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much nurture, as any prince that ever was. Then the French king said to his children openly: My children, I am your father, but to this prince here you are as much bound, as to me your natural father, for he redeemed me and you from captivity: wherefore on my blessing I charge you to be to him loving always. The king of England ceased the French king's tale, and embraced the young princes. each after other all their three apparels were black velvet, embroidered with silver of damask. Then all these noble company came to Boulogne, where was a great shot of artillery, for on the one side they shot great pellets, which made a great noise then these two princes offered at Our Lady of Boulogne, and the French king brought the king of England to his lodging in the Abbey, directly against hist own lodging, where the king of England had divers chambers, the outer chamber was hanged with fair arras, and another chamber was hanged with green velvet, embroidered with vignettes of gold, and fret with flowers of silver, and small twigs of wreathen work, and in the middle of every pane or piece was a fable of Ovid in Metamorphoses embroidered, and a cloth of estate of the same work, valunced with frets, knotted, and langettes tassaled with Venice gold and silver and in this chamber was hanged a great branch of silver percell gilt, to bear lights. Then was there an inner chamber, hanged with rich cloth of gold of tissue, and the roof siled with the same. The fourth chamber was with velvet, and hatchments of arms, and devices of needlework very cunningly wrought. Every man was appointed to his lodging (which there was very strait) according to his degree, and great cheer was made to all the Englishmen ; the poultries, larders, spiceries, and cellars of wine were all open, and likewise hay and litter, and all other things, ask and have; and no man durst take any money, for the French king paid for all.

The French king caused two gowns to be made of white velvet pricked with gold of damask, and the capes and vents were of frets of whipped gold of damask very rich, which two gowns he sent to the king of England, praying him to choose the one and to wear it for his sake, which gladly took it, and so that Tuesday, the two kings were both in one suite: the same night the French king made to the king of England a supper in his chamber, which was hanged with arras, and siled over with rich silk, and two cloths of estates were set up, one at the one end, and the other at the other end; the one cloth was embroidered with the image of an old man, and a woman with a naked child in her arm, and the woman gave the old man suck of her breast, and about was written in French : Better it is children wantonly to weep, than old men for need to perish. On the other cloth of estate, was embroidered the sun going down of fine gold, and a beast thereon, the head covered with a helm, and a coronal of a duke's estate; the beast's body was all pearl, and the cloth was crimson satin. A rich cupboard was set up of plate, with a great number of pieces of the new fashion. Four great branches hung in the chamber all of silver and gilt, which bare torches of white wax, all the gentlemen of France made the Englishmen great cheer, and served them of delicate viands.

In the church of Boulogne was a traverse set up for the French king, open on every side, saving it was siled with blue velvet, embroidered with fleur de lises gold; the pillars were hanged with the same work. On the French king's right hand was another traverse siled, and cortened all of white satin, embroidered with cables cast, of cut cloth of gold, embroidered and gilted after the fashion that mariners cast their ropes: this traverse was valanced of like work, and fringed with fine gold. Daily the kings heard their masses in these traverses, and commonly they went together to mass. Divers times the kings communed together in council, and sometime in the morning, or the princes were stirring, their councils met, and sat together a great while.

