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+Project Gutenberg's Henry of Monmouth, Volume 2, by J. Endell Tyler
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Henry of Monmouth, Volume 2
+       Memoirs of Henry the Fifth
+
+Author: J. Endell Tyler
+
+Release Date: January 31, 2007 [EBook #20489]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HENRY OF MONMOUTH, VOLUME 2 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Christine P. Travers, Ted Garvin and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's note: Obvious printer's errors have been corrected.
+The original spelling has been retained.
+
+Different spelling as been kept, e.g.:
+- Ruisseauville and Ruissauville
+- Azincour and Azincourt, etc ...
+
+Some words on page 94 were partly unclear / illegible.
+- Page 249: ii. vol. changed to vol. ii.
+- Page 412: The missing anchor for the footnote 305 has been added.]
+
+
+[Illustration: Great Seal of Owen Glyndowr as Prince of Wales.
+Published by R. Bentley, 1838]
+
+
+
+
+
+                         HENRY OF MONMOUTH:
+
+
+                                OR,
+
+
+                              MEMOIRS
+
+                   OF THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF
+
+
+
+                          HENRY THE FIFTH,
+
+
+                                AS
+
+                PRINCE OF WALES AND KING OF ENGLAND.
+
+
+
+                      BY J. ENDELL TYLER, B.D.
+
+                RECTOR OF ST. GILES IN THE FIELDS.
+
+
+
+               "Go, call up Cheshire and Lancashire,
+                  And Derby hills, that are so free;
+                But neither married man, nor widow's son;
+                  No widow's curse shall go with me."
+
+
+
+                          IN TWO VOLUMES.
+
+                              VOL. II.
+
+
+
+                              LONDON:
+               RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET,
+                Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty.
+
+                               1838.
+
+
+                              LONDON:
+                    PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY,
+                   Dorset Street, Fleet Street.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME.                                     (p. iii)
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+1413-1414.
+
+Henry of Monmouth's Accession. -- National rejoicings. -- His profound
+sense of the Awfulness of the Charge devolved upon him. -- Coronation.
+-- First Parliament. -- Habits of business. -- He removes the remains
+of Richard to Westminster. -- Redeems the Son of Hotspur, and restores
+him to his forfeited honours and estates. -- Generous conduct towards
+the Earl of March. -- Parliament at Leicester. -- Enactments against
+Lollards. -- Henry's Foundations at Shene and Sion.                 Page 1
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+1414-1417.
+
+State of the Church. -- Henry a sincere Christian, but no Bigot. --
+Degraded state of Religion. -- Council of Constance. -- Henry's
+Representatives zealous promoters of Reform. -- Hallam, Bishop of
+Salisbury, avowed enemy of the Popedom. -- Richard Ullerston:
+primitive views of Clerical duties. -- Walden, his own Chaplain,
+accuses Henry of remissness in the extirpation of Heresy. --
+Forester's Letter to the King. -- Henry Beaufort's unhappy
+interference. -- Petition from Oxford. -- Henry's personal exertions
+in the business of Reform. -- Reflections on the then apparent dawn of
+the Reformation.                                                   Page 32
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.                                                        (p. iv)
+
+1414.
+
+Wars with France. -- Causes which influenced Henry. -- Summary of the
+affairs of France from the time of Edward III. -- Reflections on
+Henry's Title. -- Affairs of France from Henry's resolution to claim
+his "Dormant Rights," and "Rightful Heritage," to his invasion of
+Normandy. -- Negociations. -- His Right denied by the French. --
+Parliament votes him Supplies.                                     Page 70
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+Modern triple charge against Henry of Falsehood, Hypocrisy, and
+Impiety. -- Futility of the Charge, and utter failure of the Evidence
+on which alone it is grounded. -- He is urged by his people to
+vindicate the Rights of his Crown, himself having a conscientious
+conviction of the Justice of his Claim. -- Story of the Tennis-Balls.
+-- Preparations for invading France. -- Henry's Will made at
+Southampton. -- Charge of Hypocrisy again grounded on the close of
+that Testament. -- Its Futility. -- He despatches to the various
+Powers of Europe the grounds of his Claim on France.               Page 89
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+1415.
+
+Preparations for invading France. -- Reflections on the Military and
+Naval State of England. -- Mode of raising and supporting an Army. --
+Song of Agincourt. -- Henry of Monmouth the Founder of the English
+Royal Navy. -- Custom of impressing Vessels for the transporting of
+Troops. -- Henry's exertions in Ship-building. -- Gratitude due to
+him. -- Conspiracy at Southampton. -- Prevalent delusion as to Richard
+II. -- The Earl of March. -- Henry's Forces. -- He sails for Normandy.
+                                                                  Page 119
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.                                                        (p. v)
+
+1415.
+
+Henry crosses the Sea: lands at Clef de Caus: lays Siege to Harfleur.
+-- Devoted Attendance on his dying Friend the Bishop of Norwich. --
+Vast Treasure falls into his hands on the Surrender of Harfleur. -- He
+challenges the Dauphin. -- Futile Modern Charge brought against him on
+that ground.                                                      Page 143
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+1415.
+
+Henry, with Troops much weakened, leaves Harfleur, fully purposed to
+make for Calais, notwithstanding the threatened resistance of the
+French. -- Passes the Field of Cressy. -- French resolved to engage.
+-- Night before the Conflict. -- FIELD of AGINCOURT. -- Slaughter of
+Prisoners. -- Henry, his enemies themselves being Judges, fully
+exculpated from every suspicion of cruelty or unchivalrous bearing. --
+He proceeds to Calais. -- Thence to London. -- Reception by his
+Subjects. -- His modest and pious Demeanour. -- Superstitious
+proceedings of the Ecclesiastical Authorities. -- Reflections. --
+Songs of Agincourt.                                               Page 156
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+1415-1417.
+
+Reasons for delaying a Second Campaign. -- Sigismund undertakes to
+mediate. -- Reception of Sigismund. -- French Ships scour the seas,
+and lay siege to Harfleur. -- Henry's vigorous measures thereupon. --
+The Emperor declares for "Henry and his Just Rights." -- Joins with
+him in Canterbury Cathedral on a Day of Thanksgiving for Victory over
+the French. -- With him meets the Duke of Burgundy at Calais.       (p. vi)
+-- The Duke also declares for Henry. -- Second Invasion of France. --
+Siege of Caen. -- Henry's Bulletin to the Mayor of London. -- Hostile
+Movement of the Scots.                                            Page 203
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+1418-1419.
+
+Henry's progress in his Second Campaign. -- Siege of Rouen. --
+Cardinal des Ursins. -- Supplies from London. -- Correspondence
+between Henry and the Citizens. -- Negociation with the Dauphin and
+with the French King. -- Henry's Irish Auxiliaries. -- Reflections on
+Ireland. -- Its miserable condition. -- Wise and strong measures
+adopted by Henry for its Tranquillity. -- Divisions and struggles, not
+between Romanists and Protestants, but between English and Irish. --
+Henry and the See of Rome. -- Thraldom of Christendom. -- The Duke of
+Brittany declares for Henry. -- Spaniards join the Dauphin. --
+Exhausted State of England.                                       Page 221
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+1419-1420.
+
+Bad faith of the Dauphin. -- The Duke of Burgundy brings about an
+Interview between Henry and the French Authorities. -- Henry's first
+Interview with the Princess Katharine of Valois. -- Her Conquest. --
+The Queen's over-anxiety and indiscretion. -- Double-dealing of the
+Duke of Burgundy; he joins the Dauphin; is murdered on the Bridge of
+Montereau. -- The Dauphin disinherited. -- Henry's anxiety to prevent
+the Escape of his Prisoners.                                      Page 249
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.                                                     (p. vii)
+
+1419-1420.
+
+Henry's extraordinary attention to the Civil and Private duties of his
+station, in the midst of his career of Conquest, instanced in various
+cases. -- Provost and Fellows of Oriel College. -- The Queen Dowager
+is accused of Treason. -- Treaty between Henry, the French King, and
+the young Duke of Burgundy. -- Henry affianced to Katharine. -- The
+Dauphin is reinforced from Scotland. -- Henry, accompanied by his
+Queen, returns through Normandy to England.                       Page 262
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+1421-1422.
+
+Katharine crowned. -- Henry and his Queen make a progress through a
+great part of his Dominions. -- Arrival of the disastrous news of his
+Brother's Death (the Duke of Clarence). -- Henry meets his Parliament.
+-- Hastens to the Seat of War. -- Birth of his Son, Henry of Windsor.
+-- Joins his Queen at Bois de Vincennes. -- Their magnificent
+Reception at Paris. -- Henry hastens in person to succour the Duke of
+Burgundy. -- Is seized by a fatal Malady. -- Returns to Vincennes. --
+His Last Hour. -- HIS DEATH.                                      Page 286
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+Was Henry of Monmouth a Persecutor? -- Just principles of conducting
+the Inquiry, and forming the Judgment. -- Modern charge against Henry.
+-- Review of the prevalent opinions on Religious Liberty. -- True
+principles of Christian Freedom. -- Duty of the State and of
+Individuals to promote the prevalence of True Religion. -- Charge
+against Henry, as Prince of Wales, for presenting a Petition against
+the Lollards. -- The merciful intention of that Petition. -- His
+Conduct at the Death of Badby.                                    Page 319
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.                                                      (p. viii)
+
+1413.
+
+The Case of Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham. -- Reference to his
+former Life and Character. -- Fox's Book of Martyrs. -- The
+Archbishop's Statement. -- Milner. -- Hall. -- Lingard. Cobham offers
+the Wager of Battle. -- Appeals peremptorily to the Pope. -- Henry's
+anxiety to save him. -- He is condemned, but no Writ of Execution is
+issued by the King. -- Cobham escapes from the Tower.             Page 348
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+Change in Henry's behaviour towards the Lollards after the affair of
+St. Giles' Field. -- Examination of that affair often conducted with
+great Partiality and Prejudice. -- Hume and the Old Chroniclers. --
+Fox, Milner, Le Bas. -- Public Documents. -- Lord Cobham, taken in
+Wales, is brought to London in a Whirlicole; condemned to be hanged as
+a Traitor, and burned as a Heretic. -- Henry, then in France,
+ignorant, probably, of Cobham's Capture till after his Execution. --
+Concluding Reflections.                                           Page 376
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+The Case of John Clayton, Richard Gurmyn, and William Taylor, burnt
+for Heresy, examined. -- Result of the Investigation. -- Henry not a
+Persecutor. -- Reflections.                                       Page 393
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+No.   I. Ballad of Agincourt.                               417
+No.  II. Siege of Rouen.                                    422
+No. III. Authenticity of the Manuscripts--Sloane 1776, and
+         Reg. 13, c. 1.                                     425
+
+
+
+
+MEMOIRS OF HENRY OF MONMOUTH                                       (p. 001)
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+HENRY OF MONMOUTH'S ACCESSION. -- NATIONAL REJOICINGS. -- HIS PROFOUND
+SENSE OF THE AWFULNESS OF THE CHARGE DEVOLVED UPON HIM. -- CORONATION.
+-- FIRST PARLIAMENT. -- HABITS OF BUSINESS. -- HE REMOVES THE REMAINS
+OF RICHARD TO WESTMINSTER. -- REDEEMS THE SON OF HOTSPUR, AND RESTORES
+HIM TO HIS FORFEITED HONOURS AND ESTATES. -- GENEROUS CONDUCT TOWARDS
+THE EARL OF MARCH. -- PARLIAMENT AT LEICESTER. -- ENACTMENTS AGAINST
+LOLLARDS. -- HENRY'S FOUNDATIONS AT SHENE AND SION.
+
+1413-1414.
+
+HENRY, KING.
+
+
+Henry IV. died at Westminster on Monday, March 20, 1413, and Henry of
+Monmouth's proclamation bears date on the morrow, March 21.[1] Never
+perhaps was the accession of any prince to the throne of a kingdom
+hailed with a more general or enthusiastic welcome. If serious minds
+had entertained forebodings of evil from his reign, (as we         (p. 002)
+believe they had not,) all feelings seem to have been absorbed in one
+burst of gladness. Both houses of parliament offered to swear
+allegiance to him before he was crowned: a testimony of confidence and
+affection never (it is said) before tendered to any English
+monarch.[2] This prevalence of joyous anticipations from the accession
+of their young King could not have sprung from any change of conduct
+or of principle then first made known. Those who charge Henry most
+unsparingly represent his conversion as having begun only at his
+father's hour of dissolution. But, before that father breathed his
+last, the people of England were ready to welcome most heartily his
+son, such as he was then, without, as it should seem, either       (p. 003)
+hearing of, or wishing for, any change. His principles and his conduct
+as a ruler had been put to the test during the time he had presided at
+the council-board; and the people only desired in their new King a
+continuance of the same wisdom, valour, justice, integrity, and
+kind-heartedness, which had so much endeared him to the nation as
+their Prince. In his subjects there appears to have been room for
+nothing but exultation; in the new King himself widely different
+feelings prevailed. Ever, as it should seem, under an awful practical
+sense, as well of the Almighty's presence and providence and majesty,
+as of his own responsibility and unworthiness, Henry seems to have
+been suddenly oppressed by the increased solemnity and weight of the
+new duties which he found himself now called upon to discharge. The
+scene of his father's death-bed, (carried off, as that monarch was, in
+the very meridian of life, by a lingering loathsome disease,) and the
+dying injunctions of that father, may doubtless have added much to the
+acuteness and the depth of his feelings at that time. And whether he
+be deemed to have been the licentious, reckless rioter which some
+writers have been anxious to describe, or whether we regard him as a
+sincere believer, comparing his past life (though neither licentious
+nor reckless) with the perfectness of the divine law, the retrospect
+might well depress him with a consciousness of his own unworthiness,
+and of his total inability to perform the work which he saw        (p. 004)
+before him, without the strength and guidance of divine grace. For
+that strength and that guidance, we are assured, he prayed, and
+laboured, and watched with all the intenseness and perseverance of an
+humble faithful Christian. Those who are familiar with the expressions
+of a contrite soul, will fully understand the sentiments recorded of
+Henry of Monmouth at this season of his self-humiliation, and the
+dedication of himself to God, and may yet be far from discovering in
+them conclusive arguments in proof of his having passed his youth in
+habits of gross violation of religious and moral principle. We have
+already quoted the assertions of his biographer, that day and night he
+sought pardon for the past, and grace for the future, to enable him to
+bend his heart in faith and obedience to the Sovereign of all. And
+even during the splendour and rejoicings of his coronation he appeared
+to withdraw his mind entirely from the greatness of his worldly state,
+thus forced upon him, and to fix his thoughts on the King of kings.[3]
+
+                   [Footnote 1: Close Roll.]
+
+                   [Footnote 2: "The high esteem which the nation had
+                   of Henry's person produced such an entire
+                   confidence in him, that both houses of parliament
+                   in an address offered to swear allegiance to him
+                   before he was crowned, or had taken the customary
+                   oath to govern according to the laws. The King
+                   thanked them for their good affections, and
+                   exhorted them in their several places and stations
+                   to employ all their power for the good of the
+                   nation. He told them that he began his reign in
+                   pardoning all that had offended him, and with such
+                   a desire for his people's happiness, that he would
+                   be crowned on no other condition than to make use
+                   of all his authority to promote it; and prayed God
+                   that, if he foresaw he was like to be any other
+                   than a just and good king, he would please to take
+                   him immediately out of the world, rather than seat
+                   him on the throne, to live a public calamity to his
+                   country."--Goodwin. See Stowe. Polyd. Verg.
+                   Elmham.]
+
+                   [Footnote 3: Elmham.]
+
+But he never seems for a day to have been drawn aside by his private
+devotions from the full discharge of the practical duties of his new
+station. On the Wednesday he issued summonses for a parliament to meet
+within three weeks of Easter. On Friday the 7th of April, he was
+conducted to the Tower by a large body of men of London, who       (p. 005)
+went on horseback to attend him. The next day he was accompanied back
+to Westminster, with every demonstration of loyalty and devotedness to
+his person, by a great concourse of lords and knights, many of whom he
+had created on the preceding evening. On the following morning, being
+Passion Sunday, April 9th,[4] he was crowned with much[5] magnificence
+in Westminster Abbey.[6]
+
+                   [Footnote 4: Not Palm Sunday, but the fifth Sunday
+                   in Lent, was called Passion Sunday.]
+
+                   [Footnote 5: "With mickle royalty."--Chron. Lond.]
+
+                   [Footnote 6: Chroniclers record that the day of his
+                   coronation was a day of storm and tempest, frost
+                   and snow, and that various omens of ill portent
+                   arose from the circumstance.]
+
+One of the first acts of a sovereign in England at that time was to
+re-appoint the judges who were in office at the demise of his
+predecessor, or to constitute new ones in their stead. Among other
+changes, we find Hankford appointed as Chief Justice in the room of
+Gascoyne, at least within ten days of the King's accession. For any
+observation which this fact may suggest, so contrary to those
+histories which repeat tales instead of seeking for the truth in
+ancient records, we must refer to the chapter in which we have already
+examined the credibility of the alleged insult offered by Prince Henry
+to a Judge on the bench of justice.[7]
+
+                   [Footnote 7: Henry had excited feelings of
+                   confidence and admiration in the minds of foreign
+                   potentates, as well as in his subjects at home.
+                   Among the embassies, with offers and pledges of
+                   friendship and amity, which hastened to his court
+                   on his accession, are numbered those of John of
+                   Portugal, Robert Duke of Albany, Regent of
+                   Scotland, John King of Castile, John Duke of
+                   Brittany, Charles King of France, and Pope John
+                   XXIII.]
+
+The first parliament of Henry V. met in the Painted Chamber        (p. 006)
+at Westminster, on Monday, 15th of May. The King was on his throne;
+but the Bishop of Winchester, his uncle, then Chancellor of England,
+opened the business of the session. On this, as on many similar
+occasions, the chancellor, generally a prelate, addressed the
+assembled states in an oration, half speech and half sermon, upon a
+passage of Scripture selected as a text. On the opening of this
+parliament, the chancellor informed the peers and the commons that the
+King's purpose in calling them together as the Great Council of the
+nation was threefold:--First, he was desirous of supporting the
+throne,--"his high and royal estate;" secondly, he was bent on
+maintaining the law and good government within his realm; and thirdly,
+he desired to cherish the friends and to resist the enemies of his
+kingdom. It is remarkable that no mention is made in this parliament
+at all on the part of the King, or his chancellor, of either heresy or
+Lollardism. The speaker refers to some tumults, especially at
+Cirencester, where the populace appear to have attacked the abbey;
+complaints also were made against the conduct of ordinaries, and some
+strong enactments were passed against the usurpations of Rome,     (p. 007)
+to which reference will again be made: but not a word in answer
+to these complaints would lead to the inference that the spirit of
+persecution was then in the ascendant. It was not till the last day of
+April 1414, after the affair of St. Giles' Field, that the statute
+against the Lollards was passed at Leicester.[8] The chancellor at
+that subsequent period speaks of their treasonable designs to destroy
+the King having been lately discovered and discomfited; and the record
+expressly declares that the ordinance was made with the consent and at
+the prayer of the commons.
+
+                   [Footnote 8: Sir Edward Coke, in his 4th Inst. ch.
+                   i. declares that this act was disavowed in the next
+                   parliament by the Commons, for that they never
+                   assented. The Author has searched the Parliament
+                   Rolls in vain for the authority on which that
+                   assertion was founded.]
+
+But though neither the King nor his council gave any indication, in
+his first parliament, of a desire to interfere with men's consciences
+in matters of religion, the churchmen were by no means slumbering at
+their post. Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, convened a council of
+the bishops and clergy, who met by adjournment, in full numbers, at
+St. Paul's, on the 26th of June 1413;[9] and adopted most rigorous
+measures for the extirpation of heresy, levelled professedly with a
+more especial aim against the ringleader of Lollardism, as he      (p. 008)
+was called, the valiant and unfortunate Lord Cobham. On these
+proceedings we purpose to dwell separately in another part of this
+work; and, in addition to what we shall there allege, little needs be
+observed here by way of anticipation. In leaving the subject, however,
+as far as Henry V.'s character is concerned, it may not be out of
+place to remark, that historical facts, so far from stamping on him
+the mark of a religious persecutor, prove that it required all the
+united efforts of the clergy and laity to induce him to put the
+existing laws in force against those who were bold enough to dissent
+from the Romish faith. So far from his "having watched the Lollards as
+his greatest enemies," so far from "having listened to every calumny
+which the zeal and hatred of the hierarchy could invent or propagate
+against the unfortunate followers of Wickliff," (the conduct and
+disposition ascribed to him by Milner,) we have sufficient proof of
+the dissatisfaction of the church with him in this respect; and their
+repeated attempts to excite him to more vigorous measures against the
+rising and spreading sect. By a minute of council, May 27, 1415, we
+find that, whilst preparing for his expedition to France, he is
+reminded to instruct the archbishops and bishops to take measures,
+each within his respective diocese, to resist the malice of the
+Lollards. The King merely answered, that he had given the subject in
+charge to his chancellor; and we are assured that Dr. Thomas       (p. 009)
+Walden,[10] one of the most learned and powerful divines of the day,
+but very violent in his opposition to the new doctrines, openly
+inveighed against Henry _for his great negligence in regard to the
+duty of punishing heretics_.[11] To his religious sentiments we must
+again refer in the sequel, and also as the course of events may
+successively suggest any observations on that head.
+
+                   [Footnote 9: The Monday after Corpus Christi day;
+                   which feast, being the Thursday after Trinity
+                   Sunday, fell in the year 1413 on June 22.]
+
+                   [Footnote 10: This Dr. Walden (so called from the
+                   place of his birth in Essex) was so able a
+                   disputant that he was called the Netter. He seems
+                   to have written many works, which are either
+                   totally lost, or are buried in temporary oblivion.]
+
+                   [Footnote 11: Goodwin. Appendix, p. 361.]
+
+When Henry IV. ascended the throne, parliament prayed that the Prince
+might not leave the realm, but remain in England as the anchor of the
+people's hopes; and, soon after his own accession,[12] Henry V. is
+advised by his council to remain near London, that he might receive
+prompt intelligence of whatever might arise in any quarter, and be
+able to take immediate steps for the safety of the commonweal. He
+seems to have carried with him even from his earliest youth, wherever
+he went, a peculiar talent of exciting confidence in every one.
+Whether in the field of battle, or the chamber of council,--whether as
+the young Prince, just initiated in affairs of war and government, or
+as the experienced captain and statesman,--his contemporaries looked
+to him as a kind of guardian spirit, to protect them from          (p. 010)
+harm, and lead them onward to good success. No despondency, nor even
+misgivings, show themselves in the agents of any enterprise in which
+he was personally engaged. The prodigious effects of these feelings in
+the English towards their prince were displayed in their full
+strength, perhaps, at the battle of Agincourt; but similar results are
+equally, though not so strikingly, visible in many other passages of
+his life.
+
+                   [Footnote 12: Minutes of Council, 29 June 1413.]
+
+Among the various causes to which historians have been accustomed to
+attribute the general anticipations of good from Henry's reign, which
+pervaded all classes, is the appointment of Gascoyne to the high
+station of Chief Justice immediately upon his ascending the throne.
+But we have already seen that, however gladly an eulogist would seize
+on such an exalted instance of magnanimity and noble generosity, the
+truth of history forbids our even admitting its probability in this
+place. Henry certainly did not re-appoint Gascoyne. But, whilst we
+cannot admit the tradition which would mark the true character of
+Henry's mind by his behaviour to the Chief Justice, there is not
+wanting many an authentic record which would amply account for his
+almost unprecedented popularity at the very commencement of his reign.
+Among these we must not omit to notice the resolution which he put in
+practice of retiring for an hour or more every day, after his early
+dinner, to receive petitions from any of his subjects, however     (p. 011)
+humble,[13] who would appeal to him for his royal interposition;
+to examine and consider the several cases patiently; and to redress
+real grievances. Indeed, numberless little occurrences meet us on
+every side, which seem to indicate very clearly that he loved the
+right and hated iniquity; and that he was never more happy than whilst
+engaged in deeds of justice, mercy, and charity. He seems to have
+received the golden law for his rule, "See that they who are in need
+and necessity have right;" and to have rejoiced in keeping that    (p. 012)
+law himself, and compelling all within the sphere of his authority and
+influence to observe it also.
+
+                   [Footnote 13: Many original petitions addressed to
+                   Henry are still preserved among our records. In
+                   one, which may serve as a specimen of the kind of
+                   application to which this custom compelled him to
+                   open his ear, Richard Hunt appeals to him as a
+                   "right merciable lord, moved with pity, mercy, and
+                   grace." "In great desolation and heaviness of
+                   heart," the petitioner states that his son-in-law,
+                   Richard Peke, who had a wife and four children, and
+                   had been all his life a true labourer and innocent
+                   man, and well-beloved by his neighbours, had been
+                   detected in taking from a vessel goods not worth
+                   three shillings; for which crime his mortal enemies
+                   (though they might have their property again) "sued
+                   to have him dead." He urges Henry to grant him
+                   "full noble grace," at the reverence of Almighty
+                   God, and for passion that Christ suffered for all
+                   mankind, and for the pity that he had on Mary
+                   Magdalene. The petitioner then promised (as
+                   petitioners now do) to pray for endless mercy on
+                   Henry; he adds, moreover, what would certainly
+                   sound strange in a modern petition to a monarch,
+                   "And ye, gracious and sovereign lord, shall have a
+                   good ox to your larder." Henry granted the
+                   petition. "The King woll that this bill pass
+                   without any manner of fine, or fees that longeth to
+                   him."]
+
+Another incident recorded of Henry of Monmouth at this period,
+strongly marking the kindness and generosity and nobleness of his
+mind, was the removal of the remains of Richard II. from Langley to
+Westminster. Without implying any consciousness, or even suspicion of
+guilt, on the part of his father as to Richard's death, we may easily
+suppose Henry to have regarded the deposition of that monarch as an
+act of violence, justifiable only on the ground of extreme necessity:
+he might have considered him as an injured man, by whose fall his
+father and himself had been raised to the throne. Instead of allowing
+his name and his mortal remains to be buried in oblivion, (with the
+chance moreover of raising again in men's minds fresh doubts and
+surmises of his own title to the throne, for he was not Richard's
+right heir,) Henry resolved to pay all the respect in his power to the
+memory of the friend of his youth, and by the only means at his
+command to make a sort of reparation for the indignities to which the
+royal corpse had been exposed. He caused the body to be brought in
+solemn funeral state to Westminster, and there to be buried,[14] with
+all the honour and circumstance accustomed to be paid to the earthly
+remains of royalty, by the side of his former Queen, Anne,         (p. 013)
+in the tomb prepared by Richard for her and for himself. The diligent
+investigator will discover many such incidents recorded of Henry V;
+some of a more public and important nature than others, but all
+combining to stamp on his name in broad and indelible letters the
+character of a truly high-minded, generous, grateful, warm-hearted
+man.
+
+                   [Footnote 14: The Pell Rolls acquaint us with the
+                   very great expense incurred on this occasion.]
+
+Another instance of the same feeling, carried, perhaps, in one point a
+step further in generosity and Christian principle, was evinced in his
+conduct towards the son of Sir Henry Percy, Hotspur, the former
+antagonist of his house. This young nobleman had been carried by his
+friends into Scotland, for safe keeping, on the breaking out of his
+grandfather's (Northumberland's) rebellion; and was detained there, as
+some say, in concealment, till Henry V. made known his determination
+to restore him to his title and estates. The Scots, who were in
+possession of his person, kept him as a prisoner and hostage; and
+although Henry might have considered a foreign land the best home for
+the son of the enemy of his family, yet so bent was he on effecting
+the noble design of reinstating him in all which his father's and his
+grandfather's treason had forfeited, that he consented to exchange for
+him a noble Scot, who had been detained in England for thirteen years.
+Mordak of Fife, son and heir of the Duke of Albany, had been taken
+prisoner at the battle of Homildon Hill, in 1402, (it is curious to
+remark,) by Hotspur, and his father Northumberland; and now        (p. 014)
+Henry V. exchanges this personage for Hotspur's son, the heir of
+Northumberland. This youth was only an infant when his father fell at
+the battle of Shrewsbury; his mother was Elizabeth, eldest daughter of
+Edmund Mortimer,[15] Earl of March: and thus a king, under the
+circumstances of Henry, but with a less noble mind, might have
+regarded him with jealousy on both sides of his parentage, and been
+glad (without exposing himself to the charge of any positive act of
+harshness) to allow him to remain in a foreign country deprived of his
+honours and his estates. But Henry's spirit soared above these
+considerations; and, in the orphan of a generous rival, he saw only a
+fit object on whom to exercise his generosity and Christian charity. A
+negotiation was carried on between Henry and some who represented
+young Percy; care being taken to ascertain the identity of the person
+who should be offered in exchange for Mordak. After certain prescribed
+oaths were taken, and pledges given, and the payment of a stipulated
+sum, 10,000_l._, the young man was invited to come to Henry's court
+with all speed.
+
+                   [Footnote 15: Dugdale's Baronage.]
+
+There seems to have intervened some considerable impediment to this
+proposed exchange.[16] The commission to John Hull and William
+Chancellor to convey Mordak to the north bears date 21st of        (p. 015)
+May; and yet instructions for a negotiation with his father, the Duke
+of Albany, then Regent of Scotland, for the exchange, were issued to
+Sir Ralph Evre and others, as late as the 10th of the following
+December. At the parliament, however, held March 16, 1416, Henry
+Percy, in the presence of the King himself, does homage for his lands
+and honours. And, before Henry's death, the Pell Rolls record payments
+to this Earl of Northumberland, appointed guardian of Berwick and the
+East March, as regularly as, in the early part of Henry IV.'s reign,
+issues had been made to his father Hotspur, and his grandfather, the
+aged Earl, for the execution of the same duties. The lands of the
+Percies, on their attainder, were confiscated, and given to the King's
+brother, the Duke of Bedford; to whom, on restoring his lands and
+honours to the young Earl, Henry made an annual compensation in part
+at least for the loss.[17]
+
+                   [Footnote 16: Minutes of Council, 21 May and 10
+                   Dec. 1415. Addit. MS. 4600. Art. 147.]
+
+                   [Footnote 17: Pell Rolls, Mich. 4. Hen. V. Many
+                   documents also in Rymer refer to this transaction.]
+
+Another example of generous behaviour in the young King towards those
+whom he had in his power, and of whom less noble minds would have
+entertained suspicion and jealousy, is seen in his conduct towards the
+Earl of March.[18] This young nobleman, by the law of              (p. 016)
+primogeniture, was rightful heir to the throne; being descended from
+Lionel Duke of Clarence, third son of Edward III. And so much was he a
+cause of apprehension and uneasiness to Henry IV. and his council,
+that it was thought necessary to keep him in close custody, and also
+near the person of the King, whenever the court removed towards the
+borders of the kingdom. It was in the name of this young man that his
+uncle Edmund Mortimer excited all his tenantry and dependents to join
+Owyn Glyndowr in rebellion against Henry IV; and on all occasions the
+malcontents of the whole country, supposing Richard to be dead, held
+forth the Earl of March as their liege sovereign. Henry V. could not
+have been charged with unwarrantable suspicions or severity, had he
+continued the same system of watchfulness over this formidable
+personage, which had been observed under the reign of his predecessor.
+Provided only that he treated him with kindness, few would have
+wondered or complained if he had still kept him as a prisoner on
+parole.[19] But Henry, to whose guardianship, whilst Prince        (p. 017)
+of Wales, the young Earl had been intrusted, was no sooner seated on
+the throne, than he admitted this young man into a full share of his
+confidence; not with the suspicion of a rival, nor with the fear of an
+enemy, but with the openness of an acknowledged and kind master
+towards a trustworthy and devoted servant. The references to       (p. 018)
+him which are found in the authentic records of that time (and they
+are not a few) all tend to establish this point.[20] Henry immediately
+gave him, on his coming of age, full and free possession of all his
+manors, castles, lands, advowsons, and honours; and seems to have had
+him continually in his retinue as a companion and friend. On one
+occasion we may suppose that Henry's suspicions and apprehensions of
+danger from the young Earl must have been roused; and yet we find him
+still continued in his confidence, and still left without any
+restraint or estrangement. When the conspiracy against Henry was
+discovered at Southampton, the Earl of Cambridge, (as we shall see
+more in detail hereafter,) in his letter of confession, declares it to
+have been the intention of the conspirators to carry the Earl of March
+into Wales, and to proclaim him as their lawful king. How far the
+young Earl was privy to this conspiracy, or to what extent he was "art
+and part" in it, does not distinctly appear. An expression, indeed, in
+the early part of the Earl of Cambridge's letter, "Having the Earl of
+March by his own consent, and by the assent of myself," should seem to
+imply that he was by no means ignorant of the plans of the
+conspirators, nor averse to them. How far, moreover, Henry thought him
+guilty, is matter of doubt; but certain it is, that he deemed      (p. 019)
+it necessary to have the King's pardon regularly signed in the usual
+manner for all treasons, felonies, and misdemeanors. The instrument
+bears date August 7, 1415, at Southampton. This document, however, by
+no means proves his guilt: on many occasions such patents of pardon
+were granted to prevent malicious and vexatious prosecutions.
+Nevertheless, at all events, it shows that Henry's thoughts must have
+been especially drawn to the relative circumstances under which
+himself and the Earl of March were placed; and yet he continued to
+behave towards him with the same confidence and friendship as before.
+Two years afterwards, Henry appointed him his lieutenant at sea, with
+full powers; yet so as not to supersede the privileges and authority
+of the high admiral, the Duke of Exeter.[21] The following year, in
+the summer, he was made lieutenant and guardian-general of all
+Normandy; and in the December of the same year he was commissioned to
+receive the homage and oaths of all in that country who owed suit and
+service to the King. He fought side by side with Henry at the field of
+Agincourt; and there seems to have grown stronger and riper between
+them a spirit of friendship and mutual confidence.[22]
+
+                   [Footnote 18: Roger Mortimer, fifth Earl of March,
+                   son and heir of Philippa, daughter and heiress of
+                   Lionel Duke of Clarence, third son of Edward III,
+                   died in 1398; leaving two sons, Edmund, of whom we
+                   are here speaking, then about six years of age, and
+                   Roger, about a year younger.]
+
+                   [Footnote 19: In a previous section of these
+                   Memoirs, brief mention has been made of the
+                   abortive attempt to carry off into Wales this young
+                   Earl of March and his brother, and of the generous
+                   conduct of Henry of Monmouth in his endeavour to
+                   restore the Duke of York to the King's favour,
+                   which he had forfeited in consequence of his
+                   alleged participation in that bold design. A
+                   manuscript has since been brought under the
+                   Author's notice, which places in a very strong
+                   light the treasonable and murderous purpose of
+                   those who originated the plot, and would account
+                   for the most watchful and jealous caution on the
+                   part of the reigning family against a repetition of
+                   such attempts. Henry must have been fully aware of
+                   his danger; and the fact of his throwing off all
+                   suspicion towards the young Earl, and receiving him
+                   with confidence and friendship, enhances our
+                   estimate of the generous and noble spirit which
+                   actuated him. The document, in other points
+                   curious, seems to deserve a place here:
+
+                   "The Friday after St. Vallentyne's day, anno 6
+                   Henrici Quarti, ye Erll of Marche's sons was
+                   secretly conveyd out of Wyndsor Castell yerly in ye
+                   morninge, and fond af[ter?] by diligent serche. But
+                   ye smythe, for makyng the key, lost fyrst his
+                   lands; after, his heed. Ye Lady Spenser, wydow to
+                   the Lord Spenser executed at Bristow, and syster to
+                   ye Duke of York, was comytted cloase prysonner,
+                   whare she accused her brother predict for the
+                   actor, for ye children predict; and that he sholde
+                   entend to breake into the King's manor att Eltham
+                   ye last Crystmas by scaling the walles in ye
+                   nighte, and there to murther ye Kinge; and, for
+                   better proaffe hereof, that yf eyther knight or
+                   squyer of England wold combatt for her in the
+                   quarrell, she wold endure her body to be burned yf
+                   he war vanquished. Then W. Maydsten, one of her
+                   sqyres [undertook?] his Mrs. quarrell with gage of
+                   his wheed [so], and was presently arrested by Lord
+                   Thomas, ye Kyng's son, to the Tower, and his goods
+                   confyscatt. Thomas Mowbray, Erll Marshall, accused
+                   to be privy to the same, butt was
+                   pardoned."--Lansdown, 860 a, fol. 288 b.]
