could live in no safety whilst the other was breathing, and therefore be determined of his death, and to that purpose, called unto him one Sir Pierce Exton, to see his will executed, who presently posted to Pontefract, and with eight more, well armed, entered the castle, and violently assaulted him with their polaxes and halberts in his chamber, who apprehending their purpose, and seeing his own present danger, most valiantly wrested one of their weapons from them, with which he manfully acquitted himself, and slew four of the eight before he himself fell; but at the last he was basely wounded to death, by the hand of Sir Pierce Exton, whose body was afterwards laid in the minster at Pontefract, to the public view, that all men might be satisfied of his death, and was afterwards brought up to London, and exposed to all eyes in Paul's, least any man should afterwards pretend to lay any plots for his liberty.

And now, king Henry being in peaceable possession of the kingdom, thought it time to rifle his predecessor's coffers, in whose treasury he found, in ready coin 300,000 pounds sterling, besides plate, jewels, and rich vessels, as much (if not more) in value. Besides, in his treasurer's hands, he found so many gold nobles, and other sums, that all of them put together, amounted to 700,000 pounds sterling; yet could not all this sum afford him a better funeral than in the poor friery of Langley, which, afterwards, by Henry, the king's son, in the first year of his reign, was removed thence, and with great solemnity interred amongst the kings, in the chapel of Westminster. All this process verifying the former prediction:

"The Foxe being earth't according to his mind,

Over his tomb, in the chapel, the king caused these verses following to be inscribed:

Prudens & mandus, Ricardus jure secundus,
Per fatum victus jacet hic sub marmore pictus,
Verus sermone fuit & plenus ratione,
Corpore procerus, animo prudens ut Homerus.

Ecclesiam favit, elatos suppeditavit,
Quemvis prostravit, regalia qui violavit.

Thus Englished:

Wise and cleane Richard, second of that name,.
Conquered by fute, lyes in this Marble frame.
True in his speech: whose reason did surpasse:
Of feature tall, and wise as Homer was:

The Church he favoured, he the proud subdude,
Quelling all such as Majesty pursude.

Concerning which epitaph, one of our English chronoJogers, seeing how it savoured more of flattery than truth, thus expressed himself:

But yet, alas, though this meeter or rime,

Thus death embelisht this Noble Prince's fame,
And that some Clerk which favoured him sometime
List, by his comming, thus to enhance his name,
Yet by his story appeareth in him much blame.
Whefore to Princes is surest memory,

Their lives to expresse in vertuous constancie.

In the second year of king Henry's reign, Owen Glendour, rebelled in Wales; against whom, the king entered the country with a strong army, but at the king's coming, he fled up to the mountains, whom the king, for the endangering his host, durst not follow, but returned, without deeming any thing worthy of note. In the year following, Sir Thomas Percy, earl of Worcester, and Sir Henry Piercy, son and heir to the earl of Northumberland, gathered a great power, and upon the 21st of July, met with the king and his army, near unto Shrewsbury, between whom was fought a bloody and cruel battle, but at length the king was victor. In which fight, Thomas Percy, earl of Worcester was taken, and his nephew, Sir Henry, with many a brave northern man was slain; and upon the king's part, the prince was wounded in the head, and the earl of Stafford, with many others slain. It was observed, that in this battle, father fought against son, son the father, brother the brother, and uncle the nephew. The 25th of July following, was Sir Thomas Percy beheaded at

Shrewsbury; and in August after, the dutchess of Britain, landed at Falmouth, in Cornwal, and from thence conveyed to Winchester, where she was solemnly espoused to king Henry.

Soon afterwards, Richard Scroop, arch-bishop of York, with lord Mowbray, marshal of England, with others to them allied, made a new insurrection against the king, with purpose to supplant him; to whom the king gave battle on this side of York, where, after some loss on both sides, the king had the better of the day, the arch-bishop and the martial being both taken in the field, and soon afterwards beheaded. In that king's reign was the conduit builded in Cornwal, as it now standeth; the market of the Stocks at the lower end of Cheapside, and the Guildhall of London, new edified, and of a small cottage, and ruinous and decayed house, made such a good structure, as it appears to this day. Moreover the famous and stately bridge of Rochester, with the chapel at the foot of the said bridge was fully perfited and finished, at the sole charge and cost of Sir Robert Knolls, who, in the time of Edward the third, had atchieved many brave and memorable victories in France and Britain; who, also, re-edified the body of the White Friars church, in Fleetstreet, to which place he left many good legacies, and there lies buried; the foundation of which place was first laid by lord Gray Cotner. But to carry our prediction along the premises, to prove that they differ not in the least circumstance.

