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Dum vixit," fays Walfingham, "omnes reges orbis gloria & magnificentia fuperavit ;" which character in his hif tory he greatly enlarges, contrasting his magnanimity with his affability, difcretion, moderation, munificence, and the mildness of his government.

Hic erat (fays an old Chronicle in the Cottonian Library, cited by Weever) flos mundane militie, fub quo militare erat regnare, proficifci proficere, confligere, triumphare. Hi: vere Edwardus quamvis in hoftes terribilis extiterat, in fubditos tamen mitiffimus fuerat gratiofus, pietate & mifericordia omnes pene fuos præcellens ante ceffores.

Milles fays, "It is reported that his Queen made it her dying request, that he would choofe none other fepulchre than that wherein her body fhould be layed." This he had from Froiffart, who mentions two other dying requests made by her. "When the good lady knew that the muft die, fhe fent for the king, and when he came the drew her right hand out of the bed, and putting it into his right hand, the good lady faid, We have lived all our time together in peace, joy, and profperity, I beg you at this parting to grant me three favours.' The king in tears replied, Afk, Madam, and it fhall he done and granted. She then requested, that he would difcharge the money due from her to foreign merchants, that he would pay her legacies to the feveral churches both at home and abroad, and to her fervants, and that he would choose no other place of burial, but lie by her in Westminster Abbey.' All thefe he promifed to fulfil. The good lady then made the fign of the true crofs on him, and commended the king and her youngest fon Thomas, who flood by him, to God, and prefently after the refigned her foul; which, fays the honest writer, I firmly believe was received by the holy angels, and conveyed to heavenly blifs! for never in her life did the do or think any thing

which should endanger her falvation!” Thus died this Queen at Windfor, on the vigil of our Lady, in the middle of August 1369.

It is remarkable of this Prince, as well as his grandfather, that we hear of no natural children of his, though Walfingham feems to afcribe his death to fome amorous indulgences of his dotage with Alice Price.

The pleafures of his youth were the chace and building, in which he paffed all the time he could fpare from government and conquest.

Directions given by Richard II. about his Funeral.

FROM the will of this unfortunate king (the first who had the permission of Parliament to make a will) it appears that he had erected this monument to himfelf and his beloved confort in his life-time. His directions about his funeral, the arraying of his body, and the proceffion, are no lefs curious. It was to be celebrated more regio, with four herfes in four feparatę places; two with five lights in the two principal churches to which his body might happen to be carried; a third in St Paul's Church; and the fourth, in a style of fuperior magnificence, full of lights, in the church of Weft minfter. The proceffion was to travel fourteen, fifteen, or fixteen miles a day, as the stations fuited, surrounded by twenty-four wax torches, day and night, to which an hundred more were to be added when it paffed thro' London. But if he chanced to die within fixteen, fifteen, ten, or five miles of his palace at Weftminster, these herfes were to be fet out for four days together, in four principal intermediate places; or if there were no places that anfwered this defcription, then in four other places, as his executors fhould determine; and if he died in his palace at Westminster, then one very folemn herfe for four days; but on the last day ftill more honourable exequies. If his corpfe fhould happen

to be loft at fea, or by any other accident, which God forbid ab hominum afpectibus rapiatur; or fhould he die in a part of the world whence it could not eafily be brought to England, the fame directions touching both the funeral and monument were nevertheless to be obferved. His corpfe was to be arrayed in velvet or white fattin, more regio, with a gilt crown and fceptre, but without any ftones, except the precious ftone in the ring of his finger, more regio, of the value of twenty merks of English money. Every catholic king was to receive on the oc cafion a prefent of a gold cup of the value of L.45 English money; and his fucceffor, provided he fulfilled his will, was to have all the crowns, gold, plate, furniture of his chapel, certain beds and hangings; and the rest of his jewels and plate was to be applied to wards furnishing the buildings he had begun at the nave of the abbey church at Westminster.

Death of Simon de Montfort, Earl of

Leicester.

