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PREFACE. 
 
 For the period of English history treated in this 
 volume, we are fortunate in possessing an unrivalled 
 interpreter in our great dramatic poet, Shakspeare. 
 A regular sequence of historical plays exhibits to us 
 not only the general character of each successive 
 reign, but nearly the whole chain of leading events, 
 from the days of Richard II. to the death of Richard 
 III. at Bosworth. Following the guidance of such a 
 master mind, we realise for ourselves the men and 
 actions of the period in a way we cannot do in any 
 other epoch. And this is the more important, as the 
 age itself, especially towards the close, is one of the 
 most obscure in English history. During the period 
 of the Wars of the Roses we have, comparatively 
 s])eaking, very few contemporary narratives of what 
 took place, and anything like a general history of the 
 times was not written till a much later date. But the 
 doings of that stormy age — the sad calamities endured 
 by kings — the sudden changes of fortune in great men 
 — the glitter of chivalry and the horrors of civil war, 
 
VI Pi-eface. 
 
 — all left a deep impression upon tlie mind of the 
 nation, which was kept alive by vivid traditions of the 
 past at the time that our great dramatist wrote. 
 Hence, notwithstanding the scantiness of records 
 and the meagreness of ancient chronicles, we have 
 singularly little difficulty in understanding the spirit 
 and character of the times. 
 
 Shakspeare, however, made ample use besides, of 
 whatever information he could obtain from written 
 histories. And there were two works to which he 
 was mainly indebted, which deserve to be read more 
 generally than they are at the present day — the 
 Chronicles, namely, of Hall and Holinshed. Hall's 
 Chronicle was written in the reign of Henry VHI., 
 and gives a complete account of the whole sequence 
 of events from the last days of King Richard 11. to 
 the time in which the author wrote. The title of the 
 work prefixed to it by himself, or possibly by his 
 printer Grafton who completed it, was ' The Union 
 of the Two Noble and Illustrate Families of Lancastre 
 and Yorke.' ^ This expresses exactly the general 
 scope of the book, which traces out very clearly the 
 
 1 The full title is as follows : — ' The Union of the two Noble and 
 Illustrate Families of Lancaster and York being long in continual 
 dissension for the crown of this noble realm, with all the acts done 
 in both the times of the Princes, both of the one lineage and of the 
 other, beginning at the time of King Henry the Fourth, the first 
 author of this division, and so successively proceeding to the reign 
 of the high and prudent prince King Henry the Eighth, the in- 
 dubilate flower and very heir of both the said lineages.' 
 
Preface. vii 
 
 story of each separate reign, first of the one family 
 and afterwards of the other, winding up with a narra- 
 tive of the reign of Henry VIII., in whom the blood 
 of both Houses was mingled. The style of Hall, 
 though antiquated, is remarkably clear, graphic, and 
 interesting. The headings that he has prefixed to the 
 several reigns are in themselves no small help to the 
 student to remember their general character. The 
 book is divided into the following chapters : — 
 
 •An Introduction into the Division of the Two Houses of 
 Lancaster and York. 
 
 ' I. The Unquiet Time of King Henry the Fourth. 
 
 • H. The Victorious Acts of King Henry the Fifth. 
 •HI, The Troublous Season of King Henry the Sixth. 
 
 • IV. The Prosperous Reign of King Edward the Fourth. 
 • V. The Pitiful Life of King Edward the Fifth. 
 
 ' VI. The Tragical Doings of King Richard the Third. 
 'VII. The Politic Governance of King Henry the Seventh. 
 'VIII. The Triumphant Reign of King Henry the Eighth.' 
 
 This table of contents is quite a history in little. 
 The feeling with which Hall wrote is that of a 
 man living under a ' triumphant ' king, who, after a 
 century of disorder and civil war occasioned by a 
 disputed succession, had succeeded peacefully to the 
 crown, uniting the claims of the two rival famiHes in 
 his own person and raising his country in the estima- 
 tion of the whole world by his kingly valour. From 
 the happy and prosperous days of Henry VIII., — for 
 such they were upon the whole, especially the early 
 part of the reign, when Hall wrote — he looked back 
 
viii Preface. 
 
 with the eye of an historian upon that epoch of 
 tragedy and confusion, and carefully collected all that 
 he could find relating to it. In the beginning of the 
 work he gives a list of the authorities he had consulted, 
 among which there are one or two that cannot at this 
 day be identified, and perhaps may not be now 
 extant. 
 
 On the whole, those who desire to obtain a clear 
 impression of the history of this period cannot do 
 better than read the Chronicle of Hall, of which it is 
 greatly to be desired that some more handy and con- 
 venient edition were published for general use. It is, 
 however, for the most part accessible in public 
 libraries, either in the original black-letter edition or 
 in that of Sir Henry Ellis. 
 
 The later Chronicles of Stow and Holinshed, pub- 
 lished during the latter part of the reign of Queen Eliza- 
 beth, add many important particulars not to be found 
 in Hall. John Stow was a most industrious antiquary, 
 who spent the greater portion of his life in collecting 
 and taking notes from MSS., and in his Chronicle, or, 
 as he himself calls it, his ' Annals,' he gives the fruit 
 of his gleanings, not in a connected narrative but in a 
 record of events from year to year, as the name of the 
 work implies. The work of Holinshed, on the other 
 hand, is called on the title-page a Chronicle, but is, 
 in fact, a regular history, embodying; the substance of 
 
Preface. ix 
 
 Hall's narrative, sometimes nearly in the words of 
 the earlier writer, with a great deal that is contained 
 in Stow and a large amount of additional information 
 from other sources. 
 
 Modern writers have not improved upon these 
 admirable works in extent or fulness of information, 
 though they have undoubtedly brought criticism to 
 bear on many points of detail. Of popular histories 
 written in recent times, Lingard's is upon the whole 
 the most careful and trustworthy \ but any one desiring 
 really to study the period can only refer to such 
 works as a help to rectify and to test the accuracy of 
 his own judgments after saturating his mind with the 
 perusal of earlier authorities. Those who have not an 
 opportunity of referring to Hall or Holinshed, would 
 do well not to take their whole view of the history 
 from any one historian, however accurate he may be, 
 but to jot down the simple facts for themselves, com- 
 paring one writer with another to ensure accuracy, and 
 from them form their own conclusions. 
 
 If, however, it be desired to examine the original 
 sources from which information about the period is 
 obtained, the student must of course go to earlier 
 writings even than Hall's Chronicle. He must 
 examine the authorities used by Hall hmiself, and a 
 number of other chronicles and narratives besides, 
 many of which have been only published in compara- 
 
X Preface. 
 
 tively recent times. Of these works it would be un- 
 necessary here to give a Hst ; but it is right to say 
 that the present volume has been written from a direct 
 study of all the contemporary testimony that exists 
 relative to the events of each particular reign. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 I'AOB 
 
 PRELIMINARY .... I 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 RICHARD II. 
 
 I. The French War — Wycliffe and John of Gaunt . . 4 
 
 n. Wat Tyler's Rebellion 12 
 
 in. The Crusade in Flanders. Invasion of Scotland. The 
 
 King's Favourites 19 
 
 IV. Revolution and Counter-Revolution .... 25 
 V. The Struggle Continued. The Wonderful Parliament 
 
 — The King of age 30 
 
 VI. The King and the Duke of Gloucester .... 37 
 
 VII. The Dukes of Hereford and Norfolk .... 42 
 
 VIII. The King and Henry of Lancaster .... 48 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 LITERATURE AND SCIENCE . . -59 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 HENRY IV. 
 
 ?. The Revolution completed. Invasion of Scotland . , 64 
 II. Eastern Affairs 6g 
 
 III. Owen Glendower's Rebellion and the Battle ot Shrews- 
 
 bury 72 
 
 IV. Capture of Prince James of Scotland .... 78 
 
 V. The Church. French Affairs. Death of Henry IV. 82 
 
xi» Cojiteiits. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PACE 
 
 I. Oldcastle and the Lollards . . . . . 86 
 [I. The War with France and the Battle of Agincourt . . 92 
 Hi. The Emperor Sigismund. Henry Invades France a 
 Second Time. The Foul Raid. Execution of Old- 
 castle ......... 99 
 
 IV. Siege and Capture of Rouen. Murder of the Duke of 
 
 Burgundy. Treaty of Troyes 104 
 
 V. Henry's Third Invasion of France. His Death. . . roo 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE AND THE WAR IN BOHEMIA 113 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 HENRY VI. 
 
 I. The King's Minority and the French War . . . 123 
 
 II. The Siege of Orleans. Joan of Arc .... 127 
 
 III. Gloucester and Beaufort. Negotiations for Peace . 134 
 
 IV. The King's Marriage, Deaths of Gloucester and Beau- 
 
 fort 140 
 
 V. Loss of Normandy. Fall of the Duke of Suffolk . . 145 
 
 VI. Jack Cade's Rebellion. Loss of Guienne and Gascony 149 
 
 VII. The King's Illness. Civil War 155 
 
 VIII. The Duke of York's Claim. His Death. Henry De- 
 
 posed ......... 161 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 EDWARD IV. 
 
 I. Triumph of the House of York .... 167 
 
 II. Edward's Marriage. Louis XI 171 
 
 [II. The Burgundian Alliance: Warwick's Intrigues . 176 
 
 IV. Edward driven out. and Henry VI. Restored . . i8i 
 
 V. Return of King Edward 185 
 
Contents. xiii 
 
 PAGB 
 
 VI. War with France 190 
 
 VII. France and Burgundy 193 
 
 VIII. Fate of Clarence. The Scotch War. Death of Edward 195 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 EDWARD V. . . - 201 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 RICHARD III. 
 
 I, The Royal Progress. Murder of the Princes . . ,210 
 
 II. The Rebellion of Buckingham . , . . . .21.; 
 
 III. Second Invasion of Richmond. Richard's Overthrow 
 
 and Death 219 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF EUROPEAN HISTORY . 22/ 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 CONCLUSION . , . . 240 
 
LIST OF MAPS. 
 
 1. FRANCE AT THE DEATH OF F,DWARD 
 
 III. npfositt Title-page 
 
 II EXTENT OF THE ENGLISH CONQUESTS IN 
 
 . To face page i 
 France . . • • * 
 
 III. HENRY V.'S First CAMPAIGN IN FRANCE ,. 97 
 
 IV ENGLAND DURING THE WARS OF THE 
 
 i6o 
 Roses 
 
 ^, EUROPF- IN THE FIFTKENTH CENTURY • . 
 
ilf 
 

CA. 
 
 THE HOUSES 
 
 LANCASTER AND YORK. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PRELIMINARY. 
 
 The reign cf Edward III. may be considered the 
 climax of medi.xval civilisation and of England's early 
 greatness. It is the age in which chivalry Age of Ed- 
 attained its highest perfection. It is the ^^""^ ^^^• 
 period of the most brilliant achie\ements in war and 
 of the greatest development of arts and commerce before 
 the Reformation. It was succeeded by an age of decay 
 and disorder, in the midst of which, for one brief interval, 
 the glories of the days of King Edward were renewed ; 
 for the rest, all was sedition, anarchy, and civil war. 
 Two different branches of the royal family set up rival 
 pretensions to the throne : and the struggle, as it went 
 on, engendered acts of violence and ferocity which de- 
 stroyed all faith in the stability of government. 
 
 2. Even in Edward's own days the tide had begun to 
 turn. Of the lands he had won in France, 
 and even of those he had inherited in that French 
 country; nearly all had been lost. Calais, Bor- ^onqucau. 
 deaux, Bayonne, and a few other places still remained ; 
 
 M,H. 
 
 ^ z 
 
Preliminary. 
 
 CH. I- 
 
 but Gascony had revolted, and a declaration of war had 
 been received in England from Charles V., the son of 
 that king of France who had been taken prisoner at 
 Poitiers. Edward found it impossible in his declining 
 years to maintain his old military renown. His illus- 
 trious son, the Black Prince, oni/ tar.iished his glory 
 by the massacre of Limoges. Even if England had 
 still possessed the warriors who had helped to win her 
 earlier victories, success could not always be hoped for 
 from that daring policy which had been wont to risk every- 
 thing in a single battle. The French, too, had learned 
 caution, and would no longer allow the issue to be so 
 determined. They suffered John of Gaunt to march 
 through the very heart of their country from Calais to 
 Bordeaux, ■ only harassing his progress with petty skir- 
 mishes and leaving hunger to do its work upon the in- 
 vading army, England was exhausted and had to be 
 content with failure. During the last two years of 
 Edward's reign there was a truce, which expired three 
 months before his death. But no attempt was made to 
 do more than stand on the defensive. 
 
 3. In domestic matters a still more melancholy re- 
 action had taken place. The great King had become 
 Imbecility of weak, and the depravity from which he and his 
 S'hir'^ people had emancipated themselves at the be- 
 
 later years. ginning of his reign reappeared at the close 
 in a form almost as painful. Alice Ferrers ruled the King 
 and sat beside the judges, corrupting the administration 
 of the law. In the King's imbecility his sons conducted 
 the government, and chiefly John of Gaunt, Duke of 
 Lancaster, whose elder brother the Black Prince had, for 
 the most part, withdrawn from public life owing to his 
 'The Good shattered health. But just before his death 
 Parliament.' \^ 1 376, the latter, conscious of the corrupt 
 state of the whole administration, gave his countenance 
 
1377. Preliminary, 3 
 
 to what was called '■ the Good Parliament ' in attacking 
 the principal abuses. They impeached, fined, and im- 
 prisoned various offenders who had been guilty of ex- 
 tortion as farmers of the revenue, or of receiving bribes 
 for the surrender of fortresses to the enemy; then, aiming 
 higher still, not only ventured to complain of Alice Ferrers, 
 but conipelled the King to banish her from his presence 
 Unfortunately, the good influence did not last. On the 
 death of the Black Prince everything was again undone. 
 Alice Perrers returned to the King. The Speaker of ' the 
 Good Parliament' was thrown into prison. John of 
 Gaunt returned to power and brought charges against 
 William of Wykeham, bishop of Winchester, once the 
 all-powerful minister of Edward III., in consequence of 
 which he was dismissed from the Chancellorship and 
 ordered to keep at a distance from the court, while the 
 men who had been censured and condemned by Parlia- 
 ment were released from their confinement. 
 
 4. One act, howe^'er, the Good Parliament accom- 
 plished which was not to be undone. Immediately on 
 the death of the Black Prince the Commons Richard, 
 petitioned that his son Richard might be gj"?^^^^ 
 publicly recognised as heir to the throne. Prince, re- 
 The significance of this act is not at once hefr"t?thr 
 apparent to us who are accustomed to a fixed crown. 
 succession. But the days were not then so very remote 
 when it had been not unusual to set aside the direct line 
 of the succession, either to avoid a minority or for some 
 other reason ; and it might have been questioned still 
 whether the right of a younger son, like John of Gaunt, 
 was not preferable to that of a grandson, like young 
 Richard. In this case, however, the general feeling was 
 marked and unmistakeable. The great popularity of the 
 Black Prince made the nation desire the succession of his 
 son ; and the unpopularity of John of Gaunt strengthened 
 
4 Richard TL ch. ii. 
 
 that desire still further. Hence it was that on the death 
 of Edward III. his grandson Richard succeeded quietly to 
 the throne. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 RICHARD II. 
 
 I. The French War — Wycliffe and John of Gaunt. 
 
 1. It was just twelve months after the death of the Black 
 Prince that his father, King Edward III., died at Sheen. 
 A.D. 1377. According to what had been determined in 
 June 21. Parliament, Richard was immediately recog- 
 
 nised as king. He was at this time only eleven years 
 Accession of o^d, and could not be expected to discharge 
 Richard. j-j-^g actual functions of government for many 
 
 years to come. The utmost that could have been hoped 
 under circumstances so disadvantageous was that he 
 might have been placed under such tuition as would 
 have taught him to exercise his high powers with vigour 
 and discretion when he came of age. But even of this 
 the state of parties afforded very little prospect. His 
 eldest uncle, John of Gaunt, was so generally disliked 
 that his influence would not have been tolerated, and no 
 one else had any claim to be his political instructor. No 
 attempt was made to form a Regency or to appoint a Pro- 
 tector during the minority. The young King was crowned 
 within a month after his accession, and was invested at 
 once with the full rights of sovereignty. All parties 
 agreed to support his authority, and seemed anxious to 
 lay aside those jealousies which had disturbed the latter 
 days of the preceding reign. John of Gaunt and 
 William of Wykeham were made friends ; and the city 
 of London, which had been much opposed to the forme?', 
 was assured both of his and of the new King's good will 
 
1377. 
 
 The French War. 5 
 
 2. It was, indeed, a very proper time to put away 
 dissensions, for the French were at that moment harassing 
 the coasts. A week after King Edward's death they 
 burned Rye. A httle later they levied contributions in the 
 Isle of Wight, attacked Winchelsea, and set r^^^ French 
 fire to Hastings. About the same time the bum Rye. 
 Scots were busy in the North, and burned the town of Rox- 
 burgh. These and a number of other misfortunes were 
 due mainly to the weakness of the government. 
 
 3. A Parliament, however, presently assembled at 
 London, composed mainly of the same persons as the 
 Good Parliament of 1376. In this Parliament _, ,. 
 
 •^' Parliament. 
 
 a subsidy was voted for carrying on the war ; 
 but to prevent a repetition of old abuses, the control of the 
 money was placed entirely in the hands of two leading 
 citizens of London, who were charged not to allow it to 
 be diverted from the use for which it was intended. The 
 names of these two citizens were William Walworth and 
 John Phihpot ; and they deserve to be noted here as we 
 shall meet with each of them again in connection with 
 other matters. 
 
 4. About the end of the year there arrived in England 
 certain bulls —not the first that had been issued by the 
 Pope to denounce his teaching—against John 
 Wycliffe, a famous theologian at Oxford, whose 
 
 tenets, both political and religious, had created no small 
 stir. Wycliffe denied that the Pope, or any one but Christ, 
 ought to be called Head of the Church. He treated as a 
 fiction that primacy among the Apostles which the Church 
 of Rome had always claimed for St. Peter. He maintained 
 that the power of kings was superior to that of the Pope, 
 and that it was lawful to appeal from the sentence of a 
 bishop to a secular tribunal. It was one of his cardinal 
 principles that dominion was founded on grace, and that 
 anyone who held authority, either temporal or spiritual, 
 
Richard II. 
 
 CH. II. 
 
 was divested of his power by God whenever he abused it. 
 From this it seemed only too plain an inference that dis- 
 obedience might easily become a duty. Such teaching 
 shook to its foundation the view commonly entertained of 
 the relations of Church and State, but it recommended 
 itself in many ways to no small section of the nation. As 
 early as the year 1366 it had become of value to the 
 Court ; for the Pope had revived the claim made by the 
 See of Rome for tribute in the days of King John, and 
 while the papal pretensions were repudiated by the Parlia- 
 ment at Westminster, Wycliffe defended in the schools of 
 Oxford the decision come to by the legislature. 
 
 5. In truth the authority of the Pope had not been 
 strengthened in the estimation of Englishmen since the 
 days when that tribute had been submitted to, especially 
 not in the days of Wycliffe. For nearly sixty years the 
 Papal See had been removed from Rome to Avignon, 
 and in matters of international concern the Pope was 
 looked upon as a partisan of the French king. Of the 
 The Popes ^^^ Popes who had reigned at Avignon, every 
 at Avignon. one had been a native either of Gascony or 
 of the Limousin. The exactions of the Papal Court 
 rendered it still more odious. The See of Rome had 
 gradually usurped the right of presentation to bishoprics 
 and prebends, and received the first fruits of each new- 
 filled benefice, of which it endeavoured to make the 
 utmost by frequent translations. At ' the sinful city of 
 Avignon/ as it was called by the Good Parliament, there 
 lived a set of brokers who purchased benefices and let 
 them to farm for absentees. Thus a number of the most 
 valuable preferments were absorbed by Cardinals and 
 other foreigners residing at the Papal Court. And worse 
 than all, the revenues of the English Church went fre- 
 quently to support the enemies of England. For the 
 Pope claimed a general right of taxing benefices, and 
 
1377. Wyciiffe. 7 
 
 when he required money for his wars in Lombardy, or to 
 ransom French prisoners taken by the Enghsh, he could 
 always demand a subsidy of the English clergy. The 
 bishops did not dare to resist the demand, however little 
 they might approve the object. In this way the Pope 
 drew from the possessions of the Church in England five 
 times the amount the King received from the whole 
 taxation of the kingdom. And while all this wealth was 
 withdrawn from the country, and some of it applied in a 
 manner opposed to the country's interest, the people 
 were so ground down with taxation that they were unable 
 to provide effectively for defence against a foreign enemy. 
 Statesmen therefore desired the opinion of divines 
 whether England might not lawfully, as a Christian 
 nation, refuse to part with her treasures to the See of 
 Rome. Wycliffe had no doubt upon the subject. He 
 declared that every community had a right to protect 
 itself, and that it might detain its treasure for that 
 purpose whenever necessity required; moreover, that on 
 Gospel principles the Pope had no right to anything at 
 all, except in the way of alms and free-will offerings of 
 the faithful. 
 
 6. Unselfish as his aim undoubtedly was, it was only 
 natural that doctrines such as these should have recom- 
 mended Wycliffe to the favour of the great. Even in 
 the days of Edward III. he was a royal chaplain; and 
 in the very first year of Richard II. his advice was asked 
 by the King's council upon the question just referred to. 
 On the other hand, he was naturally looked upon by 
 churchmen as a traitor to the principles and constitution 
 of the Church; nor could he hope to escape their ven- 
 geance except by the protection of powerful laymen. In 
 this respect the friendship of John of Gaunt was of most 
 signal use to him; and it was shown in an especial 
 manner not long before the death of Edward III. On 
 
8 RicJiard II. ch. n 
 
 that occasion Wycliffe had been cited before the Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London at St. 
 Paul's; and the Duke of Lancaster not only took his part, 
 but befriended him so warmly as to let fall some offensive 
 expressions against the Bishop of London. But he had 
 very soon cause to repent the indiscretion. The 
 Londoners resented either the affront to their bishop or 
 the stretch of authority on the duke's part in protecting 
 a heretic, and it was only at the bishop's own interces- 
 sion that they refrained from attacking the duke himself 
 or setting fire to his palace of the Savoy. 
 
 7. The incident was characteristic of John of Gaunt, 
 John of ^ ^^^"^ whose inward endowments, either of 
 
 Gaunt. virtue or discretion, by no means corre- 
 
 sponded with his artificial greatness. Although only the 
 fourth son of King Edward III., he was the eldest 
 that survived his father, and had, as we have already 
 shown, taken the lead in public affairs even during his 
 father's latter days. On the day that Edward attained 
 the age of fifty, he and an elder brother Lionel were 
 raised by the King to the dignity of dukes — a title 
 unknown in England till the beginning of his reign; 
 and having married the daughter of a nobleman, then 
 deceased, who had been created Duke of Lancaster, he 
 was made Duke of Lancaster himself. On the death 
 of his elder brother Lionel, who had been made Duke 
 of Clarence, John of Gaunt was left the only duke 
 in England, and when the Black Prince also died, he 
 was the greatest subject in the realm. But his ambition 
 had not been satisfied even with the great pre-eminence 
 of a dukedom ; for, having taken as his wife in second 
 marriage, Constance, the eldest daughter of Peter the 
 Cruel of Castile, he assumed the title of King of Castile. 
 The claim was utterly futile, and served only to exas- 
 perate both France and Spain against England. Foi 
 
t377. 
 
 John of Gaunt. 9 
 
 Henry of Trastamara, the illegitimate brother of Peter 
 the Cruel, against whose pretensions the Black Prince 
 had won for Peter in Spain the battle of Navarrete, had 
 been since firmly established on the throne by the aid of 
 the King of France. Moreover, at that very time the 
 affairs of England in France were in a most critical con- 
 dition; yet John of Gaunt, whom his brother the Black 
 Prince had left to defend Aquitaine a year before, re- 
 turned to England with his newly married wife and 
 empty title just when his presence was most specially 
 wanted in the south of France. After he was gone the 
 English arms experienced a series of reverses ending in 
 the complete loss of Aquitaine, and a new invasion of 
 France, which he undertook in order to retrieve these 
 disasters, was even more unfortunate. 
 
 8. Altogether, he had shown little evidence of either 
 military or political capacity ; and yet at the commence- 
 ment of his young nephew's reign his influence was so 
 great by the mere fact of his relation to the King, that 
 everything was at his disposal. It was in vain even that 
 Parliament had committed to Walworth and 
 Philipot the control of the war expenditure. 
 The Duke of Lancaster requested that the money granted 
 by Parliament should be placed in his hands, that he 
 might fit out a fleet and drive the enemy from the shores 
 of England. The Lords of the Council, though with great 
 misgivings, felt it necessary to comply. They had little 
 confidence in the duke, but durst not go against his will. 
 Their distrust was justified by the result. The duke was 
 very tardy in his preparations. The flfet at length sailed 
 without him, was encountered by the Spaniards and was 
 defeated. The commercial classes seem to have felt that 
 they must see to the protection of their own interests 
 themselves, for English shipping was exposed to the 
 attacks of various enemies. John Mercer, a Scotch cap- 
 
10 Richard 11. 
 
 CH. II. 
 
 tain, who v^as a man of considerable influence with the 
 French king, had been taken at sea by some Northum- 
 brian sailors and committed to the castle of Scarborough. 
 His son, with the aid of a small force consisting of French- 
 men, Scots, and Spaniards, suddenly entered the port of 
 Scarborough and carried off a number of ships. But 
 John John Philipot fitted out a fleet at his own ex- 
 
 Phiiipot. pense, which after a short time fell in with the 
 
 younger Mercer, and not only recovered the ships that he 
 had captured but took him and fifteen Spanish vessels 
 laden with rich booty. 
 
 9. The fame of this achievement made Philipot highly 
 popular, and people could not help contrasting it with the 
 supineness and inactivity of John of Gaunt. When at 
 last the duke set to sea he unfortunately did little to 
 retrieve his past mismanagement, but failed again as he 
 Siege of St ^^^ ^° often done before. He crossed to 
 Maio. Brittany, besieged St. Malo, and so terrified 
 the inhabitants that at first they were disposed to come to 
 terms with him. But the duke insisting on unconditional 
 surrender, the citizens held out and the siege was prolonged, 
 till at length, after losing a number of men, the English were 
 compelled ignominiously to withdraw and return home. 
 
 10. The war went on for some years languidly, with 
 little glory to England. The national disasters however^ 
 together with the intolerable burden of taxation imposed 
 Parliament to avcrt them, had a most important effect in 
 the'erendU Stimulating Parliament to inquire into the 
 ture. expenditure, a claim which was not yet con- 
 ceded to them by right, but under the circumstances could 
 not be refused. The English also were deceived in their 
 expectations of aid from the Duke of Brittany against 
 France. John de Montfort, Duke of Brittany, had done 
 homage to Edward IH. for his duchy, and had been 
 assisted by Edward against his rival Charles of Blois, 
 
1378. TJie Great Schism. \ t 
 
 supported by the King of France. His son John, who 
 was now duke, with an undisputed title, had fought side 
 by side with the Enghsh, and since Richard's accession 
 had been placed in command of a portion of the English 
 fleet. But he had pursued a double game from the first, 
 and being recalled to hi^ duchy, by the earnest entreaties 
 of his people he soon after^vards made a treaty with France 
 to dismiss the English from his dominions. 
 
 1 1. Meanwhile, events had taken place at Rome which 
 affected both the political and religious condition of every 
 country in Europe. Gregory XL, the last of the Popes 
 who reigned at Avignon, had felt it necessary to remove 
 to Rome in order to prevent the Romans setting up an 
 anti-Pope. At Rome he died the year after his removal. 
 Three quarters of the Cardinals in the im- 
 perial city were French, but another French 
 pope they did not dare elect. Their choice fell upon a 
 Neapolitan, the Archbishop of Bari, who assumed the title 
 of Urban VI. But shortly afterwards a portion of the 
 Cardinals, pretending that the election had not been free, 
 caused a new election to be made of Robert of Geneva, 
 Cardinal of Cambray, who took the title of Clement VII., 
 and once more set up a papal court at Avignon. 
 Such was the beginning of what is known in in the 
 history as THE Great Schism. While Urban P^P^^y. 
 was recognised as Pope by England, Germany, and the 
 greater part of Europe, Clement was regarded as head of 
 the Church by France, Spain, Scotland, and Sicily. Re- 
 ligion was mixed up with the political animosities of 
 nations, and crusades agamst the Clementines, as they 
 were called, were proclaimed as if they had been directed 
 against infidels. Nor was the breach in the Church re- 
 paired until thirty-seven years after it began. 
 
t2 Richard 11. 
 
 ctt. rr 
 
 II. Wat Tyler's Rcbeilio)i, 
 
 1. In June 1381 there broke out in England the for- 
 midable insurrection known as Wat Tyler's rebellion. 
 A.D. 1381. The movement seems to have begun among 
 June. ^Q^ bondmen of Essex and of Kent, but it 
 spread at once to the counties of Sussex, Hertford, 
 Wat Tyler's Cambridge, Suffolk, and Norfolk. The pea- 
 rebellion. santry, armed with bludgeons and rusty 
 swords, first occupied the roads by which pilgrims went 
 to Canterbury, and made everyone sv/ear that he would 
 be true to King Richard and not accept a king named 
 John. This, of course, was aimed at the government of 
 John of Gaunt, who called himsdf King of Castile, and 
 to whom the people attributed every grievance they had 
 to complain of. 
 
 2. The principal, or at lea;^t the immediate cause of 
 offence, arose out of a poll-tax which had been voted in 
 The poll- ^'^^ preceding year, in addition to other sources 
 tax. of revenue, for the war in Brittany. A poll- 
 tax of fourpence a head had already been levied in the 
 year 1377 ; but this time the deficiency in the exchequer 
 was so great that three times the amount was imposed. 
 Every person above fifteen years of age was to contribute 
 three groats to the revenue ; but to make the burden as 
 equitable as possible, it was enacted that the rich should 
 contribute for the poor, no one (except beggars, who were 
 exempted) contributing less tlian one groat or more than 
 sixty. When, however, the first collection was made, 
 which should have brought in two-thirds of tht^, whole 
 amount, it was found not to have yielded so much as the 
 former poll-tax. Commissions were accordingly issued 
 to inquire in what cases the tax had been evaded. 
 
 3. The investigation was one that could not have been 
 
1381. Wat Tyler s Rebellion. n 
 
 conducted with too great delicacy; but the manner in 
 which the commissioners discharged their functions was 
 offensive beyond measure. Even without very special 
 provocatioji, there was at this time a dangerous spirit 
 among the lower orders. The condition of condition 
 the peasantry had. for a long time been steadily of the 
 improving. The great plague which deso- p*^^^^" '^• 
 lated England in the year 1348 had so thinned the popu- 
 lation that agricultural labour was much less easily pro- 
 curable than it had been before ; and as wages had risen 
 about one-half, those compulsory services which bond- 
 men were still obliged to render to th'^ir lords, such as 
 tilling his fields or carrying in the harvest, were sub- 
 mitted to with far less good- will. A feeling had spread 
 far and wide that bondage was a thing essentially unjust ; 
 and with this grew up an intense hatred of the lawyers 
 and of the laws which kept men in subjection. 
 
 4. The commissioners, however, set about their in- 
 quiries in a way which was not only calculated to give 
 needless offence, but which was in many cases indecent 
 and revolting. A tiler of Dartford whose daughter was 
 subjected to insulting treatment, cleft the collectoi-'s 
 head with his lathing-staff. The commissioners soon 
 found the whole peasantry of Kent and Essex banded 
 together to withstand them. From village to village they 
 mustered in hosts, putting to death all lawyers and legal 
 functionaries, and destroying the court-rolls of manors 
 which contained the evidences of their servile condition. 
 And so in overpowering numbers they proceeded to Black- 
 heath, where they are said to have mustered Muster upon 
 100,000 men. Their leader was a man of Maid- i^iackheath. 
 stone named Wat the Tyler — a different person, seem- 
 ingly, from the tiler of Dartford above referred to. They 
 had also with them a fanatical priest named John Balle, 
 whom they had liberated from Maidstone jail, where he 
 
14 Richard IT. ch. ii. 
 
 had been confined by the Archbishop of Canterbury. This 
 man had been notorious for many years for the extra- 
 vagance of his preaching, in which, however, he addressed 
 himself to the popular prejudices, and seems in part to have 
 adopted the teaching of Wycliffe. Letters written by him 
 in a kind of doggrel rhyme were dispersed about the coun- 
 try. At Blackheath he addressed the multitude in a ser- 
 mon beginning with what was then a popular saying — 
 
 When Adam dal/sind Ev6 span, 
 Who was then a gentleman ? 
 
 From which he proceeded to point out the injustice of 
 servitude and the natural equality of men. 
 
 5. The appearance and numbers of the insurgents 
 were so formidable that the King, although he had gone 
 down the river in his barge to meet them and learn their 
 demands, was counselled not to land. The multitude 
 accordingly passed on through Southwark into London, 
 destroying the Marshalsea and King's Bench prisons. 
 The lord mayor and aldermen at first resolved to shut 
 the gates of the city against them ; but they had so many 
 friends vathin, that the attempt to do so was in vain. 
 When they came in they showed their hostility to John of 
 Gaunt by setting fire to his magnificent man- 
 palace sion, the Savoy Palace. They also burned 
 burned. ^^^ Temple and broke open the Fleet prison 
 and Newgate, liberating all the prisoners. At the same 
 time their motives seem to have been free from dis- 
 honesty. Strict orders were given against theft, and one 
 fellow who was detected purloining a piece of plate at 
 the burning of the Savoy, was hurled by his comrades 
 into the flames along with the stolen article. 
 
 6. The King had removed for security into the Tower, 
 along with his mother the Princess of Wales, once 
 popularly known as ' the Fair Maid of Kent.' Two 
 Teadmg members of his council were with him, Simon 
 
1 38 1. ^Vat Tyler^s Rebellion. 1 5 
 
 Sudbury, Archbishop of Canterbury, who was then Lord 
 Chancellor, and Sir Robert Hales, Prior of the Knights 
 of St. John, who filled the office of Lord Treasurer. To 
 the Tower also, as a place of safety, flocked many of the 
 citizens. But as the insurgents so strongly insisted on 
 laying their grievances before the King himself, Richard 
 agreed to go out and meet them at Mile End, where they 
 preferred to him certain requests, of which the principal 
 was for a general abolition of bondage. This and their 
 other demands the King felt it necessary to concede, and 
 a charter was granted accordingly under the great seal. 
 The charter was revoked after the insurrection was 
 quelled; but it satisfied the assembly at the time, and 
 the men of Essex took their departure homewards. 
 Another party of the insurgents, however, under Wat 
 Tyler himself, had at this very time forced an entrance 
 into the Tower, and after conducting themselves with the 
 greatest insolence- towards the King's mother and her 
 attendants, dragged out the Archbishop of The Arch- 
 Canterbury and Sir Robert Hales, and be- canSbury 
 headed them on Tower Hill. The garrison murdered, 
 within the Tower seem to have been utterly paralysed. 
 The irruption of such an unclean and disorderly mob 
 into the fortress seems altogether to have taken away 
 their courage. At the same time many other decapita- 
 tions took place, both on Tower Hill and in the city; 
 and, as if to show that no restraints would be regarded, 
 men were dragged out of churches and sanctuaries to be 
 beheaded in the public streets. 
 
 7. But though for the time absolute masters of every- 
 thing, the triumph of the insurgents was shortlived. For 
 the very next day, Wat Tyler had a conference with the 
 young King at Smithfield, at which he dis- j^eathof 
 played so much insolence that William Wal- Wat Tyler, 
 wotth. who was this year Mayor of London, killed him 
 
r6 Richard II. 
 
 CH. II. 
 
 with a blow of his sword. A cry immediately rose from 
 the assembled multitude: — 'Our captain is slain. Let 
 us stand together and revenge his death.' Bows were 
 bent and arrows were about to be aimed at the King and 
 his attendants. But Richard, who was at this time only 
 in his fifteenth year, exhibited in the crisis the spirit of a 
 true Plantagenet. Putting spurs to his horse he rode 
 right into the midst of the rebels, and said to them, 
 'What, my friends, would you shoot your king? Do 
 not grieve for the death of that traitor. I will be your 
 captain and leader. Follow me, and you shall have 
 whatever you please to ask,' This boldness had a 
 marvellous effect. The multitude, disconcerted, followed 
 their young king into the open field. Still, it was doubt- 
 ful whether they would kill him, or accept a pardon and go 
 home, when fortunately there came from the city a band 
 of volunteers hastily collected under Sir Robert Knolles, 
 an experienced captain in the wars of Edward III., which 
 surrounded the insurgents and placed the King in safety. 
 
 8. This gave a fatal blow to the rebellion in London. 
 The insurgents dispersed and went home, and the King 
 conferred on William Walworth the honour of knight- 
 hood and land of the value of loo/. But out of London 
 
 there had been at the same time a general 
 
 Cornniotions . . ,, , t 
 
 in the Hsmg over all the country, extendmg even to 
 
 country. ^|^g county of Norfolk, and northwards to the 
 
 H umber. At St. yVlban's the bondmen of the monastery 
 committed many outrages, demanding emancipation from 
 the abbot. In Suffolk the movement was kept up by a 
 priest named John Wraw, sent down by Tyler from 
 London ; and, as in London, houses were destroyed and 
 lawyers everywhere beheaded, including even one of the 
 justices. The prior of Bury too was put to death, and his 
 head stuck upon the pillory. 
 
 9. In Norfolk there was a rising under one Joho 
 
i3ai. Wai Tyler's Kebef lion. ij 
 
 Litster, a dyer of Norwich, whose surname, like Tyler's, 
 denoted his occupation ; for ' litster ' was old English for 
 a dyer. Here the insurgents proposed to take the Earl of 
 Suffolk by surprise and make use of his name as their 
 leader ; but the earl, being warned while he was at supper, 
 made his escape and fled in disguise to the King. The 
 insurgents, however, compelled one nobleman and some 
 knights to go along with them, putting one to death who 
 declared plainly his disapproval of their proceedings 
 Litster assumed the title of ' king of the commons,' com- 
 pelled the knights to serve him at table with meat and 
 drink, and sent two of them up to London in company 
 with three of his men, to obtain for the risers charters of 
 manumission and pardon from the King. The knights 
 set out, but were met before long by Spencer 
 bishop of Norwich, ayoung and warlike prelate, Spencer of 
 who, having got news of the insurrection, was Norwich. 
 armed to the teeth, with a few attendants. The bishop 
 demanded of the knights whether they had not some ol 
 the traitors in their company ; on which the knights de- 
 livered up their custodians, whom the bishop caused at 
 once to be beheaded. He then hurried onwards into 
 Norfolk, where the gentry flocked to his standard, and 
 defeated the insurgents in a regular battle at North 
 Walsham, which put an end to the disorders in the county 
 of Norfolk. 
 
 lo. The spirit which animated all of these commotions 
 was of a kind that naturally spread the greatest possible 
 alarm through all but the lower ranks of g -^.j^ ^^ ^^^ 
 society. Nothing like it is to be seen at an rebellion, 
 earlier date, nor even very much later. The rebellion of 
 Jack Cade, which occurred nearly seventy years after, did 
 not affect a democratic character or a positive hatred of 
 law ; though in this respect Shakespeare has mixed up 
 
 M.H C 
 
f 8 Richard IT. 
 
 CH. II. 
 
 the features of both movements in describing the rebellion 
 of Jack Cade. The insurgents under Wat Tyler were, as 
 we have seen, bondmen clamouring for emancipation and 
 journeymen artificers who believed in the natural equality 
 of men. The names of their leaders bespoke their plebeian 
 origin, which they made no effort to disguise. They were 
 Wat the Tyler, and Jack Straw, and John Wrawe, with 
 John Litster in Norfolk. These men and their doings are 
 pithily described by the contemporary poet Gower in some 
 Latin verses, of which Fuller, the Church historian, gives 
 the following spirited translation : — 
 
 Tom comes thereat when called by Wat, and Simon as forward we 
 
 find; 
 Bet calls as quick to Gibb and to Hykk, that neither would tarry 
 
 behind. 
 Gibb, a good whelp of that litter, doth help mad Coll more mischief 
 
 to do, 
 And Will he doth vow, the time is come now, he'll join with their 
 
 company too. 
 Davie complains, whiles Grigg gets the gains, and Hobb with them 
 
 doth partake, 
 Lorkin aloud, in the midst of the crowd, conceiveth as deep is his 
 
 stake. 
 Hudde doth spoil whom Judde doth foil, and Tebb lends his help- 
 ing hand. 
 But Jack, the mad patch, men and houses doth snatch, and kills all 
 
 at his command. 
 
 However they might profess social equality as their 
 doctrine, these men practically insisted, not upon equality, 
 but on changing places with their masters. In this same 
 poem of Gower's, which he called the Vox Claniafitis, he 
 likened the whole movement to a rising of asses that sud- 
 denly disdained the curb, and oxen that refused the yoke. 
 Changing their natures, they became lions and fire- breath- 
 ing monsters, and forgot entirely their original characters. 
 
 \i. It was in the beginning of the year following these 
 
1382. The Crusade vi Flanders. 19 
 
 insurrections that the young King, having just attained 
 the age of fifteen, married Anne, the sister of ^^ ^ g^ 
 Wenceslaus VI., king of Bohemia, daughter January, 
 of the last Emperor of Germany, Charles IV. On the 
 eve of his marriage he granted a general ^^^ King's 
 amnesty to all but the leading insurgents, which marriage. 
 was politically set forth as having been conceded at the 
 request of his future queen. At the same time strong 
 measures were taken, and commissions sent out to repress 
 and punish any future movements of the like description, 
 which were only too likely to arise from the lenity dis- 
 played on this occasion. For, in point of fact, the evil 
 influence of the rebellion was palpable for many years 
 afterwards. Government was unhinged and authority 
 was effectually weakened. John of Northampton, the 
 mayor who succeeded Walworth, pursued a very different 
 line of policy from his predecessor ; and the city of Lon- 
 don, influenced by Wycliffe's teaching, usurped episcopal 
 rights in dealing with offenders against morality. Two 
 years later the same John of Northampton raised factious 
 disturbances in the city in opposition to another lord 
 mayor, and being convicted of sedition before the King, 
 was banished into Cornwall. 
 
 III. The Crusade in Flanders — The Invasion of Scot- 
 land — The King's Favourites. 
 
 I. At this time a revolution took place in Flanders 
 which had a special interest for Englishmen. The people 
 of the Low Countries were always well affected to the 
 English, with whom they were united by commercial 
 interests ; but the Counts of Flanders favoured France. 
 In the days of Edward III., the Flemings under James 
 Van Artevelde, had for some time thrown off allegiance 
 to their count and openly allied themselves with England, 
 
20 Richard II, 
 
 CH. it. 
 
 Philip Van A.nd now under the guidance of Philip Van 
 Artevelde. Artcvelde, the son of their former leader, they 
 in like manner rose against Count Louis II., who was 
 driven out of Ghent, first to Bruges and afterwards into 
 France. The King of France, Charles VI., who had suc- 
 ceeded his father since Richard came to the throne in 
 England, was only a boy ; but his guardian, the Duke ot 
 Burgundy, was son-in-law of Count Louis, and a French 
 army, led by the young King himself, soon marched into 
 the Netherlands. Artevelde, on the other hand, sought 
 the support of England ; and it was so manifestly the 
 interest of England to avail itself of Flemish sympathy 
 against France, that the success of his application might 
 almost have been supposed a matter of course. The 
 English Council, however, were lukewarm and dilatory , 
 and, while Philip Van Artevelde was besieging Oudenarde, 
 he found himself obliged to turn aside and give battle to 
 the French, unaided by any but his own countrymen. 
 The Flemings, though strong in numbers, were deficient 
 in cavalry, and were defeated by the French in three 
 several engagements, in the last of which, the 
 " ^^ ^' battle of Roosebeke, Van Artevelde was slain. 
 
 2. So great a triumph to France — so complete an 
 overthrow to allies like the Flemings — created serious 
 alarm in England for the safety of Calais. A great 
 opportunity had been lost ; but could anything be done 
 even now.? The question was anxiously discussed in 
 Parliament, and it seemed there was still one effective 
 mode of punishing the pride of France. Papal bulls had 
 arrived in England authorising the warlike Bishop of 
 Crusade of Norwich to proclaim a crusade against the ad- 
 the Bishop hercnts of the anti-Pope Clement, which would 
 
 orwic . gj^^j^jg ^YiQ English to carry on war with their 
 old enemy under the colour of religion. The project on 
 the whole gave satisfaction ; it received the sanction of 
 
>383- ^^^^ Crusade in Flanders. 2r 
 
 Parliament, and people came flocking in great numbers to 
 the bishop's standard. One point only occasioned some 
 little difficulty in point of principle. Although the French 
 were Clementists, the Count of Flanders and his native 
 followers adhered to Pope Urban. But the bishop had 
 engaged beforehand that if the religious pretext would not 
 serve the purposes of England, he would furl the banner 
 of the cross and display his own. He accordingly crossed 
 over to Calais and without even declaration of 
 war succeeded in taking possession of Grave- 
 lines, Dunkirk, and a few places near the sea coast of 
 Flanders. But after laying siege unsuccessfully to Ypres 
 he found it necessary to withdraw once more to Grave- 
 lines, surrender the places he had taken, and finally return 
 to England after razing Gravelines to the ground. The 
 result of the expedition was humihating enough; but 
 when Parliament met soon after, worse things were dis- 
 covered. Money had been received from the enemy for 
 the evacuation of Gravelines, and imputations of corrup- 
 tion were made against the bishop himself. This was a 
 charge from which he succeeded in clearing himself, but 
 it was fully proved against several of the captains ; and 
 even the bishop did not escape severe censure and punish- 
 ment for his conduct of the expedition. His temporalities 
 were seized by the King and the offending captains were 
 imprisoned. Nevertheless the bishop retained the good- 
 will of many who admired his spirit, and in their partiality 
 put a more favourable construction on his conduct than 
 the facts would fairly warrant. 
 
 3. The King at this time, though still under age, was 
 not, strictly speaking, kept in tutelage. He had been 
 crowned within a month after the death of his grandfather, 
 and with that great act of State the full rights of sove- 
 reignty had devolved upon him. But the fact that he 
 was without a guardian only kept him more completely 
 
22 Richard IL 
 
 CH. TI. 
 
 under the practical control of the Council, who were 
 responsible to Parliament. As he grew up, this control 
 became more and more distasteful to him, and he showed 
 a disposition to seek counsel from men of his own choos- 
 ing. More especially he was impatient of the authority 
 and influence claimed by his uncle, John of Gaunt, whose 
 ambition was believed to aspire to the crown itself. Dis- 
 trust and suspicions arose between uncle and nephew, 
 which the King's mother strove in vain to abate. The 
 Duke of Lancaster being summoned to a council came with 
 a number of armed men, saying that he had been warned 
 of a plot to entrap him. Shortly aftei-wards the King 
 , . f invaded Scotland with the Duke in his 
 
 Invasion of 
 
 Scotland. company, laid waste the country as far as 
 A.D. 13 5. ^^ Forth, and burned Edinburgh. Lan- 
 caster then advised the King to go further and cross the 
 estuary into Fife. The Scots, in fact, following their 
 usual policy, had retired before the invading army and 
 left even their towns an easy prey to the English, who 
 had destroyed and wasted all they could, but still could 
 not find their enemy. But the Duke of Lancaster's 
 advice was the most impolitic that could have been given, 
 and might well have justified a suspicion that he was 
 acting treacherously, if it were not that he had already in 
 times past given ample evidence of his utter incompetence 
 as a general. Richard, though not himself over-discreet 
 at all times, was too wise to follow the advice. He told 
 his uncle that he might conduct his own men where he 
 pleased, but as provisions failed them where they were, 
 the royal army \\ould certainly return to England. 
 
 4. It was perhaps with a view to counterbalance the 
 great authority of John of Gavmt, who was at this time 
 The King's the Only duke in E-Agland, that Richard now 
 uncles. raised his two other uncles, hitherto Earls of 
 
 Cambridge and Buckingham, to the dignity of dukes 
 
1385. The King' s Favourites. 23 
 
 The former was made Duke of York, the latter Duke ol 
 Gloucester. The characters of these two brothers were 
 very different. Except a sense of responsibility to the 
 reigning power, whatever it might be, we fail to see any- 
 thing very remarkable in that of the Duke of York. But the 
 younger brother, Gloucester, was an active and ambitious 
 prince who very soon made his influence felt to an extent 
 that John of Gaunt never had done. Richard also at the 
 same time bestowed honours and titles on two other 
 persons who were invidiously pointed at as favourites, and 
 who were believed, justly or unjustly, to exercise over him 
 an influence injurious to the general weal. 
 
 5. The first of these was Michael de la Pole, not a 
 man of noble lineage, but the son of a wealthy merchant 
 at Hull, who in the days of Edward III. had Michael de 
 most patriotically lent the King enormous ^^ ^^^^ 
 sums of money which were never truly repaid him, though 
 by Edward's own confession they had been the means of 
 averting great national calamities. William de la Pole, 
 however, had received grants from the crown of various 
 lands and offices, and also the honour of knighthood. Mi- 
 chael, his son, had served in the French wars under Henry, 
 Duke of Lancaster, and more recently under the Black 
 Prince. His merits, even as an administrator, were cer- 
 tainly detected long before young Richard was of age to re- 
 cognise them; for in the very first year of the reign he was 
 appointed an admiral, and went to sea with John of Gaunt. 
 A few years later the care of the King's household was by 
 Parliament committed to him and to the Earl of Arundel. 
 Finally, in 1383, he was appointed Chancellor. So far 
 he had risen without any personal help from Richard ; 
 and, to all appearance, the integrity of his political career 
 fully justified his promotion. But even by the probity of 
 his administration he had made some enemies, and he 
 had criticised very severely the conduct of the warlike 
 
24 Richard IT. 
 
 CH. II 
 
 Bishop of Norwich. This was unfortunate, for the bishop 
 was a popular favourite. The expedition to Flanders, it 
 was commonly believed, had failed only from the selfish- 
 ness of John of Gaunt and the misconduct of others at 
 home. The punishment imposed upon the bishop only 
 raised him all the more in the esteem of the public, and 
 De la Pole received little thanks for having been instru- 
 mental to his disgrace. 
 
 6. The other person to whom we have alluded was 
 Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, a young man like the 
 The Earl of King himself, and one who owed his position 
 Oxford. ^^ court, not to natural ability like De la Pole, 
 but to his ancestry. The office of Lord High Chamberlain 
 had been hereditary in the family of Aubrey de Vere, Earl 
 of Oxford, since the days of Plenry II. This office brought 
 him near the King's person, and whether it was due to 
 mental endowments or only to superficial accomplishments 
 Richard showed great partiality for his company. Accord- 
 ingly, when the King had promoted in honour his two uncles 
 and his Chancellor, he determined that the Earl of Oxford 
 «;hould not be passed over. He created him Marquis oi 
 Dublin — a new dignity, for till now there never had been 
 a marquis in England — and the young man, to the envy 
 of all the peerage, took precedence of every one not of 
 the blood royal. With this honour was accompanied a 
 gift of the whole land of Ireland, which it was intended 
 that he should rule and bring into subjection ; and next 
 year, to make his title correspond with his domain, the 
 King created him Duke of Ireland. 
 
 7. His moral qualities, certainly, did not entitle him 
 to so much honour ; for notwithstanding his influence 
 over the King, his character was in some things greatly 
 inferior to that of Richard himself. Among all the 
 charges brought against Richard the purity of his married 
 life has never been assailed. The warmth of his domestic 
 
1385. Revolution mid Counter-Rcvolutton, 25 
 
 affection seems to have preserved him from those vices 
 in which kings are but too easily led to indulge. The 
 Duke of Ireland, on the other hand, as his fortunes rose, 
 threw off the restraints both of morality and prudence. 
 Although he had married Philippa, daughter of Ingram 
 de Coucy, Duke of Bedford, and was thus allied to the 
 blood royal, he fell in love with a German lady who came 
 over in the Queen's suite. By the influence of his position 
 he was enabled to obtain at Rome a divorce from his 
 wife, and to marry this lady. His own mother, grieved 
 at his conduct, took the divorced woman into her house. 
 The Duke of Gloucester was specially indignant at the 
 insult offered to the royal family. It exhibited in a most 
 painful light the ascendancy gained over the mind of the 
 King by mere personal predilection, and the little regard 
 he felt for more aged advisers of his own blood and 
 hneage. The Duke of Ireland was supposed by some to 
 be the absolute governor of the kingdom, and years after- 
 wards it was said, though untruly, that the King listened 
 to none but young and inexperienced counsellors. 
 
 IV. Revolution and Counter-Revohition. 
 
 r. If it was disagreeable to Richard to submit to the 
 influence of John of Gaunt, he soon found that he could 
 be subjected to still greater tyranny when that 
 influence was removed. The year after the johnolr 
 Scottish campaign the Duke of Lancaster Gaunt goes 
 sailed into Spain with a great fleet to make 
 good his title to the kingdom of Castile. He was aided 
 by the Pope, who, as the Spaniards were Clementists, 
 granted indulgences to all who joined the expedition, and 
 he did not return to England till three years after. In 
 his absence his youngest brother, Thomas Duke of 
 Gloucester, immediately stepped into the place that he 
 
'26 Richard If. ch. ii. 
 
 had occupied, and not having Lancaster's mistakes to 
 answer for, soon became a general favourite with the 
 people. 
 
 2. At this time very great alarm was caused in England 
 by preparations made by France to invade the country. 
 
 Not only were large bodies of troops assem- 
 
 Intended , , , , ^ ,, ■, ^,, , 
 
 French bled and a great fleet collected at Sluys, bu« 
 
 invasion. ^^ extraordinary apparatus had been con- 
 structed, in the shape of a moveable wall of wood, with 
 towers at short intervals, which it was proposed to carry 
 over the sea with the invading army and set up as a 
 temporary fortification for any place they might succeed 
 in taking. So great was the terror inspired by these 
 preparations that the Londoners themselves were not 
 without serious apprehension that the enemy might one 
 day be seen unexpectedly at their gates ; and the Chan- 
 cellor, De la Pole, now Earl of Suffolk, caused large 
 musters of men to be taken in the country within easy 
 reach of the capital, that they might be ready when called 
 for. But the danger shortly afterwards passed away. 
 Some French vessels were taken at sea in which part of 
 the wooden wall was found by the English ; and it was 
 set up at Sandwich as a bulwark against that very enemy 
 for whose use it had been intended. The French King had 
 200 ships collected at Sluys, but the plan of the expedition 
 was too cumbrous, and after putting off for three months 
 from one cause or another, the wind became unfavourable 
 and the season was too late to cross the Channel, The 
 alarm in England then subsided, but it was remembered, 
 to Suffolk's prejudice, that it was he who had caused 
 those levies of troops in the neighbourhood of London 
 which had eaten up all the food of the people and op- 
 pressed the inhabitants almost as if they had been 
 enemies. 
 
 3. Meanwhile a Parliament had assembled in London. 
 
1386. Revolution and Coiinter-Revohition. 27 
 
 The immediate danger had not yet passed away, but the 
 feeling of alarm was mingled with a sense of indignation. 
 How came it that an enemy like the French, whom 
 Englishmen had so often fought in their own country, 
 were now able to inspire England with terror ? What a 
 change since the days of King Edward III. and the 
 Black Prince ! Whose fault could it be that no one went 
 to fight the ships at Sluys and to disturb the enemy's 
 preparations ? The Parliament felt very much inclined 
 to censure those who had been entrusted with the ad- 
 ministration, and sent a deputation to the King at Eltham, 
 stating that they desired to treat of certain matters touch- 
 ing the Earl of Suffolk, which could not be properly 
 discussed while he remained Chancellor. The King was 
 indignant at this attempt to remove a minister of whose 
 /nerits he himself had a high and apparently well-founded 
 opinion. He returned a haughty and imprudent answer, 
 saying that he would not at the suggestion of Parliament 
 dismiss the meanest valet of his kitchen, and he forbade 
 them to say anything more on the subject. The Parlia- 
 ment, however, refused to proceed with any other business 
 till their request was granted, and Richard was obliged 
 to yield. Suffolk was dismissed from the office Disgrace of 
 of Chancellor and impeached in parliament. Suffolk. 
 Of the charges brought against him the gravest was that he 
 had misapplied money granted for the defence of the king- 
 dom and disobeyed ordinances of the preceding Parlia- 
 ment ; but of these points he was in effect acquitted, as it 
 was considered that his fellows in the King's council were 
 no less answerable for them than himself. To the others 
 which accused him of enriching himself unduly by grants 
 from the Crown his answers were declared insufficient. 
 He was accordingly condemned to forfeit all that had 
 been granted to him by the Crown, and to be imprisoned 
 during the King's pleasure. 
 
28 Richard IT. ch. n. 
 
 4. The disgrace of Suffolk, however, was only intended 
 to clear the way for a new scheme of government devised 
 by the ambition of Gloucester. On the plea that the Crown 
 revenues were wasted by mismanagement, a commission 
 of regency was demanded, by which it was virtually pro- 
 posed to deprive the King of all authority whatever, from 
 that time forward. To terrify him into compliance, the 
 Commission Commons scut for the statute by which 
 of regency. Edward II. had been deposed, and a friend of 
 the Duke of Gloucester represented to him that if he ob- 
 stinately resisted, it would endanger his life. Under these 
 circumstances Richard only contended for the control of 
 his own household by the nomination of his own steward, 
 and that the powers of the commission should not con- 
 tinue more than one year, unless renewed by Parliament. 
 Eleven lords and three great officers of state were then 
 named to carry on the government, with full power to ex- 
 amine into the accounts of the treasury, to enquire into 
 past abuses, and to administer justice where grievances 
 could not be redressed by the common law. In short, the 
 power of the commissioners was to be absolute, and while 
 it lasted the King's authority was to be extinguished ; 
 yet, to prevent the smallest attempt being m.ade to under- 
 mine their authority, the King was compelled to give his 
 assent to an enactment that whoever counselled opposition 
 to the new regency should be liable, for the first offence, 
 to imprisonment with forfeiture of his goods, and for the 
 second, to the loss of life or limb. 
 