While the king of England lay thus at Boulogne, the French king to show himself loving to the noblemen of England, the 25th day of October, called a Chapter of the Companions of his Order, called Saint Michael, of whom the king of England was one, and so there elected Thomas Luke of Norfolk, and Charles Duke of Suffolk, to be Companions of the said Order, which were brought into the Chapter, and had there collars delivered to them, and were sworn to the statutes of the Order, their obeisance to their sovereign lord always reserved: which dukes thanked the French king, and gave to the officers of arms two hundred crowns apiece. All this season the French king and his court were fresh, and his guard were appareled in frocks of blue, crimson, and yellow velvet. With the French king was the king of Navarre, the Dauphin of Vien, the Dukes of Orleans, Angouleme, Vendôme, Guise, Longville, the Earls of Saint Paule, Nevers, Estampes, Lavalle, and many other earls and barons, and the Prince of Mellfe, four Cardinals, and eleven Bishops with their trains and resort, which surely was a great company: so continued these two kings at Boulogne, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and on Friday the 25th day of October, they departed out of Boulogne to Calais: the French king's train was twelve hundred persons, and so many horse or more and without Calais two mile, met with them the Duke of Richmond, the king's bastard son of England, a goodly young prince, and full of favour and beauty, with a great company of noble men, which were not at Boulogne, so the duke with his company embraced the French king, and so did other noblemen; then the lords of England set forward, as the Dukes of Richmond, Norfolk and Suffolk, the Marquis of Exeter, the Earls of Arundel, Oxford, Surrey, Derby, Worcester, Rutland, Sussex, and Huntingdon, the Viscounts of Lisle and Rocheford, the Bishops of London, Winchester, Lincoln, and Bath, the Lord William Howard, the Lord Matravers, the Lord Montacute, the Lord Cobham, the Lord Sands, the Lord Bray, the Lord Mordaunt, the Lord Leonard Grey, the Lord Clinton, and Sir William Fitzwilliam, knight, treasurer of the king' house, and Sir William Paulet, comptroller of the same, with a great number of knights, beside the lusty esquires and young gentlemen. These noble personages and gentlemen of England accompanied the French lords to Newnam Bridge, where as Thomas Palmer, captain of the fortress, with a fair company of soldiers, saluted the kings, and so they passed toward Calais: where at their coming, that what out of the town and the castle, and what out of Ricebank, and the ships in the haven, the French men said they never heard such a shot: And when they were entered the Mille gate, all the soldiers of the town stood on the one side, appareled in red and blue, and on the other side of the streets stood all the serving men of England, in coats of French tawney, with their lords and masters devices embroidered, and every man a scarlet cap and a white feather, which made a goodly show there were lodged in Calais that night, beside the town dwellers, eight thousand persons at the least. The king of England brought the French king to his lodging, to the Staple inn, where his chamber was hanged with so rich verdure, as hath not been seen the ground of it was gold and damask, and all over the taffs and flowers were of satin, silk, and silver, so curiously wrought that they seemed to grow; every chamber was richer and other: the second chamber all of tissue, with a cloth of estate of needle-work, set with great roses of large pearl. The third was hanged with velvet, upon velvet pearled green and crimson, and embroidered over with branches of flowers of gold bullion, and garnished with arms and beasts of the same gold, set with pearl and stone. If the French king made good cheer to the king of England and his train, at Boulogne, I assure you he and his train were requited at Calais, for the plenty of wild fowl, venison, fish, and all other things which were there, it was marvel to see, for the king's officers of England had made

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preparation in every place, so that the Frenchmen were served with such multitude of divers fishes, this Friday and Saturday, that the masters of the French king's household much wondered at the provision. In likewise on the Sunday, they had all manner of flesh, fowl, spice, venison, both of fallow deer and red deer, and as for wine they lacked none, so that well was the Englishman that might well entertain the Frenchman: the lords of France never fetched their viands, but they were sent to them, and oftentime their proportion of victual was so abundant, that they refused a great part thereof.

While the kings were thus in Calais, they rode every day to Saint Marie church, where were set two traverses, the one for the French king, which was crimson velvet, replenished with great roses of massy bullion of fine gold, and the seed of the said roses were great orient pearl, and about every rose, was a wreath all of pearl and stone, which traverse was much wondered at by the Frenchmen: the other traverse of blue velvet and cloth of tissue, raised with flowers of silver paned, all the blue velvet was embroidered with knots, and subtle draughts, of leaves and branches, that few men could judge the cunning of the workmanship. The Sunday at night, the French king supped with the king of England, in a chamber hanged with tissue, raised with silver, paned with cloth of silver, raised with gold, and the seams of the same were covered with broad wreathes, of goldsmith's work, full of stone and pearl. In this chamber was a cupboard of seven stages high, all of plate of gold, and no gilt plate; beside that there hung in the said chamber ten branches of silver and gilt, and ten branches all white silver, every branch hanging by a long 'chain of the same suit, bearing five lights of wax. To all the riches of the clothes of estate, the basins, and other vessels which was there occupied, I assure you my wit is insufficient, for there was nothing occupied that night, but all of gold. The French king was served three courses, and his meat dressed after the French fashion, and the English king had like courses after the English fashion, the first course of every king was forty dishes, the second sixty, the third seventy, which were costly and pleasant.

