The plain Englishman's historian, or, A compendious chronicle of England from its first being inhabited to this present year 1679 but more especially containing the chief remarques of all our Kings and Queens since the conquest, their lives and reigns, policies, wars, laws, successes, and troubles : with the most notable accidents, as dearths, tempests, monstrous births, and other prodigies that happened in each of their times respectively / by H.C.

CHAP. XI. King Edward the Second.

THe first Act this Degenerous Successor of a glorious Prince did, was to break his Fathers Will, by calling home his Cro∣ny Gareston, on whom he bestowed most of the thirty thousand Pounds that was ap∣pointed

for the Holy War, and so little minded carrying the brave old Kings Bones about Scotland that it had been well he had suffer'd them quietly to be laid to rest in England, for after the Corps had been kept sixteen Weeks above Ground, and Langton the Treasurer and Executor of his Will was busie in preparing for the Fune∣ral, he caused him to be clapt up in Prison, and all his Goods given to Gareston, and then very indecently, before he perform'd his Fathers Funerals, enters into a Treaty of his own Nuptials with the Daughter of France, which were honour'd with the Presence of four Kings, viz. France, Na∣varr, the Romans, and Sicily, and three Queens, viz. of France, the old Queen of England, and Queen of Navarr, and yet Gareston exceeded them all in Bravery, who wholly possessing the Kings Affections the Lords caus'd him several times to be ba∣nisht, and the King as oft call'd him Home again: Insomuch that the Lords at last took Arms, and suprizing the said Gareston in Scarborough-Castle, cut off his Head, whose Body the King caused to be nobly buried, and built a Monastery on Purpose to pray for his Soul. He was the Son of an ordinary French Gentleman, of an

excellent Personage, and very witty, but exceeding debaucht.

And now Bruce King of Scotland under∣standing this King Edward's easie Temper, takes Heart, and not only reduced all Scot∣land but entred England, burning Towns &c. At last King Edward raises an Army, but like himself, fitter for a Court than a Camp; many men and great Bravery, but no Souldiers; and accordingly they speed, for though his Army consisted of one hun∣dred thousand men, thirty thousand Scots routed them at the fatal Battel of Bannocks-Borough, and as Hector Boetius will have it kill'd fifty thousand of them; and after∣wards were Masters of the Land as farr as York: so that after several Disasters the King was forced to make Truce with them for fifteen Years.

After this he becomes to dote on two o∣ther Favourites, one Spencer and his Father, as much as ever he did on Gareston. And much more mischief came of it; for the Lords striving to remove them by force, and being defeated, the Earl of Lancaster and above twenty of the greatest men in the Realm are put to Death. Then the Queen affronted by the said Spencer goes over into France with a Gallant, One Mortimer, and

refusing to come back is banisht, but then like a true Woman she will come back, and to their Costs; for she comes with an Ar∣my, frights the King from London into Wales, where he is taken with his Spencers, Father and Son, which last are hang'd drawn and quarter'd, and himself that Winter kept Prisoner till Christmass, and then deposed, and made to resign his Crown, when he had Reign'd almost nine∣teen Years. He lived but half a Year after his Deposing, being by Means of the Queens pestilent Councellors hurried from Place to Place, in particular carrying him to Barkley-Castle: To the End he should not be known, they shaved his Head and Beard in a most insolent Manner, for taking him from his Horse, they set him on a Hillock, and ta∣king puddle-water out of the next Ditch went to wash him, telling him, cold Water must serve for this time, whereat the mise∣rable King looking sternly upon them, said he would have warm Water to wash him whether they would or no; and to make good his Word presently shed a shower of Tears. In the said Castle after several hardships he was by his inhumane Kee∣pers murdered, being first stifled in his Bed, and afterwards a red hot Iron thrust

thorow a Pipe up into his fundament, that it might not be discovered.

In the eighth Year of his Reign was so terrible a Famine that Dogs and Horses were eaten, and Thieves in Prison pluckt such as were new brought in to pieces, and devour'd them half alive, which occasion'd such a Pestilence that the living were scarce able to bury the dead. And in his time digging the Foundation of a Work about Pauls, an hundred Heads of Oxen and Kine were found, which confirm'd the Opinion, that in the old time the same had been a Temple of Jupiter or Diana, where was Sa∣crifice of Beasts. And then lived Sir John Mandevile the great Traveller, a Doctor in Physick.