of theyr foresayd tenth son of hys body begotten. May it be lavvfull, so to prouied for the continuance of pelting maners in one familie of a subiect: and wil he not carefully cast a fevv doubts for holding of the crovvne vvith many principalities and dukedoms, for the preseruation of the capitall corporation of England: in respect vvhere of al other the greatest castelles, honors, and manors, are but mesnalties or rather very messuages and tenancyes paraual. Issue therefore, or no issue by thys Frenchmans body: the issue of this Frenchmans marrage is most dangerous to thys Realme, and the very consideration of it fearefull in behalfe of our lief soueraigne.

But these gloosing Frenchmē haue vvhet on some of our per­svvaders, These faire vvords make no wise man fayne. Dominiō. vvho likevvise vvhet on others, vvith remembrance of the dominions and rule vvhich theyr anncesters sometime bare in Fraunce, and vvhich this land novv vvants with some disgrace. Other of our mens teeth are made to vvater with fayre promises of reposseding those seigneuries and countryes vvhich theyr no­ble forefathers enioyed: as though, by meanes of thys mariage, they vvould set foote there (I knovv not hovv) before the french Reuenue. vvere a vvare, and sending ouer some colonies from hence of such superfluous gentilmen as themselues, they vvould holde it maugre the king there. vvith such braue vvords the false flattering frenchmen, bring fond credulous Englishmen into a supposed [Page] paradise. These brauing English gentlemen are as farre from the wisedom of theyr noble auncestets of whom they speake, as from theyr courage. It vvere verely a conquest fit for gentlemen, to as­say the recouering of our former losses, and to begin euen vvyth our last losse first. but if these mens eyther wisedome vvere such as vvere lyke to gette it, or theyr courage such as vvere lyke to keepe it, they vvould remember that in tymes passed, the noble▪ Englishmen delighted rather to be seene in Fraunce in bright ar­mour then in gay clothes and masking attyre. they did chuse ra­ther to vvinn and hold by manly force, then by such esseminate meanes. Yea vvhen they did obteyn any thyng by mariage, it was not that England vvas maryed to France, but by marying france As the wise is subiect to hir husband: so is hir coū ­try to hys land. to England. vvherein is great difference if a man haue the witt to marke it. For if eyther vve vvere Frenchmen or our nation more large and pleasaunt then Fraunce: vve might perhaps haue reason simply to desyre it. Then should our land▪ be the royall seate, our king should be resident emong vs, and our empire encreased by so many vassalles. vvhich though, by the mariages of our former kinges the flowers of kinghthood, vvould haue fallen out other­vvise in processe of tyme, to the same bondage of thys lande, if they had styll kept Fraunce, because theyr succeeding children kinges of England vvoulde haue remoued thither as into a more rich and pleasaunt kingdome out of Englande deuided from the world: yet had euen our forefathers in the dayes of those victori­ous kings, that reason to desire it which vve vvant. that is, they vvent thither vvith theyr kings to be maisters of countrey and people, and to hold it by aims as strongest: & vvheresoeuer theyr king vvent he was styll an Englishman, and trusted most & most aduaunced Englishmen. yea those kings had euer Animam reuer tendi, as I may say, into England▪ in so much as king Henrye the fift vvho had set surest foote in Fraunce, yet he had a mind to be brought after hys death out of fickle Fraunce into vvell stayed England. and here vve haue hys boanes. But in this mariage our Queen is to be maryed, and both she and we poore soules, are to be mastered and, vvhich is vvorse, mistrised to. And as for the [Page] issue he shall be meere French, no more acknovvledging vs, then that other Pharaoh which neuer knew Ioseph.

Thys therefore vvere a desyre more lyke the noble blood of those tymes, rather to fight for that vve haue not, then to daunce for that vve haue: yea, I vvill say to these dauncers for a garlonde and not for a kingly crovvne, as that duke of Glocester sayde. It vvere more commendable for these ioyly mates to demaund by word and sword those dominions whych vve haue lost, rather thē by mariage to shut the gates of recouering any thyng lost, and to open agate of loosing all that is left. And if these men vvere ey­ther regenerate with theyr lyuing brethren by the Gospel, or yf they were not degenerate from theyr deceased noble fathers, & remained but in theyr pure naturalles, they would neuer so speak for a faultor prince of Rome, and one that may be warranted to vs and our heyres for an enemy auncestrell, as I may say, and of an hatefull blood from many graundfathers. And if they had but that naturall sense vvhich all lyuing creatures haue, to eschevv in theyr kindes all contrary and hurtfull thinges, they vvould not so labour thys matter. For vvhat if some of these perswaders can English French little vvorth. talke a litle French, and peraduenture haue none other Englishe cōmendation vvherein they excel theyr poore countrymen, nor wherby to clymbe one step to that height they loke at: yea what if they cold speak french naturally: think they for a little french in theyre tongues ende, to be so much set by? alas poore men, how vainely they gape at french promises, with losse of theyr Englishe possessions: If they should haue theyr desire, it vvold not be long before theyr tongues would make theyr harts ake. It might be honiemoone awhile with them but aftervvard french would be no deinty dish, and these seely interpreters vvere happye if they might quietly stand without the dore. vvhatsoeuer therfore their estate is now, it can not be so ill, as that must needes be vnder them. they shall know hovv sweete the onely freedome in a mans naturall common wealth is, by experience of that irksome con­trary, to serue so waivvard a master as is he that by slight or force conquers. vvho though he wyll loue well the dominion so gottē: [Page] yet wil he neuer trust but esteeme vvith a vile estimation, al those that helped him to it, and scarce deeme them vvorthye to lyue in that land which they haue deliuered hym.

But the graund reason and mother argument of these perswa­ders is the gaynefull honorable and strong alliance which muste Alliance with fraunce what it is of necessity come by matching vvith the house of France: wher­on hangs an other dwainling daughter reason, that great partye, forsooth, that Monsieur can make vs in that kingdome. Touch­ing eyther of whych reasons though I suppose they can say no­thing for maintenance of theyr conceipt, but that is alreadye in theyr seuerall places eyther expresly remoued, or more then by the way ansvvered: yet for theyr pleasures who think themselues neuer answered onles theyr reason haue an expresse reproofe, I vvill be bould with the reader and a little passe order to obiect it against me selfe agayne and handle it a part. First I demaunde of these aduenturous commonwealminglers vvhether they vveene thys strength and honor to be had in the lyfe of this king? and if so, then vvhither by hys ayde and friendly alliance? if they say yea, yt is contrary to that they say in an other odd reason of brideling the king, who surely will neuer strengthen that vvhich must curbe him, and it is proued also that if he and his brother ioyne in any thyng, they vvyll doe it smally for englands good.

If they thynke thys great match of honorable strength in the present kings lyfe, to be by reason of the great party onely that Monsieur can make in Fraunce without the king: they are vvyde The sely great party of Monsieur and litle think of tvvo other houses, which according to the two chiefe factions in Fraunce, haue most deuoute fauourers and addicted follovvers, as men bene respectiuely mynded towardes them and theyr professions. vvherof, the one house can haue more exequutioners of any hys cruell determination to offer vi­olence, and the other more faythfull ayders and companions of lyfe and death in defence of theyr consciences liues and goods, then euer Monsieur could bring into the field vvhen he ioyned hymselfe with the Malcontents eyther in Fraunce or the lovve conntryes: or then euer he coulde haue either to rescue hym out [Page] of hys feyned restraint, or to fall to hym for hys gard, when he se­med to ruun in some feare from the Court. Yea, of these two par­tialities in Fraunce, as vve haue no neede of hys helpe for vvin­ning vs the one part, who be already, in the feare of God & chri­stian loue, so vnited to vs, and in all leeful thinges so affectionate to the Queenes maiesty, as, there homeloyalty saued, they vvysh her al prosperytie and long life to the glory of God and aduance­ment of the truth: So is not Monsieur in such credit vvith the o­ther factiō as he can gain vs ther harts. For albeit, that be his best side indeed, yet is he of so smal reckoning among the papists, that Monsieurs companiōs vnles the king will, he shall not haue one great on so much as hys companion or counsaylor. For looke into the gouernment of hys pryuate affayres: and though he be a great prince the kinges Counsailors Seruants. brother, yet hath he not one man of mark or of great credit that followes hym: but a crew of vnruly youthes. Yea when he takes any publike enterpryse in hand, as that of Flaunders, whych stode hym so much vpon in honor, and whych vvas vvyth secrete intel Enterprises ligence betvveen the king and hym, and by collusion: yet because the king could not, for bewraying that counsail, declare his vvyll ouertly and lyking to that voyage, not one Lorde of name accō ­panyed him. And let vs beleue our eyes in this his woeng of Eng­land. VVoeng messenger. No doubt very good manners which he can not but knovv required as vvell in regard of hyr Maiestie as of hys own highnes, some proportion to haue ben kept in the quality of his messen­ger sent to her Maiestie. It is therfore vvant of hauing at his deuotion such as had ben meet for such an Ambassage. Els had vve had an other manner of man, and not thys, I wot not vvhat, who hath no credit in Fraunce but as a minion of Monsieurs & what­soeuer place he presently hath, it is much increased euen since he came hether to vs and by the credit hereof. In so much as I think scorne in hyr Maiesties behalfe, and the whole land takes it as an old french frump, that no worthyer or nobler person is emploi­ed in so worthy and noble a message to our Queen.

