A late Ming gazetteer for Hsiao-kan county in Hupeh province observed, after listing abuses in the assessment and exaction of various levies, that 'people living in the villages have to provide twice as much as those who live in towns, and those in economically distressed circumstances provide twice as much again as the [ordinary] countryfolk'.

a splendid procession

Cortine, Corteyne, or Cortayn was the name given to the sword of Ogier, one of the celebrated Douzeperes of Charlemagne.

This so famous and farre renown'd great Brittains Monarchy, had at one blowe endured a recoverlesse ruine, beeing overwhelmed in a sea of bloud […]