+
+                   [Footnote 20: 14 Nov. 1414. MS. Donat. 4600.
+                   Reference is made there to June 9, 1413, not three
+                   months after Henry's accession.]
+
+                   [Footnote 21: 1417, July 20, at Porchester. 1418, 2
+                   June, at Berneye. December 1418, in the camp before
+                   Rouen. 11 June 1416.--Rymer.]
+
+                   [Footnote 22: In the summer after the battle of
+                   Agincourt the King "takes into his especial care
+                   William of Agincourt, the prisoner of his very dear
+                   cousin Edmund Earl of March."]
+
+These are a few among the many examples upon record of the         (p. 020)
+generous and noble spirit of Henry; whilst history may be challenged
+to bring forward any instances of cruelty or oppression to neutralize
+them. Sir Matthew Hale confessed that he could never discover any act
+of public injustice and tyranny during the Lancastrian sway; and the
+inquirer into Henry of Monmouth's character may be emboldened to
+declare, that he can discover no act of wanton severity, or cruelty,
+or unkindness in his life. The case of the prisoners in the day and on
+the field of Agincourt, the fate of Lord Cobham, and the wars in
+France, require each a separate examination; and in our inquiry we
+must not forget the kind, and gentle, and compassionate spirit which
+appears to breathe so naturally and uniformly from his heart: on the
+other hand, we must not suffer ourselves to be betrayed into such a
+full reliance on his character for mercy, as would lead us to give a
+blind implicit sanction to all his deeds of arms. In our estimate of
+his character, moreover, as indicated by his conduct previously to his
+first invasion of France, and during his struggles and conquests
+there, it is quite as necessary for us to bear in mind the tone, and
+temper, and standard of political and moral government which prevailed
+in his age, as it is essential for us, when we would estimate his
+religious character, to recollect what were in that age            (p. 021)
+throughout Christendom the acknowledged principles of the church in
+communion with the see of Rome.
+
+On Monday, April 30, 1414, Henry met his parliament at Leicester.[23]
+Why it was not held at Westminster, we have no positive reasons
+assigned in history;[24] and the suggestion of some, that the
+enactments there made against the Lollards were too hateful to be
+passed at the metropolis, is scarcely reasonable.[25] The Bishop of
+Winchester, as Chancellor, set forth in very strong language the
+treasonable practices lately discovered and discomfited; and the
+parliament enacted a very severe law against all disturbers of the
+peace of the realm and of the unity of the church. It is generally
+said that the reading of the Bible in English was forbidden in this
+session under very severe penalties; but no such enactment         (p. 022)
+seems to have been recorded. The prelates, however, were the judges of
+what heresy was; and to study the Holy Scriptures in the vernacular
+language might well have seemed to them a very dangerous practice; to
+be checked, therefore, with a strong hand. The judges, and other state
+officers, were directed to take an oath to exert themselves for the
+suppression of Lollardism.
+
+                   [Footnote 23: This parliament was summoned to be at
+                   Leicester on the 29th of February, but was
+                   prorogued to the 30th of April. At this period
+                   parliaments were by no means uniformly held at
+                   Westminster.]
+
+                   [Footnote 24: In this parliament we find a petition
+                   loudly complaining of the outrages of the Welsh.]
+
+                   [Footnote 25: About this time there seems to have
+                   been entertained by the legislature a most
+                   determined resolution to limit the salaries of
+                   chaplains in private families. Many sumptuary laws
+                   were made on this subject. Provisions were made
+                   repeatedly in this and other parliaments against
+                   excessive payments to them. The origin of this
+                   feeling does not appear to have transpired.
+                   Probably it was nothing more than a jealousy
+                   excited by the increasing wealth of the
+                   church.--Parl. Rolls, 2 Henry V.]
+
+Again and again are we reminded, through the few years of Henry's
+reign, that the cause of liberty was progressive; and any
+encroachments of the royal prerogative upon the liberties of the
+Commons were restrained and corrected, with the free consent and full
+approbation of the King. A petition in English, presented to him in
+this parliament, in many respects a curious document, with the King's
+answer, bears testimony to the same point. "Our sovereign lord,--your
+humble and true lieges that been come for the commons of your land,
+beseech unto your right righteousness, that so as it hath ever been
+their liberty and freedom that there should be no statute nor law made
+otherwise than they gave their assent thereto, considering that the
+commons of your land (the which is and ever hath been a member of your
+parliament) been as well assenters as petitioners, that from this time
+forward, by complaint of the commons of any mischief asking remedy by
+mouth of their Speaker, or else by petition written, that there never
+be no law made thereupon, and engrossed as statute and law,        (p. 023)
+neither by addition, neither by diminution, by no manner of term or
+terms, the which should change the sentence and the intent asked by
+the Speaker's mouth, or the petitions before said, given up in writing
+without assent of the aforesaid commons." To this petition the
+following answer was made: "The King, of his grace especial, granteth,
+that from henceforth nothing be enacted to the petitions of his
+commons that be contrary to their asking, whereby they should be bound
+without their assent; saving alway to our liege lord his real
+prerogative to grant or deny what him lust of their petitions and
+askings aforesaid."
+
+This parliament was adjourned from Leicester, and re-assembled at
+Westminster on the Octaves of St. Martin, 18th November 1414. The most
+gratifying record of this great council of the realm is that which
+informs us of the restoration of Henry Percy to his estates and
+honours. The most important subject to which the thoughts of the peers
+and commons were drawn was the King's determination to recover his
+rights in the realm of France.
+
+The motives which influenced Henry to undertake this extraordinary
+step can be known only to the Searcher of hearts. Some writers, in
+their excessive zeal for Protestantism, anxiously bent on stamping
+upon Henry the character of an ambitious tyrant and a religious
+persecutor, employ no measured language in their condemnation      (p. 024)
+of his designs against France. Milner thus gives his summary of the
+proceedings of this reign at home and abroad. "Henry Chicheley, now
+Archbishop of Canterbury, continued at the head of that see from
+February 1414, to April 1443. This man deserves to be called the
+firebrand of the age in which he lived. To subserve the purposes of
+his own pride and tyranny, he engaged King Henry in his famous contest
+with France, by which a prodigious carnage was made of the human race,
+and the most dreadful miseries were brought upon both kingdoms. But
+Henry was a soldier, and understood the art of war, though perfectly
+ignorant of religion; and that ardour of spirit, which in youth[26]
+had spent itself in vicious indulgences, was now employed under the
+management of Chicheley in desolating France by one of the most unjust
+wars ever waged by ambition, and in furnishing for vulgar minds matter
+of declamation on the valour of the English nation. While this scene
+was carrying on in France, the Archbishop at home, partly by exile,
+partly by forced abjurations, and partly by the flames, domineered
+over the Lollards, and almost effaced the vestiges of godliness in the
+kingdom."
+
+                   [Footnote 26: When his determination to recover his
+                   rights was announced in parliament, he was
+                   twenty-seven years of age.]
+
+These are very hard words, much more readily written than justified.
+Such sentences of condemnation require a much clearer insight      (p. 025)
+into the workings of the human heart than falls to the lot of any
+human being to possess, when he would examine into the motives of a
+fellow-mortal. It is very easy by one sweeping clause to denounce the
+war as unjust, and to ascribe it to the ambition of Henry, reckless of
+human suffering. But truth requires us to weigh the whole matter far
+more patiently, and to substitute evidence in the place of
+assumptions, and argument instead of declamation. And it is impossible
+for the biographer of Henry V. to carry his reader with him through
+the scenes of his preparation for the struggle with France, and his
+conduct in the several campaigns which chiefly engaged from this time
+till his death all the energies of his mind and body, without
+recalling somewhat in detail the circumstances of Henry's position at
+this time. This, however, will require also a brief review of the
+state of France through some previous years of her internal discords
+and misery. Reserving them for another chapter, there are some
+circumstances of a more private and domestic character which it might
+be well for us first to mention in this place.
+
+That Henry was habitually under the influence of strong religious
+feelings, though his views of Christian doctrine partook much of the
+general superstition of the age, is evident; and one of the first acts
+of his government was to satisfy his own conscience, and to give full
+testimony to the church of his piety, and zeal, and devotedness,   (p. 026)
+by founding three religious houses. When, exactly a century later,
+Richard Fox, Bishop of Winchester, communicated to his friend, Hugh
+Oldham, Bishop of Exeter, his intention of founding a monastery, his
+friend, instead of giving him encouragement to proceed with his plan,
+remonstrated with him on the folly of building houses, and providing a
+maintenance for monks, who would live in idleness, unprofitable to
+themselves and to society;[27] urging him at the same time rather to
+found a college for the encouragement of sound learning: and the
+College of Corpus Christi in Oxford owes its existence, humanly
+speaking, to that sound admonition. Perhaps, had Henry V. been
+fortunate enough to meet with so able and honest an adviser, Oxford
+might have had within its walls now another nursery of religion and
+learning,--a monument of his piety and of his love for whatever was
+commendable and of good report. Our Oxford chronicles record his
+expressed intention both to reform the statutes of the University,
+and also to found an establishment within the castle walls,        (p. 027)
+annexing to it all the alien priories in England for its endowment, in
+which efficient provision should be made for the instruction of youth
+in all the best literature of the age.[28] Had he first resolved to
+found his college, and reserved his religious houses for later years,
+his work might still have been flourishing at this day, and might have
+yet continued to flourish till the hand of spoliation and refined
+barbarism shall be strong and bold enough (should ever such a calamity
+visit our native land) to wrest these seminaries of Christian
+principles and sound learning from the friends of religion, and order,
+and peace. As it is, Henry's establishments survived him little more
+than a century; and the lands which he had destined to support them
+passed away into other hands, and were alienated from religious
+purposes altogether.
+
+                   [Footnote 27: The answer which Bishop Oldham is
+                   said to have made on this occasion is chiefly
+                   remarkable for the intimation it conveys, that the
+                   downfall of the monasteries was anticipated a
+                   quarter of a century before their actual
+                   dissolution. "What, my lord, shall we build houses
+                   and provide livelihoods for a company of bussing
+                   monks, whose end and fall we may ourselves live to
+                   see? No, no; it is more meet that we should provide
+                   for the increase of learning, and for such as by
+                   their learning shall do good to the church and
+                   commonwealth."--Anthony Wood.]
+
+                   [Footnote 28: Henry had much at heart the
+                   maintenance of the truth of the Christian religion,
+                   such as he received it. Of this he is thought to
+                   have given early proof, by confirming a grant of
+                   fifty marks yearly, during pleasure, to the prior
+                   and convent of the order of Preachers in the
+                   University of Oxford, to support the doctrine of
+                   the Catholic faith. It will be said that this was
+                   merely to repress the Lollards. Be it so, though
+                   the original document is silent on that point. It
+                   proves, at least, that he wished to maintain his
+                   religion by argument rather than by violence. The
+                   circumstance, however, of its being merely a
+                   confirmation of a grant, which even his father
+                   found in existence when he became King, takes away
+                   much from the importance of the fact.--Pell Rolls,
+                   1 Henry IV.]
+
+The sites which Henry selected for his establishments were,        (p. 028)
+one at Shene, in Surrey; the other at Sion, in the manor of Isleworth,
+on the Thames.
+
+The terms of the foundation-charters of these religious houses, their
+rules, and circumstances, and possessions, it does not fall within the
+plan of this work to specify in detail. The brothers and sisters
+admitted into these asylums appear to have been bound by very strict
+rules of self-denial and poverty.
+
+The monastery at Shene, built on the site of Richard II.'s palace,
+which he never would enter after the loss of his wife Anne, who died
+there, and which on that account he utterly destroyed, was called "The
+House of Jesus of Bethlehem," and was dedicated "to the honour, and
+glory, and exaltation of the name of Jesus most dear;" Henry
+expressing in the foundation-charter, among sentiments less worthy of
+an enlightened Christian, and savouring of the superstition of those
+days, that he founded the institution in pious gratitude for the
+blessings of time and of eternity, which flow only from HIM.
+
+The house of Sion in Isleworth, or Mount Sion, as it is called in the
+Pope's bull of confirmation, was dedicated "to the honour, praise, and
+glory of the Trinity most High, of the Virgin Mary, of the Disciples
+and Apostles of God, of all Saints, and especially of the most holy
+Bridget." This house was suppressed by Henry VIII; when the nuns fled
+from their native country, and took refuge, first in Zealand, then at
+Mechlin, whence they removed to Rouen; at last, fifteen reached    (p. 029)
+Lisbon in 1594. The history of this little company of sisters is very
+remarkable and interesting. In Lisbon they were well received, and
+were afterwards supported by royal bounty, as well as by the
+benevolence of individuals. They seem to have settled there peaceably,
+and to have lived in their own house, and to have had their own
+church, for more than fifty years. In 1651 their house and church were
+both burnt to the ground; but, through the beneficence of the pious,
+they had the happiness of seeing them restored. In 1755 this little
+community suffered in common with the other unfortunate inhabitants of
+Lisbon, and seem to have lost their all in the earthquake. In their
+distress they cast their eyes to the land of their fathers, and
+applied for the charity of their countrymen. There is something very
+affecting in the language of the petition by which our countrywomen in
+their calamity sought to excite the sympathy, and obtain the
+benevolent aid, of their fellow-Christians at home.
+
+     We, the underwritten, and company, having on the 1st of November
+     last suffered such irreparable losses and damage by the dreadful
+     earthquake and fire which destroyed this city and other parts of
+     the kingdom, that we have neither house nor sanctuary left us
+     wherein to retire; nor even the necessaries of life, it being out
+     of the power of our friends and benefactors here to relieve us,
+     they all having undergone the same misfortune and disaster. So
+     that we see no other means of establishing ourselves than by
+     applying to the nobility, ladies, and gentlemen of our        (p. 030)
+     dear country, humbly imploring your tender compassion and pious
+     charity; that, so being assisted and succoured from your
+     bountiful hands, we may for the present subsist under our
+     deplorable misfortune, and in time retrieve so much of our losses
+     as to be able to continue always to pray for the prosperity and
+     conservation of our benefactors.
+                  Augustus Sulyard,           Eliz. Hodgeskin,
+                  Peter Willcock.             Frances Huddleston,
+                                              Cath. Baldwin,
+     _Sion House, Lisbon_,                    Winifred Hill.
+        _May 25, 1756_.
+
+Through another fifty years, the little band, still keeping up the
+succession by novices from England, remained in the land of their
+refuge; till, in 1810, nine of them, the majority, it is said, of the
+survivors, fled from the horrors of war to their native island; and
+their convent, whose founder was Henry, the greatest general of his
+age, became the barracks of English soldiers under Wellington, the
+greatest general of the present day. On their first return they lived
+in a small house in Walworth; and in 1825, the remainder, now advanced
+in years and reduced to two or three in number, were still living in
+the vicinity of the Potteries in Staffordshire,--the last remnant of
+an English convent dissolved in the time of Henry VIII. There are at
+this time mulberry-trees growing at Sion House, one of the Duke of
+Northumberland's[29] mansions, which are believed, not only        (p. 031)
+to have been living, but to have borne fruit, in the time of the
+monastery.[30]
+
+                   [Footnote 29: The present Duke and Duchess kindly
+                   searched out and visited the remaining sisters in
+                   Staffordshire.]
+
+                   [Footnote 30: Dugdale; ed. 1830.]
+
+Henry seems to have had much at heart the intellectual, moral, and
+religious improvement of those who might be admitted to a share of his
+bounty in these establishments. The Pell Rolls record a payment "of
+100_l._ part only of a larger sum, to the prior and convent of Mount
+Grace, for books and other things to be supplied by them to his new
+foundation at Sion."[31] Whether the prior and brethren of Mount Grace
+had duplicates, or were mere agents, or parted with their own stock to
+meet the wishes of their King, the record does not tell.
+
+                   [Footnote 31: April 11, 1415.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.                                                     (p. 032)
+
+STATE OF THE CHURCH. -- HENRY A SINCERE CHRISTIAN, BUT NO BIGOT. --
+DEGRADED STATE OF RELIGION. -- COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE. -- HENRY'S
+REPRESENTATIVES ZEALOUS PROMOTERS OF REFORM. -- HALLAM, BISHOP OF
+SALISBURY, AVOWED ENEMY OF THE POPEDOM. -- RICHARD ULLESTON: PRIMITIVE
+VIEWS OF CLERICAL DUTIES. -- WALDEN, HIS OWN CHAPLAIN, ACCUSES HENRY
+OF REMISSNESS IN THE EXTIRPATION OF HERESY. -- FORESTER'S LETTER TO
+THE KING. -- HENRY BEAUFORT'S UNHAPPY INTERFERENCE. -- PETITION FROM
+OXFORD. -- HENRY'S PERSONAL EXERTIONS IN THE BUSINESS OF REFORM. --
+REFLECTIONS ON THE THEN APPARENT DAWN OF THE REFORMATION.
+
+1414-1417.
+
+
+Some writers, (taking a very narrow and prejudiced view of the affairs
+of the age to which our thoughts are directed in these Memoirs, and of
+the agents employed in those transactions,) when they tell us, that
+Henry was so devotedly attached to the church, and so zealous a friend
+of her ministers, that he was called the Prince of Priests, would have
+us believe that he "entirely resigned his understanding to the
+guidance of the clergy." But his principles and his conduct        (p. 033)
+in ecclesiastical matters have been misunderstood, and very unfairly
+exaggerated and distorted. That Henry was a sincere believer in the
+religion of the Cross is unquestionable; and that, in common with the
+large body of believers through Christendom, he had been bred up in
+the baneful error of identifying the Catholic church of Christ with
+the see of Rome, is in some points of view equally evident: but that
+he was a supporter of the Pope against the rights of the church in
+England and other his dominions, or was an upholder of the abuses
+which had then overspread the whole garden of Christ's heritage, so
+far from being established by evidence, is inconsistent with the
+testimony of facts. The usurpations of the Romish see called for
+resistance,[32] and Henry to a certain extent resisted them. The
+abuses in the church needed reformation, and Henry showed that he
+possessed the spirit of a real reformer, bent on the correction of
+what was wrong, but uncompromising in his maintenance of the religion
+which he embraced in his heart. He gave proof of a spirit more
+Catholic than Roman, more Apostolic than Papal.
+
+                   [Footnote 32: In the early part of his father's
+                   reign, an ordinance was made, charging the King's
+                   officers not to suffer aliens to bring bulls or
+                   other letters into the kingdom, which might injure
+                   the King or his realm.--Cleop. F. III. f. 114.]
+
+In his very first parliament strong enactments were passed forbidding
+ecclesiastics to receive bishoprics and benefices from Rome, on pain
+of forfeiture and exile. And on complaints being made against      (p. 034)
+the ordinaries, Henry's answer is very characteristic of his
+principles of church reform: "I will direct the bishops to remedy
+these evils themselves; and, if they fail, then I will myself take the
+matter into my own hands."
+
+He had been little more than half a year on the throne,[33] when he
+sent a peremptory mandate to the bishops of Aquitain, that they should
+on no account obey any provision from the court of Rome, by which
+preferment would be given to an enemy of England. And in the following
+month, Dec. 11, 1413, Henry issued a prohibition, forbidding John
+Bremore, clerk, whom the Pope had recommended to him when Prince of
+Wales, to return to the court of Rome for the purpose of carrying on
+mischievous designs against the King and his people, under a penalty
+of 100_l._ And among his own bishops, countenanced and confidentially
+employed by himself, were found men who protested honestly and
+decidedly against the tyranny and corruption of Rome, and were as
+zealously bent on restoring the church to the purity of its better
+days, as were those martyrs to the truth who in the middle of the next
+century sealed their testimony by their blood. To what extent Henry V.
+must be regarded as having given a fair promise that, had he lived, he
+would have devoted the energies of his mind to work out such an
+effective reformation as would have satisfied the majority of the
+people in England, and left little in that way for his successors  (p. 035)
+to do, every one must determine for himself. In forming our judgment,
+however, we must take into account, not only what he actually did, but
+also whatever the tone, and temper, and turn of his mind (from such
+intimations as we may be enabled to glean scattered up and down
+through his life) might seem to have justified persons in
+anticipating. It would be vain to build any theory on what might have
+happened had the course of Providence in Henry's destinies been
+different: and yet we may without presumption express a belief that,
+had his life been spared, and had he found himself seated in peace and
+security on the united throne of England and France, instead of
+exhausting his resources, his powers of body and mind, and his time,
+in a fruitless crusade to the Holy Land, (by which he certainly once
+purposed to vindicate the honour of his Redeemer's name,) he might
+have concentrated all his vast energies on the internal reformation of
+the church itself. Instead of leaving her then large possessions for
+the hand of the future spoiler, he might have effectually provided for
+their full employment in the religious education of the whole people,
+and in the maintenance of a well-educated, pious, and zealous body of
+clergy, restored to their pastoral duties and devoted to the ministry.
+That the church needed a vigorous and thorough, but honest and
+friendly reform,--not the confiscation of her property to personal
+aggrandizement and secular purposes, but the re-adjustment of what
+had degenerated from its original intention,--is proved by         (p. 036)
+evidence most painfully conclusive. Indeed, the enormities which had
+grown up, and which were defended and cherished by the agents of Rome,
+far exceed both in number and magnitude the present general opinion
+with regard to those times. The Conventual system[34] had well nigh
+destroyed the efficiency of parochial ministrations: what was intended
+for the support of the pastor, was withdrawn to uphold the dignity and
+luxury of the monastery; parsonage houses were left to fall to decay,
+and hirelings of a very inferior class were employed on a miserable
+pittance to discharge their perfunctory duties as they might.
+"Provisions" from Rome had exempted so large a proportion of the
+spirituality from episcopal jurisdiction, that, even had all the
+bishops been appointed on the principle of professional excellence,
+their power of restoring discipline would have been lamentably
+deficient. But in their appointment was evinced the most reckless
+prostitution of their sacred order. Not only was the selection of
+bishops made without reference to personal merit and individual
+fitness, whilst regard was had chiefly to high connexions and the
+interests of the Papacy; but even children were made bishops,      (p. 037)
+and the richest dignities of the church were heaped upon them:
+foreigners unacquainted with the language of the people were thrust
+into offices, for the due discharge of the duties of which a knowledge
+of the vernacular language was absolutely necessary. The courts
+ecclesiastical ground down the clergy by shameless extortions; whilst
+appeals to Rome put a complete bar against any suit for justice. Their
+luxury and excesses, their pride and overbearing presumption, their
+devotedness to secular pursuits, the rapacious aggrandizement of
+themselves and their connexions, and the total abandonment of their
+spiritual duties in the cure of souls, coupled with an ignorance
+almost incredible, had brought the large body of the clergy into great
+disrepute, and had filled sincere Christians (whether lay or clerical,
+for there were many exceptions among the clergy themselves) with an
+ardent longing for a thorough and efficient reformation. It is true
+that their indignation was chiefly roused by the prostitution of the
+property of the church, and its alienation from the holy purposes for
+which the church was endowed; and that gross neglect of discipline
+rather than errors in doctrine called into life the spirit of
+reformation: but even in points of faith we perceive in many clear
+signs of a genuine love of Evangelical and Catholic truth; among whom
+we are not without evidence sufficient to justify us in numbering the
+subject of these Memoirs. Henry of Monmouth, whilst he adhered     (p. 038)
+constantly to the faith of his fathers, yet manifested a sincere
+desire to become more perfectly acquainted with the truth of the
+Gospel; and spared no pains, even during his career of war and
+victory, in providing himself with the assistance of those teachers
+who had the reputation of preaching the Gospel most sincerely and
+efficiently. Henry's, indeed, was not the religion which would
+substitute in the scale of Christian duties punctuality of attendance
+on frequent preaching for the higher and nobler exercises of
+adoration. Many an unobtrusive incident intimates that his soul took
+chief delight in communing with God by acts of confession, and prayer,
+and praise. He seems to have imbibed the same spirit which in a
+brother-monarch once gave utterance to expressions no less valuable in
+the matter of sound theology, than exquisitely beautiful in their
+conception:[35] "I had rather pass an hour in conversation with my
+friend than hear twenty discourses in his praise." And yet Henry
+delighted also in hearing Heaven's message of reconciliation
+faithfully expounded, and enforced home.
+
+                   [Footnote 33: November 7, 1413.]
+
+                   [Footnote 34: By a statute (4 Hen. IV. 1402), after
+                   the Legislature had complained that the Convents
+                   put monks, and canons, and secular chaplains into
+                   the parochial ministry, by no means fit for the
+                   cure of souls, it is enacted, that a vicar
+                   adequately endowed should be everywhere instituted;
+                   and, in default of such reformation, that the
+                   licence of appropriation should be forfeited.]
+
+                   [Footnote 35: Henry III. is said to have assigned
+                   to Louis IX. this reason for his preference of
+                   devotional exercises to sermons.]
+
+Whilst, for example, he was pursuing his conquests in Normandy, the
+report no sooner reached him of a preacher named Vincentius, (who was
+labouring zealously in the cause of Christ in various parts of
+Brittany, and who was said by his earnest and affectionate         (p. 039)
+preaching to have converted many to the Lord their God,) than Henry
+sent for him, and took great delight in hearing his faithful
+expositions of the word of truth and life. And we have good reason for
+believing that the consolations of the pure doctrines of the Gospel,
+as a guardian angel ministering the cup of Heaven, attended him
+through life and in death.
+
+There is no intimation dropped by historians, nor is it intended in
+these Memoirs to intimate, that Henry's eyes were opened to the
+doctrinal errors of the church of Rome. But there are circumstances
+well worthy of consideration before we pronounce definitively on that
+point. When we bear in mind that, in those days, prayers and vows were
+habitually made to the Virgin for success, and, after any prosperous
+issue of the supplicants' exertions in war or peace, offerings of
+thanksgiving were addressed to her as the giver of victory and of
+every blessing; and whilst, at the same time, we find in Henry of
+Monmouth's letters and words no acknowledgment of any help but God's
+only; the question may be fairly entertained, whether he had not
+imbibed some portion of the pure light of Gospel truth on this very
+important article of Christian faith. The Author is well aware of the
+words at the close of his Will, referred to hereafter; and is very far
+from saying that he should be surprised to find other instances of a
+similar character. Still Henry's silence as to the power and       (p. 040)
+assistance of the Virgin, the absence of prayer to her in his
+devotions, many of which are especially recorded; the absence of
+praise to her after victory and success, though he was very far from
+taking praise to himself, always ascribing it to God Almighty only,
+may seem to justify the suggestion of an inquiry into this point.
+
+For a knowledge of the degraded state to which the church had sunk,
+and her inefficiency as the guardian and dispenser of religious truth,
+we are not left to the vague representations of declaimers, or the
+heated exaggerations of those by whom everything savouring of Rome is
+held in abomination. The preambles of the laws which were intended to
+cure the evils, bear the most direct and full evidence of their
+existence and extent. One parliamentary document, after prefacing that
+"Benefices were founded for the honour of God, the good of the
+founders, the government and relief of the parishioners, and the
+advancement of the clergy," then states "that the spiritual patrons,
+the regular clergy throughout the whole realm, mischievously
+appropriate to themselves the said benefices, and lamentably cast to
+the ground the houses and buildings, and cruelly take away and destroy
+divine service, hospitality, and other works of charity, which used to
+be performed in the said benefices to the poor and distressed; that
+they exclude and ever debar the clergymen from promotion, and
+privately convey the treasure of the realm in great sums to the court
+of Rome,--to the confusion of their own souls, the grievous        (p. 041)
+desolation of the parishioners[36] and the whole country, the ultimate
+ruin of the clergy, the great impoverishment of the realm, and the
+irrecoverable ruin of the holy church of England."[37]
+
+                   [Footnote 36: It is curious at the same time to
+                   observe what extraordinary notions the Commons, who
+                   presented this petition, had formed of freedom; how
+                   jealous they were of the lower orders, and how
+                   determined to exclude them from sharing with
+                   themselves the good things of the church's
+                   temporalities. The Commons pray that (no nief or
+                   vileyn) no bondswoman or bondsman, be allowed to
+                   send a son to school with a view of being advanced
+                   in the church; and that for the maintenance and
+                   safety of the honour of all the free men of the
+                   land.]
+
+                   [Foonote 37: 15 Richard II. (1391.)]
+
+A case argued before the judges in the time of Henry IV, very
+interesting in itself, and closely connected in many points with the
+subject of this chapter, is recorded in the Year Books. The argument
+arose on a writ of Quare impedit, directed against Halomm (Hallam)
+Bishop of Salisbury and Chichel (Chicheley) Bishop of St. David's,
+afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. The question at issue regarded
+the voidance of a prebend in the church of Salisbury, caused by
+Chicheley being created Bishop of St. David's, who held that prebend,
+to which he had been presented by Richard Medford, a former Bishop of
+Sarum. Against the King's claim of right of presentation to the void
+prebend, the defendants answered that the Pope had granted to
+Chicheley licence to enjoy all the preferments which he held before,
+together with his bishopric. For the King's right it was pleaded,  (p. 042)
+that the creation of Chicheley took place whilst the temporalities of
+Sarum were in the hands of the King, on the translation of Hallam from
+York to Sarum;[38] but the question at length turned virtually upon
+the power of the see of Rome to dispense with the laws of England.
+
+                   [Footnote 38: Some persons would probably be
+                   surprised, among the facts recorded in this cause,
+                   (all which however are confirmed by the
+                   ecclesiastical registers,) to find that by a sort
+                   of retrograde promotion, according to our usual
+                   ideas of episcopal preferment, a Bishop of London,
+                   Nicoll Bubwith, was translated from London to
+                   Salisbury, and from Salisbury to Bath and Wells.
+                   The pleading also reminds us of a curious fact with
+                   regard to Bishop Hallam's promotion, not generally
+                   known. The record merely states that "the Bishop of
+                   Sarum, that now is, was translated from York to the
+                   church of Sarum." This latter translation, however,
+                   (if such it can be properly called,) admits of a
+                   more easy solution than the preceding. The fact is,
+                   that Hallam was actually appointed by the Pope to
+                   the archbishopric of York; to which appointment the
+                   King objected. The nomination of the Pope was not
+                   persisted in, and Hallam was consecrated Bishop of
+                   Salisbury.]
+
+In the first sitting (Mich. 11 Henry IV.--_i.e._ 1409), Horton for the
+defendants alleged, "We continued in possession of the prebend after
+Richard Hallam had received the temporalities from the hands of the
+King. Subsequently to which, and before we were created Bishop of St.
+David's, our Saint Peter the Apostle, reciting by his bulls that we
+were elected Bishop of St. David's, granted us licence to enjoy all
+our other benefices." On which, Thirning, Justice, observed, "The
+grant of the Apostle in this case cannot change the law of the land."
+To which Hankford (who proved himself throughout the most zealous
+supporter of the omnipotence of the Popedom) merely replied, "The Pope
+can do all things;" his use of the Latin words evidently showing that
+he was quoting a dictum,--"Papa omnia potest." After some discussion,
+and a reference to former precedents chiefly alleged by Hankford,
+Thirning rejoins very significantly, "That was in ancient times, and I
+will not raise the question as to the power of the Apostle;        (p. 043)
+but I cannot see how he by his bulls can change the law of
+England."[39] In the third deliberation, Culpeper says, "The intention
+of the statute is now to be considered; and I conceive that it was
+made to protect the King and other patrons in their rights, and to
+restrain the encroachment of the Apostle which he makes against the
+law." On the third discussion, Till argued, "Since by the law of the
+land the creation of a bishop causes a voidance in fact of a benefice
+before held, and by such voidance the title of presentation or
+collation accrues to the patron, I say that the Apostle can by no
+grant beforehand oust the patron of his right, and restrain the title
+which ought to accrue to him upon such creation: for if so, he ought
+to restrain and change the course of inheritance by the law of the
+land; and that he cannot do, no more than if the King wished to    (p. 044)
+give or grant to a man that he should hold his lands after he has
+entered upon a monastic life, and professed; for such grant would be
+contrary to the common law of the land, and therefore would be
+altogether void. So also in this case." To this argument Horton
+replied, among other points, "I take it that the Apostle may grant to
+a man to hold three bishoprics at a time;" in which Hankford agreed,
+"provided it were with the consent of the patrons." On which Skeene
+observed, "If the Pope made such a grant, the King might retain the
+temporalities in his own hands, if he wished it." To this observation,
+Hankford, among many other things, said, "The Apostle can in many
+cases change the course of the law of the land, and prevent the
+occurrence of that which ought to follow." The same judge, pressing
+again the argument on which he had before relied, asks, "What say ye?
+suppose the Apostle, before a man becomes a professed monk, grants him
+a dispensation to hold his benefices after his profession?"--"I say,"
+replied Hill, "that in such a case he cannot deprive me of my right of
+patronage."
+
+                   [Footnote 39: "Jeo ne ferra disputation del poiar
+                   l'appost', mes jeo ne scay veier coment il par ses
+                   bull' changer, le ley d'Engleterre."]
+
+The question at issue was found to be so difficult of solution, and
+the judges viewed the law of the case in such opposite lights, that it
+was argued and debated between them by adjournment in four several
+terms; at length the advocates of the Pope's omnipotence gave      (p. 045)
+way, and judgment was given for the Crown.[40]
+
+                   [Footnote 40: See Year Book, "Anno xi. Hen.
+                   IIII."--Term. Mich. fol. 37; Hilar. fol. 38; Pasc.
+                   fol. 59; Trin. fol. 76.]
+
+Among many memorable facts recorded by the Year Book during the
+progress of this cause, most persons probably will regard with
+interest the resistance made by the Crown, at this period, against the
+encroachments of the Pope,--the boundless power, ecclesiastical and
+political, assumed and exercised by the pontiff, and conceded to him
+in England,--and, at the same time, the spirit which shows itself on
+the part of some of our judges to vindicate the supremacy of the law
+of England over the alleged omnipotence of the court of Rome. The
+great difference of opinion also as to the power of the Pope,
+expressed by the members of the judicial bench, cannot fail to
+interest every Englishman, whether lawyer or not; whilst the terms in
+which some of the judges speak of the encroachments of the Apostolic
+see, against which the legislature of England had deemed it necessary
+to enact some stringent laws, are not a little remarkable. But to
+Protestants of the present day, perhaps the most surprising feature of
+all may appear to be the title ascribed to the Pope by the judges,
+whilst publicly and solemnly dispensing the laws of the country. They
+do not speak of him as the Pope, except once in the citation of a
+Latin dictum; nor do they refer to him as a sovereign pontiff
+exercising the delegated authority of the chief Apostle, and       (p. 046)
+representing him in the church militant on earth: they do not give him
+the title of "successor to St. Peter," or "our father filling the
+Apostolic chair:"--they speak of him throughout in direct terms as
+"the Apostle;" and in some passages they even call him "Saint Peter,"
+and "our Saint Peter" the Apostle.[41] It is however very curious, in
+tracing the argument in this cause, to lay the strong terms employed
+by the advocates of the Pope's paramount authority side by side with
+the striking expressions used by others of those high functionaries on
+the supremacy of the English law, and the inability of the Apostolic
+see in the plenitude of its power to change or dispense with the
+common or statute law of the realm.
+
+                   [Footnote 41: "L'appost'." "Nostre Saint Pier
+                   l'appost'." "Bulls fait par Saint Pier."]
+
+Abuses such as we have referred to in the previous sections of this
+chapter prevailed everywhere, and called loudly for vigorous measures
+to rectify them. At the same period the church through Christendom was
+distracted and torn by contending factions, each supporting a pontiff
+of its own.
