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burden upon his back : if I may find the gentleman, (for I

seek him,) I may peradventure stop him a tyde.

Wel, Sir, things past cannot be undon, and howsoever the

success falleth, you meant wel : and therfore you must do now

that they may be wel. Consider, I beseech you most humbly

with al my heart, that society in a realm doth consist and is

maintained by means of religion and laws. And these two

or one wanting, farewel al just society, farewel kings, go-

vernment, justice, al other vertue. And in cometh com-

monalty, sensuality, iniquity, and al other kinds of vice and

mischief. Look wel, whether you have either law or reli-

gion at home, and I fear you shal find neither. The use

of the old religion is forbidden by a law, and the use of the

new is not yet printed : printed in the stomacs of eleven or

twelve parts of the realm, what countenance soever men

make outwardly to please them in whom they se the power

resteth. Now say for the law, where is it used in England

at liberty? Almost no where. The foot taketh upon him

the part of the head, and commyns [meaning the commons]

is become a king ; a king appointing conditions and laws to

the governors, saying. Grant this and that, and we wil go

home. Alas ! alas ! that ever this day should be seen in

this time : and would to God, that at the first stir you had

followed the matter hotly, and caused justice to have been

4S2 A REPOSITORY

ministred in solemn fasliion to the terror of others, and then

to have granted a pardon. But to have granted pardons

out of course, (I beseech your Grace bear with xny zeal,) they

did ever as mich good to the purpose which you meant, as

the Bishop of Romes pardons were wont to do : which ra-

ther, upon hope of a pardon, gave men occasion and courage

to sin, than to amend their faults. And so have your par-

dons given evil men a boldnes to enterprize as they do, and

cause them to think you dare not meddle with them, but

are glad to please them. Be it right or wrong, they must

have it : victuals, they say, wools, cloths, and every other

thing is dear : they must have a new price at their pleasure.

By and by the commons must be pleased : you nmst take

pity upon the poor mens children, and of the conserA'ation

and stay of this realm : and put no more so many irons in

the fire at once, as you have had within this twelve month.

War with Scotland, with France, tho' it be not so termed :

commissions out for this matter : new laws for this : procla-

mation for another: one in anothers neck so thick, that they

be not set by among the people.

What a good year be the inclosures lately made, that

these people repine now at ? Is victuals and other things so

dear in England, and no where else .'* Is the state wherin

111 they live a new kind of life put into them ? If it be so, they

liave some cause to complain to the King. But victuals and

other things be so dear in other realms as they be in Eng-

land. Which they are indeed and so dear ; and that I know

and feel here right wel ; for I spend twice as nuich as I did

at my last being here, and yet I keep no greater counte-

nance. If they and their fathers before them have lived

quietly above these sixty years, pastures being enclosed, the

most part of these rufflers have the least cause to complain,

the matter being wel weighed. What is the matter then,

troweth your Grace .'* By my faith, Sir, even that which I

said to your Grace in the gallery at the Tower the next day

after the Kings first coming there. Liberty, liberty. And

your Grace would have too nuich gentleness, which might

have been avoided, if yoiu" Grace would have followed my

OF ORIGINALS. 433

advice. In giving wherof, as I have been somewhat frank

with your Grace apart, and seen httle fruit come of it, so

have I been discouraged at your Graces hands in open

Council to say mine opinion, as much as ever man was. But

as for that, albeit the matter had grieved me not a httle,

yet afterwards thinking of this proverb, A man is boldest

where he loveth best, I have passed it over, and could have

born much better, if any had seen your Grace relent to

counsil ; I mean not of me alone : for when I give your

Grace advice in a matter which you shal perceive the rest

of the Councill to mislike, then take it for folly, and follow

it not. But when the whole Council shal joyn in a matter,

and your Grace travail to out-reason them in it, and wrast

them by reason of your authority to bow to it ; or first shew

your o})inion in a matter, and then ask theirs; alas! Sir,

how can this gear do wel ? I know in this matter of the

commons, every man of the Council have misliked your

procedings, and wished it otherwise. I know your Grace

can say. No man shal answer the King for these things, but

I. Sir, I fear, that if you take not another way betimes in

these matters of tumult, neither you nor we shal come to

answering. And yet, Sir, I believe, if any thing chance

amiss, wherfore a reckoning shal be asked by the King, (as

I trust in God you wil foresee there shal not,) that not only

your Grace shal give the account, which have authority in

your hands, but also such as did first consent and accord to

give you that authority.
Methinketh I se your Grace now reading of this letter,

and conceiving what you think of me for the same : for I

know your Graces nature as wel as any man living. If you

think as I deserve, you think me one of the truest subjects

that ever prince had; and ever so I have been. And again,

God judg it betwixt you and me, I have ever desired your

authority to be set forth, ever been careful of your honor

and surety ; both for now and for evermore, ever glad to

please you, as ever was gentle wife to please her husband,

and honest man his master, I wys. My good Lord, alas !