 5. The King at the close of the session was bold 
 enough to make a personal protest in Parliament against 
 anything that had been done contrary to the prerogatives 
 of the Crown. He was at this time nearly twenty years 
 of age, and a tame submission to enactments so very 
 stringent would have sacrificed his authority for ever. To 
 emancipate liimsclf he took counsel with the Duke of 
 
1386. Revolution and Cou7iter-Revolutio7i. 29 
 
 Ireland, who for some time delayed his departure for that 
 country which he was to govern. After Easter the duke 
 at length made arrangements for his going, and the King, 
 leaving London along with him, accompanied him into 
 Wales. But the duke had no intention yet to cross the 
 Channel. On che contrary, the journey had been arranged 
 that the King might take counsel undisturbed, not only 
 with him, but also with some others, such as the Earl of 
 Suffolk, the Archbishop of York, and Sir Robert Tresilian, 
 Chief Justice of England. This Tresilian was a severe 
 but undoubtedly sagacious judge. He had been appointed 
 Chief Justice at the time of Wat Tyler's rebellion, when 
 his predecessor was slain by the rioters. Men were at 
 that time so terrified by what had passed, that juries 
 showed great unwillingness to indict ; and at St. Alban's, 
 where the insurgents had been peculiarly violent, one jury 
 refused. But Tresilian, warning them that they would 
 endanger their own lives by a verdict a^aJJDSt the evidence 
 where the facts were so well Known, at lengtn got them 
 to find a true bill against the rioters, which being obtained, 
 he procured two other juries to give answer on the same 
 cases exactly in agreement with the verdict of the first. By 
 this means the offenders were at length brought to justice, 
 and a wholesome fear of the law was re-established. But 
 Tresilian's name was not the more loved in consequence. 
 6. The King and his friends remained some time in 
 Wales, but afterwards assembled a council council at 
 at Nottingham, to which were summoned Nottingham. 
 all the justices and sheriffs from every county, and 
 some of the more notable citizens of London. In the 
 midst of this assembly the King demanded of the judges 
 their opinion as to the statutes passed in the preceding 
 session of Parliament, whether they were derogatory to 
 the royal prerogative, and if so, what punishment was 
 incurred by those who had compelled the King to sub- 
 
50 Richard II. 
 
 CH. IL 
 
 scribe to them. A unanimous answer was returned that 
 the statutes were an invasion of the prerogative, and that 
 those who had extorted the King's compHance had in- 
 curred the penalty of treason. This opinion was signed 
 by all the judges, and countersigned by the members of 
 the Council. It is true that some who signed it after- 
 wards alleged that they had been driven to do so by fear ; 
 but to all appearance, it was by fear that they were in- 
 duced to make such an assertion. The commission of 
 regency was distinctly unconstitutional, and quite as great 
 an outrage on the liberty of the subject as on the rights 
 of the King. It was now declared inv^alid. 
 
 V. The Struggle Contiimed — The Wo7iderful Parlia- 
 ment — The King of age. 
 
 1. Hoping, accordingly, that he was now emancipated 
 from the control under which he had been placed, Richard 
 
 A.D. 1387. proceeded to London, where he arrived a few 
 Nov. 10. days before the date at which the commission 
 of regency was to expire. He was met outside the capital 
 by the mayor and citizens, wearing his own livery of white 
 and crimson, and by them he was conducted, first to St. 
 Paul's and afterwards to Westminster. But the Duke of 
 Gloucester, and his allies the Earls of Arundel and Not- 
 tingham, had meanwhile taken alarm, and having ad- 
 vanced to Hackney at the head of 40,000 men, were 
 joined next day at Waltham Cross by Henry, Earl of 
 Derby, the son of John of Gaunt, and by the Earl of 
 Warwick. These five lords gave it out as their object to 
 deliver the King from certain traitors who, they said, kept 
 him under undue control, and, according to the phraseo- 
 logy then in use, they * appealed of treason ' five of the 
 King's principal advisers. 
 
 2. Richard had at first thoujiht of resistance to this 
 
1387. The Struggle Continued. 31 
 
 great armed host, but he soon found the city of London 
 was not to be depended on. The lords gave out that the 
 King's chosen counsellors urged him to treat with France 
 for aid to put them down. Richard, it was said, was 
 going to sell Calais to the French kng. The Mayor of 
 London told the King the city was willing to arm against 
 his enemies, but not against his friends. Everywhere the 
 favourites were unpopular, and the Duke of Gloucester 
 and his allies were looked upon as the true friends of the 
 King and kingdom. The city opened its gates to them, 
 and the five ' lords appellants ' presented themselves 
 before Richard in Westminster Hall, named the five 
 councillors whom they accused as traitors, flung down 
 their gloves, and offered to prove the truth of their 
 accusations by single combat. The King, however, de- 
 cided that the matter should not be so determined, pro- 
 mising that it should be fully discussed in the next Parlia- 
 ment. Meanwhile, he insisted that both parties should 
 be considered as remaining under his protection. 
 
 3. Unfortunately, the King's protection, so far as the 
 one side was concerned, was now of very little value. 
 Richard was again in the hands of those from ^,. ^ ^ , 
 
 , 1 J n , • . Fhghtofthe 
 
 whom he had been endeavourmg to escape, King's 
 and they consulted seriously about his depo- favourites, 
 sition. The favourites saw that there was no safety 
 for them except in flight, and they one and all escaped 
 from London in disguise. Archbishop Nevill of Vork 
 retired into the north country in the habit of a simple 
 priest. The Duke of Ireland fled to Chester in the 
 character of a groom, accompanied by four or five 
 others. The Earl of Suffolk betook himself to Calais, 
 where his brother Edmund de la Pole was governor of 
 the castle. Dressed as a Flemish poulterer and carrying a 
 basket with capons as if to supply the garrison, he sought 
 admission to the fortress ; but his brother thought it his 
 
j 2 Richard II. ch. ii. 
 
 duty to deliver him to Lord William Beauchamp, governor 
 of the town, by whom he was sent back to England. 
 
 4. The King was utterly deserted. He had, however, 
 commissioned the Duke of Ireland to raise forces for him 
 in Cheshire, and the duke collected a body of 5,000 men 
 with whom he marched southwards to the borders of 
 Encounter Oxfordshire. He was met at Radcot Bridge 
 Bridg?°^ upon the Thames by a force under the Earl of 
 Dec. 20. Derby. Seeking to avoid this army he was 
 confronted by another under the Duke of Gloucester. 
 Hemmed in on all sides he at once gave up the hope of 
 victory and endeavoured to save himself by flight. He 
 plunged on horseback into the river, leaving his helmet 
 and armour on the bank. It was now night, and no one 
 saw what had become of him. He was supposed to have 
 been drp^'^ned. Molyneux, Constable of Chester, who 
 also dashed into the river, was forced to return for fear 
 of being pierced with arrows, and had his skull cleft on 
 relanding. A groom and a boy were also killed. For 
 the rest there was httle fighting, or rather none. The 
 Cheshire men were stripped of their weapons and even 
 of their very clothes, and were left to go home in a state 
 of disgraceful nakedness. The Duke of Ireland found 
 means to escape to Ireland. 
 
 5. The lord? returned in triumph to London. Their 
 armies, in three divisions^ mustered at Clerkenwell, 40,000 
 
 strong. After a little hesitation the city opened 
 its gates to them. The King, who was spend- 
 ing his Christmas in the Tower, knew now that he was 
 completely in their power. The victors sought an inter- 
 view with him and were admitted within the fortress. 
 They showed him the letters he himself had written to 
 the Duke of Ireland ordering him to raise a force to 
 oppose them, and they led him on to the ramparts from 
 ivhence he could see Tower Hill covered with an immense 
 
j:3«S. The Struggle Continued. 5 j 
 
 multitude of their followers. * These/ said the IJnke ot 
 Gloucester, ' are but a tenth part of the numbers who 
 will join us to put down traitors.' The lords had not been 
 able to agree about Richard's deposition, which, however 
 acceptable it might have been to the Uuke of Gloucester, 
 was opposed by the Earls of Derby and Nottingham. 
 But they were quite united in the determination to take 
 vengeance on all who had given the King independent 
 advice. Writs of summons had been issued by Richard 
 for the meeting of Parliament, in which, considering the 
 subjects that were to be discussed, the sheriffs had been 
 instructed to return as knights of the shire persons who 
 had not taken part in the recent quarrels. These writs 
 were revoked on the ground that such a quali- a.d. 1388. 
 fication was contrary to the ancient form, and J^"- ^• 
 new writs were issued omitting the objectionable clause. 
 Proclamations were then issued for the appear- 
 ance before the Parliament of the Archbishop 
 of York, the Duke of Ireland, Suffolk, Tresilian, and Sir 
 Nicholas Brambre; while at the same time orders were 
 sent out consigning the two latter to Gloucester Castle, 
 and a number of other friends of the King to confinement 
 in other places. But Tresilian was not yet in custody. 
 He was hiding himself from the vengeance that pursued 
 him. 
 
 6. Every one in whom the King had hitherto placed 
 his confidence was now removed. Even his confessor, 
 the Bishop of Chichester, was forbidden to come near 
 him. The dominant party had not the least opposition to 
 fear in the approaching Parliament. Some rumours, how- 
 ever, had got abroad which they felt it would be well to 
 contradict at the commencement of the session. So after 
 the causes for which Parliament was summoned 
 had been declared by the Bishop of Ely as 
 Chancellor in the King's name, the DuV.e of Gloucester 
 
 M.H. D 
 
3^1 Richard IL ch. n 
 
 came forward and knelt before his sovereign, saying that 
 he understood he had been accused of an intention to 
 depose him and make himself king, from which he offered 
 to justify himself in whatever manner the peers thought 
 proper. The charge was certainly not without some 
 foundation in truth, and the other * lords appellants ' knew 
 it well. But Richard at once declared in full Parliament 
 that he held his uncle perfectly innocent. 
 
 7. After this the serious work of the session com- 
 menced, and very serious work it proved to be. It was 
 not without significance that the clause in the writs in- 
 tended to secure impartiality was cancelled. The doings 
 of this Parliament are without a parallel in English his- 
 „,. ^ tory, — so much so that the name ' Wonderful 
 derful Par- Parliament' came afterwards to be applied to 
 
 it. With equal truth it was also called * the 
 Merciless Parliament.' On the very first day, all but one 
 of the judges were arrested in their own courts while 
 sitting upon the bench, and sent to the Tower. They 
 were to be brought to account for the advice they had 
 given the King that the proceedings of the last Parlia- 
 ment were unconstitutional. A long impeachment was 
 then drawn up against the five ministers accused by the 
 five lords appellants. The charges against them were 
 mainly that they had misled the King and alienated his 
 true lords from him, with some more specific accusations 
 in connection with the conference at Nottingham and 
 similar matters. One article also spoke of an intention, 
 that it was said had been entertained, to make the Duke 
 of Ireland king of that country and alienate it from the 
 Crown of England. 
 
 8. Before pronouncing judgment upon this impeach- 
 ment, the King desired to have the advice of the lawyers. 
 The bill was laid before a committee of the profession, 
 who pronounced it altogether irregular, either in civil or 
 
i3«8. TJic Struggle Continued, 35 
 
 ecclesiastical law. The lords, however, decided that in 
 cases of treason, and when the accused were members of 
 their own body, no other law could be recognised than 
 the law of Parliament itself. After some days' discussion 
 fourteen articles of the indictment were declared to amount 
 to treason, and four of the appellees were found guilty. 
 The Duke of Ireland, Suffolk, and Tresilian were con- 
 demned to be hanged and forfeit all their goods. The 
 Archbishop of York was found guilty, and his temporali- 
 ties were seized ; but being a churchman, the penalty of 
 death could not be pronounced against him. The King, 
 however, was made to write to Rome for his translation 
 to the Archbishopric of St. Andrew^s in Scotland, a country 
 where the authority of Urban VI. was not recognised, 
 and by this means he was in effect deprived. He escaped 
 to Flanders, where he by some means was fortunate enough 
 to obtain possession of a small living. 
 
 9. The Archbishop, the Duke of Ireland, Suffolk, and 
 Tresilian were all absent when judgment was pronounced 
 against them. The duke had escaped to the Continent, 
 and the earl had found a refuge in France. But Tresilian 
 was lurking disguised in Westminster. He was discovered, 
 brought up for sentence, and dismissed to immediate exe- 
 cution. The last of the accused councillors. Sir Nicholas 
 Brambre, was in prison. He offered to prove his innocence 
 by wager of battle, but it was decided that such a mode 
 of defence was not applicable to the case ; so he too 
 underwent the capital sentence. 
 
 10. The Commons next impeached the judges and 
 law officers who had counselled the King at Nottingham 
 to set aside the ordinances of the last Parhament. They 
 endeavoured to save themselves by alleging that they had 
 acted under compulsion, but the excuse was not admitted 
 They were found guilty of treason, but at the intercessioi 
 of the bishops their lives were spared and they were 
 
 D 2 
 
36 Richard II. ch. h. 
 
 banished to Ireland for the remainder of their days. But 
 John Blake, a lawyer who had proposed to indict the five 
 lords for conspiracy, and Thomas Uske, who had accepted 
 the office of under-sheriff of Middlesex for the purpose, 
 were condemned and executed. The Bishop of Chichester, 
 who, as we have already mentioned, was the King's con- 
 fessor, was then called before Parliament. He denied a 
 charge imputed to him of having used threats to the 
 judges at Nottingham, and -<,iid they were placed under 
 no constraint whatever. Bit he had been guilty of con- 
 cealing the ' treasons ' of tne condemned councillors ; in 
 excuse for which he in vain pleaded the confidential 
 nature of his office, and that he had used his best efforts 
 with the King to prevent mischief. He was banished, 
 like the judges, into Ireland. 
 
 11. Not satisfied with this, the Commons proceeded 
 to impeach four other knights as accomplices of the con- 
 demned traitors. The first was Sir Simon Burley, lately 
 Constable of Dover Castle, a veteran of the preceding 
 reign, to whom tlie Black Prince had committed the care 
 of Richard's childhood. He offered, like Brambre, to 
 prove his innocence in the ordinary manner of knights. 
 This he was not allowed to do, but his accusers had much 
 trouble to establish his guilt. The King, the Queen, and 
 even the Earl of Derby, one of the lords appellants, made 
 the most urgent efforts to induce the Duke of Gloucester 
 to spare his life ; but all was to no purpose. Of thirteen 
 charges one was at length declared to be proved : sentence 
 of death was passed upon him, and he was beheaded the 
 same day. The three other knights sufilered a v.eek later. 
 
 12. At the end (>f four months — an unusually long 
 session in those days — Parliament was dissolved, but not 
 until it had made the King renew his coronation oath and 
 every member of both Houses swear that they would 
 never allow its ordinances to be repealed. Already all 
 
rsBg. ^-^^^ Struggle Contmued. 37 
 
 the members had sworn at the beginning of the session 
 to be true to the five lords and take their part against all 
 opponents so long as Parliament should last; the sheriffs 
 also throughout the kingdom were ordered to exact a 
 similar oath of all the principal residents within their 
 jurisdictions, 
 
 13. Even after the breaking up of such a Parliament 
 the King was left for some time in subjection to the 
 confederate lords. But next year, at a council a. d. 1389. 
 held in the beginning of May, he suddenly ThYKin<T 
 asked his uncle Gloucester to tell him his of age. 
 age. ' Your Highness,' said the duke, ' is in your twenty- 
 second year.' ' Then,' replied the King, * I must be old 
 enough to manage my own affairs, as every heir in my 
 kingdom is at liberty to do when he is twenty-one. I 
 thank you, my lords, for the trouble you have taken on 
 my behalf hitherto, but I shall not require your services 
 any longer.' On this he required the Great Seal and the 
 keys of the Exchequer to be given up to him, and made 
 the venerable Bishop Wykeham his chancellor instead of 
 the Archbishop of York. Of the other lords then in his 
 council he retained the Duke of York and the Earl of 
 Derby as members of a new council ; but Gloucester and 
 the rest he dismissed. At the same time no violent 
 change was effected: and the King's assertion of his 
 independence seems to have met with (general approbation. 
 
 VI. The King a?id the Dtike of Gloucester. 
 
 I. For some years little or nothing occurred to dis- 
 turb the harmony between King and people. There was, 
 it is true, at one time, a renewal of the old dis- 
 trust between the city of London and the 
 Court, and the city not only refused the King a loan of 
 1,000/., but actually maltreated a Lombard who was 
 
38 Richard IT. ch. n. 
 
 willing to accommodate him. For this the mayor and 
 sheriffs were arrested, and it was determined that the 
 Londoners should no longer have the free election of 
 their rulers, but be governed by a warden appointed by 
 the King. But Richard was soon persuaded to forgive 
 the citizens. He consented to receive deputies from the 
 city, who pleaded hard in behalf of their ancient liberties. 
 He ratified some of their franchises, amended others, and 
 restored the right of self-government to the city on their 
 finding him 10,000/. security for their future good be- 
 haviour. Finally, he consented to pay the city a visit, 
 when he was received with every possible demonstration 
 of joy and satisfaction. The nobles, however, we are 
 told, were offended at his lenity towards a turbulent 
 metropolis. 
 
 2. But from the time of the dismissal of the five lords, 
 it was hardly possible that those noblemen could be so 
 assured of the King's forgiveness and cordiality as to feel 
 no kind of anxiety for the consequences of their past con- 
 duct. The Duke of Gloucester, in particular, distrusted 
 his nephew, and held aloof from his councils. When 
 summoned to attend and give his advice on public affairs 
 with other lords, it is said that he was always the last to 
 come and the first to go. Richard, nevertheless, showed 
 
 him a remarkable degree of confidence. He 
 A.D. 1393. employed him in negotiations for peace with 
 A.D. 1394. France, took him in his company over to 
 
 Ireland, to subdue some rebellious chieftains, 
 A.D. 1395. and while remaining in that country sent him 
 
 over again to England to demand supplies 
 from a Parliament at London. But the old breach was 
 not effectually healed. The duke courted popularity, 
 and whenever the policy of Richard was in any degree 
 opposed to the prejudices of the majority, he was always 
 on the people's side. In the year 1394 Richard lost his 
 
1396. The King and the Duke of Gloucester. 3 c, 
 
 Queen, Anne of Bohemia, to whom he was most devo- 
 tedly attached. Two years later he endeavoured to 
 convert an old enemy into a friend, and proposed to form 
 a firm alliance with France, cemented by a marriage with 
 Isabella the French king's daughter, though she was only 
 eight years old. To this the Duke of Gloucester showed 
 himself strongly opposed, appealing to the old national 
 hatred of France, and insinuating that Richard would 
 give up Calais and all the English conc|uests to the 
 French king. The marriage nevertheless was 
 duly celebrated, and it was not long after that 
 the misunderstanding between the King and his uncle 
 came to a crisis. 
 
 3. Information was conveyed to the King that Glou- 
 cester had fonned a new conspiracy against him with his 
 old associates. According to Froissart, he 
 
 applied to his two other uncles for advice 
 They confessed the duke was greatly given to intrigue, 
 but advised the King to let the matter sleep, as he had 
 no power to carry his designs into execution. Richard, 
 however, was not thus satisfied ; and if we may trust his 
 own proclamation afterwards, his uncles must have ad- 
 mitted at length that it was needful to anticipate the 
 danger. He accordingly paid a visit to the Duke of 
 Gloucester at his castle of Fleshy, in Essex, and there 
 caused him to be arrested and delivered to the custody 
 of the Earl of Nottingham, the Earl Marshal, by whom 
 he was immediately conducted to the Thames, put on 
 board a boat, and conveyed over to Calais. The Earls 
 of Warwick and Arundel were arrested at the same 
 time. 
 
 4. The policy pursued by these same lords ten years 
 before was now turned against themselves. At a council 
 held at Nottingham, a number of the other nobles, in- 
 cluding Edward Earl of Rutland, a son of the Duke rl 
 
40 Richard II. ch, ir. 
 
 Yorkj and Thomas Mowbray, Earl Marshal, engaged to 
 * appeal ' them of treason at a coming parliament. On 
 its assembling, the Commons petitioned that the com- 
 mission of regency of the year 1386 should be repealed, 
 as having been extorted by violence, and that it should 
 be treason to attempt to procure such a commission in 
 future. They also desired that all pardons, whether 
 general or special, heretofore granted to the Duke of 
 Gloucester and the Earls of Arundel and Warwick, should 
 be revoked, as having been given under constraint or 
 passed in ignorance. This was in effect but the first step 
 towards calling them to account for actions which had 
 been for many years condoned. The petitions, however, 
 were unanimously agreed to by both Houses ; and the 
 Commons, leaving to the Peers the trial of the charges 
 brought by the appellants against the three lords, pro- 
 ceeded to impeach Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, a brother of the Earl of Arundel, of high 
 treason, as having been instrumental in procuring the 
 commission of regency and the execution of Sir Simon 
 Burley, against the will of the King. The archbishop 
 acknowledged the facts in the presence of the King and 
 certain lords ; his confession was recorded in Parliament, 
 and sentence of banishment and confiscation was pro- 
 nounced against him. 
 
 5. Of the three lords who were to be tried in Parlia- 
 ment, the first who was brought up for judgment was 
 Arundel, the archbishop's brother. He was a 
 of the Earl favourite with the people, but had enemies 
 of Arundel, among his brother peers, besides being dis- 
 liked by the King. In the early part of the reign 
 he had been appointed admiral, and had won for 
 himself general admiration by a splendid victory over 
 a combined fleet of Flemings, French, and Spaniards, 
 when he captured a hundred ships. Such a man was of 
 
f 397- ^^^^ Khig and the Duke of Gloucester. 4 1 
 
 course looked up to by all ihose who were opposed to the 
 French alliance. But John of Gaunt, with whom he had 
 more than once quarrelled, was commissioned to preside 
 at his trial as Lord High Admiral of England ; and the 
 revocation of all the pardons previously granted to him 
 destroyed the only plea by which he ventured to defend 
 himself. He was condemned to be beheaded, and was 
 executed the same day in Cheapside. 
 
 6. The Earl Marshal, who was governor of Calais, 
 was then commanded to bring over the Duke of Glou- 
 cester to be tried before his peers. He sent back an 
 answer that the duke could not be produced, as he had 
 died in his custody at Calais. It was natu- 
 rally believed that he had been put to death the Duke of 
 by Richard's order; and though the fact ^^'l^^^^^^^'^- 
 is not absolutely free from doubt, there is certainly 
 great reason to suspect that it was true. The duke, 
 however, had made a written- confession in his own 
 hand before his death, in reply to certain questions which 
 William Rickhill, one of the justices, had been commis- 
 sioned to administer to him. He had acknowledged the of- 
 fences he had committed against the King ten years before. 
 He admitted that he had come armed into the King's 
 palace, taken the King's letters from his messengers and 
 opened them without his leave ; that he had taken counsel 
 about throwing up his allegiance and deposing his sove- 
 reign. All these acts, however, he professed to have done 
 in self-defence and for fear of his life; moreover, the 
 deposition of the King, he affirmed, was only intended to 
 be for two or three days, after which the confederate 
 lords would have renewed their oaths to him and placed 
 him in as high a position as before. But since a certain 
 day when he had been sworn to the King upon the 
 Sacrament at Langley, he denied that he had ever made 
 or known of any gatherings against him ; and on these 
 
42 Richard 11. cu. n. 
 
 grounds he appealed to the King's compassion, as a 
 prince that had always shown himself merciful in par- 
 doning offenders. 
 
 7. His own actSj certainly, when he was in power, 
 gave him but little claim to compassion now ; yet it 
 would have been well for Richard if, after obtaining from 
 him such a confession, he had suffered his uncle to live. 
 The murder, indeed, was quite unnecessary, for he could 
 have had no difficulty, if so minded, in bringing Gloucester 
 to the block by the judgment of his peers in parliament ; 
 and if he feared the spirit of disaffection such an act 
 would probably have aroused, he ought to have feared no 
 less a public rumour that the duke had been foully dealt 
 with. But the time had come, apparently, when he 
 thought it necessary for his own safety altogether to ex- 
 tinguish the confederacy which, eleven years before, had 
 stripped him of his royal power and almost succeeded in 
 preventing the possibility of his recovering it. If treason 
 of such a magnitude could be condoned, — if any pardon 
 afterwards granted could shield such great offenders,— 
 was there not very serious danger that a similar attempt 
 would be made another time '^. 
 
 8. The Earl of Warwick did not undergo the fate 
 ^, ^ , , either of Gloucester or of Arundel. When 
 
 The Earl of , , • , , r i i • -i i 
 
 Warwick brought to trial he confessed his guilt, and 
 hanished. sentence was pronounced upon him, but tlie 
 King commuted it into exile, and banished him to the 
 Isle of Man. 
 
 VII. The Dukes of Hcj-eford and Norfolk. 
 
 I . Thus were three of the five ' lords appellants ' of 1 387 
 incapacitated for giving further trouble. The other two 
 still remained alive, but their conduct was more favour- 
 ably construed. It was declared that the Earls of Derby 
 
1397. ^-^^^ D likes of Hereford and Norfolk. 43 
 
 and Nottingham had separated from their colleagues 
 whenever they perceived the true nature of their designs ; 
 and so far were they from being incriminated on the pre- 
 sent occasion, that they stood among the accusers of their 
 old confederates. In point of fact they were justified in 
 disclaiming full complicity with Gloucester, for it was 
 owing to their opposition that he was obliged to abandon 
 the design of deposing his nephew. Besides, the Earl of 
 Derby had made the strongest remonstrances against the 
 execution of Sir Simon Burley, and even quarrelled with 
 his uncle for insisting on it. As to Nottingham, the Earl 
 Marshal, his conduct had evidently, long before this, re- 
 gained him the King's confidence, for Richard had sent him 
 into France to negotiate his marriage with Isabella, and 
 even as his proxy to marry her. But at this time, as if to 
 remove all possible misapprehension, the King took oc- 
 casion to acknowledge both these lords publicly as his 
 friends, by creating the Earl of Derby Duke of Hereford, 
 and the Earl Marshal Duke of Norfolk. 
 
 2. Unfortunately the turn which affairs were now 
 taking hardly allowed them to repose with confidence 
 even on these strong evidences of the King's regard. 
 Parliament was busy reversing all that the Wonderful 
 Parliament had done, and in a supplementary session 
 held at Shrewsbury in the beginning of the The Par- 
 following year the whole of the proceedings gh"^';"' °^ 
 of that Parliament were expressly annulled, bury. 
 It would have been well if this had been done by 
 measures that were not open to very much the same 
 objections. But the acts of this Parliament were in 
 reality nothing else than a copy of those passed in 
 the Parhament which they condemned. As in 1387 
 five lords appealed the King's favourites of treason, so 
 now the friends of the King appealed three of the former 
 lords appellants. As in 1387 an impeachment was sus- 
 
44 Richard IT. ch. ii. 
 
 tained deslared by the lawyers to be irregular, so now it 
 was ruled that no pardons, general or particular, could be 
 pleaded against the appeal. As in 1388 Lords and Com- 
 mons all took an oath that they would not allow the acts 
 of that Parliament to be repealed, the very same was done 
 on this occasion. Further, as in 1388 Archbishop Nevill 
 of York had been, on application to the Pope, deprived 
 of his archbishopric by being translated to the See ol 
 St. Andrew's in Scotland, where the authority of Urban 
 was not acknowledged, the very same means were now 
 used to deprive Archbishop Arundel of the See of 
 Canterbury. He, too, was translated by Urban to St. 
 Andrew's. It was a great day of retribution for past mis- 
 deeds, and warning had been given already that royal 
 pardons were no security to the offenders. 
 
 3. Such being the case, it happened that one day in De- 
 cember 1397, the new-made Duke of Norfolk overtook the 
 new-made Duke of Hereford on the road between Brent- 
 ford and London, and in the course of conversation ex- 
 pressed a fear that even they two might be brought to 
 account for their old confederacy with Gloucester and the 
 affair of Radcot Bridge. The Duke of Hereford said he 
 could not believe that the King would be guilty of so 
 great perfidy, but Norfolk insinuated that it was no 
 longer possible to trust to anything, and that they would 
 be made responsible like the others. In communicating 
 his thoughts thus freely to the Duke of Hereford, Norfolk 
 doubtless trusted either to his sense of honour or of inte- 
 rest to keep it secret. But his confidence was misplaced. 
 The general drift of the conversation was communicated 
 by Hereford to the King, who commanded him to submit 
 a report of it to Parliament. This he did in the session 
 held at Shrewsbury in the beginning of the 
 
 ■ ^^^ ■ year 1398 — with what results we shall s^e 
 presently. 
 
1398. The Ditkes of Hereford and Norfolk. 45 
 
 4. It is evident that since the days of the commission 
 of regency a considerable reaction had taken place in 
 favour of the royal prercgative. Authority had been 
 shaken to its foundation at the beginning of the reign. 
 Wat Tyler and the rebels had shown its weakness. The 
 King, who was the constitutional source of power, was 
 then a minor, and a strong despotism, under a popular 
 favourite like Gloucester, was preferred to a more equit- 
 able government by weaker men. The spirit of the King 
 himself was cowed by being thus brought into subjection. 
 He failed in one attempt to reassert his authority, and 
 even when he did regain his liberty he made no attempt 
 to punish the wrong that had been done to him. The 
 opinions given by his judges at Nottingham were still 
 branded as treason. The judges themselves he only 
 ventured to recall from banishment in 1397. But now he 
 had a Parliament desirous of restoring authority to its 
 old foundations. The constraint that had been put upon 
 the King in former days was at length declared to have 
 been illegal. The questions addressed by the King to 
 the judges at Nottingham and the answers given by them, 
 which they themselves afterwards disowned through fear, 
 were read in the Parliament at Shrewsbury. The judges 
 and serjeants-at-law were called in and asked to give 
 their opinion on the subject. They one and all confirmed 
 the answers given by the former judges, and declared 
 that they would have made the same replies. The com- 
 mission of regency, the Wonderful Parliament and all its 
 acts, were therefore illegal, and were accordingly so 
 declared. As the King was the real source of all legiti- 
 mate power, the King's will could not be lawfully put 
 under constraint of any kind. 
 
 5. The reaction was not unnatural, but it was a 
 dangerous one to carry too far ; and the Parliament at 
 Shrewsbury carried it to an extreme. It was not in itseli 
 
,\6 Richard II. 
 
 CH. II. 
 
 calculated to give greater weight to their proceedings, 
 that having once met at Westminster, they should have 
 assembled after the Christmas recess on the borders of 
 Wales. Yet in a very brief sitting at Shrewsbury, this 
 Parliament not only annulled the whole proceedings of 
 the Wonderful Parliament, but enacted that any attempt 
 to annul their own should be considered treason. The 
 King even asked if greater security could be given on 
 this head, and if he could bind his successors ; but being 
 told that he could not, he made application to the Pope 
 and obtained a bull denouncing excommunication against 
 any one who should attempt to reverse what had been 
 done. To complete the fabric of despotism, the Parlia- 
 ment, after sitting only four days, delegated its whole 
 powers to a committee of twelve lords and six commoners, 
 special friends of the King, who were to act after its 
 dissolution. By this ingenious device Richard was made 
 practically absolute. It could hardly be necessary for 
 him ever to call a parliament again ; for wherever the 
 King himself was with a sufficient number of the com- 
 mittee, he had the full powers of Parliament with him. 
 
 6. To this tribunal were referred the accusations 
 brought by the Duke of Hereford against Norfolk. Both 
 parties were summoned to appear before it, first at Os- 
 westry and afterwards at Windsor : but as nothing could 
 Wager of be elicited from either, except assertion on 
 battle. ti-^e one hand and denial on the other, it 
 
 was proposed, and agreed to by both dukes, to settle 
 the matter by wager of battle according to the laws 
 of chivalry. The combat was appointed to be at 
 Coventry on September i6. The whole nation was 
 agitated at the prospect of the coming event, and 
 when the lists were drawn up on the day appointed, 
 Richard fearing disturbances among the nobles, had 
 10,000 persons in arms to keep the peace. On which 
 
1398. The D tikes of Hereford and Norfolk. 47 
 
 side lay the sympathies of most men there could not be a 
 doubt, for the Duke of Norfolk was commonly looked 
 upon as the murderer of the Duke of Gloucester, and the 
 Londoners even insinuated that the wager of battle was 
 a plot of the King's to destroy his cousin as he had 
 already destroyed his uncle. Henry of Lancaster, as he 
 was popularly called, the Duke of Hereford, was every- 
 where the favourite. 
 
 7. At Coventry, on the day appointed, the combatants 
 entered the lists. Each took an oath that his quarrel was 
 just, the Lord Marshal examined their spears to see that 
 they were of equal length, and a herald commanded them 
 to mount their horses and proceed to the combat. But 
 at this point the King threw down his warder as a signal 
 to suspend further proceedings, and consulted with his 
 parliamentary council what course it was best to take in 
 ■' matter so full of danger. After two hours' deliberation, 
 the determination was announced. To 
 preserve the peace of the realm the King dukes 
 decreed that the Duke of Hereford should banished, 
 be banished for ten years, and that the Duke 0/ 
 Norfolk, as it appears he had confessed to some points 
 which might have occasioned trouble in the land, 
 should quit the kingdom as a pilgrim, never to return, and 
 should dwell in Germany, Bohemia, or Hungary for the 
 rest of his days. Finally, lest they should become recon- 
 ciled abroad and combine against the King, they were 
 forbidden to communicate with each other or with the 
 deprived Archbishop Arundel. 
 
 8. A decision like this was a strange perversion of 
 justice. On the face^of the matter one party was guilty 
 of treason, or the other of gross and malicious libel. The 
 King could not determine on which side lay the guilt, 
 and professed to regard either party as innocent, yet out 
 of considerations of expediency he punished both as if 
 
4S Richard IL ch. ii. 
 
 they had both been guilty. There was, besides, an ap- 
 parent partiality shown to the Duke of Hereford on 
 grounds which were not very explicitly declared. But 
 the unfairness of the original decision was not all ; for 
 while the sentence against Norfolk passed uncriticised, 
 the milder sentence against Hereford was still further 
 mitigated. Owing, doubtless, to the influence of his 
 father, John of Gaunt, and to his general popularity, the 
 term of his exile was reduced from ten years to six before 
 he left the country. That of Norfolk was not altered. 
 So the latter went abroad, made a pilgrimage to Jeru- 
 salem, and died on his return at Venice of a broken 
 heart. What became of the Duke of Hereford must be 
 related at greater length. 
 
 VIII. The King and Hoiry of LiDicaster. 
 
 1. Richard had now got rid of all the five lords who 
 had leagued themselves together against him in 1387. 
 He had also got rid of parliamentary control. But he 
 could not be altogether free from the fear of future com- 
 binations. And having already entered on a career of 
 Richard's dcspotism he saw no means to make himself 
 despotism. sccure cxccpt to bccome more and more des- 
 potic. He and his parliamentary committee issued an 
 ordinance declaring it treason to attempt to obtain a 
 reversal of any of their decrees, just as it had been al- 
 ready declared treason to attempt to annul those of the 
 Parliament. Every bishop before obtaining possession 
 of his temporalities, and every lord before coming into 
 his inheritance, was to swear to observe, not only the 
 statutes made in the Parliament of flie twenty-first year 
 of the reign, but also all the ordinances made afterwards 
 by the parliamentary committee. 
 
 2. But even this abuse of power was not so much felt 
 
599- 
 
 The King and Henry of Lancaster, 49 
 
 as some others to which the King was afterwards driven 
 by the state of his exchequer. His finances 
 
 \.D. 1399. . , 11-1 
 
 were getting low, and he raised money by 
 forced loans. All who were any way implicated in the 
 His extor- ^^^^ ^^ Gloucester, Warwick, and Arundel, 
 tions. were compelled to purchase their pardons by 
 
 fines ; and seventeen counties were in this way amerced 
 as having assisted the confederates at Radcot Bridge. 
 But the mode of extortion which naturally excited the 
 greatest amount of discontent was the issuing of what 
 were called blank charters, to which even those not 
 accused of treason, but the moneyed men of the kingdom 
 generally, were compelled to set their seals, without 
 knowing to what amount they made themselves liable. 
 
 3. The exigency which led him to resort to this last 
 means of raising money seems to have been occasioned 
 by a rebellion in Ireland which he determined Rebellion 
 to go and put down with an army under his i" Ireland. 
 personal command. He had already, some years before, 
 visited that country with results which appeared at the 
 time to be satisfactory. All attempts to oppose his power 
 were soon abandoned. The native chieftains submitted 
 and did him homage. Four native kings acknowledged 
 his sovereignty at Dublin, received the honour of knight- 
 hood, and promised to adopt English customs. But now 
 he learned that his cousin, Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, 
 whom he had left as his vicegerent, had been slain in a 
 new revolt of the natives, and he determined to go thither 
 once more and bring the Irish into more complete sub- 
 jection. 
 
 4. But meanwhile an event had taken place which 
 unhappily suggested to the King's mind the thought of 
 an act still more arbitrary and perfidious. Old Death of 
 John of Gaunt died in the early part of the ]^^^^^ 
 year, and his title as Duke of Lancaster' de- Feb. 3 
 
 m.h: f 
 
;o Richard IF. 
 
 CH. II. 
 
 volved rightly on his son the banished Hereford. It had 
 also been conceded to the Dukes of Hereford and Nor- 
 folk before they left England, that notwithstanding their 
 banishment they might by attorney take possession of 
 any inheritance that might fall to them in their absence. 
 But the King's wants were great, the duchy of Lancaster 
 was wealthy, and it occurred to Richard and his council 
 (now that there was no one on that council to represent 
 the interests of the family), that a banished man was not 
 qualified to inherit property. The former grant was con- 
 sequently annulled, and the King's officers took possession 
 of the property of the deceased duke, as a forfeiture due 
 to the Crown. 
 
 5. After Whitsuntide Richard sailed for Ireland from 
 Milford Haven with a fleet of 200 ships. Within two 
 days he arrived at Waterford, from which he 
 sails to advanced to Kilkenny. There several chief- 
 
 Ireland, ^^jj^g submitted to him with halters round 
 
 their necks. He then went on to Dublin, and was pre- 
 paring for a further campaign when he suddenly received 
 news from England of a most alarming nature, which 
 showed how much his presence was required in his own 
 kingdom. Henry of Lancaster, who since he left the 
 country had resided at Paris, had obtained permission of 
 the French king to pay a visit to the Duke of Brittany. 
 Arrived in that country he hired three small vessels with 
 which he sailed for England, having in his company the 
 deprived Archbishop of Canterbury and a very small 
 band of followers. After some days he landed at Raven- 
 Henry of spur in Yorkshire, a harbour at the mouth of 
 hndsTn^"^ the H umber now washed away by the sea. 
 England. He made known that it was his object to re- 
 cover his paternal estates, with the title, which justly 
 belonged to him, of Duke of Lancaster, and he was joined 
 by the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, be- 
 
1399- The King and Hcnjy of Lancaster. 5 i 
 
 tore whom he took oath at Doncaster that he had no 
 further aim than to seek his own inheritance. 
 
 6. The King's uncle, Edmund Duke of York, whom 
 Richard had appointed keeper of England during his 
 The Duke absence, on hearing of Henry's landing took 
 of York. counsel how to oppose him. He summoned the 
 
 King's retainers to join his standard at St. Alban's, where 
 he mustered 1,000 lances and 60,000 archers ; but so high 
 was the popularity of the Duke of Lancaster, so deep 
 the general sense of the injustice with which he had been 
 treated, that these very men declared they would not go 
 against him. On this the Duke of York bent his course 
 towards Wales, where Richard had always met with the 
 most unwavering support. He reached Berkeley Castle, 
 while the Lord Treasurer, Scrope, Earl of Wiltshire, with 
 Bushy and Green, two leading members of Richard's 
 parliamentary committee, went to Bristol. Sir John 
 Bushy had been the Speaker of the House of Commons 
 before the last Parliament v/as dissolved ; and he, with 
 Sir Henry Green and Sir William Bagot, were universally 
 detested as the principal agents of the King's extortions. 
 Meanwhile the Duke of Lancaster had passed southwards 
 with a following which continually increased the further 
 he went on, and had arrived at Evesham as the Duke of 
 York reached Berkeley. The latter had now no hope of 
 taking the field against him ; but the thought of his duty to 
 Richard still weighed upon his mind, and he seems to 
 have cast about for some means of satisfying his con- 
 science on the score of his allegiance, without attempting 
 an enterprise which was manifestly hopeless. Was the 
 Duke of Lancaster really a rebel after all ? He sent him 
 a message to demand his object in coming thus armed 
 into the land — did he mean to dispossess King Richard 
 of the crown, or did he only seek to recover his own 
 property ? According to the oath already taken by Duke 
 
52 Richard II. 
 
 CH. II. 
 
 Henry at Doncaster this last was his only object; but 
 that object could not be effected unless the evil counsel- 
 lors who had persuaded Richard to confiscate his posses- 
 sions were removed and punished. So Henry confessed 
 that he came to remove the King's evil counsellors, but 
 he denied that he had any designs against the King 
 himself. This declaration appears to have satisfied the 
 scruples of the Duke of York, and he, the chosen guardian 
 of Richard's kingdom in his absence, went over to Henry's 
 side. 
 
 7. Duke Henry, now practically master of the whole 
 kingdom, went on to Bristol, where he caused the Earl 
 of Wiltshire, Green, and Bushy to be beheaded ; the first 
 for an alleged bargain that he had made to sell Calais to 
 the French king, and the two others on the ground that 
 they had counselled extortionate taxation. All three, 
 indeed, along with Bagot, had farmed the revenues of 
 the kingdom, and derived large profits from the people's 
 burdens ; so they met with little compassion. It was 
 fortunate for Bagot that he was not apprehended at the 
 same time ; but instead of going to Bristol on Henry's 
 approach, he had escaped into Cheshire, from which he 
 passed over into Ireland. 
 
 8. Meanwhile the King himself was in Ireland, igno- 
 rant of the revolt of his kingdom at home. When he was 
 first apprised of Henry's invasion he was thunderstruck. 
 He had with him at that very time the son of the invader, 
 afterwards the brilliant victor of Agincourt, Henry V. 
 He was his godson, and he had just recently made him a 
 knight with his own hands. But his thoughts first turned 
 not to the son but to the father of his present enemy. 
 * Ha, good uncle of Lancaster,' he exclaimed, ' God have 
 mercy upon your soul ? For had I believed you, this man 
 would not have angered me now. You told me truly I 
 did ill to forgive him so frequently. Three times have 1 
 
'399- ^^^^ King and Henry of Lancaster'. 53 
 
 pardoned him his offences against me ; this is the fourth 
 time he has provoked me.' Another time, addressing the 
 voung man, 'See,' he said, 'what thy father has done. 
 He has invaded my realm as an enemy, kiUing and im- 
 prisoning my heges without pity. I grieve for thee, foi 
 this mischance may cost thee thine inheritance.' ' My 
 gracious lord,' said the other, ' this news distresses me 
 greatly ; but you see that I am innocent of what my 
 father has done.' ' I know it,' said the King, ' and I hold 
 thee guiltless.' The young prince, however, along with 
 a son of the Duke of Gloucester, was removed to the Castle 
 of Trim for security. 
 
 9. Yet even now the urgency of the crisis was scarcely 
 realized. That the King must return to England was 
 obvious, but there were not enough vessels at Dublin to 
 transport a large army, so the question was whether the 
 King himself should go over at once, or send the Earl of 
 Salisbury first into Wales. By the advice of the Duke 
 of Albemarle (or as his name was popularly called, Au- 
 merle), the Duke of York's son, the latter course was 
 resolved on. Salisbury was sent over with as large a 
 force as the ships could convey, and the King marched 
 with the rest to Waterford to embark there, intending to 
 rejoin the Earl in Wales. The resolution was most un- 
 fortunate. The Earl of Salisbury landed at Conway and 
 soon gathered to his standard a large number of the 
 Welsh. But a whole fortnight elapsed and nothing waj 
 heard of the King, while it was known that Henry had 
 gained nearly the whole of England, and was everywhere 
 removing the King's officers and putting to death those 
 who opposed him. At last the King arrived at Milford 
 Haven along with his c ousin the Duke of Albemarle, his 
 half-brother the Duke of Exeter, and his nephew the 
 Duke of Surrey, three bishops, and a pretty considerable 
 army. But the news which met them on their arrival 
 
54 Richard IT. ch. ii. 
 
 was so discouraging that the great bulk of these forces 
 very speedily deserted him ; and Richard, after a con- 
 sultation, set out in disguise by night, accompanied by 
 just fourteen of his more trusty friends, to join the Earl 
 of Salisbury at Conway, desiring the Duke of Albemarle 
 and Sir Thomas Percy to follow him. They, however, in 
 the morning dismissed the remaining forces and hastened 
 to join Henry. 
 
 lo. At Conway the King arrived in safety, but it was 
 only to learn that his last hope had failed him. The 
 Earl of Salisbury indeed was there ; but the men whom 
 he had at first succeeded in raising for the King's service 
 were no longer with him. In the utter absence of all 
 tidings from Richard disagreeable rumours had got 
 abroad and he had found it impossible to keep them 
 together. The Earl burst into tears when he saw his 
 sovereign and explained to him the hopelessness of the 
 situation, but it was presently arranged that the Dukes 
 of Exeter and Surrey should go to Henry to learn the 
 extent of his demands, and report them to the King. The 
 Duke of Exeter was the King's brother, but he had married 
 Henry's sistei, and Henry on seeing him endeavoured to 
 win him to his side : but he declined to allow either him 
 or Surrey to return to the King, and sent the latter a 
 prisoner to Chester Castle. Henry now resolved on 
 obtaining possession of Richard's person, and commis- 
 sioned the Earl of Northumberland to go to Conway. 
 The Earl took with him a body of men and archers, with 
 whose aid he took possession of Flint and Rhuddlan 
 Castles, but before coming in sight of Conway he left 
 them behind. That castle was too strong to be easily 
 taken, and the King might have escaped from it by sea. 
 Northumberland accordingly went forward with only five 
 attendants, and obtained an audience of Richard as the 
 bearer of a letter from the Duke of Eixeter and of Henry's 
 
^399. 
 
 The King and IJcnry of Lancaster. 5 5 
 
 answer to his message. The demands of Hemy, he said, 
 were that Richard should promise to govern according to 
 law, that Exeter, Surrey, Salisbury, and the Bishop of 
 Carlisle should be tried in Parliament as accomplices in 
 the murder of Gloucester, and that Henry should be made 
 grand justiciary of the kingdom, as his ancestors had 
 been. On these conditions Henry was willing to come 
 to Fhnt, ask the King's pardon on his knees, and go with 
 him to London. 
 
 1 1. Only a sense of utter helplessness induced Richard 
 to listen to these ternis with patience. They implied that 
 he was to deliver up, nominally only for trial, but really 
 to execution, his brother, his nephew, and the counsellors 
 who were then about him. On consultation with these last, 
 however, it was thought good that he should dissemble, 
 and only exact an oath from the Earl of Northumber- 
 land, which he had expressed himself quite ready to take, 
 that Henry would adhere to these conditions. The Earl 
 then swore to that effect upon the Sacrament, and Richard 
 consented to accompany him. But they had not gone 
 far when the King came in view of Northumberland's 
 armed followers and saw he was betrayed. He would 
 have returned, but the Earl seized his horse by the bridle 
 and carried him off in all haste to Flint Castle, there to 
 await an interview with Henry. On August 19 Henry 
 came at the head of a mighty host, and presented himself 
 before the King in full armour. ' My lord,' he said, ' I 
 have come before you have sent for me. The reason is 
 that your people commonly say you have ruled them very 
 rigorously for twenty or two and twenty years ; but, if it 
 please God, I will help you to govern better.' 
 
 12. With great parade and blowing of trumpets Rich- 
 ard and his little company were conducted to Chester, 
 where the King was confined in the dungeon of the castle. 
 Writs, however, were issued in his name, summoning 
 
$6 RicJiard II. cii. ii. 
 
 Parliament to meet at London. In a few days the journey 
 was resumed, and dismissing most of his forces the duke 
 brought Richard to the capital, where the foiTner was 
 received with acclamations, the latter with curses. The 
 King was committed to the Tower, and even his child 
 queen, who was at this time but ten years old, was for- 
 bidden to visit him. On Michaelmas day his signature 
 was obtained to an act of abdication in which he declared 
 himself utterly incapable of governing and worthy to be 
 deposed. The Parliament met on the following day. In 
 Deposition it the King's resignation was read, and gave 
 of the King, g^eat Satisfaction. An act was then passed 
 setting forth a number of charges against his govern- 
 ment as reasons for his deposition ; which met with no 
 opposition except from his faithful counsellor the Bishop 
 of Carlisle, who for challenging the right of the two 
 Houses to take such a step was sent prisoner to the 
 Abbey of St. Alban's. Henry next stepped forward and 
 claimed the throne as rightly due to him by descent from 
 King Henry III. 
 
 13. Now in point of fact Henry was not the next in 
 succession. His father John of Gaunt was the fourth son 
 , of Edward III., and there were descendants 
 
 claim by of that King's third son, Lionel Duke of Cla- 
 escent. rence, living; so that it should have been 
 
 quite unnecessary to go back so far as Henry III. At 
 one time Richard himself had designated as his successor 
 the nobleman who really stood next to him in the line of 
 descent This was Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, the 
 same who was killed by the rebels in Ireland. This Roger 
 had left a son Edmund to inherit his title ; but Edmund 
 was a mere child, and the inconvenience of another 
 minority could not have been endured. So the nation 
 was very well disposed to accept Henry as king without 
 inquiring too closely into his claim by birthright ; and 
 
'399- 
 
 The King and Henry uf Lancaster. 57 
 
 Henry put forward a claim through his mother founded 
 upon a very idle story indeed— a story so extravagant 
 and untrue that it looks as if it had been invented tc 
 serve his purpose. The truth, however, seems to be 
 that it was current in the days of his father John of 
 Gaunt, who got it written in some chronicles which were 
 sent to different monasteries, to flatter his vanity ; and 
 perhaps John of Gaunt expected that he himself might 
 have been able one day to claim the crown upon the 
 strength of it. This story was that so far back as the 
 days of King Edward I. the succession had got out of 
 the true line of descent ; that the eldest son of Henry III. 
 was not King Edward, but his brother Edmund Crouch- 
 back, Earl of Lancaster, who was commonly reputed the 
 second son ; and that this Edmund had been purposely 
 set aside on account of his personal deformity. The 
 plain fact of the matter was that Edmund Crouchback 
 was six years younger than his brother Edward I., and 
 that his surname of Crouchback had not the smallest 
 reference to personal deformity, but only implied that he 
 wore the cross upon his back as a crusader. 
 
 14. Archbishop Arundel then stepped forward and led 
 Henry to the throne, on which, after a brief prayer, he 
 took his seat amid general applause. The Parliament 
 then dissolved after having sat a single day. As it had 
 been summoned in Richard's name, its authority expired 
 with his. Neither Parliament, judges, nor officers of any 
 kind throughout England had any authority now till the 
 new King had renewed their commissions. But Henry 
 summoned the same Parliament to meet again six days 
 afterwards, appointed new officers of the crown, and then 
 withdrew to his palace. 
 
 15. So ended the unhappy reign of Richard H., a 
 prince who had certainly very little natural capacity to 
 govern, and who, called to the throne in boyliood, could 
 
58 Richard II. 
 
 CH. ri. 
 
 never be placed under such tuition as would have brought 
 out the little capacity he had. It was the desire of the 
 nation itself during his minority to emancipate him as 
 much as possible from the control of his natural protector 
 John of Gaunt ; but when, yielding to this influence, he 
 chose his own advisers, there rose up a cry that he was 
 misled by favourites and abandoned himself entirely to 
 the counsels of young men. These complaints, which, 
 after all, were not altogether true, served the purpose of 
 die factious Duke of Gloucester, and enabled him to 
 estabhsh for a time a despotism quite as odious and as 
 absolute as any that an anointed king could have at- 
 tained to. It was terminated, apparently to the general 
 satisfaction, by an act of self-assertion on Richard's own 
 part, when he came of age ; and for some years after 
 things went pretty smoothly. But as new dangers crossed 
 his path he grew more arbitrary, imperious, and unjust. 
 He met intrigue by treachery, put his troublesome uncle 
 to death without a trial, extorted money from his subjects 
 by forced loans, and by his own kingly authority perverted 
 law and justice. Yet it may be questioned whether he 
 was at heart the cruel and vindictive character he is 
 often represented to have been. He was undoubtedly a 
 man of very sensitive feelings, a most devoted huslDand, 
 and apparently to his true friends steadfast, as far as his 
 power would reach. Ikit it was a question through the 
 whole reign whether the kingly power was to be treated 
 as a reality or as a fiction, and Richard, who was of an 
 angry and passionate temper, was not the man to use 
 any power entrusted to him with discretion. 
 
 i6. In personal appearance he was handsome. There 
 was a delicate beauty in his features which corresponded 
 with a mode of life too luxurious for the age. He was a 
 lover both of art and literature, the patron of Froissart, 
 Cower, and Chaucer, and the builder of Westminster 
 
1399- 
 
 Literature and Scieiiee. 59 
 
 Hall, But he was thought too fond of show and mag. 
 nificencCj and some of his contemporaries accused him 
 of too great love of pleasure. Yet of positive immorality 
 we have no real evidence, and his devotion and tender- 
 ness to both his queens (child as the second was) is a 
 considerable presumption to the contrary. And as re- 
 gards the expenses of his household, it does not appear 
 that he was led on this account to tax his people im- 
 moderately. His ruin was simply owing to despotic and 
 arbitrary measures — not in any way to pecuniary burdens 
 that he inf\"cted on the nation. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 LITERATURE AND SCIENCE. 
 
 I. The reign of Richard H.is an interesting period in Eng- 
 lish literature. Before that time there was, strictly speaking, 
 hardly any English literature at all. There were, indeed, 
 ballads and some rhyming chronicles in English, but all 
 serious authors wrote in Latin. An author who desired 
 many readers naturally preferred to use a language which 
 was understood over all Europe. A courtly author, or one 
 who aimed at refinement, would rather have written in 
 French than in English ; for French was the language of 
 the King's court and also of the courts of law. ^ Besides, 
 the English spoken in one part of the country was so 
 unlike the language current in another part, that an 
 author writing in English could not have spoken to 
 the whole people. But by this time Englishmen had 
 begun to write in English for serious purposes. It was, 
 apparently, in the latter part of the reign of Edward III. 
 that a religious poet, whose name is believed to have 
 been William Langland, wrote a remarkable allegorical 
 
6o R ichard II. c h . 1 1 1 . 
 
 work called 'The Vision of Piers Plowman.' A little 
 later, Wycliffe translated the Bible into English Wydiffe'^ 
 for the use of the unlearned. The influence ^^i^^'^- 
 of this latter work was extraordinary. It created through- 
 out the land a much stronger sense of the reality ol 
 religious truth ; and it placed in the hands of the common 
 people a rich and suggestive literature, full of inex- 
 haustible material for thought and reflection. 
 
 2. A native literature naturally grew up in the wake of 
 such a book. The learned began to write for the people 
 in their own tongue. Wycliffe himself wrote several 
 treatises in English. The poet Chaucer, too, and hia 
 brother poet Gower, wrote for amusem.ent or edification 
 tales, poems, and prose compositions in English. Chaucei 
 especially was a poet of the people ; his English compo- 
 sitions are very numerous, and notwithstand- 
 ing the antiquity of the language, are read 
 with a living interest at this day. His mind is typical ot 
 the nation in its breadth and cultivation. While de- 
 scribing with intense enjoyment the humours of the road 
 and of the tavern, he nevertheless paid the highest honour 
 to the knight's ideal of chivalry and the parson's ideal of 
 godliness. He looked into all the science and philosophy 
 of the day, and expounded them in the vulgar speech. 
 He wrote a book on astronomy for his little son Lewis. 
 He translated from the French the poem, so popular 
 upon the Continent, called the ' Romaunt of the Rose,' 
 and he adapted tales from the Italian of Petrarch and 
 Boccaccio, authors who lived in liis own day, and one of 
 whom he is supposed personally to have known. His 
 best known worlv is the ' Canterbury Tales,' in which he 
 describes a pilgrimage, such as was common in those 
 days, to the shrine of St. Tliomas h. Becket at Canterbury. 
 Persons who had been ill used to make vows to visit that 
 shrine on their recovery ; and Chaucer represents about 
 
1399. 
 
 L iterature and Science. 6 1 
 
 thirty pilgrims starting from the Tabard Inn in South- 
 vvark and teUing stories, each in his turn, to amuse them 
 on the way. 
 
 3. Chaucer was a man who had seen much of the world. 
 He had fought in the wars of Edward 111. in France, 
 and had been some time a prisoner. He had visited 
 Italy. He had been sent on embassies. He was patro- 
 nised by John of Gaunt and was attached to the royal 
 household. In 1386 he sat in Parliament — in that 
 parliament in which Michael de la Pole was indicted ; 
 out what part he took in the proceedings we cannot say. 
 When the commission of regency was instituted he was 
 dismissed from the office of controller of Customs in 
 London which had been granted to him by the Crown. 
 But with some changes of fortune Chaucer generally 
 remained in favour at Court, not only under Edward III. 
 and Richard II., but also under Henry IV., in the begin- 
 ning of whose reign he died. 
 
 4. The other poet of the day, John Gower, was 
 Chaucer's personal friend, and was, like him, patronised 
 by John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. 'Moral 
 
 Gower' he was called by Chaucer, and the name 
 was most appropriate. In all he wrote he was perpetually 
 moralising. His principal works were three, entitled 
 respectively, 'Speculum Meditantis,' 'Vox Clamantis,' 
 and ' Confessio Amantis' (the Mirror of one Meditating, 
 the Voice of one Crying, and the Confession of a Lover). 
 The first of these poems was written in French and does 
 not appear now to be extant. The second was written 
 in Latin on the subject of Wat Tyler's rebellion. The 
 third was written in Enghsh, in his old age, in obedience 
 to a command of Richard II., who one day invited the 
 poet into his barge and desired Ihat he would dedicate 
 some composition to him. He accordingly produced a 
 long poem on the subject of love, which he made tli<' 
 
62 Richard TL 
 
 CH. 111. 
 
 vehicle of a multitude of tales and reflections. But the 
 book was not dedicated to King Richard after all, or 
 rather that dedication was withdrawn ; for John Gower, 
 who was what Dr. Johnson called * a good hater/ was 
 completely alienated from his sovereign in the latter part 
 of his reign, and he presented the completed labour to 
 Henry of Lancaster. Gower also wrote a political poem 
 called a ' Tripartite Chronicle/ in honour of the revolu- 
 tion which placed Henry IV. upon the throne, in which 
 he very severely reviewed the whole government of 
 Richard II., calling it 'a work of hell/ and extolled his 
 dethronement and the accession of Henry as 'a work in 
 Christ.' 
 
