After this it chanced that king John remembring himselfe of the destruction of the citie of Angiers, which (bicause he was descended from thence) he had before time greatlie loued, began now to repent him, in that he had destroied it, and therefore with all spéed he tooke order to haue it againe repaired, which was doone in most beautifull wise, to his great cost and expenses, which he might haue saued, had not his foolish rashnesse driuen him to attempt that, whereof vpon sober aduisement afterwards he was ashamed. But what will not an ordinarie man doo in the full tide of his furie; much more princes & great men, whose anger is resembled to the roring of a lion, euen vpon light occasions oftentimes, to satisfie their vnbrideled and brainesicke affections, which carrie them with a swift and full streame into such follies and dotages as are vndecent for their degrées. Hereto assenteth the poet, saieng,
Mal. Pal. in suo cap.
----magni regésque ducésque
Delirant sæpe, & vitiorum peste laborant,
Stultitijsque suis sæpe vrbes exitio dant,
Imperiúmque sibi miserorum cæde lucrantur.
1207.
A tax leuied.
The archbishop of Yorke stealeth out of the realme.
A mightie tempest.
Moreouer, in this yeare about Candlemasse, the K. caused the 13 part of euerie mans goods, as well of the spiritualtie, as of the temporaltie, to be leuied and gathered to his vse, all men murmuring at such dooings, but none being so hardie as to gainesaie the kings pleasure, except onelie Geffrey the archbishop of Yorke, who therevpon departing secretlie out of the realme, accursed all those that laid any hands to the collection of that paiment, within his archbishoprike of Yorke. Also vpon the 17 of Januarie then last past, about the middest of the night, there rose such a tempest of wind vpon a sudden, that manie houses were ouerthrowne therewith, and shéepe and other cattell destroied and buried in the drifts of snow, which as then laie verie déepe euerie where vpon the ground.
The emperor Otho cōmeth into England.
Fiue thousand marks of siluer, as Matth. West. and Matth. Paruus doo write.