WHen shee heard King Henry the eighth should be King, and Cardi­nall Wolsey should be at Yorke, shee said that Cardinall Wolsey should never come to Yorke with the King, and the Cardinall hearing, being angry, sent the Duke of Suffolke, the Lord Piercy, and the Lord Darcy to her, who came with their men disguised to the Kings house neere Yorke, where leaving their men, they went to Master Besley to Yorke, and desi­red him to goe with them to mother Shiptons house, where when they came they knocked at the doore, shee said, Come in Master Besley, and those honourable Lords with you, and Master Besley would have put in the Lords before him, but shee said, come in Master Besley, you know the way, but they doe not. This they thought strange that she should know them, and never saw them; then they went into the house, where there was a great fire, and she bade them welcome, calling them all by their names, and sent for some Cakes and Ale, and they drunke and were very merry. Mother Shipton, said the Duke, if you knew what wee come about, you would [Page 2] not make us so welcome, and shee said the Messenger should not be hang'd; Mother Shipton, said the Duke, you said the Cardinall should never see Yorke; Yea, said shee, I said hee might see Yorke, but never come at it; But said the Duke when he comes to Yorke thou shalt be burned; Wee shall see that, said shee, and plucking her Hand­kerchieffe off her head shee threw it into the fire, and it would not burne; then shee tooke her staffe and turned it into the fire, and it would not burn, then shee took it and put it on againe; Now (said the Duke) what meane you by this? If this had burn'd (said shee) I might have bur­ned. Mother Shipton (quoth the Duke) what thinke you of mee? my Love said shee, the time will come you will be as low as I am, and that's a low one indeed. My Lord Percy said, what say you of me? My Lord (said she) shooe your Horse in the quicke, and you shall doe well, but your body will bee buried in Yorke pavement, and your head shall be stolne from the Barre and carried into France. Then said the Lord Darcy, and what thinke you of me? Shee said, you have made a great Gun, shoot it off, for it will doe you no good, you are going to warre, you will pain many a man, but you will kill none; so they went away.

Not long after the Cardinall came to Cawwood, and going to the top of the Tower, hee asked where Yorke was, and how farre it was thither, and said that one had said hee should never see Yorke; Nay, said one, shee said you might see Yorke, but never come at it. He vowed to burne her when hee came to Yorke. Then they shewed him Yorke, and told him it was but eight miles thence; he said that he will be soone there: but being sent for by the King, he died in the way to London, at Leicester, of a lask; [Page 3] And Shiptons Wife said to Master Besley, yonder is a fine stall built for the Cardinall in the Minster, of Gold, Pearl, and precious stones, goe and present one of the Pillars to King Henry, and he did so.

Master Besley seeing these things fall out as shee had foretold, desired her to tell him some more of her Pro­phesies; Master, said shee, before that Owes Bridge and Trinitie Church meet, they shall build on the day, and it shall fall in the night, until they get the highest stone of Trinitie Church, to be the lowest stone of Owes Bridge, then the day will come when the North shall rue it won­drous sore, but the South shall rue it for evermore; When Hares kinle on cold harth stones, and Lads shall marry Ladies, and bring them home, then shall you have a yeare of pyning hungar, and then a dearth with­out Corne; A wofull day shall be seen in England, a King and Queene, the first comming of the King of Scots shall be at Holgate Town, but hee shall not come through the Barre, and when the King of the North shall be at Lon­don Bridge, his Tayle shall be at Edenborough; After this shall water come over Owes Bridge, and a Windmill shall be set on a Tower, and an Elme-tree shall lye at every mans doore, at that time women shall weare great Hats and great Bands, and when there is a Lord Major at York, let him beware of a stab; When two Knights shall fall out in the Castle yard, they shall never bee kindly all their lives after; When all Colton Hagge hath born seven yeares Crops of Corne, seven yeares after you heare newes, there shall two Judges goe in and out at Mungate Barre.

Then best for them that have the least, and worst for them that have the most, you shall not know of the Warre over night, yet you shall have it in the morning, and when it comes it shall last three yeeres, between Cadron and Aire shall be great warfare, when all the world is as a lost, it shall be called Christs crost, when the battell begins, it shall be where Crookbackt Richard made his fray, they shall say, To warfare for your King for halfe a Crowne a day, but stirre not (she will say) to warfare for your King, on pain of hanging, but stir not, for hee, that goes to com­plaine, shall not come backe againe. The time will come when England shall tremble and quake for feare of a dead man that shall be heard to speake, then will the Dragon give the Bull a great snap, and when the one is down they will goe to London Town; Then there will be a great bat­tell between England and Scotland, and they will be pacified for a time, and when they come to Brammamore, they fight and are again pacified for a time, then there will bee a great Battell at Knavesmore [...], and they will be pacified for a while; then there will bee a great battell be­tween England and Scotland at Stoknmore; Then will Ra­vens sit on the Crosse and drinke as much bloud of the Nobles, as of the Commons, then woe is mee, for London shall be destroyed for ever after; Then there will come a woman with one eye, and shee shall tread in many mens bloud to the knee, and a man leaning on a staffe by her, and she shall say to him, What art thou? and he shall [Page 5] say, I am King of the Scots, and she shall say, Go with mee to my house, for there are three Knights, and hee will goe with her, and stay there three dayes and three nights, then will England be lost; and they will cry twice of a day England is lost; Then there will be three Knigh [...]s in Petergate in Yorke, and the one shall not know of the othe [...]; There shall bee a Childe borne in Pomfret with three thumbes, and those three Knights will give him three Horses to hold, while they win England, and all Noble bloud shall be gone but one, and they shall carry him to Sheriffe Nuttons Castle six miles from Yorke, and he shall die there, and they shall choose there an Earle in the field; and hanging their Horses on a thorne, And rue the time that ever they were borne, to see so much bloud­shed, Then they will come to Yorke to besiege it, and they shall keepe them out three dayes and three nights, and a peny Loafe shall bee within the Barre at halfe a Crowne, and without the Barre at a peny; And they will sweare if they will not yield, to blow up the Towne wals. Then they will let them in, and they will hang up the Major, Sheriffs and Aldermen, and they will goe in­to Crouch Church, there will three Knights goe in, and but one come out againe, and he will cause Proclamation to be made, that any man may take House, Tower, or Bower for twenty one yeeres, and whilst the World en­dureth there shall never be warfare againe, nor any more Kings or Queens, but the Kingdome shall be governed by three Lords, and then Yorke shall be London. And after this shall be a white Harvest of Corne gotten in by wo­men. Then shall be in the North, that one woman shall say unto another, Mother I have seene a man to day, and for one man there shall be a thousand women, there [Page 6] shall be a man sitting upon St. Iames Church hill weeping his fill; And after that a Ship come sayling up the Thames till it come against London, and the Master of the Ship shall weep, and the Mariners shall aske him why hee weep­eth, being he hath made so good a Voyage, and hee shall say; Ah what a goodly City this was, none in the World comparable to it, and now there is scarce left any house that can let us have drink for our money.