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FRANCE AND ADJACENT PARTS FROM A.D.1200 TO A.D. 1500. ¦ ~'~^2>* fy'i">a^L-0?0&*ola ^ !>-"'V " ^ r,,„J, ./„¦.,-. -K,,. „„„,;_ «t «paRis «, f§riWte<^),'>^l •* >~;: -Sttotafk ijy^j&.Mhit -s- • _/r„„„00,/:,,O„„, . .^Wv«a;«V 1 / ' rfr-d'.'.'-a ^ 7 Mo is J r : o°K V \ S* ! rtoviujo , . 4^,-S - P ' S"' '¦!•¦¦!'-, ',,,¦ ]¦-, ,-P ¦, PrtPterA^HPP ^ . p., H ,1 fi c il^V- ..P ', ^.u^tffiaE.SSEt g^rw/-i.j„ j ,-f, „.fp ^V'sT WA^ T/,.~ JOmnirc EngliaJuPbssasaipns. \Biiniundinn.Ir.'iO'arfcsrJu/^/d , Z/Artif afJIenry M Possmsivns - . ., English D" byt/is^trtvib.ofllrvtu Sibw of JlaiiJM Jt Kaon Red Purpla if A So N 5 / r tfJi-R^jp JjV s Bj* W.Gr. 2 o English Mies Stanfords Geog\Estab*6 & 7 (haring Or>ss. London: James Walton. HISTOEY OF ENGLAND gxam % €uxlh&t ta % ^xmnt Cime IN FIVE VOLUMES > SIE EDWAED S^ GREASY, M.A. EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON J LATE FELLOW OF KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE VOLUME II COMPLETING THE HISTOEY DURING THE EARLY AND MIDDLE AGES LONDON JAMES WALTON BOOKSELLER AND PUBLISHER TO UNIVERSITY COLLEGE 137, GOWER STREET 1870 [All Eights of Translation Reserved.'] LONDON I BRADBURY, EVANS, AND CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS. 3y7 sat z CONTENTS, CHAPTER I. EDWARD II. PAGE Edward II. abandons the conquest of Scotland — His devotion to fa vourites — Gaveston — Tlie Spensers — Fate of Gaveston — Progress of Bruce in Scotland — Edward leads an army into tliat kingdom — His total defeat at Bannockburn — Tbe Scotcb attack the English both in - England and in Ireland — State of Ireland — -Weakness of the English there — Causes that made the Anglo-Norman conquest of Ireland speedy but imperfect — Turbulence and degeneracy of the Anglo- Norman nobles in Ireland — System of ruling by Deputies— Suc cesses of Edward Brace in Ireland — His final defeat and death — Great effort of the. native Irish under Phelim O'Connor to achieve their own independence — Their defeat at Athunree — Constitutional events in Edward II.'s reign — The Lords ordainers and the articles of reform of 1312 — Important declaratory statute as to the Con stitution and power of Parliament in 1322 — Edward's personal his tory resumed — His neglect of his queen — She joins the insurgent barons against him and the Spensers — The Spensers put to death — Edward taken prisoner, deposed, and compelled to resign the crown — His cruel murder — Miscellaneous events during this reign — Abolition of the Knights Templars — Papal Residence at Avignon — Our great schoolman, William of Ockham — His writings against the Pope's claims to temporal supremacy and to spiritual in fallibility 1 CHAPTER II. EDWARD III— CRESSY AND POITIERS. Brilliancy of Edward III.'s reign— The half-century very important also as to commerce, and the political and social state of the people This period the special age of chivalry— General history of Ed ward III.'s reign to be dealt with first — Edward's marriage— His position under the Dowager Queen Isabella and Mortimer— Their unpopularity — Edward emancipates himself from them — Mortimer iv CONTENTS. put to death, and Isabella imprisoned— Edward's personal advan tages—His popularity— Scotch wars— The claim to the French crown — The French peers decide against it— The immediate out break of hostilities caused by the French king— Edward's alliances on the Continent— General state of Europe at this period— France, the Empire, Flanders, Spain, &c— Edward's first campaign— His great naval victory off Sluys— His further campaigns in France- Battle of Cressy— Calais besieged and taken— Commercial interests served by this conquest — The Scots invade northern England ; defeated, and King David of Scotland taken prisoner— The Black Plague— The Statute of Labourers— War renewed in the south of France— The Black Prince wins the great battle of Poitiers— Treaty of Bretigni 37 CHAPTER III. EDWARD III.— THE CONSTITUTION. Expedition of the Black Prince to Castile— His Victory at Navarette — His illness — War with France resumed — Hi-success of the English — The Black Prince storms Limoges — He returns to England — Disputes of parties in England — Dotage of the King — William of Wykeham — Wyclif — Lancaster — The King's Ecclesiastical Ministry displaced — English Fleet defeated by the Spaniards — Losses in France — Lancaster's power in England through Alice Perrers' power over King Edward — Reform movement headed by Black Prince — Ministers impeached — Death of Black Prince — Lancaster and Alice Perrers regain power — Persecution of William of Wykeham — Wyclif charged with heresy — Death of Edward III. — Progress of the Constitution during his reign — Patriotism of leaders of the Commons — System of Taxation — Judicial functions of Par liament — The King's Council — Ordinances — Statute of Treasons — Justices of the Peace — Statutes of the Staple — Other measures respecting Commerce — The Guilds — State of Trade — Ecclesiastical History — Conflict against Papal exactions — Statutes of Provisors — Attacks on the higher clergy of the realm 180 CHAPTER IV. DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL HISTORY UNDER EDWARD III AND RICHARD II. Practical importance of the domestic social History of England during the reigns of Edward III. and Richard II. — Unity of the subject— Beginning of the modern History of the English Poor CONTENTS. v ' . , PAGE Diminution of villeinage in Edward III.'s time— Its causes— Growth ' of free peasant copyholders — Growth of a clasB of free labourers unconnected with the land — A class of Proletarians — Effects of changing a mass of serfs into a. mass of free paupers — Prompt legislation against Vagabondage and Mendicancy — Legislation less prompt in aid of Impotent Poor — The first Poor Laws — Demand and supply in the labour market balanced before the Black Death — Half the labourers swept off by the Black Death — The survivors demand high wages — Distress of the landowners— They pass laws to keep down the price of labour, and to coerce the working classes ¦ — These continue to combine, 'and wages still rise — Greater rise in prices — Increased taxation — Wide-spread discontent of 1381 — Effect of writings of Wyclif and Langland — John Ball— Misconduct of government officers in enforcing the Poll-tax lights up the insur rection — Wat Tyler — The risings in Essex and Kent — Similar risings throughout England — The Kentish insurgents march on London — Peril of the young King — Demands of the insurgents — Death of Wat Tyler — His followers disperse — Insurrection when and how sup pressed — Proceedings of Parliament — More labour-laws — Their in- emcacy — Great inorease of free labourers unconnected with the " land 255 CHAPTER V. JOHN WYCLIF. John Wyclif — His enduring influence on after ages — His high position as a Schoolman at Oxford, then the highest Theological University — Alarm of the Papacy at Wyclif' s power, and his doctrines — The Pope orders proceedings against him — Wyclif summoned before the Pope's delegates at Lambeth — The proceedings broken off by a tumult of the Londoners- — Wyclif's Poor Priests — His regard to Preaching — His translation of the Bible — Its great effect on the community — His advice as to the study" of Scripture — He attacks the doctrine of Transubstantiation — He is censured by the Uni versity of Oxford — His Confession of Faith — Archbishop Courtenay takes proceedings to check heresy — Council at the Black Friars Chapter House — Condemnation of tenets imputed to Wyclif— Pro ceedings at Oxford — Wyclif retires to Lutterworth — His unabated industry as a writer and preacher — He advises the total confisca tion of Church property— The Bishop of Norwich's crusade— Wyclif cited before the Pope — His answer— His death — His character — His influence over Europe, especially over England, wide-spread and enduring 308 vi CONTENTS. CHAPTER VI. RICHARD II. PAGE General history of Richard II.'s reign— Troubles of its first years- Characters of his uncles— His proneness to low favourites— The French war— Reverses of the English— Serious peril of French invasion— The French expedition baffled by adverse winds— Truce with France — Scottish wars in Richard's reign— Irish affairs— His successful expedition to Ireland in 1385— Constitutional history of England during this reign — Proceedings of Richard's first Par liaments — Dissension between the King and Parliament— Impeach ment of the Earl of SuffoDi — Ascendancy of the Duke of Gloucester — Council of Regency — Further impeachments — The King over throws the Regency — Death of Gloucester — Disposition of Richard — He goes to Ireland — The Duke of Lancaster returns from exile with an armed force — The people join him — The King falls into his power — Richard II. is formally deposed — Legislation of this reign — Increased power of the Court of Chancery .... 336 CHAPTER VII. HOUSE OF LANCASTER.— HENRY IV. Henry of Lancaster claims the Crown — Questions as to the lawful ' course that should have been taken — Commencement of the reigns of the Lancastrian line of Princes — General character of our history from this period to the close of the wars between the Houses of Lancaster and York — Greater harmony between Crown and Parlia ment — Increase of power of Parliament — Hostility of Commons against the Church — Persecutions of the Lollards — Disturbed reign of Henry IV. — Rebellions in England ; insurrections in Wales — Henry's Crusading projects — His death 364 CHAPTER VIII. HENRY V.— CONQUEST OF FRANCE. Popularity of Henry V. — His character in early youth — Troubles at the opening of his reign — Insurrectionary schemes', real or supposed, of the Lollards— Energy of Henry— The Clergy alarmed for their pro perty—War with France resolved on — Miserable state of that country — Injustice of the war — Henry's preparations— Siege and conquest of Harfleur — Victory at Agincourt— Joy of the English nation — The Emperor Sigismund in England— Council of Constance CONTENTS. vii PAGE — Negociations with the French — Second invasion of France — Capture of Caen, Cherbourg, and Rouen — Duke of Burgundy joins Henry — Treaty of Troyes — French Dauphin continues the war — Henry takes Melun and Montereau — Duke of Clarence defeated by the French and Scots at Beauge — Powerful army led by Henry into France — His sickness and death — Internal history during his reign 389 CHAPTER IX. HENRY VI.— WARS OF THE ROSES.— EDWARD IV.— EDWARD V. —RICHARD III. Progress of the War in France — Death of Charles VI. — Henry VI. proclaimed King in Paris — Siege of Orleans — Joan of Arc — Death of the Regent Bedford — Continued ill-success of the English — Close of the French Wars — Constitutional history of England during the Lancastrian reigns — Limitation of the Electoral Franchise — Change in borough rights — Strife of parties — Character of Henry VI. — His unpopular marriage — The Duke of York's claim to the throne — Cade's Rebellion — Henry becomes imbecile — York Protector — Birth of Prince Edward — Henry recovers— Beginning of the War of the Rosep — Attempted compromise — Queen Margaret renews the war — Defeat and death of the Duke of York— Victories of his son, who becomes Edward IV. — His quarrel with Warwick — Henry VI. restored — Edward regains the crown — Deaths of Warwick and Henry VI. — Factions in Edward's court — His war with France — Treaty of Pecquigny — Accession of Edward V. — Position and cha racter of Richard Duke of Gloucester — Richard is Protector — He claims the Throne and becomes Richard III. — Deaths of the Young Princes in the Tower— Character of Richard's reign — Expeditions of the Earl of Richmond — Defeat and death of Richard III. at Bosworth — The Earl of Richmond becomes Henry VII.— Constitu tional History— General survey of state of Europe — Transmarine Discoveries — Printing — Firearms — Decay of Feudalism . . . 432 CHAPTER X. ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. Progress of the English Language and Literature in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries — English Literature practically begins in Edward III.'s Reign— Chaucer — Langland — Minpt — Occleve— Gower — Songs and Carols — Wyclif — Mandeville's Travels — Fifteenth Century — Lydgate — Old English Ballads — Pecock — Fortescue — Malory — Romances — Caxton — State of Learning — Decline of Scholasticism — Colleges — Public Schools — State of Classical Learn ing — General Education of Nobility and Gentry .... 529 HISTOEY OF ENGLAND. CHAPTER I. Edward II. abandons the conquest of Scotland — His devotion to favourites — Gaveston — The Spensers —Fate of Gaveston — Progress of Brucein Scotland — Edward leads an army into that kingdom — His total defeat at Bannock- burn — The Scotch attack the English both in England and in Ireland — State of Ireland — Weakness of the English there — Causes that made the Anglo-Norman conquest of Ireland speedy but imperfect — Turbulence and degeneracy of the Anglo-Norman nobles in Ireland — System of ruling by Deputies — Successes of Edward Bruce in Ireland — His final defeat and death — Great effort of the native Irish under Phelim O'Connor to achieve their own independence — Their defeat at Athunree — Constitu tional events in Edward II. 's reign — The Lords ordainers and the articles of reform of 1312 — Important declaratory statute -as to the Constitution and power of Parliament in 1322 — Edward's personal history resumed — His neglect of his queen — She joins the insurgent barons against him and the Spensers — The Spensers put to death — Edward taken prisoner, deposed, and compelled to resign the crown — His cruel murder — Mis cellaneous events during this reign — Abolition of the Knights Templars — Papal Residence at Avignon — Our 'great schoolman, William of Ock- ham — His writings against the Pope's claims to temporal supremacy and to spiritual infallibility. At the death of King Edward I., Scotland escaped chap. subjugation, even as eleven hundred years before, L Caledonia had escaped that fate at the death of 1307. the Emperor Severus.* In each case a weak and Edward - * ... II like profligate son disobeyed the dying injunctions of a caracaUa,abandons * See vol. i. p. 66. VOL. II. B EDWAED II. CHAP. I. 1307. . the con quest of North Britain,His devo tion to his favourite Gaveston. Gaveston recalled frombanish ment. Withdrawal of the great Englisharmy from Scotland, when there was no thing in the field to oppose it ; and when Bruce's position was des perate. veteran conqueror, and dropped irretrievably the prize which a prompt and persistent grasp would have secured. Edward II. was insensible to glory; and regardless of filial as well as of regal duty. His sole desire was for a speedy return to the society of his favourite Gaveston. King Edward I., only three months before his death, had, with the consent of Parliament, banished Gaveston from the realm as a corrupter of the Prince ; but almost the first act of the new King was to recall this pernicious minion, on whom he forthwith lavished the dignities and treasures of his kingdom, and whom he encouraged in insolence and injury towards his father's old counsellors, and towards the most powerful nobles of the land. When Edward I. died, the English army had advanced without resistance as far as Cumnock in Ayrshire ; it was admirably appointed, and was officered by the old King's victorious veterans. Bruce could collect no forces sufficient to cope with it, or even to impede its progress. The greater number of the Scotch fortresses were still held by English garrisons. The majority of the Scotch nobles were still willing to acknowledge the sovereignty of the King of England, of which they gave proof by doing homage to young Edward at Dumfries on the 6th of August, 1307. But on the 15th of that month the English advance was stayed, and the main English army was disbanded by the imbecile youth, when in a few weeks it would have made him certain monarch of the whole island. The new King of England then hurried back southward to complete one of the most wretched and dishonourable reigns that are recorded in any history. As we find peculiar attraction and instructiveness THE KING'S EAVOUEITES. 3 in even the smallest anecdotes respecting the friendly chap. intercourse, which great and wise sovereigns main- ' -tain with the men of merit in arms, in arts, in 1308- learning, in policy, and in laws, whom such princes ^°f^ets^ love to bring around them ; so on the other hand, Mstorythat the narratives are pre-eminently repulsive and pro- detail with fitless, that offer to posterity the details of how TXitism. foolish kings consort with worthless favourites. It is true that the trifling, vet offensive tale of royal Still it has ° J J its moral debasement and of upstart arrogance has usually a lessons grim moral at its conclusion ; and both princes and taught. their parasites may be warned by the punishments, National which such criminal folly has often received at the on royal hands of a jealous nobility and an indignant people, ^ment But the vengeance dealt in .such cases, whether by the ^para- ° 'J Bl^lc lns0. democracy, or by the aristocracy, or by both, has too lence, commonly been sullied by so much treachery and *°°j°ea™ cruelty, as to leave behind not only a just sympathy treachery for the sufferers in their extreme of misery, but also a cruelty. considerable degree of mischievous partiality for their Tlie conse- i • i n- quencesof general character, which makes many seek to palliate which are their crimes, and throw unmerited odium on their mrthe101 opponents. These remarks apply to more than one ™y!and King of England, and to more than one train of royal a tendency iii ii to j"«tify favourites ; but they apply to none more strongly than the mea- to Edward II. , and. to those whom he dishonoured conduct*^ himself by delighting to honour. The careers of ^J^hlk Edward's favourites will be only briefly noticed in this royal and place ; although there will be occasion again to allude wrong- to them, and to the dissensions which they caused ^jnceof between the King and his barons, when we come Edward presently to consider the important constitutional vouriteson events and ordinances of this reign. stitution, The domination of Gaveston over Edward II. lasted ^srs°eun^se with brief intermission until 1312, when that foolish which they B 2 4 EDWARD II. chap, and insolent young Gascon was beheaded by the •• order, and in the presence of the Earl of Lancaster, 1310. wk0 was -f^g first prince 0f the blood-royal, and who created je{j tne English nobles in their armed opposition to the between ° i r ' l • • the king King and his favourite. Two years before this time, barons'8 and in 1310, the Parliament had compelled the King to quent0IlSe J°^D in ^e appointment of Lords ordainers, consisting of struggles the Archbishop of Canterbury, seven bishops, and royalty and thirteen barons, with power to draw up ordinances G^vestoT7' for the better regulation of the King's household. It put to was also enacted that no royal grant of lands should be the Eari of valid without their assent, and the King's former grants ^ancaster, were ^0 j^ revokeci. The King was not to make war, Ordinances or go out of the kingdom, without the approbation of the barons in Parliament. The chief officers of the Crown were to be appointed with their consent. All evil . counsellors were to be banished. A short Act was also passed in this session, providing that a Par liament should be held "every year, and oftener if need be." Gaveston had fled before the meeting of this Parliament in 1310. He had been recalled by the King early in 1312, and reinstated in all his obnoxious ascendancy and favour. The Earl of Lancaster then headed the armed rising of the barons, and besieged Scarborough Castle, in which the King had placed Gaveston for safety. The troops, that the King raised, refused to fight against their countrymen for Gaveston : Scarborough surrendered, and Gaveston was executed. King Edward was obliged to make peace with his barons, and to promise them a formal pardon for put0toter Gaveston's deat]l- Ten years afterwards the King death by avenged his favourite's fate upon the Earl of Lancaster, 1322^' who was captured by the Royalists at Pontefract during a renewal of civil war, in which Edward showed unusual energy, and obtained the sole military SUc- THE SPENSERS. 5 cess of his life. In the meantime he had taken to chap. himself a new favourite, Hugh le Despenser, or _^_ Spenser, a young Englishman, whose birth and abili- 1310-1321. ties made him a somewhat less unworthy object of The the royal regards than Gaveston ; and whose father, HuThfcDe- Hugh le Despenser the elder, appears to have been spenserthe a nobleman of high personal character, and to have the king's become involved with little or no blame of his own vourite. in the fortunes of his son at Edward's Court. But although a rational amount of royal esteem, and even The Spen- favour, might have been well bestowed upon the ofmarklnd Spensers as men of rank and merit, such was the J?™**! b?* A 7 the king s reckless prodigality with which the King heaped partiality honours, gold, and lands on them, — his besotted fond ness for the company of the younger one was displayed with such disregard of royal, and even of manly Their un- t i ii t n i 11 t f ^ • popularity dignity, — that the hatred of the nobles and 01 the nation with the generally was roused against both father and son, as naion- fiercely as it had raged against Gaveston. Un- Personal warned also by the fate of that minion, the younger many of Spenser brought both personal and public enmity on to^^bsIes himself and his family, by the arrogance of his tnem- demeanour, by his rapacity in grasping after forfeitures, ,^ee n°^lea and by the jeers and sarcasms at the expense of the a™sto it 1 -t ¦ 1 • procure the leading men among the nobility, with which he downfall of amused the shallow King and the other buffoons of the Sers. pen Court. Risings in arms and civil war followed, in Success of which the barons were at first successful, and in 1321 roniai the King was obliged to assent to a decree of the party' Parliament, banishing the Spensers for ever from the sers ban- -1 ished in realm. 1321. In the following year both parties were again in arms ; The ting and now it was that the King obtained the advantages in vantage, the war, which enabled him to put to death Lancaster $£^0?* and other chiefs of the baronial party. The Spensers sers> 1322\ EDWARD II. CHAP. I. 1307-1314.He retains them near him, till they and he perish in 1326. Scottish affairs. Their con sideration leads to that of Irish affairs Reign of Edward II. an impor tant epoch in Anglo- Irish, as well as in Anglo- Scottish history. Bannock- burn de cided Scot land's inde pendence. Athunreedecided Ireland's subjection. were immediately called back to England by the King's command, and were retained by Edward in their ignominious ascendancy until the successful attack made on him and them by the Queen and the nobles in 1326, which will require our attention when we come to the close of this reign. We have seen that the abandonment of the conquest of Scotland had been the first act of Edward II. on becoming King. We must now watch the vehement but vain effort which he made seven years afterwards to resume and complete the task of bringing the whole island under a single sceptre. The disastrous failure of his attempt, and the retaliatory attacks which the victorious Scots made upon the Engbsh in Ireland, as well as in Britain, will cause us to revert to the special subject of Anglo-Irish history. We shall have to consider the position both of the Enghsh immigrants and of the natives in the western island since the apparent conquest which had been made in the time of Henry II. The reality of the English conquest cannot be said to have been decided till the failure of the great effort made by the Irish against Edward II.'s commanders in Ireland, at the time when England was weakened by the disasters of her war fare against the Scots. Indeed the reign of Edward IL, though one of little interest so far as regards the intercourse between England and the nations of the continent, is one of very great importance with regard to the relations of this country with both Scotland and Ireland. If Bruce's victory at Bannockburn in 1314 confirmed the independence of Scotland for centuries, Phelim O'Connor's defeat at Athunree in 1316 was almost equally decisive in establishing and in perpetuating Ireland's subjection. The period which Edward wasted after his retreat BATTLE OE BANNOCKBURN. y from Scotland in 1307 had been vigorously and chap. skilfully employed by Bruce in reducing the strong- 2l. holds of the Engbsh in Scotland, in extending his 1307-1314. own influence among his countrymen, and in training Energy and a small but gallant band of captains, some of Bruce in whom almost equalled their great chief in sagacity respite e and skill, as well as in personal prowess and bravery, f^e1™1 Not content with the almost total expulsion of the English . ting in Engbsh from the northern kingdom, the Scots made 1307. inroads into Cumberland and the adjoining English He makes counties, which became more and more daring and ^twe devastating. The complaints of the English people g™|°*d at the tidings that the garrison of Stirling Castle and almost (almost the only Scottish fortress still in English hands) freeTtLt had been obliged to make terms with Bruce, by which ^^ that stronghold was to be surrendered, unless relieved ^s^ ii i i • forces. by an English army within a stipulated time, at last roused Edward into . activity. The full power of Edward n. collects the power England was assembled at Berwick; and on the 18th f°u( of June, 1314, the English King led as splendid and ^TE^fmd as numerous an army across the borders as this Scottish country has ever sent into the field. Bruce's forces were far inferior ; but his own consummate general- Military ship, and the ability with which Randolph, Douglas, ^ceofaild the Stewart, Edward Bruce, and the other Scottish Ms cap- officers carried out his plans, more than compensated for the disparity of numbers. On the Engbsh side Edward's King Edward showed some personal courage, but ^y^ displayed utter incompetency as a commander. The general. two armies encountered at Bannockburn, near Stirling, Bannock- on the 24th of June, 1314, and the result was the most bum>1314- complete overthrow that the military power of England greatest has ever sustained. English troops have met repulses tl^rieZ*1 and reverses before and after the day of Bannockburn ; °ed by the . i English there have been many wars in the course of which arms. EDWAED II. CHAP. I. 1314. Effect of the victory on the Scotch.Bannock burn the Scottish Marathon. Noble ex pression of noble feel ing by the Scottish warriorsand chiefs of that age. Memorialof the Scot tish par liament to the Pope, 1318. Their gra titude to Bruce, the Liberator. small English armies have been routed, destroyed, or captured ; but never, except at Bannockburn,' was the largest and the best English army, that the land at the time could send forth, beaten in a fair pitched battle by a numerically inferior foe. The full force of England was then not only beaten, but routed, — not only routed, but hounded by its victorious enemies for miles and miles off the field of Bannockburn in bloody chase and panic flight. The effect on the Scottish nation of this glorious victory was not limited to the generation then in being, great as were its immediate results. Bannockburn became to the Scots of all ages what Marathon was to the Greeks. It was and is a word that calls up feelings of just pride for a triumph boldly and wisely won over a powerful foe — so powerful as to have been previously regarded as possessing, if not invincibility, such preponderating strength, as to make an encounter with it almost hope less. The noble patriotism and stubborn courage, which thenceforth became nationabsed in Scotland, may best be expressed in the very words of the Scottish men of that age, many of whom must them selves have been among the survivors of Bannock burn. The Pope by the proclamation to two of his cardinals, who at the time were in Edward's Court, declared Bruce and his adherents to have incurred excommunication on account of their non-observance of a truce which the Papal Legate ordained at the end of the year 1317. The Scottish Parliament in 1318 sent a memorial to the Pope, which in the name of the people of Scotland deprecated his Hobness' displeasure. But at its conclusion the Scots thus made their declaration of independence : — " We have been freed from the English yoke by Robert Bruce, who has been made our King by Divine Providence SCOTTISH MEMOEIAL TO THE POPE. 9 by his. own hereditary right, and by our lawful and chap. unanimous consent. But if he should betray us, _^_ we would treat him as an enemy, we would choose 1318' another King, and we would hold English domination But evpm at defiance as long as a hundred Scots remain. Free- desert . dom is what we seek for : and freedom is what no TriiTnot ey good man would wish to outlive. Let the King of {^Eng- England be content with his own dominions, which lish- once sufficed for seven kings, and let him leave have a.klng 'Scotland to the Scots — -Scotland the extreme of .the oftneir own, and habitable earth, and rough and barren, but dear to us ^m defy because it is our own country, our country which we domination wish to possess in peace. We are the Pope's obedient hundred sa children as far as a higher duty allows. But we Scots have ° J breath. commit the protection of our country's cause to England God, as the Supreme Judge of all. We cast all our 1°^^ care upon God : and we put our trust in God that He The Scots will enable us to do valiantly, and that He will tread ^^ ^ down all our enemies."* J*^ Brave words ; and the large utterance of men whose themselves. deeds were as brave as their words. a ^ghhearTe During the four years that had elapsed between the dut7 *ba;n o •> L their duty battle of Bannockburn and this Grand Remonstrance tothePope. in behalf of Scottish independence, the usual border ?ddelsto warfare had been waged with increasing vigour on the between part of the Scots, and more and more feebly by the and her Engbsh. But the Braces did not bmit their bold e™^*' projects to this island. The general weakness of the in God English state at this period, and the feebleness of the fight and English occupants of Ireland, gave Edward Bruce, con?ner- the younger brother of King Robert, a bold, but a The Scots iii f. i ¦ i _i_i attack the not unreasonable hope ol winning a kingdom there English in for himself, as his brother had acquired one in Ireland- * This Manifesto will be found at length in Mr. Tytler's History. 10 EDWAED II. CHAP. I. 1315-1318. Schemes of Edward Bruce. Conditionof Ireland. Rapidity of the first conquests effected by the English there. The very causes which made the conquestrapid,made it im perfect and insecure. Differencebetween centralised and many- headed power in resisting invaders. Scotland. We have seen* the facility with which the Anglo-Norman nobles of Henry II. made good their landing on Irish ground ; their abiances with some of the Irish princes, and their victories over others ; we have marked the ample domains of which they ac quired possession; and we have seen also the readiness with which King Henry obtained from ¦ the various native rulers of the land an acknowledgment of him as their Sovereign Lord. But some of the very causes whieh facibfcated the English invasion of Ireland, and which contributed to the early successes of the in vaders, made their conquest imperfect and their occu pation insecure. The want of centralised and centra lising authority, by which the national forces might have been collected and wielded against the stranger, had caused the Irish nation to fall seemingly without even a vigorous resistance. But the same want of imperial centralisation, which made Ireland so unable to repel the first attacks of the Anglo-Norman power, gave her, in her little kingdoms, her septs and tribes, innu merable local centres for opposition to the thorough es tablishment of the conqueror's dominion, and supplied ever-ready means for attempts at reconquest and revenge.t The first acquisitions of the English in Ireland were * Vol. i. p. 196. t See the admirable historical introduction to M. De Beaumont's work on Ireland. He most truly observes (Tome i. p. 28), " La division indefinie des forces sociales dans un pays en facilite singulierement l'invasion ; j'ajou- terai que rien n'est plus contraire que ce fractionnement a l'etablissement durable du vainqueur dans le pays conquis. Ce qui, dans le premier eas, est pour la nation envahie une cause d'extreme faiblesse, devient, dans le second le plus grand moyen de force. Autant il est malaisg pour le peuple combattant l'invasion de reunir subitement tous ses elements d'action ainsi divises ; autant il devient difficile pour le vainqueur de dompter, apris 1 invasion cette multitude de forces partielles, disseminees c& et la sur toute 1 etendue du temtoire, et qui toutes apportent dans la lutte le meme tribut STATE OF IEELAND. jj in part of the province of Leinster and in the south of chap. the province of Munster. This territory was called _t__ the English Pale, or, more commonly, simply the Pale. I3i5-isi8. Its boundaries fluctuated according to the alternations The Eng- of success in the almost incessant wars between the '" |U" two races. But for nearly five centuries after the extent.16 landing of the English, from the reign of Henry II. to that of Elizabeth, two-thirds of Ireland were practically unconquered ground. At times, indeed, the English possessions, instead of extending to even as much as a third of the island, were limited to a narrow territory round Dublin, and to the occupation of the other commercial cities of the sea-board. The condition in Anarchy which the Anglo-Norman barons in Ireland found ness of the themselves placed relatively to England and to their fj^' King, tended materially to incapacitate them from pushing their conquests effectively over the great mass of the native Irish, though they could not be entirely driven back from the lands which they had won. The kings of the Plantagenet line, who succeeded Ireland Henry IL, seldom visited Ireland. King John was visited by the only one who set foot in it before the time king"816' of Richard II. The Anglo-Norman barons in Ireland, de resistance, par la meme raison qu'elles sont independants les unes des autres. " On peut dire avec raison qu'un pays, oft le pouvoir central est fort, est tout a la fois le plus difficile a envahir, et celui dont, apres l'invasion, la conquete est la plus facile. Toutes les forces de la nation rassemblees sur un point unique, offrent une puissante condition de succes qui, venant a faire dei aut, laisse -sans defense tout le reste du territoire. C'est tout au- rebours dans un pays oil la force nationale n'est point centralisee ; on les envahit sans peine, et l'on parvient tres-difficilement a les conquerir. Ceci s'est bien vu dans les premiers siecles de notre histoire. Les conquetes des hommes du Nord, qui se succedaient si terribles les unes aux autres, n'ont en leur fin que le jour ou un pouvoir faible au centre, mais fort dans ses parties, s'est constitue sur le sol. Depuis l'etablissement de la feodalite en Europe, il est encore arrive" des invasions, mais il n'y a plus eu de conquetes." 12 EDWAED II. CHAP. I. 1315-1318. nob having the effective check of kingly power to restrain them, indulged in feuds and private warfare one against another ; and all the worst features of feudalism were developed among them, with few or none of the benefits which elsewhere were derived The viceroy from the feudal system* The English kings governed, systera' or attempted to govern, Ireland by viceroys, or depu- * ties. But, if the representative of royalty was chosen from among the less powerful nobles, he was invariably contemned ; and he was destitute of any power where with to enforce his sovereign's authority. If, on the contrary, the governorship was given to the head of one of the great families, the King's name was generally made the mere pretext for carrying on schemes of private aggrandisement and of personal enmity towards rival nobles. Many of the Anglo-Irish barons and other adventurers, who settled in the conquered territories, not only made wars on the native tribes on their own account, but also contracted alliances and marriage ties with them ; and in numerous instances they adopted The Hiber nisedAnglo- Normans. * Mr. Goldwin Smith well observes of the Feudal System, as generally established in Europe, that " In the feudal system there were two forces at work, that of the monarchy and that of the aristocracy. The combined action of the two was attended by perpetual jarring and discord between them ; but both were necessary to the production of that ordered liberty which we enjoy under the Constitution. The monarchy preserved the prin ciple of government and the common interest of the state ; the aristocracy preserved the principle of liberty and the interests of personal indepen dence. Without the monarchy there would have been a Polish anarchy, without the aristocracy there would have been an Oriental despotism. In either case political progress would have been arrested. The Anglo- Irish were practically without a king, and the chronic anarchy of an uncon trolled aristocracy was the inevitable result. "The same circumstance was, if possible, still more injurious to the native race. The Irish were, and long remained, in that stage of political development when an object of personal royalty, such as a clansman finds in his chief, was essential in order to engage their present allegiance and train them for a higher form of political life. The talisman of the royal presence has never been tried in their hearts without effect ; but that talis man has been too seldom tried." STATE OF IEELAND. 13 the wild usages and restless savagery of the most chap. ferocious of the native clans, and of the most lawless __ of the native chieftains, until it became a proverb 1315"13i8- respecting them, that the English in Ireland were more ^jlib®"d Irish than the Irish themselves. The presence of such undeceived men on their Irish estates was probably a greater curse men's vices to the country than was the absence of other pro- edveiTand prietors, who, holding lands in England as well as -sa™ *bem in Ireland, naturally preferred to reside in the more own." civilised and wealthy country. Yet this last, this g^mis long-standing curse, the evil of absenteeism, was the Hiber- T niores. subject of complaint as early as the reign of Edward I., Irisn ^. and was denounced even then as a main cause of Irish senteeism. disorder and misery. No blame is imputable to our qu\t^ 1_ kings personally for unwillingness to give Ireland the blessings of good government and equal law. The Great Charter was transmitted to Ireland and pro claimed there. And a statute of Edward I. provided, Efforts of as far as legislation could provide, for the establishment kings'™18 of English law in Ireland, and for protecting the ^and°f natives from oppression. But our kings in those ages were too deeply and anxiously occupied with English, Welsh, and Scottish affairs, to be able to apply their personal supervision to the carrying out of their ordi nances for Ireland, and to the permanent and steady control of all minor powers by regular regal authority, which might, perhaps, have given that unhappy country tranquillity and order, and which might have saved her from becoming that "commonwealth of common woe,"* which one of Elizabeth's statesmen in after- times too truly termed her. The native Irish continued to wage their local wars, their faction-fights, their family death-feuds, one against * " Ireland, that commonwealth of common woe." — Sir Walter Ralegh. 14 EDWAED II. CHAP. I. 1315-1318. Increasingturbulenceand misery of the na tive Irish. Common hatred against the English. EdwardBruce lands in the north of Ireland. He is crowned King Ed ward of Ireland. PhelimO'Connor the real Irish aspi rant to the Irish crown. another, as they had done before the landing of the English. But they had all a common feebng of deep- seated hatred towards their invaders, however zealously they might side with them for a time for the sake of obtaining a party-triumph over their private enemies among their own countrymen. The northern parts of Ireland were those on which the English arms had made the least impression, and which were most open to communications, peaceful or mibtary, from Scotland. Edward Bruce ascertained that many of the Irish inhabitants of this district would fobow him with alacrity against the common enemy of both Scotchmen and Irishmen ; and on the 25th of May, 1315, he landed at Carrickfergus with six thou sand of the best Scottish soldiers. He gained many advantages over the English troops that encountered him ; and the Irish, who followed him to fight and to plunder, professed enthusiastic devotion to him per sonally. In 1316 he caused himself to be crowned King of Ireland. He had procured a transfer to himself of the rights which the Irish chief O'Neil had asserted to the sovereignty of the whole country; but there was another Irish claimant to the Irish crown, far more powerful than O'Neil, who was making war on the English independently of Bruce, though un questionably glad to avail himself of the weakness and of the distraction of the Engbsh force, which must have been caused by Edward Bruce's operations. This was Phelim O'Connor, the head of the great house of that name ; a house that had hitherto striven against the English more successfully, and which had main tained an effective ascendancy over larger numbers of the Irish population, than any other of the numerous Irish families that styled themselves noble and royal. The O'Connors and their allied or tributary clans took BATTLE OF ATHTTNEEE. 15 the field against the Engbsh in August, 1316, with chap. one of the largest native armies that Ireland has ever _il_ mustered. But the extremity of the peril which the 1316-1318. Engbsh settlers now saw impending over them taught Gr?at up- them unity and subordination ; and the noble family the o'Con- of the De Berminghams gave them skilful commanders ^Lst the in the warfare against both Irish and Scots. Phebm Enslisl1- O'Connor with his great national host attacked the English troops under Lord Richard de Bermingham at Athunree on the 10th of August, 1316. The utter de- result was a defeat of the Irish with such heavy Irish slaughter, that not only was the power of the O'Connors ^°^ broken, but the native Irish never for centuries rallied Athunree. again under any chief of their own in such numbers, and under such circumstances, as to make probable the establishment of an independent Irish kingdom in Ireland. The Irish career of Edward Bruce lasted a little Edward more than three years. At one time his brother, the tmues the great Bruce, came over to his aid, and they advanced jJ^ieind. as far as Dublin, which they were unable to capture. His brother King Robert Bruce of Scotland, after this unsuccessful Robfrt expedition against the capital of the western island, ai™him0 returned to his own dominions ; and King Edward The Braces Bruce of Ireland was defeated and killed in battle Dublin.0™ against the English near Dundalk on the 14th of The great October, 1318. Lord John de Bermingham commanded fumTto the English in this action ; and the result of the battle, Scotland' and the consequent termination of the war, were in a war! Bruce great degree attributable to the desperate valour of ^attfe Sir John Maupes, an English knight, who galloped in aiid tbe upon Edward Bruce at the first charge, and whose the dead body was found stretched across the dead body expedition ofhis royal enemy at the conclusion of the short but ^^ei sharp encounter, in which two thousand of Scotland's 16 ' EDWAED n. I 1319-1328. chap, best soldiers, and several of her ablest captains perished. In Britain the warfare continued longer, the Scots being generaUy the assailants, and almost invariably Scotch in victorious. They ravaged England as far as the England. Humber on the eastern side, and on the west they even attacked Wales, not only pushing their marauding light cavalry across Cumberland, Lancashire, and Cheshire, but making descents on the unprotected Bruce coasts from squadrons of ships, which Bruce collected vexes Ens- . land by sea and manned partly with sea-rovers from Flanders, and by land.13 partly with his own men, and to which the wretched Government of England opposed no maritime force Negocia- whatever. After many negociations a truce for two years between the two countries was made in 1319. Truces. jn 1323 another truce was agreed on, which was to continue thirteen years. Before that term had elapsed, there was a brief renewal of the war, foUowed, how ever, by a formal and complete pacification in 1328. Edward II. was by this time in his, grave ; but Robert Bruce lived on to witness the complete estabbshment At last 0f Scotland as an independent kingdom. The English gives way. Parliament, and those who ruled in 1328 in the name acknow- of Edward II.'s young son, solemnly renounced all rights bfafinde- an& claims 0I> tne Kings of England to dominion and pendent superiority over Scotland ; and Scotland was declared kingdom, . and the to appertain for ever to the magnificent Prince and Lord Bobert Lord Robert, by the grace of God the illustrious King reco^nSed °f Scots, and to his heirs and successors, free, entire, lawful an(^ unm°lested, without any subjection, servitude, king. claim, or demand whatever. This important event is so closely connected with Bannockburn, as the natural result of Bruce's victory, that it has seemed fit to record it here, though falbng within the term of our third, and not of our second Edward's reign. King' SUFFEEINGS OF THE ENGLISH. 17 Robert Bruce did not long survive this consummation chap. of his great enterprise. He died on the 7th of June, __!_ 1329, at the age of fifty-five, leaving a name which, 1313-1317- however tarnished by the selfishness and faithlessness of Bruce. his youth, commands the just admiration of posterity for indomitable energy, for undaunted heroism, and n0wn. also for tbe statesmanlike sagacity displayed by him in his riper years. His crown was sullied in the winning ; but it was so worn as to shine brightly throughout aU time. Besides the miseries of disastrous warfare, the Sufferings English nation suffered grievously during Edward II.'s English reign from the other two_ great scourges of humanity, t0™17 by which war is so often accompanied. In this reign ^0™e^es" d famine and pestilence spread their terrors even famine. more widely than the sword had gone through the land. For three successive years after the year of Bannockburn the harvests failed not only in the counties which were ravaged by the Scots, but also in the central and southern districts. Epidemic diseases swept off the cattle and the flocks ; and the scarcity and unwholesomeness of food soon produced fever and dysentery among the people. Amid the Brigandage . , ? cii i general in general misery the restraints ol law, human and the land. divine, were set at nought. Bands of robbers infested every district; and the better disposed inhabitants, Armed unprotected by the constituted authorities of the ^|ationa country, were forced to defend themselves against feeders. murderers and marauders by forming armed associa tions, and taking the law into their own hands. These societies often quarreUed with each other ; and Local wars. self-renewing feuds and faction-fights augmented the desolation and misery of English villages and homes. The chief of aU historians has truly said that "War EDWAED II. CHAP. I. 1317-1320. 'O Tr6\ei/.os fitaios diSdiTKaXos Kal irpbs t« Trap6vTa Tas opyas tSiv ttoWuj/ dfioiot. character of English internalhistoryduring this reign. Escape of the anti- royalistleader, Mortimer, into France.The queen against the king. Edward's neglect of Isabella.Her other wrongs. Her guilty attachment for Mor timer. is a stern taskmaster, and makes men's hearts hard as their circumstances." The other great physical scourges of nations produce the same effect. The dreadful sufferings of the English people in Edward II.'s reign may partly account for the extreme ferocity, which marks" the conflict of parties during that time, and for the malignant spirit of insult and cruelty, in which this unhappy Prince's deposition from the throne was effected. It has been mentioned how the King's first favourite, Piers Gaveston, was put to death by the barons ; and how tbe Earl of Lancaster, the chief of the baronial party, was afterwards executed by the royalists, when Edward obtained a brief ascendancy in civil strife. Another active and important leader of the disaffected barons, Lord Mortimer, had been imprisoned in the tower of London ;. but he made his escape to France in 1324, and he was soon joined there by a still more formidable and deadly enemy to Edward, his own Queen Isabella. Isabella, sole daughter of King Phibppe le Bel of France, and sister of Louis X., Philippe V., and Charles le Bel (who reigned successively after Phibppe le Bel), is described as one of tbe most beautiful women of her ' time, and as a princess of pride and spirit at least equal to her beauty. Edward II. had alienated her affections by neglect, and by his offensive prefer ence for the society of his male favourites. He even made her dependent on the insolent caprice of the younger Spenser for the supplies of money requisite for her maintenance.* Her hatred and contempt of her husband's minion were extended to her husband himself ; and her guilty attachment to Lord Mortimer * Other and more horrible causes for Isabella's hatred for her husband are stated by the old writers, and are adverted to by Mackintosh in this part of his history. QUEEN ISABELLA. 19 had probably been formed before that nobleman's flight chap. to France. The Queen became the confederate of the ___ King's bitterest enemies ; and the Bishop of Hereford 1323-1325- (whose property had been seized by the Spensers on a ^q^en charge of treason) is mentioned as one of the most aeadstne ° ' malcon- stfbtle and unscrupulous of her advisers. A dissension, tents. which had occurred between King Edward and King she obtains Charles of France respecting Guienne, was artfully misd^to made a pretence for Isabella being permitted to go to Fri»ce' France for the ostensible purpose of reconciling her brother to her husband, but with the real design of planning measures in concert with Mortimer and other English refugees for effecting a revolution in England. As soon as the Queen reached Paris, she began to execute this scheme ; and she easily won over her brother, the French King, to give her his co-operation. Charles had seized on the greater part of the English possessions in France, and Edward was naturally urgent that they should be restored to him. At Isabeba's instigation the French Court suggested that the King of England should transfer his rights .over Guienne to his son and heir apparent, Prince Edward, then twelve years old ; and that the young Prince Young should be sent over to France to receive investiture, ^^ ; and to do homage to Charles as sovereign paramount sent over ~ i ¦ • ¦ t -ii . „ to her. of the territory m question.- lt was promised that, ii this were done, the French troops should be withdrawn from Guienne, and the young English Prince placed in quiet possession. King Edward complied, and the Prince was sent over to France ; but instead of his andMor- being sent back after performance of the feudal j^pru^cT ceremonies respecting Guienne, he was detained by ^^ them> Isabella and Mortimer, who thus were enabled to use his name the Prince's name in their operations against his f Sr* Ms 0 2 20 EDWAED II. chap, father. Proceeding from France to Hainault, they L levied there an armed force of about two thousand 1326. Flemings and Germans, besides the numerous Engbsh Theylevy malcontents who had gathered round them abroad. troops in Sailing with these from the Flemish coast in Sep- andiand'in tember, 1326, Isabella and Mortimer, with the young Suffolk. -p^^^ knded at Qrwe]1 in Suffolk- Three Princes of Men of an the blood royal, the Earls of Kent, Norfolk, and ranks jom j^gg^ an(j many other noblemen, immediately joined the Queen. The Bishops of Ely, Lincoln, and Hereford, went to her camp with ab the forces which they could cobect ; and other prelates sent her assist ance in men and money. She proclaimed that she had come to free the King and the kingdom from the tyranny of the Spensers ; and so deep and general was the hatred felt towards Edward's government, that not a sword was drawn in opposition to ber. She advanced through England with a continuaUy in- Edward creasing army, while her wretched husband and his and the favourites fled to fortresses for safety. The elder Spensers. _ •'_ Spenser took refuge in Bristol, but tbe ill-wib of the The eider inhabitants towards him compelled him to surrender to Spenser J- captm-edin the Queen s troops on the third day after they had executed, appeared before the wabs. He was put to death with circumstances of great barbarity after a mockery of trial ; and Queen Isabella's forces were then directed towards the coast of South Wales, where Edward and the younger Spenser were reported to be lurking. After vainly attempting to raby round him the citizens of London, the King had fled westward from the capital on intelligence of Isabella's success- Edward ^ P10^88- In company with Hugh Spenser, and the Edward embarked at Bristol, his intention being, younger , . . °' Spenser according to some -writers, to sail to Ireland ; but put to sea. otherg relate that hig ^^ wag to ^^ Lundy jgland FALL OF THE SPENSEES. THE KING DEPOSED. 21 in the Bristol Channel, which had been previously chap, fortified and stored with provisions by Spenser's _ orders, probably in anticipation of some such catas- 1327" trophe as actually occurred. The Queen and Mortimer The ^ng -1S took advantage of the King's departure, and proclaimed j^j^f that he had deserted the realm. They then formed a of the convention of prelates and nobles at Bristol, in which it was resolved that the kingdom had been left without Young a ruler by the King's flight beyond sea, and that ]j™ard young Prince Edward should be made guardian and declared to be Gustos governor of the realm (October 26). But the King in regm. the meanwhile had been driven back by a storm upon the south Welsh coast, where he tried in vain to Taking conceal himself. He and Spenser were taken on and Hugh r Spenser the 17th of November near Neath Abbey by the taken. Queen's soldiers. Spenser was hurried to Hereford, ^[e^^T and executed as a traitor ; the King was taken to Edward Kenilworth Castle, where he remained in captivity a™Kenn-e during the winter. worth- The next measure of Isabella and Mortimer was to Parliament issue writs in the imprisoned King's name, by which a ctmTene " Parliament was summoned at Westminster. On the 7th of January, 1327, the Bishop of Hereford, after a ^7™" bitter invective against Edward II., put the question ^dwarfth to the assembled Lords and Commons, " Whether father or King Edward the father, or his son Edward, should son should6 reign over them ? " Not a voice was raised for the te king' fallen sovereign : and the young Prince was acclaimed The pri,noe as King. But the real rulers, Isabella and Mortimer, king- felt the necessity of getting rid of the old King in Deputation some more formal manner. A deputation of Lords Edwardii and Commons was sent to Kenilworth to obtain, if toabdicate' possible, from the royal captive a voluntary abdication. He con- After some difficulty, he was induced by threats and andts promises to give his assent in the presence of the reno^'/d 22 EDWAED II. chap, assembled deputies to all that was required of him. 1 Then one of the knights of the shire, Sir Wibiam 1327. Trussel, who had presided as Judge at the condemna tion ofthe Spensers, addressed him thus : — " I, Wibiam Trussel, proctor of the prelates, earls, and barons, and others the people by whom I am authorised, having for this full and sufficient power, do, in respect of you, Edward, late King of England, abandon the homage and fealty of the persons in my procuration named ; and acquit and discharge them thereof as fully as hy law and custom can be done. And I now make pro testation in their name that they will no longer be in your fealty or allegiance, and they will no longer claim to hold anything of you as king, but wib account you as a private person, without any manner of royal King Ed- dignity." After this renunciation, the steward of the ward n. household, Sir Thomas Blount, broke in Edward's as king is no more, presence his wand of office, as was customary at a king's death ; and declared that his own service, and that of all other officers appointed by the late King, had ceased. Edward On the return of the deputation to London, Edward claimed' IH-> then in his fourteenth year, was proclaimed Kmg. Mlls- The proclamation recited that Sir Edward, late King of England, of his own goodwib had, with the common VjQiYQ taken -i • -i /»¦« i -it to proclaim advice and assent of the prelates, earls, barons, and father had other nobles, and of ab the commonalty of the realm, voidunated Pu* himself out of the government of the realm, and taniy. ha(j granted and willed that the government of the realm should devolve on Sir Edward his eldest son and heir, who was to govern the kingdom and be crowned King. This proclamation was issued on Jan. 24th, 1327, but the next day, tbe 25th, is treated in state papers as the day of the accession of Edward III. So ended the reign of Edward II., and his after fate THE KING MUEDEEED IN BEBKELEY CASTLE. 23 was inexpressibly tragical. Isabella and Mortimer chap. wished that he should die, but also that his death L should be so wrought as to cause no public scandal. 1327- He was purposely placed in the charge of harsh and ^jfof116 brutal men, who inflicted on him every privation and Edward indignity that seemed most likely to shorten his life, deposition. or to crush his intellect. But stib the wretched man lived ?e is „ ± doomed to on ; vainly asking for an interview with his wife, and t>e s1°w}y imploring to be abowed to see the faces of his children, done*1™ His enemies' eagerness for his death at last over- cleath' powered their caution. Two ruffians, named Gournay m him. and Ogle, had charge of the King in Berkeley Castle, impatience They murdered him on the night ofthe 21st of Sept., queen and 1327. In order that no external mark of violence forMs"6* might appear on his person, they introduced a tube death' into his body, through which a red hot iron was fui murder thrust up into his bowels. The dreadful shrieks of &%£"** the poor victim awoke some of the inmates of the The Castle, who could judge too web who it was that was ofthe8 perishing ; and they prayed for Edward's departing ^™lsing soul, though they dared not attempt to save him. In the morning . the body was exhibited. There was no outward wound ; but the horrible contortions of the features were enough to disprove the lie told by his tormentors and their employers, that Edward of Carnarvon had died by a natural death. In reading the formal records of Edward II. 's depo- Recogni- sition, it is impossible not to notice the solicitude shown the state in them to make it appear that the commonalty of the of°t]^ents realm took part in all those proceedings. ffs11 of . Attention has been directed, while we were consi- tutionai dering the state of the English constitution in the rfthe ™ reign of Edward I.,* to the very important declaratory Commons- See vol. i. p. 444. 24 CHAP. I. Statute for annual par liaments. The Com mons take part in the appoint ment of the Lords ordainers (i Ed. 2). Redress of grievancesclaimed as conditionof grant of money.The treatise "Modus tenendiParlia-mentum " probably and pub lished in the reign of Edward II. EDWAED II. Act passed in the 15th year of his son, which ordains that " the matters to be estabbshed for the estates of the King and of his heirs, and for the estate of the realm and of the people, should be treated, accorded, and established in Parbament, by tbe King and by the assent of the prelates, earls, barons, and the commonalty of the realm, according as had been before accus tomed." The enactment of the statute 4 Ed. 2, for the frequent holding of parbaments, has been mentioned, when we were speaking of the proceedings of the Lords ordainers, and of the subsequent armed rising of the barons, which were provoked by the King's misgo vernment, and especiaUy by his wilful pampering of the favourite Gaveston. Mr. Hallam has pointed out that we have proof that the Commons took part in the election of the Lords ordainers in the 4th year of Edward II.'s reign.* He also has cited the ex press stipulation of the Commons in tbe second year of this reign, that certain specified grievances should be redressed as a condition of their making a money- grant to the king. There is an ancient treatise in existence respecting the composition, the powers, and the formalities of an English Parbament, of which we have good reason to believe that it was composed and published in Edward II.'s reign. This is the celebrated treatise entitled " Modus tenendi Parbamentum," or (as it was also named in the copy used by Lord Coke) " The Manner of holding Parbaments as practised by Wil liam the Conqueror according to . the Precedent of Edward the Confessor." Lord Coke and many others of his age and of the next believed that this treatise had * See the passage from the Hot. Pari. 128, cited in Hallam's Middle Ages, vol. iii. p. 42. "MODUS TENENDI PAELIAMENTTJM." 25 been composed within a century of the conquest, and chap. that it gave a trustworthy account of the matters ' which it dealt with. Prynne proved the falsity of the claims set forth in its title; and maintained that the book was a forgery of as recent a date as the reign of Henry VI. It unquestionably is a forgery; but it is equaby beyond question that it was in existence a fub century before the date assigned to it by Prynne. Copies have been found of it bearing date of Henry IV., of Eichard IL, and of Edward III.'s reigns, and even earlier. It is indeed certain that the treatise must have been composed during the last years of Ed ward l.'s reign, or at some time in the reign of Edward II. * Though utterly worthless as historical Value of evidence regarding the Constitution in the time ^eviden^e either of Ethelred f or of the Conqueror, it is very of.p»blio i ± > J opinion valuable evidence of what men in the time of and of con- Edward II. thought the best pattern of parliamentary theories in government, and of the importance they attributed to avtime. the representation and the parliamentary power of the Commons. If these topics had been at that period matters of indifference, it is probable that such a treatise would not have been written ; it is certain that such a treatise would not have acquired the attention and authority which the "Modus tenendi Parbamentum " evidently received. The amount and the endurance of the book's influence are proved by the numerous early copies of it that have been traced ; and by the fact that in the sixth year of Henry IV. 's * See SirDuffus Hardy's preface to his edition of the treatise. ¦(¦ The book, in the copy published by Sir Duffus Hardy, professes to be a description, " quomodo Parliamentum Regis Anglise et Anglicorum suorum tenebatur tempore Regis Bdwardi filii Regis Etheldredi ; qui quidem modus recitatus fuit per discretiores regni coram WiUielmo Duce Normannia3 et Conquestore et Rege Anglise, ipso Conquestore hoc prsecipiente, et per ipsum approbatus, et suis temporibus ac etiam temporibus successorum suorum regum Anglise usitatus." 26 EDWAED II. chap, reign an exemplified copy of the treatise under the _-_ Great Seal of Ireland was sent over to that country. The modern editor of the " Modus" justly observes that this " solemn authorisation of the book by royal authority could hardly have happened unless it had then become a well accredited treatise." We may add that such authorisation is evidence also that the credit of the book must then have been of considerable antiquity. Directions We have therefore fair proof that a treatise was of the . treatise for circulated and became influential at least as early as moning^f Edward II.'s time, which among other things set parliament. forfa ^e m0(}e in which Parbaments should be sum moned, and required that besides separate summonses being sent to archbishops, bishops, abbots, and priors, proctora of the proctors of the lower clergy should also be regu- the lower larly summoned to Parliament.* Of sum moning the * In describing the constitution of Parliament under Edward I., I ought to have pointed out the fact that representatives (proctors) of the inferior clergy were summoned to many of the early Parliaments. Mr. Hallam con sidered that, "It is highly probable that Edward I., whose legislative mind was engaged in modelling the Constitution on a comprehensive scheme, designed to render the clergy an effective branch of Parliament, however their continual resistance may have defeated the accomplishment of this intention. We find an entry upon the roU of his Parliament at Carlisle, containing a list of aU the proctors deputed to it by the several dioceses of the kingdom. This may be reckoned a clear proof of their par liamentary attendance during his reign under the prcemunientes clause" [the clause in the writ from the Crown to the bishop enjoining the attend ance of the clergy at the national council of Parliament], " since the pro vince of Canterbury could not have been present in convocation at a city beyond its limits " (vol. iii. p. 132). As Mr. HaUam proceeds to state, together with this clear proof of the parliamentary rights of the clergy, we have to deal with "the unquestionable fact that almost all laws, even while they continued to attend, were passed without their con currence, and that after some time they ceased altogether to comply with the writ." Mr. HaUam thinks that this was mainly caused by the jealousy between the clergy and the common lawyers, and the desire of the clergy to sepa rate themselves from the mass of the people by immunities and privileges. The clergy obeyed the summons to Parliament with reluctance ; and only "MODUS TENENDI PAELI AMENTUM." 27 The treatise declares that the business of Parliament chap. is to be attended to in the fobowing order : — ¦ L First, war, if there be war. The war and other ._, matters affecting the safety ofthe king's person, and the relative personal safety of his family, are first to be considered, and "order9 Next to be considered are the common affairs of the ^the6 realm, such as the enactment of statutes to remedy matters j £ -i ¦• i ¦ ^ ¦ i ¦ • i come delects in the existing laws as to either judicial or before par- executive matters. Then are ranked such causes and judgments as most affect public interests. Lastly, are to be considered the private affairs of individuals, according to the order in which they have filed their petitions. It is laid down that the king is bound by all The king means to be personaby present in Parliament unless attend hindered by bodily infirmity : and even in that case p^™iiy! the king must not lie out of the manor or town where Parliament is holden, but must be ready to receive a committee of two bishops, two earls, two barons, two knights of shires, two citizens, and two burgesses, whom the Parbament is to depute to wait on him and to confer with him. Minute directions are given as to matters of form The trea- and ceremony, and towards the conclusion* there thesupe-* are some remarkable clauses, which not merely ri°rim- ' J portance negative the idea of the Commons being regarded andanti- as inferior to the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in theCom- parbamentary importance, but recognise them as more mons as an estate of parliament. assembled in their Houses of Convocation, in which they long voted the clergy's share of supplies to the Crown. I think it may be inferred that the " Modus tenendi Parliamentum " was written not very many years (if at all) after the period (probably a brief one) for which the appearance of the representatives of the inferior clergy in the Parliament was a reality. * P. 43 of Sir Duffus Hardy's edition. 28 EDWAED II. CHAP. I. Absolutenecessity of the pre sence and co-operation of the Commonsin parlia ment. important than the Lords. The treatise gives as a reason for this the alleged fact that tbe king and his Commons used to hold Parliaments in times, when no such personages as bishops, earls, or barons were yet existence. The king and his Commons may m (according to the treatise) lawfully hold a Parliament without bishops, earls, or barons, so that these dig nitaries have been regularly summoned. But if the Commons, though duly summoned, were to refuse attendance, because the king had been rubng them badly, and were to show particulars of misgovernment, then a Parbament would be a nullity, though ab the archbishops, bishops, earls, barons, and their peers, toge ther with the king, were present, and took part in it. The writer urges particularly the need that every thing done in Parliament, whether by way of afnrming or setting aside, of grant or of refusal, should be done with the consent of the Commons : because, he says, the representatives of the Commons in Parliament repre sent the whole community, whereas among the Peers Spiritual and Temporal each one stands for himself and for himself only.* * " Rex potest tenere Parliamentum cum Communitate regni absque Episcopis, Comitibus, et Baronibus (dum tamen summoniti sint ad Parlia mentum), licet nullus Episcopus, Comes, vel Baro ad summonitiones suas veniat : quia olim nee fuerunt Episcopus, nee Comes, nee Baro, adhuc tunc reges tenebant Parliamenta sua. " Sed aliter est e contra:— licet communitates — clerici etlaici — summonifae essent ad Parliamentum sicut de jure debent et propter aliquas causas venire nollent, ut si pretenderent quod dominus rex non regeret eos sicuti deberet, et assignarent specialiter in quibus eos non rexerit, tunc Parliamentum nullum esset omnino, licet Archiepiscopi, Episcopi, Comites, et Barones et omnes eorum pares cum rege interessent : et ideo oportet quod omnia quae affirmari vel infirmari concedi vel negari vel fieri debent per Par liamentum, per communitatem Parliamenti concedi debent quae est et tribus gradibus sive generibus Parliamenti, scilicet est procuratoribus cleri, militibus comitatuum civibus et burgensibus qui representant totam commu nitatem Angliaj, et non de magnatibus, quia quilibet eorum est pro su& propria persons ad Parliamentum et pro nuUS alia." THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAES. 29 During this reign the English Government was chap. cabed on by the King of France and the Pope _J_ of Eome to take part in the destruction of the Destruc Knights Templars. After the total abandonment of tion of Palestine by the nations of Western Christendom, this 0f Knights once renowned and powerful Order had retained the TemPlara- ample wealth with which it had been endowed in many European countries ; but its members had ceased to co operate or even to assemble for any of the purposes for which their sacerdotal and military brotherhood had originally been founded. That under such circum stances many of the Knights Templars of the fourteenth century led dissolute lives, that not only discipline but decorum was neglected in many of their Preceptories, seems to be established by historical Grossim. proofs, and is consonant with the usual course of i'? 2 36 EDWAED II. chap, determined any matter authoritatively* But it is _L also to be remembered that Ockham exercised as fearlessly, as Bishop Greathead and Adam Marsh had exercised a century and a. half before him, the right of private judgment in determining what Papal decrees were and what were not Apostolical. | Ockham nearly paid with his life for the boldness ofhis opposition to the Papacy. He and two other champions of the Ultra-Franciscans, Michael of Cesena, and Bonagratia, were at one time in a dungeon at Avignon ; but they made their escape, and succeeded in reaching Bavaria, where the Emperor Louis gave them shelter, which they repaid by publications of intrepid vigour, of massive learning, and of bulk which makes them appear unreadable in modern times, in support of the Imperial against the Papal authority. Ockham dwelt at Munich until his death in 1347. * Defensorium, p. 456. f See supra, vol. i. p. 374. CHAPTER II. Brilliancy of Edward III.'s reign— The half century very important also as to commerce, and the political and social state of the people— This period the special age of chivalry — General history of Edward III.'s reign to be dealt with first — Edward's marriage — His position under the Dowager Queen Isabella and Mortimer — Their unpopularity — Edward emancipates himself from them — Mortimer put to death, and IsabeUa imprisoned — Edward's personal advantages — His popularity — Scotch wars — The claim to the French crown — The French peers" decide against it — The imme diate outbreak of hostilities caused by the French king — Edward's alliances on the Continent — General state of Europe at this period — France, the Empire, Flanders, Spain, &c. — Edward's first campaign — His great naval victory off Sluys— His further campaigns in France — Battle of Cressy — Calais besieged and taken — Commercial interests served by this conquest — The Scots invade northern England ; defeated, and King David of Scotland taken prisoner — The Black Plague — The Statute of Labourers — War renewed in the south of France— The Black Prince wins the great battle of Poitiers— Treaty of Bretigni. The transition from the horrors and the ignominies chap. . TT of the times of Edward II. to the brilliant reign of his L son is bke passing from the gloom and miasma of the 1327, deep jungle to the fair fresh scenery of some breezy with which upland region. Probably if the great majority of ofEdwSd English readers of English history could be questioned, IIL stands it would be found that the reign of Edward III. is tweenthe their favourite part of the study. And, though a reigns™?3 reflecting and impartial mind may consider many of ^ ard II- the glories of that reign to be" unsubstantial, and may Richard n. regard its blemishes as of a deeper dye than they bear in the eyes of superficial observers, no one can deny this period to be one which naturaby attracts and fixes 38 EDWAED in. chap, our attention both by reason of the magnitude of the IL events which occurred during its progress, and on 1327- account of the interest awakened in us by the per sonal characters of many of the actors in its principal scenes. The half century comprised in this reign deserves also and demands anxious attention to its consti tutional and commercial history, but, most of ab, to the history of events and laws affecting the condition of the labouring poor of England. It has been truly said in our own times,* that the difficulties of statesmanship as to the necessities, the duties, and the rights of the labouring poor form the one political question, compared with which all others are insignificant. We" begin in Edward Ill's reign the long and afflicting series of class-legislation on this subject. To neglect these matters while dealing with Edward III.'s reign would be culpable foby ; but we should err in the opposite extreme, if in exclusive regard of them we were to pass contemptuously over the wars and exploits of the King and his knights, and were to slight the mibtary glories of England in this age as un substantial pageants, which interested only a frivolous superficies of society. They, in truth, influenced deeply and abidingly all members of the. community. The burgher and artizan of the Engbsh town, the yeoman and peasant of the English village, were as proud as our knights and nobles of Edward's victories, and as zealous for the continuance of the wars in which those victories had been achieved. A self-satisfied proud * By Carlyle, in a passage which my memory does not now enable me to trace : " I recall The sense of what he said, although I mar The force of his expression." GENEEAL CHAEACTEEISTIOS OE THIS EEIGN. 39 patriotism (not always just in its degree or amiable in chap. its exercise) then became, and has continued to be, a . 1 characteristic of Englishmen, high and low, rich and 1327- poor : and the English nation then assumed a rank among nations, from which it has never since wholly departed. Edward III.'s age was pre-eminently the age of His age chivalry. Unless this is remembered and understood, age of many of its most characteristic incidents are likely to be c 1T entirely misapprehended. If, for example, we read of a ^ee^nof general abowing part of his army to be almost crushed this in in an unequal contest with the whole of the enemy's force, whbe he remained inactive at a little distance with the other division of his troops, we may be dis posed to regard him as either a coward or a fool. If we also learn that the officer in command of the exposed part of the army was the general's own son, we are bkely to think that such a chief was as heart less as he was incompetent. Yet such a scene occurred CMvaMc in Edward's most glorious campaign ; and it is certain 0f Edward's that King Edward III. was as brave a man, and as Xcressy. fond a father, as ever lived. He was moreover one of the sagest captains in a warlike age. But he was also if chivalry full of the spirit of chivalry : and chivalry taught that he would™' to give a young prince the opportunity of signalising f^ a f°o1 his valour against almost desperate odds, and the coward. chance of winning at any risk the whole glory of a great victory in his first stricken field, was the greatest boon that a sire and a sovereign could bestow. Pro- E?7fd'.s, „ ° . sell-denial bably the strongest act of self-denial that Edward III. m giving ever succeeded in performing was when he refrained "onaiithe from riding down into the raptures and honours of the '2™M hand-to-hand fight at Cressy, and when he ordered ?nd ^ its honours that his heroic son should have neither assistant nor rival in his struggle for life and fame. 40 EDWAED HI. chap. Much might easily be composed or quoted here iL respecting chivalry and its usages ; but I believe that 1327- no formal essay on the subject can bring before the swarfs mind so true or so vivid an image of the bright theTe^t6 features of the chivalry of the fourteenth century, as is mirror of acquired by reading the narrative of Edward III.'s "1T ^ Wars in the old contemporaneous chronicle of Sir John His imag- Froissart.* He seems to bring before our very eyes the Itf brighter venturous true knights, and their graceful and gracious features, lady-loves. In reading Froissart we almost fancy that we see the champions careering in the tournament, or charging on the battle field. He makes us hear the pompous proclamations of the gorgeous heralds, the blithe chabenging war-cries of the combatants, their invocations of saints and damsels, the splintering of the lances, the clang of sword on helmet, the deadly whir of the bolt from the arbalast, and the thick- falling shower from the English bows. He makes us assist at spectacles of ceremonious but gene rous courtesy of the victors towards the vanquished ; and at solemn scenes of devotion, — of a devotional feeling thoroughly sincere, though often strangely co-existent with acknowledged and continuing sinful- its evil nesS- There is little fear that any reader of the character- . J istics. present time should be misled by Froissart's glowing admiration of his brave knights and ladies fair into overlooking the serious evds, which the prevalence of the chivalrous spirit in that age increased, if it did not originate. Excessive pride of birth, with insolence and injustice towards ab not of noble or knightly race ; an inordinate passion for warfare, and an irrational contempt for peaceful usages and peaceful industry ; great, though not gross, licentiousness ; and * Some remarks on the sources whence Froissart learned his facts, and on his versions of his Chronicle, wiU be found in a subsequent note. OHIVALET AND KNIGHTHOOD. 41 the making man's principal motive for action consist chap. in a love of glory rather than in a sense of duty 1 - — these and other unfavourable characteristics of the 1327, knightly personages of those times are sufficiently prominent in history to prevent any judicious reader from regretting that the age of chivalry is past.* * Knights, knighthood, knights' service, knights' fees, and similar phrases occur so frequently and over so long a period of English history, and they moreover occur often under such very unromantic aspects, that it may be well to point out the two distinct elements of Knighthood. One was the chivalrous spirit (using the word " chivalrous " in the sense which it has retained in our language), through which the initiation in arms of a young Germanic warrior was a hallowed solemnity, and which led him to seek adventures and renown by attaching himself to some one of the most daring and celebrated war-chiefs of his day. It has been pointed out in the preceding volume (p. 196-8) how the condition of Europe generally during the tenth and eleventh centuries caused the castle of each noble to become a school, where youths of gentle birth learned the management of arms and horses, and where they also grew up under the graceful and dig nifying influences of female society. We have seen, too, how the long and varied struggle between the armed powers of Mahometanism and Chris tianity gave more and more a religious (or a supposed religious) character to the inauguration, the vows, and the obligations of the young European champion. A knight, thus Considered, was a knight not by reason of his belonging to any particular nation, or by reason of his possessing any amount of property. His good steed and his good sword might be, and often were, a knight's only wealth. As he might have received his own knighthood from any knight, so he might confer knighthood on others. This was the ' general rule ; though in England our kings gradually established the important exception that their subjects must be knighted by their own sovereign only. But, generally speaking, knighthood was an institution common to all Christendom, and which embraced aU Christian warriors, when admitted to its rites, in one great military, semi-sacerdotal associa tion ; the special objects of which were to combat infidels, to help the weak and oppressed, to practise liberal generosity towards other knights and towards heralds, poets, and pilgrims ; and above all, to love the ladies, each knight striving to exalt his own particular lady-love's glory. The other source that influenced the characteristics of knighthood and everything connected with it in our country, was the ¦ system pursued by our kings, after the Conquest, of not only making chivalry " a cheap de fence " of the nation, but of making it also the means for recruiting the royal finances. The first step towards this was the requiring the king's military tenants to take the order of knighthood before, or when, they made their appearance to perform their appointed service in the field. This pro bably was at first the result of custom rather than of policy. The greater part of those who served the Conqueror and his near successors in what was deemed by far the most honourable part of the army, the cavalry, were actual 42 EDWAED ni. CHAP. II. 1327. First part of Edward III.'s reign, Isabellaand Morti mer the real rulers. During the earlier years of Edward III.'s reign his mother, Queen Isabella, and Earl Mortimer exercised all real power. The young King was allowed to take part in a campaign against the Scots (1327), in which the Engbsh arms obtained little honour or advantage, but in which Edward received useful lessons of generalship from Randolph and Douglas, the veteran commanders of his opponents. knights ; and it was natural for the young military landowner before, or as soon as he joined them, to receive the knightly rank, which placed him on an equality of social dignity with his brethren in arms. If any one held back from being knighted under such circumstances, it would imply a con sciousness of deficiency in horsemanship, in use of arms, or in personal courage. Hence the requisition, that a military tenant should assume knighthood, would at first be (or at least would at first seem to be) no more than a requisition that he should prove and complete his qualifications for holding the king's lands by the most honourable of aU tenures. As, how ever, the payment of a money commutation in lieu of actual service in the field became common, the number of candidates for knighthood from among the military tenants would naturaUy decrease. But our kings insisted that their military tenants should continue to receive knighthood, as one of the necessary incidents of military tenure. They who omitted to do so were liable to be distrained on by the king, their feudal lord. If the tenant preferred to pay a sum of money rather than take a burdensome and costly journey to the King's Court, and there undergo a, still more costly ceremony, the king's ministers were naturaUy willing to take the indisputably useful coin, rather than add a recruit of very doubtful value to the ranks of knighthood. In the first year of Edward IL's reign an attempt was made to put an end to the disputes and dissatisfaction created by this system, and to define the amount of landed property which should make its tenant liable either to become a knight, or to pay a fine for exemption. The Statutum de Militibus directed that no one should be distrained on to become a knight who had not land to the yearly value of forty pounds in fee, or for term of his life. Some classes of landowners were expreBsly aUowed to compound. Men who had enjoyed their estates for a very short time ; men who were afflicted with old age, or defect in limbs, or incurable disease, or with the burden of many children or lawsuits'; men also who set up the excuse of being bound by vows ; were to appear before the king's two commissioners, Robert de Tiptot and Antony de Beke, and pay such fine as the commissioners in their discretion should adjudge. The said Robert and the said Antony were at the same time enjoined to accept reasonable compositions. The probable result of this and other similar proceedings on the part of the Crown was that many tenants in chivalry compounded rather than be made knights, but that many others took knighthood who otherwise would have abstained from it. There is in the lately published fourth volume of Sir Francis Palgrave'ft ISABELLA AND MOETIMEE. 43 In 1328 Isabeba and Mortimer concluded in Edward's chap. name the treaty of Northampton, by which the inde- '_ pendence of Scotland was fully acknowledged. This lm abandonment of the claim to superiority wounded Edward's r J essay m the national pride of the English people ; and added arms History of England, an admirable ideal sketch of the biography of a tlle Scots' knight of this description. No modern city knight could be a more un- poetical, unwarlike, dull, matter-of-fact personage. Indeed it is self- evident that the idea of a knight by compulsion, who has haggled with the king's officers to the last moment in the hope of getting them to accept a fine less burdensome to the involuntary novice than the much-disliked ceremony, is utterly alien from the beau ideal of the chivalrous champion, who figures as the favourite hero in the pages of romance-writers new and old ; and who was also, I firmly believe, no fabulous or even uncommon cha racter in real mediaeval life. No country produced more brilliant specimens than England did of romantic chivalry, especially during the fourteenth century. But the others, the prosaic kind of knights, knights who became knights as a mere matter of business, were also very numerous. Another speoies of prosaic knights of great antiquity was composed of officials who received knighthood, not on account of any military tenure, or in connection with any belligerent duty, but because they had been pro moted to some important, though often perfectly pacific post in the govern ment of the country. The judges of the Superior Courts supply familiar instances of this kind of knights. The probable origin of these seeming Milites a non militando was this : the Conqueror and his sons who succeeded him, and also Henry II., required many administrative duties to be performed by the lay residents in each shire, — by men whom the Norman sovereign could most safely trust, and who by birth, wealth, prowess, and ability, had most influence in their respective localities. In the age of the Conquest, and for some time afterwards, men of this description were almost sure to be men who were actuaUy knights. So that a regulation for certain political, administrative, or judicial duties being performed by knights was at first, in effect, a regulation that they should be discharged by the best qualified persons, having regard to the interests of the sovereign, as weU as to those of the community. In this wise, the idea of such offices and of their holders became connected with the idea of the status of knight. And, when men of other conditions were gradually more and more employed in carrying on the functions of government, these novi homines received knighthood as a kind of honorary degree to raise them in popular esteem up towards the level of their patrician coUeagues and predecessors. What has been written in the earlier part of this note, about the knights of aU Christendom forming one great association, is by no means inconsis tent with the weU-known facts of there being various degrees of knight hood, and many special orders of knights ; sometimes special with regard to the object to which they were mainly devoted, sometimes special with regard to the country in which they were formed, and the peculiar cognizance which they assumed. One illustrious order of the latter kind will soon come under notice as we proceed with Edward III.'s reign. 44 CHAP. II. 1328. The treaty of North ampton. Its unpopu larity with the English.Tyranny of Mortimer. Edwardplans his own libera tion. The Queen Dowagerand Mor timer are surprised and cap tured at Notting ham. EDWAED III. to the general hatred with which the Queen Mother and Mortimer were regarded. They maintained their power for a time, and succeeded in breaking up a league formed by some of the chief English nobles against them. The Earl of Kent, the King's uncle, who had taken the lead in this scheme, was put to death by them on a fabricated charge of treason; but young Edward himself was now rapidly advancing in spirit as well as in years, and the death of the Earl of Kent was speedily fobowed by the destruction of Mortimer. Tbe King felt increasing indignation at the state of pupillage in which he was kept by the Queen Mother and her favourite; and his filial affection towards her was counteracted by his knowledge of the disgraceful connection between her and the Earl. He had learned also to regard them both as his father's murderers. They were too powerful and too vigilant to be attacked by open force ; but the young King secretly encouraged the Lords Montague, Clifford, Nevihe, and other lords, of whose loyalty towards himself he was assured, in a daring enterprise, by which England was freed from her iEgistheus and Clytemnestra. A parbament had been summoned at Nottingham, and Isabella and Mortimer occupied the castle of that place with a strong military force. Lord Montague had discovered a subterranean passage into the fortress, which was left unguarded, and through this entrance he and a band of determined followers made their way into the stronghold. Edward joined them on the staircase of the principal tower, and they forthwith made their way to the Queen's and Mortimer's apart ments. Two knights who endeavoured to guard the chamber were slain. One of the attacking party was struck down by Mortimer ; but he was speedily HIS MAEEIAGE WITH PHILIPPA. 45 secured, though Isabella implored the King in his chap. behalf, crying, " Sweet son, fair son, Oh, spare my 1 gentle Mortimer." 133a On the morrow Edward issued a proclamation, Edward informing his loyal people that he had taken the summ?ns o j j: jr a parlia- government into his own hands, and summoning a ment new Parliament to meet at Westminster. The Lords minster. at this Parliament convicted Mortimer of treason, and -, ,ni,i- ¦¦ • t j. £ Execution he was executed by the ignominious punishment 01 0fMorti- hanging. At the King's request, they also passed ^re^nd judgment on four commoners, as accomplices of Mortimer, but with a protest that peers in future should not be bound to give judgment on any but peers. The Queen Dowager was kept through the Fa;teof remainder of her life in honourable but careful custody Isabella. at her manor at Castle Rising. Edward received a sensible and humane letter from Pope John XXII., exhorting him not to put his mother to shame, but to conceal her guilt as far as he could do by honest means. The pontiff also gave the young King season- ^e papai able and enlightened warning to avoid the errors of ^ard° his father, and not to give himself up to the influence of favourites, but to govern in accordance with the advice of the general assembly of the prelates, great lords, and other nobles, and of the commons of his realm.* At this period, which we may consider the real Edward's commencement of his reign, Edward III. was eighteen mamage- years of age. Young as he was, he was already a husband and a father. He had been married in 1328 to Phibppa, the daughter of the Count of Hainault and Hoband, a princess who, for beauty, sense, and spirit, was well worthy to become the wife of the .greatest sovereign of the age. Their eldest chbd, * The letters are quoted in Lingard, vol. iv. p. 19, n. 46 CHAP. II. 1330. Birth of the Black Prince. Popularity of Edward HI. His per sonal ad vantages. EDWAED III. Edward, who became the renowned Black Prince, was born at Woodstock, near Oxford, on the 15th of June, 1330, a short time before the young King broke the sway of Isabella and Mortimer. Every circumstance tended to make Edward III. one of the most popular kings that ever came to the English throne. The domination of Mortimer and the Queen Mother had been odious to the nation ; and Edward had freed the country and himself from it with spirit and courage, which inspired general hope that after the long calamities and disgraces of the reign of Edward II. , a period as glorious as the best days of Edward I. was opening for England. The young King had the personal advantages of beauty and symmetry and of a naturally athletic frame. He had been carefuby trained in ab martial accomplishments and exercises ; and his passion for chivalric displays and feats of prowess had been heightened by the ostentatious encouragement which Mortimer, in the time of his ascendancy, had given to tournaments and to pageants, and to imitations of the supposed scenes and champions of romantic legends.* Edward's intel lectual abilities were not inferior to his bodily; and the greatest care had been bestowed on his mental as web as his physical education. His demeanour was dignified; and he had also those graces of aifability and of agreeable conversation, which are so very in fluential when displayed by a sovereign towards the subjects whom he appears to delight to honour. It would unquestionably have been the highest wisdom and truest patriotism in Edward III. to keep his realm in peace, avoiding the infliction of misery on others by aggressive warfare, and only so far encouraging the * Mortimer kept a round table of knights in the fashion of what was believed to have been -the round table of King Arthur, EENEWAL OF WAE WITH SCOTLAND. 47 martial spirit of his people, as to be ever in fub prepa- chap. ration for self defence. But to expect this from such 1 a King in such a high position would have been to 1332- expect in him a superiority to his age, and, indeed, a superiority to the peoples as web as the kings of ab ages. The indignant shame felt generaby by the Engbsh Animosity for their humibation by the Scots during the late reign Ush nation made a renewal of northern warfare the most popular g^ s pobcy Edward could adopt, even if he had not been personaby eager to avenge Bannockburn, and to efface the recobection of the unsuccessful campaign of his own boyhood in Scotland. Pretexts for quarrel between the two countries were always ready. In Disputes as this instance they were suppbed by an article in the fa^n°°" treaty of Northampton, by which the Scottish King ofthe bound himself to restore to certain Engbsh barons North-0 estates in Scotland, which had belonged to them, but ampton- which had been seized by Bruce during the war of bberation. The lands so belonging to two noblemen, Expedition Henry de Beaumont and the Lord Wake, were stib Gotland retained by the Scottish rulers ; and these two barons, Planned «/ ' by young in concert with Edward Baliol, son of the Babol who Balio1 ™a had been competitor against Robert Bruce, planned an expedition against Scotland, with the view of dethron ing David IL, King Robert's infant heir, and setting up Babol in his stead. Kmg Edward of England took no open part in this measure ; but subsequent events showed clearly that it was prepared with his knowledge and sanction. Embarking with a smab Baliol band of fobowers at Ravenspur, near the mouth of the ^defeats Humber, the adventurers landed at Kinghorn in Scot- the Scottish . . . army. land ; surprised the Scottish army at Dupplin ; and within seven weeks after the commencement of his desperate crowned expedition, Edward Baliol was crowned King of $^$^0. 48 EDWAED in. chap. Scotland at Scone ; and his royalty was seemingly IL recognised by the greater part of the Scottish nobles 1333. an(j prelates. He ac. Baliol followed his father's example in acknowledging knowledges the King of England as feudal Lord Paramount of Edward & ° nl. n p i , i iii. as Scotland ; and he bound himself by treaty to place morunfofa" the important border town and fortress of Berwick in Scotland, ^g p0wer 0f the Engbsh Sovereign, and to serve him in all his wars with two hundred men at arms. It was intended to procure the recognition of the treaty Prised ky the Scottish Parbament ; but before a Parliament anddefea- could be summoned, the young Earl of Moray (who the adhe- was one of the chief Scottish nobles that adhered to Bruce,0 and "tLe cause of King David Bruce) had overthrown backto" Edward Babol by an attack as sudden and successful England, as that of Duppbn Moor ; and Babol within three months after his coronation was again a refugee at the War be- English Court. Open war between Scotland and Scotland England soon followed ; and in 1333 King Edward, ?and. ng with a powerful English army, laid siege to Berwick. Siege of The Scottish army under the Regent Archibald Berwick. Douglas advanced to relieve the town ; and Edward Great ^- *°°k UP a position with great judgment on Habdon victory of Hill, to the west of Berwick, to intercept them. As in. at the Scotch struggled forward to the attack through the Hm! °u marshy ground that lay at the foot of the hib, the English archers, with steady and deliberate aim, sent the English death and disorder among their ranks. In the words archers. 0f one 0f the old writers, " the arrows flew as thick as motes in the sunbeams." The Scottish spearmen, led and encouraged by their chief nobles, stbl pressed gabantly forward, and those who passed the marsh formed their column again at the foot of the hbl, and charged upwards against the English. But the Engbsh men-at-arms, who were perfectly fresh, and in good BATTLE OE HALIDON HILL. 49 order, besides having the advantage of the ground, chap. encountered them hand to hand, and the Scots after a IL brave but brief struggle were driven back into the 1333- morass with heavy slaughter. Great numbers of the Great Scottish nobles, and at least fourteen thousand of their slighter .of the Scots common soldiery fell in this great battle ; in which in this Edward III. may have thought that he retrieved his father's defeat at Bannockburn. Berwick immediately surrendered to the English ; Surrender ¦n n i t • 1 ¦ t • of Berwick. and nearly ab bcotland again submitted to receive Baliol as its king. But the surviving patriotic chiefs Baiioi retained several strongholds, and the hearts of the up as sub- people were with them. When Edward and Baliol s0™!and. led their armies through the land, there was . no force to encounter them in the open field ; but whenever the theScotti°h Engbsh troops retired, the Scottish chiefs renewed their "ation t0 o r ' _ the cause harassing and daring warfare. Still, it seems probable of inde- that the superior power of the English must have pen '' ultimately prevabed ; and that a temporary conquest of Scotland Scotland, which might have been maintained during Edrarfs Edward III.'s lifetime at least, would have been l^£h effected ; if war with the King of France had not caused him to transfer his main forces from Scotland to other scenes of action. We have now arrived at the commencement of that Commence- long series of the wars of the French succession, which " Hundred spread so much and such continued misery over the ^rf. ^^ country of one of the bebigerents, and created in France. both nations a pernicious spirit of mutual suspicion and animosity, which has so often during five centuries blazed out into destructive hostility. The men of the present generation, who have reached mature age, must remember' but too well to have witnessed more than once the menacing vitality of its smouldering embers. May the coming experience of the youngest among us VOL. II. ' E 50 EDWAED III. CHAP. II. 1334. Does the guilt of the origina tion of this war rest upon England ? realise our hope that an unholy and irrational spirit of feud between two great nations has at last died away. The contest which commenced in 1338, which was renewed by Henry V. in 1415, and which lasted until the English began to slaughter each other in the civil war of the Roses, is called by the French historians " The Hundred Years^War." The term is substantially though not bteraby accurate. For the peace of Bretigni was little more than a hollow and ib-kept truce ; and, save a few brief periods of this . character, the war raged from the date of Edward III.'s first invasion of Picardy, until the expulsion of the English irom Guienne in 1453. It is usual to assign the personal ambition of Edward III. as the origin of this war. He has been generally censured by modern writers for having wantonly attacked France in selfish prosecution of a flagrantly iniquitous claim to the crown of that country. But his latest and best biographer has strongly maintained that the war in its inception was defensive on the part of Edward.""" The mere fact of the English having invaded France by no means settles the question of aggression. The true aggressor in warfare is not the party who first employs force, but the party who first makes the employment of force necessary in order to check or avert grievous and substantial injury. It is requisite to examine care fully all the known facts of this case ; and to scrutinise the trustworthiness of the evidence by which the main facts are supported, so that we may ascertain whether the heavy guilt of having wilfully and wickedly originated this deplorable warfare rests upon the English King, and on the English nation, * See Mr. Longman's Life and Times of Edward III. OEIGIN OF THE WAE WITH EEANOE. • 51 which zealously supported their sovereign in the chap. contest. IL The last French sovereign that required our atten- 1328- tion, while we traced the history of England down to Philippe ie Edward III.'s accession^ was* Philippe le Bel, the un- Bel- scrupulous and able adversary of our first Edward Plantagenet. Philippe le Bel left three sons, Louis, Philippe, and Charles, who reigned after him succes sively as Louis X., Philippe V., and Charles IV. He had also a daughter, Isabella, wife of our Edward II. and mother of our Edward III. All the three last- mentioned French Kings, Louis X., Philippe V., and Charles IV., died without male issue, but they all had daughters. According to the Salic law, as undis- Operation putedly recognised in France, none but males could iaw. inherit the crown. Accordingly, on the death of Charles IV. without male issue, in 1328, recourse was had to the lineage of Philippe III. le Hardi, the King_of_ Franca_w:ho ..was father _to_ Phibppe le J3el. Phbippe le Hardi left besides Philippe le Bel a second Eights of son, Charles deValois ; and Philippe de Valois, the JJ v^0^8 sonbTThis Charles de Valois, was living at the time of the death (1328) of King Charles IV., the last of the sons of King Phbippe le Bel. Charles IV.'s queen was with child at the time of Charles's death. The right of succession was therefore for a short time in abeyance until the royal chbd should be born. If a male it would of course have been the unquestioned heir to the French throne. It was necessary to appoint a Regent until the birth Appoint- of King Charles IV.'s posthumous chbd; and as the a regent. Regency in such a case was due by custom, if not by positive law, to the prince of the blood royal who stood next in right of succession, the question of who Question of was to be Regent involved the question of who was to Accession. E 2 52 EDWAED III. chap, be King in the event of the birth of a princess* At 11 this time England was ruled in young Edward III.'s 1328- name by his mother, Queen Isabella, and Mortimer. Queen Queen Isabella appears to have demanded a recogni- isabeiia tion of her son, as tbe true heir to the French crown, right/of e unless the widowed queen of Charles IV. should give rnWMd birth to a son. In support of this claim it was alleged |j Arguments that, although by the admitted operation of the Salic S theP°rt law none but males could reign in France, there was Edward, nothing to prevent a male from claiming the throne, if he was the nearest of kin according to the ordinary rules of descent. In other words, it was alleged that, though a female could not herself inherit the crown, she could transmit rights of inheritance ; and thus, although the French throne could not be occupied by Edward's mother, Isabella, who was daughter of King Philippe le Bel, who was the eldest son of King Philippe le Hardi, it was asserted that her son Edward had a right to reign in France as being grandson of King Philippe le Bel, and great-grandson of King Philippe for^dward le Hardi. j* One French chronicler states that many favoured doctors of the canon law and many doctors of the by many ^ , . . jurists. civil law maintained this opinion.^ * According to some of the Chroniclers, King Charles had desired that, until the birth of the child, Philippe de Valois should be Regent. But this expression of Charles's wish (even if reaUy made) would hardly have determined the Regency. + A diagram best explains the rival claims of Edward III. and Philippe de Valois ; and also points out, at the first glance, the fatal objection to Edward's claim, urged by the French lawyers, that even, according to his own argu ment, if a female could transmit the royal rights which she could not J This is stated on the authority of the first continuer of the chronicle of Nangis, (p. 83) who lived so near to the time of these transactions, that he is likely to have been well informed on a matter of great general interest, and which appears to have been the subject of general discussion among men of learning. These opinions of the Publicists and Canonists seem to have preceded the formal decision of the University of Paris in favour of Philip of Valois, which the chronicler mentions separately. DIFFICULTIES IN THE FEENOH SUCCESSION. 53 The other claimant of the Regency, Philippe de chap. Valois, was the grandson of Charles de Valois, who 1 was a younger son of King Philippe le Hardi, the 1328- common ancestor. But Phibppe de Valois denied the claim of limitation, which Isabella wished to place on the effect y^pede of the Salic law. He maintained that the right of succession to the crown was to be traced through °0b^*lon males only; that (in the feudal phraseology of the card's age) the right of royal heritage devolved always on the Spear-side, and never on the Spindle-side. Moreover, the jurists, who argued against the English claim, pointed out that, even according to the theory maintained in Edward's favour, Edward was not the true heir. They said : " There is young Philippe, the son of the Duke of Burgundy. Is not he born of Jeanne of France, the daughter of King Phbippe le Long % and the Countess Jeanne of Evreux, is she not the daughter of King Louis le Hutin % "* hold, the sons of the Duchess of Burgundy and of the Countess of Evreux stood between Edward and the French throne. KING PHILIPPE III. LE HAEDI, died 1285. King Philippe IV. le Bel, d. 1314. I Charles de Valois King Louis X. King Philippe V. King Charles IV. IsabeUa le Hutin, le Long, le Bel, d. 1316. d. 1322. d. 1328. Edward of England, Competitor. Jeanne, Countess Jeanne, Duchess of Evreux, and of Burgundy. afterwards I Queen of Na- | varre. A son," Le Pe tit Philippe." Philippe de Valois, Competitor. * Martin. Histoire de France, iv. 563. the de cision. 54 EDWAED III. chap. The French Peers consulted the University of Paris, IL which gave an opinion in favour of Phibppe de Valois. 1328. -phg ;prench Peers came to the same decision, and fDavoul°ofin Philippe de Valois was made Regent. Philippe jt seems impossible to doubt the justice of this de Valois. *" r " , Justice of decision. But the fact that many doctors oi civil and canon law (even among the French) thought the claim on behalf of Edward well-founded, is not But the to be lost sight of, when we consider the question Edward1 whether Edward and the English nation in after not fla- years maintained by arms a claim which they knew, wrong. or might have known on due consideration, to be grossly unfounded and unfair ; or whether the asserted right was such, that they who maintained it might have honestly bebeved in its reality, under the influence to which human judgment is always bable, the influence of supposed self-interest. The old chronicler does not say what answer, if any, the partisans of Edward made to the objection arising from the existence of a male heir of King Phbippe le Long. Possibly it may have been thought that such rights were waived when Charles IV was abowed to ascend the throne without objection or protest- Possibly it may have been considered that a person who, though interested, kept out of the field in the controversy, was also out of the question. March, In March, 1328, when the time for the birth of the the English posthumous chdd of Charles IV was approaching, the mentan- English Government (that is to say, Isabeba and thdrTn- Mortimer), by public letters addressed to nobles and to tention to towns in the south of France, announced their intention French of renewing the claim on behalf of Kins: Edward.* crown. * HaUam (Middle Ages, vol. i. p. 48) has drawn attention to the docu ments in Rymer that prove this. HIS CLAIMS TO THE FEENCH CEOWN. 55 On the 1st of April the royal widow of Charles IV. chap. was delivered of a daughter. IL The subject of Edward's claim was brought before 1328. the English Parliament, which was convened at tm,^ Northampton about that time, and it was determined *f8c^™ to send an embassy to France to repeat the claim, and ry gives3 to prevent, if possible, the coronation of Philippe de daughter* Valois. This is stated in a public letter written by The re- Archbishop Stratford in 1340 to King Edward, of Eawtd's which there is no reason to doubt the truthfulness * Sjby A State record (authentic beyond all possible doubt) "^English j. l v i ii i> i -.-rC parbament. establishes the fact that the Bishops of Worcester and An em- Lichfield were on the 16th of May at Northampton ^demand appointed Edward's proctors to take possession of the the Frencl1 kingdom of France in his name. According to the NoTmand narrative in Stratford's subsequent letter, they began actually their journey to that country, and, according to the ° statements made by King Edward himself in a letter sent by him to the Pope ten years afterwards, they entered France, and would have maintained their master's rights before the Peers of France, if they had not been stopped and driven back by threats of violence. A judgment of the French peers in Philippe's favour ensued, f * The letter is in Wilkins's Concilia, vol. i. p. 664. It is cited and com mented on by Mr. Hallam, Middle Ages, vol. i. p. 67, note. f This letter of King Edward is cited in Avesbury, page 27. Avesbury is a very good authority. He was Registrar of the Archbishop of Canter bury's Court for some years prior to 1353. He had access to, and he made considerable use of, contemporaneous documents ; and one of his informants was a churchman who attended the King abroad. The passage of Edward's letter referred to in the text is as foUows : — " Nostri Procuratores, qui in Francia inerant, ut pro nobis et nostro jure legitimo comparerent, non solum non fuerunt in judicio admissi, sed mortis horribilis comminacione repulsi. Et sic nostrum emulum memora tum factum xiicim parium non excusat ; qui quo ad nos (quibus setatis teneUa minoritas turn favebat) relictis partibus judicum ad hoc functi sunt latronum." The letter is also in Walsingham i. 204 (Rolls edition). Jehan le Bel says that Edward, when he first took counsel about making 56 EDWAED III. chap. There is authority, besides Edward's statement, for — bebeving that a solemn assembly of the twelve peers and other barons of France was convened, after the Queen had given birth to a female chbd, and that in that assembly it was determined, with one accord, to give the throne to Philippe, and not to Edward.* war on Philippe, professed his desire to obtain redress for the wrong done him when the French Peers adjudged the French crown to Philippe without caUing the opposite party into court—" L'avoient les douze pers de France donne' a Messire Philippe de Valoys d'accord et ainsy par jugement sans appeQer partie adverse."— Vol. i. p. 120. * This is expressly asserted by Jehan le Bel. (Les Vrayes Chroniques de Messire "Jehan le Bel," publie'es par M. L. Polain, Bruxelles, 1863, vol. i. p. 8.) This recently-discovered chronicle makes a great acquisition to our sources of information respecting the reign of Edward III. as far as the treaty of Bretigni. Froissart (who was not born before 1337) avowedly based (in the original version of his Chronicle) the earlier portions of his Chronicle on the Chronicle of Jehan le Bel, whom he attests to have written with " grant cure et toute bonne diligence." The original Chronicle of Jehan had often been sought for in modern times unsuccessfully, but M. Polain discovered and published a portion of it in 1850, and afterwards he succeeded in finding a copy of the entire work, which was published in 1863. Jehan le Bel was born at Liege between 1280 and 1290. He was of noble family. He served in the auxiliary force under John of Hainault, Lord of Beaumont, in Edward III.'s early campaigns against the Scots. He afterwards became a canon of the Churoh of St. Lambert in Liege. John of Hemincourt (a contemporaneous writer who knew him weU) describes him as living in great state and prosperity at Liege till his death at the age of upwards of 80. He praises him for many qualities and habits ; and the following are important with reference to his value as a historian. Jehan le Bel had natural good sense. He wrote " chansons et virelais," and his esquires of honour were instructed whenever any stranger of rank came to Liege, " whether Prelate, Knight, or Squire," to invite him as a guest to the chivalrous canon's table. See extract from Jacques de Hemincourt quoted in M. Polain's preface. M. Polain also cites another writer of that age, Jean d'Outremeuse, a native of Liege, who speaks of and quotes the Chronicle of Jehan le Bel. He says that this work was written by Jehan le Bel at the express desire of John Lord of Beaumont (the John of Hainault already mentioned), and that the narrative of Jehan le Bel was corrected by John of Beaumont, and by the Castellan of Warenne, who had been present at the events narrated in it. Jehan le Bel writes as an eye-witness of the early campaigns of Ed ward III. against the Scots, in which he served under John of Hainault oh the English side. It does not appear that he took part in any of the scenes in the French war. He probably became a canon at Liege soon after his return from PHILIPPE DE VALOIS. 57 The coronation of Phbippe de Valois took place at chap. Rheims on the 29th May, 1328. '• JL King Philippe VI. was entangled in war with 1329- the Flemings, and did not immediately cab on vaio^pe Edward to do homage to him for his French fief, ^^Ma the duchy of Guienne, the county of Ponthieu, 1328. and their appurtenances. But after he had over- WitVthe thrown the Flemings at the battle of Cassel, in FIemin8s- August, 1328, Phbippe as King of France summoned homage Edward to appear as his feudatory. No notice was ward for taken of the first summons. A second was sent in the &menne- following February. The English Government, after laying the matter before Parliament, determined that this should be complied with.* There was much Discussions discussion and wrangling as to the form, and as to the form of6 phraseology of the homage that should be rendered ; homase- as to what territory it should extend to ; and whether it should be plain homage, or the fuller form cabed liege homage, f in which the feudatory took an oath of fidelity to the lord. According to a state document ^£J^ 0fn England in 1328. But there is good reason to believe that his narrative of that war is based on the evidence of trustworthy eye-witnesses. His patron and principal informant, Sir John of Hainault, Lord of Beaumont, was a nobleman of high rank, nearly related to Queen Philippa, King Edward's wife. John of Hainault took an active part in the war, at first on King Edward's side, but afterwards on the side of King Philippe, whom he accompained in the campaign of Cressy, and in the march to relieve _ Calais. In Jehan le Bel's account of the battle of Cressy he expressly cites as his authority John of Hainault, and adds that he had made inquiries of other knights on the French side, and of knights also who had served on the English side. He pledges himself at the end of the prologue to his Chronicle as follows : — " Je veuil mectre paine et entente quant je pourray avoir loisir d'escrire par prose ce que je ay veu et ouy recorder par ceulx qui ont este 14 oil je n'ay pas este, au plus prez de la verite que je pourray, selonc la memoire que Dieu m'a preste, et au plus brief que je pourray, sans nulluy placquirer." * See in Rymer, vol. ii. part iii. p. 23, the letter dated at Walyngford, April 14, 1329, sent with excuses for the previous delay in paying homage. f See the distinctions explained in Ducange at the words " Hominium " aud " Liege Homage." 58 CHAP. II. 1329. Edward that the doing homage was not to pre judice bis right to the French crown.Edward does ho mage unaccom panied by any such protest. EDWAED III. laid by Edward III. before the Pope in 1340, the English King (which means those who stib governed in his name in 1329) sent a public protest to the French Court, solemnly declaring that King Edward did not intend by any homage, that he might render for Aquitaine and Ponthieu to the Lord Philippe de Valois, then assuming the character of King of France, to renounce his (Edward's) hereditary right to the French crown. Edward protested that he was about to do homage for his French possessions, only because he was in jeopardy of being otherwise unjustly- deprived of them.* But whatever may have been said or written during the preliminary discussion, the fact is indisputable that Edward did, on the 6th of June, 1329, at the French Court at Amiens, pubbcly do homage for Guienne and its appurtenances and for Ponthieu to Philippe de Valois as King of France. The * This pleading ("libeUus") on Edward's side in justification of his conduct in maintaining the war for the French Crown, is published in the continuation by Raynaldus of the Annales Ecclesiastici of Baronius (vol. xxv., — the passage referred to in the text is at p. 204) ; it was Edward's answer to a letter sent to him by Pope Benedict XII. in 1340, wherein the Pope exhorted him to make peace with King Philip, and reasoned with him on the groundlessness of his claims. Edward thus deals with the objection arising from his having in 1329 recognised Philip as King by doing homage to Philip. He says that he, Edward, " ante pactionem homagii per quendam procuratorem suum ad hoc specialiter constitutum protestabat palam et expresse quod per homagium quodcunque domino Philippo de Vasio, tunc pro Rege Franciee se gerenti, per ipsum regem Angliaa pro ducatu Acquitanise seu pro Comitatu Pontini faciendum non intendebat nee intenderet renuntiare juri hereditario, quod sibi ad regnum Francise com- petebat, seu etiam juri aliqualiter derogare, etiamsi literse super hoc suo sigiUo quocunque in posterum signarentur : et protestabat quod nonfaceret prasdicto domino Philippo aliquid homagium sua spontanea voluntate, sed dumtaxat iUud faceret propter rnetum justum amissionis dictorum ducatus et comitatus." Mr. Longman (vol. i. p. 28) is not quite accurate in citing this letter as evidence that when the English Government consented to homage being done " A secret protest was however recorded that, in doing homage to the King of France, Edward did not thereby intend to renounce his claim to the French crown." If Edward's letter is trustworthy, it proves much more than the recording a secret protest. ACKNOWLEDGES PHILIP AS KING OP EEANCE. 59 words and the ceremonial of homage distinctly and re- chap. peatedly treated Philippe as King of France.* There JL was no accompanying protest or reservation of 133a Edward's rights on this point. The record of the clear re- homage states that an oral protest was made by ofSPhiiippe the Bishop of Lincoln, who attended Edward, to p„^;™sof the effect that Edward did not intend to. renounce or diminish any of his rights in Guienne. But the fact of this being mentioned, while nothing was said about rights to the French crown, made Edward's homage a stbl more conclusive and unconditional waiver of any claims in opposition to King Philippe's royalty. King Phibppe, on his side, had stipulated that by King consenting to receive plain homage from Edward, he potest e S should not be taken to have waived his right to liege ?;bout liege o o homage. homage. Several embassies and demands and royal messages passed between the two Courts on this subject Disputes or j continued during the last part of the year 1329 and the year astoiiege 1330 ; and there was also much dispute as to whether ab the places in Guienne, which Philippe was bound and as to to restore to Edward, had or had not been given tioenrof 1 back to the English. War nearly broke out on this $^™j£ matter of difference ; and the English Parliament, in February, 1330, was asked for subsidies to enable ^JrT* the King to carry on war against the King of France, account of if the King of France rejected all reasonable attempts about at pacification,! and strove to deprive King Edward of Guienue- * See them in Rymer, vol. ii. part iii. p. 27. The commencement of the " Instrumentum Homagii" is as follows : — " Au nom de Dieu, Amen. Scachent tous, par la teneure de ce public Instrument que presens nous Notaires et TabeUians publics, et les Temoins cy dessous nomme"s, vint en la presence du Tres Haut, Tres ExceUent Prince, Nostre Tres cher Sire Philippes par la grace de Dieu Roy de France, et comparent en sa pesonne Haut et Noble Prince Monseigneur Edouard, Roy d Angleterre (et avec lui Reverend Pere l'Evesque de Lincolne et grande nombre de ses autres Gens et ConseiUers) pour faire son Hommage de la Duche de Guyenne et de la Pairie de France au dit Roy de France." t See Rymer, vol. ii. part iii. p. 40. 60 EDWAED III. CHAP. II. 1331. Treaty as to Guienne made in May, 1330. Edwardemanci pates him self from Isabella and Morti mer, 1330. Agreement thatEdward shall be considered as sworn to fidelity to Philippe,as King of France. his hereditary rights in Guienne. But the- English Government does not seem ever to have cabed in question Philippe's title as King of France, or to have in any way revived the English claim to the French crown. A treaty as to the territorial disputes was made between the two kings on the 8th of May, 1330. During all this time since Edward III.'s accession the English 'government had been practically wielded by Isabeba and Mortimer ; but in the October of 1330, Edward (as we have akeady seen) emancipated himself from them, and began to rule as web as to reign. The conduct of the English Government towards King Philippe during the last period of Isabeba and Mortimer's power, if considered altogether, does not seem to have been hostile to King Phbippe, or such as might have made him reasonably suspect that the Engbsh intended to make war on him for the purpose of asserting Edward's right to the French crown. "We must now look with care to the conduct of Edward himself when a free agent, and see if it shows any proof of his having designed an attack on Philippe's royalty, supposing Philippe to have forborne from hostile schemes against Edward. The first recorded transactions, with regard to France after the fall of Mortimer consist in more negotiations on the subject of Edward's homage ; and on the 30th of March, 1331, a formal agreement was executed, by which Edward consented that the homage already paid by him for Guienne to " the excellent Prince his dear brother and cousin Phbippe King of France," should be treated and should have full effect as liege homage — that is to say, that Edward was to be considered as bound in respect of Guienne by an oath HIS PACIFIC JOUENEY TO FEANCE. 61 of fidelity to Phbippe as King of France.* Here, chap. therefore, we find Edward,, within three months after JL his acquiring independent power of action, fully and un- 1331- reservedly acknowledging Philippe as King of France. The next circumstance that we read of, is a strange Edward's and romantic journey into France, made between journey to the 4th of April, 1331, and the 20th of the same Franoe- month by Edward with his favourite Stratford, the Bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellor, and with a few others of the great men of England. The writ by which Edward appoints a guardian of the kingdom during his absence, recites that the King was about to travel into France to fulfil a vow lately made by him in a season of great peril, and also on account of cer- ¦ tain matters of business affecting his good and the good of the realmt According to a state paper put forth Further by Edward six years afterwards Edward had been deahngs6 invited by Philippe to visit him privately ; and the p^2^18 visit was made in the hope of thus obtaining the restoration of territories in Guienne which had been wrongfully seized by the French King. According to the same document, . Edward humbly besought Philippe to restore the lands, but could obtain no redress.^ It appears, however, that soon after Edward's return an amicable arrangement about one disputed castle in the south of France was effected ; and a negotiation was opened for the betrothal of * See the instrument, and the form of homage appointed for future occa sions, in Rymer, vol. ii. part iii. p. 61. t The writ appointing a Custos Regni during Edward's absence is in Rymer, vol. ii. part iii. p. 02, dated at Dover, 4th April, 1331. There is a memorandum of the King's return on the 20th of April, at p. 65 of the same part. Stow and Polydore Vergil speak of this journey; but both those chroniclers lived too long after the event for their testimony to be of much value, unless supported by contemporaneous documents. X Rymer, vol. ii. part iii. p. 187. 62 EDWAED III. CHAP. II. 1333. Proposal for inter marriages between the two royal families. Planning of a joint crusade by Edward andPhilippe. Edward's policytowards Philippe fair and friendly,untilPhilippehelped the war against Edward ; and en croachedmore and more on Edward's territories in Guienne. King Philippe's domestic enemy, Robert d'Artois. Edward's infant son (afterwards the Black Prince) to a daughter of Phbippe.* Several proposals had already passed for a marriage between Edward's sister, the Princess Eleanor, and one of Phibppe's sons. Neither of these projected unions took effect ; but the projects are themselves some proof that no war to deprive Phbippe of his crown was then contemplated by the English sovereign. Afterwards, in the autumn of 1331, the English Parbament was consulted by Edward whether some stbl outstanding territorial controversies as to Guienne should be settled by treaty or by war. The Parliament considered that a settlement by negotiation would be best. Neither the English King nor any of his statesmen appears to have cabed in question Phbippe's right to his crown, or to have uttered any menace respecting it.f In the next year (1332) Edward professed his wdlbngness to join Avith King Philippe in a crusade, and his Par bament sanctioned the project, but recommended a delay of three years.f: There seems abundant proof that all the policy and proceedings of Edward towards Phbippe were fair and friendly, untb Phbippe helped the Scots in their war against the English during 1333 and the subsequent years, and also renewed on a more extensive scale his interferences with Edward's dominions and rights in Guienne. The writers who inveigh most against what they term Edward's aggressive and insatiable ambition, can point out nothing to support their charge, prior to Edward's reception of Eobert of Artois in 1334. The story of the rancorous hatred bet-ween the Count d'Artois and King Philippe VI. is too characteristic of the age to be entirely passed over. Robert's county * Rymer, vol. ii. part iii. p. 68. t Rot. Pari. vol. ii. p. 60. t Rot. Pari. vol. ii. p. 65. EOBEET OE AETOIS. 63 of Artois had been taken from him and adjudged to chap. belong to his aunt Matilda by King Philippe V. On 1 Philippe VI.'s accession, Robert of Artois (who had 1331 married this Phbippe's sister) demanded and obtained Robert's a new trial of the right to the inheritance. In this ^obefore trial Robert used forged charters, and his forgeries Philippe were detected and exposed. His suit was dismissed recover the by the French King with ignominy, and he then aXS0* sought to wreak his rage and disappointment on the Robert person of Philippe VI. himself. He first unsuccess- is detected. fully attempted to procure the King's assassination ; He seeks - n -, . n . n vengeance and he then had recourse to sorceries, which were on the believed at that time to be as deadly as they were King°for detestable. The operator in these horrible practices, J^™^™3 having invoked the aid of the demons, formed a little He tries in waxen image of the person whose death he sought, ^TinateT This image was solemnly baptised by a priest, and him- then, after certain blasphemous incantations and cere- haes J? monies, the heart of the waxen image was pierced g°™^*° with a needle in the region where the heart would be King in a human being. The person who had been thus aXiTson pierced in effigy, was believed to be irrevocably ^^h" doomed to a slow but agonising death, and was said by Count to be " devoted" (envoulte) through diabolical in- King fluence. Robert of Artois practised (or was believed ™^^ ' to have practised) the rite of this hideous superstition anger. against the French King and the French King's son. Philippe VI. learned with the utmost alarm and fury that he and his heir had become " devoted " through his brother-in-law's agency. He now pursued Robert of Artois with unremitting vindictiveness. Driven from various places of shelter the Count at last made his way to England,* disguised as a mer chant, where he arrived in 1334. Edward gave him * See Jehan le Bel, vol. i. p. 102. 64 CHAP. II. 1334. King Ed ward gives Robert of Artois shelter in England. EDWAED III. protection and showed him kindness. According to one edition of Froissart's Chronicle,* Robert then * This is in Froissart's second edition of his Chronicle. For several eenturies only one edition of Froissart's Chronicle by the author was known to exist. It is the one which Lord Berners translated into English in Henry VIII.'s time ; and it has commanded the admiration of every age down to and including our own. But of late years other versions of the first book have been discovered ; and we now know that Froissart wrote and re- wrote many parts of his work several times, and with considerable variation. In order to know the value of Froissart's testimony as to many im portant parts of history, it is absolutely necessary to know something about these editions. Great industry, learning, and skill have been devoted to this subject by M. Luce in his edition of Froissart for the "Societe de l'Histoire de France," which is now in course of publication ; also by M. Polain, M. Buchon, M. Rigollot, and others. In what I am about to write on it, I shall be chiefly guided by M. Luce, to whose introduction I refer. It may be useful to premise that Froissart was born in 1337, at Va lenciennes, which was then a town of Hainault, and not a French town. In 1361 he came to England, and obtained a post in the household of Queen Philippa, which he held till her death in 1369. He seems then to have needed help until he obtained some church preferment in Brabant in or about 1373. He appears to have been at first befriended, after Queen Philippa's death, by Robert of Namur, to whom the first edition of the first book of his Chronicle (as originaUy written and published) is dedicated. Robert of Namur had married Queen Philippa's sister, and was a strong partisan of King Edward, whom he first joined during the siege of Calais. This original first edition is that with which alone the general public has been for centuries familiar. It is of aU the versions by far the most favourable to the English, and dweUs most copiously on aU that can do them honour. It is supposed to show how much the writer was influenced by his position in Queen Philippa's household, and by Robert de Namur's communications and bounties. A little after 1373 Froissart revised this first edition. The differences between the revised first version and the original first version are not very material, but so far as they go they show diminished zeal for the Engbsh. This revised first edition does not in its prologue mention Robert de Namur as the original first edition does. Later in his life Froissart became the chaplain of Guy de Chatillon, Count of Blois, whose father fell at Cressy, and who himself had been long a hostage and a prisoner in England. At this period Froissart prepared the second edition of the first book of his Chronicle. This is far less favourable to the English, and it is also less based on Jehan le Bel's work. It is a tamer and duller book than the first edition, and was not extensively circulated. Only two MS. copies of it are known to exist. Later still in life Froissart revisited England, when Richard II. was on the throne, and was received by that prince with great kindness and courtesy. The sense of these royal favours is supposed to have made Froissart regard FEOISSAET'S CHEONICLE. 