called The Companions, or Adventurers, Peter, King of Castile and Leon, a cruel tyrant, was driven out of his kingdom, his bastard brother, Henry, being chosen in his room, and crowned King of Spain at Burgos.

This Peter was son to Alphonsus the eleventh, King of Castile, and had to wife a French lady, called Blanch, daughter to Peter, duke of Bourbon, who was father also of Joan, the French king's wife. His tyrannical cruelties were so many and so foul, that the Spanish stories scarce suffer Nero, or Caligula, to go beyond him; for which, by his subjects he was deposed, and his brother Henry (as is said before) was substituted and crowned in his room.

Peter, thus driven out of his kingdom, by the aid of the French, applied himself to Prince Edward, craving his assistance for his restitution, making many and large promises to him upon the accomplishment thereof. And the prince, partly out of charity to succour a distressed prince, and partly out of policy to keep his soldiers in exercise, having first sent to his father, and gotten his leave, marched with a gallant army of thirty-thousand men (burning with desire of renown) upon confidence of good pay for his men, and other commodities, when Peter should be re-established upon his throne.

He made his way through the famous streights of Rouncevallux, in Navarre, by permission of the king thereof, who yet suffered himself to be taken prisoner, and carried into Castile, that he might not seem to cross the French king's designs, who favoured Henry, the usurper.

Our prince had in his company, besides most of all the principal captains of the English, two kings, Peter of Castile, whose the quarrel was, and the King of Majorca: as also John, Duke of Lancaster, who, some while after Don Pedro's death, having married his eldest daughter, wrote himself King of Castile and Leon.

On the other side, King Henry, for the defence of his new kingdom, had amassed together a very great army, consisting partly of French, under Glequin, their famous captain, and of Castilians and others, both Christians and Saracens, to the number of about an hundred thousand: and, upon the borders of Castile, it came to a bloody battle, wherein the valiant Prince of Wales obtained a very great victory, having slain many thousands of his enemies. Henry himself, fighting valiantly, was wounded in the groin, but yet escaped. There were taken prisoners the Earl of Dene, Bertram de Glequin (who yet shortly after, by paying a great ransom, was set at liberty) the Mashal Dandrehen, and many others. Neither was this victory less worth to Peter, than a kingdom; for our most noble prince left him not, till at Burgos he had set him upon his throne again.

But this unworthy king's falshood and ingratitude were odious and monstrous. For the prince, notwithstanding his so great goodness extended to him, was forced to return to Bourdeaux, without money, wherewith to pay his army; which was the cause of exceeding great mischiefs to himself, and the English dominions beyond the seas, as if God had been displeased with his succouring such a tyrant. The prince himself, though he came back with victory, yet he brought back with him such a craziness, and indisposition of body, that he was never thoroughly well after. And no marvel, considering the country, the

season, and the action itself; and it may be more marvelled, that his soldiers came home so well, than that he came home so ill.

Being now returned, there was presently, to his indisposition of body, added discontentment of mind. For, not having money wherewith to pay his soldiers, he was forced to wink at that which he could not choose but see, and seeing to grieve at. For they preyed upon the country, for which the country murmured against him. And, now to stop this murmuring, his chancellor, the Bishop of Rhodes, devised a new imposition of levying a frank for every chimney, and this to continue for five years, to pay the prince's debts.

But this imposition, though granted in parliament, made the murmuring to be increased. For, though some part of his dominions, as the Poictorians, the Xantoigns, and the Limosins, in a sort consented to it, yet the court of Armigniac, the Count of Cominges, the Viscount of Carmain, and divers others, so much distasted it, that they complained thereof to the King of France, as unto their supreme lord: pretending that the prince was to answer before King Charles, as before his superior lord, of whom, they said, he held by homage and fealty; whereas King Edward and his heirs, by the treaty at Bretagne, were absolutely freed from all manner of service for any of their dominions in France; King Charles did openly entertain this complaint, and hoping to regain, by surprize and policy, what the English had won by dint of sword, and true manhood, he proceeded to summon the Prince of Wales to Paris, there to answer to such complaints as his subjects made against him.

