FURE DIVINO:

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SATYR.

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BOOK X.

ATYR the Saxon Tyranny difplay,
A meer Original of Monarchy;

Their Governments indeed fubmit to Laws,
Order's the Effect, as Nature is the Caufe:
Something may in Poffeffion feem Divine,
But all's Confufion in the Embarraft-Line:
The Claim of Blood and Family's laid by,
And all's refolv'd to Force and Victory:
Succeffion's due to Power, by Power procur'd,
The Right's engrav'd on the triumphant Sword.

He that through Seas of Rivals Ploughs his Way, And makes the conquer'd Multitude obey: That stamps his Terrors on the impregnate Mind, And all the Black Impreffion leaves behind

The

The Rocks of ftrong Ambition can cut down,
And force his envied Progrefs to the Crown:
That's the Divine, the High Illuftrious, Thing,
That joyns the Sacred to ths Name of King.

Thus Egbert English Monarchy began,
By his (a) Almighty-Sword the Sacred Man ;
And who was Egbert? fearch the mighty Breed
What Sacred Ancestors did he fucceed:
What mighty Princes formed his Sacred Line
And handed down to him the Right Divine :
(b) A Saxon Soldier was his High Defcent,
Murther bis Bufinefs, Plunder his Intent;
The poor unvalued, defpicable Thing,
A Thief by Nation, and by Fate a King
A High-Dutch Trooper, fent abroad to Fight,
Whofe Trade was Blood, and in his Arm his Right:
A fupernumerary (c) Holfteineer,

For want of (d) Room at Home, fent out to War;
A meer Swifs (e) Mercenary, who for Bread,

Was born on purpofe to be knockt o'th' Head.

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Their

(a) Almighty is here to be understood, the Power he had to fubdue all this Nation, too mighty for all join'd together: And 'tis hop'd the Reader cannot think it prophanely intended.

(b) Egbert came over perfonally from France, and was not the Succeffor of any Prince in poffeffion of the Weft Saxon Kingdom, nor of Kin to King Brithric, whom he fucceeded; Mr. Tyrrel indeed calls him a Coufin very remote, but I cannot find any Ground for it, or any Lineal Defcent noted down, fave in another, that he was the Son of almond, King of Kent; if fo, he is defcended from Hengift, who was the moft faithlefs Beginner of all the Trea chery used to the Britains, as is before nored.

(c) I think 'tis generally agreed, that the firft and greateft Part of the Saxons that came over hither, came from Juitland, Holstein, and shofe Countries upon the Elbe, and Wefer, now dartly included in Weftphalia, and therefore not improperly call'd a Holfteineer.

(d) The poor Countries the Saxons liv'd in, being not able to fupport the vaft Numbers of the People they produc'd, forc'd them abroad to feek Subfiftence, and Habitations, in more fruitful and plentiful Countries.

(e) A Swifs-Mercenary, alludes not to their Nation, for they were not Swiffes, but as they were Mercenaries and Auxiliaries hired by the Poor Britains, to defend them againft the Cruel Depredations of the Scots, Pids, and barbarous Nations of the North

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Their Country seem'd to multiply in vain,
Produc'd more People than it could maintain:
And forc'd the growing Multitude abroad,
As Bees fend out the Swarm to feek for Food,
To live by Devaftation, Theft and Blood.

Among this wild exotick Race was found,

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A (a) fighting Wretch, by Brother (b) Vagrants crown'd,
A glorious Vagabond, whom Heaven had ftor'd,
With Front as harden'd as his temper'd Sword;
Fitted for Blood and Cruelty (c) by Race,

A Tyrant both by Family and Face
His Ancestors his Glory much inhance,
A Traytor by direct Inheritance:

Magnipotent in Arms, in Right too weak,
His Sword was all the Claim he had, could speak.
Crown'd with the Marks of Perjury and Blood,
Crown'd with the Trophies of d) Ingratitude:
A Crime, which to this Day, infects the Place,
The General Stigma of the Motly Race.).

See the Divine Original of Kings,

And fee how Time makes Sport with Temporal Things: To Day the Monarch glories in his Crown,

To Morrow Thieves and Mob poffefs his Throne, And call his fancied Right Divine THEIR OWN.

(a) Hengift, the firft Leader, who was only their Captain, or General at first, but when their Confpiracy was compleated, and the Britains beaten out of their Country, they fhar'd it among them, and he became their King, which indeed, as Mr. Tyrrel notes, in thofe Days, fignified little more than Caprain or Leader.

