Howe Richarde Plantagenet Duke of Yorke was slayn through his ouer rash boldnes, and his sonne the Earle of Rutland for his lacke of valiaunce, An. Dom. 1460.[950]

1. Trust fortune (quod[951] hee) in whome[952] was neuer trust? O folly of men[953] that[954] haue no better grace, All rest, renowne, and deedes lie in the dust, Of all the sort that sue her slipper trace: What meanest thou, Baldwine, for to hide[955] thy face? Thou needest not feare although I misse my head, Nor yet to mourne for this my sonne is dead.[956] 2. The cause why thus I lead him in my hand, His skin with bloud and teares so sore bestaynd,[957] Is that thou mayest the better vnderstand, How hardly fortune hath for vs ordaynd, In whome her loue and hate bee hole contaynd: For I am Richard, prince Plantagenet, The duke of Yorke in royall race beget.[958] 3. For Richard earle of Cambridge, eldest sonne Of Edmund Langley, thyrd[959] sonne of king Edward, Engendred mee, of Anne, whose course[960] did runne Of Mortimers to bee the issue gard: For when her brother Edmund died a ward,[961] Shee was sole heire[962] by due discent of line, Whereby her rightes and titles all were mine. 4. But marke mee nowe, I pray thee, Baldwine, marke, And see how force oft ouerbeareth right: Way how vsurpers tyrannously warke, To keepe by murder that they get by might, And note what troublous[963] daungers doe alight On such as seeke to repossesse their owne, And how through rigour right[964] is ouerthrowne. 5. The duke of Hereford, Henry Bolenbroke,[965] Of whome duke Mowbray told thee now of late, When voide of cause hee[966] had king Richard toke: Hee murdered him, vsurped[967] his estate, Without all right or title, sauing hate Of other’s rule, or loue to rule alone: These two excepted, title had hee none. 6. The realme and crowne was Edmund Mortimer’s,[968] Whose father Roger was king Richard’s heire: Which caused Henry and the Lancasters[969] To seeke all shiftes our housholdes[970] to appayre, For sure hee was to sit beside the chayre Where wee of power to claime our lawfull right, Wherefore to stroy vs hee did all hee might.[971] 7. His cursed sonne ensued his cruell path, And kept my giltlesse cosin strayt in duraunce: For whome my father hard entreated hath: But liuing hopelesse of his line’s assuraunce, Hee thought it best by pollitike procuraunce, To priue[972] the king, and so restore his frend: Which brought him selfe to an infamous end.[973] 8. For whan king Henry,[974] of that name the fifte, Had tane my father in his[975] conspiracy,[976] Hee, from sir Edmund all the blame to shifte, Was fayne to say the[977] French kinge’s ally[978] Had hyred him this trayterous act to trye, For which condemned shortly hee was slaine, In helping right this was my father’s gaine.[979] 9. Thus whan the linage of the Mortimers Was made away by his[980] vsurping line, Some hang’d, some slaine, some pined prisoners, Because the crowne by right of lawe was mine, They gan as fast against mee to repine, In feare alwayes, least I should stur them to[981] strife, For guylty hearts haue neuer quiet life.[982] 10. Yet at the last, in Henrye’s dayes the sixt, I was restored to my father’s landes, Made duke of Yorke: where through my minde I fixt To get the crowne and kingdome in my handes, For ayde wherein I knit assured handes With Neuil’s stocke, whose daughter was my make, Who for no woe would euer mee forsake.[983] 11. O Lord, what hap had I through mariage, Fower goodly boyes in youth my wife shee bore Right valiaunt[984] men and prudent for their age, Such brethren[985] shee had and nephues [still] in store As none had erst, nor any shall haue more:[986] The earle of Salisbury, and his sonne of Warwicke, Were matchlesse men[987] from Barbary to Barwicke. 12. Through helpe of whome and fortune’s louely looke, I vndertooke to claime my lawfull right, And to abash such as against mee tooke,[988] I raysed power at all poyntes prest to fight: Of whome the chiefe, that chiefly bare mee spight, Was Somerset the duke, whome to annoy I alway sought, through spite, spite to destroy.