Holinshed Chronicles: England, Scotland, and Ireland. Volume 1, CompleteHolinshed, Raphael
History
Holinshed Chronicles: England, Scotland, and Ireland. Volume 1, Complete
Holinshed, Raphael
Great Britain -- History -- To 1485; Great Britain -- History -- Tudors, 1485-1603
Being past this we raise another, also in the mouth of the Gowy,
betweene Colsford and Lime, of which for the smalnesse thereof I make
no great account. Wherefore giuing ouer to intreat any farther of it,
[Sidenote: Iardsey.]
[Sidenote: Gardesey.]
I cast about to Iardsey, and Gardesey, which Iles with their
appurtenances apperteined in times past to the Dukes of Normandie, but
now they remaine to our Quéene, as parcell of Hamshire and
iurisdiction of Winchester, & belonging to hir crowne, by meanes of a
composition made betwéene K. Iohn of England and the K. of France,
when the dominions of the said prince began so fast to decrease, as
Thomas Sulmo saith.
[Sidenote: Iardsey.]
Of these two, Iardsey is the greatest, an Iland hauing thirtie miles
in compasse, as most men doo coniecture. There are likewise in the
same twelue parish-churches, with a colledge, which hath a Deane and
Prebends. It is distant from Gardsey full 21. miles, or thereabouts,
and made notable, by meanes of a bloudie fact doone there in Queene
Maries daies, whereby a woman called Perotine Massie wife vnto an
honest minister or préest, being great with childe by hir husband, was
burned to ashes: through the excéeding crueltie of the Deane and
Chapiter, then contending manifestlie against God for the mainteinance
of their popish and antichristian kingdome. In this hir execution, and
at such time as the fire caught holde of hir wombe, hir bellie brake,
and there issued a goodly manchilde from hir, with such force that it
fell vpon the cold ground quite beyond the heate and furie of the
[Sidenote: Horrible murther.]
flame, which quicklie was taken vp and giuen from one tormentor and
aduersarie to an other to looke vpon, whose eies being after a while
satisfied with the beholding thereof, they threw it vnto the carcase
of the mother which burned in the fire, whereby the poore innocent was
[Sidenote: Gardsey.]
consumed to ashes, whom that furious element would gladlie haue left
vntouched, & wherevnto it ministred (as you heare) an hurtlesse
passage. In this latter also, there haue béene in times past, fine
religious houses, and nine castels, howbeit in these daies there is
but one parish-church left standing in the same. There are also
certeine other small Ilands, which Henrie the second in his donation
calleth Insulettas, beside verie manie rocks, whereof one called
[Sidenote: S. Hilaries.]
S. Hilaries (wherein sometime was a monasterie) is fast vpon Iardsey,
[Sidenote: Cornet. Serke.]
another is named the Cornet, which hath a castel not passing an arrow
shot from Gardsey. The Serke also is betwéene both, which is six miles
about, and hath another annexed to it by an Isthmus or Strictland,
wherein was a religious house, & therwithall great store of conies.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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