SIMON de MONTFORT, Earl of Leicester, being flain at the battle of Evesham, his head, hands, feet, and privities cut off on the field by Roger Mortimer, and the former fent to Wigs more caftle, by leave of the king, the trunk was carried away on a weak old ladder, covered with a torn cloth, to the abbey church of Evesham, and, wrapt in a fheet, committed to the earth, before the lower step of the high altar there, with his eldeft fon Henry and Hugh Lord Defpencer, who fell with him. But fhortly after, fome of the monks alledging that he died excommunicate and attainted of treafon, and therefore did not deferve Chriftian burial, they took up his corpfe, and buried it in a remote place, known to few.

One of his hands being carried into Cheshire by the fervant of one of the king's party, was, at the elevation of the hoft in the parish church, mi

raculously lifted up higher than the heads of all the affiftants, notwithstand. ing it had been fewed up in a bag, and kept in the bearer's bofom. One of his feet was carried by John de Vefcy, the founder, to Alnwic abbey, where continuing feveral months uncorrupted, the monks made for it a filver fhoe. It had a wound between the little and the third toe, made either by a knife or fword in the mang. ling of the body. The diftant fight of this foot wrought instant cures. A canon of Alnwic, who fwore the Earl was a traitor, loft first his eyes, and then his life. "Think," cries out the monk of Mailros, who relates this ftory," what will be the glory of this "foot at its rejunction to Simon's "body after the general judgement, "from the comparison of this foot be "fore that great event, which dif "played fuch healing powers through "the filver fhoe, out of which went "invifible virtue to heal the fick." The other foot was fent, as a mark of contempt, by the victor to Llewellin Prince of Wales, who had formed an alliance with this Earl, and married his daughter. Though it is not to be doubted that this alfo was endowed with a power of working miracles, they were not fufficiently authenticated to be recorded. His other hand was preferved with great reverence at Evesham, where it may fairly be prefumed to have wrought miracles; "for "God, continues my author, does not "fo justify one part of a man by thefe "powers as to leave another part with

out the fame." This chronicler, in his enthufiafm for the Earl, compares him with his namefake Simon Peter, celebrates his exemplary vigilance and habit of rifing at midnight, his ab ftinence, and his moderation in dress, always wearing haircloth next his skin, and over it at home a russet habit; and in public, blovet, or burnet; and his conftant language was, that he would not defert the juft defence of England, which he had undertaken for God's

fake,

fake, through the love of life, or the fear of death; but would die for it. Juftly therefore did the religious pre fer his fhrine to the Holy Land; and his favourites the friars minor celebra ted his life and miracles, and compofed a fervice for him, which, during the life of Edward, could not be generally Introduced into the church.

Matthew Paris, and the author of the Annals of Waverly pretend, that at the inftant of his death there happened ex traordinary thunder and lightning, and general darkness. "Sicque labores "finivit fuos vir ille magnificus Simon comes, qui non folum fua fed faims pendit pro oppreffione pauperom, af"fectione juftitiæ, & regni jure. Fuerat utique literarum fcientia commenda bills, officiis divinis affidue intereffe gaudens, frugalitati deditus, cuifami"liare fuit in noctibus vigilare amplius quam dormire: conftans fuit in verbo, feverus in vultu, maxime fidus in orationibus religioforum, ecclefiaftis cis magnam femper impendens reverentiam." Thefe are the words of Matthew Paris, who adds, that he had high opinion of bishop Groftefte. Ipfius confilio tractabat ardua, ten tabat dubia, finivit inchoata, ea max. ime per quæ meritum fibi fucrefcere æftimabat" that the bifhop promis fed him the crown of martyrdom for his defence of the church, and foretold that both he and his fon would die the fame day in the caufe of juftice and truth. His profeflions of religion (for he and all his army received the facra ment before they took the field) and his oppofition to the king's oppreffive measures, made him the idol of the monks and the populace. Tyrrel fays he had feen at the end of a MS. in the public library at Cambridge, cerJain prayers directed to him as a faint, with many rhyming verfes in his praife, and the Pope was obliged to re prefs thefe extravagances. He certainly was poffeffed of noble qualities; but amid the prejudices of antient writers in his favour, and the violent

