chiefly, when the wives have plots for the raising of their own children; or else that they be advoutresses.[1]
For their children; the tragedies likewise of dangers from them have been many. And generally, the entering of fathers into suspicion of their children hath been ever unfortunate. The destruction of Mustapha (that we named before) was so fatal to Solyman's line, as the succession of the Turks from Solyman[2] until this day is suspected to be untrue, and of strange blood; for that Selymus the Second[3] was thought to be suppositious. The destruction of Crispus,[4] a young prince of rare towardness,[5] by Constantinus the Great,[6] his father, was in like manner fatal to his house; for both Constantinus[7] and Constance,[8] his sons, died violent deaths; and Constantius,[9] his other son, did little better; who died indeed of sickness, but after that Julianus[10] had taken arms against him. The
- ↑ Advoutress. Obsolete form of adulteress.
- ↑ Solyman I., surnamed 'the Magnificent,' 1494–1566, Sultan of the Ottoman Turks, 1520–1566.
- ↑ Selymus II., son of Solyman the Great, Sultan of the Ottoman Turks, 1566–1574. He was called 'Selim the Sot.'
- ↑ Flavius Julius Crispus, died 326 A.D., eldest son of Constantine the Great and his first wife, Minervina. He was put to death by Constantine at the instigation of his stepmother, Fausta.
- ↑ Towardness. Readiness to do or learn; docility.
- ↑ Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus, surnamed 'the Great,' 272–337 A.D., Roman emperor, 312–337 A.D.
- ↑ Flavius Claudius Constantinus, 312–340 A.D., second son of Constantine the Great, eldest son by his second wife, Fausta, Roman emperor.
- ↑ Flavius Julius Constans, 320(?)–350, youngest of the three sons of Constantine the Great and his second wife, Fausta, Roman emperor.
- ↑ Flavius Julius Constantius II., 317–361 A.D., third son of Constantine the Great (second son by his second wife, Fausta), Roman emperor.
- ↑ Flavius Claudius Julianus, 331(?)–363 A.D., Julian the Apostate, Roman emperor, 361–363 a.d