 5. Wycliffe died on the last day of the year 1384, three 
 years after Wat Tyler's rebellion, and two years before 
 the impeachment of the Duke of Suffolk. His name 
 must always be chiefly associated in our minds with the 
 translation of the Bible and the doctrine promulgated by 
 himself and his followers. For it was through that work 
 that he exerted so powerful an influence on the succeeding 
 The age, and to it his followers, who were commonly 
 
 Lollards. called Lollards, continually appealed in proof 
 of their favourite tenets. But there is another aspect in 
 which Wycliffe may be regarded. He was the last oi 
 what are commonly called the great Schoolmen — dis- 
 tinguished philosophers, who, during the Middle Ages, 
 upheld and promulgated at the universities new systems 
 of thought, which they themselves had introduced. Such 
 were, in former days, Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, 
 Roger Bacon, and a number of others, whose teaching at 
 the universities was celebrated throughout the world. 
 And even after Wyclifife's day there were schoolmen of 
 high celebrity, such as his great theological opponent 
 Thomas Netter of Walden, who was esteemed the prince 
 of controversialists. But there was no schoolman after 
 
>399- 
 
 Literahtre and Science. 63 
 
 VVycliffe who could be regarded as the originator of the 
 ohilosophy which he defended in the schools. He was 
 the last who had a system of his own. 
 
 6. His followers increased rapidly in England, and, 
 partly perhaps in consequence of the intercourse with 
 Bohemia created by Richard's first marriage, his doctrines 
 found a large amount of favour in that country also. Of 
 this we shall have occasion to take notice hereafter. In 
 other countries the opinions of Wycliffe do not appear to 
 have produced any perceptible effect. 
 
 7. The whole learning of the age was contained in the 
 writings of these schoolmen ; yet they had done little or 
 nothing to advance that which forms so great Learning 
 
 a study in our own day — natural science, and science. 
 Some, like Roger Bacon, had made a remarkable numbei 
 of experiments and pushed their inquiries into nature as 
 well as into logic and mathematics, but nothing had yet 
 been done to classify the results of repeated observations. 
 The virtues of particular herbs were known, but botany 
 had not yet been heard of, still less geology or mineralogy. 
 Of chemistry there was no real knowledge, but experi- 
 ments were made in a kind of spurious science called 
 alchemy, by which it was supposed that a process might 
 one day be discovered of transmuting other substances 
 into gold. Of astronomy, in like manner, nothing was 
 truly known, but there war a good deal of misdirected 
 observation of astronomical facts, from the supposition 
 that a man's fortune in life was influenced by the position 
 of the planets at the time of his birth. Astrology, how- 
 ever, did teach men to observe before the day of true 
 science came. 
 
 8. That the earth itself was a planet no one had any 
 idea. It was believed to be the centre of the universe, 
 round which the heavens revolved with all their hosts, 
 the sun, moon, and planets making special circuits of 
 
64 Henry IV. 
 
 CH. IV. 
 
 their own. Wise men did indeed believe the earth to be 
 a sphere, but no one had hitherto thought of attempting 
 to reach the other side of it. Nothing was known of any 
 lands west of the Atlantic or south of Central Africa ; 
 while the most remote country to the east was the distant 
 Cathay or China, which had been visited by the great 
 traveller Sir John Mandeville in the days of Edward III. 
 Very little, however, was known of any part of Asia. The 
 Genoese and Venetian merchants could extend their 
 commerce no further than the Black Sea and the river 
 Don, and the world which lay beyond excited very little 
 interest. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 HENRY IV. 
 
 I. The Revolution Completed — Invasion of Scotland. 
 I. The reign of Richard II. was a series of reactions, in 
 which each successive revolution undid the work of the 
 last revolution and confirmed anew that of a 
 A.D. 1399. fonner one. A new reign and a new dynasty 
 had now begun, with a King who was not fitful, weak, or 
 passionate, and who was not likely to suffer mob-law or 
 confederacies to gain the upper hand with him. But the 
 case was still the same as heretofore ; the first act of the 
 new revolution was necessarily the annulling of the last. 
 The new Parliament accordingly declared null and void 
 revolution. |.]^g whole proceedings of the Parliament of 
 Shrewsbury, and confirmed again those of the Wonderful 
 Parliament which the Parliament of Shrewsbury had 
 declared null. The judgments upon the Duke of 
 Gloucester and the Earls of Arundel and Waiwick were 
 reversed, and those who had been accessory to the pro- 
 ceedings against the duke were called to account for theii 
 
'399- "^^^^ Revohition Completed. 65 
 
 conduct. They one and all gave it as an excuse that 
 they had acted under compulsion, and laid the blame 
 upon the deposed King. On this a stormy scene took 
 place. Lord Fitzwalter maintained that the Duke ol 
 Albemarle's excuse was untrue, and offered to prove it so 
 in combat. Lord Morley in like manner gave the Earl 
 of Salisbury the lie. Other lords joined and threw down 
 their gauntlets or their hoods as gages of the combat. 
 No less than twenty pledges were thrown in support of 
 the charge against Albemarle, and no one took his part 
 except the Duke of Surrey. The gages, however, were 
 given into the custody of the Constable and Marshal of 
 England until the King should appoint a day of trial ; 
 and meanwhile it was adjudged in Parliament that the 
 lords who had appealed the Duke of Gloucester should 
 be deprived of the dignities that had been conferred upon 
 them after his death. Albemarle, Surrey, and Exeter 
 were to be no longer dukes, but as they had been before, 
 Earls of Rutland, Kent, and Huntingdon. John Beaufort, 
 Marquis of Dorset, was to be no longer a marquis, and 
 Spenser, Earl of Gloucester, was to lose his title entirely. 
 Not a few were dissatisfied that they did not lose their 
 heads as well. 
 
 2. But it was very necessary on all accounts that 
 matters should not be pushed to extremity. Severe 
 justice would not have suited the new King's policy, and 
 appeals of treason which had already been the cause of 
 so many revolutions threatened to make the ^ 
 
 !- 1 1 • 1 1 1 r A Laws ot 
 
 peace of the kmgdom hopeless for ever. An treason 
 act was accordingly passed to mitigate the ^^^^s^^^ • 
 evil by forbidding such appeals in Parliament. All trea- 
 sons done within the realm were henceforth to be tried 
 by law ; and where the crime was alleged to have been 
 done abroad, the appeal was to be tried by the Constable 
 and Marshal of England. At the same time the guilt of 
 
 M.ff. F 
 
66 Henry IV. 
 
 CH. IV. 
 
 treason was limited to offences that had been recognised 
 as such by statute. It was also remembered that there 
 had been arbitrary measures during the late reign which 
 were not due to Richard himself. The shameful statute 
 of the Merciless Parliament, making it treason in anyone 
 to attempt to procure the repeal of its enactments, was 
 annulled. Government by terror was henceforth to be 
 disused. But the Commons were by no means invariably 
 successful in obtaining redress for past abuses. When 
 they petitioned for repayment of Richard's forced loans, 
 and for remission of the heavy penalties incurred by the 
 judges who had been so cruelly fined and banished for 
 supporting Richard's prerogative, their requests were 
 politely refused, with the answer Le Roy s'avisera. 
 
 3. As to the late King Richard himself, he was now 
 a subject, and had been publicly declared in Parliament 
 
 guilty of serious misconduct. What was to 
 posed King be done with him.? A deputation of lords, 
 Richard. ^j^j^ ^j^g Archbishop of Canterbury at their 
 head, urged the King to put him to death, but Henry 
 firmly refused to do so. Still, as he was no longer a 
 sovereign, he was amenable to the judgment of the King 
 and Parliament ; so it was decreed that he should be im- 
 prisoned for life, and Henry shut him up in the castle of 
 Pomfret. 
 
 4. But not many months passed away before the King 
 received intelligence of a formidable conspiracy against 
 
 him in Richard's favour. It was formed by 
 
 CoiT^piracy , , , , t^ 1 1 tj- 1 t t 
 
 in his the degraded peers Rutland, Kent, and Hunt- 
 
 favonr. ingdon who had been formerly dukes, and 
 
 Lord Spenser, formerly Earl of Gloucester, with the Earl 
 of Salisbury and some other noblemen, including the 
 Bishop of Carlisle, who had always been a staunch friend 
 to Richard. These all dined together in the chambers of 
 the Abbot of Westminster a few days before Christmas, 
 
1400. The Revolution Completed, 67 
 
 and set their seals to certain indentures promising to be 
 faithful to one another in what they were to undertake. 
 On Sunday, the 4th of January, they made an ^.d. 1400. 
 Attempt to surprise the King at Windsor ; but January 4. 
 one of their number had already betrayed the secret, and 
 Henry had escaped to London. The traitor was the Earl 
 of Rutland, formerly Duke of Albemarle, who had before 
 shamefully abandoned Richard in the day of his adver- 
 sity. The others, finding that the King was gone, very 
 naturally took alarm. They, however, visited Richard's 
 Queen at Sonning, near Reading, and passed on west- 
 ward to Cirencester, proclaiming King Richard as they 
 went along. But the mayor summoned the country people,, 
 attacked them in the middle of the night, and after some 
 hours' fighting compelled them to surrender. The Earls of 
 Kent and Salisbury were beheaded by the people ; Lord 
 Spenser met with the same fate from the inhabitants of 
 Bristol ; and the Earl of Huntingdon, who, apart from 
 his confederates, had awaited the issue of the affair at 
 London, having fled into the county of Essex, was taken 
 and beheaded at Fleshy, the mansion of the murdered 
 Duke of Gloucester. 
 
 5. Every one of these executions was an act of summary 
 justice, the people taking the law into their own hands as 
 they had done under Wat Tyler. But mob law, perhaps, was 
 not displeasing to Henry when it tended to the suppres- 
 sion of rebellion. He was unquestionably popular with 
 the masses, who believed that he had been a victim of 
 political perfid) in the preceding reign, and they warmly 
 look his part against any attempt to bring back the 
 detested tyrant of whose exactions they had formerly 
 stood in dread. Indeed, Henry himself, after this, 
 seems to have dismissed the scruples he had before pro- 
 fessed to entertain about putting his rival to death. It 
 would be rash, perhaps, to say that he distinctly authf • 
 
6S Henry IV. 
 
 CH. IV. 
 
 rised his murder ; but it appears pretty evident that he 
 was no longer careful to preserve his life. Within little 
 Death of more than a month after the rising, Richard died 
 Richard II. \-^ j^jg pnson. It was pretended by some that on 
 hearing of the failure of the conspiracy he wilfully starved 
 himself to death ; but there is not a little reason to sus- 
 pect that he was starved by his keepers. Another story, 
 however, got abroad that he was assassinated by Sir Piers 
 Exton. Whatever may have been the mode of death, 
 his body was sent up to London and exposed to public 
 view, with the face uncovered from the forehead down- 
 wards. Funeral rites, attended by the King himself, 
 were celebrated for him at St. Paul's, and he was buried 
 at Langley. In the next reign the body was removed by 
 order of Henry V. to Westminster, and was buried among 
 the kings of England. 
 
 6. Just after the death of Richard, Henry found him- 
 self at war with Scotland. A Scottish nobleman, the 
 Earl of March, disappointed of a hope held out to him 
 by the Scotch king of marrying his daughter to the heir- 
 apparent, and smarting besides from other injuries, had 
 fled from his country and taken refuge with the Earl of 
 Northumberland in England. From the English Border 
 he made inroads into Scotland, devastating the lands of 
 his great rival the Earl Douglas, and King Robert III, 
 made application to Henry for his surrender as a traitor. 
 But Henry determined to anticipate the hostile measures 
 of the Scots, and after renewing the old claims of his 
 predecessors by summoning King Robert to come and do 
 him homage as his vassal, marched an army 
 invades across the Bordcrs and invaded the northern 
 
 Scotland. kingdom in person. The Scots, however, 
 pursuing their usual policy, retired as he advanced ; 
 and Henry marched on to Edinburgh without opposition. 
 He laid siege to Edinburgh Castle, which was in the 
 
1400. 
 
 Eastern Affairs. 69 
 
 hands of the King's son, the Duke of Rothesay. An army 
 under the Duke of Albany, the King's brother, who had 
 been made governor of the kingdom, lay at some distance, 
 ready to come to the rescue if occasion should require it ; 
 but the Scots trusted to famine to compel the English to 
 withdraw, and left them unattacked. This policy proved 
 successful ; after a short time Henry found it necessary 
 to raise the siege of Edinburgh Castle and return home. 
 The expedition in one sense was a failure ; but Henry 
 had at least impressed the Scots with a sense of his 
 warlike character. What is still more to his credit, he 
 impressed them with a sense of his humanity by protecting 
 the unoffending inhabitants from violence and outrage, 
 a moderation of which former wars afforded them no 
 experience. 
 
 II. Eastern Affairs, 
 
 I. When Henry had been a year upon the throne 
 he received a visit from the Emperor of Constanti- 
 nople, Manuel Palasologus, who had traversed The Em- 
 Europe seeking aid from Christian princes peror of _ 
 against the Turks. The event was of a nopfetn '" 
 character quite unprecedented, and excited a England, 
 remarkable degree of interest. The Eastern potentate 
 was met by the King at Blackheath and conducted with 
 peculiar honours into London, where he was magnifi- 
 cently entertained for the space of two or three months. 
 The project of a crusade to the Holy Land was quite of 
 a character to recommend itself to Henry, for he was 
 deeply imbued with the notions of Christian chivalry. 
 Even before he came to the throne, when he was only 
 Earl of Derby, he had gone, like Chaucer's knight, against 
 the infidels of Lithuania, and he doubtless regarded a 
 visit to the Holy Land as the best atonement he could 
 make for sin. But there were special circumstances at 
 
70 Henry IV, 
 
 :h. IV. 
 
 this time which drew the attention of Europe towards ttie 
 East more than had been the case since the great days of 
 the Crusades. The cause of the Greek emperor who was 
 Henry's guest was the cause of Christianity in the East ; 
 and never had the prospects of Christianity been a sub- 
 ject of so much anxiety. The dominions of the Turk 
 already covered the greater portion of the territoiy that 
 they do at the present day, while Constantinople itself 
 was now all that remained of the once powerful Eastern 
 empire. Yet even Constantinople had been besieged, 
 and though not entirely won, a suburb had been actually 
 given up to the enemy. Unless European princes would 
 combine, a Christian empire in the East was a thing that 
 could not live much longer. 
 
 2. The Sultan by whose extraordinary energy these 
 results had come about was Bajazet, the first of that 
 Victorious name, appropriately surnamed Ilderim, or the 
 sSSn°^^^* Lightning. From the beginning of his reign 
 Bajazet. in 1 389 he had been continually moving about 
 at the head of armies, and men were amazed at the 
 rapidity with which he passed and repassed between 
 Europe and Asia, subduing petty Mahometan princes, or 
 making war on the confines of Hungary against armies 
 in which was gathered the flower of Christendom. In 
 1396 he had defeated at Nicopolis an army of 100,000 
 men under Sigismund, King of Hungary, who by an 
 appeal to Europe had gathered to his standard many ol 
 the bravest knights in Germany and France. The greater 
 part of that magnificent army was cut to pieces or driven 
 into the Danube ; of the prisoners taken, all but twenty- 
 four nobles were put to death ; and Sigismund himself, 
 having escaped by water to Constantinople, only returned 
 to Hungary after a long and perilous circuit. 
 
 3. But there was another great conqueror in Asia 
 whose achievements eclipsed even those of Bajazet ; and 
 
1402. 
 
 Eastern Affairs. 71 
 
 while Manuel was making fruitless appeals to the princes of 
 Western Europe, Constantinople was saved from capture 
 by a Mahometan. Timour, commonly called Tamerlane 
 Tamerlane, a native of Central Asia, was by '^'^ Tartar, 
 birth a Tartar, but a descendant of the great Mongol 
 emperor Genghis Khan, the traditions of whose power 
 and greatness he was ambitious to revive. With a mind 
 highly cultivated in many respects, he was not neglectful 
 of those practices by which Eastern despots knew how to 
 inspire respect. As monuments of his victories he would 
 leav^e behind him pyramids of human heads. From his 
 native district, not far south of Samarcand, he extended 
 his dominions first on the side of Persia, which he com- 
 pletely annexed to his rule. He then carried his arms 
 into Eastern and Western Tartary, and made inroads 
 into Russia nearly as far as Moscow ; after which he 
 crossed the Indus, captured Delhi, and overran the 
 North-eastern provinces of India about the time that 
 Henry IV. was ejecting Richard from the throne of 
 England. But from India he was drawn towards 
 Georgia and the shores of the Black Sea by jealousy of 
 the increasing power of Bajazet. He did not, however, 
 at once come into open conflict with his rival. He made 
 the Christians of Georgia tributary, took Sivas on the 
 borders of Anatolia, then marched southwards, intending 
 to make war upon the Mamelukes in Egypt ; but after 
 the capture and destruction of Aleppo and Damascus he 
 changed his plan, returned to the Euphrates, laid Bagdad 
 in ruins, and erected upon its site a pyramid of 90,000 
 heads. 
 
 4. He now marched against Bajazet with an army of 
 800,000 men, to which his rival could oppose but half the 
 number. The two great conquerors met at ^, , , 
 Angora m Asia Mmor, where the army of Angora, 
 Bajazet was completely overthrown and him- ^"^^^ 
 
72 Henry IV. ch. rv 
 
 self taken prisoner. A curious story is told of the inter- 
 view which took place after the battle between the captive 
 Sultan and his conqueror. Timour was lame from a wound 
 in the thigh received in one of his early battles. Bajazet 
 was blind. On seeing his prisoner, Timour, it is said, could 
 not refrain from laughing. ' Surely,' he remarked, '■ God 
 does not hold the empires of this world in very high 
 estimation when he commits them to a blind man like 
 you and a lame one like myself ! ' 
 
 5. There is a great deal of uncertainty as to many 
 particulars connected with this victory. Accounts vary 
 very much as to the day and month and even as to the year 
 when the battle was fought ; but the most critical opinion 
 seems to be that it was on July 28, 1402. The Emperor 
 of Constantinople, who took his leave of the King of 
 England and returned to the Continent in the spring of 
 the preceding year, could scarcely have anticipated this 
 good news ; but it is said that he had heard some en- 
 couraging rumours before he left of successes in the East 
 against the infidels and of the conversion of a large 
 number of pagans to Christianity. There is no doubt, 
 however, that the defeat of blind Bajazet by the limping 
 Tamerlane was an immense relief to Europe. The 
 Tartar despot was looked upon as if he were almost a 
 Christian prince, and so highly was his victory esteemed 
 that even Henry IV. wrote to him from England to con- 
 gratulate him. 
 
 III. Oweii Glendower's Rebellion and the Battle of 
 Shrewsbury. 
 
 I. At home, however, Henry was troubled with con- 
 spiracies and rebellions from the very commencement of 
 his reign ; nor did the death of his rival Richard render 
 them less frequent. Not long after that event a rumour 
 
k402. Owe7i Glendower' s Rebellion. y^ 
 
 got abroad that Richard was still alive and was Rumours 
 in Scotland. It seems that he had a chaplain spread that 
 who resembled him in features, and many Richard is 
 affected to believe that the body shown as his ^"^^'^ ^''^®" 
 was not really that of the deposed King. This shadow 
 of King Richard was more troublesome to Henry than 
 Richard himself could have been if he had lived. Re- 
 peated proclamations were issued against the dissemi- 
 nation of false news, but the reports were still propagated, 
 and a man said to be Richard II. was maintained at the 
 Court of Scotland to give England trouble. The rumour 
 in fact was very readily listened to by many, and was 
 found a very excellent means for nursing disaffection. 
 Plenry required the most incessant watchfulness and 
 policy to guard himself against these intrigues. Even 
 his own palace was not secure against a secret enemy. 
 In 1 40 1 an iron with three spikes was laid in the King's 
 bed. In 1402 a bastard son of the Black Prince named Sir 
 Roger Clarendon and nine Franciscan friars were put to 
 death for declaring that Richard was alive. And in the 
 same year broke out the formidable rebellion of Owen 
 Glendower in Wales. 
 
 2. Since the day when it was conquered by Edward I. 
 Wales had given the kings of England very little trouble. 
 The Welsh remained loyal to the son and grandson of 
 their conqueror, and were the most devoted friends of 
 Richard II., even when he had lost the hearts of his 
 English subjects. But on the usurpation of a.d. 1402. 
 Henry their allegiance seems to have been d^?rS'^"' 
 shaken : and Owen Glendower, who was de- rebellion, 
 scended from Llewelyn, the last native prince of Wales, 
 laid claim to the sovereignty of the country. He 
 ravaged the temtory of Lord Grey of Ruthin, and took 
 him prisoner near Snowdon ; then, turning southwards, 
 overran Herefordshire and defeated and took prisoner 
 
74 Henry IV. 
 
 CH. [V. 
 
 Sir Edmund Mortimer, uncle to that young Earl of 
 March, who should have been heir to the crown after 
 Richard according to the true order of descent. In this 
 battle upwards of a thousand Englishmen were slain, 
 and such was the fierce barbarity of the victors that 
 even the women of Wales mutilated the dead bodies 
 in a manner too gross to be described, and left them 
 unburied upon the field till heavy sums were paid for 
 their interment. 
 
 3. It was necessary to put down this revolt of Glen- 
 dower, and the King collected an army and went against 
 him in person. It was the beginning of September ; but 
 owing, as the people thought, to magical arts and enchant 
 ments practised by the Welshman, the army suffered dread- 
 fully from tempests of wind, rain, snow, and hail before it 
 could reach the enemy. In one night the King's tent was 
 blown down, and he himself would have been killed if he 
 had not retired to rest with his armour on. Finally the 
 enterprise had to be abandoned. The Scots, meanwhile, 
 thinking it a good opportunity to requite the King of 
 England for his invasion of their country while his forces 
 were engaged against the Welsh, made an irruption into 
 Northumberland. They were, however, pursued on their 
 retreat by the Earl of Northumberland and his son 
 Henry Percy, commonly named Hotspur, who compelled 
 A D. 1402 them to come to an engagement at Homildon 
 ['attieof Hill near Wooler, when they were put to 
 Hill, Sept. flight and their leader the Earl Douglas was 
 ^^' taken prisoner. 
 
 4. This success might have seemed a slight compen- 
 sation for the failure of the expedition against Glendower ; 
 but unfortunately the victors at Homildon Hill at this 
 time found cause of offence with Henry. Of the two 
 distinguished prisoners in Wales, the Lord Grey of Ruthin 
 was ransomed by his friends for a sum of 10,000 marks ; 
 
1403. Otveii Glendower s Rebellion. 75 
 
 ])ut when the kinsmen of Sir Edmund Mortimer proposed 
 to ransom him, the King expressly forbade them. He 
 pretended that Mortimer had shown symptoms of dis 
 affection, and had given himself up a willing prisoner to 
 the King's enemies. The truth was, the young Earl of 
 March was in the King's keeping, and Henry was not 
 sorry that the only relation who could do much to 
 advance his pretensions to the throne should be in the 
 keeping of Owen Glendower. But this injustice only 
 served to alienate some who had been the King's friends 
 hitherto, among whom was Harry Hotspur ; for Hotspur 
 had married Mortimer's sister. He entered into a secret 
 understanding with the Welsh prince, and drew into the 
 conspiracy his father, the Earl of Northumberland, and 
 his uncle, Thomas Percy Earl of Worcester. 
 
 5. It was a strange revolt, seeing that the Percys had 
 been greatly instrumental to Henry's success against 
 Richard. The reader, no doubt, has not forgotten the part 
 taken by the Earl of Northumberland in bringing the de- 
 posed King into Henry's power ; and Henry for his part 
 exhibited such marks of confidence that he had committed 
 to the Earl of Worcester the care of his son Henry Prince 
 of Wales. But Worcester suddenly withdrew 
 himself from Court and joined his nephew in the ' '^^'^^' 
 north, where they published manifestoes still pretending 
 loyalty, professing that they had only been driven to take 
 up arms in self-defence, as there w^ere certain abuses which 
 required reform, but owing to prejudices raised against 
 them in the King's mind by their personal enemies, they 
 dared not visit him. The King endeavoured to meet 
 this by an offer of safe-conduct to Worcester and others 
 to come to him and return freely ; but instead of doing 
 so, he and his nephew hastened towards Wales to join 
 Glendower, spreading reports as they went that King 
 Richard was alive and that they had taken up arms in 
 
J 6 Henry IV. 
 
 CH. IV. 
 
 his cause. The Percys had set their prisoner the Earl 
 Douglas free, and expected that Owen Glendower would 
 do the like to his prisoner, Sir Edmund Mortimer, and 
 that they would all unite their forces against Henry. 
 But the King was not unprepared, and having gathered 
 a sufficient force, intercepted the march of the Percys 
 at Shrewsbury. A very fierce and bloody 
 Battle of battle took place, in which Hotspur was 
 burJ7juiy killed, the Earl Douglas again taken prisoner, 
 21- and the insurgents utterly defeated. The 
 
 Earl of Worcester was beheaded at Shrewsbury after the 
 fight, and Northumberland, who had not yet openly 
 joined the rebels, on marching south v/ards, was stopped 
 by an army under the Earl of Westmoreland, and with- 
 drew again into the north. The King afterwards coming 
 to York commanded Northumberland to meet him, and 
 ordered him into confinement for life as a traitor ; but a 
 few months later the earl obtained a full pardon, and his 
 attainder was reversed in Parliament. 
 
 6. Thus by a hard-won victory Henry had preserved 
 himself upon a throne which he had acquired by intrigue 
 and usurpation. But rebellion was not at an end. Glen- 
 dower continued as troublesome as ever, and the King 
 was unable from various causes to make much progress 
 against him. At one time money could not easily be 
 raised for the expedition. At another time, when he 
 actually marched into the borders of Wales, 
 A.D. 1405. -j^jg advance was again impeded by the ele- 
 ments. The rivers swelled to an unusual extent, and the 
 army lost a great part of its baggage by the suddenness 
 of the inundation. The French, too, sent assistance to 
 Glendower, and took Carmarthen Castle. Some time 
 afterwards the King^s son, Henry Prince of Wales, suc- 
 ceeded in taking the castle of Aberystwith ; but 
 A,D. 1407. ^^^y soon after Owen Glendower recovered it 
 
1405. Ozvcn Glendower' s Rebellion. 7/ 
 
 by stealth. In short, the Welsh succeeded in maintaining 
 their independence of England during this whole reign, 
 and Owen Glendower ultimately got leave to die in 
 peace. 
 
 7. Another source of danger to Henry was the young 
 Earl of March, whom he kept in prison. Many sympa- 
 thised with his cause and resented the treatment of a 
 prince whose natural claim to the throne was much 
 better than that of Henry himself. So by the aid of 
 friends who procured forged keys, he and his a.d. 1405. 
 brother made their escape from Windsor February. 
 Castle where they were confined ; but they were soon re- 
 captured. New confederacies again sprang up in the 
 north, to which, notwithstanding his pardon, ^j^^^^^gj. 
 the Earl of Northumberland became a party, rising in the 
 His associates were Mowbray the Earl Mar- """^ ' 
 shal, who was the son of Henry's old rival the Duke of 
 Norfolk, the Lord Bardolf, and Richard Scroop, Arch- 
 bishop of York. This archbishop, a man much beloved 
 by the people, was brother to one of King Richard's 
 favourites — the Earl of Wiltshire, whom Henry had put 
 to death at Bristol. His dislike of Henry's government 
 was undisguised ; for he had accused the King of 
 perjury and treason to King Richard, and had advocated 
 the claims of the Earl of March. The confederates 
 caused manifestoes to be set on the doors of churches 
 and monasteries, and a considerable body of men gathered 
 to their standard in Yorkshire. But the Archbishop and 
 the Earl Marshal were entrapped into a conference with 
 the Earl of Westmoreland, and were taken and be- 
 headed at York. The former was venerated by the 
 people as a martyr, and pilgrimages began to be made to 
 his tomb, but were very speedily put down by order of 
 the King. The Earl of Northumberland retired for a 
 time into Scotland, but afterwards fled with Lord Bardolf 
 
yS Henry IV. ch. iv 
 
 into Wales ; from which country, two years after, these 
 two noblemen escaped and raised an unsuc- 
 A.D. 140 , cessful rebellion in Yorkshire. The earl was 
 killed in battle and his head was stuck upon London 
 Bridge. The Lord Bardolf was taken in the same fight, 
 mortally wounded. 
 
 IV. Capture of Prince James of Scotland. 
 
 I. Amid commotions such as these, nearly the whole 
 reign of Henry IV. was spent. The intervals were few 
 in which * frighted peace ' could find a time 
 
 To pant, 
 And breathe short-winded accents of new broils.^ 
 
 However popular may have been Henry's usurpation^ 
 however arbitrary and tyrannical the government of his 
 predecessor, the power of the Crown had been weakened 
 by the fact of a usurpation having taken place. And 
 young as Henry was when he assumed the crown — for 
 he was exactly the same age as his cousin Richard whom 
 he displaced — these repeated rebellions overtaxed his 
 energies and wore out his strength prematurely. They 
 also compelled him, much against his will, to make con- 
 tinual application to Parliament for supplies, which were 
 often grudgingly and insufficiently conceded. An extra- 
 Heavy ordinary subsidy was granted to him by the 
 taxation. Parliament which met in the beginning of the 
 year 1404, in which everyone who held lands of the value 
 of twenty shillings and upwards was charged a shilling in 
 the pound on the annual value. But this concession was 
 made with a special request that it might not be drawn 
 into a precedent, and with the very peculiar stipulation 
 that the records of the receipt of the money might be 
 
 ' Shakespeare's ' Henry IV.,' Part I. 
 
1404. Capture of Prince James of Scotland. 70 
 
 destroyed as soon as it was gathered in. Yet the pro- 
 ceeds of the tax proved quite inadequate to meet the 
 pressing wants of the King's exchequer ; and in October 
 of the very same year another Parhament was called, to 
 meet at Coventry. This Parliament, owing to the mode 
 in which it was elected, and possibly by the character of 
 some of its proposals, gained for itself the name of the 
 Lack-learning Parliament. A clause was inserted in the 
 writs of summons, requiring that no lawyer should be 
 returned in any county as knight of the shire. When 
 the question of supply came before the Commons it was 
 thought that the readiest way to relieve an overtaxed 
 people was to throw the burdens of the nation upon the 
 clergy, and a general confiscation of the property of the 
 Church was seriously recommended. This brought about 
 a collision between the two Houses ; but the Chancellor, 
 Archbishop Arundel, altogether confuted the arguments 
 in which the Speaker of the House of Commons endea- 
 voured to show that the clergy did not contribute their 
 fair share to the national burdens, and the proposal had 
 to be abandoned. Two tenths and two fifteenths were 
 then voted in its place. 
 
 2. To strengthen himself on his unsteady throne, 
 Henry courted alliances with foreign princes by marriage 
 and other means. Soon after the beginning Foreign 
 
 of his reign, he himself, being then a widower, alliances. 
 married Joan of Navarre, widow of Simon de Montfort, 
 Duke of Brittany. He had already, by his former wife 
 iMary de Bohun, four sons and two daughters ; and he 
 married his eldest daughter Blanche to Lewis of Bavaria, 
 eldest son of the Emperor Rupert, in the very same year 
 in which he himself took a second wife. Some time 
 afterwards he married his second daughter Philippa to 
 Eric IX., King of Denmark. 
 
 3, But fortune threw into Henry's hands an advantafe 
 
So Henry IV, 
 
 CH, IV. 
 
 to which he could not have attained by mere diplomacy. 
 Of all the foreign powers whose enmity he had to fearj 
 Scotland, though certainly one of the least, might have 
 given him the most annoyance. It was Scotland that 
 harboured the false King Richard, and which received 
 with open arms the Earl of Northumberland and other 
 Englishmen whenever they were disaffected towards their 
 sovereign. Yet the only security against Scotland hitherto 
 lay in the doubtful fidelity of the northern lords, — men 
 like Northumberland himself or Westmoreland, un- 
 scrupulous and changeable, who feeling themselves 
 masters of the situation, fought for their sovereign or 
 conspired against him as they pleased. But in the year 
 1405 an incident occurred which at once relieved Henry 
 of all anxiety about the Scots for the remainder of his 
 days. 
 
 4. Scotland at this time was in a deplorable con- 
 dition. Robert III., who is characterised by historians 
 as a well-intentioned king, was singularly de- 
 void of energy. His brother, the Duke of 
 Albany, whom he himself had named as governor, secretly 
 aspired to the succession, but the King relied upon him 
 with a blind confidence. David, Duke of Rothesay, the 
 heir apparent, was a dissolute, licentious prince, and his 
 intrigues with married ladies occasioned so much scandal 
 that the King thought proper to commit him to the keep- 
 ing of his uncle. Albany imprisoned the young man in 
 his own castle at Falkland in Fife, where he 
 A.D. 1401. ^^^ miserably starved to death in a dungeon. 
 It is said that two women for some days protracted his 
 unhappy life ; the one by covertly passing through the 
 narrow window of his cell supplies of oatmeal cakes ; the 
 other, a country nurse, by conveying milk from her own 
 breast to his mouth through a tube. But they were both 
 detected and put to death The poor King was over* 
 
1405. Capture of Prince James of Scotland. 81 
 
 whelmed with grief at the news of his son's murder, but 
 Albany had a plausible story to lay the guilt on others, 
 and was too powerful to be brought to justice. All that 
 the King could do was to provide for the safety of his 
 second son James ; and on taking advice of such as he 
 believed trustworthy, he resolved to send him to France 
 to be educated at the court of Charles VI. 
 Accompanied by one or two Scotch noblemen, 
 the young prince set sail from the Bass rock at the mouth 
 of the Frith of Forth. On his passage he came near the 
 English coast, or, as some say, was driven to land. Not- 
 withstanding that a truce then existed between prince 
 the two realms, he was taken by some Norfolk James of 
 
 M 111 TT 1 • 1 bcotland 
 
 sailors and brought to Henry, who seemg the taken by 
 importance of this capture, resolved to detain the English, 
 him. He had been provided with letters from his father 
 to the King, to be used in case of his landing in England ; 
 but Henry jestingly remarked that if the Scots had been 
 friendly they would have sent the young man to him for 
 his education, as he knew the French tongue quite as well 
 as King Charles. 
 
 5. The news of this final calamity was too much for 
 the old King of Scots, who died the third day after it was 
 reported to him. The government of Scotland, though not 
 the name of king, fell into the hands of the Duke of Albany, 
 who was by no means anxious that the captive should be set 
 free. Henry, however, made the detention of the young 
 prince as little galling to him as possible, and gave him 
 an excellent education, of which Scotland in after days 
 reaped the benefit. He was the first of the Scotch kings 
 named James, and was distinguished not only as a very 
 enlightened king but as a poet, some of whose works 
 were above mediocrity. 
 
 M.H, 
 
82 Henry IV. ch. iv. 
 
 V. The Church — French Affairs — Death of Henry IV. 
 
 I. King Henry was now solicited to take part along 
 
 with France in putting an end to the papal schism which 
 
 had so long troubled the world. On the death 
 
 1 he schism ° ^^^-.. ^ . ^■ ^ 
 
 in the 01 Pope Innocent VII. in 1406, the cardinals 
 
 papacy. ^^ Rome, before proceeding to a new election, 
 
 made a compact that whoever should be elected Pope 
 should abdicate if the anti-Pope would do the same, so 
 as to allow the rival colleges to coalesce in the election 
 of one pontiff. The election fell upon the Cardinal St. 
 Mark, who thereupon assumed the title of Gregory XII., 
 and bound himself by oath after his election to fulfil the 
 agreement to which he had already given his consent 
 as cardinal. He accordingly a few months later made 
 preparations to go to Savona, where he was to hold a 
 conference with his rival as to the proposed renunciation 
 of their dignities. But the King of Naples took advantage 
 of his intended departure to march on Rome ; and though 
 he was driven back by Paolo Orsini, the occurrence served 
 as an excuse to the Pope for not fulfilling his engage- 
 ment. After a time it became evident that the Pope had 
 no real intention to resign, and the Cardinal of Bordeaux- 
 was sent over to England by the college at Avignon to 
 represent the bad faith of Pope Gregory and to solicit 
 Henr/s assistance in referring the affairs of the Church 
 to a general council to be held at Pisa. To this Henry 
 readily agreed, and with the general consent of Christen- 
 dom the council was held at Pisa in 1409, when both 
 Pope Gregory and the anti-Pope were deposed, and a 
 new pope elected who took the name of Alexander V. 
 
 2. At this time the religious condition of England 
 was still very strongly affected by the teaching of Wy- 
 
1411. The Church — French Affairs, etc. 83 
 
 cliffe. The influence of his opinions, however, was not 
 quite what it had been. In the days of King Richard it 
 was said that you could hardly see two persons togethei 
 in the street but one of them was a Lollard. John of 
 Gaunt was their avowed protector, and seems to have 
 been himself a disciple of the bold reformer. And not- 
 withstanding papal censures, the teaching of the Lollards 
 was not in Richard's time visited with civil penalties. 
 But when Henry came to the throne he found the neces- 
 sity of supporting the authority of the Church. The 
 clergy, too, were recovering their influence, and the 
 votaries of Lollard doctrines were chiefly among the 
 laity. Before the King had been two years upon the 
 throne a \^ry severe enactment was passed against heresy, 
 by which for the first time it was ordained that a heretic 
 should be committed to the flames. A case Heretics 
 immediately occurred for putting this cruel 'i'urned. 
 statute into effect, and a clergyman named William 
 Sawtr^ was burned in Smithfield as a Lollard. Nine 
 years later a still more cruel case occurred at the same 
 place of execution. A smith named Thomas Badby was 
 burned for denying the Real Presence. The King's 
 eldest son. Prince Henry, was present on the scene and, 
 probably out of real compassion for the sufferer, endea- 
 voured to persuade him to recant. This he steadily- 
 refused to do, and allowed himself to be closed in and 
 the fire lit around him. In the midst of the flames, 
 however, his courage failed, and he cried out for mercy. 
 The Prince ordered the burning heaps to be removed 
 and the man extricated ; then promised, if he would 
 retract his heresy, to give him threepence a day for life. 
 But the poor man was now ashamed of his weakness, 
 and refused to accept the prince's bounty. He was there- 
 fore again shut up and perished in the fire. 
 
 3. Nevertheless, the repeated attacks made in Par- 
 
84 Henry IV. 
 
 CII. IV. 
 
 liament on the possessions of the clergy evince a strong 
 feehng of animosity against the Church which must 
 Proposals to ^ave been due to the prevalence of Lollard 
 confiscate opinions in the community. We have already 
 sio^n?°o?the noticed the proposal of the Lack-learning 
 clergy. Parliament for the confiscation of the Church's 
 
 property. Although that proposal was withdrawn for 
 the time it was renewed six years afterwards, and a bill 
 to that effect actually passed the Commons at the very 
 time that Badby suffered at Smithfield. It was seriously 
 represented to the King that the revenues of the bishops, 
 abbots, and priors were sufficient to maintain fifteen earls, 
 1,500 knights, and 6,200 esquires for the defence of the 
 kingdom, besides 100 hospitals for the care of the infirm. 
 The measure was rejected by the Lords, owing mainly to 
 the opposition of Prince Henry ; but the Commons did 
 not desist from their efforts to impair the privileges of 
 the Church. They first proposed to abolish episcopal 
 jurisdiction in the case of clerical convicts ; for it was at 
 this time the privilege of bishops to retain in their own 
 prisons clergymen who had been convicted of any crimes. 
 Afterwards they endeavoured to procure a mitigation of 
 the severe law already passed against the Lollards by 
 which anyone found preaching heresy might be committed 
 to prison without the King's writ or warrant. But all 
 their efforts in these directions proved totally ineffectual. 
 4. Scarcely anything of domestic interest occurred 
 during the last few years of Henry's reign. But the events 
 which took place in the neighbouring kingdom of France 
 were such as to excite no small degree of interest, and they 
 had a most important bearing on the history of the succeed- 
 ing reign. France was at this time torn by internal discords. 
 For many years King Charles VI. — the same king who, 
 being yet a young man, had assembled the great fleet alt 
 Sluys that was to have conquered England, had b'^en 
 
t4i3. The Church — French Affairs ^ etc. 8$ 
 
 Afflicted with hopeless insanity. His queen, Isabel ol 
 Bavaria, left him helpless in his malady, and lived in 
 shameless adultery with Louis Duke of Orleans, who, 
 being the King's own brother, aspired to govern every- 
 thing. He was, however, hated by the Parisians for his 
 immoralities, and more than all, for reasons personal and 
 political, he was hated by the Duke of Burgundy, who 
 was powerful over all the northern parts of France. On 
 November 23, 1407, the Duke of Orleans was murdered 
 in the streets of Paris, and when inquiry was made into 
 the circumstances of the crime the Duke of Burgundy 
 confessed that it had been done at his instigation. It was 
 ?n act of peculiar treachery, for a seeming reconciliation 
 had just been effected between the rivals, who had taken 
 the sacrament together the previous Sunday and had 
 agreed to dine together on the Sunday following. A son of 
 the Duke of Orleans succeeded to his father's title and 
 bent every effort to revenge his murder ; but the King of 
 France, under the guidance of his son, the heir-apparent, 
 who had been entirely alienated from the Orleanist party 
 and from his own mother, favoured the party of his oppo- 
 nent. The young Duke of Orleans, however, strengthened 
 himself by marrying a daughter of the Count of Amiagnac, 
 and his whole party became known as the party of the 
 Armagnacs. In short, these private feuds became 
 national, and separated for many years the north and 
 south of France into two hostile factions. During the 
 days of Henry IV. the English at first favoured the party 
 of the Duke of Burgundy, and a body of Englishmen 
 helped to defeat the Orleanists in an engagement at St, 
 Cloud. But afterwards the Duke of Orleans sent an 
 embassy to England and induced Henry to send aid to 
 him and abandon the party of his rival. 
 
 5. Things were in this state when Henry IV. died on 
 March 20, 141 3. For years he had been subject to epi- 
 
86 Henry V. 
 
 CM. V= 
 
 leptic fits, brought on, doubtless, by the pressure of con- 
 stant anxieties. Not only had his reign been troubled with 
 Death of incessant rebellions, but many conspiracies 
 Henry IV. ]^g^^ been formed against his life. Some- 
 times the attempt had been made to put poison in his 
 food ; at other times his hose or his shirt was smeared 
 with venom ; sharp irons were cunningly laid within his 
 bed, and other subtle means were employed to put an end 
 to him. Secret enemies evidently lurked within his house- 
 hold and filled him with continual fear. Cutaneous erup- 
 tions also broke out upon his face, which some regarded as 
 a judgment of God for the murder of Archbishop Scrope. 
 His last attack overtook him in Westminster Abbey. He 
 was carried into the abbot's lodging and expired in the 
 Jerusalem Chamber, — the event, we are told, being re- 
 garded as the fulfilment of a misunderstood prophecy, 
 which said that he was to die at Jerusalem. It was doubt- 
 less a real aspiration of Henry's to have ended his life in 
 the Holy Land. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 HENRY V. 
 
 I. Oldcastle and the Lollards. 
 
 i. Henry, the eldest son of the deceased King — a young 
 man of six-and-twenty — succeeded at once to 
 ' ^^^^' the crown which it had cost his father so much 
 anxiety to keep. It is said that the latter, while he 
 Warlike ^^^ upon his death-bed, demanded of his heir- 
 
 character of apparent how he proposed to defend such an 
 
 Henry V. ..f^ ^^ " ^ .. u .i. 
 
 ill-gotten possession ; upon which the young 
 prince replied that he would trust for that to his sword, 
 
1413- Oldcastle and the Lollards. 87 
 
 as his father had done before him. This pohcy he pur- 
 sued most successfully throughout his rather brief reign, 
 and by brilliant achievements in arms and foreign con- 
 quest made the world forget the original weakness of the 
 Lancastrian title. Already he had distinguished himself 
 by his bravery in the war against Glendower, and more 
 particularly in the battle of Shrewsbury, where he was 
 wounded in the face with an arrow. His attendants 
 would have carried him off the field, but he insisted 
 rather on being led to the front of the battle to animate 
 his followers ; and it was probably his personal prowess 
 that day that determined the issue. The Welsh, who had 
 been so troublesome to his father, admired his valour and 
 claimed him as a true prince of Wales, remembering that 
 he had been born at Monmouth, which place was at that 
 time within the principality. They discovered that there 
 was an ancient prophecy that a prince would be born 
 among themselves who should rule the whole realm of 
 England ; and they saw its fulfilment in King Henry V. 
 
 2. He was popular besides for other things than 
 bravery. Young and handsome, with abundance of 
 animal spirits, he delighted in feats of agility and 
 strength. He was tall and slender in person, with rather 
 a long neck and small bones — a frame admirably adapted 
 to nimble exercises. So swift was he in running that he 
 could run down and capture a wild buck in a park with- 
 out dogs, bow, or weapon of any sort. His mental en- 
 dowments, too, were above the average, and he had 
 received an excellent education. He delighted in songs 
 and music, was very affable, and mixed readily with the 
 people ; nor could he be restrained by the dull decorum 
 of the court, Hke the heir-apparent of a long- His early 
 settled dynasty. On many occasions he had ''^^• 
 displayed a love of frolic which gave rise to some degree 
 of scandal. Sometimes he and his companions in dis- 
 
8.8 Henry V. ch. v 
 
 guise would waylay his own receivers and rob them ol 
 the rents they had collected from his tenants. When the 
 receivers came to account with him afterwards he would 
 enjoy their mortification in telhng how they had lost the 
 money, until he declared by whom they had been robbed 
 and gave them a full discharge, with special rewards to 
 those who had offered him the most valiant resistance. 
 At another time one of his riotous comrades was brought 
 before the Chief Justice for transgression of the law. The 
 prince attended at the trial, and demanded that the 
 offender should be set free. The judge refused to comply, 
 observing that the prince might be able to obtain a par- 
 don from the King his father, but that for his own part 
 he must administer justice according to the laws. Young 
 Henry, who was not satisfied to adopt such a round- 
 about method of procedure, threatened to rescue the 
 man and laid his hand upon his sword, or, as some 
 writers say, struck the Chief Justice with his fist. The 
 judge, however, showed himself unmoved, and committed 
 the prince to prison for contempt of court. This firmness 
 produced a marked effect. The prince, who had a real 
 respect for authority, became at once submissive and 
 allowed himself to be taken into custody. And the King 
 his father, being informed of the incident, thanked God 
 for having given him so upright a judge and so obedient 
 a son. 
 
 3. When he came to the throne he at once made it 
 evident that it was from no insensibility to his high future 
 destiny that he had indulged so freely the frolicsome 
 He (lis- humours of his youth. The men who had 
 
 misses his been the companions of his pleasures he im- 
 companions. j^g(jij^|-giy dismissed, giving them presents, 
 but at the same time commanding them never again to 
 come within ten miles of the Court. On the other hand, 
 he took at once into his confidence the ministers of his 
 
f4J3 Oldcas tic and the Lollards. 89 
 
 father, and showed a sagacity in the discussion of state 
 affairs which they had not expected to find in a young 
 man who had shown himself so fond of amusement. 
 Everyone perceived that he was altogether an altered 
 man, and eveiyone was loud in the praises of his wisdom, 
 modesty, and virtue. 
 
 4. One party among his subjects, however, gave the 
 new King trouble at the very commencement of his reign. 
 From his conduct at the execution of Thomas Badby, 
 the Lollards possibly may have expected to find in him a 
 friend and protector. The chief man among gj^. ,y^^^ 
 them. Sir John Oldcastle (who, though re- Oldcastle. a 
 membered afterwards chiefly by his family of°h? °^ 
 surname, was by right of his wife Lord Cob- Lollards, 
 ham), belonged to the royal household, and was greatly 
 esteemed by Henry for his integrity of character. But, 
 either being disappointed in the King, or presuming too 
 much on the influence of Lord Cobham, they began to 
 put up seditious papers on the doors of the London 
 churches, stating that a hundred thousand men would 
 rise in arms against all who were not of their way of 
 thinking. By this the clergy were stirred into activity, 
 and in a convocation held at London it was found that 
 the Lollards had been instigated to various irregularities 
 by the protection afforded to them by Oldcastle. He 
 had stirred up men to preach in various places with- 
 out their having received a licence from their bishops, 
 and had put down by violence all who protested against 
 this irregularity, declaring that the Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury and his suffragans had no right to make any regu- 
 lations on the subject. He had also put forth opinions 
 opposed to the teaching of the Church as to the Sacra- 
 ment, penance, pilgrimages, the worship of images, and 
 the power of the keys. 
 
 5. The clergy in convocation accordingly called upon 
 
90 Henry V. 
 
 CH. V 
 
 the Archbishop of Canterbury to take proceedings against 
 Oldcastle. The primate, however, with a deputation 
 Proceedings ^^ ^^^ clergy, first waited upon the King 
 against him at Kennington. At Henry^s request the 
 
 fot- heresy. ^ . „ . , , 
 
 matter was for some tmie put off m order that 
 he might use his own personal influence to induce Old- 
 castle to desist from his opposition to the Church. But 
 the King's efforts were useless ; and the archbishop at 
 length, with the King's consent, issued a citation against 
 the offender. The messenger brought it to Cowling 
 Castle in Kent, where Lord Cobham then resided, but 
 the latter would not allow it to be served upon him, and 
 it was posted on the doors of Rochester Cathedral. As 
 he refused to appear on the day named, he was excom- 
 municated as contumacious, and the King caused him to 
 be apprehended and committed to the Tower. From 
 thence he was brought in custody of the Lieutenant of 
 the Tower before a spiritual court at St. Paul's, when the 
 archbishop offered to absolve him from the sentence of 
 excommunication. But Oldcastle declined to ask for 
 absolution, and, turning to another subject, said he was 
 ready to declare to the archbishop the articles of his 
 belief. 
 
 6. On this he drew from his bosom an indented 
 parchment, read out the contents, and laid it before the 
 Court. The archbishop said that the substance of his 
 confession was orthodox enough, but that it did not con- 
 tain anything explicit on the subject of those heresies that 
 he was accused of propagating, and he desired that he 
 would explain particularly his opinions touching the 
 sacrament of the altar and the sacrament of penance. 
 Oldcastle replied that he would make no further answer 
 on these points than was contained in the document he 
 had given in. The archbishop then set before him the 
 opinions of St. Augustine and oLljcr saints, which he said 
 
14M Oldcastle and the Lollards. 91 
 
 had been adopted by the Church, and which all good 
 Catholics ought to accept. Oldcastle answered that he 
 wished to believe in whatever Holy Church had deter- 
 mined and God had enjoined ; but that the pope and 
 cardinals and the bishops of the Church had an} au- 
 thority to decide these points he could not admit. 
 
 7. Being examined a second day he at length gave a 
 pretty full statement of his opinions, and among other 
 things declared that the pope, bishops, and friars consti- 
 tuted the head, members, and tail of Antichrist. After 
 this the decision of the tribunal could not be doubtful. 
 The courts and officers of the Church were unable to 
 inflict any punishment on an offender except excommuni- 
 cation ; but he was pronounced a heretic and delivered 
 over, as the expression was, to the secular arm. Under 
 the law passed in the preceding reign he was thus liable 
 to be burnt ; but his judges interceded with the King to 
 grant him forty days' respite, during which it was hoped 
 he might recant. During this interval, however, he 
 effected his escape from the Tower, and very shortly 
 afterwards his followers occasioned more than usual 
 trouble. So many persons were apprehended for se- 
 dition and heresy that the gaols of London were full, and 
 rumours of a most alarming conspiracy reached the King 
 soon after Christmas. 
 
 8. A large meeting of Lollards from various parts of 
 the kingdom had been secretly arranged to meet by night 
 in St. Giles's Fields near London. Thousands ^^^^ .^^^ 
 of apprentices from the city were expected to of the 
 join it. The design was said to be to seize, 
 
 if not put to death, the King and his brothers, to pro- 
 claim Oldcastle Regent, and to destroy the monasteries 
 of Westminster and St. Alban's, St. Paul's, and the houses 
 of the friars in London. Oldcastle himself was expected 
 to be present at the muster and to put himself at the head 
 
92 Henry V. ch. v. 
 
 of the insurgents. The world, perhaps, had yet to be con- 
 vinced that the young King was competent to rule with a 
 strong hand and maintain the House of Lancaster upon the 
 throne of England. But Henry was fully equal to the 
 A.D. 1414, emergency. The meeting, he learned, was to 
 Jan. 7. ^j^],g place on Sunday night after Twelfth Day. 
 
 He quietly removed from Eltham, where he had been 
 keeping his Christinas, to the palace at Westminster, and 
 there ordered a body of followers under arms to ac- 
 company him by night to the place of nieeting. He at 
 the same time commanded the gates of the city to be 
 securely kept, so as to prevent anyone from leaving. On 
 the news of his approach the rebels were thrown into 
 consternation. A number of them were killed, and others 
 taken prisoners. What became of Oldcastle, or whether 
 he had actually been there, no one knew. The King 
 offered a reward of 1,000 marks for his apprehension ; 
 but he was a popular hero, and no one could be induced 
 to betray him. His unhappy followers were speedily put 
 to execution ; and some, who had been condemned foi 
 heresy as well as sedition, were not only hanged, but 
 burnt at the same time, with the gallows from which they 
 were suspended. 
 
 II. The War zuith Frtvice and the Battle of Agincoiirt. 
 
 I. During the first year of Henry's reign the unhappy 
 King of France was induced to appeal to England and 
 other countries against rebels within his own kingdom, 
 lest they should obtain the assistance of foreign govern- 
 ments. We have already shown how the French nation 
 was divided into the two hostile factions of the Burgun- 
 dians and the Armagnacs. But within the city of Paris 
 a still more dangerous party was formed out of the popu- 
 lace with a few of the leading butchers at their head. 
 From the name of their ringleader, one Caboche, whose 
 
14 14. TJie War with France. 93 
 
 occupation consisted in flaying slaughtered animals, they 
 were called the Cabochians. They wore white scarfs or 
 hoods, and were at first secretly encouraged r^^ (Ztk^o- 
 by the party of the Burgundians. But they chians in 
 soon became so powerful that for a time all 
 authority was suspended. Paris lay at their mercy, and 
 scenes were enacted not unlike those which had been 
 witnessed in London under Wat Tyler. They took pos- 
 session of the Bastille, broke into the house of the 
 Dauphin, Louis Duke of Guienne, forced themselves into 
 the King's presence, and took and imprisoned the Queen's 
 brother, the Duke of Bavaria, with the Duke of Bar, a 
 prince of the Blood Royal, all the ministers of state, and 
 several ladies of the court. The King was obliged to 
 wear in public a white scarf and to make ordinances for 
 the reform of abuses, while the bodies of some unpopular 
 noblemen and ministers, who were alleged by the in- 
 surgents to have put an end to their own lives, were ex- 
 hibited upon a gibbet. 
 
 2. This revolution took place at the end of April in 
 the year 141 3, little more than a month after the death of 
 Henry IV. of England. The government of the Cabo- 
 chians, however, did not last long. The princes of the 
 Blood and the university of Paris combined to put an 
 end to their usurpation. Order was restored under the 
 Duke of Orleans, to whom the King now gave his confi- 
 dence, and the Duke of Burgundy withdrew into Flan- 
 ders, The war between the two factions was renewed, 
 and each party sought to strengthen itself by an alliance 
 with England. Henry, for his part, saw his Henry takes 
 advantage in the divided state of the country, advantaKc 
 and negotiated with both parties at one and divisions in 
 the same time. He even sent and received France, 
 embassies to and from both parties on the subject of 
 his own marriage, proposing on the one hand to ally 
 
94 Henry V. 
 
 CH. V. 
 
 himself with a daughter of the Duke of Burgundy, on the 
 other, with a daughter of the King of France. At length 
 he suddenly revived the claim made by Edward III., 
 asserted his own right to the French crown, and required 
 Charles at once to yield up possession of his kingdom, or 
 at least to make 'immediate surrender of all that had been 
 ceded to England by the treaty of Bretigni (see Map I.)^ 
 together with the duchy of Normandy, Anjou, Maine, and 
 a number of other provinces. 
 
 3. The claim made by Edward III. to the French 
 crown had been questionable enough. That of Henry 
 His claim ^^^ Certainly most unreasonable. Edward 
 to the had maintained that though the Salic law 
 
 ing om, Y^rhich governed the succession in France, ex 
 eluded females from the throne, it did not exclude theii 
 male descendants. On this theoiy Edward himself was 
 doubtless the true heir to the French monarchy. But even 
 admitting the claims of Edward, his rights had certainly 
 not descended to Henry V., seeing that even in England 
 neither he nor his father was true heir to the throne b> 
 lineal right. A war with France, however, was sure to 
 be popular with his subjects, and the weakness of that 
 country from civil discord seemed a favourable oppor- 
 tunity for urging the most extreme pretensions. 
 
 4. To give a show of fairness and moderation the 
 English ambassadors at Paris lessened their demands 
 more than once, and appeared willing for some time to 
 renew negotiations after their terms had been rejected. 
 But in the end they still insisted on a claim, which in 
 point of equity was altogether preposterous, and rejected 
 a compromise which would have put Henry in possession 
 of the whole of Guienne and given him the hand of the 
 French king's daughter Catherine with a marriage por- 
 tion of 800,000 crowns. Meanwhile Henry was making 
 active preparations for war, and at the same time carried 
 
141^. The War with France. 95 
 
 on secret negotiations with the Duke of Burgundy, trust- 
 ing to have him for an ally in the invasion of France. 
 
 5. At length in the summer of 141 5 the King had col- 
 lected an army and was ready to embark at Southampton. 
 But on the eve of his departure a conspiracy 
 
 was discovered, the object of which was to ^'^' ^'^^^' 
 dethrone the King and set aside the House of Lancaster. 
 The conspirators were Richard Earl of Cambridge, Henry 
 Lord Scrope of Masham, and a knight of Northumber- 
 land named Sir Thomas Grey. The Earl of Cambridge was 
 the King's cousin-german, and had been recently raised to 
 that dignity by Henry himself. Lord Scrope was, to all 
 appearance, the King's most intimate friend and coun- 
 sellor. The design seems to have been formed upon the 
 model of similar projects in the preceding reign. Richard 
 II. was to be proclaimed once more as if he had been 
 still alive ; but the real intention was to procure the 
 crown for Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, the true 
 heir of Richard whom Henry IV. had set aside. At the 
 same time the Earl of March himself seems hardly to 
 have countenanced the attempt ; but the Earl of Cam- 
 bridge, who had married his sister, wished, doubtless, to 
 secure the succession for his son Richard, as the Earl of 
 March had no children. Evidently it was the impression of 
 some persons that the House of Lancaster was not even 
 yet firmly seated upon the throne. Perhaps it was not 
 even yet apparent that the young man who had so recently 
 been a gamesome reveller, was capable of ruling with a 
 firm hand as king. 
 
 6. But all doubt on this point was soon terminated. 
 The conspirators were tried by a commission hastily 
 issued, and were summarily condemned and put to death. 
 Tho Earl of March, it is said, revealed the plot to the 
 King, sat as one of the judges of his two brother Deery, 
 and was taken into the King's favour. The Earl oi 
 
96 Heji7y V. 
 
 ciT. y. 
 
