OF PROPHECIES 91 



for many years, made golden times. Henry the Sixth of 

 England said of Henry the Seventh, when he was a lad, 

 and gave him water, 'This is the lad that shall enjoy the 

 crown for which we strive/ When I was in France, I 

 heard from one Dr. Pena, that the Queen Mother, who 

 was given to curious arts, caused the King her husband's 

 nativity to be calculated, under a false name ; and the 

 astrologer gave a judgment, that he should be killed in a 

 duel; at which the Queen laughed, thinking her husband 

 to be above challenges and duels : but he was slain upon a 

 course at tilt, the splinters of the staff of Montgomery 

 going in at his beaver. 



The trivial prophecy, which I heard when I was a child, 

 and Queen Elizabeth was in the flower of her years, was, 



'When hempe is sponne 

 England's done ' : 



whereby it was generally conceived, that after the princes 

 had reigned which had the principal letters of that word 

 'hempe' (which were Henry, Edward, Mary, Philip, and 

 Elizabeth), England should come to utter confusion ; 

 which, thanks be to God, is verified only in the change of 

 the name ; for that the king's style is now no more of 

 England, but of Britain. There was also another prophecy, 

 before the year of eighty-eight, which I do not well under- 

 stand. 



'There shall be seen upon a day, 

 Between the Baugh and the May, 

 The black fleet of Norway. 

 When that that is come and gone, 

 England build houses of lime and stone, 

 For after wars shall you have none.' 



It was generally conceived to be meant of the Spanish fleet 

 that came in eighty-eight : for that the king of Spain's 

 surname, as they say, is Norway. The prediction of 

 Regiomontanus, 



Octogesimus octavus mirabilis annus^ 