65 told Edward that he repented of the injustice, which chap. he (Robert) and the other Peers of France had done JL in giving the crown of France to Phbippe de Valois 1334 in derogation of Edward's just rights as nearest lawful ^ehisvsaid male heir. According to the same authority, Edward urged " was very thoughtful when he heard this, but stbl he ciamTthe0 listened to it wihingly. However, for the time being, ^r0e™h he made not much account of it, knowing well that it was a matter which he could recur to when he pleased."* - It is hard to see how Edward's thoughts could have come to the knowledge of foreign chroniclers. the English nation, when they had deposed Riohard, with anger and preju dice. In his old age he began a third edition of his Chronicle, which he did not carry beyond the death of Philippe de Valois in 1350. In this third version Froissart speaks with very great severity of the unamiable temper, the pride, and the turbulence of the English people. While making these censures, he bears unintentional, and therefore very valuable testi mony to the constitutional freedom of the English people, and to the pro tection which all ranks received from the law. Only one MS. copy of this version is known to exist. It wUl be seen from this sketch that before we adopt Froissart's panegyrics or censures, we must call to mind what his position was, when each of them was written. He gave prominence to some facts, and he slurred over others, as the varying bias of his partisanship from time to time directed ; but I do not think that he ever directly falsified. He is habituaUy inaccurate as to precise dates, localities, numbers, and other details of the kind ; but as to main facts I believe him to be trust worthy, except where he pretends to report private conversations, not likely to have been disclosed by the parties to them. No writer ever repre sented more vividly the spirit of his age— that is, of its upper classes ; and his first edition of his Chronicle, that which he wrote in his youth, is picturesque and animated beyond almost aU other history, and beyond far the larger part of professed poetry. * The writer of the " Chronique des Quatre Premiers Valois," first pub lished by M. Luce for the same Society in 1862, states that the Count of Artois told Edward that Philippe kept him out of the French crown, inasmuch as he, ' Edward, at the death of Charles IV., " estoit le plus prochainheir male de la couronne. Les Anglois le tindrent a ceste opinion. Car Anglois ce que Uz pensent, ilz veuUint qu'il soit Fait. Et a une assemble qui pour ce fait fut faite,ilz crierent, 'Par Saincte Marie nous nous ferons nostre roy roy de France.' Et des lors prist Edouart le tiltre de roy de France et d'Angleterre." M. Luce thinks that this chronicler was a clerk of Rouen, who wrote during the last twenty years of the 14th century. He is a good authority for transactions near that date, but inaccurate and imperfect as to earlier matters. According to Jehan le Bel, Edward, after conquering Berwick, and wast- VOL. II, p 66 CHAP. II. 1334-1336. No proof of Edward having formed any design to dethrone Philippe-before the latter part of 1336. Good proof that such a plan was thenformed by Edward, and thai: it became known to Philippe. EDWAED III. There appears to be no credible evidence of any word spoken or act done by Edward (beyond his re ception of Robert of Artois) before the latter half of the year 1336, from which it might be reasonably in ferred that he was forming or encouraging any project for wresting the crown of France from Philippe. There is good proof that at or about the last-men tioned time, Edward sent the Bishop of Lincoln and other envoys to Hainault, to consult Queen Phbippa's father, the Count of Hainault, and John of Hainault, his brother, whether it would be prudent for King Edward to assert by arms his right to the French crown ; and, if he were to undertake that enterprise, what abiances he ought to form. The English envoys were well received by the Count and Sir John at Valenciennes, and were told that the King of England had better seek the aid of the Duke of Brabant, the Bishop of Liege, and other princes and prelates, who were named. The Count expressed a strong desire that his son-in-law, King Edward, should succeed in the enterprise ; and he also expressed his belief that with such abies as had been recommended, Edward might march as far as Paris to give battle to his rival. The Bishop of Lincoln and his companions forth with returned with this advice. Edward heard it gladly, and sent back the same ambassadors with a ing Scotland, and settling his garrisons there, returned to England, where he kept such royal and knightly state, that he was caUed a second King Arthur. He then took counsel about obtaining redress for the wrong which Philippe de Valois had done to him in his youth by depriving him of the crown of France, as Robert of Artois had informed him. In the collection of early political poems and songs in the RoUs Publica tions, edited by Mr. Wright, there is a curious French poem, written ap parently by a friend of Robert of Artois, whioh assigns to that nobleman the chief part in instigating Edward to attack King Philippe. But Mr. Wright justly observes of this poem (Introduction, p. xv) "that it is entirely de ficient of historical truth." ENGLISH ENVOYS SENT TO HAINAULT. Q>j gallant train of knights to negociate in King Edward's chap. behalf with the Duke of Brabant and other princes JL and prelates. King Philippe soon heard of these nego- 1S5i-1^- ciations, and prepared to counteract them* We may, therefore, take it to be a fact that Edward's design to dethrone King Phbippe had been formed, and had become known to Phibppe, in the latter part of 1336. But there is no proof of its having been * All this is stated on the authority of Jehan le Bel (vol. i. p. 120 et seg). Jehan's great patron and informant, John of Hainault, was one of the persons to whom the English envoys were sent, and whose advice they were to seek. Jehan le Bel was himself at this time either a member of John of Hainault's household, or a canon of St. Lambert at Liege. In either situ ation he was likely to see and converse with the English envoys them selves ; but, independently of this, when we remember that Jehan le Bel's Chronicle was corrected by John of Hainault himself (see note at p. 56 swpra), we cannot doubt that we have in the Chronicle the evidence of an eye-witness and an ear-witness to these circumstances. It is very material to fix, at least approximately, the date of the first mission of the Bishop of Lincoln to the Hainault court on this business. No document accrediting those envoys on their first mission, or in any way referring to it, is to be found in Rymer or elsewhere. But it appears from documents in Rymer (vol. ii. part iii. p. 166) that the bishop, the Earl of Salisbury, and the train of knights who accompanied them on the second mission, were about to depart from England on that second mission on the 24th of April, 1337. It is clear from Jehan le Bel's narrative that there was no very long interval of time between the two missions ; and I should not have been disposed to date the bishop's first mission so early as any part of 1336, had it not been for the documents in Rymer (vol. ii. part iii. p. 157), by which King Edward empowers respectively the Count of Hainault and the Count of Juliers to make treaties for him. It seems reasonable to connect these with the first mission to consult the Count of Hainault about the claim on the French crown. It may be observed also, that there is clear proof that the Bishop of Lincoln was in England at least as late as the end of June, 1336, as he was one of the Royal Commissioners for opening and presiding over the great councU which assembled at Northampton on the 25th of June in that year. (See Rymer, vol. ii. part iii. p. 148.) Froissart (who was not born before 1337), in his earliest edition of his Chronicle, copied Jehan le Bel as to this matter almost word for word. In his second and third editions, especially the last, he has inserted many details about Robert of Artois persuading the English people and par liament that their King ought to be King of France ; and about the zeal of his people in the matter inducing Edward to take steps to enforce his claim. (See M. Polain's Froissart, vol. i. p. 119 et seq., and pp. 357—368.) I doubt the trustworthiness of these details, added so very many years after' the time of the supposed events. F 2 68 EDWAED HI. chap, formed before. It is therefore extremely important to JL examine what occurred during 1334, 1335, and the 1334-1336 earber part of 1336. For a long Throughout the whole of this time Phibppe con- time before tinued to help the Scots in their war against England ; this plan Jp ,, ° , . . ° . was formed and his aggressions upon Jidwards dominions in had helped Aquitaine grew more and more vexatious. There SS?" are also Proofs that in 1335 and 1336> fleets and ar- Engiand, maments were prepared in the French ports, which and had , •, -¦ n i -1 • -1 t attacked were calculated and apparently designed to do more nghtein than to help the Scots in their own country, or Gmenne., merery carry on the old system of pblaging and burning also pre- along the southern English sea-board. In August, 1335, maments & was thought necessary in England to put the country which inf-0 a state of defence against invasion. Ships were threatened ° ¦*• invasion of impressed, and (what is more significant) commanders were appointed for the special mbitary defence of London.* In the fobowing February, the English government thought it necessary to order ab men throughout England, of age between 16 and 60, to equip themselves with arms according to their station, and to prepare for service.! In the August of that year, Edward, in the writs of summons to Parlia ment, issued by him to his Lords Spiritual, stated the necessity of preparing for the defence of the kingdom against invasion as a principal subject for the conside ration of his Parliament. That document recites that the King of France had rejected Edward's attempts to settle their dispute by amicable negociation. It recites that the King of France had openly asserted his intention to assist the Scots by ab means in his * See Rymer (ed. 1739), vol. ii. part iii. pp. 132—134 ; and see a previous document at p. 123, dated 28th June, 1335, as to the equipment of ships of war in Calais harbour. •f Rymer, vol. ii. part iii. p. 142. THE KING'S MANIFESTO TO HIS PEOPLE. gy power, and that he was preparing ships and troops in chap. large numbers in many foreign ports for the purpose JL of attacking the kingdom of England, as well as of 1334-1336. sending succour into Scotland for the Scottish enemies of the Engbsh King.* The mission of the Bishop of Lincoln to Hainault to consult the rulers there as to Edward's claiming the French crown was certainly subsequent to all these dates. And, as the mission of the bishop to Hainault is the earliest web-proved fact which shows a design on Edward's part to assert that claim, it seems fair and reasonable to believe that King Philippe by his aggressions in Guienne, by his aiding the Scots, and by preparing armaments, which menaced England itself, forced Edward into a state of hostility with him ; and that Edward's assertion of his claim to the French crown was a consequence, and not the cause, of that state of hostihty. This is further confirmed by the remarkable appeal Edward's to the English nation for liberal and zealous support to his in the war, which King Edward put forth in the £0eothe ^ fobowing year. A record of this remarkable document ^ses oi is fortunately preserved. Copies of it were sent to commissioners speciaby appointed in nearly all the English counties, who were enjoined to publish and explain it clearly and fuby to the people of each county. It recites the causes of the war, and the efforts made by Edward to obtain a settlement of disputes without war. It narrates the aggressions of the King of France in Guienne, his support of the Scots in their war against England, and his preparation of ships of war and troops. It states the destruction of English ship- it makes ping, and the ravages of the English coasts by French ofEd-11*1011 squadrons ; and it asserts that the King of France was ward's * Rymer, vol. ii. part iii. p. 150. 70 EDWAED III. CHAP. H. 1334-1336. claim to the throne of France. Many of the affirma tions in it supported by docu mentaryproof. ConclusionthatPhilippe forced on the war. endeavouring to conquer not only the Duchy of Guienne, but all the territories ofthe King of England. It does not allege, and it in no way abudes to any wrong done or supposed to have been done by Phbippe to Edward, in depriving him of the French crown. It would be preposterous to accept the statements made by one party to a dispute, when he is justifying his conduct, as conclusive proofs of ab the facts which he asserts ; but there is strong documentary proof in corroboration of Edward's statements in that mani festo as to his attempts to avert warfare by negociation, and as to other matters.* But that document is specially important as negativing, by its sbence as to Edward's claims on the French crown, the theory that the war was sought for and undertaken by him on account of those claims. It strongly contradicts a statement made by Froissart in his last version of his Chronicle, that, before the sending of the Bishop of Lincoln to the Count of Hainault, pains had been taken in England to excite the Engbsh people about their King's right to France, and that their zeal in the subject was an inducement to Edward to prepare for war.f The reasonable conclusion from ab the facts appears to me to be, that Philippe, in his desire to annex Guienne, like other great fiefs, to the effective dominions of the French crown, determined to take advantage of Edward's being entangled by a war with the Scots, and to force on a contest between France and * Rymer, vol. ii. part iii. pp. 119, 122, 129, 131, 135, 138, 140, 149, 150, 151, 153, 154, 157, 159, 163, 165, 183, 190, 198, 201 ; and part iv., pp. 4, 24, 39, 52, 59, 61, 64. t See note at p. 67 supra. Walsingham expressly states that Philippe's aggression in Guienne caused the war, and that Edward before he led his army across the sea had made many humble proposals to the King of France, in the hope of recovering his territories. — Wals. vol. i. p. 221 j see also p. 222. TEUE CAUSE OE THE WAE WITH EEANOE. ji England, whbe England could thus be taken at a chap. disadvantage. There seems also to be an almost JL entire absence of proof that Edward, until thus 1334-1336. virtually attacked by Philippe, had any design of attacking Phbippe either during the Scottish war or as soon as that war should be over.* But it is fair to bear in mind that Philippe may King have been influenced by another motive besides his may'have desire to seize Guienne, with which that desire may thltTtar have been concurrent, and, to some extent, connected. £01' th,e French Phbippe may have believed that a contest between crown was Edward and himself for the French crown would sooner or later take place. Edward's martial character, his fondness for knightly display and renown, his harbour ing Eobert of Artois (Philippe's deadly enemy), may have caused Philippe to expect this ; although no overt act in furtherance of it had been committed by Edward. Holding that belief, Philippe may have thought it imprudent to wait until Edward could attack him with the undivided force of England, and perhaps with the forces of Scotland and England combined. Still, the question remains for consideration whether Ulterior King Edward, although compebed by the aggressions whether of his adversary to go to war, gave or not to his origin- f£™^ ally just warfare the character of injustice, by blend- justified in ,„,.¦,. ., resisting ing with his legitimate grounds for hostdity a wil- French fuby false claim to the French crown. As to this dffnot10"' * Mr. SaUam, in his note to p. 52 of the first vol. of his Middle Ages, after discussing the documentary evidence as to when Edward disputed Philip's title, says :— " Probably Edward III. would not have entered into the war merely on account of his claim to the crown. He had disputes with Philip about Guienne ; and that Prince had, rather unjustifiably, abetted Robert Bruce in Scotland. I am not inclined to lay any material stress upon the instigation of Robert of Artois." This is much more favourable to Edward than the epithets which are applied to him in Mr. HaUam's text. 72 CHAP. II. 1336-1337.act with wilful in justice in claiming the French crown. He may have rea sonably supposed his claim to be just. Edward at the end of 1336 pre pares for war. He seeks for conti nental allies. Generalsurvey of othernations at this time. Conditionof the French monarchy at the out break of the war. EDWAED III. point, so many believed Edward's claim to be true,* that he may have reasonably thought the same. If we were to blame him for not perceiving that the success of an attempt to bring France and England under the same sovereign would be injurious to England, we should be merely blaming him for not having been very far in advance of his age, and of many subsequent ages, in judging of such matters. It is quite certain that, at the end of 1336, and in the first months of the next year, Edward bent him self earnestly to make adequate preparations for the great struggle, which was now becoming inevitablei It was obviously important to secure abies on the Continent ; and the ib-wib with which Phbippe was regarded by many princes and peoples, gave consider able facilities for forming a league against him. But before dealing further with the subject of Edward's treaties with continental powers against France, it ' wbl be well to pause and consider the condition of France itself at this period, and of the other principal powers, especially of those that became involved in the war, or that influenced its progress by any of their proceedings. The French monarchy was now very much stronger than it had been at the time of the warfare between our Eichard Cceur de Lion and Phbip Augustus. Normandy, Anjou, Maine, Touraine, nearly all Lan- guedoc, the territories of La Manche and L'Angoumois, of La Vermandois, Lyons and its vicinity ; the counties of Auvergne, and Boulogne, parts of Champagne and La Brie, now formed portions, and effective portions of the dominions of the French crown. Navarre had been joined for a time to France by the marriage of Queen * See p. 52 supra ; and see M. Sismondi's observations — Histoire des Francois, x. 7. EEVIEW OE CONTINENTAL AFFAIRS. 73 Joanna of Navarre to King Philippe le Bel in 1284. chap. But as the Salic law did not prevail there, the crown JL of Navarre on the death of Charles IV. passed away to Joan, the. surviving daughter of Charles's eldest brother Louis X., and then to her son, Charles the Bad.* The sovereigns of Navarre possessed some territories northward of the Pyrenees, which gave them importance in the various conflicts between the French and the Engbsh in the south of France. The grandson of Louis X., Charles the Bad of Navarre, possessed also, as his paternal inheritance, the county of Evreux in Normandy, which made him additionaby powerful when confederated with Edward III. against the King of France. The most formidable possessor of French territory was the King of England himself, who held, as feudatory of the French crown, but practically as master, Guienne, Ponthieu, and the small districts of L'Aunis and Saintonge. The Duke of Lorraine held a considerable part of Champagne. The Pope possessed the district of Venaissin and the city of Avignon. The rest of Provence belonged to the King of Naples. A very serious cause of weakness to the French King was the virtual independence of the important Duchy of Brittany. Southward of the Pyrenees the Christian kingdoms Condition j. n -1 -1 -ri itt ¦ t Spanish 01 Castile, Aragon, and Portugal had contmued to kingdoms. increase in strength. The Moorish kingdom of Granada maintained itself against the Christian arms ; but ab serious fear of the tide of conquest in that part of the world again turning in favour of Mahometanism had passed away. The kingdom of Castbe was much the largest and most important in the peninsula ; and, * Charles the Bad (born 1330) had, according to King Edward's^nter- pretation of the Salic law, a better right to the French crown, than Edward himself. 74 CHAP. II. Connection of Castile with France. Empire partlyrevived. Prudent rule of Rudolf of Hapsburg. Increased authority of the free imperial . cities. Friendship between Kudolf and our Edward I. Keigns of Adolf of Nassau, EDWAED III. except when it was necessary to distinguish between the different states southward of the Pyrenees, the general term of " the Spaniards" was commonly applied to the Castilians. There had been several intermar riages between the royal houses of France and of Castbe ; and the general friendship of the Castilian nobility and people for the French became an im portant matter in the wars of Edward III. The Empire had partly revived from the state of imbecbity into which it had fallen in the middle of the thirteenth century.* The brave and prudent Eudolf of Hapsburg was elected King of the Eomans in 1273. He had the sagacity to keep almost entirely clear of Italian affairs ; and he occupied himself chiefly in strengthening and extending the dominions of his famby, and in putting down the high-titled robbers, who from their petty fortresses infested many of the fairest regions of Germany. He encouraged the growth of the power and prosperity of the numerous free imperial cities of Germany. In local self-govern ment, and for purposes of self-defence, they were in dependent ; their representatives were admitted as members, together with the electors and the princes lay and ecclesiastical of the empire, to the general Diets or Imperial Councils. Very friendly relations were maintained between Eudolf and our Edward I. A marriage between Eudolf's son, Prince Hartmann, and the English Princess Joan, was arranged, but was broken off by the accidental death of the Austrian' prince in 1281.t The reigns of the two Emperors who succeeded Eudolf (Adolf of Nassau, 1291—1298, and Albert * See vol. i. p. 361. + See Pauli's chapter on England's earliest relations with Austria and Prussia, in his " Pictures of Old England." THE EMPEEOES AND THE POPES. 75 of Austria, 1298 — 1307) were periods of turbulence chap. and weakness ; and at the death of the last of them JL there was a delay in the election of his successor for and Albert more than a year, during which French influence and ^tte^s "^ French gold were actively employed in endeavouring transfer the to obtain the Imperial dignity for Charles of Valois, who crown to was brother of King Philippe le Bel, and was himself royaiFrench Count of Provence and King of Naples. But the elec- family- tors chose Henry of Luxembourg (November, 1308), Luxem- a prince of great abilities and greater ambition. He emptor. was crowned at Milan and at Eome ; and he conducted His energy some campaigns against those who opposed him in tion.ambl~ Italy with a vigour which inspired the Ghibebnes of that country with enthusiasm and hopefulness. But the Itaban climate was fatal to the Emperor His early Henry VII., as it had been to so many of his race. My. m He died in 1313. Then came a disputed, a reaby D.g uted doubtful election. The rival claimants, Louis of Bavaria election ; and Frederick of Austria, made war upon each other Bavaria for eight years, untb the strife was determined by the ™ck rf6de' complete overthrow and the captivity of Frederick at 4™{™ the battle of Muhldorf in 1322. Neither of these claimants. German princes was acknowledged as Emperor by the J-0™8 Ti°- Popes. Clement V. and John XXII. affected to treat conduct of the empbe as vacant; and John in terms of the JJ^jf1^" utmost arrogance assumed the right of exercising ThePope imperial power during the vacancy, as incident to ^tmteos the general supremacy over ab authorities, temporal rule the ., ,..n. i empire. as web as spiritual, which was divinely given to the Pope in his capacity of successor to St. Peter.* He even cabed in question the rights of the German Electoral Princes ; and maintained that the Pope had the right * See Ranke's History of the Reformation, vol. i. p. 45, and the Papal documents there cited. See also the Bull of 1317, cited by Dean Milman, vol. v. p. 450. A general supremacy over princes is claimed also by Pope 76 EDWAED in. chap, of examining into the merits of the person chosen as JL emperor by the Electoral College, and of rejecting Renewed him, if he thought fit.* The real and scarcely transfer ° disguised design of the Avignonese Pope was to to "th™1"18 transfer the Empire to the royal famby of France; French an(j jn 1323 he excommunicated Louis of Bavaria for royal family. assuming the power of King of the Eomans without xxr/ex- PaPal permission and for molesting the Pope's Imperial communi- Vicar in Italy. But this excess of pontifical insolence, elites the Emperor and the evident intent to aggrandise France at the In°™ ' expense of Germany, roused a general spirit of re- tionofthe sistance; and at the Diet held at Frankfurt in 1324 people™ the Pope's proceedings were solemnly examined, and condemned as iniquitous and void ; his power over the Empire was denied, and he himself taunted with tyranny and with heresy. The pens of Ockham and the other Franciscan enemies of Pope John XXII. were evidently employed in this uncompromising TT.anifp.stn. The spirit of resistance to papal encroachment was not limited to princes and scholars. The great mass of the German nation f was patrioticaby staunch in resistance to Avignon and France ; and if the Emperor Louis IV. had possessed as much moral courage as his subjects, he would have fared much better and more honourably in the long struggle, which Pope John XXII. and his successors maintained against him with rancour equal to that, which their predecessors John XXII. in his Decretals. He there styles himself " Summum Pontificem, cui in persona Beati Petri terreni simul et coelestis imperii jura Deus ipse commiserit." (Extrav. Johan., vol. xxii. tit. v. p. 380 in Pithseus.) Pope John in 1321 appointed King Robert of Naples Imperial Vicar in Italy : and the French Cardinal Legate, Bertrand de Poyet, carried on war there in the name of the Pope as of the master of the empire. * See supra, p. 34, and Milman, vol. v. p. 457. t Ranke observes (History of the Reformation, vol. i. p. 47) that the ple beians of Germany in their municipal self-governments enforced the cause of their Emperor against the Pope with even more ardour than most of the princes. GREAT POWEE AND AUTHOEITY OF THE EMPEEOE. J J had shown in the strife between the Popes and the chap. House of Hohenstaufen. Even as it was, this re- IL newal of the old quarrel between Emperor and Pope was important in facilitating German alliances for the King of England in his wars against the Pope's con federate, the King of France. We may naturaby pause here to inquire what there Why was in the station of Emperor to make that dignity sought3 &r the object of so much intrigue and contest. And as rki dig-6 we shab find that the empire was actually placed nitr? within the hands of our Edward III. at one period of his reign, but wisely and patrioticaby decbned by him, the inquiry is closely connected with our immediate subject. The Emperor, as Emperor, had neither imposing Practical territory nor enviable wealth. The once ample im- ofthe perial domains had been almost entirely frittered or emperor- filched away ; and though the Emperor was " Semper Augustus," no decree could go forth from him that the world should be taxed. Csesar's principal, though ignominious, source of ways and means came from the sale of titles of honour, and of the right to levy tolls. But the Emperor's influence was stbl great by reason Theoretical of the reverence, with which ab the populations of If the" y central and western Christendom regarded him as the emPeroras o represen- representative of the never-forgotten majesty of old tative Eome ; and from the need, which thoughtful men, who imperial loved social order, intellectual progress, and human oiTitome. happiness, felt of a supreme presiding Potentate, who General should decide, as one having authority, in the strifes "f 1 su- and controversies, which raged almost incessantly ^Xoiier among the then new nationalities of Europe, and often of mter- 1 t tit t national between the various orders ol society.1'" We must bear strife. * See as to the moral power of the emperors in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Ranke's History of the Reformation, vol. i. p. 53, et seg[. ; 78 EDWAED III. chap, in mind that the period of what we cab the revival of n- the study of the classics had not arrived. Petrarch (the great Coryphaeus of this intebectual movement), forlw and a few other illustrious scholars of the middle ins* ired b an(* of ^e latter Part °^ tlie fourteentn century, were scholars, already preparing men's minds for it ; but it was furists.anc not until the next century that the influence was generaby felt of an enthusiastic study of Cicero, of an awakened and increasing knowledge of the orators, historians, poets, and philosophers of Athens, and of a new. hero-worship directed to the statesmen as web as to the writers of the Greek and Eoman republics. Until then the classics most studied and quoted (and they were extensively studied and often quoted) in the cloisters, the universities, the law-schools, and the palaces and castles of mediaeval Europe, were the Latin poets, who sang the praises of Augustus and of. other Eoman emperors. Virgil and Statius stood highest in favour ; next came Ovid. Virgil was re garded as an authority on matters of public principle and international right, scarcely inferior to Holy Writ ; and his magnificent hexameters were accepted as in controvertible testimonies that Imperial Eome was divinely commissioned to rule mankind ; that Augus tus was the impersonation of the original prerogatives of the Eoman people ; and that the peace and happi ness of nations could never be more secure than under the benign autocracy of a Ceesar. Here and there a solitary scholar like Eienzi might, under peculiar local or personal influences, imbibe republicanism from studies extended to Tacitus and Livy ; but the general effect of classical literature in the fourteenth and the fifteenth chapter of Bryce's Holy Roman Empire. See also the sketch of the progress of the Constitution of the Empire in Robertson's xiiind note to his view of the state of Europe. THE EMPEEOE SUPREME FEUDAL LOED. 79 century (especially in the earlier half of it) was such chap. as has been here described, and such as may be JL found especially stamped on both the prose and the poetry of Dante.* The influence of the civil lawyers (a class every where growing into very high importance in the State) was intensely Eoman and strongly Imperial. Even the feudal element in European law gave strength to " this feeling. The Emperor was regarded, at least by German jurists, as the supreme feudal lord, who conferred on property its highest and most sacred sanction.f He was much more generally acknowledged to be the supreme fountain of dignity. It was he that could create kings, even if he had no power over the territories which were their dominions. The Popes also had begun to claim a right to be king-makers ; but this was generally looked, on as an usurpation on the Imperial prerogative. The Popes, indeed, though generally striving to exalt The popes the Papacy over the Empire, were wbling to admit emperor * Dean Milman (Hist. Lat. Christ, vol. v. p. 39) and Mr. Bryce (Holy Roman Empire, p. 291) rightly direct attention to Dante's treatise De Mon orchia, as best illustrating the imperialist doctrines of that age. It is not long, and weU deserves to be read through by all who would understand either Dante or his age. There is no servility in it. Dante emphatically asserts that rulers exist for the sake of their communities ; and that the supreme emperor is, in respect of the object of his existence, the servant of aU ; though in respect of the way in which he is to do them service, he is the monarch of all. The essence of Liberty is Free Will, which many talk of, but few understand. " Principium primum nostrse libertatis est libertas arbitrii, quam multi habent in ore, in inteUectu verum pauci." It is a noticeable fact, that the most popular story-book of mediaeval times, the Gesta Romanorum, which is a collection of wild and romantic tales about knights, and dragons, and enchantresses, not only had a Roman title given to it by its compUer, or compilers, but that care is taken at the commencement of nearly every story to lay the scene in the reign of some Roman emperor, generaUy an ideal personage, and often not connected with the events of the tale. In the Gesta Romanorum, the emperors are always described as great and powerful, and generaUy as wise and good. f Ranke's History of the Reformation, vol. i. p. SS. 80 EDWAED ni. chap: and proclaim the Emperor's titular superiority over JL other temporal princes ; and the sovereigns of Europe habitually addressed him and spoke of themselves in above other language which admitted his pre-eminence in dignity.* temporal O O ¦¦• . . " " princes. Ab these honours (and many more might be instanced) other. may seem to be but barren ; and the practical power- admit his lessness of many of the Emperors is notorious. But nencT1 stib the old mass of traditionary authority was not au this altogether without weight and substance. An ambitious amount of prince, with resources of his own, who became Em power, peror, might find in web-recognised imperial preroga tives ready pretexts for extending his actual domi nation over his neighbours. And even when Caesar's sword was not thus weighty, Caesar's sceptre could give a sanction to a treaty or to a war, which would some times determine a wavering judgment, and could still oftener satisfy the scruples of a moderately sensitive Church or State-conscience. Condition In northern Italy, the free Lombard cities had gene- of Italy. raUy sunk under the despotic government of faction- The tyrants chiefs, or military adventurers, and the Houses of DeUa bardy. Scala at Verona, and of the Visconti at Mban, were The Tuscan two of the chief Italian powers on land. In Tuscany common- x . wealth. the great commonwealth of Florence, though severely Wealth tried by her almost incessant civb strifes, and by her late unsuccessful warfare with Castruccio Castracani, her ban- Lord of Lucca, was powerful, wealthy, and free. Many over Ed- other republican civic States flourished in Tuscany ward's an(j ^s vicinity, but Florence was first of all. Her wars. •> ' wealthy bankers, the Bardi and Peruzzi, 'gave import ant aid to our Edward III. in his French wars by * " For a long time no European sovereign, save the emperor, ventured to use the title of ' Majesty.' The Imperial Chancery conceded it in 1633 to the kings of England and Sweden ; in 1641 to the King of France."— Bryce (p. 273), citing Zedler. STATE OF ITALY. 81 loans, for which the English customs were frequently chap. assigned to them as securities. These duties were JL farmed by these Italian merchant-princes at rates which seem to have been unfairly low; but probably the largeness of the interest thus allowed to the creditor was no more than compensation for the risk of non-payment by the royal debtor.* Pisa, lately the great maritime repubbc of Tuscany, Power and ., , , • -i f i , ¦ ¦ importance had now been stripped of her transmarine possessions 0f Genoa by Genoa. Genoa and Venice, the two great com- andVenice- mercial commonwealths of mediaeval Italy, and in deed of the mediaeval world, were in fub glory and power. Venice took bttle or no part in the strife between England and France ; nor did Genoa, as a State, actively engage in it, though her sailors readily took service for either Edward's or Phbippe's gold, showing, however, a decided preference for then- neigh bours, the French. "We read also of large bodies of Genoese Genoese troops in the French service. As the Genoese mercen- T T T arleS territory was scanty, these must have been regular largely em- mercenaries, whom the Genoese (like the Carthaginians thenar™ of old) kept on foot to fight their battles ; but whom they would readily hire out to a neighbouring prince, when they had themselves no immediate need for their services. In central Italy the Eomagna, the proper territory The Ro of the Popes, was a general scene of anarchy, strife, ^^ and wretchedness. Naples in the south was, under her dynasty of Angevine princes, a natural aby of France ; but from her position she was unimportant in the con test. For the same reason it is unnecessary to do more The Greek than glance at the Greek emperors, who had regained empws' * Edward III. in 1345 owed enormous sums to both these firms. They both failed in that year. See Hallam's Middle Ages, vol. iii. p. 340, and note. 82 EDWAED III. chap, possession of Constantinople, and of some of their old JL territories in Europe, besides what was left to them in Decline of Asia. The formidable power of the Seljukian Turks Sian had been shattered by the Mongols ; and, generaby . speaking, the Mahometan powers were at this time too weak and disunited to inspire any immediate alarm to Rise of the Christendom. Careful statesmen might learn with uneasiness that a new Turkish nation, cabed after one of its early chiefs the Osmanlis, or the Ottoman Turks, had conquered the great city of Brusa in 1326, and had won Nicomedia in the same year ; and that Nice, lately the Asiatic capital of the Greek emperors, had faben before the same invaders in 1330. But Orchan, the second of the Ottoman sovereigns, after completing in 1336 the conquest of the north-west regions of Asia Minor, paused in his career, and devoted twenty years to the consobdation of the Ottoman resources. The kings and prelates of Christian Europe bttle thought that a Mahometan power was thus being matured, which would in bttle more than a century reign at Constantinople, and threaten to raise at Eome herself the Crescent in supremacy over the Cross. TheScandi- English merchants at this time had factories in kingdom. Scandinavia, and on other parts of the Baltic coast, which may have given us influence there; but the northern kingdoms do not appear to have taken any part in the great war in the west of Europe. Wealth The renowned mercantile confederacy of the Hanse t£?ce™por" Towns at this time was approaching the zenith of its ^ticHans Power- The trading cities of north Germany, and the league. other countries along the Baltic, had about a century before this period felt the necessity of leaguing toge ther for protection against the pirates and land-robbers (often nobles and princes), who plundered their facto ries and merchant vessels. The federation of cities THE HANSE ATIO LEAGUE. 83 thus formed acquired the name of the Hanseatic chap. League, and became in fact one of the sovereign JL powers of Europe ; making treaties, declaring and waging wars, besides enacting general regulations for the dealings of its members one with another, and for carrying on commerce with strangers. Eighty important towns were combined in it, of which Lubeck, Cologne, and Dantzig were the chief. Their connections Favour with England had been much promoted in the early England to times of the league by Eichard of Cornwall, King of ohants^of the Eomans, and brother of our King Henry IIL* A the Hanse t o ./ towns. factory and Guddhab in London was granted to them by royal letters patent in 1260, which was styled the Aula Teutonicorum, or German Gubdhab, but is more commonly spoken of as the Hanseatic Steelyard, or as the Steelyard only. There the merchants from the The Han- Ehineland and the Baltic dwelt together in a position yard in ee near London Bridge web suited for trading purposes, hondon- and web protected by massive wabs against tumult and pillage. The wise liberality of our kings granted them many important privileges : and they made The Hanse Edward III. frequent loans on terms advantageous to ^prp]y Ed- themselves: but, on the other hand, it was by the sup- Ztthtll' plies of ready money thus obtained that the Engbsh sinews of Government was often enabled to prepare, and keep in a state of efficiency, its well-paid armies, which by their superior equipment and permanent organisation won for England many advantages over the more numerous but far worse-appointed levies of France.t The most important of all the cities and territories * See supra, vol. i. p. 301. t See the very interesting and instructive description of " The Hanseatic Steelyard in Lqndon," in Paiili's Pictures of Old England. See also the last part of the preceding chapter in the same work on " The Emperor Louis IV. and King Edward III." q2 84 EDWAED III. chap, in which Edward could reasonably hope to find effec- JL tive aid against King Philippe VI. were the rich and Flanders, thickly-populated states between the north-western Sdthe' frontiers of the French monarchy and the Eiver Ehine. £^;g Hainault, Brabant, Gueldres, Juliers, Flanders, and districts other districts, had their counts and dukes, most of RMne°. 'e whom were princes of the Empire : but some were feudatories of France for portions of their territories. These countries, especially Flanders, were studded with wealthy cities, where a stirring spbit of democratic turbulence blended and co-operated with industrial energy, and with great aptitude for social and political organisation. The citizens of these great towns, especially the Flemish, were generally on bad terms with their feudal lords ; and, as the kings of France habitually aided the counts of Flanders in their frequent hostilities with the burghers of Ghent and other cities, there was reason for Edward to regard the Flemings as his natural abies. The relations between them and the Engbsh (though not unbroken by occa^ sional jealousies and conflicts) had been generally amicable, and a strong community of trading interests bound them together. Ghent at this period was prac- james van ticaby ruled by James van Artevelde, who was one of ^Ghent6 the most remarkable men of the Middle Ages, and whose death in a civic tumult in 1345 prematurely cut short the career of a far-sighted statesman, and a true patriot. Treaty of By the, influence of Van Artevelde, a treaty with burghe™18 England of amity and commerce was made by Ghent with Eng- in 133T The two other great Flemish cities, Bruges and Ypres, were also parties to this albance. Edward had sent ambassadors to these towns, whose chief avowed purpose was to make treaties respecting the trade in wool, but they had also the more important CONVENTION WITH THE EMPEEOE LOUIS IV. 85 object of preparing aid for England in the war, which chap. was now known to be approaching. JL The first State document, in which Edward pubbcly 1337> raised the royal matter of armed controversy between a mZen-m himself and Phibppe de Valois, was a convention |^^ which he made on the 26th of August,' 1337, with the peror, in Emperor Louis IV. In this he spoke of his adversary 1337, styles as the person now assuming the character of King of the^e? France. On the 7th of the fobowing October Edward tenderto o the crown took the still more decisive step of issuing commissions of France. to the Duke of Brabant and others, empowering them to take possession of the kingdom of France in his (King Edward's) name ; and he issued other commissions making them his Vicars-General in France.* The implacable hostility with which the Avignonese Amity Popes pursued the Emperor Louis, and the well-known the Empe- connection between the Avignonese pontiffs and the andKmg French Court, made him and Edward of England Edward. natural abies. But the Emperor, with the want of moral firmness which characterised him, hung back from effective measures ; and the connection between England and the Empire seemed likely to be a mere paper abiance. As, however, it had been arranged that the high contracting parties should meet, King Edward Edward, in July, 1338, with a brilliant retinue, Germany, proceeded to. Antwerp, and thence by way of Cologne ffis '^_ to Coblenz, where a full diet of the Empire presided sence at over by Louis, the Caesar Semper Augustus, was held coblentz.0 with all possible state and splendour. Afc. this very time the Emperor was under excommunication by the Pope ; but the Engbsh treated with civil indifference the Papal remonstrances against an alliance with one * Rymer, vol. ii. part iii. pp. 184, 192, 193. These last commissions are in duplicate, one set styling Edward " Rex Anglise et Francise," and the other set styling him " Rex Franciaj et Anglise." 86 EDWAED HI. chap, accursed of Holy Church; and the Germans met JL the attempts of the Pontiff of Avignon to control 1338. their rights of election with indignant defiance. But sumedaby whbe supporting the Emperor against the Pope, wird and Edward took care not to lower his own dignity as by the King of England by submitting to a degrading cere- emperor. moniai jje was cane(l on to kiss the feet of Caesar Augustus, but proudly refused, saying that he too was an anointed King* At their State meeting in the market-place of Coblenz, a throne was placed for Edward of England as well as for the Emperor ; but Imperial pride was soothed by the Emperor's throne being the higher of the two by a foot, and by the Emperor holding a sceptre in his right hand and the globe in his left. Four of the Electoral Princes and many other imperial dignitaries were present. The number of nobles and knights in attendance was cal- Edwardap- culated at 17,000. In the diet thus solemnly convened imperial a series of important imperial regulations was pro- general claimed ; and Edward "was formally appointed Vicar- TtiT"'1 General of the Empire for ab the districts westward Rhine. of the Ehine.t Edward The Engbsh King now returned to Antwerp, where Antwerp1." he- remained during the autumn and winter, vainly Vacillations endeavouring to rouse his continental albes to prompt of hisClays acri°nJ and seeking to strengthen himself by more continental treaties. Of the two bebigerent powers France was Activity of a* this period by far the most active. She had large in harassin S(luadronsjn *ne channel, which incessantly harassed the the coasts English coasts ; and the French, Genoese, and Spanish of England. ° ,, ' , „. -,-,,.,. , f , ¦ crews, that served King rhuippe at sea, landed in large force at Southampton, and sacked and burnt * Walsingham, vol. i. p. 223. t Pauli's Pictures of Old England, p. 160. COMMENCEMENT OE WAE WITH FEANOE. 57 that important town. The early months of 1339 found chap. King Edward still at Antwerp, stib entangled in the IL wfles of negociation. His adversary was more adroit 1339- and successful in the manoeuvres of diplomacy. The Pope, acting in Phibppe's interest, menaced the Em peror with renewed excommunication if he carried out his project of warfare in alliance with the Engbsh. King Phbippe had also a zealous adherent and partisan in John, King of Bohemia. The weak and The vacibating Emperor declined to join Edward, though SXto* he allowed his son, at the head of a small body of |^ward knights, to serve under him. Others, who had bound themselves by treaties to co-operate with Edward, wavered and delayed. It was not untb September, Edward 1339, that the English King found himself at the ^sieges 0 ° Cambrai. head of such a confederate force as enabled him to lay siege to the city of Cambrai, a city belonging to the Empire, but of which, with some other places in the adjoining territory, King Phbippe had taken pos session. The siege was unsuccessful ; and the English King, leaving Cambrai, marched into Picardy, laying waste the country, and hoping to bring on a battle with the army, which King Phibppe had collected, and with which he had advanced as far as Peronne. But the Prudence French King in this part of the war showed thorough French in good sense and generalship. He acted on the defensive ^1*inga only ; and baffled all Edward's manoeuvres to bring him to action. Once the taunts of his , adversary had irritated him so far that he set out his troops in battle-array ; but he suffered his hasty purpose to be overruled by the wise advice of some of his coun sellors, who pointed out to him that Edward's strength must soon be exhausted, if he repeated these expedi tions without being able to obtain victories, whereas 88 EDWAED III. CHAP. II. 1339-1340 Edward perseveres in his projects. Edwardassumes the title and arms of King of France. He issues proclama tions in that cha racter. He returns to England. SummonB a Parlia ment.Promises that the liberties of the English shall not suffer because he is king of France. King Phbippe, if he gave battle, might find that his crown itself was staked on the result. Edward at last led back his army into Flanders; after a wholly ineffectual campaign. Stbl he was not repelled from his purpose by the fabures of two years, though, besides the amount of treasure which he had expended without result, he had involved himself heavby in debt. By the advice (it is said) of Van Artevelde, after the campaign of 1339, Edward openly assumed the title of King bf France, styling himself so on his great seal, and quartering the Lihes (the heraldic symbol of French royalty) oh his arms. In February, 1340, he issued proclamations from Ghent to the Flemings and to the people of France, and to the world in general, setting out his title to the French crown, enumerating the injuries which he had sus tained from Phbippe, declaring his fixed purpose to assert his rights, and cabing on the French nation to obey him loyaby and zealously. He dates these instruments as of the first year of his reign over France, and the fourteenth of his reign over England.* On the 21st of February he returned to England, and issued summonses for a meeting of Parbament in Mid-Lent. In these summonses he desired his subjects not to feel surprise or alarm at his stybng himself King of France. He promised that a fub explana tion of his reason for doing so should be laid before Parliament, and he pledged himself that no diminution of the rights of England as a kingdom, or of the laws and liberties enjoyed by Englishmen, was intended. The Parliament met on the 29 th of March ; and one See Rymer, vol. ii. part iv. pp. 64, 65, 1 ASSUMES THE TITLE OE KING OE EEANCE. 89 of the statutes passed in it is an Act which recites chap. that alarm had been felt by some Englishmen, lest JL now that their King had become King of France, 1U0- England should be put in subjection of the King of statute of France and of the realm of France in time to come, daring6" King Edward solemnly promised that this should that ' ^d" o J Jp ward by not happen, and that the realm of England and becoming the people thereof should never be subject to him or France any of his successors as Kings of France. This nXprero-° statute shows that, even in that age, an Engbshman eativf? ' o ? o over his enjoyed more constitutional freedom than a French- English man ; and it also indicates that some of our country- Proof f' men, at the time when the conquest of France was the subject attempted, were not altogether blind to the risk, that, more if Edward made himself- King of France as web as of England" England, France would, as the larger and more impor- ^ ™ tant country, become the seat of government, whbe pr0ofthat this island sank into the position of a mere dependency, i^^118" The statute, to which we have been referring, would foresaw the •have proved a feeble safeguard against such evbs, if conquering a King of England had succeeded in his schemes of migbtW continental conquest ; but, fortunately for both coun- d°meendenc tries, that project, though more than once nearly °f un realized, was always baffled, and at last utterly France. defeated. There was no part of Edward's conduct in which he Edward's showed better sense, than the extreme care which he ^y^e took to conciliate the favour of his Parbament, and ^qnaifeeling with of his people generaby, and to make the war, which he nim in Ms waged, the war of the Engbsh nation, and not merely poiicy. the war of the Engbsh King. We have seen the care taken by him, in the August of 1336, to publish to his people, and to cause to be impressed on them by men of influence in each locabty, how great the aggres sions of the French King had been, and what efforts he 90 EDWAED HI. chap, had vainly made to obtain an amicable settlement JL of disputes. In 1338, after he had publicly denied 1340. Philippe's title to the crown of France, and asserted Ssembuid, his °wn, he laid before the Parliament the subject of Commons ^8 wrong13 &n& ^s rights \ an(l ^e prepared for his ex- strongiy pedition to the continent with the consent of his mend his Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and at the urgent Sam™1 request of his Commons.* " They re- He sought the good opinion and co-operation of his confidence subjects with equal frankness, after he had taken the the^ibCT-07 important step of stybng himself King of France; aity °f and though they showed their caution by the statute, plies. which has been recently abuded to, they showed also how popular their King and his cause were, by the liberality of the supplies whioh they voted. When the King returned to England in February, 1340, he left the English army at Ghent. Prepara tions were made for reinforcing it largely ; and the King was about to sail with the troops from Orweb, on the Essex coast, early in June, when tidings arrived' that King Philippe of France had cobected an immense fleet to intercept and destroy the English squadron as it approached the Flemish coast. Edward at first refused to credit this intelligence, and declared peevishly that he would set sab, telling his statesmen and admirals, " Ye, who are afraid where there is nothing Edward's to fear, may remain at home." But his good sense soon made him pay more heed to the warnings of resolutionto obtain * See in Rymer, vol. ii. part iv. p. 4, Edward's letter to his sheriffs, ship masters, and others, about preparing ships for the enterprise, in which he recites the assent of his Peers, " necnon instantem requisitionem communi- tatis regni." As a rule, the assertions of Edward III. require corroborative evidence ; but he would hardly have ventured on a falsehood on this occasion to men, who must have known the real state of the facts, and could not possibly have been misled by him, if he had tried to mislead them. HIS ATTENTION TO THE NAVY. 91 those who served him ; and he formed a resolution, chap. worthy of his fame, to cobect forthwith such an JL Engbsh fleet, as might not only secure the passage 13f0-. of his troops, but enable him to strike a decisive atPsea.°n7 blow against the naval power of France. He thus would reabze for England that dominion over the seas, which her kings had already begun to claim, but which bttle had been done to enforce, since the glorious victory gained off Dover in the reign of John. Ed- Edward's ward had paid much attention to strengthening his t^hifnaVy navy during his wars with the Scots, who, partly with jn *he . . , , • t • t t beginning then own vessels, but more extensively with vessels of Ms hired, or borrowed from the French and other foreigners, reisn' committed serious depredations on the Engbsh coasts. There is a mandate extant which was issued by King Edward to the English admirals in 1336. The King's Kings of words in the preamble are, " We, considering that our ^Zf^d progenitors, kings of England, were Lords of the '?rdlfi;sh English Seas on every side."* He then proceeds to seas. give practical orders for the requisite measures to be taken against the marauding squadrons of the enemy. Similar expressions occur in other royal proclamations Pract;cal during these wars. But the ravages of the hostbe superiority squadrons were never whoby checked ; and during the French first years of the French war (1337 to 1340) the ^™ French fleets had a decided superiority, and committed gnning of T ¦ fl-1 Wai'' dreadful ravages in many maritime districts of Eng land, besides the capture and destruction of our mer chant vessels at sea. Edward's resources for collecting a naval force Maritime sufficient to cope with that of France were derived, to 0f England. a considerable extent, from the supplies of ships and seamen which the seaports of southern Kent and * Cited in Nicolas' Hist. Eoyal Navy, vol. ii. p. 17. 92 EDWAED III. • chap, east Sussex were bound to furnish for the service of JL the realm. There is reason to believe, that some of 134°- these ports had privileges granted to them by the Saxon kings on condition of supplying vessels and mariners. But it was not tib after the Norman con quest that those places were fully organized into the maritime association called the Cinque Ports. The cinque The title was derived from the circumstance of five Ports. ports, Sandwich, Dover, Hythe, Eomney, and Hastings having been first thus distinguished ; and the name was retained after the then important towns of Eye and Winchelsea had been added to the list, and after a number of smaber places, lying westward along the Their coast as far as Seaford, had also been included. The ^viie* es Cinque Ports were peculiarly privbeged in their rights of local self-government and judicature ; and they were exempted from the talbages and other burdens which fell upon all other towns. In return for these,, and for many honorary distinctions (some of which still survive), the Cinque Ports were bound to furnish the King with fifty-two ships, fuby equipped and manned, which were to serve him whenever the defence of the country required it, free of ab payment and com pensation. The period, for which the squadrons of the Cinque Ports were obliged thus to serve gratuitously, was originaby fifteen days ; but this was afterwards extended to forty ; and we find instances also of a larger number of vessels than fifty-two being required of them. If the King detained them beyond the appointed time, he was bound to pay freightage to the shipowners, and wages to the crews. The king's Edward III. had also ships of his own; built or own ships, hired at his own expense ; and one of his men-of-war, the " Christopher," deserves remembrance in English naval history. But these were few in number : and IMPEESSMENT. 93 what he mainly relied on (besides the supplies from chap. tbe Cinque Ports), for the collection of a naval force JL sufficient to cope with that of France, was the royal 134°- prerogative of impressment, which in those days was mental " systematicaby exercised, not only for the purpose of manners pressing mariners and soldiers for the King's service, a" d stores> but also for arresting and employing in that service resource private shipping and maritime stores of every descrip- 0ut themg tion. Whenever, in the opinion of the King and his J°^ councb, an emergency arose, which required more ex tensive naval operations than could be effected by the King's own ships, and by the contingents of the Cinque Ports, writs were issued to the King's Admirals and other officers, requiring them to arrest ab ships above a certain specified tonnage, and to cause them to be equipped for war. Crews, provisions, tackle, and all other requisites, were seized and cobected by similar arbitrary process. The maritime The forces of the realm were usuaby divided, in Edward's and time, into the northern fleet, and into the southern n^.™ fleet, which included the squadron of the Cinque Catalogues Ports. There are transcripts extant of a catalogue ^,^f^. of the English ships cobected by Edward when he The roll of was besieging Calais in 1347, and when he was Calais- making especial efforts to secure his mastery at sea. etrength^f That list, called the rob of Calais, gives a sum total Enghum in ' . . snipping in of seven hundred vessels, as composing the English 1340-47. north and south fleets.'5' Of course the greater part * See Sir H. Nicolas, vol. ii. Among these the King's own ships were 25 in number, manned with 419 mariners. London sent 25 ships with 662 mariners. Weymouth 20 ships, 264 mariners. Dartmouth 31 ships, 757 mariners. Portsmouth sent only 5 ships and 96 mariners : this important place had been burnt by the French ten years before. Plymouth sent 26 ships and 603 mariners. Bristol 24 ships and 608 mariners. Shoreham 20 ships and 328 mariners. Southampton (which had been sacked by the French in 1338, though it had not suffered so severely 94 EDWAED III. CHAP. II. 1340. Size of System of naval war fare. Sea-fights bke land- fights. Merchantships, how convertedinto war ships. of these vessels were of very small size, and even the ships that were regarded as vessels of the first class, seldom exceeded two hundred tons. The En gbsh ships were generaby inferior in size to the Genoese and Spanish vessels, which they had often to encounter. And this disparity of bulk and height was a serious disadvantage in the mode of naval war fare then practised, which consisted chiefly in close fighting between the crews and soldiers whom each vessel carried. Archers also were placed on board, whose arrows before as well as after the grappling of the vessels, might have some effect on the issue of the combat ;¦ but more importance seems to have been attached to the effect of stones, beams, and other heavy substances, which were carried up to the top- castle of the mast, and thence hurled down on the enemy's deck, as she lay alongside. The effect of this was often to crash through her planks, and to sink her, besides the carnage which missbes so discharged could deal amid the crew. Sea-fights, indeed, closely resembled land-fights, or, rather, they were bke cross- assaults of soldiers on mutually hostbe fortifications reared up close to each other. The process of equipping an impressed merchant ship for 'taking part in such combats was not very complicated ; and tbe names of the additions, which she received, attest the character of the naval warfare of as Portsmouth) supplied 21 ships and 576 mariners. Newcastle sent 17 ships, 414 mariners. HuU 16 ships, 466 mariners. "Lenne," setMe Lynn, 19 ships, 482 mariners. Boston 17 ships, 361 mariners. Yarmouth's contingent was the largest of all, amounting to 43 ships and 1905 mariners. Thirteen places in the North sent a single vessel each, the crews varying from 6 to 19 in number of men. We can probably form a proximate idea of the kind of shipping which each place sent, and of the general size of the vessels of the united fleets, by adopting Sir H. Nicolas' calcu lation, who considers that ships in this age were manned with about 65 mariners to every hundred tons of burden. ENGLISH MAEINEES. 95 CHAP. II. tionatenumbers of and semi- piratical. that time. She was fitted with her " castles." These were three in number : the castle in the bows, being termed the " forecastle ;" that in the stern the ." off- 13*o. castle," or "aftercastle ; " and a stage was bubt at the mast-head,* which was cabed the " top-castle." The number of fighting men placed on board a ship Propor when fitted for war, in addition to. her own crew, was usually about half the number of the seamen. Thus, sailors and . P t t t marines. a ship of 200 tons would be manned by about 130 sabors, and about 65 soldiers, or, as they now would be termed, marines.f But the sailors themselves were character Very effective combatants ; and the ordinary life of a m^0/ea' sea-faring man in those times was more like the life ?ose of the old Scandinavian sea rovers, or that afterwards pugnacious led by the buccaneers of the 1 6th and 1 7th centuries, than it resembled the habits and occupations of those who navigate the commercial vessels of modern days. The frequency of wars between the great maritime countries made their seamen familiar with arms and conflicts, and taught them not only to defend their own ships and cargoes, but to seek vengeance and lucre by attacks upon those of others. Though truce or peace might be proclaimed on land, the State's orders to for bear from the normal practices of violence and plunder were little heeded at sea ; and the mariners of the dif ferent nations, whether Scottish, English, French, Flemish, Spanish, or Genoese, thought more, when a sail hove in sight, of what was the stranger's fighting capacity, and what the worth of her cargo, than of what nation she belonged to, or by what crown or State she was commissioned. Quarter seems seldom * No ships seem to have had more than one mast each, except the vessels called "Fluves," which are supposed to have been large flat-bottomed transports. t See Sir H. Nicolas's calculation, vol. ii. p. 127. 96 EDWAED III. CHAP. II. 1340. nature of naval warfare. The Englishpeople to have been given or expected in battle ; and the summary process of throwing the survivors of the defeated crew overboard relieved the victors of a troublesome burden, and also often secured them from disagreeably hostile testimony, respecting the circum stances of the conflict, and the lawfulness of the prize.* Edward was zealously supported by the English Parbament and people in his claim to the Sovereignty * Chaucer's description of the " shipman " of that age is unequalled in picturesque vigour. He places the hardy skipper of Dartmouth before our very eyes, with his characteristicaUy-indifferent seat on horseback, riding upon a hackney (rouncey) as he could, with his face bronzed (like those of Sir Walter Scott's pirates) by the hot sun, under which he had pursued his rough calling, and with his beard that had been shaken by many a storm. No less vivid are the brief, vigorous strokes, in wliich Chaucer paints before us the joviality, the skiU, and the daring of the typical seaman, his con temptuous disregard of law, and his grim jest (which Avery or Morgan might have quoted) of " sending his prisoners home by water." I shall have occasion presently to draw largely on the " Prologue to the Canterbury Tales" for portraits of the English of those days, but I will at once recall to my reader's memory how — " A shipman was there, wone"d far by west. For aught I wot, he was of Dartemouth. He rode upon a rouncy as he couth ; All in a gown of f aiding to the knee. A dagger hanging by a lace had he About his neck under his arm adown. The hot summer had made his hue all brown. And certainly he was a good feUaw. Full many a draught of wine he hadde' draw From Bordeaux ward, whUe that the chapmen sleep. Of nicg conscience took he no keep. If that he fought, and had the higher hand, By water he sent them home to every land. But of his craft to reckon weU his tides, His streames and his strandes him besides, His harbourage, his moon, his lodemange, There was none such from Hull unto Carthage. Hardy he was, and wise, I undertake. With many a tempest had his beard been shake. He knew well aU the havens, as they were From Gothland to the Cape de Finisterre, And every creek in Bretagne and in Spain. His barque yclepdd was the Magdalen." THE ENGLISH ELEET SAILS EOE ELANDEES. 97 of the Seas. In the Parliament which had been con- chap. vened in the January of 1340, vigorous measures had JL been resolved on for assembbng fleets at Winchelsea 134°- and Portsmouth by Mid-Lent, and for protecting the theirking English coasts from 'spoliation. Ship-masters and ex- ^s™^ perienced mariners from the various ports had been EngiiBh. summoned to attend before this Parliament, to give AConven- information on naval matters — a salutary measure, tiouof p seamen which . was frequently practised in this reign ; the consulted seafaring deputies or witnesses (whichever term seems matters. most applicable to their functions), being sometimes summoned to attend before the Parliament and some times before the King's Council. After the King's return to England, and when the enemy's preparations in the opposite ports were known, the English squad rons were strengthened by more ships, more mariners, and more soldiers ; and, on the 22nd of June, the 22nd June, King deft the Essex coast with a fleet of 200 vessels, great Eng- which was increased on its passage by the junction of s^ls ^f a squadron of fifty ships from the northern ports, Flanders- under Sir Eobert Manby. On the following day, Thehar- about noon, the English were off the Flemish shore, "siuys," near to a port sometimes called " The Sluys," and some- &wyn."e times " The Swyn." It is now almost choked up with accumulated sand, but it then was a harbour capacious enough to shelter a very great number of the largest vessels that were known in that age. The French fleet The French consisted of 190 ships, but among them were nineteen decried far superior in size and strength to any in the force there?11" under King Edward's command. One of these nine- The captive teen was the celebrated " Christopher," which the t0phe™" French had captured from the English in the preced ing year, and the recovery of which was one of the objects nearest to the heart of every English sailor. The French fleet was drawn up in four divisions, VOL. II. H 98 EDWAED III. chap, and the ships of each division were fastened to each JL other with iron chains. ' This made it difficult for an 134°- attacking enemy to cut out separately the vessels of tbnHTthe any one of the four lines ; but it also made it difficult admirals f°r tlie reSt °f tlie Frencl1 fl<3et t0 §ive timely an(l against effective support to any one of then? divisions, in the event of that single division being briskly assabed by an overwhelming force. Names of The French Admiral in chief command was Sir Frame's Hugh Kiriet ; Sir Nicolas Bahuchet was second in admirals. authority under him ; and a renowned Genoese sea- officer, whom the French chronicler cabs Barbe Noire, had command of the fourth or rear division. The fleet was manned by 35,000 French and Genoese, a very large proportion of "whom were soldiers. The Edward made his attack and commenced the Battle Battle of ^ siuys at highwater, at noon, on the 24th of June, 1340 J™e' 13^0. He made his dispositions for action with great King Ed- skill, assembling such a number of his best ships in his ^positions vanward, or attacking column, as gave him a great for attack. preponderance of strength over each of the French divisions, when taken in detab. The English bore down before the wind upon the first bne of the French, where they met with a gabant resistance. Each English vessel, that could reach an enemy, instantly grappled her, and a scene of desperate fighting between the boarders on each side ensued. The men- at-arms fought hand to hand ; the Engbsh archers pbed their weapons with deadly skbl, each bow-man being ready to do his duty with the brown bib, when the quiver was exhausted, or when a foe was too close for the bow to be effective. On the other side, the cross-bow men showered their bolts, and the heaps of stones, that had been collected in the top-castles of the masts, rattled and crashed over and through the adver- THE BATTLE OE SLUTS. 99 sary's decks. Many ships were taken and retaken chap. more than once in this close and obstinate encounter. JL At last the Engbsh prevailed. The French crews luo- and soldiers were either cut down or driven overboard He crushes into the sea. The first French bne was now all HneofVe destroyed or captured, and, to the exceeding joy of ^renah- the English, their favourite " Christopher " was re- TheEngiish gained by them, together with three other large ships T?™^?*116 — the " Edward," the "Katherine," and the " Eose "— topher." all of which had been captured by the French in the preceding year. The " Christopher " was immediately They man manned with an English crew ; and, with a strong t£l ' an force of archers on board of her, she was sent forward 't'00^sJ, to continue the battle on the English side, against fights again , ° ° as an Eng- her late temporary masters. Ush ship. The second and third lines of the French offered a The second feebler resistance than their van. Still the battle was £"es 0ftlie prolonged into the hours of darkness, by which time backed16 the English had mastered three-fourths of the enemy's and beaten. armada. The fourth division, under the Genoese Ad- Their miral, Barbe Noire, set themselves loose from their d°iT;si0I1 moorings, and, without attempting to aid their com- ^ta?gesc'ap_ rades, stood out to sea, inflicting in theb way consider- ^f^' able damage on the reserved ships, which Edward had wards by left in the roadstead to guard his transports. But squadfon.h Barbe Noire's squadron (like that of Dumanoir's, in after times, at Trafalgar), though it escaped from the great battle, feb in with an English force, by which the greater part of it was captured a few days after wards. The first act of Edward, when he landed after his Solemn victory, was to proceed on foot to the nearest church, J™J;f and there to return thanks to the Most High for the ****¦ deliverance and success, which had been vouchsafed to the English fleet and nation. He despatched a ° H 2 100 EDWAED III. CHAP. II. 1340. King Edward's despatchand narra tive of the battle. Renownwhich King Edwardgains by this victory. He is still unsuccess ful at land. Repulse from before Tournay. Exhaustion of Edward's resources. An armis tice agreed to, which is prolonged to 1342. Edward'sdisappointments and embarrass ments. letter to his son (then Duke of Cornwall, and after wards Prince of Wales) in England, with a narrative of the action, which has lately been translated and published from a copy preserved in the archives of the City of London, and which has been justly com mended for the .spirit of modesty and piety which pervades it.* The Battle of Sluys not only increased the renown of King Edward throughout Europe, but gave England for several years the very great advantage of supe riority at sea over her enemies, and of greater safety for her ships and coasts ; although the predatory attacks by smab French squadrons were not wholly discontinued. At land, Edward's arms were this year unsuccessful. He laid siege to the city of Tournay.; but it was bravely defended by a numerous garrison, and King Philippe of France continued his prudent system of watching and harassing the English, army, without allowing himself to be drawn into a pitched battle. Edward's resources for paying his troops and subsidizing his abies were utterly exhausted, and he was obliged to agree to a truce for nine months, from the 25th September, 1340, which was afterwards pro longed to 1342. Edward was now loaded with debt ; and his allies, who had shown little energy in the war, were unre mitting in their importunities for . the subsidies and wages, which he had promised to them. The King's ministers in England were either unable or unwdling to supply him with the sums which he required ; and, soured by disappointment and annoyances, Edward suddenly embarked with his Queen, on a stormy * It is given by Sir Harris Nicolas in the 2nd volume of his History of the Navy, p. 61. The original French is set out by Sir Harris in an Appendix. THE KING AND AEOHBISHOP STEATEOED. 101 November day, on board a vessel that was lying in a chap. port of Zealand. No one in England expected him. JL His ship came unnoticed up the Thames ; and the King, ni0- landing at midnight at the Tower of London, found secret^™ that important fortress almost destitute of guards, to England^ This added fresh fuel to his anger. . In the morning ^°J- 30> he imprisoned the constable of the Tower, the Mayor He finds . th.e Thames of London, and others. He dismissed nearly all his and the ministers,* and his . anger was especially dbected ^^e™" against the ecclesiastical statesmen who had so long He im_ stood high in his favour, the President of the Council, p™sons o ' ' omcers, and the Lord Chancellor, Stratford Archbishop of Can- and dis- terbury. The King summoned the Ex-Chancellor to ministers. appear before him and answer the charges against His attack him. Stratford, as Archbishop, refused to answer before bishop any other judges than his peers assembled in Par liament. A strange controversy (which in the phraseology of modern times would be cabed a paper war) between the King and his chief subject now ensued The King published a proclamation, which he ordered The king's to be read in ab the churches in England, charging Stratford with grievous misconduct and fraud in first stirring up the war with France, and then by his malversations depriving the King of the moneys re quired for carrying it on. The Archbishop replied The arch- by a sermon and a circular ; the King published a rePiyPS replication, setting forth his charges against Stratford stbl more copiously and virulently. The Archbishop rejoined in another elaborate circular of justification. The king The King closed the discussion by subenly stating ^^ * Walsingham remarks that clerical ministers were now turned out, and lay statesmen appointed in their places. Sir Robert Bourchier, to whom the Great Seal was now given, was the first lay ChanceUor of Eng land. 102 EDWAED III. CHAr. that he meant to prove all his charges, but that he JL should do so at his own good season. 1341. ^ pa]qj ament was summoned at Westminster in April, meete at ° 1341, at which the Archbishop presented himself, but itefTprii, was refused admission by Edward's orders. The con- 1341. troversy between them was now renewed in a new vainly1^- form ; but the peers, both lay and spbitual, listened exchXthe witn favour to the claim which the Archbishop put ^o" forward and never swerved from, that he as a peer should be tried by his peers, according to the Great soiemSy Charter. A statute was passed in this session esta- thttbaisher klishing this right. It does not purport to have been is to be passed by reason of Archbishop Stratford's claim, but his peers, it was evidently caused by it* The king The King appears to have been altogether in the way" wrong in his quarrel with the Primate; and he had either the prudence or the good feeling to own this publicly, and to desist from a struggle which was bringing him into discredit, and creating disaffection Stratford is to ' him among his important subjects. On the 3rd declared of May, King Edward before his fub Parbament de- guawnd clared the Archbishop to be free from ab the charges is restored made against him. Stratford was replaced in the councb, and became again one of the King's trusted ministers. The parliamentary proceedings of this period may generaby be most conveniently spoken of when we address ourselves to the consideration of the consti- Dupiicity tutional history of this reign. But one most discredit- towards Ms able act of the King ought to be noticed here, as it andp^opie*. gives us a useful warning not to attach much faith to Edward's assertions in his state manifestoes, unless they are corroborated by other evidence, or by intrinsic * 16 Ed. 3, c. 2. THE KING AND THE PAELIAMENT. 103 probability. Before the Parliament would grant chap. Edward the subsidies which he needed, they requbed __ the redress of certain specified grievances. The King 1341, professed to assent to this ; and the petitions for redress were drawn up in the form of a statute. But when Edward had obtained the money, he issued a proclamation (copies of which were sent to the sheriffs of all the counties), in which he stated that in con sequence of the obstinacy of the Parbament in refusing to take due measures for the necessities of the state unless certain illegal and pernicious articles were agreed to, he the King had dissembled (as was fit for him to do),* and made a pretence of passing and granting those articles #s a statute ; but that he now decreed that statute to be a nullity, so far as it went beyond former statutes. Two years afterwards Edward obtained from a new Parliament a repeal (legal in form, but cautiously and vaguely worded) of the obnoxious statute. The repealing statute excepts from repeal and re-enacts such articles of the repealed statute as are in conformity with law and reason. Truces and ineffectual negociations for a permanent Truces and peace with France were continued for four years more. STwith There were also some truces with the Scots ; but open the Frenoh' war between them and the Engbsh broke out much sooner than the renewal of the war with France. . The Aa^^es result of the desultory hostilities between the Scots the Scots. and the English, after Edward's victory at Halidon Hbl, had been much in favour of the Scots ; and the English lost ab their conquests in the northern king dom except a few fortresses. At the close of the year 1341, Edward went in person to Newcastle-on-Tyne to take command of an army; but a truce was then * " Dissimulavimus sicut oportuit."— Rymer, vol. ii. part iv. p. 112. t Rot. Pari. vol. ii. p. 139. 104 EDWAED III. CHAP. II. made, which was renewed and prolonged for several years, 1341-1345.Disputes as to the suc cession to the duke dom of Brittany. The probabibties of a solid peace with the King of France being effected was very much diminished by a new source of dispute between Edward and Philippe, which broke out in consequence of the death of John, the third Duke of Brittany, in 1341. The right of succession to the duchy was claimed by John de Montfort and Charles de Blois. King Phbippe gave a decision on the subject in favour of Charles ; and thereupon De Montfort went to England, and secured the help of Edward, on condition of acknowledging him as King of France. The Countess de Montfort maintained her husband's cause there against the superior forces of his rival and of Charles' French auxbiaries with heroic courage, after De Montfort himself had, on his return to Brittany, been defeated and taken prisoner. A smab body of Engbsh troops under the gallant Sir Walter Manny was sent to Brittany, and gave valuable aid to the De Montfort party. Late in 1342, Edward himself led an army into Brittany, but the campaign there had no result of any importance. In January, 1343, there was a fresh truce. More negociations for peace fobowed ; but it was ne cessary for the Engbsh government to keep up pre parations for warfare, and the coasts were repeatedly attacked by French cruisers and squadrons. The English people and Parliament grew naturaby indig nant, and weary of this state of things ; and the Par- The pariia- bament wisely addressed the King, urging him either o>re that to make a nrm peace on proper terms, or to carry on there the war in earnest. This last course was finaby should be . "L either peace taken ; and in 1345 an English fleet and army saued to Bayonne under the Earl of Derby, who gained many English forces in Brittany. Further truce, in January, 1343. state of nominal truce, but need of constant readinessfor war. in earnest, or war in earnest. EENEWAL OF THE WAE WITH EEANCE. 105 important advantages over King Philippe's partizans chap. in the south of France. JL In the July of the fobowing year Edward led in 1346- person a stbl more numerous army, consisting solely of newed in his own subjects, to a renewed invasion of the north of ^345' „ , TT T r> T T Successful France ; but he, on this occasion, instead of landing expedition in Flanders and marching into the eastern provinces Earfof e of the kingdom, sailed from Southampton direct to the ^^Ja, coasts of Normandy, and landed on the 12th of July of France. j. t tt July. 1346, at La Hogue. KingEd- The force, with which Edward commenced his vie- J^1^ torious campaign of this year, is not precisely stated, ?™y to ^ ° . . . Normandy. Froissart says that there might be in it 4000 men-at- juiyi2. arms and 10,000 archers, besides Irish and Welsh ^£njLat > J Jja xlogue, foot-soldiers. But it is uncertain whether Froissart Number of means that ab the English cavalry made up about the |^fa^ number of 4000, or whether he speaks of the heavy forces- cavaby only as 4000 men-at-arms, not taking count tamtyof of the hobelers or light-armed horsemen. The latter ^0en"alcula" is most probably the case ; and if it be so, we must make a large addition for light cavalry. According to the opinions of writers of great authority on such subjects, we should further reckon a large number of infantry on the English side, besides the archers, and the Welsh and the Irish, whom Froissart mentions. ' Every knight and every esquire had at least one per- Fighting , , t i ,, , -tt ;> cc >> attendants sonal attendant, and these "coustibers, or pages, 0fthemen- or " Serjeants," as they are variously termed, are sup- at-arms- posed, besides ministering to their masters, to have done duty as light-armed infantry in time of action. Eegard is also to be had to the very large number of the ships, that were employed to convey and escort this army from Southampton to the opposite side of the Channel. Some old writers state the fleet to have amounted to 1600 sail; none reckon it at less than lOfi EDWAED III. chap. 1100. Altogether, without attempting precision of JL judgment, where our evidence is so vague, I should 1346, estimate King Edward's troops of ab arms, that were ^andble landed on the Norman coast in 1 3 4 6 , as between 30,000 twetnte" and 40,000 ; the flower and pith of the whole army un- fudTooo doubtedly consisting of the 4000 men-at-arms and the 4000 men- 10,000 archers.* at-armsand y^& now are aimost on the eve of the battle of archersthe Cressy, a word that even after the lapse of five cen- core of the turies stirs English blood like a trumpet blast ; how- Tmsis ever austerely we may censure the war in which that '! The , battle was fought and won. The desire to have placed Army of ° x Cressy." before the mind's eye some image of what manner of men they were who achieved that victory is irre- havea*0 sistible ; nor is it to be satisfied by mere arithmetic as Uving ideal to knights, hobelers, archers, Serjeants, and the bke. of what _, & ' . ' ' J ' . . manner of Perhaps something may be done to realize it, it we English6 fi^f pause to examine what were the means of col- fouhtat lecting an(x supporting a mibtary force, which an Cressy. English king in those ages possessed, and from what materials a* classes of society the various descriptions of soldiery were the were supplied. armies ot x ¦>• England Every free Engbshman was required by the English supplied? law to have arms, such as his estate enabled him to Every free provide, and to bear those arms in defence of the Englishman x .. . n n required by realm and the public peace, when summoned so to do * I have made much use of a learned appendix by Dr. Meyrick to Sir Harris Nicolas's History of the Battle of Agincourt (p. 45), which gives valuable information as to the armies of Edward III., as well as to those of Henry V. But I do not feel so certain as that learned writer seems to be, that all the attendants on the knights and squires were fighting-men, as well as serving-men. Nor does it seem to me clear that when a knight contracted with the king to bring to the campaign so many, say six, horses, it meant that he was to provide five mounted soldiers besides himself. I should think that some of the horses were intended for spare horses, or for re-mounts. The immense weight of the men-in-armour, whom the chargers had to carry, must have made sore backs very common. THE ENGLISH PEOPLE, AEMED FEEEMEN. 107 by the king or the king's proper officers. In this, as chap. in so many other constitutional matters, the provident JL and patriotic genius of Edward I. had carefully 1346- ordained and defined the rights and duties of the Sve1™ sovereign and his people. We have already* noted a™se'afld this great king's Statute of Winchester, which arms in 1 , 1 , t ^ defence of commands that every man between 15 and 60 years England. of age should be assessed, and should be sworn to Edward have armour in his house according to the amount of ^tute of his lands and goods. Those of even the lowest rate Win_ in wealth were ordered to have bows and arrows, with which they were to be supplied from the royal forests. View of armour was to be made twice a year, in any hundred and franchise by the constables ; and by a statute ¦ passed in the second year of Edward III.'s reign the king's justices received power to punish summarily those who made default in these matters. The king thus had a nation of armed men at his The English command ; but it was only for the preservation of the nation of peace against domestic malefactors or rebels, or in case ^^en. of actual or menaced invasion from abroad, that their Limited services were lawfully avabable. But even for these Sng to call purposes the frequent turbulence of those ages called action"1*0 the " good and lawful men " of each shire often to the still, the use of their weapons ; and thus our kings had in those me™>e of ages under them, not only a nation of men with jj^J1^? arms, but a nation of men who knew how to use their tice in *<= arms, and who had skill as well as spirit for actual weiias n i the pos- wariare.y session of Besides the right of thus calling forth in arms the arma whole population of a shire, or of the whole kingdom, in * See vol. i. p. 462. t See the observations of Sir Francis Palgrave in the 3rd volume of the History of Normandy and England, p. 611. 108 EDWAED III. CHAP. II. 1345. The feudal array. Limited time of feudal military service. Probable limitation of the king's right as to place of service. Need of a more per manent force. Such a force ne cessarily a hired one. Military indentures between the times of local or of general danger, our kings, as feudal heads of ab the landowners of the kingdom, could summon to the field the nobbity and the gentry, that is to say, all who held lands of the crown by military tenure. The baronial and knightly possessors of large domains were bound, not only to serve in person, but to bring with them a specified number of mounted men-at-arms, according to the value of their estates. There is reason to mistrust the common statements as to the number of knights' fees in England, but the number was certainly considerable. But this feudal array was bound to serve the king for forty days Only. During this period they were entitled to no pay from him ; but at the end of the forty days he must have retained them, if at all, by purchasing theu? services. The king claimed the right to lead his feudal vassals to any of his wars, within the realm of England or in Scotland, or in Flanders, or in France. But the liabbity of the crown vassals to serve in parts beyond the seas was not undisputed ; and even when such service was rendered, an army, which had a right to disband itself at the end of forty days after the first muster of its respective bands under the king's stan dard, could be of bttle value in a foreign campaign. Our kings felt the necessity of having under their command on such occasions bodies of hired men, whose services were engaged beforehand, at rates of pay agreed on between the sovereign and the soldiers. The soldiers hired themselves out to the king as their employer in the war. Sometbnes the contract was made for a definite number of Aveeks or months; sometimes it was a bargain of hiring and service for the purposes of some specific mibtary expedition or operation. The usual course was for indentures to be drawn up and executed between the king on one side, MILITAEY SEEVTCE. 109 and individual noblemen or knights of influence and chap. martial renown on the other. These indentures pro- JL vided that the covenanting subject should serve the 13i5- king in his war with so many men-at-arms, so many thegPrinci- hobelers (or light cavalry), and so many archers, for trt*>ra. wages, which were generally paid in advance. The Sub-con- nobleman or knight, who entered into such a contract fj^ or with the king for the supply of a considerable force, suPPUes- frequently made sub-contracts of a similar kind with others, for the supply to him of smab com panies, out of which his main force was to be formed. The rate of wages was very high. The High rate or wnffps daby pay of an archer equalled in value at least five shblings of our money at the present time. A light- horseman received thrice this amount. An esquire had four times as much as an archer. A knight's pay equabed two pounds a day in the value of modern money, and the pay of a baron was at the rate of what now would be reckoned at nearly fifteen hundred pounds a year* The greater part of the royal armies was thus composed of paid soldiers, who had voluntarily en tered into engagements to serve the king. But the The king's prerogative of impressment was also largely employed ^s for the land as web as for the sea service. It was not, however, endured without murmurings and remon strances ; and the king was always obliged to pay wages to his pressed men. Impressment was stbl more * There is great fluctuation in the rates of pay in Edward III.'s time. Probably this may have been partly caused by the tamperings with the currency, and the often-recurring seasons of dearth. The issue-roU of 44 Ed. 3 (cited in Nicolas, vol. ii. p 177, n.) shows that the wages of the king's seamen were raised in that year by » fourth on account of the dearness of provisions. I have f oUowed in the text the scale of wages which the RoU of Calais shows to have been paid to Edward's forces in France in the 20th year of his reign. 110 EDWAED ni. CHAP. II. 1345. The non- combatants, the artisans of the army, how raised and paid. Plunder as well as pay. Bansom. Equipment of the knights and men-at-arms. Plate armour. used to obtain supplies of artificers — such as masons, smiths, tent-makers, and the like — than to add actual combatants to the ranks. The wages paid to the mechanics of the army varied greatly in amount, doubtless according to theb? respective degrees of skill and utibty. None received less than an archer's pay, and some obtained more than seven times that amount. Besides the king's pay, which the king's forces re ceived, the hope of plunder was a strong incentive to many to join an expedition into a country that was to be treated as hostbe, under a commander whose military renown gave his fobowers fair promise of victory. The ransom of highborn and wealthy cap tives formed in those days the most lucrative part of the spobs of war. By an arrangement between the kmg and his subjects in the army, every prisoner whose ransom was estimated below a certain specified amount belonged to the soldier who captured him; but prisoners of a higher degree were to be made over to the king on his paying a definite sum to the actual captor for his prize.* The knights and men-at-arms formed by far the most bribiant portion of the armies, which our kings in those ages drew together by the methods and in ducements that have been described. Armour had been greatly improved in the 14th century, so far as regarded the protection given by it to the bearer, Plate armour almost entirely superseded the old defences made from iron rings sewn one after the other on a leathern or linen bning. Knights and men- * Many modern sneerers at chivalry represent the courage pf the warriors of those days as entirely arising from their appetite for ransom-money. It would be about as just to represent the courage of the officers and men of the modern British navy as entirely arising from an appetite for prize- money. THE OAVALEY. jjj at-arms of every kind now took the field sheathed in chap. complete steel from head to foot. A tunic or jupon, JL as it was termed, richly emblazoned, was Avorn over 1345' the body-armour; and round this was the mibtary girdle, which also was elaborately ornamented. The weapons warrior's weapons for attack were the long lance, the for attack- sword and dagger, in addition to which a heavy mace was often slung at the saddle-bow. The war-horse had a housing of chain-mail draped over with a rich cloth, on which the heraldic ensigns of the rider were displayed. A force of cavalry of this description, when the gucJl teaTy horses were fresh and vigorous, and when the ground a™jd onl presented no obstacles natural or artificial to a charge formidablem direct at fub speed, was irresistible except by a force similarly charge equipped. But when such horsemen had to act on ground!6 broken ground, their movements must have been slow and disordered; and if also the horses were jaded, a charge by heavy cavalry must have been almost contemptible. The commanders of this age were Practice of beginning to recognise the general superiority of well- ^smount- armed infantry over cavaby; and we find repeated ing and J t • acting as a instances of the knights and men-at-arms dismounting, body of and fighting in a compact phalanx on foot. But it armed was usual in such cases to keep some part of the force sPearmen- in the saddle to act as cavalry : and the skib of employing the two arms in due proportion and on fit occasions, and of supporting and foUowing up the action of both heavy-armed infantry and heavy-armed cavaby, by the combined movements of light troops, was no slight element of the generalship, for which Edward III. and his ibustrious son the Black Prince, and in the next century Henry V., were justly re nowned throughout Christendom. France, Flanders, Germany, Italy, Scotland, and 112 EDWAED III. CHAP. II. 1345. Knights and men- at-armssuppliedby other lands. ArchersEnglishonly. The agri culturalmiddle-classes in England. Spain, besides England, could send forth knights and men-at-arms in bribiant panoplies and with gallant hearts to the battle-field ; and, wherever there was a populace or a peasantry, bands of imperfectly armed irregular troops or camp-fobowers could be huddled together beneath a sovereign's banner. But England supplied a force in those ages, to which other nations had nothing equivalent, and nothing simbar. These were the English archers,* " England's peculiar and appropriate sons," the prime of her rural middle class, of a class that was numerous and flourishing here at a time, when in other countries there was no inter mediate population (save in the chartered towns) between the noblesse and an abject mass of poverty and serfdom. We have already had occasion to notice with admi ration and gratitude the distinguishing characteristics of our early institutions, which secured an equality of civil rights to all commoners, and which favoured the maintenance and growth even in the worst Anglo- * Many foreign as weU as English modern writers, Barante, Michelet, Mackintosh, Macaulay, and others, have pointed out the extent to which the English victories in the 14th and 15th centuries were due to our archery; and they have noticed also the fact that the class whence the archers were supplied was peculiar to England. I believe that Sir Walter Scott was the first to observe this ; and the panegyric is as true as graphic, which, in his drama of Halidon Hill, he makes one of the characters pro nounce on— " These gaUant yeomen, — England's peculiar and appropriate sons, Eriown in no other land. Each boasts his hearth And field as free as the best lord his barony, Owing subjection to no human vassalage, Save to their king and law. Hence are they resolute, Leading the van on every day of battle, As men who know the blessings they defend. Hence are they frank and generous in peace, As men who have their portion in its plenty. No other kingdom shows such worth and happiness Veiled in such low estate." THE ENGLISH YEOMAN. 113 Norman times of a numerous class of smab landowners, chap. each of whom held his bttle patrimony by free JL though not by mibtary tenure, and each of whom had 1346- important constitutional functions confided to bim in peace as an elector and as a juror.* These are the The original yeomanry of England ; though as the practice yeomanry. grew up of free commoners taking and cultivating land on lease, the term " yeoman " was appbed to this class of agriculturists also.t" In the habitual arming and training of the whole The yeomen free population, which was enforced by our old laws, b0wPas the bow became the favourite and characteristic weapon ^^jf of the Engbsh yeomanry. And, as the value of our ar- weaP°n- cher-force in warfare was made more and more manifest by its actual efficiency on the battle-field, our statesmen directed their more earnest attention to the constant training of the population in the use of the long-bow. The education of the Engbsh archer began at an early age. The bttle boy had placed in his hands a bttle bow Early suited to his strength and stature : and, as the lad grew tS^giish into youth and manhood, so were the length and power archer' increased, until he could wield with ease and certainty " the mighty bow " which in those ages was the badge and sign of an Engbsh yeoman.| The regular range * See voL i p. 323, supra. t This seems to have been the case as early as Chaucer's time. The yeoman in his Canterbury Tales appears to have been a tenant of, and in some degree dependent on the knight. On the other hand, the term " yeoman" is still, or until very lately has been, applied in our jury-lists to the small landowners exclusively, whUe those who hold under a landlord are summoned as " farmers." I have often noticed this on the jury-panels in Sussex, and have been glad to see how many real yeomen of the original class are stUl to be found in southern England. X See the vigorous sketch of the yeoman in the prologue to the Canter bury Tales ; and above aU the magnificent couplet in which Chaucer tells us of his nut-headed, brown-visaged yeoman that " His arrows drooped not with a feather low, And in his hand he bare a mighty bow." 114 EDWAED III. CHAP. II. 1346. Length of range of the old Englisharchery. Inferiority of modern archers. Reason of the dif ference. Shootingwith the strengthof the whole body.Arrows and armour. Rapidity of dischargeof arrows. Probable loss and confusionamong of English archers.Archers sometimes cut up by a suddencharge of horse. with the long heavy war-arrow was up to four hundred yards. A slighter shaft could be sped to a greater distance. Modern archers, who have taken up the bow since they became grown men, have been tempted to doubt of the old yeoman having shot with accuracy, or having shot with any effect at ab, at such ranges ; which exceed by nearly four-fold anything that is now accompbshed. But it is to be remembered that the old English archer was trained to his work, whbe his limbs had the suppleness of boyhood ; and that the power then acquired of employing the whole strength of the body in the right manner, at the right moment, and in the right direction, was improved and increased every year, every month, and every week by constant and careful practice. As Bishop Latimer two centuries later said of his own education in archery : "He was taught how to draw ; how to lay his body in the bow, and not to draw with mere strength of arms, as other nations do, but with strength of body." Common armour was not proof against the English archery: and, though the choice steel of the Milan artificers might repel the arrow-head from the skull or breast of the wealthy prince or baron, even the best suits of armour offered' some less protected spots to the keen aim of the English yeoman, through which his " grey- goose " shaft often clove its way. When we call to mind how rapidly a skilful bowman can discharge arrow after arrow, and when we calculate how long it takes for even the best cavaby to traverse four hundred yards, we can form some idea of the loss, which the assailants of a line of English archers would sustain, and of the confusion, into which they would be thrown before they could come to close quarters. Sometimes, however, it did occur that the English archers were broken and slaughtered by an unexpected and rapid THE AEOHEE. 115 charge of the enemy's horse. It was by an attack of chap. this kind that Bruce mainly won the battle of Ban- JL nockburn. But if the general of an English army had 1346; any fair share of military skill, he took care to protect Tg^10113 his archers again'st such an overthrow, by placing them a™\*se on ground, which offered natural or artificial impedi ments to the advance of horse, or by supporting his fines of bowmen by bodies of heavy armed horse or foot. The English yeoman himself, when brought to The archer such close quarters that his bow was useless, was nngto°se no despicable antagonist ; especiaby in the confusion, which soon prevabed when neither side overthrew the other at the first shock, and when the little groups of combatants along the swaying battle-bnes struggled, smote, and toded in hand-to-hand fight. His head His was protected by a cap of steel ; and his stout coat (the cloth of which was sometimes strengthened with rings of mail) could deaden an ordinary stroke from spear or sword. He was always provided vrith some His arms of effective weapon of offence, besides his implements of archery. Sometimes he used the sword ; sometimes a "Bills and short battle-axe, and sometimes the " brown bill," a weapon, which, though ill-adapted for fence in single fight, must have been very formidable in the thronged battle-field, especiaby from the ghastly nature of the wounds, which it was calculated to deal upon either man or horse. Troops also of even bghter equipment than that of The light- trie archers were largely employed in our armies of ^eLaild that age. Scottish wars, and Irish and "Welsh insur- ^Julars_ rections had taught our commanders by dire expe rience how much mischief bold and active men with no armour, and bttle discipline save that of charging and retiring at a leader's cab, can inflict with mere darts and knives upon regular troops when flounder- 116 EDWAED III. chap, ing in the morass, or struggling in the pathless forest, JL or along the rugged mountain side. Such light-armed 1346- auxiliaries, besides giving a skilful general the means ma'nifoid of annoying his adversaries, or of repelling the an- aTkiffiii noyance of similar assailants, were \dso of infinite general. use to him in exploring a hostile, country, or bringing in provisions and forage, and also in screening and masking the strength and the movements of his re- Largeiy gular forces. Edward III. led many thousands of his employed Irish a]1(i Welsh fenmen and mountaineers to the by Jidward in. and campaign of Cressy ; and we shall find Henry V. employing the same description of forces with stib greater effect at and after the battle of Agincourt. Cannons Edward made some use of cannons in this campaign ; theEngiish ^u* ^-eJ seem *° have been of little value in the field ; in this 0f so little, that out of the numerous chroniclers, who campaign, but not have described the battle of Cressy, two only* make effect™110 any mention of the English cannons, and even they do not speak of them as producing any important effect on the issue of the engagement. The cannons were employed by the English King with more ad vantage in besieging Calais, and also in defending his own fortified lines against the French army that ad vanced to raise the siege, f But the use of gun powder was yet very little known even in siege Even in operations. The same old mbitary machines, which thTcata- ^-^ been invented in the classical times for hurling puit and stones and darts, were stib employed by mediaeval similar . j. j j engines warriors. Moveable towers were constructed lor the siege of strong places, as in the days of De- * Villani, and Froissart in the version of his Chronicle which is preserved in the Amiens MS. Froissart does not mention the English cannons in the edition of his Chronicle which he published first, and which is best known. f Jehan le Bel, vol. ii. pp. 127, 129. still in THE BLACK PEINCE. 117 metrius Poliorcetes and of Trajan : and engineers chap. stib tried to destroy a hostile wall by undermining JL it, or to burrow a path beneath it for the passage of 1346- an attacking party. As a general rule, the defender superiority of a fortified place had a great superiority over the fj*^ assailant ; and famine and treachery were the chief 0T5,tn.e ^ % attack in enemies that the garrison of a besieged place, if brave, sieges. numerically strong, and skilfully commanded, had serious cause to fear. As soon as the Engbsh army was landed and fully English arrayed on the French coast, near La Hogue, in 1345, arrayed King Edward conferred the honour of knighthood, ^*^£ with peculiar solemnity and splendour, on his eldest King Ed- son, the young Prince of Wales, and on many of the ^fj™' young noblemen, who had joined in the expedition. kn"ftehood Prince Edward (cabed Edward of Woodstock, from Prince of his birth-place, untb he acquired his renowned title of 0theryoung the Black Prince) was at this time little more than ^9- sixteen years old. But he was unusually gifted both biography in mind and body ; and his royal : father had caused Biack him to be sedulously educated under able scholars *™oe- and statesmen, while at the same time he was trained Edward's to acquire and display the highest possible vigour and moraTand dexterity in all the 'exercises and accomplishments of gj^L the chase, the tourney, and the field. Dignities His early were showered on him even in his tender years. f^Z- He was made Earl of Chester at the age of three, - tu»i train- Duke of Cornwall at the age of seven, and Prince of public Wales at the age of thirteen. These high honours were accompanied by grants of ample domains and revenues. During King Edward's absence from Eng land in the early part of the French war, the young Duke of Cornwall was repeatedly appointed Custos, the Guardian of the Eealm : care being taken to assign to him a council of experienced generals and life. 118 EDWAED III. chap, statesmen, by whose advice he was aided in the, con- JL duct of affairs of state. As the Prince advanced from 1346. boyhood towards youth, King Edward (who was him self stbl a young man) followed the wise pobcy of so treating his son, as to make the Prince regard his father as his favourite companion and dearest friend.* His early Young Edward's popularity among his fellow country- pop n y. ^^ ^^ very great, even before he achieved the vic tories which have made his name a household word with English boys and English men of ab genera tions. Much of the general favour, with which young Edward of Woodstock was regarded by his contem poraries, was justly due to the sense and spirit, which he showed at his early introduction into public bfe. Much more of it was probably won for him by the remarkable beauty of his aspect, the height and sym metry of his well-knit frame, his graceful demeanour, his large-handed liberality, and the splendour of his princely retinue. He was now at the commence ment of his practical career in mibtary bfe, and the chequered pages of mibtary biographies show few careers of such early and web-maintained splendour. Surprise of King Edward's landing in Normandy had been ataeln- wholly unexpected by the French ; and the Engbsh NornTandy. soldiery found for some time a rich and almost unde fended territory in theb? power. They marched east ward in a bne nearly parallel with the coast, accom panied by the Engbsh fleet, which seized large booty in the unfortified Norman sea-ports, and destroyed there many French vessels, and great quantities of naval stores. Normandy The trade in wool, and the manufacture of wooben goods seem at this period to have flourished greatly the seat of the woollen trade and * Koi owceiifaiv r/Sb irats p4if irarpi. — Eurip., Danae. Frag. INVASION OF NOEMANDT. 119 in the chief Norman towns. It is likely that the chap. mercantbe and trading classes of both England and JL Flanders regarded the Normans as their rivals. 1346- Edward, throughout his reign, showed great anxiety Z^f™-' to secure the good wib of these classes of his subjects, "^s t <> t • f. • t it ¦, those of and ot his inends ; and he probably knew that the war England would be regarded with additional favour by the ders. English Parbament, if he relieved the English towns from their commercial competitors in Normandy. The Edward contemporaneous Flemish chronicler Jehan le Bel, neariy^n after sketching generaby Edward's system of devas- commercial tation, particularly describes how the King came N°rman before "the great town, marvebously mercantbe, weaithof which is cabed Saint Leu,"* where there were great St- Lo- cloth works, and great stores of merchandize, and a andwooiien great number of rich burgesses. This great town was factone^' & 6 & It is sacked carried at the first assault, and thoroughly ransacked by the and pibaged. " There lives not the man who could ng 1S imagine, or who could credit, if he were told, the wealth that was gained, and plundered there, or the great quantity of cloths that were found there." f Many of the rich burgesses were made prisoners, and sent to England to make them pay ransom. Jehan le Bel proceeds to say,;); " When the King Edward had had his wbl of the good town of Saint Leu, he left it, to pro ceed to the richest town in Normandy (except the city of Eouen) called Caen : full of great riches, of wealthy burgesses, and noble ladies, of two rich abbeys, and of merchandize of every description." The King of France had sent some troops to aid the inhabitants of Caen is /» -i -i -i <*» taken. Caen, who had been themselves boastful and denant * " La grosse ville, et marchande merveiUeusement ; qu' on appeUe ' Saint Leu.'"— Jehan le Bel, vol. ii. p. 70. t Ibid., p. 71. % Ibid., p. 71. 120 EDWAED III. chap, with regard to the English, and went out to meet them JL in the field ; but they were instantly defeated, and the 1346- town was stormed. The amount of booty taken was wealth very great, and the amount of property destroyed was greatei» still.* The English are said to have been peculiarly exasperated against the people of Caen, by rinding there a copy of a compact, which the Normans had made with King Phibppe at the beginning of the war, by which they undertook to invade and conquer England at their own cost, and were to have the plunder of the country as their reward, f The English remained in Caen three days, and the booty which had been taken — the cloths, the jewels, the gold and silver plate, and other riches — were sent down to the coast, and placed on board Edward's fleet, and conveyed to England.;]: Many also of the burgesses of Caen, and a great crowd of knights who had been taken prisoners in the town, were sent into England, to be kept in prison until they were ransomed. The old chronicler asserts that the "Noble King " gained money enough by this to repay him for ab his cost in this adventure, and also for the sums which he had voluntarily given to his people. § T The Engbsh next marched against Louviers. This Louviers o o sacked by city shared the fate of Saint Lo and Caen. It appears lish. to have been still more important than either of them as a seat of the woollen trade, and for its cloth works. || Kouen The invaders next approached Eouen ; but time menaced, j^ now ^^ g[yen t0 the French to improve the * Jehan le Bel, vol. i. p. 72. t Avesbury, p. 130. t Froissart, p. cclxxxii. § Jehan le Bel, vol. ii. p. 74. II Jehan le Bel describes it as " une grosse ville, qu'on clame Louviers, la ou on fait la plus grande draperie qui soit en France." Vol. ii. p. 7. HIS ADVANCE ON PAEIS. 121 defences of that naturally strong city, and to cobect chap. a numerous garrison within the wabs. Edward passed JL it unattached on his left, and advanced fub upon 1Si6- Paris. His great object was to bring the French King touched. to a pitched battle : but he also by thus menacing his adversary's capital effected the important purpose of Edward's . p , p advance drawing away a great part of Phbippe s troops from upon Pans. southern France, where they had been pressing hard ^smo" upon the smab English army under the Earl of Derby. King Edward, with the main English force, marched Hemarches on as far as Poissy, within two leagues of Paris. But l^es of ° he found the roads broken up, the bridges destroyed ; Pans' and he received certain intelligence that King Phibppe was near him with the fub force of the French king dom. An attack on the French capital under such Paris unas- circumstances was too hazardous ; and a safe retreat appeared almost equaby difficult. Edward's line of Difficulties march had been along the western side of the Seine ; position. and the country, which had been wasted by the Engbsh army during its advance, could no more fur nish him with adequate suppbes for any considerable number of troops. Edward sought, therefore, to gain Edward the other bank of the river, from which Phbippe en- thTeastof deavoured to bar him by destroying the bridges, and the Seme- guarding every place where a passage seemed to be at ab practicable. By a rapid march and countermarch Edward, on the 15th of August, succeeded in drawing away the French main force from the right bank of the Seme at Poissy, and in repairing the bridge at that place before the enemy's return, so as to enable him to move his army and stores across the river. He now marched in a north-easterly direction, towards the friendly territories of northern Flanders, having to sustain severe skirmishes in almost every march. Several messages of defiance were interchanged be- 122 EDWAED III. chap, tween the two kings ; but though King Phbippe JL professed the greatest eagerness for battle, he saw 13i6- that his best policy was to avoid a general action, ^French. an(i to harass the invaders by petty conflicts, when ever the nature of the ground gave the French an Edward m advantage. This prudent system was fobowed for peril be6- a considerable time ; and when Edward reached sXe^nd Airaines, in Picardy, he found himself in a position the Somme. 0f great peril. His army was now between the Seine and the Somme ; and the enemy was vigbantly guarding every ford. If he continued to move forward between these rivers, a strip of sea coast lay before him, on which there was no port which he could hope to occupy and hold, until a fleet could be summoned from England to rescue his troops. Behind him was the huge French host, refusing battle, but increasing daily in numbers and strength, and ready to crush the English remnant, when famine and disease should first Edward have done their deadly work. At last, by offering passes the Somme. large bribes to his prisoners, Edward ascertained the existence of a ford near the vblage of Pont, where no French troops were posted ; the river being very seldom crossed at that spot, and few persons being even aware that a passage there was possible. Thither Edward eagerly led his army by a night-march; but, when they reached the spot, the tide was up; and, as the ford was practicable at low water only, they were compelled to halt during several hours of bngering anxiety. As day dawned over the ebbing water, the English saw that the river had faben low enough for the heavy cavalry to wade through it, but they also beheld the unwelcome spectacle of a large detachment of the French, who were hastening along the eastern bank. There was no time for hesitation. The approaching force was 12,000 strong, and led by THE ENGLISH AEMY OEOSSES THE SOMME. 123 Godemar du Fay, one of Philippe's best captains ; chap. stbl larger forces of the French were likely to be JL moving up to support it; and there was imminent risk 1346- that Philippe with his main army might come up along the western side of the river, and fab upon the rear of the English army whbe separated during the passage. Edward ranged his best archers on the left bank, and bade them ply their arrows on the opposite enemy, so as to cover in some degree the charge of their comrades. Then, forming his mounted knights and men-at-arms, Edward raised the shout, which he made the English battle-cry,* • " God and St. George ! " Then calling aloud, " Let ab who love me fobow me," he spurred his horse down into the river. The Engbsh chivalry dashed in with him ; but they were encountered with equal spirit by Godemar and his French knights, who, instead of waiting on the right bank to receive then- assault, rode forward into the river from their side, and met the Engbsh hand to hand in mid-channel. A desperate but short encounter fobowed. The Engbsh smote down or beat back their bold oppo nents. The right bank was gained ; and, before the tide had again risen, King Edward, with his whole army and stores, was across the dreaded barrier of the Somme. A few more rapid marches would now have brought Edward within the Flemish frontier without further risk. But he wished for victory even more than for security ; and he determined to halt at the first favourable position, and to receive the .battle, which he trusted King Phbippe, incensed at being out-ma- * The installation of St. George as the peculiar patron Saint of England, dates from Edward III.'s reign. This subject wiU be again referred to when we come to the institution of the Knights of the Garter. 124 EDWAED III. chap, nceuvred, and at the havoc made by the English in JL the heart of France, would at last surely offer. 1346, Edward chose for this purpose the rising ground at offer battle", the back of the vibage of Cressy. " Here," he said, to his barons, " here let us post ourselves ; for we will not go further, until we have looked our enemy in the face." Advantages The position taken by Edward at Cressy showed tionhofP°si" great skib on the part of the English Kmg, especiaby Cressy. with reference to the numerical superiority of the forces by which he expected to be attacked ; and with ' reference to the effective employment of his own Edward's archers. He arranged his troops along the rising posting his slopes to the north and the north-east of the vibage. troops. Phbippe and the French army were coming on against him from the south, through Abbevble. The ground to the west and south-west of Cressy is low and marshy; and it was hardly possible for heavby armed troops to advance through it against the Engbsh right flank or rear. The probable line of the French attack was along the east and south-east of the Engbsh position.' Edward stationed his troops accordingly, so as best to encounter assabants coming in that direction. The central part of the high ground, which the English held, rises from the low ground over which the French had to move, not in a continuous slope, but in a suc cession of little terraces. On these Edward placed large numbers of his archers ; who thus stood, as it were, tier upon tier, and were able to concentrate and multiply their vobeys down on an advancing enemy. The Engbsh centre was thus formidably strong? and their right wing rested on the hamlet of CressyV which Edward occupied with a strong force of dis mounted men-at-arms. But the left of the English position was more easily accessible ; and was liable to PEEPAEATIONS EOE BATTLE. 125 be turned by an enemy advancing with superior chap. numbers. Edward, therefore, fortified this part of jj_ his position with a strong barrier of waggons and 134& palisades. When these arrangements were completed, the army rested for the night, in calm expectation of the battle, which was regarded as sure to come with the coming day. As Edward had guessed, the fiery valour, which is Eagerness a national characteristic of the French, their anger prenchfor at the ignominies and injuries which their country had battle- sustained from Edward's army, together with their confidence in the number and equipment of the splendid force which Philippe had assembled, made every one in the French camp, from the highest to the lowest, indignant at the idea of the insulting invaders being suffered to depart from France at their ease, unscathed and unfought withal. The army of King Philippe was indeed a noble one, and seemed capable of crushing the English at a blow. In number it is Tne;r nil. said to have amounted to 120,000 fighting men ; and thpugh little reliance can be placed on the precise figures given by the chroniclers, it is certain that the French at Cressy outnumbered the English by three, if not by four, to one. Besides his own subjects, Philippe had cobected beneath his banner many foreign princes and nobles with their followers ; and he had obtained from Genoa a large body of cross-bow-men (reckoned variously at from six to fifteen thousand), who were expected to compete with and to quell the archers on the English side. These were in the van of Philippe's army. Next to them marched Philippe's brother, the Count d'Alengon, with a large body of magnificent cavaby. The rest of the French army fobowed, in two (or according to other writers) in three divisions. The French began their march from Abbeville at day- merical su periority- 126 EDWAED III. ville to the attack. cha.p. break, on the 25th of August, 1346 ; but it was long' n- past noon before they came in front of the English ; 1346- and the strength of Edward's position was then so from Abbe- evident to them, that Philippe consented to fobow the advice of one of his veteran knights, and to rest for the evening, rather than begin the attack with troops fatigued and disordered by their day's march. Orders were accordingly sent forward to stop the march of the Genoese and of D'Alengon's division. But the Theirinsub French lords, who first heard the order, were unwbling andMnfu- to be the first to wheel back, and would not even halt, sion. unless those in front set them the example. Those in front refused to turn, for they thought that it would be a shame. Meanwhbe their comrades kept pressing for ward : " Thus riding on through pride and emulation, without order, getting one before the other, they rode tbl they saw the English, who were waiting for them, ranged very ably in three battabons." * Order of On the English side perfect order and steadiness lisL ^ were maintained. Edward had drawn up his array in three lines or divisions, the foremost of which was under the immediate command of the young Prince of Wales, assisted by the Earls of Warwick and Ox ford. This division is said to have consisted of 800 dismounted men-at-arms, 4000 archers, and 6000 of the Welsh and Irish irregular foot. The second line is said to have been formed of 800 men-at-arms on foot, and 1200 archers, under the Earl of North ampton. The number of irregular infantry, if any, in this part of the English army, is not stated. The * Jehan le Bel, vol. ii. p. 88. He tells us that he wrote his narrative, keeping closely to the truth, according, to what he heard from the lips of his friend, the Seigneur de Haynau, and from ten or twelve knights who were in the thick of the battle with the valiant and noble King of Bohemia, who had their horses killed under themj and according to what he also heard from several English and German knights who were on the other side. his men. THE BATTLE OF OEESSY. 12 'J third line, a reserve, was under the King himself.* chap. When the English troops had taken up then respective JL stations, as appointed on the previous day, Edward 1346- mounted a smab palfry, and rode through the ranks, encourages speaking to his men in such an encouraging manner, and bearing himself such a cheerful aspect, that (in Jehan le Bel's words), " A coward would have become brave at it." He adds that ab Edward's men both loved and revered him. When the King had thus reviewed and encouraged his men, as no enemy was yet in sight, he ordered them to take a good meal, and also, that each one should refresh himself with a cup of wine. After this jocund but most sensible order had been bbthely obeyed, the Engbsh returned each man to his post, and, sitting down on the ground with their weapons web ordered and within reach, they composedly awaited the enemy's approach. When at length the French columns came in sight, the Engbshmen sprang up eagerly from their rest ; weapons were grasped and brandished; cries of exultation and defiance were raised, and many moved forward as if to anticipate the foe's attack. King Edward and his generals promptly checked the incipient confusion. " Steady, men, steady. There must be no noise, no tumult." * It is impossible to adopt implicitly any one of the varying accounts of the numbers of the English troops in each division. I have already given my reason for assuming that the army with which Edward began the campaign in France was between 30,000 and 40,000 strong. It seems reasonable also to assume that during six weeks of active marching, besieging, and skirmishing in a hostile territory, the number of effective combatants must have been reduced by at least a seventh ; and we know that Edward's army received no reinforcements. Probably, therefore, the number of English, Welsh, and Irish that fought at Cressy was little more than 30,000 strong ; and it seems natural to suppose that each of the first and second Unes comprised more than a third of the aggregate amount of the force. The main fact that the English were far out-numbered by the French is indisputable and undisputed. 128 EDWAED III. chap. The command was promptly obeyed, and the English n' soldiers, in grim silence and perfect order again waited 1316. for tke assai]ants to come on. On the other side coa- conSn fusion prevaded more and more as the vast and varied French h°st pressed forward. The commanders of the army. Genoese cross-bow-men warned the French generals that theb men were unfit for immediate action, being wearied by their march, and also because the strings of their cross-bows had been wetted and weakened by some showers of rain that had faben. In answer to these remonstrances the Genoese were roughly ordered to advance instantly and begin the fight. They moved on towards the English, " making great leaps and shouting horribly," whbe the Engbsh stood in perfect sbence, but with arrows fitted on the bow-strings, and ready to reply more effectively Attack of than with words.* At last, the Genoese when they cros?-bow-e thought themselves within range, halted and let fly a men. volley of bolts, which the weakened state of their cross- Eepuised bows made harmless and ineffective. Then the English En^sh archers moved one step forward, and drawing their archers. arrows to the ear, and well home, sent them so truly and so strongly among the Genoese, that hundreds of these unhappy mercenaries were slaughtered at the first discharge, and the survivors shrank back from the continuance of such an unequal contest. King Philippe . |j™« beheld the repulse of the Genoese with savage indig- orders his nation. " Kill me these rascals ! " he exclaimed bow-men to to his French men-at-arms. "Kdl these rascals, who downV on±7 take our pay, and desert us in time of need." annTeil"at" ^e ^renc^ pressed on, cutting down the retreating " * It was at this time that, according to Froissart, in his version preserved in the Amiens MS., the English fired off some cannons to frighten the Genoese : — " Descliquierent aucuns kanons, qu'il avoient en la bataille, pour esbahir les Genevois." THE BATTLE OF OEESSY. 129 Genoese, and striving to hew a way through them °hap. so as to get at the English line, whence the deadly — - shower of arrows continued to pour down with fatal precision and effect.