Early Modern Mythological Texts: Troia Britanica XVI (51-95)

Thomas Heywood. Troia Britanica (1609)

CANTO XVI (51-95)

Stanzas 51-60 — 61-70 — 71-80 — 81-90 — 91-95 — Heywood’s endnotes to Canto XVI

Ed. Nick MYERS

 

 

51

Coill killed Asclepiodale, and reigned

Twenty-seven years. Constantius succeeds

By marrying British Helen, having gained

The Roman diadem. His virtuous deeds

   The favour of the multitude attained

   Next. Constantine (surnamed the Great) who reads

The Bible first in Britain; Arius preached

And th’Arian errors through the whole world teached.  

 

4223/262
Coill

4250/289

Constantius

4271/310

Constantine

 

4282/325

 

52

Now at Jerusalem Queen Helen found

The very cross whereon our Saviour died,

And the three nails his feet and hands did wound.

Octavius next fifty-four years supplied

The diadem, and then was laid in ground.

Three hundred eighteen bishops now applied

   The Nicaean council, now did Ambrose read,

   And Athanasius that set down the creed.



 

 

 

 

 

4290/329

Octavius

53

With learned Basil, and about their days

Julian Apostate lived. The next advanced

Was Maximus, whom the bold Britons raise.

To Ursula a piteous fortune chanced

With eleven thousand maids passing the seas

To Britain less, their lives were all entranced.

   Saint Jerome flourished, writing books divine,

   So did in Hippo learned Augustine.

 

 

 

4344/383

Maximus

 

 

4348/387

 

54

Gratian succeeds, whom the bold Britons slew

After four years, in whose unhappy reign

Ambrose the Milan bishop famous grew,

And Chrysostom did the true faith maintain

In Constantinople. A doctrine new

Th’heretic Pelagius did in Carthage feign,

   Where all his errors to his pride imputed

   Were by two hundred and seven clerks confuted.

 

 

4352/391

Gratian

 

 

 

 

4380/419

 

55

Algelmond reigned first king of Lombardy,

At Milan th’emperor Theodosius died.

Alaricus sacked Rome. The monarchy

And throne of France first Pharamond supplied.

The Scots and Picts unpeople Britanny,

But Constantine the Britons’ valiant guide,

   Who came from Britain lesse, the throne ascends

   And rules ten years, in him Rome’s tribute ends.

 

 

 

 

 

4381/422

4394/443

Constantine

 

56

Constans a fool, the son of Constantine,

Was from a monk by Vortiger made king,

And having one year governed, did resign

To the Duke Vortiger, who governing

Eighteen whole years, two lords of Saxon line,

Hengist and Horsus called, an army bring

   To land in Britain, where not long they tarried,

   Till Vortiger Prince Hengist's daughter married.

 

4404/443

Constans

 

4409/448

Vortiger

 

 

 

 

57

For which the Britons him deposed, electing

Young Vortimer his son to sway the state.

He the alliance of those lords rejecting,

Whom Vortiger his father raised so late,

Governed six years, the land in peace protecting,

Whom his fair stepdame brought to timeless fate

   By cursèd poison, which no sooner chanced

   But Vortiger was once again advanced.

 

 

 

Vortimer

4426/465

 

 

4432/471

Vortiger

 

58

In these dissentious days Gensericus

The Vandal king took Carthage. Attila

King of the Huns even to Thermopilus

O’ercame all Greece, Illyria, Thracia,

Against whom bravely fought Meroneus.

The most renowned king of Gallia

   Named Gallia France, and till King Pepin’s time

   All the French kings descended on his line. 

 

 

 

4402/441

 

 

 

 

4411/450

 

59

Venice was now first founded and begun,

Of such poor people as to shun the rage

Of tyrant Attila the famous Hun,

From Aquilea fled: whose pride to assuage

The Roman Aetius a brave battle won,

Slew eighteen thousand Huns (in his young age).

   Aetius envied for raising Rome’s dominion

   Was murdered by his master Valentinian.

 

 

4417/456

 

 

 

 

4418/457

 

60

Which emperor at Thrasila was slain

By one of Aetius’ soldiers. Vortiger

Of Britain’s awful seat possessed again.

The Saxons with the British peers confer,

Where at a watchword given by Hengist’s train,

Four hundred British barons.

   The king surprised, and being in prison pent,

   Gave to them Norfolk, Suffolk, Sussex, Kent. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4432/471

Hengist

 

61

And of this Hengist Britain changed the name,

Was cleaped Hengist Land: since England called.

