Cardinal Wolsey
Thomas Parr
Dr Usher
Dun Scotus
Edmund Spencer
John Selden
John Taylor, the water Poet
King Edward the Confessor
Lord Hunsdon
M Paris
Mathew Paris, a Benedictine of the monastery of St.Allan's, stands in the first rank of our monkish historians. He was no inconsiderable poet and orator for the time in which he flourished; and is said to have understood Painting, architecture, and the Mathemaics. He was the Author of the "Historia Major," and “Historia Minor.” which is an abridgment of the former; to which is prefixed his portrait. He is censured for a mixture of fable in his History, but this censure affects the character of the age, rather than that of the Author. Mathew Paris gives us the most particular History of the Wandering Jew that is to be found in any author. He received this account from an American Archbishop, and one of his domestics, who were here in the reign of Henry IIl.and who affirmed that they had their relation from the Wanderer himself. It is to be concluded hence, that there was such an Impostor, and that be well acted his part.
Mary Queen of Scots
Mr Hobbs
Mr Hobbs was born in Malmsbury, Wilts, from whence he obtained the name of Malmsburiensis, and educated in Magdalen Hall, Oxford, where he took his degree of Bachelor of Arts; from whence he was taken into the Earl of Devonshire's family before he was twenty years of age, and soon after traveled with his son into France and Italy. And after variety of travels abroad, he returned into England, and settled in the house of his patron the Earl of Devonshire, where he lived many years in ease and plenty, rather as a friend and confidant, than a tutor or instructor. He was of very extensive genius, improved by great labour and sedulity, and had the reputation both abroad and at home, of a great philosopher and mathematician. CHARLES II, having learned mathematics of him, at his restoration, allowed him a pension of a hundred pounds a year out of the Exchequer, though he was a contemner of all money and riches. As to his peculiar notions in religion and policy, with which he infected many ingenious gentlemen, they are too difficult to be excused, and too dangerous to be palliated; he died in the ninety-first year of his age.
Queen Philippa
Philippa, Queen of Edward III, was a daughter of the Count of Hainault. While the King her husband was in France, the northern counties were invaded by David King of Scotland, at the head of above 50,000 men. This heroic princess assembled an army of about 12,000 of which she appointed the Lord Percy, general and not only ventured to approach the enemy, but rode through the ranks of the soldiers, and exhorted every man to do his duty, and would not retire from the field, till the armies were on the point of engaging. In this memorable battle, the King of Scots was taken prisoner. The story of the condemned citizens of Calais, said to have been saved at the intercession of Philippa, is of very doubtful authority.
Sir Francis Drake
Sir Francis Drake, before he had the royal sanction for his depredations, was a famous free-booter against the Spaniards. The queen made no scruple of employing so bold and enterprising a man against a people who were themselves the greatest free-booters and plunderers amongst mankind. He was the first Englishman that encompassed the globe. Magellan, whose ships passed the South Seas some time before, died in his passage.
Sir T Bodley
Sir T More
Thomas Fuller
Thomas Fuller, Prebendary of Salisbury, and rector of Broad Windsor in Dorsetshire, was eminent as a biographer, and historian. His imagination was lively, his reading extensive, and his "History of the Holy War," his "Holy and Profane State," his "Church History," his "Pisgah Sight," his "Abel Redivivus," and his "History of the Worthies of England, "are the most considerable of his works. Of these the "Church History" is the most erroneous; the "Pisgah Sight" the most exact; and his "History of Worthies" the most estimable.