* While the confused mass of Carnage French and Genoese, of horse and foot, wallowed ^English and writhed, and strove, and bled alike beneath each ^^e' other's weapons and the English arrows, Edward's Weishand light-armed Welsh and Irish irregulars ran down gldars. among them with their long knives, and stabbed the fallen and the wounded without mercy. But still D0'^1se^. fresh thousands of the French men-at-arms pressed tack. forward, and at last D'Alencon, with a large body of the French chivalry, made his way up to the English ranks. Prince Edward advanced with his men-at- Met by the . Prince of arms to support his archers ; and a desperate encounter wales. followed, in which the English, though having the vantage of the ground, and coming perfectly fresh and in perfect order into action, still had extreme difficulty in bearing up against the constantly in creasing numbers, by which their scanty ranks were furiously and incessantly assailed. D'Alencon led his Gallantry men on with the true gallantry of a French noble ; French and he was rivalled by the Count of Ponthieu, the nobles* Duke of Lorraine, the Count of Flanders, and the Count of Blois. Ab these noblemen fell in the battle. The Count of Blois, whose age was nearly the same as that of the Prince of Wales, had fought his way up to the English standard, and was kbled at the foot of * Jehan le Bel describes very grapbicaUy the disorder into which tbe English archers threw the French cavalry, and especially the effects of the arrow wounds on the horses : — " Les Archiers tiroient si merveilleusement que ceulx a cheval sentans ces flesches barbelees qui faisoient merveilles, l'ung ne vonloit avant aler, l'aultre sailloit convenient si comme arragie, l'aultre regimboit hydeuse- ment, l'aultre retournoit le cui par devers les enemis, malgre son maistre, pour les saiettes qu'il sentoit, et les aultres se laissoient cheoir car ilz ne le poyoient amender." vol. 11. K 130 EDWAED III. chap, it by Prince Edward himself. D'Alencon died in JL an attempt made by him to break in upon the left of 1346- the English position, after he had failed in his temptof efforts to force the centre. The entrenchments and tobreTm barricades, by which King Edward had guarded this °n*1jeEng- weak part 0f his position, saved the English army flank. from this well-judged attack. The English archers posted there kept up a fatal and web-sustained dis- Defeat of charge of arrows. Many more of the French nobles French di- and knights perished there with D'Alencon ; and the attack of the first French division on the Engbsh left, as well as their attack on the centre, was completely repulsed. Philippe's The i0gs 0f the Prince of Wales's men in this con- brerman . . men-at- test had been trifling in comparison with the car- the^rinc?8 nage of the enemy. But stbl the English were exhausted and weakened by the severity of the struggle, when they found themselves suddenly re quired to grapple with a large mass of the German men-at-arms in Phibppe's service, who had now gained the English front, and assabed the Prince and TheEngiish his little band with the utmost violence. The second virion sup- division of the Engbsh army, under the Earls of ports the Northampton and- Arundel, now advanced to support prince. r ' li-, the Prince ; and a hand-to-hand battle was for some 0)fbtheIiacy time maintained with the greatest obstinacy on both struggle, sides. Even after the junction of the first and Warwick °f second divisions, the English were far out-numbered sends to by their assailants, and the Earl of Warwick, who be- ward for lieved that other bodies of King Philippe's army were menfe06 coming up to join in the attack, sent a message to King Edward, to request reinforcements. The King was watching the battle from a windmbl in the rear of the English position. The messenger (whom the chronicler calls " Sir Thomas ") rode up to him, and THE BATTLE OE OEESSY. 131 (as the scene is described by the old chronicler, chap. who must have conversed with those who took part JL in the battle) he addressed the King very urgently, 1346' saying, "Sir, the Earl of Warwick, the Earl of Oxford, Sir John Chandos, and Sir Eeginald Cobham, are so fiercely fought withal, and so hard put to it by the French, that they are in much danger ; wherefore they desbe that you would please to set forward to their aid, for they are now disputing with the main strength of the enemy ; so that if any more troops should break through upon them, both they and the Prince, your son, would go nigh to miscarry." "Well," said the King; "is my son dead, or wounded, or felled to the ground % for I see the French standards drop, and conclude no otherwise but that things are yet in good case." " No, Sir," replied Sir Thomas ; " thanks be to God, our Prince is yet well, but he begins to want some assistance." "Go you back," said the King, "and bid them KingEd- that sent you, to take care to trouble me no further J^lt while my son is abve ; but let him take care to m^t}ie J ' , prince s wm his spurs, and to deserve the honour of knight- victory by hood, which I so lately conferred upon him, for I am ence. resolved, by the grace of God, that the renown of this glorious day shab fall to his portion, and to those that are with him." It would seem that King Edward from his watch- increasing post had observed more accurately than the combatants the French. in the front rank the growing disorder and dispersion of the French main army. King Philippe had striven King hard to force his way up to where the hand-to-hand triesPpe fight was being waged. The ground was almost im- ^™^° passable, and the English archers raked his columns K 2 132 EDWAED III. CHAP. II. 1346. The prince is victori ous. Flight of King Philippe. Chivalrousdeath of the King of Bohemia. through and through. Philippe's horse was kibed under him by an arrow ; and he himself received a wound from another shaft. The German and French men-at-arms, who had fought so long and hard with the English first and second divisions, were at last crushed or beaten back by the indomitable courage of the island warriors ; and the whole French force was in utter rout. King Philippe, after remaining on the field tbl all hope was lost, turned at last, and made his escape with a few knights and barons round him. Midnight had closed, when the French King, wounded and weary, drew bridle before the friendly castle of La Broye. At his summons the lord of the castle came to the battlements, and demanded who it was that asked admittance at such an hour. " Open the gate," cried King Philippe, "it is the fortune of France." The castellan knew the King's voice, and came down, and opened the gate, and lowered the draw-bridge. When the King entered the castle he had only five nobles with him. After a brief halt and refresh ment, they hurried on to Amiens, where some of the scattered wrecks of the beaten army were afterwards collected. The common sense of modern times may approve of King Phbippe not throwing away an important life in ostentatious despair on a lost battlefield. The chivalry of that age admbed, on the contrary, the prodigality of life displayed at Cressy by the blind King of Bohemia, who served as an auxiliary in the French army. His son Charles of Luxembourg was there also, but he fled after receiving several wounds in the second attack on the English centre. The royal veteran him self learned from those around him that the day was going hard with France : but, instead of seeking to DEATH OE THE KING OE BOHEMIA. I33 effect his escape, he resolved to make a heroic death chap. end a life which had been spent in bravery and honour. JL " Gallant sirs," he said to those near him, " you are my 1346- comrades and my friends, as well as my vassals in this expedition. I ask one last service of you, that you will bring me forward within sword's length of these English, so that I may deal at least one good blow before I die." The knights around him readby under took to do what he desired. They placed their blind King in the front rank in their centre, and interlaced theb? horses' bridles, so that they should not be parted in the charge. They then galloped forward, and suc ceeded in reaching the immediate spot, where the Prince of Wales was fighting. They nearly all perished ; but they had all stricken manfully before they fell ; and, after the battle was over, the body of the blind old hero was found amid a heap of mingled French and English dead. Our great antiquary Camden states that the crest of the Bohemian King on this day, when he was fighting as the soldier of the French sovereign, was three ostrich feathers with the motto "Ich Dien," " I serve," and that the helm of the fallen warrior was carried to the Prince Edward, who assumed the crest ' and motto as his own cognisance. It is certain that from his time downwards they have been so worn by successive Engbsh Princes of Wales ; nor does there seem to be any sufficient reason for doubting the tradition as to the origin of this armorial usage, which Camden has recorded. Night had fallen on the field of Cressy, before Prince Edward and those around him were sure that no more troops of the enemy remained, and that none had ralbed to dispute tbe victory. Torches were lit, and the English leaders were careful to keep their men together. King Edward now marched down with the ^d mtts 134 EDWAED III. CHAP. II. 1346. and congra tulates the prince. Slaughter of French detachments on the follow ing day. Heavy loss of the French at and near reserve from his position in the rear, and joyfuhy embraced his victorious boy. " My son, my dear son," he exclaimed, " may God give you grace to go on as you have begun. You are my true son, for nobly have you acquitted yourself this day, and worthy are you of a crown." The Prince received his father's praises with modest humidity, and ascribed the honour of the day to the King himself ; and, certainly, with out the skill shown by the King in choosing and strengthening the English position, all the Prince's valour would have been unavailing. It was reserved for the field of Poitiers to show that the Black Prince was equal to his father both as a general and as a combatant. On the morrow several large bodies of French troops, who had been on the march to join King Phibppe, were destroyed by the English. And there seems no reason to doubt the substantial accuracy of the report of the total loss of the French on these days, wliich was sent in by the officers whom Edward appointed to examine and count the slain. It amounted to eleven princes, eighty bannerets, twelve hundred knights, and thirty thousand common men. The loss on the English side was very small. Nor can we be surprised at this, when we recobect the circumstances under which the battle was fought on the first day, and under which the French detachments were cut off on the second day ; and when we remember also the nature of the weapons used by the respective combatants. On the very day after the battle of Cressy, at the very time when the victorious English were enveloping and destroying in detab the intended reinforcements of King Philippe, a victory as decisive as Cressy was gained by an English army over the Scots at NevuTs Cross in Northumberland. WAE WITH SCOTLAND. 135 The war between Scotland and England had been chap. carried on, though but languidly on the part of the 1 Engbsh, during Edward's campaigns in France ; with *341'1346, the exception of a period of truce in 1342 and 1343. the war be- The general result of these hostilities was greatly in $^^1 favour of the Scots, who recovered nearly all their *hEng" country's fortresses from the Engbsh garrisons. The General successes of the Scots would probably have been XTscots. greater, had it not been for the frequent treacheries Their dis- and the almost incessant feuds amongst themselves, by their' which theb chiefs tarnished the lustre of their exploits and° ferocity against the common enemy.* eaThotLr The young King of Scots, David the Second, who King had been sent to France in his infancy, returned from J^JJ1, that country to Scotland in 1341, and took the govern- from ¦ .... . France to ment into his own hands. He was willing to assist his Scotland, friend the French King by invading the north of TT .' , P J ° He invades England, and so drawing away part at least of England. Edward's forces from their invasive operations in France. Accordingly, in the beginning of the autumn of 1346, he collected an army of (it is said) 3000 men- at-arms and 30,000 other troops. Queen Philippa was then in England ; and she forth- Queen with proceeded to Newcastle-on-Tyne to encourage the and the English to resistance ; and she sent messengers to ab n°^ and the prelates and barons, and to all who could give aid, ^^.jf to bring their men-at-arms, theb? archers, and theb raise troops foot to a muster-place between Northumberland and him. * The two Scottish chiefs most renowned for valour and military skill were Sir Alexander Eamsay and Sir WiUiam Douglas, commonly caUed the Knight of Liddesdale. Rivalry and enmity broke out between these chiefs; and in 1342 Douglas, by a pretended reconciliation, got Ramsay into his power, and threw him into a dungeon-vault beneath the castle of Hermitage, where Ramsay was starved to death. In 1353 Sir William Douglas was himself assassinated by the chief of his own house, the Earl of Douglas, who was instigated by both political and domestic jealousy. Scottish history abounds in similar scenes. 136 EDWAED III. chap, the city of Durham. " All," says the old chronicler, Jt. "came in the best plight that they could." The 1U6- force amounted to 1200 cavalry, 5000 archers, and about 18,000 infantry. The Lord Percy, and others, are mentioned by him as among the English com manders. The contemporaneous English song-writer Lawrence Minot celebrates with especial praise the Archbishop of York and the Bishops of Durham and Carlisle.* When the English prelates and lords * Froissart (c. 138) represents Queen Philippa, not only as collecting the English army, but as passing along the divisions of it when drawn up for the actual battle, and exhorting the soldiers personally. After this, he says, " The Queen departed from them, recommending them to God and to Saint George." Many late writers have rejected Froissart's narrative of Queen Philippa's share in this victory, as unsupported by any other writer. But the now recovered Chronicle of Jehan le Bel records expressly the part taken by her in raising the army, in exhorting the chiefs, and in appointing a board of commanders. After this, according to him, she remained in the fortress of Newcastle, while the generals led the EngUsh army against the Scots. ¦ It seems to me that we are bound to believe this, but that Froissart's ad ditional description of her haranguing the troops immediately before the battle had its origin in that writer's poetical imagination. Such a picturesque incident could hardly (if real) have been omitted by Lawrence Minot, the English song-writer, who wrote his stanzas about the battle soon after the event, and who does take care to celebrate the Archbishop of York and others who were on the field. But Minot may very weU have left unnoticed Queen Philippa's share in the early preparations for resisting the Scotch, and her presence in the council of war which was held before the battle, and before the English army had moved to near NeviU's Cross. Some parts of Minot's song on this battle are very spirited. I quote one of the early stanzas, which I have very slightly modernised : — Sir David the Bruse Said he would dare To ride through aU Ingland, For nought would he care. At the Westminster HaU Should his steeds stand, Whiles our Kyng Edward Was out of the land. But now has Sir David Missed of his marks, And Philip the Valoys, With aU their grete clerks. Wright's Political Songs, $c, vol. i. p. 84. SIEGE OE CALAIS. 137 were assembled, they came before the Queen ; who chap. implored and desired them to defend her, and to guard . 1 the weal and the honour of the King. She chose 13*6' four prelates and four knights, who very wibingly dresses the took on them the management of the war.* leaders. They placed Queen Philippa in the fortress of New- victory of castle,f and then marched to oppose the Scots, who at Nevfii's had entered Cumberland and marched by Hexham Cross' into the Bishopric of Durham. The two armies en countered at Nevib's Cross, and the English gained a complete victory. King David himself was taken prisoner by an English knight, named Sb John Coupland. Soon after this victory, and before the Feast of All Queen Saints, the Queen, in the joy of her heart,! went to j0ins™mg visit the King, who was besieging Calais. She re- ^df™d mained with him until the surrender of the town, Calais. which did not take place before August 4, 1347. Edward had begun the siege on the 3rd of Sep- siegeof tember, 1346. The fortifications were strong. The Calais' garrison was numerous, and under a brave and loyal commander, John de Vienne. The population was warlike, and animated by the bitterest hatred of the English. King Edward saw he should waste his men's Long lives if he attempted to carry the place by storm ; § ^towl" but he was determined to make himself master of it, and this could only be done by the slow starving process of strict blockade. Edward at once com- The king's menced the operations necessary for a long and £™c^tion difficult siege. And he took measures for ensuring well-being ° of his troops. * Jehan le Bel, vol. ii. p. 110. t Ibid. X " Oncques dame n'eut si grand joye que celle royne avoit."— Jehan le Bel, vol. ii. p. ill. § Jehan le Bel says of Edward that, " Trop luy pesoit quant il veoit ses gens estre affolez ou tuez folement en assaillant."— Vol. ii. p. 127. 138 EDWAED III. CHAP. II. 1346. A besieging town built round the town. The parlia ment and English people sup port King Edward zealously. food and shelter and comfort for his troops during the blockade, with the prompt and far-sighted libe rality, which is the truest economy on such occasions. Strong lines of circumvallation, with deep trenches and well fortified posts in proper positions, were drawn round the landward side of Calais ; and in convenient parts of those lines rows of huts and wooden houses were erected, in which the English army was well quartered throughout the autumn and winter, and the ensuing spring and summer. A new town ("New town the Bold," Edward is said to have called it) was thus set up to destroy the old one. This town of war was laid out in regular streets, with shops and store houses in suitable places. These were wreb stocked ; as the neighbouring Flemings were friendly, and brought in supplies by land ; and, after a little time, the English maintained also the command of the sea, and kept up free communications with England. At first the French vessels were most numerous in the Straits ; but the English before long cobected such a fleet as gave them the mastery; though French squad rons and single ships made, throughout the siege, repeated and gallant efforts to convey supplies to the garrison, and to cut off those intended for the be siegers. The operations of the siege thus judiciously con ducted by King Edward involved very heavy expen diture, which the King could not have sustained if he had not been zealously supported by his Parliament and his people. Within three weeks after the battle of Cressy, Edward's Commissioners summoned the Parliament ; and Edward sent over from his army his chamberlain, Sir John Darcy, and Sir Bar tholomew de Burghart to narrate to the estates of the realm their King's campaign in France, SIEGE OE CALAIS. 139 the towns he had taken, the great victory which he chap. had achieved, and the arduous enterprise which he had __ now undertaken of conquering Calais, that den and 1U6- stronghold of pirates, who had so long, both in truce- time and in open war, despoiled the commerce and wasted the coasts of England. In order to show the dwebers in English homes from what perbs their King had abeady rescued them, Edward sent over to the Parliament the document found at the capture of Caen,* whereby the Normans had engaged to invade and conquer the country, and (as it was stated) to destroy the English race and language. The Parlia ment participated fully in the warlike ardour of the Sovereign. The liberal supply of two-fifteenths was voted for the support of the King's forces before Calais. It is probable that the Commons, who were so deeply interested in the prosperity of the English wool trade, and of the English manufacture of woollen goods, heard with peculiar pleasure the destruction of the three principal towns where the rival wooben trade of Normandy had flourished.t And all, in that age, who were desirous for the security of English commerce, must have felt the importance of conquer ing and occupying the city and port of Calais. Abu- Animosity sion has been already made to the persistency with lilhmer^" which the inhabitants of the sea-port towns along both c^uts and ... . ., shipowners sides of the Channel kept up hostilities with each other, against the and the seizures of merchant ships, and maraudings cliais!0 upon vblages and weak towns along the coasts, even in periods of truce or peace between the two kingdoms. The men of Calais had been the most active and for- - * See svpra, p. 120. Archbishop Stratford read this document out to the Londoners at St. Paul's.— -Avesbury, 130. t See supra, p. 121. 140 EDWAED IH. chap, midable on the French side in thus preying upon JL English commerce, and in harassing the south-eastern 1346. English sea-board. The English statesmen and the Engbsh merchants called them the pirates of Calais ; and (though English precedents for such piracy might have been quoted) there was ample cause for giving the name. Naval and The capture of Calais was obviously the only value of mode of effectually quelling those ferocious depreda- EngiisiT™ tors ; and it was also clear that not only would the permanent occupation of it guard against the recur rence of similar mischief in future times, but that England, when commanding both the fortified port of Dover on the north; and the fortified port of Calais on the south, would be effectual mistress of the Straits ; and that her dominion of the seas would be thereafter, to a great extent, a practical and a lucrative reality, and not a mere sounding but unsubstantial title. The English people felt all this keenly, as their Sovereign must also have felt it ; for Edward IIL, throughout his reign, showed a wise solicitude for the advancement of English commerce. Perhaps also he valued a little more than his people did the advantage, which he and his successors were likely to derive in future campaigns and wars from possessing in Calais a ready gate for the entrance of theb armies into France. When the Governor of Calais, John de Vienne, saw that the English intended to keep up the blockade, and to pass the winter before the town, he sought anxiously to reduce as far as possible the consumption of his stores of food. For this purpose he turned out ¦ of the town about 500* of the feeblest of the popula tion, men, women, and children. When King Edward * This is the number given by Jehan le Bel. — Vol. ii. p. 96. SIEGE OE CALAIS. 141 saw those wretched creatures thus driven forth towards chap. the English lines, he had them brought into the large ' reception room in his own quarters, and gave them iue- a plentiful meal. He then gave them each three pieces me^to" of silver " for the love of God," and ordered that they *° ^Iais should be safely escorted to a considerable distance when beyond the English lines. The old chronicler who ofthetown. narrates this, observes that " This deed ought to be recorded as a great proof of noble generosity."* If we consider the barbarity, with which war was usually conducted in such cases, we may think the praise not ih-deserved. Months passed away; and still the blockade was 1347. unrelaxed and unbroken on the land side. By sea s^ctnTss some relief was occasionally introduced, otherwise ?* *}">, tttt ta-t blockade. Calais could not have held out so long. In April, 1347, French re- a squadron of thbty French ships and gabeys, laden ^"Jfon with provisions and military stores, succeeded in defeated. making theb way through the English cruisers into the port. But Edward built a fort on a projecting tongue of land close to the entrance of the har bour. This he armed with military engines, among which cannons (bombard es)f are specifically mentioned. He garrisoned this fort with forty men-at-arms and 200 archers ; and thenceforth it wTas impossible for any vessel to pass out from or enter the port without beiDg exposed to destruction. The English fleet also was greatly increased ; and a French relieving squadron was intercepted and captured in June. Soon after this a * " On doibt bien cecy recorder pour une grande gentillesse." (Jehan le Bel, vol. ii. p. 97.) Eroissart raises the number thus relieved to 1700. Knighton asserts that the King refused to let them pass, and that most of them perished. But he is evidently inaccurate in this part of his narra^ tive (as Mr. Longman has pointed out, vol. i. p. 267, n.), and the positive testimony of the Flemish chroniclers is not to be set aside. t Jehan le Bel, vol. ii. p. 127. 142 EDWAED III. CHAP. II. 1347. Extreme distress of the garri son and in habitants. Vain endea vours of King Philippe to raise the letter, which the Governor had despatched to the French King, came into Edward's hands. De Vienne in it implored speedy help from his Sovereign ; and informed him that without such help the place must soon be surrendered. "We have already," said De Vienne, " consumed even dogs, cats, and horses. There is no food remaining, unless we should eat each other." Edward sent the letter on to Phibppe, adding a recommendation to him to make haste to relieve Calais for his own credit's sake. The French King had for some months been en gaged in collecting such a force as might suffice for the raising of the siege. He displayed the Ori- flamme, the sacred standard of France, and he ordered a general muster of the forces of his realm in May. But his feudatories were slow in coming together, and his difficulty as to raising money for the pay of the troops was extreme ; though he is said to have prac tised for this purpose great exactions from ab classes of his subjects. At last he succeeded in cobecting an army of 130,000 men ; and he led them towards the English position. But Edward could at proper seasons be as wary and cool, as at others he was daring and impetuous. The English lines were unassailable by Phbippe with any prospect of success ; and after vainly trying what could be effected by taunts or diplomacy, King Philippe led back his army in sorrow and shame, and abandoned the brave defenders of Calais to their fate.* The fab of Calais could no longer be deferred. The " According to Jehan le Bel (vol. ii. p. 130) and Froissart, King Philippe sent a message to Edward, chaUenging him to lead his army forth and fight him on a fair field, but Edward replied, in substance, that as he had now been before Calais for nearly a year, he meant to stay a little longer, as the place was about to fall into his hands. He told the French messengers that their master, if he wanted to come to him and could not do it by one road, SIEGE OE CALAIS. 143 severity of the famine in the town was now such that chap. " the strongest man could hardly hold himself up."* 1 The citizens agreed together that if they could obtain 1U7- no gentler terms, they had better throw themselves on sttrved to the mercy of the King of England than die of hunger. surrender' They begged the Governor, John de Vienne, to speak Tke for them. He held a conference with Edward's cap- f°ts terms. tains, Sir Walter Manny and three others, whom the King sent to hear his proposal. He confessed the extreme straits, to which the garrison and the towns men were reduced ; and, appealing to the mercy of the Engbsh King, he asked liberty for them ab to depart, leaving the whole of their goods and wealth behind. These and the castle and the town were to be the booty of the conqueror. The English answer was that Severity of all must surrender at discretion; and King Edward would then admit to ransom such as he pleased, and would kbl such as he pleased. John de Vienne rejoined Honour-£l!>1c rs~ that such terms were too hard for acceptance. He monstrance said to Sb Walter, " I and my comrades here are a governor. small band of knights and squbes, who have been loyaby doing our duty to our Sovereign to the best of our power, as you yourself would do to your Sovereign in the hke cause. We have suffered much ; but we would yet endure the greatest possible torments, rather must try his best to do it by another. But Edward sent a state letter home to the Archbishop of York (given in Avesbury, p. 163), in which he asserts that he accepted Philippe's challenge, but that the French burnt their tents and retreated. There can be no doubt but that the true account is that given by Jehan le Bel and Froissart. Edward's reputation for veracity is not immaculate, of which we shall see a flagrant proof when we come to the constitutional history of his reign. It is strongly characteristic of the spirit of that age, that Edward feared that he would be lowered in public opinion, if he confessed his really admirable generalship in baffling the French army, and if he did not Beem to have been always ready for fighting, however needlessly or foolishly. * Jehan le Bel, vol. ii. p. 133. 144 EDWAED III. CHAP. II. 1347. Sir Walter Manny'sinterces sion. Termsfinallyoffered by Edward. Devotion of tho Six Burgessesof Calais. than consent that the meanest servant-boy in the town should have worse terms than the greatest man in it. We humbly desire you to pray of your King that he will in bis mercy receive us as his prisoners, but with security for life and limb." Sir Walter Manny willingly undertook to do all in his power. He told King Edward what had been said ; but neither he nor the other English lords and knights could either by entreaty or argument prevail on the King to grant De Vienne's request. Sb Walter then said, " Sbe, you do wrong in this ; and you may give us your followers an evil warning. For if you order us to go and defend any of your fortresses, by St. Mary, we shall not go thither very wibingly, if you put these men to death as you threaten. For what will become of us in the like case, however well we may have done our duty ?" This warning softened the King's heart much, and he said, " My lords and comrades, I wbl not singly oppose the judgment of you all. Go back, and teb them that I will receive them all as prisoners, except that I will have six of the chief citizens of the place, who must come before me clad in nothing but their shirts, and with halters round their necks, and they must bring me the keys of the city, and I will deal with these men merely according to my will." John de Vienne, on receiving these terms, ordered the town bell to be rung ; and then ab the people of the town assembled, men and women, and they were all lean with hunger. De Vienne told them King Edward's conditions ; and they all began to yell and to cry aloud so much that it was very pitiful. After a bttle while the richest burgess of the town, whose name was Eustace de Saint Pierre, rose up and spoke before them all :— " Sirs, it would be a great pity to let such a THE SIX BDEGESSES OE CALAIS. 145 people as there is here, die by famine or otherwise ; chap. and there would be great doing of good, and great ___ obtaining of favour God-ward for the man who could 1U7- save them. Now, for myself, I have great hope in our Lord, that, if I can save this people by my death, I shab have pardon for my sins. So I wib be first of the six, and I wbl go wibingly barefooted and stript to my shirt, the halter round my neck, and place myself at the mercy of King Edward." And when the burgess St. Pierre had said this, every one knelt down to him and mourned for him ; and several men and women in theb anguish and their affection threw themselves at his feet : and no wonder, for no one can imagine the great distress of famine, which they had been enduring for more than six weeks before. Then another of the richest citizens* rose up in bke manner and said that he would be the second to offer himself. Then there arose a third, a fourth, a fifth, and a sixth. All said that they were freely wibhig to place themselves at the mercy of King Edward, who was held to be the most vabant prince in the world, even in the manner which he had ordered, so that they might save the rest of the people in the town. Then these six Calais citizens, in their shirts, bare footed, and with halters round theb? necks, went forth to the four Engbsh knights, who were waiting outside ; and they prayed the English knights to lead them before King Edward, with the keys of the town and castle, which they had brought for him, and to ask in their behalf pity from the King. All the Engbsh host assembled, when the four knights led them to the royal * Froissart, ch. cccxxi., gives his name Jean d'Aire, and adds the cir cumstance that " he had two fair daughters." Froissart gives the names also of two brothers, Jaques de Vissant and Pierre de Vissant, who were third and fourth among the six. VOL. II. L 146 EDWAED III. chap, presence. Some called out that they ought to be JL, hanged, but more wept with compassion. The noble 1M1- King Edward, accompanied by his earls and barons, came forth, and took his place ; and the Queen (who was great with chbd) came after the King. The six burgesses knelt down before the King, and Sb Eustace said to him, " 0 gentle King, you see us before you, six of the ancient burgesses of Calais, and of its chief merchants. We bring you the keys of the town and the castle. We have placed ourselves at your mercy, to save the rest of the people, who have suffered much misery. May it please you out of your most high sternness nobleness to have pity on us." Ab the lords and Edward. knights round wept with compassion ; but the King bad so hardened his heart in his wrath, that for some time he could not speak : but at last he ordered their heads to be struck off instantly. Ab his lords and knights with tears begged him to show mercy, espe cially Sb? Walter Manny, but they availed nothing. The King ground his teeth, and said, " Sb Walter Manny, meddle not. It shab be as I have ordered. Let the executioner come. The men of Calais have caused the death of so many of my people, that these men also must die." Queen Then the noble Queen of England humbly threw intercedes herself, far gone as she was with chbd, at the King's feet, and wept pitifuby. She said to him, " My good lord, ever since I crossed the sea to you, at great risk, as you know, I have never asked a boon of you. Now then, with clasped hands, I pray and I beg of you that for the sake of the Son of Our Lady, you wbl have mercy upon these men." The King paused a little, and looked on the Queen, who was kneeling before him weeping bitterly. So his heart began to soften a little, and he said to the Queen,. for them. Jt.Ajt THE LIVES OF THE SIX BUEGESSES AEE SPAEED. 147 " Lady, I wish you had been elsewhere. You pray me chap. so tenderly that I cannot deny you. And however JL much it goes against my will, stib, take these men. I 1U7- give them to you." He then took the six burgesses by aJ^rel the halters, and gave them to the Queen ; and out of his love for her he released from death all the men of Calais. So the noble lady took the six burgesses, and had them clothed and kindly treated.* On the day fobowing the surrender (August 3, Edward 1347,) Edward and Phibppa made their triumphant Calais. * The narrative in the text of the Surrender of Calais has been entirely taken from the contemporaneous Chronicle of Jehan le Bel. I have in many cases translated literaUy his graphic though quaint expressions. We now know that the description of these events, which Froissart inserted in the first version of his Chronicle (he omitted it in his second), was based by him on the work of Jehan le Bel, although he added a few details. Many historical critics during the last half century have questioned the truth of the story of the six burgesses of Calais, for the supposed reason that Froissart was not corroborated as to it by other writers. But HaUam pointed out (Middle Ages, vol. i. c. i. part ii. p. 57, n.) that the Italian writer, Villani (who was contemporaneous with the event) gives in his Chronicle strong confirmation of Froissart's story. And it is also important to observe that Villani gives as a reason for Edward's intended severity, that he wished to execute justice on the Calais citizens, " siccome di pirati di mare." Now that we have the authority of Jehan le Bel for the truth of this story, it seems to me that only intentional scepticism can doubt it any longer. I may add that I have found an express statement of the main facts of the story in the " Chronique des Pays Bas, De France, dAngleterre, et de Tournai," edited by the Academie Royale de Belgique, in their "Recueil des Chroniques de Flandre," Bruxelles, 1856, vol. iii. p. 176 :— " Se renderent cheus de Calais par convenent que vi. bourgeois de ville alerent au roy Edouars en pur lingne draps, deflutes, et descaus, le hart au col. Mais par la pryere de la roine, sa- femme, Us f urent de mort respites." Jehan le Bel closes his narrative of the siege of Calais with some observa tions on the very large sum of money, which the siege had cost Edward, who was also at the same time paying for troops, who were carrying on his wars in Scotland, in Gascony, in Brittany, and in Poitou. He adds » sentence, which is important, as showing that Jehan le Bel's narrative of the siege of Calais was written shortly after the event. " Et croy que on ne trouveroit en hystoire que oncques roy crestien guerriast en tant de marches en ung temps, ne poeut soustenir si grands pais et despens comme il a fait jusqiies a, ores ; je ne scay co-mment il en, sera le temps advenir." — Vol. ii. p. 139, l 2 148 EDWAED m. chap, entry into Calais, where the Queen was soon afterwards LL delivered of a daughter, cabed Margaret of Calais. 1347- Edward determined to make his new conquest an colonized English town as far as possible ; and many merchants Sgiish. aild other settlers from England were brought thither by bim, who fibed up the void in the population caused by the siege, and by the departure of a large number of the French citizens, who refused to swear We had abegiance to King Edward. Calais became a possession longer than of the Engbsh Crown, and continued to be so for more jet ha™ ^ than two hundred years : much longer than Gibraltar Gibraltar, j^ Ghetto \)een held by Edward's successors on our throne. a truce The efforts of the Pope to stop the effusion of blood theTrench m this struggle between the French and Engbsh had and Eng- been honourably earnest and unremitting; and both the rival kings were now willing to let the war cease for at least some time. Philippe felt the severity of the blow which had been dealt to the power of France; and Edward was eager to return to his own country. Edward A suspension of hostilities for ten months was pro- Engknd^0 claimed; and on the 12th of October Edward landed i347ber12' *n England, where he was received with enthusiastic Effect of joy by his people, who were not unjustly proud of the of EilSand glorious height, to which England was now raised in winning among the nations. The heavy expenses of the war, in- conquests. deed, and especiaby of the siege of Calais, brought severe taxation on the people, to which the assent of the Commons was not obtained without frequent remon strance : but stib it was obtained, and the wealth placed at the disposal of the Engbsh King excited the admiration of foreigners. They saw that by means of it Edward was enabled to carry on syste matic operations of war, on many scenes of action at the same time, on a scale hitherto unprecedented ELECTED EMPEEOE OE "GERMANY. 149 among the princes of Christendom.* This, and the chap. fame for personal daring and prowess, which had been L acquired by the King himself, by his son, and by 1348- many of his lords and knights, made Edward III. at nent re- this period of his reign, and for many following years, j^™^ the most renowned sovereign in Europe. A memorable l^^°^e proof of this was exhibited in. 1348, when a majority reigns of ofthe Electors of the Holy Eoman Empbe of Germany King Bd. held a Diet, in which they, without canvassing or soli- ^^j8 citation, chose Edward of England as Emperor, as Emperor. the Csesar Semper Augustus. Charles of Luxembourg (son of the King of Bohemia who fell at Cressy) had been set up as Emperor by a small body of the electors in the lifetime of the Emperor Louis IV., whom the Pope had excommunicated repeatedly, and affected to depose. But the great body of the German princes and cities and peoples had refused to acknow ledge Charles, whom they regarded as the Pope's nominee; and Louis held the imperial station until his death in 1347! Even after the death of Louis, the majority of the Germans were unwilling to recognise Charles of Luxembourg as their Caesar ; and there . seems every reason to bebeve that, if King Edward had been willing to accept the dignity, which was offered to him, he might have enforced and maintained his imperial title. But he and his advisers saw and He declines appreciated the difficulties and embarrassments, which thehonoiir- were likely to arise from a war in Germany for the imperial crown being added to the still pending contest for the French crown ; and Edward had the good sense to decline the dazzling dignity. The Charles Germans ultimately, though with reluctance, accepted ^i^"d as Charles of Luxembourg as the Emperor Charles IV. emperor. * See the remarks of Jehan le Bel, vol. ii. p. 139, already cited in note to p. 147, svpra. 150 EDWAED in. CHAP. II. "1348. Truceprolonged. An attempt to get backCalaisby bribery and sur prisefrustrated by Edward. Action before Calais, December31, 1348. Edward maintained friendly relations with him, and sent him a formal letter of congratulation on his coronation at Eome* in 1355. The Emperor Charles IV. was far from being a brilbant or inter esting personage ; but his reign is important in European history, inasmuch as his Golden Bull de termined and fixed for centuries the constitution and the prerogatives of the Electoral College of the Empire. The truce, which after the capture of Calais had been made with France, was several times prolonged ; but in the interval before the resumption of open warfare with the French in 1355, Edward found two opportunities of signabsing his personal valour. He received intebigence in 1348 from Amerigo di Pavia, an Italian officer, whom he had left in command of the garrison of Calais, that an attempt to bribe bim into betraying the castle had been made by the French commandant of St. Omer. By Edward's directions, Amerigo pretended to entertain the pro posal, and to agree that a French force should be secretly admitted into the fortress on the last night of the year. Before this time arrived, King Edward and the Black Prince, with 300 picked men-at-arms and 600 archers, secretly crossed the Strait, and reinforced the garrison. At the appointed period the money, which had been stipulated for as the price of Amerigo's fidelity, was brought to him by a French agent ; and at midnight of the 31st of December, twelve French knights and a hundred men-at-arms came to the postern of the castle gate. They were admitted ; but an overpowering force of the English was ready within, and immediately made them prisoners. The com- * See as to Edward III. and the Empire, Knighton, p. 2596, Hist. Ang. Dec. Scrip. ; and Rymer, vol. iii. part i. p. 34, and p. 109. HIS COMBAT WITH DE EIBEATJMONT. 151 mandant of St. Omer had marched with a large body chap. of troops and halted near the town. The English _L_ garrison salbed out to attack them; and King 1348- Edward placed himself as a private knight under tbe banner of Sir Walter Manny, the English leader, who was sure to be foremost in the fight. In the action combat that followed, King Edward singled out as his personal ^7^- antagonist Sir Eustace de Eibeaumont, a French knight ^ a"d e t • p.- • i t ° Sir Eustace ot distinguished prowess. Edward took him prisoner, de Ribeau- but not until after an obstinate encounter, in which De Eibeaumont twice struck the English King nearly to the ground. Almost all the French were slain and taken ; and when the prisoners were brought back into Calais, King Edward disclosed to De Eibeaumont the rank of his adversary and captor. Edward's demeanour on this occasion displayed Edward's the brightest features of his chivalry. The French fohTs°slty knights were invited by the King to be his guests Pnsoners' at table ; and, when the meal was finished, King Edward rose, and, taking from his own head a chaplet of pearls, he walked with it in his hand till he came opposite to De Eibeaumont. He then, in the presence of the assembled English and French knights, addressed him thus in a joyous tone : — "Sir Eustace, you are the best knight in the world He gives that I have ever met, both in your attack on an *f6T^ enemv, and in vour defence of yourself. And never *° De Ei- J J t t '¦ t ; t t i beaumont. did I meet before, in any battle in which 1 have been, one who gave me so much trouble hand to hand, as you have done. So I adjudge you the prize of valour, and so do ab the knights of my court." The King then placed the chaplet of pearls on De Eibeau- mont's head, and said to him, " Sb? Eustace, I give this chaplet to you as the best champion in this fight ; and I pray you to wear this chaplet for this year for 152 EDWAED ni. chap, my sake, when you are among lords, and when you IL are in the company of the ladies, whom you are very 1350. fon(j 0^ as j kggj. and quite understand. And you shall promise me that, wherever you may be, you will make mention of my having given you this chaplet for this reason. If you promise me this, I give you your liberty freely, for the ladies' sake."* Les Espag- The other occasion, on which Edward sought glory nois sur as a combatant, before the renewal of the French war, Mer. ' . . ' was at sea against Spanish enemies. There was no avowed war between any of the Spanish kingdoms Outrages an(l England ; but squadrons from the Biscayan and committed Galician ports had frequently plundered English Spaniards vessels, and slaughtered English seamen. One of the English Spanish naval commanders, Don Carlos de la Cerda, shipping. wag renowned for the strength'of the squadron which La Cerda ,„,?,,. . . the arch- he commanded, and lor his ferocious enmity to the Spain.0 English. In 1350 La Cerda sabed along the channel He sails to to the Flemish ports ; destroying all the Engbsh ship- Flanders, / .. , r . 1 _¦{ ° n t -, , i 1350. ping "that he met with. Fidward resolved to attack Prepara- him on his return, and La Cerda had fub intebigence tions of pi ¦ t-i pt Edward to of the preparations made in the English ports lor that attackhim. T n t t i • t j. -j jA. purpose. La (Jerda had no wish to avoid the en counter ; but he carefully strengthened his ships while in the Flemish ports, and reinforced his crews with soldiers, cross-bow-men, and archers. At the end of August he began his homeward voyage, saibng leisurely along with a fair wind, and keeping near the English coast, as if to challenge the English to come out of Edward their harbours and fight. Edward had cobected his embarks fleet at Winchelsea, where he held his court with his at Win chelsea. Queen, his Princes, and nearly four hundred of his most distinguished nobles and knights around him. He embarked on the 28th of August, and on the * Jehan le Bel, vol. ii. p. 150. BATTLE OE "ESPAGNOLS sue mee." 153 afternoon of Sunday, the 29th, as the English beet lay chap. a' few miles off Winchelsea, the wind blowing fresh _L_ from the north-east, the signal was given that the 135°- Spaniards were approaching. La Cerda had forty w?ncne°i- ships. The number of Edward's vessels was greater; bya^lled but the English ships were much inferior in size and chroniclers the battle height to their adversaries ; and the aggregate number of Espag- of the Spanish crews far exceeded that of the English. Mer,"7 The Spaniards bore right down upon the English, tslo^^' who encountered them without flinching. Each side sought to run down their adversaries, or to grapple and board ; and a series of desperate close combats, ship charging ship, like knights on the tourney field, and crew rushing against crew, ensued all along the line. The flower of the chivalry of England, the victors of Cressy, were on board the English ships ; their King and their favourite Prince commanded them, and they fought in the sight of the English Queen and the beauties of her Court, who, from the high hills behind Winchelsea, w7atched the fight. Still such was the Advan- bravery and skill of La Cerda and bis followers, aided thfspan- by the superior height and weight of the vessels, that ^redgnf™m the victory was long doubtful. The Spaniards cast rior height bars of iron and huge stones from the top-castles of of their their lofty masts down upon the English decks with L^mafe. fatal effect ; and in the collision between ship and King Ed- ship the planks of the English vessels, as the weakest, ^nkai- ip were generally started. King Edward's own ship went ^ undor down, almost under him. Only a few minutes before .He boards she foundered, he succeeded in carrying the Spaniard andTgTts that had grappled him, and then, as if he had mounted flom hev- an enemy's horse, when his own was slain on the battle plain, he continued to fight from on board the prize. The Black Prince's ship was nearly The Black foundering, when the Earl of Lancaster attacked his ^dby 154 EDWAED III. CHAP. II. 1350. the Earl of Lancaster. Towardseveningvictory declares for the 26 Spanish ships sunk or taken. KingEdwardand his chivalryreturn to Winchel sea, and feast there with Queen Philippaand her ladies. Splendour of tbe English court. Institutionof the Order of the Crarter. enemy on the other side, amid loud shouts of " Derby to the rescue!" This Spaniard also was captured; and the Prince, like bis father, passed on board her, and fought her against the other Spaniards during the rest of the action. At last, towards evening, the English had the clear mastery. Twenty-six of the Spanish ships were sunk or taken, and La Cerda with the remnant of his fleet drew out of the fight, and sailed down Channel. The English were in no con dition to pursue. King Edward ordered the royal trumpets to sound the order to cease action. He then, with his princes and nobles and the other -more distinguished warriors, returned to Winchelsea, where they rejoined the Queen and her ladies, with whom they passed the night in revelry and in the dance, and in discourses upon love and arms.* The chivalrous historian, from whose Chronicle this sketch of the battle of " The Spaniards on the Sea " has been chiefly taken, gives many brilhant narratives of the tournaments and other knightly pageantries of which the English Court was the scene during the interval between the campaigns of Cressy and Calais, and the renewal of active hostilities with the French in 1355. One institute of the chivalry of those days has flourished untb the present time, and stbl flourishes in not merely undiminished, but increasing splendour and renown. King Edward III. in 1349 selected twenty-five of the bravest and noblest of the knights of England, whom he associated with himself in a knightly brotherhood. St. George was the patron saint ; and each knight wore round his neck a collar from which hung a jewel, called the Great George, * Froissart. tionalorigin. OEDEE OE THE GAETEE. 155 and representing the mbitary saint,* armed and chap. mounted, and trampling a vanquished dragon beneath LL his courser's hoofs. But the peculiar badge of the 1349- new knights was a garter of blue velvet,, on which was embroidered the motto " Honi soit qui mal y pense." Various accounts are given of the origin of this itstradi- emblem, and of the corresponding name of the new order, whose style was appointed by their founder to be, and stbl is, "The Knights of St. George of the Order of the Garter." There seems to be no reason to reject the narrative, which has been usuaby received by historians, according to which King Edward was ob served by some of his courtiers at a festival to pick up from the ground a garter, which had been accidentally dropped by the fab? Countess of Salisbury. The courtiers smbed on seeing this ; and King Edward, who perceived the significance of theb smiles, said to them in French (then the court language), " Evil be to him who evil thinks." The King further showed that he himself could feel deeply, if not constantly, the sentiment which he expressed, and that he regarded the Countess of Sabsbury as worthy of the highest honour, by making the garter, which he accidentally found, and * According to Selden, the true St. George* was a distinguished officer in the armies of the Emperor Diocletian, who was converted to Christianity, and became a martyr during the persecution of the Christians by that Emperor. Mr. Baring Gould, in his Medieval Myths, second series, has given a copious and curious account of the mediaeval legends respecting St. George, and the ancient oriental myths that were blended with them. He says. (p. 26) " that St. George, in his mythical character, is a Semitic god Chris tianised." He was a favourite saint with the Crusaders ; but until the reign of Edward III. he was not regarded as the guardian saint of the English in particular. From that time St, George " replaced Edward the Confessor as patron of our nation ;" and became, as Spenser in " The Faery Queen " has styled him, " St. George of merry England, the sign of Victory." (See Mr. Gould's work, pp. 49, 51). 156 EDWAED III. Death. ! chap, the words, which he had uttered on the occasion, the LL symbol and the motto of the noblest order of knight- 1349. hood in his dominion* Devasta- But however bribiant were the pageantries of Eng- f.^lf land's Court and nobles during the seven years that Black i= followed the victory at Cressy, part of this period was marked by general misery and terror, not in England only, but throughout the greater part of the civbized world. A pestilential malady (which among the many pestilences recorded in history is distinguished as the Black Death) spread from Asia and Egypt in a north westerly direction over the European continent, and is said in some districts to have swept off as much as two-thirds of the population.! It reached England in * There are some weU-known and very beautiful chapters in Froissart which give a d escription of Edward's falling in love with the Countess of Salisbury at the Earl's castle of Wark, immediately after King David of Scotland had besieged it. Mr. Longman, in a note to p. 202 of his first volume, has brought together strong reasons for considering that Froissart's story has no historical foundation, "although it is quite possible that Edward may have faUen in love with the Countess of Salisbury at some time or other." Jehan le Bel, in his 65th chapter, has a terrible story (told by him with a pathos and tragic power that remind us of Livy), how King Edward offered violence to the Countess ; how the Earl, her husband, when told of it, left England, and threw away his life in battle against the Infidels in Spain ; and how the Countess shortly died of grief. Froissart, in his first edition of his Chronicle, simply omitted this part of Jehan le Bel's narrative ; but in his second version, that preserved in the manuscript of Amiens, he expressly states that, having read this dreadful charge against King Edward in the Chronicles of Jehan le Bel, he, when he was in England, made careful inquiries to see if it had any foundation of truth ; and that he convinced himself that the charge was wholly unfounded. It seems to me that Froissart's earnest statement ought to satisfy us also that Jehan le Bel (who was not in England at, or ever after the supposed date of the occurrence) must have heard and adopted some false rumour against the English King. Edward was notoriously licentious in his early manhood, as well as in his old age j and this may have predisposed his personal and political enemies (of whom he had many) to circulate tales respecting him, in which he was charged with even blacker sins, than those which he actually committed. f This pestilence began in China, and is supposed to have been one of the great epidemics that have been connected with, if not caused by, volcanic convulsions in the place of their origin. Niebuhr (Hist. Rome, vol. ii. THE BLACK PLAGUE. 15 7 1349, and every part of the kingdom was soon fibed chap. with terror, death, and lamentation. No other epi- IL demic seems to have kbled those once affected by it 1349- so certainly and so speedily as this, the black plague with lty of the middle of the fourteenth century. Fifty-seven j^u^/* thousand persons are said to have perished in London Small pro- only. We cannot put much confidence in the accuracy recoveries. of these figures ; but some specific facts are recorded, Numbers which there seems no reason to doubt, and which may victims in enable us to form some idea of the fearful extent of this Londo11' visitation. The churchyards were insufficient to receive The burial the dead ; and pits were dug in the adjacent fields, into pits' which the bodies of those stricken and slain by the plague were cast hurriedly in heaps, and without any funeral solemnity or religious ritual. The pious and sir Waiter kindly spbit of Edward's favourite knight, Sir Walter" ^^uriai Manny, was shocked at this breverent treatment of the sr°un Scotland, which arms had been unable to extract. All baffld b"* these schemes faded through the indignant opposition the spirit of the nobles and people of Scotland, and the renewal Scottish of hostilities seemed repeatedly imminent. Yet actual peoPie.and hostilities were always averted; and the last twenty years of Edward's reign formed a period of singular tranquillity for Scotland (except so far as she was dis tracted by the feuds of her own children), and for the northern counties of England also. Tiie French j± blow to France, even heavier than her defeat at Cressy and the loss of Calais, was given in 1356. war, THE BLACK PEINOE IN SOUTHEEN EEANOE. 161 This was dealt by an army that had marched, not chap. from the north, but from the south, where the Black JL_ Prince had been appointed King Edward's lieu- 1355- tenant in the dukedom of Aquitaine, with fub power prienceae' to wage war, make alliances, and receive homage ^^ in the King's name. The popularity and renown of the young Prince of Wales made the youthful and adventurous spbits of the age eager to serve under him ; and in the autumn of 1355 he found himself at Bordeaux at the head of an army estimated to comprise among its forces of all kinds not less than sixty thou sand men. A very large proportion of the knights and English and men-at-arms were Gascons. But the Prince had forces with him the Earl of Warwick, the Lord Eeginald ^^d. Cobham, the Lord Thomas Hampton, the Lord Audley, Sir John Chandos, and many more of the most re nowned knights of his own country; and the force of archers under his command comprised many thousands of England's stoutest and most skilful yeomen. He marched, in tbe autumn of 1355, His winter without opposition through the provinces of the in^outhern French King that adjoined Aquitaine, as far as the i^6' Mediterranean, spreading devastation and terror wherever he moved, and giving his followers the means of acquiring ample booty. In 1356, after pro viding amply for the defence of Aquitaine, and the numerous strongholds, which he had conquered and occupied in his recent winter campaign, he marched He begins out of Bordeaux with the determination of penetrating CamP™°gn into the very heart of France. The army led by the ^J"™ English Prince on this occasion is said not to have JfrJ, exceeded twelve thousand men — an enumeration, m Probable which the light-armed infantry were probably not JP^jf included. It is clear, from what we know of the great battle fought by this army, that the archers must have VOL. II. M 162 EDWAED III. chap, been numerous ; and it may be safely assumed that JL the knights, then led forth by the Black Prince, were 1356. the very chosen of G-ascony and England. Hedeso. The Prince marched through Perigord and the French16 Limousin, and then struck northward as far as provinces Bourges, plundering and destroying as he went Bourges. along. The merciless nature of this devastation, and tbe smallness of the army that was inflicting King John it, roused King John into vindictive action. He annyVo'111 assembled a large host at Chartres, and led them an^cTush across the Loire, in seemingly well-founded expec- h™. tation of enveloping and crushing the invaders. The Black Prince received vague intelligence of the preparations of the French, and commenced a retreat through Touraine and Poitiers towards Bordeaux. But he was ib-informed as to the exact movements of The armies King John ; and when, on the evening of the 17th of each other September the English had come within five mbes of Poitiers the city of Poitiers, they suddenly found that the great i7th.emter army °^ the French was before them, and they knew 1356. at once that further retreat was cut off, and that they must either capitulate or fight. SkiiM Whatever incaution Prince Edward may have shown of the in exposing himself to be thus intercepted was amply Prince. redeemed by the resolution and skill, with which he prepared to abide the perb, that he had rashly braved. Some Engbsh knights, who had been engaged in a skirmish which provoked King John to display the full force of his army, reported to young Edward the vast numbers and admirable equipment of the enemy. " God help us !" replied the Black Prince ; " we must now give our thoughts to how we can fight them best." Position He observed, and promptly occupied a piece of rising by°theed ground about a mile from the moor in front of Poitiers, English. on which the French were posted. The ground thus BATTLE OE POITIEES. 163 taken by the English was intersected by hedges and chap. rows of vines. The only clear passage through it was JL by a long road or lane, along which not more than four 1356- horsemen could ride abreast. Edward drew up half Arrange- his archers in front of the end of this road, where it ^"g- opened out into ground still consisting of vineyards, lish army- but rather more practicable for regular troops. Behind this body of archers he placed the mass of his men-at- arms, who were to fight on foot. The other half of his archers were thrown forward among the hedges and vine-rows that flanked the lane, and opened towards the position of the French. It is certain that the French army very far outnum- Probable bered the English, in some proportion between seven to thTtwo8 ° one and ten to one. The precise number of the English armies- is fixed by some writers as below 8000. The Prince's army must have been much reduced since it left Bor deaux, chiefly by reason ofthe frequent detachments sent off to escort the large numbers of prisoners, who had been taken during the brief but devastating campaign, and whose ransoms were looked to as the most lucrative results of the war. The best proof of the immense September numerical superiority of the French is the willingness Neg0'cia. shown by the Black Prince to accept the proffered tlonun- j jr x success- mediation of the Cardinal Perigord between himself fully at- and King John, and to purchase a safe retreat to Bor- cardinal deaux by any sacrifices not involving the sacrifice of engor ' honour. He offered to cede all the lands and castles which he had conquered, to give up all the plunder which his army had gained, and to bind himseb by an oath not to bear arms against the French for seven years. King John insisted that the Prince of Wales should surrender himself and a hundred of his knights as prisoners of war. This the Black Prince indignantly refused ; and Sunday, the 18th of September, having M 2 164 EDWAED in. chap, been thus spent in fruitless negociation, the French JL. made ready for the attack, and the English to defend 1356. themselves on the following morning. Arrange- Nearly all the nobility of France were with King thenFr°ench John at Poitiers. Their army was arranged in three army. principal divisions, one being under the command of the Mareschals D'Audenehan and De Clermont; the second under the three eldest sons of King John ; and the third being commanded by King John himself, who kept at his own side his youngest son, then a youth of sixteen. John placed in the van of all a chosen body of 300 horsemen, who were to begin the battle by charging and dispersing the Engbsh archers. This repetition of the Bannockburn tactics was probably suggested by Sb? Wibiam Douglas, who with some other Scottish knights had joined the French army ; but the battle-ground of Poitiers was ib-adapted for the operation, and a commander very different from Edward II. was now at the head of the Engbsh. The Black Prince slightly varied his dispositions for action, by retaining a small body of picked cavaby on horseback round his own person, whbe the bulk of the men-at-arms were to fight on foot ; and also by detach ing 300 mounted knights, and 300 mounted archers under a veteran officer, the Captal de Buch, who were to move secretly round the base of a neighbouring hill, and to appear at the crest and charge down on the French flank at fitting opportunity. The English soldiers had also been busily employed, while the leaders were negociating on the 18th, in further strengthening their position by digging trenches and throwing up barricades in every place, that seemed most open to attack. Prepara- At day-break on the 1 9th, the Black Prince examined the"battie *n Person these preparations for defence, and addressed 1356. September, BATTLE OE POITIEES. 165 his men cheerfully, asking them in God's name to do chap. theb? duty that day, and promising that, with God's " and St. George's grace, they should see him act as became a good knight. The Lord James Audley came 19th forward to beg a boon of him. " Sire," said this gallant if56;Tiig boon knight, "I have served your royal father and yourself to be the long and faithfully, and will do so while I have bfe. sghteaved I now tell you of a vow made by me, that if ever I Dudley10"1 should be in any battle, at which the King your father, or any of his princely sons should be present, I would be the most forward in fight, or die in the attempt. I now pray you that I may post myself so that I may accomplish this vow." Edward readily gave the per mission asked for, and held out his hand to him, saying, " God grant, Sir James, that you may this day shine in valour above all other knights." Lord Audley then stationed himself with four of bis most trusted esquires* in the front rank of the English heavy armed battalion. They had not to wait long for the commencement of ^°™tm0efnoe' the action. The first division of the French came the action boldly on to the entrance of the lane, preceded by the of French chosen troop of 300 horse, who sought to gallop up the ^ ^fist lane, and ride in upon the English bowmen who stood ™0a™0dit^; opposite to its further extremity. But the other French English archers, who lined the hedgerows and the sides of the lane, poured theb? arrows in on the advancing French with fatal effect. Aiming from so short a ^tarde distance that every arrow told, the English shot the tgj^ French cavalry down like deer. The lane was soon archers. * The names of these gaUant " Promachi " have been preserved :— Dalton of Dalton, Delves of Dodington, Fowlehurst of Crewe, and Hawkestoun of WainehiU. Froissart has described how their gaUant master after the battle made over to them the 500 marks of yearly revenue which had been gifted to him by the Black Prince for his conspicuous valour ; and how the Black Prince ratified the transfer, and made a fresh gift to Sir James of 600 marks yearly. 166 EDWAED III. CHAP. II. 1356. Disorder and panic. Flight of the second French Division. The third French Division,under King John,stands firm. The Eng lish ad vance out into the open moor against King John'sdivision. cumbered with carcasses and with wounded men and horses; and the heavy armed column of foot under the two marshals, which had followed the forlorn hope of cavaby into the defile, was exposed to the same raking vobeys from foes, whom they could neither reach nor avoid. A few French knights gained the English end of the lane, only to be destroyed by the arrows of the archers ranged there. Some of the French struggled through the hedgerows at the side, to be cut down by the bill-men among the trenched and tangled ground. Many perished in the lane, shot through by foes, or trampled down by comrades. The flanks of the tortured column writhed and reeled ; and the English men-at-arms, advancing through the opened ranks of their archers, came swiftly and bre- sistibly down upon its head. In utter confusion and dismay, the rebcs of the first French division fled back from the fatal lane, rushing among theb comrades of the second division, and spreading the contagious influence of panic flight. At this crisis the Captal de Buch showed himself with his horsemen and mounted archers over the brow of the hib at the side of the French. Alarmed at the flank attack, with which they were threatened, and assabed by the vic torious English in front, the French second division broke, and fled from the field. The thbd division, commanded by the King himself, and in which the flower of the nobles of France were posted, stood firm ; and the success of the invaders might have been imperfect, if they had not had the daring to be come the assailants in turn, and to come forth into the open ground to charge King John's division, which alone outnumbered the whole English army. Sb John Chandos, who, as at Cressy, kept close to the side of the Prince of Wales throughout the day, called aloud BATTLE OF POITIEES. 167 to his young general, " Eide on, sb, ride on ; the day chap. is ours. Let us make for the King of France, for where JL he is, will be the main stress of the business. I know 1356- he is too brave to fly. He shall be ours, if it please God and St. George, but he must be well fought with." The Prince was as ardent for the advance as his gabant comrade, and turning to his standard-bearer, Sir Walter Woodland, he exclaimed, " Advance banners in the name of God and St. George." The chosen body of the English cavalry, the dismounted men-at-arms, and the archers now moved forth from the enclosed ground, where the fight had hitherto raged, upon the open moor. They were led and guided by chiefs, who not Skill of the only displayed brilliant courage and remarkable per- j^f1^ sonal prowess, but knew also how to check rashness and disorderly impetuosity, and how to employ the cavaby, the heavy armed foot, the bblmen, and bow men, so as to make each arm of warfare most effective.* Some bodies of the first and second French divisions, which had remained on the moor, or had been rallied and brought back by their leaders, were first encoun tered and broken by the advancing English. The victors then collected themselves for the final struggle with King John's own division. Sb John Chandos * Lord Suffolk was especiaUy praised for his skill and care in riding to the various bodies of the English, and not only encouraging them to fight well, but also " having a great regard that the youthful sort of lusty soldiers being too bold upon their good hearts and courage, should not without regard go out too far ; and he placed the archers at times to great advan tages." The tactics of the English, when they advanced against any battalion of the dismounted French knights and men-at-arms, seem to have been that, first the archers poured in a voUey of arrows at short range, which were sure to kiU or wound many in the front rank, and then the English knights and men-at-arms instantly charged the battalion before it could recover from the disorder caused by this loss. The English archers seem also, whenever opportunity presented itself, to have next posted them selves where they-could shoot into the flank and rear of the French battalion, while the heavy-armed English pressed it in front. 168 EDWAED HI. . chap, had not over-praised, the French- King's spirit and L prowess. Seeing the English bear down on him, John 1356, called out to his nobles and men-at-arms, " On foot, on gallantry foot ! fight it out on foot ! " and his whole battalion John and dismounted, and with shortened spears advanced in nobkTwno' g°°& order to meet the English charge. King John, fought near witE a battle-axe in his hand, took his own station in the front rank, beneath the Oriflamme, and fought gallantly against the Engbsh and Gascons under the Earls of Warwick and Suffolk, who formed the part of the Prince's army, which he personally encountered. His young son, Prince Phbippe, and the French nobles and knights who were near him, emulated his valour. " Scarcely any," says the old chronicler, " who were with the King attempted to escape. They acquitted themselves to the best of theb power, and were either slain or taken. Kmg John proved himself a good knight ; and if the fourth of his people had behaved as well, the day would have been his own." * But in the other parts of tbe French line the resistance to the Black Prince and his conquering warriors seems to have been less desperate, though many of the French nobles, besides those close to the King's person, are Death of praised by Froissart for theb? determined valour. Sir deRibeau-6 Eustace de Eibeaumont, King Edward's personal anta- mont. gonist before Calais, and whose decoration as the bravest knight in that action has been described, was one of the brave Frenchmen who thus fought to the Kidgb°hn very ^as*' anc^ ^e<^ a^ -P°itiers. The victorious Eng- near him lish and Gascons now poured so fast in upon the band powered, of French nobles and knights round King John, that they broke through its ranks by main weight and strength. Lord Eeginald Cobham with his own hand **. Froissart, 0> BATTLE OF POITIEES. 169 struck down the Lord de Chargny, the standard-bearer chap. of France, and the Oriflamme fell to the ground. JL The King stbl fought on in the thick of the press 1356- with his battle-axe. His youngest son, Philippe, Prince™ was with him to the last. The three elder princes PhiIippe- had fled early in the battle ; but little Philippe, though wounded, would not desert his father. Too small and weak himself to be able to strike with any effect, he kept close to King John, warning him of impending attacks, and calling out, "Look to your right, father ; now strike to your left."* At last the English and the Gascons pressed so hard on the King, that he saw that he could defend him self no longer. Many knew him, and called to him, " Sir, yield you, or else you are but dead." There was a knight of "St. Omer retained in wages with the King of England, eabed Sir Denis Morbecke, who had served the Englishmen five years, because in his youth he had forfeited the realm of France for a murder which he did at St. Omer. It happened so well for him that he was next to the King. When they were about to take him he stept forth into the press, and by strength of his body and arms he came to the French King and said, in good French, ' Sir, King joim yield you ! ' " f The King obtained a promise that he ^ taken" should be taken to his cousin the Prince of Wales, and Pnsoners- * Seven years afterwards King John, in his grant of the Duchy of Bur gundy to his son Philippe, bore emphatic testimony to the affection and bravery which Philippe had shown at Poitiers : — " Eappelant encore a notre memoire les services excellents et dignes de louange de notre trte- cher Philippe, le quatrieme de nos fils, qui s'exposa de plein gre" h. la mort avec nous, et tout blesse qu'il etait, resta inebranlable et sans peur durant la bataUle de Poitiers." Cited in Barante, liv. i. The conquerors in the battle gave young Philippe his surname of " PhUippe le Hardi," by which he is distinguished among the Dukes of Burgundy.— See Jehan le Bel, vol. ii. p. 202. ' f Lord Berners's Froissart, p. 302. I have modernised the spelling. 170 EDWAED III. CHAP. II. 1356. Personal prowess of the Black Prince. Complete ness of the victory of the Eng lish. The prince halts and collects his King John brought to the prince. Courtesy of the Black Prince. then he gave his right gauntlet to the knight, saying, " I yield me to you." His little son was taken at the same time. The Black Prince had throughout the battle on the moor shown might in arms as a combatant, equal to the skib and conduct which he had displayed as a general. Froissart says of him that " he was as coura geous as a lion, and took great delight that day to combat his enemies." Another writer says that the Prince went " into the middle of the throng, and where he seeth most company, there he layeth about him on every side." When every banner and pennon of the French had faben, and no considerable body of them seemed able to rally, and when the pursuing con querors had also begun to lose order, and to become scattered over the field, the Prince, by the sage advice of Sir John Chandos (who was -at his side), ordered his banner to be set up on a high bush, and the trum pets and clarions to sound. The English knights at this signal returned from the pursuit, and cobected around a small common tent, which had been brought and pitched for the Prince, close to the standard. They brought wdth them the numerous prisoners, whom they had taken. The Black Prince, when informed of the capture of the King of France, ordered dbigent search to be made for him. The English and Gascon soldiers had thronged round King John and his son, Prince Philippe, and were contend ing with one another for these royal prizes. Lord Warwick and Lord Cobham at last rescued King John and his son from these disorderly competitors, and conducted the captive sovereign carefuby and respect fully to the presence of the Prince of Wales. Prince Edward met him at the entrance of the tent with a low obeisance, and in courteous and deferential lan- KING JOHN OF FEANOE CAPTUEED. 171 guage endeavoured to console him for his defeat and chap. captivity. He presented a cup of wine to him with JL his own hand ; and when, in the evening, a repast 1356- was prepared, to wliich the principal nobles and knights among the French prisoners, as well as the chief officers of the Prince's army, were invited, Ed ward placed the King of France and his son Prince Phbippe at an elevated table, and waited on them in person. He again endeavoured to comfort his royal guest, assuring John that the King, his father, would show him all honour and friendship in his power, and would arrange the conditions of his ransom in such a spbit, that there should thenceforward always be friendship between them. "In my opinion, sire," added the Black Prince, " you ought to be of good cheer, although the fortune of the day has turned against you; for you have this day acquired the highest renown for prowess ; and in your valiant defence you have surpassed ab the best knights of your host. I do not say this to flatter you ; for ab those of your side agree, and award you the prize for valour, if you are wbling to bear it." At the end of this speech (say the old chroniclers) there were mur murs of approbation heard from every one ; and the French said that the Prince had spoken nobly and truly, and that he would be one of the most gallant princes in Christendom, if God should grant him life to pursue his career of glory.* * Froissart, oh. clxviii., and Jehan le Bel, vol. ii. p. 319. Jehan le Bel's nar rative of this battle must have been written very soon after the event ; for he says at the end of the chapter that the terms of pacification between the Kings of France and England were not publicly known when he was writing. This must, therefore, have been before the publication of the Treaty of Bretigni in 1360. The narrative of the courtesy of the Black Prince was repeated by Froissart in his second edition of his Chronicle (that in the Amiens MS.). He says also there that he had made inquiries about the battle of Poitiers 172 EDWAED III. CHAP II. 1356. Brilliancy of the victory of Poitiers. Important service of the English archers. The victory of the Black Prince at Poitiers was justly regarded by his contemporaries as even more glorious than the victory at Cressy. The disparity' of numbers was greater ; and the French began the battle of Cressy with an army in disorder, and fatigued by a day's march, but the battle of Poitiers commenced early in the morning, and with the French army well arranged.* No part of King Philippe's army fought in the first battle with courage and determination, such as King John's division exhibited in the second. The carnage was far the heaviest at Poitiers. Froissart declares that the flower of the chivaby of France was destroyed there. The number of nobles and men-at- arms slain on the French side is computed at 11,000, and the number of prisoners appear to have been very great. At Poitiers, as at Cressy, the English victory was in a great extent due to the good service done by the archers. The old English phrase, "To do yeoman's service," f probably dates from these wars. But no amount of valour on the part of either the archers or from good knights and esquires on each' side who were in the battle, and also from heralds, whose business it is to know such matters, and make inquiry about them. Jehan le Bel and Froissart (in both his first and his second editions) state that the English and Gascon followers of Prince Edward strove to emulate their Ulustrious chief's courtesy. After the banquet in the Prince's pavi lion, " each departed to his lodging with the knights and squires he had captured. Those that had taken them asked what they could pay for their ransom, and wiUingly believed whatever they told them ; for they had declared publicly that they did not wish to deal harshly with any knight or squire, so that his ransom should be burdensome, and prevent his following the profession of arms or advancing his fortune." * Froissart. f Shakespeare makes Hamlet (act v. sc. 2) say of his penmanship when it saved his life, " It did me yeoman's service." Froissart thus attests the prowess of the English archers at Poitiers, " Trewe to say, the archers did their company that day greate advantage, for they shotte so thick that the Frenchmen wyst not on what side to talce heed ; and lytell and lytell the Englyshmen wonne grounde on them." — Lord Berners's translation, p. 190. THE BLACK PEINCE EETUENS TO ENGLAND. 173 of the English and Gascon knights, could have gained chap. the battle, if it had not been for the admirable skill JL of the Black Prince. He proved himself to be a 1356- mbitary commander of the very highest order in his p^t* selection of his ground, in his first arrangements for f^eral" defensive battle, and in the prompt energy with which he advanced and crushed his adversary, as soon as the opportunity appeared. If it be true, that, when he marched so far northward from Bordeaux, he had reason to believe that he would meet other English forces, who were to have landed on the northern French coasts, and marched southward, his generalship throughout the campaign is faultless.* Prince Edward returned with his triumphant army and his captives to Bordeaux, whence he set sab for England, taking King John with him in the following Aprb. The eldest of the French King's sons, who Truce with had escaped from Poitiers, assumed the regency of 0f fS& France, and with him the Black Prince before leaving Bordeaux concluded a truce for two years, subject to the approbation of King Edward. It is easy to credit the glowing accounts, wliich our Reception old writers give, of the enthusiasm, with which the princem conqueror of Poitiers was welcomed home by his Ensland- febow-countrymen, and of the scene of magnificence which was displayed, when he and King John made their state entry into London. The Black Prince preserved the same modesty of demeanour, which had adorned him when he first met his royal captive on .the battle-field. While the French King was mounted on a charger conspicuous for its size and beauty, and for the richness of its decorations, Prince Edward rode * See the Prince's letter to the Lord Mayor of London in Mr. Biley's Memo rials of London. It is cited and commented on by Mr. Longman, vol. i. p. 396. 174 EDWAED IH. CHAP. II. 1356. Honourabletreatment of the Frenchking in England. King Ed ward at the meridianof his prosperity. He recog nises the of further wars for the con quest of France or of Scotland. He seeks a peace with solid gains. at his side on a common palfrey, and with nothing, save his own glory, to attract notice or admiration towards himself. King Edward received the royal prisoner from his gabant son, and exhibited the same princely spirit of courtesy, which John had already experienced from tbe Prince. Every mark of respect usually shown towards a crowned head was scrupu lously observed, and the Palace of the Savoy was assigned as a fitting residence for King John, whbe he paid England tbe compulsory honour of its being his royal residence. This was the noontide of the glory of Edward III. Two rival sovereigns, David, King of Scots, and John, King of France, were his captives ; prisoners made in honourable and successful warfare. England had become the most powerful and the most renowned State in Christendom ; and the personal fame of King Edward himself as a skilful leader and a gallant knight was unrivalled, save by the fame of one whose laurels must have been more grateful to the King than even his own — the fame of his son, the " Sable Warrior," the victorious Prince of Wales. It is a proof of Edward's sagacity, that even in this height of his prosperity he seems to have been aware of the impracticability of either the conquest of Scot land, or the conquest of France. He determined, however, so to use his successes, as to realise from them the greatest possible advantages. The policy pursued by him towards the Scots during the latter portion of his reign has been already described. He sought to obtain from the French - large pecuniary supplies by way of ransom for King John, and also the cession of ample territories, chiefly in the south west of France, to be added to the English provinces there, of which Bordeaux was the capital. These MISEEABLE STATE OF FEANCE. 175 were to be held by Edward, not as feudal vassal to chap. the King of France, but in fub and absolute sove- JL reignty. King John was willing to accede to these 1356-1359. demands ; but King John was a prisoner, and his assent availed nothing without the accord of those who were the actual rulers of France. His eldest son, the Dauphin* Charles (one of the princes who fled from Poitiers) held the Eegency of that un happy country. Such was the misery of France Miserable at this period, that her enemies might have ex- France at pected the acceptance of almost any terms which thistime- they deigned to offer. Nearly ab the best and bravest of her mbitary chiefs had fallen at Poitiers ; and the carnage wrought there among her noblesse and cheva- bers had been so great, that the peasantry in many of her provinces had risen against the feudal yoke ; and a servile war, the most dreadful of all wars, was The Jac- added to the scourge of invasion by foreigners. In J^^t Paris the royal authority was completely overthrown ; Paris- and Marcel, the provost of the merchants, was for a time the real sovereign of the capital. The national Spirit of spbit, which the French showed at this season of ad- nation in versity, makes it one of the most honourable passages £^m' in their history. All agreed in the rejection of ^fj.6 Edward's first demands, which, if yielded to, would England. have amounted to the dismemberment of their country. The Jacquerie (as the insurrection of the serfs was termed) was put down; not without the cruelty which generally accompanies the repression of the savage efforts of the slave to shake off his oppressor ; * The province of Dauphine" had been ceded to the French crown by Humbert II., near the end of the reign of Philippe VI. King John assigned it to his eldest son Charles, and thenceforth it was held by the eldest son of the King. The counts had been called " Dauphins " from the Dolphin being tbeir armorial bearing. The French Princes, who acquired the county, assumed the title also. 176 EDWAED III. CHAP. II. 1359-1360. Prudent policyof the regent Charles. Edward'sineffectual campaign in 1359 and 1360. Vain ad vance and calamitous retreat of the Eng bsh. Successfulattack of the French on the' English coast. and which deserves to be regarded as one ofthe curses to mankind, which are inherent in every system of slavery. The Eegent recovered his authority in Paris, and began to display those qualities of sagacity and firmness (not, however, untainted by fraud) which earned for him, when King, the title of Charles the Wise. No more large French armies were raised to form the materials for more English victories in pitched battles ; but pains were taken to discipline smab bodies under wary as well as brave commanders. Important towns and fortresses were carefuby strengthened and garrisoned ; and Paris was made secure from any sudden attack. The wisdom of these measures was signabsed in 1359 and 1360, when Edward marched vainly through north-eastern France at the head of the most numerous and the best appointed army, that England had ever yet sent forth. The English force was not less than 100,000 strong. It comprised the most distinguished of the chivalry of Edward's do minions, and at its head were the King and the Black Prince. But there was no opposing host for them to fight with ; no weak and wealthy towns to capture ; no rich district to ravage. They were repulsed from Eheims. They appeared in vain before the gates of Paris. A retreat to the coast over a desolated country, and in weather of unexampled severity, became unavoidable ; and many thousands of the English perished from privation and disease. The vigilance of the French Eegent showed itself not only in the successful caution, with which the campaign on land was conducted by his officers, but also in the promptness with which he seized the opportunity of dealing a blow at England by sea. The splendid naval victories gained by the English THE FEENCH BTJEN WINCHELSEA. !77 over the French at Sluys, and over the Spaniards in the chap. fight off Winchelsea, had filled both King and people JL with confidence in their maritime superiority over all 136°- enemies ; and that confidence (as too often is the case) degenerated into contemptuous carelessness. While Neglected the resources of the kingdom were taxed to the utmost, f^f the in order to pour army after army into France, the Navy naTy- was suffered to decay, and no heed was paid as to how the officers charged with the collection of ships and men performed their duty. Stores were wasted and not replaced, and the fortifications of the seaports were left without repairs. The French Eegent had information of this negligence, and determined to profit by it. A Alarm in considerable force was rapidly fitted out in the French thfeT*8* ports ; and when tidings came to England of this fleet ^kby**" being at sea, with troops on board, the measures taken the ^rench p V p t squadron. for defence show the miserable condition into which our navy had fallen.* No fleet could be sent to sea to meet and crush our foes as they came over the Channel ; but hurried orders were sent round the coast to withdraw our vessels from the enemy's reach by hauling them far up on land ; and a general array of all men fit to bear arms was commanded for the protection of the maritime counties. This did not pre- The French vent the French from capturing and burning the then cheLa,™' important town of Winchelsea. Their fleet anchored 136(K in the port there without resistance on the 15th of March, and landed a considerable force of soldiers, who easily made theb way into the town, which they pillaged and set on fire. A large number of the inha bitants were slaughtered, and many were carried away prisoners. The French spread their devastations far over the adjacent country, before any force was collected to check them. * See Sir Harris Nicolas's Hist. Royal Navy, vol. ii. p. 152. VOL. II. H 178 CHAP. II. 1360. Distress of France. Negocia tions re newed. Treaty of Bretigny. King John returns to France. EDWAED m. Still, with whatever spirit, the French maintained the struggle against King Edward, their sufferings were so great, that some respite at almost any price was necessary. The English King also had become willing to treat on more moderate terms for peace, since the failures of his campaign in 1359-1360. And, although the miseries caused to England by the Avar were not comparable with those, which it had brought upon France, the Engbsh nation felt severely the burden of increased taxation, and the decline of commerce. The financial position of King Edward himself, who had long been raising loans in every possible quarter, was becoming daily more and more embarrassed. Negociations were re-opened; and on the 8th of May, 1360, the Commissioners of France and England signed the treaty called, from the place of its execution, the Treaty or the Peace of Bretigny. Its chief terms were the cession of Guienne, Poitou, and Gascony, in the South, and of the County of Ponthieu and of Calais, and a small district adjacent to it, in the North, to the King of England, to be held by him in fub sovereignty ; — the renunciation by Edward of his claims to the crown of France, and of all title to Normandy, Touraine, Anjou, and Maine ; — and the fixing the ransom of King John at three nbl- lions of gold crowns. A specified number of French nobles and of burghers of the chief French cities were placed in Edward's power as securities for the due payment of the money ; and King John was restored to liberty and his own kingdom at the end of almost exactly four years after his defeat by the Prince of Wales. The Treaty of Bretigny was styled by some contem poraries ^jthe~ Great Peace ; " but it was in reality little more than a hollow truce. French and English BATTLE OF AITEAY. 179 troops continued to fight against each other in chap. Brittany, where the war between the two claimants for JL that Duchy was maintained until 1364, when one of 136°-1364- the rivals, Charles de Blois, fell in the obstinate battle p]°te°paci- of Auray, which was won for Montfort by Sir John ficatl0n- Chandos and Sir Hugh Calverly, over the two best Auray in French captains of the time, Duguesclin and Olivier ^g^' Clisson. Kmg John's ransom remained unpaid year after KingJohn's year ; and the acting rulers of France, who negociated paid. the Treaty of Bretigny, must have known at the time the impossibbity of raising so large a sum in a country so desolated and exhausted as France. But however probable it may be that the Dauphin Charles in reality intended no more than to obtain a cessation of hostili ties, and never wished for a permanent pacification upon such terms as those stipulated at Bretigny, no reproach of insincerity can rest on the fame of King John himself. One of the hostages for the payment of the ransom money was John's son, the Duke of Anjou. This Prince broke his parole, and returned to France. King John forthwith repaired to England He voiun- and surrendered himself into custody, as an un- piareshim- ransomed prisoner. The noble words used by him to ^hafam some of his Councb, who endeavoured to dissuade him custody of from this proceeding, were these : — " If honour is to iish. be banished from every other place, it must find a sanctuary in the breast of kings." He was received by Edward with well-merited respect and courtesy ; and died here, a voluntary captive, on the 8th of April, 1364. N 2 CHAPTEE III. CHAP. III. 1361. Ravages of France by "the Com panies. " Expedition of the Black Prince to Castile — His Victory at Navarette— His illness — War with France resumed— 111 success of the English — The Black Prince storms Limoges — He returns to England — Disputes of parties in England— Dotage of the King — William of Wykeham — Wyclif — Lancaster — The King's Ecclesiastical Ministry displaced — English Fleet defeated by the Spaniards — Losses in France — Lancaster's power in England through AUce Perrers' power over King Edward — Reform movement headed by Black Prince — Ministers impeached — Death of Black Prince — Lancaster and Alice Perrers regain power — Persecution of William of Wykeham — Wyclif charged with heresy — Death of Ed ward III. — Progress of the Constitution during his reign — Patriotism of leaders of the Commons — System of Taxation — Judicial functions of Parliament — The King's CouncU — Ordinances — Statute of Treasons- Justices of the Peace — Statutes of the Staple — Other measures respecting Commerce — The Guilds — State of Trade — Ecclesiastical History — Conflict against Papal exactions — Statutes of Provisors — Attacks on the higher clergy of the realm. One of the sources of dispute between France and England after the Treaty of Bretigny arose from the ravages, which " the Companies " committed in the first-named kingdom. " The Companies " were origi nally made up of military adventurers, whom the renown of the English King and the high pay offered by him had drawn together under his standard, and who, when the treaty was made, preferred carry ing on war on their own account to disbanding and returning to the monotony of a peaceful Ibe. They received into their ranks every lawless adven turer of every nation, and theb? aggregate numbers are said to have amounted at one time to forty thou sand men. They defeated the forces which the French King sent against them ; and they disregarded the pro clamations, by wdiich the English King required them to disband, and to surrender to the King of France the "THE COMPANIES.' 181 fortresses, which they occupied. Charles V. (as the chap. late Dauphin had become on the death of King John) _LL believed, or pretended to believe, that Edward secretly 1365' encouraged "the Companies," and on this and other pretexts he delayed the fulfilment of the conditions, which were to be performed on the French side according to the treaty. In 1365 an opportunity seemed to offer itself for removing " the Companies " from France, and for putting an end to this cause of dissension between King Charles and King Edward ; but in reality it led to the resumption of open warfare. A civil war was being waged in Castile between the King of that country, Pedro the Cruel, and a party of his subjects, whom his tyranny had driven into revolt, and who were headed against him by his illegitimate brother, Don Henry of Trastamara. " The The Com. Companies" were persuaded to march under the com- P»n!es are mand of the celebrated French leader Duguesclin Spain by across the Pyrenees to the assistance of Don Henry, nee^ ™' With their aid he easily defeated and dethroned King Tn de Pedro, who sought refuge and assistance at the Black throne o o Pedro of Prince's court at Bordeaux. The Prince of Wales had Castile, been appointed by King Edward Prince and Viceroy help ^ the of the now extensive English dominions in the South p^nceat of France, and he kept more than kingly state there. Bordeaux. Adventurous aspbants for martial fame, and suppb- ants for redress of wrongs, resorted from every clime to the victor of Cressy and Poitiers. He saw in TheB]ack Pedro a dethroned and banished king ; and, without Prince entering into the merits of the dispute between the Pedro, Castiban sovereign and the Castiban people, he deter- 1367' mined to restore him by force of arms. His enterprise had all the brilliancy, but little of the real utility of success. In a great battle at Navarette, in Spain, he utterly overthrew Don Henry, Duguesclin, and their 182 CHAP. III. 1367. Ingratitude of Pedro. The Black Prince re turns to Bordeauxwith broken health. Pecuniary difficultiesof the Black Prince.Increased taxation and grow ing discon tent in Gascony. TheGasconsappeal to Charles V., who breaks the treaty of Bretigny by entertain ing their appeal. Alliance of Charles of France and Henry of Castile Edward. Charles summonsthe Black Prince to appear as his vassal, February, 1369. EDWAED HI. forces, and replaced King Pedro in fub dominion on the throne. But Pedro was as destitute of gratitude and fidelity to his foreign benefactor, as of clemency and justice towards his own subjects. He evaded payment of the money, which he had engaged to furnish for the expenses of the expedition ; and the Black Prince, after lingering for a time in Spain, returned to Bordeaux, with an army weakened by disease, and bearing in himself the seeds of a malady, which enfeebled his frame and clouded his spbit, during the few remaining years of his illustrious bfe. The pecuniary embarrass ment, in which he had been placed by the cost of the Castiban ' expedition, and by King Pedro's breach of faith, induced him to impose new taxes on his Gascon subjects, which led to murmurings on their part, and caused some of them to appeal to King Charles V. for redress. The reception of such appeals by the French King was a flagrant breach of the Treaty of Bretigny, by which the territories now ruled by the Prince of Wales, under his father, had been ceded in full sovereignty to the Engbsh crown. But Charles judged that the time was now come, when he might safely discard the pretended pacification, and renew an open war against England, with a fab* prospect of success. Charles formed an alliance against the English with King Henry of Castile, who had regained that kingdom soon after the Black Prince bad left Spain. After skilfully and secretly making his preparations for war, and after fomenting by all possible means the disaffec tion against their English rulers, which was growing up among the Gascons, Charles summoned the Prince of Wales to appear before the King of France at Paris, and to answer complaints, which Gascon subjects of the King of France had preferred against him. Prince Edward indignantly answered that he would appear WAE WITH FEANCE EESUMED. 183 at Paris, but it should be at the head of 60,000 men. chap. Open war was now proclaimed, and the French troops, IIL which had already been organised and stationed in 1369- convenient positions, entered the territories that had resumed.1 been ceded to the English by the treaty ; and, aided Freno1' .° i J . troops in- by the native population, made rapid progress m their vade the re-conquest. At the same time extensive naval prepa- temtories rations were made in all the French ports. A powerful in Fra1106- fleet of Spanish ships was fitted out by King Henry of parations Castbe to co-operate"with the French squadrons ; and, p^nch and as the naval defences of England had been entbely *he Span- o _ / lards. neglected during the peace, this country itself was in serious peril of invasion. King Edward convened his Parliament. He ad- King Ed- dressed them on the perfidy .of the French adversary, ™meSr?ne and with their advice he resumed the title of King of ,ti.tle °* °. king of England and France. A powerful army was equip- France, ped, and placed under the command of Edward's 1369. ' son, the Duke of Lancaster. Lancaster landed at Calais, and advanced as far as Terouenne. He was a superior encountered by the French King's brother, now Duke f£!foh J o ? army con- of Burgundy, the Philippe le Hardi, who had shown fronts the such gallantry in the battle of Poitiers when a mere but wiii boy. Duke Philippe led an army far outnumbering gage!" the English ; and the Duke of Lancaster took up a good defensive position, and awaited the attack, which he fuhy hoped the French would make in repetition of theb conduct at Cressy and Poitiers. But the French King's orders to avoid general battles were expbcit and peremptory. The Duke of Burgundy, Both after having held the Engbsh in check for some time, armies , retired, and dismissed his forces. The English made disband. some unimportant ravaging marches in the north of France; and then the Duke of Lancaster disbanded his army and returned to England. 184 " EDWAED III. chap. In the winter, on the last day of the year 1369, the JL. English suffered a heavy loss in the death of their 1369. veteran hero, Sir John Chandos, whose life was thrown Sirajohn away in a rash and useless skirmish at Lussac, by the December riyer Vienne. In consequence of the wise and prudent 31, 1369. policy observed by the French in avoiding pitched battles, the war became little more than a series of skirmishes, surprises, and sieges of isolated posts ; and the zeal of the population in favour of the French gave them great advantage in operations of this Deficiency nature. The English began also now to suffer from on UiTEn- the want of such commanders, as headed them in the ghsh side. former gcenes of the war, — leaders not only personally brave, but also sage and skilful, and possessing a com plete ascendancy over those who marched beneath theb Dotage of banners. King Edward himself, after the death of ward hi Queen Phibppa, in 1369, appears to have sunk rapidly under the sway of mistresses into senile sensuality, Sickness of and imbecility of both body and mind. His illustrious Prince. son, the Black Prince, lay at Bordeaux, wasted away by his increasing malady, which appears to have been a chronic low fever. Chandos was gone. The gallant Hainaulter, Sb Walter Manny, who for forty years had been one of England's chief Paladins, was sinking chief En- towards the grave. Of those who retained life and theDukerf vigour, the first in importance was the King's son, Lancaster. j0;hn 0f Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, who after 1371 bore also the title of King of Castile. He mar ried in that year the eldest daughter of Don Pedro (who had been kbled in civil war), and in her right he styled himself King of Castile ; — an assumption of titular royalty, which inevitably made the actual King of Castile, Henry of Trastamara, more and more zealous in enmity against England, and in co-operation with the King of France. Lan- INEEEIOEITY OF THE ENGLISH GENEEALS. 185 caster was a bold impetuous man, not without con- chap. siderable intellectual accomplishments. His patronage L of Chaucer, and his support of Wyclif, have gained 137°- favour for him from many modern writers : but he was essentially a selfish unscrupulous politician ; and, as a general, and as a statesman in foreign affairs, he showed neither superior discernment nor grasp of mind. Knolles and other commanders, who also survived, were brave soldiers and good officers of division, but incompetent to plan a war, and of little strategic abibty in the conduct of a campaign. On the French improve- side there were a number of captains, long trained in tie11 French the severe school of adversity, and who at last com- §enerals- bined caution and skill with their national gallantry. France also had in Duguesclin a military genius of Duguesclin. very high order, who was far superior to all his con temporaries in the absence of the two royal Edwards of England, and of Chandos. In 1370, Sb Eobert Knolles led an English army Fruitless from Calais to the very gates of Paris, plundering Northern0 whatever had not been removed from his line of march. g^T by No army encountered him ; but, when he was obliged Knolles' by want of supplies to retire, Duguesclin followed him closely, and took advantage of the dissensions and disorders of the English to deal them a severe blow. Sir John Mustreworth was at the head of a body of troops, which he kept at a little distance from the mam body under Knolles. Duguesclin surprised him, Duguesclin and kibed or captured nearly the whole division, p^of the Knobes hastened his retreat northward with the other Engnsh army on portion of the army, and soon disbanded what remained its retreat. of it. In the south the Black Prince, in 1370, achieved his r^ff last success by the recapture of Limoges ; but deeply f r?m the subied his fame by the massacre of the inhabitants of to the French. 186 EDWAED in. chap, that city. Limoges had been surrendered to the French LL in the summer bf 1370, by its bishop, whom Prince 1370. Edward had appointed as its governor. The surrender was made without the opposition, apparently with the concurrence, of the citizens. No English garrison had been placed in it, as Edward bad trusted to the friend ship which he believed to exist between himself and the Prelate in command, and to the supposed loyalty Violent of the inhabitants towards tbe King of England. The i dymgpopu- his country's favourite ; and the Black Prince s tomb larity. in Canterbury Cathedral is still the object of patriotic pbgrimage to thousands. None but the ignorant, the craven, or the disloyal, can look with indifference on the helm that moulders there, from which, when it gleamed on the living hero's brow, the bravest chivalry of France and Spain fled so often in defeat and dismay. 202 EDWAED III. chap. The Good Parliament was still in session when LL Prince Edward died, and they immediately petitioned ls77- the King that the Prince's only surviving son, Eichard Prince11' of Bordeaux, should be declared in full Parliament the Ldared presumptive heir to the Crown. This was accorded ; heir to the kut a farther petition that young Eichard might be Reaction declared Prince of Wales met with an ungracious against the answer from King Edward, or from the favourites who of the late now again ruled in his name. The practical value of the Black Prince's support to the Parliamentary leaders of the Commons was made manifest speedily after his Lancaster, death. The Duke of Lancaster returned to Court, and Pe^rs, with him returned Alice Perrers, and Lord Latimer. Latimerd As ^e biographer of Bishop Wykeham has truly stated, recover << They took possession of the King, who lay at Eltham oppressed at once, with age, grief, and sickness, and utterly unable to withstand theb? importunity." They made him dismiss the Council, which had been ap pointed according to the petition of the late House of Commons ; and they next began to revenge themselves Arbitrary on the leaders of the late reformatory movement. De mentofni)e ^a Mare was arbitrarily arrested and imprisoned in the ia Mare, castle of Nottingham. A frivolous and vexatious o/wffliam1 accusation was brought against the Bishop of Win- hanf yke Chester ; and a committee of the Privy Council (which Lancaster had selected) gave sentence against him: his temporabties were seized, and he was forbidden to come within twenty mbes of the Eoyal presence. The Earl of March was obliged to resign the office which he held of High Marshal of England. This was im mediately given to Lord Percy, who had become one of Lancaster's most unscrupulous partisans. ALancas- A new Parliament met in January, 1377, and the liamenT Black Prince's son, young Eichard of Bordeaux (who had been created Earl of Chester and Prince of Wales), presided, by King Edward's desire, at its opening. THE DUKE OF LANCASTEE. 203 The Duke of Lancaster, according to one contem- chap. porary chronicler,* had influenced the elections and LL the returns to this Parbament, so that the majority of 1377- its members did his wbl submissively. The greater part jubilee of the proceedings of the late Parliament were reversed King's* the by it; and when the Commons petitioned the King rei«11- that, as he had now completed the fiftieth, the jubilee year of his reign, he would grant a general pardon to ab offenders, the Bishop of Winchester was specially excepted from the act of grace. This Parliament Thefirst granted a tax in a form and of a nature hitherto granted. unknown. This was a poll-tax of fourpence a head, " to be levied from the goods of every person in the realm, both males and females, over the age of fourteen years, except only real and veritable beggars."| The Duke of Lancaster was almogt arbitrary ruler Opposition of England during the brief residue of his father's prelates to reign. But one great churchman of the party opposed ^^j£r°f to him continued a fearless resistance to his domina tion. This was Wbbam Courtenay, the young Bishop l^ne™? of London, a prelate not eminent for learning, but nay, Bishop strong by reason of his practical talents and energy, by reason also of his high birth, and stib stronger by reason of the popularity, which he had sought and acquired among the Londoners, without being very scrupulous as to the means by which he gained theb favour.t. Through Lancaster's influence over the Convoca- Archbishop of Canterbury, William of Wykeham was X*^* left unsummoned, when the Convocation assembled g^jj" concurrently with the Parbament. The Government Winches- demanded a subsidy from the clergy ; but Courtenay * Harleian MS., No. 6217, cited in Lowth, p. 131. f " Quatre Deniers a prendre des Biens de chescune persone de meisme le Roialme, si bien masles come f emmeles outre Page de xiiii ans. Exceptes tant seulement verrois mendinantz sanz fraude."— Kot. Par. vol. ii.p. 364. X See Hook's Lives of the Archbishops, vol. iv. p. 326. 204 EDWAED III. chap, met this by a copious and indignant remonstrance L against the wrongs, which had been inflicted on the 1377- Bishop of Winchester, wrongs which were an injury to the whole body of the clergy, and an infringement of the liberties of the English Church. The Convocation warmly adopted Courtenay's opinions, and refused to vote any subsidy until the Bishop of Winchester was restored to his seat among them. After some demur, Lancaster gave way ; and Wibiam of Wykeham took his episcopal place in the Convocation, where he was received with the greatest honour and reverence. The Bishop Courtenay now proceeded to attack Wvclif, who was of London . . . n ._. ¦; attacks at this period residing with the Duke of Lancaster at Wyclif. ^ gaV0y in tjje Strand, and who by his preachings and his writings was the moving spbit of hostility. towards the wealth and the power of the English Charge of hierarchy. Courtenay caused Wyclif to be summoned to appear before the Metropolitan, the Archbishop of Canterbury, at St. Paul's Cathedral, on a charge of Lancaster heresy. Wyclif came ; and with him came the Duke support t0 of Lancaster and the Lord Percy, the newly-appointed ¦Wyclif. ;gari Marshal of England. Nothing was done on the sceney charge of heresy, as the Duke and the Earl Marshal, j^and almost immediately after they entered St. Paul's, began- the Bishop an altercation with Bishop Courtenay, in which they of London. x J ' J The Lon- used such violent and threatening language, that the with their6 Londoners, who thronged the Cathedral, were incensed Bishop. at the insults offered to their favourite prelate : the court broke up in confusion, and it was not without difficulty and danger that Lancaster and Percy and their party returned to the Savoy. The Duke hastened to the Parliament, which was then sitting, and pro posed measures for the disfranchisement of the City of London, and for giving the Earl Marshal immediate authority to arrest offenders there, and to maintain DEATH OF THE KING. 205 order. The popular indignation against these two chap. noblemen was naturally increased when this was re- LL ported throughout London ; and on the next day a 1377. large multitude attacked their houses, tore down the ^ ^"t Duke's escutcheon, and would have burned the Savoy *he Duke's ILO US 6 b it had not been saved by the interposition of Bishop Courtenay. The Duke and the Earl escaped to the The Duke waterside, where they took a boat, and were rowed to ^0^°^ Lambeth. They landed there, and hastened to Ken- *° .the „ "i Princess or nmgton, where they sought protection from the Princess Wales. of Wales, who resided there with her son, the young ^deegn*;.fn Prince Eichard. The Princess sent three gentlemen of the Lon- •it-tt doners for her household to remonstrate with the Londoners him. against further violence towards the Duke. The Londoners replied that they would obey her High ness out of the respect which they bore to her per sonally, but that they required the Duke of Lancaster to suffer justice to be done to the Bishop of Winchester and to Sir Peter de la Mare. It is evident that De la Mare was set at liberty, as he is recorded to have been Speaker of the Par- ment that met in tbe October of 1377. The Bishop The Bishop of Winchester recovered the temporalities of bis °nesterre- see by a royal order, signed only three days before corersllj? J J o ... temporali- King Edward's death. This restitution was ob- ties. tamed on condition of the Bishop undertaking to of™^0113 fit out three ships of war for the King, and to pro- restoration. vide a quarter of a year's pay for the mariners and archers on board of them. One contemporaneous writer states that the Bishop purchased also the good will of Alice Perrers by a large bribe, before justice was done to him. It is certain that the royal influence of mistress's influence over the King continued to the last perrers. day of his life, which was the 21st day of June, 1377. 5fth°f He died at the royal palace of Shene, near .Richmond, in., June J r 21, 1377. 206 EDWAED III. CHAP. III. 1377. Character of Edward III. being then in the sixty-fifth year after his bbth, and in the fifty-first of his reign. Although Edward III. did not attain a far advanced epoch of old age, he lived nearly seventeen years too long for fame. If he had died in the year when the treaty of Bretigny was signed, he would have left a memory of undimmed glory. He lived on to bear the humibations of defeat abroad and of discord at home. He lost his true dignity both as a king and as a man. He became the tool of contending parties; and the doting dupe of a mercenary mistress. The circumstances under which he died, were peculiarly sad and shameful, even when compared with other royal death-bed scenes. No friends, no kin, none connected with him by any untainted tie, were near him. Alice Perrers had kept him as long as pos sible in ignorance that death was closely approaching him ; and on the last morning, when the dying man was speechless, when his eyes were dim, and his extremities were growing cold, she drew the rings off his fingers and left him. His servants were plundering the palace. A solitary priest found his way to the royal chamber, and, placing a crucifix in Edward's hands, admonished him to pray in thought for forgive ness of his sins. Edward had just sufficient strength to kiss the crucifix and to express by tears his deep contrition before he expired.* The clouds that had gathered over the last part of this reign were soon forgotten, while its early glories have made the name of Edward III. im- * I transcribe part of Walsingham's narrative of this death-bed scene:— " Tunc nempe cum cerneret vocem ademptam, et oculorum acies hebetari, calorem que naturalem extremitates relinquere, mox inverecunda pellex detraxit annulos a suis digitis, et recessit. Solus tunc quidam sacerdos assidebat Regi moribundo, casteris circa rerum intentis direptioni, qui ei, eo quod loqui non poterat, nee confessionem ore tenus facere, persuaflit Ut HIS BEAVEEY. 207 perishably dear to his countrymen. The generations chap. of Englishmen, over whom he ruled during the LL fifty years of his long sovereignty, probably loved and Causes of admired him most for his knightly valour and his popularity. personal graces and accomplishments. He was re- Hisper- markable for his beauty in early youth ; * and the v™tageds" chronicler, who describes him in manhood, says of King Edward that " his aspect was god-like : such was the graciousness that shone reflected from him."f His hab and beard were long and flowing, as may be still seen represented in the effigy on his tomb at West minster. Sufficient proof of his courage and prowess His as a combatant has been given in the narrative of his braTery- single combat with Sb? Eustace de Eibeaumont before the gates of Calais. \ He showed also great skill as a His general on the battle-field and in the conduct of a ^{p3™'" campaign ; and probably few of those who fought under him observed that he was not eminent for veniam peteret pro commissis, applicans sibi crucis imaginem quam dedit in manus ejus." — Walsingham, p. 397. The reader will hardly blame me for recaUing to his memory the noble lines of Gray : — " Mighty victor, mighty Lord, Low on his funeral couch he Ues — No pitying heart, no eye, afford A tear to grace his obsequies. Is the sable warrior fled ? Thy son is gone. He rests among the dead. The swarm that in the noontide beam were born, Gone to salute the rising Morn." Gray, " The Bard." * Froissart, in a passage in his lately discovered third version, places before us in a few lines a perfect picture of the frank, winning, looks of young Edward. He says that when his uncle, King Charles de Valois, received Queen Isabella and Prince Edward at Paris, " Les veoit li rois volontiers, et prendoit a la fois grant plaisance ou jone Edouwart, car il estoit bians fils et rians : et s'esbatoit U rois, qui estoit son oncle, en ses joneces."— See the Introduction to M. Lucy's Froissart, p. cxxviii. t Cited in PauU, vol. iv. p. 500, and in Longman, vol. ii. p. 296. Their reference to Knighton, p. 2630, is erroneous. X See p. 151, supra. 208 EDWAED III, CHAP. III. His fond ness for pageantry. His pa tronage of learned and literary men. His renown as The Noble King. King Edward'sBon- hommie. genius in planning the operations of a war. His subjects at home, especially the Londoners, had ample opportunities for admiring theb? King's horsemanship and his dexterity in the use of arms, as exhibited in the mimic-warfare of the tournament. He was endeared to them by his fondness for- pomp and pageantry, by the magnificence of his court, and by the stateliness of his palaces and castles. He won the favour and the praise of men of learning and science, of minstrels, chroniclers, and poets, by his well-educated taste, and by his enlightened appre ciation of their respective merits, as well as by his large-handed munificence. William of Wykeham, Wycliff, Chaucer, and Froissart were among the holders of office in the royal household. Jehan le Bel, without partaking of Edward's bounty, was in timate with him, and has expressed emphaticaby his share in the admiration with which the English King was regarded throughout Europe. * We may feel sure that no quabty contributed more to King Edward's popularity, than his genial good- * Jehan le Bel caUs Edward Tfl.pm- excellence " The noble King." The passage in which the gaUant Canon of Liege justifies himself for writing thus of King Edward, whUe he spoke of his rival simply as King Philippe of France, deserves attention. It will be seen that two traits in Edward's character, which posterity regards as blemishes, his profuse liberality, and his habit of exposing his person freely in battle, did much to win the praises of his contemporaries. Jehan le Bel says in his 76th chapter (vol. ii. p. 61), "Aucunes gens qui orront lire ceste hystoire, se pourront esmervillier pour quoy je appeUe le roi d'Angleterre, le noble roi Edowart, et tout simplement je nomme le roy PhUippe de Franoe, si cuideroient et pourroient penser que je tenisse bende et partie. Sauve la grace de chascun, j e ne le f ais pour porter partie, ains le fait pour hounourer ceUuy qui en ceste hystoire s'est port6 le plus noblement : c'est le noble roy Edowart que on ne pourroit trop hounourer, car toujours a creu bon conseil en ses besougnes, et §es gens chevaliers et escuiers oui, et chascun, selon son estat hounoure', et bien deffendu son royaume contre ses anemys, et sur eul conquests assez, et son propre corps dedens son pays et dehors, sans f aintise, avecques ses gens aven- ture-, et ses souldoiers et aUierz bien pase' et de syen largement donne ; si en dobit estre de tous moult voulentiers servi, et partout Noble Boy clame'." HIS CHAEACTEE. 209 humour, and his kindly, but not undignified fami- chap. liarity with those around him. Such was his manner '_ at Cressy, when he went through the ranks, talking cheerfully with his men before the battle, and bidding each to refresh himself with a good cup of wine. Such was he before the battle with " The Spaniards on the Sea," in that scene, which Froissart has drawn so vividly,* when King Edward sate in the bow of his favourite ship, the Cog Thomas, waiting for the enemies to appear. He sate there, says the chronicler, " dressed in a black velvet jacket, with a beaver hat of the same colour, which became him well ; " and he was as joyous in look and speech (so those who were with him told Froissart) as he ever had been seen in his life. He ordered his musicians to help pass away the time by playing the tune of a German dance which "Master" John Chandos had lately brought over from Germany; and the King also in his gaiety of heart made Chandos sing to the music, which gave bim great delight. And all the while King Edward kept looking up aloft, for he had a watch stationed in the Cog Thomas's main top, to tell him when the Spanish ships came in sight; and when the look-out man called that they were coming, more in number than he could count, the King ordered the trumpets to sound, and his helmet to be brought ; but before he put it on he took a draught of wine, and made all his companions drink with him. Edward's vices, his licentiousness, and his extra- Edward's vagance were gravely rebuked f and sharply satirised Hghtiy * See Bnchan's edition in the Chroniques Francaises, vol. iii. p. 11. It is cited by Mr. Longman in his Preface, p. 8, and at vol. i. p. 325. t For Archbishop Islip's rebuke of the King in the Latin treatise, 'beginning "Domine mi Rex utinam saperes," see Hook's Lives of the Archbishops, vol. iv. p. 136. For the satires, see reference, p. 197, supra, to "Political Songs." VOL. n. p 210 EDWAED III. chap, by some .of his contemporaries ; but the mass of man- LL kind are apt to regard these blots on a king's character viewed by with indulgence, and even with secret liking, provided ins peoP e. ^at t-^e XOya\ man be, as Edward III. throughout the greater part of his reign was, brave, affable, generous, strong, daring, and successful. The remonstrances, which not unfrequent acts of misgovernment and administrative negligence drew from his faithful Com mons, were always expressed more in sorrow than in His real anger. And on the whole, Edward III. had substantial Engknd's claims to his people's gratitude, for the advanced rank gratitude, among the States of Christendom, which England acquired under his sovereignty; for the general Parlia mentary and popular character of his government ; for the amelioration of the laws ; for the nurture of com mercial prosperity; and for the discerning patronage Hisambi- of literature, science, and art. Ambition is the sin tl0n' chiefly imputed to this king. But freedom from it would in that age (as in most ages) have been a very rare and exceptional merit for a sovereign to pos sess. I believe we have seen sufficient proof that Edward III.'s French wars were forced on him ; and his assumption of the title of King of France was rather a consequence than a cause of those wars. During the last half of his reign he had the good sense to abandon the traditional policy of warfare for the annexation of Scotland ; and he wisely sought to unite the northern and southern nations of the island by peaceful and friendly inter-communications. His self-denial also in refusing the Empire, when the German electors offered him the glittering dignity, for which so many sovereigns in various ages have eagerly and obstinately striven, is ever to be remembered in Edward III. 's favour. Altogether, although he is not to be ranked with his illustrious grandsire as a kingly INTEENAL HISTOEY. 211 genius of the grandest order, he is to be placed high chap. above the average standard of English rulers — a ia standard which considerably surpasses that of the sovereigns of any other European country. In the foregoing narrative of the chief civb and The inter- military events of Edward Ill's reign, we have not of England7 paused to examine fully the progress and character of restate institutions and laws ; and we have not hitherto care- now sPe- •ttt t -i t • pi cially con- fuby considered the changes m the condition of the sidered. English people, which occurred during these very important fifty years of our domestic history. It wib its *¦ ^ . branches. now be proper to devote especial attention to these topics ; and to trace the history of our Parliamentary constitution, the history of our laws, our ecclesiastical history, the history of commerce and trade, and of the condition of the people. This classification of the greater part of the multitudinous subjects, that make up our internal history, is to some extent practicable and useful. But all these branches of inquiry blend much with each other, and greatly influence each other, so that it is impossible to observe rigorously any rules for their separate discussion. There is one most important group of subjects, including the labour laws, Villeinage, the origin of the Poor-laws, and the relations between landowners and peasantry, which will stib remain to be dealt with. The events of the last thirty years of Edward III.'s reign, and of the first part of the next reign are, in respect of these subjects, so closely connected, that it wbl be best to compre hend them in a chapter appropriated to their dis cussion. It has already been pointed out how much was Constitu-^ done in the Great Charter, in the further baronial tory. reforms during Henry III.'s reign, in the sagacious *g»; legislation of Edward I., and in the Declaratory rf*»t_ 212 EDWAED III. CHAP. III. tional prin ciples. Their in- • creased au thorityduring Ed ward III. 's reign. Repeated confirma tions of the charters. Statute passed in the fifteenth year of Edward II.'s reign,* to recognise and establish the great principles of our constitution, that the lawful government of England is a government by an hereditary king, ruling with powers limited by law, and bound to summon and consult a Parliament of the whole realm, consisting of Lords and Commons ; and that without such Parliament's sanction no tax can be imposed, and no law can be made, repealed, or altered. Ab the cbcumstances of Edward III.'s reign tended to favour the vigorous growth and practical efficacy of these rules. When he was proclaimed King, his mother and Mortimer, who ruled in his name, sought eagerly for the support of ab classes of the com munity ; and when the young King o'verthrew theb power, he was similarly anxious to strengthen himself by obtaining the favour of the people, and the sanction of the Parliament to his early measures. The long wars with Scotland and France, especiaby with France, in which he soon became involved, and his consequent need of continual suppbes of money, made him regular in summoning his Parliament, and anxious to obtain its approval of his pobcy. The Charters were repeatedly and solemnly confirmed, " being con sidered as the corner-stones of tbe Engbsh law and constitution ; " f and the persevering vigilance of the * " The matters to be established for the estate of the king, or of his heirs, and for the estate of the realm, and of the people, shall be treated, accorded, and established in parliament by the king, and by the assent of the prelates, earls, and barons, and the commonalty of the realm, according as had been before accustomed." — See pp. 23, 24, supra. t Reeve, Hist. Law, vol. ii. p. 369. Mr. Reeve adds, " It seemed to be a matter of course aU through this reign to prefix a confirmation of the Charter to every statute of any length or consequence, and to these two Charters were sometimes added a confirmation of all franchises and privi leges enjoyed by cities, boroughs, and individuals ; and sometimes, tlwiqh less frequently than in former times, a confirmation of the liberties of the Church. Not content with their general confirmation, particular parts of THE KING AND THE COMMONS. 213 leaders of the English Commons (statesmen, whose chap. names have, with a few exceptions, perished, but who LL merit their country's undying gratitude) suffered no vigilant wrong to pass without remonstrance, even if imme- K"8111 diate redress were impracticable ; and they struck out Jf^f new hnes of parliamentary action, whereby their Commons jeopardised rights might be practically enforced. uTL-6 Edward III. must have had intelligence enough to tury' discern, how much greater weight in the conflict of European powers and politics a King of England possesses, when he rules in concurrence with the nation's wib, than when he acts in arbitrary disregard of his people's feelings and desires. We may also well bebeve that he saw with patriotic pride the manly courage and honest firmness of his burghers and his yeomen, as displayed in the shire-mote, the guild, and the council-chamber, as well as in the march, the siege, and the battle-field. But King Edward had a genuine Edward's kingly love for his prerogative ; and he often wielded it after s^L heavby and harshly beyond, as well as within, the preroga.- proper cbcle of its sway. The impressment of ships oppressions and soldiers was frequently exercised with unfairness nexe^ised . . . by nun. and needless severity. Eoyal Commissions were some times sent out, by which persons, who were not bound by tenure or other legal liability to provide soldiers or military stores for the King, were required to do so, by the King's sole authority. Fines for disobedience of Magna Carta which were esteemed more calculated for protecting the rights of the people were speciaUy re-enacted. It was declared by stat. 5 Ed. 3, c. 9 (in conformity with the express words almost of Magna Carta, c. 29), that no man should thenceforth be attached on any accusation, nor fore judged of life or Umb, nor his lands, tenements, goods nor chattels seized into the King's hands, against the form of the Great Charter and the law of the land. And again, by stat. 28 Ed. 3, c. 3, that no man of what estate or condition whatever should be put out of his land or tenement, nor taken, nor imprisoned, nor disinherited, nor put to death, without being brought in to answer by due process of law.'' 214 EDWAED III. CHAP. III. Firm and unfailing opposition of the Commons. Rights of the House of Com mons proved by the phra seology of the sta tutes of this reign. Principle that the government of all should be with the consentof all. these and similar orders were forcibly exacted. Imposts upon exports were levied without parliamentary con sent ; and on one occasion, at least, tallages were set on cities and towns by a bke illegal stretch of royal power.* But against these and ab simbar excesses the Commons remonstrated in loyal but uncompromising language. Edward's good sense prevented him from going too far in any contest with his people ; and the confirmations of the Great Charters, already alluded to, must be regarded not as unnecessary formabties, but as solemn and effective admissions by the King that unparliamentary taxation was ibegal, and that the King's mere wbl cannot in England have the force of law. The long roll of statutes passed in this reign prove (as a great modern European statesmanf has observed) by their very phraseology, how fully the right of the Commons to participate in legislation was now esta blished. Tbe statutes purport on the face of them to have been passed " at the request of the Commons of the realm," or " by the assent of the Prelates, Earls, and Barons, and of all tbe Commons of the realm, in Parlia ment assembled," or else to be things which "the King, the Prelates, Lords, and Commons have in Parbament ordained." The concurrence of the Commons in legislation appears to have been the natural and necessary effect of the principle, which was recognised and stated, at least as early as the reign of Edward I., as the reason why Parliaments were convened : the principle that " in matters which regard the state of the realm, the advice of all those interested in the matter should be taken. "$ Without doubt the money- voting functions See HaUam, vol. iii. p. 42. J See vol. i. p. 445. t Guizot. EUNCTIONS OP THE COMMONS. 