But letting goe the poore party of Monsieur to be hoped for in Fraunce, we wyll in sinuate the small valew therof, by shewing [Page] in a word or two, hovv little worth the accepting in alliance, the house of Fraunce is: eyther in thys present king as our brother, or in Monsieur, though he were reigning french king and (which the Lord forbid) out husband. It is alteady proued that Fraunce is our auncient foe and that theyr very frendships haue proued enemityes to vs. Here then we seeke to make a nevv frend of an Fraunce, an old foe. A new friēd. old enemy. such an one as vve may not trust, as well for the non tryall of hys loue, as for the often tryal of hys hatred. I remember that Hector and Achilles are supposed to haue found the verye gifts of enemies to be deadly dangerous, yea such gyfts as vvhen they had them, made for theyr defence: vvhereupon the Greci­ans had in prouerbe that, enemies gyfts were no gyfts. And if there be such a malicious influence of an enemy into his gyftes, that they seeme as it were, poysoned, and can not be saufely ta­ken out of hys hand, especially by a prince: Hovv can we without desperate daunger receiue into our bosom the old enemy hym­selfe? certainly, we may take vp thys prouerb, & the truth ther­of is as authentike as that other of the Grecians, by a much more stronge reason: that is, that an old enemy friend, is no friend. vvhich prouerb, though in christian reformed men it may nowe and then be falsified. yet do I not see, but in men vnregenerate by the gospell, it remaynes true: and to beleue it false, is perilous to prince or priuate person in choyse of friend or allie.

But if these perswaders vvyll needes haue thys paynted man to be a man, and thys no frend to be a friend: yet is he of necessity a A dāgerous friend. most daungerous friend, by reason of hys largely spred dominion vvhich makes hym esteeme himselfe as the iron pot, and vs as the earthen crock, vvith whom vvhen he floteth on the sea, he weens he can dash vs into shards at hys pleasure, according to that em­bleme of Alciat. And though by the might of the hygh potter of mankind, & framer of kingdoms, he hath found our sides as hard as yron, and vve haue found hym as brickel in our hands as clay: yet the pryde he conceiueth in his owne might, vvil make thys dreadles enemy, an intollerable and an insolent friend to vs, on­lesse he may find vs as seruiceable as he found his old friend Scot [Page] land. vvherein his old rancour styll lurkes and vvyll prouoke him to take any occasion. Thus vnder trust on our side, shal be shrovv ded treason on theyr part: vvhich could neuer haue hys effect, yf vve vvere styll enemies standing on our own gard and in nothing trusting them.

Again, a most vnsure and slippery frend he is. for they that seke vtilem amicitiam, as he now doth, vvil also sodenly break friend­ship, inhonestae vtilitatis causa. vvherein he hath the start of vs be An vnsure friend. fore vve ioyne, vvhile vve standing on our honor and Christian conscience, as it vvere, at the listes, shall giue none offence but vvith much adoe take any giuen, pretermitting the best occasion of resisting in time the beginnings: he, that hath made ship vvrack of honor and conscience, shal make hys profit of our conscience, and lye in vvait to fall out for aduantage, and to break thorough euen vvhatsoeuer surest band of alliance.

Furthermore, a needlesse friendship is it vvhich vve seeke. For hetherto vvithout theyr helpe and in despight of their beard vve continually haue holden our ovvn, and many times preuailed vp A needlesse friend. on theyrr hauing thereforh tryed theyr mallice of 500. yeeres to be contemptible, let vs not vvithout any need in the vvorlde ac­cept theyr friendship novv vvhen it is most doubtfull: least the ti­tle of loue compasse that which hatred could neuer come neere. Lastly, as in common alliances, it is no credit to entertain a reiec A dishono­rable alliāce. ted friendship: so is thys french alliance dishonorable to vs, in re­spect it is the refuse of Scotland, vvho being vveary of their pride and vntruth, haue cast them off novv a good whyle since and all ther old neere felovvship, vvith resolute purpose so to continue because they find much more profit and safetie in these more e­stranged termes of neighbourhode vvherein they stand present­ly then in theyr false & insolent former friendship. And to speak truth, the honest late dealings of French are such, and they so re­noumed for an hatefull seede of an hatefull house, as, I suppose, they are not like to find friendship els vvhere vvith any Christian prince of Maiestie, especially to ioyne vvith them in this friend­ship of mariage. vvhich made theyr present king Henry the thyrd [Page] as haughty as he is, to stoupe to a mean mans daughter a vassal of his own And what if it vvere possible to make some thing of this no friend? to hold thys vvett Eele by the tayle, as they say, and to haue his friendship fast, and that the same vvould be in any thing needfull, profitable vvithout perill and not dishonorable, which A dammage able friend­ship. Burgundy. in no vvise I admit: yet vvill our losse be otherwise far greater thē hys friendship can yeld. For first this new found french friend of fraunce, vvilpresently cost vs our old friend of Burgondy: vvhich faythfull societie, yf our vallant politîque auncesters preferred before that vntrusty alliance vvith Fraunce, enen then vvhen it was not yet maryed to Austrich, nor crovvned vvith Spayn: vvhen it vvas not yet enlarged vvith hir Italian dominions and midsea Iles, nor enriched vvith her golden Indians: & if also then it were more profitable to vs then Frannce: hovv shall Fraunce be novv to be preferred before it, or proue more profitable to vs novv then that? And it is not onely for peace and vvarr, that Burgondy hath ben entertayned before Fraunce but euen to this day, the merchaunts vvyll tell you that the onely lovv countryes here at hand of that dominiō, are more worth to vs for venting the sur­plusage and aboundance of our country commodities, and for the transporting hither of the most necessary merchandise of forreign parts, then is all Fraunce. Secondly, vve shall for thys ouer­thvvart friend of Fraunce, a professed enemy of religion, vvhich onely knitts the trueloue knott: cast of Scotlande a brother in Christ. vvhose profession as it hath made them nevv men in loue Scotland. and loyallty to vs: so do our deserts tovvard them hither vnto, & theyr need of our help henceforth, make them vvholly ours & vndoubtedly. And if vve vvere in a brotherly perpetuall league vvith that state, such as both our professions requires of vs both, and such as our peculiar neighbourhode begs of vs, who haue one bounds of the sea, and but a small brooke that partes vs: doubtles our mutual friendship vvould proue more mutually stronge and profitable, then vvith any potentate seuered from vs by seas, vvhose fayth if vve could assure our selues of: yet can vve not haue it at all needes but must tary for the vvind and tyde. All the [Page] religious states of Germany, and other vvhosoeuer that haue Allemain. gon from Rome, vvill at once throvv avvay theyr Christen esti­mation of vs. Those protestant princes vvho hauing tryed the faithlesnes of thys generation, doe set their bodyes, possessions, and honors in the gappe for defence of Gods people in seuerall countryes, from sclauery of conscience, bodies, goods vvyues and children, vvyll in theyr lour lament our vnhappines that wil not not be vvarned by theyr harmes: vvherein I merueil not a little at some vvho regarding neither modestie nor conscience for the aduauncing of thys mariage do sclaunder those religious princes as recommenders to vs of thys mariage agaynst vvhich their deedes doe speake and theyr vvords cry out.

And for all these losses I knovv not vvhat nevve friend comes in by thys house of Valoys in Fraunce, oneles it be the house of Ottoman the great Turke. vvith vvhom though Fraunce haue Ottoman the great Turke. holden, not a truce for a time, but a continual amitie, vvhich mought vvell ynongh be the cause vvhy the Pope decked hym vvith hys tytle of most christian king: yet haue vve of England euer defyed hym vvith the rest of those kingdomes that beare the name of Christ. and it vvyll be for our Christian honor, that no match vvorke the contrary, but that in thys poynt vve may styll hold vvyth them, as vvell in respect of our common detestation to hys blasphemous Mahomet, as for that of all other chri­stians vve least need to feare hys might, being so farr separate as Europe is large.

