Their grandson HAL an heirship,
From JOHN of GAUNT pretended,
But some said nay,

'Till he won the day,

And there the question ended,

DICK* lost his crown in battle,
And Vict❜ry deigned to place it
On HENRY's head,
Who smiling said,

Qui Capit ille facit.

ELIZA then he wedded,

For the Queen her mother brought her

The fight to see,

In hopes that he

Who won might take her daughter.

'Till the battle fierce subsided,

Poor BESS was afraid to look up;

But DICK once dead,

She rais'd her head,

And the Conqueror she took up.

Richard III.

With

With royal condescension,

He call'd her best of creatures;
And in gold, red, and blue,

For her guard drest a crew

Of the first enrolled BEEF-EATERS,

Yet he met great opposition,

From MADGE of York,* and her kin ;

Who, it's known very well,

Induced to rebel

LAMBERT SIMNEL, and WARBECK PERKIN.

The first as Earl of Warwick,

To rule the land unable,

The King him took,

To learn from his cook,†
How to rule the roast at table.

Next PERKIN thought the title

Of York wou'd him sit well on,

Margaret of York, Duchess Dowager of Burgundy, and Sister of dward the Fourth, a sworn enemy to the House of Lancaster.

He was made Scullion, and afterwards Falconer, to the King; in the latter post he died,

Got

Got a royal wife,*

Then lost his life,

For they hang'd him like a felon.t

Two Lawyers chiefly governed,

In each finance transaction,

And the people squeez'd,

'Till much displeased, They call'd for satisfaction.

Then Cornwall folks revolted,

And the north too, tired of taxes,

Essay'd the field,

But, forced to yield,

Made work for ropes and axes,

* James of Scotland gave him in mariage the Lady Catherine Gordon, Daughter of the Earl of Huntley, and Kins-woman to the King. After the defeat of her husband, to whom she was much attached, King Henry treated her with respect, gave her a pension, and introduced her to his Queen.-Sir James Cradock obtained the Widow's hand.

"James back'd the cause of that weak Prince

"Warbeck, that Flemish counterfeit,

"Who on the gibbet paid the cheat."

WALTER SCOTT.

↑ Sir Richard Empsom, and Edmund Dudley, who were executed in the next Reign.

The

The PRINCE of WALES, young Arthur,

Soon after wedlock dying,

By the King's next son,

His

spouse was won,

Who had cause to rue complying.*

When HENRY's reign was ended,
The crown to his son bequeathing;
He left more gold,

In this reign, by our Court rejected,

COLUMBUS sailed from Cadiz,

And found, they say,

America,

By which Spain's fortune made is.

Empson and Dudley serious plagues were thought,
The sweating sickness also did prevail;
And tho' per bushel wheat but six-pence brought,
Much discontent did thro' the land prevail.

* Queen Catherine of Arragon, betrothed to Arthur, married to, and divorced by, Henry VIII.

Poetic Specimens of Henry the Seventh's Reign,

Published by Wynkyn de Worde, and supposed to be
a Translation from the French.

Uron this horse, black and hideous, Death am I who fiercely doth sitte;

There is no fairness, but sight tedious, all gay colours I do hitte;

My horse runneth by dales and hilles,
And many he smiteth dede and killes.

In my trap I take some every way, by Towns and Castles I take my rent:

I will not respite an hour of a day, before me they must be present;

I flea all with my mortal knife,
And, of duetye, I take the life.

Hell knoweth well my killing, I slepe never, but wake and warke,

It followeth me ever, running, with my darte I slea week and starke;

A great number it hath of me
Paradise hath not the fourth part.

The