Marginalia1558.And albeit there is no Christian and naturall Englishman, woman, or child, either present or that shall succeede vs, which is not or shalbe pertaker of this most exceedyng mercy and wonderfull benefite of almighty God, and therfore is bounde continually to prayse and thāke him: yet there is not one creature, that is more bound so to do, then you noble Queene Elizabeth. For in this horrible tyranny & most cruell persecution, your grace hath bene more hunted for, then any other. Diuers tymes they haue taken you, some tyme haue had you in strong hold, secluded from all libertie: sometyme at libertie, but not without most cruell Gaylours custody: and many tymes they determined, that without iustice ye should be murthered priuily. They thought if your Grace had bene suppressed, they should haue fully preuayled. If ye had bene destroyed, their doynges for euer should be stablished. If ye had bene takē out of the way, there were none left, that would or could vndoe, that they ordeined. MarginaliaGod preserueth the innocent, and maketh frustrate the malicious purposes of the wicked.But he that sitteth on hygh, & laugheth at their madnes, would not suffer that the malicious purposes, most cruell deuised iniustice, should haue successe. He tooke vpon him the protectiō of you. He onely hath bene your Ieoseba, that preserued you from this wicked Athalia. He onely was the Ioiada, that destroyed this cruell Athalia. He onely hath made you Queene of this Realme, of steade of this mischieuous Marana. No earthly creature can clayme any peece of thanke therfore, no mans force, no mans coūsell, no mans ayd hath bene þ^e cause therof. Wherefore the greater his benefites hath bene toward you, the more are you bounde to seeke hys glory, and to set forth his honour. Ye see his power what he is able to do, he can alone saue, and he can destroy, he can pul downe, and he can set vp. If ye feare him and seeke to do his will, then will he fauour you, and preserue you to the end frō all enemyes, as he did kyng Dauid. If ye now fall frō him, or iuggle with him, looke for no more fauour, thē Saule had shewed to him. But I haue a good hope, that both his iustice and benefites be so Printed in your hart, that ye will neuer forget them, but seeke by all meanes to haue the one, and to feare to fall into the other. I trust also your wisedome will not onely cōsider the causes of this late most sharpe visitation, but also to your vttermost power endeuour to outroote them. And for asmuch as besides this infinite mercy poured on your Grace, it hath pleased his diuine prouidence to constitute your hyghnesse to be our Debora, to be the gouernesse and head of the body of this Realme, to haue the charge and cure thereof, it is requisite aboue all thynges aswell for his glory and honour, as for your discharge, quietnes and safty, to labour that the same body now at the first be clensed, made hole, & then kept in good order. MarginaliaAn apt similitude.For as if the body of man be corrupted and diseased, he is not able to manage his thyngs at home, much lesse to do any thyng abroad: so if the body of a Realme be corrupt and out of order it shall neither be able to do any thyng abroad, if necessitie should require, not yet prosper in it selfe. But this may not be done with peecyng and patchyng, coblyng and botchyng, as was vsed in tyme past, whilest your most noble father and brother reigned. For as if a man cut of one hed of the Serpent Hidra, and destroy not the whole body, many will grow in stede of that one, & as in a corrupt body that hath many diseases if the Phisition should labour to heale one part & not the whole, it will in short tyme breake out a fresh: so vnlesse the body of a Realme or cōmon wealth be cleane purged frō corruption, all the particular lawes and statutes, that can be deuised shall not profite it. We neede no foreine examples to proue it, looke vpō this Realme it selfe, it will playnly declare it. And as it is not inough to clēse the body from his corruption, but there must be also preseruatiues ministred to keepe it from putrefaction: for naturally of it selfe it is disposed to putrifie: so after the body of a Realme is purged, vnles there be Godly ordinaunces for the preseruation therof ordeined & duely ministred, it will returne to the old state. For this body which is the people, is vniuersally naturally disposed to euill, and w^tout compulsion will hardly do that is his duety. This must your Grace do if ye mynde the aduauncement of Gods glory, your owne quietnes and safetie, and the wealth of this your politicke body. And they be not hard to bryng to passe, where good will will vouchsafe to take to her a litle payne. The Realme will soone be purged, if vice & selfe loue, be vtterly condēned. MarginaliaThree things which preserue the good estate of a Realme or common wealth.It wilbe in good state preserued, if these three thinges, Gods word truely taught and preached, youth well brought vp in Godly & honest exercises, & iustice rightly ministred may be perfectly constituted. And without this foundation, let men imagine what it pleaseth them, the spirituall house of God shall neuer be well framed, or builded, nor the publicke state of your Realme well ordered. For in what body Gods word lacketh, the vnitie and charitie, that ought to bee among the members therof, and which knitteth them together, is soone extincted. Where the youth is neglected, there can no good successe be hoped: no more thē the hus-