declamations of the moderns againf him, it is not cafy to decide whether ambition or the public good was the motive of his oppofition to his fo vereign, who had been his benefactor, and whofe fifter he had married. Thẹ chronicler of Mailros appeals to heaten for the juftice of his caufe, and the mira cles wrought at the tomb of his affociatę Hugh Defpencer, who was chief just ice of England; and the chronicler of Waverly fcruples not to call his death a glorious martyrdom for his country, and, the good of the kingdom and the church; while Carte condemns him as a traitor; and Tyrrel fays, he and his family perifhed, and came to nought in a few years. Knighton fays, he reproached his fons for having brought him to his end by their pride and prefumption. Mr Philips, owner of the fite of Evefham-abbey, digging a foundation for a wall between the church-yard and his garden, found the skeleton of a man in armour, probably one of the heroes that fell in this battle. He fcrupulously left it untoucht, and built the wall upon it.

Anecdotes of Sir John Maltravers, an Affociate in the Murder of Edward II.

THIS man, affociate with Sir Tho mas. Gurney in the cruel murder of Edward II. at Berkeley castle, recei ved his pardon for that atrocious deed on account of his fervices in Ed. ward III.'s wars in France, and had the government of Guernsey conferred on him. Hollinfhed, speaking of him before the death of Edward II. calls him John Lord Matrevers, and is au thorised herein by the title of Baron on his tomb, though Dugdale fays none of the family were Barons before 1 Edward III. Rapin fays, Maltras vers spent his days in exile in Ger many, whither he retired immediately after the fact; for which Gurney was beheaded at fea three years after (1332, Rymer) as they were bringing him into England under arreft from Bays onne, Thomas de la More fays of Maluavers,

Maltravers, that diu latuit in Germany, bellion, and fled for it. It is not cer

which is literally tranflated by Speed, 4 Edward III, he had judgment to be put to death wherever he could be found, for the murder of Edmond Earl of Kent, as the record alledges. It appears in Rymer, that his attainder was reverft by an act dated at Guilford, Dec. 28, 1347, because it was contrary to law, he having never been heard in his defence. He came to the King at Sloys, 12 Edward III. and afterwards at London. But the reverfal was only on condition he appeared at court when fummoned. Carte fays, he lived 26 years in Germany, and finding means to do fome fervices to Edward III. he came and threw himfelf at the King's feet in Flanders, fubmitting his life to his difpofal, and was pardoned. Dugdale adds from the Parliament Rolls, that he loft all his goods in his fervices in Flanders, and fuffered great oppreffion; and having obtained licence to return to England, he procured a full pardon in Parliament 25 Edward IÎI. and again had fummons to fit there, the firft of his family. Next year, upon his fon's death, he had the government of, Guernsey, Jerfey, Sark, and Aurency, and was in the expedition against France 29 Edward III. He found ed an hofpital for poor men and women at Bowes in Guernsey, and died 16 Feb. 28 Edward III. 1365; fo that as he was 30 at the death of his father, 24 Edward I. and was knight ed 34 Edward I. he must have been 99 at the time of his death; and had time to reconcile himself to God as well as to his Sovereign;-if any thing but the deepest contrition on his part could expiate fo atrocious a crime; for which his epitaph folicits the prayers of its readers, and their falvation for their piety. He begs hard, and offers handfomely, for the pardon of his aggravated fins.

tain whether his lands were feized for this, 5 Edward III. Dugdale con founds his and his father's wife at first, but afterwards diftinguishes them; the father having married Agnes widow of John Argentine and John Nerford; ' and the fon Wentliana. Agnes was: fecond wife to John the elder, who had by he. another fon, who died 9 Richard II. leaving two daughters, of whom the younger married Hum. phrey Stafford, whofe father, Sir Humphrey Stafford, had married her mother. Agnes made her will in the parish of St John Zachary, London, 1374, by which the orders her body" to be buried near her husband, if she died in Dorfetshire or Wilts; but if. in Hertfordshire or Cambridgeshire, at Wimondley priory, to which she gave. her plate after her fon's death.

The eftates of this family were con fiderable in Dorfet; where Dugdale traces them back to the time of Henry III. Lechiot Maltravers feems to have been their mansion-house.