+
+To put an end to these disgraceful and unhappy feuds, as destructive
+of the peace of Europe as they were hurtful to the cause of true
+religion, and to effect a full reformation in the church, the Council
+of Constance was professedly convened. That synod was summoned
+nominally by Pope John XXIII, but in reality by the united voice   (p. 047)
+of the sovereigns of Europe, especially at the instance of the Emperor
+Sigismund himself. It falls not within the province of these Memoirs
+to record the proceedings of that council, either in extinguishing the
+flame of discord within the pale of the church, or in kindling the
+sadder flame of persecution[42] against all who dared to think for
+themselves in a matter peculiarly their own, or in its lamentable
+forgetfulness of the abuses for the correction of which it was mainly
+convened. The records of the Council of Constance, however, abound in
+matters of interest in connection with the immediate and professed
+object of this work. We infer from them that Henry V. was then taking
+a lead in religious matters, and, whilst he was anxious to resist the
+overbearing tyranny of Rome, he was at the same time bent on making
+the religious establishment within his own kingdom an efficient means
+of conveying to all his subjects the blessings of the Gospel; he was
+an honest reformer of abuses, but, at the same time, the conscientious
+and uncompromising supporter of the religion of his fathers.
+
+                   [Footnote 42: It is very painful to reflect on the
+                   intolerant spirit of this very Sigismund, who was
+                   so anxious to reform the abuses of the church; but
+                   it is forced upon us whilst we are inquiring into
+                   the times of Henry. Sigismund had paid (as we shall
+                   see) a visit to Henry, and he meditated another.
+                   But he never put that design into execution. A
+                   letter from Heretong Van Clux, Henry's minister,
+                   informed his master that he must not expect to see
+                   the Emperor, for he had employment at home in
+                   putting down the followers of Huss. "Now I know
+                   well he might not come, for this cause, that many
+                   of the great lords of Bohemia have required him for
+                   to let them hold the same belief that they are in.
+                   And thereupon he sent them word, that rather he
+                   would be dead than he would sustain them in their
+                   malice. And they have answered him again, that they
+                   will rather die than go from their belief. There is
+                   a great power of them, lords, knights, and
+                   esquires; but the greatest power is of the
+                   commoners. Therefore the Emperor gathers all the
+                   power that he may, to go into Bohemia upon
+                   them."--See Ellis's Original Letters.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was on the 20th of October 1414, that Robert Hallam, Bishop of
+Salisbury, the Bishops of Bath and Hereford, the Abbot of          (p. 048)
+Westminster, the Prior of Worcester, Lord Warwick, and others, were
+commissioned by Henry to proceed to Constance, and as his
+representatives[43] to treat about the reformation of the universal
+church; or, as the Pell Rolls speak, "for the salvation of Christian
+souls." Another body of commissioners was subsequently sent, when not
+less than four hundred Englishmen went in company of the embassy,
+among whom were reckoned two archbishops, seven bishops, and many
+other lords and gentlemen. Of those who were first commissioned by
+Henry, Robert Hallam (or Allam) was most strenuous in urging       (p. 049)
+the work of reformation before and above all other matters with which
+they had to do. The Cardinals were equally urgent to have the election
+of Pope first settled, and then to proceed afterwards to the question
+of reformation. The Bishop of Salisbury, acting, doubtless, with the
+full approbation, it may be at the immediate suggestion of Henry, was
+instant, in season and out of season, in forcing the work of
+reformation on the Council. He was called the Emperor's right hand, so
+entirely did he and Sigismund co-operate for this purpose. Indeed, the
+English generally appear at first to have been among the principal
+promoters of reform, and, as long as Hallam lived, to have pursued it
+zealously; but on his death[44] they were much less noted for the same
+zeal. Previously, however, to that event, a great schism arose     (p. 050)
+among the English at Constance, and the authority of the bishops
+was much disregarded. To remedy these disorders, Henry wrote a
+peremptory letter (18 July 1417), commanding all his people to be
+obedient to the bishops, and to abstain from all factious conduct;
+enjoining them, on pain of forfeiting their goods, either to behave in
+a manner becoming his subjects, or to return home; directing also,
+that, in all differences of opinion, the minority should conform to
+the decision of the majority.
+
+                   [Footnote 43: This council seems to have entailed,
+                   first and last, on England, a very considerable
+                   expense. Within a week of the date of the
+                   commission, the Pell Rolls record the payment of
+                   333_l._ 6_s._ 8_d._ (a large sum in those days) "to
+                   Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, sent as the
+                   King's ambassador to the General Council held at
+                   Constance before our lord the Pope, the Emperor,
+                   and others, there assembled for the salvation of
+                   Christian souls." Payments also to others are
+                   recorded.]
+
+                   [Footnote 44: Bishop Hallam died at Constance,
+                   Sept. 5, 1417. On which day the Cardinal des Ursins
+                   addressed a letter to Henry, praying him to appoint
+                   as Hallam's successor at Salisbury, John Ketterich,
+                   Bishop of Lichfield, to whose ability and zeal and
+                   worth the Cardinal bears strong testimony. This
+                   same Cardinal had a personal interview with Henry
+                   in 1418, just before the taking of Rouen.
+
+                   Le Neve leaves it in doubt whether Bishop Hallam
+                   was buried at Constance, or in Westminster Abbey.
+                   But the Author has been kindly furnished by Sir
+                   Francis Palgrave, who visited Constance last year,
+                   with the following interesting particulars relative
+                   to the resting-place of that excellent man. "The
+                   monument of Bishop Hallam consists of a slab inlaid
+                   with brass, in the usual style of English memorials
+                   of the same period, but quite unlike those of
+                   Germany; and I have no doubt but that the brasses
+                   were sent from England. He is represented at full
+                   length in the episcopal dress, his head lying
+                   between two shields, the royal arms of England
+                   within the Garter, (as Chancellor of the order,)
+                   and his own bearings. But the tomb being placed
+                   exactly in front of the high altar, the attrition
+                   to which it has been exposed in this part of the
+                   church has nearly effaced the engravings." His
+                   funeral, we are told, was attended by the assembled
+                   princes and prelates and nobles of the council, who
+                   followed him to the grave with every demonstration
+                   of respect and sorrow.]
+
+Bishop Hallam entertained a most rooted antipathy to the Pope and the
+Popedom; and he once gave expression to his sentiments so freely and
+unreservedly to the Pope himself, that his Holiness complained
+grievously of him to the Emperor: but Sigismund was himself too
+heartily bent on reforming the abuses of the Popedom to chide the zeal
+and freedom of the English prelate. On one occasion the Bishop
+maintained that a General Council was superior to the Pope (a doctrine
+subsequently recognised, but then, as it should seem, new and bold);
+on another he is reported to have gone so far as to affirm         (p. 051)
+that the Pope, for his enormities, deserved to be burnt alive. Bishop
+Hallam[45] was by no means singular either in the sentiments which he
+entertained with regard to the corruptions of the Romish Church "_in
+its head and its members_," and the imperative necessity of an
+universal reform, or in the unreserved boldness and plainness with
+which he published those sentiments. The whole of Christendom rang
+with loud and bitter complaints against the avarice, the sensuality,
+the overreaching and overbearing tyranny, the total degeneracy and
+worthlessness of the Popes, the Cardinals, and the religious orders;
+but in no place were the protests against such deplorable          (p. 052)
+corruptions more unsparingly uttered than at the Council of Constance
+itself: and among those who willingly offered themselves to testify,
+in their Saviour's name, against such a prostitution of his blessed
+Gospel to the purposes of worldly ambition, such gross depravity and
+total neglect of duty, the names of many of our own countrymen are
+recorded. These pillars of the church, these lights in the midst of
+darkness, seem indeed to have entertained sentiments, as to the duties
+and responsibilities of the Christian priesthood, worthy of the purest
+age. Some of their recorded doctrines are truly edifying, and find a
+response in some of the best episcopal charges and admonitions of the
+Protestant church at the present day.
+
+                   [Footnote 45: Anthony à Wood, referring to the
+                   alleged resolution of the University of Oxford in
+                   favour of Wickliff and his doctrines, refers to
+                   this Bishop Hallam, though with some mistake. "The
+                   prime broacher," he says, "of this testimonial, of
+                   which we have nothing in our registers, records, or
+                   books of epistles, was John Husse in the first tome
+                   of his works, and from him John Fox. Against the
+                   former of whom it was objected in the Council of
+                   Constance, that he had openly divulged the said
+                   commendatory letter in behalf of John Wickliff,
+                   falsely conveyed to Prague, under the title of the
+                   University of Oxford, by two students, one a
+                   Bohemian, the other an Englishman. Whereupon those
+                   of England who were present at the council, of
+                   whom, if I mistake not, Robert Hallam, about these
+                   times Bishop of Oxford [Salisbury], was one,
+                   produce another letter under the seal of the
+                   University, wherein, on the contrary, the members
+                   thereof as much denounce against him as the other
+                   was in behalf of him, and referred the matter to
+                   the council to judge of it as they thought fit; but
+                   how it was decided I find not."]
+
+Among these excellent men, Dr. Richard Ullerston, of Oxford, seems to
+have taken a most primitive view of the duties of a Christian bishop.
+He wrote a treatise in 1408, by way of memorial for Bishop Hallam, his
+friend, who urged him to the work, when that uncompromising reformer
+went to the Council of Pisa. At the close of a long and powerful
+exhortation to provide for the due execution by the Popes of their own
+ministerial duties, and for the restoration of discipline in the
+church, he thus expresses himself: "Things being thus restored to
+their right order, and all abuses being cut away, the Pope will employ
+himself, agreeably to the duties of his charge, in procuring peace for
+Christians, not only by praying, but by preaching the Gospel       (p. 053)
+himself, and sending everywhere good preachers, who by their doctrine
+and example might urge on princes and people throughout the world
+their several duties, and who might make a holy war upon the passions
+of mankind, rooting up those sensual desires which, according to St.
+James, are the source of wars and divisions in the church and in the
+state." This treatise was published in Germany about the year 1700,
+from a manuscript in Trinity College, Cambridge; and may be found at
+the end of Van der Hardt's work on the Council of Constance. It
+consists chiefly of petitions for the remedy of abuses, and is full
+from beginning to end of the true spirit of genuine evangelical
+religion. Dr. Ullerston remained in uninterrupted and perfect
+communion with the church of Rome; and yet no Protestant, who ever
+suffered at the stake for his opposition to her, could have more
+faithfully exposed the practical grievances under which Christendom
+then mourned in consequence of her dereliction of duty, whilst she
+assumed to herself all supreme authority, and paralyzed the efforts of
+national churches to remedy the crying evils of the time. The heads of
+Ullerston's petitions abound with salutary suggestions; by many of the
+items we are apprised of the grievances then chiefly complained of, or
+the departments in which those grievances were found.
+
+  1. On the election of a Pope.
+
+  2. On the suppression of simony.
+
+  3. On the exaltation of the law of Christ above all human        (p. 054)
+  authority.
+
+  4. Against appropriations, _i.e._ assigning the proceeds of parochial
+  cures to monasteries.
+
+  5. On appointing only fit persons to ecclesiastical stations.
+
+  6. Against exemptions of monasteries and individuals from episcopal
+  jurisdiction.
+
+  7. Against dispensations,--those, among others, by which benefices and
+  bishoprics were given to children.
+
+  8. Against pluralities.
+
+  9. Against appeals to Rome.
+
+  10. Against the abuse of privileges.
+
+  11. Against the clergy devoting themselves to secular affairs.
+
+  12. Against the prerogatives of chanters[46] and other officers in the
+  houses of the great.
+
+                   [Footnote 46: In his arguments on this article Dr.
+                   Ullerston offers some excellent reflections upon
+                   the use and abuse of singing in the church. The
+                   sentiments of Augustin, which he quotes, are truly
+                   judicious and edifying. That eloquent father
+                   lamented that often the beauty of the singing
+                   withdrew his mind from the divine matter and
+                   substance of what was sung; but when he remembered
+                   how, on occasions of peculiar interest to him,
+                   psalmody carried his soul towards heaven in holy
+                   raptures, he could not help voting for its
+                   continuance in the church service. Ullerston quotes
+                   also two lines, not indeed specimens of classical
+                   accuracy, but the spirit of which should never be
+                   absent from the mind of a Christian worshipper,
+                   whether a Protestant or in communion with the see
+                   of Rome:
+
+                         "Non vox sed votum, non musica chordula sed cor,
+                         Non clamor sed amor, sonat in aure Dei."]
+
+  13. Generally against extortions.                                (p. 055)
+
+  14. Against excessive expenses in the persons and the families of the
+  clergy.
+
+  15. For a provision for more efficient divine service in parishes.
+
+  16. For the restoration of peace through Christendom.
+
+In his reflections on these points there is so much sound sense and
+genuine affection for true religion, such an ardent desire pervades
+them of promoting the ends for which alone an establishment can be
+justified on warrant of Scripture, or is in itself desirable,--the
+salvation of souls through Christ for ever,--that, had it not been out
+of place, the Author would have gladly transcribed a great part of Dr.
+Ullerston's sentiments into these pages. His suggestions savour
+throughout of genuine piety and true practical wisdom.
+
+To Ullerston must be added Walter Dysse, who was commissioned by Pope
+Boniface IX. to proceed to Spain, Portugal, and Aquitain, to preach a
+crusade against the infidels. He was a most deadly enemy to the
+followers of Wicliffe, and a devoted friend to the court of Rome; yet
+he could not pass over in silence the cause of the divisions and
+corruptions of the church, nor the means of their effectual
+reformation.
+
+But, perhaps, among all those whom the history of this Council records
+as zealous promoters of a real reformation within the church itself,
+our more immediate object in these Memoirs would require us        (p. 056)
+to make especial mention of Thomas Walden, because he was one of Henry
+of Monmouth's own chaplains,[47] and was employed by him not only in
+domestic concerns, but in foreign embassies.[48] He was called the
+Netter, from the expertness and success with which he caught and
+mastered his antagonists in argument. He was present at the Council of
+Pisa as well as of Constance. He proved himself throughout a most
+bitter persecutor of heretics; and (as Van der Hardt expresses
+himself) the less imbued he was with any affection towards the
+disciples of Huss, or influenced by it, so much the more sincere a
+censor was he of the ecclesiastical corruptions of his time. He was
+bent on reforming the abuses of the church with a strong hand, and so
+far the wishes of his royal master coincided with his own; but he  (p. 057)
+could not prevail upon the King to go hand-in-hand with him in
+persecuting the heretics. Walden was bold enough, in his mistaken
+zeal, to charge Henry with a culpable remissness in what was then too
+generally supposed to be the duty of a Christian sovereign.[49]
+
+                   [Footnote 47: Thomas Gascoyne, a contemporary
+                   writer, born 1403, ordained 1427, who gives us a
+                   deplorable view of the ignorance and immorality of
+                   the clergy of his time, mentions the appointment of
+                   Walden as Henry's chaplain, in confirmation of his
+                   position that he never could find that any King of
+                   England retained any bishop after consecration as
+                   his confessor or resident chaplain till the time of
+                   Henry VI. "When (he says) Henry IV.'s confessor was
+                   made a bishop, he sent him to his cure and his
+                   bishopric; and Henry V, who was a very prudent King
+                   indeed, and terrible to many nations, had with him
+                   one doctor proficient in divinity, Thomas Walden,
+                   as his confessor, who was burdened with no cure of
+                   souls. Thus were Kings and Lords accustomed to
+                   retain as their chaplains persons who were free
+                   from all cure of souls."]
+
+                   [Footnote 48: Pell Rolls, Mich. 7 Hen. V, he is
+                   paid for his expenses in an embassy to the King of
+                   Poland.]
+
+                   [Footnote 49: L'Estrange, Counc. Constance, vol.
+                   ii. p. 282; and Van der Hardt, tom. i. p. 501.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A communication made personally to Henry from Constance, in the
+beginning of the year 1417,[50] deserves in this place our especial
+attention. The letter, written by John Forester,[51] may perhaps be
+considered a fair specimen of correspondence between Englishmen of
+education at that period. As a vehicle of information on the real
+state of feeling in England with regard to the church of Rome, it is
+very interesting. It is, moreover, impossible to read it without
+inferring that, in the opinion of the writer at least, and of those in
+whose behalf he wrote, Henry's earnest desire was to reform the abuses
+of the church, and to render churchmen zealous servants of the Gospel.
+
+                   [Footnote 50: Not 1418, as it has been supposed,
+                   but 1417. The date is fixed by the specifying of
+                   Wednesday the 27th January, as also by the mention
+                   of the Genoese ships. These ships were hired, and
+                   they fought under the French against the English,
+                   and were beat in July 1417, after a severe
+                   engagement.]
+
+                   [Footnote 51: Cott. MSS. Cleopatra, t. vii. p.
+                   148.]
+
+     JOHN FORESTER'S LETTER FROM CONSTANCE TO HENRY V.             (p. 058)
+
+     "My sovereign liege Lord, and most redoubted Prince Christian to
+     me on earth. I recommend me unto your high royal and imperial
+     Majesty with all manner [of] honours, worships, grace, and
+     goodnesses. My most glorious Lord, liketh you to wit, that the
+     Wednesday, the third hour after noon, or near thereto, the seven
+     and twentieth day of January, your brother['s] gracious person
+     the King of Rome entered the city of Constance with your livery
+     of the Collar about his neck,--a glad sight for all your liege
+     men to see,--with a solemn procession of all estates, both of
+     Cardinals of all nations, and your Lords in their best array with
+     all your nation. He received your Lords graciously, with right
+     good cheer. Of all the worshipful men of your nation he touched
+     their hands, [and theirs] only, in all the great press. And then
+     went my Lord of Salisbury [Hallam] before heartily to the place
+     of the general Council, where that royal King should rest; and he
+     entered into the pulpit where the Cardinal Candacence,[52] chief
+     of the nation of France, and your especial enemy also, had
+     purposed to have made the first collation[53] before the
+     King,[54] in worship of the French nation. But my Lord of
+     Salisbury kept possession, in worship of you and your nation; and
+     he made there a right good collation that pleased the King right
+     well: and forasmuch as the King was fasting at that hour, then
+     would no man occupy him more that day; but on the morn        (p. 059)
+     (my liege Lord) liketh you to wit, that at nine of the bell all
+     your ambassadors, with all your nation in their best array, went
+     to worship him in his palace, and that he gave them glad and
+     gracious audience. There my Lord of Chester, the president of
+     your nation, had his words to him in such a wise that it was
+     worship to him and all our nation; and soon after this they took
+     their leave of him. And on the morrow he sends after them again
+     at ten of the clock. There he received them again every man by
+     hand. Then he made a collation to our nation, and he thanked them
+     especially that they had been so loving, trusty, and true to his
+     nation in his absence. Also, he rehearsed there how the
+     brotherhood [friendship] began between him and my Lord your
+     father; and how it is now so continued and knit for you and your
+     successors, with the grace of God, for ever. And he told them so
+     great worship of your royal person, and such of all my Lords your
+     brethren; and then of the governance of holy church, divine
+     service, ornaments, and all state thereof, kept as though it were
+     in Paradise, in comparison with any place that he ever came in
+     before; so that from the highest unto the lowest he commended
+     your glorious and gracious person, your realm, and your good
+     governance. And then my Lord of Chester, our president, in the
+     name of all our nation (as belongeth to his office) rehearsed
+     compendiously, and in a gentle wise, all that ever the Emperor
+     had said; and gave him an answer to every point so good and so
+     reasonable, in so short avisement, that he has got him the thanks
+     of your nation for ever. And also, sovereign liege Lord, as I may
+     understand, my Lords of Salisbury and Chester are fully disposed,
+     by the consent of all your other ambassadors, to suive [pursue]
+     the reformation in the church, in the head and the members,
+     having no regard to no benefices[55] that they have,          (p. 060)
+     rather than it should be left undone. And of this I doubt me
+     nought that these two lords will abide hard and nigh, always by
+     the good advice and deliberation of your brother the King of
+     Rome. Moreover, liketh you to wit, that on Sunday, the last day
+     of January, your brother, the King of Rome, wore the gown of the
+     Garters, with your collar, openly at the high mass; and he was
+     lereth [learned] that the Duke of Beyer and the borough-grave
+     should eat with my Lord of London the same day, and he said he
+     would eat with them. Other tidings be there none, but, as it is
+     said, the ambassadors of Spain should be here in Constance within
+     a few days. And, on Candlemas eve, came letters from the French
+     King, commanding to his nation to put out the ambassadors of the
+     Duke of Burgundy from their nation; also, as it is said openly,
+     that the foresaid French King hath sent to the city of Genoa, and
+     forwarded a great sum of gold to [hire[56]] wage great ships and
+     galleys, to destroy your ordinance and your navy of England. And
+     further, the day of making this letter, Master Philip Moyar
+     entered Constance in good health, thanked be God! The which God,
+     of his gracious goodness, keep your high, honourable, and
+     gracious person in his pleasance, and send you sovereignty and
+     victory of all your enemies. Written at Constance, the second day
+     of February,
+                 "By your poor, true, and continual
+                                      "Orator,[57]
+                                             "JOHN FORESTER."
+
+                   [Footnote 52: Cardinalis Camaracensis, or Cardinal
+                   of Cambray.]
+
+                   [Footnote 53: "Collation" meant discourse, or
+                   speech, generally of a laudatory character.]
+
+                   [Footnote 54: The Spaniards, the French, and others
+                   were jealous of the English enjoying the privilege
+                   of ranking and voting single-handed as one of the
+                   nations, and insisted upon their being regarded
+                   only as a part of a larger section of Europe, just
+                   as Austria was only part of Germany. But the
+                   English resisted, and preserved their privilege.]
+
+                   [Footnote 55: This alludes to the intention of
+                   putting a stop to the rich and numerous commendams
+                   which were then heaped on bishops. Our English
+                   prelates were determined to carry on the
+                   reformation, though at their own personal
+                   sacrifice.]
+
+                   [Footnote 56: This negotiation was successful. The
+                   French hired a fleet of long ships of the Genoese.]
+
+                   [Footnote 57: Orator.--Petitioner, one who prayed
+                   for the welfare of another.]
+
+It is curious to remark that, on the very Sunday before this       (p. 061)
+letter was written, the English bishops caused a sort of pious comedy
+to be acted in the presence of the Emperor Sigismund. It was one of
+those mysteries, as they were called, which had so long mingled
+religious instruction (of a very questionable character) with
+amusement. The fruits of these exhibitions were probably very
+equivocal in that age in England, as they are on the Continent at this
+day. The Germans consider this play, which was the representation of
+the Nativity,[58] the Massacre of the Innocents, and the Visit of the
+Magi, as the first introduction of that sort of dramatic performance
+into their country. The English had caused a rehearsal to be performed
+before the authorities of the place three or four times previously, in
+order to make the actors perfect for their imperial audience.
+
+                   [Footnote 58: A curious entry occurs (11th July
+                   1390) in the Pell Rolls of 10_l._ ordered by the
+                   King (Richard II.) to be paid to the clerks of the
+                   parish churches, and other clerks in the city of
+                   London, on account of the play of the Passion of
+                   our Lord and the Creation of the World, by them
+                   performed at Skynnerswell after the feast of
+                   Bartholomew last past.]
+
+About half a year after the date of this letter to Henry, his uncle,
+Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, reached Constance in the garb of
+a pilgrim, on his journey to the Holy Land. His safe-conduct is dated
+July 21, 1417. His arrival at Constance was very prejudicial to the
+cause of the reform of the church. The struggle then was between the
+imperial party (to which the English were closely attached)        (p. 062)
+and the Cardinals, whether the Pope should be first elected, or
+whether the reformations in the church should take precedence of his
+election. Henry Beaufort, to whom all parties seem to have paid the
+utmost deference, suggested the expediency of first electing the Pope;
+the Cardinals pledging themselves, that done, to proceed forthwith to
+the reformation. His advice was followed, and the result must have
+been a disappointment to all sincere Christians: a death-blow was
+given to the hopes which had been entertained of a reform in
+ecclesiastical affairs to be effected by that Council. No sooner was
+Pope Martin V. elected, than both himself and the Cardinals frustrated
+every attempt to secure a sound reformation; and, after sitting three
+years and six months, the Council was dissolved.
+
+The records of this Council of Constance bear incidentally most
+valuable evidence to the warm interest taken by Henry in everything
+over which he had any control, and in which he could beneficially
+employ his power and influence. They prove, moreover, that whilst he
+was a sincere promoter of a sound and wholesome reformation, and most
+zealously attached to the religion in which he had been brought up,
+and in which he was a conscientious believer, he was no persecutor.
+Though our souls are harrowed up by the unchristian proceedings
+against John Huss and Jerome of Prague, (and, could truth allow it, we
+would gladly wipe away so black a stain from the annals of ages    (p. 063)
+and nations called Christian,) it is a source of great satisfaction to
+find that the name of Henry of Monmouth is not at all mixed up with
+those deeds of blood: we find him neither encouraging nor approving
+them. Not one shadow of suspicion is suggested that the persecuting
+spirit, which in that Council displayed itself so outrageously and
+inhumanly, found any thoughts in his breast responsive to its cruel
+aspirations. We know, indeed, that Thomas Walden, his priest and
+chaplain, was actuated by the spirit of persecution towards the
+Lollards; but we are equally assured that, so far from being
+countenanced and encouraged by his master in acts of persecuting
+bigotry, he did not scruple openly in public, and solemnly in a
+sermon, to charge him with a want of zeal in extirpating the enemies
+of the church. From such a witness the testimony so borne to the
+charity and moderation of Henry of Monmouth is very valuable and
+satisfactory; abundantly outweighing all the declamation of modern
+enthusiastic censors. Henry was a reformer,--he could not be persuaded
+to become a persecutor.[59]
+
+                   [Footnote 59: For satisfaction on this point, the
+                   reader is especially referred to the chapter
+                   entitled, "Was Henry of Monmouth a religious
+                   persecutor?"]
+
+Henry's reputation for having at heart the correction of all abuses in
+the church, encouraged the University of Oxford to present to him a
+petition, setting forth a multitude of corrupt practices which     (p. 064)
+were a disgrace to the Christian religion in England; and praying
+him, since God had raised him up to such an exalted place in the
+church, to put forth his power in effecting a reformation.[60] This
+document, preserved in Corpus Christi College in Oxford, abounds in
+topics of deep and lively interest; it marks the fearful extent to
+which the corrupt practices in the church had been fostered by Rome,
+the ardent desire entertained in England for a reformation so early as
+the commencement of the fifteenth century, and Henry's anxiety to
+bring about such a reform in the discipline of the church as might
+safely be adopted without giving countenance and encouragement to the
+Lollards, against whom the University seems at this time to have been
+decidedly hostile.
+
+                   [Footnote 60: In this petition of the University,
+                   Henry is told, that what Constantinus, Marcianus,
+                   and Theodosius had been in the East, that was he in
+                   the West; by his eminent Christian piety resisting
+                   the accomplices of Satan, and preventing the
+                   western church from sinking utterly. By his wise
+                   and peaceable government of the church he was (they
+                   say) best providing for the peace and security of
+                   the state, whilst he cut off and cast away the
+                   rank, luxuriant offshoots of offences as they grew.
+                   In marking out the most notable defects and abuses,
+                   they obeyed (they say) his sacred commands; and
+                   they prayed him to exert his authority in
+                   correcting them.]
+
+The points to which Oxford then solicited Henry to direct his especial
+care, were partly such as are no longer of general interest among us,
+(excepting so far as they remind us of the mass of evils from which
+the Reformation rescued us,) and partly such as must be            (p. 065)
+interesting to Christians of every age.
+
+Among the former grievances were reckoned the Pope's unlimited
+creation of cardinals, all to be supported out of the revenues of the
+church; the excessive grants of indulgences, by which persons were
+encouraged in licentiousness; the privileges and exemptions and
+scandalous immorality of the monks. The petitioners complained
+bitterly that though the church of England would not admit persons
+into sacred orders who were unfit and unworthy, yet the court of Rome
+would repeatedly recognise such as lawful ministers.
+
+Among the latter evils were the non-residence of incumbents, the
+inadequacy of the stipends of curates, and the commendams of bishops.
+The petitioners prayed, that whereas a great number both of regulars
+and seculars who were presumptuous and ignorant were ordained, a
+decree might be passed that all before ordination should be strictly
+examined; and that a remedy should be provided against simony.[61]
+They petitioned, also, that foreigners who could not speak English
+should have no cures in England; and they complained of the practice
+of patrons exacting from the priests whom they nominated to a benefice
+a pledge that they would not sue for an augmentation of their      (p. 066)
+stipend, were it never so small. They closed their petition by
+praying that all bishops who were remiss in punishing heresy, and
+extirpating Lollardy, might be deposed; and that all magistrates and
+officers should be bound by their oath to aid in its extirpation.[62]
+
+                   [Footnote 61: There was also a prayer to prohibit
+                   the practice of confiscating the goods of Jews and
+                   heathens at their baptism, a practice tending to
+                   debar them from offering themselves at the font.]
+
+                   [Footnote 62: Cotton. Tiber. B. vi. F. 64.]
+
+Henry, deeply lamenting the gross abuses referred to in this petition,
+implored the Pope to suffer them to be redressed. His Holiness agreed
+to certain constitutions, by which, if fully acted upon, most of the
+evils complained of would have been rectified. The Pope, however,
+begged Henry in return to abrogate all the laws which had been enacted
+in England to the prejudice of Rome; but the King declared his
+inability to meet the wishes of his Holiness.
+
+The extent to which the abuse of the Pope's[63] authority had been
+connived at in this country,--a state of things which naturally
+indisposed him towards any change for the better,--may be inferred
+from two facts: that he (in defiance of the statutes of Edward III.
+and Richard II.) had by his own authority created thirteen         (p. 067)
+bishops in the province of Canterbury in two years; and had appointed
+his nephew, Prospero Colonna, a boy of only fourteen years of age,
+Archdeacon of Canterbury, with fourteen benefices in England.
+
+                   [Footnote 63: The fact is, that Henry, during his
+                   wars in France, suffered Pope Martin to exercise
+                   his pretended prerogative in the disposal of
+                   benefices to an extent, if not unprecedented,
+                   certainly most unjustifiable. The Chapter of York
+                   gave the first blow to this growing usurpation by
+                   refusing to admit, in obedience to the Pope's
+                   mandate, Richard Fleming, Bishop of Lincoln, into
+                   the archiepiscopal see.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Before we leave this subject, we cannot but record an instance
+(mentioned by Walsingham) of Henry's personal exertions in reforming
+abuses. He had received complaints against the Benedictine monks of
+certain grievous corruptions; and, attended only by four persons, he
+went into the midst of a full assembly of that order. The meeting
+consisted of sixty abbots and priors of convents, and more than three
+hundred monks, who were all assembled in the Chapter-house of
+Westminster. After a speech from the Bishop of Exeter, (one of those
+who accompanied him,) Henry himself addressed them at great length. He
+reminded them of the ancient piety of the monks, and the devotion of
+his predecessors and others in founding and endowing monasteries; he
+expatiated on the negligence and remissness in the discharge of their
+sacred duties, which, he said, had become notorious in their times;
+and he then exhibited certain articles according to which he required
+them to reform themselves; earnestly entreating them to recover the
+ancient spirit of religion which they had lost, and habitually to pray
+for the King, the country, and the church; assuring them that, if they
+followed his directions, they needed fear none of their enemies.   (p. 068)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That Henry V, though earnestly desirous of a sound reform in the
+discipline of the church, and the lives and ministrations of the
+clergy, did never lay the axe to the root of the evil, cannot be
+denied. Perhaps he was disheartened by the total failure of the united
+efforts of himself and Sigismund, with their honest and zealous
+adherents, at Constance. Perhaps he resolved to wait till, at the
+close of his continental campaigns, in the enjoyment of peace at home
+and abroad, he might be able to devote his concentrated exertions to
+an object of such paramount importance. Perhaps the ambition of his
+uncle Henry Beaufort, who evidently was looking for personal
+aggrandizement in wealth and dignity, and who had given so decided and
+unhappy a turn in the council of Constance in favour of the Pope's
+party, might have devised some means for seducing his nephew's ardent
+thoughts into another channel. To whatever cause we may be disposed to
+attribute it, the reality is, that Henry V, when he died, had not
+effected reform on any comprehensive scale in his own realm; nor had
+he given any decided blow to the dominion and the corruptions of the
+church of Rome. His short life was a career of wars and victories.
+
+It pleased the Almighty, in his inscrutable wisdom, to bring       (p. 069)
+about the reformation of the church in his own way, by his own means,
+and at his own appointed time. We recognise his hand in the blessing
+which we have inherited, and are thankful.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.                                                       (p. 070)
+
+WARS WITH FRANCE. -- CAUSES WHICH INFLUENCED HENRY. -- SUMMARY OF THE
+AFFAIRS OF FRANCE FROM THE TIME OF EDWARD III. -- REFLECTIONS ON
+HENRY'S TITLE. -- AFFAIRS OF FRANCE FROM HENRY'S RESOLUTION TO CLAIM
+HIS "DORMANT RIGHTS," AND "RIGHTFUL HERITAGE," TO HIS INVASION OF
+NORMANDY. -- NEGOCIATIONS. -- HIS RIGHT DENIED BY THE FRENCH. --
+PARLIAMENT VOTES HIM SUPPLIES.
+
+1414.
+
+WARS WITH FRANCE.
+
+
+It falls not within the province of these Memoirs to justify the
+proceedings of Henry of Monmouth with regard to France, by an
+examination into the soundness of his claims, and the abstract
+principles on which he and his subjects and advisers rested them. But
+it is incumbent on any one who would estimate his character uprightly,
+to weigh the considerations by which he was influenced in the
+undertaking, neither according to our present standard, nor
+independently of all the circumstances of the age in which he lived,
+and the sentiments then generally prevalent among men of education and
+reputed probity.
+
+Historians have generally represented it as an established fact    (p. 071)
+that the clergy, especially the Archbishop of Canterbury, alarmed
+at the bold and urgent call of the Commons upon the King to seize the
+church patrimony, and from its proceeds apply whatever was required by
+the exigencies of the state, hit upon the expedient of stimulating him
+to claim France as his inheritance; thus withdrawing his mind from a
+measure so fatal to their interests. Though the evidence on which such
+a tradition rests is by no means satisfactory, we may perhaps receive
+it as probable. That the Commons were clamorous for the confiscation
+of the ecclesiastical revenues, and that the clergy voluntarily voted
+a very large subsidy to aid the King in prosecuting his alleged rights
+on the Continent, are matters of historical certainty. That the
+ecclesiastics, moreover, originally suggested to him the design of
+reviving his dormant claim to an inheritance in the fair realm of
+France, and then fostered the thought, and justified the undertaking
+by argument, and pledged their priestly word for the righteousness of
+his cause, is doubtless no unreasonable supposition. Still the clergy
+do not appear to have been in the least more eager in the scheme, or
+more anxious to protect themselves and their revenues from spoliation
+by such a scheme, than were the laity enthusiastically bent on a
+harvest of national glory and aggrandizement from its success.[64] In
+a word, the King himself, the nobles, and the people, all seem     (p. 072)
+to have been equally determined to engage in the enterprise, and
+to support each other in the resolution that it was not only
+practicable, but most fully justifiable by the laws of God and man.
+
+                   [Footnote 64: The people of England gave frequent
+                   proofs of their desire to seize every opportunity
+                   of reaping glory from conquests in France. When the
+                   Duke of Burgundy and the confederated princes, in
+                   the struggle to which we have before referred,
+                   applied in the first instance for assistance to
+                   Henry IV, Laboureur tells us that Henry replied to
+                   the latter that he was compelled to accept the
+                   offer of the Duke of Burgundy, to avoid the
+                   irritation and discontent of his subjects, which
+                   would be raised if he neglected so favourable an
+                   opportunity of forwarding the national interests.]
+
+That Henry's high spirit predisposed him to listen with readiness and
+satisfaction to the suggestions of his subjects in this behalf, we may
+well believe; but that he would have been driven by a dominant
+ambition to engage in a war of conquest against the acknowledged
+principles of justice, his character, firmly established by undeniable
+proofs of a private as well as a public nature, forbids us to admit.
+It must never be forgotten that those persons who were then
+universally regarded as the best and safest interpreters of law, human
+and divine, assured him, on his solemn appeal to them for their
+judgment,[65] that the cause in which he was embarking was just;   (p. 073)
+and, as many incidents in the sequel establish, he did embark in
+it without any doubts or misgivings, without the slightest scruple of
+conscience; on the contrary, with a full confidence in the entire
+righteousness of his cause, and a most unbounded reliance on the arm
+of the God of Justice for success.