If any man think that vve may hold al these old & latter friendships: and that thembracing vvith Fraunce is not streightwayes an vnfolding vvith all the rest: he neyther considers the differēce in religion betvvene Scotland and Fraunce, nor the diffidence betvven Fraunce and Spayn, for the lovv countryes, the vvhich as Spayn hath in possession so doth Fraunce many tymes mut-ter a title thereto. This vniuersall perswader, I say, of all friend­ships and especially with Fraunce, forgets hovv in times passed, our king Henry the eyght could not be at once friend vvith the Emperor and the french king: but the league vvith one vvas pre­sent [Page] diffiance to the other: and that Scotland so long as they held Fraunce, vvas euer at deadly foode vvith England, and since they clapped hand with England, they haue not missed al most enemy lyke attempts of Fraunce,

And to put hym out of doubt, hovv odious all Germanny will hold vs for our felovvship sake vvith Monsieur: let hym remē ­ber hovv farr from the dignity of a prince, they enterteyned Henry, then not single Monsieur and onely a brothrr of Fraunce, as is our Monsieur Fraunces, but elect king of Poland a piece of Germany: vvhen, to take reall possession thereof, he passed tho­rough theyr territories. some of them, vvith much ado and after many reproches for his cruell falshods, sending him onely a bare pasport which the deuil might haue had to be quickly packing, as did the duke of Saxony, to his vvorthy and princely prayse. Some Duke of Saxe. Palsgreue. of them, graunting hym a more free saufconduit, yet vvould not vouchsafe to see thys great French prince, as the prince Palatine, that good man. vvhose blame vvas more in that action for hys ouermuch mildnes, then vvas hys prayse for curtesie. Other of those states, as Spire, bending & turning the mouthes of al theyr great ordinauce vppon him on vvhich side of the city or streets Spires. soeuer he vvent, as it had ben at a common enemy of mankind. Other, as in Franckford, saluting hym by the vnkingly name of the king of butchers in fraunce. vvhich though it vvere by the Frankford. mouth of one principall man among them: yet vvas it ratified by the vvhole state, vvhen he complayning to the Burgmaisters of thys reproch as of a high vvrong, they thought it not cryminall nor to be pursued Exofficio against the accused, but onely at the cōplaynants pryuate action. vvherin he fearing euidēce enough so proue the saying true durst not put in cautiō but departed with shame enough and bare the reproch avvay on his backe. In all those states and cities hys welcome vvas such, as vvhen he came againe stealing out of Poland, he would not come back that vvay to thank them or to haue the like, but chused rather to goe about by sea and land the farther and more daungerous vvay. The smal reckoning vvhich that man like nation makes of Fraunce, ap­peares [Page] by the many happy aydes from thence vvhich haue bid­den base to Valols at his owne gole in hys own field and at the gates of hys strongest vvalles, hunting the French vvolfe in de­fence and reliefe of the french oppressed lambs.

A vvise man vvithout descending into these sensible particu­lars vvould in his vnderstanding see the very generall nature of suspitious frendship betvvene neighbour kings: hovv lyke it is to the loue betwene a iealous man and his wyfe in this one poynt: they be both of them feareful and iealous of theyr ovvn states, & can not patiently endure that theyr ally should be any thyng great vvith an other confine gouernment, but streightvvay euery countenance breedes a suspition, and euery suspition a restraint of entercourse and trafique or open vvar.

I might fetch examples farther of and ovvt of tholder storyes of Grecians and others. vvhere euer the societye withone neigh No plurali­ty or tot­quot in stately friendship bor was enemity with another state, according to that one great social lavv emong others, vvhich is, that frends and enemies must be common. But it is more then manifest hereby hovv vngodly and dangerous, how incertain & needles, hovv dishonorable & vnprofitable, thys neer French coniunction is in it selfe. again, it is detected as euidently, hovv many friends in Christ, hovv many confederacies in old frend ship, how many alliances in blood, and hovv many sworn brotherhoods in vvars, this one forsworn brotherhode of Fraunce vvil loose vs.

It followeth then necessarily vpon that vvhich hath ben sayd, that we who already beare the floure delice quartarly, receiue no honor by ioyning with it Par pale. And sith our Queen rightfully beares it, as king of Fraunce, and he occupieth it as actuall french king: I beleeue it will pose the king of Heraltes of eyther realm to make alouing agreement and in one Eschocheon vvell to marshal, according to theyr rules, the selfe same cote of the v­surper vvith the selfe same kingly cote of the right heire, hauing Lavves of armes. no difference. For, though it may be in other noble gentlemens cotes: it vvyll hardly be don in kings cotes. For Heraltes vvhych are vpright iudges in these causes must imagin but one king in a [Page] land, as but one son in the heauens. perhappes, to salue this sore they vvill take vp the old french coate of crawling Toades. But the noble Lyon vvill chuse him no such feere. hys nature is to a­bide Tode. no venemous thing in hys denn: hovv should he then em­brace a Toade for his make? This difficultye of Heraltes is the Lyon. least of a thousand & might soone be dispatched, vvere not those other great ones, vvhich euen by this small difficulty also in that kind, are bevvrayed. that is, that thys mariage seemes to striue vvithall lavves: that of armes and al.

Those therefore that persvvade this band of strange alliance, must needs be such Englishmen as find themselues not aduanced in thys state according to that desert vvhich they conceiue in thē selues and therefore disdeyn at others good estate: or els such, as are past hope heare and hauing nothing, knovve they can loose nothing what change or tombling soeuer come. but these be de­generate dangerous Englishmen, vvho for the satisfieng of theyr disdainful or hongry humor care not to let the common vveale blood euen in her Basilica vaine, vvho hauing now liued, by Gods grace, and through the great loue of hir subiects tovvards hir, ma­ny yeeres in a miraculous peace: and ben a beholder and iudge of other lands troubles: should now by thys mariage throw, as it vvere, into the sea, not her ring vvith Policrates, but hir precious selfe: and putting hir prosperitye to the plunge: send it to flote or sinck, by dravving into England a great spark of that family which hath ben a fyre brand in Europe. VVe can not hold this fire in our bosome, and not be burned therevvith. Novv that vvhich is hurt­full to the vvhole cōmon weale must be noysome to euery part.

To begin wtih the chiefe thereof, hir Maiestie, in vvhom as two persons or bodies (as they say) do presently fal in consideration, the one her naturall body, such as other priuate ons haue, the o­ther, her body politique or common vveale body vvhich is her body of Maiestie, incorporate in vnderstanding of the lavves: euē so seuerall discommodities and hurts are here to fal in considera­tion also, in respect of these hir tvvo bodyes. which all beit they be of that nature as nothing can be harmefull to one, but the [Page] same is ful of harme to both: yet haue I in speaking of the com­mon wealth handled also her maiesties ciuill body: as that vvhich can no more be remoued from the common vveale then the heade from the body: and as that which hath mutuall suffering vvith the common vveale in weale and vvoe, as hath the head vvith the body.

And for her very selfe or selfe self, as I may say, which is hir na­turall body, though it godly pleaseth hir, according to the lavves The Queen in hir natural and priuate consideratiō of all vvell ordered realmes, and maner of all good princes, to a­bide thaduise and consent of all her estates, not to conclude hyr mariage before she parle in parliament vvith hyr subiects, before she consult vvith the lawes and call the commō vveale as it were to common counsail, so as she on the one side may chaleng of it an assured maintenance of her doing vvith body and goods, as a thing vvhich had their generall consent, and the vvhole land, on the other side, may say, I haue chosen such a Lord as I dare put in trust with my Queene, for so much as it also is to be maried with her, and in sort to be gouerned by him that shal be her gouernor: yet is she for her part to haue her particular lyking and harts contentation in this match, in respect of that life she must lead vvith a husband, so as shee may say vvithin her selfe, I am gladly satis­fyed in this choyse. els should she be in vvorse poynt thē the worst of hyr wardes, of vvhom she doth not so absolutely claym the mariage by any tenur, but that yet her tēder may be their choise. Let vs then see vvhither this prince be a conuenable mariage in regard of her priuate person, vvho is already proued most vnwor­thy and extremely daungerous for hyr princely personage.

Here comes first to our remembraunce, her constant dislike & indisposed minde tovvarde mariage frō the flovver of her youth Dislike to mariage in generall. vvhich in al that loue her, bredes feare of a discontēted lyfe, if at these yeeres she take not her best heede and faythfullest aduice in hyr mariage. Thys first difficulty on the part of hyr Maiestie, offers a second as great a difficulty on the part of his excellency, Monsieur no Paragon. that is that he shold hardly be the man that choise man of choyse in all respects to content both eye and mynd.