 Cambridge made a confession of his guilt. Lord Scrope, 
 though he repudiated the imputation of disloyalty, ad- 
 mitted having had a guilty knowledge of the plot, which 
 he said it had been his purpose to defeat. The one 
 nobleman, in consideration of his royal blood was simply 
 beheaded ; the other was drawn and quartered. We 
 hear of no more attempts of the kind during Henry's 
 reign. 
 
 7. With a fleet of 1,500 sail Henry crossed the sea 
 and landed without opposition at Chef de Caux, near 
 Harfleur, at the mouth of the Seine. The force that he 
 brought with him was about 30,000 men, and he immedi- 
 ately employed it in laying siege to Harfleur. The place 
 was strong, so far as walls and bulwarks could make it, 
 but it was not well victualled, and after a five weeks' 
 
 siege it was obliged to capitulate. But the 
 forces of the besiegers were thinned by dis- 
 ease as well as actual fighting. Dysentery had broken 
 out in the camp, and, though it was only September, they 
 suffered bitterly from the coldness of the nights ; so that 
 when the town had been won and garrisoned, the force 
 available for further operations amounted to less than 
 half the original strength of the invading army. Under 
 the circumstances it was hopeless to expect to do much 
 before the winter set in, and many counselled the King 
 to return to England. But Henry could not tolerate the 
 idea of retreat or even of apparent inaction. He sent a 
 challenge to the Dauphin, offering to refer their diffe- 
 rences to single combat ; and when no notice was taken 
 of this proposal, he determined to cut his way, if possible, 
 through the country to Calais, along with the remainder 
 of his forces. 
 
 8. It was a difficult and hazardous march. Hunger, 
 dysentery, and fever had already reduced the little band 
 to ie:5s than 9,000 men, or. as good authorities say, to 
 
H'S- T!u- War tvith France. ^^ 
 
 little more than 6,000. The country people were un 
 
 fnendly, thetr supplies were cut off on all ^desrand "he 
 
 canty stock of provisions with which they set out was 
 
 soon exhausted. For want of bread many were driven 
 
 vafandV?' f "^ "l^ ^^^ harassed them uponlh 
 way and broke down the bridges in advance of them. 
 On one or two occasions having repulsed an attack from 
 a garrisoned town, Henry demanded and obtained from 
 the governor a safe-conduct and a certain quantity^ 
 
 .t refused In this manner he and his army gradually 
 approached the „ver Somme at Blanche Tache where 
 there was a ford by which King Edward HI. had crossed 
 
 from It tie'"'' °' ""T"'; ^"' "'^"^ ^" -"-= distaTce 
 from It they received information from a prisoner that 
 the ford was guarded by 6,000 fighting men^nd though 
 he mtelligence was untme, it deterred him from attempt- 
 mg the passage. They accordingly turned to the right 
 and went up the river as far as Amiens, but were stP 
 unab e to cross, till, after following the couke of the rive 
 abou fifty miles further, they fortunately came upon an 
 undefended ford and passed over before their enemies 
 were aware. ireiincs 
 
 9- Hitherto their progress had not been without ad- 
 
 armyof the French only overtook them when they had 
 arrived within about forty-five miles of Calais. On the 
 night of the 24th of October they were posted at the 
 village of Maisoncelles, with an enemy before them five 
 or SIX times their number, who had resolved to stop their 
 further progress. Both sides prepared for battle on the 
 following morning. The English, besides being so much 
 
 whti'iT,,'" "T''^'''' ""■■= "'^'''^'^ ''>' '''^^='^« ''"d famine, 
 nWif^f " adversaries were fresh and vigorous, with L 
 plenuful commissariat. But the latter were over-confi- 
 
98 Henry V. 
 
 CH. V. 
 
 dent. They spent the evening in dice-playing and 
 making wagers about the prisoners they should take : 
 while the English, on the contrary, confessed themselves 
 and received the sacrament. Heavy rain fell during the 
 night, from which both armies suffered ; but Henry 
 availed himself of a brief period of moonlight to have the 
 ground thoroughly surveyed. His position was an ad- 
 mirable one. His forces occupied a narrow field hemmed 
 in on either side by hedges and thickets, so that they 
 could only be attacked in front, and were in no fear of 
 
 being surrounded. Early on the following 
 
 Oct. 25. • TT J u J t, ; 
 
 mornmg Henry rose and heard mass ; but 
 
 the two armies stood facing each other for some hours, 
 
 each waiting for the other to begin. The English archers 
 
 Th B 1 1 were drawn up in front in the form of a wedge, 
 
 of Agin- and each man was provided with a stake shod 
 
 ^°^'''^- with iron at both ends, which being fixed into 
 
 the ground before him, the whole line formed a kind of 
 
 hedge bristling with sharp points, to defend them from 
 
 being ridden down by the enemy's cavalry. At length, 
 
 however, Henry gave orders to commence the attack, 
 
 and the archers advanced, leaving their stakes behind 
 
 them fixed in the ground. The French cavalry on eithei 
 
 side endeavoured to close them in, but were soon obliged 
 
 to retire before the thick showers of arrows poured in upon 
 
 them, which destroyed four-fifths of their numbers. Their 
 
 horses then became unmanageable, being plagued with a 
 
 multitude of wounds, and the whole army was thrown 
 
 into confusion. Never was a more brilliant victory won 
 
 against more overwhelming odds. 
 
 10. One sad piece of cruelty alone tarnished the glory 
 
 of that day's action, but it seems to have been dictated 
 
 by fear as a means of self-preservation. After the enemy 
 
 had been completely routed in front and a multitude of 
 
 prisoners taken, the King, hearing that some detachments 
 
141 5- T^Ji^ War with France. 99 
 
 had got round to his rear and were endeavouring to 
 pkmder his baggage, gave orders to the whole army to 
 put their prisoners to death. The order was executed in 
 the most relentless fashion. One or two distinguished 
 prisoners afterwards were taken from under heaps of 
 slain, among whom were the Dukes of Orleans and 
 Bourbon. Altogether, the slaughter of the French was 
 enormous. There is a general agreement that it was 
 upwards of 10,000 men, and among them were the flower 
 of the French nobility. That of the English was dispro- 
 portionately small. Their own writers reckon it not more 
 than 100 altogether, some absurdly stating it as low as 
 twenty or thirty, while the French authorities estimate it 
 variously from 300 to 1,600. Henry called his victory the 
 battle of Agincourt from the name of a neighbouring 
 castle. The army proceeded in excellent order to Calais, 
 where they were triumphantly received, and after resting 
 there a while recrossed to England. The news of such a 
 splendid victory caused them to be welcomed with an 
 enthusiasm that knew no bounds. At Dover the people 
 rushed into the sea to meet the conquerors, and carried 
 the King in their arms in triumph from his vessel to the 
 shore. From thence to London his progress was like one 
 continued triumphal procession, and the capital itself 
 received him with every demonstration of joy. 
 
 III. The Emperor Sigismuiid — Henry invades France a 
 second time — The Foul Raid — Execution of Oldcastle. 
 
 I. In the following spring Henry was honoured with 
 a visit from Sigismund, King of the Romans ^ j, ^^^g^ 
 and Emperor elect. His great object was to visit of the 
 heal the divisions in Christendom, and he had sigSund 
 already presided at one session of the Coun- '° England 
 cil of Constance which had been convoked by him fox 
 
100 Henry V, ch. v, 
 
 the purpose of terminating the schism in the papacy. At 
 that session two of the rival popes, John XXIII. and 
 Gregory XII., were persuaded to resign, and he had 
 afterwards obtained from the third, Benedict XIII., an 
 engfigement to acknowledge the authority of the council. 
 Before leaving Constance, too, he had, though most un- 
 willingly, yielding to the solicitations of the divines, con- 
 sented to the execution of John Huss, the Bohemian 
 heretic, to whom he had given a safe-conduct. Extin- 
 guishing heresy was supposed to be a great means of pro- 
 moting harmony among Christians, and he was taught 
 by his spiritual instructors that he had no right to keep 
 faith with the Church's enemies. But now he was on 
 a mission to prevent war and bloodshed between two; 
 nations ; for he wished to be the negotiator of peace 
 between France and England, and Charles VI., whom 
 he had visited on his way, had desired him to use his 
 best efforts towards that end. 
 
 2. If, however, he was at any time sincere in this in- 
 tention, he very soon became convinced that a firm peace 
 „ , between the two countries was hopeless, and, 
 
 He becomes ^ ' ' 
 
 an ally of as his Stay in England was protracted he 
 ^"'^^* ceased to be a mediator and became more 
 
 and more a partizan of Henry. Just before his arrival 
 the Earl of Dorset, whom Henry had left as governor of 
 Harfleur, overran the adjacent country up to the gates of 
 Rouen. The Count of Armagnac, Constable of France, 
 retaliated by laying siege to Harfleur by land and sea, 
 and succeeded in reducing it to great extremities for want 
 of victuals. Henry proposed to go thither with a fleet 
 for its relief, but was dissuaded by the Emperor from' 
 hazarding his person in the enterprise, and gave the com- 
 mand of the squadron to his brother the Duke of Bedford^ 
 who soon took or sunk several of the enemy's vessels and' 
 compelled him to raise the siege. The Emperor highly 
 
i4i6. The Emperor Sigismund. lOi 
 
 applauded the Duke of Bedford's gallantry, and be* 
 coming every day more cordial to Heniy, at length 
 entered into an offensive and defensive league with him 
 against France. On the conclusion of his visit Henry 
 accompanied him over to Calais. 
 
 3. To Calais John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, 
 then came to pay a visit to the King and Emperor. 
 From his past conduct it was naturally sus- ^j^^ ^^^ 
 pected that he was once more seeking to of Bur- 
 make an alliance with his country's enemies. ^"" ^' 
 So deeply, indeed, was he distrusted by the Court of 
 France, that his assistance had not been asked to repel 
 the Enghsh invasion, and he was accordingly not present 
 at the battle of Agincourt, though two of his brothers 
 died upon the field. He professed great anxiety to 
 avenge their deaths, and, as if to do his country service, 
 advanced towards Paris with a large body of followers. 
 But the city of Paris remembered the rule of the Cabo- 
 chians and kept him at a distance. Of course, when 
 after this he went to Calais and conferred with the King 
 of England, the worst possible inferences were drawn as 
 to his intention. It appears, however, that he did not 
 actually ally himself with Henry against France, but only 
 concluded a truce with him for the counties of Flanders 
 and Artois. He was more concerned to form an alliance 
 within the kingdom against the Armagnacs, and for 
 this purpose, after leaving Henry, he had conferences at 
 Valenciennes with John, the second son of the French 
 king, who had recently become dauphin by the death of 
 his brother, Louis Duke of Guienne. The two princes 
 made a firm alliance together, and the duke promised to 
 aid the dauphin in defending the kingdom against the 
 English. But before many months were over the new 
 A.D. 1417. dauphin followed his brother to the grave. 
 April 4. Charles, the third brother, who became dau- 
 
102 Henry V. 
 
 CH. V. 
 
 phin in his place, was a boy of fourteen, completely under 
 the control of the Count of Armagnac, who was now all- 
 powerful. Suspicions were expressed that both his 
 brothers had met with foul play in order that he might 
 be heir-apparent. The last dauphin, indeed, had in all 
 probability been poisoned. The Count of Armagnac ruled 
 Paris with great despotism and cruelty by means of an 
 army of Gascons ; and the citizens at length began to 
 form conspiracies in favour of the Duke of Burgundy. 
 Queen Isabel herself relented towards her old enemy; 
 but Armagnac sent her away to Tours and shut her up in 
 prison. The Queen, however, declared herself Regent, 
 protested against the assumption of authority by Armag- 
 nac, and ordered that the taxes he imposed should not be 
 levied. The Duke of Burgundy made war in her behalf, 
 released her from captivity and brought her back to 
 Paris. Her son, the dauphin, whom she hated as an 
 enemy, was obliged to leave the capital ; and, as he also 
 claimed to be regent, and disputed the authority of Bur- 
 gundy and his own mother, the war was renewed in the 
 provinces with as much violence as ever. 
 
 4. A kingdom in such a condition as this could not 
 but be an easy prey to an invader. Henry crossed the 
 Henry ^^^ ox\z^ morc and landed again in Normandy, 
 
 invades at Toucqucs, near the mouth of the Seine, but 
 
 I' ranee 
 
 again. on the opposite side to Harfleur. The Count 
 
 Aug. I, of Armagnac had withdrawn most of the garri- 
 
 sons and placed them about Paris to act against the Duke 
 of Burgundy, so that town after town submitted to the 
 English with little or no resistance. And as Henry 
 established good government wherever he advanced, 
 enforcing respect for women and for property, the 
 country was beyond all question benefited by the inva- 
 sion. In the course of a few months the English were 
 masters of the greater part of Normandy. 
 
141 7- Henry s Seco7id Invasion of France. 103 
 
 5. Meanwhile the Scots, following their usual policy, 
 took advantage of the King's absence in France to at- 
 tempt an inroad into the northern counties. 'The Foul 
 The Duke of Albany, governor of Scotland, Raid.' 
 accompanied by the Earl Douglas — that same Douglas 
 who had fought against Henry IV. at Homildon and 
 Shrewsbury, and lost an eye in the former battle — laid 
 siege to Roxburgh castle. The expedition — unless it was 
 intended by Albany simply to irritate the English and 
 confirm them in their determination to keep King James 
 a prisoner — appears to have been singularly ill-planned. 
 Beaufort, Duke of Exeter, who had gone on a pilgrimage 
 to Bridlington, no sooner heard the news than he hurried 
 to the Borders, collecting men upon his way, and joined 
 with the northern barons to resist the invaders. Another 
 army hastened northwards under John Duke of Bedford, 
 the King's brother, who had been left as guardian of the 
 kingdom in Henry's absence. But the Scots, finding 
 that England was in a much better state to resist them 
 than they had anticipated, abandoned the siege of Rox- 
 burgh, and shamefully returned home. The expedition 
 reflected so little honour upon the country that it was 
 called by the Scots themselves '■ the Foul Raid,' and by 
 that name is known in history. It was severely punished 
 by the Warden of the Marches, who, during the next 
 two years laid waste the whole of the eastern borders 
 of Scotland, reducing Hawick, Selkirk, Jedburgh, and 
 Dunbar to ashes. 
 
 6. By some it was insinuated that Sir John Oldcastle 
 had been privy to this invasion. It was said that an 
 emissary of the Scots had conferred with Oldcastle at 
 Pomfret, and that Oldcastle had offered him a large sum 
 of money if he would get his countrymen to bring the 
 supposed King Richard with him into England. Such 
 reports, of course, are evidence of nothing but the strong 
 
ro4 Henry V. 
 
 CH. V 
 
 feeling of aversion with which the Lollards were re- 
 garded ; but as such they are significant. Oldcastle had 
 Oldcastle now lain concealed from the King's officers for 
 heJdedand ^^^ years and a half; but about this time 
 executed. he narrowly escaped being apprehended at 
 St. Alban's, after which he was actually captured on 
 the lands of Lord Powis in Wales. He was at once 
 brought up to London, and, as Parliament was then in 
 session, he was put on trial before his peers. The old 
 indictment was brought up against him, and he was con- 
 demned to death. The sentence was executed upon him 
 in the same barbarous manner in which it had already 
 been executed on some of his followers. He was taken 
 to St. Giles's Fields where the rising had occurred in his 
 favour neaily three years before ; and there he was hung 
 from a gallows by a great iron chain, and a fire being 
 kindled beneath him he was burned to death. 
 
 IV. Sze£^e and Capture of Rouen — Mnrder of the Duke 
 of Burgundy — Treaty of Troyes. 
 
 I. The progress of the Enghsh arms in France did 
 not, for a long time, induce the rival factions in that 
 country to suspend the civil war among them- 
 selves. But at length some feeble efforts were 
 made towards a reconciliation. The Council of Con- 
 stance having healed the divisions in the Church by the 
 election of Martin V. as pope in place of the three rival 
 popes deposed, the new pontiff despatched two cardinals 
 to France to aid in this important object. By their 
 Ma ' 2 mediation a treaty was concluded between the 
 
 Queen, the Duke of Burgundy, and the dau- 
 phin ; but it was no sooner published than the Count 
 ;»f Armagnnc and his partisans made a vehement protest 
 
i4i8. Siege and Capture of Rouen. 105 
 
 against it and accused of treason all who had promoted 
 it. On this Paris rose in anger, took part with -pj^^ p^_ 
 the Burgundians, fell upon all the leading Ar- sians revolt 
 
 , . . 1 T J against the 
 
 magnacs, put them m prison and destroyed Armagnacs, 
 their houses. The dauphin was only saved ^^^y 30. 
 by one of Armagnac's principal adherents, Tannegui du 
 Chatel, who carried him to the Bastille. The Bastille, 
 however, was a few days after stormed by the 
 populace, and Du Chatel was forced to with- 
 draw with his charge to Melun. The Armagnac party, 
 except those in prison, were entirely driven out of Paris. 
 But even this did not satisfy the rage of the multitude. 
 Riots continued from day to day, and a report being 
 spread that the King was willing to ransom the captives, 
 the people broke open the prisons and mas- 
 
 . f^ , . _, _ June 12. 
 
 sacred every one of the prisoners. The Count 
 of Armagnac, his chancellor, and several bishops and 
 officers of state were the principal victims ; but no one, 
 man or woman, was spared. State prisoners, criminals, 
 and debtors, even women great with child, perished in 
 this indiscriminate slaughter. 
 
 2. Almost the whole of Normandy was by this time 
 in possession of the English ; but Rouen, the capital of 
 the duchy, still held out. It was a large city, siege of 
 strongly fortified, but Henry closed it in on Ro"en. 
 every side until it was reduced to capitulate by hunger. 
 At the beginning of the siege the authorities took mea- 
 sures to expel the destitute class of the inhabitants, and 
 several thousands of poor people were thus thrown into 
 the hands of the besiegers, who endeavoured to drive 
 them back into the town. But the gates being absolutely 
 shut against them, they remained between the walls and 
 the trenches, pitifully crying for help and perishing for 
 want of food and shelter, until, on Christmas Day, 
 jvhen the siege had continued nearly five months, Henry 
 
io6 Hejirv V. 
 
 CH. V. 
 
 ordered food to be distributed to them *in the honour of 
 Christ's Nativity.' Those within the town, meanwhile; 
 were reduced to no less extremities. Enormous prices 
 were given for bread, and even for the bodies of dogs, 
 cats, and rats. The garrison at length were induced 
 to offer terms, but Henry for some time insisted on 
 their surrendering at discretion. Hearing, however, 
 that a desperate project was entertained of undermining 
 the wall and suddenly rushing out upon the besiegers, he 
 consented to grant them conditions, and the city capi- 
 A.D. 1419. tulated on January 19. The few places that 
 Jan. 19. remained unconquered in Normandy then 
 
 opened their gates to Henry ; others in Maine and the 
 Isle of France did the same, and the English troops 
 entered Picardy on a further career of conquest. 
 
 3. Both the rival factions were now seriously anxious 
 to stop the progress of the English, either by coming at 
 once to terms with Henry, or by uniting together against 
 him ; and each in turn first tried the former course. The 
 dauphin offered to treat with the King of England ; 
 but as Henry demanded the whole of those large posses- 
 sions in the north and south of France which had been 
 secured to Edward III. by the treaty of Bretigni, he felt 
 that it was impossible to prolong the negotiation. The 
 Duke of Burgundy then arranged a personal interview at 
 Meulan between Henry on the one side and himself and 
 the French queen on behalf of Charles, at which terms of 
 peace were to be adjusted. The Queen brought with her 
 the Princess Catherine her daughter, whose hand Henry 
 himself had formerly demanded as one of the conditions 
 on which he would have consented to forbear from in- 
 vading France. It was now hoped that if he would take 
 her in marriage he would moderate his other demands. 
 But Henry, for his part, was altogether unyielding. He 
 insisted on the terms of the treaty of Bretigni, and on 
 
f4i9- Siege and Capture of Roue7t. 107 
 
 keeping his own conquests besides, with Anjou, Maine, 
 Touraine, and the sovereignty over Brittany. 
 
 4. Demands so exorbitant the Duke of Burgundy did 
 not dare to accept, and as a last resource, he and the 
 dauphin agreed to be reconciled and to unite in the 
 defence of their country against the enemy. They held 
 a personal interview, embraced each other, , , 
 
 July ii 
 
 and signed a treaty, by which they promised 
 each to love the other as a brother, and to offer a joint re- 
 sistance to the invaders, A further meeting was arranged 
 to take place about seven weeks later to complete matters 
 and to consider their future policy. France was delighted 
 at the prospect of internal harmony and the hope of de- 
 liverance from her enemies. But at the second interview 
 an event occurred which marred all her prospects once 
 more. The meeting had been appointed to take place at 
 Montereau, where the river Yonne falls into the Seine. 
 The duke, remembering doubtless, how he himself had 
 perfidiously murdered the Duke of Orleans, allowed the 
 day originally appointed to pass by, and came to the 
 place at last after considerable misgivings, which appear 
 to have been overcome by the exhortations of treacherous 
 friends. When he arrived he found a place railed in 
 with barriers for the meeting. He nevertheless ad- 
 vanced, accompanied by ten attendants, and being 
 told that the dauphin waited for him, he came within the 
 barriers, which were immediately closed behind him. 
 The dauphin was accompanied by one or two gentlemen, 
 among whom was his devoted servant, Tannegui du 
 Chatel, who had saved him from the Parisian massacre. 
 This Tannegui had been formerly a servant of Louis 
 Duke of Orleans, whose murder he had been ,, , 
 
 ... , Murder of 
 
 eagerly seekmg an opportunity to revenge ; the Duke of 
 and as the Duke of Burgundy knelt before ^"^^""'iy- 
 the dauphin, he struck him a violent blow on the 
 
ro8 Henry V. 
 
 CH. V. 
 
 head with a battle-axe. The attack was immediately 
 followed up by two or three others, who, before the duke 
 was able to draw his sword, had closed in around him 
 and despatched him with a multitude of wounds. 
 
 5. The effect of this crime was what might have been 
 anticipated. Nothing could have been more favourable 
 to the aggressive designs of Henry, or more ruinous to 
 the party of the dauphin, with whose complicity it had 
 been too evidently committed. Philip, the son and heir 
 of the murdered Duke of Burgundy, at once sought means 
 to revenge his father's death. The people of Paris be- 
 came more than ever enraged against the Armagnacs, 
 and entered into negotiations with the King of England. 
 The new Duke Philip anj Queen Isabel did the same, 
 the latter being no less eager than the former for the 
 punishment of her own son. Within less than three 
 months they made up their minds to waive every scruple 
 as to the acceptance of Henry's most exorbitant demands. 
 He was to have the Princess Catherine in marriage, and, 
 the dauphin being disinherited, to succeed to the crown 
 of France on her father's death. He was also to be 
 regent during King Charles's life ; and all who held 
 honours or offices of any kind in France were at once to 
 swear allegiance to him as their future sovereign. Henry, 
 for his part, was to use his utmost power to reduce to 
 obedience those towns and places within the realm v/hich 
 adhered to the dauphin or the Armagnacs. 
 
 6. A treaty on this basis was at length concluded at 
 Troyes in Champagne on May 21, 1420, and on Trinity 
 
 Sunday, June 2, Henry was married to the 
 May^2\!°* Princess Catherine. Shortly afterwards, the 
 ofiVoyes treaty was formally registered by the states of 
 Henry's the realm at Paris, when the dauphin was 
 
 "^ ' ' condemned and attainted as guilty of the 
 murder of the Duke of Burgundy and declared in- 
 
(4?.o. Murder of the D like of Biirgimdy. 109 
 
 capable of succeeding to the crown. But the state of 
 affairs left Henry no time for honeymoon festivities. On 
 the Tuesday after his wedding he again put himself at 
 the head of his army, and marched with Philip of Bur- 
 gundy to lay siege to Sens, which in a few days capitu- 
 lated. Montereau and Melun were next besieged in suc- 
 cession, and each, after some resistance, was compelled 
 to surrender. The latter siege lasted nearly four months, 
 and during its continuance Henry fought a single combat 
 with the governor in the mines, each combatant having 
 his vizor down and being unknown to the other. The 
 governor's nnme was Barbason, and he was one of those 
 accused of comphcity in the murder of the Duke ol 
 Orleans ; but in consequence of this incident, Henry 
 saved him from the capital punishment which he would 
 otherwise have incurred on his capture. 
 
 V. Henry's Third Invasion of France — His Death. 
 
 1. Towards the end of the year Henry entered Paris 
 in triumph with the French king and the Duke of Bur- 
 gundy. He there kept Christmas, and shortly afterwards 
 removed with his Queen into Normandy on 
 
 his return into England. He held a parlia- 
 ment at Rouen to confirm his authority in the duchy 
 after which he passed through Picardy and Calais, and 
 crossing the sea came by Dover and Canterbury to 
 London. By his own subjects, and especially in the 
 capital, he and his bride were received with profuse 
 demonstrations of joy. The Queen was crowned ^, ^ 
 
 • 1 T 1 The Queen 
 
 at Westmmster with great magnificence, and crowned, 
 afterwards Henry went a progress with her ^^^* ^^' 
 through the country, making pilgrimages to several of the 
 more famous shrines in England. 
 
 2. But while he was thus employed, a great calamity 
 
no Henry V. 
 
 CH. V 
 
 befell the English power in France, which, when the news 
 arrived in England, made it apparent that the King's 
 presence was again much needed across the Channel. 
 His brother, the Duke of Clarence, whom he had left as 
 his lieutenant, was defeated and slain at 
 Beauge, Beaug^ in Anjou by an army of French and 
 
 March 22. Scots, a number of English noblemen being 
 also slain or taken prisoners. This was the first impor- 
 tant advantage the dauphin had gained, and the credit of 
 the victory was mainly due to his Scotch allies. For the 
 Duke of Albany, who was Regent of Scotland, though it 
 is commonly supposed that he was unwilling to give 
 needless offence to England lest Henry should terminate 
 his power by setting the Scotch king at liberty, had been 
 compelled by the general sympathy of the Scots with 
 France to send a force under his son the Earl of Buchan 
 to serve against the English. The service which they 
 did in that battle was so great that the Earl of Buchan 
 was created by the dauphin Constable of France. 
 
 3. Again Henry crossed the sea with a new nrmy, 
 having borrowed large sums for the expenses of the ex- 
 Henry's pedition. Before he left England he made a 
 I'as'ion'of private treaty with his prisoner King James 
 France. of Scotland, promising to let him return to 
 his country after the campaign in France on certain 
 specified conditions, among which it was agreed that 
 he should take the command of a body of troops in aid 
 of the English. James had accompanied him in his last 
 campaign, and Henry had endeavoured to make use of 
 his authority to forbid the Scots in France from taking 
 part in the war, but they had refused to acknowledge 
 themselves bound to a king who was a captive. By this 
 agreement, however, Henry obtained real assistance and 
 co-operation from his prisoner, whom he employed, in 
 ODHcert with the Duke of Gloucester, in the siege of 
 
1421. Henry s Third Invasion of France. IT! 
 
 Dreux, which very soon surrendered. He himself mean 
 while marched towards the Loire to meet the dau- 
 phin, and took Beaugency ; then returning northwards, 
 first reduced Villeneuve on the Yonne, and afterwards 
 laid siege to Meaux on the Marne. The latter place 
 held out for seven months, and while Henry r>- u r 
 lay before it, he received intelligence that his Henry VI.. 
 queen had borne him a son at Windsor, who * 
 
 was christened Henry. 
 
 4. The city of Meaux surrendered on May 10, 1422. 
 The governor, a man who had been guilty of great 
 cruelties, was beheaded, and his head and a.d. 1422. 
 body were suspended from a tree, on which ^^^ ^°- 
 he himself had caused a number of people to be hanged 
 as adherents of the Duke of Burgundy. Henry was now 
 master of the greater part of the north of France, and his 
 queen came over from England to join him, with reinforce- 
 ments under his brother the Duke of Bedford. But he was 
 not permitted to rest ; for the dauphin, having taken from 
 his ally the Duke of Burgundy the town of La Charite on 
 the Loire, proceeded to lay siege to Cosne, and Philip, 
 having applied to Henry for assistance, he sent forward 
 the Duke of Bedford with his army, intending shortly to 
 follow himself. This demonstration was sufficient. The 
 dauphin felt that he was too weak to contend with the 
 united English and Burgundian forces, and he withdrew 
 from the siege. 
 
 5. Henry, however, was disabled from joining the 
 army by a severe attack of dysentery ; and ^„ 
 
 •' ; 1 , , -11 Illness and 
 
 though he had at first hoped that he might be death of 
 carried in a litter to head-quarters, he soon ^"''^ ' 
 found that the illness was far too serious to permit him to 
 carry out his intention. He was accordingly conveyed 
 back to Vincennes near Paris, where he grew so rapidly 
 worse that it was evident his end was near. In a fe\p 
 
112 Henry V. 
 
 CH. V. 
 
 brief words to those about him he declared his will touch- 
 ing the government of England and France after his 
 death until his infant son should be of age. The regency 
 of France he committed to the Duke of Bedford, in case 
 it should be declined by the Duke of Burgundy. That 
 of England he gave to his other brother, Humphrey Duke 
 of Gloucester. To his two uncles, Henry Beaufort, 
 Bishop of Winchester, and Thomas Beaufort, Duke of 
 Exeter, he entrusted the guardianship of his child. He 
 besought all parties to maintain the alliance with Bur- 
 gundy, and never to release the Duke of Orleans and the 
 other prisoners of Agincourt during his son's minority. 
 Having given these instructions he expired, 
 ^"^' ^^' on the last day of August, 1422. 
 
 6. His death was bewailed both in England and 
 France with no ordinary regret. The great achieve- 
 ments of his reign made him naturally a popular hero ; 
 nor was the regard felt for his memory diminished when 
 under the feeble reign of his son all that he had gained 
 was irrecoverably lost again, so that nothing remained of 
 all his conquests except the story of how they had been 
 won. Those past glories, indeed, must have seemed all 
 the brighterwhen contrasted with a present which knew but 
 disaster abroad and civil dissension at home. The early 
 death of Henry also contributed to the popular estimate 
 of his greatness. It was seen that in a very few years he 
 had subdued a large part of the territory of France. It 
 was not seen that in the nature of things this advantage 
 could not be maintained, and that even the greatest 
 military talents would not have succeeded in preserving 
 the English conquests. 
 
 7. Nor can it be said that Henry's success, extraordi- 
 nary as it was, was altogether owing to his own abilities. 
 That he exhibited great qualities as a general cannot be 
 denied ; but these would have availed him little if the 
 
1422. 
 
 DeatJi of Henry. i r 3 
 
 rival factions in France had not been far more bitierly 
 opposed to each other than to him. Indeed, it is diffi- 
 cult after all to justify, even as a matter of policy, his 
 interference in French affairs except as a means of di- 
 verting public attention from the fact that he inherited 
 from his father but an indifferent title even to the throne 
 of England. And though success attended his efforts 
 beyond all expectation, he most wilfully endangered the 
 safety, not only of himself, but of his gallant army, when 
 he determined to march with reduced forces through the 
 enemy's country from Harfleur to Calais. It was a rash- 
 ness nothing less than culpable, but that in his own 
 interest rashness was good policy. Unless he could suc- 
 ceed in desperate enterprises against tremendous odds 
 and so make himself a military hero and a favourite of 
 the multitude, his throne was insecure. He succeeded ; 
 but it was only by staking everything upon the venture — 
 his own safety and that of his whole army, which if the 
 French had exercised but a Httle more discretion, would 
 inevitably have been cut to pieces or made prisoners to 
 a man. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE AND THE WAR IN 
 BOHEMIA. 
 
 I. In speaking of the visit of the Emperor Sigismund to 
 England, we have already made allusion to the famous 
 Council of Constance, which commenced its sittings in 
 the year 141 5. But it is right that we should here give 
 some account of what led to the meeting of that council, 
 and also of what it did, and of the events to which its 
 proceedings gave rise. 
 
 2. It has been observed in a former chapter that or 
 M.H I 
 
f 14 Henry V. ch. vi. 
 
 the election of Urban VI. at Rome in 1378, a portion of 
 the cardinals set up a rival pope named Cle- 
 
 The schism ,^^^ , , , , , , , . 
 
 in the ment VII. who brought back the see to Avig- 
 
 papacy. ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ recognised by France and some 
 
 other countries. This Antipope Clement died in 1394; 
 but the party which had adhered to him elected as his 
 successor a native of Arragon, who assumed the name 
 of Benedict XIII. Meanwhile the other party, which 
 bad adhered to Urban, elected a new pope on his death, 
 and afterwards two more in succession, the last of whom 
 was named Gregory XII. But efforts were now made 
 on both sides to terminate the evils of this long con- 
 tinued schism. Benedict XIII. at Avignon and Gregory 
 XII. at Rome, were each elected under a promise to 
 resign if his rival would do the same, in order that a 
 new pope might be chosen who should be acknowledged 
 by both parties. But neither Gregory nor Benedict 
 showed any willingness to give up his title for the good 
 Councilor of Christendom, and, a council being held 
 Pisa. ^^ pjg^ jj^ 1409, they were both deposed, and 
 
 a new pope, Alexander V., elected in their place. The 
 decision of the council, however, did not very much mend 
 matters, for neither of the deposed popes would acknow- 
 ledge its authority, and the result was to make three 
 rival pontiffs instead of two. The validity of the act of 
 deposition, however, was generally acknowledged, and 
 when Alexander V. died the year after his 
 
 A.D. 1410. '' 
 
 election, he was succeeded by Cardinal Cossa, 
 who called himself John XXIII. 
 
 3. Now it must be mentioned that this schism in the 
 papacy was also the cause of a succession of rival claim- 
 Rival kings ants to the throne of Naples ; for the kings of 
 of Naples. Naples held their kingdom of the Pope as 
 their superior lord, and when Queen Joanna, who then 
 ruled, adhered to the Avignon pope, Clement VII., she 
 
I4IO. The Council of Constance. 1 1 5 
 
 was deposed by a bull of the Roman pope, Urban VI. 
 who called in Charles of Durazzo to give effect to his 
 sentence. This Charles soon took possession 
 
 A. D. I38'>. 
 
 of the kingdom and put Joanna to death ; but 
 Louis Duke of Anjou, whom she had named as her suc- 
 cessor, was crowned at Avignon by Clement VII. and 
 went to Italy to dispute his title. Within a very few 
 years both the rivals died, leaving their pretensions to 
 their sons, who with very varying fortune, each at times 
 gaining great successes against the other, kept up the 
 struggle for nearly thirty years. In 1399, the year when 
 Henry IV. obtained the throne of England, Ladislaus, 
 che king who adhered to the Roman pope, made himself 
 for the time completely master of the kingdom, of which 
 he kept undisturbed possession for ten years. During 
 this interval he was also invited to become King of Hun- 
 gary, and crowned in opposition to King Sigismund, who 
 was afterwards emperor. But in 1409 his rival, Louis 
 of Anjou, having been recalled by the Neapolitans, ob- 
 tained a recognition of his title from the Council of 
 Pisa and the new pope Alexander V. Two years later a 
 battle took place between the two rivals, in which Ladis- 
 laus was utterly defeated, to the great delight of John 
 XXIII., Alexander's successor, who denounced him as a 
 heretic and published a crusade against him. Ladislaus 
 was shortly afterwards driven to make his peace with Pope 
 John ; but in 141 3 he suddenly gained possession of 
 Rome, and was meditating an attack on Bologna, whither 
 John had retired, when he was arrested by mortal ill- 
 ness. 
 
 4. It was no great wonder that Ladislaus showed vei7 
 little respect for the authority of Pope John. That pon- 
 tiff had been elected at Bologna, where his Popejohn 
 predecessor died, by the influence of Louis of ^^^^^■ 
 Anjou, the French king of Naples, who had at the time 
 
Ii6 Henry V. cii. vr. 
 
 a fleet off Genoa intended to act against Ladislaus. 
 Pope John was a Neapolitan by birth, and in his youth, 
 though he had ah-eady entered the Church, he had served 
 at sea in the war between Louis and Ladislaus. After- 
 wards he had gone to Rome, where being made chamber- 
 lain to Pope Boniface IX., he had driven a trade in 
 itimony and the sale of indulgences. His morals were a 
 matter of public scandal, and his election was a shock to 
 all good men. But he was a man of great ability and a 
 consummate politician. Of course when he was made 
 pope he took the part of Louis against Ladislaus ; but 
 when Ladislaus took possession of Rome and drove him 
 to Bologna, he suggested to Sigismund, who was now 
 become emperor, the convocation of a general council to 
 promote the peace of Europe by restoring unity to the 
 Church. Sigismund acquiesced in the proposal and ap- 
 pointed that the council should meet at Constance. By 
 this time Pope John repented of the advice that he haa 
 given, as the death of Ladislaus left him free to go back 
 to Rome ; but the matter was now settled. 
 
 5. Besides the rival claims of three different popes, the 
 council had to take into consideration the subject of 
 heresy ; for the doctrines of Wycliffe had spread beyond 
 
 England and were very popular in Bohemia. 
 
 John Huss, the confessor of Sophia, Queen of 
 Bohemia, was deeply imbued with them, and had trans- 
 lated several of Wycliffe's works into the Bohemian 
 language. So great was the influence he had obtained that 
 he was made rector of the university of Prague, and 
 though excommunicated by the Archbishop of Prague, 
 he gathered by his preaching a considerable party, till 
 disturbances took place in public between his followers 
 and the supporters of papal authority. These evils were 
 aggravated by the publication of a bull of Pope John for 
 a crusade against King Ladislaus — a project which Huss 
 
1414- The Council of Constance. II7 
 
 strongly denounced both by word and writing. People 
 in the streets of Prague cried out that Pope John was 
 Antichrist. Some of the ringleaders were captured by 
 the authorities and put to death in prison. But their 
 partisans obtained possession of their bodies and carried 
 them to the different churches wrapped in cloth of gold^ 
 where the priests exhibited them to the assembled wor- 
 shippers as saints and martyrs for the truth. 
 
 6. The Council at Constance was opened on Friday, 
 November 16, 1414, Pope John himself presiding. The 
 Emperor Sigismund arrived at Christmas. ^, ^ 
 
 K -x r • 1 1 T^ The Council 
 
 At the first session some one accused the Pope of Con- 
 of a long catalogue of crimes, some of which s^^"^^- 
 were regarded as too scandalous to be divulged. He was 
 struck with consternation at the indictment, and took 
 counsel with a few confidential friends what to do. He 
 confessed to them that some of the charges were true, 
 but was disposed to take comfort in the thought that a 
 pope could not be deposed except for heresy. He was, 
 however, advised by his friends to resign, and a.d. 1415. 
 this he promised to do on March 2, at the March 2. 
 second session of the council. Shortly afterwards he 
 escaped from the city in disguise, and resuming his 
 authority, ordered the council to dissolve. But the 
 council came to a determination that their authority as a 
 general council was superior to that of the Pope himself, 
 and that instead of their obeying the Pope, he was bound 
 to obey them. Pope John was accordingly sent for and 
 brought back to Constance ; the charges against him 
 were examined, and on May 29 he was deposed and 
 thrown into prison. 
 
 7. After this Gregory XH. submitted to the authority 
 of the council, and his resignation of the papacy was 
 received on July 4. Benedict XHI., the one remaining 
 claimant of pontifical honours, was in Spain, and some 
 
Ii8 Henry V. 
 
 CH. VI. 
 
 negotiation was required to induce him to resign as well 
 But the Emperor left the Council and went to Narbonne. 
 where he had a meeting with the King of Arragon, who 
 with the Kings of Castile, Navarre, and other countries 
 which had hitherto supported Benedict, engaged by their 
 ambassadors to withdraw their obedience from him ; after 
 which he was deposed by the council on March 30, 1417. 
 Thus, a way being opened for the election of a new pope 
 A.D. 1417. with a valid title, a conclave v/as held at Con- 
 Nov. II. stance, in which Martin V. was chosen as 
 head of the Church. 
 
 8. John Huss had received a summons to appear 
 before the council. He obtained a safe-conduct from 
 the Emperor Sigismund, and arrived at Constance with 
 a large suite of followers on November 3, 1414. On his 
 way thither he had posted up placards in the difterent 
 towns, offering to dispute with any anyone on matters of 
 theology. He had challenged the Archbishop of Prague 
 in this manner to a disputation before he left Bohemia. 
 But he found Constance a very different place from his 
 own city, and soon had cause to doubt about the treat- 
 ment he should receive there notwithstanding his safe- 
 conduct. He attempted to escape, but was brought back 
 and committed to prison. Efforts were made to get him 
 to retract his heresies, but in vain. The Council passed 
 sentence upon him, ordered his books to be burned, and 
 himself to be degraded from the priesthood. Being then 
 Martyrdom as a layman delivered over to the secular arm, 
 A^a 1415. ^^^ ^^^' ^y ^^^ authorities of Constance, con- 
 July 6. demned to be burned at the stake, — a fate 
 which he endured with great firmness and heroism. His 
 ashes were then thrown into the Rhine, from a fear lest 
 his disciples should preserve them as relics. 
 
 9. The infliction of capital punishment, after he had 
 rccei /cd the Emperor's safe-conduct, was a thing which, 
 
r4i4- TJie Council of Constance. II9 
 
 apart from the cruelty of the sentence, seemed inconsistent 
 with good faith and honour. But in the eyes of the 
 council heresy was a noxious disease which must be 
 suppressed at any cost for the good of the whole Christian 
 world ; and the Emperor's safe-conduct, it was considered, 
 was only intended to assure his safety in coming up 
 to Constance and pleading his own cause before the 
 council. It gave him an opportunity of vindicating his 
 doctrine by argument, if it could be vindicated to the 
 council's satisfaction ; but it was no more intended to 
 protect an obstinate heretic than if he had been a mur- 
 derer. As John Huss had failed to justify his doctrines to 
 the satisfaction of the council, and refused to abandon them 
 at their bidding, his safe-conduct availed him no further. 
 
 10. The attention of the council was at the same time 
 called to the doctrines of his master, Wycliffe, which were 
 likewise condemned as heretical ; and so anxious were 
 the assembled fathers to give effect to their censure that 
 they ordered Wycliffe's bones to be dug up and burned. 
 This sentence was put in execution in England shortly 
 afterwards, and the Reformer's ashes were thrown into 
 a rivulet which flows by the town of Lutterworth. 
 
 11. Before the condemnation of Huss, his friend and 
 most devoted follower, Jerome of Prague, was also cited 
 before the council. He had already come to jerome of 
 Constance, but finding that Huss had been Prague, 
 thrown into prison he withdrew, and wrote to the Emperor 
 from Uberlingen, desiring a safe-conduct to return. He 
 also caused placards to be set upon the church doors at 
 Constance, offering to come and clear himself from the 
 imputation of heresy if no violence were offered him. It 
 was in answer to this that the summons was sent out 
 against him. Jerome, meanwhile, receiving no satisfactory 
 assurances of safety, was making his way back to Bohe- 
 mia, but he was arrested on the road and brought back to 
 
120 Henry V. 
 
 CH. VI. 
 
 Constance. After the sentence executed upon Huss he 
 made a retractation, but, doubts being entertained as to 
 the sincerity of his conversion, he was subjected to further 
 examination, and confessed that he had only been driven 
 to recant by fear. He denounced his own cowardice, 
 recalled what he had said, and expressed his full adhesion 
 to the doctrines of Wycliffe and Huss. Sentence of con- 
 demnation was accordingly passed against him as a 
 relapsed heretic, and on May 30, 141 6, he suffered the 
 same fate that Huss had suffered nine months before. 
 His fortitude at the last, like that of Huss, struck be- 
 nolders with admiration. The learned Poggio Braccio- 
 lini, who, by his examination of convent libraries, recovered 
 a number of the writings of the ancient classic authors 
 which had been lost to the world for centuries, was pre- 
 sent at his trial and execution. The learning and 
 eloquence of Jerome won his highest admiration, and his 
 constancy at the stake he could not help comparing with 
 that of Socrates when he drank the cup of hemlock. 
 
 12. The executions of Huss and Jerome of Prague 
 were intended to promote peace and religious union 
 throughout Christendom. They brought anything but 
 peace, however, to Bohemia, the country to which the 
 two martyrs belonged. No sooner was the execution of 
 Troubles in Huss known at Prague than a great sedition 
 Bohemia. arosc. His followers attacked the palace of 
 the archbishop and the houses of the orthodox clergy. 
 The Bohemian nobles wrote an indignant letter to the 
 council, whom they accused of putting to death as a heretic 
 a man who had not been convicted of any error, and they 
 declared their intention of appealing from the council to 
 the future pope against his condemnation. But stronger 
 measures were taken by John Ziska of Trocz- 
 leaderofthe now, chamberlain of Wenceslaus, King of 
 Bohemians. Bohemia, the deposed emperor. This Ziska 
 
1416. The Council of Constance. 121 
 
 was a man of considerable experience in war, who had 
 lost an eye in battle. In 1410 he had lent his services to 
 Jagellon, King of Poland, and distinguished himself at 
 the great battle of Tannenberg against the Teutonic 
 knights. He was a personal friend of Huss, and re- 
 sented his persecution besides as an affront to the people 
 of Bohemia. The same feeling was largely shared by 
 the peasantry, who assembled in great numbers to re- 
 venge the martyr's death, and chose Ziska for their 
 leader. 
 
 13. The death of Jerome, added to that of Huss, in- 
 creased their indignation. Great disturbances took place, 
 which King Wenceslaus, who partly sympathised with 
 the Hussites, was unable to appease. He conceded to 
 them the use of a number of churches in which they 
 might administer the sacrament to the people in both 
 kinds ; but while the Catholic party did all in their powei 
 to resist this innovation, the Hussites only increased their 
 demands. Wenceslaus in vain endeavoured to temporise. 
 The government of Prague was in the hands of the 
 CathoHcs, but on July 30, 141 9, a collision took place 
 between the two parties in the streets ; on which the 
 Hussites, under Ziska, attacked the town hall, and having 
 forced an entrance, threw the magistrates out of the 
 windows. The mob below received them on the points 
 of lances. 
 
 14. King Wenceslaus was much agitated on receiving 
 the news of this outrage, and died a few days after. His 
 brother, the Emperor Sigismund, succeeded him as King 
 of Bohemia. But the Hussites, remembering the perse- 
 cution of their leader, refused to acknowledge his title, 
 and Ziska overthrew his troops in numerous engagements, 
 although the Pope, to assist the Emperor, proclaimed a 
 crusade against the heretics. In the course of these 
 wars Ziska lost his other eye ; but he still continued to 
 
122 Henry V. 
 
 CH. VI 
 
 lead the insurgents with vigour, and soon succeeded in 
 driving the Emperor out of Bohemia. 
 
 15. Such was the state of matters in that kingdom at 
 the time when Henry V. of England died. Sigismund had 
 for the time lost possession of his kingdom, and armies 
 were being raised by the German electors to assist him 
 to recover it. But these armies, too, were defeated by 
 the victorious Ziska, who maintained the cause of the 
 Hussites successfully till his death in 1424; and even for 
 several years after that they were victorious under other 
 leaders. Divisions, however, sprang up among them- 
 selves which were far more disastrous to their cause than 
 all the armies sent against them. The first insurgents 
 under Ziska encamped upon a hill, named by them Mount 
 Tabor, about fifty miles south of Prague. This hill was 
 all but completely surrounded by the river Luschnitz, a 
 tributary of the Moldau, so that it could not be approached 
 except upon one side without crossing the stream. Taking 
 advantage of this position Ziska converted his camp into 
 a fortified town, and his followers obtained the name of 
 Taborites. Other sections of the party were called 
 Horebites, Orphanites, and Calixtines. There was also 
 a very repulsive set of fanatics called the Adamites, who 
 went about naked after the manner of our first parents. 
 This latter sect Ziska had made war upon, nor do they 
 appear to have been at any time part of the Hussite 
 party ; but their mere existence serves to mark how 
 greatly the people of Bohemia were at this time influenced 
 by religious ideas of the most extravagant description. 
 So Httle had the council of Constance done to put an end 
 to heresy ! 
 
 16. The Council of Basle which met in 143 1 adopted 
 a different line of policy. As the burning of heretics, 
 The Council instead of confuting their arguments, had not 
 of Basle. restored peace to the Church, this council used 
 
'431 
 
 TJic War in Bolumta. 123 
 
 every means in its power to assure the Hussites that they 
 might come and discuss their doctrines before them in 
 perfect freedom and security. Won by this invitation, 
 Procopius, surnamed the Shaven, general of the Taborites, 
 came to Basle with a number of his followers. The 
 matters in controversy between them and the Church 
 were discussed at length ; and some concessions were 
 made by the council, especially permitting the laity to 
 partake of the comniunion in both kinds. On this a 
 large number of the Hussites became reconciled to the 
 Church. The remainder still held out ; but their strength 
 was broken, and after some defeats they agreed to recog- 
 nise Sigismund as their king, so that in the year 1436 he 
 entered Prague triumphantly. Still disaffection was not 
 at an end, and long after the death of Sigismund religious 
 factions continued to agitate Bohemia. Even two centuries 
 later the Bohemians rose in arms and commenced a long 
 and bloody war to vindicate anew those principles for 
 which the Hussites had contended. 
 
 CHAPTER Vn. 
 
 HENRY VI. 
 
 I. The K big's Minority and the French War. 
 
 I. The death of Henry V. was an event which the 
 English could not help feeling as a calamity of no ordi- 
 nary kind. No other of their kings had ever been so 
 lamented. In his brief reign of nine years and a half he 
 had done more than Edward III. and the Black Prince 
 had succeeded in effecting. He had virtually added 
 another kingdom to his inheritance — a kingdom larger, 
 richer, and with a finer climate than his own. He had 
 compelled the King of France to disinherit his own son 
 
124 Henry VI. 
 
 CH. VIL 
 
 and to adopt him as his heir, with the concurrence of the 
 estates of the realm. Vet he was called away before he 
 could secure these advantages on a satisfactory basis, 
 and he was obliged to leave to others the task of vindi- 
 cating for his son against the dauphin the rights that had 
 been conceded to him by the treaty of Troyes. 
 
 2. It was a task that occupied the attention and fully 
 engaged the energies of all England for a long time after. 
 Nothing is more remarkable in the history of the next 
 twenty years than the almost total absence of domestic 
 England cvents of any interest. The whole mind of the 
 wholly oc- nation was absorbed with the war in France, 
 
 cupied with , , r i 
 
 the French and cvcn the arrangements for the government 
 ^^''- at home were at first of subordinate impor- 
 
 tance. The crown of England was no longer a question 
 in dispute. Though the son of Henry was an infant of 
 only nine months old, the claims of the Earl of March 
 were not for a moment thought of Every Englishman 
 desired that infant peacefully to succeed his father. The 
 title to the crown of France was the only thing in ques- 
 tion, and to maintain that every nerve was strained : on 
 France all eyes were riveted. 
 
 3. One domestic question, however, had to be settled 
 at the outset. According to the constitution of England 
 all acts of government emanate from the king ; but when 
 the king, either from being under age or from some 
 other disqualification, is unable to act himself, his au- 
 thority devolves upon the great council of the lords, who, 
 if he were capable of acting, would be his natural ad- 
 The council visers. This authority the lords on the present 
 will not occasion were solicited to yield up to Hum- 
 regency in phrey Duke of Gloucester, who claimed the 
 England. regency under the will of the late King his 
 brother. But the council withstood his claim, and when 
 Parliament assembled the House of Lords determined 
 
1422. The King's Minority. 1 2 1; 
 
 that the late King's will on this point was invalid, not 
 being warranted by precedent or constitutional usage. 
 The Duke of Gloucester was empowered to act, but only 
 with the consent of the council, as the young King's 
 representative in summoning and dissolving Parliament. 
 He was admitted to be the King's chief councillor in the 
 absence of his brother Bedford ; and an act was passed 
 committing to him in Bedford's absence the care of 
 defending the kingdom, with the title of Protector. But 
 his functions in this respect were very limited, and the 
 real work of government was entrusted to a committee oi 
 lords and commoners. 
 
 4. As for France, King Charles, according to Henry's 
 dying request, first offered the regency to the Duke of 
 Burgundy, and on his refusal gave it to Bed- The Duke 
 ford. He was at first to govern in the name Regent'iif 
 of Charles ; but within two months after France, 
 the death of Henry, the unhappy King of France 
 also died. The infant who had already sue- ^ 
 
 Oct. 21. 
 
 ceeded to the throne of England by the name 
 of Henry VI. was now, by the treaty of Troyes, King ol 
 France as well, and had in his uncle Bedford the ablest 
 administrator that could have been found to advance his 
 interests there. The dauphin, however, on his father's 
 death, of course claimed to succeed him. The English 
 laughed at his pretensions, and called him in mockery 
 the King of Bourges ; but he was acknowledged south of 
 the Loire to the borders of Guienne, and he had no lack 
 of good soldiers, both of his own country and of the Scots, 
 to assist him in recovering his inheritance. 
 
 5. In accordance with the advice of Henry V. to 
 preserve at all hazards the friendship of the Duke of 
 Burgundy, Bedford began by marrying that duke's sister. 
 He also promoted another marriage by which the duchy 
 of Brittany was for a time won over to the league against 
 
126 Henry VI. 
 
 CH. VII. 
 
 Charles VII., and nearly the whole sea coast of France 
 was placed practically in the power of the English. These 
 marriages took place amid the stir and bustle of war, and 
 small time was wasted by the duke in wedding festivities. 
 The enemy had surprised various places in Champagne 
 and even in Normandy. But Bedford sent an army into 
 Burgundy under the Earl of Salisbury, who after an 
 obstinate battle raised the siege of Crevant on the Yonne. 
 For some years afterwards the war went on 
 the English vcry favourably to England. The great victory 
 arms. of Verneuil in 1424 opened to the English the 
 
 way into the province of Maine, which they reduced with 
 ease. The affairs of Charles were in a desperate con- 
 dition, and would probably have been still more so but 
 for dissensions which sprang up among the English at 
 home between the Duke of Gloucester and Henry Beau- 
 fort, Bishop of Winchester, the Lord Chancellor, of which 
 we shall give an account hereafter. 
 
 6. To put an end to the interference of Scotland in 
 the war with France, the English council determined in 
 Liberation ^^3 to fulfil the promise made by Henry V. 
 of James I. to liberate King James and restore him to his 
 country. Accordingly, after an unjust confinement of 
 more than eighteen years, the ambitious Duke of Albany 
 being now dead, James was set at liberty for a ransom of 
 40,000 pounds, on swearing to a treaty by which the 
 kings of England and Scotland were forbidden to assist 
 each other's enemies. To engage James still further to 
 the English interest he was given in marriage Lady Jane 
 Beaufort, sister of the Earl of Somerset, a lady for whom 
 he had conceived a great affection, and the sum of 10,000 
 marks was deducted from his ransom for her dower. 
 
1429. 
 
 The French War. 1 27 
 
 II. The Siege of Orleans, yoan of Arc. 
 
 1. By the ability and vigour of the Duke of Bedford's 
 administration the English not only succeeded in main- 
 taining their conquests for several years, but even gained 
 ground upon their enemies. For a time they made them- 
 selves undisputed masters of nearly the whole territory 
 north of the Loire ; and in the summer of 1428 it was 
 determined to make one great effort to drive the forces of 
 Charles south of that river. Accordingly, reinforcements 
 having arrived from England under the Earl of Sahsbury, 
 an advance was made upon Orleans. After taking severaJ 
 places round about, the English laid siege to g; ^f 
 the city in October. The undertaking was a Orleans, 
 great one. Salisbury caused sixty forts to be built about 
 the city, to prevent succours being sent in ; and on six of 
 the largest he planted batteries which opened fire upon 
 the walls. In course of time the English gained posses- 
 sion of a tower which commanded the city. From a 
 window in this tower Salisbury one day took a survey of 
 the fortifications, when a shot from the besieged shattered 
 the iron casement, so that the earl was mortally wounded 
 by the fragments. His command was immediately taken 
 by the Earl of Suffolk. 
 
 2. The siege continued for several months, and in the 
 spring of the following year gave rise to a remarkable 
 action called the Battle of Herrings. At the 
 beginning of Lent Sir John Fastolf, a brave Bkttle'??" 
 warrior who, having distinguished himself at ^^""'"S'^ 
 Agincourt and elsewhere, had been entrusted with the 
 government of Normandy, and afterwards with that of 
 Anjou and Maine, was commissioned by the Regent to 
 conduct a convoy of provisions, chiefly consisting of salt 
 fish, to Orleans for the use of the besiegers. The French, 
 having ascertained that such a convoy was to be sent, 
 
T28 Henry VI. ch. vh 
 
 determined to intercept it upon the road. Fastolf had 
 
 an escort of 1,700 men, but the enemy came upon him in 
 
 superior numbers. He, however, entrenched 
 Feb. 12. , . 1 V- J 1 . . 
 
 his men behmd the waggons contammg the 
 
 provisions, and they not only sustained the attack with- 
 out flinching, but fought so bravely that they threw their 
 assailants into confusion. As soon as it appeared that 
 they began to give way Fastolf ordered the barricade to 
 be removed, and the enemy were pursued with very great 
 slaughter. Among the slain were six-and-twenty officers 
 of distinction. 
 
 3. The fall of Orleans seemed now inevitable. The 
 policy of undertaking the siege of such a city had been 
 doubted by Bedford in the first instance. The effort had 
 certainly taxed the resources of England to the utmost; 
 but apparently it was about to be crowned with success. 
 Charles expected to be driven entirely from the central 
 parts of France, and talked of retiring into Dauphind. 
 A proposal was made by the French to put Orleans in 
 the hands of the Duke of Burgundy. It was scouted by 
 the Regent Bedford in terms which perhaps increased 
 the coolness of his ally. He was not the man, he said, 
 to beat the bush that others might catch the birds. The 
 besieged were reduced to almost utter despair, when one 
 of the most marvellous occurrences in history put an end 
 to their suspense. 
 
 4. In the month of February 1429 — about the very 
 time that Sir John Fastolf disconcerted the attempt of 
 the French to surprise his convoy of herrings— a young 
 woman in a remote province of France presented herself 
 before the commanding officer of the district, declaring 
 that she had a divine commission to succour Orleans 
 and to conduct King Charles to Rheims, to be crowned 
 after the manner of his ancestors. The name of this 
 enthusiast was Jeanne d'Arc, or as some French anti- 
 
i,y2>). 
 