215 of the representatives of the Commons must have char- often been regarded by kings and by royal ministers LL as the most important duties, which knights of the shire and burgesses (especially the last) came into Parliament to perform. But I think it is taking powerover too narrow and too grovelling a view of the origin of t^u^° the popular part of our Constitution, to suppose that the sole the grant of money-supplies was the sole original busi- power of ness of the Commons, and that the other powers of ^om' taking part in legislation, of giving advice in matters of foreign as web as of domestic policy, and of inquir ing into and of punishing abuses, were encroachments, which theb hold of the public purse enabled them to effect, chiefly at the expense of the authority of the Crown, but to some extent also at the expense of the privbeges of the Prelates -and Peers. Neither Simon de Montfort, when he caused the burgesses to be first summoned, nor Edward I., when he deliberately and repeatedly adopted the system of parliamentary repre sentation of the Commons, which his great adversary in civil war had originated, can have been blind to the importance of ascertaining the national feeling, and securing the hearty co-operation of all orders of the community in measures of general public importance. The occasional dismissal of the burgesses after a supply had been voted, and whbe the great Lords remained in council with the King, and the want of documentary proof that burgesses were summoned to all the Parbaments of Edward I., cannot do away with the effect of the proof positive of their frequent presence and joint action when State affairs of the utmost im- Liberal portance were determined. And when once liberal and principles Jp or govern- enlightened maxims of popular government, such as ment that contained in Edward L's State-letter, already tractiieT referred to, are freely avowed by a sovereign, they are 'xpans^ 216 EDWAED III. chap, not easily retracted, nor is the expansive power of such LL principles to be readily coerced. The Declaratory Statute, passed in the fifteenth year of the next reign, does more than recognise the legislative power of the Commons, with respect to which it has been already cited. It declares generally, that " matters to be established for the estate of the King and of his heirs, and for the estate of the realm and of the people, should be treated, accorded, and established in Par liament by the King, and by the assent of the Prelates, Earls, and Barons, and the commonalty of the realm ; according as had been before accustomed." The power And it is certain that matters of general importance, purse, and though not matters of taxation or of legislation, were powefnot " Seated and established in Parliament " by the com- theoniy monalty of the realm, as well as by the King and powers of his Prelates, Earls, and Barons. The treaties with Scotland prove this. It is always to be remembered mons. Proofs of that we possess only a scanty portion of the once theiradvice tta p a r i being recorded Acts ol State ot those ages ; and the presence taken as to p p or. , ¦ p p , • t ,i , matters of of a f ew affirmative proois far outweighs the apparent andhforeign negative evidence of the absence of similar proofs on policy. simbar occasions. " The assent of the whole com monalty" to the appointment of Prince Edward as Guardian of the Kingdom, in consequence of the abeged abandonment of the realm by Edward IL, is ostentatiously put forward by the promoters of the revolution, in which that unhappy sovereign lost his throne and life. The Council of Eegency in the beginning of a new reign was appointed in a Parba ment comprising knights and burgesses. The treaty with Scotland in 1328 purports to have been concluded with the consent of Parliament, and the consent of the Commons is expressly mentioned. When we come to Edward III.'s real reign, the period after the overthrow EIEMNESS OE THE COMMONS. 217 of Mortimer, the proofs of his consulting his Parliament chap. on matters of peace and war become so numerous* that '_ they must be considered to prove system and principle. On one occasion the Commons declined to give any advice about the war with France, on account of their professed ignorance and simplicity ; but this cannot outweigh tbe effect of the instances, at least eight in number, on which their opinion was expressed. In Remon- addition to these eight instances we ought, perhaps, thTcom^ to consider the free-spoken and explicit remonstrances m™es^to of the Commons as to the neglect of the navy, maritime and the losses inflicted on the English shipping and coasts by the enemy's squadrons, which have been already cited in this volume. The honourable pertinacity with which the English Commons resisted Edward III.'s graspings after un voted money, has been already dwelt on. They were equaby vigilant in theb firm but orderly oppo sition to other acts of arbitrary power ;f and they * See them set out in vol. i., Parliamentary. History, pp. 83, 106, 113, cited in Rise and Progress of the English Constitution, p. 243. f The grievance of Ulegal impressment is one subject of frequent re monstrance. Another is the abuse of the king's right of " Purveyance." That right consisted of the king having power, when he travelled, to put in requisition horses and conveyances along the road, and also supplies of provisions and forage. These were to be paid for at reasonable rates ; but it was for the royal traveller to fix the amount, and the inhabitants of the district had no right to withhold or to claim further payment of the articles needed for the royal use. Such a power, exercised under proper limitations, is almost absolutely necessary in times and places where the means of communication and of transporting stores along a line of march are difficult, and where there is no certainty or even probability of competition among the owners of goods to obtain a purchaser. But the abuse of this power by the English sovereigns, or rather by the royal servants and officers, had become gross and intolerable. Far more was demanded and seized than was need ful ; the remuneration was set at an insolently inadequate amount, and the payment even of this was delayed, and often withheld altogether. Besides these extortions, the power of entering houses under the pretext of searching for articles of purveyance, was occasionally abused by the officials for purposes of foulest insult and injury. The Commons in Edward III.'s reign not only protested against these wrongs, but obtained the passing of 218 EDWAED III. CHAP. III. Provisions for the frequentholding of parliaments. adhered to a prudent practice of connecting the redress of grievances with the grant of supply. The legislative provisions for the frequent holding of Parliaments are among the most important enact ments in this reign ; and if they had not in after times been suffered to fall into desuetude, some of the most calamitous passages in our history might have been prevented. The statute, 4 Ed. 3, c. 14, enjoined that a Parbament should be held every year, and more often, if there were need. This Act was passed during the ascendancy of Mortimer and Isabella ; but it was fully renewed by another statute passed when Edward had been thirty-six years on the throne. It may be doubtful whether those who obtained the passing of these statutes did not regard more the importance . of the people having frequent opportunities for bringing their grievances before the Kmg, in Parliament, for redress, than the advantage of having frequent assem blies of the Estates of the Eealm for the purposes of taxation and legislation. But the last-mentioned pur pose cannot have been lost sight of; and certainly, after such enactments, any long period of kingly government without Parliaments must have been regarded as for bidden both by the letter and the spbit of the Consti tution. many statutes to put an end to them. The right of purveyance was only to be exercised for the household of the king, the queen, and their children. A lawful warrant was made necessary for the taking of any article. The purveyors were bound by statute to pay ready money. A fair appraise ment of prices was to be made. Penalties were imposed on purveyors who favoured some inhabitants and charged others. Commissioners were ap pointed to inquire into the takings of purveyors, and to ascertain whether they kept baok for their own profit anything levied by them in the king's name. Heavy penalties were imposed for the violation of these laws. See Reeve, vol. ii. p. 370, who sums up the effect of these remedial statutes : " Thus was the great oppression of purveyance graduaUy fined down to a more gentle form, till it amounted to little more than a pre-emption or preference in favour of the king and queen's household." FEEQUENT PAELIAMENTS. 219 The evidence of an intelligent foreigner, who has chap. had ample opportunities for observation, is very LL valuable, when we are inquiring into the practical Froissart's working of constitutional principles. There are some ^the0"7 remarkable passages in the lately-discovered writings ^^"j*1 of Froissart, in which that chronicler (who had been power in often and long in England, and who had held appoint ments in the English Court), attests the necessity which a King of England was under of taking the advice of his Parbament, and his inabbity to tax the people without parliamentary consent. Froissart says : — " The King of England must consult his subjects, and obtain theb consent, before he concludes a treaty of peace or of war with a foreign power." Again, he says emphatically, " Not that the King can levy a tax on his people ; no — the people neither could nor would suffer it. He has certain ordained Forms of and agreed assessments on the staple of wool ; and it taxatlon- is out of this that the King is supplied, over and above his own rents and revenues : and, when he makes war, they double that assessment for him. England is the best guarded country in the world."* Froissart has here correctly pointed out the chief * These passages are from the Third Redaction of Froissart's Chronicle, which he wrote in his old-age (see note at p. 64, supra). They will be found at p. 7, vol. i. of M. Kervyn's edition of " Le Premier Livre," and also in the Introduction to M. Luce's edition of Froissart, pp. lxxii., cxxviii. I subjoin the original of the last passage, citing also some sentences which immediately precede those which I have translated in the text. The whole passage is written in a strong spirit of dislike to the mass of the English nation, especiaUy to the middle classes. But it proves completely the political importance, which those classes had obtained in the fourteenth century. Froissart evidently considers that the fact, that the nobles in England were not able to seize arbitrarily on the property of the inferior' people, was as remarkable, as the fact of the inability of an English king to take his subjects' money without their consent. He was evidently con trasting in his own mind these things with the rapacious violence of the French seigneurs, as weU as with the despotic exactions of the French kings. Most noteworthy is his reluctant praise of the even-handed and strong pro tection, which was given by the law in England :— " Par especial desous le 220 EDWAED III. CHAP. III. Exportduty on wool. "Tenths" and " Fif teenths. " production, on which the taxes voted by Parliament were levied. The wool exported from this country paid a duty to the Crown, the rate of which was greatly increased, especiaby after the outbreak of the second war with France. Duties were levied also on tin, and on hides that were exported ; and on wine and other articles, whether imported or exported. But exported wool was the great staple of supply. Froissart's phrase, " The staple of wool," wbl be explained presently, when we come to consider some of the statutes of this reign. But these customs- duties were not the only supplies, that were usually granted by the Parliaments of this period to their sovereigns. We have frequently during the proceed ings of this reign had occasion to notice grants of " Tenths " and " Fifteenths," and similar sums by the Commons in Parliament, and by the clergy in con vocation. A brief explanation of these taxes, and of the mode in which they were raised, may be usefuby given here. The primary method of granting the Crown a supply by way of tabiage, was by authorising the sovereign to levy the value of a defined proportion of each subject's moveable property, which proportion solel n'a nul plus periUeus peuple, tant que de hommes mestis, comme il sont en Engleterre. Et trop fort se different en Engleterre les natures et conditions des nobles aux hommes mestis et vUains, car li gentilhommes sont de noble et loiale condition, et U communs peuples est de fele, peril- leuse, orguiUeuse et desloiale condition. Et la ou U peuples vodroit monstrer sa felonnie et poissance, li noble n'aueroient point de duree & euls. Or sont il et ont este" un lonch temps moult bien d'acort ensamble, car li noble ne. demande au peuple que toute raison. Aussi on ne li soufferroit point que il presist, sans paiier, un oef ne une poulle. Li homme de mestier efc li laboureur parmi Engleterre vivent de ce que il sevent faire, et li gentib- homme de lors rentes et revenues ;' et se li rois les ensonnie, il sont paiiet, non que U rois puist taillier son peuple, non, ne li peuples ne le vodroit ne poroit souffrir. II i a certainns ordenances et pactions assisses sus le staple des lainnes, et de ce est li rois aidies au desns de ses rentes et revenues ; et quant il fait gerre, ceUe paction on li double. Engleterre est la terre dou mondc la mieulz gardee. " TAXATION. 221 was sometimes as low as a thirtieth, sometimes as high chap. as a seventh part. The next step was the regular LL appointment of Commissioners, who made the principal inhabitants of each township give them a return on oath of the value of the moveables possessed by each householder in the township on a specified day, which was usually Michaelmas Day. A day late in the year (it is to be remembered that it was old Michaelmas Day) was without doubt purposely chosen, because by that time the crops on each man's land had been cut, and had become moveables, instead of forming part of the real estate. The returns were to include the value of crops, cattle, merchandize, goods, furniture, money, jewels, wearing apparel, and personalty of every kind, with very few reservations. The investigations for the purpose of these assessments were necessarily inquisitorial and unpopular; and in 1335 Kino- Edward appointed Commissioners, who were autho rised to compound at once for a definite sum as representing the aggregate . value of the moveables in each township. This was made ; and this continued to be the basis on which the amount to be paid by each township was calculated. When this had been done, the inhabitants made up the required amount by a local assessment among themselves. The numerical fraction. named in the grant of each tax upon moveables varied very much. Sometimes it was a fifteenth, sometimes it was two-fifteenths, some times a tenth, sometimes a seventh : but tenths and fifteenths were the divisional sums usually mentioned; and hence this form of taxation is commonly spoken of as the grant of Tenths and Fifteenths. Not unfrequently different proportions were contributed by different classes. Thus, in 1334, the Parliament granted the King a tenth from the boroughs and a fifteenth 222 EDWAED III. chap, from the Barons and Knights of Shires. Sometimes IIL there was a variation in the proportions payable from different classes of places. These taxes It wbl be observed that taxes, such as have been veryePoor.e described, affected directly those classes only of the community, which were possessed of some property. Severe i^g gj.eat mass of the poor escaped them. The poll-tax. change from this system of taxation to a pob tax, especially if not graduated, such as we have read of in the proceedings of the last Parliament of Edward III, and such as we shab find repeated in the third year of the reign of his successor, was calculated to produce, and did produce, very serious commotions. Judicial We wdl now resume the consideration of the func- of the™3 tions exercised by our Parbaments. We have examined early Par- them as legislative bodies, as taxing bodies, and as hament. ° , ° ' assemblies entitled to give authoritative advice on all great matters of State policy and administration of government. We have stbl to inquire what were theb judicial powers and duties. It is impossible to define with precision the limits, within which the Parliaments of the first three Edwards exercised theb judicial authority. The fact of that authority having been ample and effective is indisputable. Our Liturgy still reminds us of the pre-eminence of "The High Court of Parliament;" and the modern House of Lords still observes nearly the same old forms by which, five centuries ago, " Eeceivers and Tryers of Petitions of England, Acquitaine, Wales, the Islands, and other foreign territories and places," were appointed at the commencement of each new Par liament. But the judicial powers now exercised by Parliament, though of the highest order, can give no adequate idea of the supremacy in the administra tion of justice attributed to that assembly in the JUDICIAL POWEES OF PAELIAMENT. 223 olden time; when "petitions poured in from all chap. quarters, at every meeting of Parliament, not only LL upon subjects of public and national concern, but for relief in private matters."* The Parliament was then regarded as the Supreme National Tribunal, whose function it was "to redress all wrongs, to remedy ab abuses, and to remove all difficulties with which a man was pressed either in his property or person."f The Parliamentary Eeceivers and Tryers (or " Com mittee-men," to use a modern phrase), who were appointed in each Parliament to examine the mul tifarious petitions, that flowed in at the opening of a session, were almost always Spbitual and Temporal Peers. The Commons seem early to have abstained or withdrawn from taking judicial cognizance of matters of private btigation. The King and tbe Lords considered and decided Petitions to judicially on some petitions in Parliament; but the pariia-ng greater number of tbe petitions were remitted by the ™ent' . Receivers and Tryers to the ordinary tribunals for tributed determination, according to the subject matter of each posed 'of. case. But often, by reason of the novelty or intricacy of the dispute, or by reason of the rank of the parties implicated, or by reason of the supposed unwibingness, or incompetence of the regular courts to deal with the subject, though within the scope of their jurisdiction, the petitioner was ordered to bring his grievance before the King in tbe King's Council, — a tribunal to which we must now devote some attention, de ferring a while the important subject of Parliamentary proceedings on charges of political criminality. * Bowyer's Commentaries, p. 317. t See as to the judicial powers of the early Parliament, Reeve's Hist. Law, vol. ii. p. 406. 224 EDWAED III. CHAP. III. The King's Council. Perpetualmemorandum that the Eng lish Con stitution grew and was not made. Great Council of the Anglo- Norman kings sur vived as a Councilafter Par liamenthad been developedfrom it. There are few matters connected with " the early history of our Constitution, on which it is so difficult to speak with literal and technical accuracy as the composition and power of the Great Councd. Stbl it may be within our power to gain a substantially correct idea of the general nature and functions of the Council ; and such knowledge is very necessary for the right understanding of many important matters in our Constitutional history that have occurred even as late as in the seventeenth century. It is always to be borne steaddy in mind, when we are inqubing into any of the antiquities of the English Constitution, that our Constitution was not elaborately designed and arranged by any one founder, or even by any generation of law-givers, who set to work with the avowed purpose of making a system of government. Our institutions grew out of older in stitutions. The progress of their growth was not uniform ; nor was it always certain what would, be theb? precise development. • Moreover the old, the primary institution in many cases survived, and co-existed for a long time after the new and more highly organised institution had been evolved. This was the case with the Grand Councd, or Great Councb of the early Anglo-Norman Kings. Long after Par liament had come into being, and long after the word "Parliament" was well understood to mean the regular assembly of the three Estates of the Eealm — Lords Spbitual, Lords Temporal, and Commons — called together by the sovereign to advise with him on high matters affecting tbe commonwealth, to legislate, to provide supplies for tbe cost of government, and to procure the redress of grievances, — long after the Parliament had thus acquired its fub political exis tence, our kings continued to call together the Great THE GEEAT COUNCIL. 225 Council, at which every Peer was privbeged to be chap. present, and at which the attendance of ab important LL officers of State was a matter of customary duty. Some- Councils times deputies also from counties and boroughs were a^ded* summoned to the Great Councds. Tbe King in Councb ^sd*^e exercised the power of making Ordinances, which it is Commons. not always easy to distinguish from Statutes, except and'sta™63 in name. But the general rules of distinction between tutes- Statutes and Ordinances are correctly said to be, ^^ion. that an Ordinance dealt with specific cases only, but a Statute dealt with a general subject ; that an Ordinance was generaby a declaration and an enforce ment of pre-established law, and not the introduction of new law ; which, if to be done, was effected by Statute ; and that although an Ordinance could be altered by a Statute, a Statute could not be repealed or altered by an Ordinance. I believe that these distinctions were only gradually Change in made ; and that a legislative Act in one of Edward L's Siti0n ofP°' Great Councils was as fuby operative as a legislative *^e Coun' Act in one of his Parliaments. But the. King's Council gradually lost its magnitude as to the number and character of those who attended it ; and hence ensued a decline in the greatness of the matters, which it dealt with, and in the amplitude of public deference which it commanded. The presence in the Council its usual of deputies of the Commons was rare even in Ed- mem " ward III.'s time, in comparison with the number of times when the Council sate without them. I do not know of any instance after this reign in which the Councb comprised elected Commoners. The presence, also, of the mass of the Peers of the Eealm occurred only on great occasions. In general the King's Council Members consisted of the chief officers of state, such as the Lord °ii. oim" Chancebor, the Lord High Treasurer, the Lord High VOL. II. to common sense and common honesty. The humbler / mendicants swarmed over the land, fining every parish' with able-bodied vagabonds and sturdy beggars. The Engbsh clergy were loud in their complaints against this intrusive brood, who had utterly degenerated from the spirit of self-denial, industry, learning, and charity, by means of which the early Franciscans in this country had acquired good men's co-operation, sym pathy, and praise. But in the fourteenth century HoBtmt of learned and piqus men, such as FitzEalph, Archbishop the English of Armagh, denounced the Mendicants as dissolute them. hypocrites, and especially, as the pests of the uni versities. The extant political poems and ballads of Their vices the latter part of the century show how the common ^^ sense and common honesty of the mass of the nation ^°p^ poetry. * The principal four orders in England were the Augustinians, the Carmelites, the Dominicans, and the Franciscans. These last, the Fran ciscans (often caUed the Minorites), were the most numerous and im portant. An account of their first establishment in England is given in vol. i. p. 366. 248 EDWAED III. CHAP. III. Wycliftheir great antagonist. Wyclif'shostility to the corrup tions in the English Church. His views as to Churchproperty. revolted at tbe foul practices with which these cowled profligates infested English households.* Wyclif at the very beginning of his career was the eager assailant and the implacable enemy of the Mendicants. His warfare against them was co-equal with his life. But Wyclif did much more than attack the Orders of Friars (who might be regarded as the trained bands of the Pope) ; he did even more than attack the Papacy itself. Wyclif struck at the Pope, and at abuses connected with the Papacy, because they were great and flagrant abuses, such as he and all true Christian Engbshmen, whether lay or clerical, viewed with indignation. But Wyclif also struck at what he deemed abuses, wherever he beheld them. Such in his eyes were the wealth, the pomp, the political power, and the worldly occupations of the higher members of the Engbsh clergy. The age was one of much prodigal ostentation, and of much cor ruption of morals ; and, without uncharitable prejudice against the mediaeval English churchmen, we must believe that they were not free from the vices of the society, with which they mingled, not as austere censors, but as participators in its ambitious conten tions, its pageantries, and its festivities. In his repeated controversies with the Franciscans, Wyclif disproved and denounced the theory that men devoted * See Mr. Wright's Introduction to " Political Poems and Songs," Rolls collection, p. lxv., and see especially .the song against the Friars, p. 263 of the first volume. The " Vision of Piers the Ploughman " breathes this spirit. in every page. Dean Milman rightly says of its author, Langland, that " above aU, his hatred (it might seem that on this aU honest English indig nation was agreed) is against the mendicant orders. The Friars furnish every impersonated vice ; are foes to every virtue. His bitterest satire, his keenest irony, are against their dissoluteness, their idleness, their pride, their rapacity, their arts, their lies, their hypocrisy, their delicate attire, their dainty fasts, their magnificent feasts, even their proud learning ; above all their hardness, their pitUessness to the poor, their utter want of charity." — (Hist. Lat. Christianity, vol. vi. p. 539.) WYCLIF ATTACKS ECCLESIASTICAL ABUSES. 249 to the service of the Church ought to be absolute chap. TTT paupers and mendicants ; but he wrote and preached L with equal zeal against an over- wealthy clergy ; and he maintained earnestly and persistently the doctrine which we have seen' asserted by Wbliam of Ockham — the doctrine that temporal rulers may lawfully take, and ought to take, Church property for the safety of the Commonwealth, and that they ought to deprive Churchmen of wealth, when that wealth is misused by its holders.* * See p. 34, and p. 194, supra. Wyclif 's view of the true position of a clergyman as to worldly goods may best be given in Wyclif's own words. He earnestly exhorted laymen to reverence their priests, and to contribute liberally to their support. In one of his tracts he says : — " Thy second Father is thy spiritual Father, who has special care of thy soul, and thus thou shalt worship him. Thou shalt love him especiaUy before other men, and obey his teaching as far as he teaches God's wiU. And help according to thy power that he have a reasonable sustenance when he doth weU his office." In another tract entitled " A Short Rule of Life," he thus exhorts the clergyman : — " If thou art a priest, and by name a curate, live thou a holy life. Pass other men in holy prayer, holy desire, and holy speaking, in counseUing and teaching the truth. Ever keep the commandments of God, and let his Gospel and his praises be ever in thy mouth. Ever despise sin, that men may be drawn therefrom ; and that thy deeds may be so far rightful, that no man shall blame them with reason. Let thy open life be thus a true book, in which the soldier and the layman may learn how to serve God and keep his commandments. For, the example of a good life, if it be open and continued, striketh rude men much more than preaching with the word alone. And waste not thy goods in great feasts for rich men, but Uve a frugal life. Have both meat, and drink, and clothing, but the remnant give fairly to the poor ; to those who have freely wrought, but who now may hot labour from feebleness or sickness ; and thus thou shalt be a true priest both to God and to man." I have taken these passages from Vaughan's Life of Wyclif, vol. i. pp. 287, 296. Dr. Vaughan has modernised the phraseology, which is, I think, to be regretted. Chaucer's description of the Parson among his Canterbury Pilgrims is weU known. It would be impossible to heighten this character of a pious, charitable, learned, laborious curate of souls ; exemplary in the discharge of every duty towards both high and low. It is a strong proof that what ever may have been the faults and vices of many churchmen, there was stiU much religion and worth among the rural parish clergy in this age. It seems to me extremely unfair to take (as some modern writers do) Chaucer's other descriptions (especially those of the luxurious Monk and the wanton Friar) as representations of their respective classes, and to treat his cha- 250 EDWAED HI. CHAP. III. Other of clerical Langland. Chaucer. The awful visitation of the Black Death in the middle of the fourteenth century made men more prone to discern and to acknowledge the existence of great national sins, and it made them also eager and severe in reprobating those who indulged in them. Without doubt, other causes, such as the greater diffusion of education, contributed in awakening this feeling, which from the period above-mentioned pre vailed strongly in England, and which was augmented, by other popular writers besides Wycbf, though he was its chief inspirer. The most effective, next to Wycbf, was the author of " The Vision of Wbliam concerning Piers the Plowman," * an abiterative abe- gorical poem, the literary merits of which wib be spoken of in another chapter. It is very homely. It seems to speak out of the poor man's heart with a poor man's language. It tebs the bitterness of feeling, with which the mass of the people regarded the opulence and the pomp of the Church dignitaries, of tbe monks, and of tbe hypocritical chiefs of the mendicants. It maintains the duty of temporal rulers to take away this perverted and perverting wealth. The influence of this poem was very great, as we shall see when we come to the insurrections in Eichard II.'s reign. Chaucer's satbical portraits of ecclesiastical dignitaries and officials are web known ; and they also attest the reformatory spirit that was active in England in the second half of the fourteenth century. But Chaucer's satire is Horatian in spbit racter of the good Parson as exceptional. It could not have been meant as a portrait of one of Wyclif 's itinerant poor priests. They were unbeneficed. (See Wyclif's tract, " Why Poor Priests have no Benefices "). Chaucer speaks expressly of his parson's " benefice," " tithes," and " Parishioners." Indeed the very use of the word " Parson " implies that he was beneficed. * See Mr. Skeat's edition of this poem, and his remarks on its true title. "PIEES THE PLOWMAN." 251 and in tone. It was written to be read with mirthful chap. praise in courts and castles. He who wrote of Piers LL the Plowman, wrote to be read by traders- and yeomen, and, above all, by and to hard-working, hard- faring artisans and peasants.* None but a grinning idiot could ever have smiled at the rugged strength and the fierce indignation, with which he tells the wrongs of honest poverty, and stigmatises the wrongdoers. A very great number of anonymous prose tracts of pr0se this period are in existence, all of which have been ^j^.0* usually attributed to Wyclif ; but in many cases there spirit- is no evidence of his authorship, and in some cases (as in that of the well-known treatise called "The Last Age of the Church") there is strong internal proof of Wyclif not having been the writer. They all breathe the same enmity against clerical wealth, against simony, and corruption. ' The same is the case with Political regard to the many anonymous poems and songs of songs' this period, that have lately been collected and pub lished, t They all attest how widely and how deeply General -, . ¦ t t t -t t • • t and deeP discontent with the then prevailing ecclesiastical discontent institutions and rulers was sown among the masses ^ritual of the English nation. That discontent did very much Tnlers- to produce the revolutionary risings, which marked the fourth year of Eichard II.'s reign. But it is physical suffering, that supplies the most Physical formidable fuel for insurrection; and it is important ofthe S- to ascertain (so far as the means within our reach will ^™s * Mr. Wright, in the Introduction to his edition of Langland's poems, observes, " Of the ancient popularity of Piers Plowman we have a proof in the great number of copies that still exist, most of them written in the latter part of the fourteenth century ; and the circumstance that the manu scripts are seldom executed in a superior style of writing, and scarcely ever ornamented with painted initial letters, may perhaps be taken for a proof that they were not written for the higher classes of society."— p. xxvii. f See Mr. Wright's first volume of Political Songs, &c, Rolls Edition. 252 EDWAED III. CHAP. III. Was this period one of peouliar hardship ? In general the medie val poor not worse supplied with food than the present. The last part of Edward Ill's reign ex ceptional. permit) how far it is true that tbe last half of the fourteenth century was a period of peculiar hardship to the English poor. There are bitter complaints of it in the writings of the time. But such are, unhap- pby, to be found in the writings of every age, which depict the condition of the poor. It is to be feared that a life of anxious toil, and of frequent privation and suffering has been the lot of the mass of mankind in all countries (except perhaps some tropical regions*), and at all times. With respect to food, there' is no reason to believe that the poor of England during the middle ages generaby had greater difficulty in ob taining a sufficiency of daily bread for daily wants, than the poor of this country experience at the present time. But the amount of wheat purchaseable by the wage given for a day's labour (the usual test) during the last part of Edward III.'s reign appears to have been exceptionally low ; and tbe privations caused by this, especially when contrasted with the increased pomp and luxury of the aristocracy, without doubt contributed more than any other cause to the bitter ness of feebng, which then grew up in the lower towards the upper classes."!" With regard to other pro visions, it has been observed that there was in those ages a greater cheapness of cattle, compared with corn, * I have seen more human misery in a single winter's day in London than I have seen during nine years in Ceylon. + For proof that the mediaeval labourer was in general better supplied with food than the modern labourer, see HaUam's Hist. Mid. Ages, vol. iii. p. 372 (12th edition), and Mr. HaUam's note citing the researches and opinion of Mr. Malthus. See, too, Mr. Riley's Introduction (p. cxi.) to his edition of the Liber Albus of the London Guildhall. Mr. Riley gives his opinion that the London labourer, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, " so far as disposing of his own labour at his own time and option was con cerned, was too often treated little better than a slave ; but, on the other hand, the wages of his labour appear at times at least to have been regulated on a very fair and liberal scale." PEIVATIONS OE THE LABOURING CLASSES. 253 than exists at the present ; and that consequently chap. animal food must have formed a larger proportion of LL the labourer's diet, than now is the case in most parts of England.* But the modern rural labourer, even in the worst Mediaeval districts, is much better situated than his predecessor woraToff five centuries ago was as to obtaining clothes, bedding, th'»m" dem as to furniture, medical aid, and many more of the comforts many t • t t • p t p ¦ -n t -i m necessan* which are almost necessaries of life m England. The and com- mediaeval peasant's hut was a rude shed of mud and sticks, with a straw or thatched roof sheltering one large room without storeys or partitions, and without chimney, j- The present general state of the habita- * There was a great difference in the diet of the labourers and farmers before and after harvest. Their stores were frequently used up or nearly so before the new crop was gathered in ; but after harvest they lived in plenty. Mr. HaUam (p. 374, n.) refers in proof of this to a very curious passage in Piers Ploughman's vision, which begins at line 280 of Passus VI. in Mr. Skeat's edition. It is cited and commented on in EUis's Specimens, vol. i. p. 318. f Many huts or cottages (as they were caUed) of this miserable kind were to be found in the towns, and there were some even in London itself (Ellis, 322) at this period. But the London houses in the fourteenth century were generaUy more substantial and commodious than modern writers have in many cases supposed. The party-walls were of stone, and the roofs were generaUy of tiles. The houses were often two and three storeys high ; and each storey consisted of separate rooms. Sometimes each storey was a separate tenement, accessible by an outside staircase. Glass windows were so far common in Edward III.'s time, that the glaziers formed a mystery or craft, or, as we now should say, a City Company. Chimneys were regu larly built, and seaborne coal, as well as wood and charcoal, was burned for fuel. — See Mr. Riley's Introduction to the Liber Albus. With respect to the habitations of the upper classes, the descriptions given by the latest and best writers on the subject seem to show that the generally prevalent opinions as to the discomfort and rudeness of the homes of those days are much exaggerated. Mr. Parker, in the second volume of " Domestic Architecture of the Middle Ages," speaking of the fourteenth century, says : — " The domestic architecture of this brilliant epoch in our history is scarcely less worthy of attention than the ecclesiastical ; con sidered as mere masonry, it is impossible to surpass the accuracy, the firmness, the high finish of the work of this period. The sculpture is equally beautiful, and in its wonderful fidelity to nature is unrivaUed. Nor was the skiU of the architect behind that of his workmen ; the admirable manner in which the plans and designs are arranged, and the ingenuity 254 EDWAED in. chap, tions of our poor is lamentably and shamefuby bad ; 1 but it is superior, both as to comfort and as to decency, to that which formerly existed. with which difficulties are overcome, may be equaUed but cannot be surpassed." The detailed descriptions which foUow in the same work of the usual number and arrangements of the rooms in a baronial castle and in a manor house, and the account given of the habits of life, and of the articles of furniture in general use, are very interesting, and show that the masters and mistresses of such houses Hved in comfort and elegance, and not in mere wasteful plenty and rude ostentation. The description which Chaucer gives of his typical franklyn, or country gentleman, is that of a man in easy circumstances in every sense of the words. CHAPTEE IV. Practical importance of the domestic social History of England during the reigns of Edward III. and Richard II. — Unity of the subject— Beginning of the modern History of the English Poor — Diminution of vtileinage in Edward III.'s time — Its causes — Growth of free peasant copyholders — Growth of a class of free labourers unconnected with the land — A class of Proletarians — Effects of changing a mass of serfs into a mass of free paupers — Prompt legislation against Vagabondage and Mendicancy — Legislation less prompt in aid of Impotent Poor — The first Poor Laws — Demand and supply in the labour market balanced before the Black Death — Half the labourers swept off by the Black Death — The survivors demand high wages — Distress of the landowners — They pass laws to keep down the price of labour, and to coerce the working classes —These con tinue to combine, and wages still rise — Greater rise in Prices — Increased taxation — Wide-spread discontent of 1381 — Effect of writings of Wyclif and Langland — John BaU — Misconduct of government officers in en forcing the PoU-tax lights up the insurrection — Wat Tyler — The risings in Essex and Kent — SimUar risings throughout England — The Kentish insurgents march on London — Peril of the young King — Demands of the insurgents — Death of Wat Tyler — His foUowers disperse — Insurrection when and how suppressed — Proceedings of Parliament — More labour-laws Their inefficacy — Great increase of free labourers unconnected with the land. Our attention has already been directed to some chap. of the important social and intellectual movements L_ of the various classes of the community in the Practical fourteenth century. We are now to consider these 0?thein-Ce things more closely, and to watch the new relations to™fEng- and antagonisms which grew up between Eich and 1t^d^°kn Poor ; we are to observe the incipient struggles be- Death to tween Capital and Labour ; we are to see the origin of Tyler's our Poor-law system, and the primary causes of the ii0snl,rrec' 256 EDWAED III. AND EICHAED II. chap, peculiar condition of the Engbsh peasantry with regard 1 to the land.* 1377. ipke (joj^ggtic social history of the English people in as one con- Edward III.'s reign is so closely connected with theb Subject. domestic social history in Eichard II.'s reign, that it Noticeable is desirable to take them together. The only facts of glneraim general history during Eichard's reign, which it is thifb7-at necessary to mention before we take up this special ginning of subject, are, that Eichard at his accession in 1377 was ii. 's reign, a boy of twelve years old; that disputes of parties and of faction chiefs throughout his minority were frequent and fierce ; that the truce between England and France came to an end, and the renewed war was generally unfavourable to the English. War with Scotland also broke out in 1378. Another event must be noticed which was of very serious importance in general European history, and which had considerable effect in augmenting the disturbed state of public feeling in England. This was the great schism in Tie the Papacy, which began in 1378. The validity of the Pa- the election of Pope Urban VI. was disputed by many pacy' of the Cardinals, and they elected a rival Pope Clement VII. Pope Urban remained at Eome ; Pope Clement fixed his residence and Court at Avignon. These two anti-Popes and theb? respective successors anathematised and excommunicated each other, and * "How was it that the English peasantry, unlike almost every other European peasantry, in becoming freed from feudal serfdom, became de tached from the land, instead of remaining rooted to it as peasant pro prietors ? " " How is it that England, unlike almost every other country in Europe, is divided by hedgerows into separate fields? " These are some of the questions, for a solution of which the history of the Black Death, of the Statutes of Labourers, and of the other laws respecting the English labourers in the fourteenth century, is investigated by Mr. Seabohn in his papers on " The Black Death " which appeared in the " Fortnightly Review " for September, 1865. EXTINCTION OE SLAYEEY. 257 each other's partisans. The English Parliament in chap. 1378 passed a law* declaring that Urban was law- LL fully elected Pope, that Urban was the true Pope, Pope and that liegemen of the English Crown who obeyed F^mel anyone else as Pope, should incur outlawry and for- *^np°pe feiture of lands and goods. Besides England, the land. Scandinavian kingdoms, the Empbe, and Italy ac knowledged Urban. Clement was recognised as Pope by France, Scotland, Sicily, and Spain. We now resume the special history of the condition of the poor in England — that is to say, of the vast majority of our nation. This history of the English Modem poor can hardly, for practical purposes, be said to |jj^L°f begin before Edward III.'s reign ; for until that period lish p°ot ,-! ... -. i- -ip ¦ begins in tne mass oi the population consisted of peasants m a Edward state of serfdom. The relations between master and ' smsn' slave (whatever may be the form of the slavery) differ so essentially from the relations between employer and free working-man, that a period, during which slavery was prevalent, is of little use to refer to (so far as regards domestic and social history), by way of com parison with a period, in which slavery has become extinct, or is rapidly diminishing. But the domestic events and institutions of any Non-Servile age may throw valuable light on those of any age of a similar character. And, if we can find in a nation's history a web-defined short period, during which the majority of its serfs became emancipated, such a period is pecubarly deserving of study, as probably containing the germs, from which important institutions of after ages have been developed. The period, which begins with the pestbence cabed the Black Death in Edward III.'s reign, and which * 2 Ric. II. stat. 1, c. vii. vor.. it. 258 EDWAED III, AND EICHAED II. CHAP. IV. Villeinage' in Anglo- Norman England. Frequentenfranchisementof villeins. in Edward III. 's reign. Causes of this. The pros pering towns attractthepeasants. Edward III.'s wars. takes in the insurrection headed by Wat Tyler in Eichard II.'s reign, may be emphaticaby termed a period of this kind in English history. A short glance at some preceding events, and at some that fobowed, may be taken in connection with our study of it. A description has been given in the preceding volume* of the state of serfdom or vbleinage, which was the condition of the great mass of the Engbsh peasantry at the date of the grant of the Great Charter in the time of King John. Together with that de scription, an account was given of the numerous methods for the emancipation of serfs, which were allowed or provided by the Anglo-Norman law. The liberation . of our bondmen by these means became more and more frequent during the reigns of John's next three successors ; and in the reign of Edward III. it proceeded in a greatly accelerated ratio. The increase of trade, manufactures, and wealth, under this sovereign (which was spoken of in the last chapter) induced very many of the agricultural poor to resort to the towns in the hopes of bettering theb condition. And, as the serf, who resided unclaimed for a year and a day in a chartered town, became free, and as nearly every town of importance had its Charter, the number of labourers who thus escaped from vbleinage must have been considerable. The almost incessant warfare, also, in which England was engaged during Ed ward III.'s reign, must have caused the practical, though not formal emancipation of many a serf. The baron or the captain, who was bound by tenure or by express contract to bring a stipulated number of soldiers to serve the King, would hardly inqube very closely whether a stalwart peasant, who offered himself * P. 323. EEEEDOM OETEN SOLD. 259 as a recruit, was either vihein in gross, or vibein chap. regardant. Such a soldier, if he returned from the LL wars, would be sure to choose for his home some part of England, where be ran no risk of being claimed as a bondman. This was not the only way, in which King Edward's wars abroad promoted the enfranchisement of serfs at home. The King was in constant and urgent need of money for his campaigns ; and many of, if not ab, the barons and knights, who fought under him, must often have been in the same condition. The' pomp and adornments of chivalry made the equipment of a gallant knight a costly process ; and it was neces sary for a captain to be liberal with his gold to his followers, if he wished to keep a powerful troop under his banner, and to ensure their loyal and zealous service. Even at home the frequency of tournaments and other pageants made knightly glory very ex pensive. One obvious mode, by which a landowner who Freedom aspired to martial renown, could raise part of the necessary funds, was to sell freedom to the serfs on his estate. They were generally annexed to the land, vbleins regardants, as the law termed them; and they could not be sold away from it, like the oxen or the sheep, to the best bidder ; but they could always be set free, if tbeir feudal lord thought fit to release them: and the feudal lords were not too proud to take money for doing so. Theoretically, a serf could have no right in money or in anything else with regard to his owner ; but, practically, his possession of whatever he could acquire was respected : and, as in the exactly analo gous case of the Eoman slaves, who purchased emanci pation with their " Peculium," the feudal serfs often bought enfranchisement from their lords. ° R 2 ment. 260 EDWAED III. AND. EICHAED II. chap. There is documentary proof stib extant that King LL Edward himself, when preparing for his first campaign on the Continent, raised money by taking payments {called fines) from the Crown serfs, whom he thereupon emancipated.* We may be sure that the instances recorded were not the only ones, and that Edward's barons and other military tenants-in-chief followed their sovereign's example. Voluntary The voluntary grant of freedom by the lords as an act freedom, of Christian charity was not unfrequent; and the clergy were active' in enjoining this as a meritorious deed.f ¦Cases of gu^ probably, the process of enfranchisement, when franchise- caused by the bounty of the serf-owner, was in most cases gradual. The lord relaxed the severity, and diminished the frequency of the services, which he re quired from his vblein. The nature of the service, which he continued to demand, and the time of rendering it, became settled by usage, if not by express dbec- tion and promise. It was always the lord's interest to treat his working-man kindly; and land was the cheapest article for a kind lord to bestow, and also the most useful for the serving peasant to receive. It cost the lord nothing to allow the serf a cot or hovel, in which he might dweb peace ably and securely, to let him have a plot of ground to till for his own benefit, and to suffer him to turn out a few cattle or pigs on the wastes of the * See the entry in II. Rymer, p. iv. 20, entitled "De Manumissione Nativorum," whence it appears that the King, for fines paid, enfranchised John Simondson of Brustwyk, William Godwin, and Alan Mason of Esyng- ton, and their families ; and that the King's commissioners had been sent into that part of England to sell manumissions to the King's serfs there. Macpherson, in his Annals of Commerce, vol. i. p. 622, has exaggerated the force of this document. | Mr. Hallam, in his Supplemental notes to his History of the Middle Ages, has. pointed out the mistake of sneering at the English clergy for unwiUingness to liberate their own serfs. A villein was real property, and as inalienable as church lands. ENFEANCHISEMENT OE SEEES. 261 manor. Those indulgences gave the serf the means chap. of living, and of bringing up a family. No one but Ll the lord could interfere with his cottage, his land, his stock, his goods, or his savings. No one else could treat him otherwise than as a freeman; and his lord was not likely to interfere with him, so long as he ren dered the customary services punctually, cheerfully, and effectively. By degrees, such a serf's well-founded Growth of expectation of entire freedom from molestation in MderXrt person or in possessions, ripened into an actual right, of serfs- which the law respected and enforced. If he failed to render the due services, the land became forfeited to the lord, but the tenant himself remained free. An entry was generally made in the lord's book, and a list or roll was kept in the lord's court of the services, which it. was customary for every tenant of this kind to perform ; and a copy of this part of the court roll became the tenant's title deed. This conversion of villeins into copyholders was most beneficial, not only for the private interests of all concerned, but ' also for "the public good of the - country. It is probable that, besides the gradually en franchised tenants who have been last described, many also. of the serfs, who acquired immediate emancipa tion by purchase or by voluntary grant, continued to reside on their little tenements, performing the old services, or portions of the old services, by agree ment with theb? late lords. These also became copy holders ; and helped to make up a class of peasant proprietors of land, such as has grown up in far larger proportionate numbers in other European countries where feudabsm prevailed, and where the rural labourers were once in a state of serfdom* * A great quantity of very valuable information on this subject will be found in the Parliamentary Blue-book of the present session (1870) on the 262 EDWAED III. AND EICHAED II. CHAP. IV. Growth of a class of free la bourers, uncon nectedwith the land, and entirelydependent on wages. Influence of the craft- guilds on the position of the la bouring classes in towns. Formation of a Pro letarian class. But the English labourers, who escaped from vil leinage by either of the two modes first mentioned, by residence in a chartered town, or by serving in the foreign wars, became labourers personally free, whoby unconnected with the land, and entirely dependent upon wages, which, for a long time, were generally daily wages. Many, also, of the other varieties of freedmen whom we have been speaking of, would become journeymen-labourers of this character. The desire for change, though sometimes comparatively dull, exists at all times among all populations of human beings. This, and many other reasons, such as the hope of obtaining higher wages elsewhere, the incapacity of the old home to contain all the members of an increasing family, the wish to avoid the conse quences of a crime, or a folly, and the like, would take many free labourers away from the land on which they had been reared, to some other rural districts, or to some of the manufacturing towns or commercial cities. We must remember here the important influence which the Craft-Guilds (as described in the last chapter *) acquired, during the fourteenth century, in the English towns, and how difficult it was made for any journeyman to rise out of the position of a mere labourer, by becoming a member of one of the Guilds. By these means, an order of men personally free, but politically powerless, nearly always destitute of land, or of stores of chattels, and with almost insu- tenure of land in Europe. See especially Mr. Harriss-Gartnell's report on the Prussian peasantry. The changes in the position of the peasants in Russia, which are now going on, are very interesting to the student of the mediaeval history of England. * P. 240, supra. THE PEOLETAEIAN CLASS. 263 perable difficulties in the way of their acquiring chap. them, had -grown up, and was increasing rapidly LL in England during the period which we are con sidering. To use a modern phrase, there was now, in both town and country, a class of Proletarians. They were wholly unconnected with the land ; they were wholly unconnected with the civic municipal institutions. The common labourer, in the fourteenth century, had no place in the shire-mote, or at the town-hab, when representatives of the Commons in Parliament were to be chosen. He could not hold any office, and he could not elect to any office in borough, in guild, in county-court, in leet, in hundred, in court-baron, in township, or in tithing. If sick or infirm, he might hope for relief from his neighbours as fellow- Christians, but he had no claim whatever on any of them as his fellow-subjects. What is a State to do with its Proletarians 1 What is a State to do for its Proletarians 1 English statesmen had not been called on to answer Duties of a these questions before Edward III.'s age. Even then, fttaproteta- the second of these two questions was, for a while, neg- nans- lected, but it soon forced itself on public notice. From the times when these questions were first raised, they have never ceased to be the most urgent and the most embarrassing questions of English statesman ship. The long array of our Statutes teems in every volume with attempted answers to them, attempted answers in the form of Statutes of Labourers, of Poor Laws, of Vagrant Laws, of Criminal Laws manifold in kind, of Emigration Laws. May the new response, which is now being attempted, of Education Law, prove more successful than its predecessors ! Yet it is an almost hopeless task, to try to dignify the mind, while disease and want debase and destroy the body. cancy. 264 EDWAED HI. AND EICHAED II. chap. When the condition of the great mass of the popu- LL lation was changed from that of serfdom to that of poor freemen, the three next-mentioned important consequences, among others, fobowed. Theimpo- 1st. Those who, by reason of age, sickness,, or among°the other infirmity, were unable to work, — the Impotent wirs are Poor, as the term is, — were in a worse state, as to th°rsethff obtaining relief, than they, or their ancestors, had impotent been whbe serfs. increa!!e of 2n<^ There was a great increase of Vagabondage vagabond- in. the realm. increase of ^rd. There was a great, increase of Mendicancy. mendi- 1st. While the poor were serfs, they knew where rpriovp xr . to look for help against the miseries of extreme want and destitution. The vdlein was the property of the lord, and the lord took care of him as such. In . the case of a serf disabled by temporary ib- ness, or by accident, it was the lord's interest to get him cured and restored to working condition. And, with regard to the aged and incurably sick, though the law did not impose any punishment on the master who suffered his vibein, when in that state, to die of want, yet there was a general sense that it was the lord's duty to provide for him; and we have no reason to believe that this duty was often neglected. We certainly do not read any complaints respecting useless villeins being evicted from their little holdings : and some small occasional help from the manor house in food and raiment, superadded to the aid of their relatives and neighbours, and to the charitable offices of the clergy, was probably all that was needed for their maintenance there. But the situation of the disabled free labourer was very different. He had no feudal master to look to for protection and VAGABONDAGE AND MENDICANCY. 265 assistance ; and if, as was often the case, he had char wandered from his old neighbourhood in search of LL work, or from other motives, he might suffer and starve unheeded, when illness or old age came upon him. In such case he had no relief to hope for, except the alms that he could beg from a passing stranger, or the meal of broken victuals, and the night's lodging, which he could find at some monas tery or chantry. 2nd and 3rd. When a man had ceased to be a increase of villein, Ascriptus glebce, a serf bound to the land ™fbond" which he tibed, his first natural wish would be to use his newly-acquired liberty. Other influences, home- keeping influences, would, no doubt, often prevail over this; but in many cases it would make the man more or less migratory. Hence, and from the causes mentioned lately, the number of wandering poor in England increased enormously, as serfdom diminished. Part of these were men of industrious and honest habits ; but very many were men averse increase of from steady industry and its restraints, prone to beggary, quickly lapsing into vice and crime, and often forming gangs of systematic highway robbers and housebreakers. This increase of vagabondage and mendicancy Speedy among the lower orders soon raised alarm among the ag?mstlon middle and upper classes, as is abundantly testified Tasab(md- rr > j age and by the Statute-books of Edward III. and Eichard II.'s mendi- reigns. The other evil, of which we have been lately speaking, that of the increasing misery and destitution of the Impotent Poor, was probably felt, and severely felt, by the poor themselves, before it so far attracted the observation of those in easier circumstances, as to cause legislative efforts to relieve it. But I do not Legislation think that there ever was a time in England, when the ^"^nt mendicancy. them, 266 EDWAED III. AND EICHAED II. chap, starvation of poor people, unable to work, though not LL unwilling to work, was regarded by our law-makers poor more with indifference ; or when it would not have been felt En iish ^° ^e a national crime, bringing down God's judgments lawgivers upon the land, if such a state of things were allowed indifferent to continue, without attempts being made to remedy to them. .^ ag goon ag ft^y known. We shall see that excep- gi-aduai tions from the new penal laws against mendicancy were relieve1 S ° made in favour of the impotent poor ; and that a kind of legislative encouragement was given to the inhabi tants of each district to aid by their alms the reaby necessitous paupers of their neighbourhood. Those, who made the laws, seem to have believed that the alms giving of a Christian population, and the aid afforded. by the hospitals and other charitable institutions, which had been founded in the realm, would be sufficient for the relief of the sick and aged poor. This proved not to be the case ; but the deficiency was thought to have been caused by the abuses which had grown up in the administration of these charities. A statute passed in 141-4,* in words which sound like a confession of na tional sin, recites the decay of hospitals, and the mal versation of charitable endowments, which the founders had designed "to sustain impotent men and women, lazars, men and women out of their wits, and poor women with child, and to nourish, relieve, and refresh other poor people in the same." It goes on to state that in consequence of these charitable institutions being decayed, and their revenues perverted, " Many men and women have died in great misery for default of aid to live and of succour, — to the displeasure of God." The statute then orders inquiry and reform to be had as to the funds and the governance of these institutions. * 2 Hen. V. 14. INTEODUOTION OE THE POOE-LAW. 267 A long time passed away before compulsory taxation chap. for the relief of the impotent poor was introduced. LL This was first done by a statute passed in the fifth year Compui- of Elizabeth, and it was thoroughly established by S f£ re tire great poor-law passed near the end of her liefof^ , _. m ¦*¦ poor Eili List reign. In the interval, several laws had dbected foim(i the clergy of each parish, and, if needful, the bishop of -ne,c:,K"> the diocese, to stir up the charity of the parishioners for the aid of their helplessly necessitous brethren. The 27 Hen. 8 deserves attention among these statutes, as it imposed a penalty on promiscuous almsgiving. But I have been led to speak of dates beyond the proper compass of this chapter and this volume, and I return to the state of the poor in the fourteenth century. We have seen that with the extensive decrease of serfdom came the difficulty of the distressed state of the Impotent Poor. The other great difficulty, which The mo tile framers and administrators of poor laws in modern t^fam*' times have to meet — that of how to deal with the Cldty°f men able able-bodied poor, who are willing to work, but cannot and willing obtain employment — is a difficulty that was scarcely but unable felt in mediaeval times. Although the amount of capital ^0°£*anot and the demand for labour, which then existed, were felt,in , ' . mediaeval far, very far less than what exist now, the proportion- times. ate difference between the scanty population of those days and the overflowing numbers of our present population is greater stbl. It does not appear that in the mediaeval times Anabie- generaby, or in the earber part of the fourteenth ^^ century in particular, there was any serious dispro- ^".nd portion between the demand for labour and the supply ment, of labour. There is no legislation, there are no recorded complaints or petitions, there are no expressions of chroniclers or of other writers, that would lead us to 26 S EDWAED III. AND EICHAED II. chap, suppose that before 1349 an able-bodied man, who was LL wibing to work, had any difficulty in finding work. Also, before Another fact seems equaby clear (and it is a fact of Pett^nce great importance with regard to the state of things em^L a^ei ^e Great Pestilence), namely, that before the could find working: population was diminished by the Black a sufficient supply of ' Death in the last-mentioned year, the landowner, the 1 k" merchant, and the superior tradesman were able to find labourers in such numbers, and to get their work done on such terms, as left the capitalist (whether his capital was in land or in chattels) a fair beneficial return. We now come to consider more fuby than before the effects (both the immediate and the permanent effects) of the destruction of one-half of the labouring population by the Black Death, of the change in the condition of the survivors, of the legislation, and of the other events that followed. Several of these topics have been abeady incidentally noticed. They now must be dealt with more carefuby, and in theb natural connection with each other. Number of The number of the population of England in the tkn'bSoie" beginning of 1348 was, I believe, from four to five Deeathlack milli°ns-* The Black Death appeared first in England First ap- at Dorchester, in August, 1348. It reached London pearance jn September ; and, after rasing in almost ab parts of and pro- -t ' ' o O jr ( gressof the country, but not everywhere at the same time, it lence. seems to have abated, and ceased about the end of 13 49. | This visitation, which lasted for about sixteen or seventeen months, was by far the most devastating. The epidemic returned again in 1361, in 1369, and in * See the papers on the Black Death by Mr. Seebohm in the " Fortnightly Review " for September, 1865. He gives what appear to me to be very strong reasons for the estimate which I have adopted. t Hecker, in his work on the Epidemics of the Middle Ages, translated by Dr. Babington, says that the first pestilence of Edward III.'s reign HAVOC BY THE BLACK DEATH. 269 1375 ; but the great havoc of the people, and the. chap. consequent legislation about labour, were caused by LL the first outbreak. The assertion that more than half. Numbers ofthe population was. destroyed appears at first to be. destroyed hyperbolical, but there are very strong proofs that it is by no means exaggerated.* The mortality among the- The poor poor was proportionally far greater than among the ^da£b" ' rich. The deadly power of epidemics is generally felt tte Pesti- most fatally by the classes that are. the worst fed., the worst clothed, and the worst housed ; and it is especially noticed by writers of the time that. while workmen and servants perished in large numbers, very few of the wealthy were carried off by the Black Death. The result was, that on the part of -the landowners r^,,,.,,,^ and other proprietors, there was the same need for ob- is. there is taining work, whbe the number of those who could amount of supply work was diminished by one-half. This sur- iX™, but viving half of the labourers found themselves suddenly °^yg^alfj in a position to demand almost any terms they pleased °f labour. for their labour. They made the most of the new vingk™ state of circumstances, and they required wages which \^^d could not be paid without much distress to the em- nigh ploy ers of labour. The distress of the proprietary Thetenant3 classes was increased by their, being obliged to lower also com- the rents, and to relax the services which they had obtain been accustomed to receive from the occupiers of their ^reX18 ended in England in August, 1349. Mr. Skeat, in his note to his recent edition of the Vision of Piers the Ploughman, says (p. 120) that this pesti lence terminated on the 29th of September, 1349. But it certainly was not wholly extinct at the beginning of the foUowing December. The King in a proclamation dated of the 1st of that month says, " Non modica pars populi regni nostri Anglise in prcesenti pestUentia est defuncti."— See Rymer, vol. iii. p. i. 51. * See p. 156, supra; and see the facts and figures coUected by Mr. See- bohm. They are very convincing. Add to them the specific figures given by Knighton (p. 2688) as to the numbers that died in the several parishes in Leicester. 270 EDWAED IIL AND EICHAED II. chap, lands. The small tenantry, the copyholders, and the LL yet unemancipated serfs, made common cause with the and a di- free day-labourers, and they all took fub advantage of ^services, fhe crisis. They threatened to abandon the land, unless the rents were reduced, and the services made more easy.* A thirty Our history now shows us a great drama of a Thbty betweel^ Years' War between Capital and Labour. Its first Capital scenes are occupied with the combinations of workmen Labour: against employers, which began after the ravages of tTadi*1"5 ^he Black Death. Its last act culminates in the insur- neathto rection of 1381, and the terrible reprisals, which the WatTylers . • i t i r> rebellion, victorious upper classes exercised upon the defeated One-sided peasantry. It is always to be remembered that we the^fstory learn the story of this struggle from writers of one stride Party only- The statesmen who drew up the procla mations, and ordinances, and statutes, were ab capital ists. The interest and the sympathies of the writers of chronicles were all on the side of property. No one has reported the reasonings of the peasants and arti zans among themselves, when they agreed to stand out for high wages ; or their arguments (such as must in the nature of things have sometimes occurred) with their late employers, as .to the terms on which they should resume work. Before we judge the merits of the actors in this strife, it is right to remember the one-sided nature of the evidence; but I think that * " Magnates regni et alii minores domini, qui tenentes habebant, par- donarunt reditum de redditu, ne tenentes abirent pro defectu servorum et caristia rerum. Quidam medietatem redditus, quidam magis et quidam minus, quidam per ij annos, quidam per tres, et quidam per unum, sicut poterant cum eis convenire. Similiter, qui habebant de tenentibus totius anni disetas totius anni, ut assolet de nativis, oportebat eos relaxare et remittere talia opera, et aut penitus, pardonare aut sub laxiore modo in parvo redditu ponere, ne nimia et irrecuperabilis ruina fieret domorum, et terra ubique totaliter remaneret inculta. Et omnia victualia, et omnia necessaria devenerunt minis cara." — Knighton, 2601. EIGHTS OE L ABOUE. 271 some modern writers go too far when they assume, with- chap. out proof, that very many kinds of unrecorded mis- LL conduct had been practised by the employers towards the employed; and when they maintain that the government could have no right whatever to interfere with the labour-market, however high might be the price which the working-men suddenly put upon their services, and however pernicious to the public welfare might be the general cessation of labour. The modern principle certainly is, that the labour- Modem market should be left to itself; and that wages may thTthee be safely permitted to rise and fall according to the j^^j state of the balance between demand and supply. No test which , , . t governs inconvenience, at least little or no general and perma- least. nent inconvenience to employers, may be felt to pro- Modem -1 •* J ^ circum- ceed from following this rule in an old and thickly- stances populated country, where the competition of millions the old Lo obtain work is vehement, and almost incessant. ™e!' ¦n -p t • Modern But, if from the pecubar circumstances, in which a competi- State may be placed at some crisis, the labouring classes foTempioy- obtain, and exercise the power to refuse capriciously, ^ent' or to grant only upon extortionate and precarious reversal of terms, the labour, which is necessary for the general ti0™pe * maintenance of the community, it is the right and it Occasional ¦ t t p a State-duty becomes the duty of the governing body of the State to inter- to interfere. It has been truly said, that the able-bodied poor The poor man has property ; and that his capacity for labour is p^ t0 his property, of which the law should leave him the work> is r r J , f. property. free disposal, as it does to the owners of other property. it has the The meaning of this, when correctly understood, is not hotter M that the labourer should be absolutely and always free property. from all State interference in the disposal of his labour, aiso theas but that he should be subject to the same amount, b™teiesa~ and to only the same amount of State interference in 27a EDWAED III. AND EICHAED II. chap, respect of it, which the landowner or other capitalist LL is subject to in respect of his land and his other wealth, If, for example, the landowner perversely refuses to. part with his land at a fair price, when needed for a. new road, or other object of great public utility, the State interferes with his right of property, and com pels and regulates the sale of the requisite land. The right to compel and regulate the sale of labour rests on precisely the same principle ; namely, on the prin ciple that private selfishness should not be allowed to Peril of hinder or destroy great public good. But security as interf?-* well as liberty are so seriously impaired, when such rence with gtate interference becomes frequent, that it ought to suchnghts. . . t r . • _. be exercised m cases only ot very great importance. and emergency, and in cases only, where there is no reasonable hope of the desired object being obtained Cautions to by the agency, of voluntary contract. Every pre served, caution ought also to be taken that the free-wib of those, upon whom such legislation is to operate, shall be coerced to the least possible extent, and in the least vexatious manner, which may be consistent with the success of the measure which it is determined to carry into effect. Ab possible fair compensation should be peremptorily secured ; and the most effective safeguards established against the abuse of the arbitrary power which is cabed into existence. Edward ^e statesmen of Edward III.'s age had far better in. and means than we can possess for iudainsf the amount of his states- men could urgency, which then existed for State interference with better than fhe labourer's right to seb his labour only to such per- wLuier a sons> and orLry on sucn terms as he pleased. We know iabour-iaw as a recorded fact, that in 1349, abundant harvests needed. were rotting on the ground in many districts, because no labourers could be obtained to gather them.* * Eot. Pari. iii. p. 21 ; and Knighton, 2699; INJUSTICE OE THE LABOTJB-LAWS. 273 There is proof, also, that in the fobowing year much of chap. the land, that ought to have been producing a new LL crop, was left uncultivated and unproductive.* A Government is certainly justified in taking strong mea sures to prevent a famine. And it may well have be hoved the rulers of the people not to suffer the people's food to perish, and not to permit the stoppage of the thousand daily works on which a nation's daily suste nance depends ; — not to abow the whole organization of civilized society to be thrown out of gear, if it was in the power of those rulers to save England from such calamities, by compelling a class of the popu lation to resume the toils, to which that class had been accustomed, on fair and liberal terms of remu neration. But, though it may be easy to perceive that there was possibly, and probably, a sufficient need for the injustice passing of some labour-law on this occasion, it is im- ^SionsPof° possible to defend the terms of the ordinances and thel^our- ¦r laws that statutes, which actually were decreed, or the spirit, were which the legislation of the rich as to the poor, of the lords of the soil as to the tillers of the soil, of capi talists as to manual workers, rapidly and perseveringly assumed. It was all one-sided legislation. Eates were fixed, at which the labourer was bound to work ; but there was no law requiring proprietors to give the labourers work at those rates. There was a statutory maximum of wages, but no minimum. While rightly endeavouring to repress vagabondage and mendicancy, Attempts the landowners showed also a strong desire to secure for ™^*° themselves a cheap supply of labour in each district, by the p°?r °f cbcumscribing all poor men's liberty of movement and trict to of residence. This system of restricting the labourer iJauty1™ to one locabty was long persevered in ; and was de- * Rot. Pari. ii. p. 227. 274 CHAP. IV. These re strictions were the germs of the op pressivePoor Laws as to settlement and re moval. The King in 1349 issues the Ordinanceof La bourers. Compulsory on the poor to accept em ployment. EDWAED ni. AND EICHAED II. veloped some centuries afterwards in the harsh and oppressive Eoor Laws as to settlement and removal ; laws that have not been materially mitigated until quite recently in our own days. The violence of the plague in 1349 prevented the meeting of Earliament according to notice, and King Edward, by the advice of his Councd, put forth an Ordinance, which is cabed (inaccurately) in our Statute Book the Statute of Labourers passed in the twenty-third year of Edward IIL* It deserves very careful attention. It recites thus — " Since a great part of the people, and chiefly of the working men, and of those who do service, have lately died of the Pestbence, many seeing the necessity that masters are in, and the scarcity of servants, have refused to serve, unless they receive excessive wages, and there are others preferring to beg in idleness rather than get their bving by labour." It then states that—'" The Lord King, seeing the grievous inconveniences which may arise hence, especially through the want of agri cultural labourers and workmen of this kind," has ordained " That every man and woman, of whatsoever condition, free or bond, able in body, and within the age of threescore years, not living in merchandise, and not having any certain craft,! an^ not having of his own whereof he may live, nor land of his own about the tillage of which he may occupy himself, and not serving any other, shab be bound to serve the em ployer who shall require him to do so, and shab take only the wages, living, reward, or salary, which were * It was recognised as a statute impliedly by 25 Ed. III. stat. i., and expressly by 2 Eic. 2, c. viii. t This exception of the craftsmen is remarkable. See what has been said at p. 240, supra, as to the craft-guilds of this period, and the position which their members were assuming of a privileged class with regard to common journeymen. COMPULSOEY EATES OE WAGES. 275 accustomed to be taken in the neighbourhood, where chap. he is bound to serve, in the twentieth year of the LL King's reign, or on an average of the last five or six Compui- years. Provided, that the lords of vibeins have a Twit* preference over other employers, as to keeping in their service their own villeins, or the occupiers of their lands held by vblein-tenure ;* so, however, that such lords retain in their service so many as are necessary, and no more. And if any such men or women, being punish- so required to serve, refuse to do so, and that be ^^ proved by two lawful men before the sheriff, or the labourers. bailiff, or the lord, or the constable of the township, he shab forthwith be taken and committed to the nearest jail, there to remain in strict custody until he find surety to serve in manner aforesaid." The ordinance directs that if any workman or servant depart from service before the time agreed on, he shall have punish ment- of imprisonment. It farther, under penalty of Punish- imprisonment, prohibits workmen of several specified taking trades, and ab artificers and workmen whatever, Se'pre-™ from taking more for theb labour or workman- SCI}be& . . . rate ™ ship than had been paid in the neighbourhood for wages. the same in the year, or on the average of years aforesaid. At the time when this ordinance was put forth the High prices prices of all things had risen enormously. | It seems period. to have occurred to King Edward and his Councb, that there would be hardship in requiring the labourers to be content with the old wages in amount of money, if * I think this is the meaning of " terram suam nativam tenentibus." + The first effect of the great mortality and of the panic caused by it had been to lower prices. " Erat leve precium de cunctis rebus pro mortis timore " (Knighton, 2599) ; but he goes on to say that soon afterwards there was such a dearth of all necessaries, that prices rose four-fold and five-fold. " Cuncta necessaria adeo cara devenerunt quod id quod retroactis temporibus valuerat unum denarium jam isto tempore valebat ivd. aut vd." — Knighton, ibid. T 2 276 EDWAED III. AND EICHAED II. CHAP. IV. The Ordi nance commands cheapsales of victuals.Prohibitionof giving alms to valiantbeggars. Such legis lation far beyond the scope of a royal pro clamation. This un heeded by the Parlia ments of those days. Manual labour has no repre sentation.Parliament of 1350. The Com mons peti tion that the Ordi nance of Labourersmay be morestrictly enforced. Statute of Labourers Complaintsof the "malice " and "cove tousness"of the labouring the same amount of money could procure for them only a fourth of the old amount of food and other necessaries of life. With the design, apparently, of preventing or mitigating such hardship, the ordinance commanded that victuals should be sold at reasonable prices. Another clause ordered, under pain of im prisonment, that no person should give anything to a beggar who was able to work. Such legislation, so seriously affecting the rights and liberties of the great mass of the peope, might seem to have been far beyond the scope of a royal ordinance ; and we should have expected that it would have been regarded as constitutionally invalid, unless enacted with the consent of all the estates of tbe realm. We should indeed judge it to have speciaby requbed the consent of the representatives of the commonalty. But theParha- mentary representatives of the commons in that, as in other ages, were employers, not labourers; and they went beyond the King and his Council in theb zeal for the interests of property. A Parliament met in the next year, 1350, and the Commons petitioned the King on the subject of the recent ordinance. But their com plaint was, not that the King had issued such an ordi nance, but that the ordinance was not sufficiently enforced. A statute (25 Edw. III. stat. 1,) was thereon passed, which recites the putting forth of the late ordi nance by our lord the King, " against the malice of servants, wbich were idle and not willing to serve after the pestilence without receiving too outrageous wages." The King, in Parliament, is given to understand, by petition of the Commons, " that the said servants, having no regard to the said ordinance, but to their ease and singular covetousness, do "withdraw them selves from serving great men and others, unless they have living and wages to the double or treble of what STEICT LAWS AGAINST LABOUEEES. 277 they were wont to have in the twentieth year of the chap. King, and before." The statute then, in order " to re- LL strain the malice of the said servants," enacted that Labourers labourers and servants should work for the accustomed tLTw at wages ; and that in future their hirings should be by ^e°f the year, or customary period, and not by the day. Hirings to The specific sums to be paid to many kinds of work- y^y the men are fixed by the Act. The labourers and ser- Thela. vants in each township are to be sworn twice a boureisin year, before the local authorities, to keep the statute, ship to be and to work as formerly ; and. none of them is to go klepthe in the summer to work out of tbe township, in which f^to' he dwelt during the winter, if he can find work in that work M of township. Servants, who flee from one county to an- Laws other in order to evade tbe law, are to be committed fgamst ml . . ... labourers to prison. Ihe justices at their sessions are to make leaving diligent inquiry as to the observance of the statute, ships anT and are to punish labourers and servants who break it, ™unties- by fine or imprisonment, at their discretion. There tices to see are several other provisions in the statute, all in the servancVof same spirit. I have set out the effect of its most im- ia®slabour" portant clauses. As neither the ordinance nor the statute succeeded Attempts in securing for employers the old amount of labour at unfeir™6 the old rate, the angry lawgivers sought to enforce {^^y their labour-laws by annexing severer penalties to andin- J -i t i ¦ -i t creased un- every breach of them, and by making them more and fairness. more harsh and oppressive. In the thirty-fourth year The of Edward III.'s reign, the Parliament enacted that ftXtetf labourers and artificers, who absented themselves from *fTMw- . ill. c. 10. theb services, should be punishable at the discretion of the justices, by being branded with a hot iron on the forehead, with the letter F, to denote the falsity whereof they had been guilty, in breaking the oath by which they were bound to their service. If a run- 278 EDWAED III. AND EICHAED II. chap, away servant took refuge in any town, he might be LL demanded of the mayor and bailiffs of the place, who were required to deliver him up under penalty of for feiting 51. to the King, and 100 shibings to the master of the runaway. strikes This cruel legislation of the Parliament of 1360 bhfatTons against the labourers and workmen seems to have among the \>qqji partly caused by combinations and strikes for masons and . r carpenters, higher wages among the carpenters and masons. It is expressly enacted that all theb? unions, combinations, chapters, ordinances, and oaths made among them selves are to be held nub and void. The work- It is clear, however, that the working classes con- continaeto tinued to combine against the employers, and that combine, their combinations were, on the whole, successful. bmations1 At the very beginning of the new reign, in 1377, whole6 sue- the Commons complain that the vbleins and the cessfni. tenants in villeinage are confederated and allied of°itPinm 3 together to oppose theb? lords and their lords' stewards mentfin w^h ^e strong hand ; and that they are acting by 1377. the counsel, procurement, maintenance, and abetment of certain persons : and that in furtherance of their wrongful and treasonable practices they have cobected among themselves large sums of money.* Further On this petition was founded the statute 1 E. 2, against the c- ^-> which recites the same complaints, and orders labourers. ^hat ^g ]or(js 0f sucn vibeins and tenants shall have special commissions issued for the trial and punish ment of such offenders. A subsequent statute (12 E. 2, c. 4) repeats in its preamble the old grievance of the landowners and capitalists, that labourers and work men would not serve them except for excessive wages- It also contains severe restrictions on labourers moving from one district to another. * See the Petition in 3 Eot. Pari. 21. INSUFFICIENCY OF WAGES. 279 These and other proofs make it clear that the great chap. attempt made by the capitalists to secure cheap com- LL pulsory labour, and to confine the labourers to their respective * old localities, was, on the whole, as it deserved to be, a failure. But it does not follow that Theiabour- this labour-code was a dead letter. On the con- though on trary, we have proof that it was often and severely ^e J^ole enforced. The fines levied on those, who broke it, M> was _ .. . not a dead produced a revenue which was so important, that the letter. Parbament provided from time to time for the mode ^lar"* of its disposal in each district. This was done in amount of 1350, when the fines were ordered to be applied in under it. aid of the Tenths and Fifteenths. Afterwards, in the same Parliament, another Act was passed on the same subject; and in 1362, the distribution of those for feitures was a third time regulated by statute. The Misery that enforcement, though partial, and as to its main ^ purpose ineffective, of these laws, must have caused g^tie7 much misery to individuals. For it is certain that partial en- tt _ . f orcement throughout the last part of Edward III. s reign, the of these price of corn was so high, that wages paid at the ThTstatu- statutory rate could not have enabled the labourer to tory wages purchase enough food for the support of a family. * sufficient at the preva- * Mr. Malthus gives the follo\vlng information on this subject:— "We lent high may infer that the price of day labour had been [before the Statute of prices. Labourers] about l\d. or 2d. " SirF. M. Eden has collected notices of the prices of wheat in sixteen out of the twenty-five years of Edward III. previous to the time of the passing of the statute. Taking an average, the price of wheat appears to have been about 5s. id. the quarter, which is 8d. the bushel, and 2d. the peck. "At this price of wheat, if the labourer earned l^d. a day he could only purchase by a day's labour three-quarters of a peck of wheat ; if he earned 2d. he could purchase just a peck. But in the subsequent period of Edward III.'s reign the labourer appears to have been much worse off. On an average of thirteen years out of twenty-six, in which the prices of wheat are noticed, the quarter is about lis. 9<£, which is about i{d. the peck. "At this price, if the money wages of labour had not risen, the condition of the labourer would have been very miserable. He would not have been able to purchase so much as half a peck of wheat by a day's labour."— Malthus's Political Economy, p. 244, ed. 1836. 280 EDWAED III. AND EICHAED II. CHAP. IV. Increasedpressure of taxation.It presses severely on the la bouring The fatal poll-tax of 1380. The insur rection of 1381. Attentionof modern historians has been narrowedto the personalproceedings of Wat Tyler. With the renewal of hostilities with France in 1377, the pressure of taxation became more and more severe ; and the Government, by repeatedly imposing a poll-tax, made this burden bear with direct and galling weight upon the poor. Attention has already been drawn to the capitation tax imposed in the last year of Edward III.'s reign. In 1379 another pob-tax was granted by Parbament, which exacted fourpence a head from the labouring classes ; but much higher payments under it were required from the middle and upper classes,* and this graduated tax was endured. But the next Parliament, at the end of 1380, voted a third pob-tax, which was framed on the harsh principle of that of 1377. The attempt to enforce this taxation was the immediate cause of the dreadful revolutionary uprising of the lower orders. throughout nearly all England, which is commonly spoken of as the insurrection of Wat Tyler. The Kentish insurgents, of whom this man was the leader, were doubtless the most formidable of all the insurgents, by reason of their numbers, theb? determi nation, and theb proximity to the capital. And, inas much as Wat Tyler came into immediate colbsion with the chief officers of the Government, and was kibed in a personal interview with the King himself, which was marked by many highly dramatic circumstances, * The learned and accurate author of " The Annals of England," remarks on the poU-tax of 1379 that " The scale of duties for this tax is curious, and if fairly apportioned shews the high station of judges, magistrates, and lawyers of that period. Dukes paid SI. 13s. id. ; chief justices, 51. ; earls, and the mayor of London, il. ; barons, wealthy knights, aldermen of Lon don, mayors of great towns, Serjeants and great apprentices of the law, 21. ; mayors of lesser towns, great merchants, and knights of St. John of Jeru salem, 11. ' Sufficient ' merchants paid 13s. id. ; farmers or lessees, the same, or more, according to the value of their holdings ; burgesses, husband men, and others, from 13s. id. downward to Is. ; labourers, id. for a man and his wife, and the like sum for each unmarried person above the age of sixteen." WAT TTLEE'S LNSUEEECTION. 281 the attention of historians has in general been chap. almost exclusively directed to the proceedings of the LL Kentish men under Tyler, with some brief allusions to the contemporaneous disturbances in Essex, and in Norfolk. Wat Tyler's career began and ended in less than Therevo- a month ; but the revolutionary movement lasted for movement a much longer time ; and it extended far beyond the m„efwide sphere of his operations. We have seen how numerous spread- and how deeply seated were the causes of discontent throughout the land ; and it was only in the then very thinly populated districts of the extreme north and the extreme west of England that the people's discontent did not break out into a civb social war. There was, indeed, at this period, a disturbed and <*enerai . ' x ' democratic disturbing spirit at work among the mass of the popu- ferment lation, not in England only, but in many countries of Europe in Christendom.* thatage- • See as to this the remarks of Lingard, vol. iv. p. 234 ; HaUam, 3 Middle Ages, p. 178, and supplemental note xv. ; and Thierry, Histoire du Tiers Etat. M. Bonnechose, in his Histoire d'Angleterre, vol. ii. p. 43, after pointing out the feebleness of the temporal rulers of that age, dwells with great force and justice on the diminished respect of the people for ecclesias tical authority, which had been caused by the corruption of the clergy, and by the great schism of Christendom as to the Papal succession. " La clerge, corrompue par 1'indolence et les richesses, donnait d'affreux scandales, dont nous avons de nombreux et d'incontestables temoignages dans les ecrits des contemporains les plus eminents par la science et par la piete\ La desolation de I'Eglise s'e'tait accrue par le long sejour des papes a Avignon ; cette periode de soixante-dix ans, qui fut comparee a la captivite de Babylone, dura jusqu'au retour de Gregoire XI. & Eome, et fut suivie h sa mort, en 1378,* d'une epoque plus malheureuse encore, et connue dans l'histoire sous le nom du grand Schism d'Occident. On vit alors, et durant plus de quarante annees, une double succession de papes et d'antipapes, qui, etiablis a Eome et Si Avignon, deliaient a l'envi les sujets des sermons prate's a leurs princes, et se chargeaint mutueUement d'anathemas." This observation of M. Bonnechose brings back to the memory that of Bolingbroke on the same subject (On the Study of History, vol. ii. p. 363). " Two or three vioars of Christ, two or three inf aUible heads of the Church, * M. Bonnechose's book has 1338, an evident error of the press. 282 EDWAED III. AND EICHAED II. CHAP. IV. Kecapitula-tion of the causes which made this spirit pe culiarly rife in We have already adverted to some of the causes, which made that spirit peculiarly rife and vehement in England. The villeins sought freedom, which the lords, in their anxiety not to lose labour, had now become parsimonious about granting. The freed labourers were combining to evade and defeat the labour-laws, and to obtain as high wages as possible ; and each man was desirous to leave his native locality, and so to escape the swearings in by the justices, and the compulsory yearly hirings at inadequate rates. The small tenantry, and the copyholders, were leaguing with the labourers, in order to obtain lowering of rent, and mitigation of services. In the towns, the inferior workmen were chafing against the restrictive and oppressive regulations put on them by the privileged class, the members of the craft gubds, Though the labour-laws had been generaby baffled, yet so many poor men had been fined and imprisoned under them as to create a fierce sense of indignation and a thirst for revenge. There was also the actual pressure of severe want, aggravated by the sight of the increasing voluptuousness and magnificence, which their roaming about the world at a time, furnished matter of ridicule as well as scandal. And whilst they appealed (for so they did in effect) to the laity, and reproached and excommunicated one another, they taught the world what to think of the institution, as weU as the exercise of the papal autho rity." M. Bonnechose thus states the general effect of these shocks to ancient reverence in the public mind : — " Ainsi tombaient aux peuples de l'Europe tous les liens apparents ou invisibles qui les retenaient dans l'ordre et dans l'obeissance, et la plupart des causes qui mettent en mouve- ment de nos jours les masses aveugles se re"unissaient fatalement pour dechainer, contre les puissances, les classes inferieures plus dangereuses alors qu'aujourd'hui, car elles e'taient plus grossieres et plus malheureuses : le commun peuple des viUes et des campagnes, accable, mine par des guerres perpetueUes et des exactions intolerables, 6taient pousse au desespoir et a la revolte par l'exces de 1' oppression et de la misere, et passait rapidement d'un dure servitude a un Kcence effrene'e. Tel 6tait le tableau qu'offraient les plus grands 6tats de l'Europe, vers la fin du xive siecle, au moment ou le sceptre de l'Angleterre tombait des mains victorieuses d'Edouard III. aux mains ddbiles d'un enfant." WYOLIF'S DOCTEINES MISUNDEESTOOD. 283 masters paraded before the poor. There was through- chap. out the country the consciousness of national humbi- '_ ation in unsuccessful war. There was contempt as well as hatred for the rulers of the land. Demagogues were busy among the poor, who urged these topics on their ready thoughts and passions ; and the most for midable of these demagogues were those who added religious to political fanaticism. I believe it is wholly unjust to impute any intentional part in raising the tumults of 1381, to Wyclif or to Langland, the two writers who are spoken of as powerfully agitating the national mind at this epoch. The attempts, which The insur- have been made to fix on Wyclif the charge of having promoted.0* promulgated anarchical and revolutionary doctrines, byWyciif. were founded on imperfect and unfair quotations from his writings. Wyclif's favourite maxim, that " Domi- some of his nion must be founded in Grace," may seem, if quoted mTsunder- without further explanation of his theory on the sub- st?od and ject, to strike at all the rights of property and all order pUed. in human society. But what Wycbf really taught was that supreme and complete dominion belongs to God alone ; that God, as lord paramount of all, grants par tial dominion over particular matters and proper ties to men in their respective stations. Such grant is conditional on the grantee's true obedience to the Almighty Giver. It is forfeited by sinful disobe dience. But, though the wicked cannot have dominion in its true and pure sense, they are often permitted by Divine providence to retain power and possession ; and it is a good man's duty in private life to recognise and submit to this constituted authority. Wyclif expressed the duty of obeying existing authorities in very strong, and as it seems to us, exaggerated and paradoxical lan guage, which his enemies laid hold of, and made the 284. EDWAED III. AND EICHAED II. CHAP. IV. Wyclifs followersmoreviolentthan their master.Langlandloyal, but his poem made fuel for insur rection. subject-matter of a distinct charge against him.* He certainly never encouraged anarchy or violence ; but many of his nervous, epigrammatic sentences, if wrested from their context, may have seemed to sanc tion them. Probably many of his followers were not so discreet as their master, in taking care that such sentences, when uttered, should always be accompanied by the proper explanations and qualifications. Langland, the great popular poet of the time, was personally a loyal man ; and a careful study of his writings shows that he reprobated discontent, sedition, and violence, f But the nervous, outspoken words, in which he denounced the vices of the wealthy and the great, and threatened them with heavy judgments, were eagerly caught, up, and firmly retained in the me mories of the suffering poor, while they neglected or forgot his warnings to men of their own estate. It is certain that the insurgent peasantry of 1381 were familiar with this poem. The chronicler, Walsingham, cites a letter from John Ball, the demagogue priest, to the Commons of Essex, which uses the imagery, and alludes to the characters of Langland's poem in a manner which demonstrates its extensive popularity * See Mr. Shirley's remarks (Introduction, p. lxiv. Fascia Zizan.) on the heresy imputed to WycUf of holding " Quod Deus obedire debet Diabolo." t Mr. Skeat, in his recent edition of " The Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman," says rightly : — " It is most evident that Langland himself was intensely loyal. He nowhere recommends or encourages revo lutionary ideas, but the contrary ; and he never could have intended his words to have roused the flame of rebeUion. But the outspoken manner of them was just that which delighted the populace ; his exaltation of the ploughman was gladly seized upon, and his bold words perverted into watchwords of insurgency." Some of the passages expressly addressed to " Labourers that have no land to live on but their hands," warning them " to live in love and law ;'' to work honestly for fair wages ; to bear the burden of poverty patiently ; and not to curse the king, the king's council, and laws, unless they, the labourers, be " heighlich huyred," will be found in Passus VI. and Passus VII., pp. 74, 77, 78, and 81 of Mr. Skeat's edition. JOHN BALL, THE PEEACHEE. 285 among the lower orders, and shows how Langland's chap. writings were perverted as if bidding the champion of _'_ the insurgents, under the typical name of " Peres Plowman," go well to his work of chastisement.* John Bab was an itinerant priest of that period, Theitine- who for some years before the outbreak of 1381 went preacher, about among the lowest classes preaching up what the JoIm BaU" hierarchy deemed heresy, and what statesmen con sidered sedition and anarchy. Parts of his addresses and letters have been preserved ; and it is always to be remembered that the 'chroniclers who cite them were John Bab's bitter enemies. The quotations may be garbled and unfair; but it is impossible not to see that the author was a man of fierce and strong genius, and one who must in such times have been very formidable to those who sate in high places in church and state. Froissart cabs him "a foolish priest ;" but the words in which John Bab is said to have harangued the peasants, who were still kept in a state of vbleinage, had a terrible sense and cogency. He said to them, " In the beginning of the world there were no bondmen ; and no man ought to become bond, unless he has done treason to his lord, such treason as Lucifer did to God. But you and John Bail's your lords are neither angels nor spirits ; but both thTpea-° you and they are men, formed in the same simibtude. sants' Why, then, should you be kept under like brute beasts? And why, if you labour, should you have no wages 1" He frequently used rhymes, some of which appear rude and uncouth, but they are admirably adapted to fix themselves in the recobection of those who heard them, and to pass rapidly from mouth to mouth. One couplet of John Ball's wib be remembered and quoted, * Walsingham, 275. The letter is cited by Mr. Skeat and Mr. Wright in their editions of Langland's poem. 286 EDWAED III. AND EICHAED II. chap, as long as the English language exists, and as long as — L there is inequality of rank and wealth in the world — John Ball's two-lined wlieil ^dam delved and Eve span, IAbert d Where was then the gentleman ? Equality. There is good reason to believe that John Bab, though the most effective, was far from being the only preacher of this character. These itinerant orators were sometimes arrested and imprisoned by theb eccle siastical superiors. John Ball is said by Froissart to have been three times incarcerated by the Archbishop of Canterbury. But such treatment only exasperated the fierce tempers of the preachers, and acqubed for them the sympathy and admiration of the multitude. Themis- The masses throughout England had been long the tax-coi- seething in suben discontent and agitation, when the thtimm?-8 misdeeds of tbe Government officials, in enforcing the diate cause harsh taxation of the third year of King Eichard's of the in- J V surrection reign, accelerated the outbreak of open resistance and of 1381. . ?, civn war. The poll- A much less sum than what the Government had ductive. expected, was at first cobected under the pob-tax which the Parliament had voted in 1380, and by which every lay person in the realm, whether free or not, both males and females, of whatever estate or con dition, who was past the age of fifteen years, was to pay three groats, except veritable mendicants, who should, be charged nothing. Persons of substance were to be made to aid those who had less ; but so that the wealthiest man should pay no more than sixty groats for himself and his wife; and that no person should pay less than one groat for himself and his wife* Displeased that this sweeping and severe taxa- * See 3 Eot. Pari., p. 30. EISING IN ESSEX. 287 tion should produce but little, the Government, early chap. in 1381, sent out commissioners to inquire into the — 1- correctness of the returns, and to enforce payment 1381. from all defaulters. These commissioners and theb sioners servants exercised theb authority in the most inquisi- enforce it° torial and offensive manner. If exemption was claimed Conduct of for any female child as under the taxable age, they lecto." required an indecent examination of her person as the test of truth. Many fathers and brothers paid sums unjustly claimed, rather than that a daughter or sister should suffer such outrage. But in other cases the commissioners met with resolute resistance. Neigh bour supported neighbour ; and it is natural to sup pose that many, who were liable to pay, availed them selves of the extreme unpopularity of the tax and refused theb? money. According to the chronicler, Thomas a man of Fobbyngness, in Essex, a baker by trade, j^T' of and called from it Thomas Baker, was the first begins the msurrec- who exhorted the men of his township and tbe neigh- tion. bouring district to band together in open opposition to the officers of the crown.* He and his companions its rapid sent from village to village, and from county to county, site pro*n" calling on the peasantry to rise and aid them in the gress' common cause. The summons was readily answered, and before the end of May, all Essex, Kent, Surrey, and the neighbouring counties, were in commotion. The Government sent the Chief Justice of the A special Common Pleas into Essex, with a special commission, sent^to1™ to punish the rebels. The gentry of the county, who Essex; were on the grand jury, began to find bills of indict ment readby, but the insurgents attacked them, broke up the court, struck off the heads of some of the grand jurors, and compelled the Chief Justice to take an oath Knighton, 2633. 288 EDWAED III. AND EICHAED II. CHAP. IV. of the Kentish Wat Tyler, of Dartf ord, heads the insurrection. The gross outrage that drove him into rebellion. The insur gents oc cupy Maid stone and Canter bury.John Ball, released from prison, becomesone of their leaders. Zeal of the insurgentsin destroy ing title- deeds and court-rolls. that he would come on no more such commissions. A large number of the populace of Kent met at Dart- ford. They had found there a leader in a man, who had signabsed his courage and spirit against official outrage, and who has given his name to the general insurrection of that year. The tax-collectors had come to Dartford, to the house of a man named Walter, or Wat, a tyler by trade, in the man's absence, and demanded payment in respect of a young girl. On the mother stating that the child was not of the prescribed age, the tax- gatherer seized the child indecently, when the father, returning at the cry of alarm, most righteously laid the official ruffian dead at his feet. He may have felt lhat after this there was no mercy or protection in the law for him, and that his only safety was to defy the law. His neighbours thronged round him, and he was soon an insurgent chief, at the head of all the mass of the population of western Kent. Bodies of the Kentish insurgents took possession of the town of Maidstone and the city of Canterbury. They put to death many persons, who had made themselves particularly obnoxious to them, and they extorted ransom for their lives from others. They set free the prisoners whom they found in the jabs there, and among these was John Ball, w7hom the Archbishop of Canterbury had imprisoned a little before the outbreak. John Ball now joined the in surgents, and became one of the most active of their leaders. One of their special objects was to destroy muniments, and title-deeds, and court-rolls, and the other legal instruments, on which the great land owners relied, as proving theb? right to exact rent, and feudal services from the small tenantry and the copyholders. To adopt the words of one of the in- INSUEGENTS MAECH UPON LONDON. 289 dictments afterwards brought against some of the chap. Kentish men for their rebellion, " Their cry was, ill that no tenant should do service or custom, as the}1 have aforetime done."* This shows that among the insurgents there were men of much better position than the mere rabble, which Wat Tyler is commonly said to have commanded. They determined to move upon London ; and, as The insur- they were joined by detachments from the insurgents march upon of the other counties near the metropolis, there can be London- no doubt of their having formed the main body, which the Government had to encounter. But we must not Similar up- lose sight of the fact, that almost all England was at throughout the same time convulsed with similar uprisings : and Ensland- these uprisings were so nearly simultaneous, that some writers have thought that they must have been instigated and guided by secret chiefs of higher rank than the ostensible leaders of the populace. The The Duke young King's uncle, John of Gaunt, the Duke of ^J^d" Lancaster, was charged by some of his contemporaries af.thf in" ' , . . stigator of as the promoter of the insurrection; and there certainly the rebels. appear, towards the latter part of the time during which it existed, to have been rumours and tales circulated among some of the peasantry, that the Duke had set all his serfs free, and was to be made king.f But it is clear that in its early and most The charge formidable stage, the Duke was an especial object of the insurgents' hatred. They burned his palace in London; and one of theb? cries was that no King John * See the indictment against WiUiam Tolme and others (4 & 5 Eic. 2) published and commented on by Mr. Flaherty in the ArchEeologia Cantiana. t See John Cote's confession, cited and commented on by Mr. Flaherty in the ArchEeologia Cantiana, vol. iv. The date of this confession is Oct.- 7, 1381, and it speaks, or pretends to speak, of things that occurred on the 30th of the previous September. King Eichard ha!^t the 3rd of July issued a proclamation exculpating the Duke " from thett%and defamations of the insurgents." vm, rr. \ U 290 EDWAED in. AND EICHAED II. CHAP. IV. (meaning the Duke) should reign in England. The truth seems to be, that like causes produced bke effects throughout the country, without any formal organization. When the news, that the commons of one district were up, reached another district, the commons of that other rose also ; and such tidings pass even orally from man to man through a country in times of excitement, with marvebous rapidity. The Government had no regular troops, that could be moved from place to place to put down the bands of insurgents while yet in process of formation ; and each of the nobles and gentry, in his fear that his own castle or manor-house would be attacked, kept at home, with all the retainers that he could muster for his own protection. Of the extent of the insurrection there can be no thTbTsur-11 doubt. There is clear documentary proof that it rection is embraced Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Hampshire, Wbtshire, have raged. Dorsetshire, Devonshire, Cornwall, Somersetshire, Gloucestershire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hert fordshire, Middlesex, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Hunting donshire, Northamptonshire, Lincolnshbe, and at least southern Yorkshire.* The Kentish, Essex, and Surrey insurgents ad vanced on the metropobs, under Wat Tyler. They mustered at Blackheath on the 11th of June, and theb numbers are said to have amounted to 100,000. Counties The muster of insur gents at Black-heath. * A statute passed in the Parliament held in 1383 provides for the acquittal of aU who had been among the late insurgents, but who could prove that they joined the insurgents under compulsion. It contains also various directions as to the mode of proof of such compulsion. It is directed, in its heading, to the Sheriffs of London and Middlesex, who are strictly commanded to see it and other statutes on the subject proclaimed and observed. At the foot of the statute is a memorandum that a similar mandate was sent to the Sheriffs of each of the other counties which I have mentioned in the text. These counties had evidently all been scenes of insurrection. INSUEGENTS ENTEE LONDON. 291 The young King Eichard was in the Tower of London, ch&p. protected by a very slender guard of knights and men- 1 at-arms. With the King were his Chancellor, Simon weak state of Sudbury, Archbishop of Canterbury ; his Treasurer, ^0*^ Sb Eobert Hales, and others of his councibors and PartJin nobles. Some messages passed between the insurgents and the royal party, and it appears that some of Richard's attendants advised concibatory measures, but the Chancellor and the Treasurer insisted that no concessions should be made to " shoeless ribalds," as they contemptuously termed Wat Tyler's followers. The insurgents now advanced and occupied Southwark ; The insur- but London Bridge was the only means of passing the 1™*^°^. Thames ; and the Mayor of London, Sir William Wal- wark- worth, a bold and energetic royalist, counsebed the citizens to close the bridge, and the city gates, and to keep the rebels out of London. But Walworth's zeal was not shared by all the Londoners. Some of them Sympa- sympathised and co-operated with Tyler. Walworth's the'city.11 proposed measures were thwarted and baffled. The Theinsur- insurgents obtained entrance into the city, and found London!1 e numerous recruits and guides within its walls.* Sir No nan-a- James Mackintosh has web reminded us that the on Tyler's current narrative of the events that fobowed, is drawn from chroniclers only who were zealous on the royal side. The insurgents and their favourers produced no chronicler. It appears that the young King, who, throughout these terrible scenes, " showed sense and * See the statute 6 Eic. 2, c. xiii., in which the King gives a pardon to his subjects after the late insurrection, but with certain exceptions. The statute recites the special misconduct of three of the citizens of London. One of them hindered the mayor from closing the city against the rebels, the other two were the primary and principal advisers of the traitors to enter the city, and leaders of the traitors when within the city. Very many of the journeymen in the city, towards whom the craft-guilds had assumed the condition of an oppressive aristocracy, must have joined Wat Tyler ; and many more must have been unwilling to act against him. U 2 side. 292 EDWAED III. AND EICHAED II. CHAP. IV. Sense and spirit shownby the youngKing. Conference at Mile End. Modera tion of the demands of Tyler and his party. The Eoyal consentpromised, and charters prepared. committed by other bodies of the insur gents. spirit far beyond his years, rode forth from the town with a few attendants to Mile-End, where he had by proclamation summoned tbe insurgents to meet him, and to make known their requbements. Their de mands were four. First, that slavery should be abolished ; secondly, that the rent of all land should be reduced to fourpence the acre ; thirdly, that there should be free liberty of buying and selling in all fairs and markets ; and, fourthly, that the King should grant a general -pardon for all offences. Modern adepts in political economy may smile at the clause about the uniform reduction of rent, as unreasonable and impracticable ; but it was no worse than the arbi trary rates of pay for labour, which the rich of that age had been sedulously endeavouring to establish. This clause is another proof of the co-operation of the small tenants in the movements of 1381. There is certainly nothing deserving censure, as unphbosophical or as violent, in the other three requisitions. The King promised his consent to these terms ; and clerks were forthwith set actively at work to engross a royal charter to this effect for every parish and township, whose in-' habitants had taken part in the rising. But in the course of the same day, scenes of far more violent and savage character were taking place in other parts of the metropolis. Tbe worst and most ferocious of the insurgents, and the rabble of outcasts and malefactors,- who are always to be found in a large city, and who always join those who (rightfuby or wrongfully) op pose the constituted authorities, committed frightful outrages against person and property, putting to death, with especial malignity and cruelty, the Archbishop and the Treasurer, who had ridiculed them as " shoe less ribalds " in the King's Council the day before. On the following day, the King, accompanied by WAT TYLEE KILLED IN SMITHEIELD. 293 Sir Wbbam Walworth and others, rode to Smithfield, chap. where he again met the chiefs of the insurrection. A ill conference followed ; and during that conference Tyler, The King who was in advance of his party, was stabbed and meet in" killed by Sir Wibiam Walworth, and another of the SmitMeId- ' Tyler killed King's fobowers, named Eobert Standish. Thus much during the is certain. How far the chronicler's statements about conference- Tyler having provoked his death by his insolent, threatening demeanour towards his sovereign, may be trusted, is by no means equaby clear. For the instant, Gallantry the blows that destroyed Tyler, placed young King sence*.? Eichard in the most imminent peril. Hundreds of SiTyoung insurgents . bent their bows to avenge their leader's Kins- fab ; but, ere an arrow was sped, the young King gave his horse the spur, and riding up weaponless to the bristling ranks of the archers, he cabed out to them, " What do ye, my lieges ? Tyler was a traitor. Fobow me, I will be your leader." Struck with admi- The insur- ration at their young sovereign's courage and ready fnddS-6 address, the insurgents lowrered their weapons, and perse' fobowed him into the fields near Islington, where a larce force of a thousand men-at-arms had been col- lected by the vigbant exertions of Sir William Wal worth and Sir Eobert Knollys. Disordered and discouraged, the insurgents implored the King's mercy. Eichard promised it to them, and bade them depart to their homes. He also honourably interposed his royal authority to check the savage zeal of some of his own adherents, who were anxious to charge and slaughter the peasants in their retreat. The death of Wat Tyler, and the deliverance of T.^ flood- • t t t • t t t tide of re- London from the insurrectionary bands, which had beiiion fails occupied it, undoubtedly turned the tide of the revo lutionary movement. The Government had now a force at its command in the capital, with which it was at once. 294 EDWAED III. AND EIOHAED II. CHAP. IV. The effect of this success of the party of order. Continued struggles of the in surgents. Hardyng'sattempt at a new ri sing. free to act. It had recovered confidence in itself ; and loyal men were once more ready to serve it with confidence and alacrity. The murders and robberies, which had been committed by the worst part of Tyler's fobowers, must have alienated many, who'' had previously sympathised with the insurgents, and have disposed all, who valued security of person and of property, to take arms on the King's side in re storing order. There must have been, also, among the rebels, the natural speedy reaction from the exces sive zeal and daring created by temporary success, to extreme discouragement, and to mutual distrust and disunion. But there were many strong and stubborn hearts among them ; and it is erroneous to speak, as many modern historians have spoken, of the insurrection as having subsided almost instantane ously after Wat Tyler's death. Even in Kent, where the dispersion of Tyler's forces on the fall of theb chief, would have been felt most, the contest with the Government was not abandoned for several months. Wat Tyler was killed on the 15th of June. We have documentary proof that an insurgent force occupied Canterbury as late as the beginning of July, and that the leader of that force required the baihffs of the city to make a levy of the whole commonalty of the place to resist the King's officers in Kent.* At the same time, a band was still in arms near Wye, under one Bertram de Wbmyngtone, who is described as of the degree of Esquire. f And, as late as the 30th of September, a Kentish man named Thomas Hardyng, and others, were endeavouring to organise a new general rising, with the design of compelling the * See the indictment against John Gybonn, quoted and commented on by Mr. Flaherty, ut supra. f See the indictment against De Wylmyngton and others, ibid. A NEW INSUEEECTION ATTEMPTED. 295 King to confirm the charters which he had granted chap. at Mile-End in June. This attempt was frustra- 1 ted by Thomas Bordefeld, one of the conspbators, who gave information to the King's officers, in con sequence of which Hardyng and many others were suddenly arrested, and (in the words of King Eichard's pardon, granted to the informer), " The false proposal of the said company was totally destroyed." Hardyng and eight of his confederates were tried and convicted of treason in October. They were drawn, disem bowelled and hanged, and the head of Hardyng, " for that he was the principal raiser and first inspirer of the treasons," was fixed on the Palace Gate at West minster. Hardyng's attempt at a new rising is the latest act recorded of the Kentish malcontents.* It is certain that the insurrection was thoroughly suppressed throughout England, by the time when the Parbament met in November ; but bttle more is known of how long the commotion lasted in the several counties, or of the means by which it was put down.")" It is too certain, from the usual course of human nature, that violent and cruel reprisals were taken by the lately panic-stricken lords and land owners, when they found theb refractory vassals once more in theb" power. There is, indeed, proof that such was the case, in the Statute of Indemnity which was passed in their behalf.!: We know that in Norfolk and Suffolk the insurrection was sharply and speedby quelled by the martial energy of Henry Spenser, the young Bishop of Norwich. * See the record of the proceedings in the case of Hardyng ajid others, in Mr. Flaherty's paper, ut supra. f Two popular leaders, John Hanchach, in Cambridgeshire, and Eobert Phippe, in Huntingdonshire, were beheaded " hastily," and without process of law. We know this from the petition of the Commons for their attainder. See 3 Eot. Pari. 175. X Stat. 5 Eic. 2, stat. 1, u. vi., mentioned more fully infra. 296 EDWAED ni. AND EICHAED II. CHAP. IV. The insur rectionin Norfolk stampedout by the militantBishop of Norwich. Measures taken by the Go vernment. When the risings began in Norfolk, Bishop Spenser had with him only a few men-at-arms and archers. Instead of shutting himself up in his palace with these, he forthwith marched to the place where a band of the peasants was collected, dispersed them, and arrested theb? chief. Some of the knights and gentry of the county then joined the Bishop. He next attacked a large mob of insurgents, led by a dyer of Norwich. He, and his well-armed soldiers, slaughtered many of them, and made a prisoner of their leader. The Bishop then moved his flying column through Norfolk and the adjacent districts, attacking promptly, and smiting mercilessly every assemblage of the peasants, that he could discover. He rode in full armour at the head of his troopers, and, armed with a two-handed sword, he was the foremost in every encounter. After the battle, he assumed the functions of a judge ; he solemnly tried his prisoners for treason, and sentenced them to death. He- then returned to his clerical duties, and heard theb? confessions, and gave them absolution before they were executed. The ecclesias tical chroniclers record these things of him with admi ration ; but he must have left among the peasant- relatives of those whom he slew, recobections and feelings by no means favourable to prelacy. The measures taken by the young Kmg and his ministers, after the fab of Wat Tyler, on the 15th of June, are fully recorded. The rulers evidently con sidered that theb? triumph was secure. On the very day on which Tyler was killed, and his followers were dispersed, royal orders were sent to the judges to adjourn the courts, it being probably at once determined to send the judges with special commis sions, to try those who had taken part in the risings.* * Eot. Claus. 4 Eic. 2, m. 1, cited by Mr. Flaherty in Archaeologia Cantiana, CHAETEES ANNULLED BY THE KING. 297 The King next marched into Essex, which, after Kent, chap. had been the most formidable stronghold of rebellion, IY" and, on the 23rd of June, he issued a proclamation The King from Waltham, denying assertions which had been mtoEssex. made by the rebels, that they had been acting according to the royal will, and by the King's directions.* On the 30th of June, he issued, from Havering-atte-Bower, a proclamation, requiring that all tenants, whether free or bond, should render all customary services as before the late troubles, without contradiction, murmur, • resistance, or difficulty, f On the 2nd of August, King Eichard, being then at Chelmsford, issued another proclamation, in which he formally annulled the charters which he had granted at Mile-End, alleging that it did not become his royal dignity to keep his word in such a case.!: While the King, with the force in immediate attendance on him, was in Essex, a general muster of tbe military tenants of the Crown was held at Blackheath. Special com missions for the trial of traitors, murderers, and rioters, were promptly issued ; and as soon as possible after armed resistance was quelled in each district, the King's judges, and the other special commissioners associated with them, began their work of retribution and vengeance. According to one writer, 1500 per sons were condemned and executed. Another chroni- chief cler says of the Chief Justice Tresbian, who presided TresiiTan over the trials in the eastern counties, where the the Pr°to" type ot number of prisoners was very large, that the Chief Jeffreys. Justice "showed mercy to none, and made great havock." Some of the condemned suffered beheading, as a more summary mode of execution for large numbers * Eot. Pat. 5 Eic. 2, p. 1, m. 35, dorso, also cited in ArchEeologia Cantiana. t Eot. Claus. 5 Eic. 2, m. 42, dorso, cited in ArchEeol. Cant. X Eot. Pat., 5 Eic. 2, p. 1, m. 33, cited like the last. 298 EDWAED III. AND EICHAED II. CHAP. IV. Number of tbe suf ferers. Parliamentat West minster,November, 1381. Royal • Speech. The Parlia ment more zealous than the Kingagainstthe vil leins. General charter of pardon to the insur gents. Bold and preciseaddress of the Com mons on than hanging. Others were gibbeted along the high ways ; the bodies being, in some instances, hanged in chains, lest their friends should remove these ghastly memorials of the vengeance of the law. John Ball was one of the prisoners. He was drawn, hanged, and quartered as a traitor. Parliament was convened late in the year, and was opened by a speech on the King's behalf by the Lord Treasurer. It recommended an inquiry into the causes of the late tumults, and informed the Lords and Com mons that the King had revoked the charters of manu mission which had been granted by him, inasmuch as he was aware that he could not grant such charters according to law. The Lords and Commons gave their emphatic assent to this proposition, stating that their consent was necessary for the enfranchisement of their villeins, which consent they never would give, no not even to save themselves from instant destruction* They absolutely refused to act on another very import ant part of the royal speech, suggesting that the villeins should be legally enfranchised by a Statute of Parlia ment, and informing them, that the King would give his assent to such a measure. They showed, however, some humanity, by an address to the King, requesting his pardon for the late insurgents. This was granted, and in the next session confirmed in the form of a Statute. To the part of the royal speech, which recom mended inquby as to the origin of the late discontents and treasons, the Commons replied by an address of the most explicit and free-spoken character. They * The royal and parliamentary view of the law was correct; and its assertion was of some constitutional importance. The King had no more lawful authority to take a man's villein from him than to take an acre of his farm, or any other part of his property. See HaUam's observations, vol. iii. M. A., p. 180. BOLD ADDEESS OF THE COMMONS. 299 pointed out the abuses in the King's household, and chap. the corruption and evil practices of those, who were i^i about the King's person. They spoke of the miscon- the mis- duct of the judges, and of the defects in the adminis- ^™" tration of justice, which were such " that right and ^^e law had come to nothing." They complained of the insurrec- •n 1 • ¦ p ^ t t tion. pblagmg and ruining ol the poor commons by the subsidies, and tabages raised upon them, and by the oppressive practices of the purveyors of the household and other officials. They denounced the waste and misuse of the great sums granted and levied for the defence of the kingdom, while the people were plun dered and wasted by the enemy year after year, by sea and by land. They told the King that the national Demand of calamities were unendurable, and said in plain words, Teiorm- " these injuries lately done to the poorer commons more than they ever suffered before, caused them to rise and to commit the mischief done in the late riots, and there is stib cause to fear further evils, if sufficient and timely remedy be not provided against the wrongs and oppressions aforesaid." They ended a prayer for measures of reform in the administration, for the re moval of evil counsebors and ministers, and the aboli tion of the bad practices whereof complaint had been made, with an emphatic request — "And for God's sake, let it not be forgotten that there be found about the King and of his council the best lords and knights that can be found in the kingdom." The King's government yielded so far to theb? de- Commis- mands that commissioners were appointed to inquire reform* into and reform the Eoyal Household, and some other grants. departments. The ministers then asked for a subsidy, Subsidy which the Commons at first absolutely refused to ^kfie4tand grant, alleging that a new tax would be fobowed by a refused- new insurrection. But the Crown had on this occa- 300 EDWAED III. AND EICHAED II. CHAP. IV. The Mem bers of Par liament have them selves need of a bill of Indemnityfor occur rences during the late insur rection. The grant of the subsidy made the price of the grant of the pardon. Continued vain legis lation against the labourers. sion a pressure on the Parliament, which it effectively exercised. It has been mentioned that a charter of general pardon for those who had sided with the rebels had been granted, but there was need also of an in demnity for those who had acted against them. Many of these (including probably most of the knights of the shire who were returned to the Parliament of Novem ber, 1381,) had "taken revenge ofthe rebels" without due process of law, and in manner other than requbed or authorised by the laws and usages of the realm.