bandmā can looke for a good croppe where he sowed no good seede. And where iustice is not truly and rightly ministred, there the more lawes and statutes together be heaped, the more they be contemned. MarginaliaCharges not to be weyed, where Gods glory is to be furthered.And surely if this thyng could not without exceedyng charges be cōpassed, as God forbyd, that charges should be weyed be they neuer so great, where gods glory and the wealth of the Realme may be furthered: yet ought it not to be neglected. What charges did kyng Dauid the father and kyng Salomō his sonne, employ to buyld the stony house of God? How much more charges should a Christian Prince employ, to builde & set vp the lyuely house of God? But verely, I am fully perswaded, that it shall not be chargeable to do this. No, a great deale of superfluous charges, whiche otherwise your Grace shalbe forced to sustaine, shall thus be cleane cut away, and so your reuenewes by a meane most profitable, and to no good persō hurtfull, encreased. Wherfore for Gods sake noble Queene, let not the oportunitie now by God offered be by your Grace omitted. A Phisitiō cā in nothing somuch declare his good wil & cūnyng, nor purchase himselfe so great estimation, as when he findeth his pacient throughly sicke and weakened, and doth restore him to his perfect health and perfection. Likewise if a Prince should desire of God a thyng whereby he might declare the zeale, that he beareth to God, or whereby he might wynne fame and glory, he could desire nothyng somuch, as to come into a state corrupted, as this Realme of England at this present is, not to destroy it as did Cæsar, but to make it as dyd Romulus.

If your Grace can bryng this to passe, as I am out of all doubt ye may quicklye: Ye shall do more, then any of your progenitours did before you. All men shall confesse that you are not onely for proximitie of bloud preferred, but rather of God specially sent & ordeined. And as the Queene of Saba came frō farre of, to see þ^e glory of kyng Salomō, a womā to a man: Euen so shall the Princes of our tyme, come men to a woman, and kyngs maruell at the vertue of Queene Elizabeth. Thus shall we your subiectes, be most bounde to prayse God, and to thinke our selues most happy, that being so sodenly from the worse, be forthwith preferred to the best: rid from extremest calamitie, and brought to the greatest felicitie: & it shalbe besides an example for al euill Princes to leaue their persecutiō of Christ in his members, to cease frō their tyranny, wherewith they cōtinually oppresse their poore subiectes. And so all people, not onely we of this your Realme: but of all other nations, shall haue iust cause to pray for your graces health, and encrease of honour.

¶ Certaine Cautions of the Authour to the Reader, of thynges to be considered in readyng this story.  

Commentary     Close

These corrections (essentially a list of errata) appeared before the title page of the 1570 edition and were transferred to the end of the 1576 edition. They were then reprinted in the appendix to the 1583 edition.

AMongest other escapes and ouersightes in the Edition of this story committed, part of them we leaue to thine owne gentle castigation, gentle Reader: certaine other specialities ther be, whereof we thought it good and expedient to giue thee warnyng as hereafter foloweth.

MarginaliaCautions of the Author to the Reader.First, when mention is made pag. 34. of Peters beyng at Rome & sufferyng at Rome, folowyng certaine Authors: yet for somuch as other writers there be, & reasons to proue that he was not at Rome, I desire thee therefore that this my affirmation may not preiudice other mens iudgementes, if any see or can say further in that matter.

Touchyng the story of the Turkes, where as I in folowing our Christian Authors wrytyng of the Turkes, haue noted in þ^e pag. 723. Solymannus to be þ^e 12. Turke, after Ottomannus as they do all record: I haue founde since by the cōputatiō of the Turkes set forth in the Table of their owni descent, the sayd Solymannus to be but the 11. Emperour of the Turkes: & this Solymannus his sonne which now reigneth, to be but the twelue. Which I thought here to signifie vnto thee, because of their owne turkish prophecie noted in the pag. 746. lest in construyng of that Prophecy being in the same place expounded, thou be deceiued.

Item. 1216. where Maister George Blag is named to be one of the priuy chamber: here is to bee noted also that although he were not admitted as one of the priuie chamber yet hys ordinary resort thether and to the Kynges presence there, was such, as, although hee were not one of them, yet was he so commonly taken.

Item, pag. 1317. in the story of the Duke of Somerset, where it is sayd that at the returne of the Earle of Warwicke out of Norfolke there was a consultation amongest the Lordes assemblyng themselues together in the house of M. Yorke. &c. agaynst the Duke of Somerset: here is to be noted that the commyng of the Lordes to the sayd house of M. Yorke was not immediatly vpon the Duke of Northumberlandes returne, but first he wēt to Warwicke, and