[989] 13. And maugre him, so choyse, lo, was my chaunce, Yea though the quene, that all rulde, tooke his part,[990] I twise bare rule[991] in Normandy and Fraunce, And last lieuetenaunt in Ireland, where my hart Found remedy for euery kinde of smart: For through[992] the loue my doinges there did breede, I had their helpe at all times in my neede. 14. This spitefull duke, his seely king[993] and queene, With armed hoastes I thrise met in the fielde, The first vnfought through treaty made betweene: The second ioynde, wherein the king did yeelde, The duke was slaine, the queene enforst to shyelde Her selfe by flight: the third the queene did fight, Where I was slaine being ouer matcht by might.[994] 15. Before this last were other battayles three, The first the earle of Salisbury led[995] alone, And[996] fought on Bloreheath, and got[997] victory: In the next was I and my kinsfolke[998] euery one: But seeing our souldiers stale vnto our foen, Wee warely brake our company on a night, Dissolued our hoast, and tooke our selues to flight.[999] 16. This boy and I, in Ireland did vs saue, Mine eldest sonne, with Warwicke and his father, To Calais got, whence, by the reade I gaue, They came agayne to London, and did gather An other hoast whereof I spake not[1000] rather: And met our foes, slewe many a lord and knight, And tooke the king, and draue the queene to flight. 17. This done I came[1001] to England all in haste, To make a[1002] claime vnto the realme and crowne: And in the house while parliament did last, I in the kinge’s seat boldly[1003] sate mee downe, And claymed it, whereat[1004] the lordes did frowne, But what for that? I did so well proceede, That all at last confest it mine indeede.[1005] 18. But sith the king had raigned now so long,[1006] They would hee should continue till hee dyed, And to the end, that than none did mee wrong,[1007] Protector and heyre apparant they mee[1008] cryed: But sith the queene and others this denyed, I sped mee towardes the north, where then shee lay, In minde by force to cause her to obay.[1009] 19. Whereof shee warnd preparde a mighty powre, And ere that mine were altogether ready, Came swift to Sandale[1010] and besieged my bowre: Where like a beast I was so rash and heady, That out I would, there could be no remedy, With scant fiue thousand souldiers, to assayle Fowre times so many, encampt to most auayle.[1011] 20. And so was slaine at first: and while my childe Scarse twelue yeare old, sought secretly to parte, That cruell Clifford, lord, nay lorell wylde, While the infant[1012] wept, and prayed him rue his smart, Knowing what hee was, with dagger cloue his heart:[1013] This done, he came to th’camp where I lay dead, Despoylde my corps and cut away my head. 21. And when he had put a paper crowne thereon, As a gawring stocke he sent it to the queene:[1014] And shee for spite commaunded it anon To be had to Yorke: where that it mought[1015] bee seene, They placed it where other traytors beene: This mischiefe fortune did mee after death: Such was my life, and such my losse of breath.[1016] 22. Wherefore see, Baldwine, that thou set it forth, To th’end the fraude of fortune may bee knowen, That eke all princes well[1017] may way the worth Of thinges, for which the seedes[1018] of warre be sowen: No state so sure but soone is ouerthrowen:[1019] No worldly good can counterpeyze the prise Of halfe the paynes that may thereof arise. 23. Far[1020] better it were to lose a piece of right, Than lymmes and life in sousing[1021] for the same: It is not force of friendship, nor of might, But God that causeth thinges to fro or frame,[1022] Not wit but lucke[1023] doth wield the winner’s game: Wherefore if wee our follyes would refrayne, Time would redresse all wronges, wee voyde of payne. 24. Wherefore warne princes not to wade[1024] in war For any cause, except the realme’s defence:[1025] Theyr troublous titles are vnworthy far The bloud, the life, the spoyle of innocence: Of friendes, of foes,[1026] behold my foule[1027] expence, And neuer the neare: best therefore tary time, So right shall raigne, and quyet calme ech crime.[1028]