* And even men, who had not been guilty of any cruel or excessive violence, but had only armed for the de fence of themselves and their families, and for the pre servation of pubbc order, might dread being brought to trial for abeged breaches of the law, before such a judge as Tresbian. They were told that when they granted the subsidy, the King would grant the pardon. After some demurrer they gave way, and renewed the tax on wool and leather for five years. In return, the King's pardon was granted ; and it was enacted that the lords, gentry, and others, who had repressed, and who bad taken revenge of the King's rebels in the late tumult and insurrection, should not be called in question or proceeded against in any way, for aught done by them while so repressing and punishing the insurgent villeins and other traitors. This is nearlyt the last express mention in our Statute book, and other records of the Peasant War of 1381, of the storm that threatened to " sweep away all bulwarks * See the statute 5 Eic. 2, stat. 1, c. 6, entitled " The King's pardon to those that repressed or took revenge of his rebels." It recites that " Plusurs Seignurs et gentils firent diverz punissementz sur les ditz villeins et autres traitours sanz due proces de loye, et autrement qe les lois et usages eie la terre demandent." ' f See, in 3 Eot. Pari. 175, the attainder of Wat Tyler, Jack Straw; John Hanchach, and Eobert Phippe, as four captains in the attempt to destroy the King " and all the gentlemen of the Eealm." This attainder was iu 1383. THE VILLEINS AND EEEE LABOUR. 301 of civbized and regular society." But there is clear proof chap. of the continuance of those disturbed and angry re- L lations between the landowners and the labourers, which had begun after the Black Death in 1349, and which so materially caused the insurrection thirty-two years afterwards. The vbleins and the free-labourers, though defeated in the field, deprived of theb leaders, and now nominally submissive, continued to evade the labour-laws. They wandered more and more from theb old dwebing-places ; and they were persistent in not working except for sums, which the employers cabed " outrageous and excessive hbe," but which the labourers themselves would probably have termed " fab day's wages for a fair day's work." At the end The Labour of seven years after the suppression of the insurrec- Law of tion, the landowners in Parliament passed another 1388- statute (the 12 Eichard II. c. vii,) which repeats in its recitals the old complaints of tbe employers about the conduct of servants and labourers, and which enacts a tariff of wages for servants in husbandry. It then. orders that every other labourer and servant shall have wages according to his degree, and less in the country where less was wont to be given. The Act forbids the labourer, whether man or woman, at the end of his or her term, quitting the place where he or she is dwebing, except by written magisterial leave. The labourer, who wanders without such certificate, is to be put in the stocks and imprisoned, untd he finds surety to return to his service, or to serve and labour in the town whence he came. It seems that the towns continued naturally to attract the rural poor, who left theb dwebing-places in search of higher wages, and in order to escape the dominion of their feudal lords. The new statute sought to check this, by ordaining that " he or she " which bad laboured at the plough or cart, 302 EDWAED III. AND EICHAED II. chap, or other service of husbandry, tbl the age of twelve, ill should continue to be a labourer in husbandry, and should not be apprenticed or put to any mystery or handicraft. Legislative This statute contains the first legislative rules as beween°n to relieving the impotent poor, as distinguished from the impo- men(iiCants who are able to work. It orders that the tent and . 1 . the Valiant able-bodied mendicant shab be punished in the same reTiefT way as the labourer who quits his dwebing-place without legal permission. It orders that beggars, unable to labour, shall abide in the places where they are at the time of the proclamation of the statute, and if the people of those places wbl not or cannot relieve them, they are to draw themselves to other towns within that hundred, rape, or wapentake, or to the township where they were born, and there to abide continuaby during their bves. It orders also that no servant or labourer in hus bandry shall wear any sword, buckler, or dagger. It commands that the Statutes of Labourers shall be enforced within cities and boroughs. Further This Act was no more effective in providing cheap statutes labour, than the preceding legislation on the subject each of ka(j \,eejl. This is proved by a statute of the next which x ^ proves the reign (7 Hen. IV., c. 1 7,) which recites : " the great ofWpre^ scarcity of labourers and other servants of husbandry, so that the gentlemen and other people of the realm be greatly impoverished." It confirms and en deavours to enforce the " good statutes aforemade" of the 25 Edward IIL, and 12 Eichard II. ; and it enacts stbl more oppressive restrictions against the poor putting their children apprentices to handi crafts, or other occupations in towns. All these, and the similar legislative attempts of the kept°beiow two next reigns to keep the rate of wages below the GEADUAL EXTINCTION OE VILLEINAGE. 303 natural bmit, proved unsuccessful. The very men chap. who made those laws, themselves habitually broke . 1 them. The employers, when they met in Parliament, their gladly joined in restrictive legislation as to the labourers' rate. wages ; but each of them, when he went home, and had to hire labour, found himself obliged to pay sums in excess of the regulation price. This is proved by the 4th of Henry V. c. 4, which repeals the penalties imposed by the old Acts on the givers, as web as on the receivers of wages above the statutory rates, and ordains that " the pains contained in the old statutes shall run only against tbe takers." It is clear that ultimately the labouring classes were 'success of successful in theb long struggle against the attempts tourers m of their masters, the law-makers, to restrict the rate of *e.;r ' _ , ' strike. wages by legislation. We have good means for ascer- Great im- taining the sums paid to labourers in the reign of ^^™* Henry VL, that is about a century after the Black ^™-°f Death, and for ascertaining also the price of wheat at bourers. the same period.* The English labourer's wages in Henry VI.'s reign, commanded twice the amount of the necessaries of life that could have been obtained for the wages paid in the time of Edward III. I believe that the recent historian of the English Poor-Laws is right in connecting this change with the " spread of freedom, the increase of intebigence, and improvement in the mode of living of the great mass of the people."! Vbleinage continued to die out. It is true that the Continued slaveholders, after their jeopardy and victory in 1381, fxtinction long regarded theb English helots with the same iea- of ^^m- o o o j age not- lous and vindictive feelings, which made them tell the withstand- King, at the close of the insurrection, that they never jealous m- would consent to the enfranchisement of the viheins of m11 of the * See Malthus, as cited in note at p. 279, supra ; and Sir George Nichou's History of the English Poor Law, vol. i. p. 82. | Sir Henry Nicholls, vol. i. p. 82. 304 EDWAED III. AND EICH AED II. chap, the realm, not even to save themselves from destruction.* IV" The most shameful proof of this spirit, on the part of Lords the landowners, is their address in Parliament to the thi villeins King, in 1391, praying him to ordain and command intunec- "that no bondwoman, or bondman, shall place her tion. or h-[s children at school (as has been done), so as to advance the children in the world, by theb going into the Church. And this they pray for the maintenance and preservation of the honour of ab freemen of the realm/'f It is greatly to the honour of Eichard II. Manumis- that he refused to assent to this petition. But though purehate- this spirit long existed, the spirit of avarice existed able- also, and made needy and extravagant lords stib glad to raise money by selling enfranchisement ; and the still taught Church continued to teach that the setting free of cierg^as a bondmen was a duty of Christian charity.}: The Par- christian bamentary petition, which has just been quoted, proves that many of the clergy of the time had themselves * See p. 598, supra. t See 3 Eot. Pari., p. 294. The Commons petition, first, that no villein of a religious house or person may hold land [they give a reason that by this means the spiritual person is the real holder] ; the petition proceeds : — " Et auxi de ordainer et comander que nuU neif ou vilein mette ses enfants, de cy en avant, a Escoles, pur eux avancer par clergie ; et ce en mainte nance et salvation de rhoneur de toutz Frankes du Eoiaulme." The statutes of some of the colleges founded at the close of the fourteenth and in the first part of the fifteenth century, expressly provide that no villein is to be received as a member. X In a review of Mr. Longman's Edward III., Dr. Freeman, when speak ing of the bitter feeling of the landowners towards the labourers, says :— " One might almost have expected that the emancipation of villeins would have been forbidden by law, just as in old Eome restrictions were put on the emancipation of slaves. But happUy the church taught that to set a bondman free was a pious and charitable deed, and men could hardly be ordered by Act of Parliament to abstain from adding to the number of their good works." — Fortnightly Beriew, May, 18G9. I have found in the " Liber Albus " of the City of London, edited by Mr. Eiley, in the Eolls Collection, a strong proof of the ascendancy of a similar spirit in the ruling body of the city seven years after Sir William Walworth killed Wat Tyler. It is an ordinance made in the eleventh year of Eichard II. 's reign by Nicholas Exton, the mayor, the aldermen, and the common council, which enacts that bondmen are not to be enrolled as NEW MODES OE CULTIVATION. 305 risen from the ranks of servitude : and the zeal of such chap. preachers and confessors in behalf of their fellow-crea- !_ tures in slavery must have been especially fervent, Villeinage Escapes continued to be frequent ; and, when the civil diminished wars of York and Lancaster broke out, when troops vfara ofthe were raised and warfare carried on for years in nearly Koses- every part of England, it must have become almost im possible to detain compulsorily an able-bodied peasant on his lord's manor. Proofs may be found of the ex istence of villeinage in the Tudor times, and even as late as James L's reign. But it had become an excep tional and antiquated institution in England before the end of the fifteenth century. The success of the labourers of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in obtaining fair wages, and ulti mately high wages, increased very much the number of labourers, who were dependent on wages only, and unconnected with the land, compared with the number of those, who had some interest in the soil of the manor in which they dwelt. This diminution of the number Tne Eng- of English peasants having some interest in land, was try become caused also by the change in the mode of managing their ™™ ded estates, which many landowners began to adopt. Being ^^e^ unable to procure labour at as low a rate as they desired, soil, and they cast about for schemes to lessen the number of wages hands employed on their estates. This was effected °nly; by throwing more and more of theb lands into sheep- effect of pastures, as the tending of flocks required much fewer ofluitiva6-8 servants than were needed for the operations of tillage. *^f bad^ Fields inclosed by fences to keep in the flocks, now land- J owners. apprentices, and are not to enjoy the liberties of the city ; and also that no one born of a bondman shall exercise a judicial office within the city. The very aristocratic spirit which then prevailed among the London local lawgivers may be judged of from the ordinance which follows next in order in the Liber Albus. It commands that " Dogs are not to wander about the city, the dogs qf the gentry excepted." — Liber Albus, pp. 452, 453. vol. it. x 306 EIOHAED II. proprietors. chap, began to appear over many parts of the estates. Those IY- lands, also, which the lords still kept under the plough, inclosures were farmed by them on new and improved plans ; and it was convenient to fence them in from the open grounds, over which the tenants of the manor exer cised commonable rights, and which they tbled on the The Lords old open, or champion system of cultivation. In pro- have an in- , . , , , p t • • t terest in portion as the amount oi personal services in agncul- ofsmaiT11 *ure rendered to a lord by his villein tenants, or ten ants in vibeinage, became smab and insignificant, the lord ceased to have an interest in keeping a number of such persons on the manor. He looked to moneyr rents ; and it was more convenient for him to draw them from a moderate number of substantial tenants, each occupying a considerable quantity of land, than. from a very great number of very poor peasants, each holding a little hovel and smab strip of ground, but each having also commonable rights over the " champion " lands of the manor, which interfered extremely with the lord's improvements. The increase of sheep-pasturage, the inclosure and appropriation, by the lords, of lands formerly common able, and the extirpation of small peasant proprietors, were grievances practised by the great landowners on a gigantic scale during the reigns of the Tudor dynasty. But they had all begun earlier ; and theb origin may all be traced to the events in the domestic history of England during the thirty-two years to which this chapter has been chiefly devoted. The Black Death, the labour-laws passed by the Parliaments of Edward III. and Eichard II. , the obstinate struggles of the labouring- classes to resist those laws, the rapid diminution of vbleinage, the transformation of the mass of the Eng lish rural labourers, from peasants interested in land to workmen for wages wholly without interest in the LASTING EFFECT -OE SOCIAL CHANGES. 307 land, are events that for 500 years have gravely chap. affected, and stbl deeply influence, our country, and JIl the various classes of its inhabitants.* * Much valuable information on these subjects will be found in a work lately published by Professor Erwin Nasse, of Bonn, on the system of land cultivation in the middle ages, and on the inclosures of land in England during the sixteenth century. I do not, however, think that he attaches sufficient importance to the events of the reigns of Edward III. and Eichard II. I have rather adopted the opinions expressed by Mr. Seebohm in his papers on the Black Death already referred to in this chapter. Perhaps I ought to have explained that in describing the disappearance of small peasant proprietors of land, or of interests in land, as having com menced in the fourteenth century, I do not at aU imply that there was at that time any material decrease in the numbers of another class of small landowners, who were beneath the nobility and gentry, though above the labouring classes. I mean the yeomanry, whose social position and characteristics I have sketched in the second chapter of this volume. Chief Justice Fortescue's well-known treatise on the Praises of the Laws of England proves how numerous the yeomen of England (both freeholders and leaseholders) continued to be as late as Henry VI.'s reign. See Amos' Fortescue, p. 104. CHAPTEE V. John Wyclif — His enduring influence on after ages — His high position as a Schoolman at Oxford, then the highest Theological University — Alarm of the Papacy at Wyclif 's power, and his doctrines — The Pope orders pro ceedings against him — Wyclif summoned before the Pope's delegates at Lambeth — The proceedings broken off by a tumult of the Londoners— Wyclif 's Poor Priests — His regard to Preaching — His translation of the Bible — Its great effect on the community — His advice as to the study of Scripture — He attacks the doctrine of Transubstantiation — He is oensured by the University of Oxford — His Confession of Faith — Archbishop Court enay takes proceedings to check heresy — CouncU at the Black Friars Chapter House — Condemnation of tenets imputed to Wyclif— Proceedings at Oxford — Wyclif retires to Lutterworth — His unabated industry as a writer and preacher — He advises the total confiscation of Church pro perty — The Bishop of Norwich's crusade — Wyclif cited before the Pope — His answer — His death — His character — His influence over Europe, especiaUy over England, wide-spread and enduring. CHAP. V. Wyclif, and his permanent influence on English history. The name of John Wyclif has already frequently occurred in connection with several of the events that have been narrated in the two last chapters.* There are, however, many parts of the career of the great Eeformer yet to be considered ; and they are so easby distinguishable from the mass of the history of the reign of Eichard IL, that it will be best to devote a distinct chapter to them. The importance of what Wyclif did, and preached, and wrote, can hardly be exaggerated. His influence is felt not only among all the English race, but among * See at p. 191, supra, Wyclif 's share in the attack made on Edward III.'s clerical ministry in 1371 ; at p. 204, Bishop Courtenay 's counter-attack on Wyclif. See also p. 283, supra, as to the influence of Wyclif on the insur rection of 1381. THE POPE'S ALAEM AT WTOLIE'S INFLUENCE. 309 all mankind, wherever the Bible is read, and spiritual chap. bberty is valued. 1 We have seen the high position, both intellectual WycUfs and official, assumed by Wyclif at Oxford.* It is to schoiastic be remembered that Oxford, during the fourteenth 0e^°0™at century, was by far the greatest theological and philo- Oxford, sophical university in Europe, f The Pope, and the par- *^enf ^0. tisans of the Pope, must have watched with anxiety logical Uni- . /-\ p -i j? versity in and alarm the growing predominance at Oxford of a Europe. lecturer and a writer, who taught that Popes may err, ^vlvL have erred, and do err ; that the Bishop of Eome is no p^y »* head of Holy Church ; that many of his bulls are bias- ascendency phemous instruments of fraud and robbery; J that a doctrines1.8 sentence of excommunication by Prelates or by Pope is a nullity, unless the condemned man has first excommunicated himself by sin ; § that Papal indul- * P. 191, supra. Wyclif appears to have chiefly attracted public attention by the boldness and aUeged heterodoxy of his theological opinions, and by his zeal in lecturing anct preaching, during the last twenty-one years of his life, from the time of his taking his degree as Doctor of Divinity in 1363 to his death in 1384. See Mr. Shirley's Introduction to Fasciculi Zizaniorum, p. xv. f Paris had rapidly declined. " Even Germany and Bohemia, which had contributed many illustrious pupils to Paris, began to wish for national universities of their own. In 1348 the University of Prague was founded in connexion with Oxford ; in 1365 that of Vienna, 'the eldest daughter of Paris ;' in 1362 and 1363 faculties of theology were given to Bologna and Padua, where law alone had hitherto been studied. To Paris, therefore, little more than France was left, at a time when France was torn by dis sension and humUiated by defeat. To Oxford passed what remained of her intellectual empire. Duns Scotus, Ockham, Bradwardine, and Wyclif were the four great Schoolmen of the fourteenth century." — Shirley, 1. t " The proud priest of Eome setteth images of Peter and Paul on his lead, and would have Christian men believe that all, which the bulls, thus sealed, speak, is done by their authority, and that of Christ. And thus, as far as he may, he maketh that which is false, to be the work of Peter and Paul and Christ, and in this would make them false. And by means of this blasphemy he robbeth Christendom of faith, of good life, and worldly goods."— From Wyclif 's MS. " Sentence of the curse expounded," cited in Vaughan's Life of Wyclif, vol. ii. p. 306. There are other similar passages quoted there. See also 246 and 247, supra. § " Non est possibile hominem excommunicari ad sui damnum, nisi excom- 310 EICHAED II. chap, gences and pardons for sins are valueless and perni- 1 cious to those who receive them, and foul acts of simony on the part of those who for money grant them ; * that the Scriptures are the rule of faith; and that no doctrine should "be admitted which cannot be proved out ofthe Scriptures;")" that all men, including laymen and unlearned men, ought to read dibgently Holy Writ ; and that the Gospel ought to be placed before the people in then- mother tongue, j Po1^"' We find' accorclhigly, tiiat P°Pe Gregory XL, in Gregory xi. May, 1377, issued his Bulls, complaining grievously ceeding^to' of tlie hikewarmness and negligence of English Pre- . againstn lates' and of the University of Oxford, in having suffered Wyclif. John Wyclif to set up and expound, and to preach doctrines subversive of the Church, and in having municetur primo et principaliter a semet ipso," et sequent. — Fascic. Zizan., pp. 250, 251. * " Eich men trusten to flee to heaven thereby withouten pain, and therefore dreaden sin the less : and of very contrition and leaving of sin and of doing alms to needy men is little spoken of. Agen, this feyned pardon is a sotU merchandize of Antichrists clerks to magnifien their feyned power and to gether worldly goods, and to make men drede not sin, but sikenly to waUow therein as hoggis."— Wyclif 's MS. " Of Prelates," cited in prefatory memoir in Baber's edition of Wyclif's New Testament, p. xxxiii. " As for pardons, if they be aught worth, they must be free j and to take money for them is to sell the goods of grace, and therefore simony."— Same tract, cited in Vaughan, vol. ii. p. 303. t The foUowing passages are cited in Dr. Baber's prefatory memoir, p. xxix. : — " Scriptura est lex Christi, et fidei ecclesiae." — Lib. de vii. Morta- libus Peccatis. " Non oportet admittere scientiam vel conclusionem, quse non habet testimonium e Scriptura." — De veritate Scripturis. " Though we had a hundred Popes, and al the Friars in the world were turned into Car dinals, yet should we trow more the law of the gospel than al this multi tude." — De Blasphemia. X " As secular men ought to know the faith, so it is to be taught them in whatever language is best known to them." " Prelates and the Pope and Friars and other means may prove ' defective ; accordingly Christ and his Apostles converted the world by making known to them the truths of Scripture in a language familiar to the people. Why then should not the Disciples of Christ at the present day take freely from the same loaf and distribute to the people."— j-Tracts quoted in Lewis's Life of Wyclif, pp. 86, 87, and in that by Le Bas, pp. 238, 239. THE POPE'S PEOCEEDINGS AGAINST WYCLIF. 31 1 thus allowed tares to spring up and ripen, without chap. making an attempt to root them out. The Pope _ does not refer to the proceedings (narrated in a pre vious chapter of this volume,'*) which had been taken against Wyclif in the February of that year, at the instigation of Courtenay, the Bishop of London, and which had terminated abruptly, in consequence of the personal altercation between that Prelate and the Duke of Lancaster, who then stood by Wyclif as his patron. Those proceedings were, in reality, measures taken in a political, not in a theological conflict, and they had been allowed to remain unrevived and in effective, after the rising of the Londoners against the Duke (which they caused,) had accomplished Cour tenays object of humbiating his political adversary. Some enemies of Wyclif, probably some of his old adversaries the Mendicant Friars, complained to the Pope of Wyclif being thus tolerated, and this appears to have been the immediate cause of the issue of the Papal Bulls abeady mentioned.f The Pope com manded the Archbishop of Canterbury (Simon Sud bury), and the Bishop of London (William Courtenay), to act in the matter as his Delegates, and in his name. They were to make inquisition as to tbe truth of the charges against Wyclif ; and if they found them to be correct, they were to imprison and detain him until further orders from the Pope. Similar orders were given by the Pope to the University of Oxford, commanding the prompt arrest of Wyclif and his fobowers. Nothing was, on this occasion, done by the Univer- Wyclif sity. But the Archbishop and the Bishop (acting as summoned to Lam beth: * See p. 204, supra. f See Wyclif's Letter, Fascic. Zizan., 483, and Mr. Shirley's Introduc tion, xxvii. 312 EICHAED II. chap, the Pope's Delegates) summoned Wyclif before them at _ the Archbishop's palace at Lambeth. A second time the proceedings against Wyclif were brought by tumult to an abrupt and impotent conclusion ; but on this occasion the tumult was raised in behalf of Wyclif by those, who had formerly risen against Wycbf 's patron, the Duke of Lancaster. Wyclif now Wycbf's teaching and preaching had not been limited . London. to Oxford and Lutterworth. He himself, as royal chap lain, must have frequently resided in the metropolis, and he had now numerous disciples and adherents there among both the laity and the clergy. No unpopular nobleman now figured at Wyclif's side at Lambeth, as had been the case when the Duke of Lancaster was his The pro- arrogant champion at St. Paul's. The citizens espoused are in-gS his cause eagerly and tumultuously. They thronged byT£i-d ^° ^e Archbishop's chapel, when the proceedings mult of the against the great Eeformer were beginning. The Londoners. °. ° . ° ° King's mother, the Princess of Wales, appears at this time to have acted with the Councb of Eegency in The Gov- matters of Government. We do not know whether ordSs11* she favoured Wyclif, or whether the authorities were them to be merelv alarmed at the signs of incipient riot ; but a suspended. •> ° x , . message from her arrived at Lambeth, forbidding the Archbishop and the Bishop to proceed further against Wyclif. The inquiry or trial was abandoned accord ingly, and Wycbf's influence must have been greatly augmented by this vain attempt of his enemies against him.* * Wyclif put forth three tracts or manifestos of opinion in the latter part of 1377, and most likely between the arrival of the Pope's BuUs in England and the issue of the citation of Wyclif to appear before the Papal Delegates. See Mr. Shirley's Introduction to the Fascic. Zizan., xxxi. He has pointed out the mistake into which both Wyclif's chief modern assailant, Dr. Lingard, and Wyclif's chief modern defender, Dr. Vaughan (and others), have faUen, in supposing that one of these documents (set out in Walsing- ham's Chronicle) was handed in by Wyclif to the Delegates at his trial as WYCLIF'S "POOE PEIESTS." 313 Wyclif was now left without molestation (except by chap. controversial opponents, with whom he was fully able _ and ready to cope) for nearly four years (1377 — 1381). This appears to be the period during which he com- Wyclif's pleted the organisation of his " Poor Priests." These prists. were itinerant preachers, whom Wyclif sent throughout the realm, -to preach the Gospel to the poor in their mother tongue. He attributed very great importance importance to preaching, and he was himself most dbigent and ni3n"ctoe y zealous in the performance of that duty.* The same Pieacllillg- man who, when lecturing in the schools as Professor of Theology, or when arguing points of controversy with his theological opponents, disputed, in bis very character unclassical but very expressive Latin, with the most preaching keen metaphysical subtlety, and elaborate dialectical skib, spoke, as a preacher, in short, simple sentences of homely, vigorous English. His sermons are learned sermons ; but they exhibit, not tbe processes, but the results of learning ; and these are set out in a plain his defence. As Mr. Shirley observes, Walsingham says nothing of the kind. One of these documents was laid before the Parliament ; the other two appear to have been issued for general circulation. No one of these documents justifies Lingard's censures of Wyclif, as having sought to evade punishment by explaining away his former writings, and by using " quibbles and evasions." The document which Lingard erroneously sup poses to have constituted Wyclif's defence before the Archbishop and the Bishop, but which was certainly published by him, must be read through, and it must be read in connexion with the Pope's list of imputed heresies. The reader should also bear in mind the distinction always carefully drawn by Wyclif, but often ignored by his adversaries, between dominion as granted by the Almighty Lord Paramount, and possession depending on human civU law ; the first being held " titulo originalis justitise," the second being held " titulo mundanse justitise " (see the Trialogus, p. 306, and supra, p. 283). In order to understand some of the other imputed here tical propositions, and Wyclif's comments on them, valuable help wiU be gained by reading Mr. Shirley's explanation of WycUf 's theories as to the imperishability of the atomic elements, as to the ordinate and the absolute power of God, "and as to the different modes of existence, the " esse intel ligible " and the " esse existere." — See Introduct. Fascic. Zizan., liv. — lx. * There are stUl extant nearly four hundred of Wyclif's English Sermons and Homilies. See Mr. Shirley's Catalogue of Wyclif's works, p. 31, et seq. 314 EICHAED II. chap, intelligible form. The great object of Wyclif, as a '_ preacher, was to teach men theb? duty to God and man, and to teach it out of the Scriptures. To the Scriptures he constantly refers, avoiding the legends and tales of saints, which in those times made up the greater part of discourses from the pulpit. His " Poor Priests " were instructed by him to preach in the same manner and the same spirit. It is probable that some of these disciples of Wyclif went further than the founder of their order, in their daring rejection of old tenets, and in exhortations to impetuous change. We know that the effect of then- preaching on the com munity was very great. It is attested and deplored by the contemporaneous ecclesiastical writers, who were most hostile to Wyclif and his followers. His trans- Wyclif must also at this time have been much occu- the Bible pied with his greatest work, the translation of the iish.Eng" Bible. Many portions of the Scriptures had been rendered into English before Wyclif's version had been undertaken and accomplished ; but these were only small and unconnected parts of the contents of the Sacred Volume. For the invaluable gift of a complete English version of the Bible, England was first indebted to John Wyclif.* His translation was made, not from the original Hebrew and Greek, but from the old Latin version, the Vulgate, which, for many centuries, had been universaby adopted by the clergy throughout all Christendom, except the coun tries where the Greek Church was acknowledged. This circumstance of Wyclif's work being a translation of a translation, and the gradual changes in the Eng lish language, naturaby caused Wyclif's version, in process of time, to be superseded by Tyndal's version, * See Forshall and Madden's Preface to their edition of Wyclif's Bible, p. vi. WYCLIF'S TEANSLATION OF THE SCEIPTOEES. 315 which is taken from the original languages themselves, chap. But for a hundred and fifty years, Wyclif's English _Il Bible was the Bible of Englishmen, read in secret and in peril, but stib read, and cherished, and preserved, notwithstanding prohibition and persecution, and in spite of vigilant and continued efforts on the part of men in power to seke and destroy the copies of a work, which they knew to be a source of danger to their own authority, and the free circulation of which many of them honestly believed to create confusion, heresy, and schism.* There is every reason to bebeve that, while the work was in progress, portions of it, as from time to time completed, were copied out and cbculated: and this cbculation was effected by the agency chiefly of Wyclif's itinerant Poor Priests. Tbe translation could not otherwise have produced the effect in Wyclif's lifetime, which all writers, including those most inimical to him, assign to it. What amount of help from others he received in this vast work, we cannot state with precision, but we know that one of his followers, named Hereford, translated a very large part of the Old Testament. The New Testament was certainly translated by Wyclif himself, and he appears to have completed the translation of the Old, in those portions not undertaken or not finished by Hereford. The whole was probably revised by Wyclif. The ®j^ f work was universally ascribed to him, and it is on thetrans- him personally that the contemporary ecclesiastical £SJ writers pour out theb? indignation for his having made munit?- * We may form some idea of the zeal with which Wyclif's Bible must have been copied and circulated, from the fact mentioned by its recent editors, that fuUy one hundred and fifty manuscript copies of it are known to be still in existence, of which the majority were written within forty years after the putting forth of the version. See ForshaU and Madden's Preface. all to read the Bible. read. 316 EICHAED II. chap. God's Word, which was intended to be in the keep- '_ ing of the clergy, and of the doctors of the church, so common and so public, that laymen, and even women, who merely knew how to read, had, through his translation, acqubed a greater fami liarity with the Scripture, than was possessed by many clergymen, though web educated, and of good abilities.* Wyclif Mention has already been made of the earnestness, S.rdutyof with which Wyclif taught that it is the duty of ab men, lay as web as clerical, of unlettered men as well as learned men, to study the Scriptures for themselves, and to make the Scriptures theb? rule of life, both as Spirit in -fj0 morals and as to faith. But he also taught earnestlv which it . . should be the need of reverent humbity in him, who reads or listens to the Holy Volume. The manner and the spirit, in which Wycbf directs the Bible to be studied, would, if his advice were honestly followed, guard sufficiently against what a modern assabant of Protes tantism has termed " the perbous antics exhibited by the Eight of Private Judgment careering through the Scriptures." Wycbf teaches that he, who reads, and who wishes to read with a right understanding of what he readeth, must trust principally to God's grace to enlighten him, and th^t to obtain that grace, he must lead a pure and holy bfe. He must read sedu- * " Hic magister Johannes Wyclif evangelium quod christus contulit cle- ricis et ecclesiae doctoribus, ut ipsi laicis et infirmioribus personis secundum temporis exigentiam et personarum indigentiam cum mentis eorum esurie dulciter ministrarent, transtulit de Latino in Anglicam linguam non angeli- cam : unde per ipsum fit vulgare et magis apertum laicis et mulieribus legere scientibus, quam solet esse clericis admodum literatis et bene intelli- gentibus." — Knighton, 2644. Wyclif had before his death commenced a second and corrected version. This was completed and published after Wyclif's death by his disciple, Purvey. Both versions are given in ForshaU and Madden's edition of Wyclif s Bible. HOW TO STUDY SCEIPTUEE. 31 7 lously and with painstaking : and for an explanation chap. of difficult passages he ought to apply to clergymen, __ whom he knows to be virtuous and learned.* He is not to be discouraged if he cannot at once master difficulties. To stop a man on that account from studying the Bible, would be as unreasonable, as to forbid the further education of a child who made a fault in its first lesson.f In another work he pointed out that " The Scripture is to be regarded as express ing most clearly the truths which are most necessary for man's salvation ; but it teaches in a more abstruse manner the truths, that are not so important for man's holiness and happiness. And, with regard to the difficulties involved in Scripture, they are contained there for the meritorious exercise of the Christian student, who is to study them in a spirit of humility, and as directed by the Holy Spirit."}: The man, who studies, and who desbes to be an ex pounder of the dark places of Scripture to others, is admonished by Wyclif of the need of possessing fur ther qualifications. Wyclif mentions among these the abbity to collate manuscripts, an acquaintance with logic, and the long-continued practice of com paring one text with another. § Wyclif also rightly * See Wyclif's prologue to his translation of the Gospel of St. Matthew. " Lewid men sehulden Ierne it [holy writ] of God principali, and by good livynge of hemself, and bisie traveil, and in axynge trewe clerks bothe in lyvynge and in kunnynge the verri expocisioun thereof wher it is derk." f Wyclif says in the same preface, " What resoun is this if a child faile in his lessoun at the first day to suffre nevir child to come at letteure for this defaute ? " X " IUa [i.e., Scriptura], debat supponi in veritate sentential in forma verborum et logica prseceUere scripturas alias qualescunque, et veritates necessariores magis exprimere, ilias autem veritates, qucs non sunt ita utiles ad beatitudem magis absconders ; et quascunque difficultates quas implicat,ut Augustinus edocet, ad exercitium meritorium ipsam studentis humiliter et ordinatione Spiritus Sancti dicitur continereO'—TjiaXogna, lib. iii. c. 31, p. 242 of Lechler's edition. § See the passage quoted in Vaughan, vol. ii. 349, from James' Apology, c. 1. 318 EICHAED II. chap, considered that it was expedient for the teaching y- believer, who was to remove the difficulties which often beset the path of the inquiring student, and who was to answer the objections raised by adversaries of his faith, to be armed with skill in logic, and with a knowledge of theological metaphysics.* Wyclif ex pressly requires that his philosophy shall be " philo sophy purified by the Lord." Wyclif It was also during this period of his life, that doctrmVof8 Wyclif attacked openly and boldly the doctrine of Transub- Transubstantiation, which teaches that the consecrated stantiation. . . 1 elements cease entirely alter consecration to be bread and wine, and become the actual Body and Blood of our Lord, and nothing else. Eeligious reverence would make us anxious to refrain from introducing such topics in historical narratives and disquisitions, but to do so would be to omit, or to leave unintehi- gible, some of the most important parts of the history of both our Church and our State. The tenet of Tran substantiation had been denied in the eleventh cen tury by the schoolman Berengarius, but it had been energetically supported by Lanfranc, while he was Abbot of Bee, and before he became our Archbishop of Canterbury. It was held by the great majority of the clergy and schoolmen,! and it was adopted by a Council, when Innocent III. was Pope. Thenceforth to call this doctrine in question was to rouse, promptly and vehemently, the indignation and the chastising importance wrath of the ecclesiastical powers. The differences of opinion, which existed on this subject, have, in modern times, appeared to many persons to be mere matters * " Expedit pro habendd hujusmodi Scripturae notiti& quod Fidelis in recta logioa, et philosophia depurata a Domino sit instructus." — Trialogus, p. 2-12, ed. Lechler. t See note on this subject at page 33, supra. of that doctrine, THE DOGMA OF TEANSUBSTANTIATION. 31 9 of abstruse metaphysical speculation, and such as none chap. but fantastical pedants can regard with any strong _Il interest. But the least learned, as well as the most learned among the mediaeval ecclesiastics, felt that the question was a vital one to the power of their order. According to the full doctrine of Transub stantiation, the priest, who consecrated the bread, created out of it an actual portion of the Body of the Divine Eedeemer, so completely, that though some thing white, and hard, and round, such as the bread had been before consecration, seemed to remain, this whiteness, hardness, and roundness were mere unreal accidents ; the substance * of bread had utterly vanished, and the Bedeemer's body, and nothing else, was reaby present. I am far from saying that all the clerical upholders of the doctrine of Transubstantiation were altogether or mainly induced to maintain it on account of the awful and reverential dignity with which the power to perform such a rite invested the order of priesthood. But it is in certain accordance with human nature, that this motive must have operated generally and strongly, j" * It may be useful to remind some readers that in the disquisitions on this subject the word Substance was and is used, not in the sense which it now bears in common conversation, that of corporeal bulk, but as the Latin equi valent of the Hypostasis of the Greek phUosophers and fathers. To give and to justify a definition of " substance " would occupy far more space than is permissible here. The three first chapters of the work of M. Haureau, "De la Philosophie Scolastique," give within a moderate compass and in a very lucid and attractive manner much information respecting the conclusions of Platonists and Aristotelians, of Realists and NominaUsts on this and on connected topics. t I subjoin the remarks of Dean Hook and Dean Milman on this subject. The Dean of Chichester, in his Life of Cranmer, says :— " The Papists saw that the controversy on the Eucharist was not what it first appeared to Cranmer, or as it appears to some even at the present time, a mere meta physical question of no importance. One feels a repugnance to write the sentence, but the vulgar notion was that the priest in the mass created his Eedeemer, and then offered him as a propitiating sacrifice for sin. The 320 EICHAED II. CHAP. V. 1381. Wyclif'sdoctrinecensured by the University of Oxford. On the other side, the Wyclifites, fresh, like their successors the Puritans, from the study of the Scrip tures, and full of zeal against the crime of idolatry, so often therein denounced, regarded the worship, which the Transubstantiabsts, consistently with theb faith, paid to the consecrated elements, as idolatry of the rankest kind. They assabed the pretensions of the consecrating priests with indignation and scorn, not always unmingled with indecorous mockery. Wyclif had come slowly, and by degrees, to his denial of the doctrine of Transubstantiation. It was only during the last four or five years of his Ibe, that he explicitly maintained that the consecrated bread is stib bread, although the real body of the Eedeemer is " Sacramentaby " present. The doctrine finaby put forth by Wycbf was " a doctrine very similar to that at the present time maintained in the formularies of the Church of England." * Wyclif openly and formally maintained this pro position in his lectures at Oxford, in 1381.f This public avowal of what was then by all adherents of the Estabbshed Church deemed heresy on a most awful and momentous matter of faith, brought upon his teaching the censures of the university. It does not appear that any proceedings were taken against him personaby. Wbliam of Berton, the Chancellor of order of men, who were endued with a power to do this, must be superior to all civil power." — Lives of the Archbishops, vol. ii. new series, p. 150. Dean Milman points out to us that " From the doctrine of Transubstantia tion in its hardest, most material form, once defined, once avowed, once established by the decrees of popes and councUs, there was no retreat without shaking the sacerdotal power to its base." — History of Latin Chris tianity, vol. iii. p. 184. * Dean Hook in Lives of Archbishops of Canterbury, vol. iv. p. 345. + An account of Wyclif's stages of opinion on this subject is given by his adversary Wodeford in a passage cited in a note by Mr. Shirley, p. xv. Introduction Fascic. Zizan. ; and more is told at p. Ix. See also p. 104 of same volume. WYCLIF CENSUEED BY OXFOED UNIVEESITY. 321 the University, cabed together twelve Doctors of chap. Divinity and of Canon Law (selected by himself), and JL laid before them, for their consideration and judg ment, two propositions, as dogmas lately introduced and publicly taught in the University and elsewhere. They both have reference to Transubstantiation. One of them accurately represents Wyclif's doctrine, that the substance of the material bread remained after consecration ; the other inaccurately imputed to him a total denial of the real presence of the Saviour.* The Chancellor and his Convention condemned both these propositions as heretical; and ordered that the teachers and maintainers of such doctrines should be punished by expulsion from the Univer sity, excommunication, and imprisonment. No per son was pronounced guilty, or sentenced by name ; but the sentence of condemnation was promulgated and read out by the officers of the University in the University Schools in Wycbf's presence, and while he was sitting there as lecturer. According to the narra tive of Walden, the great enemy of the Wyclifites, " Wyclif was confounded when he heard the con demnation. But stbl he said that neither the Chan- cedor, nor any who had taken "part with the Chancebor, could break down his [Wyclif's] judgment." t The wyclif's "confusion" spoken of by Walden may have' been firmness- Wycbf 's , surprise at hearing the second proposition, which imputes to him doctrines very different from those, which he really held and taught. But it is evident from what fodows, that Wycbf showed no want * See them at p. 110 of the Fascic. Zizan. t See Fascic. Zizan., p. 113. " Ista praedicta condemnatio promulgata est pubUce in scholis Augustinensium ipso Johanne sedente in cathedra et determinante contrarium. Sed confusus est ista audita condemnatione. Sed tamen dixit quod nee canceUarius nee aUquis de suis complicibus poteret suam sententiam infringere, se in hoc ostendens haereticum mani- festum." VOL. II. y 322 EICHAED II. chap, of firmness. His next step was to appeal, as his eccle- Y- siastical opponents complain, not to the Pope, or any His appeal, spiritual authority, but to the temporal rulers of the The Duke land, the King and Parliament. Wyclif's old patron, L advises the Duke of Lancaster, came to Oxford, but the Duke's dlopthe0 zeal in support of Wyclif had now greatly cooled. He subject. was no longer at bitter feud with the Church digni taries ; the storms of unpopularity, in which he had been involved, had made him cool and cautious ; and he probably took bttle interest in a doctrinal dis pute between Wyclif and other Oxford Professors. Lancaster advised Wyclif to be sdent in future on the Wyclif subject of Transubstantiation ; but Wycbf refused to submit. comply with the Duke's advice, or with the Chan- His con- cebor's decree, and put forth a confession of his faith, tession of t ± Faith. in which he fully expounded his doctrine that there is a Eeal Presence virtually, spirituaby, and sacramentally in the consecrated bread, but that the bread stib re mains bread, both as to substance and as to accidents. Wyclif concludes this confession of his faith with a stern denunciation of those who regard a Pope's decree more than the Gospel, and who pervert the sense of Scripture into heresy.* Many disputants against the confession of Wycbf came forward, chiefly from among the ranks of his old enemies the Friars. But the nature of his new doc trines, and the effect of the events of 1381, brought against *him a much more formidable amount of hosti lity from many other quarters. Combina- Not merely the mendicant Friars, and those among tion of tne English clergy who favoured the high pretensions enemies ° 0,/ ° -1- against of the Pope, were roused into tenfold hostility against Wyclif by his bold publication of what they deemed * Fascic, Zizan., p 115. PEOCEEDINGS AGAINST WYCLIF. 323 pernicious heresy on the most important of all tenets ; chap. but it drew on him the angry displeasure of the digni- 1 taries of the National Church, who now made common cause with their old enemies the Friars, against the audacious heresiarch* Wyclif -must also have em bittered many of the chief ecclesiastics more and more against him by the attacks which he continued to make with even increased bitterness against theb? pomp and wealth, and their temporal occupations and dignities. Above ab, the terrible insurrection of the lower orders in 1381 must have made men of rank and wealth, among the laity as well as among the clergy, regard innovators and agitators of every kind with angry an tipathy and alarm. No one could have felt surprised 1S82. that Wycbf's preachings and publications caused a J^S1 '"" thbd ecclesiastical inquiry in 1382. The chief pro- ^^ines moter of this was William Courtenay, late Bishop of Archbishop London, the successor of Simon Sudbury as Arch- p™^^^ bishop of Canterbury, after the barbarous murder of Primate Sudbury by the fobowers of Wat Tyler. Courtenay was a high-born and a high-minded man, who, as we have seen,f had boldly and successfuby confronted Wyclif's pobtical patron, the Duke of Lan caster; who, in the course of that political conflict, had caused Wyclif to be cited at St. Paul's in 13 76; J and who had been most active, under the Pope's directions, in conducting the subsequent proceedings against Wycbf at Lambeth. There is no reason for censuring Archbishop Courtenay as a bigoted persecutor, or for * Wyclif said of 'this, "Olim episcopi nostri dicuntur pseudo-fratrea tanquam diabolos odivisse ; cum in tempore domini Armachani dicuntur ipsum in Bumptibus contra hos pseudo-ordines def endisse. Sed modo f acti sunt amici Herodes et Pilatus, qui prius inter se fuerant inimici."— Tria- logus, p. 375. t P. 203, supra. X See p. 204, supra. v 2 324 EICHAED II. chap, suspecting him of any personal malignity against Zl Wyclif. Courtenay was no theologian. He acqui esced and believed in what he found the received doc trines of the Estabbshed Church, in which he had been born and bred, and in which he held high office. He must have naturally and honestly thought it his duty as Primate of all England (and especially at such a season), not to permit, without notice and repression, the bold display and rapid growth of doctrines, which must have appeared to him subversive of order and au thority, and directly repugnant to the orthodox creed. ttaBkck ^e Arahkisb-qp summoned a council of eight bishops, Friars fourteen doctors of civil and canon law, six doctors house in of divinity, four monks, and fifteen mendicant friars. According to Wycbf (and as is credible from ab cir cumstances) the friars were the most active members Proposi- of this assembly. A bst was made of twenty-four before5" propositions, which were said to be contained in them- the writings of Wyclif. This was true as to the greater number; but some were falsely imputed to him.* The council was assembled at the Chapter- House of the Black Friars, in London. At their first meeting, when they were about to commence the quake11'*11* proceedings, an earthquake shook the budding. The members of the council, terrified at the omen as well ^e^ncTof3 as a* *^e danger, were about to disperse, but Arch- mind, bishop Courtenay, with great presence of mind and courage, stayed them, and reassured them. He told them that the earthquake portended that the realm was being purged of the noxious vapours of heresy. The propo- The council held several meetings, and ultimately de- demned.011" creed that all the propositions, which had been laid before it, were erroneous, and that the errors in them * Especially the third, " Quod Christus non' sit in sacramento altaris identice, vere et renliter in propria prresentia corporali." AECHBISHOP COUETENAY'S PEOCEEDINGS. 325 amounted to heresy. Wyclif was not summoned chap. before this council, but several of his most active J_ followers were cited. Some appeared, and made ex planations or retractations of the opinions imputed to them. Courtenay sought to strengthen the ecclesi- courtenay astical authorities in the suppression of heresy, by ^™°ofesan applying to the Crown for a statute commissioning the Parliament . requiring sheriffs to seize all persons convicted before the bishops the sheriffs of preaching heresy. A statute to this effect was put p0er^g forth ; but it was repealed in the next session of Parlia- convicted of ' _ r heresy by ment, at the instance of the Commons, who asserted theecciesi- that this act had never been agreed to by them, and courts. that thev "considered it to be in no wise their interest S*at- 5 _ . , , rt,10- 2, 5. to be more under the jurisdiction of the Prelates, and Repealed more bound by them, than their ancestors had been in in tine next J session. times past."* Notwithstanding the condemnation of Wyclif's Courtenay opinions at Oxford in 1381, his influence was strong ceedings10' there, and the University officers for the succeeding asainst. ' J ° heresy in year were known to be favourable to him. The Oxford. Archbishop sent a commissioner, or an inquisitor into ^resi^ni" heresy, to Oxford ; but the proceeding was resented resists his and resisted by the University, as a breach of theb? sioner. privileges. Courtenay was not a man to be thus baffled, or to stop at half-measures. He procured a royal mandate to the University, commanding the Chancebor to resign, and ordering that search should be made for the preachers of heresy, and the favourers of heretics. The firmness of the Archbishop over- Archbishop powered the University authorities, and the growth; or p°^°ay at any rate the open prevalence of the new doctrines in the University of Oxford received a decided check. Nothing was done, and nothing was attempted * Hot. Pari, iii. p. WI. 326 EICHAED II. CHAP. V. Wyclif retires to his rectory. Wyclif'sindustry and zeal as a writer and a preacher during the last two years of his life. His "Tria- logus." against Wycbf personally.* He appears to have with drawn himself entirely to Lutterworth during the last two years of his life. His writings prove that the activity and vigour of his mind were unabated. One of the best known of all his works, and in which his reforming theories are expressed with the greatest bold ness, his Latin treatise, entitled "Trialogus," was written during this period, f In this, as in other treatises put forth by him between his retirement from Oxford and his death, he goes to the extreme length of maintain- * Many modern writers speak of Wyclif having been summoned before a Convocation at Oxford presided over by Bishop Courtenay, and of his demeanour on that occasion. But I believe that Mr. Shirley (Introduo. Fascic. Zizan., xliv., note) and Mr. ForshaU and Sir Frederic Madden (Introduction to their edition of Wyclif's Bible, p. vii.n.) are right in reject ing this story, which rests on a passage in Knighton, or the other ecclesi astic who wrote under that name (2649). But this chronicler's statement is not entitled to much weight, for he himself shows that he thoroughly misunderstood the proceedings, which were really taken at Oxford, and (as Mr. Shirley observes) he produces as Wyclif's " recantation what is simply a reaffirmation of his doctrine." Mr. ForshaU and Sir Frederic Madden consider that " From Ms [Wyclif's] name not occurring in the documents of the archiepiscopal register relative to these meetings [at the Blackfriars Chapter House, and at Oxford], it seems more probable that he had previously withdrawn him self from the University, and had taken up his residence at Lutterworth. It is certain that his last years were spent there, and that he continued actively engaged " in the duties of his parish and in maintaining by his writings the principles he had taught until death interrupted his occupation on the last day of December, 1384." t See the Trialogus, Lib. iv. c. 16, 17, 18, and 19, p. 297 to 314, in Lechler's edition. That learned editor speaks thus of the evidence which exists of the great influence of the " Trialogus " on the learned men of both England and the Continent in the age in which it was written, and also on the reformers of the sixteenth century : — " Trialogum ab amicis et discipulis Wyclifi post ejus obitum per quinque decennia maximi habitum et summo cum studio perlustratum esse, libri manu exarati, qui opus istud exhibent, tes- timonio sunt luculentissimo. Omnes enim notas margini adscriptas habent, quibus materiaein colloquiis expositce, loci auctorum in textalaudatorum sig- niflcantur. Vix unquam major sollertia atque labor in opera sanctorum Patrum impensus est quam in hoo Wiolifi opus; qu& in re Bohemi Joannis Husi asseclEe, pros Anglis elaborasse videntur. Unde elucet quantse auctori tatis apud multos Trialogus fuerit. Seculo posteriori, cum Veritas evangelica reluceret, quid de libro isto judicatum sit ex prologo editioni principi praemisso cognoscere licet." This " editio princeps " was printed in 1523, at Basle, as is generally believed. WYCLIF'S LITEEAEY ACTIVITY. 327 ing that the clergy ought to have no worldly property chap. at all; that the kings and lords who have endowed _^'_ the Church with lands and wealth, committed sin in doing so ; and that it is their solemn duty to relieve at "total* her of the temporalities, which have been the cause of I^IT' her corruption and of her crimes. church The amount .of Wyclif's compositions during this wonderful period of little ' more than two years, is astonishing * int?u.ectuai . i-. i t activity of especiaby when we remember that he was still active Wyclif at in preaching, and still engaged in completing and re- ^reMed ' vising his translation of the Bible. Throughout this bitterness ..»,... . ° of his last last series of his writings a growing spirit of sternness writings. against his adversaries is visible. There was indeed one event, or succession of events, during this period, well calculated to intensify the wrath of Wyclif against corrupt and corrupting ecclesiastics. The rival Popes, Scandalous not content with mutual anathemas and excommunica- SV 0I tions, excited crusades against each other, and against tehaiTof11 the adherents of each other. Pope Urban dispatched Fope Urban i -n t i ti i • -i against the bull after bub to the Linglish Prelates m 1382, exhort- adherents ing them to raise troops for the invasion of the countries clement which obeyed the Anti-pope Clement. They and their Pardons for J -1 *¦ _ . sm and m- clergy acting under them, were authorised to grant duigences full remission of sins to all who would serve in the thferusa- crusade, or supply soldiers, or contribute money. The j^^1,, form of absolution is preserved by the old chronicler, t would give i it • money He, who, by person or by pence, would recruit the in aid of it. armies of Pope Urban, was declared "free from all sins which he had confessed, and for all which the penitent would have confessed and repented of, if he had * His treatises " On obedience to Prelates," " On the deceits of Satan and of his Priests," "On the duty of Lords," "Of Servants and Lords," "Of good Preaching Priests," " On the Prayers of good men," " Of Clerks' Possessions," and " On the Church and its Members," are aU assigned to this period, and probably several others might be. t Walsingham, p. 80. 328 EICHAED II. chap, remembered them." Archbishop Courtenay, daring to __^_ write in the name of " Jesus Christ, the King . of Peace," ordered public prayers for the success of the crusade, and bade his bishops and clergy obtain con tributions from theb flocks.* Spencer, the martial Bishop of Norwich, who had so fiercely signalised his valour against the insurgent peasants in the preceding year, came forward as the promoter in England of this 1382. Holy War, and led himself the forces that were col- Large force lected in this country for its operations. A force com- led by the J ± Bishopof prising 2,500 men-at-arms, and 2,500 archers, was out™10 led by him to Calais. Weary of waiting there for England. reinforcements before they advanced into France, they made an inroad into the parts of Flanders, which then He attacks obeyed the French King. They took by storm Grave- towns.imis lines and Dunquerke ; and the Christian men, women, Cmeity of and children of these towns were slaughtered without ders. mercy being shown to any, by Christian soldiers, com manded by a Christian bishop, and fighting in the cause of a Pontiff, who claimed to be the spbitual Their father and head of Christendom. Ultimately the ex- faiiure!e pedition was unsuccessful ; and Bishop Spencer re turned with the remnant of his crusaders, after a waste of men and money, which England at that time could Wyciifs ill afford. Wyclif's latest works contain several abu- aiiusionsto sions to this expedition, which attest his holy in- sade.cru" dignation at this profanation of sacred names, this encouragement to vice and immorality, this stbring up of Christian men to bloodshed, and this weakening of England, by withdrawing her soldiers and her trea sures, to serve the ambition of proud priests and pre lates, f * See Dean Milman's note, Hist. Lat. Christ., c. vi. p. 133. t " The sentence of the Curse expounded," chap, xvi., quoted in Vaughan, vol. ii. p. 237. See, too, " Of the Church and her Members," Todd's edition, xxxiii., and the editor's note, clviii. DEATH QE..WYCLIE. 329 In 1384 Wyclif received a citation to appear before chap. Pope Urban, at Eome. We do not know the terms of „_ the citation. Wyclif's answer has been preserved.* w1Syf' It is little more than a cold ceremonious expression of cited to regret at his inability to take the journey. Wyclif bXrethe alludes to the Eoman Pontiff's title of " Chief Vicar *°v°- W vclll s of Christ on earth," and he points out in the letter that reply. this title of the Pope proves that the Pope is of all men most bound to keep Christ's law, and that the Pope ought to renounce aU temporal dominion. He concludes with a prayer that the Pope may be pre served from evb counsels. On the 29th of December, 1384, Wyclif was struck with paralysis, while officiating in the parish church at Lutterworth. He died on the last day of that year. wycUf's His mortal remains were buried at Lutterworth, but death- did not lie there for many years. In .141 6 the Council Hismortal •> J remains of Constance, the same assembly that burned John disinterred Huss and Jerome of Prague, passed a solemn condem- by order cf nation of Wyclif's doctrines, and ordered that his SftgT*1 bones should be dug up from the grave, and cast into stance- the fire, and that the ashes should be scattered on the running stream. They who, in their impotent malice, issued this decree, little, thought what important testi mony they were bearing to the enduring influence of Wyclif, and to his imperishable claims on the gratitude of mankind. It is easy to mark the faults in his character. They Wyclif s are obvious on the face of his own works. Wyclif's character- writings are often deformed by intemperate and vio lent expressions, though never exhibiting the coarse savagery, with which, a century and a half afterwards, Luther and his contemporaries carried on their literary * See Fascic. Zizan., p. 341. 330 EICHAED n. chap, warfare. He was also in his controversial treatises Y- somewhat given to mystical and far-fetched Biblical expositions and metaphors ; although he recognised and enforced on others the principle of adhering to the grammatical and historical sense of texts, and of ex treme caution in imposing a meaning on Scripture, which the Holy Spirit does not clearly command.* Violence of The " root and branch " spirit, with which he assabs writings Ms existing institutions, appears sometimes to show a love Causes of of destruction, rather than a wish for reform. But we violence. mtlst remember how gross were the abuses of his age ; and how many and strong were they, to whom those abuses brought gear, and gold, and power, and pomp, and sensual delights;, and who consequently hated and mabgned, and sought to destroy the man, who dared to call evil evd. Wyclif often expresses his firm faith that the cause of God, and of Truth, and of Purity, would ultimately prevad ; but he saw no prospect of this coming speeddy to pass, of "Antichrist and his Meynee " being overthrown in his own days. He be lieved that he wrote in imminent peril of martyrdom. He felt no immediate cab to the task of reconstruction; and he deemed that all his energies were required for the duty of overthrowing evils. Attention has already been drawn to the perbous eon- sequences likely to follow his doctrine of " Dominion founded in Grace," when that principle was enounced to men, who did not hear or could not heed the subtle reasonings and the countervailing maxims, which its author put forth together with that theory. Wyclif's opi nions as to church government, church funds, and church discipbne,wib be variously judged of at the present time, according to the church or sect, to which each reader of them adheres ; but very many readers wib * See Trialogus, p. 243. WYCLIE'S CHAEACTEE AND INELDENCE. 33I doubt the wisdom of his scheme for filling the country chap. with itinerant preachers without endowment, without Y" ecclesiastical discipline, each of whom was to wander or to sojourn, and each of whom was to teach and preach according " to the moving of the Holy Spirit," he himself being to himself the Holy Spirit's sole in terpreter. The purity of Wyclif's private life, the strength and Purity of the subtilty of his mind, the amplitude and profound- ^^'j. ness of his learning, and his unwearied industry, are nencein attested by his opponents, as well as by his followers and intei- and admirers.* His influence over Europe was wide- abmty. spread and enduring. It is stated by the best modern Extent and authority on the subject, that " there was a time when of hisin- Wyclif was the most popular writer in Europe. His weriiu- works were circulated, among every rank and order in T°ve- England ; they passed over into all parts of the con tinent, especially into Bohemia ; and those for whom his long scholastic treatises were too costly or too tedious, extracted the more striking passages, and, even, it would seem; in his own lifetime, issued them under separate titles."t The Bohemian reformers, John Huss and Jerome of Prague, were converted by Wyclif's writings, and met death rather than abandon his tenets. * "No friendly [contemporaneous] hand has left us any even the slightest memorial of the life and death of the great reformer. A spare, fraU, emaciated frame, a quick temper, a conversation most innocent, the charm of every rank ; such are the scanty but significant fragments we glean of the personal portraiture of one who possessed, as few ever did, the qualities which give men power over their f eUows. His enemies ascribed it to the magic of an ascetic habit : the fact remains engraven upon every line of his life."— Introduction, Fascic. Zizan. xlvi. Mr. Shirley gives authorities in his note. Knighton says that he was " Doctor in Theologia eminentissimus, in philosophia nulli reputabatur secundus, in Scholasticis disputationibus incomparabilis." Neither Knighton nor Walsingham, though bitter without mercy against Wyclif as a heretic, bring a single charge, or hint at a single suspicion against his morals. t Shirley. 332 EIOHAED II. CHAP. V. Character of his En glish writings. In after years the writings of Wyclif's pupb, Huss, were studied and were edited and eulogized by Martin Luther.* The works of Wyclif which thus laid the seeds of the Protestant Eeformation of Germany in the six teenth century, were his Latin treatises, in which his philosophical and doctrinal theories are fully and ela borately expounded. These Latin treatises are always full of vigour, but in general f they are unimpassioned. They are cor rectly described as containing Wyclif's appeals to the educated mtellect of his time throughout Christendom. His Engbsh tracts, which were written for drculation among the laymen of his own country, are of a very different character. They are almost always moderate in length, vehement in tone, plain to common under standings, and written chiefly in short antithetical sen tences, such as would strike the multitude, and would stay long in theb? memories. Wyclif's very numerous English works exist at present, with a few exceptions, only in manuscript, and consequently are but little * See Lenfant's History of the Council of Constance, pp. 26, 201, and Luther's preface to his edition of Huss. M. de Bonnechose, in his work entitled " Bef ormateurs avant la Reforme," says truly, " WycUffe annonce Luther : il fut par son genie, par la hardiesse de sa parole, et par l'exemple de sa vie entWre le veritable pere de la reiorme du xvi. siecle, a laquelle Luther attacha son nom," vol. i. p. 75. Professor Ranke, in his remarks on the early career of Luther, says, " We must not omit to notice the fact that the doctrines of Wyclif, which had spread from Oxford over the whole of Latin Christendom, and broke out with such menacing demonstrations in Bohemia, had not, in spite of all the barbarities of the Hussite wars, been extirpated in Germany. At a much later period we find traces of them in Bavaria, where the Bokler- bund drew upon itself the suspicions of Hussite opinions ; in Swabia and Franconia, where the council of Bamberg at one time thought it necessary to compel aU the men in that city to abjure the Hussites ; and even in Prussia, where the adherents of Wyclifite and Hussite doctrines at length submitted, though only in appearance." — Ranke's History of the Ref ormar tion, vol. i. 308. t Not always. See, for instanoe, the chapters against the Friars in the last half of the fourth book of the Trialogus. SPEEAD OE WYCLIF'S OPINIONS. 333 known. Those, Avho are best competent to form a chap. judgment of them, have written most strongly in their Jl praise.* The numbers and the zeal of Wyclif's followers in Numbers of his fol lowers in the Refor mation, England are abundantly attested by the complaints of theb adversaries. The strong measures taken by Ensland- Archbishop Courtenay, at Oxford, in 1382, certainly checked the prevalence of the new doctrines in that university, but he could not arrest their progress in the country generally. As we shall soon have occasion His in to notice, the sanguinary legislation of the Lancas- durestoen trian Kings against Wyclifism (or Lollardism, as it was termed), proved inefficient to eradicate it, or to prevent its extensive increase and firm endurance, especially among the artisan and trading classes of the towns, t Germany reciprocated to England the Eefor- * Dean Milman says of Wyclif :— " His English is rude, coarse but clear, emphatic, brief, vehement ; with short stinging sentences, and perpetual hard antitheses." Mr. Shirley (Introduction to Fascic. Zizan., p. xlvi.) calls Wyclif " the father of English prose." He adds, " It is not by his transla tion of the Bible, remarkable as that work is, that Wyclif can be judged as a writer. It is in his original tracts that the exquisite pathos, the keen delicate irony, the manly passion of his short nervous sentences, fairly over master the weakness of the unformed language, and gives us English which cannot be read without a feeling of its beauty at this hour." Three of Wyclif s English tracts, " Of the Church and her Members," " Of the Apostacy of the Church," " Of Antichrist and his Meynee," were published in a little volume, with notes and glossary by Dr. Todd in 1851. The last of these, that on " Antichrist and his Meynee," contains many vigorous passages in the antithetical style noticed by Dean MUman. Wyclif's Prologue ij to his translation of the New Testament is a favour able specimen of his English style. Many extracts from various English works of the great Reformer are given by Mr. Sharon Turner in the fifth volume of his History. t Mr. HaUam (Middle Ages, chap. ix. part 11) gives his opinion that multitudes secretly cherished the doctrines of Wyclif down to the era of the Reformation. He attributes much importance to their having been em braced by men of rank and civil influence. I incline to think that the persecutions under Henry IV. and Henry V. checked the growth of Wyclifism among the higher classes. The execution of Sir John Oldcastle was a terrible warning. I believe that the reformed doctrines spread and retained ground most among the middle classes, among traders and artisans, who could read the Bible in English, and whose learning probably did not extend 334 EICHAED II. CHAP. V. and is a main cause of the Buccess of the Re formation in England. matory influence, of which England had in Wyclif's time given the original motive source to Germany : and when the passions of Henry VIIL hurried on the final rupture of the Angbcan from the Eomish Church, thousands among the most intelligent and valuable classes in this country were already, and long had been, as anti-papal as Luther, and as resolute holders of most of the doctrines, which, since Luther's time, have been deemed the pecubar tenets of Protestantism. From these classes came the great majority of the English Protestant martyrs in Henry's and in Mary's persecutions, even as they supplied the great majority of the Lobard martyrs in the reigns of the first sove reigns of the House of Lancaster. Finaby, let us ask to whom (under Providence) ought we to ascribe the fact, well known by ab who observe carefuby the rebgious feelings and customs of the peoples of Christendom, — the fact which has of late been eloquently attested by an Englishman, who is now an adherent of the Eomish Church,* — the fact that the English are the most Bible-reading nation in the world, and the fact that " Bible-rebgion is both the much further. It is not to be supposed that the peasantry (after the memory of 1381 had died out, and after the Itinerant Priests had been put down) knew much about the Wyclifites or LoUards. London was certainly the stronghold of the new doctrines. I have used the words "Wyclifites" and "£ollards" as convertible terms ; but the latter soon became the name by which the holders of the new opinions were exclusively called. Of course I do not mean that all the Lollards adopted all Wyclif's doc trines, or that they held no doctrines that had not been taught by Wyclif. There were great divergencies of opinion among them ; but I believe that aU LoUards agreed in the foUowing matters, all of which had been taught by Wyclif : — 1. Bible-reading, and the right of private judgment in draw. ing rules of faith and of conduct from the Bible. 2. Vehement denial of the doctrine of Transubstantiation. 3. Vehement opposition to the Papacy. 4. Opposition to the possession of temporal wealth, and the exercise of temporal power, by the clergy. * See Dr. Newman's Grammar of Assent, p. 54. ENGLAND'S OBLIGATIONS TO WYCLIF. 335 recognised title and the best description of English chap. rehgion?" —^ We may answer, that this has been wholly brought to pass by no one man, and by no one generation of men ; but that the man to whom the " Bible-religion" of England is primarily due, the man who first placed the Bible in the English language in the hands of Englishmen, and who .first taught them the duty of studying the Bible, and of making the Bible theb? rule of faith and of Ibe, was a lecturer in an Engbsh University, and a rector of an English parish, 500 years ago, the Patriarch of the Eeformation, John Wyclif. CHAPTEE VI. CHAP. VI. High ex pectationsformed of youngKingRichard II. He"unbe-seems the promise of pring.'! General history of Richard II.'s reign — Troubles of its first years— Characters of his uncles — His proneness to low favourites — The French war — Re verses of the English — Serious peril of French invasion— The French expedition baffled by adverse winds — Truce with France — Scottish wars in Richard's reign — Irish affairs— His successful expedition to Ireland in 1385— Constitutional history of England during this reign — Proceedings of Richard's first Parliaments — Dissension between the King and Par liament—Impeachment of the Earl of Suffolk — Ascendancy of the Duke of Gloucester — CouncU of Regency — Further impeachments — The King overthrows the Regency — Death of Gloucester — Disposition of Richard — He goes to Ireland — The Duke of Lancaster returns from exile with an armed force — The people join him — The King faUs into his power — Richard II. is formaUy deposed — Legislation of this reign — Increased power of the Court of Chancery. The spbit and sense, which the young Kmg had displayed in his encounter with the insurgents in 1381, gave promise of a glorious reign. If Eichard of Bor deaux had been one of the so-cabed favourites of heaven, who die young, he would have been mourned and lauded in history as the young Marcebus of our throne. But he soon unbeseemed that promise ; and as he advanced in years, the vices of his character began to display themselves : — profligate extrava gance, degrading subserviency to favourites, insolent impatience of prudent advice or lawful control, and a capacity for dissimulation and sudden vindictive violence, which would have made him formidable, if he had not been deficient both in far-sighted judgment, and in sustained energy of action. The prelates and barons of the realm assembled and EICHAED'S WOETHLESS EAVOTJEITES. 337 appointed a Council of Eegency on the thbd day after chap. Eichard's coronation. The work of Government was 1 arduous. The French were again at open war with 1377- England ; theb? fleets commanded the Channel, and Council of attacked and pblaged our coast. Hostilities with f0^d.y Scotland also broke out in 1378. At home there were the domestic discontents and dissensions between the classes of society, which soon broke out into open insurrection. Further trouble was created by proceed ings taken, at the bidding of the Pope, against Wyclif, which have been narrated in the last chapter. Three of the sons of Edward III. survived him. Characters These were John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, who young assumed the title of King of Castibe; Edmund of J£fel Langley, Earl of Cambridge, made afterwards Duke of York; and Thomas of Woodstock, Earl of Buck ingham, made afterwards Duke of Gloucester. It wbl be convenient to speak of these princes by theb? ducal titles. Lancaster and Gloucester were men of con siderable abbity, but both of them were ambitious, turbulent, and unscrupulous. The Duke of York was a prince of more integrity and fabness, but he was inferior to his brothers in power of mind. The King's mother dreaded the influence of these princes of the blood royal, and kept young Eichard as much aloof from them as possible. He seems to have grown up His early in the society of courtiers, and of sycophants, low Clow &- alike in rank and disposition. Eichard II. thus con- vouritism. tracted early that foolish self-sacrificing fondness for worthless favourites, which had brought Edward II. to shame, dethronement, and death, and which was at tended with the same results in his own case. None of the principal actors in State affairs during importance this reign can inspire much personal interest ; but it reign Tn is a very important period in English constitutional Shis- VOL. II. z tory. 338 EIOHAED II. chap, history, as well as in the social history of our nation, a IL part of our subject abeady dealt with. Adverting 1386. briefly to the mbitary events of this reign, and to many portions of the feuds and plots of the King and of the leading nobles against each other, we shab find much to deserve attention in the proceedings of the Parliaments, and of the tribunals of justice ; and in Eichard's attempt to make them completely sub servient to the royal will. The French The last truce made by Edward III. with the Kmg Revises 0I" France had expired shortly before Eichard's acces- °ftk.e, sion; and the French had then renewed hostilities English. ' • . . with great activity, not only attacking the remnants of the Engbsh possessions on the Continent, but sweeping our merchant ships from the Channel, plundering the English coast, and menacing the whole The Duke realm with more serious invasion. The Spanish ter^cMms S(lua(lron aided the French in these operations, in con-/,' on the sequence of the Duke of Lancaster continuing to claim I Castuie. the crown of Castille in right of his wife, the daughter of King Pedro the Cruel. Some of the hostbe at-'' tempts made by the enemies were bravely repulsed ; and more than one expedition of Engbsh ships and troops was led against them with varying success. Expense of But, on the whole, the war was disastrous to England, ana Ion- ' especially by reason of the enormous expenses which pressure of ^ ma<^e inevitable, and by the increased pressure of taxation, taxation on the English people. In 1386, the selfish perfirf ambition of the Duke of Lancaster exposed England French in- i0 serious risk of actual invasion and permanent con- vasion in . - . 1386. quest by French armies. Lancaster, in the June of et^dttion8 ^at year> to°k with h'im t0 Spain the greater part of to Castiiie. ^ne English navy, and an army of 10,000 men, which comprised the flower of the chivaby of the nation. His operations in Spain ended in a compromise with ATTEMPT TO INYADE ENGLAND. 339 the reigning King of Castble, by which Lancaster's chap. daughter acquired a throne, and Lancaster himself IL gained a considerable annuity ; but in the meanwhile 13S6' England was nearly lost. The advisers of the young French King, Charles VL, saw the opportunity of deal ing a deadly blow against France's great enemy, and they prepared to avad themselves of that opportunity with unusual vigour. Every ship between Seville and Hamburg, that the French could bring into their ser vice, was collected in the harbour of Sluys, and in the adjacent harbours along the Flemish coast. The French strength of King and his nobles marched thither at the head of a armament. large army, the most brilliant, and the best-equipped, that had been brought together under the Oriflamme for many years. Heavy taxes had been imposed on ab classes of the French nation for the equipment of this great armament. Transports for the embarcation and conveyance of cavalry, as well as of infantry, had been prepared ; and the total number of large vessels that lay ready for the expedition was reckoned at thirteen hundred and eighty-seven. On the English side the Feebleness preparations for defence were tardy and feeble ; and it English seems certain that the invasion would have been j?enpsa]^ effected, and that heavy calamities, if not actual subju- defence. gation, would have been brought upon our country, had not the winds been steadily adverse to the French, Thg cooping their vessels in harbour from the middle of fleet coast- August, which had been fixed as the time for sailing, adverse y until the last day of October, when at last the im- Tnnds- patient host welcomed a wind that blew fair for Eng land. They embarked and put forth, unopposed by any human enemies ; but before they had proceeded many miles, the wind, blew again from the old quarter, and freshened to a gale, which drove them back to the Flemish coast, with heavy loss both of ships and men. Z 2 340 EIOHAED II. CHAP. VL Truce with France in Hostilitieswith the Scotch in this reign. Successful expeditionof Richard to Ireland, 1394. Retrospectof Irish affairsafter the Anglo-IrishBarons' victories at Athun ree and Dundalk.Revival of the Barons' feuds, and of the dis cord be tween the IrishBarons and the Crown. After this failure the expedition was first adjourned until the following year, and ultimately altogether abandoned. Predatory warfare in the channel and along its coasts continued for the next ten years, when Eichard married a princess of France, and an agreement for a truce for twenty-five years between the two nations formed one of the articles of the marriage-treaty. As usual, while the French had been carrying on hostilities with England, the Scotch had done the same. The usual devastations had been spread over the border shires of each country; and in 1385 a powerful Engbsh army, under King Eichard himself, entered Scotland ; and, like so many other powerful English armies, found no enemy to encounter it in the open field, overran much undefended territory, captured several castles and towns, and marched back and disbanded, without having effected anything towards finally determining the long struggle between the two nations. In 1394 Eichard led, with better success, an expedition into Ireland, where the native Irish had been gaining considerable advantages over the English settlers. We have seen that in Edward II.'s reign the English settlers in Ireland, when brought to extreme perb by the rising of the native Irish under Phelim O'Connor, and by the Scottish invasion headed by Edward Bruce, had for a while laid aside their feuds with each other, and had re-established English ascendancy by the victories of Athunree and Dundalk. But the old dis sension between baron and baron, and between the general body of Anglo-Irish barons and the King of England, soon revived. An attempt which Edward III. made to secure more loyal officers of the Crown in Ireland only introduced a fresh element of discord. He EICHAED'S WINTEE IN IEELAND. 341 introduced, in 1341, a new body of officials, ab of chap. English birth as well as of English race ; and he at IL the same time attempted an extensive resumption and redistribution of lands that had been granted by the ment of e Crown. The Anglo-Irish hated these mere English ^ee\ new comers even worse than they hated the natives. **? ?ng- T J Iish by Intermarriages between the Irish and the descendants birth, and of the old Anglo-Norman settlers became more and lislby." more frequent; and increasing numbers of the last ^ood; , -11 t • t t The Angl0- assumed the name, language, habits, and party-feelings Irish blend of the aboriginal septs. The Crown vainly attempted ™0H with to prevent this by the Statute of Kilkenny, which ^s^ere forbade intermarriage between the two races, and ineffectual endeavoured to enforce the maintenance of Engbsh checktins laws and English customs with severe and singular g^J^ o£ minuteness. But stib the Anti-English movement Kilkenny, 1367 continued : the King's dominion in Ireland grew less r^ di. and less, until the whole island seemed likely to escape ^°^n °jj altogether from his rule. England's Eichard II. landed at Waterford in the autumn of Ireland. 1394 with a splendid army, comprising four thousand strength of men-at-arms and thirty thousand English archers, with which The appearance of the King in person at the head of la^de^ in such a force awed mutinous barons and rebebious IrelancI- chiefs into temporary submission. Eichard remained submission in the island for some months, during which he be- AEn^. stowed great care in reforming the mass of abuses of ^^and the Anglo-Irish government. He did more by these Irish. means to restore and strengthen his dominion there ^^! than could have been effected by victories in the field ; duct there- and his Irish winter is the most creditable period of his reign. We now address ourselves to the internal history of internal England while Eichard was on the throne, and also England during the period of his dethronement. re^the13 342 EICHAED II. CHAP. VI. most im portant. Richard'sFirst Par liament, October 13, 1377. The Com mons re quire suc cessfullythat the monies voted by them for the war shall be placed in the hands of commis sionersnamed in Parliament. Second Parliament, Oct. 1378. The Com mons re quire the accounts of past ex penditure to be laid before them. 1379. Accounts freely renderedby the Govern ment, The proceedings of the very first Parliament, thai assembled after his accession, deserve our careful consi deration. It wib be remembered with what boldness the Commons had in the last year but one of King Edward's reign demanded and enforced the redress of grievances, and the punishment of offenders against the State. A temporary reaction had ensued during the brief interval between the death of the Black Prince and the death of King Edward ; but in the Parliament that assembled in the October after the accession of Eichard the majority of the Eepresen- tatives of the Commons were the same men who had been prominent in the " Good Parliament," as the Eeforming Parbament of 1376 .was popularly styled. When the usual demand of subsidies to meet the expenses of the war was made in Parliament on behalf of the King, the Commons succeeded in an important stipulation that the monies voted and levied for that purpose should be paid into the hands of officers nominated and sworn in Parbament to see that those monies were appropriated to the purposes of the war exclusively. In the next Parliament the Commons demanded to have the accounts of these officers laid before them. The King's ministers objected; but the Commons were firm, and the accounts were produced and submitted to their scrutiny. This submission on the part of the Government was accompanied by a protest that the accounts were exhibited by the King as a mere act of grace, and that it was not to be drawn into a precedent. But in the next year the Government offered the production of accounts as soon as the Parliament assembled, and before there had been even a petition for this exhibition. PAELIAMENT OPPOSES THE CEOWN. 343 The events connected with the insurrection of the chap. peasantry and its suppression have been already IL narrated; including the emphatic address by the Commons in 1382, complaining of misgovernment, demands and urging administrative reform. As Eichard ad- commons vanced in years, and took part in actual government, fo? ?d; t • t i 1 • • t . mimstra- his bad qualities, his excessive prodigality, his prone- tivere- ness to favouritism, and his haughty violence at the j^^ least check or remonstrance, began to display them- badquaii- selves more and more. The discontent between the veiope Crown and the Commons grew more and more *hemsdTes' formidable. The necessities of the Government made discontent between own and Parlia- the annual assembling of a Parliament indispensable ; thYcri and the opening of every session was marked by ment. requisitions for augmented supplies on one side, and by demands for ministerial changes on the other. At Collision in 1386 last, in the 10th year of Eichard's reign, the storm of popular indignation broke ; and he found himself obliged for a time to bend completely beneath it. The King's uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, placed The Duke himself at the head of the Parliamentarian party cesterat against the Crown. Gloucester was a violent and g;^cfs0f unprincipled man ; and it is impossible to ascertain opponents. how far personal animosity and selfish ambition may have instigated many of the measures taken on the side of which he was the leader. The chief object of attack on the part of the The two Parliament was the Earl of Suffolk, who was Eichard's attackthe Chancellor, and who was regarded as his most influential g„^ minister. The two Houses sent a message to the King, Richard's demanding the removal of Suffolk from the Council, and October 1/ stating that charges were to be preferred against him. Eichard haughtily replied that he would not discharge Richard's his meanest scullion on their interference. He bade * Stance. them address themselves to the grant of a subsidy ; 344 . EICHAED II. chap, and leaving Westminster, where the Houses were IL assembled, the King betook himself to the palace of 1386. Eltham, where, with his favourites around him, he S-awsft'om indulged in his customary pageantry and festivals. London. gut fe na(j n0 armed force to back him up in the high tone which he had assumed, and the next proceedings of the Parliament warned him that his only choice lay between submission or deposition. The Firmness Houses refused to consider the subject of a subsidy, Houses. until the King should dismiss the Chancellor, as desired by them ; and they moreover asked the King to appear personally in his proper royal station in his Parliament. One member of the House of Commons moved that the Statute or Eesolution of Parliament by which Edward II. had been deposed should be sent for and read aloud.* Gloucester headed a deputation to the King, and urged strongly on him the peril in which he was placing himself by prolonged refusal to the popular de- Richard mands. Eichard obtained a promise that there should be no molestation of his ministers or statesmen, except the impeachment of the Chancebor ; and he then attended in Parliament, and consented to Suffolk's removal from office, and to the investigation of the charges against him. SS?rf " The Commons impeached Lord Suffolk as the chief " I agree entirely with Mr. HaUam's reasoning (vol. iii. Middle Ages, p. 68, note) as to the substantial accuracy of the narrative of these pro ceedings which is given by Knyghton. The absence of any mention of them in the Parliamentary roll is the less important, because we have good reason to know that the Parliamentary reoords of this time were tampered with by those in power. It is probable that the treatise called the " Modus tenendi Parliamentum " was referred to by the Parliamentary leaders on this occasion. The pro bable date of this treatise, and the great importance which was assigned to it, have been spoken of at p. 24, et seq. of this volume. See the olause requiring the King's personal attendance in Parliament, cited at p. 27. IMPEACHMENT OE LOED SUFFOLK. 345 agent in the misappropriation of supplies, which had chap. been granted for specific purposes ; and they imputed . 1 to such misappropriation the late frequent captures of x^86- English vessels at sea, the ravages of the English Suffolk. coasts, and the fall of the city of Ghent, one of England's oldest and best allies. Other articles charged him with serious matters of maladministration in the internal affairs of the kingdom. There were also charges of personal misconduct in accepting excessive grants from the Crown, and of official misconduct as Chancellor, in putting the great seal to ibegal pardons and charters. The accused was heard in his defence before the Lords ; the managers for the Commons repbed, and the Earl was then allowed to speak last by way of rejoinder. The Lords found him guilty of the slighter parts of the charges only : and judgment was given against him that he should forfeit certain sums which he had received, and be imprisoned during the King's favour. Such a sentence against a king's favourite was little more than nominal ; and Suffolk was at liberty soon after the dissolution of the Parliament in which he had been prosecuted. But his impeachment is, justly Constitu- regarded as a most important circumstance in our poXncTof constitutional history. The high rank of the offender, this triaL the nature of some of the charges for maladminis tration on which the Commons impeached him, and the methodical regularity of the proceedings, made the trial of Lord Suffolk a still more valuable precedent and authority than the trials of Latimer, Peachy, and others in the late reign had been, to establish the responsibility to Parliament of the Crown's advisers, and the right and power of the Commons, acting as the grand inquest of the whole nation, to bring State offenders to justice, even 346 EICHAED II. chap, if they have committed no specific offence, of which IL the ordinary tribunals could take cognisance. 1386. ipjjg nex£ measures of Gloucester and the popular party were of a more violent and revolutionary character, though not wholly unwarranted by pre cedent, and certainly not without considerable justifi cation, on account of the persevering folly and favouritism, which the young King had been exhibit ing, and the effects of which was so disastrous to the Commis- commonwealth. Following the course taken by the pomtedto associated Barons against King John in 1215, by their \ abuses and descendants against Henry III. in 1258, and by the j th °KinSel Karons who opposed Edward II. and his favourites in 1310, the Commons demanded that the King should. sign a commission appointing eleven Prelates and' Barons, together with the three chief officers of State, to be a permanent Council to inquire into and reform I it is made abuses, and to advise the Crown. Heavy penalties ' thwart" were to be imposed on ab who thwarted theb counsel. advice. The King yielded, and the commission was appointed for a twelvemonth. It comprised Glou cester, and others who had been most active against The so- the Kmg; and, practically, almost ab power was practically taken out of the King's hands, so long as the Corn- put in mission existed. It is vain to speculate whether not commission Jp for a year, only Gloucester, but also the great body of the Eng lishmen of wealth and substance who had formed the predominant party in the Parliament of 1386 intended that the Commission, though nominally for a year, should be prolonged, so as to be a virtual dethronement of the King ; or whether (which is far more probable) the general design of the Parbamentarians was to restore the royal authority to Eichard, after a season, during which abuses might have been reformed, evil counsellors and favourites kept away from the royal ALIENATION OF PAETIES IN THE STATE. 347 presence ; and during which a prince, who had shown chap. before the age of manhood such bright flashes of 1 manly spbit and sense, might have trained himself 1386- to shake off boyish fobies, to curb profligate and degrading propensities, and to rule as well as to reign in the spirit of his father the Black Prince, and of his royal grandfather in that grandfather's happiest days. Before the twelvemonth appointed ^eThe for the duration of the Commission had expired, end of the open civil war between the King and his people had broken out. Eichard had never designed to do penance under the rod of the Commissioners for a moment longer than superior force made submission unavoidable ; and, before the Parliament of 1386 separated, he made a formal protestation that nothing which had been done therein should enure to the prejudice of the King, or to the disparagement of the preroga tives of the Crown. He had many adherents ; and Richard he forthwith applied his abdities, which were con- for reaction siderable, to gain and organise partisans, by whose Tenge? aid he might liberate his royalty, and obtain a full reyenge upon those who had enthralled it. Gloucester seems to have watched him narrowly but silently, to have given him no warning, and to have attempted no check upon his first measures. Gloucester's general character warrants too well the belief that he must have seen with pleasure the young King's entry on a course sure to end in open colbsion and hostilities, and to place the reality, if not the name, of sovereignty more and more within Gloucester's grasp. One of those who stood highest in Eichard's favour Robert de was Eobert De Vere, who had received from the King 1/^1^ the dignities of Earl of Oxford, Marquis of Dublin, 348 EICHAED II. chap, and Duke of Ireland, with powers of viceroyalty over IL that island. By the stipulation which Eichard had .1387. made in favour of his other friends, when he consented to the trial of Suffolk, De Vere retained his honours and wealth ; and the King's will was announced The King that he should repair to his Irish government. No Duke of objection was raised by Gloucester to this, or to the travel to King's accompanying him as far as Wales. The real onihe^ lf 0DJect 0I" Eichard and his adherents was to obtain the road to opportunity of concerting their reactionary measures out of the sight and reach of the ruling Commissioners. They go He and the Duke of Ireland moved from Wales to the to°theWales North of England, where pains were taken to win over Inknd ^e JoxmS n°bles and the chief gentry and citizens, to collect and to induce them to wear Eichard's Every, and take an oath to stand by him against ab manner of men The Judges whatsoever. At Nottingham he was joined by Sir at Notting- Nicholas Bramber, one of Eichard's most vehement ejrtra-ju^ partisans in the city of London, by Sb Wibiam didai Tresiban, the Chief Justice, and four other iudges, opinions . T7-- ! obtained who were thought to be most zealous rn the Kings aglTnstthe cause. A Council was held at Nottingham Castle, Stents an(^ on Tresiban and the other judges being sum moned before the King, certain written questions were propounded to them, in which it was, among other things, demanded how those ought to be punished, who had procured the making of the late Commission. The Judges' answer was that ab who had done so were punishable by death, as were those also who excited the King to consent to the statute ordaining the Commission. The King asked them whether, if in a speech from the throne, the King limited certain subjects as those to which the Parbament should attend, and the Lords and Commons nevertheless proceeded to other business, and would not give heed SUBSERVIENCY OE THE JUDGES. 349 to what the King desired, until he had answered the chap, matters which they brought before him, such disobe- IL dience to the royal will was unlawful. The Judges 138?- repbed that they who so disobeyed the King should be punished as traitors. Tbey said also, on further questioning, that it was treason to impeach in Parlia ment any of the King's officers and justices against the King's will ; and that the person who in the late Parliament bad moved that the Statute deposing. Edward II. should be sent for, ought to suffer death as a traitor. These answers were written carefuby down, and the judges' seals were set to them. An oath of secrecy was imposed on all present ; but full intelligence of all that passed was sent the next day to the Earl of Kent, who transmitted it to Gloucester. Having, as he supposed, thus ensured the condem- Richard nation and judicial destruction of his adversaries, toVack°ars Eichard further endeavoured to pack a House of Com- ^j*1" mons, and obtain a Parliament as subservient as the Bench. The sheriffs received the King's commands to allow no knight to be returned who had taken part against the Crown in the late troubles. The answers given by the sheriffs were generally unfavourable to Eichard's requisition; but he determined to proceed by arresting the chiefs of the party opposed to him, and by sending them for trial before the judges who were pledged to convict them. Bibs of indictment indictment were accordingly prepared by the King's legal officers, ^^i and Sir Nicholas Bramber pledged himself that stib f^s more effective weapons should be ready on the royal against the side in the hands ' of the citizens of London. The Lte p°ar- e Commission was to expire on the 1 9th of November. hament- On the 10th of that month Eichard, with the sup- Nov. 10. porters whom he had been able to muster, entered ^f1 London amid the enthusiastic cheers of many of the London ^ in seeming 350 EIOHAED II. chap, inhabitants, whom Sb? Nicholas Bramber had persuaded IL to wear the King's livery of white and crimson, and whom 1387. fe fe^ sworu in as the King's supporters until their last Crushing breath. But his vigilant and powerful adversaries his adver- fe^ been more active still. On the morrow after his saries. Vigilant triumphant entry into his capital, Eichard learned, Ste nfea- w^ consternation, that an army led by the Earls of sures taken Derby, of Arundel, and of Nottingham, and others of cester and the most powerful nobles, as well as by the Duke of ¦ theechief Gloucester, had been silently and rapidly drawn toge- deS the ^er "fco ^e gates of London. Eesistance on the part of King's the royalists was impossible ; and the Duke of Ireland schemes. * x FUght of and the other royal favourites sought safety in flight. favourX! By Eichard's orders, the Duke of Ireland raised some The Duke forces in Wales and Cheshbe, and marched towards raises a London to liberate the King. But he was encountered^ %*£* and totally defeated at Eadcot Bridge by part of Defeated by the Baronial forces under Gloucester and the Earl of/ , Gloucester t-v t and the Derby. Derb°f Gloucester was now completely master of the State. Complete A Parliament was summoned, which was more zealous oTgioucS orL h^13 s^e even ~^an th^ °£ ^e preceding year. Prose- to- cutions in Parliament were instituted against the Duke ment sum- of Ireland and the Earl of Suffolk (who both evaded PrTcu- apprehension), the Archbishop of York, Sir Eobert Tre- tions sbian, and Sb Nicholas Bramber for high treason. The King's ' other judges who had signed with Tresiban were also andnthe°rs tried as traitors, as were afterwards many more of the judges. King's best-known advisers and adherents. Justly Violence of P, , „ ,, ,, Gloucester punisned as were many of these men, there was a "Merciless degree of violence and vindictiveness in the proceed- Pariia- [ngS agamst them, which gained generally for the as sembly in which they were condemned, the name of the " Merciless Parliament," though the resolute ad herents of Gloucester styled it the " Wise Parliament," EIOHAED EESUMES THE GOVEENMENT. 35 1 For a little more than a year the Duke of Gloucester chap. was the real lord of England. Whether during that IL time he alienated from him personally the other 1389- powerful barons who had taken part with him against the Crown, or how it was that he neglected keeping up a force sufficient to maintain his as cendancy, we know not; but it is certain that Eichard Richard- in May, 1389, by a sudden and decided expression recover^ of his royal wib, took the administration out of p°wer- Gloucester's hands ; and became again a real king. At a fub meeting of the Council he turned unex pectedly towards Gloucester, saying, "Uncle, I request you to tell me my age." Gloucester replied, " Your Highness is in your twenty-second year." " Then," said Eichard, " I must be old enough to govern for myself. I have been longer under guardianship than any ward in my realm. My lord, you are dismissed with thanks for your past services. " Eichard proceeded to demand the seals of office from the Archbishop of York, who was Chancellor, and the keys of the Exchequer from the Bishop of Hereford, who was Treasurer. All yielded in helpless amaze- The King ment to the resolute commands of the King; who own friends forthwith placed friends of his own in all the high s^te!*0* offices of State. Eichard used his regained authority Period of at first with lenity as well as with firmness. The ^p^. Duke of Lancaster about this time returned from Spain cmiiiity. to England, and endeavoured, with seeming success, to fj^^oi effect a reconciliation between the King and Glouces- ^eL^ke ter. Lancaster's son, the Earl of Derby, became for caster. a time as zealous seemingly in support of the King, as ^1J^.rf he had been on the side of his opponents. A period ™«» of comparative quiet followed, during which (1394) ^el. the King undertook the expedition to Ireland, which £™r*0and) has already been spoken of. It was also during this 1394. 352 EIOHAED II. chap, pause from civil strife that Eichard concluded (1396) IL the twenty-five years' truce with France, and entered into a contract of marriage with Isabella, the French marriage King's daughter, who then was only seven years of ™th t age. Eichard's first wife, Anne of Bohemia, had died rrench o Princess, chddless in 1394. with™6 Whether the renewal of designs against Eichard by i396°e' Gloucester revived Eichard's animosity against his Renewal of uncle, or whether the King had all along dissembled sentions^ his undying hatred, and only bided his time until he 1397, could work fub vengeance on those who had baffled and humbled him in 1387, it is difficult to determine. Both states of facts may to some extent have con curred. But certainly in 1397 the King threw aside all mask and moderation, and assailed his old enemies with equal dexterity and ferocity. He had assured himself of the fub support of several of the most powerful nobles, among whom were two, the Earl of Derby and the Earl of Nottingham, who bad given Measures most effective aid to Gloucester in 1387. There procure°a seems also reason to believe that the King took Parfilment measures to secure the presence in Parliament of through the many Commoners on whom he could rely. This fluency of Royalist could be easdy done, if the sheriffs, who conducted the elections and made the returns, were creatures of the King ; and the complaints against Eichard for ibegaby continuing the same person in office as sheriff for more than a year, with the King's avowed deter mination to act as he thought fit in the matter, tend strongly to show that this mode of packing a House of Commons was then understood and employed. Thus forearmed himself, the King determined to seize his enemies unforewarned. There was always risk of an insurrection if a powerful baron knew beforehand that his arrest was intended. But Eichard secured AEREST OE THE KING'S OPPONENTS. 353 the persons of the chief objects of his hate, of the chap. Earls of Warwick and Arundel, and the Duke of YL Gloucester, by the most unscrupulous, but skilful, 1397- treachery. Warwick was invited to the royal table as Treache- an apparently esteemed friend, and was arrested the pXs^d same night. The Archbishop of Canterbury, who was arreg.of, Arundel's brother, was induced to bring Arundel to chief the King, as if the Earl's private advice was sought by Eichard; and Arundel was then instantly apprehended and hurried to the Tower. Eichard took into his own hands the task of luring his uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, to destruction. Gloucester was residing with his famby at his castle at Plashy, near London. Eichard rode thither with a small retinue, as if on a visit of friendship to his uncle, partook of supper with him, and after many fair words to Gloucester, and also to the Duchess and theb? children, who were present, Eichard persuaded the Duke to accompany him back to London. They rode together for some distance in conversation, bke friends; but when they had ad vanced as far as Stratford, the Earl Marshal made his appearance with a considerable number of the royal par tisans. Eichard then spurred away from his victim's side, and the Earl Marshal instantly arrested Gloucester in the King's name. He was thought too dangerous an inmate Gloucester for any English prison ; and was taken by Eichard's or- ^aTaS1 ders to Calais, where he was soon afterwards murdered. A Parliament was now convened ; and, to insure its Meeting of subserviency, the King, when he came to open its pro- ^ja" ceedings, was accompanied by a powerful force of knights, men-at-arms, and archers, who ab wore the royal livery. The Earls of Derby and Nottingham, and the other nobles, who had banded together to serve the King in those scenes of violence, now came forward to play their part. They appealed of treason 354 EICH AED II. chap, the Duke of Gloucester, the Earl of Arundel, and the IL Earl of Warwick. Gloucester's death at Calais might 1397- have cut short the forms of judicial proceedings against teaPseon°f him, but Eichard coveted his uncle's wealth. The Gloucester, lords appebant accordingly pressed for judgment Arundel, ' against the dead man, and he was attainted as a wick. traitor, and all his property was declared forfeit to the Crown. Arundel was beheaded, and Warwick was impeach- banished for bfe. The obsequious Parliament was Xets!f ready with impeachments against others of the King's enemies. Lord Cobham was banished to the isle of Jersey for his life. Sentence of outlawry was passed against Lord Mortimer, who had escaped to Ireland. The Archbishop of Canterbury was impeached, and sentenced to banishment for life, and to forfeiture of The com- all his temporalities. The Parliament annulled as 1386 an- illegal the Commission of 1386, and cancebed all aiimrdons pardons that had been granted under it. The answers under ' i* of Tresiban and the other judges to the King's ques- Tresiiian's tions in 1387 were recapitulated, and were declared to extra-judi- feYe Deen given iustly and lawfull v. The sentence cial answers ° ° J J declared against the Earl of Suffolk on his impeachment in true" "'"' 1386 was reversed. The Parliament which thus overthrew the proceedings of its predecessors endea voured to make its own perpetual, by enacting that it should be treason even to attempt to repeal any of them ; and, in order to make them stib more binding, ab the Peers and members of the Commons on the last day of the session bound themselves by a solemn oath in the King's presence to observe them ; and a bull was procured from Pope Boniface, at the close of the Parliament, solemnly ratifying ab its acts, declaring them to be irreversible by future Parliaments, and denouncing excommunication against any future sove reign who should attempt to. annul them. POST-PAELIAMENTAET COMMITTEE. 355 Such an abundance of slavish zeal must have made chap. Eichard weU content with his Peers and his House of YIm Commons, who had, moreover, granted him a tax on 1397- wool for his life ; but he seems to have made up his obtam^the mind to rule in future at his own will, without the means.ofgoverning formality or trouble of convening, and of packing and without coercing Parliament. It was not unusual towards the ments. close of a Parliament for Commissioners to be ap pointed, who had authority to consider and dispose of petitions which the shortness of the session had not allowed to be inquired into and decided. A Commis- His post- sion was granted in Eichard's last Parliament reciting ParIf" o o mentary the pending of such petitions, and authorising eighteen Committee. Commissioners to act after Parbament was dissolved, and to examine and fully determine as well the said petitions and matters therein comprised, " as all other matters and things moved in the King's presence, and ab things incident thereto not yet determined, as shall seem best to them." The statute confirming the Com mission (21 E. 2, c. 16) recites the pending of peti tions only, and gives express power to adjudicate on petitions only, but it also refers to the record of the Commission and the Parliamentary robs as setting out the statute more fully.* Any person who heard or read this Commission would suppose that " the other matters and things " spoken of in it referred to such matters and things only as were of the same nature as the petitions which were speciaby recited. Certainly every * "Come plus pleinement appiert en le roUe du Parlement." This diminishes the weight of the statute as evidence against Richard on the charge of having falsified the roU of Parliament as to this commission ; one of the charges brought against him when he was deposed (see Mr. HaUam's remarks on this, vol. iii. p. 78). Of course it does not prove Richard's innocence of the charge; but the wording of both the com- mision as it stands, and of the statute, seems to me to have been made craftily and purposely vague and general, so as not to awake suspicion at the time, but to be available for ulterior purposes. a a 2 356 EIOHAED II. chap, one would understand that the general words applied IL only to matters already pending, and not to new 1397, matters that might arise after the termination of the Parbament. But Eichard had taken care that a ma jority of the Commissioners should consist of his unscrupulous adherents ; and he and they, when the session of Parliament was over, assumed that the powers of the Commission extended permanently to all State affairs of every date and description. It was declared to be high treason to disobey the ordinances of the Commission, and an oath was imposed on all peers and prelates to keep both the statutes and ordinances made by the last Parliament, and those made after wards by " the lords and knights to whom the Kmg and the Parliament had committed power." ofDMb18 Eichard had rewarded the Earls of Derby and and Not- Nottingham for the parts taken by them in these male™ proceedings by raising them in the peerage, Derby Hereford becoming Duke of Hereford, and Nottingham being and Nor- made. Duke of Norfolk. The King's express pardon Their dis- had been granted to them for their share in the events KTntlnd6 of 1386 and 1387 > but they Jus% distrusted the of each King's sincerity ; and, like all renegades who have been accomplices in treachery, they with equal cause dis- Hereford trusted each other. A quarrel between them ended in Norfolk be- Hereford accusing Norfolk of being a traitorous slan- g^gtlie derer of the King. Eichard, with the advice of his Trial by Commissioners, ordered the trial by battle between ordered. the disputants. But when the time arrived, and the thing's signal f°r ^he armed litigants to encounter in the lists command, had been actuaby given, the King forbade the fight, Dukes and consulted his committee respecting the rival dukes. arbitrarily Then, acting as with the advice and concurrent autho- ancUuf mg r*ty °f Bis Parliamentary Commissioners, the Kmg sum- committee, marily banished both accuser and accused from England. DEATH OF JOHN OE GAUNT. 357 State-offences were set out in the sentence against chap. Norfolk, who was banished for life. The reason for '_ Hereford's exde was abeged to be the necessity of 1398- preserving the pubbc peace ; and he received sentence of banishment for ten years. Both Dukes obtained patents from the King authorising them to take possession by attorney of any inheritance that might devolve on . them, while thus compulsorby absent from the realm. But soon afterwards, on the death of Hereford's Death of father, old John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster, Gaunt. Eichard and his councb declared the letters patent to ^ Aero be null and void, and the lost patrimony of the ford> Duke banished Hereford was seized on by the King and the ter, of Ms rapacious favourites, with whom Eichard loved to be patnmony- surrounded. The King was now triumphant. Ab old humdia- Triumph- tions, which he had borne from peer or Parbament, ™ Richard" were amply revenged. His long-detested foes were in traitors' graves, or were pining in exde and poverty. He had a revenue for life. He had a council of devoted partisans, with whom he could make or break what laws he liked, and try and sentence whomsoever he pleased. He had made himself despot of his people ; oppressive and he gave ab classes of his people a speedy and c^?ct«r bitter lesson of what despotic rule can mean. He despotism. compebed men to give him theb? monies under the name of loans. He forced others to sign deeds con fessing themselves to have been gudty of treason, and to be bound to pay penalties to the King, the sums of which were left in blank when the bonds were signed, and afterwards filled up according to the caprice of Eichard's favourites, on whom he lavished these instru ments of extortion. He declared the inhabitants of seventeen counties at once to be out of the protection of the law, under the pretence that they had aided 358 EICHAED n. chap, the King's enemies twelve years before in the hostili- IL ties at Eadcot bridge. Men thus placed under legal 1399- disabilities were obliged to bribe the King's courtiers to obtain charters of pardon ; and in the meanwhile were exposed without redress to outrage by the King's officials and adherents on theb? persons, their fambies, • and theb property. While thus earning the indignant hatred of the nation, Eichard had the arrogant temerity to leave England for a new expedition against the mal content Irish, who had defeated and killed his cousin The King an(j heir-apparent, the Earl of March. Eichard set Ireland, sail with a sumptuously equipped force from Milford ThTbuke Haven for Dublin in May, 1399, and early in July his of Lancas- banished cousin (who had become Duke of Lancaster ter lands m cz-mittnttt t> England in on John of Gaunt s death) landed at Eavenspur, in Yorkshire, at the head of a scanty band of fifteen Lancaster * lances. He was received with enthusiasm. The power- by aiT16 ful Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland imme- ciasses. diately j oined him. The Duke of York (who had been left Eegent of England) was afraid or unwdling to oppose him; and the Duke of Lancaster advanced His pro- unresisted to London, with an army that increased at London. every march. Political oaths in those days, as in others, were taken with a readiness and frequency commensurate with the facility with which they were HidPde" broken. The Duke swore solemnly that he came only modera- to claim his just inheritance, and to recover the honours hisp'erjury. and estates which had belonged to his father, and which had been unjustly withheld from him. This quieted the scruples, which some might have felt as to joining an army avowedly raised to dethrone the King ; and the Duke was welcomed in London, as in every other town, by men of all ranks and parties, except the lately insolent but now terrified favourites of Richard's of Eichard. These, wherever captured, were put to favourites. EICHAED COMMITTED TO THE TOWEE. 359 death without mercy. After a brief halt in London chap. the Duke marched westward, in expectation of en- __1 countering Eichard, whose speedy return from Ireland 1399- with the troops that he had led thither, was naturally looked for. The King had been vainly pursuing some bands of Irish rebels ; and a considerable time passed without his receiving intelligence of Lancaster's landing in Eng land. On being apprised of it, Eichard sent the Earl Board's . r . . . attempts to of Salisbury with a small body of soldiers immediately raise a to Wales, with orders to levy troops there, whbe the England. King collected his forces and shipping at Dubbn for embarkation, and strengthened them by recruits gained from among the Irish. Salisbury formed an army of some strength in Wales under the royal standard ; but Eichard's coming was long delayed ; and before he arrived Salisbury's raw levies and also his old troops had disbanded and dispersed. The greater part of the His return . . to Wales. force which Eichard led in person, deserted him on the He . de[ second day after his landing, and he fled for safety to serted °y the strong castle of Conway. The Duke of Lancaster's every one, army speedily approached the neighbourhood. By refuge in treachery and perjury the Earl of Northumberland {|i™t™y persuaded Eichard to leave the castle, and then made The Earl of him prisoner and conducted him to Flint, where the ^eblnTby Duke had halted. Lancaster met Eichard with formal treachery, reverence as his King, saying that he would help him Richard to govern his people better. Writs were issued by the Duke's" Duke's orders in King Eichard's name, summoning a P°wer- Parliament to meet at Westminster. The royal captive • Eichard a was conducted to London, and lodged in the Tower, the Towe™ the title of King being still given to him, but his of London. treatment becoming more and more rigorous. On the 29th of September, the day before that Hisabdica- appointed for the opening of the Parliament, a depu- September. 1399. 360 EICHAED n. CHAP. VI. 1399. His deposi tion by the Three Es tates, Sept. 30, 1399. Legislation of this reign.Labour laws. 1. Ric. 2, c. 6. .12 Ric. 2, c. 4. tation of prelates, barons, knights, and judges came to Eichard in the Tower, and presented to him a formal deed of abdication, which, according to the report inserted in the Eolls of Parliament, he willingly adopted, and read aloud, as expressing his own wbl. By it he confessed himself to be incapable of reigning, and worthy for his past demerits to be deposed ; he absolved his subjects on their part from all fealty and allegiance, and for his own part renounced ab kingly authority. This document was read aloud the next day before the assembled members of the two Houses of Parliament. All formalities, that could point out the fact of there being no King, were rigidly observed. No Commissioner opened the proceedings — the name of Parliament was not assumed ; but the members of both Houses were arranged in Westminster Hab before an empty throne. Eichard's abdication was then read to them, and each member of the Three Estates, of tbe Lords Spiritual, the Lords Temporal, and the Commons, declared aloud that the resignation was accepted. Thirty-two articles of accusation against Eichard, for various acts of misgovernment, were then laid before the assembly, in order tbat a vote of dethronement might be added to the acceptance of the abdication. One man alone, the Bishop of Carbsle, denied the right to depose the King. With that exception, a unani mous vote of condemnation and dethronement was given by the Three Estates ; and Eichard of Bordeaux ceased to be King of England. We have already had occasion to notice some of the most important legislation of this reign ; the labour laws and the poor laws ; the statutes of Provisors and of Premunire, more severe than the former statutes on the same subject, and which were rendered necessary by the increased rapacity which each of the THE EIEST GENEEAL GAME LAW. 36 1 rival Popes displayed. Probably the growing influence chap. of Lollardism in tbe Parliament contributed to the \ passing of these laws. We may also trace this influence As to Pro- in the statute passed in this reign to check the arti- 13 Ric. 2, fices, by which the ecclesiastics evaded the restraints of %6 \ic- 2 the Mortmain Acts. c- 5- One statute of this reign requires special observation. Diminished The severity of the old Forest laws was now much twdy° diminished, and Eichard's Parliament took measures ?orestlaws. to guard against some abuses of power by the officers of the Crown, which still were practised under colour of these ancient royal game laws.* But at the same „ x?89- „ ^ ° Passing ot time they laid the foundation of a new system of game the first laws in favour of the upper classes against the lower, gameUw. which was maintained for many centuries. The Act to J3-^10' 2' which we refer, recites that divers artificers, labourers, servants, and grooms kept greyhounds and other dogs, and that they went hunting during church-time in the parks, warrens, and connigries of lords and others ; and also that these artificers and labourers, under pretence of these huntings, made "theb* assemblies, conferences and conspiracies for to rise and disobey their abegiance." The Act then ordains " that no manner of artificer, labourer, nor any other layman, which hath not lands or tenements to the value of forty shillings by the year, nor any priest, nor any clerk, if he be not advanced to the value of ten pounds by the year, shall have or keep from henceforth any greyhound, hound, or other dog to hunt ; nor shall they use fyrets, heys, nets, harepipes, nor cords, nor other engines, for to take or destroy deer, hares, nor conies, nor other gentleman's game, upon pain of one year's imprisonment ; and that the justices of peace • 13 R. 2, stat. i. 362 EIOHAED II. CHAP. VI. Title of Marquessintroduced by Richard. Creation of peers in Parliament ; and crea tion by letters patent. have power to inquire of the offenders in this behalf, and punish them by the pain aforesaid." This statute adds emphatic testimony in addition to the numerous proofs cited in the last chapter but one, of the bitterness of feeling between the rich and the poor, which was then prevalent. Many who heard this law, and who were punished under it, must have thought over, even if they durst not repeat, John Bab's revolutionary rhyme about the privileged gentry. The very recital in the statute as to the seditious assemblies stib organised by the lower classes, shows that the spirit of disaffection was far from being quelled with Wat Tyler. King Eichard II. introduced the title of marquess in our peerage. He made his favourite Eobert de Vere Marquess of Dublin by a charter, which is entered in the Bolls of Parliament, and purports to have been granted with the consent of the Estates of the realm. Several peerages had been granted by creation in Par liament in Edward III.'s time ; and other instances are to be found in the Eolls of Parliament of Eichard's reign, and of the reign of Henry V. But creation by letters patent granted by the King now became the usual mode of conferring a peerage. In some cases the assent of Parliament appears to have been given to the patents ; but that is not always to be traced. The reign of Eichard II. is usually taken to be the period when the doctrine was settled as to creation of peerage by writ ; that the King's writ of summons, if acted on by the grantee taking his seat, but not otherwise, con fers the dignity and privileges of peerage, which descend to lineal, but not to cobateral heirs. It is said also to have been then established that the royal grant of peerage by letters patent ennobles the grantee and his heirs, although the grantee omits to take his INCEEASED POWEE OE COUET OE CHANOEEY. 363 seat among the peers by virtue of the patent. Pro- chap. bably it was not until a later period that these consti- IL tutional rules were thoroughly recognised ; but. it is certain that they grew by degrees into fub establish ment.* The actual authority of the Court of Chancery was increased much increased in this reign by an improvement in the tnTcourtof process and practice of the Court, which was effected Chancery- by John Waltham, Bishop of Salisbury, who was Master of the Eolls for many years in this reign, and who was Keeper of the Great Seal under several Chan cellors, but never was Chancellor himself. He intro duced the practice of issuing a writ of subpoena to compel the appearance of the party, against whom a complaint . had been made before the Chancellor. The complainant was required to file a written state ment of his grievances before the writ was issued ; and the defendant was obliged to put in a written answer to this " bib " of the plaintiff. The great increase in the number, and in the importance of the cases, which were decided by the Court of Chancery after these improvements in its system of procedure, has led many writers to describe Bishop Waltham as the founder of the equitable jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery, It is of greater antiquity. It is traced clearly as high as Edward L's reign, nor is there any proof that it then was regarded as a novelty.t * See supra, vol. i. p. 451, for an account of the early Peerages by Baronial Tenure, and of Peerages by Writ. With respect to the fact of some of the peerages granted by Richard having been Ufe-peerages, see ibid., and the debates in the House of Lords on the Wensleydale peerage in Hansard, vol. cxi. f See Lord Campbell's Lives of the Chancellors, vol. i. pp. 299, 308, respecting Bishop Stratford and his Process; and see Lord Campbell's introductory chapters. See also Mr. HaUam's supplementary note x. to chapter viii. part iii. of his Middle Ages. CHAPTEE VII. Henry of Lancaster claims the Crown — Questions as to the lawful course that should have been taken — Commencement of the reigns of the Lancastrian line of Princes— General character of our history from this period to the close of the wars between the Houses of Lancaster and York — Greater harmony between Crown and Parliament — Increase of power of Parliament— Hostility of Commons against the Church — Perse cutions of the Lollards — Disturbed reign of Henry IV. — RebeUions in England ; insurrections in Wales — Henry's Crusading projects — His death. CHAP. VII. Henryclaims the throne of England, Sept. 30, 1399, Words of his claim. Its inten tional vagueness, and many- headed-ness. : When the sentence deposing Eichard of Bordeaux. was read in Westminster Hab, his cousin, Henry, Duke of Lancaster, rose from the seat which he had been occupying as chief ofthe nobles of England, and having first crossed himself with great solemnity, he advanced towards the throne, and pronounced these words : — " In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I,. Henry of Lancaster, claim this realm of England and the Crown, with ab the members and appurtenances thereof, inasmuch as I am descended by right line of blood coming from the good Lord King Henry IIL, and through that right which God of his grace has sent me with help of my kin and of my friends to recover it ; the which realm was in point to be ruined through default of governance, and through the over throwing of its good laws." This claim was purposely vague in its reasons, though specific enough in its object. An open claim by right of conquest would have given offence. A HENET IV. ASCENDS THE THEONE. 