On the other side, the conspirators intending to prevent their purposes, by power of a certain spiritual commission, and by vertue of certain letters patents in the hands of the conspirators, though nothing to the purpose; yet, to blind the people, they caused to be proclaimed throughout the whole city of London, that none, upon pain of the forfeiture of all their goods, should either sell, give, or communicate privately or publickly victuals, armour, or any other necessaries to the army of the Earl of Arundel, but should debar them of sustentation, comfort, or help, as rebels to the king and country. But, on the other side, they began to fear when they were denied their hoped for aid by the mayor and commonalty of the city of London; and again, they were troubled at the rising of the commoners, to invade them. Wherefore they counselled the king to absent himself from the parliament, which was to begin at Candlemas next, according as the king and commissioners had appointed it, and not consult of the affairs of the kingdom, nor of his own estate, commodity, or discommodity, unless the Duke of Gloucester, the two Earls of Arundel and Warwick, with the rest of the commissioners, would swear, that neither they, nor any in their name, should accuse them or urge any accusation against them.

And they caused it to be proclaimed through the city of London, that none, under pain of confiscation of all their goods, should speak any upbraiding speeches concerning the king or the conspirators; which was a thing impossible to hinder.

Not long after it happened, that the king, with the aforesaid five conspirators, came from his mannor of Sheeve to Westminster, to St. Edmond's tomb, for the solemnizing of a pilgrimage. The mayor and aldermen of the city of London met him on horseback sumptuously attired, honouring him very much. And, when they came to the Mews, they descended from their horses, and went barefoot to the tomb of St. Edmond; whereas the chaplain of the commissioners, with the abbot and convent, met them with a stately procession.

In the mean time the three noblemen, viz. the Duke of Gloucester, and the Earls of Arundel and Warwick, having mustered their troops on the fourteenth of November, in the same year, at Waltham-Cross, in the county of Hertford, and from thence sent for the commissioners, that were there at Westminster in Parliament with the king, sending an accusation in writing to the king against the aforesaid conspirators, viz, the Archbishop of York, Duke of Ireland, Earl of Suffolk, Robert Tresilian, and Nicholas Brambre; wherein they accused them of high treason: Which their appellation they did offer to maintain, and that they were willing to prosecute the same; and, to prove it to be truc, they caused also the rest of the commissioners to subscribe, as parties to their appellation.

When these things came to the ears of the king, he sent unto them, requiring to know what their request was, and what they wished to have done. They returned answer thus: That they did desire, that the traitors, which were always about him, filling his ears with false reports, and did daily commit insufferable crimes and injuries, might be rewarded with condign punishment; for it were better, that some few should die for the people, than the whole nation should perish,

And they likewise craved, That they might have safe liberty of going and coming to his grace.

When the king heard their request, he gave them his royal consent, and commanded them to appear at Westminster; and, the king sitting on his throne in the great hall, the three aforesaid peers appellants, with a gallant troop of gentlemen, entered; and, making three lowly obeysances on their bended knees, they reverenced the king; and, drawing near (the cause of their coming being alledged) they there again appealed the Archbishop, Duke of Ireland, lord treasurer, and Brambre, of high treason, according as they had done before at WalthamCross; but they betook themselves to the private corners of the palace, even as Adam and Eve from the presence of God, not having the heart to appear to justify themselves.

The king called forth the appellants to prove and prosecute the appellation, prescribing them a day and place for the trial, which was to be on the morrow after Candlemas-day; and in the mean time the king commanded them, upon their honours, not any party to molest the other, until the next parliament.

Those things, thus passed, were publickly proclaimed throughout all England, and they departed joyfully.

