---

My Lord high stewarde1 his grace

  with many a rich mace2

Came garded into the Pallace3

And with a paire of scales did weigh

  each word hee did say

5

to keepe his oracon in ballace

  2  To tell you noe lye

  Hee lik’d the Canopie

soe well, and the chayre hee sate in4

that my lord high steward still

10

  tis thought with a good will

hee could have beene contented to have beene.

  3  The Redd flappe of the Lawe,5 next

  was to handle the text

and his part was to open the doore

15

But marke the disaster

  My lords grace his master

had taken up all before6

  4  The Atturney7 now beganne

  upon his leggs to stande

20

extollinge the happines of the Kinge

That had lived soe many yeares

  and not one of his peares

   had committed soe vilde a thinge.

  5  And trust me twas strange

25

  of all that great range8

that sate it out that day

that not one of them all

  should at some tymes falle

wander or goe a-stray

30

  6  Hee used much scripture text

  which many ther perplext

whoe did not thinke it possible

That a man of his trade

  whoe soe much profitt had made

35

Should bee soe well redd in the bible

  7  But the oration was witty

  and truly twas pitty

Hee did noe longer stand

For by the quotations in the Lawe

40

  hee shewed hee was not rawe

in matters that then weare in hand

  8  The Solicitor9 most wise

  did lift up his eyes

and to my Lord steward his grace

45

And in spite of his Majestye

  for and his great Canopie

did looke him full in face

  9  Then hee declared

  what might have beene spared

50

that the fault was abominandum10

And was beholdinge many wayes

  to the old English phraise

Sir Reverence non nominandum11

  10 The prisoner nowe

55

  had leave to shewe

concerninge the rape of his wife

How that hee did it not

  but conceived it a plott

to take away him and his Life12

60

  11 But alas twas in vayne

  himselfe for to straine

since the Judges delivered it Plano

that to knowe by the tuch

  was eaven just as much

65

as if it had beene in Ano13

  12 Its thought their trunke hose14

  did alsoe suppose

that in concubilu cum faeminis

ther might bee a rape

70

  if lust made an escape

per ejectionem seminis15

  13 But sure in this case

  noe dishonor to the place

competent judges they weare none

75

For by the closenes of their beard

  t’was more then to bee feard

they weare Eueneuchs16 every one.

  14 Sir Thomas Fanshaw17 Ile sware

  above all that weare there

80

by noe meanes must bee left out

for hee fasted 12 howres and more

  and 2 daies beefore

to bee able to turne round about.

---

Source. NCRO MS IL 3338, fols. 1r-2r

Q1

Quick links to other poems within this section

Select page here Q0. Introduction Q1 My Lord high stewarde Q2 Romes worst Philenis Q3 I neade noe Trophies Q4 My life is done Q5 A proud cuckold Q6 Blame not thy wife Q7 Its true you need

¹   My Lord high stewarde: with the House of Lords not in session, Castlehaven was tried by his peers in a specially assembled Lord High Steward’s court. The Lord Keeper, Thomas, Baron Coventry, presided over the trial as Lord High Steward. <back>

²   many a rich mace: seven sergeants-at-arms, each carrying a ceremonial mace, processed into the trial ahead of the Lord High Steward. <back>

³   Pallace: Castlehaven was tried in Westminster Hall. <back>

⁴   Hee lik’d...hee sate in: the Lord High Steward presided in a canopied chair of state. <back>

⁵   The Redd flappe of the Lawe: probably the King’s Serjeant, Sir Thomas Crew, who opened the case for the prosecution. <back>

⁶   My lords grace...all before: Lord High Steward Coventry delivered an opening speech before the prosecuting attorneys began the case. The implication here is that Coventry’s speech had preempted some of the prosecution’s message. <back>

⁷   The Atturney: Sir Robert Heath, Attorney-General, and chief prosecutor. <back>

⁸   that great range: i.e. the twenty-seven English peers assembled as Castlehaven’s jurors. <back>

⁹   The Solicitor: Sir Richard Sheldon, Solicitor-General, the third prosecutor, whose speech concluded the case against Castlehaven. <back>

¹⁰   abominandum: to be abhorred. <back>

¹¹   Sir Reverence non nominandum: the exact meanings and origins of this “old English phraise” are not clear. Literally it appears to be “Sir Reverence Not-to-be-named”. <back>

¹²   The prisoner...and his Life: Castlehaven vigorously defended himself before the court, insisting that the allegations were part of a conspiracy by his wife and son to destroy him and seize his property. <back>

¹³   But alas...in Ano: this stanza focuses on one of the central weaknesses in the prosecution’s case against Castlehaven, their inability to prove, as the law seemed to require, that penetration had occurred in the alleged act of sodomy. Florence (or Lawrence) Fitzpatrick, the servant with whom Castlehaven had allegedly committed sodomy, confessed that Castlehaven had “spent his seed but did not penetrate his body” (qtd. in Herrup 61). Significantly, only fifteen of the twenty-seven peers voted to convict Castlehaven on the sodomy charge. <back>

¹⁴   trunke hose: short, often silken, breeches. <back>

¹⁵   Its thought...per ejectionem seminis: this stanza also focuses on weaknesses in the prosecution case. According to the strict legal definition of the crime, rape, like sodomy, required penetration. Giles Broadway, the servant whom Castlehaven had allegedly ordered to rape the Countess, insisted that although he had ejaculated during the rape he had not penetrated the victim. The stanza implies that the royal legal officials argued that the actions confessed—ejaculation (ejectionem seminis) during a non-penetrative sexual encounter with the woman (in concubilu cum faeminis)—did in fact constitute a rape. <back>

¹⁶   Eueneuchs: i.e. eunuchs. <back>

¹⁷   Sir Thomas Fanshaw: Clerk of the Crown, and chief clerical officer of the Lord High Steward’s Court. <back>