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Then leagued with PHILIP of Hainault,
Her lord and sov'reign to assault.

Yet who shall free the Gallic dame
From stigma, and deserved blame;
Was it for her the mote to spy
That haply dimm'd her consort's eye:
When MORTIMER as it should seem,
Was, in her own, a monstrous beam.

DRAYTON, thy verse can better tell,
The hapless King what next befell;
Deposed, deserted, and disgraced,
In Ruffian restriction placed,

To insult cruelly exposed,

With agony his being closed!

GURNEY, MAUTRAVERS, and the crew,
Who dared so fell a crime to do,

Were

Miscreants, who after practising every degradation on the deposed King, that meanness and malice could invent, put him to a most excruciating death in Kenilworth Castle. When to add to other atrocious indignities, they brought cold and dirty water for Edward to shave with, the unfortunate Monarch, whose tears flowed fast, exclaimed, "You see I have warm water "in spite of you!" It is some alleviation to know that all concerned in Edward's murder met signal retribution. Gurney died by the hands of the executioner; Mautravers perished for want;

Edmund,

Were punish'd for the blood they spilt,

Yet live immortalized in guilt.

Oh! may the careless, thoughtless, great,

Profit by reading EDWARD's fate,

And men of cruel nature know,

Like EDWARD's murd'rers, more than EDWARD'S

woe.

The SPENCERS, who had caus'd this strife,
l'aid for delinquency with life;

And what the folks of England gain,
IS, EDWARD'S son styled King in vain,
While MORTIMER and ISABELLA reign.

Edmund, Earl of Kent, who conspired against the King, his brother, was beheaded through the intrigues of Mortimer, and the Queen; of whom the former was hanged, and the latter imprisoned for life.

Adam de Orleton, Bishop of Hereford, is said to have sanctioned the assassination of Edward by this ambiguous line:

Edwardum occidere, nolite timere, bonum est.

Or,

Edwardum occidere nolite, timere bonum est.

The punctuation making it either,

Edward to slay avoid, to fear 'tis good.

Or,

Edward to slay, avoid to fear! 'tis good.

VOL. I

P

Royal

Royal Poetry of this Reign.

EDWARD was learned, tho', like me, no poet;
The following lines, his own, may serve to shew it;
When, to a dungeon fallen from a throne,
The royal sufferer thus made his moan :

Written by EDWARD the SECOND.*

(On the authority of FABIAN.)

Damnum mihi contulit

Tempore brumali,

Fortuna satis aspera

Vehementis mali.

Nullus est tam sapiens,

Mitis, aut formosus
Tam prudens virtutibus,
Cæterisque famosus

Quin, stultus reputabitur

Et satis despectus,
Si fortuna prosperos
Avertat effectus.

* Of these verses, which Bishop Tanner styles, "Lamentatio gloriosi Regis Edwardi, de Karnarvon, quam edidit temporæ suæ incarceratio"nis."

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Horace Walpole says,

I should believe that this melody of a dying Monarch is about as authentic as that of the old poetic warbler the Swan, and no better founded than the title of Gloriosi.

CATALOGUE OF ROYAL AUTHORS.

Imitated

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SUMMARY OF THE REIGN OF

EDWARD III. SURNAMED OF WINDSOR.

Born at Windsor, November 30th, 1312. Crowned at Westminster, February 1st, 1327. Married Philippa, daughter of William, Earl of Hainault and Holland. Had issue, EDWARD, of Woodstock, the BLACK Prince of Wales, and first Duke of Cornwall; married to Joan, daughter of Edmund, Earl of Kent, (by whom he had Edward, who died young; and Richard the Second, who succceded his grandfather:) the other children of King Edward were, William of Hatfield, who died in childhood; Lionel, Duke of Clarence; John of Ghent or Gaunt, Earl of Richmond, and Duke of Lancaster; Edmund of Langley, Earl of Cambridge, and Duke of York; William of Windsor, died young; and Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester; Isabella married the Earl of Soissons; Joan, died on her journey to marry a Prince of Castile; Blanche died young; Mary married to the Duke of Bretagne; and Margaret, to John Hastings, Earl of Pembroke.

PRINCIPAL EVENTS.

Mortimer, Earl of March, executed at Barne Elms; and the Queen Dowager imprisoned. Battles of Crecy and Poictiers, the Kings of France and Scotland taken prisoners. Institution of the Garter. Death of Edward, the Black Prince. The statute of high treason first enacted. St. Stephen's Chapel, the present House of Commons, and Windsor Castle built.

EMINENT PERSONS.

Thomas Bradwardin, Simon Islip, Simon Langham, William Witlesey, and Simon Sudbury, Archbishops of Canterbury. Edward the Black Prince of Wales. De Montacute

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