[Page] And if anye that persvvades this mariage think to haue quite himselfe substantially out of these tvvo difficulties onely by a bare obiecting of them vvith referring ouer to bee aunsvvered by her maiestie, as in vvhose hart rests the best knovvledge of hyr disposition to mariage, and contentation to this man: such one must be told, that he doth not his bounden endeuour, especially if hys place giue any leaue to debate at large vvith her. In thys poynt, belike, he is to learn of euery parent or other vvhatsoeuer that hath a louing care of theyr daughter or deere friend. vvho vpon a mariage moued vvill not set them dovvn and rest in saying, you knovv vvhither it be fit for you to mary, and you knovve vvhither his mā be fit for you & to your lyking: but cannot con tent themselues, onlesse they presse to helpe hir vvith theyr best aduise laying about to search and enquire, vvhether he be such as they vvish. and if they find him othervvise, they lay the matter forth in tyme and franckly tell it her, least thorough their silence or negligence, she fall in daunger of an ill husband, the greatest crosse that may be layd on a poore vvomans shoulders. The same should be much more diligently don in mariage of a Queen and her realme and it is a faythles careles part, to leaue hir helples in hir choise of the person and personall conditions of hir husband to hir ovvn onely consideration. vvhich hovv so euer sufficient it be, so much the more hath she need of help, as the matter is more vveightie in hir then in common matches. I merueile therfore they could not see, that as that meate brookes not vvell vvhich is crammed in against the stomak: and as nothing is sayd to be don egregie vvhich is vndertaken inuita Minerua: so surely in thys mariage the successe of ioy and contentation can not be promi­sed, if ther be eyther a generall vntowardnes to desire that state of lyfe, or none harty affection tovvardes that person which see­keth.

And for the presence or shewe of this mans person, although I vvot vvell, that as for most part the svveet and amiable or croked His person. conditions of mind ben (as I may say) vvritten in the lines of a louely or ill shape of body or face: so contrarivvise that sometime [Page] a vertuous mind is meanely lodged and dwels in a homely cot­tage: yet doe I not gladly medle with thys particular, but vvil al­so referr it to hir Maiesties enteruieue, if it must needes come to that poynt, Onely this I humbly besech hir, that she wyll vievv it and suruieu it, and in vieuing she vvil fetch hir hart. vp to hir eyes and cary hir eyes down to hir hart. And I besech God graunt hir at that time to haue hir eyes in hir heade euen in that sence in vvhich Salomon placeth a wise mans eyes in his head: and then I doubt not but vpon conference of hir wyse hart and hir eyes togither, he shal haue his dispaching aunswer. But of many circū ­stances of hys body I cannot hold my peace because I hope be­ing vvell conceiued and digested vvith other thinges that are and may be sayd herein they vvyll let this enteruieu.

I may not nor meane not to deny his great place that righte vvhich is due to all men: that is to recken reports and bruits as re His ill spent youth hither to. ports and bruites. And though they speake in all laguages, of a merueilous licentious & dissolute youth, passed by this brother­hoode: and of as strange incredible partes of intemperancie play ed by them, as those worst of Heliogabalus: yet will I not rest vpon coniecturalls. Onely this I touch lightly and cannot passe vt­terly in so high a matter as is the mariage of my Queen, that it is vvorth thinquiry after. For if but the fourth part of that misrule bruted should be true, it must needes dravv such punishment frō God, vvho for most part punisheth these vile sins of the body, e­uen in the very body and bones of the offenders, besides other plagues to thyrd and fourth generation: as I vvould my poore lyfe might redeeme the ioyning of Queene ELIZABETH to such one in that neer knot vvhich must needes make hir halfe in the punishments of those his sinnes. Hir Maiesties father had a law passed by parliament in his tyme, that whoso had vnlawfully knovven that vvoman with vvhom the king was to mary, and did not before mariage come in and bevvray it, shold vpon the mat­ter aftervvard detected, be holden litle better then a traytor. Hys care to haue a good woman vvas Christian and royall: he vvyst vvell, as the preambles of those statutes purport, beside the pry­uate [Page] contentation to him selfe that as vvel the sinnes of father & mother as the plague of theyr sins descends to the children: and considering hys chyldren were to be left gouernours of the land, which mightso also haue part in these punishments, his care vvas so much more to be approued because it vvas also for the com­mon vveale. The same reason is to moue in vs all a harty desire thas hir Maiesty should mary vvith such a house and such a per­son, as had not prouoked the great vengeance of the Lord. And surely considering the haynousnes of the sin in euery person, with the concurrant circūstances in this case of a prince, the law was a iust law. vve can haue no such law against strangers: therfore, in hir Maiesties name I require at the hands of al English Ambassadors & other trauayling Englishmē abrod, & of all vvise men at home, that they vvilbe hir diligent espialls herein: geuing faithful aduer­tisement, not of such seldome or small fautes as men corruptly call tryckes and pranks of a young gentilman, but vvhither hys lyfe hath ben so monstrously wicked as is reported. for it is no small matter for a Queene the head of the lande to ioyne in any maner with that person ouer vvhom the ineuitable plages of the most true Lord do hang. This is to approch to the plague when it commeth, and not, as Salomons wise man doth, to withdrawe hymselfe when he seeth it.

His youth of yeeres is an apparant inequalitie of this match, & a secret discouery of his mynd not singlie affected vvith true and His youth presently. simple loue to that he should chiefely seeke. for emong vs of the meaner sort, not one in a thousand of those younger men that seke ther elder matches, but doth it in side respects. and hovv can vve thinke other wise in a young prince, heire apparant of france. It is quite contrary to his young appeties which vvyll otherwise haue theyr desire. It is therefore eyther for want of liuing and mayntenance to hys mynd, and then is he not fit for this realme: or els is it certenly for some other notable practise vvhich muste needes be dangerous, because so great a man must be the instru­ment and because it is not disclosed.

He is differing from hir Maiestie in religion: thagreement wher His religion. [Page] in as it worketh by Gods blessing, a most neer knot of good vvill and perfect liking in all things euen emong straungers: so, by the vvords of Christ, a disagrement in this kind brings the svvord be­tvvene father and children, brethern and sisters, betvvene a man and hys vvife. Yea vve haue seene in our dayes, parentes and hus­bands being papistes, thorough the vnnaturall cruelty of that I­talian heresie, vpon the least occasion and vvithall gredinesse to haue deliuered vp to death their children & vvife. And if al bands be little enough to hold loue and to worke a comfortable lyfe here in earth against the many miseryes of this noysome pilgri­mage: let vs not dispise that vvhich is the chiefest and strongest.

And which I may not forget who so marieth with any pope­vvorshipper can not tell vvhen to be sure of him. for they haue Pope playes fast & loose. in mariages. one knife to vnloose all alliances vvith kingdoms and fayth giuē to princes, that is the popes dispensation, vvhich is so iust in it self as vvhither it bynd or loose it may not be examined. if therefore after our mariage (vvhich God first let) the changeable decree of a pope vvill pronounce the mariage no mariage, eyther vpon some nevv aduantage to the church of Rome, either els because Monsieur could haue no children by our Queen, & for that there must of necessity sit vpon that throne some of the blessed seed of Medices, vvhich vvas sent into Fraunce from a pope: no doubt this son of the pope in Fraunce is as much bound by popish obe­dience to leaue against Gods lavv his vvife, as his son of Spayne vvas to take against Gods forbodd his own sisters dau [...]ter. And as much conscience vvill the holy father make to breake a lavv­full mariage for his aduauntage, as to licence a lavvles. vvhat a feare of dishonor vvorse then the dishonor, vvere this, to depend vpon the incertain pope vvhither vve shall at any time hereafter be decreed to haue liued in vnlavvfull mariage yea or no. If any man anusvver hereto that this doubte is too farre fetched and hath no reason to be conceiued: let him at once take this replye for maintenance of thys and diuers other like reasons that are & may be made. That vvhosoeuer is carefull of the life and honour of a prince, casts more doubts then for a common person. In [Page] theyr palaces they must haue more gards for night and day, more porters more hus shirs and more doers to come to them euen in time of peace, then common persons haue. But vvhen the enemy of a prince comes to be considered of, then princes will vse theyr longest hands of strength, theyr tendred nosed coūsailors & most percing sight of theyr vvise and faythfull seruants. and who wold not suspecte any trechery from that Roman ennemy of enemyes vvhich like a iugling Aegiptian playes fast and loose with all the vvorld and is singularly a deuowed enemy to our Queene as he vvas lately to hir Maiesties father, because he refused and reiected one of his like godlesse dispensations for a lyke lawles mariage.

