This was mine end too horrible to heare,
Yet good enough for a[545] life that was so ill,[546]
Whereby, O Baldwine, warne all men to beare
Theyr youth such loue, to bring them vp in skill,[547]
Bid princes fly colprophet’s[548] lying byll,[549]
And not presume to climb aboue theyr states:[550]
For they bee faultes that foyle men, not theyr fates.
Th. Ph.[551]
[Whan starued Owen had ended his hungry exhortation, it was well enough liked, howbeit one founde a doubte[552] worth the mouing, and that concerning this title, earle of March: for as it appeareth, there were three men of three diuers nations together in one time entituled by that honour: first syr Edmund Mortimer, whom Owen kept in pryson, an Englishman: the second the lord George of Dunbar, a valiaunt Scot, banished out of his countrey, and well esteemed of Henry the fouerth: the thirde lord Iames of Bourbon, a Frenchman, sent by the Frenche king to help Owen Glendour.
These three men had this title all at once, which caused him to aske how it was true that euery one of these could bee earle of March: whereto was answered, that euery countrey hath Marches belonging vnto them, and those so large, that they were earledomes, and the lords thereof entituled thereby: so the[553] lord Edmund Mortimer was earle of March in England, lord Iames of Burbon, of the Marches of Fraunce, and lorde George of Dunbar, earle of the Marches in Scotland. For otherwise neyther coulde haue interest in other’s title. This doubt thus dissolued, maister Ferrers sayde: “If no man haue affection to the Percies, let vs passe the times both of Henry the fourth and the fift, and come to Henry the sixt, in whose time fortune (as shee doth in the minority of princes) bare a great stroke among the nobles. And yet in Henry the fourth’s time are examples which I would wish, Baldewine, that you should not forget, as the conspiracy made by the byshop of Yorke, and the lord Mowbrey, sonne of him whome you late treated of, pricked forwarde by the earle of Northumberland, father to sir Henry Hotspur, who fled himselfe, but his parteners were apprehended and put to death, with Bainton and Blinkinsops, which could not see theyr duty to theyr king, but tooke parte with Percy, that banished rebell.” As hee was proceding, hee was desired to stay by one which had pondered the story of the Percies, who briefly sayde: “To the end, Baldwine, that you may knowe what to say of the Percies, whose story is not all out of memory (and is a notable story) I will take vpon mee the person of the lord Henry Percy,[554] earle of Northumberland, father of sir[555] Henry Hotspur, in whose behalfe this may be sayd as followeth.”][556]