365 claim founded broadly and avowedly on the ground chap. that it was for the public good to have Henry for King '_ instead of Eichard, might have been sufficient at the 1399- time ; but a Crown gained for such reasons would have been in constant peril of being taken away again by any stronghanded competitor, who might allege that the public good required a further change of the chief magistrate. Henry, therefore, insinuated rather than averred both these reasons for his claim ; and he added to them a stib more vague title by descent, which he worded, as if anxious to avail himself of a vulgar legend, that his maternal great -great-grandfather, Edmund of Lancaster, Edward L's younger brother, was really the eldest son of Henry IIL, but had on account of per sonal deformity been excluded from the succession. But Henry had an army ready to support his claims, Henry's even if they had been ten times more vague and pre- mo^effec- posterous ; he was strong also in the partizanship of tive claim- the chief nobles, and the goodwill of the nation. His His p°pu- claim was heard with applause by the Estates assembled T™ EstateS in convention, and by the multitudes that thronged of the Westminster Hall and its approaches. The two Arch- choose him bishops placed him on the throne, whence he addressed ^ /"^ the assembly as their King. throned as txt- / -i 1 • • Henry IV. Henry IV. (surnamed among nis contemporaries Hispre- Henry of Bolingbroke, and often cabed by the drama- ^"J1^66* tists and other writers of a later age, " Bolingbroke " raster. only, from Bolingbroke in Lincolnshbe, where he was born in 1366), was in the prime of early manhood when he ascended the throne of England. His high birth, his personal accomplishments, and his renown for knightly prowess, had long won for him the favour of the people, which had naturally been increased by the injustice and oppression prac tised on him by the late King in arbitrarily banishing 366 HENEY IV. chap, him from the realm, and in despoiling him of his m patrimony. In moral qualities Henry was as defi- 1399. cient, as he was eminent in physical and intellectual moral cha- endowments. He had during the last reign leagued racter. himseif first with Gloucester against the King, and then with the King against Gloucester; and, how ever amply Eichard's subsequent tyranny may have justified him in returning from banishment, and in heading the national movement by which Eichard was His falsity, deposed, he used perjury and perfidy as instruments to gain his ends, with an alacrity and a profusion, which threw a slur over his motives throughout the whole enterprise. Selfish, crafty, unrelenting, he was little capable of acting as the nation's disinterested deliverer from misrule, and of giving his country the benefit of his great abilities and energies as her Protector, while guarding also the royal rights of the true heir, who, after the dethronement of Eichard IL, ought to have become King Edmund. His pedi- Dismissing the absurd fable about Henry of Boling- the Crown, broke's right of descent from Henry IIL, and about The de- Edward I., Edward IL, Edward IIL, and the late King Richard having been ab usurpers, we find on tracing up to been suc^ Edward III. (Eichard when dethroned having been ceededby cliildless) that there were living in 1399 bneal and law- Edmund, ful descendants of Lionel, the third son of Edward IIL, whereas Henry of Bolingbroke was descended from that King's fourth son, John of Gaunt. Lionel's only child had been a daughter, named Phdippa, who had married Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March. Theb? son, Eoger Mortimer, Earl of March and Ulster, had been recog nised by Eichard II. as his heir presumptive, and had been solemnly declared to be so by the English Par liament in 1385. He was killed in action in Ireland in the year before Eichard's dethronement ; but he left CHAEAOTEE OE HENET IV. 36? issue, a son named Edmund, and two daughters, one chap. of whom, Anne Mortimer, married the son of Edward IL. of Langley, Edward III.'s fifth son and Duke of York. 1399- In 1399 young Edmund Mortimer was scarcely nine Perils of a years old ; and the perils to tbe country of a long royal n^ty^n minority formed the only valid reason for excluding ^ of him from the throne. But these supposed perbs could Edmund, not possibly have equalled the actual horrors of the to the Civb War between the Houses of York and Lancaster, civTwar, which resulted from the wrong done in 1399 to the ^ch were ° the actual House of March, through which House the House of conse- York afterwards claimed the throne. This was not a setting up case, such as occurred three centuries afterwards on the g^y# dethronement of James IL, when the young heir to the Case not . throne, who stood next in right of lineage, was beyond jamesii.'s seas, in the custody of the deposed King himself, and j^lsT' sure to be brought up in bitter hatred of the constitu tional principles and of the religious creed of the great majority of his countrymen. Young Edmund Mortimer was in England ; he could have received, under the care of Henry of Bolingbroke himself, the fitting education of an English Prince and an English Sovereign ; and, on coming to a fit age to govern, he would have had no ancestral wrongs to avenge, no hereditary animosi ties to gratify. But for Henry of Bolingbroke to forego Henry in the crown that was within his grasp, and to place it on and perfidy the rightful owner's head ; for him to have been con- ^f^0.* tent with a subject's station and the consciousness of yacter of having saved his country, would have requbed an amount of magnanimity, and of generous truthful devotion to duty, which was wholly foreign to his character, and to the character of his age in general. That acre must chronologically be considered one of the ages of chivalry ; but I know of .few periods, when meanness, selfishness, perfidy, and cruelty, among men 368 HENEY IV. chap, in highest stations, were more rife and rancorous, than IL. in the last decade of the fourteenth and in the first de- 1399- cade of the fifteenth centuries. underlie We now begin the History of England under the Houses of Houses of Lancaster and York.* It is a portion of and York, our history of about a century in duration, teeming character of w^ c^v^ strife ; and it is signalised by an episode of our history foreign War, most unjust in motive, most unwise in during this ° . . 1 . period. purpose, but brilliant almost beyond parallel in the andcrvii splendour of its early successes, fobowed by reverses wars. even more humiliating than those, which darkened the of political6 close of the reign of Edward IIL There is much tutionT*1" t0 study in the internal and pobtical history of this history. time, as to the steady growth of the power of Parlia- powerof ment, and also the apparently systematic attempts meLt? made during one of the Lancastrian reigns to make Progress the House of Commons more subject to the influence the down of the Crown, and to narrow materiaby the exercise ing^nflu- of the electoral franchise. Pariir*" When the Convention of Estates had (on Sept. 30, ment, and 1399) accepted and declared Henry of Bobngbroke as larizingthe King of England, he forthwith issued writs for a brancifof Parliament to assemble in six days. To hold the lature818" election within that time was, of course, impracticable ; Henry nor was it intended that any election should take place. Summons The same members, that had attended in the Conven- toaPar- ^0I1 0f States under King Eichard's writs, now liament. © ? attended as members of Parliament under King Henry's writs. The use of such a self-evidently mendacious fictions"not formality may cause the modern reader to smbe, but it attests the extreme anxiety of the new Government to * The words used by Tacitus at the commencement of his Histories are remarkably applicable to this part of English history. " Opus aggredior opimum casibus, atrox prseliis, discors seditionibus, ipsa etiam pace ssevum, Quatuor Principes ferro intereinpti. Tria bella civilia, plura externa." fiction.Such legal fictions no' unmeaning, DEATH OF KING EICHAED II. 369 keep up the semblance of constitutional regularity, and chap. to avoid any appearance of arbitrary rule by right of 1 conquest. The new Parliament forthwith set aside 1399- Acts of nearly ab the proceedings of Eichard's last Parbament, Richard's and restored, as valid, those of Gloucester's Parbament i^men^" in 1386. The dissensions of some of the leading reTCrsed- nobles in the House of Peers were so violent as almost among the to lead to personal conflict ; and in a very short time "oWes; a formidable conspbacy against the new King warned against him by how precarious a tenure he held his sovereignty. enry' He detected and put down the insurrection with his Quelled. usual abdity and promptitude. The Earls of Kent and Huntingdon (King Eichard's half-brothers), the Earl of Salisbury, the Lords Despencer and Lumley, who had been among the chief conspbators, were put to death by the people of the places whither they had fled ; and a greater victim soon perished. The known Fatal to the intent of the conspbators had been to restore King Eichard. Eichard, who had since his dethronement been kept, by the advice of Parliament, in close custody, and had been from time to time removed from one strong- castle to another. The last place, that Eichard of Bordeaux entered abve, was Pontefract Castle. That was before the dis covery of the conspbacy of Huntingdon and his con federates against Henry. The 3rd of January was the day on which that conspiracy was to have been carried into effect, by the murder of Henry. On the 14th of Richard February it was announced that Eichard, late King of pontefract. England, had died at Pontefract. The fact of his death there is certain ; though (as is common in sbnbar cases) reports were afterwards circulated of his having escaped ; and an impostor in Scotland, who personated him, received some notice and encouragement from Henry's enemies. The manner of Eichard's death at VOL. II. B B 370 HENEY IV. chap. Pontefract was a mystery, respecting which many IL. rumours gained partial credence. One, which has been noo. immortalised by Shakespeare, represented him asldbed by Sir Piers Exton, a zealous partizan of King Henry ; another account, to which the lyric genius of another of our poets has given almost equal celebrity, told of the royal captive's death by starvation. The body was brought to London, and exposed to public view ; but in such a manner, with the face uncovered only from the lower part of the forehead to the throat, that no evidence of the mode of death was given by the exhibition. The body was buried at Langley, by Henry IV.'s order; but afterwards Henry V, who when a child had been treated by Eichard with per sonal kindness, removed it to Westminster Abbey, where it was deposited with royal honours. Henry's re- In his relations with foreign powers Henry IV. ford^with found as little prospect of tranquillity as at home. powers. t^ Kings of France and Scotland refused to recognise Scotland him, and professed to consider the truces between them recognise an<^ England as terminated by Eichard's death. Henry him- warded off a threatened invasion on the part of the French, by restoring Isabella, the youthful widow of Eichard, to her father, King Charles VL, and by giving back also some of the jewels which had formed part of Wretched her dowry. Soon after this the feud between the Dukes France. of Orleans and Burgundy began to disconcert the No de- French councils ; and no open declaration of war was clared war n_^J-_ . by France made on the part of the French during Henry s reign, England, though the remains of the English possessions in sm/hos8- Guienne were more than once assailed by French com- tiiitics at manders ; and at sea the mariners of the two nations sea, and along tho continued to capture each other's vessels, and to attack each other's villages and towns along the coasts of' the Channel. coast. KING JAMES OE SCOTLAND HELD CAPTIVE. 371 Henry invaded Scotland and burnt Edinburgh in chap. 1401 ; and when in the following year the Scots at- l^L tempted to retaliate by invading England, their army, 14ul- under the Earl of Douglas, was entirely defeated by invades the English forces under Henry Percy (surnamed Hot- i^l? nd' spur) at Homildon Hill. A few years afterwards, King Hotspur's Henry obtained an opportunity (of which he unscrupu- ™eKchr lously avaded himself) of warding off all danger from ^Sept. the side of Scotland, more effectually than by mibtary u> im- successes. The feeble and aged King of Scotland had seen, with deep affliction and terror, the death of his eldest son, Prince David, through the machi nations of the Duke of Albany, who was aiming at the Scottish crown. King Eobert had one son left, Prince James, and to secure the royal child from Albany's attacks, he caused him to be secretly placed on board a ship at Leith, which was to convey him to France, to be sheltered and educated at the friendly court of that country. But the vessel was captured Prince by an English cruiser, and the young prince was g^and carried prisoner to London. The tidings of this |^"!*0 second bereavement broke old King Eobert's heart, power, and and the Duke of Albany became Eegent of Scotland, for many So long as Henry IV. detained young King James in g^J. England, Albany was sure of exercising really sove reign power in Scotland. And, on the other hand, so long as Albany's regency was secured by James' de tention, the English King was not troubled with serious warfare on his northern frontier. Young King James was not released until after nineteen years of captivity, during which he had the benefit of honour able treatment and an excellent education ; but those advantages, given under such circumstances, could not atone for the mean and unjust policy by which he was kept so long an exile from his native dominions. B B 2 3F2 CHAP. VII. 1401. Hostilities on the side of Wales. Rise and character of Sir Owen, afterwards PrinceOwen Glen- dower. Glen- dower's training at the English bar, and in King Richard's Court. He is that King'scompanion on his last voyage to Ireland and return. Glendower retires to his home in Wales. His lands unjustly seized by the Eng lish, and justice de nied to him. HENEY IV. The hostbities which Henry IV. had to sustain on the part of Wales were more continuous and harassing. The English rule had never been cheerfully submitted to by the Welsh population, who stib cherished the recollection of their old independence, and the legends of their old glory. A descendant of their ancient kings, Owen Glendower, now appeared among them as theb? chief and champion against the English conquerors, and nearly succeeded in acquiring the throne of Wales, which he claimed to inherit. Glen dower was no mere fanatical enthusiast, or daring and crafty savage ; but he was a highly educated and accomplished politician and captain ; and he was in all respects one of the most remarkable men of his age. He had in youth studied at the English Inns of Court, and acquired the rank of barrister ; and he had after wards received the honour of knighthood, and had held appointments in the Court of Eichard II. He had accompanied that King on his last expedition to Ireland : and on his return he had been a witness of the treachery by which Henry of Bolingbroke's partizans induced Eichard to place himself in their power. Sir Owen Glendower then retired to his patri monial territories in Wales. He found there that an English nobleman, Lord Grey, who had possessions in the neighbourhood, had forcibty seized upon some land, as to which there had previously been a dispute be tween them, but which had been adjudged to be Glendower's property by a solemn judgment in King Eichard's time. Glendower petitioned the English Parliament for redress, but his suit was rejected ; and Lord Grey, who represented Glendower to be a partizan of Eichard and disloyal to the new dynasty, obtained grants from the Crown of other parts of the Welsh chieftain's estates. Glendower forcibly and sue- ! Up arms. 1401. i coun- OWEN GLENDOWEE IN AEMS. 373 cessfuby resisted the attempts made to despoil him of chap. his heritage, and being thus committed to a position of ^t. open hostility to the King of England, he called on 1401"5- his countrymen to rise and re-assert theb? freedom, and ^d°we' proclaimed his own right to be their King, as lineal descendant of Llewellyn, the last native sovereign of His . Wales. Glendower showed marvebous skib und power *!% round in availing himself ©f the poetic legends and pro- Mm- phecies, that were current among the imaginative thesov™S population whom he addressed; and he encouraged ^^yrf the bebef, which soon spread among friends and foes, that he himself was gifted with superhuman powers, such as had formerly been wielded by the renowned magician of Welsh mythical history and poetry, Merlin. In the field Glendower was judicious as web as He thrice daring,, and he availed himself to the utmost of the KmgS advantages, which a wbd and mountainous country H^i_ gives to its defenders against invading armies. King 1*02. Henry IV. three times led the English forces against Glendower in person, and was each time obliged to retire from Wales, with little honour and much loss. Glendower gained also many advantages over other He is de- English commanders ; but during his chequered career j^ce y he experienced several defeats, two of which were Henry- given him, in 1405, by young Prince Henry, after wards Henry V., who in the difficult and obstinate warfare against the Welsh acquired the military expe rience and generalship, of which France afterwards received such, terrible proofs. Stbl Glendower main tained the struggle. He was recognised by the French Glendower as their ally, and as sovereign of Wales ; and certainly thestmggie that country down to the close of Glendower 's life was mg^ ™cYs; far more truly the independent principality of Prince *^is Owen, than part of the dominion of King Henry. 374 HENEY IV. CHAP. VII. 1403. English in surrectionsagainst Henry IV. Revolt of the Earl of Northum berland. 1403. Douglasjoins Hot spur, and they march to form a junction with Glen dower. Henry IV. encountersHotspurand Dou glas, at Shrews bury, July 23, 1403. Death of Hotspur.Completevictory of KingHenry. But Henry IV. found among the English, who had consented for a time to be his subjects, far more for midable enemies than his Welsh, his French, or his Scottish foes. The powerful house of Northumber land, which had been mainly instrumental in raising him to the throne, soon became discontented with their new ruler, and disaffection grew into open war. The Earl of Northumberland's son, Henry Percy, sur named Hotspur, the victor of Homildon, led the English insurgents, who were strengthened by a Scottish force under Douglas, whom Percy had de feated and captured at Hombdon, but whose friendship he had won by setting him at liberty without ransom. Percy and Douglas marched towards Wales in order to form a junction with Glendower, with whom the Earl of Northumberland had made alliance, and who was to co-operate in the dethronement of Henry IV. The English King acted in this emergency with vigour worthy of his mibtary fame. Cobecting rapidly a small but wed-appointed army, he crossed Percy's line of march at Shrewsbury, and brought on an action, before the Northumbrians and Scotch could be joined by the Welsh. The battle that fobowed was obstinately contested. The two armies were well-matched : not large in numbers, but composed of excebent materials, and officered by noblemen of the highest chivalric courage, and of proved martial abibty. The result was decisively in favour of King Henry. Percy was kibed, and the other chief leaders of the insurgents were taken prisoners. Young Prince Henry, then aged only 1 7, fought his first fight at Shrewsbury, and was wounded in the face by an arrow. Both he and King Henry signalised themselves by the personal prowess, which in those days was expected of generals,. at least as much as strategical skill. NOETHEEN CONSPIEAOIES. 375 In 1405, the Archbishop of York, the Earl of chap. Northumberland, the Earl of Nottingham, and other m powerful nobles, formed a thbd confederacy against A140i'13- King Henry. The Eoyabst commander, the Earl of rebellion in Westmoreland, got the Archbishop and the Earl of l^ovn Nottingham into his power by a gross piece of treachery, by fraud. They were both beheaded ; and others implicated in The leaders the rebebion were severely punished. The Earl of teiiion,™ Northumberland escaped to Scotland, but returned to f^Tand England in 1408, and again cobected an insurrec- thefeariof • p ¦ t 1 • -r. t Notting- tionary force m the northern counties. But the ham, are Sheriff of Yorkshire raised troops on the King's side, J traitors. and engaged the rebels at Bramham Moor. North- Another umberland was totaby defeated. He was himself thTlorth, killed on the field ; and there was no more open ^rUf*116 rebellion in England during the short remnant of Northum- Henry IV.'s reign. But that reign continued to be 1408. The a wretched and uneasy one to the King himself. He featedtnd had long lost the popularity which he had enjoyed ^^m when he first obtained the throne. He knew himself Moor. to be the object of disfavour and hatred with many, olnenvfa and he himself doubted the loyalty of nearly all. His reign' suspicions extended even to his gallant son, the Prince of Wales, who, as he thought, was too eager to become King. Severe bodily dlness was added to Henry IV.'s He dies at mental suffering, and he died, utterly worn out, at the minster, early age of forty-seven. He said on his death-bed f^* 20' ' that it had been his fixed purpose to lead an army to Hiscru- ^ the Holy Land. There is no reason to question the p^cts. sincerity of this speech. Henry of Bolingbroke's early His early ¦'. tit tt-/-^ i fame as a renown m arms had been won by him as a Lrusader crusader. against the Pagan King of Lithuania. According to Froissart, he had also in his youth travelled in Palestine and Egypt. While he was King of England, the Greek Emperor, John Palseologus, had visited London to im- 376 HENEY IV. chap, plore the English to join with the other nations of YI1- Western Christendom in a crusade against the Ottoman Turks, who had by the commencement of the fifteenth century conquered the greater part of the Greek Em pire in Europe, and were menacing Constantinople itself ; although at the time of Henry's death the tem porary overthrow of the Ottoman power by Timour nad relieved Eastern Christendom from immediate perd. Domestic Henry IV, in his domestic administration, was mJiiTof sedulously anxious to conciliate and retain the favour Henry iv. 0£ j.fe ^wo p0werful bodies, which had so materiaby ence to his aided his advancement to the throne — Parliament and ment" the Clergy. There were no complaints in his time of the subjects' money being extorted by the Crown without Parliamentary assent. The right of the Commons to direct the appropriation of supplies, and' to require an account of State disbursements, was fuby recognised and practised. The King repeatedly and expressly admitted the right of Parbament to interfere with his choice of ministers ; and on one occasion, when the Commons had addressed him, praying the removal of certain persons from the royal household, Henry not only dismissed his officials as requested, but went on to assure the Commons that he would do as much with any other about his royal person, whom he should find to have incurred the hatred of his people. He also desbed the Commons to use no reserve in pointing out to him any measure which they thought would be acceptable in the sight of God and useful and honourable for the King and the realm, and he promised them that he would willingly carry out such measures according to their good counsel and advice. Henry's Archbishop Arundel had done more than any other firm alii. x -PEESEOTJTION OE THE LOLLAEDS. 377 man in promoting the deposition of Eichard, and the chap. coronation of Henry of Bolingbroke in Eichard's stead. IL. He and the great majority of the English clergy j^1^ continued steadfast in support of Henry's royalty, clergy. even against the few, but eminent, members of theb? ^hbLhop own order, who joined in the insurrections against the Arundel on House of Lancaster. * Henry appreciated web the support, which an abiance with the crozier gave to a sceptre so infirm as that which he newly wielded. In Henry's the preamble to part of a Statute passed by him early declaration in his reign he openly proclaimed that he bore in £uudetc>a" remembrance the faithful hearts and the great affection, tie clerey> which the clergy of England had shown towards him, intention to and also the great charges, which the same clergy had therr°inte- sustained for his honour and profit after the time of rests- his coronation, and that he was therefore wihing to show himself a gracious lord to them in their affairs. Part of the recompense, which the clergy requbed The clergy of Henry for their valued assistance, was the co-ope- statute for ration of the State with the Church in endeavouring j^rS8 to extirpate the Lobards, under which term were com prised the followers of Wyclif, and also many more enemies of the Papacy and of the Eoman Catholic Hierarchy, who held and were ready to practise doctrines far more fanatical and violent, than any that Wyclif had ever taught or sanctioned. Whatever may have been the exact sense of the Meaning of term " Lollard " when first introduced, it certainly was \ZT." soon used generaby as meaning a noxious heretic, one of the weeds (Lolia) which infest the Lord's vineyard, and one of the tares, which the Evil One has sown among » Richard Scrope, Archbishop of York, was one of the chiefs of the rising in 1405. He was beheaded for treason without any remonstrance from the Church. 378 HENEY IV. CHAP. VII. Variety of sects to which it was ap plied. Increased violence of the Lollards. They peti tion Par liamentpraying for the aboli tion of the Church es- tabish-ment, of all trades and the wheat in the Lord's field.* The word was applied by the supporters of existing ecclesiastical institutions, by those who deemed themselves the orthodox adhe rents of the ancient faith, to every one, who was an innovator, and who was supposed therefore to be a heretic, as to creed, as to ritual, as to the orders in the Church, or as to the authority and endowments of the clergy. It has been observed in former chapters that Wyclif in his lifetime was far from being the only preacher and writer against the Pope, and the Friars, and the Prelates, and the established doctrines of the Church. After his death the variety of opinions among those whom their adversaries classed under the com mon term of "Lollards," must have increased greatly; and it is probable that those who went the farthest, were also the loudest and the most notorious.f The attempts made by Archbishop Courtenay to repress this spring-tide of innovation, though in some in stances successful, must in many more cases have provoked a still fiercer and more fanatical spbit. In 1395 a large number of Lollards presented a petition to the Houses of Parliament against the clergy, in which they stated that, "The Church of England, when she fobowed the example of her great step-mother, the Church of Eome, grew mad with temporal wealth, and was abandoned by Faith, * See, for example, the title given to his book by the great opponent of the Wyclifites, Thomas Netter of Walden. He calls it " Bundles of the tares of John Wyclif, with wheat." " Fasciculi Zizaniorum magistri Johannis Wyclif, cum tritico." See, too, the rhyming Latin poem written " evidently soon after the insurrection " of the peasants, given in Mr. Wright's col lection, p. 231, He says in the fourth stanza, LoUardi sunt zizania, Spinss, vepres, ac lolia, Quse vastant hortum vinoas. f See in note to p. 333, supra, a short list of the doctrines which we have reason to believe were common to all the Lollards. DEMANDS OE THE LOLLAEDS. 379 Hope, and Charity. That the combination of spiritual chap. and temporal authority in one person is pernicious and YIL unnatural. The Priesthood of the English clergy is ^ _ . , ° ° . crafts, not no true Priesthood, having been conveyed by men in needed for mortal sin. Transubstantiation is false and idolatrous; 0f dmp" so are Pdgrimages, and the worship of images, reliques, ^™t^_ and the cross. Auricular confession, indulgences, and asainst , 0 war, and conventual vows are unscriptural and pernicious. It against is directly against the New Testament to slay men in p^nfcL- war ; or to put them to death by pretended course of ment' justice for a temporal offence, without a spiritual revelation that it is to be done."* The Lollard petitioners finally declare that a multi tude of arts and handicrafts were practised in the realm, which were not needed for a life of apostolical poverty ; and that ab such arts and crafts, those, for example, of goldsmiths, armourers, and others not absolutely neces sary for the supply of mankind with food and raiment, ought to be abolished.f Placards of the same nature were fixed on the doors Violent of St. Paul's Cathedral, and of St. Peter's at Westmin- placards. ster, and in other conspicuous places in and near the metropolis. There is also extant a popular poem, in English, Popular composed about this period, in which not only are the VU?) de- prelates and friars bitterly satirized, and theb? cross- ^e^|*d charges against the Lollards confuted, but the " stir- slaughter of th.6 "prslsi- ring of a sterne strife" is sung ; and under the thin ticai party. allegory of a conflict of birds, the poet describes how the Prelatical party first oppressed the Lollards, but how the Lollards returned to. the conflict with an * Homicidiuin per bellum vel pretensum legem justitise pro temporali causa sine spirituali revelatione est expresse contrarium Novo Testamento. f The petition is given at length in 3 Wilkins, Concil. p. 220. It is shortly mentioned by Walsingham. 380 HENEY IV. chap, auxiliary phoenix, and routed their opponents, " doing m vengeance and no grace," slaying them ab, till they disappeared from the earth.* It is reasonable to suppose that the political poetry of that age which has come down to us, is only a frag ment of what was once in existence ; and that other poems and babads, of the same spirit, as is shown in this surviving poem, were then circulated among the people. These exhibitions of anarchical violence on the part of the Lollards may in part account for the acqui escence of the Commons in the terrible legislation against the Lollards, which the clergy obtained early in Henry IV.'s reign. They certainly account in a great degree for the earnestness, with which the chiefs of the clergy sought that legislation, and for the rigour with which they enforced it. Archbishop Archbishop Arundel was the great leader of the the^hief persecution of the Lobards, and the main author of ofthelltor the Statute for the burning of Heretics. As such, he Lollards. nas [n modern times been naturally regarded with IpiritTn detestation. But however much we may sympathise which the w^]j those, who suffered under Arundel, however much persecutors ' ' of that age and however rightly we may admire those martyrs to judged. the cause of what they and most of us bebeved and * See in Mr. Wright's coRection of Political Songs, &o., Rolls edition, vol. i. p. 304, the poem entitled " The Complaint of the Ploughman," and especially the concluding stanzas at pp. 344, 345. As Mr. Wright observes (Introduction, lxxviii.), since the publication of Langland's poem of the Vision of Piers Ploughman (see p. 351, supra), the Ploughman had been adopted in popular literature as the representative of political and religious purity. The writer of the Ploughman's complaint makes a feigned attempt in his two last stanzas to disavow all recommendations to violence, and to lay the blame of such things on his imaginary bird. Such postscripts to a stirring description of successful insurrection neither have nor are in tended to have much restraining efficacy. This poem shows how early the title of Lollards, or LoUers, was adopted by the sectaries themselves. See the second stanza, page 305. PEEVAILING NOTIONS EESPECTING HEEESY. 351 believe to be truth, we must, in justice, pause a little chap. before we join in the unmeasured obloquy, which for J^i the last three centuries has been heaped upon the me mories of the Archbishop and his coadjutors. We must consider whether Arundel may not have honestly (even . if mistakenly) believed, that it was he who was acting in the cause of truth; and whether he may not have honestly (though mistakenly) also believed, that the extirpation of heresy by the fire and faggot was the most effectual means of serving the cause of truth. We must judge a churchman of the olden time by the same rule that we apply to the acts of an ancient statesman. In order to see rightly whether or not he is morally blameable, we must regard his conduct by the light which he possessed, and not by the fresh light which the experience of after-ages has supplied. Throughout Christendom heresy had for many cen- Universal turies been regarded not as a mere error, but as a those ages crime. Throughout the realms of Christendom, Church *hat h.eresy o ' is a crime. and State had for centuries been united ; and it was Almost deemed to be theb? duty to co-operate against crime. Mjlfthat Throughout Christendom it was believed that heretics herfA 1 o , ought to be must perish eternally ; and the increase of a crime, punished which destroyed souls, was regarded as far more dread- utmost ful, than the increase of crimes, that affected only man's ^c worldly goods, or man's body. It was urged, by church- oi. a11 men upon princes that, if it is the duty of rulers to put to death the criminal who deprives his neighbour of chattels or of earthly life, how much more is it their duty so to punish the criminal, who robs his fellow- creatures of salvation. Very few disputed that argu ment. We may feel proud that an English prelate of that age, Eobert Hall am, Bishop of Salisbury, stood forth in the Council of Constance in 1416 to oppose rigour, as worst 382 HENEY IV. chap, the burning of John Huss ; and that our countryman IL then quoted the maxim, " God wibeth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be converted and live," as forbidding the punishment of death for heresy.* But Eobert Hallam stood alone. He, too, even he, regarded heresy as sinful ; and, though he counselled leniency, would hardly have advised tolera tion. Still less would he or any other man of those ages have acquiesced in theories of full religious liberty. Belief m Moreover, the churchmen and statesmen of those thafitwL times not only bebeved that the forcible and punitive practicable suppression of heresy was a moral and a religious duty, to suppress -r x J a % J heresy by but they also believed that it was quite practicable. tion. We, in the nineteenth century, know that the effect of persecution is generally to strengthen and to spread the persecuted sect. We know, also, that even where per secution is successful, and where all churches and sects, except one, are stamped out, the one church, which is preserved and fostered by such means, is bable to be come corrupt in a far greater degree, than churches, which are exposed to the wholesome though turbulent influences of the rivalry and the moral censorship of co-existent, sects. The church, which monopobses State protection, and which employs the brute force of the State against all who do not bow down to it, eventuaby alienates nearly all the educated and active intebect of the community not merely from the church, but from religion altogether. If the most zealous Eomish princes and prelates of the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries could have foreseen the present condition of the two great European countries, in which the growth of religious reform was really extinguished by persecu- * Milman's Hist. Lat. Christianity, vol. vi. p. 214. AEOHBISHOP AEUNDEL. 383 tion, they would have paused, before they entered on a chap. policy, which, even where it is successful for a time, IL proves eventually so anti-Christian as well as anti- Catholic. Judging, however, according to the opinions pre- Arundel valent in their own age, Archbishop Arundel and the ZSt it other English churchmen of his time may have natu- his.duty t0 n i t t t extirpate rally looked on the growing numbers and audacity of Loiiardism; the Lollards with indignation and alarm, and have felt Xttinad- that it was their own duty to encounter them with aitionai , , . power for stronger measures, than had hitherto been employed, the law for In all other Eoman Catholic countries, the civil magis- p0se.PUr" trates obeyed unhesitatingly the mandates of the clergy in their condemnations of heresy, and executed promptly theb? sentences on the heretics, whom the clergy had convicted. In England alone, the sheriffs and other officers of the State would not act on the mere writ or warrant of an ecclesiastical court. We have seen that an unsuccessful attempt had been made by Archbishop Courtenay in 1382 to obtain the assistance of the temporal arm against the Wyclifites, as to arrest and imprisonment ; but his successor, Archbishop Arundel, now obtained that co-operation, even to the extent of inflicting sentence of death.* The Archbishop and the clergy did ab in their Policy and zeal of the * It cannot be said that the old temporal law of England before tho passing of Henry IV.'s statute was altogether ignorant of heresy as a punish able crime. Bracton, an English judge, whose treatise on the Laws of England was written about the close of Henry III.'s reign, speaks of the punishment of hereticks by burning ; and it is doubtful whether the writ " de heretico comburendo " was or was not in existence among the common law formulas before Henry IV.'s Act. But it is certain that the old common law for the punishment of heresy by the temporal Courts (what ever it may formerly have been) had completely f aUen into desuetude long before the commencement of Henry IV.'s reign. No ecclesiastic could pro cure the issue of a writ from the King's Courts " de heretico comburendo," or of any other writ founded on a mere ecclesiastical sentence ; and no sheriff would have burned or otherwise punished a man on the mere authority of ecclesiastical process, 384 HENEY IV. CHAP. VII. clergy in connecting Lollardism withtreason. The Earl of Salisbury a Lollard. Alarm of wealthy laymen at the anar chical doc trines of some of the Lollards. power to make the maintenance of institutions under the new dynasty, and the maintenance of the Church against heresy, appear identical. The Earl of Salis bury, one of the leaders of the rising, against Henry at the beginning of his reign, had been a well-known holder of Wycbf's doctrines, and it was notorious that the Lollards looked up to him as one of theb? champions against the prelatical party. ' He was to be a Phoenix (in the abegorical language of the Lobard poem above referred to), that was to scatter and smite the corrupt and oppressive brood. Arch bishop Arundel and the London clergy were ostenta tiously and inhumanly loyal in celebrating Henry's triumph over the great Lobard rebel, and in leading the procession, which met and insulted over the lifeless remains of the traitorous heretics.. Many of the temporal Peers and many of the Commons must have been alarmed at the anarchical and violent spirit which part at least of the sectaries had been displaying in the petition, and placards and babads lately mentioned ; and it appears to have been with the fub consent of his lay Peers, and his knights of the shire and burgesses* that * According to the statute itself, as drawn up and published in Latin (evidently by a clerical hand), the Commons had joined in the petition, on which the statute was founded. But the entry of the petition on the Par liament RoU does not mention the Commons as among the petitioners for the new law. Hence, it has been supposed by many that the enactment never had the assent of the Three Estates of the realm, but that it was falsely put forward as a, regular statute by the clergy, just as they had in the preceding reign interpolated among the statutes of the Parliament held in the fifth year of Richard II. an enactment (5 R. 2, stat. 2, c. 5) for the apprehension of hereticks. That fraud had been indignantly exposed by the Commons in the foUowing year, who required the formal repeal of the spurious enactment. But no such remonstrance or complaint followed the passing of the 2 Hen. 4, c. xv., although it was promptly carried into execu tion, and human beings were burned pubUcly under its authority. Nay, the RoUs of ParUament show that the Commons at the end of the session 2 Hen. 4 thanked the King for the legislation of the session for the putting down of heresy. It is very likely that the ecclesiastics, who drew the statute up, did not STATUTE DE HEEETICO COMBEEENDO. 385 Henry IV., at the instance of the clergy, ordained and chap. established in the Parliament holden at Westminster in IL. the second year of his reign the statute, which is usuaby The Par- cited as the Statute for the Burning of Heretics. It p^^the bears in the Statute Book the following solemn title : — statute De o Heretico " The Orthodoxy of the Faith of the Church of England Comburen- asserted : and provision made against the oppugners of 2 ken. 4, the same, with the punishment of hereticks." This law empowered the bishops to cause to be Unlimited arrested, and to imprison all, who presumed to preach fineandim- either pubbcly or privately without a bishop's licence. givenXthe The same punishment was denounced against all school- bish°Pf Jp o _ against all masters and holders of conventicles, who impugned the heretics, or Catholic faith, or taught sedition ; and against all who heretics, ail wrote, and all who had in their possession any book „f heretical opposing the Catholic faith or the decisions of Holy *°°^< and Church. Such persons, if convicted in the bishop's licensed court according to canon law, were liable to imprison- pre'" """'"" ment in the bishop's prison at the bishop's discretion, and were moreover liable to pay a fine to the King, such fine to be assessed by the bishop, and levied by the secular court on the bishop's certificate. No person found guilty by the bishop was to be released until he had abjured his heretical opinions. They who refused obstinate to abjure, and they, who having once abjured relapsed j^" into heresy, were to be burned to death before the heretics to i T • T • T "e dell_ people in a high place ; so that the punishment might vered over terrify others from holding heretical opinions. This sheriff to be burned adhere very scrupulously to the Parliamentary proceedings on which it was founded, and we may be sure that any alteration made by them would be to increase the power given to their order ; but I fear that substantially this sadly celebrated Act for the burning of heretics must be considered to have been made with the concurrence of the Commons and Lords Temporal as weU as by the Spiritual Peers and the sovereign. On the subject of the frequent garbling of statutes at this time, and as to this statute in par ticular, it is well to consult HaUam, Mid. Ages, vol. iii. p. 89, and Lord Brougham's " England and France under the House of Lancaster," p. 363. vol. ir. c c 386 HENEY IV. CHAP. VII. 1331. " Coram populo in eminentiloco com- buri faci- ant, ut hujusmodipunitio me- tum incu- tiat menti- bus ali orum, ne hujusmodi nephandsedoctrinse et opiniones hereticse et erronese, velipsarum auctores et fautores in dictis regno et do- miniis con tra fidem Catholicam religionem Christi- anam, et determina- tionem ecclesiae sacro- sanctae (quod ab- sit) susten- tentur seu quo-modo-libet tole- rentur. " John Brad- bee burnt March .1, 1409. Prince Henry pre sent at his death. sentence was to be carried into effect by the sheriff, on being certified of the accused parties having been con demned by the bishop, and the bishop's condemnation was to be taken as conclusive of the heretic's guilt. The terrible powers given by the new law were not suffered long to lie idle. Almost* as soon as it was passed, William Sawtree (who had been a clergyman) was burned in London as a relapsed heretic. The name of another Englishman, who was burnt to death for supposed misbelief during this reign, has been pre served, and the circumstance of the young Prince of Wales, afterwards Henry V., having been present (accidentally, we may hope) at the execution, has caused the scene to be minutely described. John, or Thomas, Badbee, or Bradbie (both name and surname are variously given) was a layman of humble station, who had denied the truth of the Eoman Cathobc doc trine of Transubstantiation. He refused to retract what he had said; and on the 1st of March, 1409, was delivered over to the secular powers to be burned in Smithfield. He was placed in a barrel, round which dry wood had been heaped up. Holinshed thus relates what fobowed : — " The King's eldest son, the Lord Henry, Prince of Wales, being present, offered him his pardon, first before the fire was kindled, if he would have recanted his opinions ; and after, when the fire was kindled, hearing him make a roaring noise very pitifully, the Prince caused the fire to be plucked back, and exhorted him, being with pitiful pain almost dead, to remember himself, and to renounce his opinions, promising him not only bfe, but also three pence a day so long as he bved, to be paid out of the King's * As to the dates of the passing of the Act, and of the burning of Sawtree, see Lingard, vol. iv. p. 449, and Lord Brougham (England under the House of Lancaster), pp. 363, 364. PEINCE HENEY AT THE BUENING OF A LOLL AED. 387 coffers ; but he, having recovered his spirits again, chap. refused the Prince's offer, choosing eftsoons to taste VIL the fire and so to die than to forsake his opinions. Whereupon the Prince commanded that he should be put into the tun again, from thenceforth not to have any favour or pardon at all ; and so it was done, and the fire put to him again, and he consumed to ashes." Other executions for heresy in the next reign and in other the early part of that of Henry VL, are mentioned; and it is probable that others occurred, which chroniclers Frequent left unnoticed, and respecting which no judicial docu- ™en™for ments have at present been traced. The arbitrary LoUardism. powers of fine and imprisonment, with which the statute had armed the bishops, were vigorously exer cised. When the civil wars between the Houses of Cessation York and Lancaster convulsed the kingdom, prose- War of the cutions, and imprisonments, and burnings for heresy 0°t™ seem to have abated. They had done little towards quebing Lobardism ; but they did much towards making many of its sectaries enemies of the State, as web as of the Church, and in bringing real perbs upon the commonwealth. Nine years after the passing of the statute against Commons _ the Lollards, the Commons petitioned for its mitiga- tjtnfor61 tion. But Henry IV. stood firmly by the bishops, and if^Zs the stern reply was that the law ought to be made against the tt t t i -i ¦ ii> i t LoUards. more severe. Henry also showed himself the staunch Henry de- supporter of his clergy against the formidable hostility, church with which not only the Lollardising portion of the Pr°Per*y J ... against laity, but men also who were submissive to the spbi- attempts at tual authority of the Church, regarded the enormous tion. temporal wealth of the high ecclesiastical dignitaries. In 1404 the Commons complained to the King of the slight extent to which the clergy contributed to defray the public burdens of the State, and in 1407 they laid c c 2 388 HENBY IV. chap, before him a schedule drawn with ominously practical Yn" minuteness, which showed how the possessions of the bishops, abbots, and priors, which were wasted so far as regarded the State while left in ecclesiastical hands, might, if appropriated for public purposes, maintain for the King's service 15 earls, 1500 knights, and 6200 esquires. The King forbade them to discuss such matters ; but the project was not forgotten either by the clergy, or the Commons ; and the expectation of its renewal conduced in no slight degree to determine the character of the military reign of Henry IV.'s successor. CHAPTEE VIII. Popularity of Henry V.— His character in early youth — Troubles at the opening of his reign — Insurrectionary schemes, real or supposed, of the Lollards— Energy of Henry — The Clergy alarmed for their property — War with France resolved on — Miserable state of that country — Injustice of the war — Henry's preparations — Siege and conquest of Harfleur — Victory at Agincourt — Joy of the English nation— The Emperor Sigismund in England— CouncU of Constance — Negociations with the French — Seoond invasion of France — Capture of Caen, Cherbourg, and Rouen — Duke of Burgundy joins Henry — Treaty of Troyes — French Dauphin continues the war— Henry takes Melun and Montereau — Duke of Clarence defeated by the French and Scots at Beauge — Powerful army led by Henry into France— His sickness and death — Internal history during his reign. Henry V. has probably been the most popular chap. sovereign — since, at least, the Saxon times — that ever YIIL reigned in England. The moderate duration of his 1413- reign may have conduced to this. He reigned for themost' not quite ten years ; — long enough for dazzling glory, g",^™* but not long enough to expose him to such vicis- °fEng- situdes of fortune, as his great model, Edward IIL, experienced. The years of Henry's reign were also those of the best bloom and prime of his life. He came to the throne when he was between twenty-four and twenty-five : he died soon after his thirty-fourth birth day. He was styled Henry of Monmouth, from the town His birth. of that name, where he was born on the 9th of August; ;L88' . t • p t • i • r\ ¦> Education 1388. He received part ol his education at (Queens at Queen's College, Oxford, under the care of his uncle, Henry orford. Beaufort, well known in English history as Cardinal 390 HENEY V. chap. Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester. Henry acquired early YIIL an amount, considerable for the period, of acquaintance 1413. with gugh classical authors as were then studied ; and he Squ£e-ary showed, both in youth and throughout life, a taste for ments. literature and for music, quite inconsistent with the coarse and habitual debauchery, in which some traditions represent him to have been sunk during his early years. Exagge- rjife exaa-geration in these accounts of his youthful folbes rated tradi- °B . J tions as to is stbl more completely exposed by the indisputable evi- nigacy°in dence, which exists, of his having not only served in four early life. campaigns under his father, and distinguished himself stateduties for his gallant spirit in the field while he was a mere by hunT' la(l> hnt by his having been repeatedly entrusted with high and difficult commands from the age of sixteen His com- tib near the time of his accession to the throne. When Wales. only sixteen years old, he received the arduous office of Lieutenant of the King's forces in the Welsh Marches ; and he carried on the warfare against Glen dower not only with courage, but with prudence, The Prince industry, and success. His services were so highly ^rSsedand valued by the Commons that, in 1405, they addressed thanked, the King, praying that the Prince might be continued not merely . ° 'r J . ° ? . for valour, in command in those districts, and that he should dustryand receive a special letter of thanks for his good and diligence, unceasing labour and diligence. In 1407 the Commons again praised him, and resolved that he was deserving of public gratitude for the " great labour, dibgence, and diseases," which he had many times suffered in resisting the Welsh rebels. In 1410 he was appointed Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and Captain of Calais ; and afterwards he was for a time President of the Council, a post from which he was removed by his father in 1412. That there was some estrangement between him and his father towards the close of Henry IV.'s reign, is certain ; but this appears to have SIE JOHN OLDCASTLE, THE LOLLAED CHIEF. 39 \ been caused, not by the Prince's dissipation and chap. neglect of public business, but by the Prince having VIIL desired to grasp too large a share of governing power 1413- while his father yet lived, and having demanded that he should be made Eegent of the realm, on the ground that his father was incapacitated by disease for per forming the duties of royalty. His reign, though destined to become most popular, Commo- t -, . . , , , , . tions at the was marked at its commencement by commotions, beginning which would probably have assumed a more formidable °^ character, had it not been for the military promptness and vigour, with which they were quebed by the young Sovereign. Henry V. appears to have been regarded ^^^ at the time of his accession with distrust and dislike by the by the Lollards. These sectaries were at this period exasperated by persecution, and they were especiaby turbulent and numerous in the metropolis and its vicinity. Their leader, — or, at least, their most dis- ^rnJo1™Oldcastle, tinguished chief, — was Sb? John Oldcastle, a kmght of theLoiiard high eminence for his services in war against the foreign enemies of England, and of great influence by reason of the wealth and rank, which he had acquired by a marriage with the heiress of the Cobham barony and estates. He had been summoned as Lord Cobham to five Parliaments ; but he is so much more generally known as Sir John Oldcastle, that it is convenient to speak of him by that name. Henry V.'s first Parliament met at Westminster in Henry v. 's the thbd week after Easter, 1413; and, while the %£%£ Parliament was sitting, the doors of the London insurrec- churches were placarded 'with threatening notices, that caXI/the 100,000 armed men were ready to rise in defence of Lollards- their religious opinions, if the King should use his authority to suppress them. We may safely assume that there was no evidence of Sir John Oldcastle 392 HENRY V. chap, having directed, or having been party to, this mena- YIIL cing manifesto; for, if such evidence had existed, 1413- some notice of it would certainly appear in the records of the judicial proceedings which were subsequently Archbishop taken against him. But, rightly or wrongly, Oldcastle ac™es was suspected of being the arch-enemy of both Church oidcastie. and gtate; and the Archbishop of Canterbury de nounced him to the King as a heretic and a traitor. The King Henry had at one time, while Prince of Wales, lived been old on terms of friendship and even intimacy with Sir friendT John ; and this circumstance, together with the fact that Oldcastle, before his conversion by the Wyclifites, had indulged in the jovialities and excesses of a bold but somewhat reckless mibtary life, appears to form the only real foundation for the stage-tradition, prevalent before Shakespeare's time, but taken up by him and immortalised, which transforms a gabant soldier and a high-souled martyr into an unprincipled sensuabst of questionable courage, and of unquestionable men- Henry tries dacity and knavery.* Henry sent for Oldcastle, and conve7rt° endeavoured to persuade him to submit himself to the Oldcastle u0]y Church. Sb? John professed the most uncompro- lnto con- J ... formity. mising loyalty to the King as his temporal master ; but refused to acknowledge the spiritual authority of * In the old play called " The Famous Victories of Henry V.," the first scenes are meant to show the frolics of the young Prince and his dissolute companions before Henry IV.'s death. Among the Prince's low com panions one is called " Sir John Oldcastle." Shakespeare replaced him by Sir John Falstaff ; but he seems to have been at first disposed to have retained the former name, as in the first scene in which he introduces the Prince and Falstaff, he makes the Prince caU him " my old lad of the castle." It seems certain that the theatrical public of Elizabeth's age iden tified Oldcastle with Falstaff, and that Shakespeare wished ultimately to deny the connexion, as he makes the Dancer who speaks the Epilogue to the last part of King Henry IV. tell the audience " for anything I know, Falstaff shall die of a sweat, for Oldcastle died a martyr, and this is not the man." The whole subject is well stated by Mr. Knight in his Introductory Remarks on King Henry IV., parts 1 and 2. EEVOLUTIONAEY EUMOTTES. 393 the Pope, whom he openly denounced as the Anti- chap. christ, and the adversary of God. Dismissed from the YIIL royal presence, Oldcastle shut himself up in his strong 1413* castle of Cowling, which the officers of the spbitual courts feared to enter, until they were escorted by one of the King's officers. Oldcastle was then summoned oldcastle . . tried and and arraigned as a heretic before the Archbishop, and convicted other high dignitaries. His demeanour was fearless ; spiritual6 his language was bold, even to ferocity, anathema- Courti rising the Pope, cardinals, bishops, priests, monks, and friars. He was condemned as a heretic, and committed He is c°n- to the Tower, thence to be led forth to suffer death death, under the statute of the last reign. But he effected 1^. ' his escape from prison ; and for nearly two years evaded Escapes the keen and unrelenting pursuit of his enemies. Tower. During the winter, that followed Oldcastle's trial and Alarming evasion, the rumours about the preparations of the the designs Lollards for armed resistance grew into rumours of LoUards. aggressive insurrection and of civil war for the over throw of the King's government, as well as of the Church. Oldcastle's name was in all men's mouths, in connection with those revolutionary rumours. The King had left Westminster at Christmas, to pass Henry that festal season at the favourite royal palace at atsitham. Eltham. While there, he received information, false or true, of an extensive conspiracy to seize him by sur prise at Eltham; and by mustering the armed forces of the Lollards from all parts of the kingdom in St. Giles' Fields, on the day after Epiphany, to take possession of the Government, to put to death the King, his brothers, and the chief temporal and spiritual peers, to confiscate the church-property, abolish the religious orders, to divide the realm into petty states, and to make Sir John Oldcastle Eegent. of the con federate Commonwealth. Such were the designs which 394 HENEY V. CHAP. VIII. 1413. Prompti tude and energy of the King. Arrest of suspected traitors at St. Giles' Fields. Trials and executions. Oldcastle evades cap ture until 1418. Barbarityof his execution. Hisheroismand piety at his death. the King attributed to his enemies in a proclamation issued by him ; and the character of Henry V. is so clear from falsehood, malignity, or cowardice, that we must believe that the King received and credited in formation to this effect. How far his informers may have been themselves well-informed and truthful, is another question, which it is hopeless to attempt to decide. Certain it is that the King acted as a brave and skilful ruler would have naturally acted under the imminence of real danger. He suddenly moved from Eltham to the capital, and cobected there a strong body of trustworthy troops. On the night before the day, which had been named as the time for the muster of the insurgents, the King caused London gates to be closed, and carefuby guarded ; and he placed detach ments at intervals round St. Giles' Fields, which was the place appointed for the insurgents' meeting. These troops converged on it, and arrested some of an assemblage which they found there ; but what were the real numbers and the real purpose of those, whom they found so assembled, is very doubtful. Thbty-nine of the prisoners were summarily tried and executed, and among them were two laymen of rank, Sir Eoger Acton and Sir John Brown, and a beneficed clergyman, named Burnby. Oldcastle was not cap tured untd 1418. He was then put to death in St. Giles' Fields, the scene (according to his enemies) of the intended rising, which was to have made him ruler of England. The barbarous cruelty of the mode of his execution is unexampled, I believe, in English history. As a traitor he was hanged, but hanged alive in chains ; and a fire was kindled at his feet as he hung, by which he, as a heretic, was slowly burnt to death. He met and endured this horrible doom with the courage of a noble soldier, and the piety of a sincere BAEBAEOUS EXECUTION OE SIE JOHN OLDCASTLE. 395 Christian. The inevitable impression, which the chap. spectacle of such a death made on the people, who 1 thronged around, was of admiration for the sufferer, and of hatred for those who caused his death. With Enduring the Eeformation the zeal in his favour of all opposed in which to Eome was redoubled. He has never ceased to be ^^g venerated by a large portion of the English nation as ^ hold chief of our martyrs ; and rude woodcuts of the execution of Sir John Oldcastle may still be found in dwelling-houses and cottages, that contain nought else, except the barest necessaries of daily life, and a Bible. Henry's second Parbament assembled at Leicester, Henry's on the last day of April, 1414 ; and the Eepresenta- p^r™a- tives of the Commons joined the bishops and nobles ™e™*s**r in their request to the King to ordain a new and April, more severe Statute against the Lollards, which geTere recites the designs of the heretics to destroy utterly ^*d9 the King, the Estates of the Eealm, and all the against tt ptttt> ti Lollards. constitutions and laws of the land. But the lay jAecitaiaill landowners and the traders of England, though stib, J^p™- as formerly, abhorrent of anarchical and levebing as to the principles and practices, retained their old jealousy of designs. the power of the Churchmen, and theb? old desire to see some of the vast endowments of the Church utibsed for State purposes. The project which had been raised in the late reign for the appropriation of Church temporalities* was revived, to the great alarm of the clergy. According to many old writers, Arch bishop Chicheley (who had succeeded Arundel in the primacy) now urged on the King the justice and expediency of asserting his claim to the crown of France, in the hope that the excitement of foreign warfare would divert both Henry and his people from schemes of Church reform and spoliation at home. * See p. 388, supra. 396 HENEY V. CHAP. VIII. 1414. Hostility of the laity against the high clergy. The Appro priation Clause re vived. Archbishop Chicheley recom mendsforeign war for the State, in order to buy do mestic peace for the Church. Henry's claims on France. More pre posterousthan those of Ed. III. Illusory negociations. The exhortations of his Bishops may have confirmed Henry in his design of attacking the French King, but they cannot be considered to have originated it. As has been mentioned when we were tracing the times of Henry IV, there had been throughout that reign (and indeed ever since the hostilities which ensued on the infraction of the peace of Bretigny) no regular treaty of amity and peace between England and France, but a succession of truces, never observed at sea, and frequently broken by armed assistance being given by the sovereign of one nation to the enemies of the sovereign of the other nation on land. Within six months from his accession to the throne of Eng land, Henry V. had haughtily announced to the rulers of France that he was rightful king of that country as true heir of Isabeba, daughter of Philip IV. The absurdity or insolence of this revival by Henry of Edward III.'s claim was self-apparent; inasmuch as, whatever right Edward possessed to the crown of France must have descended to Edward's bneal re presentative, the Earl of March, and not to the House of Lancaster. And, whatever right the Engbsh nation might have had to change theb? own king, and alter their own royal dynasty, such a revolution in England could not alter the line of royal inheritance as to France, except on the supposition that France was to be treated as an inferior principality, obliged, like the Channel Islands or Ireland, to follow the fortunes, and to accept the sovereign of the dominant country, England. The French statesmen repudiated Henry V.'s • claim with indignation, and refused to admit it as even a matter of discussion. Henry then, protesting that he in no manner waived his right to the whole realm and immediate sovereignty of France, offered to allow the French King, Charles VI. , to remain on the throne, DECLARATION OE WAE WITH FEANCE. 397 but demanded the immediate cession to himself in chap. full sovereignty of nearly all the territories that Kings I^L of England had ever held in France, the hand of the Uli- French Princess Catherine in marriage with a dowry ef two mibion of crowns, and the payment of the arrears of King John's ransom, amounting to twelve hundred thousand crowns more. The French would not consent (and probably Henry neither expected nor wished them to consent) to this dismemberment and de gradation of their ancient monarchy ; but they offered to purchase peace by the cession of Aquitaine, and by giving Henry six hundred thousand crowns as a dowry for Catherine, his intended queen. Henry refused these terms ; and other offers and counter-demands followed, which showed how conscious the French were of the weakness to which their country was then reduced by misgovernment and internal seditions, and how fuby Henry was resolved on war, though he sought to give some colour of moderation to his designs. At last, at a war for a Parliament held at Westminster in the November of ^^d! 1414, Henry declared, through his Chancellor, his France an- /. <. 1 • t ¦ ...,. . nounced to purpose 01 forthwith recovering his inheritance in the English France by arms ; and demanded stout help from the mentT Engbsh people, and plentiful subsidies in money from f^ 30' the English Parliament. This warlike appeal was Martial en- enthusiasticaby received. The Parliament forthwith the Par™01 voted the unusually large supply of two tenths and "amentand two fifteenths. Henry raised other large sums on his own personal credit, and by pawning the royal jewels. Nobles and knights vied with each other in collecting and equipping companies of men-at-arms and archers, and the yeomanry of England thronged eagerly beneath the banners, which were to lead them to renew the ancestral glories of Cressy and Poitiers. This war The war a against France was eminently unjust and wicked; ^™al 398 HENEY V. chap, but the crime was a national crime ; and ought not to YIIL be imputed wholly (as is often done) to the King, who Uli- headed it, or to the ecclesiastical statesmen, with whose sanction and exhortation it was undertaken. Rendezvous Southampton was the place appointed for the em- Engiish barkation of the army, and thither the flower of the a^at forces of England directed theb? march. A numerous ton^thamp" and weH equipped fleet of transports was ready to receive them, and the largest and best appointed war ships, that England had yet seen among her navy, were at hand to protect the voyage of the troops, and to co operate with them along the French coast. Henry's Henry V. would deserve honourable mention in proving the English history, were it only for the care bestowed by ^^h him on our navy. His office of Warden of the Cinque Ports, before he came to the throne, may probably have- drawn his attention to the urgent need, that existed for so strengthening the naval defences of the realm, as to preserve our commerce and our coasts from the preda tory and pbatical attacks, to which they had long been subject. As soon as Henry became king, he not only directed improvements and augmentations to be made to the royal shipping, but he personally watched over the fulfilment of his orders. He caused vessels of unprecedented size and power to be bubt and equipped; for King Henry was minded (as the old rhyming chronicle says of him) to be Lord of the Sea round about. * He so guarded the Channel and Irish and German Seas, as to protect his subjects from foreign marauders ; and he also most honourably took * " What hope ye was the King's great intent Of those ships, and what in mind he meant 1 It was not else but that he cast to be Lord round about environ of the Sea." Cited by Sir Harris Nicolas, Hist. Royal ^Navy, p. 402. EAEL OE CAMBEIDGE EXECUTED EOE TEEASON. 399 measures for preventing his subjects from making chap. private attacks on the mariners and shipping of other YIIL nations. He caused a Statute to be passed in the 1414- Parliament of May, 1415, by which the killing or against" plundering of persons protected by truces or safe- J^and conducts was declared to be high treason, and an Kracy{41- officer, styled "The Conservator of Truce," was ap pointed for each sea-port, to make inquisition for such offence.* The fleet cobected at Southampton for the expe- strength of dition against France consisted of 1400 ships and fleet. transports of various sizes. On the very eve of The Bari ,11. f • T T T • • T0^ "*m" the embarkation a formidable conspiracy against the bridge's King was discovered. Henry's cousin, Eichard, Earl detected^ of Cambridge, was its chief organiser. He and two p^js]ied others were tried and put to death ; and on Saturday, English ex- the 10th of August, Henry embarked on board his peetf*a£ own ship called the Trinity Eoyal. The Engbsh ®™^y'st armament set sab for the attack on France, on Sunday, 1415. the 12th, by which time the last truce with France had expired. The French had made one more unsuccessful at- Miserable tempt to avert hostilities, while Henry was on his way France. from London to his fleet; and the wretched state of France made them as eager for peace, as it made their enemy eager for immediate warfare. That unfortunate insanity country was then under the nominal rule of Charles VL, charief vi. whose naturally weak intebect had received an bre- mediable shock from fright at the threatenings of a madman, whom the King encountered whbe hunting in a forest in 1392. The powerful chiefs of the ™%Z£ nobibty contended with each other for fhe exercise of sovereign power, not only by court-intrigue and sedi- • See Nicolas, p. 402. 400 HENEY V. CHAP. VIII. Orleans and Burgundy. the Duke of Orleans nated.The young duke and his father- in-law,Armagnac,maintainthe feud. Orleanists in the as cendant when Henry V. became King of Landing of the English near Har- fleur, Wed nesday, 14 August. Siege of Harfleur. Surrender. tion, but sometimes by open civb war, sometimes by perfidy and assassination. The Duke of Burgundy and the Duke of Orleans were the chief competitors in this shameful strife. From 1404 to 1407, the Duke of Orleans had the ascendancy; and exercised despotic rule with ferocious cruelty and rapacious extortion. In 1407 the Duke of Burgundy, called Jean sans Peur, caused the Duke of Orleans to be assas sinated. The eldest son of the murdered Orleans married a daughter of the Count of Armagnac, an energetic, but merciless man, from whom the faction opposed to the Burgundians thenceforth took the name of the Armagnacs. Armies, bands, and mobs of Armagnacs and Burgundians fought, plundered, and massacred each other ab over France ; and the sufferings of the wretched peasantry and burgesses at the hands of both parties were even greater than those which Burgundians and Armagnacs in flicted on each other. At the time of Henry V.'s accession to the English crown, the party of the Duke of Orleans had the advantage in France, and was in possession of Paris, and of the person of King Charles VI. They conducted the negociations, by which a renewal of the expiring truce was vainly sought for ; and it was by them that the attempts to resist the foreign invaders were mainly directed. Henry and the English army landed on Wednes day, the 14 th of August, on the Norman coast, near Harfleur, and gained possession of that city by capitu lation, after a siege and brave defence of thirty-six days. It was now October. The English army had suffered great loss of men by disease during the siege ; and there was much sickness among the survivors. The French were known to have assembled a large army to resist any advance of the English. The. HENRY'S MAEOH THEOUGH NOEMANDY. 401 season of autumnal rains was approaching; and it chap. •appeared to be vain to attempt any further operations I!L that year. It was easy for the King to garrison 1415- Harfleur, and to return thence with the rest of his forces to England. But Henry announced his inten- Henry re- tion of marching through Normandy and Picardy. to march to Calais, saying that he desired to see the lands which Calais- were his rightful heritage. He said that he never would shun an encounter with the men who had seized it ; nor would he be reproached with cowardice for hurrying home from Harfleur; but he would go forward at all risks, putting his trust in God. Henry's subsequent military career bears evidence of His Pro- so much sagacity and skill,' that it is difficult to suppose ^^„m- him to have been merely influenced by vain-glory in undertaking this march, which, as a matter of strategy, was as needless, as it was perilous. The probability is that he judged his position, and forecasted opposite risks, with the enlarged view of a politician, and not as a mere soldier. He, as only the second king of His need as a displacing dynasty, had deep need of some dazzling dazz?ing° exploit to arouse and assure the loyalty of England to Tlctory- the House of Lancaster. A costly expedition across the Channel and back, followed by the capture of a single fortress with heavy loss to the takers, would not be enough. The siege of Harfleur, though conducted by the King and his troops with great skbl and bravery, had been less marked by showy scenes of mbitary daring than was usually the case in sieges. The greater part of the English lost before Havre had perished in their tents from dysentery, and not by French sword or spear in the sally or assault. At last the siege had culminated in a formal acceptance of surrender, and not in the wild daring of a storm. Henry wanted a field like that of Cressy or Poitiers, VOL. n. D D 402 HENEY V. chap, the mention of which should thrill through- every VIIL English heart; which should make the gloomy Lol- 141 5- lard forget his grudge against his royal persecutor, and which should extinguish ab interest in the compa rative genealogies pf the descendants of Lionel of Clarence, and of the descendants of John of Gaunt. Perhaps Henry did not expect that the French would be able to unite their powers, and oppose his march with such an enormous army, as he eventually had to face at Agincourt. He may haye .partly rebed on their councils being divided, and their mibtary subor dination imperfect ; whbe he knew the devotion and steadiness of his own troops, and had also just confi dence in his own readiness and abibty in the field. Large army The French princes of the blood royal, when the theFrencif invader was actuaby in the land, appealed, not pnnces. without effect, to their turbulent but gallant fel low-countrymen to unite in defending their common country from injury and ignominy. The Oriflamme was displayed ; and an army of sixty thousand knights . and men-at-arms mustered beneath the sacred Nearly ail standard. Nearly all the flower of the French nobbity the highest ^ , tt, tt-. t- t French were present. Ihey were headed by the Dauphin, the' prise^init. Dukes of Orleans, Bourbon, and Alencon, the Con stable D'Albret, the Marshal Bourcicault, and many more of high rank and mbitary renown. The hatred of the Duke of Orleans to the Duke of Burgundy, even at that crisis, had been shown by a royal mandate, which ordered Jean Sans Peur to send his contingent of troops, but forbade his coming to the campaign in person. Duke Jean complained bitterly of the affront which was thus put upon him.* He * See his letter of expostulation to the King in De Barante's Histoire des Dues de Bourgoyne, vol. ii. p. 418. STJFEEEINGS ENDUEED BY THE ENGLISH. 403 collected troops, but did not allow them to march chap. without him. His brother, the Count of Nevers, YIIL obeyed the King's order, and repabed to the national U1S- army. Under the prudent generalship of the Constable, The French who commanded in chief, the French at first avoided Engllish on a pitched battle with the English, but inflicted heavy ^h, loss and suffering on them by laying waste the country, breaking down bridges, and contesting with strong detachments the passage of every stream and of ab difficult ground. Half starved, sick, weary, out- Sufferings numbered, but indomitable in courage and endurance, stancyrf Henry and his men struggled on for fourteen days, i^Eng" though they had expected to accomplish the whole march in eight. The river Somme appeared to be a Passage fatal barrier, and several attempts to pass it were s0mme, unsuccessful. At last, Henry, on the night of October Oot- 20, 20th, succeeded in gaining the right bank of a neglected ford near Peronne. The French now held a The French council of war, in which it was determined to intercept to^ght.1"3 the Engbsh, and to force them to join battle before they could reach Calais. Looking to the vast supe riority of force possessed by the French commanders, we have no right to censure the determination. The T.hey sta- Constable drew up his hosts in three great divisions selves near near the village of Maisongelles and the castle of ceiieTand Agincourt, right across the English line of march to As™01"*- Calais. Woods spread and closed in on either side, Advantages so as to make it difficult and almost impossible for vantages0' the English to evade the French by a flank move- of0^fon ment : but the same formation of the ground was much in favour of the English, if minded to fight, inasmuch as it narrowed the space, along which the conflicting troops could come into action ; and it thus enabled the English to give battle with a line equal to that of their 404 HENEY V. chap, adversaries, though the French formed a column of far YIIL preponderating massiveness. 1.415. n Was late on the 24th of October that the two armies found themselves in each other's presence. The overweening confidence and careless jobity, which, when a large army is defeated by a small one, are always narrated after the battle as having marked the large army's behaviour before the battle, are said to have prevailed in the French camp on the eve of the Prepara- conflict at Agincourt. On the English side there may Henry and have been less hope, but there was no fear. Tfie King his army. ^ j^ ^uty jjq^ jje passed along the English camp cheering up the men with bold, manly words, and instructing the commanders of every grade as to their duties on the morrow. He expected that the French would endeavour to cut up his archers by a cavalry charge, and he therefore ordered every bowman to provide himself with a long stake, sharpened at both ends, with which a palisade might be formed against advancing horse. He also towards morning placed archers in the woods, who were to gab tbe French Oct. 25, flanks. At daybreak he drew up the greater part of battle of Ei-S archery in the van, with the men-at-arms arranged Agincourt. behind them. The ground was wet and miry, and Prudence and steadi- unfavourable to the party that might give the attack. French the The French Constable and Marshal were veteran comman- generals. They knew how their countrymen had suf fered at Cressy and Poitiers in consequence of making a hasty advance ; and they succeeded in keeping their Henry eager troops steady in position for several hours. This advance!" compelled Henry to make a forward movement. He and his men were almost entirely destitute of pro visions, and their choice lay between fighting and starving. About ten o'clock he gave the signal, " Banners, advance ;" and with a great shout the Eng- THE BATTLE OE AGINCOUET. 405 lish moved swiftly but steadily towards the huge host chap. before them. The fiery pride of the French could I[L not endure to wait for the assault of such scanty and 1415- starveling enemies. They sprang wildly forward. On The French this movement, Henry halted his men, who stood fortard. firmly to abide the furious but disorderly French onset. As soon as the first files of the leading French Efficiency division came within bowshot, the Engbsh archers fn^ began to ply them in front and in flank with theb? archery. customary deadly skbl. Of eight hundred French horse, that were sent forward to break the English archery, C all but seven score were shot down as they floundered forward through the mire; and this bttle remnant of brave men strove in vain to pass the barricades of stakes, which the archers raised against them. As larger bodies of the French first and second divi sions came forward, the English bowmen receded, but not without dealing heavy carnage among the advancing columns ; and, when forced from the open ground, they did not break and fly, but joined their comrades, who were lining the thick woods, whence throughout the battle incessant streams of death were poured into the French flanks. Stdl, fighting most The main gallantly, the chivalry of France pressed forward, till eJZter?n" they joined battle with the English knights and men- at-arms under King Henry himself. The historians of both nations do full justice to the valour displayed by both French and English in this encounter. The Duke Prowess of of Alencon on the French side, and King Henry on ^dHenry. • the English side; were the most distinguished cham- pions. The King's brother, the Duke of Gloucester, fell wounded to the ground, and would have been killed or taken prisoner, had not King Henry rushed forward, and, placing himself in front of his brother, beat back the assabants, until other friends lifted Glou- 406 HENEY V. chap, cester, and removed him from out of the battle. In YIIL thus saving his brother's life, Henry nearly lost his own. 1415. Alengon gave him a blow on the helmet which struck peril? s off part of the crown round it. Henry reeled, but recovered himself, and returned the blow on Alencon's crest. Other English, seeing their King's danger, had in the meantime crowded round Alengon, who ex claimed to the King, "I yield; I am Alengon." Henry held out his hand to accept his brave adversary's sur render, but the fury of Henry's followers could not be Aien^on. stayed, and Alengon was hewn down by many swords. Bout of the Alengon's death was followed by the flight of the sur- mainbody. vivors of the second French division, but the third division still remained unbroken and unassaded. Henry was re-forming his men for a charge on this body, when he received inaccurate tidings that a strong force of False alarm the French was attacking the English rear. Henry of an at- , ,. , ,, . ° .. ° .. n .. / tack on the gave orders that the prisoners, who had been taken m rea?Usl1 su°h numbers as greatly to encumber the English, and diminish Henry's effective force, should be instantly ' TheEngiish put to death. A lamentable massacre ensued, and prisoners, some thousands of brave men were slaughtered in cold blood before more accurate intelbgence reached the Kmg, that the alarm in the rear had been caused by a small body of bregular French troops, who had plundered part of the English camp. The kilbng of the prisoners was then stayed, and the victorious English moved forward against the French thbd division. But this part of the French force was dismayed by the defeat and destruction of their comrades, and by the loss of the ablest chiefs of the army. They refused to follow Panic and their officers, who urged them to advance against the ward110 advancing English, — all, except a small band of six French di- hundred gabant Frenchmen, who charged boldly upon the English host, and were instantly cut to pieces by HENEY'S TETUMPHANT EETUEN TO LONDON. 407 superior numbers. The mass of the third division chap. wavered, broke, and fled, without a blow. The Eng- UL lish, exhausted by the fatigues of the battle, and by 1415- their sufferings during the preceding march, were in no condition to pursue. Henry halted his men on the battle-field, and, sending for the clergy who accom panied his army, he directed a solemn service of English thanksgiving to God. When the first verse of Softer Psalm cxv. was chanted, every English soldier knelt theTiotory- on the ground, and repeated the words, " Not unto us, oh Lord, not unto us, but to thy name give the praise." On the fobowing day the English resumed their TheEngiish march towards Calais, where they rested from Octo- oaUrfs.&r ber 29 until November 17. On the last-mentioned Henry re- day Henry re-crossed the Channel, and landed at England. Dover. His subjects, in their enthusiastic eagerness to welcome the royal victor of Agincourt, crowded to the water's edge, and into the very sea, to meet him, and carried him in theb? arms from his ship up the beach. His progress to London was one long trium- His joyous phal procession; and he entered his capital on No- reoei,tlon- vember 23, amid national rejoicing equalling that, which had been witnessed there seventy-seven years before, when the Black Prince entered with his captive, King John of France. The extent of the French loss at Agincourt is as French loss difficult to estimate accurately, as is the number of court™" their army before the battle. That it was great, grievous, and long felt, is certain by all accounts, and by every kind of proof. Perhaps if we write the number of those who feb on the French side at eleven thousand, and of the killed and mortaby wounded on the English side at sixteen hundred, we shab have adopted the most probable calculation. The list of 408 HENEY V. chap, the French slain included a heavy proportion of men ILL of noble or knightly station, and there were among 1415- them no less than 126 princes and great lords. The tiTFrench English carried away also fifteen hundred French pri- siain, and sonerg almost all of whom were men of rank and captives. > importance. Of the number were the Dukes of Orleans and Bourbon, and the Marechal de Boiirci- cault, one of the most experienced and renowned Beal effects warriors of the age. The loss of so many of her ablest battle. captains at Agincourt must have long weakened France in her after-struggle with the Engbsh ; but, except in this respect, Agincourt did bttle towards the conquest of France. Nearly two years passed away before Henry renewed his invasion of that country. But ab the hopes that he may have nurtured of thoroughly establishing his own throne in England by a bribiant Heny's victory over foreigners, were amply realised for at least popularity , . . . . among his his own lifetime. His clergy, his nobles, his commons jects. of every class, vied with each other in devotion to their Liberality hero-King. His Parbaments granted subsidies and of his Par- ° . ° liaments. customs with unprecedented liberality, and he on his side maintained and enhanced his popularity by scru pulous respect for Parliamentary rights and privileges. Constitu- He gave the Commons a solemn recognition ofy their racterof constitutional claim, that nothing should be enacted reign? '' * whereby they should be bound without their assent.* He consulted his Parliaments on his treaties of peace and war, acting on the ancient constitutional maxim enounced in the days of Henry III.'s reforming barons, and in those of Edward I., that in matters affecting the weal of all the advice of all should be taken. One very remarkable constitutional practice origi nated in Henry V.'s reign, which shows both the * 4 Eot. Pari. 22. PAELIAMENTAEY GUAEANTEES EOE LOANS. 409 active part taken by Parliament in the general ad- chap. ministration of affairs, and the respect and importance ILL which the commercial classes attached to Parliamentary 1416- pledges and guarantees. Our Kings had before this thT^ very often borrowed money, but it was on their own ^5^' personal security. Henry V. was authorised by his guarantee. Parliament to borrow money and to pledge the duties which the Parliament had granted, as security for the repayment of those loans. Henry's statute respecting electors will be noticed when we come to the enact ments on the same subject in the time of his suc cessor. For the present we will resume the narrative of military events and other important occurrences abroad. Early in 1416, the Earl of Dorset (whom Henry had Dorset's in- left in command at Harfleur) advanced with his forces Normandy" further into Normandy, but the Count d'Armagnac, f^f1' who had been created Constable of France, brought a He is superior army against Dorset, and beat him back with j^ckand much loss to Harfleur. Armagnac now laid siege to besieged in 0 o Harfleur. that city, and collected a large naval force of French Large naval ships and of confederate Genoese vessels, which enabled ^™®cjf the him to invest Harfleur by sea, and to plunder the opposite coasts of England. Henry took prompt and vigorous measures to recover the mastery of the sea. An English fleet was collected, and placed under the command of the King's brother, the Duke of Bedford. With this fleet, and a great number of vessels laden with troops and stores for the relief of the English garrison, now closely blockaded in Harfleur, Bedford sabed for the mouth of the Seine, where on the 1 8th of August he was encountered by the united squadrons of the French and Genoese. An obstinate sea-fight sea-nght followed, in which the English were at last completely' j£ ^uke victorious ; and after landing their much needed sup- of Bedford, 410 HENEY V. chap, plies of men and stores at Harfleur, Bedford returned IIL to England, taking with him three of the largest French 1416. ships which he had captured. Another French and i4i6.16' Genoese fleet, which assembled near Harfleur in Naval vie- the July of the following year, was attacked and Eari of ' defeated by an English squadron under the Earl of ^f Huntingdon. July, 1417. jn the interval between Henry V.'s return from the perofsigis- campaign of Agincourt and his second invasion of Errand France in 1417, England was visited by the Emperor 1416. ' Sigismund. The Council of Constance was sitting at of^con™011 this time, and Henry took an interest in its proceed- stance^ [ngS scarcely less than that felt by the Emperor. The 1418. objects of the Councb were to put an end to the schism in the Papacy, to put down heresy, and to reform the corruptions which had grown up in the Church. The first object was accomplished. John XXIII. was com pelled to resign the Papal dignity ; one of his rivals, Termina- Pope Gregory XII., died, and the other, Pope Bene- scMsmin diet XIII., was solemnly deposed by the Council. thePapacy, -^k regpect to ^fe suppression of heresy, the con demnation of Wycbf's doctrines by the Councb, and theb? order to exhume and burn his remains, have been Bumings already mentioned. The two great Bohemian refor- and Jerome mers, who had learned and taught Wyclifism through out theb country, came as hving men into the power of the Fathers assembled at Constance, and the Fathers burned these two reformers abve. John Huss had been brought within their grasp through his having trusted to a safe conduct given to him by the Emperor. Sigismund stained his name with indelible infamy by breaking his faith, and by abandoning John Huss. The Council shared in, or rather surpassed this infamy, by urging the Emperor to perfidy. They pressed on Sigismund their horrible maxim that MEDIATION OE THE EMPEEOE SIGISMUND. 41 1 no faith is to be kept with an infidel; that "He chap. who is false to God has no right to appeal to truth Yin" or faith."* i«6. With regard to the reformation of the abuses which confessedly existed in the Church, the Council did nothing. It was while the Councb was assembled that The Em- Henry V.'s war with France began ; and the Emperor wishes to Sigismund, who was a prince of much ability and of between more vanity, thought that it became him, as temporal Entkndand Head of Christendom, to act as a mediator in this calamitous strife between two great Christian coun tries. He repaired to Paris, where he was received His visit to by the princes of the blood and the leaders of the aris' Armagnac party with ab semblance of honour ; but he gave much offence by appearing to assert the pre eminence of his imperial dignity. He then by King and to Henry's invitation visited England at the end of Ensland- April, 1416. He was welcomed at Dover with elabo rate ceremony and magnificent hospitality ; but, before he landed, the Duke of Gloucester, as King Henry's representative, rode into the water with a drawn sword in his hand, and exacted from him a solemn promise that he would not while resident in Eng land attempt any act of imperial sovereignty, such as he had lately assumed the right of exercising in France. Henry entertained Sigismund with the greatest Fruitless rm t p negocia- splendour and courtesy. Ihere was a show ot nego- tions. ciation for peace between England and France ; but Henrv demanded terms which there was no probabbity Treaty be- . ¦ n-n a j. tween Si- of his adversaries accepting. Ihe ^Armagnac party gismund among the French were incensed at their defeat at andHem'y- * See Milman's Hist. Lat. Christianity, vol. vi. p. 200. 412 HENEY V. CHAP. VIII. 1417. KingHenry's second in vasion of France,August, 1417. Rage of civil war among the French. Armagnac banishes the Queen. The Dau phin Charles sides with Armagnac. Agincourt, and it was while Sigismund was in Eng land, that they planned the operations to retake Harfleur, which have been above related. Henry succeeded in ingratiating himself with Sigismund so far, that a treaty of offensive and defensive alliance was signed between them on the 15th of August, 1416. But no military aid was ever rendered by one party to the other in consequence of this treaty. Sigismund returned to the Continent to attend the last meetings of the Fathers at Constance, and to encounter, as he best might, the armies of the indignant and vengeful Bohe mians in the dreadful Hussite wars, which had been lighted up by the persecuting decrees of the Council. Henry had during the Emperor's presence in Eng land steadily continued his preparations for a second invasion of France ; and when he commenced it in the summer of 1417, the French Princes had relaxed the temporary vigour against the foreign foe, which they had shown in theb? attempts to regain Harfleur, and they were almost wholly occupied with civb war. The Count of Armagnac held Paris with his troops, and by means of these he coerced the populace of that city, by whom he was detested, and he put to death many of the chief partisans of the Duke of Burgundy. The Queen had latterly quarrebed with Armagnac, and had warmly taken the part of the Burgundians ; but Armagnac arrested her, and made her imbecile husband, the French King, sign a sentence of banishment, under which Queen Isabel was taken to Tours, and kept there in real, though not avowed custody. The Dauphin, who had been with the French army at Agincourt, was now dead, and his next brother, Prince John, had also died since that battle. Prince Charles (afterwards Charles VII. of France) was now the sole surviving HENEY PEOOEEDS TO CONQUEB NOEMANDY. 413 son of Charles VI. and Queen Isabel. The new chap. Dauphin was a warm friend of Count d'Armagnac, YIIL and had concurred with his proceedings against the 1417- Queen. Isabel now hated her son with an intense Isabel's hate, which overpowered all other feelings in her ; and thVcau- by her letters and emissaries she vehemently urged the phin' Duke of Burgundy to take vengeance on her enemies and his own. That potentate (for he was far more Burgundy than a great French nobleman) led an army of 30,000 pariles °n men towards Paris. He failed in a first attempt on He nbe- the capital; but he captured Tours and other cities. iSjw."9'' The Queen now openly joined the Duke of Burgundy ; and the two held state at Troyes, whence Isabel issued proclamations, styling herself Eegent of the kingdom, and annubing all acts done by Armagnac and the Dauphin in the King's name. Meanwhile King Henry Henry's made steady progress in conquering Normandy. It p^tpm" was his fixed purpose to regain that ancient patrimony conquer pt- tt tt r ¦ -n t Normandy. of his royal predecessors on the throne of Jingland; whatever might be the result of his claim to the crown of France, and of the other demands which he made in the negociations before and during the war.* The possession of the strong city of Eouen was the importance main point to be gained towards securing the posses- °f Rouen! sion of Normandy. Edward IIL, when at the head of his best forces, had kept aloof from besieging Eouen ; and Edward's conquests of other Norman towns had given him no permanent dominion over that portion of France. Eouen was now Henry's great mark ; and Consum- the consummate generalship with which his campaigns raiship n of 1417 and 1418 were conducted, with the view of h™"^ * His death-bed orders to his brother, the Duke of Bedford, and the other English statesmen and generals in attendance on him, were to make no peace with the French that did not include the cession of Normandy as part of the dominions of the English crown. plan. 414 HENEY V. chap, gaining Eouen, has been pointed out with just admi- Ym" ration by the recent French historian of the siege of .1417, that city.* An ordinary commander, being master as questof Henry was of Harfleur on the north of the mouth of Normandy, the Seine, would have disembarked there, and led his army straight to Eouen, at the risk of perishing between the resistance made by that strong city, and the probable attacks on the besiegers' rear by forces collected from the numerous strong places in Northern and Western Normandy, which such a march would have Henry's left unbroken and unimpeded. The plan which King Henry V. designed and executed, was very different. It was to disembark nearer to the south-west of the mouth of the Seine, at a part where no one expected him ; to strike through the province by a rapid march southwards, so as to paralyse the martial noblesse of the Cotentin ; to ensure the occupation of every con quered district by garrisons well placed and judiciously connected ; then to wheel back towards the Seine; to pass that river higher up than Eouen, and thus cut off the communication of the city with Paris ; and then, when Eouen was completely isolated, with the English fleet and forces from Harfleur pressing it from the direction of the sea, and King Henry's army moving down on it along the Upper Seine, to lay regular and scientific siege to the devoted capital of Normandy; and finaby to complete and confirm by the fall of Eouen the thorough conquest of the province. Such was the scheme which Henry sagaciously formed, and steadily and energetically completed; — a scheme of operations widely distinguished from the mere battle- seeking spirit, in. which the warfare of those ages was usually conducted, f * See the " Siege et Prise de Rouen par les Anglais," par M. L. Puiseux, Caen, 1867. t Sec Puiseux, p. 43, et seq. I have followed him very closely. ENGLISH CONQUESTS IN NOEMANDY. 415 Henry landed on the 1st of August, 1417, with an chap. army which appears to be correctly estimated at about YIIL 45,000 strong,* on the coast of Normandy, near the lil7- mouth of the little river Touque. He quickly cap- i4i7,uiieS' tured the fortresses of Bonneville and Anvilles. He i^coast of then made a pretence of attacking Honfleur, so as to Normandy- draw the French forces in that direction. But he conquests. rapidly countermarched, and moved towards the Hemarches south-west. After cutting off all communication of south-west. Caen with the country round it, he formed the siege of Caentaken- that city on the 18 th of August, and carried it by storm on the 4th of September. The English loss in the assault was heavy, and the defenders were put to the sword without mercy. Henry made Caen the temporary seat, of his government in Normandy. Bayeux surrendered to him on the 19th of September. Bayeux t iko ii During the remnant of the autumn and the ensuing The winter Henry led his principal force more and more to English • t • a conquer the south, capturing the important towns ot Argenteau, southern Alengon, and Falaise. Meanwhile detachments of his ormamy- troops, all acting in concert, took numerous posts of less importance. After halting for a few weeks in the spring, and thoroughly establishing his military pos session of these conquests, and organising the commu- A^Bngiisii nications of his forces one with another, he sent his oorPs de- tached to brother Gloucester with a strong corps to complete the conquer the conquest of the western extremity of Normandy. Gloucester was successful; but Cherbourg did not Long re- surrender to him tib after a resistance of six cherbour'g. months. Meanwhbe other English officers took Cou- tance, Avranches, and Domfront, in the south-west ; ^quests and a fresh English corps of 15,000 men, under the ^e.weat Duke of Exeter, conquered Evreux, in the east, and east of Cobecting under his own command the greater part of * See Puiseux, p. 68. 416 HENEY V. chap, his forces, Henry marched towards Eouen in May, YIIL approaching it on the southern side of the Seine ; U18- Eouen is on the northern side. The Eouennais, proMhe?" having the broad' river between them and the English ttTopp™ army, viewed Henry and his host with indifference; site side of anc[ when they saw them march along the river up- and makes wards towards Paris, they thought the storm would abandoning pass by them, as had been the case in 1346, when Ed- marchlnt ward III. approached Eouen, but left it unassabed. on Paris. Having besieged and captured Louviers, Henry still turesypont marched on up the line of the Seine, till he reached de rArche. pont ^& yj^cfe^ -phis important place surrendered to him in July. He now could move his troops across the Seine ; and the possession of Pont de l'Arche gave him the command of the upper waters of the Seine Then, between that place and Eouen, even as the possession bothridw of Harfleur ensured him the command of the lower Seine6 he waters 0f that river. He now marched rapidly back wheeisback upon Eouen, with his main force along the northern Eouen. bank of the Seine. Before he attacked the great city, he had cut off its communications with the sea, with the rest of Normandy, and with Paris. The only territory near Eouen, which the English did not com mand, was the province of Picardy.* Continued The Count of Armagnac and the Duke of Burgundy between continued their civb war with each other ; each striv- ^Bur-10 ing to surpass his adversary in cruelty. In May, gundy. 1418, the Duke's partisans in Paris opened a gate of gundiaUns" the crty to a detachment of his troops, and the setstn oT* Burgundians obtained possession of the capital and of Paris. the King's person. Armagnac and great numbers of thTATmag* his followers were thrust into the Parisian prisons; French*110 an(* on ^ 12*n °f June the savage populace, who * Puiseux, p. 49. HENEY LAYS SIEGE TO EOUEN. 417 were devoted to the Burgundian cause, broke open chap. the prison doors, and put to death Armagnac and his YIIL fellow captives with barbarous ferocity, equalling 14m that, which about three centuries and a half after- i2Tune, wards, stained Paris with the infamy of the September 1418- massacres. The young Dauphin had escaped to Melun -n,e Dau by the aid of Tannaguy du Chalet, one of Armagnac's c^™'leB boldest and fiercest adherents. The Dauphin now escapes, styled himself Eegent ; and the remaining chiefs of Mm the the Armagnac party, collecting round him, carried on Armagnacs desultory but savage warfare with the Burgundians. keep up JO o the war With little risk of serious interruption by the forces against the of either Burgundy or of the Dauphin, Henry now ad- dians. dressed himself to the great operation of the siege and capture of Eouen. The details of this, siege deserve to be importance .studied more fully, than they can be narrated here. They rest of 6" illustrate most forcibly the high military abilities of ^Ugnof Henry; but they also show the vein of harshness and Harsh and merciless rigour, which underlay his general kindly and understra- genial character, and which cropped out in his treat- *J™ of,g ment of Badbee, and perhaps in his traditionary stern- character. ness, after he became King, towards the old companions p^0^. of his youthful follies, as well as in many passages of his warlike career. But the siege of Eouen deserves stib more to be studied, as evidencing the gallantry and patriotism of the French nation. They were, destitute of leaders. Their King, after the campaign of Agincourt, Patriotism from either imbecility or selfish cowardice, neglected andborfa^e every royal duty ; theb? Queen was a profligate intriguer, middle hating her own son, the Dauphin, with a malignity ^French. such as that, which a Spanish Queen, in the beginning g*1^ of our own century, showed against her son, the Prince French of the Asturias; and was equally ready to sacrifice the Famiiy. realm to foreigners rather than allow her own child to Disloyalty reign over it. The royal Princes and the chief of the tiousness VOL. II. E B 418 HENEY V. chap. French nobility, who had not fallen at Agincourt, or Yin- gone into captivity in England, were almost whoby 1418- intent on their deadly feuds with each other, and left great6 King Henry to extend his conquests as he listed. The nobles. feudal military force of the land was thus headless and T.h.c rCtSni" iar feudal almost bfeless. There was no other organisation. forcedeca- There was not any patriotic General or Chieftain of Bhtttered"1 paramount influence and power, around whom volun teers could group themselves, and under whose guid ance a new national army might be created. Yet the French gentry and burghers almost universaby refused submission to the victorious enemy; al though complete protection for person and property was guaranteed to all, who would acknowledge King Henry as their ruler ; and although resistance was punished with merciless mbitary severity. The. conquest of Normandy was effected by a war of sieges. There was no army to oppose the English in the open field ; but the French gentry retired into their fenced cities, some of which had small garrisons of regular troops. The populations of the cities were devotedly loyal to their country ; and the defences of nearly all were signalised by determined bravery. Horrors of Those who are dazzled with the glories of Agin- tllG S1626 _ of Rouen— court, (as is the. case still with many English readers, ground' to and some English writers of history), should study of Agin-re the narratives of these sieges, as given by both Eng- court. lish and French chroniclers, in order that they may be taught to view aright the true character of this un holy war, and the amount of human misery which it created.* * See especially Monstrelet, Holinshed, and an English poem, apparently written by an Englishman who was present at the siege of Rouen. It is to be found in vols. xx. and xxi. of the Archaeologia. Holinshed certainly had before him many contemporaneous narratives which we do not possess. M. Puiseux in his Introduction, gives a good review of the contemporaneous authorities, and of their comparative values. STEENGTH OF THE CITY OE EOUEN. 41 g Eouen was strong by position and by fortification; chap. and a body of 5,500 French men-at-arms had been Ym" cobected in the city by Guy de Boutelber, one of the Siege of best officers that remained in the service of the King of juiyfuis France. The armed population was numerous and uilma,ry' brave. The city train-bands were 15,000 strong, and strength of in the defence of a town were little if at ab inferior to the 01ty" regular troops. A chosen band of one hundred cross bow-men was under the personal command of Alain Blanchard, w'ho appears to have exercised a general authority over all the armed citizens. The fortifications were unusually well supplied with cannons and military engines. The artillery-men were 2000 in number. There was also a force of 600 militia-men, which the city of Paris had sent to theb? friends at Eouen a little before the beginning of the siege. The number of deserters from the English army appears to have been considerable. Such was the strength of Eouen ; and it was clear that an attempt on the part of the Eng bsh to carry the place by storm could only result in a severe repulse of the assabants. The facbi- ties given for the introduction of supplies by the river Seine, which flows through the town, and the great extent of the walls, seemed to make an effective blockade impracticable. But the military skib and Military remorseless perseverance of King Henry overcame ab neering1" the resources of defence. The English army, advancing He^ryf" from the south along the line of the river, drove back into the town the French troops and citizens, who had advanced to delay the invaders' progress; and then formed in six divisions round the walls, a strong English force confronting each of the city gates, and fortifying itself with towers, and with batteries qf cannon, and with the old engines for casting stones and darts, which the application of gunpowder to E E 2 420 HENEY V. CHAP. VIII. 1418. Braverydisplayedon both sides. The invest mentcompleted. Warfare had not yet superseded. Deep trenches con necting the strongholds of the besiegers with each other, were dug round the town ; and rows of strong pabsades and hedges of thorns were planted along both sides of the trenches. A bridge was bubt by the besiegers across the river above the town, and a numerous flotiba was brought up from Harfleur, and moored below the town, which completed the circle of communication throughout the English bnes. In order to cut off ab possibility of Eouen receiving supplies by the Seine, a large detachment of boats from the flotilla was dragged with immense labour of men and horses overland, and launched again on the stream above the city, so as to keep guard near the English bridge. The strictest discipbne and vigilance were maintained among the besiegers. The precise post, which each division and subdivision was to occupy, was clearly defined ; and limits were appointed, beyond which no soldier was on any account to wander. Soon after these orders were given, Henry saw two of his men " who were walking abroad without the limits assigned, whom he caused straightway to be apprehended and hanged upon a tree of great height, for a terror to others, that none should be so hardy as to break such orders as he commanded them to observe."* Before these bnes of circumvallation were completed, the besieged had made many desperate sallies, which were encountered by the English with equal valour, and many gallant deeds of arms were performed on both sides. But though the defenders of Eouen thus retarded, they could not stop the steady progress of the English engineers ; and at last the besiegers' Holinshed. EOUEN CLOSELY BLOCKADED. 42X works were so strong, and the arrangement for chap. prompt support to each assailed part of them so YIIL complete, that every sabying party was speedily wis. beaten back with heavy loss ; and it was with extreme difficulty that Le Boutellier was able 'to keep up any communication, by means of messengers, with the open country. King Henry made no assault on the KingHenry city. He trusted to the slow but sure tooth of famine ?us.ts *? " 1 famine to to break down Eouen. He had advanced against ™the the city in July, purposely timing his approach °lty' before the full ripening of the new corn, so that the garrison should not strengthen their resources by the harvest of that year. The defenders had themselves laid waste the country, as they retreated before the Eng lish upon Eouen, intending to deprive the invaders as far as possible of means of supply ; but Henry's fore thought and skill guarded his troops effectively from suffering any of the privations, which they inflicted on those within the town. Henry's ships brought stores Ample up the river ; and he had under his command large f™^0118 numbers of light cavalry, who swept the country far besiegers. and near of its resources, which they brought into the Engbsh camp. He had a body of native Irish, 1600 in number, who especiaby signalised themselves in this marauding warfare, and were regarded by the French as some of the worst scourges of the land. Monstrelet says of them : " The King of England had in his army numbers of Irish, the greater part of whom were on foot, having only a stocking and shoe on one leg and foot, with the other quite naked. They had targets, short javelins, and a strange sort of knives. Those who were on horseback had no saddles, but rode excellently well on small mountain horses, and were mounted on such paniers as are used by the carriers of corn in parts of 422 CHAP. VIII. 1.418. Distress of the be sieged. 12,000 of the most helplessturned out from the city. HENEY V. France. They were, however, miserably accoutred in comparison with the English, and without any arms that could much hurt the French whenever they might meet them. " These Irish made frequent excursions during the siege over Normandy, and did infinite mischiefs, carrying back to theb? camp large booties. Those on foot took men, and even chddren from the cradle, with beds and furniture, and placing them on cows, drove all these things before them, for they were often met thus by the French." Orders had been given by Le Boutelber, on as suming the command in Eouen, that ab persons, who could not bear arms, should quit the town, except those who had private stores of provisions sufficient for six months. But many helpless creatures had remained ; and the advance of the English troops, with theb savage Irish auxibaries, had driven large numbers of the country people to seek shelter within the walls. It is computed that many more than 100,000 human beings were shut up in Eouen when the English lines of investment were completed.* For these there was no food, except the scanty stores that were in the city when the English approached. Scarcity was soon felt, and by the beginning of winter, men, women, and children were fain to bve on horses, dogs, cats, mice, and rats, and other things unfit for human food. The Governor ordered the most feeble and destitute to be cobected, and "full 12,000 poor people, men, women, and children, were driven out from the city gates."f The helpless outcasts crept towards the English * M. Puiseux (chap, ii.) estimates the number at four times this amount. t Monstrelet. M. Puiseux thinks (with much probability) that these were not inhabitants of Rouen, but country people who had fled before the advancing besiegers into the city.— P. 143. . THOUSANDS OE OUTCASTS PEEISH. 42g. lines, in the hope of being at least allowed to pass chap. through, and seek for food and shelter in other French YIIL towns, even if their fellow-creatures in the English 1418- army denied them charity. But by Henry's orders they Passage were driven back towards the city, where he probably the°EngUsh expected their countrymen would receive them, and ^fed thereby diminish the supplies yet available for such them- as could bear arms. But they staggered back to They starve the city in vain. The Governor refused .to allow the between gates to be re-opened ; and these 12,000 human beings ^ ebres"and lay down in the ditches to perish by the slow agonies *** be- of cold and famine. Some help must have been given to them from the wabs, by the compassion of their fellow countrymen ; and it is said that the English soldiers sometimes disobeyed orders, and stealthdy threw bread to them. Some of them were still alive, even at the end of the siege in January. English writers have eulogised what they call the generosity of Henry, who ordered a solitary meal to be given on Christmas Day to the French outcasts in the ditches, who then survived. But by far the greater number were starved to death in fub view of the merciless English King and his army. In the report of these horrors, which the defenders of Eouen sent to their own King Charles VL, to induce him to send an army to raise the siege, they told him that " among other things, grievous and pitiful to be related, it had been frequently necessary for them (the townspeople) to draw up in baskets new born children from mothers who had given birth in the ditches, that the babes might be baptized, and that the little ones were after baptism lowered back again to starve and die with their mothers. Many, however, had perished without christening." From the French Court at Paris promises of help, The Rouen- Ti T T T DaiS Vainly but promises only, were sent to Kouen. it would, seek help 424 CHAP. VIII. 1419. from Charles VI. The de fenders of Rouen ask for terms. Harshnessof Henry. Mercy for the out casts im plored and denied. HENEY V. indeed, have been almost impracticable for any French army, that could then have been assembled, to force its way through Henry's fortified lines into the city. But the French Princes and great nobles were wholly intent on their own sanguinary feuds with each other ; and Eouen was left to fab without a blow being struck to aid her. As the long wintry weeks moved on, the sufferings of the besieged grew more and more appal ling, surpassing at last ab human nature's powers of endurance. By the beginning of 1419 one half of the population had perished. The survivors sent a depu tation to the English camp to propose conditions of capitulation. Henry sternly refused to grant any terms ; and demanded an unconditional surrender. The men of Eouen refused such submission ; but before the 'deputies left Henry's presence, one of them implored the English King at least to show compas sion to the remnant of outcasts in the city ditches. Henry replied in words, which his countrymen seem to have treasured with admiring care ; and which English chroniclers, who wrote more than a century after the time, have continued to repeat and record with such eulogizing comments, as show how long the international hatred, and the blindness to right, which this wicked war created, continued to sully the English people. Holinshed uses these words : — " One of the deputed citizens shewing himself more rash than wise, more arrogant than learned, took upon him to shew wherein the glorie of victorie consisted ; advising the King not to shew his manhood in famishing a multi tude of poore simple and innocent people, but rather suffer such miserable wretches as laic betwixt the walls of the citie and the trenches of his siege, to passe through the camp, that theie might get their living in other places ; then if he durst manfubie assault the THE CEUEL SIDE OE HENEY'S CHAEACTEE. 425 place, and by force subdue it, he should win both chap. worldlie fame, and merit great meed from the hands of YnI" Almightie God, for having compassion of the poore, U19- needie, and indigent people. When this orator had said, the King with a fierce countenance and bold spirit, reproved them for their malapert presumption, in that they should seeme to go about to teach him what belonged to the dutie of a conqueror, and there fore since it appeared that the same was unknown to them, he declared that the goddesse of batted, called Bebona, had three handmaidens, ever of necessitie attending upon her, as Blood, Fire, and Famine, and whereas it laie in his choice to use them all three, he had appointed onelie the meekest maid of those three damsels to punish them of that citie till they were brought to reason. This answer put the French am bassador in a great studie, musing much at his excel lent wit and hawtinesse of courage." Le Boutelber now assembled the survivors of the Desperate garrison and of tbe inhabitants, and proposed to them, ofthe i engines and siege-works which they abandoned. ™^efeat Frenchmen now looked on the cause of their national English. A38 HENEY VI. chap. King as favoured by Heaven, and as certain of success ; IX- while even the most stubborn of the English began to *m fear that the conquest of France was an impracticable enterprise ; and they entered upon each great campaign Many with forebodings of fadure and disaster. Many towns, recovered hitherto held against Charles VII., expelled theb Charles English and Burgundian garrisons. French forces YIL. gained successes in the field at Jargeau, and at Patay; won back and in July an army led by the Maid of Orleans, y ares. au(j , Charles in person, recovered the City of Importance , . of that Eheims, which was important, not only by reason of its position and strength, but because it was the coronation city of the Kings of France, according to Coronation ancient and long-continued usage. Charles VII. was of Charles. crowne(j an(j anointed there, on the 18th of July, 1429; and this proved to be no mere ceremony, but it was viewed by the French nation as another solemn proof of the judgment of Heaven being pronounced in Charles's favour, and of his being the true King, to whose cause every loyal and God-fearing Frenchman ought thenceforth to devote his sword. The Maid of Orleans, clad in full armour, and hold- in her hand her own banner, which had waved the French on to victory, stood by the high altar at Eheims, and witnessed the triumphant coronation of Charles. She knelt in gratitude on beholding her mission thus accomplished, and she asked of the King that she now might be allowed to return to her parents, to tend theb? flocks once more, and to five at her own will in her native village. But her in fluence over the French soldiers was deemed too valuable ; and she was persuaded to stay and to take part in the continued war. She aided in the recapture of several strong places from the English ; but she was JOAN OE AEC TAKEN PEISONEE. 439 severely wounded in an unsuccessful attack which the chap. French made on Paris in the course of the a,utumn. ,LL In the spring of the following year she was again in I43°- the field, and threw herself with a small force into gain other the fortress of Compiegne, which was being besieged. £ut^^es' by a Burgundian army. She showed her accustomed repulsed _ valour, and, on the 24th of May, led a sally against joanis the besiegers, which was repulsed. Joan, ever the com^tf e° first in advance, was now the last in retreat, and byaBur- repeatedly faced about to engage the nearest pursuers, army. and give her men more time to regain the town. The I }^eaAs mass of the fugitives, in their panic selfishness, closed whioh is the city gates, and Joan, with a few brave soldiers who remained with her to the last, was left outside among the overwhelming numbers of the enemy. She fought her way to the edge of the city ditch, and called to those on the walls to aid her ; but none came forth to save her who had saved France. Conspicuous by her armour and attire, she was eagerly marked and assailed by the enemy. She tried to escape by forcing her horse across the fields ; but a Burgundian archer sprang up behind her, and seized her by the helmet, and they fell to the ground together. As she lay help- She is less, she gave up her sword to Vendome, an officer in soner. pn" the Duke of Burgundy's service. The rejoicings of the besiegers were loud and vehement. Vendome, as was The Bur- the custom of knights in. those days, made the best f^teHo of his prize by selling Joan to his superior officer, theEng- John of Luxembourg, who sold her again to the English, as in the best market, for 6000 livres, to be paid down, and an annuity of 300 more during his life. The Engbsh had some difficulty in providing the money ; and De Luxembourg refused to part with his captive before the 6000 livres were handed over to him. He kept Joan in his custody for three months, 440 HENEY VI. CHAP. IX.. 1431. The Eng lish treat her, not as a prisoner of war, but as a sor ceress. She is tried before an ecclesiastical tri bunal. She is burnt to death at Rouen. until the money was forthcoming. She was then debvered over to the English, and Bedford determined that she should be tried before an ecclesiastical tribunal as a heretic and a sorceress. The University of Paris, then completely under English influence, readily co-operated with the Eegent ; but the trial took place at Eouen, as the Bishop of Beauvais, a Frenchman by birth, but completely submissive to the invaders, claimed cognizance over the case, inasmuch as the prisoner had been captured within his diocese. ' Joan was treated throughout, not as a prisoner of war, but as a malefactor of the worst description. After a long and harassing trial, during which she displayed great sense and spbit in her replies to the inquisitors who sat in judgment on her, and after undergoing much cruelty and brutality in her dungeon, she was publicly burnt to death in the square opposite the Church of St. Ouen in Eouen. She expbed clasping the crucifix to her heart, and cabing to Christ her Saviour for mercy. Her countrymen bebeved that her spbit was seen to soar from the blazing pyre to Heaven, in the form of a snow-white dove. We look with shame and abhorrence on the part taken by our countrymen in this cruel and cow ardly murder, but the guilt of Charles VII. and his court is even greater than that of Bedford and the other English chiefs. These last at least reaby believed that their victim was a sorceress, who had practised hellish arts against them, and from whom they had received disastrous injuries. But the French King, and those around him, believed, or professed to believe, that the Maid of Orleans was a Heaven-sent deliverer. She had rescued Charles from the most abject misery, and given him victory, sovereignty, and dominion. Yet no attempt whatever was made by DEATH OF THE DUKE OF BEDFOED. 441 the French to ransom Joan, while yet in the hands of chap. her Burgundian captors, nor did they endeavour to IX" save her from the vengeance of the English by an U35- ' exchange of prisoners, or by threatening reprisals. No baser stain of ingratitude ever sullied a crown, than Charles acquired by his heartless abandonment of the heroine, to whom his crown was almost wholly due. The martyrdom of the Maid of Orleans did not increasing bring' back success to the English. Bedford continued ofthe ties to struggle against the increasing difficulties of his p°fn|f^ iu position with ability worthy of a better cause ; and such was stbl the renown of Engbsh valour, that the French prudently forebore from engaging in any pitched battles. They made the war one of sieges and surprises, and cavalry skbmishes, in all which the growing enthusiasm of the population for theb? native King, and their detestation of the English, gave great advantages to the forces of King Charles. In 1435 two events occurred, which made the expulsion of the English only a question of time. One of these was Death of the death of the Duke of Bedford by disease at Eouen. *feBeduf^.d. The other was the Duke of Burgundy's abandonment and the of the English alliance. A congress was held at Burgundy's Arras, in which the Burgundians and French proposed me^oThis a general peace on the terms that the King of England t^En should hold Normandy and Guienne as fiefs of France, land- but should withdraw his forces from ab other territories in France, and resign all claims to the French crown. The English indignantly rejected these conditions, TheEng- and determined to continue the war single-handed, nateiy carry But all men, whose political sagacity was not whoby on the war- blinded by national pride or party feeling, must have seen the impolicy of prolonging such a contest. And pian 0f sir an elaborate report on the best mode of carrying on ^for88" 442 HENEY VI. chap, the war, which was drawn up in the same year by Sir "IX" John Fastolf, one of the bravest and most experienced 1435. among the English commanders, though it professes duct ofthe to approve of the rejection of the terms offered at' wax" Arras, shows clearly how vain the English projects of conquest had become. No more Fastolf strongly recommends that in future all moreS'occu- sieges, and ab attempts at the permanent occupation tereito3 °f °^ more territory, shall be scrupulously avoided. He Moveable advises the formation of two small well-appointed deltoction armies, that are to co-operate with each other, and are t0 k? , to be ready for concentration, if necessary, so as to deal employed. J J ' with any large force of the enemy. They are to be under the command of "two notable chieftains, dis crete, and of one accord." They are to march south wards every year from either Crotoy or Calais, and on entering the enemy's territory they are to extend them selves as widely as possible, consistently with the power of speedy concentration, and then they are to hold forth their way, burning and destroying ab the land as they pass, both houses, corn, vines, and all trees that bear fruit for man's sustenance. All cattle that cannot be conveniently driven on with the troops are to be destroyed ; and all that may be conveniently driven, and are not wanted as provisions for the soldiers, are to be driven into Normandy, or Paris, or other places, that obey King Henry. No hostile town or district is to exempt itself from this devastation by ransom, or is in any way to be spared or favoured. The two English armies are to keep the field from the. 1st of June to the 1st of November in every year, " to the intent to drive the enemies thereby to an extreme famine." The armies are to be well provided with all manner of ordnance for the field, and with hatchets and bills to cut vines and trees with. But SIE JOHN FASTOLF'S EEPOET ON THE WAE. 443 their artillery is not to be used for sieges, operations chap. which Fastolf repeatedly deprecates ; saying (with an IX" evident recollection of Orleans) that the late hin- U35- drances of the English conquests, and destruction of English forces, have been principally caused by sieges. His reason for being urgent that the English moveable columns of destruction shall be well provided with artillery, is that the English generals will be thereby enabled to prevent the enemy from fighting in bodies of cavaby, and may compel them to fight on foot in the old fashion. The enemy's troops also that are in towns wib, by these tactics, be starved out, "so as either to surrender, or come forth and fight on foot, as they were wont to do." He thinks that all atttempts at reprisals may be baffled by carefuby garrisoning the towns and strong parts in the provinces where King Henry is acknowledged, and by great vigilance and severity towards the disaffected part of the population. He is anxious that the sea should be web kept, and that for this purpose albances should be formed with the Venetians and the Genoese. Such was Fastolf's advice for the future conduct of the war, and it appears, in a merely military point of view, to be sound and prudent. But though cam paigns so conducted might gratify the avarice of the soldiers, and the vindictive passions of the English mtdtitude, no statesman could expect that any per manent acquisition of territory or power could accrue upon mere devastations ; and many, even in that age, must have been sensible of the barbarity and discredit of such hostilities.* * Sir John Fastolf's Report (Sept. 1435) upon the management of the wars in France is published in the Chronicles of Great Britain, which are now being edited by order of the Master of the Rolls. It is at p. 575 of the " Wars of the English in Prance," temp. Henry VI. vol. ii. part 2. 444 HENEY VI. CHAP. IX. 1436-53. Paris re covered by the French, 1436.Other suc- gained by them. The war is pro longed to 1453. Closed then by the defeat and death of "the Hero Talbot"at Cast- illon. Length of the last scenes of thestruggle: how caused. Paris was recovered by the French in 1436 ; Meaux in 1439 ; Creil and Pontoise in 1441. Anjou and Maine, with all their towns, were given up by the English in 1448, according to a treaty made on Henry's marriage with Margaret of Anjou in 1445. In 1449 the French attacked the English in Nor mandy, and recovered that important province with little difficulty. In 1451 they assailed with equal success the ancient Engbsh possessions in the west of France. An English expedition was sent out in 1452, under the veteran hero, Talbot, to reconquer Gas- cony. He at first gained several advantages, but was defeated and kdled at Castibon in 1453. This may be regarded as the end of the Great English War in France, which had been begun by Edward III. in 1338. One only of Edward's conquests remained in the hands of the English. This was Calais. Ab the rest of the conquests of Edward and the Black Prince, of Henry V. and of Bedford, were breparably lost ; and England had lost also every remnant of the ancient continental heritages of her earlier kings. She had clung to the last shreds of her French dominion with obstinate but long hopeless tenacity. The dissensions among the English generals and statesmen since the death of the Eegent Bedford had been so violent, and the transfer of the power of Burgundy to the side of Charles VII. had given the French arms such a pre ponderance, that we are disposed to feel surprised at the last scenes of the struggle having been protracted so long. This was partly due to the great skill and valour which some of the English generals, especially " The Hero Talbot," * continued to display ; and * The contemporaneous French writers call him " Talbot the Hero."— See Robertus Blondell de Reductione Normannia3, pars 31, et passim. It ia edited by Mr. Stevenson, among the Rolls Collection of Chronicles. COMMENCEMENT OF THE" WAE OF THE EOSES. 445 partly to the character of Charles VII. himself, who, chap. though capable of temporary efforts, during which he ifl showed 'daring and energy, and almost always saga- li55- cious in his choice of envoys and commanders, sank at times into listless idleness, and suffered, if he did not encourage, the growth and strife of favouritism and faction in his Court. France was indebted to him towards the close of the war for an institution, to which she owed much of her final success, and which was an important engine for the maintenance of order and royal authority amid the turbulence of feudal chiefs and their retainers. This Avas the organisation of a body of infantry regularly armed and disciplined. * Within two years from the battle of Castibon (July 23, 1453), the last in the great French war, came the • battle of St. Albans (May 23, 1455), the first in the great civil war between the Houses of York and Lan caster, for the English Crown. The contest raged long with varying success before a king of the House of York was actually crowned ; but its commencement marks out a distinct period in our history ; and, before we address ourselves to the personal careers and characters of the chief personages in the War of the Eoses, we may conveniently pause to consider what was the progress of our constitution during the Lan castrian reigns. The power and influence of Parbament increased Constitu- greatly under the Princes of this dynasty. Parlia- hiXy ments were held almost every year ; no taxes were ^rian levied or payments imposed on the people, except with ^s™- * Robert Blondell speaks of the new French infantry as most useful to the State, and as especially serviceable in coping with the English archers. He says, " IUud horum beUatorum predictum genus reipublicse salutiferum, et in rusticos Anglia sagittarios necessarium, in quibus Angliae ducum maxima victorias spes est, RexCarolus prudenter primus erigit."