An other reason might be made a gainst thys mariage, that, if His absence by being chosen K. dls where. thorough his ambitious mind, not so blamevvorthy in such a prince as hurtfull to such as should chuse him, during the life of his brother he should be chosen king elsvvhere: it might cause his absence litle to hir maiesties comfort. But this reason I bring not for the force of it or for vvant of other. for I suppose the late ho­norable leauing of Poleland vvilbe a lesson to any kingdome or state of free election how they shall chuse this brother. If there­fore as Qu. Maries counsailors had that respect to hir high honor that they did not mary hir to K. Phillip till he▪ was a king in the lyfe of his father: so likewise these men vvould not talke of Mon­sieur, til he were hir maiesties peere by being chosen king by the franke election of any▪ state: I vvould not feare thys matter. The onely cause therefore vvhy I thought this reason worth any mē ­tion is by that occasion to shew the strange aunswer that is made thereunto by these persvvaders, who in theyr common discourse and talke for this mariage, obiecting a gainst themselues this danger of his absence, doe yet agayn bring in K. Phillip, as theyr ex­ample, that Monsieur need not be long absent from his wife, no more then vvas K. Phillip. First, all that they can say herein, is, that he neede not belong absent. Then can vve say that thys K. Phillip was so long away that his absence pinched Qu. Maries hart, and killed hir with vnkindnes. But in deed I feare not this inconuenient for his being chosen king any vvhere.

[Page] One head reason yet remaines which perhaps you think long for and me thinks I haue sayd nothing in this last part till I haue vsed it. That is the danger to her maiesties person many wayes, namely and aboue the rest, lest this should be but a frandulent se A capitall perill iustly suspected. king of hir by him, the more easely to possesse an other afterward Of which meaning, there is such apparant presumption, and the great peril ensuing hath such euidence of being ineuitable: as we may not rest in the credulous security of these smoth dangerous words: that, in good sooth, it is not so to be thought of by a chri­stiā prince, but to be reiected as a senceles conceipt, once to sus­pect, that he wold seeke to any other so far inferior to our Queen in Godlines, vertue, vvisedom, beauty, and vvhose peere in many respects is not to he found. This is but Reinards flattering of our kingly byrd and vvell natured Chanticlere in his goodly svveete voyce and fayre fethers.

VVhen noble men and princes in Fraunce, stoode on theyr honor for all theyr actions, and vvould say nothing but true: they vvere vvorthely beleeued in the honorable vvord of a noble mā. Now that they haue degenerate from the honor of auncient no­ble mē & their othes ben traps to deceiue: it vvere foolishnes ioined with peril, to clad such Idolnoblemen vvith that purple gar­ment of credit in their honorable vvord, which is due onely to true Nobility. Yea we are derely taught, not to heleeue them in theyr oth. And this rule that they presse vs vvith, of not suspecting lightly, holds more streightly emong priuate men in their priuate matters, then for maiestrates and counsailors vvho in their char­ges for church and common weale, cannot lightly be to chary or suspitious. And that vve may not here seeme to forge our selues a doubt, but that wee suspect such a thing as is very lyke to be meant by them: and the very lyke vvhereof hath ben committed by them heretofore: let vs speake of this forrein prince sauing his grace that vvhich othervvise vve could forbeare euen of reue­rence to a prince vvere it not that it makes necessarily to the helth and vveale of our naturall princ.

VVhat then is this Christian prince thus set before vs whose [Page] credit must be so sacred as no charity must suspect it? he is the brother of the most Christian king, so called. many foule men haue The credit that the french king lends his brother. fayre names All the popes canonized dead saints are not saintes: no more are all hys lyuing treschrestiens, of the best sort of chri­stians. This most christiē family of kings, is that vvhich euer made more deinty to fall out vvith the great Turke, then vvith other e­uen popish Christians: and hath held peace with the Turke when others haue ben in vvars: vvith out regard of that secrete society, vvhich is, without speaking, contracted betwene men of one re­ligion against a common enemy: and vvhich, as a former fayth, is implicatiuely excepted in any truce vvith an infidel. Yea which former fayth ought to be kept, though vvith breach of expresse words of any subsequent league: and therfore more then treschres tienne heede to be taken in such leagues. This is that most Chri­stien Prince, vvhose brother not long since, accepted a kingdom vvith promise and oth to maintaine therein thopen exercise of Turcisme, arrianisme, iewisme, papisme, anabaptisme, and such monstruous professions besides the truth of Christes gospel. this is that most Christien prince, vvhose most christien brother, hath sworn to the tolleration of our religion in his owne kingdome: vvhich yet he seekes to destroye by slieghte or force vvith out choyse. This is that most christien court, vvhere Macciauel is theyr nevv Testament, and Atheisme is theyr religion. yea whose vvhole pollicie and gouernment, seemes te set the Turkish tiran­ny as a patarne, and they dravve as neer to it as theyre auncient lavves vvill any vvayes suffer in so small time. To conclude, thys is that treschrestien thron, vvhich to the shame of all kinges (so much as in them lay) by the disceite of an oth, in person of a king vvith some hypocrisie in religyon, by the bayt of a mariage, by hope of assurance in forreine leagues, by the base abusing of hys ovvn mouth to speake fayre, and personall visiting him in hys sicknes vvhose lyfe he sought, stained themselues vvith the blood of a number of theyr subiects vvhich resting vpon theyr kynges fayth, came vpon confidence vnder the lee, as it vvere, of rheyr protection. Insomuch as they are novv bankrupt of all credite [Page] vvith theyr ovvn subiects, and vvith theyr own brother in lavve, husband to theyr sisters. so as vpon no royal oth they vvil come in▪ but stand on theyr gard, and keepe tovvnes for theyr defence, Neither vvould the king of Nauarr trust theyr sister so far, as to His sister not trusted by hir husb. receiue hir for his vvyfe: til her mother rydyng rounde aboute Fraunce caryed her to him, and together with her daughter put him in quiet possession of more tovvnes for hys fvrther defence. And yet vve may not suspect this Christian prince a brother of the same brother and sister. and if vve do suspect him in behalfe of our Queenes sauftie, we are streightvvayes sencelesse and suspiti­ous, without ground of our conceites: and vvho so forsoth, deui­seth these doubtes, vvill deuise anye thinge that may hinder this mariage. This dare I boldly say that he who casts not these doubtes, is not vvisely suspitious. and he that passeth them ouer being once put in doubt, may passe ouer any thing that makes for hir maiestes good estate. And a most strange dreame it is of theirs vvho will haue thys match a bridle to the french king, a snaffle to Spayn, and a stopgamble to all practises of competition for po­pery, or any other trayterous attempt at home or abroad. vvher­as, all the contrary, it layes the raynes at randon on the necke of thys horse of hidden treason, and sets a rider of choyse vpon him for the nonce: yea and opens all the portes to forraine enne­mies.

For to come neere the person of thys our french prince: could all his countenances of being restrayned vppon his brothers first Monsieur & his owne credit. returne from Poleland: and fallinges out with him aftervvard, his ronning from his mother: his secrete vvithdravving from the Court: and the Queen mothers trotting betwene hir sonnes as a broker of reconcilation, win him so much credit emong the pro­testants in Fraunce: as they vvould trust him for a leader, and not hold him stil for a suspect? could hys goodly aydes offered to the states in the low countryes, vvith personall taking vpon him their defence, preuaile so farr: that he could come any farther vvithin them, then that they could by their own forces vvel auoyde hym? No no, the hurtfull helpe of thys shiuering reede hath appeared [Page] by the euent in both countryes, and that it is no staffe of trust. This mach no stopp to practises of competition or popery. Most vnhappy therefore are they that may take heede by others, whose hands it hath hurt and vvill not. But let vs against our con science admit Monsieur to be in this matter simply seely or sim­ply bonest: yet is he set a work and ruled by his brother and mo­ther, and this sute follovved for him vvith the manifest goodwyll of hys mother the motherpractiser of France. VVith the winking of the pope, vvho though against the mariage of the king of Na­uarre Qu. mother the mouer. Pope vvin­keth vvils. French king denieth not. to their sister, and against Monsieurs voyage in to Flanders, he sent his legat. yet here he sits quiet, vvhich is a token that hee lookes through his fingers. This sute is pursued vvith the good a­lovvāce of the french king. For Monsieurs messenger hath con­tinuall conuersation at home and abroade and one table vvyth the kings Ambassador, a thing playnely arguing the kings good liking and continuall intelligence vvith Monsieur for the procee­dings herein. The strange papistes and our rebelles are in deepe silence, not one opens his mouth against this mariage. Papistes for­rain & rebel silent.