be no more gentle, for it hath don hurt ; the more pity. I
VOL. II. PART II. F f

434 A REPOSITORY

have never been noysome to you or troublesome, if it hath

not been in matters of state, where your honor or good

procedings for tlie King hath come in place : and that I

have don upon a good wil and zele of your weldoing : and

wys whosoever sheweth himself most at your wil, none shal

be more readier to live and dy with you than I am : and 1

believe verily that your Grace loveth me. Mary, perad-

112 venture you think me very bold with you to write in this

fashion. Alas ! Sir, pardon me, for my zele and duty to

the King, the realm, and your Grace, enforceth me, and

my conscience also constraineth me, being (unworthy) a

counsellor.

I write this to your Grace alone, minding not to be more

busy in Council, because I se you like it not ; seing I have

commodity otherwise to say to your Grace mine opinion.

But if your Grace shal mislike also my private advertise-

ments of mine opinion, then most humbly I beseech your

Grace to discharge me of the Council, and my conscience

shal be satisfied. And then in respect of my love to your

Grace, (which shal never fail,) I wil fal to prayer only to

God for you and your weldoing in al things.
You wil now peradventure say unto me, that I have here

made a long declamation, and spoke of many things that I

think might be amended, but I say nothing how. And

things being grown into such a dangerous tumvdt, I write

not what I think for mine opinion meet to be don. Yes,

Sir, that wil I do. First, your Grace must remember that

saying for the name of a king, and that you must do al

things in the name of another. Your Grace is, during the

Kings yong age of imperfection, to do his own things, as it

were a king, and have his Majesties absolute power. Then,

Sir, for a king, do like a king, in this matter especially :

take a noble courage to you for your procedings : wherin

take example at other kings: and you need not seek further

for the matter : go no further than to him which dyed last,

of most noble memory, K. Henry VIII. Kept not he his

sid)jects, from the highest to the lowest, in due obedience.?

and how? By the only maintenance of justice in due course;

OF ORIGINALS. 435

which now, being brought out of course, cannot, for any

thing I se, be brought to reputation and to an estabUsh-

ment, but by power or force, which is a grievous hearing,

if it might be otherwise : but it is better late than never,

and now the sooner best of al. In Germany, when the very

like tumult to this began first, it might have been appeased

with the loss of twenty men ; and after, with the loss of an

c. or ce. But it was thought nothing, and might easily be

appeased ; and also some spiced consciences taking pity of

the poor, who indeed knew not what great pity was, nor

who were the poor, thought it a sore matter to loose so many

of their even Christian [country folks,] saying, they were

simple folk, and wist not what the matter meant, and were

of a godly knowledg : and after this sort, and by such wo-

manly pity and fond persuasion, suffered the matter to run

,so far, as it cost ere it was appeased, they say, a thousand or

two thousand mens lives. By St. Mary, better so than mo.
And therfore. Sir, go to, believe me; send for al the

Council that be remaining unsent abroad. And for be-

cause there are a good many of the best absent, cal to your

Grace to counsil for this matter six of the gravest and most

experienced men of the realm, and consult what is best to

be don, and follow their advices. And for mine opinion, if

the matter be so far spent, as you cannot without your men

of war help it, send for your Almain horsemen, who ly at

Calais, and may for a time be spared : they be in number

little lack of four thousand horsemen, a goodly band as ever

I saw for so many. Send for the Lord Ferris and Sir

William Herbert, to bring you as many horsemen as they

may bring wel out of Wales, and such as they dare trust.