The Duke of Ireland, under the guidance of his grand captain the devil, marching into Cheshire, Lancashire, and Wales, raised a new power, amounting to the number of six thousand fighting men, in the king's name, to overthrow and confound the appellants; from thence he marched towards London with his army, with a furious intent and resolution to perform his bloody design: But God, beholding their foolish hearts, filled them with vain hopes, that they should accomplish their enterprises. And, whilst these plots were laid, the appellants, being suddenly apprised thereof, raised a power, and, joining with them the Earl of Derby, the Earl of Nottingham, and other commissioners, marched with long and wearisome marches into a field, near a village called Whitney, at a place called Lockford-bridge; in which field the Duke of Ireland was with the army, having a river on the one side of them, whereas they stood ready prepared to give an overthrow to the appellants, and displaying the king's standard, contrary to the laws of the land: But, although they were so valiant at the beginning, yet were they discouraged at the end; for when they saw the army of the appellants march down from the mountains like a hive of becs, and with such a violent fury, fear benumbed them, and they were so amazed, that, when they should have given the assault (God not suffering the effusion of blood) they stood like a hive of bees, or a flock of cattle without a head, making no shew or countenance of resisting; but, without any stroke given, they flung down their arms, and yielded themselves to the mercy of the appellants, and, a few being slain, and some drowned in the river, gave an easy victory to the conquerors, The Duke of Ireland himself, putting spurs to his horse, took the river, and hardly escaped; and, though he was pursued, yet he escaped through the midst of the troops: And thus, by the mercy of God, they obtained the glorious palm of victory from the hand of heaven.

When the news of the victory was blown to the ears of the rest of the

conspirators, who were then struck with fear, and careful for their preservation, under covert of the night they fled by water to the Tower, drawing the king along with them.

On the other side, Nicholas Brambre, with a bold and resolute courage, in the king's name, caused all the gates of the city to be shut against the appellants, and to be guarded with an able and sufficient watch: But these worthy and dauntless members of the commonwealth marched towards London to confer with the king; but, when they heard that the said Nicholas Brambre had caused the gates of the city to be shut against them, and to be strongly guarded, and that the whole city did purpose to keep them out, they stayed their resolution.

On the twenty-seventh day of September, in the same year, with a melodious sound of divers kind of instruments, as well of war as of peace, they incamped themselves in Clerkenwell, within the liberties of the city of London, not purposing, on the one side, rashly or unadvisedly to enter the city, nor, on the other side, to make any shew of fear, but with a stayed mind, as befitting wise men, with good deliberation to conclude every thing in its due time. And, whenas the mayor, with the citizens, came unto them with pleasing words, promising unto them all that the city could afford with reason and equity, the Duke of Gloucester said, Now I know, that lyars speak nothing but lyes, neither can any man hinder them from the relating: Whereupon, by a joint consent, in the evening they removed their tents, and pitched them before divers gates of the city.

On the morrow, there happened an interview between the king and the appellants, so far, that they opened their minds one to the other; but, because the king loathed to speak with them with such a rabble of men, and in regard of an intolerable boldness, and some quarrel which was like to arise; and, on the other side, refusing to go out of the Tower to speak with them; and the appellants, fearing some violence or wrong to be offered to them, would not speak with the king without a strong guard of valiant warriors; therefore the most wise of the appellants, after disputations, had resolved to go and confer with the king. But first they sent a strong troop, well armed, to search all the corners and caves of the Tower; and, relation being made of the safety of the place, with a selected band of valiant cavaliers, they entered the Tower, and, seizing the gates, and placing a guard, appeared before the king, and there the third time appealed the aforesaid conspirators, in the same sort and form as before; which appellation being ended, the king swore, That he would adhere to their counsel, as a good king and a just judge, so far as the rule of law, reason, and equity did require.

These things being accomplished, they departed from the Tower to their tenements and lodgings; and then it was published and made known in the presence of the king, and throughout the dominions, That, on the morrow after Candlemas-day, the aforesaid conspirators should personally appear to answer to the appellation, whereby they were charged with so many treasons.

And, because the harvest was now ripe, and time convenient to cut up those pestiferous cockles and thistles, by the assent of the king, and

consent of the said commissioners and appellants, they expelled divers of the officers of the houshold, viz. in the place of John Beauchamp, steward of the houshold, they appointed John Devereux, knight, one of the commissioners; Peter Courtney, knight, was made chamberlain, in the stead of Robert Duke of Ireland; and the aforesaid John de Beauchamp, Simon de Burleigh, vice-chamberlain; John Salisbury, Thomas Trynett, James Barats, William Ellingham, and Nicholas Nagworth, knights; and officers of the clergy, viz. Richard Metford, se cretary; John Blake, dean of the chapel; John Lincolne, chancellor of the exchequer, and John Clifford, clerk of the chapel, were kept under arrest too, and were as partakers in the aforesaid treason, for that they, knowing and having intelligence of the said conspiracy, did not

discover them.

Others, also, as servants of the aforesaid conspirators, and drawn in by craft, yet guiltless, were dismissed and sent away, as men unprofitable, and good for nouse.