Thys prince can not but, eythe [...] for loue or feare, be great with the Guysian duke. and in deede of very late more theu euer, euen vvhen ît vvas sayd he should come ouer hither, he vvas neerely in vvard and in deepe conferences vvith that duke, vvho is to vs Guyse. an enemy by kind, and for neer consanguinity a fast friend to the late scottish Queen. vvho is the most hidden and pestilent aduersary creature that liues, to our Prince & state. The fayrest daugh Scottish Mary. ter of the pope, and shotanchor of all papistes. for as the holye league hath tyed all these great ons togither by oth and their du­ty to the pope vvhom they wyll not displease to hate to the death all religious princes: so haue they voued it in the fourth degree agaynst our prince, as chiefe support of religion, and in vvhose life or death (as they thinke) dependes the exercise or not exercise of the Gospell in England and elsvvhere. Againe besides theyr afec­tiō in many other respects to this late Scottish Queen, they haue set her down as the onely loadestone, that should drawe traytors together and rent our kingdome: that should set vp I dolatrous altars from S. Michils mount to Barvvick, and make al the Israel [Page] of England and Scotland to sinne. Hyr iniurious challenges in Fraunce, hir great and disloyall attempts in england, hir confede­racies vvith the Spanish Generalls or regents in Flaunders: vvyl easely tell a wise man, vvhat deuotion she hath to the Queene & vvhat impatient greedines to snatch the crowne from hir heade by oportunity or importunity, vvhich so euer come first. There open and violent attemptes of this purpose haue bene by Gods grace frustrate. as enemyes they can doe no thing agaynst hyr Maiestie. Now must some great meane be vsed, and that vnder­cloke of loue, vvhich is euer the last popish practise.

From no place more fitly then out of Fraunce can they fetche thys instrument of our vvoe. Fraunce is a neighbour, therefore conuenient by the place. It is a land ful of a vvell trayned soldi­ar, & hath all ready great numbers mustered that abyde but theyr vvatch vvord. it is now at peace vvithall, and therefore at leasure: onles they vvyll make vvarrs to themselues. for cruelty they are approued, to execute any thing. For treason they are so embrewed in blood, as they are like to assent vnto what soeuer plat neuer so barbarous. And thys is also a deuice fit ynough for such a soli­citer, as is that false Scot prelate Rosse, mortall enemy hether, vvho is presently in Fraunce, and, like ynoug, hyr agēt to procure this deuise. Yea, onlesse vve our selues close our owne eyes, vvee may see that it is a very french popish vvoeng, to sende hyther smooth tongued Simiers to glose and glauer & hold talk of ma­riage: and yet in the meane while, Iaques Fitzmaurice who hath bene in France and conuersant vvith Rosse, and euen novv came immediatly thence into Ireland to inuade our Queenes domi­nion there and assemble the trayterous papistes in nomine do­mini domini papae. Is it possible for the breath of mariage vvell meant to England, and vvarr performed in Ireland, to come out of one mouth? She hath already cost vs ynough of our Englishe blood, and she cares not though she make hauock of nobilitye & people: she seekes hyr own turne by hooke or crooke. Aboue all the dangers to hir Maiestie I wold she had one that might eueryday cry vvith a loud voyce. [Page] TAKE HEEDE OH ELIZABETH OF ENG­LAND, AND BEVVARE OF SCOTTISH MARY. The Lord hyr God defend hyr from all hyr popish enemies.

Let other mens squaymish iudgements keepe them in vvhat temper of suspecting, it lykes them: I can not be so blockish but to thinke that it is more then lykely, he comes for thys Mary: to the end that vvhereas, yf there be any rebellious papists at home which can do nought for want of a leader, & those fugitiue rebels abrode, can doe nothing onlesse there be first some hurliburly in the land: this man may be he, vvhere they shall firste make head, and so grovv into a body of rebelliō. which aftervvard they meane to ayde vvith theyr forrein forces, to the destruction of those foolish rebelles as vvell as of vs. And though, in truth, with out flattery, she be inferior to our Queene, in all the best gyftes yet may I vvell ynough thinke, that Monsieur vvyll stoope to hir as vvell as king Phillip theyr old example, vvhome yet againe they vse euen here, did stoop in Flaunders and other vvhere, most lowly in that respecte and beyonde all curtesie euen in Queene Maryes lyfe. yea I doe not see, vvhy I should not make these gyfts and excellencies of our Queene, so many arguments to proue great likelihood of impossibilitye to knit fast to hyr, the mind of Monsieur so contrarily qualified. For loue is a knitting of lyke myndes togyther first, & then of bodyes by accident. And though foule bodyes be oft in loue vvith the outvvard beauty of others: yet vvas there neuer foule vicious and Irreligious mind in loue vvith a vertuous and religious soule. If any man yet againe thinks it an vnvvorthy suspition of so hygh a prince, let hym heare once agayne that one of that brotherhood dyd compasse as vnvvor­thy a purpose: and all by laying to gage that vvorthines vvhych hys maiesty myght chalenge, and by hys personall action, vvhych he iudged no man vvould once suspect, in a mariage of hys sister as neere to him as this brother is to the novv king. New french falshod nevv English wisedome.

These tymes haue nevv falshodes, vvhich vve must encounter by nevv foreseeing vvysedomes. nevv diseases haue taught phisi­tians to find nevv medicines: and sith false frenchmen vvyll doe [Page] that which theyr forefathers vvould neuer do, let honest English men suspect that which theyr auncesters could neeuer misdeeme Especially in those matters, wher popery comes betwene as the motif, and the french ben the instruments. For to do that Roman sinagogue seruice, the french, doe accompt as fayre vertues, all foule lyes, treasons, poysonings, massacres, and turning of realms vpside down. And for recompence of theyr braue nighte xploit at Paris, they were brought immediately, as it vvere, in a carte of tryumphe in at Rome gates: where the world is vvitnes of the pa­negyricall prayses and solemne orations pronounced in theyr perpetuall fame, with many ioyfull fyres in honor of that barba­rous, vnmanlike, and treasonable victory vpon the noble Admi­ral that slept in the oth of hys king. But though the hope of lyke commendation may make these men attempt the lyke fact: yet are these wicked praysings of the pope but a shadow of praysings and make as much to the true honor of the french, as theyr paper excommunication and burning by image at Rome, doe hurt the good Christian in body or soule.

Now the Spanish genet wil soone champ thys cakebread snaf­fle a sunder. for thys great feate that should be don in bringing K. This match no snaffle to Spayne. Phillip to some reasonable conditions of peace vvith his subiects and hyr maiestie to haue some maritime part to hir own behofe hovv shall it be wrought? by french forces onely? They vvyll not doe it: they can not doe it▪ and if they would or could: why is it not don already? if by french and English forces ioyned: vvhy then doth he not ioyne and conferr with vs all thys whyle, rather then vnder hand seeke to trump both them of the religion there and the malcontent? If it should be don by English forces one­lye, as it must be indeede, (for he hath none to command) oneles they saye that hys brother vvyll both man him and money hym, and then they forgette that vvhyche they sayde of being a bry­dle to Fraunce. If, I saye, Englyshe money and Englyshmen must do thys enterpryse it may be much better achiued, now while we haue the lavv in our own hands, and may command: then when vve shall be couert baron, and haue put our sword into an other [Page] hand. vve haue not so much neede of hym for a captayne, as he hath of our strength to serue hym. Neyther doe I thinke more truth in any of these theyr reasons, then that vve should serue to vvorke theyr vvill in those lovv countryes. and if any thing vvere gotten, that should vvholy goe to Fraunce: but our butin in England, should be euen as good in these vvars to be taken for france agaynst Spayn, as it vvas vnder Queene Mary, in the vvarres for Spayn agaynst Fraunce. at vvhat tyme the vvhole losse, euen a greeuous losse to any Englishman that shall looke from Douer castle ouer to the other side, fell on our part.

But in deede if it please hyr maiestye to ayde those lovv coun­tryes: as it vvyll be most for our honor in the enterpryse, and for our gayne in atchieuing, to doe it of our selues, vvhyle uve are at The lovv countryes. lybertye, and not vnder straunge restraint: so is it novve high time for the neede they haue, vvho by these delayes shal be soone past helpe. and so the king of Spayne haue hys vvyll. And, in truth, the best vvelcome force and of most profit to those countryes, must be the English vvithout french. for the popish party of Arthois and Henault, neuer loued the french, and novv dare not trust thē: Artoyes and Henault. Gant. and those of Gaunt hate them tvvyse: Fyrst for religion, and then for the cause common to them vvyth the VVallon, vvhich is theyr ouermuch intelligence vvith the cōmon enemy the Spay­nard. vvhatsoeuer perill therefore out of those countries, & from king Phillip by reason of hys pease there, is spoken of by these perswaders, thereby alluring vs vnto thys match vvyth Fraunce: is easely mett vvythall by our ovvn forces in tyme. vvhych vvyll be much more vvyllyngly receiued of them then the French, for all the late foolish and levvd pamflettes there spred by the french in theyr ovvne fauoer and our disgrace.