Next Constantine’s two younger sons proclaim

Their rights in England, being naught appalled

At Hengist’s might, stirred by their father’s fame.

Ambros and Uther seek to be installed.

   They land at Totnes, Vortiger they burn,

   Kill Hengist too, for whom the Saxons mourn. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4442/482

Aurelius Ambros

 

62

Now Merlin lived. Aurelius Ambros reigned

Thirty-three years, made Stonehenge, which till now

Hath on the plain of Salisbury remained.

He dead, the Britons to his brothers vow

Like homage, and in state have entertained

Uther Pendragon, to whose throne they bow

   Sixteen whole years. He dotes on Cornwall’s wife

   And for her love bereaves her husband’s life. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4461/500

Uther Pendragon

 

63

Of her he Arthur got. In France Clodoveus

Governed as king, the first that was baptised

In Italy. Great Theodoricus

King of the Ostrogoths, who enterprised

’Gainst Odoacer battle. Bold Honoricus

Governed in Afric, who so much despised

   True faith, that he for th’Arians in one hour

   Bishops exiled, three hundred and thirty-four.

 

 

4478/517

Arthur

 

 

64

Arthur the worthy next the state ascended,

Fought twelve set battles and the order made

Of the Round Table, whose renown extended

Through all the world, whilst Arthur doth invade

Foreign dominions, and Christ’s faith defended.

Mordred at home his crown and queen betrayed.

   ’Twixt whom, at Arthur’s back return again,

   War was commenced in which both kings were slain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

4504/543

Mordred

 

65

Next Arthur, Constantine, Duke Cador’s son,

After his uncle six and twenty years

Had governed England. His estate begun,

Slew Mordred’s sons in fight, with Saxon peers

That aided them in battle. These wars done

After four summers, he ascends the spheres.

   Justin a swineherd, by ambition fired,

   By crafty means th’imperial seat aspired.

 

4504/543

Constantine

 

 

 

 

4482/521

 

66

Now lived in Italy the famous dame

Amalasiuntha, with Athalarius

Her son, by whom her sovereignty first came.

She could both Greek and Latin well discuss,

Whose reverence many histories proclaim.

Daughter to th’emperor Theodoricus.

   Justinian the Grecian empire sways,

   The Persians to their state Cosroe raise.

 

 

4488/527

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

67

Justinian in his captains much renowned,

Narses the eunuch, a right valiant knight,

And Belisarius, whose name was crowned

Through all the world. Twice Carthage won in fight,

Twice rescued Rome, his fame in Persia owned.

Thrace, Greece, th’Afric Goths he put to flight.

   For much more service th’emperor from his head

   Tore out his eyes; he, forced to beg his bread.

 

 

4505/545

 

 

 

 

 

 

68

Aurelius Conanus slew in field.

Constantine, Arthur’s nephew, three years swayed,

Then did his due to death and nature yield,

And Vortipore his son is sovereign made,

Who did but four years Britain’s sceptre wield,

When Malgo did the sovereignty invade,

   Who slew his first wife, her chaste bed forsook,

   And to his bride, his brother’s daughter took.

 

4507/546

Aurelius Conanus

 

4509/548

Vortigorus

 

4513/552

Malgo

 

69

King Totilas sacked Rome the second time.

What in the first he spoiled, he now repaired.

Alboinus, king of Lombards, full with wine,

Calls for a mazer (which he might have spared)

Of his wife’s father’s skull, for which in fine

She loathed her husband, and yet further dared.

   Unto his loyal bed she proved untrue,

   With Helmchild, who after Alboin slew.

 

 

4539/578

 

 

 

70

Careticus by help of Ireland’s king,

Called Gurmond, Britain Malgo did expel,

Whom after three years Ethelfrid did bring

To ruin, and in battle prospered well.

About this time Sybert the East Saxon king

Erected Westminster. Ethelfrid fell,

   And Cadwan, Duke of North Wales, him defeated,

   And two and twenty years in peace was seated.

 

4547/586

Careticus

Ethelfrid

 

 

4574/613

Cadwan

 

 

71

Queen Fredegunde of France in the mean season,

Lawdrie the Earl of Soissons dearly loved,

And for his sake destroyed the king by treason.

’Gainst Gregory (surnamed the Great) was moved

By John the Patriarch (’gainst all reason)

The Church’s primacy which he improved.

   Arabian Mahomet his Al Koran made,

   French Brunchild lived, who had princes ten betrayed.

 

 

4549/588

 

 

 

 

4586/625

 

 

72

Cadwallin, Cadwan’s son, next Britain guided.

Benet the monk painting and glazing found.

