There is no trust in rebells, rascall knaues,
In fortune lesse, which worketh as the waues:
From whose assaultes who listeth to stand free,
Must followe skill and[814] so contented bee.[815]
[“By Sainct Mary,” sayd[816] one, “if Iacke were as wel learned, as you haue made his oration, what so euer hee was by birth, I warrant him a gentleman by his learning. How notably and philosopher like hath he described fortune, and the causes of worldly cumbraunce? how like[817] a deuine hath hee determined the states both of officers and rebells. For in deede officers[818] be God’s deputies, and it is God’s office which they beare: and it is hee which ordaineth thereto such as himself listeth, good whan he fauoureth the people, and euil when he will punish them. And therefore whosoeuer rebelleth against any ruler, either good or bad, rebelleth against God and shalbee sure of a shamefull ende:[819] for God cannot but mayntaine his deputy. Yet this I note by the way concerning rebels and rebellions. Although the deuill raise them, yet God alwayes vseth them to his glory, as a part of his iustice. For whan kinges and chiefe rulers suffer their vnder officers to misuse their subiectes, and will not heare nor remedy their people’s wronges whan they complaine, then suffereth God the rebell to rage, and to execute that part of his iustice, which the partiall prince would not. For the lord Saye, a very corrupt officer, and one whom notwithstanding the king alwayes mayntayned, was destroyed by this Iacke, as was also the bishop of Salisbury, (a proude and couetous prelate) by other of the rebells. And therefore whatsoeuer prince desireth to liue quietly without rebellion, must doe his subiectes right in all thinges, and punishe such officers as greeue or oppresse them: thus shall they bee sure from all rebellion. And for the clerer opening hereof it were well done to set forth this lord Saye’s tragedy.” “What neede that,” sayd[820] another, “seeing the like example is seene in the duke of Suffolke, whose doings are declared sufficiently already. Nay let[821] vs goe forward, for we haue a great many behind that may not bee omitted, and the time as you see passeth away. As for this lord Saye, whom Cade so cruelly killed and spitefully vsed after his death, (I dare say) shalbe knowen therby what hee was to all that read or heare this story. For God would neuer haue suffered him to haue beene so vsed, except hee had first deserued it. Therefore let him goe and with him the bishop, and all other slaine in that rebellion which was raised as it may be thought through some drift of the duke of Yorke, who shortly after began to endeuour himselfe by all meanes to attayne the crowne, and therefore gathered an army in Walles, and marched towardes London:[822] but the king with his power taried and met him at Sainct Albans, where while the king and hee were about a treaty, Richarde Neuile earle of Warwicke, chiefe of the faction of the house of Yorke, set vpon the kinge’s army, gate the victory, and slue Edmund Beauford duke of Somerset. Where also the same day were slaine in the quarell of king Henry the sixt, Henry Percy the second[823] of that surname, earle of Northumberland, Humfreye earle of Stafford, sonne and heire to Humfrey Stafford,[824] duke of Buckingham, Iohn lord Clifford, Babthorpe the kinge’s attorney and his sonne and heire, besides many moe of the nobility. But[825] because the duke of Somerset[826] was the chiefe of that part, passing ouer the rest, let vs onely heare him speake for all.”]
The tragedy of Edmund Duke of Somerset, slayne in the first battayle at Sainct Albane’s, the 23 day of May, in the 32 yeare of Henry the sixte, Anno 1454.
1.
Some I suppose are borne vnfortunate,
Els good endeuours could not ill[827] succede,
What shall I call it? ill fortune or fate,