And it is more absurd that Fraunce vvoulde consent to send hither a brydle for himself. those that are of this mind, presuppose a This match no bridle to Fraunce. ielousie betweene the French king and Monsieur: vvhych vve must first graunt them. or els they fayle to proue thys in the be­gynning. Now, albeit I thinke, that the best fayth can not be meant, but betvvene the best men: yet may we be assured that [Page] hovve soeuer they stande betvvene themselues for Fraunce, they vvyll styll agree to anoy England and hold togither lyke brethren the change of that ayre for thys and hys comming ouer sea vvyll not change that mind: and styll shall he be hys brother and son of his mother: vvho seeing that both of them doe follow this ma­riage, no doubt they wyll prouide agaynst theyr ovvne brydeling. And it is lyke ynough, though Monsieur knowes a peice of theyr purpose: yet knowes he not the depth of thys mischieuous prac­tise. For they doe not vse to impart more to him then falles to hys part to play. The king remembers, that he hymselfe when he vvas Monsieur, being made priuie to the thē purposed horrible massacre, had like to haue marred al, by lauishing out a word here of to one of hys deerelyngs: had not Lignerolls mouth ben stop­ped with papp and the hatchet as they say. Besides, that Monsieur vvas neuer admitted so farr in connsail as the present king nor e­steemed so stanche.

And if a man may guesse sometime, what a thing is, by recko­ning This vvoing comes not of loue to our Queen. vp vvhat it is not: we shall not find in the king, nor his bro ther, nor mother, any louing cause to bring this nevve loue in theyr mind. They neuer bare fauour to hir maiesties person, they neuer shewed themselues louers to the quiet of thys state: they account not themseldes any vvay beholden to prince or state. E­uery vvord or deed of ours, shewing neuer so litle compassiō to­vvards their murthered, or mislike of the murderers is depely layd Mother. vp of them for so many vvrongs. Much lesse vvyll any man think she sends hir son hyther to schoole for our religion. It is farr from King. probabilitie, to thinke that the king sends him hither, because he vvould be rid of hym. as though he stoode in fearefull doubte of hys greatnes vvhyle he vvere in fraunce. It is sufficiently proued othervvhere, that he is not followed nor esteemed generally in Fraunce, by papist or protestant. And if there vvere any such ie­lousie in the kings head, thys vvere no vvisedome by aduauncing his brother to so puissant a kingdom to make him more dread.

And in Monsieur vvhat doe we find that may so earnestly send hym hither. he is here apparant to Fraunce: dangerous therefore Monsieur. [Page] in respect of reasons otherwhere alledged, for hym to be absent: espetially the present king being so far gon and spent in the dis­ease, as some of these perswaders vvill say, vvhen they wyll further thys match. And if he should come in with that honorable shew becomming hys greatnes, and as any other such man wyll come that woeth with good meaning, and feareth not any detectiō of hydden trecheryes▪ hys voyage hyther would be mightely charg­able. a thing ill becomming hym, vvho is already drawen drye to the botom and extremely indetted vvith hys other coloured voyage into Flanders. And onelesse some notable practise pricked hym hyther, the very passage ouer the sea vvould appall this fresh water soldiar, hauing read that betvvene thys and Normandye there perished in one bottom, three kingly children. but vtterlye vvould he be discouraged by thaduenture of honour whych he makes in sayling hyther, vpon so slender likelihoode of speeding or rather vpon great reason of repulse: if his care of honor vvere not lesse then his greedines to accomplish hys other mischiefe. And if he should speede (which God forspeake) yet must he com to a people that loues hym not nor hys trayne: and vvhere neuer­the England can not loue Monsieur. lesse he must haue hys gardes and trayne prescribed and limitted in regard of the state. And thys people if heretofore it hath bene so manly as to mayster thys generation of Capet in hys own or rather our home of Fraunce: me thinks thys Monsieur can come with small hope to finde good seruice at our handes, vvhose fingers wyll itch at hym in our home of England. But a­boue all, vvho can thinke, that he being the last of hys fathers ligne, and the onely forlorne hope of raysing vp seede to hys bro­thers, would match heare vvith so farr gon hope of hauing issue: endaungering by that means a vvylling translation of the crown of France from hym and hys fathers posterity, to another prince of the blood. No, no, no, the king, hys brother, and hys mother haue some other meanyng agaynst the church, state, and person of our prince, euen to haue an eye in the heade of our Courte if they can bring it to passe, and an hand in the heart of this realm, to vvorke our ruin and theyr great hatreds: and that as the mo­ther [Page] hath long time ruled and turned the wrong side outvvard of Fraunce, so she might haue thys land another while for hyr stage. she is dressing hir Prologue to sende him in; trust him not. The players be tragicall though he vveare peacible laurell on his head Yea the wordes that escape from some of them that are come on thys message, doe bewray hovv lovvdly they vvyl speake here af­ter. I pray God they to vvhom it belongs may keepe avvay such gamsters. And sith the Lord for hys own name sake & of his loue to the gospel vvhich we haue emōg vs hath weakned the hands of It is the lord by whome Queen Eli­zabeth reig­nes vvhile other prin­ces dye and are deposed. our forreine enemyes & broken the deuises of theyr heads hither to since he hath engrauē such a searing loue in hyr subiects harts as children beare to there mother, and such a reuercut note of so­uereignete in hir person as he is wont to sett on them vvhom he calls by hys owne name and are his ordinances: in so much as it may be sayd of hir most truely, it is the Lord by vvhō kings reign since I say the blessed vvord of Christ hath made hir sword as the svvord of G [...]deon, keeping hir safe from many practises agaynste hyr person while other kings and Queenes haue (thorowe Gods Keepe couenant with thy God O Queen and defie thys alliance. Forrein ayds iudgement for theyr manifest sins) bene subiect to tombling and suffered change in person and estats: Let vs styll rest in those mae­nes and approue that vvhich vve haue proued for good. It is a foly to seeke forreine ayde, but vpō extreme necessitye. It is lyke desperate phisick; vvhen one is giuen vp by al phisitions, it sends hym speedely eyther one vvay or other.

They suffer themselues to be abused vvhich beleeue the french men vvhen they say, that England is vnfurnished of friends, ney­ther Englande needes no friends espe­cially out of Fraunce. in perfect league nor good opiniō nor, neere allyed with any prince in Christendome. Our alliances are better then his and more assured, as in another place it is shewed. vve haue the Lords right hand on ourside and all the hatts and handes of those of our religion. Yea vve were able by Gods mercy, to throvv out popery euen then vvhen it had more friends vvithin the land, and vvhen diuerse princes and multitudes vvere enemies to vs for our religi­on, that are since become religious euen to the death. vve doubt not therefore but much more easely vve shall be able to hold our [Page] prince vvorthy of hyr, & I can not chuse but say, that this prince of Fraunce, of all other vnmaried princes, is moste vnworthye of hyr, for euen that Christianity vvhich hir Maiestie is called vnto, and hyr princely priesthoode in Christ Iesus, is as farr aboue all hys pryde in fleshe, as heauen is aboue earth: & hir earthly sep­ter being added to the former excellency, settes him at hir foote or rather driues him from hir presence in iudgement of God and men being but a subiecte in the kingdom of Fraunce & as yet no enrolled citesin in thouvvard kingdom of heauen.