 The Siege of Orleans. 1 29 
 
 quaries prefer to write it, Dare ; but for ages the French 
 themselves have spelt it with an apostrophe, joan of 
 and in English we have been accustomed to ^'■^• 
 call her Joan of Arc. She was a native of the village of 
 Domremy, on the Meuse, in the duchy of Bar, on the 
 borders of Lorraine. She was of poor but pious parents. 
 Even from her girlish years she had seen visions and 
 heard voices from Heaven, and so persuaded was she ol 
 her divine mission that she had kept herself unmarried 
 against the wish of her father. The officer to whom she 
 made known her intentions naturally thought her at first 
 a person of deranged intellect ; but on further consider- 
 ation he determined to comply with her request and send 
 her to King Charles, who was then at Chinon in Tou- 
 raine. Dressed and armed like a man, she set out in 
 the company of two neighbours, a herald, an archer, and 
 two pages, on a journey of almost two hundred and fifty 
 miles, through a country- intersected by numerous rivers 
 and mostly in the possession of the Enghsh. On March 5 
 she arrived at Chinon, after eleven days' travelling. 
 
 5. On her coming to the King it is related that she 
 gave evidence, in more ways than one, of the possession 
 of supernatural gifts. It is said thatshe identi- .. 
 
 ^ ,£,,,. °, ,., , -- , . . Marvellous 
 
 tied Charles m a dress like that of his courtiers, stories 
 and revealed to him a secret known only to ^^°"^ ^^' 
 himself. She also demanded and had given to her a sword, 
 from a church in Touraine ; which sword, according to 
 the most marvellous reports, she described minutely 
 be/ore seeing it, although it was buried in the ground 
 beneath the altar. Whatever may have been the facts, 
 she succeeded in persuading people that she had been 
 sent either by God or by the Devil. Belief in all sorts of 
 occult influences was in this age particularly strong, and 
 Charles commissioned a number of divines to inquire as 
 to the source of her inspiration. The purity of her 
 M.H. K 
 
I30 Henry VT. 
 
 CTT VTT. 
 
 patriotism — the genuineness of her rehgious feehng — were 
 such as to make a sinister interpretation impossible, and 
 the divines reported that she had clearly a call from 
 Heaven. She was accordingly furnished with a charger, 
 a suit of armour, and a banner, and sent the Duke of 
 Bedford a formal summons to raise the siege, which was 
 treated with the contempt that might have been expected. 
 But having come to Blois, where a force had assembled 
 for the relief of Orleans, she was allowed to accompany 
 the detachment. By her orders the camp was freed of 
 all loose characters, and every soldier confessed. By a 
 rapid march they arrived in two days before the city. 
 After the first night's camping out she took the sacra- 
 ment in presence of the troops. A multitude of dis- 
 solute soldiers, animated by a new spirit, did the same. 
 The whole army was raised out of despondency to the 
 highest pitch of enthusiasm ; and rumours of the holi- 
 ness and miracles of the Maid were repeated even in the 
 English camp. 
 
 6. Even where her over-confidence might have been 
 disastrous it only increased her repute. She had pro- 
 posed to come upon Orleans by the right bank of the Loire 
 through the thick of the English army. In this she was over- 
 ruled by the generals, who took her the other way. But 
 she persisted that the generals had done wrong, and told 
 them that they should rather have listened to the voice of 
 Heaven than their own counsels. ' For, see,' she said, ' I 
 bring you the best of possible succours. The King of 
 Heaven, at the prayer of St. Louis and of St. Charlemagne, 
 has had pity on the town of Orleans.' These words, as 
 it was afterwards reported, were instantly verified by 
 a celestial sign. A convoy of provisions was to have 
 embarked a few miles above the city to be conveyed 
 down the river, but the vessels had been detained at 
 Orleans by contrary winds The wind, however, im- 
 
1429. Joan of Arc. 131 
 
 mediately changed, the vessels proceeded up from 
 Orleans, and Joan herself embarked with the convoy. 
 At nightfall she entered the city, bringing victuals and 
 stores for the garrison. She was received as if she 
 had been an angel from heaven, and rode through the 
 streets on a white charger, amid the acclamations of the 
 people 
 
 7. After this she directed operations against some of 
 the forts surrounding the city, and obtained possession 
 of four successively after inflicting great losses on the 
 besiegers. The English had lost all spirit for the fight. 
 They were persuaded a power now fought against them 
 that was more than human. Already the siege had lasted 
 seven months, and it was difficult to maintain the strain 
 much longer. The besieging army withdrew on May 1 2, 
 pursued by the French in its retreat. Misfortunes began 
 to overtake the English arms on all sides. The Earl of 
 Suffolk was made prisoner at the capture of Jargeau. 
 The brave Lord Talbot was made prisoner at the battle 
 of Patay. The Regent Bedford was forced to return 
 once more to Paris, and wrote home to the government 
 in England that the tide of success had been turned by 
 ' a limb of the Fiend,' called by the enemy the Pucelle. 
 Such were the terms in which even he did not disdain to 
 speak of the heroic Maid ! 
 
 8. She now persuaded Charles to march to Rheims 
 that he might be crowned. He set out at the head 
 of 10,000 men, summoning the towns to surrender as 
 he went along. After a short resistance Troyes capitu- 
 lated, and Chalons followed its example. The citizens of 
 Rheims then drove out the Enghsh garrison, Charles 
 and presented the keys to Charles, who entered RhdmJj ^^ 
 the city in triumph. The coronation took July 17- 
 place the day after. 
 
 9. The Maid had accomplished her mission, and 
 
 K 2 
 
r32 Henry VL 
 
 CH. VTT. 
 
 would now have withdrawn once more into private life ; 
 but the King persuaded her to remain in his service, and 
 expressed his gratitude for what she had done by granting 
 her native village of Domremy a perpetual exemption 
 from tributes. The effect of the coronation was seen 
 immediately afterwards in the surrender of a large 
 number of other towns to Charles, while Bedford felt 
 himself so weak that he did not dare hazard a blow in 
 their defence. He sent pressing messages to England 
 for reinforcements, and urged that, to counterbalance the 
 coronation of Charles, the boy King Henry should also 
 be crowned king of France. The English council agreed 
 with this advice, but thought it desirable that he should 
 Henry first be crowncd in England. That ceremony 
 
 EiWand^" was accordingly performed on November 6 at 
 Nov. 6, ' Westminster ; and as it implied that Henry, 
 though only eight years old, entered then on the actual 
 functions of royalty, the Parliament decreed a few days 
 later that the title of Protector given to the Duke oi 
 Bedford and to Humphrey Duke of Gloucester should 
 from that time cease. 
 
 lo. Two whole years elapsed after the coronation at 
 Westminster before Henry could be crowned in France. 
 He went thither in 143c, accompanied by 
 ' ''^^°' Cardinal Beaufort, leaving the Duke of Glou- 
 cester in England as guardian of the realm. He seems 
 to have stayed at Rouen the whole of that year and the 
 and in next, and only towards the close of the year 
 
 A.^"i43i ^43^ ^^ w'^vX to Paris, where he was crowned 
 Dec. 16. on December 16. Bedford would fain have 
 
 carried him through the country to Rheims and had the 
 ceremony performed there ; but it was found impossible 
 lo make the attempt with safety. The journey, even to 
 the capital, was not wholly free from danger ; for Charles 
 had already approached dangerously near to Paris, while 
 
1 43 1. -^^^ Coronation in Paris. 133 
 
 the Regent was in Normandy. The latter was also 
 conscious that he could not greatly rely on the constancy 
 of the Duke of Burgundy, to whom he gave up the pro- 
 vinces of Champagne and La Brie * in order to secure his 
 friendship. 
 
 II. But in the meantime an event had occurred 
 which revived considerably the spirits of the English. 
 The Duke of Burgundy, gratified by the cession of 
 Champagne, laid siege to Compiegne. The Pucelle, 
 hearing of the attempt, threw herself into the town, not 
 altogether, as it is supposed, to the satisfaction of the 
 governor, who did not desire to share with a woman the 
 glory of defending it. On May 25, 1431, she a.d. 1431. 
 made a sortie, but was obliged to retire. Her ^^^ ^s- 
 retreat, however, was cut off, orders having been given 
 either by mistake or malice, to shut the gates ^ 
 
 r 1 1 • 1 1 1 • 1 Capture of 
 
 of the town and to raise the drawbridge. Joan of 
 
 Under these circumstances she was com- ^^' 
 pelled to yield herself a prisoner to the officers of the 
 Duke of Burgundy. The English were delighted beyond 
 measure at the incident, and the Regent Bedford lost no 
 time in obtaining from the Burgundian general her 
 delivery into his own hands. The English government 
 then instituted a process against her for witchcraft before 
 ecclesiastical judges, by whom she was found guilty ; 
 but on recanting her pretensions of a divine mission 
 her life was spared, and she was condemned to be im- 
 prisoned for life and fed on bread and water. This 
 humiliation might have been sufficient to satisfy the 
 vengeance of her enemies ; but further punishment was 
 in store for her. In her recantation she abjured from 
 
 ^ La Brie was a district to the west of Champagne proper, 
 nearly corresponding with the modern department of Seine and 
 Marne. 
 
134 Henry VI. 
 
 CH. VII. 
 
 thenceforth the wearing of male attire ; but after hei 
 return to prison her own armour was left in her way, and 
 she could not resist the temptation to put it on. The act 
 was observed by spies, a new information was laid against 
 her, and it was at once determined to carry out the capital 
 sentence already passed upon her, as upon a 
 burned as relapsed heretic. She was burned to death 
 a heretic. -^^ ^^ market-place at Rouen, on May 30, 1431. 
 12. The cruelty and vindictiveness of this wicked act 
 did not help to retrieve the fortunes of the English in 
 France. Superstitious fear seems to have largely in- 
 fluenced her persecutors, but they were not relieved from 
 it by her death. The Church had pronounced sentence 
 upon her, most of the judges were her own countrymen, 
 and even Charles did not make an effort to save her ; 
 but the English themselves could not feel satisfied that 
 all was fair. The majority might still talk of her as a 
 witch and a sorceress, but those who had witnessed her 
 deeds and sufferings were not without a sense that an 
 innocent woman had been slain and that God would 
 take vengeance on the act. The war went on languidly. 
 The French obtained possession of Chartres, and the 
 lukewarmness of Burgundy as an ally was more manifest 
 every day. At home, people were becoming weary of 
 the cost of the protracted struggle. Efforts were made 
 by the Pope to negotiate a peace, which came to nothing, 
 as the English refused to acknowledge Charles as King of 
 France. But Bedford himself was well aware that his 
 power of maintaining the struggle was no longer what it 
 had been. 
 
 III. Gloucester and Beaufort. Negotiatio7is for Peace. 
 
 I. In England, from the very beginning of Henry's 
 reign, there had been a struggle for power between Hum- 
 phrey Duke of Gloucester and Henry Beaufort, Bishop of 
 
1 43 1 . Gloucester and Bea nfort, 1 3 5 
 
 Winchester, afterwards Cardinal. Tlie former was the 
 brother, the latter the uncle, of the late King Henry V. 
 We have already mentioned that the council Rivalry of 
 from the first disallowed the claim of Glouces- ^)^f- ^"'^^ «' 
 
 Uloucester 
 
 ter to be regent under his brother's will, and and Beau- 
 appointed him merely Protector. But the S w?n?°^ 
 duke was dissatisfied with his limited powers, Chester, 
 and showed a great inclination to presume upon his 
 position as the King's leading councillor. Beaufort took 
 the lead in opposing these pretensions, and his oppo- 
 sition to the duke led to a number of unseemly quarrels, 
 in which the bishop had certainly the advantage in point 
 of wisdom, while his rival endangered the affairs of the 
 whole kingdom by his extraordinary indiscretion. At 
 one time his conduct, besides being scandalous in point 
 of morality, very nearly alienated the Duke of Burgundy 
 from the English alliance. He enjoyed, however, con- 
 siderable popularity, and was called 'the good Duke 
 Humphrey,' while the manifest ambition of Beaufort, and 
 the fact of his being a churchman, prevented him from 
 gaining the entire goodwill of the nation. 
 
 2. In 1427 Beaufort received from the Pope the 
 dignity of cardinal, and was shortly after appointed papal 
 legate in England. This at once created a „ 
 
 1 • r 1- A T , Beaufort 
 
 new subject of dispute. A cardinal was a made a 
 servant of the Church, not of the State. He '^'^'"^^• 
 was a vassal of the Pope, not a minister of England , 
 and the question was raised whether by the mere accept- 
 ance of such a position Beaufort had any longer a right 
 to sit in the King's council or to enjoy the revenues of 
 the bishopric of Winchester. Gloucester strongly urged 
 his exclusion, and for some time the council entertained 
 so much doubt upon the question that they refused to come 
 to a decision, and desired the cardinal to abstain from 
 attending the chapters of the Garter till the King should 
 come of age. 
 
136 Henry VI. 
 
 CH. Vll. 
 
 3 The cardinal, however, soon made it evident that 
 his promotion in the Church did not by any means make 
 him less zealous for the interests of his country. It was 
 Rome he intended to betray, not England. His dignity 
 had been conferred on him that he might make war on 
 The cru- heretics, and the Pope had issued a bull for a 
 Safnstthe crusade against the Hussites in Bohemia. 
 Hussites. Beaufort petitioned the King's council for 
 leave to publish it in England, and to collect subscriptions 
 and raise men for the enterprise. This was granted, but 
 the number of men was reduced to half of the demand 
 on the ground that men were so much needed for the 
 defence of the kingdom. Still, it was the Church's cause. 
 Englishmen were invited by the cardinal to enlist for the 
 benefit of their souls. A force was conveyed across the 
 sea ; but before it left England, it was arranged between 
 the council and the cardinal that it should be detained in 
 France and employed against the enemies of England. 
 Joan of Arc had already raised the siege of Orleans, and 
 was conveying Charles to be crowned at Rheims. It was 
 a great crisis, and Beaufort could excuse himself to the 
 Pope by pretending that the expedition had been di- 
 verted from its professed object against his will. 
 
 4. By this discreditable juggle the cardinal had at 
 least proved to the satisfaction of the council and the 
 House of Lords that he preferred at heart the interests of 
 his country to those of the Church. Notwithstanding that 
 the fact was unprecedented of a cardinal taking part in 
 the deliberations of the King's council, he was invited to 
 resume his seat there on the understanding that he should 
 absent himself whenever matters came to be discussed 
 between England and the court of Rome. Both Houses of 
 Beaufort's Parliament commended his loyalty, and it was 
 ascendancy, evident that he had completely re-established 
 his ascendancy. Duke Humphrey, on the other hand, 
 
,40. Gloucester ivid Beaufort. 1 37 
 
 was divested of his title of Protector at the coronation, 
 and though he never desisted, while he hved, from his 
 efforts to supplant or injure his rival, those efforts were 
 from this time utterly ineffectual. 
 
 5. These disputes at home affected seriously the 
 
 uiterests of England in the war with France ; and after 
 
 the humiliation inflicted on the English arms by Joan of 
 
 Arc, other causes contributed to render the struggle 
 
 altogether a hopeless one for England. The Duke of 
 
 Burgundy cooled in his friendship for his allies. The 
 
 Duchess of Bedford, his sister, died. Con- „ 
 
 ' ' Peace con- 
 
 ferences for peace took place at Arras, and ferences, 
 
 after their failure the Duke of Burgundy made ^'^' ^^^^' 
 a separate treaty with France. The English wished for 
 a termination of the war, but still looked upon the whole 
 of France as theirs by right, and would only consent to 
 allow Charles a portion of his own dominions as an 
 appanage for which he was to do fealty. At ^ ^ j^^^ 
 length the Regent Bedford died, heart-broken Sept. 14. 
 at seeing his whole policy undermined. Owing to divided 
 counsels, the English government delayed the appoint- 
 ment of his successor until the French had ^ j,. 1436. 
 already retaken Paris ; and though the man April 13. 
 whom they at length appointed as regent proved himself 
 both a statesman and a general of great ability, he was 
 ill-supported at home, and after a very short time he was 
 recalled. 
 
 6. That man was Richard Duke of York, the son of 
 that Earl of Cambridge who was put to death for con- 
 spiracy against Henry V. (See Chap. V. ii. 
 
 5, 6.) After his appointment he retook a num- Duke of 
 ber of towns and castles which had been lost, 
 but he had not been a twelvemonth Regent when he was 
 recalled, and his place was given to Richard Beauchamp, 
 Earl of Warwick, who did nothing remarkable, and died 
 
13S Henry VI. ch. vu 
 
 two years after his appointment. York was then made 
 Regent a second time ; but it was now utterly 
 ■ ^'*'*°' impossible for the Enghsh to do more than 
 stand on the defensive. The loss of the Burgundian 
 alliance made it difficult for them to hold their own in a 
 hostile country, and endangered even Calais, which lay 
 near Philip's Flemish territories. He had, in fact, already 
 once laid siege to it, and was only driven away by an army 
 sent over into Normandy under the Duke of Gloucester. 
 
 7. Both countries had great cause to wish for peace. 
 France was overrun by robber bands, popularly called 
 „ ^, ecorchetirs, or flayers, who not only waylaid 
 
 Robber , , / , , . ' . , . , , 
 
 bands in and plundered their victims, but stripped them 
 
 France. ^£ every vestige of clothing, leaving them no- 
 
 thing but their shirts. These freebooters attacked de- 
 fenceless men of either party, and could not be controlled 
 by either government. Nothing could exceed the misery 
 of a country so long desolated by war and rapine. 
 
 8, But the need of peace for England was even greater, 
 and the English council, under the guidance of Cardinal 
 Beaufort, thought that it might be promoted by the 
 
 liberation of the Duke of Orleans, who had 
 
 Liberation . , . . „ , , 
 
 of the Duke remained a prisoner in England ever since 
 of Orleans. ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ Agincourt. This proposition was 
 directly opposed to the advice given by Henry V. on his 
 death-bed, and it met with the strongest opposition from 
 the Duke of Gloucester ; but the young King, who was 
 now rapidly advancing to manhood, deferred much more to 
 the advice of his grand -uncle the cardinal than to that of 
 his uncle Gloucester. The Duke of Orleans engaged 
 that if permitted to return to his country he would use 
 his best efforts for peace. He took oatli never to bear 
 arms against England, and to pay a ransom of 60,000 
 crowns, which was to be remitted to him if his efforts for 
 peace were successful ; and he was allowed to go. 
 
1441- Negotiations for Peace. 139 
 
 9, When the Duke of Orleans was about to take this 
 oath, Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, to show his dis- 
 pleasure, abruptly left the council and took his barge. 
 His feelings were undoubtedly shared by a large part of 
 the nation ; but his influence was less than it had ever 
 been, and next year he was made to undergo a great 
 humiliation. His private life had been very discredit- 
 able. He had married in 1423 the heiress of the Count of 
 Hainault, a lady who had a husband then alive, and who 
 had only been able to obtain a divorce from him by ap- 
 plying to the Antipope Benedict. To vindicate his claim 
 to her possessions he had invaded the Low Countries, 
 and by so doing had almost provoked the Duke of Bur- 
 gundy even then to renounce his alliance with England. 
 Yet after all he got tired of her, and began to take plea- 
 sure in the society of another woman named Eleanor 
 Cobham, whom he first made his mistress and afterwards 
 his wife. At the period of which we are now speaking 
 this woman was called Duchess of Gloucester. 
 
 10. Suddenly the Duchess Eleanor was accused of 
 witchcraft and treason. Roger Bolingbroke, a chaplain 
 of the duke her husband, was famous for his 
 astronomical learning, and had been led by the xife d1-" 
 study of occult science to practise the art of Qjo^cester 
 necromancy. He was arrested, and exhibited accused of 
 at St. Paul's some wax imagec and other ap- ^' ^ 
 paratus with which he had practised divination ; after 
 which he was drawn, hanged, and quartered. But it was 
 found that he and one Margery Jourdemain, commonly 
 called the Witch of Eye, had been employed by the 
 duchess to destroy the King's life by incantations. The 
 process consisted in making an image of wax like the 
 King which they by degrees consumed, with various spells, 
 it being expected that the King's life would gradually 
 waste away as the image was acted upon. 
 
1 40 Henry VI. 
 
 CH. vu 
 
 II. It would seem that Dame Eleanor had been 
 originally led to take counsel of these persons by her own 
 anxiety to know her future destiny. If Henry happened 
 to die unmarried or without an heir, her husband stood 
 next in the succession, and the prospect of being one day 
 queen inflamed her ambition. She inquired of the magi- 
 cian and of the witch hov/ long Henry was likely to live; 
 and from this it was but a short step to use the forbidden 
 arts to hasten his end. Her ambition, however, was her 
 ruin; and the discovery of her dealings with the sorcerers 
 threw additional discredit on her whole past life. It was 
 declared that she had originally employed love potions 
 to secure the affections of the duke, and to draw him 
 into his second, not very creditable marriage. Never- 
 theless, out of consideration for the duke, the punish- 
 ment of her crime against the King was mitigated. 
 Instead of being made to suffer as a traitor, she was 
 compelled to do public penance for her breach of Christian 
 morality. On three different days she walked through 
 the streets of London with a taper in her hand ; after 
 which she was handed over to the custody of Sir Thomas 
 Stanley, to be imprisoned for life. Her accomplice, the 
 Witch of Eye, was apprehended at Westminster, and 
 was burned to death at Smithfield the day after Boling- 
 broke's execution. 
 
 IV. The King's Marriage. Deaths of Gloucester and 
 Beaufort. 
 
 I. The young King had now come to years of maturity, 
 but he had received his political education mainly from 
 Cardinal Beaufort, and he displayed little in- 
 char^ter. dependence of judgment as he grew up. He 
 was a prince of amiable disposition, and free from all the 
 ordinary forms of youthful vice, but his intellectual 
 
1444- The King'' s Marriage, 141 
 
 endowments were slender, and he became a complete 
 partizan of his grand-uncle the cardinal. His uncle 
 Gloucester he looked upon with positive aversion, partly 
 perhaps in consequence of his immoral life and the 
 scandal arising from the incident of Eleanor Cobham, 
 but also, no doubt, in great part for his persistent advo- 
 cacy of the policy of continuing the war. For Henry's 
 ardent love for peace, associated in his mind with the 
 principles of Christianity and religion, on which he de- 
 sired his government to be founded, caused him to give 
 ready ear to politicians who offered to point out a way 
 of terminating the long-standing war with France. 
 
 2. .Among these politicians there was now another 
 besides Beaufort who began to have considerable in- 
 fluence. William de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, 
 the second son of that earl who had been The Earl of 
 chancellor to Richard II.— a brave man, who moTe?the'°" 
 had distinguished himself in battle with the King's mar- 
 French, and had once been taken prisoner — Margaret of 
 urged upon Henry the policy of a match with ^"J°"- 
 Margaret daughter of Rend Duke of Anjou, titular King 
 of Naples and Jerusalem. She was a woman of great 
 force of character and considerable personal attractions. 
 But the motive which decided Henry in her favour was 
 the same that had induced him to liberate the Duke of 
 Orleans. Her father was the brother of Charles's queen, 
 Mary of Anjou ; and Henry considered that by marrying 
 Margaret he would open a surer way for peace with 
 France than by any other method. He accordingly 
 commissioned Suffolk to negotiate the match, and a 
 treaty of peace or truce at the same time. 
 
 3. The task was a delicate one. English prejudice 
 might be expected to view such a marriage with dislike, 
 not only because the lady was related to the French king, 
 but because the compact for her marriage included a 
 
142 Henry VI. 
 
 CH. VIL 
 
 cession of territory to her father. The provinces o< 
 Maine and Anjou which were then partly in the posses- 
 sion of the English and partly were continually overrun 
 by them, were to be given up to Ren^, while at the same 
 time, in consideration of Rent's poverty, Henry was to 
 accept his daughter without a marriage portion. Suffolk, 
 however, accepted the commission, and met the Duke of 
 Orleans at Tours, with whom he arranged a truce pre- 
 paratory to a more enduring peace. The marriage treaty 
 was then concluded, and Suffolk shortly after his return 
 
 home went over again as Henry's proxy to 
 Henr^'*^* marry her and convey her to England. She 
 marries her, accordingly crossed the sea and landed at 
 
 Porchester, was married to Henry in person 
 at Titchfield a few days after, and a month later was 
 crowned at Westminster. 
 
 4. Suffolk now rose highly in the royal favour. He 
 was raised from the dignity of earl to that of marquis, 
 
 and four years later to that of duke. The 
 made a " Qucen especially felt that she owed him much, 
 '^"^^- and the Queen now mled the King. Suffolk 
 
 became the leading councillor, whose ascendancy was 
 past dispute. The Duke of Gloucester had less weight 
 than ever, and even Cardinal Beaufort was thrown into 
 the shade. But on one point he knew that his conduct 
 could not escape criticism. No one ventured to speak 
 a word against the King's marriage itself. The Duke of 
 Gloucester even headed an address in parliament, recom- 
 mending Suffolk to the King's favour for promoting it. 
 But the terms on which it had been negotiated were such 
 as could not possibly be acceptable to the nation, and 
 notwithstanding many precautions taken by Suffolk to 
 guard himself against censure, a day of reckoning was 
 not far off. It was not merely that the giving had been 
 all on one side, and that Henry had accepted .a bride 
 
r445- '^^^^ Kings Marriage. 143 
 
 without a portion ; but he had given up to King Ren^, 
 the ally and relative of Charles, two rich and important 
 provinces which were the key^ of Normandy. Moreover, 
 peace was not made, because, as might have been ex- 
 pected, the very anxiety for it manifested by Henry only 
 served too well the purposes of Charles. Truce only was 
 concluded from time to time with a view to a more lasting 
 treaty, but difficulties were always found about the final 
 settlement, and in the meanwhile the English still put off 
 the fulfilment of the compact with regard to the cession 
 of Maine. 
 
 5. At the same time the Duke of Gloucester — '■ the 
 good Duke Humphrey,' who had always opposed anything 
 like concessions to France — fell more than ever under the 
 King's displeasure. Suffolk had secretly accused him to 
 the King of treason, and it was determined by Henry that 
 he should be arrested. A Parliament was summoned to 
 meet at Bury St. Edmund's in the beginning 
 
 of the year 1447. Some unusual measures * " ''*'*''" 
 were taken which seemed to be for the protection of the 
 peace against an apprehended revolt. The Duke oi 
 Gloucester came from Devizes to take his place among 
 the peers. He was attended by a retinue of eighty 
 gentlemen on horseback; but this does not appear to 
 have been a greater company than his rank was sup- 
 posed to warrant. On his arrival he was ^^.^.^ , 
 placed under arrest by four or five noblemen death of the 
 sent to him for the purpose by the king. A Gloucester. 
 few days afterwards he died in his lodging, ^'^b- ^s- 
 
 6. Suspicions at once began to be entertained that he 
 had been privately murdered ; and the popular odium 
 rested upon Suffolk as the author of the deed. The case 
 is certainly not free from doubt, but it may very well be 
 believed that the death was really due to natural causes. 
 The occurrence, however, added greatly to the deep 
 
144 Henry VL ch. vii. 
 
 feeling of dissatisfaction with which Suffclk's influence 
 over the King was now generally regarded. A number 
 of Gloucestei-'s followers had been arrested at the same 
 time as himself on the pretence that they had conspired 
 to release Dame Eleanor Cobham and make the duke her 
 husband king. Some of them were condemned to die as 
 traitors, but at the intercession of a London clergyman 
 their lives were pardoned by Henry, and after being 
 actually tied up and hanged on the gibbet they were cut 
 down alive and set free. But the charge of disloyalty 
 against the Duke of Gloucester was very generally disbe- 
 lieved, and attempts were made in successive parliaments 
 to clear his memory of the stain. Owing, however, to 
 the King's own strong belief, whether well or ill founded, 
 in his uncle's guilt, these attempts were for a long time 
 unsuccessful. 
 
 7. Within a very short time after the death of 
 Gloucester his old rival. Cardinal Beaufort, also died. 
 Death of The idea that Gloucester had been murdered, 
 Slufort ^^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^"^"^ Beaufort so soon followed 
 April II. him to the grave, made a deep impression on 
 the popular imagination. In after times it was said that 
 the Cardinal had died in agonies of remorse ; and this 
 view of the case is vividly represented by Shakspeare in 
 the play. But there is very good warrant for believing 
 it to be unfounded. A witness tells us that when he 
 was on the point of death he summoned the clergy of 
 his cathedral to his palace, caused requiems and other 
 services to be chanted for his departing soul, ordered 
 his will to be read aloud and some corrections to be 
 made in it, and finally took a solemn farewell of all his 
 friends. Apparently, on the rise of Suffolk his advice 
 was no longer asked on state affairs, and he applied 
 himself from that time undisturbed to the duties of his 
 bishopric. 
 
i44b. J^ht King's Marriage. 145 
 
 V. Loss of Nor^naiidy — Fall 0/ Ihc Duke of Suffolk 
 
 1. The Marquis of Suffolk, as he was at this time 
 called, though soon afterwards he was made duke, 
 was now the only minister or statesman whose advice 
 was much regarded by the King. But Suftbik 
 after the death of Gloucester the complaints unpopular, 
 against his policy, especially in relation to the stipulated 
 cession of Maine and Anjou, became so general that he 
 himself requested that his conduct in that transaction 
 might be inquired into. It was accordingly 
 examined by the council, who pronounced 
 
 him free from blame ; and a proclamation was issued 
 shortly afterwards forbidding anyone to propagate scan- 
 dalous rumours against him on pain of the King's dis- 
 pleasure. As yet, however, Maine had not been actually 
 delivered. As for Anjou, it had never been really in pos- 
 session of the English, so that no delivery of it was 
 necessary. But the French king, weary of 
 the long delay made by the English in fulfil- 
 ling their engagements, sent an army to besiege Le Mans. 
 The English authorities remonstrated, and an embassy 
 was sent over in great haste to settle the matter without 
 hostihties. Finally the garrison gave up posses- ^, , 
 
 \ , . . 1 J. \ . Mardi 15. 
 
 sion, but protested that m yieldmg up the city 
 
 they did not yield up the rights of Henry as sovereign. 
 
 2. But in truth the loss of such a province as Maine 
 weakened the hold of the English even in the neighbour- 
 ing duchy of Normandy, which was now all that remained 
 to them in the north of France except Calais. The 
 government of Normandy was at this time in the hands 
 of Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, a nephew of 
 Cardinal Beaufort, of whose immense wealth he inherited 
 the principal portion. His influence with the King or 
 with Suffolk had procured him this appointment, and the 
 
 M.H. L 
 
14^ Henry VI. 
 
 CII. Vll. 
 
 Duke of York had been recalled from France to make 
 way for him. Unfortunately, he proved himself a sadly 
 incompetent ruler, and the Duke of York, whom he had 
 replaced, was led afterwards to criticise his conduct with 
 extreme severity. It was a time when it was peculiarly 
 important not to give needless provocation to the King 
 of France. Yet with Somerset's full connivance the 
 A.u. 1449. forces that had been withdrawn from Maine 
 Captie of ^^^^ by assault and pillaged the rich manu- 
 Fougeres. facturing town of Foug^res, on the borders of 
 the duchy of Brittany. 
 
 3. The act was a perfidious violation of the truce with 
 France, in which Brittany had been expressly included. 
 It was disavowed by Somerset, who pretended that it 
 had been done without authority ; but it was impossible 
 that Charles could be deceived by so impudent a false- 
 hood, and he soon repaid the outrage by a similar 
 manoeuvre. He made a secret treaty with the Duke of 
 Brittany. A body of men, professedly in the service of 
 the duke, took by surprise the town of Pont de I'Arche 
 on the Seine — a most important position for the French 
 in the recovery of Normandy. When complaints were 
 made by the English, Charles offered to restore it if they 
 would restore Foug^res. All attempts, however, to 
 adjust the matter by conference proved ineffectual. The 
 French followed up their advantage by taking one or 
 War re- two places more. At last open war was 
 newed. declared, and Somerset found when it was too 
 late that he was utterly unprepared for the emergency. 
 
 4. He wrote over to England in alarm about the 
 strength of the enemy's musters and the weakness of the 
 English garrisons ; but before any efficient succours could 
 be sent a number of towns had already been recovered 
 Rouen t)y the French. In October 1449 they laid 
 D-.sicged. siei;e to Rouen, drove the English out of the 
 
H50 
 
 Loss of Normandy. 147 
 
 town into the castle, and there shut up Somerset himself, 
 who, to procure his own liberty, had to surrender not only 
 that city but several others, leaving the gallant Talbot 
 Earl of Shrewsbury as a hostage till they were delivered 
 up. At the same time the Duke of Britanny invaded 
 Lower Normandy and recovered Foug^res. By the end 
 of the year nearly the whole of Normandy was lost, 
 except Cherbourg, Caen, Bayeux, and a few other towiis 
 on or near the coast. In a very few months lqs^ ^f 
 more, even these were gone. Cherbourg, the Normandy, 
 last English stronghold, surrendered on August 12, 1450. 
 5. As the news of these successive reverses reached 
 England, the general indignation against Suffolk's govern- 
 ment could no longer be restrained. Political ballads 
 were circulated in which he was designated jackan- 
 apes — the first instance that has yet been found of the 
 use of this expression. He was rhymed at as the ape 
 with his clog who had tied Talbot our good dog. The 
 people at large could hardly be persuaded that selfishness 
 and covetousness were not at the bottom of the mis- 
 management which had created such disasters, and a 
 most dangerous spirit began to display itself in acts of 
 popular violence. At the beginning of the 
 year 1450 Adam de Moleyns, Bishop of Chi- '^' ^^^°' 
 Chester, who was keeper of the Privy Seal and one of the 
 most learned men in England, was sent to Portsmouth to 
 pay the wages of some soldiers and sailors. He was a 
 wealthy but a very avaricious man. The King's treasury 
 was ill provided with money, and he endeavoured to 
 persuade the men to be content with less than their due. 
 But they broke out into a mutiny, cried out Murder of 
 that Normandy had been sold to the French, of^chkhes- 
 and accused the bishop of being privy to the ter, Jan. 9. 
 transaction ; on which they fell upon him and put him to 
 death. 
 
14'^ Henry VL ch. vh. 
 
 6. Some words uttered by this murdered bishop just 
 before his death were reported eagerly by Suffolk^s 
 enemies as containing serious reflections on his conduct ; 
 and the circumstance probably contributed to his ruin. 
 S ffbik : Within a month after he was impeached in 
 peached in parliament. He was accused of having been 
 
 parliament. e ^ r • j r t^ 
 
 for many years a secret friend of France, m- 
 fluenced by corrupt motives to procure the liberation of 
 the Duke of Orleans and the cession of Anjou and Maine. 
 It was also alleged that he had betrayed the designs of 
 England to her enemies, and that he had formed an 
 ambitious project for the elevation of his son to the throne 
 by proposing to marry him to Margaret Beaufort, daughter 
 of the last Duke of Somerset, who stood next in succes- 
 sion to the crown. It was even insinuated that had the 
 match taken effect he would have attempted to depose 
 the King — a charge altogether preposterous and incred- 
 ible. In another bill of indictment his whole policy was 
 severely censured and attributed to corrupt and treason- 
 able motives. 
 
 7. Tbe duke made answer to the first bill before the 
 King and lords, entirely denying the truth of the accusa- 
 tions, and offering to prove them false in any manner the 
 King chose to direct. As to the second he declined to 
 ask a trial by his peers, but trusted he had sufficiently 
 vindicated his loyalty, and expressed himself ready to 
 submit to any judgment the King might think proper to 
 pronounce. On this he was told by the lord chancellor 
 in the King's name that on the more serious charges 
 Henry would not pronounce him either guilty or innocent ; 
 but, as he had himself agreed to submit to anything the 
 Suffolk is King thought expedient, Henry, in the exercise 
 lanished. of his own discretion, and not by way of sen- 
 tence, bade him absent himself from England for five- 
 years from the first day of May following. 
 
1450. 
 
 Fall of Suffolk. 149 
 
 8. This was imitating the weakness and the tyranny 
 of Richard II.; and, as the issue proved, it protected 
 neither Suffolk nor the King. The duke went down to 
 Ipswich and embarked for Flanders. A London mob 
 endeavoured to intercept him before leaving Westminster, 
 but he took ship in safety. Af sea, however, he was 
 pursued by a ship called the ' Nicholas of the Tower,' the 
 crew of which insisted on having him delivered up to 
 them, and he was saluted by the master with the words 
 * Welcome, traitor !' He was then told that he must die, 
 and after being allowed a day to confess him- ^^^ ^^^_ 
 self, he was beheaded in a small boat. The deredatsea. 
 body was then brought to land and thrown upon the sands 
 at Dover. 
 
 VI. Jack Cade's Rebellion — Loss of Guienne and 
 Gascony. 
 
 I. Within a month after the murder of the Duke of 
 Suffolk a great rebellion took place in Kent and Sussex. 
 The people complained of extortions practised a.d. 1450. 
 by the King's officers in the collection of the S'eSo?'^ 
 revenue, and also that their grievances could May. 
 not be heard because the knights of the shire were not 
 freely elected. As their leader they selected a man of 
 some ability, who called himself by the name of John 
 Mortimer, and professed to be a cousin of the Duke of 
 York ; but it was afterwards discovered that he was an 
 Irishman, whose real name was Jack Cade. He was, 
 however, a very good disciplinarian and kept his forces 
 together in excellent order. On June i they encamped 
 upon Blackheath. The King was at that time holding a 
 Parliament at Leicester ; but he immediately dissolved 
 the legislature and came up to London. With an army 
 of 20,000 men he marched against the rebels, who wilJi- 
 
150 Henry VI. 
 
 CH. VI I. 
 
 drew before him, so that the King occupied their position 
 on Blackheath. A detachment under Sir Humphrey 
 Stafford and his cousin Wilham Stafford went forward to 
 pursue the insurgents, but was defeated at Sevenoaks and 
 both the Stafifords slain. The nobles who were with the 
 King now declared that they could not keep their men 
 together unless the King would consent to dismiss and 
 punish some of his principal advisers. To satisfy them. 
 Lord Say was arrested and sent to the Tower. But the 
 concession was of little service. The royal forces dis- 
 banded, and though the city of London offered the King 
 their services, he thought it best to withdraw and retired 
 to Kenilworth. 
 
 2. The result of this was that the citizens consented 
 to admit the rebels. Cade passed over London Bridge 
 with his followers. He struck his sword against London 
 Stone and said, ' Now is Mortimer lord of this city.' He 
 caused Lord Say to be fetched from the Tower and 
 arraigned before a court at the Guildhall. The unfortu- 
 nate nobleman claimed to be tried by his peers ; but he 
 was hurried off and beheaded in Cheapside. One 
 Crowmer, sheriff of Kent, who was Lord Say's son-in-law, 
 was beheaded at the same time in Cade's presence ; and 
 the two heads were barbarously carried through the 
 streets on poles and made to kiss each other. Cade now 
 began to relax discipline. He entered the houses of un- 
 popular citizens and pillaged them, so that men who had 
 anything to lose became alarmed for their property. For 
 three days he held possession of the city, retiring every 
 evening into Southwark for the night ; but the mayor 
 and aldermen applied to Lord Scales, who had the keep- 
 ing of the Tower, for a force to drive him out ; and a 
 hard-fought battle took place on London Bridge during 
 the night between the 5th and 6th of July. In the morn- 
 msT the result was still uncertain, when a truce was 
 
I450- Jach Cade's Rebellion. 151 
 
 agreea to for a few hours, and such of the King's coun- 
 ciilors as remained in London offered a general pardon 
 to the insurgents on condition of their laying down theii 
 arms. The offer was very generally accepted, and most 
 of the men returned homewards. Cade was pardoned 
 under the name of Mortimer, his real name being still 
 unknown. But doubtful, perhaps, lest he might still be 
 made responsible, he broke open the King's Bench and 
 Marshalsea prisons and formed a new company out of 
 the criminals detained there. With this force he retired 
 to Rochester and tried to raise new disturbances, but 
 these were soon quelled, and Cade was pursued out of 
 Kent into Sussex, where he was captured by Alexander 
 I den, a gentleman who was about this time appointed 
 sheriff of the former county in place of the murdered 
 Crowmer. On being taken, however, he received a 
 mortal wound and he died before he could be conveyed 
 to London. His head was fixed upon London Bridge 
 with the face looking towards Kent. 
 
 3. It was now evident that the King required the aiu 
 of some strong hand to administer the government. 
 Even before the fall of Suffolk there had been much 
 complaint that he did not employ the Duke of York to 
 redress the wrongs of the people. But the Duke of York 
 had in fact been sent to Ireland as the King's lieutenant 
 some time before, mainly through the influence of Somer- 
 set, and in order that he might be out of the way. The 
 crisis, however, was now so urgent that he ap- ^^^ t>\xVk 
 pears to have thought himself justified in of York 
 
 . , , , T 11 comes over 
 
 coming over without leave. He crossed the from 
 Channel to Beaumaris in Anglesea, where at- Ireland, 
 tempts were made to stop his landing, then collecting a 
 body of his followers in Wales, marched on to London 
 and presented himself before the King. Efforts were 
 made in several places to arrest his progress or prevent 
 
 U' 
 
152 Henry VI . 
 
 CH, VIU 
 
 his friends from joining him upon the way ; but they 
 were ineffectual as regards himself. When he reached 
 the King's presence, the first thing that he did was to 
 demand and obtain a repudiation by Henry himself of 
 certain imputations of disloyalty that had been made 
 against him, and which had been the pretext of many 
 attempts against his person. He then presented a 
 petition for better administration of justice, complaining 
 that persons indicted of treason or accused of it by pub- 
 lic rumour were not brought to trial or even put under 
 arrest ; and he so far prevailed that the King promised 
 to establish a new council, of which York himself should 
 be a member, to inquire into all abuses. 
 
 4. The Duke of Somerset, who had come over from 
 Normandy just before York himself came over from 
 Ireland, now found himself in a painful situation. Fa- 
 voured though he was by the court, he was one of the 
 most unpopular men in England. He was generally 
 considered responsible for the surrender of Caen and the 
 total loss of Normandy ; and when Parliament met 
 towards the close of the year to consider the state of 
 matters in France, he failed to satisfy the peers of the 
 _ . integrity of his conduct. He was according] v 
 
 Somerset is , *' , -^ , ,, . , ^ ^ - 
 
 arrested ; placed Under arrest. But owmg to the favoui 
 afte?°e" ^^ ^^ court he did not long remain in custody, 
 leased and The King, in defiance of popular opinion, not 
 only released him from confinement, but made 
 him captain of Calais and gave him the control of the 
 royal household. For a whole year afterwards his 
 ascendancy was undisputed, and the Duke of York found 
 A.D. 1451 ^^ advisable to withdraw from court to his 
 Loss of own castle of Ludlow. But meanwhile a 
 
 Guienne . ,,_,., 
 
 and series of reverses overtook the English arms 
 
 ascony. j^^ France, and the loss of Normandy was fol- 
 lowed by the no less complete loss of Guienne and Gas* 
 
ti45i. ^^^^ ^f Gmcnne and Gasco7iy. 153 
 
 cony. First Bordeaux capitulated, then Bayonne ; then 
 the whole south of France surrendered, and Calais was 
 now all that was left of English possessions upon the 
 Continent. Nor was even this last stronghold safe ; for 
 not only at this time, but during the whole remainder of 
 Henry's reign, there were continual alarms lest the French 
 should recover Calais also. 
 
 5. It was impossible that the Duke of York could view 
 this state of matters with indifference, — especially when 
 his rival Somerset had the ear of the King and was in- 
 stilling continually into Henry's mind distrust and sus- 
 picion against himself. He accordingly mus- York 
 tered a number of his followers and marched Londin^ ^" 
 up to London. The King and Somerset had a^d. 1452. y 
 full warning, as York had made no secret of his inten- 
 tions, and having collected another army on their side, 
 set out to meet him. York, however, avoided an engage- 
 ment and pressed on to London, which he hoped would 
 have opened its gates to him ; but being denied entrance 
 there, he crossed the Thames at Kingston Bridge and 
 marched into Kent, taking up his position at Dartford. 
 The King's army followed and encamped a few miles 
 from him upon Blackheath. A battle might „ , 
 
 •, 1 111 r 1 March i. 
 
 now easily have taken place, but some of the 
 lords on the King's side made proposals for a compro- 
 mise, and Bishop Waynflete of Winchester, with the 
 Earls of Salisbury and Warwick and some other noble- 
 men, were sent to the Duke of York in embassy to ask 
 the reason why he appeared in arms. The duke replied 
 that he intended no ill to the King or his council, but 
 only desired the removal of the Duke of Somerset and ^ 
 other persons by whom the people had been misgoverned. 
 Several of the lords on the King's side were so far favour- 
 able to this object, that they induced the King to return 
 an answer that Somerset should be placed in custody 
 
154 Henry VL ch. vn. 
 
 until he had acquitted himself of such charges as York 
 He is per- would bring against him. With this promise 
 suaded to j-j^g Duke of York was so entirely satisfied 
 
 dismiss his ' 
 
 forces ; but that he at once broke up his camp, dismissed 
 lo.'pt with* his army, and repaired alone to the King's 
 ^™- tent to declare his loyalty. But here he found 
 
 himself deceived. Somerset had not been placed in con- 
 finement according to promise, but was attending on the 
 King just as before ; and the Duke of York had in fact 
 placed himself in the power of his rival. 
 
 6. Somerset, however, did not dare to make an ex- 
 treme use of this advantage. The duke had still on the 
 Welsh borders about 10,000 men, who, it was said, were 
 actually on the march to London, led by his son Edward 
 Earl of March, a boy of ten years of age. It was resolved, 
 therefore, merely to demand from him an oath of allegi- 
 ance as a guarantee for his future loyalty. This oath he 
 A D. 1452. ^°°^^ ^^ 2^- P^'-'l's on March 10, 1452, and was 
 March lo. allowcd to go at large. 
 
 7. After this the King issued a general amnesty on 
 Good Friday, April 7, and civil dissensions were for a 
 Attcm t to while allayed. Towards the close of the same 
 recover year an attempt was made to recover Guienne 
 and^""^ and Gascony from the French. The inhabi- 
 Gascony. tants of thosc provinccs found themselves more 
 severely taxed by their new masters than they had been 
 when under English rule, and they offered their allegiance 
 again to the King of England. A force was despatched 
 under Talbot Earl of Shrewsbury, which at once took 
 possession of Bordeaux and in a wonderfully short space 
 of time succeeded in recovering foi a while nearly all the 
 A D 1453 ^°s^ provinces. But in the beginning of the 
 June. following Junc, the French king, having care, 
 fully matured his plans, retook, one by one, the fortresses 
 north of the Gironde. and laid siege to Castillon on the 
 
1453- Loss of Gtdcnnc and Gascony. 155 
 
 Dordogne. This place was important as giving its pos- 
 sessors free navigation into the Gironde ; and the Earl of 
 Shrewsbuiy, hearing that it was in danger, suddenly left 
 Bordeaux with a rather inadequate force to compel tlie 
 enemy if possible to raise the siege. Urged on by a 
 false report that the French were in retreat, he pursued 
 in the direction of their supposed flight, and found a well- 
 ordered army with artillery drawn up in battle array. 
 With heedless impetuosity he rushed upon the enemy, his 
 followers uttering their usual war-cry, * A Talbot ! St. 
 George ! ' His gallant army was mowed down -^^w^qx. de- 
 by the fire of the French guns or cut to pieces feated and 
 in hand-to-hand encounter, and he himself fell 
 in the midst of the fight. His body was found covered 
 with wounds on the limbs and on the face. 
 
 8. With the death of Talbot all hope of the English 
 retaining their hold on Gascony was practically at :\x\ 
 end. Castillon at once surrendered ; then a number of 
 other places ; and finally Bordeaux, after every ^^ ,^.^ 
 other stronghold had been evacuated, was October 17. 
 obliged to submit to Charles. Thus was Gascony finally 
 lost, after having been in English possession, Q^scony is 
 with little interruption, for the space of three finally lost, 
 centuries. 
 
 Vn. The King's Illness — Civil War. 
 
 r. About this time King Henry fell seriously ill, and 
 lost entirely, for the time, the use of his mental facuhies. 
 In October he l>ecame a father, the Queen, Henry loses 
 after eight years of married life, giving birth his faculties. / 
 to a son who was baptized by the name of Edward ; but 
 the news could not be communicated to the King so as to 
 reach his understanding. In this crisis the government 
 naturally came to a standstill, and the councillors about 
 the King, however unwillingly, could no longer avoid 
 
156 Henry VI. 
 
 CH. \1L 
 
 seeking the advice of all the peers of the realm, including 
 the Duke of York. The result was that before the end of 
 the year Somerset was accused of treason by the Duke of 
 Norfolk, and committed to the Tower. Norfolk demanded 
 that the circumstances of the loss of Normandy and of 
 Guienne should be made the subject of a criminal inquiry 
 according to the laws of France ; and that other matters 
 relating to Somerset's administration should be investi- 
 gated according to the law of England. Somerset, how- 
 ever, remained in prison a whole year and upwards of 
 two months, without being brought to trial. 
 ^ 2. Meanwhile the King's infirmity made it necessary 
 that some one should be appointed to act in his name. 
 . „ .... Parliament had been summoned to meet at 
 
 A. D. 1454. 
 
 Feb. II. Reading on February 11, 1454. It was imme- 
 
 diately adjourned to Westminster and a commission was 
 given to the Duke of York to act as the King's lieutenant 
 on its reassembling. Soon after it met again Cardinal 
 Kemp, Archbishop of Canterbury, died. He was an ac- 
 complished statesman, and held at the time the office of 
 lord chancellor. It was important that both the primacy 
 and the lord chancellorship should be filled up without 
 delay ; and a deputation was sent by the lords in Parlia- 
 ment to Windsor to ascertain whether the King then 
 possessed such a degree of consciousness as to comprehend 
 the situation. But the deputation were obliged to report 
 that their efforts were an utter failure. They waited on 
 the King and expressed in the first place their anxiety to 
 hear of his recovery ; but the King gave no answer. Not 
 a word did he utter; not a nod or faintest gesture 
 implied that he understood a single thing that was said 
 to him. To provide, therefore, for the necessary govern- 
 York made nient of the kingdom, the lords in Parliament 
 ^ Protector. appointed the Duke of York Protector of 
 England. 
 
145$. '^^^'^ King's Illness. 157 
 
 3. For the first time Margaret of Anjou now found 
 herself entirely without influence in the affairs of the 
 kingdom, which she had, in fact, ruled for years in her hus- 
 band's name. York exercised his new power with vigour, 
 and put down with remarkable facility some factious dis- 
 turbances in the North. But his authority was shortlived ; 
 for at Christmas the King regained possession r^y^^ j^j,^g 
 
 of his faculties, and as a necessary conse- recovers. , 
 
 quence the power of the Protector terminated. The 
 Duke of Somerset was still in prison, but 
 •was presently released on bail ; after which, ^'^' ^'*''^' 
 at a meeting of the council held before the King, his 
 sureties were discharged and he was declared free from 
 any suspicion of disloyalty. It was now clear that the 
 King would be again guided entirely by the advice of . 
 Somerset. York was deprived even of the government ,y 
 of Calais. The Earl of Salisbury, who had been ap- 
 pointed chancellor about the time that York was made 
 Protector, was removed from his post, and Bourchier, 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, was appointed in his room. 
 York and his friends knew well that they were out of 
 favour and held in great distrust. 
 
 4. A council being summoned to meet at Leicester foi 
 the surety of the King's person, the Duke of York, with 
 the Earls of Salisbury and Warwick, who had withdrawn 
 into the North, determined to go up to the 
 
 King with an armed force. They feared that if ' ' ^^^^' 
 they attended the council they would be entrapped : but 
 if the King were in any real danger they professed them- 
 selves ready to offer him their services. They wrote to 
 Archbishop Bourchier to explain to Henry their motives 
 for taking up arms, and they marched on till they came 
 to St. Alban's. Here they were met by the King and y 
 Somerset ; and a sharp battle took place, in which So- 
 merset and a number of other lords were slain, and the 
 
158 Henry VI. ch. vii. 
 
 King was wounded in the neck with an arrow. The 
 May 22. Duke of Yoik was master of the field ; but 
 
 Figt battle i^g .^^^ tj^g E^j-ls j^f Sahsbury and Warwick 
 
 Alban's. came after the engagement and knelt before 
 
 the King, beseeching his forgiv^eness and disowning all 
 intention to do him injury. Henry forgave them willingly 
 / and went on with them to London, where they were re- 
 ceived in triumph the following day. 
 
 5. A Parliament was immediately afterwards sum- 
 moned, in which the acts of the Duke of York and his 
 friends were declared to have been those of good and loyal 
 subjects. It was prorogued till November. In the interval 
 the King fell ill again, and when it reassembled York 
 Vork again was again nominated as Protector. The Par- 
 Protector, liament also determined that the Protectorship 
 this time should not cease by the mere fact of the King 
 being once more able to exercise his functions, but that 
 whenever the King was so far recovered York should be 
 discharged of his functions in full parliament. 
 
 6. In February following he was so discharged. The 
 King had regained his health, and was once more able to 
 and again perform the duties of royalty. Apparently 
 discharged York Still retained some influence in the con- 
 A.D.^1456!^ duct of affairs, but the King now governed in 
 Feb. 25. j^jg Q^yj^ name. Things generally were in an 
 uncertain state for about two years. The court seems to 
 have moved about a good deal at a distance from London. 
 The Queen kept at a distance from the King. The Scots 
 attacked the borders and the French insulted the coast 
 with impunity. At length it was felt desirable that there 
 should be a reconciliation between York and his friends 
 on the one side, and the Queen and her friends on the 
 A.D. 14^,8. other. A great council was held in London 
 Febniary. in February 1 458. York, Salisbury, and War- 
 wick took up their quarters in the city ; but the Duke ol 
 
r/icjy. Civil War. [59 
 
 Somerset and other lords of the Queen's party were not 
 admitted within it lest they should take occasion tc 
 revenge the death of their fathers and other relatives at 
 St. Alban's. Conferences took place daily between the 
 two parties in the suburbs, in the morning at the Black- 
 friars and in the afternoon at the Whitefriars in Fleet 
 Street. In the end terms of agreement were Recondiia- 
 come to by which the Yorkists undertook to ^'°" ^^/^"^ 
 
 •' opposite 
 
 bestow a certain sum in masses for the souls parties, 
 of the lords slain at St. Alban's, and the other party to 
 '"orego all claims and actions against their opponents "^ 
 J rising out of that battle. 
 
 7. A great procession was held in honour of the re- 
 conciliation. The rival lords marched together to St. 
 Paul's. The young Duke of Somerset went hand in hand 
 with Salisbury : the Duke of Exeter with the Earl of 
 Warwick. The King then followed, wearing his crown 
 upon his head. The Duke of York and the Queen walked 
 after him, arm in arm. This goodwill and amity, how- 
 ever, scarcely lasted a whole year. A quarrel between 
 the servants of the King and the Earl of Warwick led to 
 imputations against the earl's loyalty, and he retired to 
 Calais, of which place he had been made lord deputy. 
 The Queen then endeavoured to arrest his 
 
 father the Earl of Salisbury, whom she com- ■ ■ '♦^ • 
 missioned Lord Audley to intercept on a journey. But 
 the earl, being forewarned, had collected a „ , , 
 considerable force, and completely overthrew Bloreheath. / 
 Lord Audley at Bloreheath in Staffordshire on '^^^' ^^ 
 Sunday, September 23, 1459. 
 
 8. It was now evident that the question must be fought 
 out between the party of the Queen and that of the Duke 
 of York. The duke mustered his forces in the marches 
 of Wales, and was joined at Ludlow by the Earls of 
 Salifbury and Warwick, the latter having come over froiri 
 
 y 
 
,(5o Henry VI. cK. vu. 
 
 Calais to give him aid. An army commanded by the 
 rtThimsIf approached Ludlow. The confederate lords 
 endeavou ed ,o avoid a conflict by strong protestations 
 
 the two armies lay opposite each othe., one And^e 
 
 left their banners on the field. 1 he duke anu 
 
 Dispersion ^ Edmund Earl of Rutland, es- 
 
 Cl-s. ."eTby Wale; into Ireland. His eldest, Ed_ 
 
 A rr 1 „f March along with the Earls of Warwick and 
 
 I«pa-^tro Devonshire, where they to^ 
 
 ---r^r^:l^^^T=::tw:^ 
 
 SSS wicUcouldnotbedispossesscdoCalajswhr 
 ,,e soMierswere. dieted to him -e^^- rfn'^e 
 *%eX"yet e trtted :rth the keeping of the sea, in 
 
 mands. The you „ ^^ ^^^^ possession 
 
 over as Captam o^CaUn w^ ^^^^^ ^^ some little dis- 
 of his post. He "»^ ""^^f ^^ii„,.3 „ho had brought 
 tance from Calais, and the very =a ^^^^^^.^ 
 
 him over conveyed their =1''''= ^f;™^ of Warwick, 
 haven and off-d.^--^^^^^^^^^^^ ^ ^^^'^^ over from 
 SaXo^-hrEaTof March, Salisbury, and War- 
 
F.SWeHer.ER.G.S. 
 .Loriqman^ , (jrree>v& Co.LondoTv.ITcii'Yorh&Jiomhay. 
 
 Explanation 
 
 A IrvdiiMbes a Battle Field 
 
 X Attached to a. date indJrates that the plajie was taken sacked, or ,-avo^ged at that d^te, 
 A Indicatss car Encampnhavt 
 
 Ampere date foUawing theruurva ofa.phxce induxites a treaty or soine oih^r point of 
 interest connected w^tHthe place wMch wiU he found recorded, in tjia history 
 
I46u. 
 
 Civil War i6i 
 
 wick. Measures were concerted by these lords for the 
 jnvasion of England, and the Earl of Warwick sailed 
 to Ireland, where he arranged a plan of action in 
 concert with the Duke of York, and returned to Calais. 
 
 VIII. The Duke of YorJSs Claim— His Death— Henry 
 Deposed. 
 
 I. At length, in June 1460, the three earls crossed the 
 Channel. There went over with them a papal legate 
 named Coppini who had been sent to England a.d. 1460. 
 in the preceding year and was returning from {\an:h 
 a fmitless mission, when those lords persuaded Sahshury 
 him to stay a while at Calais and use his in- ^^ck rctiVm 
 fluence to promote peace between them and *° England 
 the King. They landed at Sandwich, and were received 
 with joy by a great multitude of people. Archbishop 
 Bourchier met them and conducted them to London. 
 The legate in their company displayed the standard of 
 the Church. Their followers increased in numbers as 
 they went along, and the city of London opened its gates 
 to them. They published manifestoes declaring how 
 they had been debarred from setting before the King 
 himself matters of great importance to the kingdom, how 
 the laws were ill administered and justice was perverted ; 
 how the people were grievously taxed and the patrimony 
 of the Crown was wasted by men who had too much 
 influence over the King ; how the King's purveyors were 
 driven to great extortion to supply the wants of the house- 
 hold ; and how the King was forcing every township to 
 raise men for him at its own cost. Moreover letters had 
 been written by authority encouraging the French to 
 attempt the siege of Calais, and the Irish chieftains to 
 rise against the Enghsh. 
 
