MarginaliaAn. 1558.comfort began to appeare as out of a darke cloude: and albeit as yet her grace had no full assuraunce of perfect safety, yet more gentle intertainement dayly did grow vnto her, till at length to the moneth of Nouember, and xvij. day of the same, three yeares after the death of Steuen Gardiner, followed the death of Queene Mary, as hereafter GOD grauntyng shalbe more declared.

MarginaliaA note of a story declaring the malignant hartes of the Papistes toward Lady Elizabeth.Although this history followyng be not directly apparteinyng to the former matter, yet the same may here not vnaptly be inserted, for that it doth discouer and shew forth the malicious hartes of the Papistes toward this vertuous Queene our soueraigne Lady in the tyme of Q. Mary her sister, which is reported, as a truth credibly told by sondry honest persons, of whom some are yet aliue and do testifie the same. The matter wherof is this.

Soone after the sturre of Wyat and the troubles that happened to this Queene for that cause: it fortuned one Robert FarrerMarginaliaRob. Farrer of London a sore enemye to Lady Elizabeth. a Haberdasher of Lōdon, dwellyng neare vnto Newgate market, in a certaine mornyng to be at the Rose Tauerne (frō whēce he was seldome absent) & falling to his cōmon drinke, as he was euer accustomed, & hauyng in his company iij. other cōpanions like to him selfe, it chaūced the same tyme one Laurence SheriffeMarginaliaLaurence Sheriffe sworne frend and seruaunt to Lady Elizabeth his mistres. Grocer, dwellyng also not farre from thence, to come into the sayd tauerne, and findyng there the sayd Farrer (to whom of long tyme he had borne good will) sat downe in the seate to drinke with him, & Farrer hauyng in his full cuppes, & not hauyng consideratiō who were present, began to talke at large, & namely agaynst the Lady Elizabeth, & sayd: MarginaliaRob. Farrer rayleth agaynst Lady Elizabeth.that Gill hath bene one of the chief doers of this rebellion of Wyat, and before all be done, she and all the heretickes her partakers shall well vnderstand of it. Some of thē hope that she shall haue the crowne, but she and they (I trust) that so hope, shall hoppe hedles, or be fried with Fagots before she come to it.

MarginaliaThe part of a good trustie seruaunt.The aforesayd Laurence Sheriffe Grocer beyng then seruaunt vnto the sayd Lady Elizabeth, and sworne vnto her grace, could no longer forbeare his old acquaintaunce and neighbour Farrer in speakyng so vnreuerently of his Mistres, but sayd vnto him: Farrer I haue loued thee as a neighbour, and haue had a good opinion of thee, but hearyng of thee that I now heare, I defie thee: and I tell thee, I am her graces sworne seruaunt, and she is a Princesse and the daughter of a noble Kyng, and it euill becommeth thee to call her a Gill, and for thy so saying, I say thou art a knaue, and I will complaine vpon thee. Do thy worst, sayd Farrer, for that I sayd I will say agayne, and so Sheriffe came from his company.

Shortly after, þ^e sayd Sheriffe takyng an honest neighbour with him, went before the Commissioners to complaine: the whiche Commissioners sat then at Boner the Byshop of Londons house beside Paules, and there were present Boner then beyng the chief Commissioner, the Lord Mordant, Syr Iohn Baker, Doctour Darbyshyre Chauncellour to the Byshop, Doctour Story, Doctour Harpsfield and other. MarginaliaRob. Farrer complayned of to the Commissioners, but no redresse was had.

The aforesayd Sheriffe commyng before them, declared the maner of the sayd Robert Farrers talke against the Lady Elizabeth. Boner aunswered: peraduenture you tooke him worse then he ment.

Yea my Lord, sayd D. Story, if you knew the man as I do, you would say there is not a better Catholicke nor an honester man in the Citie of London.

Well, sayd Sheriffe, my Lord, she is my gracious Lady and Mistres, and it is not to be suffered that such a varlet as he is, should call so honorable a Princesse by the name of a Gill: And I saw yesterday in the Court that my Lord Cardinall Poole metyng her in the Chamber of presence, kneeled downe on his knees and kissed her hand, and I saw also that Kyng Philippe meetyng her, made her such obeysaunce that his knee touched the grounde: and then me thinketh it were to much to suffer such a varlet as this is, to call her Gill, and to wishe them to hoppe hedles that shall wishe her grace to enioy the possession of the crowne when God shall send it vnto her as in the right of her inheritaūce. Yea? stay there quoth Boner. When God sendeth it vnto her, let her enioy it. MarginaliaHow B. Boner and D. Story beare with him that rayled against Lady Elizabeth.But truly (sayd he) þ^e man that spake þ^e wordes that you haue reported, ment nothyng agaynst the Lady Elizabeth your Mistres, and no more do we: but he like an honest and zelous man feared the alteration of Religion, whiche euery good man ought to feare: and therefore (sayd Boner) good mā go your wayes home and report well of vs toward your Mistres, and we will send for Farrer & rebuke him for his rash and vndiscret wordes, and we trust he will not do the like agayne. And thus Sheriffe came away, and Farrer had a flap with a Foxe tayle.

