DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14721#0164
antiquities of england.
(03
PLATE LII.1
KING JOHN.
King John is here represented hunting. This illumination is at the head
of a forest charter.
Speed, after repeating the scandals which the monks unjustly threw upon king
John in their writings, makes note of his actions as follows :
" His works of devotion were inferior to none, as his foundations declare at
Beauly, Farrington, Malmesbury, and Dublin, and that other for nunnes at God-
stow, by Oxford, from which some have interpreted that prophesie of Merlin as
meant of him:
Sith virgins-gifts to maids he gave
'Mongst blessed saints God will him save.
" His acts and orders for weale-publike were beyond most, he being either
first, or the chiefest, who appointed those noble formes of civill government in
London, and most cities and incorporate townes of England, endowing them also
with the greatest franchises ; the first who caused sterling money to be here
coyned : the first who ordained the honourable ceremonies in creation of earles:
the first who setled the rates and measures for wine, bread, and cloth, and such-
like necessaries of commerce : the first who planted english lawes and officers in
Ireland, and both annexed that kingdome and fastned Wales to the crowne of
England, thereby making amends for his losses in France ; and thence, amongst
all the English monarchs, he was the first who enlarged the royal stile with Lorde
of Ireland : a matter of greater import for England's peace, than all the French
titles ever yet have proved. Whose whole course of life and actions wee cannot
shut with any truer euloge, than that which an ancient author hath conferr'd on
1 This plate is from Claudius, D. 2. [Vide note, page 101.—Ed.]
(03
PLATE LII.1
KING JOHN.
King John is here represented hunting. This illumination is at the head
of a forest charter.
Speed, after repeating the scandals which the monks unjustly threw upon king
John in their writings, makes note of his actions as follows :
" His works of devotion were inferior to none, as his foundations declare at
Beauly, Farrington, Malmesbury, and Dublin, and that other for nunnes at God-
stow, by Oxford, from which some have interpreted that prophesie of Merlin as
meant of him:
Sith virgins-gifts to maids he gave
'Mongst blessed saints God will him save.
" His acts and orders for weale-publike were beyond most, he being either
first, or the chiefest, who appointed those noble formes of civill government in
London, and most cities and incorporate townes of England, endowing them also
with the greatest franchises ; the first who caused sterling money to be here
coyned : the first who ordained the honourable ceremonies in creation of earles:
the first who setled the rates and measures for wine, bread, and cloth, and such-
like necessaries of commerce : the first who planted english lawes and officers in
Ireland, and both annexed that kingdome and fastned Wales to the crowne of
England, thereby making amends for his losses in France ; and thence, amongst
all the English monarchs, he was the first who enlarged the royal stile with Lorde
of Ireland : a matter of greater import for England's peace, than all the French
titles ever yet have proved. Whose whole course of life and actions wee cannot
shut with any truer euloge, than that which an ancient author hath conferr'd on
1 This plate is from Claudius, D. 2. [Vide note, page 101.—Ed.]