Our stout prince returned for answer, 'That, if he must needs appear, he would bring threescore-thousand men in arms to appear with 'him.' And now began the peace, between England and France, to be unsettled and wavering. For, while our King Edward rejoiced in the excellent virtues and actions of his sons and people, Charles, the French King, warned by so many calamities as his dominions had sustained by the English in fair war, and withal earnestly coveting to recover the honour of his nation, betook himself wholly to secret practices and designs: never adventuring his own person in the field, but executing all by his deputies and lieutenants, especially by the valour and service of Bertram de Glequin, constable of France, who, from a low estate, was raised to this height, for his prudent and magnanimous conduct in war. And our truly noble king, without suspicion of craft, reposing himself upon the rules of virtue and magnanimity, did not reap the stable effects of so great and important victories, nor of the peace so ceremoniously made, that, in the world's opinion, it could not be broken, without the manifest violation, upon one side, of all bonds both divine and human.

The Prince of Wales by letters advised his father not to trust to any fair words, or overtures of further amity, made by the French, because, as he said, they entertained practices underhand in every place against him but his counsel was not hearkened to, because he was judged to write thus out of a restless humour, delighting in war, though the event shewed that his words were true. For now King Charles having, by quick payments, and by one means or other, gotten home all the hostages which had been pledged for the performance of the articles of peace, set all his wits on work to abuse the King of England's credulity. He

courted him with loving letters and presents, while in the mean time his plots were ripened abroad, and he surprised the county of Ponthieu, our king's undeniable inheritance, before King Edward heard thereof.

King Edward hereupon calls a parliament, declares the breach, craves aid, and hath it granted; and then again claims the crown of France, and sent over his son John, Duke of Lancaster, and Humphry de Bohun, Earl of Hereford, with a great army to Calais to invade France.

Among the states and towns made over to the English at the treaty of Bretagne, which had revolted to the French, was the city of Limosin : thither did the Prince march, and sat down with his army before it : and, not long after, came unto him, out of England, his two brethren, the Duke of Lancaster and the Earl of Cambridge, with a fresh supply of valiant captains and soldiers. The city stood it out to the uttermost, and was at last taken by storm, where no mercy was shewed by the inraged soldiers, but the sword and fire laid all desolate after this service, the prince's health failing him more and more, he left his brethren in Aquitain to prosecute the wars, and himself, taking ship, came over to his father in England, his eldest son, Edward, being dead a little before at Bourdeaux, and brought over with him his wife and his other son Richard.

The prince having left France, his dominions were either taken away, or fell away faster than they were gotten; Gueschlin entered Poictou, took Montmorillon, Chauvigny, Lussack, and Moncontour. Soon after followed the country of Aulnis, of Xantoigne, and the rest of Poictou : then St. Maxent, Neel, Aulnay: then Benaon, Marant, Surgers, Fontency, and at last they came to Thouras, where the most part of the lords of Poictou, that held with the prince, were assembled. At this time the king, Prince Edward, the Duke of Lancaster, and all the great lords of England set forward for their relief: but, being driven back by a tempest, and succour not coming, Thouras was yielded up upon com. position. In fine, all Poictou was lost, and then Aquitain, all, but only Bourdeaux and Bayonne. And not long after Prince Edward died, and with him the fortune of England. He was a prince so full of virtues as were scarce matchable by others. He died at Canterbury upon TrinitySunday, June 8, in the forty-sixth year of his age, and the forty-ninth of his father's reign, and was buried in Christ's-Church there, Anno Christi, 1376.

Among all the gallant men of that age, this our prince was so worthily the first, that,

Longe erit a primo quisque secundus erit.

