The men of warre that serued vnder his ensignes, being for the more part hired souldiers and strangers, came togither, and marching foorth with his bodie, each man with his armour on his backe, in warlike order, conueied it vnto Worcester, where he was pompouslie buried in the cathedrall church before the high altar, not for that he had so appointed (as some write) but bicause it was thought to be a place of most suertie for the lords and other of his fréends there to assemble, and to take order in their businesse now after his deceasse. And bicause he was somewhat fat and corpulent, his bowels were taken out of his bodie, and buried at Croxton abbeie, a house of moonks of the order called Præmonstratenses, in Staffordshire, the abbat of which house was his physician. ¶ How soeuer or where soeuer or when soeuer he died, it is not a matter of such moment that it should impeach the credit of the storie; but certeine it is that he came to his end, let it be by a surfet, or by other meanes ordeined for the shortening of his life. The manner is not so materiall as the truth is certeine. And suerlie, he might be thought to haue procured against himselfe manie molestations, manie anguishes & vexations, which nipt his hart & gnawd his very bowels with manie a sore symptome or passion; all which he might haue withstood if fortune had béene so fauourable, that the loialtie of his subiects had remained towards him inuiolable, that his Nobles with multitudes of adherents had not with such shamefull apostasie withstood him in open fight, that forren force had not weakened his dominion, or rather robbed him of a maine branch of his regiment, that he himselfe had not sought with the spoile of his owne people to please the imaginations of his ill affected mind; that courtiers & commoners had with one assent performed in dutie no lesse than they pretended in veritie, to the preseruation of the state and the securitie of their souereigne: all which presupposed plagues concurring, what happinesse could the king arrogate to himselfe by his imperiall title, which was through his owne default so imbezelled, that a small remanent became his in right, when by open hostilitie and accurssed papasie the greater portion was pluckt out of his hands.