The Saracens by Mahomet provided,

Won Persia, where Ormisda long sat crowned,

And in short space having their powers divided,

Conquered all Egypt with the climates round.

   Damascus likewise was subdued by them,

   So was rich Antioch and Jerusalem.

 

 

4596/635

Cadwallin

 

 

 

 

 

 

73

Three years Cadwallader (esteemed the last

Of Britain Princes) governed: and, he dead,

The kingdom wholly to West Saxons passed,

Of whom King Ine first impaled his head,

And next him Ethelard, whose reign was graced

By reverent Beda, of whose works we read:

   Of clerkly books on several subjects styled,

   Threescore and eighteen volumes well compiled.

 

4644/683

Cadwallader

 

4684/723

Ine reigned 37 years

 

Ethelard

4685/724

 

74

Next Ethelard, reigned Cuthred, whom succeeds

Sigebert, and he not one full year did reign,

But was deposed for many tyrannous deeds,

And after basely by a swineherd slain.

Kinulphus to the kingdom next proceeds,

Who after by a man of Sigebert’s train

   Was murdered in the night, as he should pass

   Unto his mistress, a brave British lass.

 

4690/729

Cuthred

4706/745

Sigebert

 

4709/748

Kinulphus

 

 

75

The Saracens pierce Europe, Rhodes they wasted,

The firmament two days appears to burn.

The Emperor Constantine his army hasted

The Saracens by arms to overturn,

Where thirty thousand pagans of death tasted;

When Constantine expires, the Christians mourn.

   His throne and state Justinian next maintained,

   And from the Turks, Afric and Libya gained.

 

4702/749

 

 

 

 

76

The next West Saxon king was Brithricus,

Who eighteen years after Kinulphus’ fall

Reigned king, came from the blood of Cerdicus,

And quelled the Danes in many a bloody brawl,

Wived Ethelburgh, by whom as books discuss

He poisoned was : yet whilst he governed all,

   Saint Albans, Winchcombe abbeys were both built,

   Blood rained, which seemed like crosses where t’was spilt.

 

 

4739/778

 

 

 

 

77

Egbert the Saxon thirty-seven years supplied

The sovereignty. Now reigned French Charles the Great,

Eighteen whole days the sun his light denied;

Hyren the Empress from the imperial seat

Her young son Constantine deposed through pride,

And after did him cruelly entreat:

   She caused  his eyes be torn out of his head,

   And four years after governed in his stead.

 

4756/795

Egbert

 

 

 

 

 

78

King Ethelwolf, the fore-named Egbert’s son,

As chroniclers affirm, Oxford erected.

A priest at first, in orders he began,

Till after marrying, he the state affected.

The warlike Danes his kingdom overran,

   But are expelled. Sergius is pope elected,

   Whose name Os Porcy seemed so vile, that they

   Changed it, and from him all popes to this day.

 

4793/832

Ethelwolf

 

 

4804/843

Os Porcy signifies

hogs-mouth

 

 

79

Four sons each other in the state succeeds.

King Ethelwald, who governed not a year

When Ethelbert his brother donned the weeds

Imperial, and next him doth appear

The third son Ethelred, (whose body bleeds

By the bold Danes) who after slaughtered were

   By the fourth son: at Brixium as books tell

   Three days together blood in thick showers fell.

 

4816/845

Ethelwald

4817/846

Ethelbert

4824/863

Ethelred

 

 

80

Young Alured from Ethelwulf the last,

Twenty-nine years six months the sceptre bore.

Hungar and Hubba quite through Scotland passed.

Bells were first used in Greece (not known before).

In six set battles Alured disgraced

The warlike Danes, then died. The peers adore

   Edward his elder son, who nobly bears

   The British sceptre four and twenty years.

 

4833/872

Alured

 

 

 

4862/911

Edward

 

 

81

Nine popes in less than nine years were installed.

Adelwald, Edward’s brother, twice rebelling,

Was by the elder’s prowess twice appalled,

And after slain. The Huns and Hungars quelling

All Europe, were much feared. A princess called

Elflede, King Edward’s sister much excelling,

   After the throes in her first child birth tried,

   For evermore her husband’s bed denied.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4872/911

 

 

82

And proving arms, by them she honour sought,

She tamed the Welshmen, and the Danes disgraced.

Next Edward, Adelstane the battles fought,

Of the bold English, and the castles razed

(As the proud Danes reared) and to ruin brought

The Saracens, even from Hetruria chased.

   The Italian guards, they Gæan overthrow,

   Where blood three days out of a well did flow.

