The Reign of _Henry_ the Fourth was short, tumultuous, and bloody; Deluges of noble Blood having been shed by the bare Hands of the common Executioner, to confirm a Throne acquired by abominable Crimes, and Violence! And no sooner had these dreadful Storms begun to abate, than _Henry_ was forced to depart from a Scene he had more adorned, (for he was, without Question, a great and valiant Man) had not his Ambition blindly hurried him beyond the Bounds of Justice and Nature. _Henry_ the Fifth, his Son and Successor, and truly Inheritor of his Ambition and warlike Genius, imagining himself aggrieved by the _Salique Law_, which excluded his Great Great-Grandmother, _Isabel_, from the Monarchy of _France_, turned his elevated Thoughts intirely to the Conquest of that Kingdom: Wherein, by his own vast Merit in martial Affairs, and the Co-operation of the Queen of _France_, (Consort of _Charles_ the Sixth, then frantick,) and that of the Duke of _Burgundy_, a great and powerful Prince, he so far succeeded, as, after his Marriage with _Catharine de Valois_, Daughter of _Charles_ the Sixth, to be crowned, and acknowledged King of _France_. To this great and victorious Monarch succeeded _Henry_ the Sixth, who, through a long, various, and constantly clouded Reign, seemed the very Play of Fortune! This Day a King, the next a Prisoner! One Day acknowleged by his Parliament, the next attainted! One Day a Conqueror, and the next a Captive! Fierce, frequent, and bloody, were the Conflicts between the Houses of _York_ and _Lancaster_, the _White_ and _Red Roses_; the former endeavouring to recover its Loss, the latter to maintain its usurped Authority. In this dreadful Quarrel perished two hundred thousand of private Soldiers; ten thousand of the Nobility, Gentry, and Persons of Distinction; three Kings; and, at last, the entire Race of _Plantagenet_. _Edward_ the Fourth soon fell, by his natural Intemperance, or rather by the insatiable Cruelty of _Gloucester_; who had already sacrificed his Brother _Clarence_, to pave his Way to the Throne. Nor better fared it with _Edward_ the Fifth, who, by all the Arts of Seduction and Delusion, which his unnatural Uncle and Guardian, _Richard_, practised on the Fears and Weakness of the Queen Dowager; was, with his Brother the Duke of _York_, conveyed with great Pomp to the Tower; where the bloody Tyrant, aided by the Duke of _Buckingham_, soon sacrificed those young, innocent and hopeful Princes to his wicked and boundless Ambition. But he soon after lost his own flagitious Life, and a most cruelly-acquired Crown, on the Plains of _Bosworth_. To him succeeded _Henry_ the Seventh, and the first of the Race of _Tudor_, a great, wise and valiant Prince, but rather too much inclined to Rigour, and Avarice; Imperfections which extremely blemished his other great Qualities.