— Robertus BlondeU de Reductione Normannise, p. 48 ; Stevenson's RoUs edit. 446 HENEY VL CHAP. IX. Increased power of Parliament. Diminishednumber of electors.The statute of 8 Henry VI., limit ing the right of voting f»r knights of the shire to 40 shilling freeholders. Largenumber of country voters before this time. parliamentary sanction ; the necessary concurrence of the Commons in general legislation was fully recog nised ; and the opinion of Parliament was frequently taken on important measures of administration, in cluding questions of peace or war with foreign powers. But, while the power of Parbament was thus matured and strengthened, the number of those who partici pated in parliamentary power, that is to say, the number of Electors of Members of the House of Com mons was very materially diminished. The great disfranchising statute, as to county electors, was passed in the 8th year of Henry VI. It recites that elections of knights of the shbe had of late been made by very great, outrageous, and excessive numbers of people dwelling within the same counties, of the which most part was of people of smab substance, " and of no value, whereof every of them pretended to have a voice equivalent as to such elections to be made with, the more worthy knights and esquires dwebing within the same counties." This recital is very strong evidence of the democratic character of the old county elections : and this is further proved by the statute 7 Henry IV. c. 15, which, whbe guarding against the malpractices of the sheriffs in conducting county elections, expressly recognised the right of ab who were present at the County Court, "as well suitors duly summoned for that cause as others, to enter upon the election of knights, without intimidation, and without being subject to corrupt influences." But the statute of Henry VI. limited the right of voting to those persons only, who had free land or tenement to the value of forty shillings by the year at least, above all charges. This was a very severe measure of disfranchisement. It.ex- . eluded from the right to vote, among others, the lease-. EESTEICTION OF THE ELECTOEAL FEANCHISE. 447 holders and the copyholders; and there is reason to chap. believe that the number of these classes was becoming ifi considerable. The number also of poorer freehold tenants, who were disfranchised by the 8th Henry VL, must have been large, as 40 shibings in that age were equal, in purchasing power, to at least £20 of our money at the present time. Stib, even after all the Number of reductions, the number of forty shilling freeholders, ™Z™ stm who retained the right of voting, was considerable ; if £ueider" we may trust the boasts of Lord Chancebor Fortescue, in his book, " De Laudibus Anglise," written towards the close of Henry VI.'s reign, respecting the abundance of substantial freeholders in every English county. A supplemental statute, passed in the 10th year of statute Henry VL, required that the freehold in respect of Reality of which the elector voted, should be situate within the frefhoids, . and resi- eounty. This condition has been observed ; but other dence of restrictive rules, by which the legislators of that period members. sought to exclude from the right to vote all, who did not reside within the county, and to limit also those, who were ebgible as members, feb into speedy neglect, and have long been practically inoperative. A statute passed in the 1st year of the reign of Henry V. had required that knights of the shire should not be chosen, unless resident within the shire, and that the choosers of knights of the shbe should be resident within the shire. It ordained also that ab citizens and burgesses of cities and boroughs should be citizens and burgesses resident, dwelbng, and free in the same, and no " other person." This enactment was little, if at all observed ; and the statute of 8 Henry VI. equally vainly repeated the direction as to county voters, that the electors should be people dwelling and resident in the county. A statute passed in the 23rd stat, 23 year of this reign went stib further in endeavouring ^tempte'to 448 HENEY VI. CHAP. IX. create a noblesse in England. Narrowing of the class that held poli tical power in cities and bo roughs. Democra tic cha racter of the old boroughs. to narrow the class eligible to serve in Parliament* That statute required that knights of the shires for Parbament "shall be notable knights of the same counties for which they shall be chosen, or otherwise such notable esquires, gentlemen born* of the same counties as shall be able to be knights ; and no man to be such knight as standeth in the degree of a yeoman or under." If this statute had been enforced, it would not only have instituted a property qualifica tion for county members, but it would, by recognising " gentlemen born " as superior in the eye of the law to ordinary freemen, have done much to found a caste, a noblesse in England, and to destroy that equabty of civic right which has so often been pointed out as England's pecubar blessing, f No bmitation of the electoral franchise in cities and boroughs was made by means of general parliamentary enactments ; ' but we have abundant proof that the statesmen, who conducted the Govern ment in Henry VL's name, fobowed a subtle and systematic policy, which very much narrowed the numbers of the residents in towns, who were abowed to take part in municipal government, and to vote as burgesses in the choice of representatives in the House of Commons. Before this reign, every free man, who became a householder in a borough, and who could pay scot and lot (that is, who could pay his share of the local taxes, and take his turn of local offices) was enrobed, as a matter of right, among the burgesses of the place. The boroughs were not then incorporated : but, in the 18th year of Henry VL's reign, a royal charter of incorporation was given to * Gentils homes del nativity. f See as to this isonomia of English freemen, Hallam's Middle Ages, vol. ii. p. 343. STEIFE OF PAETIES. 449 Hub ; and similar charters were soon afterwards granted chap. to other places. Sometimes these charters contained i^L clauses giving exclusive power to the officers of the corporation, or to a designated small number of change members. Generally speaking, the Mayor, or some ^rant leading individual among the corporation, had the of ?narter* custody of the corporate seal, by which alone the poration. borough, as a corporate body, could act. This gave facilities for monopolising authority, and for selecting convenient individuals only as burgesses. The courts of law favoured the doctrine of incorporation ; and, in process of time, when no charter for incorporation for a borough could be found, a legal presumption that a lost charter once existed, was suggested and ultimately maintained.* This new system grew up only by de grees, and many boroughs retained their fub democratic franchise to the last. But the changes introduced by Henry VL's statesmen were sufficient, even in the age when they were made, to further materially theb pobcy of ruling arbitrarily by means of Parliaments ; — that is to say, of so influencing and managing parlia mentary elections, as to make Parliaments the instru ments of the royal, or rather of the ministerial will. Such seems to have been the design of Henry's strife of statesmen at that period, though none of them fully during tha realised it, or succeeded in acquiring a firm ascen- early years dancy over his rivals. The strife of favourites and vl factions continued to rage in Parliament, as web as in the councd chamber ; displaying itself also in frequent brawls and combats between the armed retainers of the party-leaders, and at last breaking out into open civd war. A prince more unsuited for such a time Henry vi. than Henry VI. could hardly have existed. His very Zh£%e. * See on this important subject the learned work on Corporations, by the late Serjeant Merewether, and Mr. Archibald John Stevens. VOL. II. g g 450 HENEY VI. chap, virtues (and he had many) told against him : and the IX- facility with which he was guided, when a man, by the stronger and coarser spirits around him, prolonged throughout his reign much of the natural weakness oi" his early years. He was not a year old at the time of Appoint- his father's death. The proceedings of the English Par- "gentit1 bament as to the appointment of a Eegent at this tune *ta bofn deserve attention. A Council of the principal peers of Henry's the realm issued commissions in the infant King's name, by which the judicial and other authorities were empowered to continue the exercise of theb respective faculties, and by which a Parbament was summoned, and the Duke of Gloucester authorised to act as Eoyal Commissioner. When the Parliament met, both Houses resolved that no one could have any right to claim the Eegency, either by proximity of blood, or under the late King's wib ; and a statute was passed, by which the Duke of Bedford was made Eegent, and the Duke of Gloucester appointed Pro tector of England in Bedford's absence. Ab legal forms were scrupulously observed; ab the commissions^ proclamations, and other acts of state were in the infant King's name, and purported to have the royal oiou- sanction. Gloucester attempted to make himself effective party, and ruler of England ; but he met with the greatest oppo- fort)?arty. sition from the famdy of the Beauforts, of which the King's great uncle, Cardinal Beaufort, was chief. The Cardinal was Gloucester's superior in talent and self- control, and his equal in ambition and vindictiveness. The Cardinal's chief supporter in the Councb was a churchman of great abbity, John Stafford, keeper of the privy seal at the time of Henry V.'s death, who was made Bishop of Bath and Webs in 1425, and Archbishop of Canterbury in 1443. Wbliam De la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, was also a zealous adherent of CHAEAOTEE OF THE KINO. -451 the Cardinal, and, after the Cardinal's death in 1447, chap. Suffolk and Edmund Beaufort (who was made Duke of ifl Somerset in 1444) became the leaders ofthe party. On the other side the Duke of Gloucester brought The Duke forward for high employment Eichard Plantagenet, ottlint the lineal representative of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, mnch t t t • t " power. who was the third son of Edward IIL, and senior to John of Gaunt, from whom Henry IV, Henry V, and Henry VI. were descended. Eichard Plantagenet's father was the Earl of Cambridge, who was put to death on the charge of conspbacy against Henry V, immediately before the invasion of France in 1415. The Earl of Cambridge was of the blood royal of England ; but Eichard Plantagenet's hereditary claim to the throne was through his mother Anne, who was, through three descents, heir to Edward III. Young Eichard was relieved from the effects of his father's attainder for treason, and obtained the titles and estates of his late uncles the Duke of York and the Earl of March, in 1425. He showed great courage and abbity in the French wars ; but the constant dissensions between him and other Engbsh commanders, who were of the Beaufort party, marred ab his operations against the enemy. Meanwhbe the young King Henry was growing up Character a pure-hearted, earnest Christian gentleman ; a ripe vi. scholar, and a zealous admirer and liberal promoter of education and science.* But he had neither fondness * The words used by him in his grant of a coat of arms to his royal foundation of Eton CoUege deserve to be cited. He enunciates the enlightened maxim that "If men are ennobled on account of ancient hereditary wealth, much more is he to be preferred, and to be styled truly noble, who is rich in the treasures of the sciences and wisdom, and is also found diligent in his duty towards God. (Nam si inveterate et per genus ductee divitiae nobiles faciunt, multo praestantior est et vere dicendus nobilis, qui in scientiarum thesauris et prudentise locuples, neenon in divinis obsequiis diligens invenitur.) The deed is to be read in Bentley"s Excerpta Historica. e g 2 452 HENEY VI. CHAP. IX. The Beau- forts form a peace-party. Gloucester and York head the war-party. Henry'smarriage with Mar garet of Anjou. nor aptitude for knightly accomplishments and feats of arms ; he was deficient in sagacity for perceiving the true characters of those who sought his favour, and who used the influence of his royal name. Infirm of purpose, sensitively scrupulous as to means, and com passionate even to neglect of justice, he was altogether unfitted to struggle with the strong hard-heartedness of the world and age, in which he was enthroned. The Beaufort party saw early the hopelessness of completing the conquest of France, and were desirous to terminate the war. So far, their superiority to the English war-party, as politicians and patriots, is mani fest ; but a true Englishman and true statesman would, while looking for opportunities of concluding an honourable peace, have so conducted the war, as to maintain his country's credit unimpaired, and not to allow the enemy to gain repeated advantages, which were sure to make the terms of peace more and more disadvantageous to England. This last, however, was the system, on which the Cardinal, and stib more notably Suffolk and Somerset acted, chiefly through their mabgnant animosity against Gloucester and York, who sought popularity among the English multitude by advocating the continuance of the war. As Henry- grew towards manhood, the Beauforts saw how much additional influence they would gain over him by giving him a wife of theb? own selection, who would regard them as the authors of her greatness, and side with them against theb? rivals in the state. They ac cordingly negotiated a marriage between Henry and Margaret of Anjou, a young and beautiful princess, nearly related to the royal family of France. Her father was styled King Bene, and he bore the titles of Sovereign of Sicily, Naples, and Jerusalem. In reality, he was a landless and powerless adventurer. So eager DEATH OF THE DUKE OF GLOUCESTEE. 453 were theBeauforts and Suffolkto conclude this marriage, chap. TY that they agreed to give up the provinces of Anjou and . ;_ Maine, which the English forces at that time still held. Bene was titular Duke of these provinces, but he had no more ownership of them than of his kingdom of Jerusalem. The occupation of them by the French gave Charles VII. formidable means for attacking Normandy ; and the English nation generaby regarded Henry VL's marriage treaty as a base surrender of its un- English interests. The Duke of Suffolk (he had been FnEngW. raised in the peerage, and had received numerous Animosity n • t m p t t • '\ of the nigh state-omces after the royal marriage) was people the especial object of the people's hatred; but the Suffolk. Queen also became speedily unpopular as "the out- The Queen landish woman," for whose sake and by whose influence the conquests of Henry V. were sacrificed, and the power and pride of England's natural enemies were exalted. The ascendancy, which Margaret acqubed over her gentle husband, was soon notorious, and increased the national animosity against her, and her favourites Suffolk and Somerset; whbe Henry VI. himself was regarded with contemptuous compassion.* The Duke of Gloucester died on the 11th of Fe- Death of the Duke of bruary, 1447, under circumstances, that made his Gloucester, partisans and friends assert and believe that he had ' been murdered by his political enemies. The truth seems to be that he died a natural death ; "j" but the * The songs that were current at this period, and during the early part of the subsequent Civil War, are strong evidence of the popular feeling on this subject. Mr. Wright has published many of them in the second volume of " The Political Songs of England," in the Rolls Collection. See, in par ticular, "A warning to King Henry," p. 229. It seems to have been written » Httle before 1450. After several English stanzas comes the foUowing significant Latin distich : — Oh Rex, si regnas, rege te, vel eris sine re rex. Nomen habes sine re, te nisi rite regas. t See the remarks of Dr. Lingard on this in his note to vol v. p. 161, of 454 HENEY VI. chap, report of his murder gained credit at the time, g- and added to the popular animosity against the Beau- forts and Queen Margaret. Gloucester's great adversary, and of Cardinal Beaufort, died on the 1 1th of Aprb fodowing. B^u&rt. The Duke of Suffolk was now, under Queen Margaret, tteTuke cllief Governor of England ; Archbishop Stafford and of Suffolk. Somerset being his principal coadjutors. In 1449 the ?ork s°ent Duke of York was sent to Ireland as Lieutenant. This to Ireland. removai from England of his principal rival seemed to strengthen Suffolk ; but it gave York opportunities of ingratiating himself with the Irish, of which he skb- fuby took advantage, and which proved afterwards of great service to him and his famby. Tumults Even while the Duke of York was absent in Ireland, rectionsm revolutionary movements began in England, which, ng n ' though nominally dbected against the King's ministers only, gave ominous proof that Henry's title was talked of as questionable ; and that men's minds were be coming famdiarised with the idea of the crown being given back to the rightful heir, who was moreover a valiant soldier and a true-hearted Englishman. In January, 1450, the Bishop of Chichester, who had been one of the commissioners employed in nego tiating the King's marriage, was murdered in a popular Suffolk rising in Hampshire. Soon afterwards the enemies of the Duke of Suffolk were sufficiently strong in. the House of Commons to venture upon his impeachment. The proceedings on this impeachment were peculiar. The Duke, when charged in the House of Lords in the King's presence, instead of claiming to be tried by his peers, protested his innocence, but threw himself with out reserve on the King's wib. The Chancebor, Car dinal Kempe, then addressed him as fobows : — " Sb, his history, and see Lord Brougham's England and France under the House of Lancaster, p. 419. impeached. THE DUKE OF SUFFOLK BEHEADED. 455 since you do not put yourself on your peerage for chap. trial, the King will not hold you either guilty or inno- i^L. cent of the treasons, with which you have been charged ; but as one, to whose control you have voluntarby sub mitted, (not as a Judge advised by the Lords) he commands you to quit this land before the 1st of May, and forbids you ever to set your foot during the five next years on his dominions, either in this kingdom or beyond the sea." Such a sentence, or any sentence at irregular all, if pronounced by the sole authority of the King, banish- was clearly blegal ; and the Lords present made a ment' solemn protest that this act had been without theb? concurrence, and was to form no precedent for de priving any peer of his lawful rights. It has been thought, with good reason, that this bregular sentence of banishment was pronounced with the concurrence of both the friends and the enemies of Suffolk, who, however, designed it for very different results. The Queen's party may have hoped that the temporary withdrawal -of the Duke from England would abay the violence of the national hatred against him, and that there would soon be an opportunity for bringing him back in full power as well as favour. The Duke's enemies, on the other side, are supposed to have formed beforehand the resolution that he should never cross the seas alive, and to have planned his detention and destruction on the passage. Men of power and Suffolk put influence certainly had been engaged in the design seadoffhat for Suffolk's death. A ship of the royal navy stopped DoTCr- the vessel in which the Duke had embarked. After a mock trial before the sabors, he was condemned to suffer death as a traitor, and beheaded in a small. boat at the ship's side, off Dover. Who were the promoters of this act of bloodshed is unknown ; but there seems to be no reason to impute any of the 456 HENEY VL CHAP. IX. The Queen's threats against the men of Kent. Cade's in surrection. Its impor tance gene rally un derrated. It was an rising of the middle as well as gubt to the Duke of York, who was in Ireland at the time, and who never showed a ferocious or cruel disposition. It was believed at the English Court that the mur derers of the Duke had been aided and favoured by the people of Kent ; and Queen Margaret threatened exemplary vengeance on the disloyal county. The Kentishmen now rose in open insurrection. They were joined by great numbers from the neighbour ing county of Sussex ; and men from Surrey, Essex, and Suffolk also took part in this very formidable rising against the Government. It was headed by a man named John Cade, who assumed the name of Mortimer, and pretended to be a cousin of the Duke of York. Scarcely any other event in the history of these ages has been more inaccurately described by the authors, from whom most readers draw their opinions. Even Hall, the chronicler, who wrote within a century from Cade's death, gives a very erroneous account of this rebelbon ; and later chroniclers and most modern historians have fobowed him. But, above all, the scenes in our national drama, where Jack Cade and his fobowers are introduced, have stamped on our memories a vivid and almost indelible idea qf a rabble of the lowest ruffians raked together from the Kentish towns, headed by a mere vagabond common soldier, and blindly raging for the slaughter and pibage of the upper classes. But the careful search among State records and other documentary evidence, which has lately been instituted,* proves conclusively that Cade's * See the very valuable researches of Mr. Durrant Cooper in the Patent Roll of 28th Henry VI. and other documentary sources of original information. They are entitled "John Cade's followers in Kent," and " Participation of Sussex in Cade's rising." They were written for county archaaological meetings, and have been separately reprinted. The Patent Rolls contain lists of the Kentish and Sussex followers of Cade, to CADE'S INSUEEECTION. 457 Eebellion was a deliberate and organised rising, in chap. which the middle classes of two counties at least . " largely participated, and which was joined by con- ofthe siderable numbers of the gentry. It seems certain that °^ea 0f Cade himself was a mbitary adventurer, and he must f ™ste^nd have possessed considerable ability. He acted as a joined by "¦ mere impostor in taking the name of Mortimer. In the gentry. one of the Eoyal proclamations against him he is said Cade **: ** x ° sumes the to have been born in Ireland. He had probably served name of in that country, under the Duke of York ; and he may have learned there the Duke's hereditary claim to the throne, and have heard of the wrongs done to the No proof Duke by his rivals in the English Court. But there is Duke of no proof that Cade, when he headed the Kentish insur- ^°*tem' gents, was acting at the Duke of York's instigation. Cade- The armed gathering of the Kentishmen, to the num- 1450. ber of 20,000, began in Whitsun week. Cade was then f^~ at their head, and he assumed the title of Captain of The Kent- Kent. They advanced to Blackheath, where they en- rise,mand camped on the 1st of June. They sent their demands ^™£.cet0 on the Government in two papers, one entitled " The heath. Complaints of the Commons of Kent," and the other «aT£els " The Bequests by the Captain of the Great Assembly gffi of in Kent." They complain of (among other things) the Their de mands on the Go- whom pardons were granted. They give the names and descriptions of most of the pardoned individuals. There are among them 1 knight, 18 esquires, and 74 gentlemen of Kent. The names of the yeomen are very numerous ; and there are a great number and variety of tradesmen. Five of the Kentish clergy were with Cade's army. The list of the Sussex men shows several gentlemen, many yeomen and tradesmen, and two clergymen. It is evident also that the Abbot of Battle and the Prior of Lewes had encouraged the rising. Pardon is expressly granted to these two ecclesias tical dignitaries respectively, and " to the convents of the same, and to all the men and servants of the same priory or convent." In some cases the pardon is granted to towns by name, and to the constables of specified parishes and hundreds. It would appear, hence, that at those places there had been a regular military array by the local authorities of the men fit to bear arms. vernment. 458 CHAP. IX. The com plaint of inter ference ¦with the freedom of election,and of the coercion of voters. The King's council refuse to entertainthe peti tions. They col lect an army. Cade re treats to Seven- oaks. HENEY VI. waste Of the royal revenues by the King's courtiers and servants, and of the extortions practised upon the Commons. They ask for the recall of the Duke of York and other true lords to the King's Court, and for the dismissal of the false traitors by whose means the realm of France had been lost. Nothing is said about vdlebiage ; but a repeal of the Statute of Labourers is demanded. The most remarkable among theb com plaints is one, which alleges that " The people of the said shire of Kent are not allowed to have theb? free election in the choosing of knights of the shbe, but letters have been sent from divers estates to the great rulers of all the country, the which enforceth theb? tenants and other people by force to choose other persons than the common wib is." This petition gives remarkable proof of, 1st, the attempted policy of Henry VL's statesmen to rule by means of packed Parliaments, which has been already mentioned ; 2ndly, of the value which the people then attached to the parliamentary franchise, and to bberty of election ; and, 3rdly, it proves the social station and the intebigence of the men, who made up " the Great Assembly of Kent," and who were led by Cade. Several messages passed between the King's minis ters, who were in London, and the camp on Black- heath. Eventually the Privy Councb refused to accept from the Kentish commons theb? Bibs of Petition. The Government had in the meanwhile collected an armed force between 15,000 and 20,000 strong. The King was brought to London, and placed by his ministers at the head, nominally, of this army, which was com manded by Sir Humphrey Stafford and his brother. On the 1 1th of June the royal army marched out of London to attack the rebels at Blackheath ; but Cade retreated before them to Sevenoaks, where he received CADE'S INSUEEECTION. 459 large reinforcements, consisting probably in part of his chap. Sussex contingents. On the retreat of Cade, King ]^_ Henry and a large part of the royal forces marched back to London, where the troops were disbanded ; and the King retired to his castle at Kenb worth. Sir Humphrey Stafford, with part of the royal forces, pm> sued the retreating insurgents ; but at Sevenoaks Cade Cade de- turned on him, and defeated the royalists in an action, Royaiists. in which Sir Humphrey Stafford and his brother were killed. Cade's force was now largely increased ; and at the Marches end of June he made a second march to Blackheath, Hack-" and on the 1st of July he took possession of South- heatK. , " Occupies Wark. Southwark. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York, Waynflete The King's the Bishop of. Winchester, and the Lords Say and ^London. Scales were the King's chief ministers who had re mained in London. They had no force sufficient to encounter the insurgent army. Lord Scales garrisoned the Tower with the few troops that were available. The civic authorities determined not to resist the TheLon- entrance of Cade into London ; and in the afternoon fu^to re of July the 3rd, Cade led his men in regular military ™^ order across the bridge into the city. He was joined He enters there bv a considerable force from Essex, which had *he Clt7j J ....... iorcesfrom camped at Mbe-end. He preserved strict discipline Essex join and order, and in the evening he withdrew his fol- Strigtorder lowers from the city back to Southwark. On the next preserved day Cade again occupied London. He got into his power Lord Say, a nobleman, against whom the popular ire had been greatly excited as a chief accomplice of the Duke of Suffolk in that minister's misdeeds. Cade compelled the mayor and the judicial authorities of the city .to hold a sitting in the Gubdhall. He brought Lord Say and his son-in-law, Cromer, before 460 CHAP. IX. He beheads Lord Say. Some of Cade's men begin to plunder.The Lon doners and the King's troops com bine against Cade. Sharp fight on London Bridge. Negocia tions held in St. Margaret's Church. The peti tions are received. Charters of pardon prepared. HENEY VI. this court ; and had bbls of indictment found against them, and against several unpopular persons who were absent. Lord Say pleaded in vain his privilege of peerage. He and Cromer were hurried off to the Standard at Chepe, and were there beheaded. Some of Cade's followers now began to plunder shops and houses. The citizens, alarmed for the safety of their own lives and properties, determined with the aid of Lord Scales and his soldiers from the Tower to occupy London Bridge after the insurgents retired to South wark at night, and to exclude them from re-entering the city in the morning. Cade heard during the night of these preparations of the royalists; and instantly sent a party of his men to occupy and secure the bridge. They encountered on the bridge the advanced guard of Lord Scales and the Londoners. A desperate fight ensued. Each side was reinforced ; and the struggle continued with several alternations of success throughout the rest of the night, and for some hours of the fobowing morning. At last the combatants sus pended the battle through sheer fatigue. The prelates, who had been in the Tower, now opened negotiations. The Bishop of Winchester and others of the royal council crossed over to Southwark, and had a con ference with Cade in St. Margaret's Church. Cade insisted that the Petitions, which the Privy Council had refused to entertain, should now be received and considered. This .was agreed to : and then came the subject of a royal grant of pardon to all who had taken part in the rising. It was agreed that the royal pardon should be given ; and the Archbishop of York (who was Chancebor at the time) drew up grants of pardon, which specify in a very great number of instances the name, residence, and occupation of each individual. The entries of these pardons on the Patent Bob are CADE'S INSUEEECTION. 461 still in existence ; and they prove conclusively the in- chap. accuracy of the common account, that the prelates ]^Z, brought from the Tower a general pardon ready drawn in behalf of all offenders, and that Cade's followers on hearing of this pardon gladly deserted him. The pardons are prepared with great care and attention to detail. In general a separate pardon was issued for each hundred or parish ; and it is plausibly conjectured that Cade, at the end of the negotiations, handed in the muster-rolls of his forces, as materials whence the names and other particulars were inserted in the pardons.* When these pardons under the Eoyal Seal had been issued, the greater part of the insurgents returned to their homes. Cade ineffectually endeavoured to retain c,a,de un* T T • T T T T aWe t0 •them, by urgmg on them that the pardons could not keep his be relied on untd they were sanctioned by Act of Par- together. bament. He probably knew how the charters granted in King Eichard's time had been soon proclaimed to be null and void. But only a few of his late adherents now obeyed him ; and he was not strong enough to renew the struggle for the occupation of London. He He retreats retreated to Eochester, and was soon afterwards de- *°rEoclies- feated in an attack which he made on Queenborough Repulsed Castle. His followers now began to quarrel among Qu^n. themselves for the plunder which they were carrying ^tkfh •with them. About the 11th of July Cade saw that his position was desperate, and fled in disguise into Sussex, into Sus- Alexander Iden, the sheriff of Kent, with an armed "' . . , . Is pursued force, pursued him, and came up with him, and slew and killed; bim at Heathfield. On the 15th of July Cade's dead * These pardons are fully described, and portions of them are set out, in Mr. Durrant Cooper's two historical tracts, mentioned in a preceding note. Mr. Durrant Cooper points out that the narrative given by the old chronicler, William Wyrcester, is far better supported by the documentary evidence than the account found in Holinshed and others. 462 HENEY VI. chap, body was brought into London, and exhibited to the IX- Eoyal Council. The King ordered a bberal reward to be given to Iden, not out of the royal treasury, but out of the plunder which the rebels had cobected, and which the King's officers had now taken from them. It appears that one of Cade's principal officers caused afterwards fresh tumults in various parts of Kent, with the view of causing a new insurrection. It is ob servable that this man, Eobert Poynings, Esquire, as he is styled in the records, who had been Cade's carver and sword bearer, was a man of high position, and uncle of the Countess of Northumberland.* These commotions, however, were the mere tumul- tuous throes of " the great sea, fore-feebng winds" before influence the outburst of the decided storm of civil war. The Duke popularity of Somerset, who had lately commanded in France, ofS^r-ke and to whose misconduct the loss of the last English set- possessions was imputed, returned to England in the autumn of 1450, and assumed the place lately held by Suffolk in the royal councils, with equal court- TheDuke fevour, and with equal national unpopularity. The retuSis Duke of York in the same year left his Irish govern- from ire- ment, and headed the powerful opposition, which Somerset had to encounter in the English Parliament. Troops After many scenes of strife and violence, the Duke of bothsides. York' in U52> collected an armed force ; and whbe he protested the utmost loyalty to King Henry, he com plained of his enemy's designs against his own personal safety, and demanded that the Duke of Somerset should be brought to trial. The King's party also raised troops, but negotiations were opened, in the course of which Henry ordered the arrest and trial of co°yed into_ Somerset. York now disbanded his troops, and pre- hi^enemy's gented himself in King Henry's tent, unarmed and * John Cade's followers in Kent, p. 11, THE KING'S ILLNESS. 463 bareheaded. There he was encountered by the Duke of chap. Somerset, who had been released from his mock confine- IX" ment, and who now prevailed on the King to order the arrest of York. Somerset urged that York should be forthwith tried and executed as a traitor, but Henry would not sanction such perfidy and cruelty. The Duke .was offered his liberty on condition of solemnly and pubbcly swearing fealty to King Henry; York Released by took the oath, and was abowed to return to his castle orderf" at Wigmore. Not long after these events, Henry was visited by a Henry severe malady, that affected both mind and body, and j^X for a period of nearly a year and a half he remained in a state of absolute incapacity. The Duke of York's friends in the Parliament were too numerous and powerful, and his general popularity too great, to make it possible for his enemies to exclude him any longer from the government. The great seal was affixed to a York Pro- commission, which purported to give the Duke of itust' York the King's sanction for holding the Parliament. A committee of peers visited the King, and reported his incapacity, and the Parbament then appointed the Duke Protector of the realm. York procured the dismissal of Somerset from office, and sent him on a charge of treason to the Tower, where he was detained without trial untb released in consequence of Henry's recovery in 1455. Soon after the commencement of this visitation of Birth of ibness, Henry's id-fated son, Edward Plantagenet, had Edward, been born. The first gleam of restored intebect, which ??*• 13> o 1453. the afflicted King showed, was caused by the sight of his bttle child, when about fifteen months old. In the simple words of the old chronicler: "On the Henry's Monday afternoon the Queen came to him, and brought 1455, my lord, prince with her, and then he asked what the 464 HENEY VI. chap, prince's name was, and the Queen told him Edward"; IX- and then he held up his hands and thanked God thereof. And he said he never knew till that time, nor wist not what was said to him, nor wist not where he had been, whbst he had been sick, till now." Renewed With Henry 's restoration to health, the Duke of struggle York's authority as Protector terminated ; Somerset York and was released, and restored to power, and open warfare soon commenced. The birth of Henry's son and heb* had naturaby been hailed with exultation by all who hated the Duke of York ; but it was probably the event that did most to bring the Yorkist and the Lancastrian claims to the arbitrament of battle. Whde Henry was childless, the Duke was his next of kin, and stood next in succession to the throne, even if the vabdity of Henry's title was admitted. But Prince Edward's birth seemed to doom Eichard of York and his house for ever to the obscurity of a private station, unless an effort were made to win the crown by force. Moreover, the rancour of Queen Margaret and her partisans against the Duke grew continuaby fiercer, as he became suspected. He seems to have had, to a great extent, the excuse — too com mon in all revolutionary times — that his only choice lay between inflicting and suffering violence. Worse men, if not bolder men, than himself, were at his side, and urged him forward ; and finally, after va rious scenes of intrigue and tumult, the civb war of the Boses* began in May, 1455. Thirteen pitched battles were fought in that war : and there was one battle in that war, in which more Englishmen perished, than had faben in the field during the whole of the warfare in France for the preceding forty years. * So called from the Red Rose being taken as the badge of tie Lan castrians, and the White Rose as the badge of the Yorkists. DUKE OE YOEK, PEOTECTOE. 465 Queen Margaret and the chief nobles of the Queen's chap. party collected in that month a small armed force in the 1 town of St. Albans, against which the Duke of York 1455- t i • 1 1 t t ¦ First battle advanced, with three thousand men, having among of st. his supporters the Duke of Norfolk and the Earls Albans" of Salisbury and Warwick. He demanded that Somerset and certain others should be delivered up to him as prisoners ; all disloyalty to King Henry, if this were done, was disclaimed. Henry, however meek and gentle, was wholly free from any taint of meanness or personal cowardice. He nobly answered that " sooner than abandon any of the lords who were faithful to him, he was ready that day in their quarrel " to live and die." The Yorkists then assaulted the Victory of town, and after a short but sharp conflict, were com- ^ York" pletely successful. The number of the slain was small ; Somerset but it included the Duke of Somerset, and the Earls of Northumberland and Clifford, who had been zealous adherents of Queen Margaret, and whose sons (espe cially the young Lord Cbfford) devoted themselves to uphold the same cause, and were implacable in theb vindictiveness against the Yorkists. The Duke of York appears to have been satisfied for Moderation t • • t t t t p t ¦ o of the Duke the time with the death ot his great enemy, bomerset. of York. He showed, after the battle, great respect to Henry, who had been wounded by an aw?ow during the fighting in the streets of St. Albans, and had been taken prisoner. A Earliament was assembled on the 1st of July following, at which the Yorkists produced a formal state ment of the grounds of national complaint against the Duke of Somerset, on whom the whole blame of the late encounter at St. Albans was thrown. A general amnesty was granted. A recurrence of the King's Henry's malady, in the end of the year, caused the re-appoint- returns. ment of York as Erotector ; but, in Feb., 1456, Henry ^tctof .Cl, HENEY VI. 466 chap, was declared to have recovered, and York's second IX-' protectorate ended. Queen Margaret now brought into 1456-1459. power Henry Beaufort, the son and successor of the Henry jy fe £ Somerset, who had fallen at St. Albans. The recovers ' . - „ . again. 0\r\ feuds were renewed; and a seemingly successful. aSi ^ attempt of King Henry, aided by Kempe, the new reconcile Archbishop of Canterbury, and Waynflete, Bishop of the con- r * . . " .... . tending Winchester, to effect a solemn and sincere reconciliation Attempt by between the contending parties, proved short-lived in the Queen's jts effects. The Queen's party made an attempt to send arrest the York's great adherent, the Earl of Warwick, to the Tower ; Warwick, on which Warwick and his father, the Earl of Salisbury, Warwick " betook themselves to theb? estates, and cobected an Dukffof armed force for then- defence. The Duke of York also York raise withdrew from London and raised troops ; and Warwick, Warwick while on his march to join the Duke, encountered at defeats the Blore Heath, in Staffordshire, on the 23rd of August, triansat 1459, the Lord Audley, who was at the head of an Heath. army on the Queen's side. A conflict ensued, in which Warwick gained a complete victory ; and Lord Audley Meeting of was slain. The Earls of Sabsbury and Warwick now hostiieain concentrated theb? levies with those of the Duke of powers at York at Ludlow. On the other side, Queen Margaret advanced with the fub force of the Lancastrians ; and The Duke's a great battle seemed imminent, when suddenly Sb b™ds with- John Trollope, who commanded a large body of the outfight- Yorkists, deserted with ab his men; a pardon in King Henry's name was offered to the rest of the Duke's soldiery, and his army rapidly disbanded. Warwick and Salisbury fled to Calais, of which Warwick He escapes was Governor. The Duke of York found shelter in Warwickto Ireland, where he had won the hearts of the people Calais. during his lieutenancy. The Queen now seemed to anTrin- have crushed her enemies ; and she used her success dictive ^h aimost insane vindictiveness, which can be pal- MUTUAL EXASPEEATION OF THE TWO PAETIES. 457 bated only by supposing that she was goaded by chap. calumnies respecting the legitimacy of her chdd, whose IX" right of succession she believed the Yorkists were 146°- about to dispute. A Parliament of her adherents was QuSn™0 held at Coventry, in which an act of attainder was Marsaret passed against the Duke of York, and his wife, and his two elder sons, against the Earl and Countess of Salisbury, the Earl of Warwick, and other chiefs of the Yorkist party. The natural effect of this was to make the condemned but yet uncaptured Yorkists desperate and mercbess ; and the exulting Lancastrians soon experienced the truth of the ancient saying, that those, who initiate bloodshedding and cruelty in civil dissen sion, prepare the way for bloodier retaliations, and put themselves out of the pale of those common laws of humanity, to which ab parties in the season of their reverses would alike gladly appeal. By the mid- Warwick summer of the following year, the great Yorkist earls Kent ^s had returned from Calais, and had landed in Kent, ^Tpomf- where they were enthusiastically received by the popu- ]?ti(m and i ¦ 1 • pp • tt > /^ Archbishop lation, whose ancient disaffection to Henrys Govern- Bouchier. ment had been exasperated during the preceding autumn by arbitrary imposts, which the Queen's Government had forcibly levied. Bouchier, the Arch- ?•* York- bishop of Canterbury, zealously aided the Yorkist London. leaders ; and on the 2nd of July they entered London at the head of a large army, which the Kentish archers and other friends had graduaby formed round the force which sailed from Calais. Edward, the young Young Earl of March, the Duke of York's eldest son, who was ^^ on the list of those whom the Lancastrians at Coventry had proscribed, was with them. The Duke of York himself was known to be on his way with troops from Ireland ; but, without waiting for his arrival, Warwick marched northward at once to encounter the Lancas- H.H 2 468 CHAP. IX. 1460. Battle of Northamp ton. Warwickvictorious. The Duke of York claims the Crown. Henry'sanswer. Opinions on the rival claims. HENEY VI. trians, who were commanded by the Duke of Bucking ham, as Queen Margaret's general. The armies met on July 10 at Northampton. The Yorkists gained a complete victory. The Duke of Buckingham fell in the action. Queen Margaret and her sOn fled to Scotland; and King Henry was again left a prisoner in the hands of his enemies. A Parliament was assem bled at Westminster ; and the Duke of York, who returned from Ireland about three months after the battle of Northampton, now personally claimed the Crown before the assembled Lords of Parliament. Henry's answer to this claim was manly and sensible. His words to the Lords were : " My father was King : his father also was King : I have worn the Crown forty years from my cradle : you have aU sworn fealty to me as your sovereign, and your fathers have done the like to my fathers. How then can my right be disputed ?" The highest modern constitutional autho rity* has pronounced that Henry's right to the throne was unquestionable. But many in that age, and long afterwards, thought differently. To some the deposition of Eichard II. seemed to be altogether unlawful ; some, who allowed that Eichard himself had been justly deposed, or might be deemed to have abdicated, con sidered that the rights of lawful heirs could not be thereby prejudiced. And many, who held that the transfer of the Crown from its hereditary possessor to Henry of Bolingbroke, in 1399, was justifiable for the sake of the public good, might doubt whether a re- transfer of it from Bobngbroke's heb?, in 1460, was not justifiable for the same reason. No one would class the pious and gentle King Henry with a sovereign so much stained with vice and crime as Eichard II. ; but all felt that Queen Margaret and her favourites * Hallam, Middle Ages, vol. iii. p. 195. POPULARITY OE THE YOEKIST CAUSE. 4gg. were the real rulers of England, and were likely to chap. be so for so long as King Henry survived, or during _^i the minority of young Prince Edward. Under li6°- their administration there had been defeat and disgrace abroad, with misrule and disorder at home. Many must have wished to change such a state of things by recurring to the ancient line, now that its representative was a Prince valiant in war, sage in council, and free from harshness and cruelty, as Eichard of York had proved himself. Still, the shame of breaking their oft-repeated oaths of allegiance told strongly on the English nobility and gentry. The memory of Henry V. influenced men in favour of his son ; and Henry VL's meek vbtUes had won affection, if not admiration. The heroic though fierce spirit of Queen Margaret, her beauty and accomplishments, made many enthusiastic in her cause. The Lancastrian party comprised a very large proportion of the noblest houses of England, though the most powerful of all, that of the Nevdls, was conspicuous on the -side of the Yorkists. Among the general body of the nation the Yorkist cause was by far the most popular ;* and the Yorkist leaders, espe cially the young Earl of March, showed themselves consummate masters of the arts, by which popularity is acquired and upheld. The Parliament of 1460 showed hesitation in admit- Compro- ting the Duke of York's claim to be instantly acknow- ^^the ledged King of England ; and a compromise was agreed y"^^d to, by which Henry was to retain the Crown for his Henry. life, but was to be succeeded by the Duke of York, or ^pthfated the Duke of York's heir. This compact, which ex- Queen- * The volume of old political songs, already referred to, may be regarded as an additional proof of this. All the popular poetry of this period seems to have been on the Yorkist side. 470 HENEY VI. chap, eluded Margaret's son, young Prince Edward, from the IX- throne, was indignantly repudiated by the Queen ; and, 1460-1461. raising an army among her partisans in the north, she again marched against the Yorkists. The Duke of York had retired with a small force to Sandal Castle near She defeats Wakefield. He imprudently left the stronghold, and of Yorktt encountered Margaret's superior army in the field. Wakefield. jje wag overpowered and defeated on the last day of Death of 1460. He lost his life, according to some accounts, by death in the action ; according to others, he was put to death, with circumstances of great insult and Cruelty of cruelty, by Margaret's orders, after the battle. His castrians. son, the Earl of Eutland, a mere child, was captured at1 Wakefield, and was inhumanly kibed by Lord Clifford, one of the most furious of the Lancastrians. The Earl of Salisbury, who also was taken at Wake field, wras executed, without any form of trial, with several other prisoners, at Pontefract, on the day after The young the battle. Eeprisals soon followed. On the 2nd YoAdl of February Edward, the young Duke of York (late feats the j]ari 0f March, and soon afterwards King Edward IV.) trians at ; gained the first of his numerous victories over Cross. * a Lancastrian army under the Earl of Pembroke, at Mortimer's Cross. Edward was one of the most valiant combatants of his age. He was superior to his father in statecraft, and was utterly un- trammeled in his dealings with his enemies by any scruples of conscience, or by any feelings of mercy or He enters of fear. He had the heads of his chief prisoners struck off on the field ; and marched upon London, where he was enthusiastically welcomed on the 28th of February. Queen Queen Margaret had in the meanwhbe won a battle victorious against the Earl of Warwick at St. Albans (February batTie™ 17), but her victory proved disastrous to her party. st. Albans. Thc Bor(jerers, whom she had led from the north, DECISIVE BATTLE OE TOWTON. 471 plundered central and southern England as a hostile chap. country, and thus exasperated the population against 1 King Henry's cause. The Queen was obliged to retire 146L with her ill-disciplined forces towards the north, taking her troops. with her King Henry, whom she had recovered from She re- T T eS the custody of the Yorkists. On the 3rd of March, the the north. young Duke of York addressed a council of peers, prelates, and chief citizens in London. They accepted The young him as their King ; and on the next day he rode in state York is to Westminster, and took his place on the throne, and £n°dcleanmed was proclaimed King Edward IV. He was not crowned ^one^ jV until the 29th of June, having in the meanwhile Marol)1 4> marched northward, and fought and won the battle of 1461- Towton, the most obstinate, the most sanguinary, and the most important of ab the battles of these dreadful wars. The Yorkist army at Towton, commanded by Edward Great and Warwick, was 49,000 strong. The Queen had 60,000 Towton: men, the Duke of Somerset being her general. There ^^™oi was severe fighting on the 28th of March, at Ferrybridge the York- between the advanced divisions, in which Lord Fitz walter, on the part of Edward, and Lord Clifford, on the part of Henry, were slain. The advantage rested with the Yorkists. On the 29th, the main armies encountered and fought from nine in the morning until three in the afternoon, when the Lancastrians began a retreat, which, beneath the vigorous charges of King Edward's troops, became a disastrous rout. Edward had ordered that no quarter should be given ; and half the Lancastrian army is said by some writers to have perished. A letter from Edward himself to his mother, the Duchess of York, states that the heralds, who were employed to number the slain, counted 28,000 dead bodies on the Lancastrian side. The loss on the Yorkist side is reported to have been 472 EDWAED IV. chap. 10,000. There seems no reason to doubt these amounts, IX" when we consider the numbers that fought, and the 146L closeness and long duration of the action ; and when we also bear in mind that each army was mainly com posed of that stubborn English infantry, which, in ab ages, has been so slow to know itself beaten. The proportion of high nobbity killed on the Lancastrian QaeenMar- s^e was very great. Henry and Queen Margaret made garet their escape to Scotland, where they sought to pur- escape tO ¦? . f T» • 1 1 • Scotland, chase aid by causing the town of Berwick to be given up to the Scots. Immediately after his victory, Edward ordered the decapitation of the Earl of Devon and others of the chief Lancastrians, who had been taken prisoners at Towton. Edward marched northwards as far as Newcastle, to secure himself against any fresh rising 1461- in the North. He then returned to London, and on June 29, . Edwardiv. the 29th of June the ceremony of his coronation was Kmgne performed there by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The commencement of his reign was formaby dated as from the 4th of the preceding March, when he had been proclaimed at Westminster; but it was on the battle-field of Towton that his real kingship had commenced, and it was in the spirit of that sanguinary He sum- strife that he continued to reign. In his first Parlia- pariiament. ment a long and sweeping bill of attainder was .passed, chief1Lan- *n which, besides Henry VI., his queen, and their son, castrians almost every noted adherent of the House of Lancaster was named and condemned. Two dukes, four earls, a viscount, and several barons were included in it ; and the bst of knights, priests, and esquires, was 138 in number. All these were adjudged to suffer the penal ties of treason. One of the penal consequences of attainder was the forfeiture of estates ; and King Edward thus obtained funds for rewarding his fol- CHAEACTEE OE EDWAED IV. 473 lowers, and. for the further prosecution of. the war. chap. The Parliament declared that the three last occupiers j"^_ of the throne were usurpers, but it allowed the acts U61- done " by the said pretensed kings " to remain valid, except in regard of such persons as King Edward held to be rebels and enemies to him. By means of this exception Edward was enabled to transfer to his own partisans many lands and offices which his Lancastrian predecessors had granted to persons whom Edward now regarded, or pretended to regard, as hostile to the dynasty of York. Edward IV., at the time when he was showing him- Edward's self thus ruthless and resolute in crushing the enemies character. of his House, had barely completed the twentieth year of his life. He was eminently handsome ; and is said, like Saul and Agamemnon, to have been taller by a head than any of his people. These mspopu- personal advantages, and the grace and affability of lanty' his manner, did much to gain for him the popularity, which we know him to have acqubed, and generally retained, notwithstanding the numerous acts of cruelty which sullied his career. It is to be remembered in His palliation of that evil feature of his character, that he cruel*y- was reared amid the horrors of civil war ; and that the cause. example of executing prisoners after battle in cold blood, and of dooming whole families to death by acts of attainder, had first been set by his adversary, Queen Margaret. Edward, when a mere boy, fought his first battle to avenge the cruel death of a father and a brother ; and he knew himself doomed to die, if he failed to obtain the mastery. Margaret had included him, his mother, and others of his kin, in the act of attainder which had been passed by her Coventry Parliament. Edward might at first fairly believe that in mercilessly breaking down the power of the Lan- 474 EDWAED IV. chap, castrians, he was only acting in self-preservation. But 2^1 the habit of bloodshedding grew in him to a second 1461- nature ; and it was said of him that he witnessed an execution with as much pleasure, as most men feel in looking on at a pageant. He was also utterly un scrupulous as to the breach of promises and oaths, if they stood in the way of his acquisition of any coveted object. He was grossly licentious ; and when no urgent matters of warfare or of government were pressing him, he was prone to become a mere idle voluptuary : but, when dangers were actually present, and when serious difficulties had accumulated, he was energetic, resolute, and enduring. His courage was indomitable ; and he possessed skbl equal to his courage, both as a general and as a statesman. He had in him all the elements of greatness ; and probably, if the crown had devolved on him peaceably, many of his worst qualities would have been but little developed ; his warlike abilities might have been displayed in victories over foreign, instead of over English, hosts ; and he might have been ranked in history with Edward IIL, a prince whom, in his natural character, he seems greatly to have resembled. Edward's Queen Margaret found the Eegents of Scotland poHcy!h willing to assist her against the Yorkist King of England ; but Edward skilfully formed connections with the Lord of the Isles, and with other Scottish nobles, who were discontented with the Eegency; and thus the Government of Scotland had so much occupation given to it at home, that no expedition of any importance against England was practicable. Queen Margaret next, by promising to cede Calais to the obtains6 French, if it should ever come into her power, Franc™"1 obtained some small help from Louis XI. But ab HENEY VI. COMMITTED TO THE TOWEE. 475 her attempts on England were met and baffled by CHAr. Edward's commanders; and in 1464 a Lancastrian '_ army of some considerable strength, which she had 1464-1466- ° . 1464. at last collected, was beaten by the Yorkist general, she leads Lord Montague, at Hedgeley Moor, and utterly routed fntoEng. in a second engagement at Hexham. The Queen had iand. whicb o a "is defeated brought Henry VI. from his retreat in Scotland to at Hex- take part in this campaign. He was nearly captured by the victorious Yorkists, but escaped from the field at Hexham, and found shelter for more than a year in the wilds of Lancashire and Westmoreland. The loyal devotion of the poor shepherds and farmers of these districts protected the discrowned fugitive from the angry search of King Edward. At length a monk of Abingdon betrayed Henry to the Yorkist i486. officers; and he was taken away captive to London, js^aptured He was treated there with studied indignity. The p";^0ne™m people were forbidden by proclamation to show him tne Tower- any sign of respect. He was placed on horseback with his feet tied to the stirrups, and in that state, as a prisoner, he was publicly led three times round the pillory, and conducted thence to the Tower, where he was kept for several years in rigorous confinement. Queen Margaret and her young son escaped from Hexham, after many adventures, into Flanders, whence they removed into France. Edward IV., now thinking himself secure, no longer studied to ingratiate himself with the powerful nobles, by whose aid he had won the crown. Foremost of wealth and these was Eichard Nevill, Earl of Warwick, who has w^ick, been styled " the last of the English Barons," the last *^ng" of the feudal chiefs, whose bands of personal retainers amounted to small standing armies ; who could raise in, a few weeks large armies from among their tenantry and other dependents ; and whose revenues exceeded 476 EDWAED IV, CHAP IX. 1466. Edward seeks to reduce the power of the great nobles.Statute 8 Edward IV. <;. 2. against giving liveries. those of royalty itself. Warwick, besides his vast paternal inheritance, held ample lands which had been granted to him by Edward out of the Lancastrian forfeitures. He was also High Chamberlain, High Admiral, Lieutenant of Ireland, and Governor of Calais. The contemporary historian Comines states that the official income of Warwick amounted to 80,000 crowns a year, independently of the immense sums derived from his estates. One of his brothers, Lord Montagu, was Warden of the Scottish Marches, and had received the confiscated estates of the Percies. Warwick's other brother, who was an ecclesiastic, had been made Archbishop of York, and held the Great Seal as Chancellor of England. King Edward was jealous of the power which overshadowed the throne. He studied to reduce the great nobdity; and, as he continued that policy after the overthrow of the Nevills, we may conclude that he was acting on general principles, and not merely out of personal ill-will towards Warwick. He caused a statute to be passed, which forbade the general practice of giving liveries. The statute allowed them to be given only on public solemnities, such as coronations, and then to be worn only for the occasion. It had previously become a custom for each nobleman to appoint certain colours and badges, to be regularly worn by his fol lowers. In the case of a Baron of political influence such as Warwick possessed, it was not only his kins men, his tenants, and his serving-men, that wore his livery, but crowds of others (often men themselves of rank and authority), who hoped for promotion or pro tection from the great chief, eagerly assumed the distinctive dress which marked them as his partisans. They thus easily recognised each other, and could form and act together in tumults or sudden affrays. The EDWAED MAEEIES LADY ELIZABETH GEAY. 477 sight of theb numbers made them and their leader chap. defiant and imperious in the law-court, at the hustings, i^l and in the Parliament House. Weak men gave up 1466- their rights rather than encounter these baronial household troops; and when two forces of the kind, at all equally matched, met in rivalry, a sanguinary brawl, to be fobowed by a series of vindictive reprisals, was the almost certain result. By another statute Edward had obtained the power of statute resuming improvident grants. This seemed to threaten [ 4?' IV' the Nevbls with the deprivation of some of their th^Khf enormous wealth. The passing of it is attributed to to resume the influence which a new class of favourites obtained S™"' over Edward. Probably it was due to mixed mo tives ; — to the King's general wish to lower the over- powerful old nobility, combined with uxorious easiness in conceding the ambitious requests of a family, with which the King had become connected by a matri monial union. In the year, in which the battle of Hexham was Edward's fought, Edward avowed publicly a marriage, which he withifdy had some time before contracted, with the Lady Eliza- ™zabeth beth Gray, widow of a Lancastrian knight, who had been slain at St. Albans. This lady, who was a Wood- Pavour vble by birth, had captivated Edward by her beauty ; ht^amiiy, and, though as a husband he was very inconstant ^ Wood' to her, she had influence enough over him to obtain lavish grants of lands and honours to her family. This Jealousy caused bitter jealousy and rivalry between the Wood vibes Neviiis. and the Nevills, who had hitherto been predominant. Warwick's Warwick also resented as a personal affront to himself P in the early years of the Civb War. Without going through details, we may simply assert that there is. no against the definite proof whatever to fix Eichaid with any crime chard of before the end of the reign of Edward IV. There ;Xfthe were evil rumours, which associated his name with the end of deaths of Henry VI. and of Clarence; but they appear rv.'s reign. to have been mere malignant rumours, without any foundation of fact. Eichard throughout his brother's varied fortunes showed himself free from any taint of disloyalty. He had faithfully accompanied Ed ward in his exile, and in his daring return to Eng land. He had fought bravely on his side to win back his crown at Barnet and Tewkesbury.* His dislike to the grasping Woodvibes was neither unnatural nor unreasonable. His opposition to the treaty of Pec- quigny may have been impolitic, but it was chivalrous and manly. His government in the north had been Hls abiuty prudent and popular. He served his brother well in inwar'. the campaign of Barnet and Tewkesbury, and after wards in the war against the Scots. Indeed, one of the writers most hostile to Eichard says of him (with reluctance that makes the praise more valuable), " If I may venture to speak anything to his honour, though he was a little man, J he was a noble and valiant * In Mr. Wright's collection of " Political Songs and Poems " there is one on " The Recovery of the Throne by Edward IV.," in which Eichard is thus described : — The Duke of Glocetter, that nobill prynce, Yonge of age and victorious in batayle. f Eichard's personal appearance has been made the subject of vehement controversy. The truth seems to be that the dramatists, following some of the hostile chroniclers, enormously exaggerated defects ; and that the writers of the last and present century who have attempted Richard's " rehabilita tion " have gone to the other extreme. The real Richard was low of stature with the left shoulder slightly deformed, and with his left arm blemished ; 496 EDWAED V. chap, soldier." " No evil captain was he esteemed in the _^1 warres " are the words applied to Eichard by another 1483. hostile Lancastrian chronicler. The fact that a man has been falsely accused of some crimes may properly make us cautious and scrupulous in dealing with other charges against him ; but it cannot serve as an adequate reason for rejecting those other charges, if the proofs of them are trust worthy and clear. Nor is it at ab repugnant to human nature, that a man of general excebent character should yield to great temptation suddenly placed before him, or that under such temptation he should proceed from crime to crime, until he has stained himself with gubt of the deepest dye. Let us therefore ascertain who and what are the witnesses, as to the means, by which Eichard set aside his brother's issue, and acquired and retained for a time the crown of England for himself. Original There are four authorities on the subject of Eichard's autto°rities kingship, who may be considered original,* and who Richard's were contemporaneous with the events which they ^mg s ip. narra£e_ Qne 0£ them is the continuator of the Canonist of Chronicle of Croyland. His name is unknown ; but it appears from his work itself that he was a doctor of canon law, and that he had been summoned to some of Edward IV.'s councils, and occasionally employed by that King on diplomatic missions. He declares but he had great bodily strength and activity, as his prowess on his last battle-field amply proved. His features were dignified, regular, and emi nently expressive. The portraits of him show a face which may well have appeared " hard-favoured " to Bishop Morton, when Richard was dooming death and imprisonment, but very handsome to the Countess of Desmond, when Eichard was her partner in the dance. * I do not mean " original " as excluding aU but " eyewitnesses," but as including writers who drew up their narratives from what they themselves saw, or from what they themselves ascertained from eyewitnesses, while the facts were recent and men's memories were fresh. See vol. i. p. 411, as to historical evidence and historical tradition. ATJTHOEITIES EOE THE HISTOEY OF EICHAED III. 497 that he has written without falsehood, spite, or favour, chap. and it seems that this character of his writings, is a __l just one. Another contemporaneous writer was Thomas U83- Eous, a priest of Warwick, a vehement Lancastrian, chronicler and who shows an amount of unreasoning fury against ous' Eichard, which makes his invectives and accusations of little historical value. A third is Eobert Fabyan, Alderman a London alderman, who wrote brief annals of the a yan" events of his time, and whom there is no ground for suspecting of falsehood or partiality. But the More or work, which gives the most full and minute account of the manner, in which Eichard III. acquired and wore the crown, is the History of Eichard IIL, which is usually cited as written by Sb Thomas More. This work was found in manuscript in More's writing among More's books and papers, after his death, by his son-in-law, Easteb. Eastell printed it in 1557. If this " history " was entirely an original work of More's, it could barely be deemed contemporaneous original evidence, inasmuch as More was not born untd 1476.* But the book describes the death of Edward IV. in terms, which imply that the writer was present ; and for this and other reasons many believe the tradition mentioned by Harrington in Elizabeth's reign, that the book was composed originally by Archbishop Morton. It also contains passages, which could hardly have been written by Morton. The truth appears to me to "be, that More did not copy the book from any writing of Morton's, and that it was not entirely dictated by Morton; but that it consists mainly of narratives, which More in his youth heard from the Archbishop, and noted down as they were repeated. More was * See, as to the true date of More's birth, Mr. Gairdner's preface to the 2nd vol. of his edition of " Letters, &e., of E. III. and Hen. VII.," Eolls' collection, p. xxi. vol. 11. K K 498 EDWAED V. chap, brought up in Archbishop Morton's house, and was IX" educated at his cost, and under his directions* Ee- 1483. garding, then, this " History of Eichard III." as sub- stantiaby the work of Morton, we must consider it to be the evidence of a contemporary, who had very great advantages for knowing accurately the subjects which he speaks of. He certainly had a strong bias against Eichard, by whom he had been arrested and impri soned. Moreover, Morton was originally and ulti mately a zealous Lancastrian ; and, though he was pardoned and promoted by King Edward, this only made him more bitter against the man, by whom his benefactor's children were deprived of royalty, and, as Morton believed, of bfe. On the other hand, Morton's station and character make it impossible to suppose that he would debberately coin lies, and assert circum stances, as having been an eye-witness of them, without having any foundation of fact for his statements. It seems, on the whole, reasonable not to accept a charge against Eichard as true, merely because Morton says that such a thing was rumoured, but, on the other hand, to give full weight to Morton's testimony, when he speaks expressly to matters having occurred within his own knowledge, or when the matter is such, that he must naturaby have received prompt, full, and distinct information respecting it. Rositk>n's Taking, therefore, Morton, Fabyan, and the Croy- after he land Canonist as our best guides, but referring to other self Pro- evidence also, we proceed to trace the conduct of tector. Bichard after he was declared Protector. This was either on or shortly before the 14th of May.f It wib * See on this the remarks of Sir Henry Ellis in his preface to Harding, xx. j and Dean Hook's life of Archbishop Morton in his Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury, vol. v. ; and Mr. Gairdner's preface to the volume referred to in the last note, p. xviii. to p. xxi. f This is the date of the earliest extant document in which he is styled Protector. EICHAED'S STEOE33 FOE THE CEOWN. 499 be remembered that at this time the Woodville party chap. was effectuaby struck down by the arrest of Earl IX" Eivers and others, whom Eichard held imprisoned at 1483- Pontefract. The Duke of Buckingham was with Eichard, and ready (as it proved) to co-operate with him in setting aside King Edward's children from the succession. But there were in London several power- Party of ful noblemen and prelates, Lord Hastings, Lord King's Stanley, Eotherham Archbishop of York, and Morton, h^h^ then Bishop of Ely, whose fidelity to the sons of ^^ their royal benefactor was certain. It would have been dangerous for the Protector to let his designs on the crown, if he then entertained them, be known, untd he had the means of overpowering the expected opposition of these men. All appear ances of recognising King Edward V. were kept up for a month. The preparations for his coronation Parliament .. .t .. . t p tjv j- summoned were continued ; writs were issued tor a rarliament, in Edward which was to assemble at Westminster on the 25th of J-'snameto meet on June, and the Chancellor prepared a speech for the June 25th. opening of that Parliament as in the presence of the " glorious Prince and King Edward V.," who was to meet his Parliament in person. That unspoken speech is stbl in existence.* Meanwhbe, Eichard was de spatching letters to his partisans in the north to hasten to London. His blow at the party of the late King's 14th June, friends was struck on the 14th of June. A council breaks up was summoned on that day in the Tower, at which *feHp^gs Hastings, Stanley, Eotherham, Morton, and others andMor- attended. The scene which ensued, has been graphi cally described by More, writing after Morton, and still more vividly and powerfully by our great dra- * Nicholls' Grants of Edward V., p. xxxix. See the Preface to vol. i. of Mr. Gairdner's edition of " Letters and Papers of R. III. and H. VII.," Rolls' collection, p. xix. K K 2 500 EDWAED V. chap, matist. Gloucester made a sudden and furious accu- IX" sation that Hastings, plotting and acting in concert 1483- with Jane Shore (King Edward's late mistress) traitorously bewitched him, and compassed his destruc tion. Eichard struck his hand upon the table ; and, at the signal, soldiers rushed in, shouting, " Treason ! " Hastings Hastings was seized, and hurried off to the green in front of the chapel. A priest, who was casuaby passing near, heard his death-confession. A piece of timber which lay there, served for a block, and Hastings was Morton then and there beheaded. Lord Stanley and the two imprisoned, prelates were for a time imprisoned. Orders at the same time were sent to Pontefract, in pursuance of which Lord Eivers and the other leaders of the Wood- vibe party, who had been detained there since May, Richard were executed. Fear of further violence, or promise ^uVest °^ fav01ir> so wrought on Archbishop Eotherham that Prince he aided Eichard in his next step, which was to get into his 1 . . „ . . ° power. into his power the youngest of the two young princes, the little Duke of York, who hitherto had been with his mother in the sanctuary at Westminster. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Bourchier, was also induced by the Protector to head a deputation of the Council, which was sent to the Queen-mother to pre- vad on her to give up the little Prince. At the end of a long and pathetic interview, Elizabeth reluctantly obeyed, and both the royal youths were now in Richard Eichard's power. This was on the 16th of June. On public the tne Sunday following, which was the 22nd of that Edward's* month> *Be pretence was made pubbc, on which eons Eichard determined to claim the throne for himself. "were ill©- gitimate. A Dr. Shaw, brother to the Lord Mayor, preached a sermon at St. Paul's, in which the legitimacy of the late King's children by Elizabeth Woodville was denied, on the asserted ground that there had been a THE CEOWN OFFEEED TO EICHAED. 501 previous contract of marriage between Edward and chap. Lady Eleanor Boteler. The Duke of Buckingham on 1 the Tuesday following attended the Common Council U83- of London, and made a speech to them, in which the same story was asserted. The Bishop of Bath and Wells, Stblington, came forward and declared that he had himself ' ' espoused " Edward and the Lady Eleanor. The foreign chronicler* who mentions this, gives an account of Stblington, which shows him to have been unworthy of confidence ; but his statements may have served to satisfy the scruples of many, who were desirous to be on the side of Eichard, which now was evidently the strongest. As has been already mentioned, a Parba ment had been summoned to meet on the 25th of June. Some of the writs, but not all, had been coun termanded, f Many commoners who had been elected, Meeting of and many lords, assembled on the day appointed. They the inten- drew up " certeine articles "on "a Bode of Parche- iiament. ment " t " on the behalve and in the name of the They Estates of the Eeame of England," which they pre- Richard sented to Eichard under the title of " The High and the true6 Myghty Prince Eichard, Due of Gloucester." The ^j*^d articles set out very elaborately the invalidity of the King. "pretensed marriage" between King Edward and the Lady Ebzabeth Grey, the illegitimacy of Edward's chbdren, the attainder of the Duke of Clarence, and the consequent inability of Clarence's children to suc ceed to the crown, the undoubted heirship of Duke Eichard, and his many virtues; and they addressed to him the fobowing prayer, accompanied with * Comines, vol. ii. (ed. Dupont), p. 657. f See Preface to Letters, &c, of Richard III. and Henry VII., vol. i. p. xviii. + See the description and recital of them in the Preamble to the first statute of Eichard's Parliament of 1484, 6 Rot. Pari. 240. 502 EDWAED V.-EICHAED III. CHAP. IX. 1483. They pray. him to accept the crown. End of the reign of Edward V. 6th July. Coronationof Richard III. at Westmin ster. Richard'sprogress. many protestations, " We humbly desbe, pray, and require your said noble Grace that according to this election of the Thre Estates of this Lande, as by youre true Enherritaunce ye will accepte and take upon You the said Crown and Eoyab Dignitie, with ab thyngs therunto annexed and apperteyning as to you of right bilongyng, as wele by Enherritaunce as by lawfull Elec- cion."* They proceeded to declare that he was their Sovereign Lord and King Eichard IIL, and that his son Prince Edward was heir apparent. This address, or petition, or resolution was presented to the Duke, who, after some show of reluctance, accepted the offered sovereignty. He took formal possession of the throne on the following day, and the reign of Eichard III. began, and that of Edward V. ceased, on the 26th of June, 1483. On the 6 th of the July fobowing Eichard was crowned at Westminster, King of England. His Queen, Ann (the youngest daughter of the great Earl Warwick), was crowned Queen at the same time. Their only child, Edward, then ten years old, was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester, and was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. The Earl of Kbdare was to be his deputy .f Eichard now made a royal progress with great splendour through the centre of England towards the * See 6 Eot. Pari. 241. t See in " Letters, &c, of R. III. and H. VII.," vol. i. p. 43, Rolls edition, the King's instructions to Sir William Laoy, directing him to open com munications with Kildare to see if he will take the office of Deputy ; and see another State paper at p. 71, containing a message from King Richard to the Earl of Kildare as to how " the great OneaUe " [O'Neill] and " OdonnayUe " [O'Donnell] are to be dealt with touching the King's "erldom of Wolstre" [Ulster]. Richard writes to the Earl, especially re questing him to wear English clothing ; and he sends him English clothes as per inventory. There are also letters from the King to Sir Alexander Plunkett and others thanking them for that they " daily kepe warre upon the King's ennemyes of the wilde Iresshe." ETJMOOES OF PLOTS TO EESTOEE EDWAED V. 503 north, as far as York ; and the ceremonial of his coro- chap. nation was repeated in that city on the 8th of Sep- 1 tember. It was while he was on this progress, that the U83- great crime which led to his ruin and death, and which cro™ed a has indelibly blackened his memory, was perpetrated ^f^ in the Tower of London by his orders. York- If the story of the illegitimacy of the sons of ^^j^6 Edward IV. had been true, and if it had been gene- *e^t0.^ raby believed by Engbshmen to be true, Eichard would gitimacyof have been safe on the throne as the rightful King. nephews.S But Eichard himself knew the story to be false ; as he "proved afterwards, when, after the death of his Queen and of his son by her, he sought to strengthen himself by a marriage with Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Edward IV, and the full sister of those unhappy boys. Such a marriage would have been useless, unless the mother of Elizabeth and of those boys had been Ed ward IV.'s lawful wife. Eichard's pretences about his brother'3 precontract had been assented to by many out of fear, and perhaps by a few out of belief in their truth. But the great majority doubted or disbelieved them. Eisings to release the imprisoned true King Rumoured from the Tower were talked of; and when Eichard's restore agents reported this to their master, they reported also ThJ^uk^' that the name of the Duke of Buckingham, who had so of Buck- materially aided Eichard to ascend the throne, was reported to mixed up with the menaces of insurrection. Bucking- ^™ m ham appears to have been an impulsive, weak man, easily worked on by any powerful mind that came into immediate operation on him. Morton, the Bishop of Ely, had been released by Eichard from strict impri sonment, on a petition, which the University of Oxford presented in favour of that prelate, whom they re garded as an eminent ornament of their body. Eichard Bishop had placed Morton at Brecknock Castle, under the care piacedhi 504 EICHAED III. chap, of the Duke of Buckingham, to whom it belonged, and 1X- who had gone to his estates in Wales after Eichard's 1483. coronation at Westminster. Morton soon acquired iWs"*" great influence over his keeper ; and the ascendancy, coverts which Bichard had exercised over Buckingham, died his keeper, away, when they were no longer in frequent intercourse with each other. It is probable that Buckingham and others had uttered unguarded speeches about Eichard's title, which were reported to the King ; and it seems " clear that Eichard thought himself insecure on the The public throne, while his nephews were alive. Before Eichard formed that returned to London, it was made known to the' voung° public that the two young Princes had ceased to live. Princes are All the contemporary evidence shows that they died in the Tower by a violent death ; and the evidence is clear, full, and convincing, that Eichard commanded them to be put to death. Eous plainly charges Eichard with the murder, adding that it was after wards known to very few by what death they suffered Evidence martyr dom. Eous's testimony, as we have seen, that they ~ , . n n , . , were mur- requires corroboration, but that corroboration is ample. Richard's Fabyan states that " Common fame went that King orders. Eichard had in the Tower put his brother's two sons to secret death." The Croyland Canonist says that it was commonly reported that the said sons of Edward were dead, but by what kind of violent death was not known ; and he adds that their cause had been avenged in " this war," speaking of the war made against Eichard, which terminated with his defeat and death at Bosworth. The writer of the History of Eichard III. (which, as before stated, is to be con sidered as drawn up from at least the information given by Morton) narrates the murder in full detab, as ordered by Eichard, and perpetrated by Sir James Tyrell and two ruffians employed by him. Even if we MTJEDEE OF EDWAED V. AND HIS BEOTHEE. 505 consider More to have been the author of this part of chap. the narrative, unaided by Morton, it is still entitled to ^L great weight, for the writer expressly states that U83- his narrative is the result of inquiries which Henry VII. caused to be made, and from the confessions of the murderers. We know that even at that time some persons expressed doubts as to the real fate of the princes, but we know also the main reason of these doubts to have been the circumstance that a search made for the bodies in Henry VII.'s time proved ineffective. But that cause of doubt was removed by the accidental discovery in Charles II.'s reign of the remains of two skeletons corresponding with the ages of the two princes, hid underground beneath an old staircase in the Tower. It may be added that the foreign contempo raneous chronicler, Comines, speaks positively, and in more than one passage of his Memobs, of Eichard having murdered his nephews ; * and there is also extant, in the recorded speech Of the French. Chan cellor before the States- General of France in 1484, explicit proof that Eichard in his very lifetime was publicly regarded and spoken of as " the assassin " of his brother Edward's children. J Against all this mass of condemnatory evidence, there is nothing to be placed, but the fact that, in the next reign, a young man appeared who asserted that he was Eichard, Duke of York, second son of Ed ward IV. ; and that he had escaped from the Tower * Comines (ed. Dupont), vol. i. p. 69 ; vol. ii. pp. 157, 243. f " Regardez, je vous prie, les evenements qui apres la mort du roi Edouard, sont arrives dans ce pays. Contemplez ses enfans, deja grands et braves, massacres impunement, et la couronne transported a l'assassin par la f aveur des peuples." — Journal des Mats Generaux de France tonus d Tours en 1483-84, p. 39. It is important to remark that this was said in January, 1484. The usurpation of Richard was in the preceding June, and the murder of his nephews is believed to have been in August. See the preface to Mr. Gairdner's edition of " Letters, &c, of Richard III. and Henry VII.," Rolls collection, vol. i. p. xxv., note. 506 EIOHAED III. CHAP. IX. 1483. Popular indignationat this murder. Yorkists and Lan castrians confederate againstRichard.Projected union of the Prin cess Eliza beth, of York, with the Earl of Richmond, the chief of the Lancas trians. Pedigree and posi tion of Henry Tudor,Earl of Richmond. in his childhood. Many persons believed in the asser tion of this adventurer; but the proof greatly pre ponderates that he was an impostor, named Perkin Warbeck.* And, even if we were disposed to believe the story that the young prince escaped, it in no way clears King Eichard of the gubt of having designed the murder of both his nephews, and of having effected the murder of the elder one, of Edward V. The English nation had, during the long civb war, become famdiarised with scenes of cruelty and re venge ; but no State-murder had ever before been committed in England so atrocious, or which raised so warmly the sympathies of every man, woman, and chbd with its victims, and their indignation against the author of the crime. Yorkists and Lancastrians joined in hatred against Eichard, and in favour to the project, which the oft-defeated, but stib devoted partizans of the Bed Eose now advocated, of calling over from Brittany "the young Duke of Eichmond, who was regarded as the chief of the Lancastrians, and of uniting him in marriage to the Princess Eliza beth, who was now heiress to the rights of her father, Edward IV The mother of Henry Tudor, Earl of Eichmond, was Margaret Beaufort, the daughter and heiress of John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, and a descend ant of the Duke of Lancaster. Henry thus was of the royal Plantagenet line ; but he traced his pedigree up to King Edward III. through the first John Beaufort, who was the son of John of Gaunt and of Catherine Swinford, and who had been * The proofs and arguments as to the murder of the Princes in the Tower, and as to the pretensions of Warbeck, are well summed up by Lingard in the notes C. and D. at the end of the fourth volume of his History of England. See also Mr. Gairdner's preface to vol. ii. of " Letters, &c, of Rich. III. and Hen. VII.," Rolls' coUection. EAELY DAYS OF HENEY VII. 507 born before his parents' marriage. An Act of Par- chap. liament had legitimated the children of Lancaster ^_ and Catherine Swinford ; but it had especially ex- U83- cepted the right of succession to tbe Crown from its operation. Stib, after Henry VI. and his son had perished, the young Earl of Eichmond was looked on as the best chief, round whom the Lancastrians could have a chance of rallying. Henry's father was Edmund Tudor, son of a Welsh gentleman named Owen Tudor, and of Katherine of France, the widow of Henry V. Edmund Tudor died in 1456, the same year in which his only child, Henry, was born, leaving his orphan son and his widow, the •Lady Margaret (a name stbl gratefully known and venerated in both our ancient universities), to the care of his brother, Jasper, Earl of Pembroke, who, in 1461, was one of the leaders of the Lancastrian army, which Edmund of York defeated at Mortimer's Cross. The young Earl of Eichmond was included in the Act of Attainder passed by Edward's first Earliament ; but the Yorkist, Wbliam Herbert, to whom the earldom and the estates of Jasper were granted, showed kind ness and gave protection to Margaret and her little son, when he found them in Jasper's castle, on taking possession. On the temporary restoration of Henry VL, in 1470, the young Earl of Eichmond was brought to Court ; and, according to the tradition preserved by the chronicler Hall, when the King [Henry] had a good space by himself secretly beholden and marked both his [the child's] wit and likely towaxdness, he said to such princes as were then with him, " Lo, surely this is he, to whom both we and our adversaries, leving the possession of all thynges, shall hereafter give room and place." This foreboding of the saintly King may have been cherished among the Lancastrians as a 508 EICHAED III. in Brit tany. chap, prophecy, and may have conduced to their afterwards IX- regarding the young earl as head of their party. 1483. After the return of Edward IV., and the Yorkist v'ic- Tewkes- tories at Barnet and Tewkesbury, Eichmond and his brought up uncle escaped by sea ; and were driven on the coast of Brittany. The Duke of Brittany detained them for a long time, with a show of hospitality. As young Eichmond grew up, and was spoken of as the hope of the Lancastrians, the jealousy of King Edward IV. was directed towards him ; and the English King's agents vainly endeavoured to get him into their The Lan- master's power. Eichard III. renewed those attempts ; refugees Du* without success. The Earl of Eichmond was Bishop joined in his exile by several of the Lancastrian fugi- Morton, ... . ° and some tives, including Bishop Morton, who left Buckingham, Yorkists and also by several of the Woodvibe branch of the ^otfhim. Yorkist party. Bucking- ' Bishop Morton was the great organiser of the ham adopts scheme for uniting the Earl of Eichmond and the the cause o of Rich- Princess Elizabeth, and of dethroning Eichard by Elizabeth, the combined efforts of Lancastrians and Yorkists. Before Morton left England, he had brought the Duke of Buckingham to concur in this project, though that ambitious but weak nobleman seems at first to have aspired to become king himself. Morton had found means to open communication with the Queen-mother, who was still in sanctuary at Westminster, with her daughter, and her son by her first marriage, the Marquess of Dorset. She readily gave her assent, and the confederates made theb preparations for taking arms in the middle of October. The Earl of Eichmond was to join them in the West of England, with forces brought over from the Continent. Failure of The first attempts made to overthrow King Eichard attempts were utterly unsuccessful. The Duke of Buckingham IMPEOVEMENTS IN THE LAW. 509 raised his standard and mustered his adherents at chap. Brecon, on the appointed day ; and there were similar IX" risings in Devonshire, Wiltshire, Berkshire, and Kent. 1484- But Eichmond's armament, on which the insurgents King13* relied as the core of their force, was blown back by KicIiard- adverse winds upon the French coast ; and, before he could cross the channel, the insurrections in England were over. Eichard had collected his forces at Leicester, and moved thence upon the southern and western districts. Buckingham's levies deserted him ; Bucking- and he was captured, and beheaded without form of taken^and trial. Some of the other chiefs of the movement telieaded- ¦escaped to the Continent, others were taken and executed. When the Earl of Eichmond at last ap proached the Devonshire coast, he judged his force insufficient to act without assistance, and he sabed back to Brittany. In 1484 Eichard III. held his first and only Par- Richard's liament. It is said by the Croyland Canonist* to have m"nta" been completely overawed by Eichard, and to have been eagerly subservient to ab his wishes. The truth ah the is, that all the Parliaments that were called during the ^ents'of period of the Civil Wars, were packed or intimidated ; tbat PePd Jp . „ subservient and each assembly echoed the will of the party-chief, to the who was victorious at the crisis when it was summoned, party." ng Eichard's Parliament obeyed his wib, in declaring him to be " undoubted King of this realm of England, as web by right of consanguinity and inheritance, as by lawful election, consecration, and coronation." They were equally subservient in attainting his enemies. But the fact that they were* the mere puppets of the King, entitles Bichard exclusively to the credit of the excel lent statutes, that were passed by them, after the Act * The Croyland Canonist says that the members of the Parliament acted " propter ingentem in constantissimos cadentem metum." 510 EIOHAED III. chap, of Succession and the Bbl of Attainder had' been IX- disposed of. Among the most valuable Statutes of 1481 this Parbament were an Act forbidding secret and k^iatmn. fraudulent conveyances of property ; an Act forbid ding " the exactions called ' Benevolences ' " ; an Act prohibiting the oppressive seizure of property belong ing to persons imprisoned on charges of felony before conviction, and empowering Justices of the Peace to bail persons arrested for felony on suspicion alone ; and an Act for raising the qualification of jurors. It is only within the last thirty years that the English nation in general has learned to doubt the pobcy of trying to protect home-trades and manu factures by placing prohibitions or burdens on foreign Theprotec- competition. Several of Eichard's Statutes were tive laws. r framed in this spirit, and are directed against foreign merchants and handicraftsmen, and against the impor tation of any in a long list of specified articles.* There is a remarkable exemption from the effect of this restrictive legislation, introduced by a clause, in which it is " Provided always, that this Act, or any part thereof, or any other Act made or to be made in Exception this present Parliament, in no wise extend or be of free-ur prejudicial, or any let, hurt, or impediment to any arti- booLVand ^cer or mercnant stranger, of what nation or country printing, he be, for bringing into this realm, or selbng by retab or otherwise, of any manner of books written or imprinted, or for the inhibiting to any writer, limner, binder, or imprinter of such books as he hath, or shall have, to sell by way of merchandise, or for their abode in the same realm, for the exercising of the said occupations ; this Act or any part thereof notwith standing." This provision has been fairly referred to as showing * Stat, of R. III. 5, G. MIXED NATTJEE OF EICHAED'S CHAEACTEE. 51 1 " a dawning attention to the interests of literature," * chap. and as proving that Eichard appreciated the import- i^L ance of the great art of printing, which had then been U84 recently introduced. It is also to be observed, that the Statutes of Richard's Eichard III. were the first that were issued to the SSa? iu pubbc in a printed form ; and, moreover, they were the first that were drawn up as Statutes in the English Sted. language. Not only the Statute-book, but the Patent Bobs, otherdocu- and other public records of Eichard's reign bear ™oW of very strong testimony to the excellent manner, in ^'dv! which he wielded sovereign power, however deeply he emment- may have sinned in obtaining it.| This large mass of unimpeachable documentary evidence has been appealed to, by more than one recent writer, as proving that King Eichard III. could not possibly have been the tyrannical monster, that he has been commonly represented to have *. Macpherson's Annals of Commerce, p. 703. t The effect of a careful examination of the Patent Rolls of Richard III.'s reign is thus stated by the learned author of the "Annals of England," vol. ii. p. 102 :— " They prove him to have granted numerous pardons to his opponents, and to have been lenient in his treatment of their families ; lavish in his own grants, and regardful of those of his predecessors ; vigilant in pro viding for the defence of his shores, and the improvement of his ports ; anxious to repress piracy, and ready to compensate the sufferers ; desirous to encourage trade by affording protection to merchants and foreigners, of which they must have been fuUy sensible, judging from the numerous denizations recorded ; guarding the purchaser against frauds in the wool manufacture, and also protecting the workman by directing his payment to be made in ' ready lawful money.' In his private character he appears grateful for services rendered to his House ' in prosperity and adversity ; ' mindful of old servants, and willing to lessen his own revenue to benefit faithful towns, or relieve distress. He devoted deodands and forfeitures to charity ; liberated his bondmen ; founded a collegiate church, and several chantries ; bestowed alms on various religious bodies ; and was a benefactor to a college in each University." Authorities for these statements are given in the " Notes and Illustrations " in the third volume. See also in Richard's Letters, &c, Rolls collection, p. 71, his care to relieve his tenantry from the oppressions of middle-men. 512 EICHAED III. CHAP. IX. 1484. Real cha racter of Richard. His re morse for his crimes. been. It proves this ; but it is vain to try to strain it into proving his innocence of the specific murders and other crimes, by which he changed his state from that of first subject to royalty. The truth seems clear, that Eichard was a man of manifold and high abili ties, and of many vbtues ; but that he was incapable of resisting the temptation which came before him, when sovereign power was brought within his grasp. For the sake of this, and for the sake of this only, he, like the high Eoman of old,* could bring himself to commit crime, while, in all other respects, he studied justice and right. That such a man, after he had stained himself with such horrible gudt as the murder of the Princes in the Tower, should feel and show the workings of remorse, is quite consonant with human nature ; and we may accept as perfectly true the account, which Morton, speaking through Sir Thomas More, has transmitted of Eichard's demeanour. Morton says : — -" I have heard by credible report of such as were secret with his chamberers, that after this abomi nable deed done he never had quiet in his mind ; he never thought himself sure. When he went abroad, his eyes whirled about ; his body was privily fenced ; his band ever on his dagger ; his counte nance and manner, like one ready to strike again. He took ill rest at night, lay long waking and musing. Sore wearied with care and watch, he rather slum bered than slept. Troubled with fearful dreams, he would sometimes suddenly start up, leap out of his bed, and run about the chamber. So was his restless * Julius Csesar was in the habit of quoting the[lines in the Phcenissse of Euripides — El/rep yap aSiKetv XPb> Tvpavvlfios iript. KdWtffTov aSmtip ' r5\\a 8' evrre/Huv XP*UV* Cicero (De Offioiis, iii. 21) tells this with an indignant comment. EICUMOND'S SECOND AND SUCCESSFUL INVASION. 513 heart continually tossed and tumbled with the tedious chap. impression and strong remembrance of his abominable ^_ deed." * wm. In April, 1484, the King's only son, Edward, Prince April, of Wales, died, in his eleventh year, after a short Richard's illness. The Croyland Canonist writes, that both Bon dies- Eichard and his wife, Queen Anne, were nearly driven m to death. mad by extreme grief at this bereavement. Late in the year the Queen's health failed ; and her physicians pronounced that her life could not possibly be of long duration. She died in March, 1485. Even before His project her death, Eichard formed the scheme of marrying °lm^iy' Ebzabeth, the eldest of his nieces, f and of so Princess strengthening himself on the throne, and disappointing the views of the Earl of Eichmond. As this scheme was conditional on Anne's death, Eichard's enemies, when Anne died, spread a rumour that the King had caused her to be poisoned ; but there does not seem to be any proof to support the charge. Eichmond had intelligence of Eichard's intention to contract this second marriage ; and he probably had intebigence also that both the Queen-mother and the Princess Elizabeth favoured the King's suiti; This may have The Earl of Richmond * The genius of Shakespeare has given us a vivid image of the real Richard ; but it is not in the Gloster and King Richard of the third part of Henry VL, and of the tragedy named after Richard. It is in Shakespeare's Macbeth, that we find the characteristics of the true Richard of history. It is there that we see high courage and abilities, a noble and kindly nature, yielding f ataUy to temptation, when a crown is held out as the prize of guUt. Crime leads to crime. " He becomes worse to make his title good ; " but he cannot harden his heart. He cannot shake off agony and alarm, when he feels himself to be accursed of Ood and man. Super stitious terrors almost weigh him down ; but he rallies in the closing scene of life, and falls, sword in hand, as a gaUant soldier. Such was Richard Plantagenet. + The Pope's power of dispensing with canonical restrictions was thought to extend to such a marriage. J There is extant a letter from the Princess Elizabeth to Richard, which does little credit to the young lady's delicacy. It was published by Buck, and it has been cited by Lingard and others. vol. 11. L L 514 EICHAED III. CHAP. IX. 1485. prepares a secondexpedition.Richard'spreparations to encounter it. He has re course to a "Bene volence." His in creased un popularity. August, 1485. Richmond lands at Milford Haven. made Eichmond determine on no longer delaying a renewal of his expedition. The young Earl's prepara tions did not escape the watchfulness of Eichard. The King applied himself to meet the danger with his accustomed vigour; but he knew his own unpopu larity among his subjects. He could not rely on their free-wib and loyalty to support him ; and he was driven to extreme difficulty, when seeking means to raise and maintain an adequate force. In this emergency he had recourse to the system of extorting money under the name of " Benevolences," the very system which he, in the preceding year, had caused to be denounced and forbidden by statute. The city chronicler, Fabyan, says : — " King Eichard, then leading his life in great agony and doubt, trust ing few of such as were about him, spared not to spend the great treasure ; but also he was in such danger, that he borrowed many notable sums of money of the rich men of this realm, and especiaby of the citizens of London." The Croyland Canonist says that the King's agents, " by prayers and threats, extorted from the chests of almost ab ranks very large sums of money." This despotic taxation alienated the people more and more from the King ; but it gave him the means of collecting an army, with which he posted himself at Nottingham. He was uncertain where Eichmond would land, or in what quarter the general discontent would first break out into insurrection. He took ab possible precautions for guarding the coast; and he fitted out a fleet to intercept Eichmond's armament in the Channel. But the Earl effected, in August, a safe passage from Harfleur to Milford Haven ; and he then marched boldly through Wales towards the centre of England, with a force not exceeding four thousand DEATH OF EICHAED III. 515 men. But he relied on the co-operation of many of. chap. the most powerful nobles, with whom he had opened i^. negotiations ; and who, although they still rendered a 1485- seeming obedience to Eichard, and mustered their StoE^88 tenantry at his command, were ready to desert him land- i . t • • p , i ¦ t Secret un- when the crisis of the war arrived. derstand- The two armies encountered near Bosworth, in "n"*01"6* Leicestershire. Eichard's force, on the day preceding with Mm. the engagement, had been double the amount of that m^rTaT of his rival. But, on the dawn of the day of the battle, Bosworth. Lord Stanley and his power abandoned Bichard, and deserted by ranged themselves with his adversaries. And when ^ley. the King gave the signal to advance and engage the Betrayed enemy, he saw the Earl of Northumberland, who of North" headed another large division of the royal army, umberland- remain inactive, in disobedience of orders. The King saw that he was betrayed, but that it was yet possible to win the day, by breaking the part of the enemy's line where Henry was posted, and by slaying Henry himself. Eichard wore his crown outside his helmet ; Resolution and he is said to have exclaimed, when advised by of Richard. some of his adherents to turn and fly, " By Him who shaped both sea and land, I will live, or this day die King of England." Calling on those around to follow, he spurred forward to where his adversary's standard was displayed. He slew with his own hand Sir William Brandon, the standard-bearer, and he dashed the standard to the ground. A redoubted Lancastrian champion, Sir John Cheny, encountered him, but was struck . by Bichard from his horse. Eichard still Death of hewed his way forward, striving to reach Henry him self ; but few had fobowed the King, and numerous enemies gathered before and around him ; and thus, in the words of the chronicler of the time, "King Eichard, while fighting, and not in the act of flight,. L L 2 516 EICHAED III. chap, was pierced with numerous deadly wounds, and fell in ifl the field, like a brave and most valiant prince." 1485. jj-g death decided the battle of Bosworth, which concluded the series of the Wars of the Eoses. In those wars thirteen pitched battles were fought, and the greater part of the ancient nobbity of England perished, either in the field or by the axe of the executioner. The total number of the slam of all ranks is computed at upwards of one hundred thousand. Eichard's body was carried to Leicester, and buried in the church of the Grey Friars there, with little ceremony. The crown, which he had worn in the engagement, was found lying near a hawthorn-bush. Sir William Stanley placed it on the head of the vic torious Earl of Eichmond, on the battle-field ; and the soldiery saluted him with shouts of " Long live King Henry." He was crowned at London in the fobowing October ; and his marriage, in the next year, with the Princess Ebzabeth united the long warring Houses of York and Lancaster. Constitu- A period of thirty years, only twelve of which were history, undisturbed by civil war, can hardly be expected to to°i48555 ^e one °^ much interest with regard to constitutional importance progress. Yet we shall find that the importance of mentore- Parliament, in theory, at least, was maintained, and cognised, even augmented during the Wars of the Eoses ; inas much as each of the contending parties sought eagerly, when successful, a parliamentary recognition of the victor's claims to the throne, and employed stib more eagerly the sanction and machinery of parliamentary bibs of attainder for the destruction of its adversaries. Neither Margaret, nor Edward, nor Warwick, nor Eichard sought to rule without a Parliament, however much they may have packed and influenced those assemblies. GOOD GOVEENMENT IN ENGLAND. .17 The great principles, that the English is a limited chap. monarchy; — that the King must rule according to law ; ifi — that he cannot change the law, save " with the con- Forteseue's current consent of the whole kingdom by theb repre- ^the sentatives in Parliament ;" — and that he has no right to J^"^" tax his people without theb like consent,— were as fuby limitations recognised in the reign even of the powerful and vie- mo^S torious Edward IV. as under any of his predecessors ; far more so, indeed, than was the case iu the times of some of his successors. Our great text-books for de monstrating the free character of the early English Constitution are the two treatises of Sir John For tescue, " On the Praises of the Laws of England," and " Of the Difference between an Absolute and Limited Monarchy." Fortescue had been Chancellor to Henry VI. , and tutor to his son, but he made his peace with King Edward after the battle of Tewkesbury ; and he repeated in his second treatise (written and published when he was patronised by Edward) the liberal maxims of government, that he had laid down in his first treatise, which had been written for the instruction of the young heir of the House of Lancaster. There is also the very valuable testimony to the Testimony same effect, of the foreign historian, Comines, a states- f0 ^mea man who, like Ulysses, had seen the dwebing-places of good e°- many men, and learned theb habits and dispositions. ofEngiand, Comines expressly states that England, of ab the realms power of e that he knew, was the country, where the common weal 2'llil" was best ordered, and where the least wrong was prac tised upon the people. His evidence may be compared with that of Froissart a century earber.* The same acute observer mentions, as a web-known Testimony fact, that the Kings of England, before they sent out a that°thenes * " Entre toutes les seigneuries du monde dont j'ay congnoissance ou la chose public est mieulx traicte'e, ou regne moins de vioUence sur le peuple, 518 EICHAED III. CHAP. IX. Kings of England are bound to take the advice of Parlia ment. Tbe general populationsuffered little by the civil General order of govern ment main tained. warlike expedition, or took in hand any such work, were obliged to consult their Parliament. He says that this dependence of a King on his Parliament is " a just and holy thing," and he points out, with rare sagacity, that it was a source of strength to the Eng lish Kings themselves, inasmuch as the nation served them all the better in enterprises, which it had embarked in of its own free wbl, and it would not quickly abandon a contest so commenced.* Comines also noticed the smab amount of waste and of suffering among the general population, which the civil wars caused in England, compared with the effects of war in other countries. We must believe that much havoc and devastation were wrought among the central counties by Margaret's northern army in 1461. But with this exception the troops of the rival Houses seem to have spared non-combatants, and to have abstained from the destruction of vihages and towns. As Comines phrases it, " The fortune of war fell upon the men of war, and especially upon the nobles, against whom too great rancour was shown." "j" The general orderly course of civil government appears to have been maintained. In some of the state trials for treason, and in the passing of bills of attainder, ou il n'y a nulz edifices abatuz ny desmolis pour guerre, c'est Angleterre ; et tombe le sort et le malheur sur ceulx qui font la guerre." — 2 Comines, 142, ed. Dupont. The remarks of Froissart as to the power of the English Parliament, and that " Engleterre est la terre dou monde la mieulz gardee," are quoted in p. 219, supra, and note. * " Le Roy ne peult entreprendre une telle osuvre sans assembler son parle- ment (qui vault autant a dire comme les trois Estatz) qui est chose tres juste et saincte ; et en sont les roys plus fors et mieulx servis, quant ainsi le font en semblables matieres, car l'yssue voulentiers n'en est pas brief Ve." • — Comines, vol. i. p. 314. f See the extract from 2 Comines, 142, already quoted ; and see p. 154 of the same volume, where he says that in England " Tombe la fortune sur les gens de guerre, et, par especial, sur les nobles contre lesquels ilz sont trop envieux." TOETUEE ILLEGAL IN ENGLAND. 5 19 little heed was paid to either the forms or the prin- chap. ciples of justice ; but as between man and man the IX' laws were steadily and fairly administered. Indeed, The laws, the ablest historian of the English law points to the one subject latter part of the reign of Henry VI. and to the reign another, of Edward IV. as the period when " the courts of law st^diiyand . . . ably ad- enjoyed an entire peace ; and when justice was ad- ministered. ministered with a precision, learning, and effect that has not been surpassed in any time before or since."* The system of trial by jury had become, before the Trial by close of the fifteenth century, similar in most respects scribed^and to what we are now familiar with. It is minutely by1ps01r?d described by Fortescue in his treatises on the laws of tescue- England ; and he boasts of trial by jury as the pecu liar glory and right of Englishmen. He specially mentions the right of challenge, and the calling of witnesses f to give evidence before the jury. But the Jurors still jurors were still summoned from the neighbourhood, on their y where the abeged transaction, which was the subject- matter of the inquiry, was said to have occurred. They were stbl not only allowed, but requbed to use their own personal knowledge of the facts, as helping to guide them to their verdict. Fortescue expressly states that the law of England Torture doe3 not allow the obtaining of confessions of guilt by megaL the application of torture. He speaks with just indig nation and abhorrence of that practice, as it existed in France and other countries. There is, however, un happily, too ample proof J that the torture, though * Reeve, Hist. English Law, vol. ii. 654, Finlayson's edition. f He is much more explicit as to the calling of witnesses on both sides in civil cases, than he is with regard to criminal cases. It is clear from the 28th chapter that witnesses were heard to prove a charge. Nothing is stated about evidence being adduced on the part of the prisoner. See as to this Mr. Amos's note to his edition of Fortescue, p. 05. X See Mr. Jardine's Reading " On the use of Torture in England." I own know ledge. 520 EICHAED III. chap thus denounced as unlawful by the highest legal IX" authority, was occasionaby employed against pri soners charged with treason or treasonable practices. According to the traditional story, the rack was brought into the Tower by the Duke of Exeter, in Henry VL's reign, and was cabed "the Duke of Exeter's daughter." I do not think that there is any proof of ordinary criminals having been " put to the question " by torture in England. Maxim There is a constitutional maxim of very great im- King must portance, which cannot certainly be said to have been responsible established in the fifteenth century, but which is sup- agents, ported by authorities of that date. This is the rule that " the King can do nothing in his pubbc capacity The King's without the agency of some responsible minister." It command is a corobary on this proposition, that a man, who does excus^for a wrong to another, cannot excuse himself in the eye of a wrong- ^fe ]aw- ^j proving that he did so by royal command. Edward Edward IV., by the part which he took in the pro- sonai inter- ceedings against the Duke of Clarence, and by other ferencein personal interferences with judicial proceedings* set judicial r n n. J . ,,.¦,?. matters. at defiance the feeling of restraint, by which his pre decessors for certainly several reigns past had been influenced. But Fortescue in his treatise on the laws expressly tells his royal pupil that it wdl be his duty, when he is King, to administer justice, not personally, but by the mouths of others, his judges ; and that it has never been customary for the King of England to doubt if he is accurate in saying that Fortescue admitted that Torture was practised here. The instance of false condemnation procured by Torture, whioh Fortescue alludes to in his 22nd chapter, seems to be spoken of by Fortescue as having happened in France, not in England. * " It is said by the writer of the History of Croyland Abbey that this King went in person with the judges to try criminals in different parts of the kingdom, " nemini, etiamsi domestioo suo, parcens, quo minus laqueo pendent, si in furto vel latrocinio deprehensus fuerit." — Reeve, Hist. Eng. Law, vol. iii. p. 110. STATE OF FEANCE. 521 pronounce judgments himself. King Edward IV.'s chap. own chief justice, Markham, decided that the Kmg IX' cannot himself sentence to imprisonment.* And there had been, in the twentieth year of Henry VL's reign, a most important judgment, that the King cannot legally command a man to be arrested, even in the royal presence ; but an action for false imprisonment wdl lie against him that made the arrest. There was a simbar decision in the second year of Eichard III. The last survey that we took of the other kingdoms General of Europe, was when we had reached the commencement hlst°ry' of the wars between England and France in the reign of Edward IILf In treating of the history of England during those wars, we have in effect been also watch ing the history of France. A few remarks only are state of required on the state of that country after the reign France' of Charles VII., or Charles the Victorious, as the King was called, under whom France liberated herself from the Engbsh. His successor, Louis XL, during a reign of twenty-two years, employed his great abbities and his unscrupulous craft in lowering the power of his nobles, and in withstanding the aggressive am bition of his nominal vassal, but real rival, Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. We have had occasion TheBur- already to mention the unsuccessful war upon the and 'ans Swiss which was waged by this last-mentioned Prince, The Swiss. and his death in 1477. Kmg Louis instantly seized Thepro- upon the Duchy of Burgundy, and re-united that im- Burgundy portant province to the possession of the French crown. ^ prance. The Flemish provinces,' which the Burgundian Dukes The Flem ish pro- * See De Laudibus Anglise, c. viii., and the comments on this chapter in Amos's edition, p. 23, note B. This passage of Fortescue, and the decisions in the year-books referred to in the text, were cited by Lord Coke in his argument in defence of the liberty of the subject from imprisonment by royal prerogative. Seethe conference between the Lords and Commons, Parliamentary History, vol. ii. p. 226. f See p„72, supra. 522 EICHAED III. CHAP. IX. vinces are acquired by the House of Austria. Provence re-unitedto France. Wealth and weaknessof Italy. Her dan gers from the Turks. 1453. Turkish conquest of Constan tinople. Extinction of the Greekempire.Farther progress of the Turks. had acquired by the marriage of Philip the Good with the daughter of the Count of Flanders, and had ruled for nearly a century, now passed by marriage to the House of Hapsburg. This was effected by Mary, the heiress of Charles the Bold, marrying Maximiban, who was son of Frederic, Archduke of Austria, and Csesar of the Holy Eoman Empire, under the title of Fre derick III. Brovence came into the possession of King Louis by testamentary disposition in 1481. On the death of Louis, in 1483, Anne de Beaujeau, who was Eegent during the boyhood of her brother, Charles VIIL, con tinued the late King's pobcy of depressing the nobles and increasing the sovereign central power. The marriage, in 1491, of the heiress of Brittany with Charles VIII. completed the consolidation of the French monarchy; and a young, ambitious King acquired full means and opportunity for seeking con quests beyond the Alps. Italy, eminently civbized and prosperous, had be come weak and unwarlike amid her wealth and refinement, and was tempting the grasp of many spoilers. Her most imminent peril, twenty years before the close of the fifteenth century, seemed to be from the Ottoman Turks, who, under their Sultan, Mahomet II. , had in 1453 taken Constantinople, and destroyed the old Boman Empire of the East, which, under the name of the Greek Empire, had lingered on for so many centuries. The victorious Sultan had pushed his conquests further, both by sea and by land, at the expense of Christendom, though he was mate rially checked by the valour of Scanderbeg in Albania, by the glorious repulse which Hunyades gave the Ottoman besiegers of Belgrade, in 1456, and by the equally heroic and successful defence of Ehodes, in STATE OF GEEMANY. 523 1480, which 'was accomplished by the Knights of St. chap. John of Jerusalem, who had established themselves in if: that island in 1311, when obliged to retire from Palestine. But a Turkish expedition sent against hso. Italy in 1480 had been more successful. Ahmed TheTurka occupy Kedek (who had previously conquered the Crimea for otranto. the Sultan) landed on the Apuhan coast, and made himself master of the strong city and valuable harbour of Otranto. This secured an entrance for the Turks into Italy from the south ; and their troops had already in 1477 marched round the north of the Adriatic, menaced Venice, and spread desolation be yond the Isonzo and the Taghamento. The Venetians had purchased a truce ; but fresh invasions by the conquering Ottomans were expected, with fear and trembling. The boastful threat of the Sultan that his horse should eat oats from off the high altar of St. Peter at Eome, seemed likely to be realised, when the sudden death of Mahomet, in 1481, gave relief to Christendom. His successor, Sultan Bajazet II. , re- cabed Ahmed Kedek from Otranto to aid him in civil war; and no settlement of the Turks within the Italian peninsula was again effected. In Germany, the Imperial power had sunk to the state of very lowest ebb. The Emperor, Frederic IIL, thought Extreme7 almost exclusively of aggrandising his own family, ^e^°ess the House of Hapsburg; and great part of his long Empire. reign was spent in calamitous and ignominious struggles against King Matthias, of Hungary, who forcibly occupied Frederic's hereditary Austrian do minions, and drove the Emperor as a fugitive, and almost as a mendicant, from town to town. Mean- whbe, the chief Princes of North and Central Germany were acquiring increased importance. The House of G™™ns Hohenzobern appeared in growing strength in the the Princes 524 EICHAED III. chap, north east. The Electors of Saxony and of the Pa- IX" latinate were independent and strong rulers. In of North Bavaria, in Wurtemburg, in Hesse, the same process Germany. wag carrie(j on> 0£ blending together numerous smab districts, and of moulding them into substantial prin cipalities. The great cities also fully maintained theb rights of self-government, and made further advances in wealth and authority. There were, moreover, the numerous nobles, who were inferior in power to the Princes, but who disclaimed subordination to them; and, in addition to these, there was the powerful body of Knights of the Empbe, who lived each in his strong castle, setting superior authority at defiance, and claiming (as ab the other powers, which have been mentioned, claimed) the right of seeking redress for any wrong, real or imaginary, by making war upon the alleged wrong-doer. A grievous amount of strife and confusion was the inevitable result of the co existence of so many powers and orders, with theb relative rights ib defined, and with no effective para mount superior. Yet Germany had all the elements of strength: industrial and commercial activity, manly courage, mditary discipline, aptness for local self- government, and a growing spirit of intebectual free enquiry. The Papacy The Empire's old enemy, the Papacy, had re covered much of the strength, which it had lost during the Great Schism. The skilful policy of Pope Martin V, of Nicolas V., and of Pius IL, defeated the attempt made by the Prelates, who assembled at Constance and at Basle, to provide for the regular meeting of general Councils, and to uphold the superiority of Councils over Popes. The efforts, that had been made for the extinction of admitted abuses were evaded, and the indignation of reformers was pent back until recovers power. DISCOVEEIES OF THE POETTJGUESE. 525 the coming century. Eome was again the established chap. residence of the Supreme Pontiff; and the Papal _^1 Court began to be pre-eminent for splendour, for patronage of literature and art, and also for the luxury and vice of those by whom it was frequented. A nation, which had hitherto exercised bttle iu- Growing fluence beyond its own frontiers, was now rapidly con- 0™ g°^oe sobdating its resources, and preparing itself to assume the very first station among the powers of Europe. This was the Spanish nation. The marriage of Ferdi nand of Arragon with Isabella of Castile united under the same rule all the Christian Kingdoms of the Penin sula, except Navarre and Portugal ; and at the time when our Wars of the Eoses ended, Ferdinand and Isabella were engaged in victorious warfare against Granada, the sole remaining possession of the Ma hometans in Spain. In Portugal, Prince Henry, " one of the most Maritime notable men, not merely of his own country and dis™™™3 period, but of modern times, and of all nations,"* had Portuguese. from 1418 to 1463 been urging forward the successive discoveries of new regions along the African coast, from Cape Nun to Sierra Leone. The spirit of mari time enterprise, which Prince Henry of Portugal thus created and so long maintained among his country men, survived its founder ; and by the date at which we have paused in the history of England — the year 1485 — the Portuguese adventurers had discovered the Gold Coast, and the King of Portugal had assumed the title of " Lord of Guinea." Only two more years were to pass, before the discovery, by Bartholomew Diaz, of the extremity of the African Continent, named by the Portuguese King the Cape of Good Hope. The excitement produced by these maritime achieve- * Help's Spanish Conquests in America, vol. i. p. 16. 526 EICHAED III. movements. chap, ments was not limited to Portugal. Columbus was l*' already in Spain, seeking means for the realization of Excitement his great project of a westward voyage to the Indies. throughout Throughout Europe seafaring men, and scientific men, ther°ePais^ an<^ commercial men, and theologians, and aspbing coveries. princes and grandees, began to bsten with curiosity and interest ; and some began to take active part in schemes for voyages and discoveries, which, if .men tioned a century earlier, would have been dismissed as other visionary and insane. This awakening of zeal for intellectual transmarine adventure and achievement came simul taneously with the brilliant, revival of classical learn ing, especially among the Italians. The conquest of Constantinople by the Turks drove many learned Greeks to Europe ; and, promoted by theb teaching, the study of the Greek poets and phdosophers in the originals was carried on with enthusiastic and con stantly increasing ardour. This added to the boldness in speculation and the love of novelty, which had, from other causes, begun to characterise the intel lectual movements of the age. The full effects of the restoration of the classical authors to theb old empbe on men's minds were not yet experienced northwards of the Alps ; but the influence of the revival was already felt throughout Europe; and the scholars were growing up, who, early in the next century, were to imitate, and to rival even the most learned and polished Italians. Art of Still more strongly was the advancement of in tellectual activity aided during the last half of the fifteenth century by the discovery and rapid progress of the art of printing. The power of swiftly and cheaply multiplying copies of a book, in a more con veniently transmissible, and a more easily legible form, than that of the best manuscript, gave now to an printing. DECAY OF FEUDALISM. 52y author an increase of mental and moral authority over chap. his fellow men, somewhat resembling the increase in IX" importance and the extension of operations, which the steam-engine has in our own age given to inventions in mechanics and manufactures. The cbculation of printed books created hosts of readers, who otherwise * would have remained ignorant of any kind of literature, ancient or modern. It gave an immeasurable increase to the weight of public opinion. It stimulated disco very. It promoted discussion. It made the suppression of opinions difficult, and generally impossible. It shook to the very base every institution, that was founded on fraud, or upheld by unjust force. It gave, also, weapons to those, who seek violent changes merely from the love of innovation and violence. Among the numerous causes, which co-operated in giving European history the altered character, which we discover in it during and after the close of the fifteenth century, none have been more operative than the invention of moveable type. The last half of the fifteenth century is commonly Feudalism spoken of as the period when Feudalism was in its tuTnot " death-struggles." A phrase, which implies that it has extinct. ceased to exist, is inaccurate. Feudalism has even now vitality and influence in many countries, espe cially in our own. But, certainly, during the period above-mentioned, and during the first half of the fol lowing century, Feudalism was shorn of more than half its strength, and lost that predominance over all other institutions, which it had exercised throughout the greater part of Europe for more than four hundred years. The power of kings had now increased and was increasing ; the power of the middle classes had now increased and was increasing; and both these increases were wrought at the cost of the old landowning aris- 528 EICHAED III. CHAP. IX. Effects of the in vention of firearms. of armour. Baronialcastlesconqueredby cannon. Evils to civilisation that were caused by the use of firearms. tocracy, at the cost of the Feudal Nobles. Moreover, Feudalism was essentiaby a Mbitary institution ; and the employment of gunpowder was now beginning to work an unprecedented change in warfare, as to its weapons, its usages, the comparative importance of the various kinds of combatants, and, consequently, as to the importance of the classes of society, whence those combatants respectively were suppbed. The armour of the noble knight, and of his war-horse, was useless in front of the musket or arquebuss, which lured peasants and artizans were now trained to use. The castle walls, also, which had long enabled many a haughty Baron to set his sovereign's authority and his country's laws at defiance, were now breached and shattered by the cannon-ball. Kings and cities, that could pay for fire-arms, and for trained soldiers with skill to use them, looked with indifference and almost contempt, on a glittering array of steel-clad nobles, and knights, and men-at-arms, such as once inspired very different feelings. These changes were not effected ab at once; nor was their operation felt at the same time, or in the same degree, in the various countries of Europe. But the general current of change was universal, and no re action followed. It was a change not unattended with evils. Small civic Bepublics could no longer trust to the fortifications of their capitals to protect theb inde pendence against the hosts of foreign conquerors, or the trained mercenaries of neighbouring petty despots. War became more and more a trade — a selfish and a sanguinary trade, in which the great capitalists, that is to say, those who have large armies at their disposal, soon began to display a spirit of wider speculation, often ruinous to themselves, and always calamitous to theb fellow-creatures. CHAPTEE X. Progress of the English Language and Literature in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries — English Literature practically begins in Edward III.'s Reign— Chaucer— Langland— Minot— Occleve— Gower— -Songs and Carols— Wyclif— MandeviUe's Travels— Fifteenth Century— Lydgate— Old English Ballads— Pecock— Fortescue— Malory— Romances — Caxton— State of Learning— Decline of Scholasticism — CoUeges — Public Schools — State of Classical Learning — General Education of Nobility ind Gentry. It has been mentioned in the preceding volume of CHAP- this work, that English had become the mother tongue — - of all classes in England, before the end of Edward L's En reign, although French was generally learned by the language children ofthe aristocracy as an accomplishment, and l^the'ian- continued to be the language of the Court. Attention |nTn°df has also been drawn in the present volume to the clear proof, which we possess, of the complete predominance of the English language in England by the middle of the fourteenth century.* After the loss of Acquitaine, French became to all intents and purposes a foreign language, even to our Kings ; and our occupation of the provinces in Northern France, which Henry V. * See pages 482 and 484 of the first volume, and page 232 and note of this volume. See also the extract in the note there from the remarks of Mr. Wright in the preface to his collection of Historical Songs. A weU-known passage in Chaucer ridicules the French, which English school-girls learned at his time in England, with a pronunciation very different from the Parisian. Froissart, in one of the last written parts of his Chronicle, notices King Eichard II.'s familiarity with French as some thing remarkable. Gower, who wrote the last considerable work in the French language that appeared in England, makes an apology for writing in a foreign tongue. VOL. II. M M 530 FODETEENTH CENTUEY. chap, conquered, was too brief to affect sensibly the way in x' which Englishmen spoke and wrote. I have not space in this work (nor does the subject melt ofthe of this work necessarily require me) to discuss the Saion into vari°us opinions of recent and present eminent philo- Engiish. logists, as to the stages of the formation of the English language, or as to the distinctive name which should Anglo- be given to it in each of those stages. Our language mustTbe is still essentially the same language, that was spoken befoJrfwe nere> before the Norman conquest, by our Anglo- can read it. Saxon ancestors ; but it is so changed in form and structure, that, before a modern Englishman can un derstand an Anglo-Saxon book, he must regularly educate himself for the purpose, as for the acquisition old En- of a strange tongue. But we can take up Mandevble, be read11 or Chaucer, or most * of the other writers of the four- mflehe]7* *een^ century, and read the book with the occasional help of a glossary, and by noting and remembering a English few peculiarities of etymology. This enables us to give meeansnre a practical meaning to the word " English " as applied uteratoe to our literature. It means such Enelish as is intebi- m such , ... English as gible, or can be easily made intelligible to a modern under" Englishman. We find English of this kind abundantly stand. ^ WITt;ers 0f ^fe fourteenth century, and we do not in the 14th find it to any considerable amount at an earlier date. ^sudden ¦"¦* ^s no^ *° ^e suPPose(i t hat any sudden and violent change. change in the language of the land had taken place about this time. The processes by which Anglo-Saxon developed itself into English were very gradual, and they were far from uniform throughout the country. We scarcely possess enough writings of the period of transition to exhibit all the detailed stages of the trans mutation ; and there are several compositions of various >J * Some are exceptionally difficult : Langland is one of these. EXCELLENCE OE ENGLISH WEITEES. 