Pauli Iovii Novocomensis opera quotquot extant omnia

glish, by origin, language, dress, and customs—Germans, among whom the victory had stood—the empire of the island came. The royal name, however, remained among the progeny of Hengist, excelling in clear nobility and inviolate succession.

But the English dukes divided the regions bordering Kent among themselves into smaller realms. Not long after, as wealth increased among individuals, and with growing greed, war flared up between them, but King Adelbert also known as Aethelberht quickly suppressed the tumult of civil strife, punishing the restless and turbulent with strong forces. He, egregiously strong and most pious, reigned for a long time, with all of Britain recalled to Christian rites by an outstanding profession and practice. From this Adelbert to Henry VIII, who reigns today, thirty-four kings are counted, with the line of descent often interrupted. For the Danes, from the northern leader Sueno—who later handed the empire to his sons—and finally the Normans, crossing over from the nearer Britain to England at different times, almost destroyed and wiped out the English and introduced new kings. Of these, many were infamous for cruelty and avarice, some obscure for their sloth, and others quite notable for brave deeds. For William the Norman, undoubtedly of British blood note: Giovio here implies a lineage connection often debated by historians, brought the lineage back to the island to the ancient dignity of royal blood.

But of those who reigned later, Richard I seems to have carried away the unique palm of outstanding virtue and true piety; he set out for Syria and waged war against Saladin, the King of Memphis Cairo. Recalled from there by the ill-timed injury of Philip, King of France, while he was returning to Britain through trackless woods in cheap clothing, he was captured at Vienna in Noricum by Leopold, the Austrian petty king, and handed over into the chains of Henry Caesar Emperor Henry VI, ennobling himself through many miseries and victories alike. The fortunate arms of King Edward III also flourished; he triumphed most spectacularly over John, King of the French, who was captured. They say that the ceremony of the Equestrian Order of the Garter was instituted by this Edward. They are leaders chosen for their military virtue and the antiquity of their birth who, having been bound by a solemn oath, devote themselves to mutual and perpetual friendship; they do not refuse to face any danger or undergo death to defend the dignity of the college. They are called members of the Garter Garetterii Garter because they wear a band of the left leg bound by a buckled belt, in memory of a garter strap which had fallen off by chance from an illustrious woman whom Edward passionately loved while she was dancing, and which the King himself suddenly picked up—so that it might be dedicated in honor of the woman, not for amorous vanity, but for a grave and most honest reason, to the legs of the Peers. The ceremony of this college is celebrated annually at Windsor on a fixed day, with the King presiding, dedicated to Saint George, the protector of knights. It is the custom for the members to hang their helmet and shield with their ancestral insignia in a conspicuous place in the temple. I have heard that Hercules the Furious, Prince of Ferrara, was co-opted into this order for the sake of honor by Henry VII.

This is that Edward who took the city of Calais on the continent of France—besieged and stormed for several months—from Philip, King of France, almost two hundred years ago. In our age, Henry VII, most illustrious for the variety of his trials and the alternating games of fortune, left the empire to his son Henry, confirmed by an excellent peace and new laws and the friendship of foreign kings. For he, helped from exile by the wealth of the Gauls, crossed over into the island and, having defeated and killed King Richard in the open fields, had emerged as Emperor. For Richard had nefariously and cruelly killed the young sons of King Edward and his own brother, who had been given to him in his will for guardianship, in order to seize the kingdom, and with equal inhumanity had also made away with his wife, so that he might take Elizabeth, the daughter of the brother of Edward, in marriage