 M.H. M 
 
62 Henry VI. 
 
 CM. V/l. 
 
 2. The King collected his forces at Coventry and went 
 on to Northampton, where he was met by the army ol 
 „ , , the confederate lords. In a brief but sharp 
 
 Battle of , 1 r , r 1 
 
 Northamp- engagement the royal forces were defeated 
 ton, July lo. ^^^ ^i^g Y:mz himself taken prisoner. He 
 was conducted to London, and of course the government 
 of the kingdom fell into the hands of the victors. New 
 officers of state were appointed and a Parliament was 
 summoned which met at Westminster in October. Here 
 the attainders of the Duke of York and his party were 
 reversed. But before it had sat many days the Duke of 
 York himself came over from Ireland, and his appear- 
 ance gave rise to proceedings of a kind altogether un- 
 usual. 
 
 3. He arrived in London with a retinue of 500 men, 
 proceeded to Westminster, and took up quarters in the 
 royal palace. On October 16 he entered the House of 
 Lords, took his seat on the King's throne, and delivered 
 
 to the chancellor a writing in which he claimed 
 claims the the crown for himself by lineal descent from 
 crown. Edward III., and maintained that Henry was 
 
 not rightful king. He was, in fact, descended from 
 Lionel Duke of Clarence, the elder brother of John of 
 Gaunt, from whom Henry and the last two kings had 
 derived their title. Many historians have been of opinion 
 that he had been ambitious to vindicate this claim all 
 along ; but it must be confessed that before this time he 
 had always conducted himself with remarkable modera- 
 tion, and when we consider the bad faith he had re- 
 peatedly experienced from the opposite party, owing to 
 the weakness of the King and the overbearing character 
 of his consort, we can quite well understand that he may 
 have been led to advance his pretensions from other 
 motives tban mere ambition. At the same time, it 
 naturally seemed to the peers an unprecedented thing tc 
 
1460. TJie Duke of- York's Claim. 163 
 
 deprive a king like Henry of his crown after he and his 
 family had worn it for three generations. The greater 
 number of the lords stayed away from the House ; but 
 the duke insisting on an answer, those present referred 
 the matter to the King himself, desiring to know what he 
 could allege in opposition to the duke's claim. The 
 King consulted his judges and lawyers, but they dechned 
 to advise him in a matter of such grave responsibility ; 
 so that finally it was referred again to the lords, who 
 gave it as their opinion that the duke's title could not be 
 defeated. But as Henry VI. had been actually crowned 
 as king and they had all sworn fealty to him, it was 
 suggested as a compromise and agreed to by both 
 parties, that he should be allowed to retain his crown for . 
 life, but that the duke and his heirs should succeed after 
 Plenry's death. This arrangement was embodied in an 
 act of parliament which received the royal assent ; and 
 Henry, wearing his crown upon his head, made a public 
 procession to St. Paul's, accompanied by the duke as heir- 
 apparent, to give it greater solemnity. 
 
 4. Queen Margaret, however, was not so easily satis- 
 fied with this tame surrender of the rights of her son. 
 Since the battle of Northampton she had retired into 
 Wales, and afterwards into Scotland ; but a strong party 
 in the north of England maintained her cause The 
 Duke of York proceeded northwards, and towards the 
 end of the year took up his quarters at Sandal Castle. 
 From this position he allowed himself to be lured to 
 attack the Queen's adherents at Wakefield, 
 where his army suffered a total defeat and he Wakefield, 
 himself was slain in the field. The victors ^^^' ^°' 
 were most merciless and insolent. It is true there is 
 some uncertainty about the stories which were reported 
 by writers of somewhat later date. Queen Margaret her- 
 ,elf is said to have been present at the battle ; and Lord 
 
 y 
 
164 Hmry VI. ch. vn. 
 
 Clifford, who, having lost his father at the battle of St. 
 Alban's, nourished a deadly feeling of hatred and re 
 venge against the Duke of York, presented his slain 
 enemy's head to Margaret with the words, * Madam, 
 your war is done. Here is your king's ransom.' The 
 same Clifford, after the battle, also put to death most 
 cruelly the duke's second son, Edmund Earl of Rutland, 
 a young man not quite eighteen years of age, whose fate 
 excited great compassion, and whom later writers repre- 
 sented to have been a mere boy. But from what the few 
 really contemporary writers say in reference to this battle 
 it may be doubted whether Margaret arrived upon the 
 scene till after it was fought. There seems no question, 
 however, that in this particular engagement there was 
 manifested a spirit of ferocity and vindictiveness which 
 had not been seen before, and which afterwards caused 
 these wars to be looked back upon with feelings of 
 peculiar pain and horror. The Duke of York's head, 
 which Margaret caused to be crowned with a paper 
 crown, was stuck upon the walls of York city. And the 
 Earl of Salisbury, having been taken prisoner in the fight, 
 was beheaded, and his head was placed there too. 
 
 5. Edward Earl of March, the Duke of York's eldest 
 son, had left London shortly before his father and gone 
 into the borders of Wales. He was at Glou- 
 ' ^^ ^' cester when he received the news of his 
 father's death. He immediately moved on to Shrews- 
 bury. The men of the country flocked to him in num- 
 bers, eager to offer their services against Queen Margaret. 
 But hearing that Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke, the 
 half-brother of King Henry, was raising forces in Wales 
 Battle of along with James Butler, Earl of Ormond, who 
 Cross"^^'^^^ brought some bands of Irishmen into the 
 Feb. 2. field, he turned back and met them at Mor- ^^ 
 
 tuner's Cross to the south of Wigmore, in Herefordshire^ 
 
 ^ 
 
i46i. York's Death, 165 
 
 where he thoroughly defeated them on Candlemas Day, 
 146 1. It is said that on the morning of that day, just 
 before the battle, he was struck by the appearance of the 
 sun ; for it seemed as if three suns were seen together in 
 the sky, and that they all at once merged into one, — an 
 omen of approaching success by which he was greatly 
 encouraged. The Earls of Pembroke and Wiltshire fled 
 from the field ; but Sir Owen Tudor, Pembroke's father, 
 was taken prisoner, and was beheaded at Hereford along 
 with some others. 
 
 6. This Sir Owen Tudor deserves notice here as 
 being the ancestor of a line of kings and queens who 
 afterwards sat upon the English throne. He sir Owen 
 was a Welsh chieftain of handsome person ^"dor. 
 and great accomplishments, who boasted a pedigree from 
 the ancient line of Cadwallader. the last king of the 
 Britons. Perhaps the possession of such a lineage 
 placed him, in his own eyes, on a level with kings and 
 princes ; but whether it was due to this, or to his own 
 personal merits, he succeeded in producing such an im- 
 pression on the French princess, Catherine, widow of 
 Henry V., that she became his wife. By her he had, 
 besides some other children, two sons, who being the 
 half-brothers of Henry VI. were afterwards raised to the 
 peerage. Edmund, the eldest, was created Earl of Rich- 
 mond, and became the father of King Henry VII. Jasper, 
 the second, was made Earl of Pembroke ; and it is he 
 who was, as we have seen, defeated by young Edward 
 Earl of March at Mortimer's Cross. 
 
 7. But although Edward had gained a signal victory, 
 Queen Margaret had profited by the resistance offered to 
 him in Wales, and drew towards London with a host of 
 northern men who devastated the country as they went 
 along. The Earl of Warwick brought the King out of 
 T-ondon and met her at St. Alban's, where, for a second 
 
1 66 rhnry VL 
 
 CH. VII, 
 
 time, a battle was fought in this civil war. On this occa- 
 Second sion the Queen's party were victorious and the 
 
 Aibl^'s.^ ^^* Yorkists were put to flight. The King, who had 
 Feb. 17. been left behind, was again at liberty and was 
 
 rejoined by his wife and son. He issued a proclamation 
 against the Earl of March, who was now on his way 
 towards London ; but Edward, joining his forces wi-th 
 the remainder of Warwick's army, marched on unopposed 
 and was received with acclamations as he entered the 
 city. For the citizens, who had always favoured his 
 father, were now driven to take part with him all the 
 more in consequence of what they heard of the depre- 
 dations committed by Margaret's northern troops. 
 
 8. Being therefore now lodged in the capital and 
 assured of the friendship of the people, Edward sum- 
 moned a council of lords, before whom he declared his 
 right to the crown of England ; and it was determined 
 to depose King Heniy on the ground that he had broken 
 the agreement made with the Duke of York in the last 
 Parhament, and shown himself besides incompetent to 
 rule. The lords accordingly named Edward king. 
 That day, at a great meeting in St. John's Field, the 
 The Earl people were asked if they would accept the 
 dedl^e? Earl of March as their sovereign. Cries of 
 king. * Yea, yea. King Edward ! ' filled the air, 
 
 with great shouts and clapping of hands. A deputation 
 of lords and commons then waited upon him at Baynard's 
 Castle, the mansion of his father in Thames Street, to 
 notify to him his election as king. He accepted the 
 dignity, proceeded in state to St. Paul's and afterwards 
 to Westminster, and from that day began to rule. 
 
i46i. Henry Deposed. 167 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 EDWARD IV. 
 
 T. Triumph of the House of York. 
 
 I. Edward was king ; but Henry and Margaret had 
 withdrawn into the North, and an army of 60,000 men 
 under Somerset lay near York. Both Edward 
 and his supporters prepared for a decisive 
 struggle. The Duke of Norfolk went down into his own 
 country to summon his retainers, the Earl of Warwick 
 left London with a great body of men, and Edward him- 
 self followed northwards a few days later. The more 
 advanced divisions of their forces had reached Pomfret 
 and had secured the passage of the river Aire at Ferry- 
 bridge, when Lord Fitzwalter, who kept the bridge, was 
 surprised and slain by Lord Clifford in the Battle of 
 early morning. Lord Falconbridge, however, bHdJe 
 came up immediately afterwards and defeated March 27, 
 Clifford, who was also slain in the encounter. The 
 united forces of Warwick and of Edward then pushed 
 on in the direction of York, and between the villages of 
 Tow ton and Saxton, about eight miles from the city, 
 found the whole army of the enemy drawn up to give 
 them battle. The conflict began about four o'clock in 
 the afternoon, the day after the battle of Ferrybridge. 
 The fighting was continued through the night, and 
 renewed with vigour next morning about nine o'clock, 
 notwithstanding a heavy snow shower which /;^"i^ ^^ 
 blew in the faces of the Lancastrians. That March 29. 
 day was Palm Sunday. The forces engaged on either 
 side were enormous, and never was battle fought so obsti- 
 nately. About mid-day the Duke of Norfolk came up 
 
l6S Edward IV. ch. vi.^ 
 
 to the assistance of the Yorkists, with fresh forces that he 
 had levied in Norfolk. Still the Lancastrians kept the 
 field, fighting most obstinately till about three in the 
 afternoon. But their ranks being broken they were at 
 last compelled to give way, and were pursued in various 
 directions, no quarter being granted by the conqueror?. 
 Some were drowned in attempting to cross rivers ; 
 numbers were cut down in the pursuit, and the way was 
 strewn with corpses for ten miles, up to the very gates of 
 York. On the field itself, after the battle, the spectacle 
 was most ghastly. The snow was crimsoned with the 
 blood of the slain, and as it melted a crimson stream 
 poured down every furrow. The dead were heaped up in 
 trenches, and their numbers, counted by the heralds, were 
 declared to amount to no less than eight-and-twenty 
 thousand. 
 
 2. King Henry and Margaret fled towards Scotland, 
 while Edward entered York in triumph. The power of 
 V Henry was completely crushed, and the first step he took 
 to recover it was not much calculated to advance his 
 object. Driven to seek refuge in Scotland he delivered 
 up Berwick to the Scots and encouraged them to under- 
 take the siege of Carlisle. But the latter place was 
 Coronation relieved by Lord Montague, and Edward 
 of Edward, having returned to London was crowned on 
 Sunday June 28. His two brothers, George and Richard, 
 who had been sent abroad for security, returned and were 
 created dukes, with the titles of Clarence and Gloucester. 
 Parliament was then summoned to meet at Westminster 
 in November, and an act was passed confirming Edward's 
 claim to the crown by hereditary right, and declaring the 
 three preceding kings to have been usurpers. All who 
 had been active in the cause of the House of Lancaster 
 were attainted and their possessions forfeited. Henry 
 himself and Queen Margaret were declared traitors. 
 
1463. Trimiiph of the House of York. 1 69 
 
 3. Still, the whole kingdom was not for some time 
 absolutely in Edward's power. There were castles in 
 Wales which held out for Henry, and Margaret hoped, 
 with the aid of the French and Scots, to make a successful 
 invasion. She sailed from Kirkcudbright ^ j, ^^gg 
 through the Irish Channel into Brittany, and, April 3 
 repairing to the French Court, made a treaty with the 
 new King of France, Louis XL, by which she engaged to ' 
 surrender Calais as the price of his assistance. Louis 
 lent her some money and a small force, with which she 
 returned to Scotland, and made an attempt to invade 
 England by sea. But a violent storm arosC; some of the 
 vessels were sunk and others driven to land on Holy 
 Island off Northumberland, and Margaret herself only 
 escaped in a small fishing-smack to Berwick. Shortly 
 afterwards, however, she made another attempt by land, 
 and, with the aid of the Borderers, entered Northumberland. 
 Her efforts were at first crowned with success. Three 
 strong castles, Bamborough, Dunstanborough, and Aln- 
 wick fell into her hands. But before the end of the year 
 two of them were recovered by the Earl of Warwick, 
 while Edward himself was advancing northwards to drive 
 out the invaders ; and on Twelfth Day, Aln- ^ j, ^^^^ 
 wick, the sole remaining fortress, capitulated January 6. 
 to Lord Hastings. 
 
 4. The cause of Lancaster was now desperate. The 
 castle of Harlech in Wales alone held out for Henry, 
 who appears at this time to have gone thither from 
 Scotland. The Duke of Somerset made his peace with 
 Edward, and was received into favour. Sir Ralph Percy, 
 too, on the surrender of Bamborough and Dunstanborough, 
 had agreed to swear allegiance to Edward on condition 
 that those castles should again be committed to his 
 custody. As for Margaret, she appears to have met with 
 many adventures, and to have narrowly escaped falling 
 
I/O Edzvard IV. ch. vni. 
 
 into the hands of the English. At least there is an anec- 
 dote related of her by an old French chronicler referring 
 to this period, which we will here translate from the 
 original. 
 
 5. * The Queen of England having lost herself one day 
 in a forest in England, and her son along with her, they 
 . . ^ were taken by thieves, who robbed them and 
 
 Adventure •' ' 
 
 of Queen Stripped them of all their valuables, and it 
 argaret. j^^st be supposcd would havc murdered them, 
 but that they squabbled among themselves about the 
 division of the jewels, till they came to blows. ThA 
 the Queen, seeing them fight, took up her son in her 
 arms, and fled into the depth of the forest, where she 
 was so overcome with fatigue that she could go no 
 further. Here she found a brigand to whom she gave 
 her son to carry, saying to him, " Here, my friend, save 
 the son of your king ! " The brigand took him with very 
 good will, and they departed, so that shortly after they 
 came by sea to Sluys. And from Sluys she went to 
 Bruges, her son still with her ; where she was received 
 very honourably, while her, husband, King Henry, was 
 in Wales, in one of the strongest places in England.' 
 
 6. In Flanders Margaret sought the aid of Philip 
 Duke of Burgundy, but he refused to take her part against 
 Edward. He, however, relieved her necessities, and she 
 She retires retired to the duchy of Bar in Lorraine which 
 to Lorraine, belonged to her father, where she remained 
 for some time, watching the course of events. 
 
 7. The triumph of Edward, meanwhile, was not un- 
 disturbed. The Scots invaded England again, and retook 
 the castle of Bamborough. Men to whom much had 
 been entmsted proved unworthy of the confidence reposed 
 in them. Sir Ralph Percy, notwithstanding his late oath 
 of fealty to King Edward, turned traitor once more, and 
 in concert with a certain Sir Ralph Gray, who was dis- 
 
i4b4- Triumph of the House of York, 171 
 
 appointed of being made governor of Alnwick Castle, 
 surprised that fortress and delivered the governor, Sir 
 John Astley, into the hands of the French. A little later 
 the Duke of Somerset also declared again for Henr^', and 
 passed from Wales into Northumberland to join with 
 Percy; while King Henry once more reappeared upon 
 the Borders with a body of Scots and refugees. 
 But the Earl of Warwick's brother John Nevill, ^•"- ^"-^^ 
 Lord Montague, whom Edward had appointed lieutenant 
 of the North, first defeated and killed Percy Battles of 
 in battle at Hedgeley Moor some miles south moo?^^^^ 
 of Wooler, and next overthrew the forces of Aprir25, 
 Henry and the Duke of Somerset at Hexham, ham, 
 King Henry himself fled away and lived in May 14, 
 concealment for more than a year afterwards. Bui 
 Somerset was taken, and in consideration of his treason 
 was beheaded after the battle ; and several other of the 
 leaders of this movement were executed in the same 
 manner shortly afterwards at Newcastle and at York. 
 
 11. Edward's Marriage — Loins XL 
 
 I. So this last effort of the Lancastrians was crushed 
 before Edward himself appeared in arms to oppose it, 
 Edward actually, however, did leave London before 
 the end of April, and his journey northward led to 
 most important consequences of another kind ; but the 
 victory had already been gained for him in his absence, 
 long before he could reach Northumberland. Nor does 
 it appear in fact that he was aware that there was any 
 serious rebellion to put down. By April 30 he had 
 reached Stony Stratford, we know not with what amount 
 of retinue ; but so little was his mind occupied with 
 military matters, that he stole off early on the following 
 morning to pny a secret visit to Grafton, the residence of the 
 
1/2 Edzvard TV. 
 
 CH. VIII. 
 
 old Duchess of Bedford, widow of that nobleman who had 
 been Regent of France during the minority of Henry VI. 
 This duchess since her husband's death had been married 
 to Richard Woodville, Lord Rivers, and she had a grown- 
 up daughter, Elizabeth, who had been married to a certain 
 Sir John Grey, but lost her husband at the second battle 
 of St. Alban's, where he had fought on the side of King 
 Henry. Edward was greatly fascinated by the charms of 
 this widow ; and though he spent on this occasion a very- 
 brief time in her company and returned in a few hours to. 
 Edward's Stony Stratford, he was, at his return, a married 
 marriage, man. The marriage ceremony had been per- 
 ^^ ^' formed in secret at Grafton, but he did not 
 
 dare avow the fact for some months afterwards. 
 
 2. He was at this time but two-and-twenty years of 
 age, but he had already been often urged to marry. An 
 alliance with the royal family of France or Spain it was 
 thought would do much to secure his throne ; but Edward 
 cared far less for such considerations than for the 
 gratification of his own pleasure, which indeed was no»^ 
 always so innocent as on this occasion. Good fortune, 
 far beyond his own m.erits, had hitherto attended his 
 course, and leaving the cares of state to others he had 
 given himself up to the vices of a libertine. His marriage, 
 too, was an act of blind imprudence. From the manner 
 in which it was contracted it disappointed the Earl of 
 
 yi' Warwick and others who had expected him to be guided 
 by their counsels ; while, on the other hand, the com- 
 paratively humble rank of the lady excited the jealousy of 
 many powerful families. 
 
 3. But at Michaelmas following Edward publicly ac- 
 knowledged her as his queen, and next year she was 
 crowned with great solemnity. Riches and honours were 
 showered upon her relations. Her father, from being a 
 simple baron, was created Earl Rivers. Her brothei 
 
r464. Edward's Marriage. 173 
 
 Anthony had ah-eady married a wealthy heiress and 
 received the title of Lord Scales, but another brother, five 
 sisters, and her son by her first husband, Thomas Grey, 
 were also married to leading members of the nobility. 
 These promotions were looked upon with anything but 
 satisfaction by many who had entertained hopes of secur- 
 ing for their own families the heirs or heiresses mono- 
 polised by the Woodvilles. Offices of state, too, were 
 taken from old friends of the House of York and conferred 
 upon the Queen's relations. Lord Mountjoy was dis- 
 charged of the office of lord treasurer to make room for 
 her father Rivers, who on the resignation of the Earl of 
 "Worcester was also created lord high constable. 
 
 4. With these changes came also a change of policy. 
 Of all Edward's councillors the most powerful was Richard 
 Earl of Warwick, the owner of immense pos- ^he Earl of 
 sessions and the governor of the important Warwick, 
 dependency of Calais. It was owing to Warwick more y 
 than to any other man that Edward had been seated on the 
 throne. No other nobleman in England could call into 
 the field such an army of feudal vassals and retainers. 
 No other nobleman kept such an enormous household. 
 When he came to London, the carcasses of six oxen were 
 ■consumed at a breakfast at Warwick's Inn in Holborn. 
 His wealth, his power, his experience, and the distinguished 
 services he had done for Edward's house gave him a right 
 to direct the young King's counsels to which no one else 
 could naturally pretend. Moreover his brother Lord 
 Montague had won for Edward the victory over Henry VI. 
 at Hexham, for which the King had worthily promoted 
 him to the dignity of Earl of Northumberland, with a 
 grant of all the forfeited lands of the Percies. Also his 
 youngest brother George, whom the King had promoted 
 from the bishopric of Exeter to the archbishopric of 
 York, was Edward's chancellor. 
 
1/4 Edward IV. ch. viil 
 
 5. But with the marriage of the King Warwick and 
 the Neviils must have known that their influence over 
 him was certain to dechne. The act itself, indeed, was 
 something hke a forcible breaking away from their rule ; 
 Intended ^^^ Warwick had already set on foot negotia- 
 marriage of tions for marrying the King to Bona of Savoy, 
 
 the King to - • . . .X, r t • vt i 
 
 Bona of who was sister to the queen of Louis XI. 01 
 
 Savoy. France. It is not true, as stated by some old 
 
 historians, that Warwick was at the time absent at the 
 French Court for the express purpose of concluding this 
 match ; but there is quite distinct evidence that he had 
 promoted it. Warwick's policy evidently was to strengthen 
 the new dynasty upon the throne by a strict and cordial 
 alliance with the French king. But Edward and his 
 new advisers had quite different ideas. To them the 
 friendship or enmity of France was a matter of compara- 
 tive indifference ; and they turned their eyes in preference 
 to France's powerful vassal the Duke of Burgundy. The 
 French monarchy was not yet so strong that England 
 need have any great cause to fear it as a rival, while the 
 Court of Burgundy was the most magnificent in Europe. 
 Besides, the traditional policy of England was to humble 
 France as much as possible, and Edward was quite dis- 
 posed to follow it out if once his own dominions were at 
 peace under his rule. 
 
 6. It may be questioned, indeed, whether an alliance 
 with France would have been really so beneficial to him 
 as Warwick supposed. The King df France, Louis XL, 
 was the most subtle and astute politician of his time. He 
 had ascended the throne in the same year as Edward, 
 and the state of his kingdom hitherto had made it a far 
 greater object with him to have peace with England 
 than it was even for Edward to be undisturbed by foreign 
 
 ^ J ^ invasion while putting down Lancastrian in- 
 
 surrections. In the very year after EdwardV 
 
f4f>5- 
 
 Louis XL 175 
 
 marriage the throne of Louis was exposed to extreme 
 and unprecedented danger. A league was formed 
 against him by the great vassals of the French League of 
 Crown, the Duke of Burgundy and his son the weilb"*' ^ 
 Count of Charolois, the Dukes of Britanny France, 
 and Bourbon, and some others, with the view of securing 
 their independence by united action. They called it the 
 League of the Public Weal, and they won over the King's 
 own brother, the Duke of Berry, to take part in it. This 
 formidable confederacy engaged the forces of Louis in a 
 pitched battle at Montlhery, a few miles south 
 of Paris. The field was most obstinately con- J" ^ ^ ' 
 tested on both sides, and when night fell the issue was 
 still undecided. But Louis withdrew his forces in the 
 night time, and bent every effort to fortify Paris itself, 
 which he succeeded in making so strong that the allies 
 could not effectually besiege it. After a few months the 
 war was terminated by the treaty of Conflans, 
 
 f • 1 X • 11- -I 1 -J Octobers. 
 
 m which Louis was obliged to make consider- 
 able concessions ; but, profiting afterwards by the dissen- 
 sions which sprang up among the confederates, he very 
 soon recovered his lost ground and became much strongei 
 than he had been before. 
 
 7. This struggle between Louis and his powerful 
 vassals was essentially the great struggle that occupied 
 him through his whole reign. It was his part PoUcy of 
 to recover and reanimate the depressed and Louis XI. 
 all but extinguished monarchy of France, to vindicate 
 the independence of her Crown and put an end to do- 
 mestic feuds. As regards foreign princes his only anxiety 
 was that they should leave him at peace to work out this 
 great home problem undisturbed ; and perhaps the very 
 insignificance to which French royalty had been reduced 
 in some degree favoured his design. For Louis was a 
 king that scorned appearances, and could well be content 
 
I yd Edward IV. ck, vtil 
 
 to secure the reality of power without its semblance. Nevei 
 perhaps was there a king in Europe whose manners were 
 less kingly. His way of life was not merely unostenta- 
 tious but parsimonious. He avoided show as much as 
 possible. In appearance he was not imposing, in dress he 
 was peculiarly slovenly, and he utterly despised the pomp 
 of state. He treated in the most familiar manner men 
 of the lowest birth, made his barber his chief councillor, 
 and walked about in the company of hangmen. This 
 familiarity with men of low rank in itself did much to 
 alienate the nobles, but on the other hand it identified the 
 interests of the people with those of a king who was always 
 affable, always accessible, who took men for what they 
 were really worth, and not for what they were made by 
 birth and station. 
 
 n I. The Btcrgundian Alliance — WarivicJ^s Intrigues 
 
 I. Still, England was at peace with France, and there 
 might be hopes of a cordial amity. Nor had any open 
 dissensions broken out among the English nobles at home. 
 Edward summoned both the Nevills and the Woodvilles 
 to his counsels, and they came. Questions regarding 
 foreign alliances were freely discussed by both parties. 
 A match was proposed between the King's sister Margaret 
 Alliance and Charles Count of Charolois, son and heir 
 
 guildy pro- of the Duke of Burgundy. Warwick, on the 
 posed. Other hand, advocated a lasting peace with 
 
 France, and the King so far yielded to his remonstrances 
 A.D. 1467. ^^ to send him over to treat with Louis 
 ^lay- upon the subject. Louis received him at 
 
 Rouen with peculiar honour, and had a number of private 
 interviews with him which were afterwards made grounds 
 of suspicion against his loyalty. On his return he brought 
 
1467. The BiL7'gtmdian Alliance. 177 
 
 with him ambassadors from France who were instructed 
 to do all in their power to hinder the alliance between 
 England and Burgundy. Louis was willing to pay the 
 King of England a pension, and refer his claims to 
 Normandy and Aquitaine to the decision of the Pope. 
 But Edward received these proposals with disdain, and 
 treated the envoys with very little courtesy. On the other 
 hand the ambassadors of the Duke of Burgundy were 
 received with special favour. Feasts and banquetings 
 and disguisings were given in their honour. There was 
 also a great display of chivalry in Smithfield. The 
 Queen's brother, Anthony Lord Scales, had two years 
 before sent a friendly challenge or invitation to the Count 
 de la Roche, commonly called the Bastard of Burgundy, 
 one of the most noted warriors of the time, to come to 
 England and perform some feats of arms along with him. 
 The offer was readily accepted, and though various im- 
 pediments seem to have delayed its fulfilment, the Bastard 
 had at length come to England with a train of Burgundian 
 gentlemen, who gave similar challenges to the gentlemen 
 of England. For several days in succession there were 
 jousts between the Englishmen and Burgundians, and 
 the success of the whole display was only marred by an 
 accident at the first feat of arms between Lord Scales 
 and his opponent, when the latter was thrown backwards 
 off his horse, the rider, who was shortsighted, having 
 made the animal strike its head against an iron spike 
 projecting from Lord Scales's saddle-bow. 
 
 2. Just after this Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, 
 died, and his son Charles, the intended husband of 
 Edward's sister, became duke in his place. The marriage 
 took effect in the year following, and England Marriage of 
 and Burgundy were knit together in a firm sister^Mar- 
 alliance, greatly to the satisfaction of the King garet with 
 and of the people generally, especially of the p,urgund\'. 
 
 M.H. >T 
 
F78 Edward TV. ch. viir. 
 
 London merchants who traded with the Duke's subjects 
 in Flanders, but not at all to the satisfaction of the Earl 
 of Warwick, who hated the duke extremely. He, how- 
 ever, disguised his feelings and accompanied Margaret 
 to the seaside on her way to Flanders. But from this 
 time, if not before, he continually plotted the humilia- 
 tion of Edward, whom he himself had been the means of 
 placing on the throne. The King had as yet no male 
 children, and although he had two daughters, who by 
 the modern rule of descent should have succeeded 
 him before his brothers, the Duke of Clarence seems 
 to have anticipated that he had some chance of the crown. 
 Warwick encouraged this hope, and gave him his own 
 daughter Isabel in marriage, hoping that by 
 ■ ^"^ ^' so doing he himself might recover that influ- 
 ence in the affairs of England which he had lost by the 
 marriage of Edward. The wedding took place at Calais, 
 where Warwick was governor, without the King's know- 
 ledge and against his will. But the Kings attention was 
 at that very time engaged by an insurrection in Yorkshire 
 which had been carefully arranged by Warwick before- 
 Robin of hand. It was led by one who called himself 
 JnSurret-^^'" R^bin of Redesdale, whose real name was Sir 
 tion. William Conyers. Manifestoes were published 
 
 by the insurgents showing why they had taken up arms 
 and complaining of the influence of Lord Rivers and the 
 Queen's friends. The King proceeded northwards to meet 
 them, but ordered also Lord Herbert, whom he had created 
 Earl of Pembroke, to bring up forces from Wales, and sent 
 a message to his brother and the Earl of 
 .D. 14 9. Warwick to induce them to come to him peace- 
 ably. But the insurgents came upon the Earl of Pembroke 
 and his Welsh levies near Banbury, at a place called 
 Edgecote, and gained a complete victory, taking 
 " ^' prisoners the earl and his brother, Sir Richard 
 
1469. Warwick's Intrigues. \ 79 
 
 Herbert, whom they afterwards beheaded. Clarence and 
 the Earl of Warwick came over from Calais, along with 
 the Archbishop of York, who was Warwick's brother and 
 had once been Edward's chancellor. But their coming was 
 not to assist the King. On the contrary they took him 
 prisoner near Coventry, and led him first to Warwick 
 Castle and afterwards into Yorkshire. The insurgents at 
 the same time took the Earl Rivers and his son Sir John 
 Woodville prisoners, and put them to death at Coventry. 
 3. Thus the government was for a time completely in 
 Warwick's hands, the King being his prisoner, and the 
 power of the Woodvilles altogether broken. But pre- 
 sently Edward made his escape, or perhaps was suffered 
 to regain his freedom, and a general pardon was after- 
 wards proclaimed to all who had taken part in these 
 commotions. This, however, did not prevent ^ d 1 o 
 a renewal of disturbances early in the follow- insurrection 
 ing year, when Sir Robert Welles, the eldest Robert 
 son of Lord Welles, raising the cry of '■ King '^^^^^^' y 
 
 Henry ! ' gathered to his standard a great number of the 
 commons of Lincolnshire, where he attacked the house of 
 Sir Thomas ^ Borough, a knight of the royal household, 
 and razed it to the ground. With Sir Robert Welles 
 was associated Sir Thomas Dymock, the King's champion, 
 who was his uncle by marriage. When the news of this 
 insurrection reached the King he was provoked and 
 alarmed in a way he had not been before. He was now 
 convinced that a secret confederacy had been formed 
 against him which any further acts of clemency would 
 only serve to encourage, and he summoned Lord Welles, 
 the father of Sir Robert, and Sir Thomas Dymock, to 
 repair to him immediately. Hearing that the King's 
 suspicions were fully roused they came up to London, and 
 at first entered the Sanctuary at Westminster, but being 
 assured of pardon, Lord Welles came to the King and 
 
i8o Edzvnrd IV. 
 
 CH. VIII. 
 
 V 
 
 wrote a letter to his son desiring him to desist from 
 his enterprise. His son, however, did not obey, and 
 Edward, enraged at his obstinacy, violated the promise of 
 security he had given to the father, and ordered both Lord 
 Welles and Sir Thomas Dymock to be beheaded. 
 
 4. It was only meeting perfidy by perfidy. As might 
 be expected, the King's enemies were confounded. Sir 
 Robert Welles and his confederates were desperate. He 
 had been promised assistance from the Earl of Warwick 
 and the Duke of Clarence ; but the King had gone north- 
 wards with his army as far as the confines of Lincoln- 
 shire, and no succours were at hand. Sir Robert en- 
 gaged the royal forces in the neighbourhood of Stamford ; 
 but when the King's artillery opened fire the greater part 
 A D 1470 ^^ ^^ insurgents flung away their coats and 
 March. took to flight, leaving their leader a prisoner 
 
 Battle of • .1, 1, J r u- • -ru 
 
 Lose-coat m the hands of his enemies. The manner in 
 tield. which the rebels were dispersed caused the 
 
 action to be spoken of as the battle of Lose-coat Field. 
 The defeated knew that they had no mercy to expect, and 
 fled, some of them as far as Scarborough, where several 
 were beheaded. Sir Robert Welles was beheaded the 
 day after the battle. Before his death he made a full 
 confession as to the plan and motives of the insurrection, 
 by which it appeared beyond all doubt that the intention 
 was to have deposed King Edward and made the Duke 
 of Clarence king. 
 
 5. But the rebellion was now paralysed. The Duke of 
 Clarence and the Earl of Warwick fled into Lancashire, 
 from whence they passed by sea to Southampton, 
 hoping there to have secured a large ship called the 
 'Trinity,' belonging to the Earl of Warwick. In this 
 attempt, however, they were defeated by the Queen's 
 brother. Lord Scales, who by the death of his father had 
 now become Earl Rivers : for Edward had g-iven him the 
 
I470. iVarivick's Intrigues. l8t 
 
 command of some ships at Southampton and he cap- 
 tured several vessels of Warwick's little fleet. Warwick 
 and the Duke of Clarence escaped across the sea, while 
 John Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester, was commissioned to try 
 the prisoners taken in their ships. The result was thai 
 twenty persons were hanged, drawn, and quartered, and 
 their heads cut off. To exhibit their quarters to public 
 view in some conspicuous position was only one of the 
 commonplace barbarities of the age in the punishment 
 of treason. But by Worcester's orders a new horror was 
 given to this practice. The head and members of each 
 of the unfortunate men were impaled on a stake in a 
 laanner peculiarly hideous and unaccustomed. Civil war, 
 conspiracy, and rebellion had not only hardened the hearts 
 of men on both sides, but had brutalised the most refined. 
 The Earl of Worcester was one of the most accomplished 
 scholars of the time ; but he was remembered after this 
 as * the butcher of England.' 
 
 IV. Edward driven otct, and Henry VI . restored. 
 
 I. As for the Earl of Warwick and the Duke of 
 Clarence, they naturally sought to take refuge in Calais, 
 where the earl was governor. But Lord Wenlock, who 
 had been recently appointed his lieutenant, opposed their 
 landing and turned the guns of the fortress against them. 
 The Duchess of Clarence, who accompanied her husband, 
 gave birth to a son on board ship while they were lying 
 at anchor before the town, and with great difficulty Lord 
 Wenlock was induced to send her two flagons of wine 
 for her comfort ; but on no account would he suffer them 
 to approach the harbour. So that in the end the duke 
 and earl were obliged to turn aside and seek in the French 
 king's dominions an asylum that was denied them every* 
 where else. 
 
i82 Edward IV. 
 
 CH. VIIL 
 
 2. I.ouis XI., we may be sure, was not sorry to have 
 ail opportunity of giving protection and comfort to Ed- 
 ward's enemies. Margaret of Anjou was at that very 
 time living in his dominions ; and if by any means her 
 cause and that of the two Enghsh noblemen could be 
 made the same, Edward would certainly have occasion 
 to repent his want of cordiality towards the French king. 
 But what chance could there be of an alliance between 
 those who had been such bitter enemies t The Earl of 
 Warwick had been the principal cause of the deposition 
 and captivity of King Henry ; and even if Margaret 
 could mitigate her resentment on this account, she held 
 it very questionable policy to forgive so notorious an 
 offender. But Warwick was now most anxious to be 
 Louis pro- reconciled to her ; he had offended King 
 motes a re- Edward bcyond hope of pardon, and unless 
 
 conciliation -' r r 7 
 
 between he could obtain the friendship of Margaret 
 
 Anjou^lnd° he was undone for ever. The French king 
 Warwick. offered himself a willing mediator, and through 
 his intercession a reconciliation was at last accomplished. 
 It was agreed that the Earl of Warwick should lead an 
 expedition into England to recover the throne for King 
 Henry, and that if it proved successful, Warwick's second 
 daughter Anne was to be married to Henry's son, the 
 Prince of Wales. The King of France, for his part, 
 engaged to lend every assistance to the attempt, and he 
 accordingly furnished a fleet to protect the earl in cross- 
 ing against the Duke of Burgundy. 
 
 3. The earl and his company accordingly sailed from 
 Harfleur and landed safely in the west of England. 
 
 The Duke of Clarence came along with him ; 
 
 and the whole expedition disembarked in the 
 ports of Plymouth and Dartmouth. King Edward seems 
 to have been lulled into a sense of false security which is 
 altogether inexplicable. He had already had sufficient 
 
r^yo Edward driven out. 183 
 
 experience of the turbulent character of Warwick and the 
 inconstancy of his brother Clarence. Yet he Warwick 
 actually allowed himself to be taken by sur- J^f^^^,^^ 
 prise, believing himself secure in the affections invade 
 of his people generally, and paid no atten- ^ngian . 
 tion to the warnings of his brother-in-law the Duke of 
 Burgundy, who, from dread and dislike of Warwick even 
 more than from love of Edward, endeavoured by repeated 
 messages to put him on his guard. He was even indis- 
 creet enough, at a time when the landing of Clarence and 
 Warwick was very generally expected, to entrust the 
 command of forces for the protection of the kingdom to 
 the Marquis of Montague, Warwick's brother, who, be- 
 sides his relationship to the principal leader of the in- 
 vasion, had a, secret grudge of his own against Edward, 
 to induce him to turn traitor. For this marquis, formerly 
 simple Lord Montague, had been, as we have already 
 mentioned, created by Edward Earl of Northumberland 
 in reward for the victory of Hexham ; but the King, find- 
 ing that the people in the North were much devoted to 
 Henry Percy, son of that Earl of Northumberland who 
 was slain at Towton, was induced to reverse the attainder 
 and restore him to his father's dignity. Montague was 
 accordingly prevailed on to surrender the earldom and to 
 accept the higher rank of marquis for his compliance. 
 Rut this was a mere empty honour, not accompanied by 
 a suitable provision in lands to maintain the increased 
 dignity; so he openly told the men whom he had as- 
 sembled in King Edward's name that the King had given 
 him but ' a pie's nest ' to support his state, and that he 
 would therefore take the part of his brother the Earl of 
 Warwick in opposition to King Edward. 
 
 4. Before the landing of Clarence and the Earl of 
 Warwick, Edward had been drawn into the north to put 
 down some commotions raised by Warwick's brother-in- 
 
184 Edward IV, ch. viil 
 
 law Lord Fitzhugh, who on his approach fled into Scot- 
 land. He had gone as far as York, where, finding it 
 needless to pursue the enemy, he rested for a while, when 
 he received the news of the invasion. Even then he 
 would not at first believe his danger, and wrote to the 
 Duke of Burgundy to have his fleet ready to prevent 
 their escape by sea, for on land he knew how to deal with 
 them. But shortly afterwards he learned to his dismay 
 that Montague's soldiers were crying ' God bless King 
 Henry ! ' Very few men gathered about his standard in 
 Yorkshire, and he was warned that there was now little 
 Edward security for him except in flight. Accompanied 
 
 lakes Hight ^y ^ small body of men he rode through the 
 night to Lynn. He had a few ships riding at anchor in 
 the Wash not far off, but one lay in the harbour. Avail 
 ing himself of this and two Dutch merchant ships he 
 Qj,j embarked with his brother the Duke of Glou- 
 
 , cester, his brother-in-law Rivers, his chamber- 
 
 ana em- ' ' 
 
 barks for lain Lord Hastings, and about 800 followers. 
 The little company were without clothes ex- 
 cept what they had upon their backs ; but no time was 
 to be lost and they set sail for Holland. Edward landed 
 at Alkmaar and proceeded to the Hague, where he threw 
 himself upon the protection of the Duke of Burgundy. 
 
 5. The Earl of Warwick was now master of the king- 
 dom. King Henry was released from the Tower, and 
 was once more recognised as king. The Earl of Wor- 
 cester, whose hideous executions at Southampton were 
 fresh in people's memory, was arraigned of treason at 
 Whitehall, condemned, and executed upon Tower Hill. 
 Parliament was then assembled to ratify the arrange- 
 ments that had been made in France An act was passed 
 entailing the crown on the male issue of King Henry^ 
 and in default of such issue on the Duke of Clarence and 
 the heirs of his body. The duke and Warwick were 
 
1471 
 
 Henry VI. restored, 185 
 
 appointed protectors of the kingdom during the minority 
 of Edward Prince of Wales. The former was recognised 
 AS heir to his father the late Duke of York ; while the 
 latter was appointed to a number of high offices of state 
 some of which he had held before. 
 
 V. Return of Khig Edward, 
 
 1. But in less than six months after being driven from 
 his kingdom Edward was enabled to return to it by the 
 private assistance of his brother-in-law the a.d. 1471. 
 Duke of Burgundy. He embarked at Flush- March 14. 
 ing on March 2, and landed on the 14th at Ravenspur, 
 where Henry IV. had disembarked when he came to 
 dethrone King Richard. His circumstances in other re- 
 spects were so similar to those of Hemy, that he adopted 
 precisely the same line of policy. To induce the people 
 of Yorkshire to withdraw their opposition to him, he pro- 
 fessed that he came only to seek his rightful inheritance^ 
 the dukedom of York. He disclaimed any intention of 
 removing King Henry, and being admitted into the city 
 of York he solemnly abjured all pretensions to the crown. 
 But as he passed southwards numbers came to his 
 standard, and in direct violation of his oath he issued 
 proclamations as king. No attempt was made to resist 
 his progress before he reached the capital. He was 
 joined near Coventry by his brother Clarence, who for a 
 long time had been secretly anxious for a reconciliation, 
 or at least had expressed to secret agents his willingness 
 to abandon Warwick's party on a favourable opportunity. 
 Edward advanced to London, and was readily admitted 
 by the citizens, many of whom were his creditors. He 
 then went out to meet his opponents, Warwick and 
 Montague, at Bamet, carrying with him the unhappy 
 King, Henry VI., once more a captive in his hands. 
 
lS6 Edivard IV. ch. viii 
 
 2. Edward occupied the town of Barnet on the even- 
 
 ing of April 13. The enerny were encamped to the 
 
 north. During the night Edward drew up 
 A.D. 1471. . . r ■ f . ,. . 
 
 his forces opposite to them, intending to give 
 
 them battle at daybreak. That morning was Easter 
 
 „ , , Sunday. About 4 o'clock the day began to 
 
 Battle of - , 1 , , , , , 
 
 Barnet, dawn, but the whole scene was obscured by 
 
 Apni 14. ^ dense fog, which prevented Edward from 
 discovering that he had mistaken during the darkness 
 the precise position of the enemy. At 5 o'clock, how- 
 ever, the fighting commenced. Edward's forces on the 
 left were very much outflanked by those of the Earl of 
 Warwick, and after some time began to give way. A 
 number of Edward's men fled the field and spread news 
 in Barnet and on the road to London that the day was 
 lost. The Earl's right wing closed upon the retreating 
 combatants and came opposite their own left wing com- 
 manded by the Earl of Oxford. But owing to the fog 
 ■that still prevailed they did not know their own men, and 
 Oxford's badge, a star with streams, was mistaken for the 
 ' sun of York.' Warwick's men accordingly shot at Ox- 
 ford's, and the latter cried out ' Treason ! ' and fled. At 
 length after six hours' fighting the Earl of Warwick and 
 his. brother Montague were slain, and King Edward's 
 party were triumphant. But the slaughter on both sides 
 was very heavy ; for the action being a critical one for 
 King Edward, he forbore to order his soldiers to spare 
 the common people in the ranks of his antagonists, which 
 had been his usual practice in these wars. 
 
 3. The Earl of Warwick is known in history by the 
 name of Warwick ' the King-maker.' The title is truly 
 significant of his power, which had been twice most 
 signally shown in the setting up of one king and the 
 deposition of another. He was the last great feudal 
 nobleman who ever made himself dangerous to a reigning 
 king. His policy throughout appears to have been 
 
1 4 7 1 . Return of King Edward. 187 
 
 Gelfish and treacherous, and his removal was an un- 
 questionable blessing to his country. 
 
 4. Edward now entered London in triumph, and sent 
 back King Henry a prisoner to the Tower. But he was 
 immediately compelled to leave the city in order , , 
 
 jVi3.r2ra.ret 
 
 to meet a new enemy. For Queen Margaret, lands in 
 who had not yet come over from France to ^"s'^"^- 
 join her husband in his prosperity, at length landed with 
 a body of Frenchmen at Weymouth on the very day her 
 great ally was defeated and slain at Barnet. Next day 
 she proceeded to Cerne Abbey, where she was visited by 
 the Duke of Somerset and other lords of her party, who 
 assured her that, notwithstanding the reverse sustained 
 by their side, she would still be able to raise a power, 
 especially in the western counties where she had landed. 
 By their advice she accordingly proceeded, with her son 
 the prince, to Exeter. The people of Cornwall and 
 Devon rose to do her service, and in a very few days she 
 again moved eastward by Glastonbury to Bath. Here 
 learning that Edward was approaching with his army, 
 she turned aside to Bristol, and afterwards bent her 
 course northward by Gloucester, where the gates were 
 shut against her, and after a fatiguing day's march ot 
 thirty-six miles, arrived at Tewkesbury. That same 
 evening King Edward passed Cheltenham and lodged 
 within three miles of them. Next morning, ^^ 
 
 ° May 4. 
 
 May 4, he gave them battle. 
 
 5. In this action the Lancastrians were utterly de- 
 feated. Queen Margaret was taken prisoner. Her son Ed- 
 ward by some accounts was slain on the field ; ^^^^j^ ^^ 
 according to others he was murdered after Tewkes- 
 the battle in the presence of King Edward ^^^' 
 himself. The tradition in a later age was that he was 
 murdered by Richard Duke of Gloucester ; but the fact 
 may be that when Richard in after years horrified the 
 
i88 Edward IV. cii, vni. 
 
 world by a crime still more revolting, a number of earliei 
 deeds of violence were attributed to him of which he was 
 really guiltless. Richard, although he had led the van 
 of Edward's army at Barnet, was at this time only in his 
 nineteenth year ; and though doubtless he was receiving 
 an education in ferocity from the unnatural character of 
 the wars in which he was engaged, it may perhaps be 
 questioned whether the writers of the next age were right 
 in thinking he had begun his career of violence so early. 
 King Edward's own conduct at this time was cruel and 
 unscrupulous enough. He himself, sword in hand, pur- 
 sued a number of the defeated party into the abbey 
 church of Tewkesbury. A priest, bearing the host in his 
 hand, came out to meet him at the door, and obtained 
 from him a promise that he would spare the lives of the 
 Duke of Somerset and fourteen other persons who had 
 sought refuge there. But in violation of this pledge they 
 were all beheaded two days later. 
 
 6. The utmost that can be said to extenuate Edward's 
 perfidy on this and other occasions is that he had re- 
 course to it at the most critical period in his fortunes, 
 when beset with difficulties at every turn. His natural 
 disposition does not appear to have been cruel ; but at 
 Barnet he gave no quarter, feeling that all was lost for 
 him if he did not deal that day a decisive blow against 
 the enemy. He was victorious, yet he was immediately 
 called to contend with a new enemy in the west ; and 
 now while he was away in Gloucestershire one of 
 Warwick's sea-captains named the Bastard 
 Falcon- ' Falconbridge landed in Kent to make another 
 makes an diversion in favour of King Henry. In Kent 
 attempt in he procured a certain number of followers, 
 
 Henrys , . , 
 
 favour. and coming up to London endeavoured to 
 
 A.D. 1471. force an entrance into the city with the view 
 of liberating Henry from the Tower. But having set 
 
1 47 1 • ^ etnnt of King Edwa rd. 1 89 
 
 Aldgate and London Bridge on fire he exasperated the 
 citizens, so that they made a more resolute lesistance 
 than they would otherwise have done, and he found it 
 necessary to give up the attempt. 
 
 7. King Edward returned with his army to London 
 on May 21. He was received in triumph by the mayor 
 and citizens, who went out to meet him be- 
 
 May 21 
 
 tween Shoreditch and Islington ; and on the 
 highway before he entered the city he made knights of 
 a number of the aldermen. Three days later he marched 
 into Kent in pursuit of the Bastard Falconbridge. But 
 during his brief stay in London an event occurred which 
 throws the deepest shadow of suspicion upon Edward's 
 conduct. On the very night of his arrival . . 
 
 King Henry died in his prison within the death of 
 Tower. His .body was exhibited at St. Paul's "^^"^ ^^• 
 the following day, and it was given out that his death 
 had been owing to 'pure displeasure and melancholy.' 
 But the coincidence of the event with Edward's arrival in 
 the capital, and the too obvious advantage to the King ot 
 getting rid of a rival whose adherents gave him so much 
 trouble, convinced the world at large that this was only a 
 pretence. Henry had now no son to avenge his death or 
 to claim succession to his kingdom ; and from what we 
 have already seen of Edward there is very little reason 
 to doubt that he caused the poor feeble monarch to be 
 secretly assassinated. The suspicion, indeed, is hinted 
 even by a writer friendly to the King, who wrote within 
 the security of a monastery. From this time, at all 
 events, Edward was no longer troubled with rebellions in 
 favour of the House of Lancaster. 
 
 8. The sudden and extraordinary changes changes of 
 of fortune experienced by the two rival kings fortune 
 during those unhappy commotions were shared wIS1>f ^ 
 by their adherents among the nobility, some ^^^ ^°'^* 
 
tgo Edward IV. ch. viii 
 
 ol whom during the adverse circumstances of their party 
 suffered the most severe distress and poverty. Henry 
 Holland, Duice of Exeter, who, though he had married a 
 sister of Edward IV., took part with the House of Lan- 
 caster, was seen at one time in the Low Countries bare- 
 footed and bare-legged, begging his bread from door to 
 door, till he was recognised and pensioned by the Duke 
 of Burgundy. Queen Elizabeth Woodville, when her 
 husband was driven into exile, was obliged to take refuge 
 in the Sanctuary at Westminster, where she gave birth to 
 her eldest son, afterwards Edward V. As for Margaret 
 of Anjou, she remained a prisoner in England after the 
 battle of Tewkesbury until, on Edward making peace 
 with France in 1475, she was ransomed by Louis XL 
 and returned to her own country. 
 
 VL War with France, 
 
 1. Civil dissensions being now appeased, Edward was 
 easily induced to combine with Charles of Burgundy 
 against Louis. The proposal to make war on France met 
 with general approbation from his subjects, supplies 
 were voted for the purpose by Parliament and by the 
 clergy in convocation, and to crown all, large sums were 
 subscribed by the wealthy at the King's particular re- 
 quest. An unprecedented treasure was thus accumulated, 
 but the means employed to raise it were not greatly 
 • Benevo- rclished. The subscriptions of the wealthy 
 lences.' were called benevolences^ being regarded as 
 
 voluntary donations expressive of the goodwill and 
 patriotism of those contributing. But from the influence 
 brought to bear upon the donors they were felt to be of 
 the nature of extortion ; for Edward himself, in many 
 cases, solicited contributions personally. Though nomi- 
 nally a free gift, no tax was ever felt more oppressive ; 
 
U75. 
 
 War ivith France. 191 
 
 and the evil example set by Edward was unfortunately 
 followed by several of his successors. 
 
 2. In the summer of 1475 Edward crossed the sea 
 with a magnificent army. Before embarking, he sent 
 Garter king of arms to Louis to require him __, 
 
 , , . , r T- 1 • Edward 
 
 to deliver up the kmgdom of France to him invades 
 as his lawful inheritance. Another king of F*"^""- 
 France would doubtless have treated with contempt this 
 extravagant claim which the English still continued to 
 reassert. But Louis had no thought of resisting by force 
 of arms. The invading army was strong, and if the 
 Duke of Burgundy had brought the amount of aid that 
 might have been expected, it would have been quite within 
 the power of the allies to have dealt a very severe blow 
 against France. The duke, however, had allowed him- 
 self to be occupied too long with an expedition into Ger- 
 many, where he laid siege to Neuss near Diisseldorf, and 
 at his coming he failed to give Edward satisfaction. Of 
 this Louis took advantage. He told Garter he was well 
 aware that the King of England did not mean to invade 
 France on his own account, and that it was apparent the 
 Duke of Burgundy could not give him much assistance ; 
 then dismissing the herald with a handsome present, he 
 promised him a still more valuable reward if he could 
 prevail upon his master to consent to peace. 
 
 3. Edward was greatly flattered with the thought that 
 he had so soon inspired his enemy with a desire to treat, 
 and the wily King of France omitted no art to deepen 
 the impression. No sooner, therefore, had the English 
 king set foot upon the Continent than Louis Louis offers 
 sent to him to know if he was disposed to *° •^'■^^'^• 
 come to terms, suggesting at the same time that the 
 Duke of Burgundy had been using Edward for his own 
 ends, and that the year was so far advanced that the 
 invaders could not hope to make much progress before 
 
192 Edward TV, ch. vitl 
 
 the winter. Negotiations were accordingly opened, and 
 though the English began, as usual, with their formal 
 demand of the whole realm of France, they gradually 
 abated their pretensions. First they lowered their de- 
 mands to the restitution of Normandy and Guienne. 
 But Louis had fully resolved beforehand to consent to no 
 cession of territory ; and in the end the English were 
 A seven Satisfied with a seven years' truce and the pay- 
 
 mice ment of a large yearly pension by France to 
 
 arranged. England. This payment they were free to 
 regard as an acknowledgment of Edward's sovereignty 
 over France, while Louis and his friends took a different 
 view of it. They calted it a pension ; the English a 
 tribute. A liberal distribution of pensions was also 
 made by Louis to the chief councillors of the King of 
 England for their services in promoting the peace. 
 
 4. At the same time provisions were made in the 
 treaty which gave hope that it might one day be turned 
 into a lasting peace ; for it was arranged that the Dau- 
 phin Charles should marry Edward's eldest daughter 
 Elizabeth as soon as the parties were of sufficient age. 
 
 5. Matters being thus settled, an interview took place 
 between the two kings at Pequigny on the Somme. A 
 Interview at bridge was thrown across the river with a 
 Pequigny. woodcn grating in the middle, through which 
 they shook hands. This arrangement had been made by 
 the suspicious Louis to prevent the possibility of trea- 
 chery ; mindful of the fate of John the Fearless, Duke ol 
 Burgundy, he allowed no wicket within the barrier. But 
 after swearing to observe the treaty on both sides, the 
 two kings entered into conversation with the utmost 
 freedom and familiarity ; insomuch that Louis, in an un- 
 guarded moment, half invited the other to come and see 
 him at Paris. The invitation was indeed thrown out in 
 the way of jest, with some raillery about Edward's de- 
 
1475- France and Burgundy. 193 
 
 votion to the fair sex, and the beautiful ladies who would 
 be sure to captivate him in France ; but Edward, to the 
 other's no little annoyance, seemed not at all disinclined 
 to accept it seriously. Louis, however, took care not to 
 give him an opportunity ; and in private he afterwards 
 expressed an opinion to Commines that the kings of 
 England had been often enough in Paris and in Nor- 
 mandy already. He had great -desire to preserve the 
 friendship of Edward, but much preferred that he should 
 keep on his own side of the water. 
 
 VIl. Fr cm ce and Burgundy, 
 
 I. Before proceeding further with the story of English 
 events it will now be advisable that we should say some- 
 thing of the rivalry between the French king and his 
 powerful vassal, Charles Duke of Burgundy. We have 
 already seen the weakness to which the French monarchy 
 was reduced at the beginning of the reign of Louis XI. 
 The Burgundian court, on the other hand, although that 
 of a feudal inferior, was the most wealthy and magnifi- 
 cent in all Europe. For some time also the Duke of 
 Burgundy maintained the advantage he had gained over 
 his sovereign in the war of the Public Weal. Louis 
 formed a league against him with the citizens of Lidge, 
 but Charles contrived to seize his person and shut him 
 up in the castle of Peronne until he made him atone for 
 his intrigues by a considerable cession of territory. The 
 people of Lidge were at this time engaged in a second 
 revolt against their bishop (who was their temporal ruler 
 as well), although they had been already severely punished 
 for their insubordination by Charles, by the forfeiture of 
 all their ancient chartered rights and the demolition of 
 the walls of the town. They would naturally have looked 
 for assistance from the King of France ; but Louis had 
 
 M.H. O 
 
194 Edward IV. ch. vin. 
 
 fallen so completely into the power of Charles, that to 
 gain his liberty he disowned his allies and offered to 
 come with the Duke of Burgundy to Lidge, where he wit- 
 nessed with apparent satisfaction the most terrible ven- 
 Massacre gcance taken on his own supporters. The city 
 of Liege. ^yg^g completely sacked, and the inhabitants 
 were massacred even in the churches by a brutal soldiery. 
 After this, Louis endeavoured, by supporting the Earl 
 of Warwick, to deprive Charles of his ally the King of 
 England, — a design which, as we have seen, gave much 
 greater anxiety to the Duke of Burgundy than it did to 
 Edward himself, who could not be awakened to his 
 danger until it was too late. At length, owing to the 
 French king's repeated breaches of faith, Charles took 
 it upon him to declare his independence of the French 
 crown and made a treaty with the Emperor Frederic III., 
 who engaged to bestow upon him the title of king, 
 instead of duke, of Burgundy, on condition that he would 
 give his daughter Mary in marriage to the Emperor's son 
 Charles Maximilian. To conclude this matter Charles 
 
 and?he'^ repaired to a diet at Treves in 1473, but the 
 Emperor. Empcror receded from his part of the engage- 
 ment and retired from Treves when everything was ready 
 for Charles's coronation. In resentment of this affront 
 Charles next year invaded Germany and laid siege to 
 Neuss-an operation which, as already mentioned, pre- 
 vented him from fulfilling punctually his engagements 
 with England in the war which they had agreed to under- 
 take together against France. 
 
