The Doleful Death of Queen Jane,

WIFE TO KING HENRY VIII., AND THE MANNER OF PRINCE EDWARD'S BEING CUT OUT OF HER

WOMB.

ONE would think it almost impossible that | luit fallut fendre le Costé par lequel on tira there should be the least doubt amongst wri- son fruit le douzieme Jour d' Octobre a Winters, in any point so modern as the fact on desore—Elle mourut douze jours aprés et which this ballad is founded, and yet if we fut enterré au Chateau de Windsore." search our historians, we shall hardly find any of them agreeing in the story of queen Jane. We shall not therefore pretend to advance anything concerning the manner of her death, but shall quote the opinions of some of our writers, that every one may be at liberty to judge for themselves.

WHEN as king Henry rul'd this land,
He had a queen I understand;
Lord Seymour's daughter fair and bright,
King Henry's comfort and delight:
Yet death, by his remorseless pow'r,

Did blast the bloom of this sweet Flow'r;
O mourn, mourn, mourn, fair ladies;

dead.

His former queen being wrapt in lead,
This gallant dame possess'd his bed;
Where rightly from her womb did spring
A joyful comfort to her king,
A welcome blessing to the land,
Preserv'd by God's most holy hand.
O mourn, &c.

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10

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The queen in travail, pained sore
Full thirty woful days and more,
And no ways could deliver'd be,
As every lady wish'd to see:
Wherefore the king made greater moan, 20
Than ever yet his grace had shown.
O mourn, &c.

Anne of Bullen, Henry VIIIth's second queen, being beheaded in the tower for adul-Jane your queen, the flower of England's tery, king Henry was married the very next day to lady Jane; who, on the 12th of October (according to the opinion of a vast majority), was delivered of a son at Hamptoncourt. But notwithstanding this, Sir John Hayward asserts, that prince Edward was not born until the 17th; and adds, "All reports do constantly run, that he was not by natural passage delivered into the world, but that his mother's belly was opened for his birth; and that she died of the incision the fourth day following." Echard, in his history of England, is of a very different opinion; where talking of prince Edward's birth, he tells us, “That the joy of it was much allayed by the departure of the admirable queen, who, contrary to the opinion of many writers, died twelve days after the birth of this prince, having been well delivered, and without any incision, as others have maliciously reported." Lord Herbert of Cherbury, in his history of Henry VIII., asserts, "That the queen died two days after her delivery." And indeed he has the authorities of Hollingshead and Stow to support the assertion. Du Chesne, a native of France, who in his history of England has undertaken to clear up this point, does but perplex us the more: talking of these times, he goes on thus: "La royne Jeanne estoit alors enceinte & preste a enfanter, mais quand ce vint au terme de l'accouchement elle eut tant de tourment & de peine, qu'il

Then being something eas'd in mind,
His eyes a slumbering sleep did find;
Where dreaming he had lost a rose,
But which he could not well suppose;
A ship he had, a rose by name;
Oh, no! It was his royal Jane.
O mourn, &c.

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Being thus perplex'd with grief and care,
A lady to him did repair,
And said, O king! show us thy will;
The queen's sweet life to save or spill.
If she cannot deliver'd be,
Yet save the flow'r, tho' not the tree.
O mourn, &c.

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BEING AN ACCOUNT OF HIS MATCHLESS MANHOOD AND BRAVE ADVENTURES DONE IN TURKEY, AND BY WHAT MEANS He married the King's daughter, etc.

So taking up this young man,
He pardon'd him his life,
And gave his daughter to him,
To be his wedded wife:

Where then they did remain,
And live in quiet peace,
In spending of their happy days
In joy and love's increase.

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The Story of Ill May-day,

IN THE TIME OF KING HENRY VIII., AND WHY IT WAS SO CALLED; AND HOW QUEEN CATHERINE BEGGED THE LIVES OF TWO THOUSAND LONDON APPRENTICES.

THE following song is founded upon a fact; | their recorder, and was very much beloved by nor has the writer taken many liberties in them, could not with all their persuasions altering it, having only magnified and illus- restrain them, and force they had not suffitrated the story. The thing happened on the cient to oppose them; but furiously rushing May-eve, of the year 1517, the eighth of Henry on to the house of a very rich foreigner, VIIIth's reign. Numbers of foreigners were whom, as he was a great trader, they particuat that time settled in England, with particularly hated, they broke open his doors, killed lar privileges; and our author observes, ran away with the greatest part of the trade, whilst several of the natives wanted. Exasperated at this, several were for encouraging a tumult, but particularly one Lincolne, a broker, who hired a certain preacher, called Dr. Bele, to inflame the people by his sermons. The court perceived what the citizens would fain be at, but to prevent them, an order was sent by the king and his privycouncil to the lord-mayor and aldermen, that they required every housekeeper, under very severe penalties, to take care that all his servants and his whole family should be withindoors by nine at night; and this the magistrates were to see punctually performed. This order was for some time very well observed, but still they wanted only an opportunity of rising, which an accident gave them. Two apprentices playing in the streets about eleven o-clock on the May-eve, the alderman of the ward came to arrest them; but they thinking they had more privilege on that night than any other, began to call out to their fellows for assistance, and so many came running out of doors from the neighbourhood, that the alderman was forced to fly. Encouraged by this, and seeing their numbers increase as the rumour of their being up spread, they hastened to the prisons where some had been committed for abusing strangers, and these they first delivered. The lord-mayor and sheriffs, and Sir Thomas Moore, who had been

every one they met with there, and rifled all the goods; and in other places they committed divers other outrages. At length the news of this disorder reached the ears of the earls of Shrewsbury and Surrey: they rose, and taking with them all the inns-of-court men, they cleared the streets of the rioters, and took numbers of them prisoners. Shortly after, the duke of Norfolk, and the earl of Surrey, with 1300 soldiers, came into the city, and joining the lord-mayor and aldermen, proceeded against the criminals. Two hundred and seventy-eight were found guilty, but whether through the intercession of queen Catherine, or through a merciful disposition of king Henry, not above twelve or fifteen suffered; Lincolne, with three or four more of the most guilty were hanged, drawn and quartered; about ten more were hanged on gibbets in the streets, and the lord-mayor, aldermen and recorder appearing on the behalf of the rest at court, they received a check, as if some of the magistracy had connived at the riot; and the rest of the criminals were ordered to appear before the king at Westminster in white shirts, and halters about their necks; and with them mixed a great number of people, who were not before suspected, that they might be entitled to a pardon; which the king having granted, he also ordered the gibbets which had been erected, to be taken down, and the citizens were again restored to favour.

For when king Henry th' eighth did reign, 5 Till at the last king Henry's power,

Or else the world will speak of me, And say queen Catherine was unkind, 35 And judge me still the cause to be,

45 In saying so, the pearled tears

Fell trickling from her princely eyes; Whereat his gentle queen he chears, And says, Stand up, sweet lady rise.