The assured and great euils that grovv here out to our head the Queene: make no lesse agaynst the vvell doing of the lesser limes of the land. For, to let passe the doings of auncient and present kings, vvho, vvhen by such meanes, they vvinne a countye into Nobilitye & Gentry of England. theyr pavves, first dispatch the auncient Nobilitye, destroye the greatest kindreds, and scatter the meane sort into seruile, vnlear­ned, and vnarmed trades: for thentreaty that our Nobility and Gentry are to looke for, I vvyll note but thys one vvord, euen of thys very family of Hugh Capet the first of thys third and present kingly race in Fraunce vvhen, by such meanes as theyr ovvn chro Hugh Capet nicles doe mention, he had vvrested the sceprer from the handes of theyr Mayster and soueraign seede of great Charles, Peppines son, the first deede they did vvas to prouide that the chiefe of that Carrola manus ligne might dye the death: perhaps some of them did chuse some pinig death at Orleance, but die they must. This is a slip of Hugh Capet, and the practise of theyr mother and them in their ovvn country at this present, is, to raze all auncient french houses and to reare vp new, bringing al, as neere as they can, A la Turkesque that all being there creatures may fall dovvn and vvorship them. And if the present vvoeng messenger, a man of so bace place and petie cōpanion in the french court is yet so sausie as to be check­mate vvith our Queen, and to enter malapart comparison vvyth our Noble men: doubt you not but the friends of of the bryde­groome vvyll be euery man a petie king ouer our English Nobi­litye. Maiestrates Iudges, Our honorable Counsailors, [...]udges, and other Maiestrates, mai not hold their honors & authorities. For if the mother being [Page] a forraigner to Fraunce vvhere al maner gouernmēt is denyed hir by their lavves, can depose natural Maiestrates, and help hir coū ­trimē to the richest offices, promote an Italian to be high Chanler there, & make hir halfe Italians to be marshals of fraunce: you may be sure, a french husband will easely aduaunce his Italianate french mē to our English preferments. Our lavvyers shall be fain Lawyers. to learn some other occupation. For nevv maisters new men, and new Lords new laws. No doubt the lavvs of fraunce vvil preuaile against the lavves of Normandy: yea the forrein lavv, called ciuil, Lavves. w [...]l eate vp our free customs & natural lavves. Our soldiars of ne­cessi [...]y soldiar. must be sent out vnder some Ioab, for some more despe­rate seruice then S. Quintin, one vvay or other to be dispatched and cut in pieces. For of all English people they vvill be worse lo­ued of these french. Our Lord bishops may think it ther greatest L. bishops. honor to take such part as other poore men doe. sure they are all to loose theyr dignities and riches, and so many of them, as euer vvere votarie priests, must part frō wiues and children. Our Mer­chants Merchants & richmen. and poore richmen, they may quickly without any coun­ters cast vp theyr bookes of reckonings, by that time such fac­tors and malefactors as these men, haue ransaked their coffers. Touching the meanest sort of men euen in france it selfe, this ve People. ry day, al be contemptible pesants and Lackeys. And if ther own natural poore labouring men, find no better condition of life vnder these vncourteyus kings. it vvere madnes for vs to looke for so good. vve must, doubtles, be one degree, at least, beneath vile pe­sants▪ & Lackeis. And if these nevv surueiers come into this land, we may bid farevvel to thold English liberall measure of syxtene foote and a halfe to the pole: our Ortyards must be measured by the foote: our houses by the stories, vvindowes, & chimnies, and strange tal­lages. accordingly nevv rents raysed vpon them: our children shall not come freely into the world, without some vnnaturall excise for euery birth as the earnest penny of a trybu tary lyfe: our maydens vvho in some cōmon vveals are vvont to be bestowed wyth the publike purse, must vnder thys vyle stranger, yeld a share of their own mariage portions. vvhich Impositions I neyther dravv from [Page] old Tyrans: nor Imagin here of myne own head: but they are such as the french king very lately demanded and such as hys subiectes euen novv denye. vvherevpon the former trobles are lyke to reuiue, notvvithstanding his mothers late ryding about france vvith fayre promises for the release of such brutishe exactions Much might be sayd in these particulars, & by thys lyttle, the no­ble, gentle, and others vvhat soeuer may learn to hate strange cō ­maunders, and to esteeme our naturall regiment. to detest the Turkish tyrany of Valoys, & to thank God for the kind gouern­ment of Queen Elizabeth: which the Lord grant hir happely to hold on, and finally to end, as she began. But I had rather we shold feele our griefe in the ache of our head the Queen, thē to esteme our gteuances apart.

Farre from vs then is this great assurance imagined to hyr Ma­iesties selfe, by thus matching, euen as farr as certein peril is from safety. vvhere is the preseruation of Religion? vvher is the strēgth and gayn to the land? vvhere is thys honor to our kingdom? euen as farr from thys mariage, as preseruatife is from poyson, gayn frō spoyle and beggery, and honor from danger of perperual slauery. I should haue bene afrayd to haue spoken thus much, had not the streight of this necessitie driuen me and my words ben the words not of a busie body, speaking at all aduentures: but of a true Eng­lishman, a sworne liegeman to hir Maiestie, gathering these necessary consequences by theyr reasonable causes. And sith the faith of a man is broken sometime asvvel in not doing or not saying as in doing or saying: I humbly besech, that vvhatsoeuer offence any thing here sayd, may breed, it be vvith fauor construed by the affection of my hart, vvhich must loue my country and Queene though it shold cost me my lyfe. yea rather let them of this land vvho excel seuerally in all good professions, hauing wisedom, di­sposition, & vvords at vvil, that hearing so publickly, famously & notoriously, a mariage to be practised by the pope vvhich is a­gainst al lavves of God and man, vnvvritten and vvritten, of na­ture and nations, of the land and of policie, of armes & peace, tending to the losse of our religion, to the subuersion of our state and [Page] freedome to the captiuity of our Queene and hir people, vnder our hateful foe the french: can not yet be stirred vp to any pietye tovvards theyr God, theyr country, or theyr prince, to handle this matter in theyr seuerall skils as it requires. You Noble men and high counsailors ioyne to your vvisedoms courage, and adding to them both the feare of God, remember you be born & chosen for fathers of aduise to the prince, and in a secondary degree assi­sting Tutors to the common vveele. render to the Queene that faythfull counsaile vvhich she may vvel chalenge for aduauncing you to thys honor, and pay to vs again that duety of carefull loue vvhîch our reuerence of honor most vvyllingly acknowledged to you, doth deserue. You bishops and others, who sometime speak in the eares of our prince, let not your study be to leern french for the entertayning of thys stranger, as though then you should be ioly gentilmen vvith the rest: but learn to speak the word of God, and speak it boldly, for keeping out this stranger. You, vvhosoeuer in Court, honored by hir Maiestie vvith any speciall fauoure and grace, alas, that none of you vvill doe hyr that right, as to tell hyr hovv farr more precious hir royall person is, and vvith hovv farr greater daunger thereto it is: then that this odd fellow, by birth a french man, by profession a papist, an Atheist by conuersation, an instrument in Fraunce of vncleannes, a fly worker in England for Rome and Fraunce in this present affayre, a sorcerer by common voyce & fame, shold haue such free and gracious accesse to hyr chayre of estate & great presence, vvho is not fir to looke in at hir great chamber doore. All England in a tenderiealous loue to hyr person besecheth God to preserue hir, & prayeth hir to take heed of popish french men. You of the meaner sort throughout the land & all priuate ones knovv your place to be in all subiection & peaceable patience, vvith your prayers to sollicite the Lorde for his church, for this common vveale, and for the Queen: that of his great mercy he vvill turne away this plague of a stranger in Christian Israel, and forreigne frenchmen in England. The onely noise of whose making hither toward, gaue al these causes of fear, and wrong thus much hitherto said to be written, as it were vvith [Page] the teares of an english hart. And his soden arryuall here with all the maner and circumstances thereof would yeelde nevve argu­mêts of an other much lōger discourse. For first his cōming hither as it vver in a maske, bewraies a strange melancholik nature in himself: who delights to make all his iourneis in such sullē solitary sort, & therfore belike an ill companion to liue withall in any fe­lovvship. Then yt shewes his extreeme want of abilitie to defray the expence of woeng in a bountiful shew sitting such a prince as cōmeth to obtein out Queen. This his secrete comming & de­parting, discouers a mistrustfulnes in him towards our people, and therefore no loue, which must needs come frō his own ill conscience of fearing french measure in England. for on our part (the Lord be thanked) we haue not committed such villenies. all men deeme him vnworthy to speed who comes in a net as though he were loath to auow his errand. Some men may think he is asha­med to shevv his face, but I think verely that he meanes not sin­cerely who loues not light & wil not com abroade. The last no­ble princely gentlemā that went out of Englād to vvin a Queen in france gaue trial & shew of vvisdome, manhod, behauiour, and personage, by open cōuersatiō & performing al maner of knight­ly excercises: which makes vs in England to find very strange, this vnmanlike, vnprincelike, secrete, fearful, suspitious, disdainful, nee­dy french kind of woeng in Monsieur, & we can not chuse but by the same stil, as by all the other former demonstratife remonstrā ­ces, conclude that thys french mariage, is the streightest line that can be dravvne frō Rome to the vtter ruine of our church: & the very rightest perpendicular downfal that can be imagined frō the point france to our English state: fetching in vvithin one circle of lamentable fall the royal estate of our noble Queen, of hir per­son, nobility, and commons. vvhose Christian honorable, health­ful, ioyful, peaceful, and long, souereigne raigne without all supe­rior ouerruling commander, especially french, namely Monsieur, the king of kings hold on, to his glory and hyr assurance of true glory in that o­ther kingdom of heauen.