 2. It was always the policy of Louis to raise up 
 enemies for Charles without, if possible, allowing his own 
 hand to be seen in the business. By his subtle and mys- 
 terious diplomacy Charles was involved in wars with the 
 Swiss, and in 1476 he sustained a great defeat 
 at Granson on the borders of Lake Neufcha- 
 
1476. Fate of Clarence. 195 
 
 tel, which was followed by another equally disastrous at 
 Morat. Here another enemy had taken part against 
 him, Ren^ II., Duke of Lorraine, whom he had deprived 
 of the possession of his duchy. The people of Lorraine 
 now expelled the Burgundian garrisons, and the retreat of 
 Charles seemed almost hopelessly cut off. Nevertheless, 
 even in the midst of winter, Charles penetrated into 
 Lorraine and compelled the duke to return in haste to 
 defend his capital, Nancy. A short and de- a.d. 1477, 
 cisive battle took place under the walls of the ^^'^- 5- 
 town. The Burgundians were put to flight and Charles 
 himself was slain. By his last campaigns he more 
 especially merited the title by which he is known in his- 
 tory. His cavalry and artillery laboured under the 
 greatest disadvantages among the Swiss mountains, and 
 he lost two great battles by a disregard of common pru- 
 dence. He is commonly spoken of in English as Charles 
 the Bold, but the French still more truly name him Charles 
 the Rash. 
 
 VIII. Fate of Clarence— The Scotch War— Death of 
 Edward. 
 
 I. It might have been supposed that the House of 
 York was now securely seated upon the throne ; and, so 
 far as regarded Edward himself, nothing more occurred 
 to disturb his possession. But the family divisions which 
 had already sprung up pursued that house ultimately 
 to its ruin. The breach between the King and his 
 brother Clarence, it soon appeared, was only ^^ 
 
 superficially healed over. A quarrel also took between the 
 place between Clarence and his other brother, Qamice^ 
 Richard Duke of Gloucester. After the death and Glou- 
 of Edward Prince of Wales, the son of King 
 Henry, at Tewkesbury, his widow Anne, who, it will be 
 I'emembered was a daughter of Warwick the King-maker, 
 
196 Edward IV. ch. via 
 
 was sought by Gloucester in marriage ; but Clarence, 
 who had married her elder sister, opposed his suit and 
 attempted to conceal her. Richard, however, discovered 
 her in London in the disguise of a cook-maid, and had 
 her removed to the Sanctuary of St. Martin's. When 
 Clarence was no longer able to prevent the match, he 
 still refused to divide with his brother the inheritance of 
 their father-in-law the Earl of Warwick. By the medi- 
 /ation of Edward the matter was at length settled, and an 
 act was passed in Parliament making a division of 
 Warwick's lands between the royal brothers, with very 
 little consideration for the rights of his surviving countess. 
 
 2. But in the course of a few years symptoms of the 
 old ill-will broke out between the Duke of Clarence and 
 Clarence Edward himself. On the death of Charles 
 favour Duke of Burgundy, Clarence, who was then a 
 again, widower, was desirous to marry his daughter 
 and heiress Mary. Such a match would have made him 
 a powerful continental prince, and his suit was favoured 
 by his sister Margaret, the widow of the duke ; but 
 Edward threw every obstacle in the way. This, in 
 addition to some former injuries, real or supposed, em- 
 bittered Clarence against his brother in a way he did not 
 care to conceal. At last, some gentlemen of his house- 
 hold having been accused of sorcer}-, condemned, and 
 executed, Clarence, before the King's council, protested 
 his belief in their innocence. This step was treated by 
 the King as dangerous to the administration of justice, 
 and he caused his brother to be arrested and committed 
 to the Tower. 
 
 3. When Parliament met in the beginning of the year 
 1478, Clarence was impeached of treason by his own 
 A.D. 1478. brother before the House of Peers. No other 
 impeached accuscr stcppcd forward but the King him- 
 of treason, self; but the whole of his past intrigues and 
 
1478. Fate of Clarence. 1 97 
 
 rebellions were now brought up against him. It was 
 related in the indictment how he had been already par- 
 doned the most serious offences, and yet had conspired 
 again against his brother. It was set forth also how at one 
 time, for the gratification of his ambition, he had not hesi- 
 tated to cast a stigma upon his own mother, declaring 
 his brother Edward illegitimate and himself the true heir 
 of his father. With these a number of other circum- 
 stances were related, all tending to show that he made it 
 still his aim to supplant King Edward. The 
 lords found Clarence guilty and he was con- 
 demned to death. Execution of the sentence was, how- 
 ever, delayed for several days, until the Speaker of the 
 House of Commons, coming to the bar of the Lords, 
 desired that the matter might be brought to a 
 conclusion. Shortly afterwards the duke was death, 
 put to death within the Tower in a manner so ^^^' ^^' 
 very secret that, although the day was known, the kind of 
 death he suffered was a matter of uncertainty. A singu- 
 lar report, however, got abroad that he had been drowned 
 in a butt of Malmsey wine. 
 
 4. Perhaps the very secrecy of the execution, if such it 
 might be called, was owing to Edward's reluctance to 
 carry out the sentence ; for there is reason to believe, 
 after all, that the whole proceedings were painful to him. 
 After the death of Clarence, it is said, when any man 
 besought the King for the pardon of an offender, he 
 would exclaim, 'O unfortunate brother, that no man 
 would ask pardon for thee ! ' But whatever the effect on 
 Edward's peace of mind, the removal of Clarence con- 
 tributed to the quiet of his kingdom. For he had been, 
 beyond all question, factious and turbulent in the ex- 
 treme. Yet he had some qualities which won him the 
 favour of the multitude and made him a popular idol. 
 His popularity, too, was all the more dangerous to 
 
19S Edward IV. ch. /m. 
 
 Edward because, according to an act of Parliament 
 passed during the restoration of Henry VI., Clarence 
 ought to have been the legitimate king after the death 
 of Edward Prince of Wales. Of this act of Parliament, 
 of course, Edward did not recognise the authority ; but 
 he felt it necessary now to get his Parliament to re- 
 peal it. 
 
 5. There is little else that is memorable in Edward's 
 reign except a war with Scotland that broke out at the 
 close of it. To strengthen his family upon the throne, 
 Edward had arranged marriages for most of his children 
 with foreign princes, and while his eldest daughter Eliza- 
 beth was contracted by treaty to the dauphin, Cecily, the 
 third, was engaged to Prince James, the eldest son of 
 James III. of Scotland. In consideration of this latter 
 match Edward had agreed to give with his daughter a 
 dower of 20,000 marks, of which three instalments had 
 already been paid in advance, though the parties had 
 not yet arrived at a marriageable age. Some misunder- 
 standing, however, broke out between the two kings, 
 partly, as it is supposed, through the intrigues of Louis XL, 
 who, as the time drew near when the dauphin ought to 
 have claimed his bride, showed a great disposition to 
 evade his own obligations to England. But whatever 
 James III. may have been the exact cause, Edward and 
 Engfa^nd Jamcs cach accused the other of unfair deal- 
 A.D. 1480. ing, and James in the spring of 1480 actually 
 marched an army across the Borders into Northumber- 
 land. 
 
 6. The King of England, for his part, commissioned 
 his brother Richard Duke of Gloucester to lead his forces 
 
 against the invader. At the same time the 
 
 domestic state of Scotland gave Edward gieat 
 
 advantages. James III. was a king distinguished for a 
 
 love of art and science, which his nobles held in great 
 
1482. The Scotch War. 199 
 
 contempt. His court was the resort of musicians and 
 architects, by whose advice he was supposed to be 
 governed in matters affecting the weal of his kingdom. 
 His own brothers were disaffected to him. One of 
 them, the Ear] of Mar, is said to have been put to 
 death by his orders. The other, Alexander Duke of 
 Albany, escaped to France, but was invited over to 
 England by Edward, with whom he entered a.d. 1482, 
 into treaty for assistance to make himself King J"°^ "• 
 of Scotland, pretending that his brother was illegitimate. 
 He engaged, on obtaining his kingdom, to deliver up 
 Berwick to the English, and he went with the ]3uke of 
 Gloucester to lay siege to that town, which surrendered 
 with very little resistance. James, meanwhile, was ad- 
 vancing at the head of his forces to make a new inroad 
 on the English Border ; but having arrived at Lauder, a 
 
 conference was held in the church by his dis- ^, ^ .^ 
 1111-1 1-1 r Th^ Scotch 
 
 contented lords, who m the end seized seven of lords seize 
 
 the detested favourites and hanged them over 5efth'the° 
 
 the bridge. The Scotch army was then dis- King's 
 
 ,,,,,__. 1,1 favountes. 
 
 banded and the Kmg conveyed back to 
 Edinburgh by the nobles, who extorted from him a full 
 pardon for what they had done. Albany Albany and 
 and Gloucester then marched on to Edin- Sarcrto^"" 
 burgh, and were received within the city as Edinburgh. 
 friends. 
 
 7. But Albany was well aware that his title to the 
 crown of Scotland would not be supported within the 
 realm itself. A compromise was therefore arranged, and 
 a peace was concluded between all parties. The sums 
 advanced by Edward for his daughter's dower were re- 
 paid, and Berwick was given up to England. Albany, 
 however, very soon afterwards renewed his intrigues with 
 Edward ; as a consequence of which he was attainted b} 
 llie Parliament of Scotland. 
 
200 Edward IV. ch. viu. 
 
 8. As for Edward, he had scarcely composed this dis- 
 pute with Scotland when he met with a cniel mortifica- 
 Louis XI. tion at the hands of Louis XI. of France. It is 
 with'^^ ^^"^ evident that that wily monarch had never really 
 Edward. intended the match between the dauphin and 
 the Princess Elizabeth to take effect. Edward, on the 
 other hand, had been induced by the prospect of this 
 alliance to make peace with Louis on more easy teims, 
 perhaps, than he might otherwise have granted. Time 
 passed away, however, and Louis took no steps to bring 
 the matter to a conclusion, till at last a great opportunity 
 presented itself of violating his engagement openly. 
 Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, had been defeated 
 and slain at Nancy in 1477. He left an only daughter, 
 Mary, to inherit his rich dominions, which included not 
 only Burgundy but a great part of the Low Countries. 
 Her territories were invaded by Louis, but she married 
 Maximilian of Austria, son of the Emperor Frederick 
 III., who, though the poorest prince of Europe, was a 
 very good soldier and recovered for her several places 
 that had submitted to the French. The Duchess Mary, 
 however, was unexpectedly cut off in March 1482 by a 
 fall from her horse. She left two young children, Philip 
 and Margaret, of whom the former was heir to the duchy; 
 but their father Maximilian was despised by the Flemings 
 and had no means of making his authority respected. 
 The men of Ghent, who were secretly encouraged by 
 Louis, took possession of his children and compelled him 
 to govern as they pleased ; till in the end he was driven 
 to conclude with the French king a treaty at Arras by 
 which Margaret was to be married to the dauphin and 
 to have as her dower some of the most valuable lands in 
 Burgundy, taken from the inheritance of her brother 
 Philip. 
 
 9. This treaty was concluded on December 23. 1462. 
 
1483. Death of Edward IV. 201 
 
 The mortification it gave to Edward was extreme, and 
 French writers say that he died of the disap- Deatli of 
 pointment. Whether that be the case or not, Edward. 
 he did not survive it four months ; for he died on April 9, 
 1483. With many great defects in his character, he was 
 a king more in sympathy with his people than any sove- 
 reign that had been seen in England since the days of 
 Edward III. Handsome in person and affable in man- 
 ner, he was always easy to be approached. He was a 
 great favourite with the citizens of London, and rather 
 too much so with their wives. Careless and self-indul- 
 gent, he was greatly given to licentiousness, and forgot 
 the affairs of his kingdom in pursuing his own pleasures. 
 He was a good soldier but a bad general, a jovial com- 
 panion but a poor statesman. His personal influence 
 with his subjects was higher perhaps than that of any of 
 his predecessors ; but he cannot be regarded as by any 
 means a great king. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 EDWARD V. 
 
 I. Edward, the son and heir of the deceased king, was 
 at Ludlow on the borders of Wales when his father died. 
 He had been sent thither as Prince of Wales to hold a 
 court and keep the country in good order; for which 
 purpose a council had been assigned to him consisting 
 originally of his uncles the Dukes of Clarence and Glou- 
 cester, his maternal uncle Anthony Earl Rivers, Lord 
 Hastings, and several others. But the Duke of Clarence 
 was dead, the Duke of Gloucester in the North, and Lord 
 Hastings in London ; so that when young Edward, who 
 
202 Edward V. 
 
 cii, \x. 
 
 «vas only in his thirteenth year, received the news of his 
 own accession to the throne, he was surrounded principally 
 by his mother's relations. 
 
 2. Now it was most unfortunate for the young King 
 himself that both his mother and her kinsfolk were looked 
 upon with dislike and jealousy by the old nobility. The 
 The old Woodvilles had always been regarded as up- 
 
 nobility Starts, but under the reign of the late king no 
 
 the Wood- loyal subject could say anything against them. 
 viiles. Yhe Council in London, however, were of 
 
 opinion that it would be advisable to remove the new 
 King entirely from the influence of his maternal relatives ; 
 and though the Queen Dowager desired that he should 
 be brought up to London with as large an escort as 
 possible, the lords could not be persuaded to sanction a 
 stronger retinue than was needed for his personal safety. 
 Lord Hastings, who was governor of Calais, took alarm, 
 and talked of departing immediately across the sea. The 
 Queen's friends were obliged to give assurances that no 
 large force should come up ; and orders were sent down 
 to Ludlow that the company should on no account exceed 
 2,000 horse. 
 
 3. On his deathbed the late king had bequeathed the 
 care of the young prince and his kingdom more especially 
 to his brother Richard Duke of Gloucester. When, there- 
 fore, tidings of Edward's death were sent into the North, 
 Richard at once set out for London. He reached North- 
 ampton on April 29, and found that the young King had 
 been there that day before him and had passed on to 
 Stony Stratford, ten miles further on. He was met, how- 
 ever, by the young King's uncle and half-brother, the 
 Earl Rivers and Lord Richard Grey, who had ridden 
 back to pay their respects to him in Edward's name. 
 Henry Duke of Buckingham also joined the party. He, 
 it is said, had been already in communication with Glou* 
 
1483. Gloucester and the Queen's Km. 203 
 
 cester. With apparent cordiality all sat down together 
 to supper ; but after the retirement of Rivers and Grey 
 the two dukes held a consultation, the result of which 
 was that early next morning they caused their 
 
 1 111 o Arrest of 
 
 guests to be arrested, and pushed on to Stony Rivers and 
 Stratford before the royal party had time to ^''^y- 
 get away. They obtained an audience of the young 
 King, and in his presence accused his uncle Rivers and 
 his two half-brothers, the Marquis of Dorset and Lord 
 Richard Grey, of a design to usurp the government and 
 oppress the old nobility. Dorset, it seems, who was Con- 
 stable of the Tower, had taken supplies of arms and 
 money out of that fortress and fitted out a small fleet ; 
 while Rivers and Lord Richard Grey had shown a most 
 suspicious haste in bringing young Edward up to Lon- 
 don. 
 
 4. The poor lad could not believe these accusations, 
 and burst into tears on hearing them. The two dukes, 
 however, caused Rivers and Grey, with two other gentle- 
 men of his household, to be sent in custody into Yorkshire, 
 where, after being confined for nearly two months in 
 different places, they were ultimately beheaded at Pomfret. 
 Meanwhile the young King continued his journey to 
 London in the company of his uncle Gloucester and the 
 Duke of Buckingham. Alarm had been at first created 
 in the city by the news of the arrests made at Northamp- 
 ton, but the fact became known that large quantities of 
 armour and weapons were found among the baggage of 
 Rivers and the King's attendants ; and this discovery 
 produced an impression that their imprisonment was per- 
 fectly justified. The mayor and citizens accordingly met 
 the young King and his uncle at Hornsea Park and con- 
 ducted him into the city. They entered it on May 4, a 
 day that had been originally set apart for Edward's coro- 
 nation. That ceremony was now deferred till June 22. 
 
204 Edward V. 
 
 CH, IX 
 
 Meanwhile the Duke of Gloucester was declared Pro 
 The Duke tector of the young King and his kingdom, 
 ter^amed^' ^^^ ^ parliament was summoned to assemble 
 Protector. three days after the coronation. 
 
 5. But the Queen Mother, Elizabeth Woodville, on 
 hearing that her brother and her son had been arrested at 
 The Queen Northampton, had quitted Westminster Palace 
 Sk^s^^^"^ and gone into the adjoining Sanctuary. Here 
 Sanctuary. Rotherham, Archbishop of York, who had been 
 lord chancellor at the death of Edward IV., brought her 
 the Great Seal of England as a guarantee that nothing 
 should be done against the interest of her son. This act 
 was a grave official misdemeanour, which he had soon cause 
 to repent ; for the office of chancellor was taken from him, 
 and a censure was passed upon him by the Council for 
 letting the Seal go out of his custody. The Queen's 
 influence, which had been so great during the reign of her 
 husband, was now completely at an end, and the old 
 nobility rejoiced at having got rid of her ascendancy — a 
 revolution, as Lord Hastings triumphantly remarked, that 
 had cost no more blood than a cut finger. 
 
 6. Hastings, indeed, had been a principal cause of 
 this change ; but notwithstanding his open boast he seems 
 very soon to have repented it and held meetings with the 
 Queen's friends at St. Paul's to consider how to get the 
 King out of Richard's power. Richard at the same time 
 held meetings with his supporters at Crosby's Place in 
 Bishopsgate Street, where he then resided. At last at 
 a council held within the Tower, he caused Hastings 
 Hastings Suddenly to be arrested and immediately 
 beheaded. after beheaded on Tower Green. Morton 
 Bishop of Ely, and Archbishop Rotherham were also 
 placed in confinement. The Dukes of Gloucester and 
 Buckingham then sent for the principal citizens, and 
 appearing before them in rusty armour which they had 
 
1483. Execution of Hastings. 205 
 
 suddenly put on, explained that they had only that morning 
 heard of a conspiracy formed against them by Hastings and 
 others, who would have killed the Protector and taken 
 the government into their own hands. 
 
 7. This sudden execution of one who, to outward 
 appearance, had been all along most friendly to the two 
 dukes against whom he was said to have conspired, occa- 
 sioned general astonishment. The act was certainly 
 quite illegal, and it is hard to see how it could have been 
 necessary even in self-defence. Read by the light of 
 subsequent events it seems to admit only of one interpre- 
 tation—that Richard was at this time plotting his own 
 elevation to the throne, and, finding that Hastings could 
 not be relied on to second his designs, had determined to 
 remove him. But an impression does seem to have been 
 conveyed, which is stated as a simple fact in a history 
 written many years after, that Richard on this occasion 
 only anticipated violence by equally high-handed mea- 
 sures of his own. The view, however, which has obtained 
 most general currency is derived from a veiy graphic 
 account of the scene in the council chamber written by 
 Sir Thomas More, who unquestionably obtained his in- 
 formation from Cardinal Morton, at that time Bishop of 
 Ely, one of the persons then arrested by the Protector. 
 According to this narrative the blow which fell upon 
 Hastings altogether took him by surprise. The story is, 
 in brief, as follows. 
 
 8. The Protector made his appearance in the council 
 chamber about nine o'clock in the morning. His manner 
 was gracious. He blamed his own laziness The scene 
 for not coming earlier, and turning to Morton ciVhfthr"' 
 Bishop of Ely, said, ' My lord, you have very Tower, 
 good strawberries in your garden at Holborn ; I pray you 
 let us have a mess of them.' After this, having opened 
 the business of the council and engaged the lords in con- 
 
2o6 Edward V. ch. ix. 
 
 versation he took leave of them for a time. Between ten 
 and eleven o'clock he returned. His manner was altoge- 
 ther altered, and as he took his seat he frowned on the 
 assembly and bit his lips. After a pause he asked what 
 punishment they deserved who had conspired against the 
 life of one so nearly related to the King as himself, and 
 entrusted with the government of the kingdom. The 
 council was confounded, but Hastings, presuming on his 
 famiharity with the Protector, said they deserved the 
 punishment of traitors. 'That sorceress my brother's 
 wife,' exclaimed Richard, ' and others with her, see how 
 they have wasted my body by their sorcery and witch- 
 craft ! ' And as he spoke he bared his left arm and 
 showed it to the council, shrunk and withered, as it always 
 had been. He added that one of the accomplices of the 
 Queen Dowager in this business was Jane Shore, who had 
 been one of the mistresses of the late king her husband, 
 and since his death had become the mistress of Hastings. 
 9. The accusation against the Queen Dowager, we 
 are told, was not at all displeasing to Hastings, who 
 regarded her with deadly hatred ; but when the Protector 
 mentioned the name of Shore's wife he felt very differently. 
 He, however, ventured to reply * Certainly, my lords, if 
 they have done so heinously, they are worthy of heinous 
 punishment.' ' What,' exclaimed Richard, ' dost thou 
 serve me with ifs and ands ? I tell thee they have done it, 
 and that I will make good on thy body, traitor ! ' On this 
 he struck his fist upon the council table with great force. 
 Armed men rushed in, crying * Treason ! ' Hastings and 
 some others, including Morton, were arrested, and Lord 
 Stanley had a blow aimed at his head with a poleaxe. 
 Richard then bade Hastings instantly prepare for death, 
 swearing by St. Paul that he would not dine till he had seen 
 his head off. He accordingly made his confession to the 
 first priest that could be found. A log of timber intended 
 
1483- Jane Shore. 207 
 
 for some repairs in the Tower served the purpose of a block, 
 and before noon his head was severed from his body. 
 
 10. In what manner Jane Shore had incurred the 
 Protector's displeasure it is difficult to understand. Rich- 
 ard accused her of witchcraft and of being an accomplice 
 of Hastings in a scheme for his destruction ; on which 
 charges he sent her to prison and stripped her of almost 
 all her property. After a time, however, he handed her 
 over to the Bishop of London to inflict spiritual punish- 
 ment upon her as an unchaste woman, and she was com- 
 pelled to do open penance one Sunday, going through the 
 streets in her kirtle with a taper in her hand. The exhi- 
 bition, however, excited the compassion of the spectators, 
 who looked upon her punishment as due only to malice 
 and not to any real desire on Richard's part to promote 
 public morality. 
 
 11. Three days before the execution of Hastings the 
 Protector had written to the city of York, desiring a force 
 to be sent up immediately to London to counteract the 
 designs of the Queen Dowager and her friends, whom he 
 accused of conspiring against him and Buckingham, and 
 attempting the ruin of the old nobility. Some hasty 
 levies arrived in consequence in the course of a week or 
 ten days, and were mustered in Moorfields. Orders were 
 also sent into the North for the execution of Rivers, 
 Lord Richard Grey, and two other gentlemen who 
 had been arrested in accompanying the King up to 
 London. Meanwhile Richard persuaded the council 
 that his nephew Richard Duke of York, who was with 
 the Queen his mother in Sanctuary, should be sent 
 for to take up his residence with the King his brother. 
 A deputation, headed by Cardinal Bourchier, Archbishop 
 of Canterbury, was accordingly sent to the Queen, and 
 she delivered the lad into their hands. A letter written a 
 few days after says that he was received by Richard at 
 
2o8 Edzvard V, ch. ix. 
 
 the Star Chamber door ' with many loving words.' He 
 
 was conducted by the Ca^-dinal to the Towei 
 
 Duke of and was treated with all the honour that be- 
 
 York de- came his birth. But neither he nor the Kin? 
 
 hvered to *> 
 
 the Pic- his brother ever left the Tower again. 
 
 ^^^'°'^' 12. On Sundayjune 22, the citizens of Lon- 
 
 don were astonished by a sermon delivered at Paul's 
 Cross, a little open-air pulpit which stood at the north-east 
 corner of St. Paul's Churchyard. Here preachers of distinc- 
 tion often addressed the people on public questions ; but the 
 boldness of the preacher on this occasion was quite un- 
 precedented. He was a man of considerable reputation, 
 Dr Shaw's ^Y ^^^me Dr. Shaw. His text was taken from 
 sermon. the Book of Wisdom iv. 3 — ' Bastard slips 
 
 shall not take deep root,' — and the whole line of his 
 argument was to show that the children of King Edward 
 
 •^ IV. were illegitimate. From this it was inferred that the 
 true right to the crown was in the person of Richard 
 
 ' Duke of Gloucester, who, having arranged to be present 
 during the discourse, was made the object of a special 
 comphment. The people, however, listened in mute as- 
 tonishment, and the preacher seems to have gained 
 little credit for an act which was clearly that of a syco- 
 phant. 
 
 13. Nevertheless, on the Tuesday following, at a 
 meeting of the common council of the city of London in 
 the Guildhall, a message was received from the 
 June 24. Protector through the medium of the Duke of 
 
 Buckingham and other lords, as to the claim advanced by 
 him to the crown. Buckingham, who spoke with re- 
 markable ability, entered into a statement from which he 
 drew the conclusion that the title of the Duke of Glou- 
 cester was preferable to that of his nephew Edward. 
 And although we are told by a city chronicler that the 
 matter of his address was not so much admired as the 
 eloquence with which it was delivered, the mayor and 
 
t-xS]. Edward deposed. ^09 
 
 aldermen certainly proceeded to act upon the information 
 thus given them. 
 
 14. A Parliament had been summoned to meet on the 
 following day, and it is certain that a meeting of lords 
 and commons actually took place, though, owing to some 
 informality it was not afterwards regarded as a true par- 
 liament. In this assembly, however, the question of 
 Richard's title was brought forward, and the facts were 
 stated to be as follows. The marriage of Edward IV. 
 with Elizabeth Woodville had been invalid from the first. 
 Not only had it been brought about by sorcery and witch- 
 craft (this was gravely alleged in an Act of Parliament !) 
 but at the very time it took place Edward was under a 
 precontract to marry a certain Lady Eleanor Talbot, 
 daughter of the Earl of Shrewsbury and widow of Lord 
 Butler ; and this according to the canon law made his 
 marriage to Elizabeth Woodville void. Moreover, the 
 Duke of Clarence had been attainted by Parliament, so 
 that none of his children could inherit. Thus Richard 
 was the only true heir of his father Richard ^j^^ crown 
 Duke of York, and of the crown of England ; is offered tc 
 and he was desired by the lords spiritual and 
 temporal and the commons^ then assembled to assume 
 that to which he was so entitled. 
 
 15. A deputation consisting of a number of the lords 
 and some of the principal knights, joined by the mayor 
 and aldermen and chief citizens of London, then waited 
 on Richard at Baynard's Castle, the residence of his 
 mother the Duchess of York, and presented the petition. 
 Richard intimated his acceptance, and next morning, 
 accompanied by a great number of the nobility, 
 proceeded in state to Westminster Hall, and 
 afterwards to the Abbey and St. Paul's. From that 
 day he began to reign as king by the name oi 
 Rich?(rd III. 
 
 M.H. p 
 
210 Richard III. ch. x. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 RICHARD III. 
 
 I. The Royal Progress — Murder of the Princes. 
 
 I. From what has been already said it will be seen that 
 the accession, or, as it is commonly called, the usurpation 
 of Richard III., was the result of a struggle between 
 different parties among the nobility, in which the ablest 
 and the most high-handed carried the day. Dislike of 
 the Woodvilles was the one common bond by which the 
 greater part of the nobles could be united ; and Richard, 
 with his ally the Duke of Buckingham, made use of it for 
 his own purposes. But though this feeling was strong 
 Change of and general enough to give him a complete 
 towards victory over his opponents, there was no real 
 
 Richard sympathy between him and the greater pari 
 
 attained of those who for the moment supported him, 
 
 the crown. ^^^ j^ ^^g inevitable that when he had attained 
 the crown, feelings of a different kind should begin to 
 show themselves. And so we are told expressly by one 
 writer of the time that as soon as he had become king 
 he lost the hearts of his nobility, * insomuch that such as 
 before loved and praised him and would have jeopardied 
 life and goods with him if he had remained still as Pro- 
 tector, now murmured and grudged against him in such 
 wise that few or none favoured his party, except it were 
 for dread or for the great gifts that they received of him ; 
 by mean whereof he wan divers to follow his mind, the 
 which after deceived him.' Yet, looking merely to the 
 circumstances of his accession, Richard was not a usurper 
 in the strict sense of the word. He did not seize, but was 
 invited to assume, the crown : and the body by which he 
 was invited so to do had all the weight and dignity of a 
 regular parliament. 
 
1483. Accession of Richard III. 211 
 
 2. His coronation, which was fixed for July 6, just ten 
 days after his accession, was celebrated with peculiar 
 magnificence, and preceded by a gorgeous pro- His corona- 
 cession the day before, in which the greater *'°"' J"'y ^• 
 number of the nobility took part. At this time he made 
 great professions that he would rule with clemency. A 
 day or two before his coronation he entered the Court of 
 King^s Bench and sat down in the seat of the chief 
 justice, from which he proclaimed a general amnesty for 
 all offences against himself. In token of his sincerity he 
 also sent for one Sir John Fogge, who had notoriously 
 incurred his displeasure and taken refuge in a neighbour- 
 ing sanctuary. Fogge had been a member of his brother 
 King Edward's council, and had filled the office of trea- 
 surer of the household during his reign. On being sent 
 for he came out of sanctuary, and Richard in the presence 
 of all the people took him openly by the hand. 
 
 3. To confirm the good impression which these and 
 other acts were calculated to make upon his subjects, 
 Richard then set out upon a progress through ^^ 
 
 the midland and northern counties. His goes on a 
 course lay in the first place through Windsor, p''°^^^^- 
 Reading, and Oxford, to Woodstock and Gloucester. At 
 Oxford he met with a magnificent reception, in which 
 Bishop Waynflete, the founder of Magdalen College, 
 took a leading part. At Gloucester the city offered him 
 a handsome present or ' benevolence,' unsolicited ; and 
 the same was done at Worcester, which was the next 
 place he visited. Both these gifts he declined, as he had 
 already done a similar offer from the metropolis, declaring 
 he would rather have the hearts of his subjects than their 
 money. He went on to Warwick, where he received 
 ambassadors from Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain ; and 
 from thence by Coventry, Leicester, and Nottingham he 
 went on to York, where the citizens had prepared for him 
 
2 1 2 Richard III. ch. x 
 
 a reception of more than ordinary splendour. It has been 
 said that he was crowned a second time in tlis city ; but 
 the truth seems to be merely that he and his queen, who 
 had joined him at Warwick, with the Prince Edward their 
 ion, whom he that day created Prince of Wales, walked 
 in a grand procession through the streets with crowns 
 upon their heads. 
 
 4. All this display tended to increase his popularity, 
 especially in the North where he had been a long time 
 resident before he became king. But in London and the 
 southern counties people began to be uneasy about his 
 conduct towards the young princes his nephews. It is 
 true King Edward himself, out of a confidence which was 
 certainly misplaced, had appointed Richard the guardian 
 of his children after his death, but the mode in which he 
 exercised his rights was exceedingly suspicious. The 
 two young princes were never seen out of the Tower, and 
 nobody appears to have known anything about them. 
 Their five sisters remained with their mother in the 
 Sanctuary at Westminster ; but Richard had caused the 
 Sanctuary to be surrounded with a band of armed men 
 lest any of them should make their escape beyond sea. 
 For it appears that plans had begun to be formed for 
 carrying off one or more of them in disguise; doubts 
 being already entertained whether their two brothers 
 would not be cut off by violence. 
 
 5. At length it was announced that even the Duke of 
 Buckingham, who had hitherto been so strong a partizan 
 of Richard, was interested in behalf of the young princes, 
 and would put himself at the head of a confederacy for 
 their liberation from the Tower. But scarcely had this 
 news got abroad when it was made known that the object 
 M rder f ^^ ^^ proposed rising was hopeless, for the 
 the two princes were no more. No one could tell how 
 
 princes. ^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ p^^ ^^ dit7iX\\ \ but that 
 
1483. Murder jf the tivo Princes. 213 
 
 they had been murdered was the current rumour of the 
 time, and it was not, for it could not be, contradicted. 
 
 6. The circumstances of the crime seem, in fact, to 
 have remained a secret for nearly twenty years ; but at 
 length by the confession of some of the mur- ^. 
 derers they were found to be, briefly, as fol- stances of 
 lows :— Some time after Richard had set out ^ '^"'"^' 
 upon his progress he sent a messenger named John Green 
 to Sir Robert Brackenbury, the Constable of the Tower 
 commanding him to put his two young nephews to death. 
 This order Brackenbury would not obey, and Green re- 
 turned to his master at Warwick. Richard was greatly 
 mortified, but sent one Sir James Tyrell to London with 
 a warrant to Brackenbury to deliver up to him for one 
 night all the keys of the Tower. Tyrell thus took the 
 place into his keeping, and engaged the services of Miles 
 Forest, one of those who kept the princes' chamber, and 
 John Dighton, his own groom, to carry out the wishes of 
 the tyrant. These men entered the chamber when the 
 two unfortunate lads were asleep and smothered them 
 under pillows ; then having called Sir James to see the 
 bodies, buried them at the foot of a staircase. Bracken- 
 bury, it was supposed, caused them afterwards to be re- 
 moved and buried secretly in some more suitable place , 
 but as he was dead long before the story got abroad, the 
 place could never be ascertained. The fact, however, 
 appears to have been that they were not removed at all ; 
 for nearly two hundred years later, two skeletons cor- 
 responding to the age of the murdered youths were 
 found in the very position where they were said to have 
 been originally buried— at the foot of a staircase in the 
 Tower. 
 
 7. Unscrupulous as Richard was, the remorse that 
 overtook him after this dreadful crime appears to have 
 been very terrible indeed. ' I have heard,' Richard's 
 wrote Sir Thomas More, * by credible report remor «. 
 
214 Richard III. c.w. yl 
 
 of such as were secret with his chamberers, that after this 
 abominable deed done he never had quiet in his mind ; 
 he never thought himself sure. When he went abroad 
 his eyes whirled about, his body privily fenced, his hand 
 ever on his dagger, his countenance and manner hke one 
 always ready to strike again. He took ill rest at nights, 
 lay long waking and musing ; sore wearied with care and 
 watch, he rather slumbered than slept. Troubled with 
 fearful dreams, suddenly sometimes started he up, lept 
 out of his bed and ran about the chamber. So was his 
 restless heart continually tossed and tumbled with the 
 tedious impression and stormy remembrance of his most 
 abominable deed.' 
 
 II. The Rebellio7i of Buckingham 
 
 1. The news of the murder excited throughout the 
 country strong feelings of grief and indignation. But to 
 those implicated in the conspiracy for the liberation of 
 the princes it was more especially alarming. A new 
 object, however, was presently supplied to them. The 
 male issue of Edward IV. being now extinct, a project 
 
 was formed for marrying his eldest daughter 
 mSriaS^of Elizabcih to Henry Earl of Richmond, a 
 Princess Eli- refugee in Brittany, who was regarded as the 
 Henry Earl head of the dcposcd House of Lancaster ; and 
 mond^^" Buckingham wrote to the earl to cross the seas, 
 
 while he and others in England should make 
 an insurrection in his favour. 
 
 2. Now, it is true the direct male line of the House 
 of Lancaster died with King Henry VI. ; but this Earl of 
 Descent of Richmond was descended from John of Gaunt 
 the Earl of through his mother Margaret Beaufort in the 
 
 xc mon . n-ianner shown in the subjoined pedigree. He 
 was also, by the father's side, a nephew of Henry VI., 
 
1483- 
 
 Earl of Richmond's Pedigree. 2 1 5 
 
 W 
 H 
 tn 
 
 < 
 (J 
 
 < 
 
 O 
 
 m 
 P 
 O 
 
 
 
 ^1l 
 
 -go 
 
 -t3 (O 
 
 3B 
 
 .d^S 
 
 Cll 
 
 pq 
 
 WQ, 
 
 ^3 S 
 
 > t^ 
 
 ^ o (u 
 § 4) S2 
 
 Sq.2 
 
 
 
 -^ffi"© 
 
 
 
 
 6^ 
 
 I. C/-S 
 
 fc rt 10 
 
 O ii^ 
 
 
2i6 Richard III. ch. x. 
 
 but this relationship, it will be seen, gave him no claim to 
 the crown. On the other hand, his claim through the 
 Beauforts was a little doubtful, as John Beaufort, Earl of 
 Somerset, the first of the line, was born before the mar- 
 riage of his father John of Gaunt with his mother Cathe- 
 rine Swynford. The Beauforts, it is true, had been made 
 legitimate by an Act of Parliament, but there was still 
 some question whether they were not excluded from the 
 crown. Richmond, however, was undoubtedly, after the 
 death of Henry VI., the most direct representative of 
 the line of John of Gaunt, and had been carried 
 over to Brittany by his uncle the Earl of Pembroke, 
 soon after the final overthrow of the Lancastrians at 
 Tewkesbury. 
 
 3. Now it will be seen that the Duke of Buckingham 
 was also descended from the Beauforts, and it is said 
 that owing to this fact he had thought at one time of lay- 
 ing claim to the crown himself. It is also supposed that he 
 had received a private disappointment from King Rich- 
 ard which had done much to cool the friend- 
 of Bucking- ship he had hitherto entertained towards him. 
 ham. -g^^ j^g ^y^g further greatly influenced by some 
 
 conversations that he held with Morton Bishop of Ely, 
 whom Richard had delivered to his custody after his ac- 
 cession ; and whom he kept as a prisoner at Brecknock. 
 Morton very soon discovered his disaffection towards King 
 Richard, and led him gradually into the design of calling 
 over the Earl of Richmond from Brittany and marrying 
 him to the Princess Elizabeth. This project was commu- 
 nicated to the Countess of Richmond, the earl's mother, 
 and to the Queen Dowager, by both of whom it was warmly 
 approved. The Marquis of Dorset and others of the 
 Woodville party arranged with Buckingham a number of 
 simultaneous risings to take place on October 18 in the 
 south and west of England ; and the Earl of Richmond 
 
1483. Rebellion of Btickingham. 2 1 7 
 
 was expected at the same time to land on the southern 
 coast and lead the movement in person. 
 
 4« On the day appointed, accordingly, the partisans of 
 Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, took up arms under 
 different leaders in Kent, in Berkshire, at Outbreak 
 Salisbury, and at Exeter. The Duke of Rebellion 
 Buckingham also took the field that day at Oct. 18. 
 Brecknock. The King seems to have been nearly taken 
 by surprise, but the news of the intended outbreak had 
 reached him, a week before it took place, at Lincoln. He 
 wrote in great haste to his chancellor to bring or send 
 immediately the Great Seal in order that he might make 
 out commissions of array. Hastening southwards he re- 
 ceived it at Grantham on the 19th. Commissions were 
 immediately sent out to levy troops in the King's name, 
 and a singular proclamation was issued on the 23rd, en- 
 deavouring to excite public indignation against his oppo- 
 nents as men of immoral lives who, despising the general 
 pardon issued by the King for political offences, were 
 leagued together for the maintenance of vice and the in- 
 dulgence of unlawful pleasures. The Marquis of Dorset, 
 it seems, had, since the death of Hastings, taken Jane 
 Shore into his keeping, and according to this proclama- 
 tion had been guilty of many other acts of immorality. 
 
 5. Great rewards were offered by this proclamation 
 for the capture of Buckingham, Dorset, and the Bishops 
 of Ely and Salisbury ; for Bishop Morton, it should be 
 mentioned, after his conversations with Buckingham, 
 had contrived to make his escape from Brecknock into 
 the Isle of Ely, and soon after got beyond sea. The 
 Bishop of Salisbury was a brother of Queen Elizabeth 
 Woodville. One thousand pounds in money, or an 
 estate in land worth one hundred pounds a year, was the 
 price set upon the head of Buckingham. Such an amount 
 was probably equal in value to about twelve thousand 
 
2 1 8 Richard III. ch. x. 
 
 pounds in modern money, or twelve hundred pounds a 
 year in land. For the others the sums offered were no* 
 quite so large. Buckingham had boasted that he had as 
 many liveries of the Stafford knot as Warwick the King- 
 maker had of his cognisance, the bear and ragged staff. 
 But however numerous the forces he could bring into the 
 field, he was utterly unable to make use of them. Two 
 gentlemen named Thomas Vaughan and Humphrey 
 Stafford watched the roads about Brecknock to prevent 
 his leaving Wales, and destroyed all the bridges across 
 the Severn. Heavy rains then swelled the rivers and 
 made a passage utterly impracticable. A great part of 
 the land was flooded, provisions were not to be obtained, 
 and the men of Buckingham disbanded. The duke him- 
 self retired into Shropshire and took refuge with one of 
 his retainers named Ralph Banaster, who, 
 ham be- tempted by the great reward offered for his 
 
 traye , apprehension, delivered him up to the sheriff 
 
 of the county. 
 
 6. Richard, meanwhile, had been collecting forces 
 and advancing towards the west of England. Bucking- 
 ham on his capture was brought to him at Salisbury, and 
 
 the King gave orders for his instant execution, 
 cllted, Richard acted wisely in refusing him an inter- 
 
 ^°^' ^' view, for which he made urgent request ; for 
 
 it seems to have been well known afterwards that he in- 
 tended to have stabbed him to the heart. 
 
 7. The capture and death of Buckingham completely 
 put an end to the rebellion. Dorset and some of the 
 
 other leaders at once abandoned all hope of 
 of the resistance and fled to Brittany. A few others 
 
 rebelhon. \^^xQ, taken and executed — among the rest Sir 
 Thomas St. Leger, who had married the Duchess of 
 Exeter, the King's sister ; but the common people were 
 spared. The Earl of Richmond set sail from Brittany 
 
1484. Second Invasion of RicJiDioiid. 219 
 
 but met with a storm in mid-channel which dispersed his 
 ships ; and though his own vessel neared the coast at 
 Poole and at Plymouth, he could obtain no satisfactory 
 assurance of a friendly reception on landing. He there- 
 fore hoisted sail and recrossed the sea. 
 
 III. Second Invasion of Richmond— Richards Over- 
 throw and Death. 
 
 1. Thus Richard had obtained an almost bloodless 
 triumph. He passed on to Exeter, where he received the 
 congratulations of the citizens, and a purse of 200 gold 
 nobles was presented to him. In the January following 
 a Parliament met at Westminster which con- ^ ^ ^^^g^ 
 firmed his title to the crown and passed an Richard's 
 act of attainder against the Earl of Richmond firmed in 
 and his adherents. Upwards of ninety per- ^^''1'^'"^"^ 
 sons were by this act branded as traitors and deprived of al) 
 their lands and honours ; but the Countess of Richmond, 
 Henry's mother, who had been the chief organiser ot 
 the whole rebellion, was treated with leniency out of con- 
 sideration for her husband. Lord Stanley. Her lands 
 were given to her husband for life, and he undertook to 
 be responsible for her conduct in the future. Another 
 Act of this Parliament was to abolish the oppressive kind 
 of taxation introduced by Edward IV. under the name 
 of benevolences, which though they were professedly 
 free-will offerings, had been really exacted under so much 
 pressure as to reduce many persons from affluence to 
 poverty. 
 
 2. Before the Parliament separated the lords all took 
 an oath of allegiance, not only to Richard as king, but 
 to his son Edward Prince of Wales as heir-apparent, to 
 whom they promised fealty after Richard's death. But 
 within a few weeks the young prince died after a brief 
 
220 Richard III. ch. x. 
 
 illness, and Richard was childless. As the children of 
 Edward IV. had been declared illegitimate and those of 
 the Duke ot Clarence could not inherit by reason of their 
 father's attainder, Richard then recognised as his heir 
 John De la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, son of the Duke ot 
 Suffolk. 
 
 3. Meanwhile, the Earl of Richmond was busy pre- 
 paring for a second attempt at invasion. On Christmas 
 Richmond Day he had held a meeting with his principal 
 and his fol- adherents in Rennes Cathedral, where he took 
 
 lowers in ' 
 
 Brittany. oath to marry the Princess Ehzabeth as soon 
 as he should obtain possession of the crown. Richard 
 made application to the Duke of Brittany to deliver him 
 up into his hands ; but the earl, having received warning, 
 escaped into the dominions of Charles VIII., the new 
 King of France, who had just succeeded his father Louis 
 XI., where he was soon rejoined by about 300 of his 
 followers. Richard, however, endeavoured to defeat his 
 designs in another way. He summoned a 
 ' '^"^ ' council of the lords spiritual and temporal, 
 then in London, together with the lord mayor and alder- 
 men of the city, and took oath in their pre- 
 sence that if the five daughters of *Dame 
 Elizabeth Grey' (meaning by that name the Queen 
 Dowager, whom he no longer recognised as such) would 
 come out of sanctuary and place themselves under his 
 protection, he would not only assure them of life and 
 liberty, but provide them with husbands as they came of 
 age, and give each of them a marriage portion of the 
 value of 200 marks a year. He also en- 
 Dowager gaged to allow Elizabeth herself a pension 
 daugiuers °^ 7°° marks a year for life. This offer the 
 leave Queen Dowager and her daughters thought 
 
 sane uary. .^ ^^ ^^ accept, and accordingly came out 
 of sanctuar)\ 
 
1485. TIte Queen Dowager and Richard III. 221 
 
 4. It seems extraordinary that after the murder of her 
 sons the Queen Dowager should ever have been induced 
 to repose the shghtest confidence in Richard ; and yet 
 there appears to be no doubt of the fact that some time 
 after this she was nearly won over by his blandishments 
 to break off her compact with Henry, whose cause she 
 probably considered hopeless. She wrote to her son the 
 Marquis of Dorset in France to withdraw himself from 
 the Earl of Richmond's company ; and Dorset had in 
 consequence secretly left Paris, where the earl was then 
 staying, and was hastening towards Flanders on his way to 
 England, when the French king's council, at the earl's 
 urgent request, caused his flight to be arrested. It is 
 even asserted that Richard attained such favour with the 
 Queen Dowager, that in order to prevent her daughter's 
 marriage with the Earl of Richmond he proposed, in the 
 expectation of his own queen's death, to marry her him- 
 self; and this project, as the chronicles relate, was 
 actually approved by the mother, although very abhor- 
 rent to the feelings of the princess herself. Such a story 
 seems almost too monstrous to be believed. Perhaps the 
 truth may be that immediately after his queen's 
 
 death Richard did make some advances of 
 the kind, which even under these circumstances were 
 disgraceful enough ; and the indignation they Richard 
 aroused may have caused the story to be ex- disavows an 
 
 , _ .... , /_ . r 1 • intention to 
 
 aggerated. Certam it is that the King felt it marry his 
 necessary to make a pubhc disavowal of the ^^^^^' 
 intention within a very few weeks after his wife's death. 
 
 5. But whatever arts Richard used — cajolery, pro- 
 mises, bribes, or threats — to turn enemies into friends or 
 to defeat the plans of his opponents, they never were suc- 
 cessful except partially and for a time. Sir Thomas More, 
 a great wit and genius, who in those days was a child, but 
 afterwards wrote a hfe of King Richard from the infor- 
 
222 Richard III. ch. x. 
 
 mation of persons then living, says of him that * with 
 large gifts he got him unsteadfast friendship, for which 
 he was fain to pill and spoil in other places and get him 
 steadfast hatred.' Before his brief reign came to an end 
 he found himself obliged to replenish his empty ex- 
 He raises chequer by having recourse once more to 
 ben"evo-^^ thosc detested benevolences which he had 
 lences. promised in Parliament should never again 
 
 be levied. Such measures, of course, made him more 
 than ever unpopular at home, while the preparations of 
 the Earl of Richmond abroad continually gave him more 
 anxiety. The Earl of Oxford, who had given much 
 trouble to his brother Edward IV., had been committed 
 to the custody of Sir James Blount, governor of Hammes 
 Castle, near Calais, brother of the Lord Mountjoy. Sir 
 James released his prisoner, and both offered their ser- 
 vices to the Earl of Richmond. The castle of Hammes 
 was afterwards recovered into the King's hands, but only 
 on condition that the garrison should be allowed to de- 
 part with bag and baggage. 
 
 6. By repeated proclamations Richard called upon 
 his subjects to resist the intended invasion of Richmond 
 with all their force. He denounced the earl and his fol- 
 lowers as men who had forsaken their true allegiance and 
 put themselves in subjection to the French king. He 
 pointed out that owing to the illegitimacy of the Beauforts 
 Henry could have no claim to the crown, and that even 
 on the father's side he was come of bastard blood. He 
 declared that he had bargained to give up for ever all 
 claims hitherto made by the kings of England either t(? 
 the crown of France, the duchy of Normandy, Gascony, 
 or even Calais. Richmond, however, had sent messages 
 into England by which he was assured of a considerable 
 Richmond amount of support ; and he borrowed money 
 Wales/ ° from the King of France with which he fitted 
 
1 485 . Second Invasion of R ichviond. 223 
 
 out a small fleet at Harfleur and embarked for Wales^ 
 where his uncle, Jasper Tudor, Earl of Pembroke, pos- 
 sessed great influence. 
 
 7. Richard, knowing of the intended invasion, but 
 being uncertain where his enemy might land, had taken 
 up his position in the centre of the kingdom. Following 
 a plan first put in use by his brother Edward during the 
 Scotch war, he had stationed messengers at intervals of 
 twenty miles along all the principal roads to and lands 
 the coast to bring him early intelligence. But Haven^"'^'^ 
 Henry landed at Milford Haven at the farthest Aug. i. 
 extremity of South Wales, where, perhaps, Richard had 
 least expected him ; and so small was the force by which 
 he was accompanied that the news did not at first give 
 the King very much anxiety. He professed great satis- 
 faction that his adversary was now coming to bring 
 matters to the test of battle. The earl, however, was 
 among friends from the moment he landed. Pembroke 
 was his native town, and the inhabitants expressed their 
 willingness to serve his uncle, the Earl of Pembroke, as 
 their natural and immediate lord. The very men whom 
 Richard had placed to keep the country against him at 
 once joined his party, and he passed on to Shrewsbury 
 with little or no opposition. 
 
 8. The King's ' unsteadfast friendships ' on the other 
 hand were now rapidly working his ruin. His own 
 attorney-general, Morgan Kidwelly, had been Richard 
 
 in communication with the enemy before he by Sr*^ 
 landed. Richard, however, was very naturally friends, 
 suspicious of Lord Stanley, his rival's stepfather, who 
 though he was steward of the royal household, had asked 
 leave shortly before the invasion to go home and visit his 
 family in Lancashire. This the King granted only on 
 condition that he would send his son, George Lord 
 Strange, to him at Nottingham in his place. Lord 
 
324 Richard III. en. x. 
 
 Strange was accordingly sent to the King ; but when the 
 news arrived of Henry's landing, Richard desired the 
 presence of his father also. Stanley pretended illness, 
 an excuse which could not fail to increase the King's sus- 
 picions. His son at the same time made an attempt to 
 escape, and being captured confessed that he himself and 
 his uncle Sir William Stanley had formed a project with 
 others to go over to the enemy ; but he protested his 
 father's innocence and assured the King that he would 
 obey his summons. He was made to understand that 
 his own life depended on his doing so, and he wrote a 
 letter to his father accordingly. 
 
 9. Richard having mustered his followers at Notting- 
 ham went on to Leicester to meet his antagonist, and 
 encamped at Bosworth on the night of August 21. The 
 Earl of Richmond had arrived near the same place with 
 an army of 5,000 men, which is supposed to have been 
 not more than half that of the King. That day, however, 
 Lord Stanley had come to the earl secretly at Atherstone 
 to assure him of his support in the coming battle. He 
 and his brother Sir William were each at the head of a 
 force not far off, and were only temporising to save the 
 life of his son Lord Strange, This information relieved 
 Henry's mind of much anxiety, for at various times since 
 he landed he had felt serious misgivings about the success 
 of the enterprise. The issue was now to be decided on 
 the following day. 
 
 10. Early in the morning both parties prepared for 
 the battle. Richard arose before daybreak, much agi- 
 tated, it is said, by dreadful dreams that had 
 
 A.ug. 22. , , , . . . . . , . , 
 
 haunted his nnagmation m the night time. 
 But he entered the field wearing his crown upon his 
 head, and encouraged his troops with an eloquent ha- 
 r.'ingue. There was, however, treason in his camp, and 
 many of his followers were only seeking an opportunity . 
 
f485. The Battle of Bosworth. .-^25 
 
 to desert and take part svith the enemy, A warning 
 indeed had been conveyed by an unknown hand to his 
 foremost supporter, the Duke of Norfolk, in the following 
 rhyme, which was discovered the night before, written on 
 the door of his tent : — 
 
 'Jack of Norfolk, be not too bold, 
 For Dickon, thy master, is bought and sold.' 
 
 11. Lord Stanley, who had drawn up his men at about 
 equal distance from both armies, received messages early 
 in the morning from both leaders desiring his immediate 
 assistance. His policy, however, was to stand aloof to 
 the very last moment, and he replied in each case that he 
 would come at a convenient opportunity. Dissatisfied 
 with this answer, Richard ordered his son to be beheaded, 
 but was persuaded to suspend the execution of the order 
 till the day should be decided. 
 
 12. After a discharge of arrows on both sides the 
 armies soon came to a hand-to-hand encounter. Lord 
 Stanley joined the earl in the midst of the en- 
 gagement, and the Earl of Northumberland, on of Bos^ 
 whose support Richard had relied, stood still ^°''th- 
 with all his followers and looked on. The day was going 
 hard against the King. Norfolk fell in the thickest of 
 the fight, and his son the Earl of Surrey, after fighting 
 with great valour, was surrounded and taken prisoner. 
 Richard endeavoured to single out his adversary, whose 
 position on the field was pointed out to him. He sud- 
 denly rushed upon Henry's body-guard and unhorsed 
 successively two of his attendants, one of whom, the 
 earl's standard-bearer, fell apparently dead. The earl 
 himself was in great danger but that Sir William Stanley, 
 who had hitherto abstained from joining the combat, now 
 endeavoured to surround the King with his force o\ 
 
 M,H. Q 
 
226 Richard III. ch. x. 
 
 3,000 men. Richard perceived that he was betrayed 
 Death of and crying out ' Treason ! Treason \ ' endea- 
 Richard. voured Only to sell his life as dearly as possible. 
 Overpowered by numbers he fell dead in the midst of his 
 enemies. 
 
 13. The crown that had fallen from Richard's head 
 was picked up upon the field of battle and Lord Stanley 
 Henry placed it upon the head of the conqueror, 
 upOTiThe who was saluted as king by his whole army, 
 battle-field. The body of Richard on the other hand was 
 treated with a degree of indignity which expressed but 
 too plainly the disgust excited in the minds of the people 
 by his inhuman tyranny. It was stripped naked and 
 thrown upon a horse, a halter being placed round the 
 neck, and in that fashion carried into Leicester, where 
 it was buried with little honour in the Grey Friars' 
 church. 
 
 14. Such was the end of the last King of England of the 
 line of the Plantagenets. In warlike qualities he was not 
 inferior to the best of his predecessors, but his rule was such 
 as alienated the hearts of the greater part of his subjects 
 and caused him to be remembered as a monster. In per- 
 son, too, he is represented to have been deformed, with the 
 right shoulder higher than the left ; and he is traditionally 
 regarded as a hunchback. But it may be that even his 
 bodily defects were exaggerated after he was gone. 
 Stories got abroad that he was born with teeth, and hair 
 coming down to the shoulders, and that his birth was 
 attended by other circumstances altogether repugnant to 
 the order of nature. One fact that can hardly be a mis- 
 statement is that he was small of stature — which makes 
 it all the more remarkable that in this last battle he over- 
 threw in personal encounter a man of great size and 
 strength named Sir John Cheyney. He was, in fact, a 
 great soldier-king, in whom alike the valour and the 
 
jaSS' End of the Civil War. 227 
 
 violence of his race had been matured and brought to a 
 climax by civil wars and family dissensions. 
 
 15. It was inevitable that kings of this sort should 
 give place to kings of a different stamp. His rivaJ 
 Henry, henceforth King Henry VII., inaugurated a new 
 era, in which prudence and policy were made to serve the 
 interests of peace, and secure the throne, even with a 
 doubtful title, against the convulsions to which it had 
 been hitherto exposed. By his marriage with the Prin- 
 cess Elizabeth he was considered to have at length united 
 the Houses of York and Lancaster, and he left to his son 
 Henry VIII., who succeeded him, a title almost as free 
 from dispute or cavil as that of any king in more recen/ 
 times. 
 
 16. The civil wars, in fact, had worked themselves 
 out. The too powerful nobility had destroyed each other 
 in these internecine struggles ; and as the lords of each 
 party were attainted by turns, their great estates were 
 confiscated and passed into the hands of the crown. 
 This gave the Tudor sovereigns an advantage that they 
 knew well how to use. Watchful and suspicious of their 
 nobility, they understood, as few other sovereigns did, the 
 value of property ; and under Henry VIII. the English 
 monarchy attained a power and absolutism unparalleled 
 before or since. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 GENERAL VIEW OF EUROPEAN HISTORY. 
 
 I. The civil wars in England of which we have now related 
 the history are commonly called the Wars of the Roses, 
 from the fact that the House of Lancaster as- wars of 
 sumed a red rose for its badge, and the House *^^ Roses. 
 f^f York a white rose. Shakspeare, who has preserved in 
 
228 General View of European History, ch. xi. 
 
 his plays a number of historical traditions the authority 
 of which we cannot always verify, represents in one in- 
 teresting scene at the beginning of the struggle the lords 
 of both parties meeting in the Temple Gardens, and each 
 plucking a rose, red or white, to indicate his attachment 
 to the Duke of Somerset or York. Whether such a scene 
 actually took place and gave rise to those party badges it 
 is impossible to say ; but there is no doubt that the 
 Yorkists were known as the party of the White Rose, 
 and their opponents as that of the Red. When at length 
 Henry VII., the representative of the House of Lancaster, 
 attained the crown and married the daughter of Edward 
 IV., the marriage was spoken of as the union of the 
 Roses. 
 
 2. This union was the first step in England towards that 
 strengthening of the powers of the crown which was now 
 absolutely necessary for the restoration of order. Since 
 the days of Edward III. all authority had been weak 
 because the sovereign power itself was weak. It was the 
 weakness of despotic caprice in Richard II., of usur- 
 pation and civil war under the House of Lancaster, and 
 of internal division in the House of York ; and all these 
 causes combined to make the fifteenth century a period 
 „ , , of violence and disorder approaching at times 
 
 Under the , xt i i i i /- , 
 
 Tudors to anarchy. Under the steady rule of the 
 
 recole"s Tudors England recovered from this con- 
 from dis- fusion ; the claims of the two rival houses 
 were blended, the turbulent nobility were kept 
 in strict subjection, law was administered with generally 
 an impartial hand, peace was for the most part cherished, 
 and commerce was protected. Disencumbered of the 
 rule of any French territory except Calais, the English 
 grew strong at home and became a nation compact and 
 imited under a race of sovereigns who were powerful 
 enough to throw off the spiritual dominion of Rome, and 
 
Decay of Feudalism. 229 
 
 to take a leading position among the potentates of 
 Europe. 
 