And thus this hideous brood of monsters, so often shaken, was quite overthrown.

And, on the vigil of the Purification of Saint Mary, in the privychamber at Westminster, by joint consent of all the commissioners, the aforesaid John John Holt, Roger Fulthorp, William Burleigh, John Locton, and John Carey, were displaced from their offices, and, without any further ado, arrested of treason, and, by the command of the chancellor, clapped into the Tower; and Roger Carleton in the place of Belknap, Walter Clapton in the place of Tresilian, were constituted. And so for that time they departed, and went to dinner.

And, because Shrovetide was thought a fit time to punish the delinquents, according to their deserts, therefore the great parliament began the second of February following, in this manner:

All the peers, as well of the spiritualty as of the temporalty, being assembled in the great hall at Westminster, the king soon after came, and sat down on his throne; and after him appeared the five noblemen, appellants, the fame of whose admired worth ecchoed thro' all the land, who entered the house in their costly robes, leading one another hand in hand, with an innumerable company following them; and, beholding where the king sat, all at once, with submissive gestures, they reverenced the king. The hall was so full of spectators, that the very roofs were filled with them; and yet, amongst this infinite multitude of the people, there could not be found any of the conspirators, or of their accomplices; but Brambre was taken a little before, and cast into the gaol of Gloucester.

The clergy then placing themselves on the right-hand, and the nobility on the left-hand of the king, according to the ancient custom of the high-court of parliament; the lord chancellor standing with his back towards the king, by the king's command, declared the cause of their summons to parliament: which being ended, the five foresaid appellants, arising, declared their appellation by the mouth of Robert Pleasington, their speaker, who thus spoke:

6

Behold, the Duke of Gloucester comes to purge himself of treasons, which are laid to his charge by the conspirators.' To whom

the lord chancellor, by the command of the king, answered, My lord duke, the king conceiveth so honourably of you, that he cannot be induced to believe, that you, who are of affinity to him in a collateral line, should attempt any treason against his sacred majesty.' The duke, with his four companions, upon their knees, humbly gave thanks to the king, for his gracious opinion of their fidelity.

Then, after silence proclaimed, they arose, and delivered in certain articles in writing, wherein were contained the particularities of the trea son. Which said articles were read by Godfrey Martin, the clerk of the crown, standing in the midst of the parliament-house, by the space of two hours, with an audible voice. At the reading of which, there was a wonderful alteration in the house; for, whereas before the people were glad of the discovery of the treason, at the rehearsal of it, their hearts were so overcome with grief, that they could not refrain from tears. When the articles were read, the appellants requested the king, that sentence of condemnation might be given against the conspirators, and they to receive the reward of their deserts; which the king promised to grant. This was the first day's work. The second was ended with variation of divers consultations, which I will not relate in particular, but treat of the whole parliament in general.

And, when the third day came of their proceedings against the conspirators, the lord chancellor, in the name of the clergy, in open parliament, made an oration, shewing, that they could not by any means be present at the proceeding, where there is any censure of death to be passed. For the confirmation whereof, they delivered in a protestation; which, being read, they spoke, That, neither in respect of any favour, nor for fear of any man's hate, nor in hope of any reward, they did desire to absent themselves; but only, that they were bound by the canon, not to be present at any man's arraignment or condemnation. They likewise sent their protestation to the chapel of the Abbey, where the commons sat; which was allowed of. And then, when the appellants called for justice against the conspirators, the lords of the spiritualty arose, and went into the king's chamber, near adjoining.

But the king moved in conscience, and in charity, perceiving that in every work they are to remember the end; and being willing, contrary to the rigour of the law, to favour rather those that were guilty, than the actors in that treason, if they were able to alledge any thing in their defence, caused the process to cease; but the peers, being earnest, requested, That no business, past, present, or to come, might be debated until this treason were adjudged; to which petition the king graciously granted his assent.

On the eleventh day of February, when nothing could be alledged, nor no witness produced, in justification of the conspirators, but the definitive sentence of condemnation must be pronounced against them, the aforesaid John Devereux, marshal of the court, and, for that time, the king's lieutenant, adjudged them this heavy doom: That the said archbishop of York, Duke of Ireland, Earl of Suffolk, Tresilian, and Brambre should be drawn from the Tower to Tyburn, and there to be hanged upon a gibbet until they were dead, and all their lands and