File Clenennau letters and papers 474 [RESTRICTED ACCESS] - William Maurice to his good cousin,

It was William Maurice's hope to peruse a copy of the letter which ... to the Rev. Father the Bishop of St David's touching the po[int] ... in question in the parliament. The subject of this letter William Maurice hardly liked. It allows diverse authorities for the proof not only of the convenience and justice thereof, but also of His Majesty's prerogative royal [if it so please] to finish the same. But his gracious clemency and mildness desires it rather [and therefore most convenient to effect it so] by general assent and consent of his true and faithful subjects. 'Your diligence in your collection with your choise of persone sufficient to sett ffoorth in parliament a cause, as you terme it, of so highe proporcion and consequence deserve the comendacion and doth manifest your grete reedinge of many auctorities and your good memorye which I will not prayse as it oght least you would judge mee to fflatter, for my cheefest purpose at this time is rather to expostulate with you for your unkinde (I maye well terme it) detraction of your owne contrey and countreymen ... I meane the prediction or prophesye of coronoge vabann, and heerin I will rejoine a littell with you sensiblye on that pointe and stand uppone the maxime of all our prophesyes which is that out of the Bryttishe line shold desende one that sholde restore the kingdoom of Brittaine to the pristine estate. This did Kadwalader, the last kinge of the Brittaines, prophesye at his departure. Thence cometh all our propheticall predictions and oracles. And though coronog vabann was the principal mark of him that would come of the British line, what reason or likelihood can there be that Henry VI (a mere Englishman, and moreover, a stem of the vile enemy of the Britons, his grandfather Henry IV) should be meant or imagined (though he like many others might have been crowned in the cradle) ... It is not so that 'our' nation first came to court in ... [the time] ... of Owen Tudor'. For though he happened to find favour in court with the queen mother of Henry VI, yet 'our' other countryman of the same name of Owen was a great favourite at the court of Richard II, which was the cause of his rebellion against the usurper, Henry IV. His great attempt, 'thoghe with a harde seccesse as many times the like doo', deserved greater commendation for holding out against a king fifteen years than the other for holding favour of a great queen. William Maurice will say no more, what he has said being sufficient to disprove 'bothe those your resones touchinge coronog vaban. The other unkinde glance or rather nipping of our country beirdd (who are muche more beeholdinge to Lucane, a stranger, for his good reporte) than to you theire owne [country]man ...' ... What learning most of them have the writer himself has not the learning to judge ... Compares the golden times of Homer, Virgil and Ovid ... with the verses made to Alexander only by Chorillus, the blind poet ... So now in this brazen world there are many Cherilli and few Homers or the like. Asks his cousin to remember that 'fowle is fowel that files his owne nest'. Exhorts him to show his skill and learning to speak the best of his own country, and to let strangers inveigh against 'us', who will not spare. And if he cannot find it in his heart to do it 'lende mee some of your skill to my goodwill and I will doo it'. Damaged; parts missing. Draft.