Let the Earl of Shrewsbury bring the like out of Derby- 113

shire, Salopshire, Stafford, and Nottinghamshire, of his

servants, keepers of forests and parks. Send your self for

all your trusty servants to come to you. Appoint the King

to ly at Winsor, accompanied with al his officers and ser-

vants of his household, the pensioners, the men at armes,

and the guard ; and go your self in person, accompanied

with the Almain horsemen, and the said noblemen and their
F f 2

436 A REPOSITORY

companies, first into Barkshire, commanding al the gentle-

men to attend upon your Grace by such a day, at such a

place, with so many trusty friends and servants as they can

make. And appoint the chief justices of England, three

or fovir of them, to resort with connnission of oyer and

terminer, to that good town which shal be next to the place

where your Grace shal remain, accompanied with certain

of the justices of the peace of the same shire: to whom

your Grace must give commandment to attach him and

him, to the number of twenty or thirty, of the rankest knaves

of the shire. If they come peaceably to justice, let six be

hanged of the ripest of them without redemption, in sundry

places of the shire ; the rest remain in prison. And if any

rich men have been favourers to them in this matter, let

the justices take good sureties of his good bearing and ap-

pearance in the Star-chamber in the next term, to abide a

further order. Let the horsemen ly in such towns and vil-

lages as have been most busiest, taking enough for their

mony, that rebels may feel the smart of their villany. Take

the liberty of such towns as have offended into the Kings

hands ; you may restore them again at your plesure after-

wards. If your Grace send some of the doers away far

from their wives, to the north, or Boloign, to be soldiers or

pioners, it would do wel. Give them no good words, or

make no promise in no wise: and thus from one shire

to another make a progres this hot weather, til you have

perused al these shires that have offended sithence their

pardons.

By this means shal your Grace redub this matter within

the realm, to your great praise, honour, and estimation in al

places abroad : which, I assure your Grace by my fidelity,

is by reason hereof touched wonderfully, both here and in al

other places of Christendom. Your Grace may say, I shal

loose the hearts of the people : of the good people you shal

not, and of the evil it maketh no matter. By this means

you shal be dread, which hitherto you are not, but of a very

few that be honest men. By this means you shal deliver

the King an obedient realm ; and may in the mean time,

OF ORIGINALS. 437

during your office, be able for the service of the King to

command what you list ; and so shal be able to continue it,

if you wil meddle no more with private suits, but remit

them to ordinary courses. If you reply, Shal I not hear

poor mens cases? Why, Sir, when you send him to the

Chancery, do you not hear him ? So I do, saith your Grace,

with a letter. Yea, mary Sir, but this letter marreth al : for

it hath a countenance of your Graces favour in the matter.

And, Sir, where your Grace saith, that they be a few that

with inclosures, &c. give this account. Hold your peace to

vour self, and at leisure in the- winter i^ let them be sent * Sense im-
1 1 1 i? 1 perfect.
for one by one, and had in confession, and let such of them

as be offenders smart for it : wherby both the Kings Majesty

may have a profit, and the poor men, if that be the sore, be

relieved.

Lo ! Sir, thus have I truly and frankly written to your 114

Grace what I think ; and believe verily, upon the knowledg

of mine own sincerity of conscience, that you wil take it

graciously : for I mean truly and lovingly to your Grace,

God I take to witnes, whom I beseech with al my heart

daily to send you as wel to do, as ever man had wished to

any other, &c.

W P.

II.
A letter sent from the Lord Paget concerning Bulloign, to

the Earl of Warwick, then lord great master, the 22cZ of'

February, 1549-
THESE French men, ye se how lofty they are and haul-MSS. pen.

tain in al their procedings with us ; and no mervail, for so

they be of nature, and our estate (which cannot be hidden

unto them) encreaseth their courage not a little. They wil

have Bulloin, they say, by fair means or by foul : they wil

no longer be tributaries, (as they terme yt.) And here they

set furth the power of their King, and of ours as littil as

they list, with such bragging and braving termes and coun-

tenances, as, yf your Lordship had heard and seen Rochcpot,
Ff3

438 A REPOSITORY

ye would have judged hym a man more mete to make of

peace a warre, than of warre a peace.

Debt they wil recognize none: for they say, (though

they say untruly,) that you have made them spend, and

have taken upon the seas of theirs, ten times as much as

the debt comyth to. Nevertheles, say they, let us have

Bulloine, and wype away al pretences that you make to us,

and aske a reasonable summe, and we wil make you a rea-

sonable aunswer. Or yf ye wil not, in respect of your mas-

ters yong age, acquit his pretence, let us have Bulloin, and

we wyl agree with you for yt upon a reasonable svunme, and

reserve you to your master the droicts, that he pretendeth,

and we to ours his defences for the same, and so to make

a peace. And yf ye afterwards demaund nothing of us,

we demaund nothing of you : kepe you within your lymits,

which God hath gyven you enclosed with the seas, (saving

your Calays, wherunto ye have ben maried theis two or

three hundred yeres, and therfore God send you joy with

it,) and we our lymitts upon the land, and we shal lyve to-

gyther in peace. And other bargain than this we wil not

make.
To repete here what reasons we made to enduce them to

reason, that shal not nede, though I for my own part could

devise litil: yet I assure your Lordship, with the good

help of theis wise men, to whom I am assocyate, there was,

115 1 beleve, as much said, as wherby they ought to have ben

persuaded to agre to our requests ; but al would not serve.

