THE EPISTLE DEDICATORIE 



sayd Cathedrall Church to be seene even in his time. 

 And this most memorable voyage into India is net onely 

 mentioned by the aforesayd Malmesburie, but also by 

 Florentius Wigorniensis, a grave and woorthy Author 

 which lived before him, and by many others since, and 

 even by M. Foxe in his first volume of his Acts and 

 Monuments in the life of king Alfred. To omit divers 

 other of the Saxon nation, the travels of Alured bishop of 

 Worcester through Hungarie to Constantinople, and so 

 by Asia the lesse into Phoenicia and Syria, and the like 

 course of Ingulphus, not long afterward Abbot of 

 Croiland, set downe particularly by himselfe, are things in 

 mine opinion right worthy of memorie. After the com- 

 ming in of the Normans, in the yeere 1096, in the reigne 

 of William Rufus, and so downward for the space of 

 above 300 yeeres, such was the ardent desire of our nation 

 to visite the Holy land, and to expell the Saracens and 

 Mahumetans, that not only great numbers of Erles, 

 Bishops, Barons, and Knights, but even Kings, Princes, 

 and Peeres of the blood Roiall, with incredible devotion, 

 courage and alacritie intruded themselves into this 

 glorious expedition. A sufficient proofe hereof are the 

 voiages of prince Edgar the nephew of Edmund Ironside, 

 of Robert Curtois brother of William Rufus, the great 

 benevolence of king Henry the 2. and his vowe to have 

 gone in person to the succour of Jerusalem, the personall 

 going into Palaestina of his sonne king Richard the first, 

 with the chivalrie, wealth, and shipping of this realme ; 

 the large contribution of king John, and the travels of 

 Oliver Fitz-Roy his sonne, as is supposed, with Ranulph 

 Glanvile Erie of Chester to the siege of Damiata in 

 JEgypt : the prosperous voyage of Richard Erie of 

 Cornwall, elected afterward king of the Romans, and 

 brother to Henry the 3, the famous expedition of prince 

 Edward, the first king of the Norman race of that name ; 

 the journey of Henry Erie of Derbie, duke of Hereford, 

 and afterward king of this realme, by the name of Henry 

 the 4. against the citie of Tunis in Africa, and his 



Ixiv 



