Chapter XI

Over a wild and stormy sea,
Shall a noble {184} sail,
Who to find, will not fail,
A new and a fair countree.
From whence he shall bring
A herb {185a} and a root {185b}
That all men shall suit,
And please both the ploughman and the king.
And let them take no more than measure.
Both shall have the even pleasure.
The world to an end shall come
In eighteen hundred and eighty-one.

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_Here follow other Prophecies which Mother Shipton stated at various times in her life to different persons_:—

The first coming in of the King of the Scots (James I.) shall be at
Holgate Town, but he shall not come through the bar. And when the
King of the North shall be at London Bridge, his tail shall be at
Edinburgh.

This was fulfilled in the following manner—When King James arrived there was such a multitude of people at Holgate bar to behold him, that to avoid the danger of the crush he was forced to ride another way. When King James was at London, his children were at Edinburgh, preparing to come into England.

Water shall come over Ouse Bridge, and a windmill shall be set upon a
Tower, and a Elm Tree shall lie at every man’s door. At that day
women shall wear great hats and great bands.

This was verified by the conducting of water into York streets through bored Elms; and the Conduit-house had a windmill on the top that drew up the water.

When there is a Lord Mayor living in Minster-yard in York, let him
beware of a stab.

A Lord Mayor, whose house was in Minster-yard, was stabbed by an assassin in three places, which caused his death.

When two Knights shall fall out in the York Castle-yard, they shall
never live kindly all their after lives.

Sir Thomas Wentworth and Sir John Savile in choosing Knights for the Shire in the Castle-yard at York, did so fall out, that they were never after well reconciled.

When all Colton-hag hath borne crops and corn for seven years; seven
years after that you shall hear news.

Colton-hag in Mother Shipton’s time was a woodland ground full of trees, which some long time after her death was cultivated and bore crops and corn for seven years; and the seven years after that, was the year of the coming in of the Scots, and their taking of Newcastle.

You shall have a year of pining hunger, and then a dearth without
corn. You shall not know of the war over-night, yet you shall have
it in the morning; and when it comes it shall last three years.

Between Calder and Aire
Shall be great warfare,
When all the world is aloft,
It shall be called Christ’s Croft.

Calder and Aire are two rivers in Yorkshire; and this Prophecy relates to the Civil War in the time of Charles I.

When the battle of warfare begins, it shall be where Crookback
Richard made his fray.

It was near Leicester where Richard the Third was slain in battle. There Colonel Hastings was one of the first in arms at the commencement of the civil war. Or it may thus be understood—That as King Richard began his march from Nottingham when he first set out against the Earl of Richmond, so also should these wars take rise from thence. And indeed at Nottingham, on Aug. 25th, 1640, Charles I. set up his standard, and there continued it to little purpose.

They shall say to warfare for your King for half-a-crown a day, but
stir not. They will say to warfare for your King on pain of hanging,
but stir not.

At the time of the Civil War in 1642, many Lords promised two shillings and sixpence a day for each horseman who would join the King’s service.

For he that goes to complain,
Shall not come back again.

This seems to refer to the Welsh and the Irish serving the King, for very few lived to return back again to their own country.

_The following Prophecies by Mother Shipton_, (_extracted from Lilly’s collection_, _with his remarks_,) _being rather quaint in the composition_, _are left for the reader to decypher_.

(_a_) There will be a great battel between England and Scotland, and
they will be pacified for a time; and when they come at (_b_)
Bramma-moore they fight, and are again pacified for a time: Then
there will be a great battel between England and Scotland at (_c_)
Knavesmore: Then they will be pacified for a while: Then there will
be a great battel between England and Scotland at (_d_) Storktonmore;
then will Ravens sit on the (_e_) Crosse, and drink as much blood of
Nobles as of the Commons. Then wo is me, for London shall be
destroyed.

(_a_) God I hope will prevent this threatened mischief. (_b_) Brammish is a river in Northumberland. (_c_) I conceive it should be Knaresborough, by which the river Nidd runs. (_d_) Storkton I conceive mistaken for Stanemore, in Richmondshire. (_e_) It is to be noted and admired, that this Crosse in the North in Mother Shipton’s days, was a tall stone Crosse which ever since hath been by degrees sinking into the ground, and is now (1640) sunk so low, that a Raven may sit upon the top of it and reach her bill to the ground.

Then will come a woman with one eye, and she shall tread in men’s
blood to the knee; and she shall meet a man leaning on a staff, and
shall say to him, What art thou? and he shall say, I am King of the
Scots. And she shall say, Go with me to my house, for there are
three Knights. And he will go up with her, and stay there three days
and three nights. Then will England be lost; and they will cry twice
in one day, England is lost. Then there will be three Knights in
Petergate in York, and the one shall not know of the other. There
shall be a child born in Pomfret with three thumbs, and these three
Knights will give their horses to this (_f_) child with three thumbs
to hold, whilst they win England again: then come in Clubs and
Clouted shoes, and they with the three Knights win England again: and
all Noble blood shall be gone but one, and they shall carry him to
Sheriff Hutton’s Castle, six miles from York, and he shall die there;
and they shall chuse their Earl in the field, and hang their horses
on a thorn, and rue the time that ever they were born to see so much
blood shed.

(_f_) There was a child not many years since born at Pomfret with three thumbs, and credibly reported.

(_g_) Then they will come to York to besiege it; and they shall keep
them out for three days and three nights: and a peny-loaf shall be
within the Bar at half a Crown, and without the Bar at a peny; and
they will swear, if they will not yield, to blow up the Town-walls.
Then they will let them in: and they will hang the Maior, Sheriffs,
and Aldermen. There will three Knights go into Crouch-Church, and
but one of them come out again; and he will cause Proclamation to be
made, That any man may take House, Tower, or Bower, for One and
twenty yeers. And while the world endureth, there shall never be
warfare again, nor any more (_h_) Kings or Queens; but the Kingdom
shall be governed by three lords; then York shall be London.

(_g_) This is yet unacted. (_h_) All old Prophecies do intimate a final subversion of the Monarchy in England.

After this, shall be a white Harvest of Corn gotten in by women.
Then shall be in the North, that one woman shall say to another,
Mother, I have seen a man to day. And for one man there shall be a
thousand women. There shall be a man sitting on Saint James church
hill, weeping his fill.

The time will come when England shall tremble and quake for fear of a
(_i_) Dead-man, that shall be heard to speak: Then will the Dragon
give the Bull a great snap; and when this battel is done they will
all go to London Town.

(_i_) This Dead-man hath not yet appeared, but is at hand doubtless.

* * * * *

_Here follow other Prophecies she uttered_, _which because they concern Future Times we shall leave to the Interpretation of the reader_.