After supper came in the marchioness of Pembroke, with seven ladies in masking apparel, of strange fashion, made of cloth of gold, compassed with crimson tinsel satin, covered with cloth of silver, lying loose, and knit with laces of gold; these ladies were brought into the chamber, with four damsels appareled in crimson satin, with tabards of fine cipres: the Lady Marchioness took the French king, and the Countess of Derby took the king of Navarre, and every lady took a lord, and in dancing the king of England took away the ladies' visors, so that there the ladies' beauties were shewed, and after they had danced a while they ceased, and the French king talked with the marchioness of Pembroke a space, and then he took his leave of the ladies, and the king conveyed him to his lodging. The same night the duke of Norfolk feasted all the nobles of France, being there in the castle of Calais, with many goodly sports and pastimes.

On the Monday, being Simon and Jude's day, there dined with the king of England, the king of Navarre, and the cardinal of Lorraine, and the Great Master, and admiral of France, on which day the king of England called a Chapter of the Knights of the Garter, at which Chapter the French king wore the blue mantle of the Order, because he was of the same Order, and there were elected Annas Montmorenci, earl of Beaumont, great master of the French king's house, and Philippe de Chabbot, earl of Neublanc, great admiral of France, which had to them their collars and garters delivered, for the which they rendered to the king great thanks.

The morrow after, being the thirtieth day of October, the two kings departed out of Calais, and came near to Sandingfeld, and there alighted in a fair green place,

where was a table set, and there the Englishmen served the Frenchmen of wine, ipocras, fruit, and spice abundantly. When the two kings had communed a little, they mounted on their horses, and at the very entering of the French ground, they took hands, and with princely countenance, loving behaviour, and hearty words each embraced other, and so there departed.

155.-EVIL MAY DAY.

From Hall's Chronicle.'

[The Eighth year of King HENRY VIII.]

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In this season, the Genevese, Frenchmen and other strangers said and boasted themselves to be in such favour with the king and his council, that they set nought by the rulers of the city; and the multitude of strangers was so great about London, that the poor English artificers could scarce get any living; and, most of all, the strangers were so proud, that they disdained, mocked and oppressed the Englishmen, which was the beginning of the grudge. For, among all other things, there was a carpenter in London called Williamson, which bought two stock doves in Chepe, and as he was about to pay for them, a Frenchman took them out of his hand, said they were not meet for a carpenter. "Well," said the Englishman, “I have bought them and now paid for them, and therefore I will have them." Nay,” said the Frenchman, "I will have them for my lord the ambassador ;" and so, for better or worse, the Frenchman called the Englishman knave, and went away with the stockdoves. The strangers came to the French ambassador, and surmised a complaint against the poor carpenter: and the ambassador came to my lord mayor, and said so much, that the carpenter was sent to prison; and yet not content with this, so complained to the king's council, that the king's commandment was laid on him. And when sir John Baker, knight, and other worshipful persons sued too the ambassador for him, he answered, by the body of God, that the English knave should lose his life; for, he said, no Englishman should deny that the Frenchmen required. And other answer had they none.

Also a Frenchman that had slain a man should abjure the realm, and had a cross in his hand; and then suddenly came a great sort of Frenchmen about him, and one of them said to the constable that led him, "Sir, is this cross the price to kill an Englishman ?" The constable was somewhat astonied, and answered not. Then said another Frenchman, "On that price we would be banished all, by the mass" this saying was noted to be spoken spitefully. Howbeit, the Frenchmen were not alonely oppressors of the Englishmen; for a Lombard, called Francis de Bard, enticed a man's wife in Lombard Street to come to his chamber with her husband's plate; which thing she did. After, when her husband knew it, he de manded his wife; but answer was made he should not have her: then he demanded his plate, and in like manner answer was made that he should neither have plate nor wife. And when he had sued an action against the stranger in the Guildhall, the stranger so faced the Englishman, that he fainted in his suit. And then the Lombard arrested the poor man for his wife's board while he kept him from her husband in his chamber. This mock was much noted; and, for these and many other oppressions done by them, there increased such a malice in the Englishmen's hearts, that at the last it brast out. For, amongst others that sore grudged at these matters, there was a broker in London, called John Lincoln, which wrote a bill before Easter, desiring Doctor Sandish at his sermon at Saint Mary Spital, the Monday in Easter week, to move the mayor and aldermen to take part with the