+
+                   [Footnote 65: The "Chronicles of England" record,
+                   that, "in the second year of King Henry's reign, he
+                   held a council of all the lords of his realm at
+                   Westminster; and there he put to them this demand,
+                   and prayed and besought them of their goodness, and
+                   of their good counsel and good-will, as touching
+                   the right and title that he had to Normandy,
+                   Gascony, and Guienne--the which the King of France
+                   withheld wrongfully and unrightfully--the which his
+                   ancestors before him had by true title of conquest
+                   and right heritage--the which Normandy, Gascony,
+                   and Guienne the good King Edward of Windsor, and
+                   his ancestors before him, had holden all their
+                   life's time. And his lords gave him counsel to send
+                   ambassadors unto the King of France and his
+                   council, demanding that he should give up to him
+                   his right heritage,--that is to say, Normandy,
+                   Gascony, and Guienne,--the which his predecessors
+                   had holden before him, or else he would win it with
+                   dint of sword in short time with the help of
+                   Almighty God."]
+
+The facts which laid the groundwork for his enterprising spirit to
+build upon are very interesting; and, though they may perhaps belong
+rather to general history than to Memoirs of Henry of Monmouth, yet a
+brief review of them might seem altogether indispensable in this
+place.
+
+"The preference given by the States-General to Philip of Valois above
+Edward III, when he laid claim to the crown of France, led to that
+disastrous war, the prominent incidents of which are familiar to every
+one at all acquainted with the history of that time. Edward gained a
+naval victory over the French, and conquered Philip at Cressy, and
+possessed himself of Calais, which gave him an entrance into       (p. 074)
+France at all times. After some interval, Edward the Black Prince, his
+son, gained the famous battle of Poictiers; where King John, son and
+successor of Philip of Valois, was taken prisoner. Whilst that monarch
+was a captive in England, Edward entered France at the head of one
+hundred thousand men, and marched to the very gates of Paris. This
+successful invasion led to the treaty of Bretigny. By the terms of
+that peace, Edward recovered all those ancient dependencies of Guienne
+which had been wrested from his ancestors. These provinces had fallen
+to the Kings of England by the marriage of Eleanor, heiress of
+Guienne, with Henry II; but, from the time of John (Lackland) and
+Henry III, Philip Augustus and St. Lewis, Kings of France, had so
+shorn that vast territory, that nothing remained to England except
+Bourdeaux, Bayonne, and Gascony. Besides, by the same treaty, Edward
+secured Montreuil and Ponthieu, Calais and Guienne; and all these
+possessions were ceded to him in full sovereignty without any suit or
+homage due to France. Finally, he stipulated for the sum of three
+millions of golden crowns as the ransom of King John. On his side, he
+consented to forego all right and claim which he might have on the
+crown of France. Especially he renounced all title to Normandy and
+other places, which were said to be the heritage of his ancestors, and
+to all the sovereignty of Brittany. This treaty was solemnly       (p. 075)
+executed by King John, and observed during his life, except as to the
+ransom, two-thirds of which remained undischarged at his death. But
+Charles V, his son and successor, finding this peace very
+disadvantageous to France, though he had himself been a party to it,
+and had sworn to observe its conditions, broke it on very frivolous
+grounds. He declared war against Edward, and in a very few years
+recovered all that had been ceded to England by the treaty of
+Bretigny, except Calais, Bayonne, Bourdeaux, and part of Guienne. This
+second war was interrupted by a truce, which continued till the death
+of Edward III. in 1377. During the reign of Richard II, and the
+remainder of Charles V.'s life, and the first years of Charles VI, war
+and peace followed each other in mutual succession, without any
+important or decided advantage on either side. At last, Richard II.
+and Charles VI. concluded a truce for twenty-eight years, which was
+ratified by the marriage of Richard with Isabel, Charles's daughter.
+From the deposition of Richard to the death of Henry IV,
+notwithstanding frequent violations of the truce, both sides
+maintained that it still subsisted. Such was the state of the two
+crowns when Henry of Monmouth mounted the throne. France having broken
+the peace of Bretigny, and maintaining that the treaty was void,
+evidently the Kings of England were reinstated in all their rights
+which they had before that peace. On this principle, immediately
+after the disclaimer of that peace on the part of France,          (p. 076)
+Edward III. resumed the title of King of France, which he had laid
+aside; and his successors assumed it also. Since the commencement of
+the war which followed the treaty of Bretigny there never had been
+peace between the two crowns, but only truces, which do not affect the
+rights of the parties. It is evident, therefore, that, when he
+ascended the throne, Henry V. found himself under precisely the same
+circumstances in point of right in which his great grandfather, Edward
+III, was eighty years before, when he commenced the first war. Besides
+this, Henry had to allege a solemn treaty, which, after it had been
+unequivocally acted upon, France broke on a most trifling pretext."
+
+Such is the representation made by the author of the Abrégé
+Historique[66] of the affairs of England; and the Author is desirous
+of transferring into his pages this clear and candid statement the
+rather because it is written by a foreigner, who seems to have viewed
+the transaction with enlightened and unprejudiced eyes.
+
+                   [Footnote 66: "Abrégé Historique des Actes Publics
+                   d'Angleterre," which now accompanies the foreign
+                   edition of Rymer's Foedera.]
+
+More modern writers, indeed, would teach us to deem it "unnecessary
+for them to comment on the absurdity of Henry's claim to the French
+crown in right of his descent from Isabella wife of Edward II. For
+futile as her son Edward's (III.) pretensions were, Henry's were   (p. 077)
+still less reasonable, as the Earl of March was in 1415 the heir
+of those persons."[67]
+
+                   [Footnote 67: Sir H. Nicolas.]
+
+The fact on which this reasoning rests is undoubtedly true, and yet
+considerations connected with that claim require to be entertained,
+and weighed without haste and without prejudice; and the truth itself
+warns us not to dismiss the point so summarily. Henry (it must never
+be forgotten) had been bred up in the belief that Richard II. had in
+the most full and unreserved manner, by his act of resignation,
+yielded all his rights into the hands of the people of England, and
+that those rights had been as fully and unreservedly conferred by the
+nation on Henry's father. Whatever rights, moreover, the Earl of March
+possessed as lineal heir to the crown, he had, as far as his own
+personal interest was concerned, over and over again, not merely by a
+passive acquiescence, but by repeated voluntary acts, virtually
+resigned, and made over to Henry as actual King; and, lastly, it is
+clear that Henry's claim was always by himself and by the nation
+rested on the ground of his being King of England, and, ipso facto, as
+such, heir of all his predecessors Kings of England.
+
+On these grounds, and with such an opening offered to his ardent mind
+by the distracted state of the realm of France, Henry resolved to
+prefer his claim; negociating first for its amicable concession, and,
+if unsuccessful in negociation, then pursuing it in the field of
+battle. This appears to have been his determination from the       (p. 078)
+first; but from the first he seems also to have contemplated the
+probability of failure by treaty; for, from the first intimation of
+his designs, he and his subjects were steadily engaged in making every
+preparation[68] for a vigorous invasion of France.
+
+In this part of our treatise a brief outline is required of the
+proceedings between the resolution first taken by Henry, and his
+appearance in arms on French land; nor can we satisfactorily pass on
+without taking a succinct view of the internal state of that kingdom
+at the time of Henry's original claim and subsequent invasion.
+
+                   [Footnote 68: The only measures mentioned in the
+                   "Foedera," before April 1415, indicative of
+                   Henry's expectation that the negociations with
+                   France would not terminate pacifically, are, that
+                   on September 26, 1414, the exportation of gunpowder
+                   was prohibited; whilst, on the 22nd, Nicholas
+                   Merbury, the master, and John Louth, the clerk of
+                   the King's works, guns, and other ordnance, had
+                   been commanded to provide smiths and workmen, with
+                   conveyance for them; that, on the 18th of the
+                   following March, Richard Clyderowe and Simon Flete
+                   were directed to treat with Holland for ships; and,
+                   on the 22nd, the Sheriff of London was ordered to
+                   summon knights, esquires, and valets, who held
+                   fees, wages, or annuities by grant from the King or
+                   his ancestors, to repair forthwith to London, and,
+                   on pain of forfeiture, to be there by the 24th of
+                   April at the latest.--Sir H. Nicolas.
+
+                   The Pell Rolls record the payment of "2,000_l._ to
+                   Richard Clitherow and Reginald Curtys, (27th
+                   February 1415; ordered by the King himself to go to
+                   Zealand and Holland, for the purpose of treating
+                   with the Duke of Holland and others to supply ships
+                   for the King's present voyage,) therewith to pay
+                   divers masters and mariners, who were to accompany
+                   him abroad, whither he was going in his own
+                   person."]
+
+
+SUMMARY OF THE AFFAIRS OF FRANCE.                                  (p. 079)
+
+Charles V, surnamed the Wise, died in 1380.[69] He left to succeed him
+his son Charles VI, twelve years of age; and he appointed his three
+brothers to govern the kingdom during the minority,--Lewis, Duke of
+Anjou, John, Duke of Berry, and Philip, Duke of Burgundy, who by their
+ambition and rivalry threw the whole realm into confusion. Charles V.
+left also another son, called the Duke of Orleans, who in his time
+contributed to the general confusion no less than his uncles. Through
+the first days of Charles's (VI.) reign, the three regents, differing
+in every other point, agreed only in burdening the nation with taxes;
+a circumstance which bred great discontent, and prepared the people
+for separating into different factions whenever an opportunity might
+occur.
+
+                   [Footnote 69: The Author has been, in this portion
+                   of his work, chiefly assisted by the authors of the
+                   "Abrégé Historique," above referred to.]
+
+The Duke of Anjou quitted France in 1381, to take possession of his
+kingdom of Sicily. The King was of age to be his own master, according
+to the will of his father, at fourteen; yet his uncles governed both
+his estate and his person till he was twenty. In 1385, he was married
+to Isabella, daughter of Stephen, Duke of Bavaria.
+
+In 1388, Charles assumed the reins of government, discharging his
+uncles, and keeping about his person his brother, the Duke of Orleans,
+then seventeen, and his maternal uncle the Duke of Bourbon.
+
+The Duke of Burgundy could not endure to see the Dukes of          (p. 080)
+Orleans and Bourbon govern the kingdom in the name of the King; and in
+1391 he succeeded in causing the Estates-General to transfer the
+government to him under the pretext of aiding his nephew to bear the
+burden of the state. Probably the King had already shown symptoms of
+that imbecility which afterwards incapacitated him altogether for
+managing the affairs of his kingdom. In 1395 his malady increased in
+violence; and for some time the Queen his wife, the Dukes of Orleans,
+Berry, Burgundy, and Bourbon, each struggled hard to retain the reins
+of government in their own hands. At length the Dukes of Orleans and
+Burgundy formed two opposite parties; under the banners of which, as
+well the members of the court, as the subjects of the kingdom at
+large, arranged themselves in hostile ranks. Queen Isabella joined the
+Duke of Orleans. The Duke of Berry fluctuated between the two
+factions, and had great difficulty in preventing them from coming to
+extremities. In these struggles the two chiefs were so equal, and so
+determined not to yield either to the other, that they left the
+government to the council of the King. The Duke of Burgundy withdrew
+to the Netherlands, where he was master of the earldoms of Flanders
+and Artois, and the duchy of Brabant: there he died in 1403, leaving
+his son John to succeed him, who became Duke of Burgundy and Count of
+Flanders and Artois. His brothers shared the residue of their father's
+inheritance.
+
+Whilst the new Duke of Burgundy was employed in arranging his      (p. 081)
+own affairs, the Queen and the Duke of Orleans conducted the
+government; but with little satisfaction to the people, who found
+themselves grievously oppressed by taxation. Meanwhile, the Duke of
+Burgundy married his son Philip, Earl of Charolois, to Michelle, the
+King's daughter; and one of his daughters was also espoused to the
+Dauphin, Louis, then only nine years of age.
+
+Some time afterwards, Charles VI. finding himself in one of his
+intervals of mental health, and hearing complaints from all sides
+against his Queen and the Duke of Orleans, convened an assembly of
+nobles to deliberate on a remedy; and commanded the presence of the
+Duke of Burgundy. On his approach, the Queen and the Duke of Orleans
+withdrew, taking with them the young Dauphin. The Duke of Burgundy
+followed, and overtook them; and rescued the Dauphin from their
+custody. This was a source of open rupture between those princes.
+There followed, indeed, an outward show of reconciliation; but their
+mutual hatred was deadly still. In 1407 the Duke of Burgundy caused
+the Duke of Orleans to be assassinated. He was bold enough to profess
+himself the author of the murder, and powerful enough to shield
+himself from any punishment, and to procure letters of free pardon.
+Next year he was obliged to visit his own territory, and in his
+absence his enemies caused the bill of amnesty to be reversed.
+
+Meantime, the Duke gained a victory over the troops of Liege,      (p. 082)
+and marched at the head of four thousand horsemen direct upon Paris.
+The Queen withdrew at his approach, taking the King with her to Tours;
+and, finding herself unable to cope with her antagonist, she consented
+to an accommodation. The King received Burgundy, and reconciled him in
+appearance to the Duke of Orleans, son of the murdered Duke. After
+this, the Duke of Burgundy remained master of the government, and of
+the person of the King.
+
+It will be remembered that, in 1411, a powerful league was formed in
+Guienne against the Duke of Burgundy, by the Dukes of Berry, Orleans,
+Alençon, and the Count of Armagnac, who was governor of Languedoc and
+father-in-law to the Duke of Berry; and who, being the chief conductor
+of the whole affair, gave the name of Armagnacs to the party in
+general opposed to Burgundy.[70] At the beginning, the Duke of
+Burgundy, having received succours from Henry IV. of England, gained a
+great advantage over his opponents. Subsequently, the Armagnacs,
+obtaining considerable assistance from the same King, forced the Duke
+of Burgundy, who was besieging them in Bourges, to make peace; one
+condition of which, however, being that no one of those chiefs should
+return to the court, the Duke of Burgundy still remained master of the
+King's person. In this state of triumph on the part of the         (p. 083)
+Duke of Burgundy, and of depression of the Armagnacs, another opponent
+arose against the Duke, of whom he seems to have been previously under
+no apprehension,--the Dauphin himself, his son-in-law, then only
+sixteen years of age. This prince, persuaded that during his father's
+illness the government could of right belong to no one but himself,
+resolved to secure his own. He gained over the governor of the
+Bastille, and seized that fortress. The Parisians flew to arms at the
+secret instigation of the Duke of Burgundy. A surgeon, named John of
+Troyes, at the head of ten or twelve thousand men, forced the gates of
+the Dauphin's palace; and, carrying off the chief friends of that
+prince, lodged them in prison.
+
+                   [Footnote 70: See vol. i. p. 268.]
+
+These events took place at the opening of the year 1413, whilst Henry
+IV. was labouring under the malady of which he died. Henry V.
+succeeded to the throne, March 20th of that year. At the end of April,
+the malcontents of Paris, all of the Burgundian faction, committed
+various excesses, and compelled both the King and the Dauphin to wear
+the white cap, the badge of their party. The Dauphin[71] betook
+himself at last to the Armagnacs, of whom many lived in Paris,
+grievously oppressed by the government of the Duke of Burgundy; and he
+planned his scheme so well, and so secretly, that at the           (p. 084)
+beginning of September he found thirty thousand men in Paris ready to
+support him. By his sudden and vigorous efforts he struck terror into
+the opposite faction, who abandoned the Bastille and other places in
+their possession, and thought of nothing but their own personal
+safety. The Duke of Burgundy himself withdrew to Flanders. The
+Dauphin, however, gained no permanent advantage from this success; for
+the King, in one of his favourable intervals, immediately seized the
+reins of government, and called his nephew the young Duke of Orleans
+to his counsels. This youth induced the King to issue very violent
+decrees against the Duke of Burgundy, and to execute a great number of
+his partisans.
+
+                   [Footnote 71: The Dauphin, eldest son of Charles
+                   VI, was born 22nd January 1396, and died before his
+                   father, without issue, on the 18th December 1415,
+                   in his twentieth year.]
+
+Such was the state of affairs in France when Henry of Monmouth first
+resolved to prosecute his claims in that kingdom. The Duke of Burgundy
+lost no time in endeavouring to secure the assistance of so powerful
+an ally; as we find by the many safe-conducts dated before the Duke's
+expulsion from Paris, which did not take place till September. Whether
+Henry had, before these embassies from the Duke of Burgundy, formed
+any design of claiming his supposed rights in France, or not, the
+Duke's negociations must have strongly impressed him with the
+distracted state of that country, and with an opening offered to the
+enterprising spirit of any powerful neighbour who would promptly and
+vigorously seize upon that opportunity of invading France.
+
+"Although[72] several negociations had taken place between         (p. 085)
+September 1413, and the January following, for the purpose of
+prolonging the subsisting truce between England and France, it was not
+until January 28, 1414, that ambassadors were appointed to treat of
+peace. From the engagement then made, that Henry would not propose
+marriage to any other woman than Katharine, daughter of the King of
+France, until after the 1st of the ensuing May, (which term was
+extended from the 18th of June to the 1st of August, and afterwards to
+the 2nd of February 1415,) it is evident that a marriage with that
+princess was to form one of the conditions of the treaty. But the
+first intimation of a claim to the crown of France is in a commission,
+dated May 1, 1414, by which the Bishop of Durham, Richard Lord Grey,
+and others, were instructed to negociate that alliance, and the
+restitution of such of their sovereign's rights as were withheld by
+Charles. The principal claim was no less than the crown and kingdom of
+France. Concession to this demand, however, being at once declared
+impossible, the English ambassadors waived it, without prejudice
+nevertheless to Henry's rights. They then demanded the sovereignty of
+the duchies of Normandy and Touraine, the earldom of Anjou, the duchy
+of Brittany, the earldom of Flanders, with all other parts of the
+duchy of Aquitain, the territories which had been ceded to         (p. 086)
+Edward III. by the treaty of Bretigny, and the lands between the Somme
+and Graveline; to be held by Henry and his heirs, without any claim of
+superiority on the part of Charles or his successors. To these demands
+were added the cession of the county of Provence, and payment of the
+arrears of the ransom of King John, amounting to one million six
+hundred thousand crowns. It was also intimated that the marriage with
+Katharine could not take place, unless a firm peace were also
+established with France, and that two millions of crowns would be
+expected as her dower.
+
+                   [Footnote 72: The following paragraphs are almost
+                   literally extracted from Sir Harris Nicolas's
+                   "Battle of Agincourt."]
+
+On March 14, 1415, the French ministers denied Henry's right to any
+part of the dominion of their master; but, to avoid extremities, they
+offered to cede the counties of Angouleme and Bayonne, with various
+other territories. They said that Provence, not being among Charles's
+lordships, was not withheld by him. With respect to the arrears of
+ransom, they thought that, having offered so much to extend the
+possessions of England, with a view of securing peace, the claim ought
+to be withdrawn. Touching the marriage, which had been so frequently
+discussed, though the Kings of France had been accustomed to give much
+less with their daughters than six hundred thousand crowns, which sum
+the Duke of Berry had offered with her in the preceding August, yet
+that it should be enlarged to eight hundred thousand crowns, besides
+her jewels and apparel, and the expense of sending the princess    (p. 087)
+in a suitable manner to the place where she might be delivered to
+Henry. But as the English ambassadors said they were not permitted to
+prolong their stay in France, and had no authority to vary their
+demands, Charles engaged to send an embassy to England to conclude the
+treaty.
+
+During the progress of these protracted negociations Henry grew
+dissatisfied; and either from impatience, or with a view of awing
+France into submission, issued writs of 26th September 1414, for a
+parliament to be held at Westminster after the Octaves of St. Martin,
+18th November following. On that day parliament met; and the session
+was opened at the command of the King by Henry Beaufort, Bishop of
+Winchester, then Chancellor. In a long harangue he informed the
+assembly, that their King (who was present in person) had resolved to
+recover his inheritance, which had been so long and unjustly kept from
+him and his progenitors, Kings of England; and that, for this purpose,
+many things were necessary. Taking for his theme the text, "Whilst we
+have time, let us do good," he pointed out, with more pedantry than
+eloquence, that for every natural thing there were two seasons; and
+that just as for the tree there was one time to bud, to flower, and to
+bring forth fruit, and another time through which it was left to
+repose, so was there given to man a time for peace, and a time for war
+and labour: that the King, considering the value of peace and      (p. 088)
+tranquillity which this kingdom then enjoyed, and also the justice
+of his present quarrel, (considerations most necessary for every
+prince who had to encounter enemies abroad,) deemed that the proper
+time had arrived for the accomplishment of his purpose. But, to attain
+this great and honourable object, three things, he said, were wanted;
+namely, wise and faithful counsel from his vassals, strong and true
+support from his people, and a copious subsidy from his subjects;
+which each of them would readily grant, because the more their
+prince's dominions were extended, the less would their burdens become;
+and, these things being performed, great honour and glory would
+necessarily ensue.
+
+This address was not without effect, for the Commons, after electing
+Thomas Chaucer (son, as it is said, of the poet) for their Speaker,
+"granted the King, for the honour of God, and from the great love and
+affection which they bore towards their sovereign, two entire
+fifteenths and two entire tenths, _for the defence of the kingdom of
+England and the safeguard of the seas_."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.                                                        (p. 089)
+
+MODERN TRIPLE CHARGE AGAINST HENRY OF FALSEHOOD, HYPOCRISY, AND
+IMPIETY. -- FUTILITY OF THE CHARGE, AND UTTER FAILURE OF THE EVIDENCE
+ON WHICH ALONE IT IS GROUNDED. -- HE IS URGED BY HIS PEOPLE TO
+VINDICATE THE RIGHTS OF HIS CROWN, HIMSELF HAVING A CONSCIENTIOUS
+CONVICTION OF THE JUSTICE OF HIS CLAIM. -- STORY OF THE TENNIS-BALLS.
+-- PREPARATIONS FOR INVADING FRANCE. -- HENRY'S WILL MADE AT
+SOUTHAMPTON. -- CHARGE OF HYPOCRISY AGAIN GROUNDED ON THE CLOSE OF
+THAT TESTAMENT. -- ITS FUTILITY. -- HE DESPATCHES TO THE VARIOUS
+POWERS OF EUROPE THE GROUNDS OF HIS CLAIM ON FRANCE.
+
+
+At this point of his work, the Author finds the painful duty devolved
+upon him of investigating a triple charge, now for the first time
+brought against Henry by a living writer. He must not shrink from the
+task, though he enter upon it with a consciousness that, if
+established, the charge must brand Henry's memory with indelible
+disgrace, whilst his acquittal may imply censure on his accuser.[73]
+He feels, nevertheless, that only one course is open for him to    (p. 090)
+pursue; he must follow up the inquiry fully, fearlessly, and
+impartially, whatever may be the result; and, whether he looks to
+Henry or his accuser, he must adhere rigidly to the golden maxim,
+"Friends are dear, but truth is dearer!"
+
+                   [Footnote 73: Here, however, the Author begs to
+                   state his most unfeigned conviction that, had the
+                   Editor of the "Battle of Agincourt" allowed himself
+                   more time for reflection and reconsideration of his
+                   subject, his love of truth and justice (which
+                   evidences itself in various parts of his works)
+                   would have induced him to withdraw this triple
+                   accusation. The Author sincerely gives that
+                   valuable writer full credit for his generous
+                   indignation at the idea of any thing savouring of
+                   falsehood, as well as for his anxious desire to
+                   enlist all our ancient documents, whether published
+                   or yet in manuscript, in the cause of historical
+                   truth; and he sincerely trusts that not one
+                   expression may escape his pen which may give,
+                   unnecessarily, the slightest pain to an Editor for
+                   the assistance derived from whose labours he will
+                   not allow this note to escape him (even at the risk
+                   of tautology) without again expressing his
+                   obligations.]
+
+An Author,[74] then, to whom (as we gladly and gratefully acknowledge)
+we are largely indebted for many helps supplied to the biographer and
+historian, and from whom we have borrowed copiously in this part of
+our work, brings a wide and violent charge against Henry's character
+in those very points on which the general tenour and complexion of his
+whole life would lead us to regard him as of all least assailable. He
+charges him with _falsehood_, _hypocrisy_, and _impiety_. The
+groundwork on which he founds these accusations is a series of letters
+recorded in M. Le Laboureur's History of Charles VI. of France.
+
+                   [Footnote 74: Sir Harris Nicolas.]
+
+To ascertain more satisfactorily whether the charge is really      (p. 091)
+substantiated, or whether it has been built upon an unsound
+foundation, we will first extract the whole passage as it stands in
+his work, "The Battle of Agincourt," and then sift the evidence which
+the writer alleges in support of so grave an imputation.
+
+"On the 7th April, Henry is said to have addressed the King of France
+on the subject of his claims, and in reference to the embassy which
+Charles had signified his intention of sending to discuss them. No
+part[75] of the correspondence on this occasion occurs in the
+Foedera, and it is very slightly alluded to by our historians. "To
+the first of those letters Charles replied on the 16th of April, and
+to the last on the 26th of that month; it is therefore evident     (p. 092)
+that Henry did not wait for the answer to the first before the second
+was written. These documents occur in contemporary writers; and, as
+the internal evidence which they contain of being genuine is very
+strong, there is no cause to doubt their authenticity. Their most
+striking features are falsehood, hypocrisy, and impiety; for Henry's
+solemn assurance that he was not actuated by his own ambition, but by
+the wishes of his subjects, is rendered very doubtful by the fact
+that, on the day after the Chancellor had solicited supplies for the
+invasion of France, the Commons _merely stated_ that they granted
+_them for the defence of the realm, and the safety of the seas_. The
+justice claimed was, that France should be dismembered of many
+important territories; and that, with the hand of Katharine, Henry
+should receive a sum as unprecedented as it was exorbitant. But this
+was not all, for his first demand was the crown of France itself; and
+it was not until he was convinced of the impossibility of such a
+concession, that he required those points to which his letters refer.
+If then there was FALSEHOOD in his assertion that his demands were
+dictated by the wishes of his people rather than by his own, there was
+HYPOCRISY in the assurances of his moderation and love of peace, and
+IMPIETY in calling the Almighty to witness the sincerity of his
+protestation, and in profaning the holy writings by citing them on
+such an occasion. These letters, which were probably dictated by
+Cardinal Beaufort, are remarkable for the style in which they      (p. 093)
+are written; in some places they approach nearly to eloquence, and they
+are throughout clear, nervous, and impressive."
+
+                   [Footnote 75: That a correspondence took place,
+                   there can be no doubt; but very much doubt is
+                   thrown upon the accuracy of these documents; they
+                   do not appear in such a shape that we can rely upon
+                   them as evidence. The Author who gives them says,
+                   that he considers them capable of embellishing and
+                   adorning his history. The reader is invited to sift
+                   this matter thoroughly, if he thinks that the
+                   writer of these Memoirs has taken a partial view of
+                   the merits of the question; and he is, at the same
+                   time, cautioned against regarding the principal
+                   work in which these letters are found as the
+                   production of M. Laboureur. Into this error he
+                   might easily be led by the manner in which the book
+                   has been quoted. Laboureur translated the work of
+                   an anonymous writer of St. Denis, of whose
+                   character nothing is known. The manuscript, in
+                   Latin, is said to have been found in the library of
+                   M. Le President De Thou. The original author
+                   brought the history down to the year 1415, and St.
+                   Jean Le Fevre continued it to 1422.]
+
+In this threefold indictment, the first charge is "falsehood." The
+falsehood is made to consist in Henry's assertion, that he was
+stimulated to prosecute his claim by the wishes of his people; and the
+only evidence alleged to sustain this charge of falsehood, is the fact
+that parliament, in granting the supplies, so far from specifying that
+the grant was made for the purpose of recovering the King's rights in
+France, merely stated that it was "_for the defence of the realm, and
+the safety of the seas_."
+
+Before a charge, fixing an indelible stain on the character of a
+fellow-creature, whether the individual were a king leading his armies
+to victory, or the humblest subject in his realm, were made on such
+grounds as these, it had been well,--well for the cause of truth, and
+well for the satisfaction of the accuser,--had the nature and force of
+the evidence adduced been first more carefully examined. The slightest
+acquaintance with the language of parliament at that time, and the
+most cursory comparison of the words of its members with their
+conduct, must satisfy every one that not a shadow of suspicion is
+suggested of any unwillingness on the part of the Commons to support
+the King in demanding his supposed rights, and vindicating them by
+arms. On the contrary, the very records of parliament themselves,  (p. 094)
+which are cited to maintain against Henry the charge of falsehood,
+carry with them a full and perfect refutation of the accusation,
+complete in all its parts; and compel us to lament that it has been
+brought so hastily, unadvisedly, and inconsiderately. Our first point
+is to ascertain the force of those words in the grant alone cited to
+substantiate the charge of falsehood against Henry,--what meaning was
+attached to them by the Commons themselves. We shall find that the
+subsidy was granted in the usual formal words, "for the defence of the
+realm of England and so forth." In the first parliament of Henry for
+example, the subsidy is granted in these words: "To the honour of God,
+and for the great love and affection which your poor Commons of your
+realm of England have to you our dread sovereign Lord, for the good of
+the realm and its good governance in time to come, we have, with the
+consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, granted to you _for
+defence of your realm of England_," and so forth,--specifying a
+subsidy from wools and other merchandise; and then, in voting an
+entire fifteenth and a tenth, they add, "for _the defence of the
+realm, and the safeguard of the seas_." With precisely the same
+justice might it be argued in this case that the Commons would not
+vote the subsidy for "the support of the King's dignity and high
+estate," (though that was one of the especial grounds on which he
+appealed himself to the liberality of his parliament,) as it can   (p. 095)
+be inferred, from the same words used in the parliament of 1415,
+that the Commons of England were not forward to promote the expedition
+to France. In that parallel case, however, we are quite sure the
+argument would be fallacious; because in the very same session they
+voted that the King's own allowance should take precedence of all
+other payments of annuities and other demands, to the amount of
+10,000_l._ annually.
+
+Another instance occurs in the parliament which met October 19, 1416,
+the King himself presiding: though the Chancellor, after referring
+with exultation to the victories of Harfleur, "the key of France," and
+of Agincourt, "where greatest part of the chivalry of France had
+fallen in battle," asks for new supplies _for the express purpose_ of
+carrying on the wars in France; the Commons, in voting those supplies,
+as expressly state that they grant them "_for the defence of your
+realm of England_."
+
+The same conclusion is warranted by the grants of 1417 and 1419;
+excepting that in these the Commons make the argument intended to
+support the charge against Henry's veracity still less tenable, by
+inserting a phrase which might seem to exclude the very object for
+which application for the subsidy was made. The application was made
+especially for the supplies necessary to carry on the war abroad; the
+Commons vote the subsidy "for the defence of the realm of England _in
+especial_."
+
+But, to remove all possible doubt as to the true intent and        (p. 096)
+meaning of the people of England in the grant in 1414 of two entire
+tenths and two entire fifteenths, we need only refer to the first act
+of the next parliament, which, after rehearsing the impossibility of
+the King effectually carrying on his wars abroad unless one tenth and
+one fifteenth made by the former parliament, payable on the 2nd of
+February, should be collected before that time, decrees that subsidy
+to be due and payable on the feast of St. Lucie in the next coming
+December. Nor is this all. The next act of this same parliament would
+of itself prove the utter futility of the charge against Henry, as far
+as that charge rests upon the evidence adduced. The parliament first
+state the necessity of supplying the King with more efficient means
+_for pursuing his campaign in France_, and then vote one entire tenth
+and one entire fifteenth,--for what? not for the purpose which they
+have expressly specified, but "_for the defence of his said realm of
+England_." The preamble, however, of this act shows so clearly what
+were the views and feelings of his subjects on this very point, as
+well as on the justice of his claim, that a transcript of it seems
+indispensable in this place.
+
+"The Commons of the realm, in this present parliament assembled,
+considering that the King our sovereign lord, for the honour of God,
+and to avoid the shedding of human blood, hath caused various requests
+to be made to his adversary of France to have restitution of his
+_inheritance_ according to _right and justice_;[76] and for that   (p. 097)
+end there have been diverse treaties, as well here as beyond the
+sea, to his great costs; nevertheless he hath not, by such requests
+and treaties, obtained his said inheritance, nor any important part
+thereof: and since the King, neither by the revenues of his realm, nor
+by any previous grant of subsidy, hath had enough wherewith to pursue
+_his right_; yet, always _trusting in God_ that in his JUST _quarrel_
+he shall be upheld and supported, of his own good courage hath
+undertaken an expedition into those parts, pawning his jewels to
+procure a supply of money, and in his own person hath passed over, and
+arrived at Harfleur, and laid siege to it and taken it, and holds it
+at present, having placed lords and many others there for its defence;
+and then of his excellent courage, with few people in regard to the
+power of France, he marched by land towards Calais, where, on his
+route, many dukes, earls, and other lords, with the power of the realm
+of France, to an exceeding great number, opposed him, and gave him
+battle; and God, of his grace, hath given victory to our King, to the
+honour and exaltation of his crown, of his own fair fame, the      (p. 098)
+singular comfort of his faithful lieges, to the terror of all his
+enemies, and probably to the lasting profit of all his realm."
+
+                   [Footnote 76: This seems to have been the language
+                   of judges, councillors, parliament, poets, and the
+                   people at large. The voice of all England seemed to
+                   be echoed by Lydgate.
+
+                         "In honour great; for, by his puissant might,
+                         He conquered all Normandy again
+                         And valiantly, for all the power of France,
+                         And won from them HIS OWN INHERITANCE."]
+
+We may safely leave the issue to the verdict of any impartial mind.
+The argument drawn from the language of parliament to convict Henry of
+falsehood falls to the ground; it has no colour of reason in it; and
+no other argument is even alluded to by the accuser. It is, moreover,
+much to be regretted that the Editor of "The Battle of Agincourt,"
+when he was translating so large a portion of the Chaplain's memoir,
+which with great reason he implicitly follows, had not begun the work
+of translation a few sentences only before its present commencement.
+Our countrymen would then have seen that, from whatever sources that
+Editor drew the evidence on which to build his triple charge of
+hypocrisy, falsehood, and impiety against Henry V, those who knew him
+best, and had the most ample opportunities of witnessing his character
+and conduct, expressed at least a very opposite opinion on the point
+at issue. The following are the genuine words of one who accompanied
+Henry from his native shores to France, was with him at the battle of
+Agincourt, and returned with him in safety to England. "Meanwhile,
+after the interchange of many solemn embassies between England and
+France, with a view to permanent peace, when the King found that very
+many negociations and most exact treaties had been carried on in   (p. 099)
+vain, by reason that the council of France, _clinging to their own
+will, which they adopted as their law_, could be induced to peace by
+no just mean of equity, without immense injury to the crown of
+England, and perpetual disinheritance of some of the noblest portions
+of his right in that realm, though for the sake of peace he was ready
+to make great concessions, seeing no other remedy or means by which he
+could come to his right, had recourse to the sentence of the supreme
+judicature, and without blame sought to recover by the sword what the
+blameworthy and unjust violence of the French had struggled so long to
+usurp and keep.... He determined to regain the duchy of Normandy,
+which had for a long time been _kept, against God and all justice, by
+the violence of the French_."
+
+There is, however, one declaration contained in the very volume from
+which these alleged letters of Henry are extracted, which makes the
+charge brought by the commentator on those letters still more
+surprising.[77] It is in that very volume positively asserted, with
+regard to the first rumour through France of Henry's intended
+invasion, that "his subjects _had strongly_ remonstrated with      (p. 100)
+him for his love of peace and rest, and his dislike of active
+measures, and had _now_ INSISTED upon his undertaking the
+expedition."[78]
+
+                   [Footnote 77: The Author does not mean to imply, as
+                   the result of his inquiries, that Henry was
+                   altogether influenced in his determination to claim
+                   the crown of France by the instigations of his
+                   people. If, as we believe, he was urged by them to
+                   adopt that measure, we believe also that he
+                   listened with much readiness to their appeal.]
+
+                   [Footnote 78: The words of the writer of that
+                   history are too clear and forcible to justify us in
+                   merely quoting their substance. The very title of
+                   his chapter directs our attention to the point.
