Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (2 of 6): England (07 of 12): Iohn the Yongest Sonne of Henrie the SecondHolinshed, Raphael
History
Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (2 of 6): England (07 of 12): Iohn the Yongest Sonne of Henrie the Second
Holinshed, Raphael
Great Britain -- History -- John, 1199-1216; Great Britain -- History -- To 1485; Great Britain -- History -- Tudors, 1485-1603
But to the purpose. Perceiuing himself now destitute of his best
fréends, of whom diuerse remained prisoners with the French king
(being taken at the battell of Bouins) he thought good to agrée with
king Philip for this present, by way of taking some truce, which by
mediation of ambassadours riding to and fro betwixt them, was at length
accorded to endure for fiue yeares, and to begin at Easter in the
yeare of our Lord, 1215. After this, about the 19 daie of October he
returned into England, to appease certeine tumults which began alreadie
to shoot out buds of some new ciuill dissention. And suerlie the same
spred abroad their blossoms so freshlie, that the fruit was knit before
the growth by anie timelie prouision could be hindered. For the people
being set on by diuerse of the superiours of both sorts, finding
themselues gréeued that the king kept not promise in restoring the
ancient lawes of S. Edward, determined from thencefoorth to vse force,
since by request he might not preuaile. To appease this furie of the
people, not onelie policie but power also was required, for the people
vndertaking an euill enterprise, speciallie raising a tumult or ioining
in a conspiracie are as hardlie suppressed and vanquished as Hydra the
monster hauing manie heads: and therefore it is well said, that
------comes est discordia vulgi,
Námque à turbando nomen sibi turba recepit.
[Sidenote: A cloked pilgrimage.]
The Nobles supposing that longer delaie therein was not to be suffered,
assembled themselues togither at the abbeie of Burie (vnder colour of
going thither to doo their deuotions to the bodie of S. Edmund which
laie there inshrined) where they vttered their complaint of the kings
tyrannicall maners, alledging how they were oftentimes called foorth
to serue in the wars & to fight in defense of the realme, and yet
notwithstanding were still oppressed at home by the kings officers, who
(vpon confidence of the lawes) attempted all things whatsoeuer they
conceiued. And if anie man complained, or alledged that he receiued
wrong at their hands, they would answer by and by, that they had law
on their side to doo as they had doone, so that it was no wrong but
right which they did, and therfore if they that were the lords and
péeres of the realme were men, it stood them vpon to prouide that such
inconueniencies might be auoided, and better lawes brought in vse, by
the which their ancestours liued in a more quiet and happie state.
[Sidenote: The charter of K. Henrie the first.]
[Sidenote: A firebrand of dissention.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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