commonalty against the strangers. The doctor answered, that it became not him to move any such thing in a sermon. From him he departed, and came to a canon in Saint Mary Spital, a doctor in divinity, called doctor Bele, and lamentably declared to him, how miserably the common artificers lived, and scarce could get any work to find them, their wives and children, for there were such a number of artificers strangers that took away all the living in manner; and also how the English merchants could have no utterance, for the merchant strangers bring in all silks, cloth of gold, wine, oil, iron, and such other merchandise, that no man almost buyeth of an Englishman; and also outward they carry so much English wool, tin, and lead, that Englishmen that adventure outward can have no living: "which things," said Lincoln, "hath been shewed to the council, and cannot be heard; and farther," said he, "the strangers compass the city round about in Southwark, in Westminster, Temple Bar, Holborn, Saint Martins, Saint John's Street, Aldgate, Tower Hill, and Saint Katherines, and forestall the market; which is the cause that Englishmen want and starve, and they live abundantly in great pleasure; wherefore," said Lincoln, "Master doctor, sith you were born in London, and see the oppression of the strangers and the great misery of your own native country, exhort all the citizens to join in one against these strangers, raveners and destroyers of your country." Master doctor, hearing this, said he much lamented the case if it were as Lincoln had declared. Yes," said Lincoln, "that it is, and much more, for the Dutchmen bring over iron, timber, leather, and wainscot, ready wrought, as nails, locks, baskets, cupboards, stools, tables, chests, girdles, with points, saddles and painted clothes, so that, if it were wrought here, Englishmen might have some work and living by it; and, beside this, they grow into such a multitude, that it is to be looked upon, for I saw on a Sunday this Lent VI. c., strangers shooting at the popinjay with cross-bows, and they keep such assemblies and fraternities together, and make such a gathering to their common box, that every botcher will hold plea with the city of London." "Well," said the doctor, "I will do for a reformation of this matter as much as a priest may do ;" and so received Lincoln's bill, and studied for his purpose. Then Lincoln, very joyous of his enterprise, went from man to man saying that shortly they should hear news, and daily excited young people and artificers to bear malice to the strangers.

When Easter came, and Doctor Bele should preach the Tuesday in Easter week, he came into the pulpit, and there declared that to him was brought a pitiful bill, and read it in this wise; To all you the worshipful lords and masters of this city, that will take compassion over the poor people your neighbours, and also of the great importable hurts, losses, and hindrances, whereof proceeding the extreme poverty to all the king's subjects that inhabit within this city and suburbs of the same; for so it is that the aliens and strangers eat the bread from the poor fatherless children, and take the living from all the artificers, and the intercourse from all merchants, whereby poverty is so much increased, that every man bewaileth the misery of other; for craftsmen be brought to beggary, and merchants to neediness: wherefore, the premises considered, the redress must be of the commons, knit and unite to one party, and as the hurt and damage grieveth all men, so must all men set to their willing power for remedy, and not to suffer the said aliens so highly in their wealth, and the natural born men of this region to come to confusion. Of this letter was more; but the doctor read no farther; and then he began, Cœlum cœli Domino, terram autem dedit filiis hominum; and upon this text he intreated, that this land was given to Englishmen, and as birds would defend their nest, so ought Englishmen to cherish and defend themselves, and to hurt and grieve aliens for the common weal. And upon this text, pugna pro patria, he brought in how by God's law it was lawful to fight for their country, and ever he

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