He had a sumptuous monument erected for him, upon which this Epitaph was engraven in brass, in French thus Englished:

'Here lieth the noble Prince Monsieur Edward, the eldest son of the 'thrice noble King Edward the Third, in former time, Prince of Aquitain, and of Wales, Duke of Cornwal, and Earl of Chester, who 'died on the feast of the Trinity, which was the eight of June, in the 6 year of grace, 1376. To the soul of whom, God grant mercy. Amen.'

After which were added these verses in French, thus translated, according to the homely poetry of those times:

Who so thou art that passest by,
Where these corpse entombed lie:
Understand what I shall say,
As, at this time, speak I may.
Such as thou art, sometime was I':
Such as I am, such shalt thou be.
I little thought on th' hour of death,
So long as I enjoyed breath.
Great riches here I did possess,
Whereof I made great nobleness.
I had gold, silver, wardrobes, and
Great treasures, horses, houses, land.
But now a caitiff poor am I,
Deep in the ground, lo here I lie:
My beauty great is all quite gone,
My flesh is wasted to the bone:

My house is narrow now, and throng;
Nothing but truth comes from my tongue.
And, if you should see me this day,
I do not think but ye would say,
That I had never been a man,

So much altered now I am.

For God's sake, pray to the heavenly kingt,
That he my soul to heaven would bring.
All they that pray and make accord
For me unto my God and Lord;
God place them in his paradise,
Wherein no wretched caitiff lies.

The death of this prince, saith Daniel in his History of England, was a heavy loss to the state, being a prince of whom we never heard no ill, never received any other note but of goodness, and the noblest perfor mance that magnanimity and wisdom could ever shew, insomuch as what praise could be given to virtue, is due to him.

↑ See the ignorance and superstition of those times, and bless God for our clearer light.

FOUR FOR A PENNY:

OR,

POOR ROBIN'S CHARACTER OF AN UNCONSCIONABLE PAWN-BROKER,

And Ear-mark of an oppressing Tally-Man:

WITH A FRIENDLY DESCRIPTION OF 4

BUM-BAILEY, AND HIS MERCILESS SETTING-CUR, OR FOLLOWER. WITH ALLOWANCE.

WE

London, printed for L. C. 1678. Quarto, containing eight pages,

E here present you, gentlemen, with a parcel of beasts of prey, worse than ever Africk bred; and more unclean than any that entered into Noah's ark; yet cloven footed in imitation of their sire; and all so superlative in their kinds, that each may dispute for precedency only, for method-sake, we shall begin with the most sly and dangerous.

An unconscionable pawn-broker (for there are conscionable dealers in that way, that are a relief and comfort to the poor; and those are not concerned in this character :) an unconscionable pawn-broker, Į say, is Pluto's factor, old Niek's warehouse-keeper, an English Jew that lives and grows fat on fraud and oppression, as toads, on filth and venom; whose practice outvies usury, as much as incest simple forni cation; and to call him, a tradesman, must be by the same figure, that pickpockets stile their legerdemain, an art and mystery. His shop, like hell gates, is always open, where he sits at the receipt of custom, like Cacus in his den, ready to devour all that is brought him; and, hav ing gotten your spoils, hangs them up in rank and file, as so many trophies of victory. Hither all sorts of garments resort in pilgrimage, whilst he, playing the pimp, lodges the tabby-petticoat and russetbreeches together in the same bed of lavender.

He is the treasurer of the thieves exchequer, the common fender of all bulkers and shop-lifts in the town. To this purpose, he keeps a pri vate warehouse, and ships away the ill gotten goods by wholesale: dread ing nothing so much, as that a convict should honestly confess how he disposed the moveables. He is a kind of disease quite contrary to the gout; for, as that haunts the rich, so this mainly torments the poor, and scarce leaves them so much as a primitive fig-leaf to cover their na kedness. Mrs. Joan, when she is minded to see her sweet.heart, and Gammar Blue blottle going to a christening, muster up the pence, on the Saturday night to redeem their best riggings out of captivity; but, on Monday morning, infallibly bring them back (like thieves that had only made an escape) to the old Limbus; and this so often, till, at last,