 

 

 

 

4886/925

Adelstane

 

4896/935

 

83

Now Gui of Warwick Danish Colebrand slew,

And England of all tribute quite released,

 King Edmond did the sovereignty pursue,

When Adelstane at Malmesbury deceased,

Slain after five years: by succession true,

Eldred his brother reigns, whose pomp increased.

   Edmond’s two sons being young, the peers complain,

   And think their uncle of more worth to reign. 

 

 

 

4901/940

Edmond

 

 

4907/946

 

 

84

France, Tuskayne, Germany, the Hungars waste.

Hugh King of Italy by fire destroys

The navy of the Saracens, then passed

To Fraxinetum. Edwin next enjoys

The sceptre (Eldred having breathed his last),

At Kingston crowned, whose heart was set on toys.

   He Dunstan banished, his lands and treasure lavished,

   And his near niece upon his crown-day ravished.

 

 

4915/954

 

 

 

4916/955

Edwin

 

85

And next he slew her husband, for all which

After four years he was deprived his state.

Edgar his brother, a prince wise and rich

In all things just, severe, and fortunate,

Ascends the throne, no sorceror of witch

His sentence spared. Thieves, bribers he did hate:

   To him Ludwallus, Prince of Wales obeyed,

   Three hundred wolves for tribute yearly paid.

 

 

 

4920/959

Edgar

 

86

Forty-seven monasteries this king erected,

Red crosses made, and on men’s robes were feared.

When Duffus had four years the Scots protected,

Donewald a Scotch lord, that no bad thing feared,

Him basely slew, and from his throne dejected,

From which six months no moon or sun appeared.

   The Turks by Enecus earl of Bygar

   Were Spain expelled, he first King of Navarre.

 

 

 

 

 

 

4927/966

 

87

King Edgar in his sixteenth year expires,

When his son Edward was at Kingston crowned,

Slain by his treacherous stepdame, who desires

The crown for her son Ethelred. He found

Exeter Abbey; Swayne of Denmark fires

Cities and towns in England, burning round.

   King Ethelred reigned in this kingdom free,

   Thirty-eight years, his murdered brother three.

 

 

4936/975

Edward

 

 

 

4942/978

Ethelred

 

88

Now Stephen was made first king of Hungary,

And thirty-nine years reigned. Alphons of Spain

Besieging great Viseum valiantly,

Was with an arrow killed, and strowed the plain.

All the Lord Danes that lived here tyrannously

Were by the English wives in one night slain.

   Jerusalem was by the Turks possessed,

   Whom twice the bold Venetian Duke distressed.

 

 

4961/1000

 

89

King Edmond (surnamed Ironside) next his father

Enjoys the kingdom, ’gainst whom Swanus’ son

The bold Canutus all his Danes doth gather.

’Twixt whom were many battles lost and won,

After much blood’s effusion they chose rather

By single strife to end the broils begun:

   Their valours were in equal balance tried,

   And after combat they the land divide.

 

Edmond Ironside

 

 

 

 

 

4977/1016

 

90

Edrick of Stratton valiant Edmond slew,

And from Canutus had a traitor’s meed.

The valiant Dane in styles and honours grew,

He Scotland won, and Norway: to his seed

Leaving four kingdoms, vice he did eschew,

Nor ever did juster prince succeed.

   English and Danes he atoned unto his doom,

   And after went on pilgrimage to Rome.

 

 

 

4978/1017

Canutus

 

 

 

4993/1032

 

91

Robert the Norman Duke, for valour famed,

Hies to the holy wars in Palestine.

He gone, his young son William is proclaimed

The Norman Duke. Now seeks a throne divine

Canutus when he twenty years had reigned,

And Harrold Harefoot, unto whom incline

   The Danes in England,  next the sceptre sways,

   And three years passed; at Oxford ends his days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

4899/1038

Harold Harefoot

 

92

Hardicanutus the same number filled,

And drinking died:whomthe good Edward (Sainted

for holy works) succeeds; no blood he spilled,

Nor with known sins his high profession tainted.

He married as the great earl Goodwin willed

Th’earl’s daughter Edgitha, and nothing wanted

   That a just prince should have. One and twenty years

   In zeal and clemency the crown he wears.

 

5002/1041

Hardicanutus

5004/1043

Edward

 

 

 

93

This Goodwin Alphred, Edward’s younger brother,

Traitorously slew and by his power he yoked

The king himself, betrayed his sovereign mother,

By Bishop Robert to these ills provoked.

But heaven no longer could such mischief smother:

Swearing by Bread, he by the bit was choked.

   The swallowing sea devoured all his lands,

   Which to this day bear name of Goodwin’s sands.