(b) Brother Vagrants, the inferior Officers and Leaders, who confpir'd with Hengift, againft their Mafters the Britains, might well be called rather Brother Villains, for, without doubt, it was a villainous Thing to fall upon, and dilpoffefs the Inhabitants of the Nation, that had hir'd them to refcue and defend them

(c) The Saxons were then a moft bloody, cruel, and barbarous Race, as may be made out by innumerable Examples, particularly their facrificing their Captives to their Idol Woden.

(d) Their Ingratitude to the Britains was extraordinary, who gave them large Poffeffions in the moft fruitful Province of Kent, with great Pay befide, and faithfully perform'd all their Treaties and Conditions with them.

In the next Age the rightful Lord's forgot,'
And rampant Treafon triumphs on the Spot:
Succefs gives Tule, makes Poffeffion juft,
And it the Fates obey, the Subjects must;
For it 'tis Right and Wrong that's in debate,
The Welch Men have the Right, the reft's a Cheat
'Tis all by Fraud and Force that we poffefs,
And length of Time can make no Crime the lefs.

Where then's the lofty Pedigree of Kings,
The longest Sword the longest Scepter brings;
The Royal Genealogy comes down,

And from the Sword advances to the Crown:
The Right of Conqueft's all our Right Divine,
And while the Line can keep it, keeps the Line;
But if a ftronger can poffefs the Place,"

The Right has never fail'd to change the Race.

Satyr, the ftrange Confufions of the Crown
Omit, till Edger claims it for his own;
No Line of Kings, no Order, Blood, or Law,
Can any help to Fus Divinum draw :
Death, Force, and interfecting Lines obey,
The Voice of Fate, and Right of Blood deftroy.

Then Edgar rul'd, let's view his Jeft of Right,
It hardly liv'd a Day beyond his Night:
He gain'd the juft Affiftance of the Laws,
Crown'd by the Nation's (4) Suffrage and Applaufe;
To

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(a) Roger Hoveden tells us, he was elected King by the whole Eng if Nation; and the Saxon Annals obferve, as Mr. Tyrrel notes, in his Days, all things fucceeded profperoufly, God giving him Peace as long as he liv'd, because he confulted the Good and Peace of his People; and therefore he had greater Honour in all Nations round him, as well as in his own, and by a peculiar Bleffing from Above, he was fo affifted, that Kings fubmitted themselves to him every where, without fighting.

Alfo the Manufcript Author of the Life of St. Dunstan, relates he was elected by the Clergy, as well as Laity, over both Kingdoms. [Tyrrel's Gen. Hift. of Eng. Vol. 1. Lib. 6. Fol. 1, 2.]

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Book X. To him th' electing Juftice gave the Crown, And willing People confecrate his Throne; And yet his fhort-liv'd Race poffeft no more, Nor could his Sacred Right convey his Power: The ill eftablish'd Force cou'd ne'er remain, The Principal being naught where it began: Murther diffolv'd the Line, what Right can ftand, Where Men by Force obey, by Force command; For as by Blood, the little Right he had, Entail'd the Crown on Sacred (a) Edward's Head The Knife inftead of Diadem he found,

And (b) Elfreid cut his (c) Throat before he could be

Then Ethelred fet up to heal the Line,

(crown'd.

And on this (d) Murther grounds his Right Divine
And His Divine Succeffion to fecure,
Legitimates the Off-Spring of his Whore;
Was ever Race fo fandtify'd before!

(e) Edmund the Baftard fnatcht the hafty Crown,
With Hafte fet up, and was in Hafte pull'd down :
The Hand of (f) Blood ufurpt Dominion flew,
And Murther thus by Murther they pursue.

Edward

(a) He was ftil'd Edwar& the Martyr, tho' we fee no Reason for that, for he was mutther on a political, not a religious Account. (b) The Story of the Murcher of Edward, furnam'd the Martyr, is variously related by Hiftorians, as to the Perfon who did it, but ail agree, it was done as he made a vifit to his Mother in Law, Queen Alfrida, who would have fet up her Son Ethelred in his Stead; and, that calling at her Door, to vifit her, as he was hunting, he was ftabb'd in the Reins, with a Knife, or Dagger, at his Mother's Door, as he was drinking,

(c) Cut his Throat is a general Expreffion here, importing he was murthred, for his Throat was not cut, but he was stabb'd in the Back, as above.

(d) Ethelred came to the Crown by the Death of Edward the Martyr.

(e) Edmund, firnam'd Ironfide, was the Son of Ethelred, but not by his Queen Emma, who was his only wife, but by a private Wo man, Anglice, a Wbore, and whofe Name is not recorded.

(f) Thar King Edmund was murchred, feveral Authors agree, tho they differ about the Manner, and Mr. Tyrrel quotes all their Opinions at large, Vol. 1. Lib. 6. Fcl. 49.