+                   "Henry, King of England, constrained by his
+                   subjects to renew his pretension to the crown of
+                   France, makes a great movement." "The present year,
+                   on the incidents of which I proceed to remark,
+                   seems to me not less full of troubles and evils
+                   than any of those which preceded it. It commenced
+                   by a rumour, sudden but true, and which spread
+                   itself everywhere, that the English, impatient of
+                   repose, blaming for carelessness and want of heart
+                   the repose and inactivity of their King Henry, had
+                   _compelled him_ to arouse himself, and to revive by
+                   the same means the pretensions of some of his
+                   predecessors on the crown of France." "Les Anglais,
+                   impatiens de repos à leur ordinance, blâmans de
+                   nonchalance et de manque de coeur le repos et
+                   l'oisiveté de leur Roi Henri, l'avaient obligé de
+                   se reveiller."--M. Laboureur, Life of Charles VI,
+                   translated from the Latin of a contemporary
+                   ecclesiastic. Whatever be the degree of authority
+                   to which this author is entitled, whilst he
+                   supplies the letters on which the accusation alone
+                   is founded, he as expressly contradicts, by
+                   positive assertion, the inference now drawn from
+                   those letters.]
+
+The charge of hypocrisy is made to rest "on Henry assuring the French
+monarch of his moderation and love of peace, whereas he must have been
+conscious that he was immoderate in his demands, and was not desirous
+of peace." To prove that his demands were immoderate, is not enough to
+sustain this accusation; to constitute him a hypocrite, he must
+_himself have been conscious_ that his demands were immoderate.    (p. 101)
+But how stands the probability? He was fully persuaded that the crown
+of France was his own; and he first demands the full surrender of his
+alleged rights. The Commons declare that what he sought was "the
+restitution of his inheritance according to _right and justice_," and
+testify that he "trusted in God for support in his _just quarrel_." He
+then, agreeably to the advice of his council,[79] (who acknowledge
+that what he sought to recover was "his righteous heritage,        (p. 102)
+the redintegration of the old rights of his crown,") withdrawing his
+full demand, proposes other terms, unreasonable, no doubt, as we   (p. 103)
+may view them now, but, if regarded as a substitute for the fair
+kingdom of France, far from stamping on Henry the brand of hypocrisy,
+when he made a profession of moderation and a love of peace.[80]
+
+                   [Footnote 79: Among the records of the council, the
+                   minutes of one of their meetings held at
+                   Westminster in the second year of Henry's reign
+                   deserve especial attention. The manuscript is much
+                   damaged, but the general meaning is clearly
+                   intelligible. The minutes first rehearse that "the
+                   Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the true and
+                   humble lieges and knights of the King's noble
+                   realm, were there present, gathered by his royal
+                   command." It then proceeds: "Ye, our noble and
+                   righteous Lord and King, have in your chivalrous
+                   heart and desire determined to stir and labour in
+                   your recovery and redintegration of the old rights
+                   of your crown, as well as for your righteous
+                   heritage ... desiring upon this knightful intent
+                   and purpose to have the good and high advice and
+                   true meaning of us, your true knights and humble
+                   lieges aforesaid. Whereupon, our sovereign Lord, as
+                   well our Lords as we have communed by your high
+                   commandment in these matters: and known well among
+                   us all without [doubt ye are] so Christian a Prince
+                   that ye would in so high a matter begin nothing but
+                   that were to God's pleasance, and to eschew by all
+                   ways the shedding of Christian blood; and that, if
+                   algate [at all events] ye should do it, that
+                   denying of right and reason were the cause [rather]
+                   than wilfulheadedness. Wherefore, our sovereign and
+                   gracious high Lord, it thinks, as well our Lords as
+                   us in our own hearts, that it were speedful to send
+                   such ambassadors to every party as [your] claim
+                   requireth, sufficiently instructed for the right
+                   and recovery of that is above said. And if ye, our
+                   sovereign Lord, at the reverence of God, like of
+                   your proper motion, without our counsel given
+                   thereto, any mesne [middle] way to offer, that were
+                   moderating of your whole title, or of any of your
+                   claims beyond the sea; and hereupon your adverse
+                   party denying you both right and reason and all
+                   reasonable mesne [middle] ways, we trust all in
+                   God's grace that all your works in pursuing them
+                   should take the better speed and conclusion: and in
+                   the mean while that all the works of readiness that
+                   may be to your voyage thought or wrought, that it
+                   be done by the high advice of you and your noble
+                   council; seeing that the surety of your royal
+                   estate, the peace of your land, the safe ward of
+                   all your [realm] be well and sufficiently provided
+                   for above all things. And, these observed, we shall
+                   be ready with our bodies and goods, to do you the
+                   service that we may to our powers, as far as we
+                   ought of right, and as our ancestors have done to
+                   your noble progenitors in like case."
+
+                   This advice appears to have been followed by Henry
+                   throughout.
+
+                   The Minutes of Council, February 2, 1415, after
+                   stating the measures proposed for the safeguard of
+                   the sea, and the marches of Scotland and Wales, &c.
+                   during the King's absence, record this remarkable
+                   advice: that Henry would direct his treasurer to
+                   bring a clear statement of his debtor and creditor
+                   account, the demands of the treasury, and the
+                   income; also the debts incurred since the
+                   coronation, and the annuities to which he was
+                   pledged; "in order that, before the departure of
+                   the King, such provision may be made in every part,
+                   according to the amount of the charges, that the
+                   mind and soul of the King might be set at ease and
+                   comfort, that he might depart like a Christian
+                   Prince with a good government, and the better
+                   accomplish his voyage, to the pleasure of God, and
+                   the singular comfort of all his faithful
+                   lieges."--Acts of Privy Council, vol. ii. p. 148.]
+
+                   [Footnote 80: A renewed charge of hypocrisy,
+                   brought against Henry by the same pen, will call
+                   for a renewed inquiry; and whatever further remarks
+                   may be made on that topic, are reserved for the
+                   page in which we shall shortly enter upon the
+                   investigation of the charges.]
+
+There remains the charge of impiety, which is made to rest on Henry
+having called the Almighty to witness a falsehood, and quoted
+Scripture in support of what he affirmed. It was undoubtedly too much
+the practice then, as unhappily it is now, for Christians, on trivial
+occasions, to appeal to Heaven, and to quote the sanction of Scripture
+in very questionable matters of worldly policy. But Henry does not
+appeal presumptuously, nor quote lightly; he appeals solemnly, and he
+quotes reverently, in a matter of very great importance to both
+kingdoms, and in a cause which he believed to be founded in right and
+justice. He appealed to Heaven to witness what he regarded as true.
+The page we have been examining accuses Henry of falsehood, hypocrisy,
+and impiety: the evidence of facts, and the testimony of his
+contemporaries, represent him to us in the character of an honest,
+undisguised, and pious King.
+
+On Tuesday, April 16, Henry held a council at Westminster, at      (p. 104)
+which the Chancellor, Henry Beaufort, briefly explained the
+proceedings of the great council, enumerating the causes which induced
+their King, in the name of God, to undertake in his own person an
+expedition for the recovery of his inheritance. On the next day the
+Chancellor informed the council that the King had appointed the Duke
+of Bedford to be lieutenant of England[81] during his absence; with
+the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Winchester, and other
+prelates and lay lords to form his council.
+
+                   [Footnote 81: Hall says, that "he left for governor
+                   behind him his mother-in-law, the Queen." And
+                   Goodwin (referring for his authority to Hall and
+                   Pat. 3 Hen. V. p. 2. m. 41.) states that he made
+                   her regent, and the Duke of Bedford protector. But
+                   this seems to have originated in mere mistake.]
+
+As early as May 26, an order was issued to suspend the assizes through
+England during the King's absence, lest his lieges who accompanied him
+might be subjected to inconvenience and injustice. The defence of the
+country towards Scotland and Wales was provided for, and the rate of
+wages payable to his retinue and soldiers was fixed. Every duke was to
+receive 13_s._ 4_d._, every earl 6_s._ 8_d._, every baron 4_s._, and
+every knight 2_s._, every esquire being a man-at-arms 12_d._, every
+archer 6_d._ each day; whilst for every thirty men-at-arms a reward
+was assigned of one hundred marks a quarter; together with some other
+stipulations.
+
+In the spring and summer the King issued[82] commissions to hire   (p. 105)
+ships from Holland and Zealand; to press sailors to navigate his
+vessels; to provide workmen to make and repair bows; to procure carts
+and waggons for the conveyance of his stores; also a supply of masons,
+carpenters, and smiths, together with the materials of the respective
+trades. The sheriffs of different counties were ordered to buy cattle;
+and the sheriff of Hampshire was to cause bread to be baked, and ale
+to be brewed, at Winchester and Southampton, and the parts adjacent,
+for the use of the army.
+
+                   [Footnote 82: The particulars of these commissions
+                   may be found in Rymer, or in Sir Harris Nicolas's
+                   "Battle of Agincourt," to whom the reader is
+                   referred for more minute information on the
+                   subject.]
+
+The King not only thus took effective measures for the transport and
+supply of his forces, but commanded also the Archbishop and the other
+prelates to array the clergy for the defence of the kingdom at home
+during his absence. Every sheriff also was to proclaim that a nightly
+watch should be kept till All-Saints' Day; and no taverner was to
+allow any stranger to remain in his house more than one day and night,
+without knowledge of the cause of his delay; and all suspicious
+persons were to be committed to prison.
+
+Though parliament had granted a liberal supply, the King, finding his
+expenses to exceed his means, made a direct and powerful appeal to all
+his loving subjects for a loan, with promise of repayment; and     (p. 106)
+a considerable sum was raised in consequence of that appeal, but
+still not enough. He was, therefore, compelled to pawn his plate and
+jewels, (as he had done with his small stock in early youth during the
+Welsh rebellion,) and to have recourse to all expedients for raising
+the necessary sums. These expedients were often totally incompatible
+with our present notions of the royal dignity; but no intimation
+appears anywhere of the least unfair and dishonourable dealing on the
+part of the King. His appeals to the people much resembled those of
+Charles I, under still more urgent circumstances, in after ages.
+
+A curious fact is recorded in the minutes of a council held May 25,
+1415, respecting a demand for money from the companies of foreign
+merchants resident in London. They were summoned before the council,
+and informed that it was usual for merchants who traded in any other
+country than their own to lend the government such sums as they could
+bear, or else be committed to prison during pleasure. This custom was
+justified on the ground of many and great privileges secured to them
+in their traffic by the King's favour, from which they derived great
+wealth. Certain sums were demanded, and sufficient pledges of gold,
+silver, and jewels were offered; but the merchants of Florence,
+Venice, and Lucca [de Luk] refused to comply, and were committed to
+the custody of the warden of the Fleet Prison. From the merchants  (p. 107)
+of Florence was required 1,200_l._, from those of Venice 1,000_l._,
+from those of Lucca 200_l._ These strong measures seem to have worked
+their intended effect, for all those guilds granted loans afterwards.
+
+Having now effected every preparation in his power, the King passed
+through London, accompanied by the Mayor and citizens (who attended
+him as far as Kingston); and having made an offering at St. Paul's,
+and taken leave of his mother-in-law the Queen, he proceeded on his
+way towards Southampton, where all his ships and contingents were
+directed to await his arrival.
+
+Reaching Winchester, he remained there for some days from June 26th,
+probably to give audience to the French ambassadors, who were
+presented to him on the 30th. The Archbishop of Bourges headed that
+embassy, and the Bishop of Winchester was Henry's representative and
+spokesman. Much of negociating and bartering ensued, and at first many
+conciliatory communications were made on both sides; the French
+yielding much, the English adhering to their original demands, or
+remitting little from them. At length, the reply of the Archbishop put
+an abrupt end to further discussion; and Henry commanded the
+ambassadors to depart, with a promise that he would soon follow them.
+
+It is here again painful to read the unkind and unjustifiable language
+of the same author, whose triple charge against Henry's religious  (p. 108)
+and moral character we have just investigated, when he describes the
+surprise of the French monarch and his court on the return of these
+ambassadors. "Until that moment," he says, "the French court, either
+_cajoled_ by Henry's _hypocrisy_, or lulled into security by a
+mistaken estimate of his power, had neglected every means for
+resisting the storm which was about to burst upon their country."
+Henry stands convicted of no hypocrisy; and his accuser alleges no
+evidence on which an impartial mind would pronounce him guilty. It is
+curious as it is satisfactory to lay side by side with this unguarded
+calumny the version of the circumstances of that time, made by an
+unprejudiced foreigner, and a very sensible well-versed historian.[83]
+"France was then governed by the Dauphin Louis, a young and
+presumptuous prince, who had up to this point thought himself able to
+amuse Henry by feigned negociations. Nevertheless, the preparations
+going on in England having opened the eyes of his council, a
+resolution was taken to send to England twelve ambassadors, at the
+head of whom was the Archbishop of Bourges."
+
+                   [Footnote 83: Abrégé Historique des Actes publics
+                   d'Angleterre.]
+
+Several contemporary writers, as well as general tradition, state
+that, on occasion of one of the various embassies sent to and fro
+between the courts of London and Paris, the Dauphin, then about
+eighteen or nineteen years of age, sent an insulting present       (p. 109)
+to Henry of a tun of tennis-balls, with a message full of contempt and
+scorn,[84] implying that a racket-court was a more fit place for him
+than a battle-field. It is well observed, that such an act of wilful
+provocation must have convinced both parties of the hopelessness of
+any attempts towards a pacific arrangement; and, since the
+negociations were carried on to the very last, some discredit has
+thence been attempted to be thrown on the story altogether. But it
+must be remembered (as the author of the Abrégé Historique justly
+remarks) that these negociations were continued, on the part of
+France, merely to gain time, and withdraw Henry from his purpose;
+whilst Henry, on the other side, by his renewed proposals for the hand
+of Katharine, (an union on which he appears from the first to have
+been heartily bent,) kept up in his enemies the hope that, to gain
+that object, he would ultimately relax from many of his original
+demands. Henry certainly afterwards challenged the Dauphin to single
+combat, as though he had a quarrel with him personally; and nothing
+can fairly be inferred against the truth of the tradition, from the
+silence in the challenge on the point of such an insult having been
+offered. On the whole, the evidence is decidedly in favour of the
+reality of the incident; whilst Henry's reported answer is very
+characteristic: "I will thank the Dauphin in person, and will      (p. 110)
+carry him such tennis-balls as shall rattle his hall's roof about his
+ears." And they, says the contemporary chronicler,[85] were great
+gunstones for the Dauphin to play withal.
+
+                   [Footnote 84: Otterbourne says Henry received the
+                   tennis-balls whilst he was keeping his Lent at
+                   Kenilworth.]
+
+                   [Footnote 85: Cotton MS. Claudius, A. viii.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Anxious to proceed in our narrative without further allusion to such
+sweeping and unsupported charges, we must, nevertheless, here
+introduce (though reluctantly) the remarks which have been suffered to
+fall from the same pen, as its chief comment on the closing words of
+Henry's last Will, made at this time.[86] He signed that document at
+Southampton, July 24th, just three days after discovering the
+conspiracy of which we must soon speak. Probably a sense of the
+uncertainty of life, and the necessity of setting his house in order
+without delay, were impressed deeply upon him by that unhappy event.
+He felt not only that he had embarked in an enterprise the result of
+which was doubtful, in which at all events he must expose his life to
+numberless unforeseen perils; but that the thread of his mortal
+existence might at a moment be cut asunder by the hands of the very
+men to whom he looked for protection and victory. Compared with the
+wills of other princes and nobles of that day, there is nothing    (p. 111)
+very remarkable in Henry's. From first to last it is tinctured with
+the superstitions of the corrupt form of our holy religion, then
+over-spreading England.[87]
+
+                   [Footnote 86: His very last will is not known to be
+                   in existence. This testament was made seven years
+                   before his death, and was probably soon cancelled.]
+
+                   [Footnote 87: Among the saints to whose custody he
+                   bequeaths his soul, his favourite and patron, John
+                   of Bridlington, finds a place. Among the legacies
+                   connected with his family history, we meet with a
+                   bequest, to the "Bishop of Durham, of the Missal
+                   and Portophore which he had received as a present
+                   from his dear grandmother Joan, Countess of
+                   Hereford." To the same countess a gold cyphus,--a
+                   proof that in 1415 his maternal grandmother was
+                   still alive. It may be worth observing that, in
+                   this will, there is no legacy to the Queen, his
+                   father's widow. He had, however, on the 30th June
+                   preceding, "granted of especial grace to his
+                   dearest mother, Joanna, Queen of England, licence
+                   to live, during his absence, in his castles of
+                   Windsor, Wallingford, Berkhamstead, and Hertford."]
+
+The subscription to this testament is couched in these words: "This
+is my last Will subscribed with my own hand. R.H. Jesu Mercy and
+Gramercy Ladie Mary Help:" and on these words the same author makes
+this observation: "According to all the biographers of Henry,
+extraordinary piety was a leading trait in his character, from which
+feeling the addition to his Will appears to have arisen. It seems
+indeed difficult to reconcile the _lawless ambition_, much less the
+_hypocrisy_,[88] which Henry displayed in his negociations, with an
+obedience to the genuine dictates of Christianity; but as he       (p. 112)
+rigidly observed every rite of the church, was bountiful towards its
+members, and uniformly ascribed success to the Almighty, it is not
+surprising that his contemporaries should have described him as
+eminently pious."
+
+                   [Footnote 88: In a few pages further, the same
+                   writer thinks himself justified in adding this note
+                   on a letter of Henry to Charles, "A translation of
+                   this _hypocritical_ letter is given in the
+                   Appendix."]
+
+On this passage the biographer of Henry had rather that his readers
+should form their own comment, than that he should express the
+sentiments which he cannot but entertain: he invites, however, the
+lover of truth to compare this charge of _lawless ambition and
+hypocrisy_ with the actual conduct of Henry at this very time.
+
+Whilst resident in the Abbey of Tichfield,[89] about ten miles from
+Southampton, he despatched to the Council of Constance, addressing
+himself chiefly to the Emperor Sigismund and the other princes
+assembled there, copies of the treaties between Henry IV. and the
+French court relative to the restoration of Aquitain to the English
+crown; remarking upon the wrong that was done to him by the gross
+violation of those treaties. This shows at all events that he was not
+conscious of being actuated by lawless ambition, or of acting the part
+of a hypocrite; it proves that he was desirous of having the merits of
+his quarrel with France examined and understood: and he seems to have
+felt an assurance that those who made themselves acquainted with the
+real grounds of his intended invasion would pronounce his quarrel to
+be just. Otherwise he would scarcely have gone out of his way to   (p. 113)
+draw the eyes of assembled Europe, (not to the boldness of an
+enterprise, nor to the splendour of conquests, but) to a calm
+investigation of the righteousness of his cause.[90]
+
+                   [Footnote 89: See Cott. MS. Julius, E. iv. f. 115.]
+
+                   [Footnote 90: The Emperor, in the league which he
+                   made with Henry, records his resolution to assist
+                   him in the recovery of his just rights.]
+
+The words of his chaplain in recording this measure of Henry deserve a
+place here. Indeed, every page of contemporary history proves that the
+King himself had no misgivings as to the uprightness and justice of
+his cause, and was ready to refer the whole to the judgment of
+Christendom. "The King caused transcripts of all treaties to be
+forwarded to the general council, to the Emperor Sigismund and other
+Catholic princes, to the intent that all Christendom might know how
+great injuries the duplicity of the French had inflicted upon him, and
+that he was, reluctantly and against his will, compelled, as it were,
+to raise his standard against the rebels."[91]
+
+                   [Footnote 91: Here we cannot but recal the words
+                   with which Henry afterwards, it is said, addressed
+                   the Cardinal des Ursins, who was sent by the Pope
+                   to mediate between him and Charles just before he
+                   laid siege to Rouen. "See you not that God hath
+                   brought me here as it were by the hand? There is no
+                   longer a King in France. _I have a legal right over
+                   that realm._ All is in confusion there; and no one
+                   dreams of opposing me. Can I have a more sensible
+                   proof that God, who disposes of crowns, has decreed
+                   that I should place on my head the crown of
+                   France?" And in his mandate to the Archbishop of
+                   Canterbury to array the clergy against the enemies
+                   of the church and of the faith, should any appear
+                   in his absence, he says, "We are now going to
+                   recover our inheritance and the rights of our
+                   crown, now a long time, as is _evident to all_,
+                   unjustly kept from us."--Sloane, p. 52.]
+
+Nor can we here omit to observe, (though it be anticipating what   (p. 114)
+must hereafter be again referred to in the course of the history,)
+that the behaviour of the Emperor, when, in the spring of the
+following year, he made a personal voyage to England on purpose to
+visit Henry, and the solemn declaration of the Duke of Burgundy, (of
+whose sincerity, however, no one can speak without hesitation,) "that
+he had at first thought Henry unjust in his demands, but was at length
+convinced of their justice," show that in the estimation of
+contemporaries, and those neither churchmen nor his own subjects, who
+may be suspected of partiality, Henry's character deserved better than
+to be stamped with the imputation of "lawless ambition and hypocrisy."
+It is very easy for any one to charge a fellow-creature with immoral
+and unchristian motives; and it may carry with it the appearance of
+honest indignation, and of an heroic love of virtue, religion, and
+truth, when one can tear off the veil of conquest and martial glory
+from the individual, and expose his naked faults to pity, or contempt,
+or hatred. But a good judge, in forming his own estimate of the
+motives which may have given birth to acts which fall under his
+cognizance, or in guiding others to return a righteous verdict, will
+not consider the most ready method of solving a difficulty to be
+always the safest. Take for granted that Henry's conduct towards   (p. 115)
+France is intelligible on the ground of lawless ambition and gross
+hypocrisy, (though there is no proof of either,) it is equally, at
+least, intelligible on the supposition of his full and undoubting
+conviction of his right to all he claimed. And just as open would any
+individual plaintiff be to the charge of hypocrisy, who, after having
+insisted upon his full rights, and given notice of trial, and
+collected his witnesses, should, on the very eve of the issue being
+tried, write to the defendant, urging him to yield, and avoid the
+expense and irritation of a protracted law-suit, offering at the same
+time a remission of some portion of his claim,--as Henry is in
+fairness chargeable with hypocrisy because he wrote to his "adversary
+of France," urging him to yield, and avoid the effusion of blood. On
+the very eve of his departure for the shores of Normandy, many facts
+and circumstances assure us that Henry acted under a full persuasion
+that he demanded of France only what was in strict justice his due
+when he laid claim to those territories and honours which had been so
+long withheld from the Kings of England, his predecessors. Facts are
+decidedly against the charge of hypocrisy; but, even were the facts
+doubtful, his general character for honesty, and openness, and manly
+straightforward dealing, (to which history bears abundant evidence,)
+would make the scale of justice preponderate in his favour.
+
+In dismissing this subject, parallel with these modern accusations (p. 116)
+of Henry on the ground of "cajoling hypocrisy" we may lay the
+testimony borne by his contemporary, Walsingham,[92] to the
+unsuspecting simplicity of his mind, which exposed him to the      (p. 117)
+overreaching designs of the unprincipled and crafty. In his Ypodigma
+Neustriæ, a work expressly written for the use and profit of Henry,
+and with a view of putting him upon his guard against the intrigues
+of foreign courts, he refers to his "innocence liable to be        (p. 118)
+circumvented, and his noble character likely to be deceived, by the
+cunning craftiness and hypocritical fraud and false promises of his
+enemies."
+
+                   [Footnote 92: The Dedication of the Ypodigma
+                   Neustriæ claims for itself a place in this work;
+                   and to no part can it be more appropriately
+                   appended than to this, in which modern charges
+                   strongly contrasted with his view are examined. The
+                   following is a literal translation of the
+                   introduction to this work of Walsingham:--"To the
+                   most noble and illustrious King of the French and
+                   English, Henry, conqueror of Normandy, most serene
+                   Prince of Wales, Lord of Ireland and Aquitain, by
+                   God's grace always and everywhere victor, the
+                   humblest of his servants who pray for him, Brother
+                   Thomas of Walsingham, monk of the monastery of St.
+                   Alban, who was first of the English martyrs, with
+                   lowly recommendation wisheth health in Him who
+                   giveth health to Kings. Whilst I reflected, among
+                   the contemplative studies of the cloister, with how
+                   great talents of virtue, and titles of victory, God
+                   Almighty hath exalted,--with what gifts of especial
+                   grace He hath abundantly filled you,--so that even
+                   your enemies proclaim your wisdom, admire and
+                   everywhere extol your discretion, and celebrate
+                   your justice by the testimony of their praise, I
+                   confess that I have been filled with pleasure and
+                   inward joy, more gratifying far than the choicest
+                   dainties. But, in the midst of this, there arises
+                   in my mind a kind of cloud, which throws a shade on
+                   the glad thought of my heart, whilst I am compelled
+                   to fear the general habits of a nation which very
+                   often has trifled with the publicly plighted vows
+                   and their oath solemnly pledged. And whilst I
+                   meditate on past days,--recalling the frauds,
+                   crimes, factions, and enormities committed by your
+                   enemies,--my soul is made anxious, and my heart is
+                   disquieted within me, and my life has well-nigh
+                   failed from grief, knowing that to-morrow base
+                   deeds may be done as well as yesterday. And fearing
+                   lest by any means your innocence may be
+                   circumvented, I revolved in my mind what would best
+                   minister to your safety in the midst of so many
+                   dangers. At length it occurred to me to write
+                   something to your Highness (whom my soul cordially
+                   loves) by which you may be made more safe at once
+                   and more cautious. Love conquers all things; ah! it
+                   has wrought in me not to fear, though in an
+                   uncultivated and unpolished style, to offer to so
+                   wise and glorious a Prince what I reflected upon in
+                   my mind, and to open to your serene Highness as I
+                   best may what I have conceived in my heart for your
+                   royal safety. Hence it is that I have endeavoured
+                   to draw up a brief table of events from the
+                   commencement of the conquest of Neustria [Normandy]
+                   by the Normans down to their conquest of England;
+                   which I have carried on to the time when your
+                   Majesty, with power and victory, compelled the same
+                   Normandy, alienated against right and justice from
+                   your ancestors for about two hundred and twenty
+                   years, to come under your yoke, and royally to be
+                   governed according to your desire. Wherefore, my
+                   redoubted Lord and King, in this little work I
+                   offer to your inspection past deeds, various wars,
+                   mutual covenants of peace; leagues, though
+                   confirmed by an oath, violated; the promises,
+                   pledges, offerings, treacherously made to your
+                   predecessors; the deceit and hypocrisy of the
+                   enemy; and whatever the antagonist could with
+                   exquisite craftiness invent, by which they might
+                   entrap your noble spirit. Wherefore, since it
+                   becomes no one to possess knowledge more than a
+                   Prince, whose learning may be most beneficial to
+                   his subjects,--I, a poor and humble votary, offer
+                   (if it be your will) this volume to the inspection
+                   of your Highness; giving it the name of Ypodigma
+                   Neustriæ, because it especially portrays the events
+                   and falls of that country from the time of Rollo
+                   the first Duke down to the sixth year of your happy
+                   reign, which may God Almighty of his great mercy
+                   crown with peace, and preserve in all prosperity!
+                   Amen."]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.                                                       (p. 119)
+
+PREPARATIONS FOR INVADING FRANCE. -- REFLECTIONS ON THE MILITARY AND
+NAVAL STATE OF ENGLAND. -- MODE OF RAISING AND SUPPORTING AN ARMY. --
+SONG OF AGINCOURT. -- HENRY OF MONMOUTH THE FOUNDER OF THE ENGLISH
+ROYAL NAVY. -- CUSTOM OF IMPRESSING VESSELS FOR THE TRANSPORTING OF
+TROOPS. -- HENRY'S EXERTIONS IN SHIP-BUILDING. -- GRATITUDE DUE TO
+HIM. -- CONSPIRACY AT SOUTHAMPTON. -- PREVALENT DELUSION AS TO RICHARD
+II. -- THE EARL OF MARCH. -- HENRY'S FORCES. -- HE SAILS FOR NORMANDY.
+
+1415.
+
+PREPARATIONS FOR INVADING FRANCE.
+
+
+It is impossible for us to revert with never so cursory a glance to
+the departure of Henry of Monmouth from his native shores at the head
+of an armament intended to recover his alleged rights in France,
+without finding various questions suggesting themselves, both on the
+mode adopted for raising and embodying the men, and for transporting
+the troops and military stores, and all the accompaniments of an
+invading army. The Kings of England had then no standing army,     (p. 120)
+nor any permanent royal fleet.
+
+In the present volume we have often seen that on an emergence, such as
+an irruption of the Scots, or the necessity of resisting the Welsh
+more effectually, the sheriffs of different counties were commanded to
+array the able-bodied men within their jurisdiction, and join the
+royal standard by an appointed day; and, no doubt, many a motley, and
+ill-favoured, and ill-appointed company were seen in the sheriff's
+train. We have also been reminded with how great difficulty even these
+musters could be collected, and kept together, and marched to the
+place of rendezvous; and how seldom could they be brought in time to
+join in the engagement for which they were destined. We have
+repeatedly also learned that the nobles who would recommend themselves
+to the royal favour, or espoused heartily the cause in which they were
+engaged, headed their own retainers to the field, and made themselves
+responsible for their maintenance and pay. In the present case we have
+reason to believe that the army consisted mainly of volunteers; at
+least, that the principal persons in rank and fortune joined the
+King's standard without compulsion. A very lively and enthusiastic
+interest in the success of his expedition prevailed through the whole
+country; and the nobles redeemed their pledge, without grudging, that
+they would aid him in their persons. The pay of the army was       (p. 121)
+settled beforehand, at a fixed rate, from a duke downwards.[93]
+
+                   [Footnote 93: But though a person were a volunteer,
+                   yet if, after "making his muster," he failed in his
+                   duty, the punishment was both summary and severe.
+                   In a subsequent expedition of Henry, Hugh Annesley
+                   had made his muster in the company of Lord Grey of
+                   Codnor, and had received the King's pay from him,
+                   but tarried nevertheless in England. He was
+                   summoned before the council, and confessed his
+                   delinquency; his person was forthwith committed to
+                   the Fleet, and his estates seized into the King's
+                   hands.]
+
+Whether there is any foundation at all in fact for the tradition of
+Henry's resolution to take with him no married man or widow's son, the
+tradition itself bears such strong testimony to the general estimate
+of Henry's character for bravery at once and kindness of heart, that
+it would be unpardonable to omit every reference to it altogether. The
+song of Agincourt, in which it occurs, is unquestionably of ancient
+origin; probably written and sung within a very few years of the
+expedition.[94] Internal evidence would induce us to infer that it was
+composed before Henry's death, and just after his marriage with
+Katharine:
+
+  "The fairest flower in all France,
+  To the rose of England I give free."
+
+                   [Footnote 94: The song will be found in a note on
+                   our account of the battle of Agincourt.]
+
+The ballad, at all events, is among the earliest of our English songs,
+and was delivered down from father to son in the most distant      (p. 122)
+parts of the kingdom, when very few of those who preserved the national
+poetry from oblivion could read. This circumstance easily accounts for
+the many various readings which are found in different copies now,
+whilst these in their turn tend to establish the antiquity of the
+song. The admirable simplicity and true natural beauty of the verse
+will justify its repetition here, though it has already appeared in
+our title-page, when it ascribes to Henry the combination of valour
+and high resolve, with merciful considerateness and tender feeling for
+others. Be the authority for this reported restriction, imposed by
+Henry on those who were commissioned to recruit soldiers for his
+expedition, what it may, (let it be founded in fact, or in the
+imagination of the writer,) it bears that testimony to Henry's
+character,[95] which the whole current of authentic documents tends
+fully to establish. He was brave, and he was merciful.
+
+                   [Footnote 95: Should it occur to any one, that if
+                   in this case we allow the poet to have weight when
+                   he speaks of what reflects honour on Henry's name,
+                   we ought to assign the same credit to Shakspeare;
+                   when he tells us of madcap frolics and precocious
+                   dissipation, it must be remembered, that on testing
+                   the accuracy of Shakspeare by an appeal to history,
+                   we established a striking discrepancy between them;
+                   and that Shakspeare lived more than a century after
+                   the death of Henry; whereas we are led to regard
+                   this song of Agincourt as contemporary with the
+                   events which it celebrates; and its eulogy
+                   harmonizes in perfect accordance with what history
+                   might lead us to expect.]
+
+  "Go! call up Cheshire and Lancashire,                            (p. 123)
+  And Derby hills,[96] which are so free;
+  But neither married man, nor widow's son,--
+  No widow's curse shall go with me."
+
+                   [Footnote 96: Query, Are these counties especially
+                   mentioned as being more peculiarly Henry's own? He
+                   was Duke of Lancaster, and Earl of Chester and
+                   Derby.]
+
+Of the numbers who went with Henry to France various accounts are
+delivered down, and different calculations have been made. The song of
+Agincourt raises the sum of the "right good company" to "thirty
+thousand stout men and three:" and probably this total, embracing
+servants and attendants of every kind, is not at all an exaggeration
+of the number actually transported from England to Normandy; though,
+if by "stout men" we are to understand warriors able to handle the
+spear, the bow, the sword, and the battleaxe, we must not reckon them
+at more than one-third of that number.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The expedients which Henry found it necessary to adopt for the safe
+transportation of this armament, compel us to review, however briefly,
+the state and circumstances of English navigation at the period. The
+Author has already hazarded the opinion in his Preface, that Henry of
+Monmouth may with justice be regarded as the founder of the British
+navy; and he feels himself called upon to refer to some facts by which
+such a representation might seem to be countenanced. He gladly     (p. 124)
+acknowledges that the idea was first suggested to him by the
+publication of Sir Henry Ellis; whilst every subsequent research, and
+every additional fact, have tended to confirm and illustrate the same
+view.[97]
+
+                   [Footnote 97: Mr. James, in his Naval History of
+                   Great Britain, does not seem to have carried back
+                   his researches beyond the reign of Henry VIII, to
+                   whom he ascribes "the honour of having by his own
+                   prerogative, and at his sole expense, settled the
+                   constitution of the present royal navy." Much
+                   undoubtedly does the English navy owe to that
+                   monarch; but he would be more justly regarded as
+                   its restorer and especial benefactor, than its
+                   founder.]
+
+Though few subjects are more interesting, or more deserve the
+attention of our fellow-countrymen, yet it is confessedly beyond the
+province of these Memoirs to enter at any length upon a dissertation
+on the naval affairs of Great Britain. Since, however, if
+satisfactorily established, the fact will recommend the hero of
+Agincourt to the grateful remembrance of his father-land in a
+department of national strength and glory in which few of us have
+probably hitherto felt indebted to him, it is hoped that these brief
+remarks may not be deemed out of place.
+
+Unquestionably, many previous sovereigns of England had directed much
+of their thoughts to the maritime power of the country. From the time
+of Alfred himself, downwards, we may trace, at various intervals,
+evident marks of the measures adopted by our Kings and the legislature,
+and also by powerful individuals and merchant companies, to keep   (p. 125)
+up a succession of sea-worthy vessels, and mariners to man them. Two
+hundred years before the date of Henry's expedition, as early as the
+year 1212, King John seems to have established a sort of dry covered
+dock at Portsmouth for the preservation of ships and their rigging
+during the winter. But the very instances to which appeals have been
+made by various writers, to prove the antiquity of the naval force of
+South Britain, tend by their testimony to confirm the opinions we are
+here disposed to adopt. In every successive reign, the annals of which
+supply any information on the subject, the evidence is clear that the
+rulers of England did not contemplate the establishment of a fleet
+belonging to the nation as its own property. The tenures, moreover, by
+which many maritime towns held their charters, whilst they evince the
+importance attached to this department of an island's political power,
+coincide altogether with the view we are taking. The obligation, for
+example, under which the Cinque Ports lay of furnishing, whenever
+required, fifty ships, manned each with twenty-four mariners, for
+fifteen days, enabled the monarch indeed to calculate, from the
+fulfilment of such stipulated engagements, on a certain supply,
+adequate, it may be, to meet the usual demand; but at the same time it
+implied that he had no fleet of his own on which he could rely. Whilst
+the limited extent to which ships could be supplied by the most rigid
+exaction of the terms of those tenures compelled the state, on     (p. 126)
+any occasion when extraordinary efforts were requisite, to depend
+upon the varying and precarious supply produced by the system of
+impressment.[98]
+
+                   [Footnote 98: See Hardy's Introduction to the Close
+                   Rolls, and Lord Lyttelton's History of Henry II.]