53 1 dates, especially between 1150 and 1250, which it is chap. difficult to find reason for assigning to either one class x" rather than to the other. As we proceed, we find here and there a popular song, or a state document, that seems more and more like our modern way of speak ing and writing. We find also translations into the vernacular English of the time being from chronicles and romances, which were originally written in Norman French or Latin. In Edward II.'s reign at least four original poems were written in the current language of the land ; but none of these have any intrinsic merit, or would ever be studied except as writings of mere philo logical or antiquarian interest. But in Edward III.'s Great age (by which period the main changes from Anglo- "^nTish Saxon to English had been completed) a great number writers in P-n i- t • p t • t • t t Edward of Lngbsh writers ol very high merit appeared, whose in. 'sage. works we are glad to read for the sake of their own Excellence o . ot many intrinsic worth and beauty, and not as mere archaic of them. curiosities. The age that produced Chaucer, Langland, Mandevibe, and Wyclif, is brilliant among the centuries of English literature. It was unequalled until the Elizabethan period. It will be my endeavour here to give some account of its chief productions ; but I shab not attempt a complete survey of all the English authors of this, or of any other epoch ; nor, when I name a writer, do I feel bound to discuss, or even to mention all his works. The great literary glory of this age is the poetry of Chaucer, Chaucer. Chaucer lived from 1328 to 1400. His Morning earliest poem, " The Court of Love," is supposed to x™lis£ have been written and published when he was about verse- twenty years old ; the last and greatest of his works, "The Canterbury Tales," was commenced by him after he had reached his sixtieth year. He was, by Chaucer's _ , , p ,1 works and family, one of the gentry, though not one of the nfe. M M 2 532 EOUETEENTH CENTUEY. chap, nobility of the land. He married one of the maids —. of honour of Queen Philippa's household ; and great part of his life was passed at the Court of King Edward IIL, or in attendance on one of Edward's sons. He was at one time in the household of Lionel, Duke of Clarence ; but his chief patron, during the last half of his life, was John of Gaunt, Duke of Lan caster. He also received aid and encouragement from Eichard II. and his Queen Anne ; and, though he is supposed to have been in disgrace and difficulties between 1381 and 1389, the general course of bis long life appears to have been easy and prosperous. He had received part of his education at each of our universities. He had travelled over the principal countries of Europe. He was not only famibar with the pomps and pageantries of military life, but also with the realities pf war. He had every advantage for becoming the poet of chivalry. His natural genius enabled him to be that, and much more. Many of A great number of Chaucer's poems are abegories ; allegorical an<^ abegories are almost always more or less tedious. There is none of Chaucer's poems, that does not contain many beautiful lines ; and there are few, that do not contain several beautiful passages. But his writings during the earlier part of his life, while he was imitating and often translating old romance models, would not have established him on the pinnacle of fame, which he holds in his country's, and, indeed, in His last European literature. His latest writings are his best. works his j}ven in these he makes frequent and copious use of antique and of foreign models ; but he does himseb more justice, than was the case in his earlier composi tions. He trusts his own original powers. He sketches characters, and he draws lines of narrative. His pro ductions have human interest ; and, therefore, the CHAUCEE'S VEESATILITY. 533 successive generations of human beings "wib not chap. wblingly let them die." His " Troilus and Cresseide " _fi still finds many readers ; but it was not till he under took his last composition, " The Canterbury Tales," that his full powers were displayed. By the happy TheCan- scheme of the " Prologue " to the " Tales," in which he ££* describes the various personages (drawn from almost all "ranks of society) in whose mouths the " Tales " were to be placed, he gained and used with unsurpassable skill a golden opportunity for showing his knowledge of human nature in its manifold moods and develop ments, and his sympathy with human feelings in the troubles, the merry-makings, the plans, the rivalries, the caprices, and the jests of every-day life, as well as on grave occasions of " high actions and high passions." It is in creative power that a poet's genius is most Chaucer's truly displayed ; and in the creation of characters versatility Chaucer is unsurpassed, except by Homer and Shakes- c^raecfe™s peare, as to the variety* and as to the vivid natural ness of the ideal personages, whom he calls into exist ence. The "Prologue" to the "Canterbury Tales" is like a picture-gallery, in which the representatives of almost every class of English society in the fourteenth century are grouped before us. Yet, the metaphor from characters the art of painting fails to do justice to the poet ; for ca*teerblirT he has made the share, which each person takes in Tales- conversation, and the kind of tale, which each person narrates, tend as much to give distinctive reality to each character, as is done by the prefaced description of personal appearance, of costume, of manner, and of occupation. In a former chapter of this volume I have quoted Chaucer's description of the Shipman* of that age, and * See p. 96, supra. 534 FOUETEENTH CENTUEY. chap. I have referred to his sketch of the English Yeoman, x the archer with "the mighty bow." I have also already * drawn attention to the country Clergy man, the Parson of a township, poor in worldly goods, but " rich of holy thought and work," whom Chaucer has depicted. I will not now pause to par ticularise other characters among his group of Pbgrims. All are drawn to the life, from the noble Knight and the graceful Prioress, down to the rough Mbler and the simple Plowman. I wib quote only one couplet from the description of the Scholar. I select it, because it exemplifies the Sophoclean power, which Chaucer possessed, of enshrining in a single couplet or bne an almost infinite treasure of poetical and phbosophic thought. Chaucer says of his "Clerk of Oxenford" that — Sounding in moral virtue was his speech, And gladly would he learn and gladly teach. How well must the man, who wrote that last line, have understood the true nature of knowledge, and the true spirit in which it should be sought and used. He must have been conscious also that knowledge, when it is so sought and used, is its own exceeding great reward. His plots. Few of the stories or plots of Chaucer's poems were sionaiGOa" °^ ^is own invention ; but he has many, very many, power. scenes of striking power and deep pathos. But whbe he never shows deficiency, and never unduly accumu lates words, or repeats ideas in passages of pathos, it cannot be said that he is always powerful, where power But fre- should be shown. He is often diffuse and prolix ; dhlusVand though able, by occasional effort, to bring the grand features of his subject effectually before us in a few ex pressive words. The want of sustained energy is his * See p. 249, note, supra. weak. CHAUCEE'S APPEEOIATION OF NATUEE. 535 main defect. This, and the positive vice of ribald coarse- chap. ness, which deforms many of his writings, wib always JL make the number of those, who read Chaucer through, and who read him more than once, extremely limited. But, fortunately, from the scheme of his greatest work, and from the general nature of his poetry (the interest of which rarely depends on the skilful development of a story) he may be judged of by selected portions, much more advantageously, than is generaby the case when we deal with detached fragments of a poet. The " Prologue " to the " Canterbury Tales," some of the tales themselves, parts of " Troilus and Cresseide," with extracts from the "Legend of Good Women," and " The House of Fame," might make up a bttle volume of verse, the first, and, with a few exceptions, the fairest, among the productions of the long series of the poets of England. Chaucer's power and variety of humour are marvel- His sense lous. He is unequalled in that quality, except by beauties of Shakespeare, Cervantes, Moliere, and Fielding. Our Nature- notice of him would be very imperfect, if we were to pass over his exquisite sensibility to the beauties of external nature, and the fidelity, as well as the feeling, with which he describes them. This may, perhaps, account for the revival of Chaucer's popu larity, which took place early in the present century, when Wordsworth by precept and example showed the value of these qualities in a true and a perfect poet. The poetical taste of the preceding century had been, to say the least of it, deficient in this respect ; and Chaucer had been during that period comparatively little honoured. Chaucer's language has been over-praised as to the .purity, or rather the purism of its English. It is far from being " The weU of English undefiled," 536 CHAP. X. His diction. FrequentGallicisms. Beauty of his rhythms. FOUETEENTH CENTUEY. which we often hear it called. He uses a very great number of French words and French phrases; far more in proportion than are found in the best of his con temporaries. Moreover, this abundance of Gabicisms in Chaucer is not wholly attributable to, the nature of his subjects. We meet with them in poems, and in parts of his poems, where he is not treating of chivalry or of Court life. But, whatever the sources of his diction may have been, the result is that he wrote in a rich, graceful, and varied style ; and he is easier for us to understand, than any other writer of his century, except perhaps Mandevdle. His ear for melody must have been exquisite. His rhythm is always beauti ful, though the rhymes are often irregular. He used several metres, and he used them ab with perfect mastery. But his favourite metre is that, which he established (ff he did not actually introduce it) as the heroic metre of English, the metre of bnes of five accents each, rhyming in couplets.* The other great poet of this period is Wbliam * Chaucer, like all other reaUy melodious English poets, is to be scanned by numbers of accents, not by numbers of syUables ; although the pro portion of one accent to two syllables is generally observed. Each accented syllable must be combined with at least one unaccented syllable. But the details of the principles, on which Chaucer is to be scanned, make a matter for much discussion, and they have long done so. When Chaucer is read, as we read a modern poet, his verses frequently present two kinds of difficulties, one of which is much more easily remedied than the other. When the syl lables in a line fall short of the quantities which our ear expects, we may generally make good the deficiency by reading the final e of some word or words in the line, as the final e is read in German, that is, by sounding it as a syllable, as love', pale", false1, &c, and not love, pale, false, &c. ; and a very great number of words had a final e in Chaucer's time that are no longer written with one now. The termination ed of the past tense of the verb, and of the participle, is almost invariably to be sounded. When the number of syllables in a line of Chaucer is in excess of the quantities, which the ear expects, we have no summary resource. The reader must in such case suspect one of three things. First, that the manuscripts from which his edition was printed are inaccurate ; secondly, that his own ear is inaccurate ; or, thirdly, that Chaucer's ear was in accurate. The first or the second supposition is far more likely to be well 'lunded than the third. WILLIAM LANGLAND. 537 Langland. He is not, indeed, to be ranked with chap. Chaucer as to versatility of creative power, or as to 1 pathos or humour, or as to loving portraiture of the William beauties of nature. The strength of Langland's one-sided genius is shown in stern invective : — not vague decla- P°wer-. .... ° Invective. mation, but invective, which is prompted and guided by a true insight into the vanities and vices and negligences of mankind in their various stations of life. His fiercest indignation is ever kindled against any kind of hypocrite ; against " him who has a lie in his rigbt hand." Langland, though cynical towards the rich and gay, is not a misanthrope. He His sym- has a kindly sympathy with his fellow-creatures in theindus- their sufferings, and an earnest respect for honest tnousP°°r- poverty, for the worth that is veiled in low estate. He seems to have thought that his mission was to give a voice to the feelings of the mass of the people ; which he does by exposing and denouncing the cor ruptions of the State, of the Church, of the law, and of social life among the higher and middle classes. As these things form the subjects of the greater part of his writings (though he does not fail to censure the vices of the lower orders also), he must be regarded as ¦a democratic poet ; and we know, from the history of his times, that he was one of the most terribly effective demagogues, that ever wrote ; though he appears never to have counsebed violence, and to have been person ally loyal at heart, religious, averse from innovations in doctrine, and peace-loving. The character and the effect of Langland's poems with reference to the historical events of his time, have been already referred to, when we were considering the popular discontents and the insurrections at the beginning of the reign of Eichard IL* * See chapter iii. supra, pp. 250, 284. 538 CHAP. X. Notice of bis life. Nature of his poems. FOURTEENTH CENTUEY. William Langland (there is more certainty as to the Christian than as to the surname) was born in the neighbourhood of Great Malvern about 1332. He wrote his poem, in its first form, while he was still dwelling in that part of England. In his middle age he went to London with his wife and daughter, and he appears to have resided there many years. The time of his death is not exactly known, but it was not earlier than 1388. While in London he materially enlarged and added to his poem. The whole of it (as we now possess it) seems to have been pubhshed, and to have become extensively popular before 1381, the year of Wat Tyler's insurrection* He appears to have taken the lower clerical orders, and to have habituaby worn the clerical garb. He had an intimate, indeed a technical acquaintance with law terms. It is evident, from his allusions to his own state, that he passed his life in need and penury, f His poem consists of a series of Visions, which are supposed to have been dreamed by the poet himself. These Visions are closely connected with each other ; but the poem has taken the name, by which it has been * See p. 284, and note, supra, on the aUusions by John Ball, the in surgent priest, to the personages of Langland's poetry. f See in Mr. Skeat's introduction to his edition of the first seven Passus of the poem a biographical sketch of the writer, from materials furnished by his own work. " In personal appearance he was so tall that he obtained the name of ' Longe Wille,' as he tells us in the line ' I have lyued in londe,' quod I, ' my name is Longe Wille.' In Passus 15 he says that he was loath to reverence lords or ladies, or persons dressed in fur, or wearing silver ornaments. He never would say ' God save you' to Serjeants whom he met : for all which proud behaviour, then very uncommon, people looked upon him as a fool. It requires no great stretch of imagination to picture to ourselves the tall, gaunt figure of Long Wille, in his long robes, and with his shaven head, striding along CornhiU, saluting no man by the way, minutely observant of the gay dresses to which he paid no outward reverence." — P. xvi. NATUEE OF LANGLAND'S POEMS. 539 commonly cited in modern times, that of " The Vision chap. of Biers Plowman," from the ideal working-man, x' shrewd, sensible, industrious, honest, and God-fearing, who is the hero of the second Vision. Piers the His plough- Plowman knows the way to Truth, when high and man-hero- priestly personages cannot find her. He gives advice to lords and ladies, and folk of every degree. He makes all, who come to him, work hard. Hunger (who is personified as executing Piers's orders) seizes and buffets the " Wastour," who refuses to work. In terror of Hunger, men, who had previously bved as lying, idle vagabonds, " flap on with flafls '"' in Piers's barns from morn to even. " An heap of Heremites " get theb- spades. They cut away their Hermit's copes, and go as workmen with spades and with shovels, and delve and dyke to escape Hunger. Having given them this practical lesson as to the duty of labouring for their bread in this life, Piers teaches them how to obtain pardon for their sins, and mercy in the life to come. He shows the worthless- ness of the Pope's bulls of pardon, though a man "have a pokeful" of them, and of Provincial letters from all the four orders of Friars. These wib be nought to him " At the dredeful doom, when the dead shall rise And comen alle before Christ, accounts to yield How thou leddest thy life here, and his lawes keptest, And how thou didst day bi day, the doom will reherce."* Piers counsels all Christians to seek mercy from God, and to cry to " Marie his moder " to be our " mene between," so " That God give us grace here, ere we are gone hence, Such works to work, while we ben here, That after our deth-day " * Passus vii. 187. I have slightly modernised some of the spelling. 540 FOUETEENTH CENTUEY. chap, it will be pronounced of us at the day of doom, that JL. we did, as He commanded. " Do well and have well, and God shall have thi soul. Do evil and have evil. Hope thou none other." There is a much greater amount of abegory in the other Visions, than in the one, of which I have thus sketched a portion, and which seems to have acquired for the poem its great and very practical popularity amOng Langland's contemporaries. The poetic power of Langland is considered by high authorities to be especiaby displayed in the Vision of Do Well, espe cially in the part that forms the eighteenth Passus of the entire poem. Langland there narrates the descent of the Saviour into Hell, between his Passion and His Eesurrection, and describes His deliverance of the im prisoned spirits of Patriarchs and Prophets.* Langland did not, like Chaucer and others ofthe poets His alliter- . ative verse of the century, adopt the embellishment of rhyme ; but he followed the alliterative versification of the Anglo- Saxons. Indeed stricter rules of alliteration were established in the fourteenth century, than are to be found in the poems of the elder form of the language. A complete alliterative bne in Langland's poems, and in those of the other alliterative poets, who wrote about his time, consists generally of two sections, with a marked pause between them ; and some modern editors print the two sections as * See Milman's Latin Christianity, vol. vi. p. 543, and Mr. Skeat's preface, p. xxxi. I must own that I found the Dialogues of the Devils in this " Passus " very tedious ; but there is a beautiful passage where the Fiends discern the Lord approaching : — " And now I see where a Soule cometh hitherward saiUynge With glorie, and with great light. God it is, I wot well." The lines, also, quoted by Dean Milman, which describe the breaking of hell's gates, are very noble. ALLITERATIVE POETEY. 5 41 separate short lines. But, if they are taken so, we chap. find that each second bne is regulated, as to abitera- JL_ tion, by the one which precedes it ; and it seems better to treat them as long lines of two sections each ; which also appears to have been the mode in which the authors, or most of the earliest known copyists, wrote them.* The effect of alliterative poetry on the ear depends on what has been well called " the accentuation and the swing of each line," as well as upon the recurrence of the dominant initial letter. The sound of that letter must meet the ear at the commencement of two strong syllables in the first section, and of one strong syllable coming early in the second section of the line. There are other more minute rules; but the foregoing account of the alliterative system may suffice to give an idea of its main principles. Alliterative poetry is very pleasing and powerful Need of (speaking of it acoustically) when the poet is a perfect rhythm in master of rhythm, but not otherwise. It is much poetryf1™ easier to rhyme moderately well, than to be perfect in rhythm ; and, as every hearer notices rhyme, whbe very many are insensible to the beauties of rhythm, it is not to be wondered at that rhyming poetry gradually displaced abiterative poetry in our language. They were co-existent for a considerable period ; and even when regular alliterative poems were no longer written, occasional alliteration was and is largely used, as giving additional grace and power to either a rhyming or a blank verse bne. Many lines of well harmonised verse may be found in Langland ; but I do not think that, on the whole, his poem exhibits favourably the capabibties * See Mr. Skeat's preface, p. xxxii., and see his preface to the alliterative poem, "Morte Arthure," published by him for the " Early English Text " Society. In some manuscripts there is no division into lines. 542 FOUETEENTH CENTUEY.. chap, of alliterative metre. He often puts together rugged x- heaps of syllables ; and the rhythm is rarely pro longed through consecutive lines. This harshness of Langland's style as to sound, and the fact of his having written in a dialect, which is to most modern readers more difficult to understand, than the diction of Chaucer or of other writers of the century, wbl probably always prevent his obtaining from pos terity the full meed of admiration, to which his genius entitles him. The songs of Lawrence Minot on the wars of Edward III. have already been referred to in notes to the chapter, which contained the account of the battle of Nevib's Cross.* One of his stanzas has been there quoted. Minot has been called the Tyrtseus of his age. Such praise is exaggerated ; but he wrote with great animation, and some of his stanzas are polished Minot's and graceful. He always uses rhyme. He rhymes with facility and variety. His cadences are well marked ; and he frequently writes in one of the most effective, though one of the most difficult, of our song metres, f Gower. John Gower was born a little before Chaucer, and survived him by eight years. He wrote poems in His voiu- French and in Latin, as well as in English ; and, so minousness , . o , ' andte- far as we have the means of judging,^ with equal prolixity and dulness in all three languages. I should hardly have mentioned him here, had it not been for the esteem in which he appears to have been * P. 136, note, supra. + See Minot's stanzas, quoted in the note to page 136, and compare them with . " The Black Bands came over The Alps and their snow," &c, and other lyrics in Byron. X His great (Le., long) French poem, the Speculum Militantis, is lost. OCCLEVE'S SKETCH OF LONDON LIFE. 543 held by his contemporaries, and by writers down to chap. the Elizabethan age. He seems to have been a JL moral, learned, and worthy man ; but I have not found a spark of true poetry in those pages of his compositions, that I have been able to read through. In his English poem, the " Confessio Amantis," Gower introduces himself as a despairing lover. Venus Scheme of sends her priest, cabed Genius, to receive the lover's ^era.8''511 confession, and to enlighten and comfort him. These processes fib up eight long books of octo-sybabic rhyme. The bulk of them consists of casuistry and morality, but the doctrines are illustrated by numerous episodial narratives. The best known of these are the story of the Caskets, as afterwards told in the Merchant of Venice ; and tbe_stnry of Apollo^ing, Prijiqp. of- Tyre, which is the groundwork of the Shakespearian, or pseudo-Shakespearian, play of Pericles. The dramatist who wrote that play, introduces Gower as debvering a prologue to each Act. Occleve is assigned by the best judges to the reign Occieve, of Eichard IL, though some place him later. He p0et. wrote an English poem with a Latin title, called " De Eegimine Principum." As to deficiency in fire and sketches spbit, he is on a level with Gower ; but he is rather don idife°ui' more interesting ; and his poem contains several ^^ pictures of the old famibar London bfe of an im poverished poet. From the autobiographical pas sages in his writings, Occleve appears to have been a government clerk. The Political Songs and Poems of the fourteenth Thepoiiti- ° cal songs and fifteenth century, stdl extant, are numerous ; and of little the lately published collection of them is very valuable ^eSt? as a store of historical evidence. As such, it has fre quently been referred to in this volume. But, with 544 EOUETEENTH CENTUEY. CHAP. X. Macaronicpoetry. Hymnsand Carols. the exception of Lawrence Minot's war-songs, which I have noted separately, there is nothing in the collection, which deserves the name of poetry. Some of these compositions are written in a mixture of two languages, in what is called Macaronic verse. One on the insur rection of the villeins in 1381 is a curious example of this kind of writing. The first and thbd lines of each stanza are in English (with Latin words occasionally interlarded), and rhyme together in mascubne rhyme. The second and fourth lines are in Latin, and rhyme together in feminine rhyme.* Each Latin line is in general a comment on the Engbsh bne that pre cedes it. A much more pleasing specimen of the effect producible by mixing the two languages may be found in a hymn to the Virgin, which is preserved in a manuscript cobection of Early Engbsh Songs and Carols. The date of the manuscript itself is supposed to be of the fifteenth century: the poems which are copied in it may probably have been composed a little earlier, f This wiU be best illustrated by citing the first stanza :- " Tax has tenet us alle — Probat hoc mors tot validorum — The king hereof had smaUe — Fuit in manibus cupidorwni.'' t See " Songs and Carols from a Manuscript in the British Museum of the Fifteenth Century, edited for the Warton Club by Thomas Wright." The beginning of the hymn, to which I have referred in the text, is as fol lows : — Ave maris stella, The sterre on the sea. Dei mater alma, Blyssid mot ye be. Atque semper virgo, Praye the Sone for me. Felix celiporta, That I may come to thee. WYCLLE AND MANDEVILLE. 545 On turning from the early writers of English poetry chap. to the early writers of English prose, incomparably 1 the greatest name, even in a merely literary point of English view, that we meet, is the name of John Wyclif. ^"^ I have already been unavoidably led to speak of Wycbf as an English author, when dealing with his political and ecclesiastical career.* All, that Wyclif wrote in English, was written by him for actual use and practical effect, and not by way of literary exercise or display. Doubtless this greatly conduced to give his English writings the highest of all literary merits, which they so eminently possess, the merit of striking power and contagious earnestness, f I have already stated, to the best of my abbity, my admira tion of Wyclif as a writer of English, and my reasons for that admiration. I wbl here only once more refer to the eulogies of Milman and Shirley on " the father of English prose."! Sb John Mandevble's Travels purport to have been Mande- written by him about the middle of the reign of Date ofMs Edward IIL, and to have been published by the travels- author with a dedication to that King, in 1356. The prologue to the book states : " I John Maundevybe, Knyght, abe be it I be not worthi, that was born in Englond, in the Town of Seynt Albones, passed the See, in the Zeer of our Lord Jesu Crist MCCCXXII, in the Day of Seynt Michelle ; and hidre to have ben longe tyme over the See, and have seyn and gon thorghe manye dyverse Londes, and many Provynces and Kingdomes and lies, and have passed thorghe * See chapter v., supra. t The untranslateable Greek word, b.w&Tt\s, completely expresses the literary merit which I mean. X See the quotations from them in the note to page 332 of this volume. I have there mentioned the English writings of Wyclif that are most accessible to the general reader. VOL. ii. s s 546 EOUETEENTH CENTUEY. chap. Tartarye, Percye, Ermonye* the litylle and the grete ; JL. thorghe Lybye, Caldee and a gret partie of Ethiope ; Their thorghe Amazoyne, Inde the lasse and the more, a extent' gret partie ; and thorghe out many othere lies, that ben abouten Inde ; where dweben many dyverse Folkes, and of dyverse Maneres and Lawes, and of dyverse Schappes of Men." He passed three years in China, or Cathay ; and he attended the Khan of Cathay in his wars. He also took service for a time under the Sultan of Egypt. He thus on his return had much to say, even if he had confined himself to subjects and events, that had come under his own Muitifa- personal observation. But he noted carefully, and ™^Pess copied freely, every legend and marvel, that he had narrative, ever heard or read about any of the places or nations that he visited ; and thus his book became, in the greater part of it, a huge collection of fictions, Popularity always marvebous, and frequently monstrous. This i?neariy°ok Pr°kably conduced to the great popularity, which times. the book acquired in the age of its first appearance, ridi'cXof' and which it retained throughout the next century; **¦ but it also brought upon its author the unsparing ridicule and condemnation of wits and critics in after ages ; so that the name of Mandevibe became typical of a gossiping traveber, grossly credulous himself, and practising stbl more grossly on the credulity of his hearers. There are, however, parts of the book, that are valuable as showing the knowledge and the opinions of men in that age on geographical and astronomical subjects. The seventeenth chapter is very remarkable for arguments, "how the Erthe and the See ben of round forme and schapp, be pref of the Sterre, that * Armenia. STYLE OF MANDEVILLE. 547 is clept Antartyk, that is fix in the Southe." Mande- chap. vibe speaks of his own observations and measurements 1_ of the various altitudes of the Northern Star, " that we clepen the Lode Sterre," as seen in various coun tries of Europe. He says that he has travelled south ward untd he came to lands where men see the northern Lode Sterre no more, but see and steer by another immovable star, "the Sterre of the Southe, the which Sterre appereth not to us." He mentions the increasing altitude of this "Sterre Antartyk," which he observed, as he travebed more and more southward. He adds many speculations, some saga cious and all curious, about the Antipodes, and the size of the earth. He expresses his firm belief of the practicability of travelbng all round the earth if a man has " Companye and Schippynge ;" and he men tions a tale which he had heard when young, of how that " environing the world " had been nearly accom plished, by a "worthi man who departed somtyme from oure Contrees, for to go serche the World. And so he passed Ynde, and the Yles bezonde Ynde, where ben mo than 5000 Yles."* The way in which this book was written is curious, ^t&it and ibustrates the co-existence in that age of three was com languages in England: of Latin as the language of the learned, of French as the language of the Court, and of English as the mother-tongue of the nation in general. Mandevibe tells us himself that he wrote his book first in Latin, then in French, and that he afterwards wrote it out in English, that every man of his nation might understand it.f The translation * Page 183, Halliwell's edition. f His words are "And gee schulle undirstonde that I have put this boke out of Latyn into Frensche, and translated it agen out of Frensche into Englyssche, that every man of my nacioun may undirstonde it." In the French version (several copies of which are extant) MandeviUe says, " Et N N 2 54g FIFTEENTH CENTUEY. chap, of a translation might be expected to be cramped and JL artificial in style ; but this is not at all the case with Mandevibe's English. His style is clear, simple, and natural. It is to a modern reader the easiest of ab the English writings of the fourteenth century ; and it is certainly the most entertaining* The i5th The English literature of the fifteenth century is feriorTo111 very inferior to that of the fourteenth in poetry. John Lydgate, a monk of Bury, who wrote in the the 14th as to li tera ture. sachetz que jeo usse mis ceste liverette en Latyn par plus briefment deviser, mes pur ceo que plusours entendent mieultz Bomanz que Latin, jeo l'ai mys en Romanz pur ceo que l'entende." * I subjoin as a short specimen of his style the legend, which Mandeville narrates with implicit faith as to the " Flourishing Field " of Bethlehem, and the origin of roses in the world. " Betwene the Cytee and the chirche is the Felde Floridus ; that is to seyne, the Feld florisched ; For als moche as a fayre Mayden was blamed with wrong, and sclaundred, that sche hadde don Fornycacioun ; for whiche cause sche was demed to the Dethe, and to be brent in that place, to the which sche was ladd. And as the Fyre began to brenne aboutehire, sche made hire Preyeresto oure Lord, that als wissely as sche was not gylty of that Synne, that he wold helpe hire, and make it to be knowen to alle men, of his mercyfuUe grace. And whan sche hadde thus seyd, sche entred in to the Fuyer ; and anon was the Fuyr quenched and oute : and the Brondes that weren brennynge becomen rede Roseres ; and the Brondes that weren not Kyndled, becomen white Roseres, fulle of Roses. And theise weren the first Roseres and Roses, bothe white and rede, that evere ony Man saughe. And thus was this Mayden saved bi the Grace of God. And therfore is that Feld clept the Feld of God florysscht : for it was fulle of Roses."— Page 69, HalliweU's edition. I am not aware whether any of the editors of MandeviUe has examined with particular care the state of the manuscripts as to the passage near the end of the last chapter (p. 314 in HaUiwell's edition) about the author having come to Rome on his home-coming, and having there been absolved by the Pope, and obtained the sanction of the Pope's council to the truth of his book. MandeviUe (according to his book, left England in 1322) was " long tyme over the See," and wrote his book in 1356. Now it is quite .certain that there was no Pope in Rome from 1305, when Clement V. began the period of Papal residence at Avignon, till 1367, when Urban V. returned for a brief period to Rome. The Papal residence in Rome was not permanently resumed until 1376. Nor can this difficulty about MandeviUe's proceedings before the Pope at Rome be solved by supposing that he appeared before the Anti- Pope Nicholas V., whom the Emperor Louis of Bavaria set up for a short period in Rome. That Anti-Pope had fled from Rome, and had made his submission to the Pope at Avignon before 1330. I should not, however, even if I were convinced that Mandeville's Travels OLD ENGLISH BALLADS. 549 reign of Henry VL, is the principal poet of the Lan- chap. castrian times. Lydgate travelled in France and J^_ Italy, and was well acquainted with .the literature of these countries, as well as with many of the Latin classics. He wrote a great number of poems on a Lydgate's great variety of subjects, but his chief productions poetry- were translated from Boccaccio and Statius. The larger part of his works is still in manuscript; and the flat, tame character of such parts, as are known, offers little inducement to explore and publish any more. Lydgate has been praised by Gray ; and praise from Gray is important. But Gray only praises him com paratively, as being better than Gower and Occleve, and as coming nearer than they to Chaucer. Lyd- gate's proximity to Chaucer is a proximity with a painfully long interval. We may, however, feel sure that there were true Our old poets in England during this century, though we b^fadS. cannot say in what years they wrote, if they ever wrote at all. I mean the authors of our earliest old English ballads, several of which, from their subjects and their style, appear to have been in existence during the reigns of the later Plantagenets. Nearly all of them relate to the Border Wars between Eng land and Scotland, or to legends of Eobin Hood and other "merry men," who set the old forest-laws at defiance. Probably one of the very best of the old ballads, that we possess, is also one of the earliest. I mean the most ancient of the two versions of the are not authentic, withdraw them from the literature of the fourteenth century, or alter the opinion expressed on them in the text. I believe that a great number of the very numerous manuscripts of the book are as old as the beginning of the fifteenth century (see Mr. Halliwell's Introduction), and the writer, whoever he was, that used Mandeville's name, must have written before the end of the fourteenth. The question, whether the book is genuine or not, does not affect its value as a specimen of language and literary skiU. 550 FIFTEENTH CENTUEY. CHAP. X. The ballad of Chevy Chase. Variations of the old ballads. Their lia bility to change and loss. Modern reverence shown to them. Prose of the 15th century. Pecock's Repressor. Its object. ballad of Chevy Chace.* Passing from one reciter to another by word of mouth and memory, these un written lays were continually modified and varied both as to substance and to style. Even after they were copied, and after some of them were printed on broad-sheets by our early printers, they were liable to change and to destruction. We owe the preservation of many, including the finest that we possess, to Bishop Percy, who collected and published them about a hundred years ago. Since then their influence on our modern literature has been very marked ; they have received at least their due share of affectionate honour; and there is no longer any risk of theb passing into oblivion. There is good English prose of the fifteenth century. The great book of the age is a theological treatise, com posed for the purpose of "repressing" the Wyclifites; but which drew upon its writer the heavy hostility of the chiefs of the English Church. This is the " Ee- pressor of overmuch blaming of the Clergy," written by Eeginald Pecock, who was made Bishop of St. Asaph in 1444, and Bishop of Chichester in 1449. Pecock undertakes in this work to repel the objec tions which the Lollards, or " Bible-men " (the name which he often gives them) were in the habit of making against the clergy as to — 1st, the use of images ; 2nd, pilgrimages; 3rd, the endowments of the Church; 4th, the hierarchy of ranks and orders in the Church ; 5th, the authority of Papal and Episcopal legislation ; * Both versions were published by Percy. I mean the one which begins with " The Perse out of Northumberland a vow to God made he." We can hardly doubt that this was the ballad which " stirred Sir Philip Sidney's blood like a trumpet," and not the much tamer version, with which Addison was acquainted, and which he criticised with fitting appreciation of the many merits which had not been improved from out of it. PECOCK'S "EEPEESSOE." 557 6th, the orders of Friars; 7th, the invocation of Saints chap. and priestly intercession ; 8 th, the costliness of ecclesi- JL. astical decorations; 9th, the office of the Mass; 10th, the taking of oaths ; 11th, the lawfulness of war and of capital punishment. Pecock, in the first part of ' his treatise, gives a He is a general defence of all the matters objected to ; and he foTonL proceeds in the second, third, and fourth parts to tuiSa discuss and justify them one by one ; but he seems to Ultra- TU OTI tiA TI P fl ^ have been prevented from completing the fourth part to the of his book ; and he gives a hurried compendium tCpope, of reply to the last five classes of objections, very XoaVa- different from the deliberate copiousness, which he tionaiist. shows in deabng with the six first branches of his subject. His opposition to the Lollards is thoroughly earnest, and very able. But, unfortunately for himself, Pecock, in defending the Church against those sectaries, exalted the power of the Pope over that of bishops, and over that of General Councils, to an extent, that alarmed and exasperated the English Catholic prelates and other leading Engbsh Churchmen of the age. He gave also equal offence to both High-Churchmen and to " Bible- mCn," by maintaining that every doctrine must, before we adopt it, be proved to be true by reason, and not by mere authority; not even by the mere authority of the letter of Scripture. Indeed the " Bepressor" is in many parts a strange combination of (to use modern terms) Ultramontanism and Eationalism. Both these classes of doctrine were odious to Archbishop Bouchier and the greater number of the higher English clergy. Pecock's book was searched for heresies ; and a sufficient ^J^ list of them was found in it to bring on his trial and ^J^r condemnation. He saved his life by a full and most victed.n" humble retractation; but he was obliged to resign his 552 FIFTEENTH CENTUEY. chap, bishopric, and he passed the rest of his bfe in custody '- in Thorney Abbey. He recants, It is probable that political party feeling was mixed prisone™ up with the ecclesiastical prosecution of Pecock. He to1re0si3gned had entered public bfe under the patronage of his see. Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, the Protector, but poht^ai had abandoned him a little before the Duke's downfall. enemies. Pecock had then attached himself to the party of Gloucester's bitterest enemy, the Earl of Suffolk. Many, after this, must have hated him as a renegade, and have been eager to join in his overthrow. Literary The " Eepressor " is written throughout in a clear, ST" Be- argumentative, temperate, and dignified manner. Pe- pressor." cock- states his adversary's positions and reasons very argumenta- folly and very fairly. Whatever opinion each reader tl0n- of the " Eepressor " may form as to its theological grfcTo/11 merits or demerits, he wib find many passages, that the style, command admiration of the vigour of the reasoning, and of the grace of the language. I would refer particularly to the eighteenth chapter, where Pecock insists on the value of free discussion, and on the additional lustre, with which a truth shines forth, after it has undergone the test of searching debate and fub inquiry.* * A good specimen of Pecock's argumentative power and of his style may be found at p. 43, et seq. (Babington's edition), where Pecock deals with the objections made by the Lollards to the institution of prelacy, on account of the simony often connected with the appointments, and the evil charac ters of many who are appointed to be bishops. Pecock admits the existence of the abuses ; but he maintains that they are imputable not to the insti tution itself, but to the misconduct of Princes and other temporal patrons, who make improper ecclesiastical appointments. His argument is, that evil may come out of, or from, or by, an institution in two ways : — 1st. Where the institution is the cause of the evil, and works and reaches naturally [" by his kinde "] into the evil. 2nd. Where the institution is not the cause, but only the occasion, of the evil, some other thing being the worker and causer of the evil. If an institution is objected to only as the occasion of evil, we must, before we condemn it, consider whether it is not also either the cause or the ENGLISH LOYE FOE EOMANCE. 553 We have already had occasion to refer to Chief chap. Justice Fortescue's " Treatise on Absolute and Limited JL Monarchy," which he. wrote for Edward IV., after that Fortescue's Sovereign had taken Fortescue into favour. The great treatSe on value of the book consists in the emphatic testimony andlrmited which it bears to the free principles of our Constitution monarchy. as then fuby recognised ; but it has also considerable literary merit. It is forcibly and clearly written, without prolixity or repetition. The English is very easy. Indeed, as we read it in the printed editions, it seems so much more like common English than any other book of the century is, that it makes us suspect that the book has been to some extent modernised by its printers and publishers. A careful inspection and collation of the extant manuscripts of this treatise would be useful.* occasion of some good ; and, if so, whether the good or the evil coming from it preponderates. But if the institution can be shown to be the working cause of any evil, it should be abolished, whatever amount of good in other respects it may either cause or occasion. His position is that prelacy is not the cause, but only the occasion of simony, and bad appointments ; and that the good, which prelacy in other respects causes or occasions, preponderates over the admitted evil occasioned by it. * The following is a good specimen of Fortescue's matter and manner : — " Some Men have said, that it war good for the Kyng, that the Comons of Englond wer made poer, as be the Comons of Fraunce. For than, thay ¦would not rebeU as now thay done often tymes ; which the Comons of Fraunce do not, nor may do ; for they have no Wepon, nor Armor, nor Good to bye it withall. To thees maner of Men, may be said with the Philoso pher, Ad parva respicientes, de facili enunciant ; that is to say, thay that seen fewe thyngs, woll sone say their Advyse. Forsothe thoos folkys consyderyn litil the Good of the Realme of Englond, wherof the Might most stondyth upon Archers, which be no rich Men. And if thay were made porer than they be, they schuld not have wherewith to bye them Bowys, Arrowes, Jakkes, or any other Armor of Defence, whereby thay might be able to resyste our Ennymyes, whan thay liste to come upon us, which thay may do on every syde, consydering that we be'an Ileland ; and as it ys said before, we may not have sone Socors off any other Realme. Wherfor we schuld be a Pray to al other Ennymyes, but if we be mighty of our self, which Might stondith most upon our poer Archers ; and therfor thay nedyn, not only to have such Abilyments as now is spoken of, but also 554 FIFTEENTH CENTUEY. chap. Sb Thomas Malory's Eomance of King Arthur JL. was one of the most popular books that appeared in Malory's the fifteenth century ; and its .popularity has been d'li-thur. revived by Scott, Southey, and Tennyson, in the nineteenth. A fondness for hearing tales of marvellous peril and variety, with scenes of love and daring, in which supernatural beings take part with or against adventurous mortals, has existed in every race and in every time. This feeling was intensified in the middle ages by the spirit and usages of Chivalry, and by the abundant faith in saintly legends and miracles, which Fondness the clergy professed and encouraged. The literature En^ish for current among the upper classes in this country from romances, the beginning of Henry II.'s reign consisted prin- cipaby of long, rambling rhyming, tales in Norman French about Charlemagne and his Paladins, or King Arthur and his Knights. Breton and Welsh legends gave the materials whence the Eomances of the last-mentioned class were moulded. Warriors and scenes from classical history served also to bubd up Eomances ; but they were transmuted in the process. Such was the case with Alexander of Macedon, the hero of the Alexandreis, a Eomance poem written about Number 1184, and which from its metre gave the name to our subjects Alexandrian Verse. Eichard Coeur-de-Lion, who French^11" dearly loved Eomances while he lived, became after his death the theme of a whole cycle of them, in thay nedyn to be mich exercysyd in schotyng, which may not be done without right grete Expensys ; as every Man experte theryn knowyth right well. Wherfor the makyng poer of the Comons, which is the makyng poer of our Archers, schuld be the Distruction of the grettest Might of our Realme. * * * The grettest Sewertie truly, and also the most Honour that may come to the Kyng is, that his Realme be riche in every Astate ; for nothyng may make his People to arise, but lacke of Goods, or lacke of Justyce. But yet certeynly whan thay lack Goods thay will arise, sayyng thay lack Justyce. Nevertheless if thay be not poer, thay will never aryse, but if their Prince so leve Justice, that he gyve himself al to Tyrannye," romances. PEINTING ADVANCES LITEEATUEE. 555 which his adventures (in themselves sufficiently chap. marvellous) received an infinity of wild and fanciful x' . additions and embellishments. As has been men- English tioned early in the present chapter, translations of *™f^ the Norman French Eomances into English form some them. of the very earliest specimens of our vernacular litera ture. They were the delight of ab classes. Numerous Addit;ona additional compositions of the kind appeared from tothe - . ,, -tp romance time to time ; some being translated or imitated from cycles. tales written in France, or Italy, or Spain, others being originally composed in English. Legends connected with the adventures of King Arthur and his Knights appear to have been most favoured in England. One anonymous poem on Arthur's death, which seems to have been written about 1400, has already been mentioned as a favourable specimen of the rhythm and "swing" of alliterative verse. It also deserves notice for the power and grace shown in some pas sages, and especially for its descriptions of scenery.* Sb Thomas Malory, in King Edward IV.'s reign, gir rr.homaa wove together the multifarious legends of the Arthurian Malory o o weaves the Cycle, and published the work so composed under the Arthurian , _ ti 1 t » t • tt t romances title of " La Mort d Arthure. It is sometimes called together. " A Digest of the Arthurian Tales ; " but that term implies legal dulness ; and hardly any book in our language deserves the epithet of dub so little as the work of Sir Thomas Malory. It was naturally one of the books, which our first Printed printer, Caxton, printed and published. Besides the a0c°onssgJr- reverence due to Caxton as one of the chief promoters ^oeuntof of the liberation and enbghtenment of the human stability „ . • pp , t r t and unifor- intellect, which the Art of printing effected,")- he mitytothe English * "Morte Arthure," edited by Mr. Skeat for the " Early English Text lanS«aSe> Society." + There is a noble poem on this subject by Ebenezer Elliott, entitled 556 FIFTEENTH CENTUEY. CHAP. X. Change- ableness of the lan guagebefore then, and great variety of provincial dictions. deserves notice in another respect, as having done much to give stability and uniformity to the language of our country. The multiplication of printed books, and the consequent still greater multiplication of readers created, what may be termed a literary public throughout England ; and when the printed copies of a book from Caxton's press were spread through out this public, each member of it used a copy that was uniform with the copies used by all the rest. But before printing was known, and whbe copies of a book could be made in manuscript only, the transcribers were apt to introduce changes of spelling, of syntax, and of phrase, according to the dialect of the part of the country to which each copyist belonged. And the dialects of different parts of England differed then from each other in a far greater degree, than any amount of variation which can at present be detected by the most zealous philologist. Moreover, each author wrote in his own dialect, or, to speak more correctly, in the pure native Engbsh of his own part of England.* Hence the diction of an author of those times in many cases appears to us more archaic than the diction of his contemporaries, or even of some of his predecessors. But in propor- " The Hymn of the Printers of Sheffield." I quote from memory the first verse : — " Lord, taught by Thee, when Oaxton bade His silent words for ever speak, A grave for tyrants then was made, Then cracked the chain that yet must break," &c. * There is a remarkable passage in a preface of Caxton's to one of his last publications, in which he speaks of the great change in English, which had taken place in his own lifetime, and of the difficulty which he had in deciding whether he should employ the " curious terms " used by " good clerks " and " men of reputation," or whether he should use " the old and homely terms " of the common people. He gives also proof of how much the common English, that was spoken in one shire, varied from that spoken in another. The passage is cited, with some sensible and instruc tive comments, by Mr. Charles Knight in his Biography of Caxton, p. 12. SCHOLAES AND COLLEGES. 557 tion as men of letters became familiar in their reading chap. with the nearly* uniform English language of printed JL. books, they followed or approached that uniform Engbsh in their own writings. The language con tinued to receive changes by the introduction of new words and phrases, and by the zeal for imitating Latin models, which grew to excess in many of our prose writers not long after the close of the fifteenth century. Many more modifications of etymology, and some of syntax, took place before the modern Engbsh language can be said to have been substan tially established throughout the country ; but that amount of uniform establishment never could have been effected at all, without the invention and the extended use of the art of printing. We have already in this volume been led to con sider incidentally many subjects connected with the state of learning in England during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In sketching the career of state of Wyclif, mention was made of the high position held England. by Oxford as the chief theological and philosophical f^^f10 University in Europe during the fourteenth century; and of the four great Schoolmen of that age, Duns Scotus, Ockham, Bradwardine, and Wycbf, ab of whom were learners and teachers at Oxford. I do not its general know that any other University surpassed Oxford in t^t wo? the next century ; but the scholastic phbosophy was century- then in a state of decline throughout Europe. It was * Different printers differed from one another ; and the same printer did not always keep to the same rules of language in all his publications. It is to be remembered that the early printers were aU publishers, and that nearly all of them were also editors, in the modern sense of the word. Indeed they took far more license, than may be ventured by modern editors, with the orthography and phraseology of the authors whom they printed. Mr. Babington, in the preface to his recent edition of the old chronicler Trevisa in the Rolls CoUection, gives a long list of the devia tions from the M.S. which Caxton introduced, when he printed and pub lished Trevisa. 558 FIFTEENTH CENTUEY. CHAP. X. Collegiate system in the Uni versities. The Col leges anti- monastic. for the education of layman as well as of clergy men. not yet superseded ; but it was losing vitality. There is no great name in the annals of Scholasticism after that of Wyclif, unless Gerson makes an exception ; and Gerson was rather a theological mystic than a Scholastic reasoner.* An important change was made in our Universities, during the period embraced in this volume, by the great development of the collegiate system. This had been commenced both at Oxford and Cambridge as early as the thirteenth century, but the fourteenth and the fifteenth were the ages in which its progress was most remarkable. Out of the twenty cobeges now in existence at Oxford, eight had been founded before the House of Tudor began to reign. Out of the sixteen now existing at Cambridge, more than half had been established before the same epoch. The founders of these old collegiate institutions are sometimes sneered at, as having acted partly out of superstitious selfishness in providing places where their souls should be always prayed for, and partly out of bigoted blind ness in striving to keep up monkery. But the colleges were anti-monastic institutions. They were specially designed to educate men, who were to live in the world ; and they were founded for the education of laymen, as well as of men who were to take holy orders. The desbe of theb? founders was (to use the words still heard in public prayer in those colleges), " that there never might be wanting a supply of men duly qualified to serve God both in Church and State." * M. Haureau, in his " History of Scholasticism,'' calls Gerson " le porte- drapeau de ces nouveaux mystiques," who denounced the scholastic philo sophy. He says of him that, " Gerson n'est d&ja plus un docteur scolas- tique : il appartient plutot a la categorie des penseurs plus ou moins libres qui ont ddcrie' les etudes scolastiques, et prepare par cette critique l'avene- ment d'un autre philosophie."— Haureau, vol. ii. pp. 489, 496. FOUNDING OF ETON COLLEGE. 559 We have already * noticed the inception of our chap. public school system of education when William of JL_ Wykeham founded Winchester College and School, in Public connexion with his "New College" at Oxford. This Sester system received its grandest extension, when King andEton- Henry VI. founded Eton College and School in con nexion with King's College at Cambridge, which was founded and endowed by him at the same period. In Henry's the first of the several charters granted by him to objecUn Eton, Henry, then nineteen years old, declared that f^ding " it had become fixed in his heart to found a college in the parish church of Eton, near Wyndesore, not far from the place of his nativity." Instruction was to be given in that College to a certain number of indi gent scholars, and to " all others whatsoever who may come together from any part of the Kingdom of Eng land to the said College." Henry's great adviser in his project was Wbbam Waynflete, Head Master of Winchester, and afterwards for a time first Head Master, and then Provost of Eton.")" Henry wisely made William of Wykeham his example. He resolved, like him, that the school, which he founded, should be connected with a college at one of the Universities, whither the best of the foundation-scholars of his school should proceed to complete theb- education, and where permanent provision should be amply made for them. The charter already quoted, and other docu ments connected with it, clearly show that Henry not only designed Eton to be a college, where gratuitous instruction and maintenance for poor scholars should * See p. 190, supra. f He was raised to the see of Winchester in 1447, and Lord ChanceUor in 1456. The part taken by him in political events, and the favour shown to him by Edward IV. after the overthrow of the Lancastrian cause, have already been mentioned. Waynflete lived to see the accession of Henry VII. and the marriage between that Prince and Elizabeth of York. He died in 1486. 560 FIFTEENTH CENTUEY. chap, be provided, and whence King's College at Cambridge x-. should be recruited, but' that he contemplated Eton becoming a central place of education, whither the youth from every part of England should resort. We nave proof that this hope was partly realised in the founder's own lifetime.* We know how Eton has flourished for fully four centuries since. Those, who, like the writer of these pages, owe theb? education, and many more benefits, to the piety and bounty of King Henry VL, will join in the prayer that his college and school may continue so to flourish for many centuries yet to come. Greek The period at which the history of general public. scholarship . , . , , p not yet at events in this volume terminates — the year of the England.™ Battle of Bosworth, 1485 — falls short by a few years of the time when Greek scholarship appeared in Ox ford, j" The names- of several Englishmen, some of them men of rank, have been preserved, who are said to have travelled, a little before this time, to Italy, for the sake of learning Greek, and of improving their Latin in the country, where the classics were now studied with so much ardour and success.^ But the unveiling of Hellenic bterature in England was re served for the sixteenth century. * In Blackman's " Colleotanium mansuetudinum et bonorum morum Regis Henrici Sexti," there is an anecdote of Henry's conversation with the Eton boys, whioh shows how early the school was frequented by lads con nected with the royal attendants. In the weU-known collection of the Paston letters, there is a letter dated 1467, written by William Paston from Eton to his elder brother at the famUy seat at Norfolk. William was evi dently an Oppidan. He speaks of his " Hostess " (hodie " Dame ") and of the payment to her for his board. He speaks also of his studies, and sends a specimen of his Latin verses. This letter is cited and commented on by Mr. HaUam. — Literature of Europe, vol. i. p. 168. f Cornelio Vitelli, an Italian, is believed to have taught Greek in Ox ford in 1488. See Mr. HaUam's Literature of Europe, vol. i. p. 236, and note. t 1 Hallam, Hist. Lit., vol. i. pp. 167, 235. more numerous. STUDENTS AT INNS OF COUET. 561 The knowledge of the Latin classics was much ex- chap. tended before the end of the reign of Henry VI. More JL men of various ranks read Latin ; and they read a Latin greater number of ancient authors. The art of making better8 paper from linen rags (whenever it may have been in- known- vented) was now actively practised. This reduced the Paper made t ,t , t ,1 1 p from linen. price, and greatly augmented the number of manu scripts. An increase of zeal for reading was thus effected. Manu- It was a literary movement, similar in nature, though not comparable in degree, to that, which the invention of printing soon afterwards created. We have already noticed incidentally many proofs that the nobility and gentry now generaby received some education ; and General & , ° J . -. n . . education many laymen now acquired as much learning, as ofthe was possessed by even the ablest ecclesiastics, except, andgentry. probably, in scholastic theology. Many other proofs might be added. One very strong one has been re ferred to by Mr. Hallam. It is the great number of ^™entsat students of the Common Law, who now entered, and the inns of actually studied, at the Inns of Court. The study of the Common Law in that age required a knowledge of Latin, and a knowledge of Norman French ; and a student would have obtained, little credit in the Moots, or legal disputations, which he was requbed to take part in, unless he had also been well grounded in the art of logic. According to the numbers given by Fortescue, in his " Treatise on the Laws of Eng land," there were in his time ten lesser inns, called " Inns of Chancery, in each of which there were a hundred students, at the' least ; and in some of them a far greater number, though not constantly residing." The students in these inns were young, and occupied themselves in learning the first principles of the law. The more advanced students became members of "the Inns of Court, properly so called. Of these TOL. II. ° ° 562 FIFTEENTH CENTUEY. chap, there were four ; and in that which was the least x frequented there were about two hundred students." Fortescue goes on to state the expense of maintaining a student at one of those inns, which was so consider able, that persons of inferior rank could not maintain their children there ; so that, as the merchants seldom cared to diminish their incomes by sending their children there, the great majority of the students were sons of persons of rank and station. He expressly asserts that it was common for the knights and barons, and the greatest nobility of the kingdom, to place their children in the Inns of Court, for the sake of the education ; though, by reason of theb? large patri-= monies, they had no need to seek a bving by the profession, and did not intend to practise it in after life* * Eortescue de Laudibus, chapter xlix. /) INDEX. Absenteeism, its antiquity, 13. Accroaching royal power, 230. Adolf of Nassau, 74. Agincourt, battle of, 403 ; efficacy of the EngUsh archery, 405; prowess of the Duke of Alengon and Henry V., 405; the King saves the life of his brother, the Duke of Gloucester, 405; Alengon surrenders, but is slain, 406; 126 princes and great lords among the slain, 408. Albans, St., battle of, the first in the civil war between the houses of Vork and Lancaster, 445. Albert of Austria, 75. Alexandrine verse, origin of, 554. Alliterative versification of the Anglo Saxons, 540 ; the system explained. 540. Amerigo di Pavia, governor of Calais 150. Anglo-Saxon, its development into Eng lish, 530 ; its gradual transmutation 530. Aragon, kingdom of, 73. Aquinas, Thomas, the angelic doctor, 32. Archers, English, their efficiency at Halidon Hill, 48 ; education of the archer, 114; length of the range of old English archery, 114 ; inferiority of modern archers, 114 ; arrows and armour, 114; Sir W. Scott's poetic panegyric on the old English archer, 112. Architecture of the Middle Ages, Parker's, 253. Armagnacs and Burgundians, factions of, 400 ; massacre of the Armagnacs in the French prisons, 416. Armour in the fourteenth century, 110 ; plate armour, 110. Artevelde, James Van, 84. Artois' {Count Robert d') enmity against Philippe VI. of France, 62 ; sorceries resorted to by him against the King, 63 ; harboured by Edward III., 71. Arundel, Archbishop, leader of the per secution of the Lollards, 380; his measures against them, 383. Ascriptus glebes, 265. Athunree, Phelim O'Connor defeated at the battle of, 6, 15. Audley's {Lord James) vow accom plished at the battle of Poitiers, 165; names of his gallant esquires, 165. Aula Ttutonicorwm in London, 83. Auray, battle of, 179. Avignon, as part of the kingdom of Aries, a portion of the Holy Roman Empire, 30 ; residence of the Popes for seventy years, 31 ; made part of France in 1791, 30. Avignonese Popes, the, 75. B. Baker, Thomas, leader of an insurrec tion in Essex, 287. Baliol, Edward, crowned King of Scot land, 47 ; acknowledges the King of England as feudal Lord Paramount of Scotland, 48 ; transfer and resigna tion of the crown of Scotland to Edward III., 159. Ball, John, the itinerant preacher, asso ciated with Wat Tyler, 285; his speech to the peasants, 285; his rhymes, 285 ; author of the couplet beginning, " When Adam delved and Eve span," 286 ; incarcerated three times by the Archbishop of Canter bury, 286; freed by the insurgents, 288 ; hanged, drawn, and quartered, 298. o o 2 564 INDEX. Ballads, old English, 549. Bannockburn, Bruce's victory at, con firms the independence of Scotland, 6; the most complete overthrow ever sustained by England's military power, 7 ; to the Scots what Marathon was to the- Greeks, 8; noble patriotism and stubborn courage thenceforth nationalised in Scotland, 8. Barbe Noire, the French admiral, 98. Ben-net, battle of, 482. Beaufort, Cardinal, bishop of Winches ter, 390. Beawmonfs (M. de) work on Ireland, 10. Bedford's {Duke of, brother of Henry V.) regency, 433; his victory at Verneuil, 433 ; his death, 441. Beggars, prohibition of giving alms to valiant, 276. Bellona and her three handmaidens, 425. Bermingham, Lord John de, defeats King Edward Bruce in Ireland, 1 5. Berwick surprised by the Soots, 159 ; recovered by Edward III., ] 59. Bible-religion the best description of English religion, 334. Bills and bows, 115; the brown bill, 115. Black Death, the, 156, 256 ; began in China, 156; the burial pits, 157; destroyed one-half of the labouring population, 268 ; number of the po pulation before the pestilence, 268 ; its first appearance at Dorchester in 1348, 268 ; returns of the epidemic in other years, 268 ; its havoc, 269 ; the surviving labourers demand higher wages, 269 ; effect of the great mor tality to produce lower prices, and afterwards to raise them four or five fold, 275. Black Prince, the, called Edward of Woodstock, from his birthplace, 117; his education, 117; knighted by his father, Edward III., 117; his early popularity, 118; his victory at Bor deaux, 161 ; English and Gascon forces, forming his army, 161; his campaign in Southern France, 161 ; personal prowess at Poitiers, 170 ; courtesy to his prisoner, King John, 170 ; his address to the King at a banquet given to the nobles of France and England after the victory, 171 ; a military commander of the highest order, 173 ; magnificence of the state entry of the Prince and King John into London, 173 ; the Prince's letter to the Lord Mayor of London, 173 ; summoned to appear at Paris before the King of France as his vassal, 182 ; answers that he would appear there, but at the head of 60,000 men, 183 ; besieges Limoges, 186; merciless massacre of the inhabitants, 186; styled Prince of Aquitaine and Wales, 188 ; returns to England, 188 ; seclusion at his castle in Berk hampstead, 188 ; heads an opposition to the misgovernment of the Duke of Lancaster and Alice Perrers, 198 ; his deathbed, 200 ; his crime of the massacre of Limoges, 201 ; the Achilles of the heroic age of English history, 201 ; his tomb in Canter bury Cathedral, 201. Bohemia, the blind King of, his heroic death at Cressy, 132 ; his motto of Ich LHen (I serve) adopted by him at Cressy as fighting under the French sovereign, 132. Boroughs, old, democratic character of, 448. Bosworth, battle of, 515. Bourchier, Sir B., first lay Chancellor of England, 101. Bradbee, particulars of his execution for heresy in presence of the Prince of Wales, afterwards Henry V., 386. Bramham Moor, battle of, 375. Branding Statute, for branding refrac tory labourers on the forehead with the letter F, 277. Bretigny, peace of, 50, 178 ; called " the great peace," but in reality a hollow truce, 178. Bridlington's (John of) Latin verses on the fallibility of the Pope, 246. Brittany, disputes as to the succession to the dukedom of, 104. Bruce's (King Robert) victory at Ban nockburn, 6 ; his military skill, 7. Bruce, Edward, brother of King Robert, designs the acquisition of a kingdom in Ireland, 9; crowned King Ed ward of Ireland, 14 ; defeated and killed by the English near Dundalk, 15. Buch, the Oaptal de, at the battle of Poitiers, 166. Burgundy and Orleans, feud between the Dukes of, 400 ; the Duke of Bur gundy called Jean sans Peur, 400; causes Orleans to be assassinated, 400 ; strife of the Burgundian and Armagnac factions, 400. Burgundy, Charles the Bold, Duke of, the INDEX. 565 rival of Louis XL, 521 ; his unsuc cessful war upon the Swiss, 521 ; his --daughter, Mary of Burgundy, mar- ribs. Maximilian, son of the Emperor Frederick IIL, 522. Burgundjptertjmted to France, 521. Burnt Candlemas, the, 159. Cade's insurrection, 456; its importance under-rated, 456; lists of his Kentish and Sussex followers afterwards par doned, 456 ; a mere impostor in taking the name of Mortimer, 457 ; assumes the title of "the Captain of Kent," 457 ; the " complaints and requests " of his followers, 457; defeats the royalists at Sevenoaks, 459 ; enters London, 459 ; beheads Lord Say, 460 ; royal grant of pardon to those who had taken part in the rising, 460; Cade unable to keep his forces together, 461 ; pursued and slain at Heathfield, 461. Caen, document found at its capture by Edward III., 120. Ccssar Semper Augustus, title of the Emperor, 149. Calais, roll of, a catalogue of English naval force, 93 ; besieged by Edward III., 137; the garrison commanded by John de Vienne, 137; Edward builds a town round the besieged town, 138; called Newtown the Bold, 138; importance to English commerce of conquering and keeping Calais, 139 ; five hundred of the feeblest of the population driven out of the famished town, 140; Ed ward's mercy to them, 141 ; increased strictness of the blockade, 141; letter of De Vienne describing the starva tion of tbe inhabitants, 142 ; his con ference with Sir Walter Manny for surrender, 148; terms offered by Edward, 144; devotion of the six burgesses of Calais, 144 ; Eustace de St. Pierre, 144; the six burgesses present themselves with halters round their necks to Edward, 144 ; the King's sternness, 146; they are Bpared on the intercession of Queen Philippa, 146; Calais an English town for more than two hundred years, 148 ; French attempt to re cover it by bribery frustrated, 150. Cannons at the battle of Cressy, 116. Capital and labour, struggles between, 254 ; a. thirty years' war between, 270. Castile, kingdom of, 73 ; its connection with France, 74. Castillon, battle of, 445. Castles of ships i 95. Catapults at the battle of Cressy, 116. Caxton, William,,, introduces printing into England from Germany, 487; reverence due to, 555. Cerda, Don Carlos de la, the arch- pirate of Spain, 152 ; English naval battle with his fleet, 153. Champion lands, 306. Chancery, its relation to the Great Council, 227. Chandos, Sir John, at Cressy and Poitiers, 166; his death, 184. Charitable endowments, malversation of. 266. Charles the Wise, of France, 176. Charles VI. of France prepares a great expedition to invade England, 339; his insanity, 399. Charles VII. of France, 433 ; his coro nation, 438; ingratitude to Joan of Arc, 440; called "the Victorious" for having liberated France from the English, 521. Charles the Bad, King of Navarre. 73. 187. Charles the Bold. Duke of Burgundy, brother-in-law of Edward IV, 489 ; his death, 491 ; suit of the Duke of Clarence for his heiress, 491. Charles IV. of Luxembourg elected emperor, 149. Chaucer's descriptions of the parson, the luxurious monk, and the wanton friar, 249 ; his satire Horatian, 250; his typical franklyn, 254; the "morn ing star " of English verse, 531 ; the " Canterbury Tales," 531 ; his chief patron, John of Gaunt, 532 ; character • of his works, 532 ; happy scheme of the Prologue to the " Tales," 533 ; his versatility in creating characters unsurpassed except by Homer and Shakespeare, 533 ; vivid naturalness of the ideal personages, 533; his treasures of poetical and philosophi cal thought, 534; couplet descriptive of the Clerk of Oxenford, 534 ; his power and variety of humour, 535 ; sensibility to the beauties of nature, 535 ; not " the well of English unde- filed," 535 ; his Gallicisms, 536 ; beauty of his rhythms, 536; his 566 INDEX. rhymes irregular, 536 ; principle on which his verses ought to be scanned, 536. Chevy Chase, ballad of, 550. Chicheley, Archbishop, 395. Chivalrous spirit of Edward III.'s age — serious evils attending it, 40 ; reasons against regretting that the age of chivalry is past, 41. Christopher, the, a large ship of Edward III., 97 ; captured and recovered, 99. Cinque Ports, derivation of the title, 92 ; their ancient privileges, 92. Civil lawyers in the fourteenth century, their influence, 79. Clarence, Duke of, brother of Edward IV., 491 ; his trial and death in the Tower by the King's orders, 492. Classical learning, revival of, 526. Clement VII. recognised as Pope by Scotland, Sicily, and Spain, 257. Clergy in Parliament, representatives of the inferior, 27. Cobham, Lord Reginald, strikes down the Oriflamme at the battle of Poitiers, 108. Cog Thomas, the, the favourite ship of Edward III., 209. Collegiate system of Oxford and Cam bridge, its development, 558 Comines on the English Constitution, 618 ; his testimony that the Kings of England are bound to take the advice of Parliament, 518. Commons of Parliament, their constitu tional importance recognised under Edward II., 23; full recognition of tbe rights of the House under Ed ward III., 214; the grant of money supplies not their sole original busi ness, 215; they exact accounts of past expenditure from Richard II., 342. Companies, the, military adventurers, 180; led by Duguesclin, 181; de throne Pedro the Cruel, 181. Concilium Ordinarium distinct from the Privy Council, 226. Conservators, or keepers of the peace, 231. Constance, Council of, its' horrible maxim that no faith is to be kept with an infidel, 411. Constitution, the English, grew, and was not made, 224. Constitutional principles, their increased authority during Edward III.'s reign, 212. Copyholders grow out of serfs, 261. Cornwall, Richard of, brother of Henry IIL, King of the Romans, 83. Council, the Great, its composition and power under the early Anglo-Norman kings, 224 ; survived as a Council after Parliament had been developed from it, 224 ; how distinguished from Parliament, 224 ; its legislative acts, 225 ; members, 225 ; judicial powers, 226 ; appellate authority of the peers exercised chiefly in Council, 227 ; its criminal jurisdiction, 227 ; its power abused, 227 ; statutes to restrain its judicial proceedings, 228 ; destroyed by the Long Parliament under the name of the Star Chamber, 228. Courtenay's, William, Bishop of Lon don, influence, 203 ; Archbishop of Canterbury, 323 ; his character, 323 ; summons a council of bishops re specting the alleged heresy of Wyclif , 324; the council interrupted by an earthquake, 324 ; controversy with the University of Oxford, 325. " Coustillers, pages or Serjeants atten dant on knights, 105. ', battle of, 39; constitution of the English army at, 106 ; its num bers, 106; generalship of Edward III. and the Black Prince, 111 ; the Eng lish archers, 112 ; thousands of Irish and Welsh fenmen in the battle, 116 ; advantage of the English position, 124; skill in posting the English troops, 124; description of King Philippe's army, 1 25 ; its numerical superiority over the English — three or four to one, 125 ; insubordination and confusion of the French, 126; King Edward reviews and encourages his men, 127; attack of the Genoese cross-bowmen, 128 ; repulsed by the English archers, 128 ; King Philippe orders his own cross-bowmen to be cut down by his men-at-arms, 128; carnage dealt by the English archers, 129; D'Alencon's attack, 129; met by the Prince of Wales, 129 ; gal lantry of the French nobles, 1 29 ; the Earl of Warwick sends to King Edward for reinforcements, 130 ; King Edward refuses to mar the Prince's victory by interfering, 131 ; flight of Philippe, 132; chivalrous death of the King of Bohemia, 132; the Prince of WaleB congratulated by Edward, 134. Crevant, English victory at, 433. INDEX. 567 Crimes committed to obtain sovereign power, lines of Euripides on, 512. Dante's treatise, " De Mbnarchia," 79. Dauphin, origin of the title, 175. David II, King of Scots, 135 ; taken prisoner by Sir John Coupland, 137 ; ransomed, 160 ; Edward III.'s in fluence over his mind, 137. Declaratory Statute of 15th Edward IL, 216. Democratic ferment throughout Europe near the close of the fourteenth cen tury, 281. Derby's (Earl of) victory with the Eng lish fleet in 1345, 104. Despensers or Spensers, favourites of Edward IL, banished, 5 ; recalled to England, 6. Dialects, great variety of English pro vincial, 556. Diaz, Bartholomew, discovers the Cape of Good Hope, 525. Diet and dress, statute of Edward III. regulating, 236. Dogs of tbe gentry in the City of Lon don, 305. Douglas, the Knight of Liddesdale, murders Sir Alexander Ramsay, 135. Duguesclin dethrones Pedro the Cruel, 181; overthrown by the Black Prince, 181; a military genius of high order, 185 ; destroys part of the English army under Sir R. Knolles, 185. Duns Scotus, the Subtle Doctor, 32. E. Ecclesiastical dignitaries, petition of the Commons, representing their enor mous wealth, 388. Edmund Mortimer, the rightful heir to the throne after the deposition of Richard IL, 366 ; bis case contrasted with that of James II.'s son, 367. Edward the Confessor, patron saint of Eugland, 155. Edward II.'s devotion to his favourite, Gaveston, 2 ; reign wretched and dishonourable, 2; influence of his favourites on our Constitution,^; domination of Gaveston over him, 3 • the sole military success of his Ufe, 4 ; his favourite, Hugh le De spenser, 5 ; abandonment of the con quest of Scotland, 6; importance of his reign as to relations with Scot land and Ireland, 6; personal courage, but incompetency as a commander at Bannockburn, 7 : miserable condition of England under him, 17; pro claimed deserter of the realm, 21 ; his son Edward, afterwards Edward III., declared Custos regni, 21 ; the King a prisoner in Kenilworth Castle, 21 ; abdicates, 21 ; formal re nunciation of allegiance to him by the proctor of the nobles and Com mons, 22 ; bis tragical fate in Berkeley Castle, 22. Edward III. — Parliament declares Prince Edward King, in place of the imprisoned King Edward IL, 21 ; proclaimed King in his fourteenth year, 22 ; his brilliant reign, 37 ; military glories of England in his age, 38 ; chivalric perfection of bis con duct at Cressy, 39 ; campaign against the Scots, 42 ; surprises Queen Isa bella and her " gentle Mortimer " by a subterranean passage into Notting ham Castle, 44 ; his marriage to Philippa of Hainault, 45 ; intellectual and physical advantages, 46 ; birth of Edward the Black Prince, 46 ; lays siege to Bernick, 48; iniquitous claim to the crown df France, 50; nature of the claim, 52; diagram . explaining the rival claims of Edward and Philippe de Valois, 53; decision of tbe French peers in favour of Philippe, 54 ; proctors appointed to take possession of France in the name of lidward, 55 ; does homage for Guienne to Philippe, 58 ; his clear recognition of Philippe as King of France, 59 ; unreserved acknowledg ment of Philippe, 61 ; visit to Philippe, 61 ; design to dethrone him, 67 ; manifesto to the nation in support of the war, 69; the war not undertaken on account of Edward's claim to the throne of France, 70; Philippe forces on the war, 70; the King of England's territories in France, 73 ; his debts to Italian bankers, 81 ; convention with the Emperor Louis IV., 85; his recep tion by the Emperor at the Diet of Coblenz, 85 ; appointed vicar-general of the Emperor for the districts west of the Rhine, 86 ; lays siege to Cam brai, 87 ; assumes the title and arms 568 INDEX. of King of France, 88 ; statute de claring that, as King of France, he acquired no new prerogative over his English subjects, 89 ; resolution to obtain superiority by sea, 90 ; letter to his son, the Black Prince, 100; besieges Tournay, 100; returns se cretly to England, 101 ; controversy with Archbishop Stratford, 101 ; the Archbishop refuses to answer except to his peers in parliament, 101 ; the King withdraws the charge, 102 ; his dupficity towards Parliament and people, 102 ; after obtaining a grant from Parliament, refuses to fulfil the conditions, declaring in a proclama tion, "dissimulavimus sicut oportuit," 103 ; lands at La Hogue, 105 ; sacks St. Lo, 119; and Louviers, 120; menaces Rouen, 120 ; advances upon Paris, 121 ; his peril between the Seine and the Somme, 122 ; the crossing of the Somme, 123 ; spares the six burgesses of Calais, 147 ; triumphant entry of Edward and Philippa into Calais, 147; the most renowned Sovereign in Europe, 149 ; chosen as Emperor by a majority of electors, 149; declines the dignity, 149 ; truce with France after the cap ture of Calais, 150 ; combat between Edward and Sir Eustace de Ribeau- mont, 151; unopposed march through France the year after the battle of Poitiers, 176 ; privations and disease attending the retreat of the army, 176; resumes the title of King of England and France, 183; sinks into sen suality and imbecility, 184 ; his Sacer dotal Ministry, 192; Great Council summoned by him for the purpose of taxation, 194 ; complaints that the King of England was no longer, as in the old times, "King of the Sea," 196 ; appointment of a council of lords and prelates to advise the King, 199 ; the Council dismissed, 202 ; jubilee year (the fiftieth) of his reign, 203 ; tbe King dies at Shene, 205 ; sad and shameful circumstances of his death, 205 ; his character, 206 ; popularity, personal advan tages, bravery, and generalship, 207 ; patronage of learning and science, 208 ; of minstrels, chroniclers, and poets, 208 ; profuse liberality and habit of exposing himself in battle, 208 ; licentiousness and extravagance, 209 ; his real claim to England's gratitude, 210; internal history of England during his reign, 211; his kingly love for prerogative, 213 ; characters of his sons, the Dukes bf Lancaster, York, and Gloucester, 337. Edward IV, Earl of March, eldest son of the Duke of York, 467; conquers the Lancastrians at Mortimer's Cross, 470 ; enthroned as Edward IV., 471 ; gains the decisive battle of Towton, 471; crowned King, 472; all the chief Lancastrians attainted, 472; personal character and popularity, 473; his cruelty and its probable origin, 473; marriage with Lady Elizabeth Gray, 477; favours her family, the Woodvilles, 477; licen tious character, 479 ; after his defeat by Warwick takes refuge with the Duke of Burgundy, 480 ; returns to England, 480 ; marches upon London, 481 ; defeats Warwick at Barnet, 482; gains a victory over Queen Margaret's army at Tewkesbury, 483; raises money by "benevolences," 488; strength and splendour of his army, 488 ; lands at Calais to attack Louis XI., 489; the Duke of Bur gundy, his ally, fails him, 489 ; Louis buys the treaty of Pecquigny, 490 ; death of Edward, 492 ; his children, 492 ; his learning and patronage of literature, 487. Edward V. proclaimed King, 493 ; struggle for the regency, 493; the Queen-mother takes sanctuary at Westminster, 494 ; Edward mur dered in the Tower, 504. Electoral franchise, restriction of, 447. Electors, county, disfranchising statute of Henry VL, as to, 446 ; forty-shil ling freeholders established, 446 ; leaseholders and copyholders ex cluded, 447. Elizabeth of Tork, heiress of Edward IV., her projected marriage with the Earl of Richmond, afterwards Henry VII., 506 ; Bishop Morton the or ganiser of the scheme, 508; her letter to Richard IIL, 513; said to have favoured his suit, 513; her marriage with Henry VII. unites the houses of York and Lancaster, 516. Elliott's (Ebenezer) noble hymn of the printers of Sheffield, 555. Emperor, "Semper Augustus," nature of his station, 77 ; theoretical reverence attached to him as representing the imperial power of old Rome, 77 ; his INDEX. 569 titular superiority over other tem poral princes, 80; the supreme feudal lord, 79. Empire, its extreme weakness in Ger many under Frederick IIL, 523. Entails, relaxation of their strictness, 486. " Espagnols-sur-Mer," battle of, 153. Estates ofthe realm, the three, 360. Eton College founded by Henry VI., 451. F. Falconberg' s (the Bastard of ) attack on London to rescue Henry VI. from the Tower, 485 ; submission to Edward IV., 485. Fasciculi Zizaniorum, Netter's, 378. Fastolf, Sir John, defeats the French at Eouvrai, 434 ; plan for the conduct of the war in France, 442 ; details of his report on the management of the wars, 443. Fenmen, Irish and Welsh, at Cressy, 116. Ferdinand, and Isabella of Spain, 525. Feudal array of men-at-arms, 108 ; military service, 108 ; liability of the Crown vassals to serve beyond the seas, 108. Feudalism, decay of, 527 ; its vitality and influence after its " death- struggles," 527. Feuds among the Scots, incessant, 135. Flemish, the, in the time of Edward III., 84 ; weavers introduced into Eng land, 235; provinces, 521, pass by marriage to the house of Hapsburg, 522. Florence, the great commonwealth of, 80; influence of its bankers over Edward III.'s wars, 80. Fluves, ships called, 94. Forest laws, diminished severity of, 361. Fortescue's (Sir John, Chief Justice) praises of the laws of England, 517; treatise on absolute and limited mo narchy, 559 ; specimen of his matter and manner, 559. France, commencement of the " Hun dred Years' War" with, 50; loss of English possessions in, 197. Freeholders (forty-shilling), purchasing power of forty shillings in the time of Henry VI. equal to that of twenty pounds of present money, 447. French monarchy, its state at the com mencement of the wars of Edward IIL, 72. French a foreign language after the loss of Aquitaine, 530. Froissart's (Sir John) Chronicle, the mirror of chivalry, 40 ; narrative of Edward III.'s wars, 40 ; his life, 64 ; editions of his Chronicle, 64 ; the value of his testimony estimated, 64 ; varying bias of his partisanship, 65; testimony to the restraints on kingly power in England, 219. G. Came law, the first, 361. Garter, institution of the order of the, 154; origin of its motto, 155. Gaunt, John of, Duke of Lancaster, son of Edward III., 184; marries the daughter of Don Pedro, 184; in her right styles himself King of Castile, 184; patronage of Chaucer and sup port of Wyclif, 185; his character, 192 ; story of his being a changeling, 192; suspected as the instigator of Wat Tyler's rebellion, 289; the charge unfounded, as the cry of the insurgents was " No King John in England," 289 ; claims the crown of Castile in right of his wife, 338 ; ex pedition to Spain, 338 ; death, 357. Gaveston, favourite of Edward II., re called from banishment, 2 ; be headed, 4. Genoa in the fourteenth century, 81 ; the Genoese mercenaries, 81. Gentlemen born (Gentils homes del nati vity) alone eligible as knights of shires, 448 ; the statute to that effect not enforced, 448; its tendency to found a caste or create a noblesse in England, 448. George, St., as the patron saint of Eng land, dates from Edward IIL, 123; the true St. George, 155 ; mediaeval legends concerning, 155; the mythi cal St. George a Semitic god chris tianised, 155 ; replaced Edward the Confessor as the patron saint of Eng land, 155. Germany, its elements of strength, 524. Gesta Romanorum, the most popular story book of mediteval times, 79.' Glendower, Owen, one of the most re markable men of his age, 372 ; trained at the English bar and in Richard II.'s Court, 372; claims the sove reignty of Wales, 373 ; thrice repels Henry IV., 373; defeated by Prince 570 INDEX. Henry (afterwards Henry V.), 373 ; maintains the struggle till his death, 373. Golden Bull of the Emperor Charles IV., 150 ; fixed for centuries the constitu tion of the electoral college, 150. Government — modern principle that the government is best which governs least, 271. Gower, the poet, 542 ; his prolixity and dulness, 542. Greek Emperors, 81 ; extinction of the empire, 522. Grossers, engrossing merchandise and raising the price, 236; statute against, 236. Guilds, trading, 237 ; the original Eng lish guilds, 238 ; craft guilds, 238 ; their restrictive and monopolising spirit, 239; restrictive rules, 241; influence of the craft guilds on the labouring classes, 262. Gunpowder, changes made by it in the character of warfare, 528. H. Bainault, Count of, father of Queen Philippa, 66. Halidon Mill, Edward III.'s victory at, 48, 49. HaUam, Bishop of Salisbury, in the Council of Constance, opposes the burning of John Huss, 381. Hanse towns, mercantile confederacy of, 82. Hanseatic League, 83 ; the Steelyard in London, 83. Hapsburg, Rudolf of, 74 ; his friendly relations with Edward I., 74. Hastings accused of plotting with Jane Shore, 500. Hellenic literature in England, unveil ing of, 560. Henry 1 V., called Bolingbroke from the place of his birth, 365 ; Earl of Derby, and created Duke of Here ford, 356 ; quarrel with the Duke of Norfolk, 356; Richard II. orders a trial by battle between the dispu tants, 356 ; Henry banished, 356 ; becomes Duke of Lancaster by the death of his father, John of Gaunt, 357 ; the King seizes his patrimony, 357; lands at Ravenspur, and is re ceived with enthusiasm, 358 ; claims the throne of England before the nobles assembled for the deposition of Richard IL, 364 ; words of his claim, 364; their intentional vague ness, 364 ; the Estates of the realm choose him as King, 365 ; his pre vious career, 365 ; defective moral character, 366 ; irregularity in con voking his first Parliament, 368 ; in vades Scotland, and burns Edin burgh, 371 ; sustains harassing hos tilities from the Welsh under Owen Glendower, 372 ; revolt of the Earl of Northumberland, 374 ; suppressed at the battle of Shrewsbury, 374; rebellion headed by Scrope, Arch bishop of York, and the Earl of Not tingham, 375 ; the Archbishop and Earl taken by treachery and be headed, 375 ; another rising under the Earl of Northumberland, 375 ; suppressed at Bramham Moor, 375; Henry's mental and bodily sufferings, 375 ; death, 375 ; early fame as a crusader, 375 ; deference to his Par liament, 376 ; alliance with the higher clergy, 377 ; statutory declaration of his gratitude to the clergy, 377. Henry V. wounded in his first battle at Shrewsbury, 374; the most popular sovereign that ever reigned in Eng land, 389; styled Henry of Monmouth from his birthplace, 389 ; education at Queen's College, Oxford, 389 ; exaggerated accounts of his youthful follies, 390 ; his warfare against Glen dower as Lieutenant of tbe King's forces in the Welsh marches, 390; estrangement betwen him and his father, Henry IV., 390 ; his demand to be made Regent of the realm, 391 ; Henry V.'s first Parliament, 391 ; conspiracy to seize him by surprise at the Palace of Eltham, 393 ; arrest of suspected traitors at St. Giles's Fields, 394 ; claims to be rightful King of France, 396 ; absurdity of the claim, 396 ; demands upon the French made by him, 397; announces to Parbament his determination to recover his inheritance in France, 397 ; the war eminently unjust and wicked, 397 ; conspiracy of the Earl of Cambridge detected and the earl executed, 399 ; lands with an army at Harfleur, 400 ; siege and capitula tion of Harfleur, 400 ; resolves to march to Calais, 401 ; the French army of 60,000 knights and men-at- arms musters beneath the Oriflamme to intercept him, 402 ; nearly all the INDEX. 571 highest nobles comprised in it, 402 ; the victory of Agincourt, 404 ; on a false alarm the King orders several thousand prisoners to be slain, 406 ; resumes his march to Calais, 407 ; triumphant return to London, 407 ; joyous reception, 407 ; constitutional character of bis reign, 408 ; loans to the King on Parliamentary guarantee, 409 ; the Earl of Dorset's incursion into Normandy, 409 ; defeated by the Count d' Armagnac, Constable of France, 409 ; Henry's second invasion of France, 409 ; civil war among the French, 409 ; his plan of invasion distinguished by skilful generalship, 414; takes Caen by storm, 415; surrender of Bayeux and Cherbourg, 415 ; plan for the capture of Rouen, 416 ; harsh and cruel element in his character, 417; his operations in Normandy a war of sieges, 418; severity of discipline, 420 ; trium phant entry into Rouen, 426 ; made Regent of France, and acknowledged as tbe heir of Charles VL, 427 ; mar ries Catherine, the Princess Royal of France, 427 ; his royal entry into Paris, 428 ; returns to England, 428 ; coronation of Queen Catherine, 428 ; the King's brother, the Duke of Clarence, defeated at Beuge, 429 ; fixed purpose to conquer Normandy, 413; illness, 430; death-bed orders to his brother, the Duke of Bedford, 413, 430; advice as to the govern ment after his death, 430; his death, 431. Henry VL, styled Henry of Windsor, as born there, 429 ; succeeds to the crown in infancy, 430; proclaimed in Paris King of France on the death of Charles VL, 432; regency of the Duke of Bedford, brother of Henry V., 433 ; the Duke of Gloucester Protector of England in the Duke of Bedford's absence, 450; character of the King, 451 ; founds Eton College, 451 ; his object in the foundation, 559; marriage with Margaret of Anjou, 452; Latin distich in" a Warning to King Henry, 453; Henry becomes imbecile, 403 ; birtn of bis son, Prince Edward, 463; wounded and taken prisoner at the battle of St. Albans, 465; » general amnesty granted, 465; his malady returns, 465; imprisoned in the Tower for several years after Edward IV.'s accession, 475 ; his restoration, 480] sent back to prison, 482; death in the Tower, 484; miracles at his tomb at Chertsey, 485 ; his bones removed to Windsor, 485 ; buried by Henry VII. at Westminster, 485. Henry VII., Earl of Richmond, his pedigree, 506 ; early life, 507 ; lands at Milford Haven, 514; gains the battle of Bosworth, 616; marries Elizabeth of York, uniting the houses of York and Lancaster, 516. Henry of Luxembourg chosen emperor, 75. Hereford, biblical translator, 315. Heretics, statute for the burning of, 380 ; argument used for the punish ment of heresy with death, 381. Heretico comburendo, de, writ, 383; particulars of the statute, 385. Hobelers, or light cavalry, 109. Hohenzollern, house of, 523. Homage, plain and liege, 57. Homildon Hill, battle of, 371. Honi soit qui mat y pense, origin of the motto, 155. Honour, saying of King John of France on, 179. Huss, John, and Jerome of Prague, burning of, 410. Hussite wars, 412. Hymns and Carols, early English, 544. I. Ich dien, the motto adopted by the Black Prince, 133. Impeachment, parliamentary, its main principles established, 200 ; first ex ercise by the Commons of the right of, 228; charge made by the Com mons against Sir John Lee, 228 ; proceedings against Lord Latimer and others, 229. Impressment of ships, mariners, and soldiers for the King's service, 93. Inclosures of lands, 306. Incorporation of towns, charters of, 449. Infallibility of the Pope asserted by Thomas Aquinas, 32. Inns of Court, number of students, 561 ; Inns of Chancery, 561; sons of the greatest nobility placed at tbe Inns of Court for education, 562. Ireland, the Viceroy system in, 12; the Hibernicised Anglo-Normans, 12; the English in Ireland more Irish than the Irish themselves — Ipsis 572 INDEX. Hibernis Hiberniores, 13 ; absenteeism a complaint as early as Edward IL, 13 ; called by Sir W. Ralegh " a commonwealth of common woe," 13. Irish affairs after the Anglo-Irish Barons' victories at Athunree and Dundalk, 340 ; native Irish in Henry V.'s army, 421. Isabel, Queen of Charles VI. of France, her intense hatred of her son, the Dauphin, 413 ; the Dauphin murders the Duke of Burgundy, who was favoured by the Queen, 427. Isabella, Queen of Edward IL, her guilty attachment to Lord M ortimer, 18 ; obtains by craft a mission to France, 19 ; and possession of Prince Edward (afterwards Edward IIL), 19 ; lands with an army in Suffolk, 20 ; flight of the King, 20 ; Isabella and Mortimer summon a Parliament, 21 ; Isabella made a prisoner for Ufe by Edward IIL, 45. Isabella, widow of Richard II., 370. Isabella of Castile, her complaint of having been refused by Edward IV, who " took to his wiff a wedowe of England," 478. Islip's (Archbishop) rebuke to Edward III, 209. Isonomia of English freemen, 448. J. Jacquerie, insurrection of the, 175. James I, King of Scotland, his nineteen years' captivity in England, 371. Jehan le Bel, the historian, 56 ; his ac count of the battle of Cressy, 57 ; his chronicle corrected by John of Hainault, 67; his narrative of the siege of Calais, 147. Joan of Arc, the maid of Orleans, 435 ; her visions, 435 ; her fame spreads rapidly, 436; probably sincere in relating her visions, 436 ; leads an expedition to the relief of Orleans, 437; enters Orleans, 437; drives the English from Orleans, 437 ; present at the coronation of Charles VII. of France, 438 ; besieged in Compiegne by a Burgundian army, 439 ; taken prisoner, 439; sold by the Burgun dians to the English, 439 ; treated by the English, not as » prisoner of war, but as a heretic and sorceress, 440; tried before an ecclesiastical tribunal, 440 ; heartlessly abandoned by Charles VII., 441; burnt at Eouen, 440. King) visit to Ireland, 11. Joh/il IL, the Good, King of France, his bravery at the battle of Poitiers, 168; the Savoy Palace assigned as the resi dence of the captive King, 1 74 ; ran somed at three millions of gold crowns, 178; returns to France four years after his defeat by the Black Prince,, 1 78 ; his ransom unpaid, 179 ; he returns voluntarily to imprisonment, 179 ; his saying on kingly honour, 179; dies in captivity, 179. John, St., of Jerusalem, establishment at Rhodes of the Knights of, 523. Jury, trial by, eulogised by Fortescue, 519; jurors then required to use their own knowledge of the facts of the case before them, 519. Justices of the peace, institution of, 231. K. Kent, Earl of, put to death by Queen Isabella and Mortimer, 44. Kentish insurgents led by Wat Tyler, 280. Kilkenny, statute of, forbidding the intermarriage of Anglo - Norman settlers with the mere Irish, 341. King's College, Cambridge, and Eton College founded by Henry VL, 559. Knighthood, the two distinct elements of, 41. Knolles, Sir Robert, leads an army to the gates of Paris, 185. Labour, rules Umiting the hours of, 241 ; rights of, 271 ; occasional State duty to enforce labour, 271 ; the power to work is property, but has liabilities as other property, 271 ; cautions to be observed in interfering with the labourer's right to sell his labour as he pleases, 272 ; arguments for compelling labour in cases of emergency, 273; injustice of the pro visions of the labour-laws, 273 ; a sta tutory maximum of wages, but no mi nimum, 273 ; ordinance of labourers, 274 ; compulsion on the poor to ac cept employment, 274 ; compulsory rates of wages, 275 ; punishment of refractory labourers, 275 ; for taking more than the prescribed rate of INDEX. 573 wages, 275; statute of 2nd Edward III. against the " malice and cove tousness of servants," 276 ; its chief. clauses, 277; the Branding Statute, 277 ; runaway servants, 278 ; statu tory wages insufficient during the prevalence of high prices, 279 ; fines levied under the labour code, 279 ; nature and failure of the labour laws, 282; Labour and Poor Law of 13S8, 301 ; ineffectual labour statutes, 302. Labourer, the mediaeval, better supplied with food than the modern, 252. Labourers, Statute of, 157. Lancaster, Earl of, first prince of the blood-royal, put to death by Edward IL, 5. Lancaster, Duke of, John of Gaunt, sufferings of an army led by him across France, 197 ; overthrow of his administration, 199 ; return to power, 202 ; ruler of England at the close of his father's (Edward III.) reign, 203 ; attacked by the populace, - takes refuge with the Princess of Wales, 205. Lancaster, House of, its accession in the person of Henry IV., 368. Langland's (William, author of "Piers the Plowman ") invectives against the friars, 248 ; his character, 284 ; in tensely loyal, 284 ; but his writings perverted into incentives to rebelhon, 285 ; his alliterative verse, 540 ; the second great poet of Chaucer's period, 536 ; not to be ranked with Chaucer in creative poetry, pathos, humour, or portraiture of the beauties of nature, 537 ; his strength in stern invective, 537 ; a democratic poet, 537; nature of his poems, 538; his life, 538; the vision of Piers Plow man, 539 ; his ploughman-hero, 539, Latimer, Lord, impeachment of, 199. Latin as the language of diplomacy and of treaties, 233; the destroyers of Latin as a living language were its so-called restorers, 233. Liberty and equality, John Ball's two- lined lyric of, 286. Limoges revolts, and is recaptured by the Black Prince, 185 ; the Prince's fame sullied by the massacre of the inhabitants, 185. Liveries, statute against giving, 476. Lo, St., sacked by Edward III., 119. Lollards, derivation of the term, 377 ; persecution of them,377; their petition containing a summary of their tenets, 378; opposed to needless arts and handicrafts, 379; popular Lollard poem, the " Complaint of the Plough man," 379; the title Lollards or Lollers adopted by the sectaries themselves, 380 ; anarchical doctrines of some of them, 384 ; the Commons' petition for the mitigation of the statute for burning heretics, 387 ; see " Wyclif." Lollardism at first a name for Wyclifism, 332 ; afterwards distinguished from it, 334. Lombardy, the tyrants of, 80. London, houses in the fourteenth cen tury, 253 ; discomfort and rudeness of the homes of those days exag gerated, 253 ; aristocratic spirit of London local lawgivers recorded in the " Liber Albus," 305. Louis of Bavaria, Emperor, 75. Louis XI. of France, his abilities and craft, 521. Lydgate, the principal poet of the Lan castrian times, 548. M. Macaronic verse, 544 ; curious example, 544. Mahomet II. takes Constantinople, 522 ; checks to his conquests, 522 ; his threat that his horse should eat oats from the altar of St. Peter at Rome, 523 ; his death, 523. Malory's (Sir Thomas) " La Morte d' Arthure," 554 ; a digest of Ar thurian tales, 555 Mandeville's (Sir John) travels, 545 ; his name typical of a gossiping tra veller, 546 ; style, 547 ; his book written successively in three lan guages, 547; his legend of the "Flourishing Field of Bethlehem," 548, note ; doubt as to the authen ticity of the work, 548, note. Manny, Sir Walter, commands English troops in Brittany, 104 ; expostu lates with Edward III. in favour of tbe surrendering garrison of Calais, 144 ; King Edward's favourite knight, 157; his new burial ground, 157; one of England's chief paladins, 184. Manufacturing power of England, Ed ward III. the founder of, 235. Manumission of bondmen taught by the Church before the extinction of villeinage, 304. 574 INDEX. Mare, Sir Peter de la, Speaker of the Commons, 198 ; arbitrarily impri soned, 202. Margaret of Anjou, Queen of Henry VL, 452 ; her ascendancy over him, 453 ; national animosity against her, 453 ; birth of her son Edward, 463 ; her vindictive measures against the York ists, 467; her heroic though fierce spirit and her beauty create enthu siasm in her favour, 469; repudiates the compromise between Henry and the Duke of York, excluding her son from the succession, 469; defeats the Duke at Wakefield, 470; her vic tory at the second battle of St. Albans, 470 ; Henry and the Queen escape to Scotland after the battle of Towton, 472 ; the Queen obtains help from France, 474; leads au army into England, which is de feated at Hexham, 475 ; defeated at Tewkesbury, 483 ; her son killed in the presence of Edward IV., 484; Margaret captured, 484 ; ransomed by the French King, 484. Maritime strength of England in 1340, 93. Marquess, the title introduced by Richard IL, 362. Matthias of Hungary, King, 523. Maupes' (Sir John) desperate valour against King Edward Bruce, 15. Mendicant Friars, 247 ; numbers, wealth, and corruption of the men dicant orders, 247; the four principal orders, 247; their vices satirised in popular poetry, 247. Merciless Parliament, the, called by the opposite party the Wise Parliament, 350. Military service, 109. Milites a non militando, 43. Minorites, an appellation of the Fancis- cans, 247. Minot, Lawrence, old English song writer, 136 ; his ballad on the battle of Nevill's Cross, 136 ; war songs, 542 ; the Tyrtseus of his age, 542. Missolonghi, sortie en masse at, 425. Monarchy, limitations of English, 517 ; maxim that the King must act through responsible agents, 520 ; cases limiting the King's personal interference in judicial matters, 521. Moorish kingdom of Granada, 73. Mortimer, Lord, and Queen Isabella, 18; his tyranny, 44 ; convicted of high treason and hanged, 45. N. Navarette, battle of, 181. Navarre joined to France by the mar riage of Queen Joanna, 73 ; separated on the death of Charles IV., 73. . Navy under Edward IIL, 193; im proved by Henry V., 398 ; his deter mination to be " Lord of the Sea round about," 398 ; his ship, the "Trinity Royal," 399. Netter of Walden, the great opponent of the Wyclifites, 378. Nevill's Cross, English victory over the Scots at, 134. Nominalism and realism, 33. Norman-French the language of law reports and treatises for centuries, 233. Northampton, treaty of, fully acknow ledges the independence of Scotland, 43, 44 ; battle of, 468. O. Occleve, a duU poet, 543 ; scheme of his English poems, 543 ; sketches of old London life, 543. Ockham, William of, the last of the Pentarchy of the Schoolmen, life of, 33 ; his opinions on the Pope's vicariate, 34 ; contemptuous denial of Papal infallibility, 35 ; Luther's pro totype, 35; supports the imperial against the Papal authority, 36. O'Connor's (Phelim) defeat at Athunree establishes Ireland's subjection, 6,15. Oldcastle, Sir John, the Lollard Chief, 391 ; summoned to Parbament as Lord Cobham, 391 ; denounced as a heretic and traitor by the Archbishop of Canterbury, 392; stage tradition falsifying his character, 392 ; Shakes peare's supposed identification of him with Sir John Falstaff, 392; ar raigned as a heretic before the arch bishop, 393 ; escapes from the Tower, 393 ; captured, 394 ; the barbarous cruelty of his execution unexampled, 333, 394 ; venerated as chief of our martyrs, 393. Ordainers, Lords, appointed, 4. Ordinances and statutes distinguished, 225. Orleans, siege of, 434. Otranto occupied by the Turks, 523. Ottoman Turks, or Osmanlis, 82. Oxford, the chief theological and philo- INDEX. 575 sophical university of the fourteenth century, 557. Pale, the English, in Ireland, 11. Palcsologus, John, the Greek emperor, visits London, 375. Papacy, its subserviency to the crown of France in the fourteenth century, 30 ; great schism in, 410. Papal rapacity, resistance to, 243. Paper made from linen, 561. Parliament : statute 4th Edward IL, that a Parliament should be held every year, 4, 24 ; claims redress of grievances as a condition of granting money, 24 ; treatise on its composi tion, powers, and formalities, pub lished in Edward II.'s reign, 24 ; its constitution under Edward I., 26 ; the business of Parliament, as de scribed in the " Modus tenendi Par- Uamentum," 27; provisions for the frequent holding of Parliaments, 218 ; judicial functions of early Parlia ments, 222 ; regarded as tbe supreme national tribunal, 223 ; the Good Par- Uament, 198. Parliamentum, Modus tenendi, the treatise, 24 ; its value, although a forgery, 25 ; urges that everything done in Pariiament should be done with the consent of the Commons, 28. Peasant's hut, the mediaeval, 253; peasant war of 1381, 280 ; extirpation of small peasant proprietors under the Tudors, 306. Pecock's " Repressor," 550 ; written to repel the objections of the Lollards against the clergy, 550 ; the work a combination of ultramontism and rationalism, 551 ; the author's trial and condemnation for heresy, 551 ; he saves his life by humble retracta tion, 551 ; argumentative power of the work, 552 ; vigour and grace of its style, 552. Peculium of Roman slaves, 259. Pedro tlie Cruel, his war with his illegi timate brother, Don Henry de Tras- tamara, 181; dethroned by Dugues clin, 181 ; restored by the Black Prince, 181 ; his ingratitude, 182. Peerages granted with the consent of the Estates of the realm, 362 ; created by letters patent, 362; by writ of summons, 362 ; peerages by baronial tenure, 363 ; life peerages, 363. Peers : principle that a peer must be tried by his peers, 102. Percy, Henry, surnamed Hotspur, de feats the Scots at Homildon Hill, 371 ; heads an insurrection against Henry IV., 374 ; killed at the battle of Shrewsbury, 374. Pen-ers, Alice, mistress of Edward IIL, 197 ; her ostentatious interference in government and the administration of justice, 198; statute forbidding her, by name, to interfere corruptly with the administration of justice, 200 ; her return with the Duke of Lancaster to power, 202; her in fluence to the last day of the King's life, 205 ; at the death-bed of the King, 206. Persecution, effects of religious, 382. Petrarch, Coryphaeus of the revival of the study of the classics, 78. Philippa, Queen, collects an army to resist the Scots in the absence of Edward III., 135; her exhortations to the army, 136 ; joy at the victory of Nevill's Cross, 137 ; repairs to the King, who was besieging Calais, 137 ; intercedes for the six burgesses, 146 ; her death, 184. Philippe le Bel, family of, 51. Philippe de Valois' (Philippe VI.) claim to tbe throne of France against Ed ward III., 53; crowned at Rheims, 57; requires homage from Edward III. for Guienne, 57 ; his enmity with the Count d'Artois, 62 : his help to the Scots against England, and aggression on Edward's dominions in Aquitaine, 68 ; thereby forces England into hos tility, 69; flight from Cressy, 132; alights at the Castle of La Broye, 132; his death, 158. Philippe, son of King John of France, created Duke of Burgundy in testi mony of his valour at Poitiers, 169 ; surnamed Le Hardi, 1 69 ; encounters the Duke of Lancaster, son of Ed ward IIL, 183. Picard's (London merchant) entertain ment to Edward III. and the Kings of France, Scotland, and Cyprus, 242. Piers the Plowman, Vision of, influence of the poem, 250 ; its rugged strength and fierce indignation, 251. Plague, the, its supposed connection with earthquakes, 157 J the black, 576 INDEX. 157; pestilence in the reign of Jus tinian, 157.. . Pleadings in English substituted for French, act for, 233. Ploughman's Complaint, the, a Lollard poem, 380. Poems and Songs, poutical, Wright's introduction to, 248. Poitiers, battle of, 162 ; immense nu merical superiority of the French, 163 ; the English outnumbered by seven or ten to one, 163; proffered mediation of Cardinal Perigord, 163 ; description of the battle, 164; the ¦French cavalry shot down like deer by the- English archers, 165; tactics of the English, 167 ; bravery of .King John of France and hig son Philippe, 169; Kj'ng John and; his son -taken 1 prisoners by Sir Denis Morbecke, 169 ; the flower of the chivalry of France destroyed there, 172 ; impor tant services of archers at the battle, 172. Polehampton' s, Rev. A., visions of, 436. Poll-tax, the first granted, 203 ; severe effect of a, 222 ; graduated poll-tax of 1379, 280 ; its scale of duties, 280 ; harsh poll-tax of 1380, 280 ; the cause of the revolutionary uprising of 1381, 280. Poor-law legislation in England begins under Edward IIL, 38 ; origin of the system, 255; the modern history of the English poor, 257; misery and destitution of the impotent poor, 265 ; introduction of compulsory taxation for their relief, 267 ; statute 5th of Elizabeth, 267; legislative . distinction between the impotent and tbe valiant poor, 302 ; oppressive laws as to settlement and removal, 274; see "Labour." Pope, the, assumes the right to rule the empire, '75; excommunicates the Emperor Louis IV, 76; struggles between the Emperor and the Pope, 76 ; rival Popes at Rome'and Avignon, 256 ; ..they, excite crusades against each other, 327. Pope Urban V. claims arrears of the tribute granted to him by King John as his vassal, 245 ; declaration of Parliament that King John could not put his people under subjection without their accord, 245. Portugal, Castile, and Aragon, kingdoms of, 173. Portuguese, their discoveries, 525 ; Prince. Henry of Portugal, 525; the King of Portugal assumes the title of Lord of Guinea, 525. Poverty in London, suffering from, com pared with that in the East, 252. Poynimgs, a participator in Cade's insur rection, 462. Praemunire, statutes of, 244 ; why so called, 244. Prices and wages, statute of 37th Ed ward III. as to, 236. Printing, discovery and rapid progress of, 526 ; its operation in altering the character of European history, 527. Privy Councillors, early records of their proceedings, 226. Proletarians in town and country, 263 ; duties of a State as to its, 263. Protective laws of Richard IIL, 510 ; exception in favour of free trade in books and printing, 510. Provence reunited to France, 522. Provisors, statute of, 244. Purvey's (disciple of WycUf ) corrected version of the Bible, 316. Purveyance, the king's right of, 217 ; abuse of the power, 217v R. Rack, the, called " the Duke of Exeter's daughter," 520. Ransom, the most lucrative part of the spoils of war, 110. Receivers and tryers of petitions, 223. Recovery for barring entail instituted, 486. Regralors, rules against, 240. Rhythm and rhyme, 541. Ribeaumont's (Sir Eustace) combat with Edward IIL, 151 ; the king presents him with a chaplet of pearls, 151 ; death at the battle of Poitiers, 168. Rich and poor, in the fourteenth cen tury, 255. Richard Coiur de Lion's love for metrical romances, 554. Richard II., of Bordeaux, son of the Black Prince, declared by Parbament heir to the Crown, 202 ; causes of the revolutionary risings in his reign, 251 ; his gallantry and presence of mind during Tyler's insurrection, 283 ; leniency to the insurgents, 283; annuls the charters granted to them, 297, alleging that it did not become his royal dignity to keep his word in such a case, 297; his character, 335 ; INDEX. 577 fondness for worthless favourites, 337 ; leads an army into Scotland, 340 ; successful expedition to Ireland, 340 ; lands at Waterford, 341 ; his winter in Ireland the most creditable period of his reign, 341 ; the Duke of Gloucester heads his opponents, 343 ; the two Houses require the re moval of Suffolk from the Council, 343; Richard's haughty reply, 343; his choice lies between submission to Parliament and deposition, 344 ; com missioners appointed to control the king, 346 ; he prepares for civil war, 347 ; obtains from the judges extra judicial opinions against his oppo nents, 348; endeavours to pack a Parliament, 349 ; indictment pre pared by the king's officers against the chiefs of the party opposed to him, 349 ; the king's party defeated by the baronial forces under the Duke of Gloucester, 350 ; he re covers power by a sudden and decided expression of his will, 351 ; marries Isabella, the French King's daughter, 352 ; his chief enemies treacherously surprised, 353 ; the Duke of Glouces ter arrested, 353 ; carried to Calais and murdered, 353 ; acts of Richard's Parliament ratified by a buU from the Pope, 354 ; the king obtains the means of governing without Parlia ments, 355 ; his post-Parliamentary committee, 355 ; makes himself des pot, 357 ; sails for Ireland with an expedition, 358 ; the Duke of Lan caster, afterwards Henry IV., lands at Ravenspur, and is received with enthusiasm, 358 ; execution of Richard's favourites, 358 ; Richard returns from Ireland to Wales, 359 ; takes refuge in Conway Castle, 359 ; conducted to London as a prisoner, and lodged in the Tower, 359 ; abdi cates, 360; his deposition by the three estates of the realm, 360 ; with the exception of the Bishop of Carlisle, a unanimous vote of condemnation and dethronement, 360 ; death at Pontefract Castle, 369; represented by Shakespeare as killed by Sir Piers Exton, 370 ; his body exposed to public view in London, 370. Richard III., as Duke of Gloucester, recovers Berwick, 492 ; appointed Protector on the accession of Edward V., 494 ; the ideal Richard III. of the stage, 494 ; the meritorious part VOL. II. of his character, 495 ; his ability in war, 495; personal appearance, 495; authorities on the subject of his kingship, 496 ; the canonist of Croy land, 496 ; the contemporaneous writers, Rous and Fabyan, 497; Mor ton's history of Richard III. usually cited as by Sir Thomas More, 497 ; Richard breaks up the party of Hast ings, 499 ; disputes the legitimacy of Elizabeth Woodville's children, 500 ; a meeting of members of an intended Parliament declares Richard the here ditary king, 501 ; his coronation, 502; crowned a second time at York, 503 ; proof that he knew the story of Edward IV.'s pre-contract to be false, 503 ; Buckingham implicated in a plot to restore Edward V., 503 ; evi dence that Edward V. and his brother were murdered by Richard's order, 504 ; discovery of their (supposed) skeletons in Charles II. 's reign, 505 ; popular indignation at the murder, 506 ; Yorkists and Lancastrians join in hatred against Richard, 506 ; Buck ingham beheaded, 509 ; mixed nature of Richard's character, 511 ; docu mentary evidence of his good govern ment, 511 ; particular beneficial mea sures, 511 ; his real character, 512 ; description of his remorse by Bishop Morton, 512 ; death of his son, 513 ; his project of marrying the Princess Elizabeth, 513 ; her letter to him, 513 ; Richard deserted by Lord Stan ley at Bosworth, 515; betrayed by the Earl of Northumberland, 515 ; his resolution and valour, 515 ; death, 515. Rivers, Lord, brother in-law of Edward IV, executed, 500. Romagna, the proper territory of the Popes, 81. Romance, English love for, 553. Roses, commencement of the wars of the, 445 ; why so called, 464. Rouen, siege of by Henry V., 417 ; its horrors, 418 ; the governor, Guy de Boutellier, 419; strength of the city, 419; distress of the besieged, 422; 12,000 of tbe most helpless people turned out from the city, 422 ; pas sage through the English lines de nied them, 423 ; left "to starve and die between the besiegers and the besieged, 423 ; the greater number starved to death in full view of tbe merciless king and his army, 423 ; 578 INDEX. mercy for the outcasts implored and denied, 424; address of the envoy sent for the purpose from Rouen, and the king's stern reply, -424; resolu tion of the besieged to burn the city and make a sortie en masse, 425 ; con ditions of surrender granted, 426 ; Alain Blanchard, the animating Bpirit of the citizens, put to death in cold blood by order of Henry V., 426. Salic law in France, its operation, 51. Salisbury, Countess of, and the origin of the order of the Garter, 155 ; Frois sart's account of Edward III.'s falling in love with her, 156; Jehan le Bel's tragic story of Edward's offering vio lence to her, 156. Sawtree burned in London, 386. Say, Lord, beheaded by Cade's fol lowers, 460. Scala (Delia) house of, 80. Schoolmen of the 14th century, the four great, 309. Scotland and Caledonia, their parallel escapes from subjugation, 1; Scottish Declaration of Independence, or Grand Remonstrance addressed to the Pope, 8 ; complete establishment as an in dependent kingdom, 16; renunciation by the English Parliament of do minion and superiority over Soot- land, 16. Scrope, Archbishop of York, 377. Seamen, character of, under Edward III., 95. Seas, Kings of England styled Lords of the English, 91. Serfs, several methods for their eman cipation, 258; a serf residing un claimed for a year in a chartered town became free, 258 ; their enfran chisement promoted by foreign wars 259; thefeudal serfs purchased eman- v cipation from their lords, 259 ; fines "^from. Crown serfs, 260 ; cases of gra- ddaj enfranchisement, 259 ; serfs of the "clergy inalienable, 260 ; sale of manumissions to the King's serfs, 260 ; three important consequences from the change from serfdom to the state of poor freemen, 264. Shipman, Chaucer's description of the, 96. Ships (merchant), how converted into war-ships, 94. Jane Shore, mistress of Edward IV., 500. Shrewsbury, battle of, 374. Sigismund 's (the Emperor) visit to Eng- . land, 410 ; his name stained with in delible infamy by breaking his faith with John Huss, 410 ; pledge exacted from him before landing in England not to attempt any act of imperial sovereignty, 410. Slavery in England, extinction of, 257. Sluys, the harbour of, or the Swyn, 97 ; battle of, 98. Smith's (Goldwim) observations on the feudal system, 12. Soldiers, high rate of pay to, under Ed ward IIL, 109. Spanish Kingdoms in the reign of Ed ward III., 73. Spear-side and Spindle-side in determin ing royal heritage, 53. Spenser, or Le Despenser, the elder, put to death by Queen Isabella's autho rity, 20 ; the younger, executed at Hereford, 21. Spenser (Bishop of Norwich), his mar tial energy in suppressing the insur rection commenced by Wat Tyler, 295 ; foremost, with a two-handed sword, in every encounter, 296 ; tries and sentences his prisoners, 296 ; leads an army out of England in fa vour of Pope Urban against the anti- Pope Clement, 328 ; attacks English towns, 328 ; men, women, and chil dren slaughtered by these crusaders, 328. Staples, statute of the, 233 ; original and subsequent application of the term, 233; aU staples ordered to be in England, 234 ; chief staples or marts in England, Wales, and Ireland enumerated, 235. Star Chamber, the, 228. State-letter of Edward I., 215. Statutes and Ordinances, 225 ; garbling of, 385 ; first issued in English and printed under Richard III., 511. Stratford's (Archbishop of Canterbury) controversy with Edward III., 102. Straw (Jack) and Wat Tyler, attainder of, 300. Strikes and combinations, cruel legisla tion against, 278. Suffolk (Lord), his skill at the battle of Poitiers, 167. Suffolk (Earl of) impeached by the Commons under Richard IL, 344 ; constitutional importance of the trial, 345 ; a valuable precedent and autho rity, 345. INDEX. 579 Suffolk,^ Duke of, his power in con junction with Margaret, Queen of Henry VL, 454 ; impeachment ¦ of, 454 ; irregular sentence of banish ment on him, 455; put to death at sea off Dover, 455. Sumptuary laws, 236. T. Talbot's (" The Hero ") expedition to re cover Gascony, 444 ; defeated and killed, 444 ; his great skill and valour, 444. Taltarum's case respecting entails, 486. Templars, Knights, their destruction, 29 ; frail and vile testimony against them, 29 ; persecuted by Philippe le Bel, 29 ; dissolved by a bull of the Pope, 30. Tenths and Fifteenths, 220 ; method of granting them explained, 221. Torture, illegality of, 519. Towton, battle of, the most sanguinary in the Wars of the Roses, 471 ; de ceive victory of the Yorkists, 471 ; Edward's order that no quarter should be given, 471 ; 28,000 dead bodies on the Lancastrian side, 471; tlie loss on the Yorkist side 10,000, 472. Transubstantiation, importance of the doctrine with relation to the power of the priesthood, 318; sense in which substance, or hypostasis, is understood in the word, 319; a, re treat from the doctrine shakes the sacerdotal power to its base, 320. Treasons, statute of, 229 ; two ideas associated with the word treason, 229; versus personam, and verms ma- jestatem, 229; constructive treason, 230 ; accroaching royal power, 230. Tresilian, Chief Justice, the prototype of Jeffreys, 297 ; " showed mercy to none (of the insurgents) and made great havock," 297. Troyes, treaty of, 427. Truce, Conservator of, appointed for each sea-port, 399. Tyler, Wat, insurrection of, 280; his career, 281 ; the insurrection wide spread, 281 ; provoked by an outrage on his daughter, 288 ; at the head of the insurgents occupies Maidstone and Canterbury, 288 ; great extent of the insurrection, 290 ; muster of 10,000 insurgents at Blackheath, 290 ; the rebels occupy Southwark, 291 ; Sir WilUam Walworth's counsel to the citizens of London, 291 ; sense and spirit shown by Richard II., 292 ; the King summons the insur gents to meet him at Mile End, 292 ; their four moderate demands, 292 ; outrages against person and pro perty, 292 ; murder of the Chancellor and tbe Treasurer, 292 ; the King and Tyler meet in Smithfield, 293 ; Tyler killed by Sir William Wal worth and Robert Standish during the conference, 293; continued struggles of the insurgents, 294 ; Hardyng's attempt at a new rising, 294 ; Hardyng and others executed, 295 ; thorough suppression of the in surrection, 295 ; violent and cruel re prisals, 295; 1,500* persons con demned and executed, 297 ; address of the Commons on the misgovern ment which had caused the insurrec tion, 299 ; the Commons, before granting a subsidy, exact from the King indemnity for ' ' taking revenge of the rebels," 300. Tyndal's version of the Bible, 314 ; taken from the original languages, 315. Turks, Seljukian, their decline, 82; the Osmanli or Ottoman, 82. Tuscan Commonwealth, 80. U. Universities, foundation of foreign, 309. Urban VL, Pope, the validity of his election disputed, 256 ; a rival Pope elected, Clement VII., 256; Urban the Parliamentary Pope of England, 257. V. Vagabondage and mendicancy, increase of, 265. Venice, its power in the 14th century, 81. Vere, Robert de, Duke of Ireland, 347 ; raises a royalist force in favour of Richard II. , 350 ; defeated at Radcot Bridge, 350. Verneuil, English victory at, 433. Vienne, John de, Governor of Paris when besieged by Edward III., 140. 580 INDEX. Villeinage in Norman England, 258 ; villein in gross and regardant, 259 ; conversion of villeins into copy holders, 261 ; the conditions of vil leins and poor freemen contrasted, 264; gradual extinction of villeinage, 303 ; diminished by the Wars of the Roses, 305 ; an antiquated institution before the end of the 15th century, 305. Virgil's estimation as an authority en public principle and international right in the 14th century, 78. Visconti, House of, 80. W. Waltham, Bishop of Salisbury and Keeper of the Great Seal, 363 ; his improvements in the system of Chancery procedure, 363 ; founder of the equitable jurisdiction of that court, 363. Walworth, Sir William, kills Wat Tyler, 293. War, the true aggressor in, 50 ; Thuey- dides on the effects of, 18. Wages compared with the price of wheat, 279 ; in Henry VL's reign com pared with that in Edward III.'s, 303. Warbeck, Perkin, the pretended Duke of York, 506. Warwick, Earl of, caUed the King maker, in conjunction with the Duke of York, levies troops against the Lancastrians, 466 ; flees to Calais, 466 ; returns, landing in Kent, and is joined by the population, 467 ; his wealth and power, 475 ; driven to escape to France by Edward IV., 479 ; leagues with Queen Margaret, 479; returns to England and de thrones Edward, 479 ; defeated and killed at Barnet, 482. Waynflete, first head-master of Eton, 559. Whittlesey, Archbishop of Canterbury, Winchelsea, battle of, 153 ; captured and burnt, 177. Winchester, Edward L's statute of, 107. Wise Parliament, the, called by the opposite party the Merciless Parlia ment, 350. Woodvilles and Nevills, jealousy be tween the, 477 ; jealousy between the Woodvilles (the Queen's family) and the brothers of Edward IV., 478. Woollen manufacture, rivalry between the Norman and English, 139. Wyclif, John, his life, 191 ; master of Balliol, 191 ; rector of Fylingham and doctor of divinity, 191 ; power as "a preacher and writer, 191; command of the English language, 191 ; repre sents the national animosity against the aggressions of the Papacy, 191 ; attacks the wealth and temporal pur suits of the higher clergy, 191 ; his great treatise, " On Dominion," 195 ; tract against the Papal claims, 245 ; the implacable enemy of the Mendi cants, 248 ; views aa to Church pro perty, 248 ; tracts respecting endow ments of clergy, 249 ; " Last Age of the Church," 251 ; his favourite maxim on dominion, 283 ; misappli cation of some of his doctrines, 283 ; accused of holding "Quod Deus obedire debet Diabolo," 284 ; his per manent influence on English history, 308 ; scholastic renown, 309 ; the Pope orders proceedings against him, 310 ; orders the University of Ox ford to arrest him and his foUowers, 311; summoned to Lambeth, 311; the Princess of Wales (widow of the Black Prince) prohibits the prosecu tion, 312; his chief modern assailant and defender, Drs. Liugard and Vaughan, 312; his "poor priests," 313; character of his preaching, 313 ; translation of the Bible, 3 1 4; an English version of the Vulgate, 3i4 ; eagerly received by the community, 315; 150 manuscript copies of it stiU in existence, 315; spirit in which he directs the Bible to be studied, 316 ; on the qualifications of expounders of the Scriptures, 317 ; attacks the doctrine of transubstantiation, 318 ; his doctrine censured by the Uni versity of Oxford, 320 ; his firmness, 321 ; confession of faith, 322 ; with draws from Oxford, 326 ; resides at Lutterworth the last two years of his life, 326 ; his Latin treatise, " Tria logus," 326 ; its great influence on learned men, 326 ; he advises the total confiscation of Church pro perty, 327 ; wonderful intellectual activity, 327 ; summoned to appear before Pope Urban at Rome, 329 ¦ his reply, 329 ; death, 329 ; his body disinterred and burned by order of INDEX. 581 the Council of Constance, 329 ; cha- , racter, 329 ; doctrine of "Dominion founded in Grace," 330; the most popular writer in Europe, 331 ; ex tent and endurance of his influence, 331 ; John Huss and Jerome of Prague converted by his writings, 331 ; personal portraiture, 331 ; his works laid the foundation of the Protestant Reformation of Germany, 332 ; his Latin treatise's appeal to educated intellect throughout Chris tendom, 332; different character of his popular English tracts, 332 ; " le veritable pire de la r&forme a laquelle Luther attacha son nom," 332 ; Dean Milmau and Mr. Shirley's praises ofhis style, 333 ; his influence a main cause of the Reformation in England, 334 ; the patriarch of the Reformation, 335 ; the father of Eng lish prose, 545; his Seivinis, 545. Wykeham, William of, his influence, 188; career, 189; erects the greater part of the .buildings of Windsor Castle, 189; Bishop of Winchester, 189 ; Lord Chancellor, 189 ; founds Winchester College, the earliest of the great public schools, 190; founder of the pubUc school system of Eng lish education, 190 ; his admirable poUtioal administration, 190 ; sen tence against him, 202; reinstated, 204. Y. Yeomanry of England, 113, 307; the yeomen of the present day, 113 ; Chaucer's yeoman, 113 ; origin of the phrase, " yeoman's service," 172. York, Richard Duke of, lineal representa tive of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, elder brother of John of Gaunt, 451 ; sent to Ireland as Lieutenant, 454 ; ap pointed Protector during the malady of Henry VL, 463; next to the crown while Henry VI. was childless, 464 ; the birth of Prince Edward alters his position, and gives the oc casion for the civil war, 464 ; first battle of St. Albans, between the Duke and the party of Queen Mar garet, 465; the Duke again Protec tor, 465 ; the civil war again breaks out, 466 ; the Earl of Warwick and the Duke of York levy troops, 466 ; Warwick defeats the Queen's party at Blore Heath, ' 466 ; the Duke's army disbands, and he takes refuge in Ireland, and Warwick in Calais, 466; tho Duke attainted, 467; the Yorkists under Warwick enter Lon don, 467 ; the Duke claims the crown, 468 ; Henry VL's answer, 468; compromise by which York was to succeed Henry, 469 ; the Duke's death in or after the battle of Wakefield, 470. END OF VOL. II. BKADBUKY, EVANS, AND CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFBIARS. YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 9002 08561 0070 K&J*^^ ' r*&