By the consent of the colleagues, I provoked a private

talk betwene Mortier, or Chastillon, and me, or some other

of us, apart, thinking therby to have practised sumwhat ;

but it would not be. They would in no wise talk apart

with any of us, but, We wil have this, and wil have none

other : we pray you of a short aunswer, for we wil not tary:

we wil not advertise our master, for it nedyth not : we

know his mynd fully ; and yf he had my nded eny thing ells,

then we know, no dowbt, but he wold have declared it

unto us. And so after some consultation, agreed at the

last to tary tyl we did advertise, and heard out of England

OF ORIGINALS. 439

again ; requiring us to send for any ample and determinate

resolution for every thing.

Lo ! Sir, thus standeth the case : and what is now to be

don, in good faith, I cannot wel tel, and am at my witts end.

Their orguil is intolerable, their disputations be unreason-

able, their conditions to us dishonorable, and, which is worst

of al, our estate at home miserable. What then ? Of many

evils, let us chuse the least. Then first, we must knowledg

(which we cannot denye) the evil condition of our estate at

home: which recognisaunce is the first degree to amend-

ment. The next is, to know the cause of the evil ; and that

is warre, supposed to be, yf not the only, at the least one

of the chiefest amongst many great. How many, how great

occasions of mischief the warre hath engendred to England.''

Of yll mony, wherby outward things be dearer. Of con-

veying out of al kind of our commodities to forrein parts,

under pretence of our furniture of men of warre, wherby

our inward things be dearer ; of breeding idlenes among

the people, great couraiges, disposition to imagyne and in-

vent novelties, grudgings, devices to amend this and that,

and an hundred myscheves more ; which make my hart

sorry to thynk upon: and these be the frutes of warre.

Then yf the disease wil not be taken away, but the causes

be taken away, also warre (which is one chief cause) must

be taken away. But that shal not be taken away (say the

French) but upon this condition or that condition, as be-

fore I have spoken of two. They wil have Bulloin, they

say, and quarels quyte crossed, and gyve you a somme of

money, and make peace, leaving to each prince his pre-

tences and defences. But thys, say we, may be the occasion

of a new warre another tyme. Demaund, say they, nothing

of us, no more then we wil demaund of you ; and then that

shal be no new occasion.
Wel, what moveth us to stick ? Mary, the leaving of

Bulloin. Ye do consider, whyther we be hable to kepe yt,

maulgre the French. Rochepot sayth, and braggeth, that

their King is not a King John, but a French King, such as

hath conquered Rome, and bene feared of the rest ; and
rf 4

440 A REPOSITORY

wil have Bulloin again, (whosoever sayeth nay,) and telleth

us, how we are in poverty and mutinies at home, beset al

about with enemies, having no frinde to socour us ; destitute

of mony to furnish us, and so far in debt as hardly we can

find any credytors. Yf yt be not this, then Rochepot lyeth:

but yf yt be this, it is good to consider, whither yt be better

to let them have Bulloin again, and to have sumwhat for yt,

1 16 and to lyve in peace, tyl our master come to a more age,

leaving to hym some store of mony to revenge hym, (yf then

he shal think he have cause reasonable,) to have good op-

portunite for the stay of the things at home, and to put in

good our polycy ; or els, for want and insufficiency, to lose

Bulloin without any recompence, to lyve in warre without

synews ; and for lack of good opportvuiite, to be forced to

let thino's at home unredressed.
Yea, but the pension is a gret matter. Wote you what

the French commissioners say ? It is true, (they say,) the

pension was grawnted, but the tyme is tourned : then was

then, and now is now. Yt was grawnted by the French

King that dead is, (they say,) to the King of England that

dead is, and to his successors in the crown of England. The

King of France (they say) cannot by hys symple grawnt,

without confyrmation of Parlyamcnt, bind his successors.

And so (say they) the same treaty, where the pensyon is

grawnted, doth purport. And when (say they) was yt

grawnted .'* Mary, when your master saw^ tyme to make his

bargain best, though his ministers toke not liede to knytt it

surely up by Parlyament. And that tyme was, when he had

the gages in his hand ; viz. our master and themperour at

one tyme, and so might make his bargain hymself as he

lyst. And we wil use yt as you did, when tyme served you :

for we know our estate, and that you are not liable to war

with us. With these and such other comparysons the French

face us.
Wei then, they wyl, yt semyth, pay us no pension ; now is

it to be considered, whither it be better to forbear our pen-

sion, (for they are so good unto us (God yelde it them) as

to reserve our pretence,) to lose Bulloin, and to have nothing

OF ORIGINALS. 441

in recompence, and to ly ve stil in warre ; or els to lose Bul-

loin, to forbear our pension, to have some recompence, to

lyve in peace, &c. and to leave to our master his claim, yf

he shal think yt good.

I am sorye I have not here the copy of the treaties of

peace made in an. 14 and 15 of our Lord ; which was upon

the first warres of the King our late master, of most wox'-

thy memory : for yf I had, then could I write therof cer-