+
+When Henry ascended the throne, he found still in full operation this
+old system of our maritime proceedings. Whenever, as we have seen, an
+occasion required the transport of a considerable body of men from our
+havens, or forces to be embarked for the protection of our shores and
+of our merchants, in addition to the contingent, which could be
+exacted from various chartered towns, the King's government was
+obliged either to hire ships from foreign countries, or to lay
+forcible hands by way of impressment on the vessels of his own
+subjects. A few instances, more or less closely connected with the
+immediate subject of our present inquiry, will serve to illustrate
+that point.
+
+When, for example, Henry's great grandfather Edward III. was preparing
+for the expedition, which he headed in person, intended to relieve
+Rochelle, his grandfather John of Gaunt, February 10, 1372, as we find
+by the records of the Duchy of Lancaster, commanded all his stewards
+in Wales to assist Walter de Wodeburgh, serjeant-at-arms, appointed by
+the King to arrest all ships of twenty tons' burden [and upwards?] for
+the passage of the King and his army to France, and to take        (p. 127)
+sufficient security that they be all ready by the 1st of May either at
+Southampton, Portsmouth, Hamel in the Rys, or Hamel Stoke.
+
+The records of the Privy Council (11 December, probably 1405,) supply
+us with an instance (one out of many) which shows, at the same time,
+the great injury which the public service sustained by this system,
+and the ruinous consequences which it was calculated to entail on the
+merchants and the owners of ships. Henry IV. had intended to proceed
+in person to Guienne; and for that purpose, with the advice of his
+council, had impressed all the ships westward. His voyage was
+deferred; but the ships were still, as they had been for a long time,
+under arrest. The masters had sent a deputation to him to implore some
+compensation for their great expenses,[99] and some means of support.
+Henry then wrote to the council, praying them [vous prions] to provide
+some help for these poor men; and to assure them that no long time
+would elapse before their services would be called for, since either
+himself or his representative would undertake the voyage. In the same
+letter he prayed the council also to write under his privy seal to the
+King of Portugal, to beg of him a supply of galleys, sufficient to
+enable him to resist the malice of his enemies the French, and to
+protect his land and his realm.
+
+                   [Footnote 99: "Par long temps a lour grantz
+                   custages et despenses."]
+
+We must not suppose that the French monarch found himself under    (p. 128)
+more favourable circumstances when he would prepare for any important
+affair on the sea. The same system of impressment and hiring was
+necessarily adopted in France. Thus we find, in 1417, when the French
+government resolved to make a powerful effort to crush the navy of
+England, the ships were first to be "hired, at a great sum of gold,
+from the state of Genoa." These mercenary vessels formed the fleet
+over which the Earl of Huntingdon gained a decided victory immediately
+before Henry's second expedition to France.
+
+Thus, too, (not to cite any more examples,) no sooner had Henry
+determined to assert his rights on the Continent, and to enforce them
+by the sword, than he despatched ambassadors to Zealand and Holland to
+negociate with the Duke of Holland for a supply of ships; doubtless
+assured that all which he could impress or hire in all his ports would
+not be sufficient for the safe transport of his troops, and "their
+furniture of war." But Henry's ardent and commanding mind soon saw how
+powerful an engine, both of defence and of conquest, would be found in
+a permanent royal navy, and how indispensable such an establishment
+was to any insular sovereign who desired to provide for his country
+the means of offering a bold front against aggression, protecting
+herself from insult, maintaining her rights, and taking a lead among
+the surrounding powers. He resolved, therefore, not to depend      (p. 129)
+upon the precarious and unsatisfactory expedients either of hiring
+vessels, which would never be his own, (in a market, too, where his
+enemy might forestal him, and where his necessities would enhance the
+price,) or of compelling his merchants to leave their trading, and
+minister to the emergence of the state, at their own inevitable loss,
+and not improbable ruin. His immediate determination was to spare
+neither labour nor expense in providing a navy of his own, such as
+would be ever ready at the sovereign's command to protect the coast,
+to sweep the seas of those hordes of pirates which then infested them,
+and to bear his forces with safety and credit to any distant shores.
+He thus thought he should best secure his own ports and provinces from
+foreign invasion; afford a safeguard to his own merchants, and to
+those traders who would traffic with his people; and generally make
+England a more formidable antagonist and a more respected neighbour.
+
+This new line of policy he adopted very early in his reign. Whilst he
+was at Southampton, (at the date of this digression, on his first
+expedition to Normandy,) we find him superintending the building of
+various large ships: and, two years afterwards, when news reached him
+of the victory gained by his brother the Duke of Bedford over the
+French fleet off Harfleur, the tidings found him making the most
+effectual means for securing future victories; he was at Smalhithe in
+Kent, personally superintending the building of some ships to      (p. 130)
+add to his own royal navy, then only in its infancy.[100]
+
+                   [Footnote 100: The Pell Rolls record the payment of
+                   a pension which bears testimony to the interest
+                   taken by Henry in his infant navy, and to the
+                   kindness with which he rewarded those who had
+                   faithfully served him. The pension is stated to
+                   have been given "to John Hoggekyns,
+                   master-carpenter, of special grace, because by long
+                   working at the ships his body was much shaken and
+                   worsted."]
+
+Nor did he confine his labours in this great work to England; he
+employed also his Continental resources in forwarding the same object.
+A letter from one John Alcestre, from Bayonne,[101] informs us of a
+ship of very considerable dimensions then on the stocks at that port,
+for the building of which the mayor and "his consorts" had contracted
+with Henry. The vessel was one hundred and eighty-six feet in length
+from "the onmost end of the stem onto the post behind." "The stem" was
+in height ninety-six feet, and the keel was in length one hundred and
+twelve feet.
+
+                   [Footnote 101: Ellis, Second Series, Letter XXI.]
+
+Henry appears also to have acquired the reputation in foreign
+countries of having a desire to possess large vessels of his own. An
+agent in Spain, for example, after informing one of the King's
+officers in England of his unsuccessful endeavour to cause to be
+seized for the King's use four armed galleys of Provence, expected to
+enter the port of Valencia, and which the King of Arragon's government
+had consented to arrest for Henry, but which disappointed them     (p. 131)
+by not coming to land, mentions that two new carraks (a species of
+large transport vessel) were in building "at Bartholem," which the
+King might have if he pleased.
+
+The high importance which Henry attached to these rising bulwarks of
+his country shows itself in various ways; in none more curious and
+striking than (a fact, it is presumed, new to history,) in the solemn
+religious ceremony with which they were consecrated before he
+committed them to the mighty waters. One of the highest order of the
+Christian ministry was employed, and similar devotions were performed
+at the dedication of one of the royal "great ships," as we should find
+in the consecration of a cathedral. They were called also by some of
+the holiest of all names ever uttered by Christians.[102] Thus, on the
+completion of the good ship the Grace-Dieu at Southampton, the
+"venerable father in Christ, the Bishop of Bangor,"[103] was
+commissioned by the King's council to proceed from London at the
+public expense to consecrate it.
+
+                   [Footnote 102: When he sailed from Southampton in
+                   his first expedition to France, he went on board
+                   his own good ship, the Trinity:
+
+                         "But the grandest ship of all that went,
+                         Was that in which our good King sailed."
+                                                         _Old Ballad._]
+
+                   [Footnote 103: Pell Rolls, 16 July 1418.]
+
+When Henry of Monmouth died, the navy of England was doubtless yet in
+its infancy;[104] but it owed its existence as a permanent royal   (p. 132)
+establishment to him. We cannot look back on that "day of small
+things" without feelings of admiration and gratitude; nor now that we
+seem, for a time at least, free from the danger of foreign invasion,
+must we forget that, in the late tremendous struggle which swept away
+the monarchies and the liberties of Europe in one resistless flood, to
+our navy, which had grown with the growth of our country, and
+strengthened with her strength, our native land may, under the
+blessing of Heaven, have been indebted for its continuance in freedom
+and independence. Of those wooden walls of Old England, as a royal
+establishment based on systematic principles, Henry of Monmouth was
+undoubtedly the founder.
+
+                   [Footnote 104: Among the preparations for bringing
+                   Henry's corpse with all the solemn pomp which an
+                   admiring, grateful, and mourning nation could
+                   provide, all ships and vessels on the east coast
+                   were impressed, and sent to Calais.--Pell Rolls,
+                   Sept. 26, 1422.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Whilst Henry was engaged at Southampton in personally superintending
+the preparations for invading France, an event occurred well fitted to
+fill him equally with surprise, and indignation, and sorrow. A
+conspiracy against his crown and his life was brought to light, which
+had been formed by three in his company against whom he could have
+entertained no suspicions: Richard of York, whom he had created Earl
+of Cambridge; Henry Lord Scrope, the treasurer; and Sir Thomas Grey of
+Heton. The Rolls of Parliament, containing the authentic record    (p. 133)
+of the proceedings consequent upon the discovery, and the original
+letters of the Earl of Cambridge, leave no question as to the designs
+of the conspirators. Some doubts may exist as to their motives:
+whether they were influenced singly by a generous resolution to
+restore the crown to its alleged rightful heir,[105] or by some less
+honourable and more selfish feeling;[106] whether by any offence taken
+against Henry, or, as it is alleged, by the vast bribe offered to them
+by the crown of France; or whether by more than one of these motives
+combined, must remain a matter of conjecture. We cannot, perhaps, be
+certified of the means by which Henry became acquainted with the plot,
+nor if, as we are told, he was informed of it by the Earl of March
+himself, can we ascertain beyond doubt how large or how small a share
+that nobleman had in the previous deliberations and resolutions of the
+conspirators. Whether he first consented to their design of        (p. 134)
+setting him up as king, and then repented of so ungrateful an act
+towards one who had behaved to him with so much kindness and
+confidence, or whether he instantly took the resolve to nip this
+treason in the bud, no documents enable us to decide. If the Earl of
+Cambridge's confession be the truth, the Earl of March at one time was
+himself consenting to the plot.
+
+                   [Footnote 105: To suppose that this conspiracy
+                   could have originated, as it has been lately
+                   (Turner's History) suggested, in "the resisting
+                   spirit which Henry's religious persecutions
+                   occasioned, and which led some to wish for another
+                   sovereign," is altogether gratuitous, and contrary
+                   to fact. He was not carrying on religious
+                   persecution, and no resisting spirit on that ground
+                   had manifested itself at all.]
+
+                   [Footnote 106: Richard of Coningsburg, second son
+                   of Edmund of Langley, Duke of York, fifth son of
+                   Edward III, was high in favour with Henry V, who
+                   created him Earl of Cambridge in the second year of
+                   his reign. He married Ann, daughter of Roger
+                   Mortimer, Earl of March, whose son Richard (aged
+                   fourteen in the third year of Henry V,) was heir to
+                   Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March. Leland says, that
+                   the "main design of the Earl of Cambridge's
+                   conspiracy was to raise Edmund Mortimer, Earl of
+                   March, to the throne, as heir to Lionel, Duke of
+                   Clarence; and then, in case that Earl had no child,
+                   the right would come to the Earl of Cambridge's
+                   wife, (sister to the same Edmund,) and to her
+                   issue, as it afterwards did; and this is most
+                   likely to be true, whatever hath been otherwise
+                   reported."--Lel. Coll. i. 701.]
+
+On the 21st of July a commission was appointed, consisting of the
+Earl Marshal, two of the judges,[107] six lords, and Sir Thomas
+Erpingham, to try the conspirators: and the sheriff of the county was
+ordered to summon a jury, who assembled at Southampton on the 2nd of
+August, and found as their verdict, that, on the 20th of July, the
+Earl of Cambridge and Sir Thomas Grey had traitorously conspired to
+collect a body of armed men, to conduct Edmund Earl of March to    (p. 135)
+the frontiers of Wales, and to proclaim him the rightful heir to
+the crown, in case Richard II. were actually dead, against the
+pretensions of the King, whom they intended to style "the Usurper of
+England;" that they purposed to destroy the King and his brothers,
+with other nobles of the land; and that Lord Scrope consented to the
+said treasonable designs, and concealed them from the King.
+
+                   [Footnote 107: To one of these, Robert Hull, the
+                   payment of one hundred marks was ordered to be
+                   made, February 7, 1418, for lately holding his
+                   sessions in South Wales; and also for his trouble
+                   and expenses in delivering the gaol at Southampton
+                   of Richard Earl of Cambridge, Henry Lord Scrope,
+                   and Thomas Grey, Knight, there for treason adjudged
+                   and put to death.]
+
+Lord Scrope denied having consented to the death of the King, or
+having had any communication with the other conspirators on that
+point; and he declared that he had communicated with them on the other
+points solely to possess himself of a knowledge of their designs in
+order to frustrate them. He then pleaded his peerage, and his right to
+be tried by his peers.
+
+Sentence of death in the usual manner was passed upon Grey; but the
+King having, by a most rare instance of mercy in those days, remitted
+that part of the sentence which directed him to be drawn on a hurdle
+and hung, he was allowed to walk through the town to the Northgate,
+and was there immediately beheaded. On Monday, August 5, the Duke of
+Clarence presided in a court of the peers, who, having satisfied
+themselves by carefully examining the record of the conviction of the
+prisoners, Scrope and Cambridge, adjudged them to death. They were
+both executed within a few hours of this judgment. The head of Scrope
+was ordered to be affixed on one of the gates of York and the      (p. 136)
+head of Grey to be stuck up at Newcastle upon Tyne, to mark the baseness
+of their ingratitude, who had enjoyed so closely the confidence and
+friendship of Henry.[108]
+
+                   [Footnote 108: The King's writ, dated Southampton,
+                   8th of August, orders "the head of Henry Lescrop de
+                   Masham to be stuck up at York, and the head of
+                   Thomas Grey de Heton to be stuck up at Newcastle
+                   upon Tyne."--Close Roll, 3 Henry V. m. 16.]
+
+Nothing is recorded officially of any bribe from France, but the fact
+of "one million of gold" having been promised as the wages of their
+treason is asserted by historians. "These lords, for lucre of money,"
+(to use the words of a manuscript[109] apparently contemporary with
+the event,) "had made promise to the Frenchmen to have slayne King
+Henry and all his worthy brethren by a false trayne [treason?]
+suddenly or they had beware. But Almighty God, of his great grace,
+held his holy hand over them, and saved them from this perilous meyne
+[band]. And for to have done this they received of the Frenchmen a
+million of gold, and that was there proved openly."
+
+                   [Footnote 109: Cotton MS. Claudius A. viii. 2.]
+
+As to the guilt or innocence of the Earl of March himself, no proof
+can be drawn from the fact of his having obtained a full and free
+pardon[110] a few days after the event. "Such pardons" (as Dr. Lingard
+rightly observes) "were frequently solicited by the innocent as a
+measure of precaution to defeat the malice and prevent the         (p. 137)
+accusations of their enemies." Sir Harris Nicolas indeed suggests,
+"that it would be difficult to show an instance in which they were
+granted in favour of a person who was not strongly suspected, or who
+had not purchased them at the expense of his accomplices." But it
+requires little more than a cursory glance at our authentic records to
+be assured that Dr. Lingard's view is the more correct. Take, for
+example, the pardon granted in 1412 to the Archbishop of Canterbury,
+and couched in almost the same words. There is indeed in this pardon a
+clause very different from the pardon of the Earl of March; but it is
+a difference which only tends to establish this point, that the
+pardons in many cases were _formal_, and altogether independent of the
+guilt or innocence of the party. The Archbishop (Arundel) is pardoned
+for all treasons, felonies, and so forth, excepting some outrageous
+crimes of which he was never suspected; and also provided he was not
+then lying in prison as a felon convict, or as an adherent to Owyn
+Glyndowr. Many such instances occur.[111]
+
+                   [Footnote 110: His pardon is dated 8th August.]
+
+                   [Footnote 111: Some of the best antiquaries of the
+                   present day are disposed to pronounce, that a
+                   pardon was never granted, unless there had existed
+                   some cause of suspicion or offence,--something, in
+                   short, which might have involved in trouble the
+                   individual for whom the pardon was obtained.]
+
+On this sad subject two original letters are preserved, addressed to
+Henry by the Earl of Cambridge; they are found among the "Original
+Letters" published by Sir Henry Ellis, accompanied, as is          (p. 138)
+usual[112] in his valuable collection, by a succinct and clear
+statement of such facts as may be necessary for their elucidation. The
+first contains the Earl's confession; whether written before or after
+his trial, is not evident. The second sues for mercy, probably after
+the jury had returned their verdict; it may be even after the sentence
+was passed by the peers, though a very short portion of a day elapsed
+between that sentence and his execution.
+
+                   [Footnote 112: (Ellis, Second Series, vol. i. p.
+                   44.) "This conspiracy was the first spark of the
+                   flame which in the course of time consumed the two
+                   houses of Lancaster and York. Richard Earl of
+                   Cambridge was the father of Richard Duke of York,
+                   and the grandfather of King Edward IV."]
+
+It is curious to learn, from the first of these letters, that even
+down to the year of Henry's first expedition to France, the people
+were from time to time deluded by rumours that Richard II. was still
+alive. The Earl of Cambridge acknowledged that the conspirators
+intended to set up the Earl of March, "taking upon him the sovereignty
+of this land, if yonder man's person, which they call King Richard,
+had not been alive, as I wot well that he is not alive." He confessed,
+also, a guilty knowledge of a conspiracy to "bring in that person
+which they named King Richard, and Harry Percy out of Scotland, with a
+power of Scots."
+
+Another very curious fact is alleged in this document, interesting in
+more points than one. It shows what a powerful engine in those     (p. 139)
+days was the _Confessional_; and it proves also that, though Henry
+has been called the King of Priests, there were some of the sacred
+order in high station who were bent on his overthrow. Cambridge
+declares that both the Earl of March and his man Lusy had assured him
+that the Earl "was not shriven of a great while [had not attended the
+priests for the purposes of confession] without his confessors, on
+every occasion, putting him in penance to claim what they called his
+right." His confessors would not absolve him without imposing upon
+him, by way of penance, this condition, that he should claim his right
+to the crown.
+
+     LETTER OF CONFESSION FROM THE EARL OF CAMBRIDGE.
+
+     My most dreadful and sovereign liege Lord, like to your Highness
+     to wit [please your Highness to know] touching the purpose cast
+     against your high estate. Having the Earl of March, by his own
+     assent, and by the assent of myself, whereof I most me repent of
+     all worldly things; and by the accord of Lord Scrope and Sir
+     Thomas Grey, to have had the aforesaid Earl in the land of Wales
+     without your licence, taking upon him the sovereignty of this
+     land, if yonder man's person, which they call King Richard, had
+     not been alive, as I wot well that he is not alive;[113] for  (p. 140)
+     which point I put me wholly in your grace. And as for the form
+     of a proclamation which should have been cried in the Earl's
+     name as the heir to the crown of England against you, my liege
+     Lord, called by untrue name Harry of Lancaster, usurper of
+     England, to the intent to have made the more people to have drawn
+     to him and from you; of the which cry Scrope knew not of as from
+     me, but Grey did; having with the Earl a banner of the arms of
+     England, having also the crown of Spain on a pallet, which, my
+     liege Lord, is one of your weddys, for the which offence I put me
+     wholly in your grace. And as for the purpose taken by Umfrevyle
+     and Wederyngtoun for the bringing in of that person which they
+     named King Richard, and Herry Percy, out of Scotland, with a
+     power of Scots, and their power together seeming to them able to
+     give you a battle, of the which intent Sir Thomas Grey wist of,
+     but not Scrope as by me; of the which knowing I submit me wholly
+     into your grace. And as for the taking of your castles in Wales,
+     Davy Howell made me be host, so there were a stirring in the
+     North; of the which point I put me wholly in your grace. And as
+     touching the Earl of March and Lusy his man, they said me both,
+     that the Earl was not shriven of a great while, but at all his
+     confessors put him in penance to claim that they called his   (p. 141)
+     right, that would be that time that every iknew anything that
+     ever to him longed.... [The MS. is here imperfect.] Of the which
+     points and articles here before written, and of all other which
+     now are not in my mind, but truly as often as any to my mind
+     fallen I shall duly and truly certify you thereof; beseeching to
+     you, my liege Lord, for His love that suffered passion on the
+     Good Friday, so have ye compassion on me, your liege man; and if
+     any of these persons, whose names are contained in this bill,
+     holden contrary the substance of that I have written at this
+     time, I shall be ready with the might of God to make it good, as
+     ye, my liege Lord, will award me.
+
+                   [Footnote 113: The extraordinary prevalence of an
+                   opinion that Richard was still alive and in
+                   Scotland, has already been noticed. The Chronicle
+                   of England informs us of some particulars relative
+                   to the means by which the reports concerning him
+                   were propagated, and the prompt, severe, and
+                   decisive measures adopted by the King and his
+                   supporters for suppressing them. "And at this time
+                   (5 Henry IV.) Serle, yeoman of King Richard, came
+                   into England out of Scotland, and told to divers
+                   people that King Richard was alive in Scotland, and
+                   so much people believed in his words. Wherefore a
+                   great part of the people of the realm were in great
+                   error and grudging against the King, through
+                   information of lies and false leasing that this
+                   Serle had made. But at the last he was taken in the
+                   North country, and by law was judged to be drawn
+                   through every city and good burgh town in England,
+                   and was afterwards hanged at Tyburn and quartered."
+                   It is also certain that many members of the
+                   monastic orders were executed for spreading similar
+                   reports. See Nichols' Leicester, vol. i. p. 368.]
+
+     LETTER OF THE EARL OF CAMBRIDGE, SUING FOR MERCY.
+
+     My most dreadful and sovereign liege Lord, I, Richard York, your
+     humble subject and very liege man, beseech you of grace of all
+     manner offenses which I have done or assented to in any kind, by
+     stirring of other folk egging me thereto, wherein I wot well I
+     han ill offended to your Highness; beseeching you at the
+     reverence of God, that you like to take me into the hands of your
+     merciful and piteous grace, thinking ye well of your great
+     goodness. My liege Lord, my full trust is that ye will have
+     consideration, though that my person be of no value, your high
+     goodness, where God hath set you in so high estate to every liege
+     man that to you longeth plenteously to give grace, that you like
+     to accept this mine simple request for the love of Our Lady and
+     the blissful Holy Ghost, to whom I pray that they might your
+     heart induce to all pity and grace for their high goodness.
+
+Henry having taken every precaution for the preservation of his people
+at home, as well against foreign designs as against disturbers of the
+peace within the realm, left Porchester Castle on the 7th of       (p. 142)
+August, with the intention of superintending in person the embarkation
+of his troops. This seems to have occupied him to the 10th, when he
+went on board the "Royal Trinity," and immediately gave signal for the
+ships to join him from the different stations in which they were
+awaiting his command. The fleet consisted of about thirteen hundred
+vessels of very different sizes, varying from twenty to three hundred
+tons' burden. Probably, reckoning servants, attendants of every kind,
+as well as fighting men, this fleet transported to the shores of
+France not less than thirty thousand persons. Of these there were only
+about two thousand five hundred men-at-arms, four thousand
+horse-archers, four thousand foot-archers, and one thousand gunners,
+miners, masons, smiths, with others. The whole amount of fighting men,
+according to this calculation, does not exceed eleven thousand five
+hundred. The expedition sailed with a favourable wind on Sunday,
+August 11, 1415.[114]
+
+                   [Footnote 114: It was shortly before he left London
+                   on this expedition that Henry made that grant (to
+                   which reference was made in the early part of our
+                   first volume) of 20_l._ per annum on Joan Waring,
+                   his nurse.--Rol. Pat. 3 Henry V. m. 13. It is dated
+                   June 5th.]
+
+Every document, probably, now known relative to this expedition, has
+been examined by Sir Harris Nicolas; and to his able digest of the
+facts relating to this part of Henry's proceedings the reader is
+referred for the more minute details.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.                                                      (p. 143)
+
+HENRY CROSSES THE SEA: LANDS AT CLEF DE CAUS: LAYS SIEGE TO HARFLEUR.
+-- DEVOTED ATTENDANCE ON HIS DYING FRIEND THE BISHOP OF NORWICH. --
+VAST TREASURE FALLS INTO HIS HANDS ON THE SURRENDER OF HARFLEUR. -- HE
+CHALLENGES THE DAUPHIN. -- FUTILE MODERN CHARGE BROUGHT AGAINST HIM ON
+THAT GROUND.
+
+1415.
+
+
+From this time Henry's is the life rather of a general than of a King.
+His successive battles, and sieges, and victories throw but
+occasionally more or new light on his character; and it is not within
+the limits of these Memoirs to describe his military achievements, or
+to enter upon a detailed examination of his campaigns, except so far
+only as the events elucidate his character, or as a knowledge of them
+may be necessary for a fuller acquaintance with his life. Many
+circumstances of this kind occur between the day when he quitted his
+port of Southampton, and the hour which terminated his brief but
+eventful career on earth. The enemies of his fair fame cite some one
+or other of those transactions to prove him a mass of ambition,
+superstition, and cruelty. It will be the reader's part to decide  (p. 144)
+for himself whether the facts in evidence bear out those charges, or
+whether a more equitable judgment would not rather pronounce him to be
+a man who, in the midst of a most exciting and distracting career,
+never forgot the principles of piety, justice, and mercy. To attest
+his valour we need summon no evidence; though even in that point,
+which the universal voice of Europe had pronounced to be unassailable,
+his challenge to the Dauphin has been cited by one author as an act
+that must tarnish his character. The justness of the reflection we
+shall weigh hereafter. Of licentiousness after his accession to the
+throne his enemies themselves have never ventured to whisper a
+suspicion.
+
+As Henry's fleet was leaving his native shores, two incidents are said
+to have occurred of opposite omen, such as in those days of
+superstition were wont to exercise powerful influence over the minds
+of men far removed from the lowest ranks of the people. Swans were
+seen swimming gaily and fearlessly around the ships, as if hailing
+them on their own watery element; and their appearance was noted as a
+happy and encouraging auspice. On the other hand, a fire broke out in
+one of the large ships before Henry sailed, which did considerable
+damage among the vessels, not without loss of many lives; and this was
+deemed an omen of such dire portent, that many of the King's followers
+would have dissuaded him from persevering in his expedition.
+
+Henry's was a pious, but not a religiously timid or superstitious  (p. 145)
+mind; and, unaffected by this incident, or the entreaties of his
+friends, he proceeded on his voyage forthwith, and on Friday, August
+13, at five o'clock in the afternoon, he entered the mouth of the
+Seine, and anchored at a place called Clef de Caus,[115] between
+Honfleur and Harfleur, three miles from the latter town. He landed his
+forces without opposition; and, on coming on shore himself, he knelt
+down, and prayed to Almighty God to prosper his just cause.[116]
+
+                   [Footnote 115: At the place also where he encamped,
+                   he solemnly celebrated the festival of the
+                   Assumption [so called] of the Virgin Mary, a feast
+                   observed, in the countries on the Continent in
+                   communion with Rome, with great rejoicings and
+                   religious ceremonies, in the present day.]
+
+                   [Footnote 116: See Chronicler A, and St. Remy, p.
+                   82, quoted in Nicolas' Agincourt.]
+
+Henry resolved on laying siege to Harfleur, the inhabitants of which
+seemed equally determined to resist him. The siege of Harfleur, which
+commenced on Sunday, August 18, is described with great minuteness by
+several writers. His brother, the Duke of Clarence, appears to have
+held the most prominent place among Henry's officers; and much praise
+is ascribed to him for his prowess and military talent. Every mode of
+attack and defence then reckoned among martial tactics was carried out
+on both sides.
+
+In addition, however, to the wonted privations and hardships of a
+protracted siege, the English host was visited by a violent        (p. 146)
+disease, which spread rapidly through every grade of the army,
+unsparingly thinning its ranks and carrying off its officers, and
+threatening annihilation to the whole body. Whilst this calamity was
+raging at its height, and making dreadful havoc among the soldiery, an
+incident is recorded to have taken place, to which the mind gladly
+turns from the din and turmoil of the siege, and the devastations of
+that fatal scourge; and though the scene is itself the chamber of
+death, we cannot but feel a melancholy satisfaction in contemplating
+it for a while. An ecclesiastic, who was present in the camp, and in
+attendance on his royal master, records the anecdote in the most
+casual manner,[117] without a word of admiration or remark to call our
+attention to it, as though he were relating a circumstance of no
+unusual occurrence, and such merely as those who knew his master might
+hear of without surprise; whilst few pages of history bear to any
+monarch more beautiful and affecting evidence of habitual kindness of
+heart, pure sympathy with a suffering fellow-creature, and devoted
+fulfilment of the dearest offices of friendship. Whilst Richard
+Courtenay, Bishop of Norwich, one of the victims of the dysentery, was
+lingering in the agonies of death, we find Henry in the midst of his
+besieging army, at the height of a very severe struggle, war and
+disease raging on every side,--not in a council of his officers,   (p. 147)
+planning the operations of to-morrow,--nor on his couch, giving his
+body and mind repose from the fatigues and excitement of his opening
+campaign,--but we see him on his knees at the death-bed of a dying
+minister of religion, joining in the offices of the church so long as
+the waning spirit could partake of its consolations; and then not
+commissioning others, however faithful representatives they might have
+been, to act in his stead, but by his own hands soothing the
+sufferings of the dying prelate, and striving to make the struggle of
+his latter moments less bitter. Had Henry visited the tent of the good
+Bishop when he first knew of his malady, and charged any of his
+numerous retinue to pay especial attention to his wants and comforts,
+it would have been regarded, at such an hour of pressing emergence, as
+an act worthy of a Christian King. But Henry, who in no department of
+his public duties ever willingly deputed to others what he could
+personally attend to himself, carried the same principle into the
+exercise of the charities of private life; and has here left a pattern
+of Christian sympathy and lowliness of mind, of genuine philanthropy,
+and the sincere affection of true friendship, worthy of prince and
+peasant alike to imitate. Bishop Courtenay is said to have been among
+Henry's chosen friends, recommended to him by the singular qualities
+of his head and his heart. He was a person (we are told) endowed with
+intellectual and moral excellences of a very high character;       (p. 148)
+and Henry knew how to appreciate the value, and cultivate the friendship,
+of such a man. Having enjoyed the satisfaction and benefit of his
+society in life, now, when he was on the point of quitting this world
+for ever, Henry never withdrew from his bed; but, watching him with
+tender anxiety till the ministers of religion had solemnized the last
+rite according to the prevailing practice of the church in those days,
+even then, "in his own person," he continued to supply the wants of
+sinking mortality, "with his own hands[118] wiping the chilled feet"
+of his dying friend. The manuscript proceeds to say, that, when life
+was extinct, with pious regard for his memory, Henry caused his body
+to be conveyed to England, and to be honourably buried among the royal
+corpses in Westminster.
+
+                   [Footnote 117: Sloane MS. 1776.]
+
+                   [Footnote 118: A very curious turn has been given
+                   inadvertently to this circumstance by the
+                   translation of the ecclesiastic's sentence, and the
+                   comment upon it, now found in the Appendix to the
+                   "Battle of Agincourt." "Rege præsente, pedes ejus
+                   tergente post extremam unctionem propriis
+                   manibus,"--words which can only be translated so as
+                   to represent the King, "after extreme unction,
+                   wiping the feet" of the Bishop,--the Editor of that
+                   work, by the careless blunder of an amanuensis, or
+                   some unaccountable accident, is made to render by
+                   the strange sentence, "_covering_ his feet _with_
+                   extreme unction;" and he is then led, as a comment
+                   upon that text, to observe, that "the Bishop
+                   received from Henry's own hand the last offices of
+                   _religion_." Extreme unction, the last of the seven
+                   sacraments of the see of Rome, was administered
+                   doubtless by an attendant priest.]
+
+Three days after this prelate's death, on Wednesday, September 18th,
+an agreement to surrender on the following Sunday was entered      (p. 149)
+into; the inhabitants of the town pledging themselves by a most solemn
+oath to abide by the terms of the agreement. The ceremony on this
+occasion must have had a very imposing effect. The King's chaplain,
+Benedict Bishop of Bangor, in his pontifical dress, carried the
+consecrated Host to the walls of the town, preceded by thirty-two
+chaplains, each in full canonicals, and attended by as many esquires,
+one of whom bore a lighted taper before each priest. As soon as the
+parties were sworn on the elements, the townsmen were assured that
+they need fear no acts of wrong or violence, for the King wished
+rather to preserve than to destroy his own territory.
+
+On Sunday, September 22, the town was surrendered with much solemn
+state into Henry's hands. At the appointed hour, Henry, being dressed
+in the robes of royalty, ascended a throne erected under a silk
+pavilion on the top of the hill opposite to the town. All his peers
+and great men were assembled around him. "Our King"[119] (says a
+writer who was probably an eye-witness) "sat in his estate as royal as
+did ever any King; and, as it is said, there never was a Christian
+King so royal, neither so lordly, sat in his seat as did he." From
+this seat to the town a passage was formed by the English soldiers,
+through which the late governor, Sir Lionel Braquemont, the Lord de
+Gaucourt, and others, with the Host borne before them, attended by (p. 150)
+those who had sworn to observe the treaty, and by thirty-four of the
+chief inhabitants, passed to Henry's presence, "who forgave them their
+injustice in keeping his own town from him; and, having hospitably
+entertained them, dismissed them courteously." Thus fell into Henry's
+hand one of the most important towns of Normandy, after a siege of
+about thirty-six days, during which the zeal and valour of the
+assailants and the besieged were equally displayed.[120]
+
+                   [Footnote 119: Cotton MS. Cleopatra, C. iv. f. 24.]
+
+                   [Footnote 120: Monstrelet informs us that the
+                   treasure found by Henry at Harfleur was immense. A
+                   letter to Henry from two of his officers,
+                   "_counters of your receipt_," specifies that they
+                   were then in possession for the King of treasure to
+                   this amount: of coined gold, 30,000_l._; in silver
+                   coined, 1,000,000_l._; and in wedges of silver,
+                   drawing by estimation to half a ton weight; at the
+                   same time desiring to receive instructions as to
+                   the mode of conveying it to Rouen. This letter,
+                   dated 19th of May, must belong to the year 1419, in
+                   the January of which Rouen was taken.--Ellis's
+                   Letters, xxvi.]
+
+On the following day Henry entered the town, dismounting at the gate,
+and walking barefoot to St. Martin's church, in which he gave solemn
+thanks to God for his success. He then commanded all the women and
+children, and the disabled, to be separated from those who had sworn
+allegiance to him, as well as from those who, having refused that
+oath, were regarded as prisoners. The persons thus separated were next
+day sent out of the town, to the number of nearly two thousand, loudly
+lamenting their fate. They were escorted by the English; and all   (p. 151)
+persons belonging to the church, and the women and children, had a
+present of five sous for their journey, and were permitted to dress
+themselves in their best apparel, and carry each a moderate bundle
+with them. It was forbidden to search the priests, and also the heads
+or the bosoms of the women. At St. Aubon, about four miles from
+Harfleur, they were entreated to refresh themselves with bread and
+cheese and wine; at Lislebone the Marshal Boucicault received them,
+and they were forwarded by water to Rouen. At Henry's invitation, many
+tradesmen and others came over from England, and became inhabitants of
+Harfleur; the King, with the desire of strengthening the place, having
+guaranteed, by a proclamation through England, a house of inheritance
+to all who would settle there.
+
+About this time Henry sent a message to the Dauphin, challenging him
+to single combat, and so to decide the dreadful struggle in which the
+two kingdoms were engaged, without the further effusion of blood.
+Occasion has been taken to reflect on this act of Henry's, as a stain
+both on his personal valour and on his principles of justice: the
+first, because he was twenty-seven years old, and the Dauphin not
+twenty; the latter, because it were unjust "to expect that so
+important a stake should be hazarded on the result of such a meeting."
+To enhance Henry's guilt of cowardice, we are told that he challenged
+"a mere youth, of whose prowess or bodily strength there is not    (p. 152)
+the slightest evidence, and who died _in the December following_."