 

 

 

 

5008/1047

 

 

5016/1055

 

94

William the Bastard Duke, first landing here,

Was by the king received, and England’s crown

Promised by Edward, which no English peer

Was known to contradict, after sent home

With greatest pomp; and Harrold the same year,

Earl Goodwin’s son, a man of great renown,

   Arrived in Norway, and with oaths deep

   Sware (the king dead) for him the crown to keep.

 

5014/1053

 

95

But Edward dead, Harrold usurps the seat,

Whom Tauston and the Norway king invade

Upon the north; both whom he did defeat

And bravely slew in battle. William made

A new incursion ’gainst whom in this heat

Harald his ensigns in the field displayed.

   The Norman duke prevailed; and Harald slain,

   William (the first so called) begins his reign.

 

5027/1066

Harrold

 

 

 

 

5028/1067

 

Heywood’s endnotes

In Brute’s time whilst he governed Britain, Anæus Silvius reigned amongst the Latins; Dercilus in Assyria, Athletes in Corinth; Pipinus in Tuscany, Codrus in Athens, in whose days the Ark of God was taken by the Philistines.

In Locrine’s reign David was anointed king over Israel.

In Guendoline’s he slew Uriah and married Bersheba.

In Madan’s days Salomon built the Temple etc.

From Brute to Caesar, the Britons were not tributary to any. The government of the Romans from Caesar to Theodosius lasted 483 years. In Theodosius the Younger’s reign, the year of Christ 443, the tribute ceased.

The government of the Saxons continued the space of 600 years in continual war and hostility, either with the Britons, the Danes, or the Normans.

The opinions of those that write of the first inhabiting of this island are diverse, and how it came first to receive the name of Albion, some think of the chalky and white cliffs which seem to wall it in from the sea. But Hugh Genesis, a Roman chronicler, writing of all the kings and kingdoms of the world, from the universal deluge to Christ, writes that Danaus, King of Greece, had fifty daughters, and Aegyptus as many sons who, being married, and the women the first night murdering their husbands, were for the offence banished, and sailing on the seas, were driven upon this island, which Albina called after her name Albion: with these ladies, he reports that spirits engendered and begot giants, who lay with their mothers and sisters—led only by their lusts—till they had multiplied themselves to the number of twelve thousand. But I doubt not but that this land may contend with any other whatsoever, for her antiquity, being inhabited with the first, which being continually vexed within itself with civil wars and foreign invasions, her monuments and remembrances have by these wars been devoured, which have left the certainty of our first antiquity doubtful to the world, and not truly remembered by any that have undertook her first discovery.

Here moreover, we could have took fit occasion to have recorded all the genealogies before the Flood, with a brief report, who after the Flood people every other kingdom, and from whom every region took her name; but it had been a course too strange and different from our purpose, which is only to find out such things as have alliance to this land of Britain, and the memorable things best known to us.

We insist not much in Aeneas’ travels, of his landing at Carthage, his love to Queen Dido, her killing herself at his departure from her land, the funeral of his father Anchises; with his wars against King Turnus, for the beauteous Lavinia. These, because they are amply set down in Virgil’s 12 books of his Aeneid, we thought better rather superficially to pass them over with a bare remembrance, than to be too palpably traced in a history so common to all men, which we the rather to omit, because we hasten to the antiquities, and the successive sovereignties of our native island, whose age (our purpose is) to derive from the first inhabitants, and so to continue it even to this present government.

The antiquity of London was held to be long before Rome. For Brute landed here in the year of the Lord 2855, in the year before Christ 1108. Rome was built long after, in the time that Rivallo ruled in Britain, the year after the Flood 1554, after Gomerus, the first king of Italy, 1414, after the destruction of Troy, 432, after Brute arrived in this land of Britain 355. 

 

Lanquet

 

 

 

 

Stow

 

 

 

 

Harding

Hugh Genesis

 

 

Marian.

 

 

 

 

 

By Mirandula

 

 

 

Virgil

 

 

 

 

 

Eusebius

 

The end of the sixteenth Canto

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back to Canto XVI (stanzas 1-50)

Notes to Canto XVI (stanzas 1-40stanzas 41-70; stanzas 71-95 & endnotes)

On to Canto XVII


How to cite

Nick Myers, ed., 2019.  Troia Britanica Canto XVI (1609).  In A Dictionary of Shakespeare's Classical Mythology: A Textual Companion, ed. Yves Peyré (2009-).

http://www.shakmyth.org/page/Early+Modern+Mythological+Texts%3A+Troia+Britanica+XVI+%2851-95%29

 


 



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