Now þ^t ye may be fully informed of the aforesayd Farrer, whom Doctour Story praysed for so good a man, ye shall vnderstand that the same Farrer hauyng ij. daughters

beyng handsome maydens, MarginaliaNote the vngodly lyfe of these Catholickes.the elder of them for a summe of money he hym selfe deliuered to Syr Roger Cholmeley to be at hys commaundement, the other he sold to a Knight called Syr William Gooddolphin to be at hys commaundement: whom he made hys lackye and so caried her with him beyng apparelled in mans apparell to Boleyn, and the sayd Farrar followed the Campe. He also was a great and a horrible blasphemer of God, and a common accuser of honest and quiet men, also a common dronkard. And nowe I referre the life of these Catholickes to your iudgement, to thinke of them as you please.

But of this matter enough and to much. Nowe let vs returne where we left before, which was at the death of Q. Mary. After whose decease succeded her foresayd sister Lady Elizabeth into the right of the crowne of England:MarginaliaLady Elizabeth proclaimed Queene the same day that Queene Mary dyed. who after so long restrainement, so great daungers escaped, such blusterous stormes ouerblowne, so many iniuries digested and wronges susteyned by the mighty protection of our mercifull God, to our no small comfort and commodity, hath bene exalted and erected out of thrall to libertie, out of daunger to peace and quietnes, from dread to dignitie, frō misery to Maiesty, from mournyng to rulyng, briefly, of a prisoner made a Princesse, and placed in her throne Royall proclaymed nowe Queene, MarginaliaThe Lord make England thankfull to him for his great benefites.with as many glad hartes of her subiectes, as euer was anye Kynge or Queene in thys Realme before her, or euer shall be (I dare say) hereafter.

Touchyng whose florishyng state, her Princely reigne, and peaceable gouernement, with other thynges diuers & sondry incident to the same, and especially touchyng the great styrres and alterations which haue happened in other foreine nations, and also partly among our selues here at home, for so much as the tractatiō hereof requireth an other Volume by it selfe, I shall therfore differre the reader to the next booke or Section insuyng: wherin (if the Lord so please to susteyne me with leaue and life) I may haue to discourse of all and singular such matters done and achiued in these our latter dayes and memory, more at large.

Now then after these so great afflictions fallyng vppon thys Realme from the first beginnyng of Queene Maries reigne, wherein so many men, women, and children were burned, many imprisoned and in prisons starued, diuers exiled, some spoyled of goods and possessions, a great number driuen from house and home, so many weepyng eyes, so many sobbyng hartes, so many children made fatherles, so many fathers bereft of their wiues and children so many vexed in conscience, and diuers agaynst conscience constrayned to recant, and in conclusion, neuer a good man almost in all the Realme but suffered somethyng duryng all the tyme of this bloudy persecution: after all thys (I say) now we are come at length (the Lord be praysed) to the xvij. day of Nouember,MarginaliaNouember 17. Q. Mary endeth. which day as it brought to the persecuted members of Christ, rest from theyr carefull mournyng, so it easeth me somewhat likewise of my laborious wryting, by the death I meane of Queene Mary. Who beyng long sicke before vpon the sayd xvij. day of Nouember, in the yeare aboue sayd, about iij. or iiij. a clocke in the mornyng, yelded her life to nature, MarginaliaQ. Elizabeth beginneth her raigne.& her kyngdome to Queene Elizabeth her sister.

MarginaliaThe maner of Q. Maryes death.As touchyng the maner of whose death, some say that she dyed of a Tympany, some by her much sighing before her death, supposed she dyed of thought and sorow. Whereupon her Counsell seyng her sighing, and desirous to know the cause, to the ende they might minister the more ready consolation vnto her, feared, as they sayd, that she tooke that thought for the kynges Maiesty her husband, whiche was gone from her. To whom he aunsweryng agayne: In deede (sayd she) that may be one cause, but þ^t is not the greatest wound that pearseth my oppressed minde: but what that was she would not expresse to them.

Albeit, afterward shee opened the matter more playnely to M. Rise and Mistres clarentius (if it bee true that they tolde me, whiche heard it of M. Ryse hym selfe) who then beyng most familiar with her, and most bold about her, told her that they feared she tooke thought for kyng Philips departyng from her. Not that onely (sayd shee) but when I am dead and opened, MarginaliaQ. Mary tooke thought for the losse of Calice.you shal finde Calyce lying in my hart. &c. And here an ende of Queene Mary, and of her persecution.

Of which Queene thys truly may be affirmed and left in story for a perpetuall memoriall or Epitaph for al kinges and Queenes that shall succede her to be noted, that before her neuer was read in story of any Kynge or Queene in England since the tyme of kyng Lucius, MarginaliaMore English bloud spilled in Q. Maries tyme, then euer was in any kinges raigne before her.vnder whome in tyme of peace, by hangyng, headyng, burnyng, and prisonyng: so much Christian bloude, so many Englishmens liues were spilled within thys Realme, as vnder the sayd Queene Mary for the space of foure yeares was to be seene and I besech the Lord neuer may be seene hereafter.