 3. But that which occurred in England occurred in 
 other countries also. What are called the Middle Ages 
 came to an end with the fifteenth century — a time of 
 universal disorder, in the midst of which, however, a new 
 order was gradually forming itself and gathering strength. 
 The decay of feudalism, in fact, paved the way for the 
 reorganisation of Europe. Great kingdoms Great 
 sprang up where formerly had existed a num- foJ-mfn^fn 
 ber of principalities held only in nominal sub- Europe 
 jection to a feudal sovereign, or where, as in England, a 
 too powerful nobility had almost made themselves inde- 
 pendent of the crown. France first emerged from the 
 confusion ; afterwards Spain and England. By the end 
 of the fifteenth century the nations of western Europe 
 had settled down into nearly the same relative positions 
 and occupied nearly the same territory that they have 
 since retained. 
 
 4. The connection between English and Continental 
 history during this period is a subject which has not been 
 altogether lost sight of in the preceding pages. But 
 some general remarks on the progress of European 
 nations may be desirable before we bring this work to a 
 conclusion. 
 
 5. There is at once a parallelism and a contrast during 
 this period between the career of England and that of 
 France. At no time were the fortunes of the ^, 
 
 Close 
 
 two nations more closely linked together, connection 
 The very same events form, during a con- jfngiSh 
 siderable part of the fifteenth century, the jipd French 
 leading features in the history of both. But "^^°'^- 
 the same events have in either case an opposite signifi- 
 cance. The triumph of the one country was the abase- 
 ment of the other, and the recovery of the second was 
 
230 General View of European History, ch. xi 
 
 accompanied by the demoralisation of the first. There 
 is, moreover, quite an extraordinary amount of coinci- 
 dence, and at the same time contrast, between the cir- 
 cumstances by which the contemporary kings of England 
 and of France were surrounded during the whole period 
 of our narrative. The reign of Charles VI., who came to 
 the throne just three years after Richard II., corresponds 
 to those of three successive kings in England. At his 
 accession he and Richard were both under age ; but 
 Charles led his armies in person when he was fourteen, 
 while Richard, though not deficient in courage, seldom 
 asserted himself in any way except at a crisis like Wat 
 Tyler's rebellion. The complaint in Richard's case was 
 that he allowed himself to be governed by favourites ; 
 which was perfectly true at those times when he was not 
 coerced by his uncles. Towards the end of his reign, 
 however, Richard, weary of his long subjection, laid 
 claim to absolute power ; while Charles about the same 
 time became deranged and was obliged to surrender the 
 government to his uncles. After this the French court be- 
 came divided by factions which left the kingdom an easy 
 prey to the invader ; and the same king who, when a 
 boy, had alarmed all England by the fleet he had col- 
 lected at Sluys, was obliged in his latter days to make 
 an English king his heir and invest him with all the 
 powers of royalty to the exclusion of his own son. 
 
 6. But the parallelism of which we have spoken Js more 
 striking after the death of Charles VI., when by a singu- 
 lar coincidence the reigns of the English and French 
 sovereigns correspond during three successions exactly 
 to a year, with circumstances either so much alike, or so 
 contrasted, that thev may be shown in parallel columns 
 as follows : — 
 
England and France, 
 
 231 
 
 France. 
 A.D. X422. Charles VII. suc- 
 ceeds his father Charles 
 VI., and 
 
 France loses an imbecile 
 king and gets a stronger, who 
 displays great abilities as a 
 ruler. In his time — 
 
 England, 
 Henry VI, succeeds his father 
 Henry V. 
 
 England loses a strong king 
 and gets an infant who exhibits 
 no capacity for government 
 even when he grows up. In his 
 time — 
 France recovers Normandy and Guienne, and deprives England 
 of all her French dominions, except Calais. 
 
 A.D. 1461. Louis XI. succeeds 
 his father Charles VII,, 
 and 
 
 A poUtic king consolidates 
 the French monarchy, notwith- 
 standing powerful combinations 
 against him. 
 
 A.D. 1483. Charles VIII. suc- 
 ceeds his father Louis XI, , 
 and 
 A minority ; but Francebeing 
 now settled the consolidation of 
 her dominions is completed in a 
 few years by the annexation of 
 Brittany. 
 
 Edward IV. deposes Henry VI. 
 
 A military king displaces 
 one too weak to rule, but holds 
 the throne insecurely, and is 
 temporarily displaced himself. 
 
 Edward V. succeeds his father 
 Edward IV. 
 
 A minority ; but it does not 
 last three months. Richard III. 
 usurps the crown ; but even his 
 reign of tyranny and violence 
 only lasts two years, and 
 Henry VII., who succeeds him, 
 is for a long time troubled with 
 rebellions. 
 
 /. Of all the great feudal lords of France the Dukes of 
 Burgundy were by far the most powerful. The duchy 
 itself was one of the richest parts of France, but the 
 Dukes also possessed Franche Comte — 'the Free 
 County ' of Burgundy, which they held of the Empire and 
 not of the French crown ; and to these possessions had 
 been added, ever since 1384, some of the most flourishing 
 
232 General View of EiLropean History, ch. xi. 
 
 provinces of the Netherlands, which were acquired by 
 Duke Philip the Bold in right of his wife, Margaret, 
 daughter of the Count of Flanders. These provinces, 
 full of populous towns such as Ghent, Bruges, and Ant- 
 werp, seats of the largest commerce and manufactures in 
 the world, were likewise held of the empire. Hence the 
 Dukes of Burgundy became so exceedingly powerful, that 
 instead of being subject to the kings of France, they at 
 times held those kings in practical subjection to themselves. 
 But after the death of Charles the Bold, Louis XI. 
 seized upon the Duchyand even the Franche Comte, which 
 he succeeded in uniting to the French crown. The rest 
 of the dominions of the House of Burgundy were conveyed 
 to the Archduke Maximilian, son of the Emperoi 
 Frederic HI. by his marriage with Charles the Bold's 
 daughter ; so that the Netherlands came into the posses- 
 sion of the House of Austria, an ambitious and grasping 
 family, in whom the empire itself ultimately became here- 
 ditary, and with it under Charles V., in the sixteenth 
 century, was joined the sovereignty of Spain. 
 
 8. The Spanish peninsula at the beginning of the fif- 
 teenth century was divided into the four Christian king 
 doms of Castile, Arragon, Navarre, and Portugal, besides 
 Spain ^^ Moorish kingdom of Granada. The dif- 
 
 becomes ferent kings had wars among each other, and 
 
 a^unked^^ somctimes disputes with regard to the suc- 
 kingdom. cession at home. But in 1458, John II., King 
 of Navarre, succeeded to the crown of Arragon, and on 
 his death in 1479 he was succeeded by his son Ferdinand, 
 who with his wife Isabella, the heiress of Castile, had 
 already been proclaimed joint sovereign of that countiy. 
 In this manner, the three Christian kingdoms of Spain 
 would have been united ; but after the death of King 
 John, Navarre became again a separate kingdom, and 
 
Spain — Italy, 233 
 
 owing to French interest was kept so for another century. 
 Ferdinand and Isabella, however, united Arragon and 
 Castile, turned their arms against the Moors, conquered 
 Granada, and became masters of nearly the whole penin- 
 sula except Portugal. That country, which has maintained 
 its independence to this day, became great in another way 
 — by maritime expeditions. Alfonso V. made ,^ . . 
 
 , , 1 r A r . Mantime 
 
 several descents upon the coast of Africa, enterprise of 
 conquered Ceuta, Tangier, and other places. Po^'tug^i- 
 Portuguese enterprise discovered the island of Madeira 
 in the beginning of the fifteenth century, and afterwards 
 the Azores ; then gradually explored the western coast of 
 Africa by Cape Bojador and Cape Verd, until, in 1497, 
 Vasco de Gama doubled the Cape of Good Hope and 
 made his way to India. The discovery of the New 
 World by Columbus in 1492 was unquestionably stimu- 
 lated by the knowledge of what the Portuguese had done 
 before him. 
 
 9. But while the western kingdoms all passed through a 
 period of weakness and became stronger, the states situ- 
 ated in the centre of Europe remained in the old confu- 
 sion, and in the East Christianity was actually receding 
 before the armies of the Turk. Italy was _. , , 
 
 11 1 • 1, Tin Divided 
 
 parcelled out mto small states. In the north state of 
 there was the dukedom of Milan and the re- ^^^^^' 
 publics of Venice, Genoa, and Florence, besides some 
 minor principalities. In the centre were the States of the 
 Church, of which the Pope was sovereign. In the south 
 were the two separate kingdoms of Naples and Sicily. 
 The principalities in the north belonged to the empire, 
 the centre of Italy was governed by the Church, the 
 south was a bone of contention between foreign princes. 
 Milan was erected into a dukedom by the 
 Emperor Wenceslaus in 1395. It had long 
 been under the dominion of the Visconti, who then be- 
 
234 General View of European History, ch. xi. 
 
 came its dukes — a family noted for deeds of violence and 
 cruelty. But on the death of Philip Maria Visconti in 
 1445 the dukedom was claimed by his son-in-law Fran- 
 cesco Sforza, who, after some fighting obtained it, and 
 became the head of another line. This Francesco, who 
 was the most noted soldier of his day, had fought by 
 turns in the service of Visconti, the Pope, and the 
 Venetians, and, generally speaking, had taken part in all 
 the Italian wars of his time, sometimes on one side and 
 sometimes on the opposite. He had fought against Pope 
 Eugenius IV. in the name of the Council of Bale till the 
 prudent pontiff turned him into a friend by making him 
 gonfalonier, or standard-bearer of the Church. He had 
 been out of favour with the Duke of Milan, but the duke 
 found the need of his assistance, appointed him captain- 
 general of his army, and gave him his daughter in mar- 
 riage. After the duke's death the Milanese wished to 
 form themselves into a republic like several of the neigh- 
 bouring states ; but Sforza formed a league with his old 
 enemies the Venetians, laid siege to the city, and forced 
 it to surrender for fear of starvation. He was then pro- 
 claimed duke, and his alliance was sought, not only by 
 the princes of Italy, but by Louis XI. of France and by 
 the King of Arragon. His sons and grandsons were 
 dukes after him, but scarcely sustained his greatness, 
 and in the last year of the century the Duke Ludovico 
 Maria Sforza was taken prisoner and his duchy seized by 
 Louis XII. of France. 
 
 10. In Naples, as we have seen, the House of Anjou 
 disputed the throne for some time with the family of Du- 
 razzo. Afterwards the Kings of Arragon, who 
 ruled in Sicily, laid claim to Naples also, and 
 the House of Anjou was unable to vindicate its preten- 
 sions against them. King Ren^ at first attempted to 
 make good his claims, but was soon driven out and left 
 
Italy. 235 
 
 with a barren title. A bastard branch ol the royal family 
 of Arragon then for some time succeeded, but in the end 
 this kingdom, as well as Sicily, came into the hands of 
 Ferdinand the Catholic. Thus ultimately the greater 
 part of Italy fell under the power either of France 
 or Spain, and so it continued for a long time after- 
 wards. 
 
 11. The two maritime republics of Genoa and Venice 
 did little to avert this result. The former, a prey to civil 
 dissensions, submitted, in the end of the four- 
 teenth century, to France, and never completely 
 regained its independence till 1528. Its territory on the 
 mainland was but a narrow fringe along the coast, but it 
 possessed the island of Corsica, and in the Grecian Archi- 
 pelago the island of Scio. It had also made Cyprus tribu- 
 tary and colonised the Crimea and other settlements on the 
 Black Sea. But the fall of Constantinople in 1453, which 
 the Genoese, of all European powers, made the greatest 
 efforts to prevent, deprived them of their colonies on the 
 Black Sea and thereby crippled their commerce. Their 
 rivals the Venetians also suffered from the ad- „ . 
 
 V cniCG 
 
 vance of the Turks in Greece and on the 
 shores of the Adriatic. Venice, however, did not suc- 
 cumb, as Genoa did, to any other great European power, 
 and she was so formidable in the year 1508 that France, 
 Spain, and Germany combined together in the league 
 of Cambray to humble her. 
 
 12. Of the history of the Popes we have already said 
 
 so much that a very few words may suffice to _, 
 
 i • ^^r I 1- r The Popes. 
 
 complete it. We have seen how even after 
 the papal see was brought back from Avignon to Rome 
 the French party were strong enough to maintain a series 
 of Antipopes at Avignon until the schism was terminated 
 by the proceedings of the Council of Constance. But 
 
236 General View of European History, ch. xi. 
 
 factions prevailed at Rome, and Pope Eugenius IV. took 
 part with the Orsini family against the Colonnas. He 
 also came into collision with the Council of Bale, which 
 was assembled in 1431 to promote a union of the Greek 
 Church with the Roman. Eugenius sought to dissolve 
 this council, but the council, maintaining the principle 
 asserted by the previous council of Constance, declared 
 itself superior to the Pope and ultimately deposed him 
 and set up Amadeus Duke of Savoy in his place asr 
 Pope Felix V. Eugenius, however, convoked another 
 council at Ferrara, which he afterwards removed to Flo- 
 rence, and therein pronounced the council of Bale hereti- 
 cal and the Antipope Felix a schismatic. Felix, indeed, 
 was only recognised in Hungary and a few of the minor 
 European states, and after the death of Eugenius he was 
 persuaded to resign. After this there is little that is 
 remarkable in the history of the papacy for some time, 
 except that in 1458 a great scholar and traveller, ^neas 
 Sylvius Piccolomini, was made Pope by the name of 
 Pius II., who, Hke all the other popes of this period made 
 great but ineffectual efforts to unite Europe against the 
 Turks. The princes of Europe were engrossed with 
 their own affairs, and the authority of the Holy See was 
 no longer what it had been before the popes took up 
 their abode at Avignon. 
 
 13. We have already spoken of the conquests of the 
 Sultan Bajazet, of the great battle of Nicopolis in which 
 he defeated the flower of European chivalr>^, 
 and of his final overthrow by Timour the 
 Tartar. This saved for a while from extinction the old 
 Eastern Empire, which had continued from the days of 
 Constantine, and Solyman I., the son of Bajazet, re- 
 covered the greater part of Asia from Tamerlane by 
 ceding to the Emperor Manuel the conquests of his 
 father in Europe. But his successors renewed their 
 
The Turks. 237 
 
 ciggressions on Christendom, which would have been 
 still more effective but for family quarrels among the 
 Ottoman princes themselves. The armies of Amurath II. 
 were defeated when they invaded Hungary by Johannes 
 Corvinus Hunniades, Waywode of Transylvania. The 
 Prince of Albania at the same time threw off the yoke and 
 succeeded in maintaining for three and twenty years the 
 independence of his country. The name of this prince 
 was George Castriot, but he is better known in history 
 by that of Scanderbeg — meaning in Turkish the Great 
 Alexander — which was given him in compliment to his 
 military genius. He certainly did not a little while he 
 lived to divert the forces of the Turk from Europe gene- 
 rally. Yet in the year 1453 Mahomet II. took by assault 
 Constantinople, and the Eastern Empire came to an end. 
 In a few years more he took Athens, Thebes, and 
 Corinth, and conquered the Morea. Finally, after the 
 death of Scanderbeg he made himself master of Albania 
 and Negropont, invaded Croatia, and sent a fleet across 
 the Adriatic which surprised Otranto. Italy and Europe 
 generally heard of his doings with terror. 
 
 14. Of all European kingdoms Hungary was most 
 exposed to this invader, and Hungary had not unfrequently 
 troubles of its own, in the nature of a disputed succession, 
 to encourage his audacity. The crowns of 
 Hungary and of Bohemia were united with and 
 the Empire of Germany under Sigismund, of ^°^^™^- 
 whose contests both with the Turks and with the Hussites 
 we have already spoken ; but a party in each of these 
 countries sought rather to promote a union with Poland. 
 After the death of Sigismund, Albert of Austria, who had 
 married his daughter Elizabeth, succeeded to the throne 
 of both kingdoms and became emperor as well ; but he 
 died within two years. At the moment of his death he 
 was without an heir, but his queen, Elizabeth, was with 
 
238 General View of European History, ch. xi. 
 
 child and gave birth to a son who was called Ladislaus 
 the Posthumous, and succeeded to the throne of Bohe- 
 mia. The Hungarians, however, offered their crown to 
 another Ladislaus, the King of Poland, with whom 
 Elizabeth, so long as she hved, in vain attempted to dis- 
 pute the succession on her son's behalf. Under this 
 Polish king and the brave general John Hunniades, the 
 Hungarians succeeded for some time in repelling the 
 Turks; but being incited by the Pope to violate a truce with 
 the enemy, the King met with a great defeat, and perished 
 in battle near Varna. After his death Hunniades was 
 made Regent for Ladislaus the Posthumous, who was 
 still a minor, and invaded the dominions of the Emperor 
 Frederic \\\. to make him deliver up the young prince, 
 who had been placed under his protection. Young 
 Ladislaus was restored, but those by whom he was sur- 
 rounded caused Hunniades to be dismissed from the 
 regency, and some years after goaded the hero's sens 
 into a conspiracy which cost the eldest his life. The 
 people, however, were indignant, and on the death of 
 Ladislaus raised Mathias Corvinus, the second son of 
 Hunniades, to the throne. Like his father, he was a 
 brave warrior, and he regained from the Turks the strong 
 town of Jaicza in Bosnia. But unfortunately the Turks 
 were not his only enemy, and he was compelled to make 
 war by turns against the King of Bohemia, the King of 
 Poland, and the Emperor ; and although a king of very 
 noble qualities and very successful in all his campaigns, 
 it was perhaps a happiness for his country that he left no 
 son to continue his line in the face of so many adver- 
 saries. The crown of Hungary was again united with 
 that of Bohemia, and in the following century both 
 crowns came to the House of Austria. 
 
 1 5. The kingdom of Poland had long been exposed to 
 attack from another set of infidels — the hordes inhabiting 
 
Germany, 239 
 
 Lithuania. But in 1386, the Princess Hedwig having suc- 
 ceeded to the crown, took for her husband 
 Jagellon, Grand Duke of Lithuania,on condition 
 that he would be baptized. This act was followed by the 
 conversion of the Lithuanians generally. Jagellon be- 
 came King of Poland by the name of Ladislaus V., and 
 the country was no longer exposed to pagan inroads ; 
 but he and his successors had fierce wars with the 
 Teutonic knights of Prussia. 
 
 16. Germany had been for centuries under the rule 
 of the emperors — successors of Charlemagne, who was 
 considered to have revived the old empire of The German 
 Rome. Theoretically, the Emperor was in Empire, 
 temporal matters what the Pope was in spiritual— -the 
 head of all western Europe, or rather of the world. But 
 these proud pretensions had never been justified by facts 
 since the days of Charlemagne himself. For a long time 
 the empire had been united with the old kingdom of 
 Germany, and the Emperor had been elected by a diet 
 of German princes. He commonly received three crowns 
 in succession — first a silver crown at Aix-la-Chapelle, 
 which was the crown of Germany ; afterwards what is 
 called the iron crown of Lombardy at Milan (it is of 
 silver but has a circle of iron within it) ; and finally 
 the golden crown of empire at Rome. This last crown 
 was placed upon his head by the Pope, and until he 
 received it he was not fully entitled to the name of 
 emperor. Till then he was only called King of the 
 Romans. For a long time the emperors had asserted 
 their dominion over Italy, but now this was little more 
 than a tradition. Even over Germany their rule was no 
 longer what it had once been. The revenues attached 
 to the imperial dignity were totally inadequate, and the 
 electors were fain to offer it to foreign princes able to 
 support the burden. The German princes cared little for 
 
2/p General Vieiv of European History, en. ai. 
 
 their sovereign ; and the Emperor himself cared more for 
 his own patrimony than for the interests of Germany. 
 Wenceslaus, who was King of Bohemia as well as Emperor, 
 seldom visited the rest of his dominions, and was de- 
 posed in 1400, the year after his brother-in-law Richard 
 11. was deposed in England. Sigismund, the brother of 
 Wenceslaus, was a more active ruler, but even he cared 
 more for Hungary than for Germany. Still more indif- 
 ferent to the affairs of the empire was Frederic III., who 
 was elected Emperor in 1440, and who majde it his princi- 
 pal aim to advance the interests of the House of Austria. 
 He created the duchy of Austria into an archduchy, 
 married his son Maximihan to Mary, the rich heiress of 
 Burgundy, and got him elected King of the Romans 
 during his own lifetime, so as to ensure his succession to 
 the empire after his death. The policy which he thus 
 initiated was continued by Maximilian and his other 
 descendants. The empire was preserved in the posses- 
 sion of the family, and the fortunes of the House of 
 Austria were continually improved by politic marriages. 
 But Germany became more and more disunited, each 
 of her princes being virtually supreme in his own 
 dominions. 
 
 CHAPTER Xn. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 I. The fifteenth century was not an age of really great 
 men. Amid schisms in the Church, wars, rebellions, and dis- 
 The fif- puted successions in every kingdom of Europe, 
 
 fceenth cen- it secms to have been impossible for any mind 
 ag7of great to realise to itself one grand idea, to work out 
 '"^"- one great work, or to set forth one great 
 
 thought. The best minds of the age looked back upon 
 
ConcLimon. 241 
 
 the past and regretted the chivalry that was passing 
 away. Order was the one great need of the time, and as 
 yet men could see no order except of a kind already past 
 recovery, which they were vainly endeavouring to restore. 
 So for the peace of the Church they burned heretics and 
 put witches to open penance, while, adhering to the tra- 
 ditions of a moribund chivalry, they plunged Europe into 
 ./ar and anarchy. The one direction in which there was 
 ■». visible movement in men's minds was in a Revival of 
 ^vival of ancient learning. Scholars were lexers. 
 
 .'covering lost literature to the world, and the classic 
 
 ••ters of ancient Rome were studied and imitated in a 
 .. ^ they had not been before. Greek, too, began to 
 
 .gage more attention in Europe after the fall of Con- 
 .tantinople ; for refugees carried the language and 
 
 e literature into Italy and elsewhere. The art of 
 printing, first used in Germany about the year 1440, and 
 )rought into England by Caxton in 1474, helped to 
 Tiultiply copies of the best ancient authors. 
 
 2. In England, after the days of Gower and Chaucer we 
 ad very little literature that deserved the name. The 
 
 principal poet of the succeeding age was John 
 Lydgate, a monk of Bury, whose small lyric 
 effusions, though not altogether contemptible, scarcely 
 rank above mediocrity. It is remarkable, however, that 
 two foreign princes — James I. of Scotland and jamcs i. 
 Charles Duke of Orleans— each of whom was Duk^oY'^' 
 for many years detained a prisoner in England, Orleans, 
 each contributed to his native literature poetry that was 
 far from commonplace. 
 
 3. In religion men testified what was going on beneath 
 the surface rather by acts than by words. Men who felt 
 more deeply than their neighbours some „ ,. . 
 
 , , r ^1 • • • 1 ./■ 1 Religion. 
 
 neglected phase of Christianity drifted away 
 
 from the authority of the Church. There were thf 
 
 M.H. R 
 
2^2 Conclusion, ch. xn. 
 
 Flagellants in Italy, the Lollards in England, the Huss- 
 ites in Bohemia. But their zeal was found to be incom- 
 patible even with civil peace, and they were met by a 
 spirit of persecution, in which it is to be lamented that 
 some of the noblest minds of the day concurred. Such 
 was John Gerson at the Council of Constance, 
 — the man who in defiance of danger tore to 
 rags all the miserable special pleadings by which the 
 creatures of John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, sought 
 to justify or extenuate the murder of his rival Orleans,— 
 ev^en he, so bold and upright in defence of pubhc moral; 
 took the lead in the persecution of Huss and Jerome of 
 Prague. A quieter mind was that of Thomas k Kempis. 
 Thomas k to whom, as it is generally believed, the worV' 
 Kempis. jg indebted for the exquisitely beautifui ouok, 
 
 still so popular, upon the Imitation of Christ. Nothing 
 can excel it as an exposition of that pure and peacefu^ 
 devotion for which monasticism still offered a safe asylum 
 amid the perverseness and errors of the time. Outside the 
 cloister zeal was sure to be persecuted, even if it endea- 
 voured to vindicate authority. Such was the fate of Regi- 
 Reginald nald Pecock, Bishop of Chichester, a man not 
 Pecock. igss remarkable for his vigour of intellect than 
 
 for his love of toleration, who wrote a number of treatises 
 in English in defence of the Church against the Lollards. 
 His object was to win over heretics by reason instead of 
 by the fires of persecution. His arguments generally are 
 remarkably clear and lucid, tending to show that the 
 Lollard position was founded upon an undue deference 
 to the mere letter of Scripture, and that the Bible was 
 not given us to supersede the use of our natural reason. 
 But this mode of treatment satisfied no one. During the 
 short lull in the civil war in 1457 — not long before the 
 procession of the reconciled leaders to St. Paul's — 
 Bishop Pecock was accused of heresy, forced to recam , 
 
Conclusion. 243 
 
 for fear of martyrdom, and deprived of his bishopric. 
 The Church dechned to be defended in the spirit of 
 toleration. 
 
 4. Thus whatever was noble was distressed and perse- 
 cuted. Commerce and money-getting went on, and the 
 spirits of men, broken by invariable disap- Commerce 
 pointment when they attempted anything onun^°eJ. 
 higher, became generally sordid and merce- rupted. 
 nary. Kings grasped at territory instead of money, but in 
 England they soonest tired of the game, and even they, 
 in the end, joined in the general pursuit of wealth in pre- 
 ference to honour or reputation. Edward IV. 
 
 first set the example of ' trafficking in war ' traffic in 
 which Lord Bacon notes as a feature of the ^*'^* 
 policy of Henry VII. Both these kings raised great 
 supplies from their own subjects, and then accepted 
 money from the enemy to forbear fighting. 
 
 5. But from the commercial enterprise of the day arose 
 those discoveries which in the end, perhaps, had most 
 influence in the formation of a new era. New New dis- 
 coasts, new seas, new islands, and in the end f^j^Jo ^ 
 
 a complete New World, were successively re- new era. 
 vealed. The thoughts of men were expanded, their 
 imaginations fired with new ideas. Old philosophies 
 insensibly passed away as the ambition, the enterprise, 
 and the avarice of a new generation found channels 
 which had been hitherto unknown. The world, even the 
 material world, was found to be much larger than had 
 been supposed. As for the world unseen, was it likely 
 that popes and councils had taken the true measure of 
 that ? 
 
INDEX. 
 
 ABE 
 
 ABERYSTWITH, castle of, 76 
 Adamites in Bohemia, 122 
 i^neas Sylvius, 236 
 Agincourt, battle of, 98-9 
 Albania, 237 
 
 Albany, Duke of, brother of Robert 
 III. of Scotland, 69, 80-1, 103, no, 
 126 
 
 — Alexander, Duke of, brother of 
 James III., 199 
 
 Albemarle, Duke of {see Rutland, 
 
 Edward, Earl oO 
 Aleppo, 71 
 
 Alexander V., Pope, 82, 114-15 
 Alnwick Castle, 169, 171 
 Angora, battle of, 71 
 Anjou, 142, 145 
 
 — Louis, Duke of, 115 
 
 Anne of Bohemia, queen of Richard 
 
 II., 19, 36, 39 
 Aquinas, Thomas, 62 
 Aquitaine, 9 
 Arc, Joan of {see Joan) 
 Armagnac, Count of, 100, 102, 104-5 
 Armagnacs, party of the, 85 
 Arras, peace conferences at, 137 
 
 — treaty of, 200 
 Artevelde, James van, 19 
 
 — Philip van, 20 
 
 Arundel, Earl of, 30, 39, 40, 64 
 Arundel, Thomas, Archbishop of Can- 
 terbury, 40, 44, 57, 79 
 Astley, Sir John, 171 
 Audley, Lord, 159 
 Avignon, 6, 11, 114 
 
 BACON, Roger, 62 
 Badby, Thomas, 83 
 Bagdad, 71 
 
 BOH 
 
 Bagot, Sir William, 51 
 
 Bajazet, the sultan, 70-2 
 
 Balle, John, 13 
 
 Bamborough Castle, 169, 170 
 
 Banaster, Ralph, 218 
 
 Bar, Duke of, 93 
 
 Barbason, governor of Melun, 109 
 
 Bardolf, Lord, 77-8 
 
 Barnet, battle of, 186 
 
 Basle, council of, 122 
 
 Bastille, the, at Paris, 105 
 
 Bavaria, Lewis of, son of the Emperoi 
 Rupert, 79 
 
 — Ernest, Duke of, 93 
 
 Bayonne, i, 153 
 
 Beaufort family, 215-16 
 
 Beaufort, Henry, Bishop of Win- 
 chester, afterwards Cardiiial, 112, 
 126, 132, 134-6, 138 
 
 Beaufort, Lady Jane, 126 
 
 Beaufort, Margaret, Countess of Rich- 
 mond, daughter of the Duke o( 
 Somerset, 148, 214-15, 219 
 
 Beauge, battle of, no 
 
 Beaugency, in 
 
 Bedford, John, Duke of, 100, 103, 112 : 
 Regent of France, 125-8, 131-4, 137 
 
 Bedford, Duchess of, 172 
 
 Benedict XIII., Pope, 100, 114, 117 
 
 Berwick, 168, 199 
 
 Bible, the, translated by Wycliffe, 60, 
 62 
 
 Blackheatn, i^, 69, 153 
 
 Black Prince (see Edward) 
 
 Blanche, daughter of Henry IV., 7 
 
 Blank charters issued by Richard II., 
 49 
 
 Bloreheath, battle of, 159 
 
 Blount, Sir Jasper, 222 
 
 Bohemia, 116, 120-3, 136 
 
246 
 
 Index. 
 
 BOH 
 
 DOU 
 
 Bohun, Mary de, first wife of Henry 
 
 IV.. 79 
 Bolingbroke, Roger, 139 
 Bona of Savoy, 174 
 Bondmen stir up rebellion, 11, 13 
 Bordeaux, i, 2, 153 
 Borough, Sir Thomas a, 179 
 Bosworth, battle of, 224-6 
 Bourbon, Duke of, 99 
 Bourchier, Thomas, Archbishop of 
 
 Canterbury, 157, 161 
 Bracciolini, Poggio, 120 
 Brackenbury, Sir Robert, 213 
 Brambre, Sir Nicholas, 33 
 Bretigni, treaty of, 94, 106 
 Brittany, 10, 125, 146 
 Buchan, Earl of, 110 
 Buckingham, Henry, Duke of, 202-4, 
 
 208, 212, 214-18 
 Burgundian and Armagnac factions in 
 
 France, 85 
 Burgundy, Dukes of, 231-2 
 
 — John the Fearless, Duke of, 85, 
 93-S. 104, 106-7 
 
 — Philip, Duke of, 108-9, 112, 125, 
 134, 170, 177 
 
 — Charles, Duke of (see Charles the 
 Bold) 
 
 — the Bastard of, 177 
 Barley, Sir Simon, 36 
 
 Bury St. Edmund's, parliament at, 143 
 Bury, prior of, 16 
 Bushy, Sir John, 51-2 
 
 CABOCHIANS in Paris, 92-3 
 Cade, Jack, his rebellion, 149-51 
 
 Calais, i, 2. 20, 31, 41, 52, loi, 138, 
 153, 161, 169 
 
 Calixtines, a Bohemian sect, 122 
 
 Cambridge, Richard, Earl of, 95-6 
 
 Canterbury Tales of Chaucer, 60 
 
 Carlisle, besieged, 168 
 
 Carlisle, Bishop of, 55-6 
 
 Carmarthen Castle, 76 
 
 Castillon, siege of, 154-5 
 
 Castriot, George, 237 
 
 Catherine, daughter of Charles VI. of 
 France, 94, 106 ; married to Heniy 
 v., 108 ; crowned, ic« ; marries Sir 
 Owen Tudor after Henry's death, 
 165 
 
 Cecily, daughter of Edward IV., 198 
 
 Chalons, 131 
 
 Charity, la, on the Loire, iii 
 
 Charles V. of France, 2 
 
 Charles VI., 20; prepares to invade 
 
 England, 26 ; his daughter married 
 
 to Richard II., 39; he becomes 
 
 insane, 85 ; his death, 125 
 Charles VII., as dauphin, 101-2, 104-5, 
 
 125-9 ; crowned at Rheims, 131 ; as 
 
 king, 143 
 Charles VIII., 220 
 Charles of Blols, 10 
 Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy; 
 
 as Count of Charolois, 175-6 ; as 
 
 Duke, 177, 183-5, 193-S 
 Charolois, Count of {see Charles) 
 Chartres, 134 
 
 Chatel, Tannegui du, 105-7 
 Chaucer, Geoff., poet, 60-1 
 Cherbourg, 147 
 Chester, 55 
 
 Cheyney, Sir John, 226 
 Chichester, Bishop of, confessor t<, 
 
 Richard II., 33, 36 
 Church, possessions of the, 7, 84 
 Clarence, Duke oi{see Lionel) 
 Clarence, Thomas, Duke of, brother 
 
 of Henry V., no 
 Clarence, George, Duke of, brother ol 
 
 Edward IV., 168, 178, 180-5, 195-7, 
 
 201 
 Clarendon, Sir Roger, 73 
 Clement VII., anti-pope, 11, 20, 114 
 CHfford, Lord, 164, 167 
 Cobham, Eleanor, Duchess of Glou 
 
 cester, 139-40 
 Cobham, Lord {see Oldcastle) 
 Conflans, treaty of, 175 
 Constance, Council of, 99, 113, ii6-2c 
 Constantinople, 70 
 Constantinople, Emperor of, 69 
 Conway, i;4 
 
 Conyer., Sir Will., 178 
 Coppini, the legate, 161 
 CSsne, siege of, iii 
 Coventry, parliament at, 160 
 Crevant, siege of, 126 
 Crowmer, sheriff of Kent, 15c 
 
 DAMASCUS, 71 
 Dartford, 153 
 Delhi, 71 
 
 Derby, Henry, Earl oi{see Henry) 
 Dighton, John, 213 
 Doncaster, 50 
 Dorset, John Beaufort, Marquis of, 65 
 
 — Thos. Beaufort, Earl of, 100 ; {see 
 also Exeter, Duke ©f) 
 
 — Grey, Marquis oi{see Grey) 
 Douglas, Earl, 68, 74, 76, 103 
 
Index. 
 
 247 
 
 DRE 
 
 lOreux, III 
 
 Dublin, 50 
 
 — Marquis of {see Vere) 
 Duns Scotus, 62 
 Dunstanborough Castle, 169 
 Durazzo, Charles of, 115 
 Dymock, Sir Thos., 179 
 
 T7CORCHEURS, 138 
 L^ Edinburgh, 22, 68-9, 199 
 Edmund Crouchback, Earl of Lan- 
 caster, 157 
 Edward III., 1-4 
 Edward IV., as Earl of March, 154, 
 
 160, 164J declared king, 166; his 
 
 reign, 167-201 
 Edward V., his birth, 190 ; his reign, 
 
 201-9 ; his murder, 212, 213 
 Edward the Black Prince, 2-4 
 Edward, Prince of Wales, son of 
 
 Henry VI., 155, 185, 187 
 Edward, Prince of Wales, son of 
 
 Richard III., 219 
 Egypt, 71 
 Elizabeth, Queen of Edward IV. (see 
 
 Woodvill^ 
 Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV., 
 
 198, 200, 214, 220-I 
 
 Ely, Bishop of (^see Morton) 
 
 Eric IX., King of Denmark, 79 
 
 Euphrates, the river, 71 
 
 E.xeter, Duke of (John Holland), 53-5, 
 
 65 ; degraded to the rank of Earl of 
 
 Huntingdon, 65 ; conspires against 
 
 Henry IV., 66 
 Exeter, Duke of (Thomas Beaufort, 
 
 previously Earl Dorset), 103, 112 
 Exeter, Duke of (Henry Holland), 
 ^ 159. 190 
 Exeter, Duchess of, sister of Edward 
 
 IV., 218 
 Eye, the Witch of, 139, 140 
 
 FALCON BRIDGE, Lord, 167 
 Falconbridge, the Bastaid, 188-9 
 Fastolf, Sir John, 127 
 Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, 211, 
 
 233 
 Ferrybridge, battle of, 167 
 Fitzhugh, Lord, 184 
 Fitzwalter, Lords, 65, 167 
 Flanders, crusade of the Bishop of 
 
 Norwich in, 19-21 
 Flanders, Count Louis II. of, 20 
 Flint Castle, 54-5 
 
 HEN 
 
 Fogge, Sii John, 211 
 Forest, Miles, 213 
 Fougercb taken, 146 
 Foul Raid, th<:, 103 
 France, i, 26, 229-231 
 France, Isle of, 106 
 Frederic, III., Emperor, 194 
 
 GASCON Y, 2, 6, 152, 154-5 
 Gaunt, John of (.y^^ John) 
 Genoa, 235 
 Georgia, 71 
 Germany, 239 
 Gerson, John, 242 
 
 ("rlendower, Owen, rebellion of, 73-7 
 tJloucester, Thomas, Duke of, son 
 
 Edward III., 23, 25, 28, 30-33, ■>,(• 
 
 40 ; his murder, 41-2 ; the judgmem 
 
 upon him reversed, 64 
 Gloucester, Humphrey, Duke 
 
 brother of Henry V., no, 112, 124: 
 
 protector of England, 125-6, 132 
 
 134-144 
 Gloucester, Richard, Duke of {see 
 
 Richard III.) 
 Gloucester, Spenser, Earl of {see 
 
 Spenser) 
 Good Parliament, the, 3 
 Gower, John, poet, 60-2 
 Granson, battle of, 190 
 Gravelines, in Flanders, 21 
 Gray, Sir Ralph, 170 
 Green, John, 213 
 Green, Sir Henry, 51-2 
 Gregory XL, Pope, 11 
 Gregory XII., Pope, 82, 100, 114,117 
 Grey of Ruthin, Lord, 73-4 
 Grey, Lord Richard, 202-3, 207 
 Grey, Sir John, 172 
 Grey, Sir Thos., 95 
 Grey, Thomas, afterwards Marquis 
 
 Dorset, 173, 203, 217-18, 221 
 Guienne and Gascony, 152, 154 
 Guienne, Louis, Duke of, dauphin, 93 
 
 H 
 
 ALES, Sir Robert, 14, 15 
 Hammes Castle, 222 
 
 Harfleur, siege of, 96 
 Harlech Castle, in Wales, 169 
 Hastings, 5 
 
 Hastings, Lord, 169, 184, 201-2, 204-7 
 Hedgeley Moor, battle of, 17 1 
 Henry of Trastamara, 8, 9 
 Henry, Earl of Derby, afterwards 
 Henry IV,, 30, 33, 36, 42 ; created 
 
248 
 
 Index. 
 
 HEN 
 
 MAN 
 
 Duke' o*' Hereford, 43, 44, 46,; I 
 banished, 47-8 ; his return, 50-7 ; his 
 reign as king, 64-86 
 
 Henry V., his early life, 52 ; as Prince 
 of Wales, 76, 83 ; his character, 86-8; 
 his reign, 88-113 
 
 Henry VI., birth of, in ; his reign, 
 123-166; his acts after being de- 
 posed, 1 67-1 7 1 ; restored, 184 ; again 
 in Edward's power, 185, 187 ; his 
 murder, 189 
 
 Henry VII. {see Richmond, Henry, 
 Earl of) 
 
 Herbert, Lord, Earl of Pembroke, 178 
 
 — Sir Richard, 178-9 
 
 Herrings, battle of, 127 
 
 Hexham, battle of, 171 
 
 Holy Land, 69 
 
 Homildon Hill, battle of, 74 
 
 Horebites, a Bohemian sect, 122 
 
 Hotspur {see Percy, Henry) 
 
 Hungary, 237 
 
 Hunniades, Johannes Corvinus, 237 
 
 Huss, John, 100, 116, 118 
 
 Hussites, the, 120-3, 136 
 
 T NDIA, 71 
 
 i Innocent VII., 82 
 
 Ireland, Duke of (j^^ Vere) 
 
 Ireland, Richard II. goes to, 49 
 
 Isabel of Bavaria, queen of Charles 
 
 VI. of France, 85, 102, 104, 106, 
 
 108 
 Isabella of France, second queen of 
 
 Richard II., 39, 67 
 Italy, 233-6 
 
 TAGELLON, King of Poland, 121 
 
 J 239 
 
 James I. of Scotland, when prince, is 
 captured by the English, 81 ; with 
 Henry V. in France, no ; liberated 
 and returns to Scotland, 126 ; his 
 poetry, 241 
 
 James III. of Scotland, 198-9 
 
 Jargeau, capture of, 131 
 
 Jerome of Prague, 119-21 
 
 Joan of Arc, 128-134 
 
 Joan of Navarre, queen of Henry IV., 
 
 ' 79 
 
 Joanna, Queen of Naples, 114 
 John, King of England, 6 
 John XXIII., Pope, ico, 114-6 
 John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, »- 
 4, 7-10, 12, 14, 22, 25, 41, 49 
 
 John, son of Charles VI. of France, xci 
 Jourdemain, Margery, the Witch of 
 Eye, 139, 140 
 
 KEMP, Cardinal, 156 
 Kempis, Thomas i, 242 
 Kent, the Fair Maid of, mother of 
 
 Richard II., 14 
 Kent, Earl of {see Surrey, Duke oQ 
 Kidwelly, Morgan, 223 
 Kilkenny, 50 
 Knolles, Sir Robert, 16 
 
 L 
 
 ACK-LEARNING Parliament, 
 
 79 
 
 Ladislaus King of Naples and Hun- 
 gary, 115 
 
 Lancaster, John, Duke of {see John of 
 Gaunt) 
 
 Lancaster, Henry, Duke of, 8 
 
 Langland, William, a religious poet, 59 
 
 Langley, 68 
 
 Lauder, 199 
 
 Lawyers particularly hated, 13, 16 
 
 League of the Public Weal, 175 
 
 Leicester, parliament at, 149 ; council 
 at, 157 
 
 Liege, massacre of, 194 
 
 Limoges, massacre of, 2 
 
 Limousin, the, 6 
 
 Lincoln, John de la Pole, Earl of, 220 
 
 Lionel, Duke of Clarence, son of Ed- 
 ward III., 8, 56 
 
 Lithuania, 69 
 
 Litster, John, 17, 18 
 
 Llevvelyn of Wales, 73 
 
 Lombardy, 7 
 
 London Bridge, 78 
 
 London, Tower of {see Tower) 
 
 Lorraine, 195 
 
 Lose-coat Field, battle of, 180 
 
 Louis, Duke of Anjou, King of Naples, 
 
 115 
 Louis XL, King of France, 169, 174-7, 
 
 182, 190-4, 198, 200 
 Low Countries {see Flanders) 
 Ludlow, 159, 160, 202 
 Lutterworth, 119 
 Lydgaie, John, the poet, 241 
 
 M 
 
 AINE, in France, 106, 126, 142, 
 
 145 
 
 Mamelukes, 71 
 Man, Isle of, 42 
 
 Mandeville, Sir John, the traveller, 64 
 Mans, le, 145 
 
Index. 
 
 249 
 
 MAN 
 
 PAU 
 
 Manuel Palaeologus, Emperor of Con- 
 stantinople, 69 
 
 Mar, Earl of, brother of James III. of 
 Scotland, 199 
 
 March, Roger Mortimer, Earl of, 49, 
 56 
 
 — Edmund Mortimer, Earl of, son of 
 Roger, 56, 75, 77, 95 
 
 — Edward, Earl of (.see Edward IV.) 
 
 — the Scotch Earl of, 68 
 Margaret of Anjou, queen of Henry 
 
 VI., 141-2, 15s, 157-9. 163, 165-70, 
 182, 187, 190 
 
 Margaret, sister of Edward IV., 176-8, 
 196 
 
 Martin V., Pope, 104, 118 
 
 Mary of..\njou. Queen of Charles VI I., 
 141 
 
 Mary of Burgundy, daughter of 
 Charles the Bold, 194, 196, 200 
 
 Maximilian, Archduke of Austria, son 
 of the Emperor Frederick III., 194, 
 200 
 
 Meaux, on the Marne, iii 
 
 Melun, 109 , 
 
 Mercer, John, 9 
 
 Meulan, 106 
 
 Milan, 233 
 
 Mile End, 14 
 
 Milford Haven, 50, 53, 225 
 
 Moleyns, Adam de. Bishop of Chi- 
 chester, 147 
 
 Molyneux, Constable of Chester, 32 
 
 Montague, John Nevile, Lord, 168, 
 171 ; made Earl of Northumberland, 
 173 ; afterwa'Tds Marquis Montague, 
 183-S 
 
 Montereau, 107, 109 
 
 Montfort, John de, Duke of Brittany, 
 10, II 
 
 Montlhery, battle of, 175 
 
 Morat, battle of, 195 
 
 More, Sir Thomas, his History of 
 Richard III., 205, 213, 221 
 
 Morley, Lord, 65 
 
 Mortimer, Roger, Earl of March {see 
 March) 
 
 Mortimer, Sir Edmund, 74-6 
 
 Mortimer's Cross, battle of, 164 
 
 Morton, John, Bishop of Ely, after- 
 wards Cardinal, 204-6, 216-7 
 
 Mountjoy, Lord, 173 
 
 Mowbray, John, Earl Marshal, 77 
 
 Mowbray, Thomas, Earl of Notting- 
 ham and Earl Marshal, 30, 33, 39-41 ; 
 created Duke of Norfolk, 43, 44, 46 ; 
 banished, 47-8 
 
 NANCY, battle of, 195 
 Naples, rival kings of, 114, 234 
 
 Narbonne, 118 
 
 Navarrete, battle of, 9 
 
 Netter, Thomas, of Wa'.den, 62 
 
 Neuss, siege of, 191, 194 
 
 Nevill, Alexander, Archbishop of 
 York, 31, 33, 34 
 
 Nevill, _ Ann, second daughter of 
 Warwick the King Maker, 182, 195-6 
 
 Nevill, George, Archbishop of York, 
 173 
 
 Nevill, Isabel, eldest daughter of 
 Warwick the King Maker, 178, 196 
 
 Nicopolis, battle of, 70 
 
 Norfolk, John Mowbray, third Duke 
 of, 156, 167 
 
 Norfolk, John Howard, Duke of, 225 
 
 Norfolk, Thomas, Duke of {see Mow- 
 bray) 
 
 Normandy, 102 
 
 Northampton, battle of, 162 
 
 Northampton, John of, 19 
 
 Northumberland, 169 
 
 Northumberland, Earl of, 50, 54-5, 
 
 74-77 
 
 Northumberland, Henry Percy re- 
 stored to the earldom of, 183, 225 
 
 Norwich, Spencer, Bishop of {see 
 Spencer) 
 
 Nottingham, council at, 29 
 
 Nottingham, Thomas Mowbray, Earl 
 o^{see Mowbray) 
 
 OLDCASTLE, Sir John, Lord 
 Cobham, 89-92, 103-4 
 Orleans, Louis, Duke of, murdered, 85 
 — Charles, Duke of, son of the pre- 
 ceding, 93, 99, 112, 138-9, 142, 241 
 Orleans, siege of, 127-131 
 Ormond, Earl of {see Wiltshire) 
 Orphanites, a Bohemian sect, 122 
 Orsini, Paolo, 82 
 Oxford, 6 
 
 Oxford, Earl of {see also Vere) 
 Oxford, Earl of, 186, 222 
 
 PALiEOLOGUS, Manuel, Emperoi 
 of Constantinople, 69 
 Paris, 93, 105, 137 
 Parliament, the Good, 3 
 
 — the Wonderful, or Merciless, 34-37 
 
 — of Shrewsbury, 43 
 
 — the Lack-learning, 79 
 Paul's Cross, 208 
 
250 
 
 Index, 
 
 PEA 
 
 SHR 
 
 Peasantry, condition of the, 12 
 Pecock, Reginald, Bishop of Chiches- 
 ter, 242 
 Pembroke, 223 t- , r 
 
 Pembroke, Jasper Tudor, Earl of, 
 
 Pembroke, Lord Herbert, Earl of. 178 
 
 Percy, Henry, called Hotspur, son 
 
 of the Earl of Northumberland, 
 
 74-5 
 Percy, Sir Ralph, 170 
 Percy, Sir Thos., Earl of Worcester, 
 
 {see Worcester) 
 Percy, Sir Thos., 54 
 Perrers, Alice, 2, 3 
 Persia, 71 
 
 Peter the Cruel of Castile, 8, 9 
 Philippa, daughter of Henry IV., 79 
 Philipot, John, 5-10 
 Picardy, 106 
 
 Piccolomini, iEneas Sylvius, 236 
 Piers Plowman, the Vision of, 60 
 Pisa, Council of, 1 14-15 
 Pius II., Pope, 236 
 Pleshy, castle of, in Essex. 39 
 Poggio Bracciolini, 120 
 Poitiers, battle of, 2 
 Poland, 238-9 
 Pole, Michael, de la, 23 {see also 
 
 Suffolk, Earl of) 
 Poll tax, 12 
 Pomfret Castle, 66 
 Pont de I'Arche taken, 146 
 Popes, the, 235-6 
 Portugal, 233 
 Prague, 120-1, 123 
 Prague, Jerome of, 1 19-21 
 Procopius the Shaven, 123 
 Public Weal, league of the, 175 
 
 RADCOTE BRIDGE, encounter 
 at, 32 
 
 Ravenspur, in Yorkshire, 50, 185 
 
 Reading, parliament at, 156 
 
 Religion, state of, 241-2 
 
 Rene, Duke of Anjou and King of 
 Naples, 141 
 
 Ren^ II., Duke of Lorraine. 195 
 
 Rheims, coronation of Charles Vll. 
 at, 131 
 
 Rhuddlan Castle, 54 
 
 Richard II., 3, 4. 36, 48, 49; his 
 deposition, 56; his reign and charac- 
 ter, 57-9 ; conspiracy in his favour, 
 66 ; his death, 68 ; reported to be 
 alive in Scotland, 73, 95, 10 
 
 Richard III., as Duke of Gloucestei, 
 168, 184, 187-8, 195, 198-9, 201-9 ; 
 as king, 2i<>-27 
 
 Richmond, Edmund, Earl of, 165 
 
 Richmond, Henry, Earl of, afterwards 
 Henry VII., 214-227 
 
 Rickhill, William, 41 
 
 Rivers, Lord {see Woodville) 
 
 i<.obert III. of Scotland, 68, 80^1 
 
 Robin of Redesdale's insurrection, 178 
 
 Roche, Count de la, 177 
 
 Rome, 6, II 
 
 Roosebeke, battle of, 20 
 
 Rotherham, Archbishop of York, 204 
 
 Rothesay, David, Duke of, 69, 80 
 
 Rouen, 105, 109, 134, 146 
 
 Roxburgh, 5, 103 
 
 Russia, 71 
 
 Rutland, Edmund, Earl of, son o( 
 Richard Duke of York, 160, 164 
 
 Rutland, Edward, Earl of, 39 ; aUci- 
 wards Duke of Albemarle, 53 4 : 
 degraded again to the earldom, 65 
 conspires against Henry IV., 66, 67 
 
 Rye, burned by the French, 5 
 
 ST. ALBAN'S, 16, 51. 56; firsi 
 battle of, 157-8 ; second battle of. 
 165-6 
 St. Giles' Fields, meeting of Lollard i 
 
 at, 91 
 St. John's Field, 166 
 St. Leger, Sir Thos., 218 
 Salisbury, John de Montacute, Eat) 
 
 — Thomas' de Montacute, Earl of, 
 106-7 i 
 
 — Richard Nevill, Earl of, 153, iS7-6o 
 164 
 
 Savoy, palace of the, 8, 14 
 
 Sawtrd, William, 83 
 
 Say, Lord, 150 , •„ . 
 
 Scales, Anthony, Lord (5<r^ Woodville) 
 
 Scales, Lord, 150 
 
 Scanderbeg, 237 
 
 Scarborough, lo 
 
 Schism, the Great, 11 
 
 Scotland, 22, 68, 198-9 
 
 Scots, the, 5, 103 
 
 Scotus, Duns, 62 . ,^, . . , 
 
 Scrope, or Scroop, Ric, Archbishop oJ 
 
 York, 77 , ^ , , 
 
 Scrope of Masham, Lord, 95-0 
 Shaw, Dr., 208 
 Shore, Jane, 206-7, 217 
 Shrewsbury, battle of, 76 
 
Index. 
 
 251 
 
 SHR 
 
 WIG 
 
 Shrewsbury, Earl ol{see Talbot) 
 
 Sigismund, King of Hungary, 70 ; 
 afterwards King of the Romans and 
 Emperor elect, 99, 121-2 ; and King 
 of Bohemia, 121, 123, 237 
 
 Sivas, in Asia Minor, 71 
 
 Sluys, fleet assembled at, 26 
 
 Smithfieid, 15, 140, 177 
 
 Somerset, Edmund Beaufort, Duke of, 
 145-7. 152-4, 156-7 , 
 
 — Henry Beaufort, Duke of, 159, 160, 
 167, 169, 171", 187-8 
 
 Southampton, 95 " 
 
 Spain, 232 
 
 Spencer, Bishop of Norwich, 17 ; his 
 crusade in Flanders, 19-21, 24 
 
 Spenser, Lord, Earl of Gloucester,65,66 
 
 Stafford, Humphrey, 218 
 
 Stafford, Sir Humphrey, and William, 
 150 
 
 Stamford, battle of Losecoat Field, 
 near, 180 
 
 Stanley, Lord, 206, 223-5 
 
 Stanley, Sir William, 224-6 
 
 Strange, Geo., Lord, 223-4 
 
 Straw, Jack, 18 
 
 Sudbury, Simon, Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury, 14-15 
 
 SufTolk, Earl of, 17 
 
 Suffolk, Michael de la Pole. Earl of, 
 23, 26-29, 33, 35 
 
 SufTolk, William de la Pole, Earl of, 
 afterwards Marquis and Duke of, 
 127, 131, 141-5 
 
 Surrey, Duke of, 53-5 ; degraded to 
 the rank of Earl of Kent, 65 ; con- 
 spires against Henry IV., t(> ; be- 
 headed, 67 
 
 Surrey, Thos. Howard, Earl of, 225 
 
 TABORITES, a Bohemian sect, 
 122 
 Talbot, Lady Eleanor, 209 
 Talbot, Lord, afterwards Earl of 
 
 Shrewsbury, 131, 147, 154-5 
 Tamerlane, or Timour, the Tartar, 
 
 71-2 
 Tannenberg, battle of, 121 
 Tartary, 71 
 
 Tewkesbury, battle of, 1 87 
 Timour ( ~?e Tamerlane) 
 Tiptoft, Earl of Worcester {see ^\yi- 
 
 cester) 
 Tower Hill, 15, 32 
 Tower of London, 14, 15, 34, 56, 2./(; 
 
 812-13 
 
 Towton, battle of, 167 
 
 Treason, laws of, mitigated by Henrv 
 
 IV., 65 
 Tresilian, Sir Robert, 29, -ki, ^s 
 Trollope, Andrew, 160 
 Troyes, 131 
 Troyes, treaty of, 108 
 Tudor, Sir Owen, 165 
 Turks, the, 236-8 
 Tyler, Wat, rebellion of, 12-18 
 Tyrell, Sir Jas., 213 
 
 u 
 
 RBAN VI., Pope, 
 
 T 7AUGHAN, Thos., 216 
 V Venice, "235 
 
 Vere, Robert de, Earl of Oxford, 
 created Marquis of Dublin and 
 Duke of Ireland, 24, 29, 32, 35 
 
 Vemeuil, battle of, 126 
 
 Villeneuve, on the Yonnc, in 
 
 Vincennes, in 
 
 WAKEFIELD, battle of, 163 
 Wales, 73, 76, 169 
 Wales, Joan, Princess «f, mother of 
 
 Richard II., 14 
 Wales, Princes of {see under Christian 
 
 names) 
 Wales, women of, their barbarity, 74 
 Walworth, Sir William, 5, 9, 15, 16 
 Warwick, Richard Beauchamp, Earl 
 
 of, 137 
 Warwick, Thomas Beauchamp, Earl 
 
 of, 30, 39, 40, 42, 64 
 Warwick, Richard Nevill, Earl of, 
 
 (the King-Maker), 153, 157-61, 165, 
 
 167, 169, 172-4, 176, 178-86 
 — his daughters, Isabel and Anne {see 
 
 Nevill) 
 Waterford, 50, 53 
 
 Waynflete, William, Bishop of Win- 
 chester, 153, 211 
 Welles, Lord, 179, 180 
 Welles, Sir Rob., insurrection of, 179. 
 
 180 
 Wenceslaus VI. of Bohemia, 19, 
 
 120-1 
 Weolock, Lord, i8i 
 Westminster, abbot oJ, 66 
 Westmoreland, Earl of, 50, 77 
 Wight, Isle of, 5 
 
252 
 
 Index. 
 
 Wiltshire aiid Ormond, Jas. Butler, 
 
 Earl of, 164-5 
 Wiltshire, Scrope, Earl of, 51-2 
 Winchelsea, 5 
 Windsor Castle, 77 
 Woodville, Anthony, Lord Scales, 173, 
 
 177 ; becomes Earl Rivers, 180, 184, 
 
 201-3, 207, 220-1 
 Woodville, Elizabeth, queen of Edward 
 
 IV., 172, 190, 202, 204, 206-7, 209 
 Woodville, Richard, Earl Rivers, 172- 
 
 3, 178-9 
 Worcester, JohiL Tiptoft, Earl of, 173, 
 
 181, 184 
 Worcester, Thomas Percy, Earl of, 
 
 75-6 
 Wiaw, John, 16, 18 
 Wycliffe, John, 5-7, 14 I his Bible, 60, 
 
 62 ; his doctiines popular b Bohemia, 
 
 tT6 
 
 ZIS 
 
 Wykeham, William, Bishop ol Wm 
 I Chester, 3, 37 
 
 YORK, 168, 111-12 
 York, Alex. Nevill, Archbishop 
 
 of, 31, 33, 44 
 York, Richard, Duke of, son of 
 
 the Earl of Cambridge, 137-8, 146, 
 
 151-4, i!;6-64 
 York, Edmund, Duke of, son of 
 
 Edward III., 23, 51 
 York, Richard, Duke of, son of Edward 
 
 IV., 207, 212-13 
 Yorkshire, rebellion in, 77 -8 
 
 ZISKA, John, Bohemian leader. 
 T20-a 
 
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 Edinburgh and London 
 
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