How the Lorde Clyfford for his straunge and abhominable cruelty came to as straunge and sodayne a death,[1035] Anno 1461.[1036]
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How the Lorde Clyfford for his straunge and abhominable cruelty came to as straunge and sodayne a death,[1035] Anno 1461.[1036]
1. Open confession axeth open pennaunce, And wisdome would a man his shame to hyde:[1037] Yet sith forgieuenes commeth through repentaunce, I thinke it best that men theyr crimes ascride, For nought so secret but at length is spyed: For couer fire, and it will neuer lynne Till it breake forth, in like case shame and sinne.[1038] 2. As for my selfe my faultes be out so playne, And published [so] abroade[1039] in euery place, That though I would I cannot hide a grayne.[1040] All care is bootelesse in a curelesse case, To learne by other’s griefe,[1041] some haue the grace: And therefore, Baldwine, write my[1042] wretched fall, The briefe whereof I briefly vtter shall. 3. I am the same that[1043] slue duke Richard’s childe, The louely babe that begged[1044] life with teares, Whereby mine honour[1045] fouly I defilde: Poore sely lambes the lion neuer teares, The feeble mouse may ly among the beares, But wrath of man, his rancour to requite, Forgets all reason, ruth, and vertue[1046] quite. 4. I meane by rancour the parentall[1047] wreke Surnamde a vertue, as the vicious[1048] say, But litle knowe the wicked[1049] what they speake, In boldening vs[1050] our enmyes kin to slay: To punish sinne is good, it is no nay: They wreke not sinne, but merit wreke for sinne, That wreke the father’s fault vpon[1051] his kinne. 5. Because my father lord Iohn Clyfford, dyed, Slayne at S. Albane’s, in his prince’s ayde, Agaynst the duke my heart for malice fryed, So that I could from wreck no way bee stayed, But to auenge my father’s death, assayde All meanes I might the duke of Yorke t’annoy,[1052] And all his kin and friendes to kill and stroy.[1053] 6. This made mee with my bloudy[1054] dagger wound His guiltlesse sonne, that neuer agaynst mee storde: His father’s body lying dead on ground To pearce with speare, eke with my cruell sworde, To part his necke, and with his head to bourd Enuested with a royall paper[1055] crowne, From place to place to beare it vp and downe.[1056] 7. But cruelty[1057] can neuer scape the scourge Of shame, of horror, or of sodayne death:[1058] Repentaunce selfe, that other sinnes may pourge, Doth fly from this, so sore the soule it slayeth: Despayre dissolues the tyraunt’s bitter[1059] breath: For sodayn vengeaunce sodaynly alightes On cruell deedes,[1060] to quite theyr cruell spights.[1061] 8. This finde I true, for as I lay in stale, To fight with[1062] duke Richard’s eldest son, I was destroyde not far[1063] from Dintingdale, For as I would my gorget haue vndon To euent[1064] the heat that had mee nigh vndone, An headles arrow strake mee through the throte, Where through my soule forsooke his fylthy cote.[1065] 9. Was this a chaunce? no sure, God’s iust awarde, Wherein due[1066] iustice playnly doth appeare: An headlesse arrow payde mee my rewarde:[1067] For heading Richard lying on his[1068] bere, And as I would his childe in no wise heare, So sodayne death bereft my tongue the power To aske for pardon at my dying[1069] hower. 10. Wherefore, good Baldwine, warne the[1070] bloudy sort, To leaue theyr wrath, theyr[1071] rigour to refrayne: Tell cruell judges horror is the port Through which they sayle to shame[1072] and sodayn payne:[1073] Hell haleth[1074] tyrauntes downe to death amayne: Was neuer yet, nor shal be cruell deede, Left vnrewarded with as[1075] cruell meede.
[Whan this tragedy was ended: “O Lord,” sayd[1076] another, “how horrible a thing is diuision in a realme, to how many mischiefes is it the mother, what vice is not therby kindled, what vertue left vnquenched? for what was the cause of the duke of Yorke’s death, and of the cruelty of this Clyfford, saue[1077] the variaunce betwene king Henry and the house of Yorke? which at length, besides millions of the commons, brought to destruction all the[1078] nobility. For Edward the duke’s eldest son immediately after his[1079] father was slayn, through help of the Neuills, gaue the king a battayle, whereat, besides this Clyfford, and xxxvi thousand other souldiers, were slain theyr captaynes, the earles[1080] of Northumberland and Westmerland, with the lordes Dacres and Welles: the[1081] winning of which fielde brought Edward to the crowne, and the losse draue king Henry and his wife into Scotland. But as few raignes begin without bloud, so king Edward to keepe order,[1082] caused Thomas Courtney earle of Deuonshyre, and Iohn Veer earle of Oxeforde, and Aubrey Veer eldest sonne to the sayd earle, with diuers[1083] other his enemies,[1084] to bee attaynted and put to death. And shortly after he[1085] did execution vpon the duke of Somerset, and the lordes Hungerford and Rosse, whom he toke prisoners at Exham fielde. For thither they came with[1086] king Henry out of Scotland, with an army of Scottes, and fought a battayle, which was lost, and the most[1087] part of them slayn.[1088] And because these are all noble men, I will leaue them to Baldwine’s discretion. But seyng the earle of Worcester was the chiefe instrument whom king Edward vsed as well in these men’s matters as in like bloudy affayres, because he should not be forgotten, yee shall here what I haue noted concerning his tragedy.”[1089]]