The Peacock a favourite Dish of the

13th Century.

AMONG the delicacies of fplendid
tables in 1264, one fees the Peacock,
that noble bird, the food of lovers and the
meat of lords*.-Few dishes were in
higher fashion in the 13th century,
and there was fcarce any royal or no-
ble feaft without it. They ftuffed
it with fpices and fweet herbs, and
covered the head with a cloth, which
was kept conftantly wetted, to preserve
the crown. They roafted it, and fer-
ved it up whole, covered after dreffing
with the fkin and feathers on, the
comb entire, and the tail fpread. Some
perfons covered it with leaf gold in-
Itead of its fkin, and put a piece of cot-
ton dipt in fpirits into its beak, to
which they fet fire as they put it on
the table. The honour of ferving it
up was referved for the ladies moft'
diftinguished for birth, rank, or beau

His fon, John Maltravers, was con-
cerned in the Earl of Lancaster's re-
VOL. VII. No 39.
Such are the epithets beftowed on it by Romance-writers.

E e

ty's

ty, one of whom followed by others, and attended by mufic, brought it up in the gold or filver difh, and fet it before the master of the houfe, or the gueft moft diftinguished for his courtefy and valour, or after a tournament before the victorious knight, who was to difplay his fkill in carving the favourite fowl, and take an oath of valour and enterprise on its head. The romance of Lancelot, adopting the manners of the age in which it was writ

ten, reprefents King Arthur doing this office to the fatisfaction of 500 guests. A picture by Stevens, engraved by l'Empereur, reprefents a peacock-feast. Monf. d'Auffy had feen an old piece of tapestry of the 15th century, reprefenting the fame fubject, which he could not afterwards recover, to engrave in his curious Hiftory of the Private Life of the French. It may flatter the vanity of an English hiftorian to find this defideratum here fupplied.

Short Hints, by Dr Robert Drummond, Archbishop of York, to Lord Defkford, going to begin his Education at Oxford *.

N. B. Befides the books mentioned in the body of the page, thofe fet down in the Notes may be of ufe.

I

SHOULD be diffident in giving my advice to a young Nobleman where my affections are concerned, for fear of drawing him into a mistaken course of ftudy. But yet as my affections urge me ftrongly, I will hazard even my judgment, though I may fail, notwithstanding my earnest defire to be of fome fort of fervice to a friend and a relation.

My judgment, as far as it goes with regard to a young Nobleman who is a ftranger to public education, to Greek and compofition, is this: that his ambition fhould be carried forward towards the greater lines of public life, by fuch methods of knowledge that may fuit him, and yet enable him to appear with credit to himself and fervice to his country. All knowledge fhould be laid in principle; principle is founded on reafon and morality. Without tiring a perfon unused to application, I would fhew him a fhort and yet profitable way, without a great deal of drynefs and trouble.

It has always appeared to me, that there can be no profitable application without pleasure in reading, and that

Europ. Mag.

pleasure cannot arife, except the mind feels an ambition to push on to the object which is thus in view, and to enlarge its powers.

A fyftem of morality need not be dry, but it is a neceffary foundation. Burlemaqui's Droit Naturel, Puffendorf's Devoirs d'Homme et de Citoyen par Barbeyrac, and the Extracts of the Socratic Philofophy from Xenophon and Platot, for the ufe of Weftminfter school, are fhort books and pleafurable. In Tully and Socrates you fee all that was valuable amongst the Academics, which indeed was the only fect that carried the efforts of reafon as far as it would then go. Of the other two fects (for there are but three great ones) the Stoics hurt the caufe of their virtue by over-rating its power; and the Epicureans debafed it.

To connect the fyftem of natural religion as to theory and practice with Chriftianity, which is the perfection of morality, and that method of falvation which the Deity revealed to mankind through Chrift, that they may be af fured of eternal happinefs upon their

fincere

Oeuvres de Platon, par Dacier, 2 vols. Xenophon's Memoirs of Socrates, Epictetus, and Antoninus; Hutchinson's Moral Philofophy.

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