And if
it shall seem that the greatness of this work may make it less
exactly performed, there is an excellent period of a much smaller
compass of time, as to the story of England; that is to say, from
the uniting of the Roses to the uniting of the kingdoms; a portion
of time wherein, to my understanding, there hath been the rarest
varieties that in like number of successions of any hereditary
monarchy hath been known. For it beginneth with the mixed adoption
of a crown by arms and title; an entry by battle, an establishment
by marriage; and therefore times answerable, like waters after a
tempest, full of working and swelling, though without extremity of
storm; but well passed through by the wisdom of the pilot, being one
of the most sufficient kings of all the number. Then followeth the
reign of a king, whose actions, howsoever conducted, had much
intermixture with the affairs of Europe, balancing and inclining
them variably; in whose time also began that great alteration in the
state ecclesiastical, an action which seldom cometh upon the stage.
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