Vulgar words in The History of England, Volume I (Page 1)

This book at a glance

bastard x 4
whore x 1
            

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~   ~   ~   Sentence 4,605   ~   ~   ~

Amidst their complaints, the indignity of submitting to a bastard [t] was not forgotten; the certain prospect of success in a revolt, by the assistance of the Danes and the discontented English, was insisted on; and the whole company, inflamed with the same sentiments, and warmed by the jollity of the entertainment, entered, by a solemn engagement, into the design of shaking off the royal authority.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 4,607   ~   ~   ~

[FN [t] William was so little ashamed of his birth, that be assumed the appellation of bastard in some of his letters and charters.

~   ~   ~   Sentence 9,031   ~   ~   ~

The great Earl Warrenne, in a subsequent reign, when he was questioned concerning his right to the lands which he possessed, drew his sword, which he produced as his title; adding, that William the Bastard did not conquer the kingdom himself; but that the barons, and his ancestor among the rest, were joint adventurers in the enterprise [q].

~   ~   ~   Sentence 9,504   ~   ~   ~

Robert Grislet paid twenty marks of silver, that the king would help him against the Earl of Mortaigne, in a certain plea [z]: Robert de Cundet gave thirty marks of silver, that the king would bring him to an accord with the Bishop of Lincoln [a]: Ralph de Breckham gave a hawk, that the king would protect him [b]; and this is a very frequent reason for payments: John, son of Ordgar, gave a Norway hawk, to have the king's request to the king of Norway to let him have his brother Godard's chattels [c]: Richard de Neville gave twenty palfreys to obtain the king's request to Isolda Bisset, that she should take him for a husband [d]: Roger Fitz-Walter gave three good palfreys to have the king's letter to Roger Bertram's mother, that she should marry him [e]: Eling, the dean, paid one hundred marks, that his whore and his children might be let out upon bail [f]: the Bishop of Winchester gave one tun of good wine for his not putting the king in mind to give a girdle to the Countess of Albemarle [g]: Robert de Veaux gave five of the best palfreys, that the king would hold his tongue about Henry Pinel's wife [h].

~   ~   ~   Sentence 10,819   ~   ~   ~

The common law had deemed all those to be bastards who were born before wedlock; by the canon law they were legitimate: and when any dispute of inheritance arose, it had formerly been usual for the civil courts to issue writs to the spiritual, directing them to inquire into the legitimacy of the person.

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