To the Most Illustrious and Most Excellent 

 PRINCE CHARLES, Prince of Wales, Duke of 

 Cornwall, Earl of Chester, &c. 



IT MAY PLEASE YOUR HIGHNESS, 



IN part of my acknowledgment to your Highness, I 

 have endeavoured to do honour to the memory of 

 the last King of England that was ancestor to the 

 King your father and yourself; and was that King 

 to whom both unions may in a sort refer, that of 

 the roses being in him consummate and that of the 

 kingdoms by him begun : besides, his times deserve 

 it. For he was a wise man and an excellent King : 

 and yet the times were rough, and full of mutations, 

 and rare accidents. And it is with times as it is 

 with ways; some are more up-hill and down-hill, 

 and some are more flat and plain ; and the one is 

 better for the liver, and the other for the writer. I 

 have not flattered him, but took him to life as well 

 as I could, sitting so far off, and having no better 

 light. It is true your Highness hath a living pat 

 tern, incomparable, of the King your father : but it 

 is not amiss for you also to see one of these ancient 

 pieces. God preserve your Highness. 



Your Highness s most humble 



and devoted Servant, 

 FRANCIS ST. ALBAN. 



