Marginalia1555. Iune.or as some recorde, to the. xxij. of May: at what tyme he was caryed vnto Chelmesford, and there was brought to Scottes house keepyng then an Inne at Chelmesford, where, as they were eatyng meate with Haukes and the rest that came downe to their burnyng, they prayed together both afore and after their meate.
[Back to Top]Then Wats went and prayed priuately to himselfe, and afterward came to his wife and his. vj. children being there, and sayd these words in effect: MarginaliaThe farewel of Thomas Wattes to his wyfe and sixe children.Wife, and my good children, I must now depart from you. Therfore hence forth know I you no more, but as the Lord hath geuen you vnto me, so I geue you agayne vnto the Lord, whom I charge you, see you do obey, and feare him: and beware ye turne not to this abhominable Papistry, agaynst the which I shall anone (by Gods grace) geue my bloud. Let not the murtheryng of Gods Saintes cause you to relent, but take occasion thereby to bee the stronger in the Lordes quarell, and I doubt not but he will be a mercyfull father vnto you. All these and such lyke wordes spake hee vnto them, and they vnto hym, of whom two (as it is sayd) offered to bee burnt with him. In the ende he bad them farewell, and kissed them all, and was caried to the fire.
[Back to Top]At the stake, after he had kissed it, he spake to my Lord Rich, these or the like wordes: MarginaliaThe words of Thomas Wattes to the Lord Rich.My Lord sayth hee, beware, beware, for you do agaynst your own conscience herein, and without you repent, the Lord will reuenge it: For you are the cause of this my death.
As the researches of Brett Usher have revealed, Lord Rich had been the patron of a number of evangelical preachers in Essex during the reign of Edward VI, thus explaining Wats's words to Lord Rich. (See the article by Brett Usher in John Foxe at Home and Abroad, ed. by David Loades[forthcoming]).
All of the material Foxe ever printed on Mary's false pregnancy first appeared in the 1563 edition. In the 1570 edition Foxe deleted some material, most notably William Forest's poems. The account was printed without alteration in the 1576 and 1583 editions. The chief source for this material was London gossip; interestingly, gossip centred on the Aldersgate neighbourhood of John Day's printshop, where all four of the first editions of the Acts and Monuments were printed.
[Back to Top]MarginaliaThe childbirth of Q. Mary.LOng perswasiō had bene in England with great expectatiō, for the space of halfe a yeare or more, that the Queene was conceiued with child. This report was made by the Queenes Phisicions, and other nye about the Court: so that diuers were punished for saying the contrary. And commaundement was geuen that in all Churches supplication and Prayers should be made for the Queenes good deliuery: the certificate wherof ye may read before in the letter of the Counsell sent to Boner. pag. 1409. And also the same moreouer may appeare by prouision made before in the Act of Parliament for the child.
The letter Foxe refers to was printed in Book X.
The poems of William Forrest were dropped from the 1570 edition, probably due to the need to save paper. Foxe, however, never reprinted these poems in later editions.
Note that Foxe corrected the month in the 1570 edition.
blowne in London of the prosperous deliuerance of þe queene, and the birthe of the childe: In so much that the Bels were rong, MarginaliaProcessions and bonfiers in London for ioy of the younge Prince.Bonfiers and Processions made, not onely in the Citie of London and in most other partes of the Realme, but also in the Towne of Antwarpe, gunnes were shot of vppon the Riuer by the Englishe Shyppes, and the Mariners thereof rewarded with an hundred pistolettes or Italian crownes by the Lady Regent, who was the Queene of Hungarie.MarginaliaTriumph at Antwarpe for the same.Such great reioysing and triumphe was for the Queenes deliuery, and that there was a prince borne. Yea, diuers Preachers, namely one, the Parson of S. Anne within Aldersgate,
St Anne's was the parish in which John Day's home and printshop were located.
This is a Latin hymn recited on occasions of thanksgiving.
In the middest of this great adoe, there was a simple man (this I speake but vppon information) dwellyng within foure myles of Barwicke, that neuer had bene before halfe waye to London, whiche sayd concernyng the Bonfiers made for Queene Maryes childe: Here is a ioylie triumphe, but at length all will not proue woorth a messe of Potage:
See Genesis 25: 29-34.
At this tyme many talked diuersly: some sayd this rumour of the Queenes conception was spread for a policie: some other affirmed that she was deceiued by a Tympany
A swelling or a tumor (OED).
There came to me, whom I did both heare and see, one Isabell Malt, a woman dwellyng in Aldersgate streete in Horne alley,
In other words, Isabel Malt lived within a stone's throw of John Day's printshop.
After that came other womē also, of whom one she sayd should haue bene the Rocker, but she in no wise would let go her sonne, who at þe writing hereof being aliue and called Timothe Malt, was of the age of. xiij. yeares and vpward.
Rumours were circulating in the spring of 1555 that Mary was not truly pregnant and that she would try to substitute another woman's child and claim it as her own (see Brigden, p. 596).
Thus much (I say) I heard of the woman her selfe. What credite is to bee geuen to her relation, I deale not withall, but leaue it to the libertie of the Reader, to beleue it they that list: to thē that list not, I haue no further warrant to assure them.
MarginaliaThe young Princes Cradle.Among many other greate preparations made for the Queenes deliueraunce of childe, there was a cradle very sumptuously and gorgeously trimmed, vppon the whiche cradle for the childe appointed, these Verses were written, both in Latin and English.
MarginaliaVerses vpon the Cradle.Quam Mariæ sobolem Deus optime summe dedisti,
Anglis incolumen redde, tuere, rege.
The Child which thou to Mary, O Lord of might hast send
To Englands ioy in health preserue, keepe and defend.
All of the material on the 1555 efforts by the Marian regime to censor anti-catholic literature was first printed in the 1563 edition and unchanged in subsequent editions. However, as was so often the case, in the 1570 edition Foxe moved this material to place it in its proper chronological order. Foxe apparently printed the proclamation and the articles from records of Bishop Bonner, now lost.
[Back to Top]Foxe himself had used A Warning for England to support his claims thatMary secretly planned to restore abbey lands.
Foxe probaly printed the proclamation from a copy transcribed in Bonner's records.