"Wales and the North, against him both shal rise,
But he who still was politick and wise,

Shall quell their rage, &c."

We read also of divers justs and martial exercises performed in Smithfield, in the presence of the king, the nobility and ladies, in his sixth year. Lord Morif, a baron of Scotland, challenged Edmund, earl of Kent, in which the earl bore himself so valiantly, that to him was given the honour of the turnament; and in the 10th year, came the Seneschall of Henalt, with a brave company of his own countrymen, and strangers, to perform the like martial exercises, in the same place, before the king. Against the Seneschall, himself, ran the earl of Somerset,

to whom was given the honour of the first day. Upon the second day came in a knight, Henalder, as challenger, against whom rose as defendant, Sir Richard Arondell, who, after certain courses, ran on horseback with their lances, they combated on foot with axes, where the Henalder had the better, for he brought him on his knee. The third day came a third challenger, whom Sir John Cornway le encountered, and put to the worst. Upon the fourth day, appeared an esquire Henalder, and was met by John Cheyney, who, at the second course, overthrew his adver sary, horse and man, for which the king instantly made him knight. On the fifth day came a fifth challenger, him one John Steward, an esquire, opposed, and came off with honour. Against the sixth challenger, came a gentleman called William Porter, who so couragiously demeaned himself, that there he won his knighthood. Against the seventh champion, appeared John Standish, esquire, who, for his valour there shewn, the king also knighted. A Gascoine also demeaned himself so well against another stranger, that he was also made knight. Upon the eighth and last day, came in two Henalders, challengers, against whom came two English brothers, who were of the garrison at Calais, between whom was so long and so violent a bickering, that they werc commanded by the king to cease combat, lest any of them, who so well had fought, might, in the end, have come off with disgrace. Thus this challenge was finished, to the great honour of the king, who bountifully feasted the strangers, and with rich gifts sent them back into their countries.

In the 11th year, in a parliament held at Westminster, the commons put up a bill unto the king, to take all the temporal lands out of the clergymen's possessions, the effect whereof was, that the temporallities disorderly wasted by the churchmen, which might suffice to find to the king 15 earls, 1,500 knights, 6,200 esquires, and an 100 alms houses, to the relief of poor people, more than were at that time in the land; and besides all those, the king might put yearly to his coffers, 20,000 pound; and of this, by particulars, they made munified proof. To which bill, no answer was made, but that the king would take thereof further deliberation.

In his 14th year, the king called a counsel at White Friars, in which it was concluded, that speedy provison

should be made for the king's voyage to visit the holy sepulchre; but, at the feast of Christmas, whilst he was praying at St. Edward's shrine, to take there his leave, and sped him upon his journey, so grievous a sickness took him, that they feared he would there have expired; wherefore they bore him to the abbot's palace, and brought him to a chamber, and laid him upon a pallat by the fire, who, when he came to himself, asked what place he was in, those that attended him, told him, that it belonged to the abbot of Westminster, and finding himself so extremly sick, he demanded if that chamber had any particular name, they answered that it was called Hierusalem; who presently replied, then, thanks be to the Father of heaven, who hath thus greatly admonished me of mine end; for now I know that I shall die within this chamber, according to a prophecy long since spoke of me, which said I should die in Hierusalem. Which spoken, and having made his peace with heaven, he, in the same place, departed this life, the 20th of March, after he had reigned 14 years, five months, and 21 days, still upholding the former prediction:

much trouble hee'l endure,

And after when he thinks himself secure,
Hoping to wash the kids blood from his hand,
Purpose a voyage to the Holy Land:

But faile yet in Hierusalem shall die,
Deluded by a doubtfull Augury."

This king left behind him four sons, Henry, who was king after him, Thomas, duke of Clarence, John, duke of Bedford, and Humphrey duke of Glocester, and two daughters, the one queen of Denmark, the other dutchess of Bavaria or Barr. His body was afterwards conveyed by water from Westminster to Feversham, in Kent, and thence to Canterbury, where he was royally interred.