+This is not the first time we have had occasion to remark on this same
+writer's injustice towards Henry's memory. Why mention the Dauphin's
+death in the following December, except to insinuate that Henry _knew_
+he was then in a weak state of bodily health? Of this, however, there
+is not the shadow of reason for suspecting Henry. On the contrary, the
+evidence tends to the directly opposite conclusion. The Dauphin died
+on the 25th December following; but so sudden was his decease, that a
+suspicion was excited of his having been poisoned. He had for a long
+time been actively engaged in heading one of the contending parties in
+France, and he is reported to have been a bold and presumptuous
+prince.[121] And, even a month after the battle of Agincourt, we find
+him, apparently in full strength both of body and mind, exercising the
+authority of the King, his father, in Paris; vigorously and
+effectually resisting the entrance of the Duke of Burgundy, who
+marched with his army direct to the gates of that city, determined to
+force for himself an entrance into it. And, on his father's relapsing
+into his malady, he vigorously seized the government, setting the Duke
+of Orleans at defiance, and carrying off the King, his father, ill as
+he was, to the siege of Arras.[122] Whether the difference of      (p. 153)
+age between these two young warriors is so great as to justify such
+strong reflections on Henry's courage, must be left to the judgment of
+impartial minds. But, when the Dauphin is called a mere youth, it must
+be borne in mind that he was considerably older than Henry was when he
+headed his father's troops in Wales, or fought so gallantly in the
+field of Shrewsbury.
+
+                   [Footnote 121: Abrégé Historique.]
+
+                   [Footnote 122: Ibid. p. 114.]
+
+But we must not let this charge, affecting Henry's valour and justice,
+be dismissed without observing that not only did Henry believe, but it
+was the universal belief of the age, that "trial by battle" was a
+proper way of ending a dispute, and one acceptable to God: one in
+which the justice of the quarrel decided, more than the strength or
+skill of the combatants. We have proved that there could have been no
+grounds for Henry's supposing that he was sending a challenge to a
+youth enervated by sickness; and the difference of age alleged now, at
+length, in disparagement of Henry's valour, would have been scouted by
+all the good knights of Christendom, had it been pleaded as an apology
+for the Dauphin declining the challenge. Surely it indicates a
+conviction that the points in which the character of a man, famed for
+bravery and justice, is assailable, are few and unimportant, when such
+frivolous attacks as this are made on his fair fame.
+
+HENRY'S CHALLENGE TO THE DAUPHIN may be thus translated:--         (p. 154)
+
+     Henry, by the grace of God, King of France and England, Lord of
+     Ireland, to the high and mighty Prince, the Dauphin of Vienne,
+     our cousin, eldest son of the most mighty Prince, our cousin and
+     adversary of France. Whereas, from reverence to God, and to avoid
+     the shedding of human blood, we have many times and in many ways
+     followed and sought for peace, and have not been able to possess
+     it, yet our desire to secure it increases more and more; and well
+     considering that our wars are followed by the death of men, the
+     destruction of countries, the wailings of women and children, and
+     so many evils generally as every good Christian must lament and
+     pity, especially ourselves, whom this affair most affects, as it
+     does, to take all pains and diligence to find every means within
+     our knowledge to avoid the above-mentioned evils and distresses,
+     and to acquire the grace of God and the praise of the world. And,
+     since we have thought and advised, it has seemed to us,
+     considering it has pleased God to visit our cousin with
+     infirmity, that the remedy rests upon us and you. And to the end
+     that every one might know that we withdraw not ourselves from it,
+     nor from our part in it, we offer you to put our whole quarrel,
+     with God's grace, between our person and yours. And if it should
+     seem to you that you cannot agree to this, because of the
+     interest which you conceive our cousin, your father, has in it,
+     we declare to you in this our intention, that if you will
+     entertain it, and engage in it, we are well pleased that our said
+     cousin, for our reverence to God, and because he is a sacred
+     person, shall have and enjoy all he has at present for the term
+     of his life, whatever shall happen by the will of God between us
+     and you, as it shall be agreed between his council, ours,     (p. 155)
+     and yours.
+
+     So that if God shall give us the victory, the crown of France
+     with its appurtenances, as our right, shall be immediately
+     rendered to us without difficulty after his decease. And to this
+     all the lords and estates of France shall be bound, as it shall
+     be agreed between us.
+
+     For it is better for us, cousin, thus to decide this war for ever
+     between our two persons, than to suffer the misbelievers, by
+     occasion of our wars, to destroy Christianity, our holy mother
+     the church to remain in divisions, and the people of God to
+     destroy one another. We pray much that you may have as strong a
+     desire to avoid that, and to come to peace, and seek all means of
+     finding it. And let us trust in God that no better way than this
+     can be found. And, therefore, in discharge of our soul, and in
+     charge of yours, if such great evils follow, we make to you the
+     above offer.
+
+     Protesting ever that we make this offer for the honour and fear
+     of God, and for the above causes, of our own motion, without our
+     royal relations, councillors, and subjects daring in so high a
+     matter to advise us. Nor can it at any time to come be urged to
+     our prejudice, nor in prejudice of our good right and title which
+     we have at present to the said crown with its appurtenances, nor
+     to the good right and title which we now have to other our lands
+     and heritages on this side the sea, nor to our heirs and
+     successors, if this our offer does not take full effect between
+     us and you in the manner aforesaid. Given under our privy seal,
+     at our town of Harfleur, the 16th[123] day of September."
+
+                   [Footnote 123: There is a doubt whether it is the
+                   xvi. or the xxvi.--the first x in the manuscript
+                   having, perhaps, been obliterated by the fire which
+                   damaged it.--Foed. vol. ix. 313.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.                                                     (p. 156)
+
+HENRY, WITH TROOPS MUCH WEAKENED, LEAVES HARFLEUR, FULLY PURPOSED TO
+MAKE FOR CALAIS, NOTWITHSTANDING THE THREATENED RESISTANCE OF THE
+FRENCH. -- PASSES THE FIELD OF CRESSY. -- FRENCH RESOLVED TO ENGAGE.
+-- NIGHT BEFORE THE CONFLICT. -- *FIELD* OF *AGINCOURT*. -- SLAUGHTER OF
+PRISONERS. -- HENRY, HIS ENEMIES THEMSELVES BEING JUDGES, FULLY
+EXCULPATED FROM EVERY SUSPICION OF CRUELTY OR UNCHIVALROUS BEARING. --
+HE PROCEEDS TO CALAIS. -- THENCE TO LONDON. -- RECEPTION BY HIS
+SUBJECTS. -- HIS MODEST AND PIOUS DEMEANOUR. -- SUPERSTITIOUS
+PROCEEDINGS OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITIES. -- REFLECTIONS. --
+SONGS OF AGINCOURT.
+
+1415.
+
+
+Immediately after the surrender of Harfleur, Henry held a council to
+deliberate on his future measures. All agreed that, as winter was fast
+approaching, the King and his army should return to England; but there
+arose a difference of opinion as to the manner of their return. Henry
+entertained an insuperable objection against returning by sea; and,
+notwithstanding all the dangers to which he must inevitably be
+exposed, he resolved to march through Normandy to his town of Calais.
+He wished to see with his own eyes, he said, the territories which (p. 157)
+were by right his own; adding, that he put full trust in God, in whose
+name he had engaged in this, as he certainly deemed it, his righteous
+cause. His army had been frightfully diminished by the dysentery; he
+was compelled to leave a portion of the remainder to garrison
+Harfleur; and, after the most impartial consideration, the number of
+fighting men with whom he could enter upon his perilous journey cannot
+be supposed to have exceeded 9000, whilst the strong probability is
+that the army consisted of little more than 6000. What portion of
+admiration for bravery, and what of blame for rashness, an
+unprejudiced mind would mingle together, when endeavouring to assign
+the just reward to Henry for his decision to make his way through the
+very heart of his enemy's country, himself so weak in resources, his
+enemy both so strong already, and gathering in overwhelming numbers
+from every side, is a problem of no easy solution. Probably we are
+very scantily provided with a knowledge of all his motives; and our
+praise or our censure might now be very different from what it would
+be, were we acquainted with all the circumstances of the case. How far
+he expected that the dissensions among the French would prevent them
+from uniting to offer him any formidable opposition, though not easy
+to answer, is a question not to be neglected. Especially might he have
+been influenced by the expectation that the French would not withdraw
+their forces from the interior, from fear of the Duke of Burgundy, (p. 158)
+who was ever on the watch to seize a favourable moment of attack. The
+fact is beyond doubt, that, having garrisoned Harfleur, he quitted
+that town about the 8th of October; leaving there all the heavy
+articles and carriages, with whatever would be an impediment to his
+progress, and conveying all the baggage of the army on horseback.
+Henry issued a proclamation, forbidding his soldiers, on pain of
+death, to be guilty of any kind of injustice or cruelty towards the
+inhabitants as they passed along.
+
+The King of France had collected an army from all sides: he had more
+than 14,000 men-at-arms under valiant generals, with the greater part
+of whom he remained at Rouen, watching the motions of the English. On
+the 20th of October it was resolved in his council, by a large
+majority, that the English should be resisted in a regular and pitched
+battle. The King had received the celebrated standard, the Oriflamme,
+with much solemnity: and war had been declared by unfurling that
+consecrated ensign. There seemed at length to have spread through King
+and princes, and nobles and people alike, an enthusiastic spirit,
+determined to crush the invaders. The Dauphin himself could scarcely
+be prevailed upon to obey his father's injunctions, and to abstain
+from joining the army; his life being considered too precious to be
+exposed to such danger.
+
+Henry meanwhile, after leaving Harfleur,[124] proceeded without    (p. 159)
+any important interruption through Montevilliers, Fecamp, Arques, a
+town about four miles inland from Dieppe; and on Saturday, October 12,
+he passed about half a mile to the right of the town of Eu, where part
+of the French troops were quartered. These sallied out on the English
+in great numbers, and very fiercely, but were soon repulsed; and a
+treaty was agreed upon between Henry and the inhabitants, who supplied
+refreshments to his army. He was now informed that the French would
+offer him battle in a day or two, whilst he was passing the river
+Somme. Undaunted by these tidings, he resolved to advance; and to
+cross that river at Blanchetache, the very spot at which Edward III.
+had passed it before the battle of Cressy. The field of Cressy was
+only ten English miles in advance; and it may be safely inferred that
+the remembrance of the struggle and victory of that day filled both
+Henry himself and his men with additional zeal and resolution. By the
+false assurance of a prisoner,[125] that the passage there was
+defended by many noblemen with a strong force, Henry was induced to
+change his route, and to proceed up the Somme on its left bank. He
+reached Abbeville on Sunday the 13th of October; but, to his sad   (p. 160)
+disappointment, he found all the bridges broken down, and the enemy
+stationed on the opposite bank to resist his passage. At this time
+Henry's situation was most perilous and dispiriting. His provisions
+were nearly exhausted,--the enemy had laid waste their own country to
+deprive his army of all sustenance; and no prospect was before them
+but famine at once, and annihilation from the overwhelming forces of
+the French. His army proceeded next day, and passed within a league of
+Amiens, and were much refreshed with plenty of provisions; wine was
+found in such abundance that the King was obliged to issue a
+proclamation prohibiting excess. On the Thursday they reached a plain
+near Corbie, from which town the French made a sally against them, but
+were repulsed after a brief but spirited engagement. Here John Bromley
+gallantly recovered the standard of Guienne, and for his valour was
+allowed to bear its figure for his crest. Here too Henry showed that,
+amidst all his perils and hardships, he was resolved to maintain the
+discipline of his army by inflicting the punishment denounced by his
+proclamation against violence or sacrilege. One of the soldiers was
+detected with a copper-gilt pix in his sleeve,[126] which he had
+stolen from a neighbouring church. Henry sentenced him forthwith to be
+hung, as a warning to all others not to offend with the hope of    (p. 161)
+impunity.
+
+                   [Footnote 124: On the 4th of October fishermen in
+                   different parts were ordered to go with all speed,
+                   taking their tackle with them, to Harfleur, to fish
+                   for the support of the King and his army.]
+
+                   [Footnote 125: This is a very curious fact, not
+                   generally known. The battle of Agincourt, humanly
+                   speaking, would not have been fought, had it not
+                   been for the falsehood of a Frenchman.]
+
+                   [Footnote 126: Shakspeare makes use of this
+                   anecdote, and fixes the robbery on Bardolph.]
+
+Quitting Corbie, they passed close to Nesle on the 18th October; when
+Henry, on the point of laying waste that district, heard that a
+passage over the Somme was at length discovered. The French,
+meanwhile, had contented themselves with proceeding before him, and
+guarding the passages of the river. Whether the policy of allowing the
+English to exhaust their strength of body and mind be sufficient, or
+not, to account for their conduct, we have not evidence enough to
+pronounce decidedly; but, on many occasions, their abstinence from
+striking a blow seems otherwise almost inexplicable. Henry made now
+one of his most vigorous efforts to effect a passage; nothing, we are
+told, could exceed his own personal exertions.[127] The French had
+broken up the lanes leading to the fords, and thrown every obstacle in
+the way. However, nothing seemed able to resist his resolution; and in
+a few hours the whole of his army had crossed. Great was the joy of
+the English on having surmounted this formidable obstacle; and they
+now hoped to reach Calais without a battle. But on the following day
+two heralds came to announce to Henry the resolution of the French (p. 162)
+to give him battle, and to take vengeance on him for invading their
+country. Henry, without any change of countenance, with much
+gentleness replied, "All would be done according to the will of God."
+On the heralds then asking him by what route he proposed to proceed,
+"Straight to Calais" was the reply. He then advised them not to
+attempt to interrupt his march, but to avoid the shedding of Christian
+blood. The heralds fell down upon their knees as they first approached
+him; and on dismissing them, he gave them a hundred golden crowns.
+From the hour of these heralds departing, Henry and his men always
+wore their warrior-dress, in readiness for battle; and he spoke to his
+army with much tenderness and spirit, and evidently with a powerful
+effect. To his surprise, next morning none appeared to oppose him, and
+he proceeded on his journey. Many circumstances happened from day to
+day, and hour to hour, calculated to dispirit the English, by exciting
+an assurance that the French army was near, and waiting their own time
+to seize upon their prey; delaying only in order to make their utter
+demolition more certain. Henry's route probably was taken through
+Peronne, Albert, Bonnieres,[128] Frevent; and he reached the river
+Ternoise (called the River of Swords) without any remarkable       (p. 163)
+occurrence. No sooner, however, had he passed the Ternoise, and
+mounted the hill not far from Maisoncelle, than a man came, breathless,
+and told the Duke of York that the enemy was approaching in countless
+numbers. Henry forthwith commanded the main body to halt, and setting
+spurs to his horse hastened to view the enemy, who seemed to him like
+an immense forest covering the whole country. Nothing dismayed, he
+ordered his troops to dismount and prepare for battle; animating them
+by his calm, intrepid bearing, and by his language of kindness and
+encouragement. The French, who were first seen as they were emerging
+from a valley a mile off in three columns, halted at the distance of
+about half a mile.
+
+                   [Footnote 127: Sir William Bardolf, Lieutenant of
+                   Calais, hearing of the King's danger, sent part of
+                   his garrison to his assistance; but that little
+                   body, consisting of about three hundred
+                   men-at-arms, were either destroyed or taken
+                   prisoners by the men of Picardy.]
+
+                   [Footnote 128: After quitting Bonnieres, Henry
+                   passed unawares beyond the place intended by his
+                   officers for his quarters; but, instead of
+                   returning, he replied that, being in his war-coat,
+                   he could not return without displeasing God. He
+                   therefore ordered his advanced guard to take a more
+                   distant position, and himself occupied the spot
+                   which had been intended for them. This anecdote is
+                   recorded as an instance of the care with which
+                   Henry avoided whatever might appear of ill omen.
+                   Probably he only followed the usual maxims of an
+                   army in march; that maxim originating, it may be,
+                   in superstition.]
+
+The English felt assured that they would be immediately attacked; and,
+as soon as they were drawn up in order of battle, they prepared for
+death. The greatest want then felt in the camp was the lack of
+priests,[129] every one being anxiously desirous of making confession
+and obtaining absolution. Henry's presence of mind, and noble      (p. 164)
+soul, and pious trust, and intrepid spirit, showed themselves on this
+occasion in words which ought never to be forgotten. Sir Walter
+Hungerford having expressed his sorrow that they had not ten thousand
+of those gallant archers who would be most desirous of aiding their
+King in his hour of need, the King rebuked him, saying, "He spoke
+idly, for, as his hope was in God, in whom he trusted for victory, he
+would not, if he could, increase his forces even by a single person;
+for, if it was the pleasure of the Almighty, few as were his
+followers, they were sufficient to chastise the confidence of the
+enemy, who relied on their numbers."
+
+                   [Footnote 129: And yet there were so many priests
+                   present (with the baggage) during the battle, that
+                   the chaplain calls them the clerical army, whose
+                   weapons were prayers and intercessions, "Nos qui
+                   ascripti sumus clericali militiæ."]
+
+About sun-set the French took up their quarters in the orchards and
+villages of Agincourt and Ruissauville. Henry, anxiously seeking
+lodgings for his exhausted soldiers, at length found in the village of
+Maisoncelle a better supply for their wants than they had met with
+since they left Harfleur; and a small hut afforded the King himself
+protection from the weather.[130] Before the English quitted       (p. 165)
+their position to go to Maisoncelle, Henry permitted all his prisoners
+to depart, upon condition that if he gained the approaching battle,
+they should return and surrender themselves; but, if he were defeated,
+they should be released from their engagements. This night, through
+nearly the whole of which rain fell heavily, was passed by the two
+hostile armies, about one mile distant from each other, very
+differently, but not inconsistently with their relative circumstances.
+Both suffered severely from the weather as well as from fatigue; but
+whilst the French, anticipating an easy and sure victory, played at
+dice for their prisoners as their stake; the English, having prepared
+their weapons for the conflict, betook themselves to prayer, and the
+observance of the other ordinances of their religion.
+
+                   [Footnote 130: In the "History of Agincourt," the
+                   translator of the Chaplain's Memoir (Sloane 1776)
+                   has given a far more faint representation than the
+                   original will warrant of the sufferings to which
+                   the English troops were exposed through this night
+                   of present fatigue and discomfort, and of anxious
+                   preparation for so tremendous a struggle as awaited
+                   them on the morrow. The ecclesiastic, who was
+                   himself among the sufferers, and who has furnished
+                   a very graphic description of the whole affair,
+                   says, "The King turned aside to a small village,
+                   where we had houses, but very few indeed, and
+                   gardens and orchards to rest in." "Ubi habuimus
+                   domos sed paucissimas, hortosque et pomaria pro
+                   requiescione nostra." This the translator renders,
+                   "Where we had houses to rest in, but very scanty
+                   gardens and orchards." The scanty supply was not of
+                   gardens and orchards, but of houses to rest in.
+                   Consequently, except such as those very few houses
+                   could accommodate, the English soldiers were all
+                   compelled to bivouac, exposed to the drenching
+                   rains which fell through the night. Of orchards and
+                   gardens there was doubtless an abundant supply, but
+                   they afforded little shelter from the weather, and
+                   no means to the troops of taking refreshing rest.]
+
+At day-break, on Friday, October 25, the French drew up in order of
+battle, in three lines, on the plain of Agincourt, through which was
+the route to Calais. Of their numbers the accounts both of         (p. 166)
+English and French writers vary exceedingly, and it is impossible to
+fix upon any amount with confidence; probably, however, at the very
+lowest calculation they were more than fifty thousand men.
+
+Henry was up at break of day, and immediately attended mass. He then,
+mounted on a small grey horse, bearing on his coat the arms of France
+and England, and wearing a magnificent crown on his head, drew up his
+men in order of battle in an open field. His main body, consisting of
+men-at-arms, he commanded himself; the vanguard was committed, as a
+right wing, to the Duke of York at his own request; and the rear-guard
+was posted, as a left wing, under the command of the Lord Camois. The
+archers were placed between the wings in the form of a wedge, with
+their poles fixed before them as a protection against the cavalry.
+Henry then rode along the lines, and addressed them in a speech full
+of spirit, well fitted to inspire in his men enthusiastic ardour and
+devotedness. "Sir," was the reply, "we pray God to give you a good
+life, and victory over your enemies." At this juncture (we are told by
+one historian[131]) an attempt was made at negociation, but it failed;
+Henry, in the midst of all his present perils, insisting virtually on
+the same terms which he had offered when in safety within the      (p. 167)
+realm of England.[132]
+
+                   [Footnote 131: St. Remy.]
+
+                   [Footnote 132: The statement that Henry offered to
+                   repair all the injury he had done to France, is
+                   deservedly considered unworthy of credit.]
+
+The King assigned to the gallant veteran, Sir Thomas Erpingham, a
+friend of Henry, no less venerable for his age than distinguished for
+his bravery and military skill, the honourable duty of arraying his
+host. He first calmly marshalled the troops, placing the archers
+foremost and the men-at-arms behind them; and then, riding in front of
+the line, exhorted his brother-warriors in the name of their prince to
+fight valiantly. A third time did this aged and fearless knight ride
+before the ranks which were stationed to receive the first shock of
+the enemy, and if possible to turn back the apparently resistless and
+overwhelming tide of battle; and then, having deliberately executed
+his commission to the full, he threw up into the air the truncheon
+which he held in his hand, shouting, "Now strike!" and, immediately
+dismounting, joined the King and his attendants, who were all on foot.
+When the soldiers saw the staff in the air, and heard the cry of the
+veteran, they raised such a tremendous shout as startled the enemy,
+and filled them with amazement.[133]
+
+                   [Footnote 133: The present reading in Monstrelet,
+                   who details these circumstances with much life and
+                   clearness, reports the word used by the English
+                   warrior to have been "Nestroque," which has been,
+                   with much probability, considered a corruption of
+                   "Now strike!" Whether the word is now read as the
+                   Author wrote it, is very questionable; many French
+                   words in Monstrelet have been mistaken and
+                   corrupted by his copyists.]
+
+It was now approaching mid-day; when Henry, perceiving that the    (p. 168)
+enemy would not commence the attack, but were waiting either for
+reinforcements, or in the hope of compelling him by want of provisions
+to surrender, issued the command, "Banners, advance!" His soldiers
+fell down instantly upon the ground prostrate, and implored the
+Almighty to succour them; each, as it is said, putting a morsel of
+earth into his mouth in remembrance of their mortality. They then
+rose, and advanced firmly towards the enemy, shouting, and with the
+sound of trumpets. The Constable of France commanded his advanced
+guard to meet them, who instantly obeyed, with the war-cry "Montjoye!"
+The battle commenced by a shower of arrows from the English, which did
+great execution. The French cavalry were immediately thrown into
+confusion, chiefly in consequence of the horses rushing on the pointed
+stakes which were fixed before the English archers, and, maddened with
+pain, turning upon their own ranks. The battle was then tremendously
+obstinate: at one time, the shock of the French body caused the
+English to give way; but it was only to rush again upon their enemies
+with a renewed and still more impetuous and desperate attack. Their
+charge, like a torrent of mighty waters, was resistless; and the
+archers, having exhausted their quivers, and betaking themselves   (p. 169)
+to their swords and bills and hatchets, the slaughter among the
+ranks of the French was dreadful. The Duke of Alençon endeavoured in
+vain to rally his men, now giving way, and being worsted on every
+side; and, returning himself to the struggle, he fell in single combat
+with King Henry himself. Whilst the conflict was raging, Anthony, Duke
+of Brabant, came up with such of his forces as could keep pace with
+him in his rapid haste towards the field of battle, and instantly
+mingled in the thickest of the fight: he fell too; gallantly, but
+unsuccessfully, striving to stem the flood. The battle seemed now to
+be decided, when that event took place, which every one must lament,
+and which nothing but necessity could justify,--
+
+THE SLAUGHTER OF THE PRISONERS AT AGINCOURT.
+
+The name of Henry of Monmouth is inseparable from the Battle of
+Agincourt; and immeasurably better had it been for his fair fame had
+himself and his little army been crushed in that tremendous struggle,
+by the overwhelming chivalry of France, than that he should have
+stained that day of conquest and glory by an act of cruelty or
+vengeance. If any cause except palpable and inevitable necessity could
+be proved to have suggested the dreadful mandate for his soldiers to
+put their prisoners to the sword, his memory must be branded by a
+stigma which no personal courage, not a whole life devoted         (p. 170)
+to deeds of arms, nor any unprecedented career of conquest, could
+obliterate. The charge of cruelty, however, like some other accusations,
+examined at length in these Memoirs, is of comparatively recent
+origin; and as in those former instances, so in this, our duty is to
+ascertain the facts from the best evidence, and dispassionately to
+draw our inference from those facts after an upright scrutiny and
+patient weighing of the whole question in all its bearings. Our
+abhorrence of the crime may well make us hesitate before we pronounce
+judgment against one to whose mercy and chivalrous honour his
+contemporaries bore willing and abundant testimony; the enormity of so
+dreadful an example compels us, in the name of humanity and of
+justice, not to screen the guilty. We may be wisely jealous of the
+bias and prejudice which his brilliant talents, and his life of
+patriotism and glory, may unconsciously communicate to our minds; we
+must be also upon our guard lest an excessive resolution to do
+justice, foster imperceptibly a morbid acquiescence in the
+condemnation of the accused.
+
+The facts, then, as they are gleaned from those authors who wrote
+nearest to the time (two of whom, one French, the other English, were
+actually themselves present on the field of battle, and were
+eye-witnesses of some portion at least of the circumstances which they
+narrate,) seem to have been these, in their order and character.
+
+At the close of one of the most desperate struggles ever recorded  (p. 171)
+in the annals of ancient or modern warfare, whilst the enemy were in
+the act of quitting the field, but had not left it, the English were
+employing what remained of their well nigh exhausted strength in
+guarding their prisoners, and separating the living from the dead, who
+lay upon each other, heaps upon heaps, in one confused and
+indiscriminate mass. On a sudden a shout was raised, and reached
+Henry, that a fresh reinforcement[134] of the enemy in overwhelming
+numbers had attacked the baggage, and were advancing in battle-array
+against him. He was himself just released from the furious conflict in
+which, at the close of his almost unparalleled personal exertion, he
+engaged with the Duke of Alençon, and slew him on the spot. Precisely,
+also, at this juncture, the main body of the French who had been
+engaged in the battle, and were apparently retreating, were seen to be
+collecting in great numbers, and forming themselves into bodies,
+throughout the plain, with the purpose, as it appeared, of returning
+to the engagement.
+
+                   [Footnote 134: It must be remembered that the
+                   arrival of fresh reinforcements was by no means an
+                   improbable occurrence. Anthony, Duke of Brabant,
+                   had only reached the field with his men just before
+                   the tide of battle turned finally and fatally
+                   against the French; nor could Henry possibly know
+                   what forces were yet hastening on to dispute with
+                   him for the victory afresh.]
+
+To delay might have been the total sacrifice of himself and his
+gallant little band; to hesitate might have been death. Henry      (p. 172)
+instantly, without a moment's interval, by sound of trumpet ordered
+his men to form themselves, and attack the body who were advancing
+upon his rear, and to put the prisoners to death, "lest they should
+rush upon his men during the fight." These mandates were obeyed.[135]
+The French reinforcement, advancing from the quarter where the baggage
+was stationed, no sooner felt a shower of arrows, and saw a body of
+men ready to give them battle, than they turned to flight; and
+instantly Henry, on seeing them run, stopped the slaughter of the
+prisoners, and made it known to all that he had had recourse to the
+measure only in self-defence. Henry, in order to prevent the
+recurrence of such a dreadful catastrophe, sent forthwith a herald to
+those companies of the enemy who were still lingering very
+suspiciously through the field, and charged them either to come to
+battle at once, or to withdraw from his sight; adding, that, should
+they array themselves afterwards to renew the battle, he would show no
+mercy, nor spare either fighting-men or prisoners.
+
+                   [Footnote 135: One author alone, Jean Le Fevre,
+                   states that some of the English, who had taken the
+                   prisoners of greatest note and wealth, hesitated to
+                   execute the order, from an unwillingness to lose
+                   their ransom; and that two hundred archers were
+                   commissioned to perform the dreadful office in
+                   their stead.]
+
+Of the general accuracy of this statement of the facts little doubt
+can be entertained, though in the midst of the confusion of such   (p. 173)
+a battle-field it would not be matter of surprise were some of
+the circumstances mistaken or exaggerated. In reflecting on this
+course of incidents, the thought forces itself upon our mind, that the
+mandate was given, not in cool blood, nor when there was time and
+opportunity for deliberation and for calculating upon the means and
+chances of safety, but upon the instant, on a sudden unexpected
+renewal of the engagement from a quarter from which no danger was
+anticipated; at a moment, too, when, just after the heat of the battle
+was passing over, the routed enemy were collecting again in great
+numbers in various parts of the field, with a view evidently of
+returning to the charge and crushing their conquerors; at a moment,
+too, when the English were scattered about, separating the living from
+the dead, and all was yet confusion and uncertainty. Another fact, as
+clearly and distinctly recorded as the original issuing of the
+mandate, is, that no sooner was the danger of the immediate and
+inevitable sacrifice of the lives of his men removed by the retreat of
+the assailants, than, without waiting for the dispersion of those
+menacing bodies then congregating around him, Henry instantly
+countermanded the order, and saved the remainder of the prisoners. The
+bare facts of the case, from first to last, admit of no other
+alternative than for our judgment to pronounce it to have been
+altogether an imperative inevitable act of self-preservation, without
+the sacrifice of any life, or the suffering of any human being,    (p. 174)
+beyond the absolute and indispensable necessity of the case.
+
+But, perhaps, the most striking and conclusive testimony in
+vindication of Henry's character on that day of slaughter and victory,
+is borne both by the silence and also by the expressed sentiments of
+the contemporary historians. This evidence deserves to be put more
+prominently forward than it has ever yet been. Indeed, as long as
+there was no charge of cruelty, or unnecessary violence, brought
+against his name in this particular, there was little need of alleging
+any evidence in his defence. It remained for modern writers, after a
+lapse of centuries, to stigmatize the command as an act of barbarity,
+and to represent it as having tarnished and stained the victory of him
+who gave it.[136] It is, however, a most remarkable and satisfactory
+circumstance that, of the contemporary historians, and those who
+followed most closely upon them, who have detailed the proceedings (p. 175)
+with more or less minuteness, and with a great variety though no
+inconsistency of circumstances, in whose views, moreover, all
+subsequent writers, with few exceptions, have unreservedly acquiesced,
+not one single individual is found to cast the slightest imputation on
+Henry for injustice or cruelty; while some, in their account of the
+battle, have not made the most distant allusion to the circumstance.
+All the earlier writers who refer to it appear, with one consent, to
+have considered the order as the result of dire and unavoidable
+necessity on the part of the English King. Not only so: whilst no one
+who witnessed the engagement, or lived at the time, ever threw the
+shadow of reproach or of complaint on Henry or his army, various
+writers, especially among the French historians, join in reprobating
+the unjustifiable conduct of those among the French troops who
+rendered the massacre inevitable, and cast on their own countrymen the
+entire responsibility and blame for the whole melancholy affair.
+Instead of any attempt to sully and tarnish the glory won by the
+English on that day, by pointing to their cruel and barbarous
+treatment of unarmed prisoners, they visit their own people with the
+very strongest terms of malediction, as the sole culpable origin and
+cause of the evil. And that these were not only the sentiments of the
+writers themselves, but were participated in by their countrymen at
+large, is evidenced by the record of a fact which has been generally
+overlooked. Those who were deemed guilty of thus exposing their    (p. 176)
+countrymen to death, by unjustifiably renewing the attack when
+the conflict was acknowledged to be over, and after the French
+soldiery had given up the field, not only were exposed to disgrace in
+their characters, but suffered punishment also for the offence in
+their persons. Anticipating censure and severe handling as the
+consequences of their misconduct, they made valuable presents to such
+as they thought able to screen them; but so decided was the
+indignation and resentment of their countrymen, that the leaders of
+the offending parties were cast into prison, and suffered a long
+confinement, as the punishment for their misconduct on that day.
+
+                   [Footnote 136: The passage of M. Petitot, in his
+                   History, published in the year 1825, vol. vi. p.
+                   322, which contains this accusation, is as follows:
+                   "The Duke of Alençon fought hand to hand with the
+                   King of England, and fell gloriously. Towards the
+                   end of the struggle, some hundreds of peasants of
+                   Picardy, commanded by two gentlemen of the country,
+                   believing that the English were vanquished, came to
+                   plunder their camp. Henry, fancying that he was
+                   about to be attacked by a reinforcement, whose
+                   march had been concealed from him, ordered the
+                   massacre of the prisoners, and only excepted the
+                   princes and generals. This barbarous order was put
+                   into execution, and tarnished his victory."]
+
+The inference, then, which the facts, as they are delivered by English
+and French writers, compel us to draw, coincides with the professed
+sentiments of all contemporaries. Those, on the one hand, who shared
+the glory and were proud of the day of Agincourt, and those, on the
+other, whose national pride, and wounded honour, and participation in
+the calamities poured that day upon the noblest families of France,
+and in the mourning spread far and wide throughout the land, caused
+them to abhor the very name of Agincourt, all sanction our adoption of
+that one inference: _Henry did not stain his victory by any act of
+cruelty_. His character comes out of the investigation untarnished by
+a suspicion of his having wantonly shed the blood of a single
+fellow-creature.
+
+To enable the reader to judge for himself how far the view taken   (p. 177)
+in the text is justified by the evidence, the Author has thought it
+desirable to cite from different writers, French as well as English,
+the passages at length in which they describe the transaction.
+
+     The Chaplain of Henry V, an eye-witness, who was himself
+     stationed with the baggage, and whose account is contained in the
+     fasciculus known as "MS. Sloane, 1776, p. 67," thus reports the
+     transaction:
+
+     "When some of the enemy's foreranks were slain, those behind
+     pressed over the dead, and others again falling on them were
+     immediately put to death; and near Henry's banners so large was
+     the pile of corpses, and of those who were thrown upon them, that
+     the English stood on heaps which exceeded a man's height, and
+     felled their adversaries below with swords and axes. And when, at
+     length, for the space of two or three hours, that powerful body
+     of the first ranks had been broken through and crushed to pieces,
+     and the rest were forced to fly, our men began to move those
+     heaps, and to separate the living from the dead. And behold,
+     suddenly, with what angry dispensation of Providence it is not
+     known, (nescitur in quâ irâ Dei,) a shout is made that the
+     cavalry of the enemy in an overwhelming and fresh body were
+     rallying, and forming themselves to attack our men, few in
+     number, and worn out with fatigue. And the captives, without any
+     respect of persons, (except the Dukes of Orleans and Bourbon, and
+     certain other illustrious men, and a few besides,) were put the
+     sword, to prevent their becoming our ruin in the approaching
+     struggle. And, after a little while, the enemy, (by the
+     Almighty's will,) having tasted the sharpness of our arrows, and
+     seeing that our King was approaching them, left us a field of
+     blood, with chariots and many other carriages filled          (p. 178)
+     with provisions and weapons, lances and bows."
+
+Jean Le Fevre, Seigneur de St. Remy, who was also an eye-witness,
+being present in the English camp, records the event, and his own
+opinion of it, thus:
+
+     "Then there befel them a very great misfortune; for a large body
+     of the rear-guard, in which were many French, Bretons, Gascons,
+     and others, who had betaken themselves to flight, and had with
+     them a large number of standards and flags, showed signs of an
+     intention to fight, and were marching in order. When the English
+     perceived them thus congregated, orders were given by the King of
+     England for every one to slay his prisoners; but those who had
+     taken them were unwilling to put them to death, because they had
+     taken those only who could give a high ransom. On the King being
+     apprised that they would not kill their prisoners, he gave in
+     charge to a gentleman with two hundred archers to put them all to
+     death. The order of the King was obeyed by this esquire, which
+     was a lamentable affair; for all that body of French nobility
+     were _in cold blood_ cut and hewed, head and face,--a wonderful
+     thing to see. THAT ACCURSED BAND OF FRENCHMEN, WHO THUS CAUSED
+     THAT NOBLE CHIVALRY TO BE MURDERED, when they saw that the
+     English were ready to receive them and give them battle, betook
+     themselves to flight suddenly; and those who could, saved
+     themselves; and the greater part of those who were on horseback
+     saved themselves, but of them who were on foot the greater part
+     were put to death."
