From the usurped Authority of King John, a continued Series of Papal Animosity, Bloodshed, Calamities and Piracies, closed at last by Poison; little beside political Disasters of all Sorts, could be expected.
Henry the Third, through a Reign of Fifty-six Years, was continually involved in Troubles and Hostilities, with his inflexible English Barons.
Edward the First, a great and warlike Prince, was, throughout his whole Reign, engaged in the Reduction of the Welch and Scots, and so [pg 035] intent thereon, that he could turn his Thoughts to no other Object.
Edward the Second, indeed, sent Gaveston hither, more to screen him from the implacable Resentments of the stubborn English Nobility, than to render any good Offices to the Inhabitants of this Country; who, indiscriminately, (Strongbownians as well as Irish) felt the Severity of that insolent Favourite's Measures.
Richard the Second visited this Kingdom in Person, with the good Intentions of establishing Peace, Order, and Harmony, in a valuable but long neglected Estate: Yet his own adverse Fate, conspiring with that of this Land, called him back, before he could carry his favourable Resolutions into Execution, to defend his English Dominions from the hostile Attacks of Henry, Earl of Hereford, who, with the Duke of Norfolk, Son to John of Gaunt, had some Years before been banished by Richard, to prevent a personal Combat: This King, worthy more propitious Stars, long agitated and afflicted by the Turbulence and irreconcilable Obstinacy of his British Subjects, perished at last under the impious Hands of Sir Pierce of Exton, who, at the Head of eight barbarous armed Assassins, rushed into his Chamber, and murdered him.
The Reign of Henry the Fourth was short, tumultuous, and bloody; Deluges of noble Blood having been shed by the bare Hands of the common Executioner, to confirm a Throne acquired by abominable Crimes, and Violence! And no sooner had these dreadful Storms begun to abate, than Henry was forced to depart from a Scene he had more adorned, (for he was, without Question, a great and valiant Man) [pg 036] had not his Ambition blindly hurried him beyond the Bounds of Justice and Nature.
Henry the Fifth, his Son and Successor, and truly Inheritor of his Ambition and warlike Genius, imagining himself aggrieved by the Salique Law, which excluded his Great Great-Grandmother, Isabel, from the Monarchy of France, turned his elevated Thoughts intirely to the Conquest of that Kingdom: Wherein, by his own vast Merit in martial Affairs, and the Co-operation of the Queen of France, (Consort of Charles the Sixth, then frantick,) and that of the Duke of Burgundy, a great and powerful Prince, he so far succeeded, as, after his Marriage with Catharine de Valois, Daughter of Charles the Sixth, to be crowned, and acknowledged King of France.
To this great and victorious Monarch succeeded Henry the Sixth, who, through a long, various, and constantly clouded Reign, seemed the very Play of Fortune! This Day a King, the next a Prisoner! One Day acknowleged by his Parliament, the next attainted! One Day a Conqueror, and the next a Captive!
Fierce, frequent, and bloody, were the Conflicts between the Houses of York and Lancaster, the White and Red Roses; the former endeavouring to recover its Loss, the latter to maintain its usurped Authority. In this dreadful Quarrel perished two hundred thousand of private Soldiers; ten thousand of the Nobility, Gentry, and Persons of Distinction; three Kings; and, at last, the entire Race of Plantagenet.
Edward the Fourth soon fell, by his natural Intemperance, or rather by the insatiable Cruelty of Gloucester; who had already sacrificed his Brother Clarence, to pave his Way to the Throne. [pg 037] Nor better fared it with Edward the Fifth, who, by all the Arts of Seduction and Delusion, which his unnatural Uncle and Guardian, Richard, practised on the Fears and Weakness of the Queen Dowager; was, with his Brother the Duke of York, conveyed with great Pomp to the Tower; where the bloody Tyrant, aided by the Duke of Buckingham, soon sacrificed those young, innocent and hopeful Princes to his wicked and boundless Ambition. But he soon after lost his own flagitious Life, and a most cruelly-acquired Crown, on the Plains of Bosworth.