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#fury break from your eyes, which bodes thun"der against our enemy; let us therefore lofe

no time, but fuddenly and feverely scourge this "perjured Court to a fevere repentance, and regaine honour to our Nation, and his kingdom "to our Crown."-HABINGTON'S Hiftory of Edward the Fourth.

"What prevailed upon King Edward," says Comines," to transport his army to Calais in

1475, was, first, the folicitation of the Duke of "Burgundy, and the animofity of the English to "the French; (which is natural to them, and has "been fo for many ages) next, to reserve for

himself a great part of the money which had "been liberally granted to him by his fubjects for "the particular expedition (for," adds Comines,

the Kings of England live upon their own re"venue, and can raise no taxes but under the "fpecious pretence of invading France). Be"fides, the King had another ftratagem to amuse " and delude his fubjects with; for he had brought "with him ten or twelve of the chief citizens of "London and of fome other great towns in Eng"land, all fat, jolly, and of great power in their "country; fome of whom had promoted the war, " and had been very ferviceable in raising the army. The King ordered very good tents to "be made for them, in which they flept; but not "being used to such a manner of living, they foon

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began to grow weary of the campaign, for they "had reckoned that they fhould come to an engagement three or four days after their landing; and the King multiplied their fears of the dangers of the war, that they might be better "fatisfied with a peace, and fo pacify the mur"murs of the people."

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"As foon," fays the fame hiftorian," as King "Edward had fettled the affairs of his kingdom, " and had received of our mafter (Louis the "Eleventh) 50,000 crowns a-year, which were

regularly paid him in the Tower of London, "and was become as rich as his ambition could defire, he died fuddenly, and (as it was fup

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pofed) of grief at our prefent King's (Charles "the Eighth's) marriage with the Lady Margaret, "the daughter of the Duke of Auftria; (his dif"order feizing him upon the news of it) for he "then found himself outwitted with refpect to his "daughter, to whom he had given the title of Dauphinefs. Upon this marriage the pen«fion,

"The King of England," fays Comines, "retired foon "to England. He was not of a complexion or difpofition of "mind to endure much hardship and difficulties: and thofe

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any King of England who wishes to make any confiderable conquefts in France muft expect to endure. Another de"fign the King of England had in view was, the accomplishment of the marriage concluded upon between the Dauphin and his daughter; the hopes of this wedding caufing him to "overlook several things, which was a great advantage to our "mafter's affairs."

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fion, or (as King Edward called it) the tribute,

" was stopped."

"This King," fays Habington, "if we com "pare his life with the lives of Princes in gene

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ral, was worthy to be numbered amongst the " beft. His education was according to the best provifion for his honour and fafetie in arms; a "ftrict and religious difcipline, in all probabilitie "likely to have softened him too much to mercy "and a love of quiet. He had a great extent of wit, which certainly he owed to nature, that age bettering men but little by learning; the "trumpet founding ftill too loud in his ears to "have admitted the fober counfels of philofophy; "and his wit lay not in the flights of cunning and deceit, but in a fharpe apprehenfion, yet not "too much whetted by fuperftition.".

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"In counfaile he was judicious, with little "difficultie difpatching much. His understand

ing open to cleare doubts, not dark and cloudie,

"and apt to create new. His wifedome looked "still directly upon truth, which appears by the manage of his affaires, both in peace and warre "in neither of which (as farre as concerned the "politique part) he committed any maine error. "His nature certainly was both noble and honeft, which, if rectified by the ftraight rule "of vertue, had rendered him fit for example; (whereas he is only now for obfervation) for,

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profperitee raised him but to a complacencie in "his fortune, not to a disdaine of others loffes in "a pride of his own acquifitions. And when he "had moft fecuritie in his kingdom, and confe

quently most allurements to tyrannee, then "fhewed he himself moft familiar and indulgent: "an admirable temperature in a Prince who fo "well knew his own ftrength, and whom the love "of riot neceffitated to a love of treasure, which "commonly is fupplied by oppreffion of the sub

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ject. His buildings were few, but sumptuous "for the time, which are yet to be feen at the "Tower of London, his houfe of Elthem, the "Caftles of Nottingham and Dover, but above "all at Windfor, where he built the new Chapel, (finished after by Sir Reginald Bray, Knight of "the Order) and endowed the Colledge with negative revenues, which he gave not, but trans"ferred thither, taking from King's Colledge in Cambridge, and Eaton Colledge, a thousand "pounds the yeare, to enrich this at Windfor.

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"But our buildings, like our children, are ob"noxious to death, and time fcorns their folly "who place a perpetuite in either. And indeed "the fafer kind of fate happened to King Edward, "in both these felicities: his pofteritie, like his ་ edifices, loft in other names.

Edward," fays Habington, "to recover him "the great love which in both fortunes the Lon

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doners had fhewed him to his laft houre, used "towards them a particular kindneffe, even fo "much that he invited the Lord Mayor, Alder"men, and fome of the principal Citizens, to the "forest of Waltham, to give them a friendly, not "a pompous entertainment, where in a pleasant lodge they were feafted, the King himself seeing "their dinner ferved in; and by thus ftoopinge "downe to a loving familiarity, funke deepe into "their hearts; and that the sex he always affected

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might not bee unremembered, he caufed great

plentie of venifon to be fent to the Lady Mayorefs and the Aldermen's wives."

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HENRY THE SEVENTH.

[1485-1509.]

"THIS politic Prince," fays Lord Bacon,

always profeffed to love and to seek peace, and "it was his ufual preface to his treaties, that "when Christ came into the world, peace was

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fung, and that when he went out of the world,

peace was bequeathed. Yet he knew the way "to peace was not to seem to be defirous to avoid "wars, therefore would he make offers and fames " of wars till he had worded the conditions of peace. For his pleafures," adds Lord Bacon,

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