+
+Elmham thus records the transaction:--
+
+     "The English, already wearied, and for the most part destitute of
+     arms fit for a charge, when the French were arraying themselves
+     for battle with a view to the renewal of the conflict, fearing
+     lest the persons they had taken should rush upon them in the
+     struggle, slew many of them, though noble, with the sword.    (p. 179)
+     The King then, by a herald, commanded those French soldiers who
+     were still occupying the field either to come to battle at once,
+     or speedily to depart out of his sight; assuring them that, if
+     they should again array themselves for a renewed engagement, both
+     they and the prisoners yet remaining should perish without mercy,
+     with the most dire vengeance which the English could inflict."
+
+Fabyan's account differs from that of other writers only in one
+particular; he represents the retirement of the French, who had
+rallied for a renewal of the conflict, to have been the result of the
+message sent to them by the Duke of Orleans and his fellow-prisoners,
+in their panic on hearing Henry's mandate, which seemed to put their
+lives into immediate jeopardy.
+
+     "When the King, by power and grace of God more than by force of
+     man, had gotten this triumphant victory, and returned his people
+     from the chase of his enemies, tidings were brought to him that a
+     new host of Frenchmen were coming towards him. Wherefore he
+     commanded his people to be embattled; and, that done, made
+     proclamation through the host that every man should slay his
+     prisoners: by reason of which proclamation the Duke of Orleans,
+     and the other lords of France, were in such fear, that anon, by
+     the licence of the King, they sent such word unto the said host
+     that they withdrew."
+
+The contemporary author whose work is translated by Laboureur, having
+in impassioned language spoken of the "eternal reproach, and ever
+deplorable calamity of the miserable battle of Agincourt," instead of
+attempting to make the English partake in any degree of the disgrace
+which on that day stained the annals of France, tells us that Henry,
+believing a great body of the vanguard, who had been broken through,
+were running, not in flight, but to join the rest of the army      (p. 180)
+and renew the attack, gave orders for all the prisoners to be put
+to the sword; and the carnage lasted till it was known they were
+actually running away. He then stopped it; and explained that his
+orders were given in doubt of the enemy's intentions.--This writer
+seems to have been mistaken in his view of the circumstances; but the
+thought of Henry having acted unjustifiably does not seem to have
+crossed his mind.
+
+Monstrelet's account is somewhat different from the two last, and more
+full in its details:
+
+     "During the heat of the combat the English made several
+     prisoners; and then came news to the King of England that the
+     French were attacking them from the rear, and that they had
+     already taken his sumpter-horses and baggage. This was true; for
+     Robinet de Bournonville and Rifflart de Clamasse, Ysambert
+     d'Azencourt, and some other men-at-arms, accompanied by six
+     hundred peasants, went to plunder the baggage, and carried off a
+     great quantity of the property of the camp, and a large number of
+     horses, whilst those who were their guards were engaged in the
+     battle. This pillage caused the King great trouble, for he saw
+     also at the same time in the open field those French who had
+     taken to flight rallying themselves in companies; and he doubted
+     whether their intention was not to renew the engagement. He
+     therefore caused a proclamation to be made by sound of trumpet,
+     that every Englishman should on pain of death[137] slay his
+     prisoners, to prevent their succouring their own people in the
+     time of need; and then, on the sudden, followed a very great
+     carnage of French prisoners. For which proceeding, Robinet de
+     Bournonville and Ysambart d'Azencourt were afterwards         (p. 181)
+     punished and imprisoned a long time by order of John Duke of
+     Burgundy, notwithstanding they had given to Philip Earl of
+     Charolois, his son, an exceedingly valuable sword, studded with
+     precious stones and jewels, belonging to the King of England,
+     which they had found and taken with the other booty, that the
+     Earl might interest himself for them should any trouble overtake
+     them in consequence of this circumstance."
+
+     Des Ursins represents the catastrophe to have been occasioned by
+     the news spread through the field that the Duke of Brittany was
+     arrived with a powerful reinforcement, on which the French
+     rallied. He gives, however, two accounts; in one of which he
+     reports the prisoners taken by the English to be fourteen
+     thousand, a number exceeding the whole body of fighting men in
+     the English army.
+
+     Paradin de Cuyseault, in his Annals of Burgundy, marks very
+     strongly in how serious a light the offence of the French
+     assailants was viewed by their contemporaries:
+
+     "And this [the order for the slaughter of the prisoners] was
+     executed, of which the said Bournonville and Azencourt were the
+     cause: and they being accused of this charge before the Duke of
+     Burgundy, his will was that they should suffer death: but the
+     Earl of Charolois saved them, in return for the beautiful sword."
+
+     Pierre de Fenin, a contemporary esquire, and a clerk of the
+     household to Charles VI, employs expressions very pointedly
+     exculpatory of the English; he does not speak of Henry's mandate
+     at all:
+
+     "Whilst the battle between the English and French _was yet
+     pending and going on_, and the English had already almost gained
+     the mastery, Isambert d'Azencourt, and Robinet de Bournonville,
+     accompanied by some men-at-arms of little note, made an assault
+     on the baggage of the English, and caused a great [affray]    (p. 182)
+     terror. When the English saw that it was the French who were coming
+     upon them to attack them, _in that necessity they felt themselves
+     obliged_ to put to death many whom they had already made prisoners;
+     for which the two persons above mentioned were afterwards made
+     the objects of severe execration, and were also punished for the
+     offence by the Duke of Burgundy."[138]
+
+                   [Footnote 137: In the printed copies of Monstrelet
+                   the reading is "de la _hart_," a mistake, it is
+                   presumed, for _mort_. Many such errors occur in his
+                   work.]
+
+                   [Footnote 138: The Author is compelled to express
+                   his regret that some of our own modern writers
+                   (among others Goldsmith and Mackintosh) have been
+                   led to take a different estimate of the character
+                   of this transaction. Whether their judgments were
+                   formed after a careful weighing of the several
+                   accounts furnished by contemporary authors and
+                   eye-witnesses of the conflict, or whether they
+                   allowed their feelings of philanthropy, and their
+                   abhorrence of cruelty, to dictate their sentence in
+                   this case, the Author cannot refer to their works
+                   without appealing from them to the facts as they
+                   stand in those undisputed records which were
+                   accessible alike to them and to ourselves. On this
+                   subject Rapin, Carte, Holinshed, Nicolas, with
+                   others, may be consulted.]
+
+Among the many instances of heroism which occurred during the battle,
+Henry's conduct was particularly distinguished. He fought on foot like
+a lion, as our annalists express themselves, and was throughout the
+noblest example of valour. Especially was his gallant rescue of his
+brother, the Duke of Gloucester, remembered with admiration. That
+prince had been wounded by a dagger, and thrown on the ground by the
+Duke of Alençon and his soldiers, when Henry rushed between them, and
+defended his brother till he was removed from the conflict. This noble
+deed nearly cost him his life; for, stooping down to raise his brother,
+the Duke of Alençon, or one of his men, struck him such a blow as  (p. 183)
+to break off a part of his crown.
+
+The loss on both sides has been very variously reported. Probably of
+the French not less than ten thousand fell in that field of
+blood;[139] of the English perhaps less than one-tenth of that number.
+But France did not on that day reckon her loss by the number of the
+slain; the chief of her chivalry[140] and nobility fell there.     (p. 184)
+On the English side the only men of note who were slain in the battle
+were the Duke of York, the Earl of Suffolk, Sir Richard Keghley, Thomas
+Fitz-Henry, John de Peniton, and David Gamme.[141]
+
+                   [Footnote 139: It is quite impossible to reconcile
+                   the different accounts of the loss on the part of
+                   the English. Walsingham speaks of thirty only
+                   having fallen; De Fenin reports them to have been
+                   four or five hundred; whilst Monstrelet raises the
+                   number to sixteen hundred.
+
+                   On the part of the French, Le Fevre says, that from
+                   a hundred to six score princes fell, and about
+                   seven or eight thousand of noble blood. In the
+                   Annales Ecclesiastici of Baronius, continued by
+                   Raynaldus, the statement of Theodoric Niemius is
+                   quoted, who says (unquestionably without authority)
+                   that Henry advanced from Harfleur with sixty
+                   thousand men, besides two thousand in attendance on
+                   the carriages. He affirms that the French had one
+                   hundred thousand men; among whom were one thousand
+                   Italians, commanded by Buligard, who had long
+                   governed Genoa in favour of the French. He says,
+                   moreover, that more than five thousand five hundred
+                   French nobles were slain; and fifteen hundred taken
+                   prisoners, and carried to England.]
+
+                   [Footnote 140: Hume, with his usual inaccuracy,
+                   asserts that the French army at Agincourt was
+                   headed as well by the Dauphin, as by all the other
+                   princes of the blood. The Dauphin wished to assist
+                   his countrymen, when they resolved to intercept the
+                   invaders; but, as we are expressly told by Le Fevre
+                   (c. 59), was not suffered to join the rendezvous.
+                   This is not the only mistake into which Hume has
+                   fallen in his account of this battle. In one
+                   paragraph he reports Henry to have been under the
+                   necessity of marching by land from Harfleur to
+                   Calais, in order to reach a place of safety from
+                   which he might transport his soldiers back to
+                   England; in another paragraph he represents him
+                   (with the same temerity which had been evinced by
+                   his predecessors before the battles of Poictiers
+                   and of Cressy) to have ventured without any object
+                   of moment, and merely for the _sake of plunder_, so
+                   far into the enemy's country as to leave himself no
+                   retreat. He tells us, moreover, that "Henry was
+                   master of fourteen thousand prisoners," whom he
+                   afterwards says that the King "carried with him to
+                   Paris, thence to England." Hume took this also
+                   without inquiry. Walsingham says, "Henry took (as
+                   they say--ut ferunt,--as though even that estimate
+                   required to be supported by common report,) seven
+                   hundred prisoners;" and of his prisoners, how many
+                   soever they were, he transported (as Des Ursins
+                   tells us) only the most considerable to England,
+                   dismissing the rest under promise to bring their
+                   ransom to him in the field of Lendi, on the feast
+                   of St. John in the summer, and, if he were not
+                   there, they should be discharged of the debt.]
+
+                   [Footnote 141: Of this gallant Welshman, the
+                   following account is taken from the Appendix of the
+                   "Battle of Agincourt." "Dr. Meyrick (now Sir
+                   Samuel) says, Davydd Gam, _i.e._ Squint-eyed David,
+                   was a native of Brecknockshire, and, holding his
+                   land of the honour of Hereford, was a strenuous
+                   supporter of the Lancastrian interests. He was the
+                   son of Llewellyn, descended from Einion Sais, who
+                   possessed a handsome property in the parishes of
+                   Garthbrengy and Llanddeu. In consequence of an
+                   affray in the high street of Brecknock, in which he
+                   unfortunately killed his kinsman, he was compelled
+                   to fly into England to avoid a threatened
+                   prosecution, and became the implacable enemy of
+                   Owain Glyndowr, whom he attempted to assassinate.
+                   Gam, it may be supposed, was his nick-name, as he
+                   called himself David Llewellyn; and there are good
+                   grounds for supposing that Shakspeare has
+                   caricatured him in Captain Fluellin. His
+                   descendants, however, conceiving that his prowess
+                   more than redeemed his natural defect, took the
+                   name of Game. Sir Walter Raleigh has an eulogium
+                   upon his bravery and exploits on the field of
+                   Agincourt, in which he compares him to Hannibal. He
+                   was knighted on the field with his two companions
+                   in glory and death, Sir Roger Vaughan, of
+                   Bedwardine in Herefordshire, and Sir Walter, or
+                   rather Watkin Llwyd, of the lordship of Brecknock.
+                   Sir Roger had married Gwladis, the daughter of Sir
+                   David Gamme, who survived him, and became the wife
+                   of another hero of Agincourt, Sir William Thomas of
+                   Raglan; and Sir Watkin was by his marriage related
+                   to Sir Roger."
+
+                   The Author gives this passage as he finds it,
+                   without having attempted to verify the statement as
+                   to David Gamme's descent or history. Certainly the
+                   testimony which Sir Samuel Meyrick makes Sir Walter
+                   Raleigh bear to his "bravery and exploits on the
+                   field of Agincourt," cannot be fairly extracted
+                   from Sir Walter's own words: "But if Hannibal
+                   himself had been sent forth by Mago to view the
+                   Romans, he could not have returned with a more
+                   gallant report in his mouth than Captain Gamme made
+                   unto King Henry the Fifth, saying, 'That of the
+                   Frenchmen there were enow to be killed, enow to be
+                   taken prisoners, and enow to run away!'" We have no
+                   doubt of Captain Gamme's gallant bearing at
+                   Agincourt; but Raleigh refers to nothing beyond his
+                   report of the numbers of the enemy.--Raleigh, book
+                   v. sect. 8.]
+
+The last-mentioned person is that David Gamme who was ransomed     (p. 185)
+from Owyn Glendowr, and who is reported to have replied, when
+questioned as to the number of the enemy, "My liege, there are enough
+to be slain, enough to be taken prisoners, and enough to run away!"
+This gallant speech of David Gamme immediately before the battle,  (p. 186)
+has been delivered down from father to son among his Cambrian
+compatriots with feelings of exultation and pride. A circumstance of a
+very opposite character and tendency (which has never, it is believed,
+hitherto appeared in our histories,) must not be suppressed here.
+Among those who swelled the enormous host which on that day gave
+battle to the King of England, were found natives of his own
+Principality. During the dreadful devastations caused by Owyn
+Glyndowr, great numbers left their mansions and estates a prey to his
+fury, and saved themselves from personal violence by taking refuge in
+England, or beyond the seas. Many, too, of those who had made
+themselves notorious as Owyn's partisans, fled from Wales when his
+cause began to falter, and avoided the penalty of perseverance in
+their rebellion, or the humiliating alternative of submission to one
+whom they deemed a tyrant and usurper. Quitting their native soil in
+the enjoyment of health and strength, not a few of these inhabitants
+of the Principality enlisted under the standard of foreign powers;
+especially (as it is reasonable to conclude) of the King of France,
+who had espoused the cause for which they were expatriated. How large
+or how small a number of Welshmen fell in the ranks of the French on
+that day, or how many escaped, we have no means of ascertaining. Our
+attention is drawn to the subject by the record of a fact too      (p. 187)
+specific, and too well authenticated, to be doubted or evaded.[142]
+William Gwyn of Llanstephan, was in the army of the enemy on the field
+of Agincourt, and his corpse was found among the slain. His castle of
+Llanstephan was in consequence forfeited to the crown, and was granted
+to the King's brother, Humphrey Duke of Gloucester.
+
+                   [Footnote 142: The fact is recorded in the Patent
+                   Rolls, P. 2, 3 Hen. V.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Being left master of the field, Henry withdrew his army a few paces,
+and addressed them in a speech very characteristic of his mind. After
+thanking them for their services, he bade them consider his success as
+undoubted proof of the justice of his cause; and directed them not to
+pride themselves on the event, but to give the glory to God. Henry
+then called to him Montjoye, the principal herald of France, and
+demanded of him to whom the victory belonged; who replied, that it was
+to the King of England. He then asked the name of the neighbouring
+castle; and, being informed that it was Agincourt, "Then," said he,
+"this shall for ever be called
+
+"THE BATTLE OF AGINCOURT."[143]
+
+                   [Footnote 143: The spot from which the battle of
+                   Agincourt took its name has been confounded with a
+                   place named Azincourt, near the town of Bouchain in
+                   French Flanders. On the position of the real field
+                   of battle, and its present condition, the Author
+                   has much satisfaction in making the following
+                   extract from a paper read before the Royal Society
+                   of Literature, April 4, 1827, by John Gordon Smith,
+                   M.D. who had visited and examined the spot under
+                   circumstances of peculiar interest:
+
+                   "Perhaps I may be pardoned for relating that I had
+                   the honour to receive a Waterloo medal on the field
+                   of Azincour, or rather, that I had the fortune to
+                   belong to one of the British regiments that
+                   signalized themselves in the campaign of 1815, and
+                   which afterwards was invested with the
+                   above-mentioned mark of their sovereign's
+                   approbation on the very spot which, nearly four
+                   hundred years before, was the scene of the scarcely
+                   less glorious triumph of Harry the Fifth of
+                   England. In 1816 a portion of the British army was
+                   cantoned in the immediate neighbourhood of this
+                   celebrated field, and the corps in which I then
+                   served made use of it during several months as
+                   their ordinary drill-ground.... We amused ourselves
+                   with reconnoitring excursions, comparing the actual
+                   state of the localities with authentic accounts of
+                   the transactions of 1415. The changes that have
+                   taken place have been singularly few, and an
+                   attentive explorer would be able to trace with
+                   considerable accuracy the greater part of the route
+                   pursued by the English army in their retreat out of
+                   Normandy towards Calais. The field of Azincour
+                   remains sufficiently in statu quo to render every
+                   account of the battle perfectly intelligible; nor
+                   are those wanting near the spot, whose traditionary
+                   information enables them to heighten the interest
+                   with oral description, accompanied by a sort of
+                   ocular demonstration.
+
+                   "Those who travel to Paris by way of St. Omer and
+                   Abbeville, pass over the field of the battle, which
+                   skirts the high road to the left, about sixteen
+                   miles beyond St. Omer; two on the Paris side of a
+                   considerable village or bourg named Fruges; about
+                   eight north of the fortified town of Hesdin; and
+                   thirty from Abbeville. All accounts of the battle
+                   mention the hamlet of Ruisseauville, through which
+                   very place the high road to Paris now passes.
+
+                   "Azincour is a commune or parish consisting of a
+                   most uninteresting collection of farmers'
+                   residences and cottages, once however distinguished
+                   by a castle, of which nothing now remains but the
+                   foundation. The scene of the contest lies between
+                   this commune and the adjoining one of Tramecour, in
+                   a wood belonging to which latter the King concealed
+                   those archers whose prowess and vigour contributed
+                   so eminently to the glorious result. Part of the
+                   wood still remains; though, if I remember rightly,
+                   at the time of our visit, the corner into which the
+                   bowmen were thrown had been materially thinned, if,
+                   indeed, the original timber had not been entirely
+                   cut down, and its place been scantily supplied by
+                   brush or underwood. Some of the trees, however, in
+                   the wood of Tramecour were very old in 1816.
+
+                   "The road above mentioned is the great post-road;
+                   the old road, now degenerated into a mere
+                   cart-track, from Abbeville to the once celebrated
+                   city of Therouanne, passes over the scene of
+                   action, and must have been that by which the French
+                   army reached the ground before the English, who had
+                   been compelled to make a great circuit."--Vol. i.
+                   part ii. p. 57.]
+
+Henry, naturally anxious to hasten with his troops beyond the reach of
+his enemies, and to arrive at Calais before they could recover     (p. 188)
+from their present overwhelming distress, removed from his quarters,
+passing through the field of battle early on the next day, taking his
+prisoners with him. Many vague expressions occur in some writers,
+which might be wrested to imply wanton cruelty in the English after
+the battle; but no direct charge of the sort is brought against    (p. 189)
+them; and we may reasonably hope that there was no more of human
+suffering than of necessity followed so tremendous a conflict: whilst
+all writers agree in recording and extolling the kindness, and
+compassion, and courtesy shown by Henry to his prisoners, especially
+to the Duke of Orleans; endeavouring by all means in his power to
+cheer and console them. Just as after the battle of Grosmont,      (p. 190)
+when he was only seventeen years old, so now in the prime of manhood,
+on the field of Agincourt, we find in him the same kind and
+warm-hearted conqueror: "In battle a lion; but, duty appeased, in
+mercy a lamb!"
+
+The army found great difficulty at Calais from the scarcity of
+provisions; and the prisoners, as may be supposed, were in still
+greater distress. The moment Henry, who was staying at Guisnes, heard
+of it, he ordered vessels to be procured to convey both soldiers and
+prisoners to England. Henry himself reached Calais[144] on the 29th of
+October, and was received with every demonstration of loyalty. He was
+met by the clergy singing Te Deum; whilst the inhabitants shouted,
+"Welcome the King, our Sovereign Lord!" News reached London very
+early, whilst the citizens were yet in bed, on Tuesday, October 29;
+and on that day the victory was celebrated by religious processions,
+in which we are told the Queen Dowager joined, though Arthur,      (p. 191)
+Count of Richmond, her own son, was among the prisoners. On Monday,
+November 4, the Duke of Bedford announced the welcome news officially
+to parliament. Henry embarked for England on Saturday, 16th of
+November, and reached Dover late on the same day, though the wind had
+been very boisterous, and one or two of his vessels were lost. So
+overflowing was the joy and zeal of his subjects, that we are told
+they rushed into the sea, and brought him to shore in their arms. At
+Canterbury he was met by the archbishop and clergy: on Friday, 22nd of
+November, he slept at Eltham. The next day he was met, about ten
+o'clock, at Blackheath, by the Mayor and all the civic authorities of
+London, dressed in their most splendid robes, and accompanied by not
+less than twenty thousand citizens on horseback.
+
+                   [Footnote 144: Before his departure from Calais, a
+                   dispute arose between him and two noblemen, who had
+                   been taken prisoners at Harfleur, and set at
+                   liberty on condition of surrendering themselves at
+                   Calais. The merits of the case cannot now be known.
+                   The one, De Gaucourt, brought an action against the
+                   representatives of the other, after his death, and
+                   after the death of Henry, to recover what he paid
+                   for that other's [D'Estouteville's] ransom. To give
+                   a colouring to his case, he charges Henry with
+                   refusing to confirm the stipulations made by his
+                   representatives at Harfleur, and with other harsh
+                   conduct. But an ex parte statement at that time,
+                   and under those circumstances, can form no ground
+                   of suspicion against a third party.]
+
+In London a most magnificent pageant was ready to welcome him. Minute
+descriptions of the various devices, such probably as England had
+never seen before, have come down to us. But we need take no further
+notice of them than to remark, that during the splendid scene, which
+lasted from ten o'clock till three, (in the course of which Henry
+humbly returned thanks both in St. Paul's and in Westminster Abbey,)
+the King's deportment was singularly modest. His dress was simple; he
+rode gravely on, attended by a small retinue; and, his thoughts
+apparently wrapped up in contemplating the power and goodness of   (p. 192)
+the Almighty, he seemed altogether indifferent to the splendour of the
+scenes and the devotedness of the crowds through which he passed. So
+anxious was he to avoid exciting the applause of his people, that he
+would not allow the helmet which he wore at Agincourt to be exhibited
+on this occasion; the battered state of which bore evidence to the
+danger he had encountered: nor would he allow the minstrels to compose
+verses, or sing songs, to his praise; but persisted in attributing the
+glory of his victory to God alone.
+
+It is pleasing to trace the rewards[145] bestowed by Henry on his
+companions in arms at Agincourt, and the measures which he adopted to
+preserve their names from oblivion. With this view he doubtless caused
+a roll to be made recording their names; though only a transcript of
+one part has been yet discovered among the archives. We may hope that
+not many years will elapse before numbers of those most interesting
+documents which now lie buried in heaps of confusion will be brought
+to light. Henry selected to fill every vacancy in the order of the
+Garter, (not bestowed on sovereign princes,) the peers and
+distinguished commanders who fought with him at Agincourt; and when he
+restricted the use of coats of arms in a subsequent expedition to
+those who could prove their right to them, he excepts those only who
+bore arms with him at Agincourt. To commemorate this victory with more
+especial honour, he created a King-at-arms, called "Agincourt."    (p. 193)
+
+                   [Footnote 145: See "Battle of Agincourt."]
+
+Our reformed views of Christian truth must not make us undervalue the
+testimony borne to Henry's gratitude towards his companions in arms,
+though they were removed by death from all earthly favours and
+rewards. He did for them what he could; and though we believe him to
+have been performing a vain office, and profitless to those whom it
+was intended to benefit, in the prevailing superstition of those days
+we see traces of the kindness and grateful spirit of the hero.[146]
+
+                   [Footnote 146: Various entries occur in the Pell
+                   Rolls of money paid for masses for the souls of
+                   those who fell in these wars. Among the rest are
+                   specified (26th September 1418) Lord Grey of Codnor
+                   and Sir John Blount. Two thousand masses were
+                   ordered for the souls of Lord Talbot and another.
+                   See extracts in English, translated lately, from
+                   the Pell Rolls, by Mr. F. Devon. This work, whilst
+                   it acquaints the student with the sort of
+                   information and evidence which the Pell Rolls may
+                   supply, will in other respects assist him in his
+                   inquiries; for many valuable and interesting facts
+                   are presented to him in the volume: but, to
+                   ascertain what those documents really do contain,
+                   it is necessary (as in all other cases) to apply at
+                   the fountain-head.]
+
+Many of the French princes taken at Agincourt remained prisoners in
+England for many years. The Duke of Bourbon died in confinement. The
+Duke of Orleans was not released for five-and-twenty years. Whilst a
+captive in the Tower of London, he had recourse to the solace of
+literature; and composed many pieces of poetry, still preserved in the
+British Museum, which indicate genius and cultivated taste.        (p. 194)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+How highly the people of England valued this victory is seen in very
+many particulars. The superstition of those times was also made to
+contribute to its celebrity. The victory of Agincourt was gained on
+the feast of the Translation of St. John of Beverley, and was ascribed
+to his merits. His festival had before been kept on the 7th of May;
+but now it was ordained to be celebrated for ever on the 25th of
+October. But that was the feast of Crispin and Crispianus; and so the
+authorities of the church decreed that all three saints should share
+in the offices of that day.[147]
+
+                   [Footnote 147: Foed. viii. 236.]
+
+The Archbishop declares that this ecclesiastical constitution was made
+in full convocation by the will, counsel, and consent of all his
+brothers, and also at the special instance of their most Christian
+King.
+
+The document abounds to the overflow with the gross superstition of
+the age. It is only by recalling what that degrading superstition was,
+that we can estimate at their proper value the blessings of the
+Reformation. Of the genuineness of this document there can be no
+doubt. It was addressed by Henry Chicheley, Archbishop of Canterbury,
+to the Vicar of the Bishop of London, who was then at the council of
+Constance; and its preamble at least deserves a place here.
+
+     "Henry, by divine permission, Archbishop of Canterbury,       (p. 195)
+     Primate of all England, and Legate of the Apostolic see, to our
+     beloved son the spiritual Vicar-general of our venerable brother
+     R. by the grace of God, Bishop of London, now in foreign parts.
+     The holy honour of the English church (whose praise and fame, in
+     devoted veneration of God and his saints, the whole world extols
+     above the churches of other regions and provinces,) requires that
+     the same church shall more abound with the praises of those, and
+     more exultingly rejoice in glad devotion to them, by whose
+     patronage and grace of miracles she rejoices to flourish; and by
+     whose pious intercession the state, not only of the church, but
+     of the whole realm, together with the inward sweetness of peace
+     and quiet, and with victory gained over foreign enemies, is
+     defended by just rulers.
+
+     "The grace of this help, though God to the same church, and to
+     the inhabitants of the realm of England, hath often decreed to
+     show by the merits of divers saints, (with whom she shines
+     gloriously on every side,) yet in these last days He has
+     evidently deigned more miraculously and more especially to
+     console the aforesaid church, together with the aforesaid nobles,
+     inhabitants, and all members of the kingdom, by the especial
+     suffrage of her (almifici) gracious confessor and bishop, the
+     most blessed John of Beverley, as we verily believe!
+
+     "Oh! ineffable consolation, especially in our times, in every age
+     pleasant, and ever to be called to mind; namely, the victory of
+     our most Christian Prince, King Henry V. of England, and of his
+     army, in the battle of Agincourt, lately fought in the parts of
+     Picardy; which on the Feast of the Translation of the said Saint,
+     to the honour of the divine name, and to the honour of the realm
+     of England, from the boundless mercy of God, was granted to the
+     English.
+
+     "On which Feast of his Translation, whilst the struggle between
+     our countrymen and the French was being carried on, as to the
+     hearing of us and our brethren in our last convocation,       (p. 196)
+     abundantly and especially, the true report of the inhabitants of
+     that country brought the tidings, that from his tomb sacred oil
+     flowed, drops falling as of sweat, indicative of the divine mercy
+     towards his people, doubtless obtained by the merits of that most
+     holy man.
+
+     "Wishing, therefore, in our province to spread an increase of
+     divine worship, and especially to extol further the praise of so
+     great a patron, with the wills, counsel, and assent of our
+     brethren and the clergy in the said convocation, and no less at
+     the special instance of the said most Christian Prince, we have
+     determined that the memory of that most holy confessor everywhere
+     throughout our province should be exalted with feelings of
+     prayers and devotions [votivis et devotis affectibus]."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Then follows the decree above mentioned.
+
+This mass of extravagant folly and blind superstition, this presumptuous
+sharing of God's omnipotence and sovereign might with the power of such
+poor erring fellow-mortals as the corrupt ministers of a corrupt church
+had presumptuously ranked among the inhabitants of heaven,--thus daring
+to forestal the judgment of Christ at the last day, and to pronounce on
+the glory of a man whose spiritual state Omniscience alone can know,--it
+is impossible to contemplate without feelings of gratitude that Heaven's
+mercy has released us from such perverted use of the Gospel of the
+Saviour; nor without a prayer that the Spirit of light and truth would
+guide those of our fellow-creatures who are still walking in the same
+land of darkness and error, into the clear light of Christian truth.
+
+The Author, to whom the following "Song of Agincourt" has been     (p. 197)
+familiar from his childhood, cannot refrain from inserting it here.
+This is that ancient, and, as it is believed, contemporary ballad,
+which has preserved to our times that golden stanza which appears in
+the title page of these volumes; and every word of which reflects the
+character of Henry as a hero and a merciful man. The quotation, also,
+from Burnet's History of Music, and the contemporary song to which he
+refers, will, it is presumed, be generally acceptable.
+
+
+  SONG OF AGINCOURT.
+
+  As our King lay on his bed,
+    All musing at the hour of prime,[148]
+  He bethought him of the King of France,
+    And tribute due for so long a time.
+
+  He called unto him his lovely page,
+    His lovely page then called he;
+  Saying, You must go to the King in France,
+    To the King in France right speedily.
+
+  Tell him to send me my tribute home,
+    Ten ton of gold that is due to me;
+  Unless he send me my tribute home,
+    Soon in French land I will him see.
+
+  Away then goes this lovely page                                  (p. 198)
+    As fast, as fast as he could hie;
+  And, when he came to the King in France,
+    He fell all down on his bended knee.
+
+  My master greets you, sir, and says,
+    Ten ton of gold is due to me;
+  Unless you send me my tribute home,
+    You in French land soon shall see me.
+
+  Your master is young, and of tender age,
+    Not fit to come into my degree;
+  I'll send him home some tennis-balls
+    That with them he may learn for to play.
+
+  Away then goes this lovely page,
+    As fast, as fast as he could hie;
+  And, when he came to our gracious King,
+    He fell all down on his bended knee.
+
+  What news, what news, my trusty page?
+    What news, what news dost thou bring to me?
+  I bring such news from the King of France,
+    That you and he can never agree.
+
+  He says you are young, and of tender age,
+    Not fit to come up to his degree;
+  He has sent you home some tennis-balls,
+    That with them you may learn for to play.
+
+  Oh! then bespoke our noble King,
+    A solemn vow then vowed he;
+  I'll promise him such English balls
+    As in French land he ne'er did see.
+
+  Go! call up Cheshire and Lancashire,                             (p. 199)
+    And Derby hills that are so free;
+  BUT NEITHER MARRIED MAN, NOR WIDOW'S SON,
+    NO WIDOW'S CURSE SHALL GO WITH ME!
+
+  They called up Cheshire and Lancashire,
+    And Derby hills that are so free;
+  But neither married man nor widow's son,
+    Yet they had a right good company.
+
+  He called unto him his merry men all,
+    And numbered them by three and three,
+  Until their number it did amount
+    To thirty thousand stout men and three.
+
+  Away then marched they into French land,
+    With drums and fifes so merrily;
+  Then out and spoke the King of France,
+    Lo! here comes proud King Henrie!
+
+  The first that fired, it was the French,
+    They killed our Englishmen so free;
+  But we killed ten thousand of the French,
+    And the rest of them they did run away.
+
+  Then marched they on to Paris gates,
+    With drums and fifes so merrily;
+  Oh! then bespoke the King of France,
+    The Lord have mercy on my men and me!
+
+  Oh! I will send him his tribute home,
+    Ten ton of gold that is due from me;
+  And the very best flower that is in all France
+    To the rose of England will I give free.
+
+                   [Footnote 148: The second line of this song is
+                   variously read. Probably the original words are
+                   lost. The reading in the text is conjectural.]
+
+"At the coronation of Henry V," observes Dr. Burney, "in 1413,     (p. 200)
+we hear of _no other instruments than harps_;[149] but one of that
+prince's historians[150] tells us that their number in the hall was
+prodigious. Henry, however, though a successful hero and a conqueror,
+did not seem to take the advantage of his claim to praise; and either
+was so modest or so tasteless as to discourage and even prohibit the
+poets and musicians from celebrating his victories and singing his
+valiant deeds. When he entered the city of London, after the battle of
+Agincourt, the gates and streets were hung with tapestry, representing
+the history of ancient heroes; and children were placed in temporary
+turrets to sing verses. But Henry, disgusted at these vanities,
+commanded, by a formal edict, that for the future no songs should be
+recited by harpers, or others, in honour of the recent victory.
+'_Cantus de suo triumpho fieri, seu per citharistas, vel alios
+quoscunque, cantari, penitus prohibebat._'
+
+                   [Footnote 149: Dr. Burney has here fallen into a
+                   most extraordinary mistake. In the very page to
+                   which he refers, Elmham, in his turgid manner,
+                   assures us that at Henry's coronation the
+                   tumultuous clang of so many trumpets made the
+                   heavens resound with the roar of thunder. He then
+                   describes the sweet strings of the harps soothing
+                   the souls of the guests by their soft melody; and
+                   the united music of other instruments also, by
+                   their dulcet sounds, in which no discord
+                   interrupted the harmony, inviting the royal
+                   banqueters to full enjoyment of the festival.]
+
+                   [Footnote 150: Thomas de Elmham, Vit. et Gest. Hen.
+                   V. edit. Hearne, Oxon. 1727, cap. xii. p. 23.]
+
+"It is somewhat extraordinary that, in spite of Henry's edicts and
+prohibitions, _the only English song of so early a date, that has come
+to my knowledge, of which the original music has been preserved_, is
+one that was written on his victory at Agincourt in 1415. It is
+preserved in the Pepysian Collection, at Magdalen College,
+Cambridge."[151]
+
+                   [Footnote 151: Burney's History of Music, vol. ii.
+                   p. 382.]
+
+After some observations upon the general ignorance of the          (p. 201)
+transcribers of ancient music, Dr. Burney proceeds to say, "that the
+copy in the Pepysian Collection is written upon vellum in Gregorian
+notes, and can be little less ancient than the event which it
+recorded;" and that there is with it a paper which shows that an
+attempt was made in the last century (17th) to give it a modern dress,
+but that too many liberties had been taken with the melody, and the
+drone bass, which had been set to it for the lute, is a mere jargon.
+He then presents what he says is a faithful copy of this venerable
+relic of our nation's prowess and glory.
+
+  Owre Kynge went forth to Normandy,
+  With grace, and myght of chyvalry;
+  The God for hym wrought marv'lusly,
+  Wherefore Englonde may calle and cry,
+
+      CHORUS.
+
+    Deo gratias, Anglia!
+    Redde pro Victoria!
+
+  He sette a sege, the sothe to say,
+  To Harflue town, with royal array;
+  That toune he wan, and made a fray
+  That Fraunce shall rywe tyl domes-day.
+          Deo gratias! &c.
+
+  Than, for sothe, that Knyght comely
+  In Agincourt feld faught manly;
+  Thorow grace of God, most myghty,
+  He hath bothe felde and victory.
+          Deo gratias! &c.
+
+  Then went owre Kynge, with all his oste,                         (p. 202)
+  Thorowe Fraunce, for all the Frenshe boste;
+  He spared[152] for drede of leste ne most,
+  Till he come to Agincourt coste.
+           Deo gratias! &c.
+
+  Ther Dukys and Earlys, Lorde and Barone,
+  Were take and slayne, and that wel sone;
+  And some were ledde into Lundone;
+  With joye, and merth, and grete renone,
+          Deo gratias! &c.
+
+  Now gracious God he save owre Kynge,
+  His peple, and all his well wyllinge;
+  Gef him gode lyfe, and gode endynge,
+  That we with merth may safely synge,
+  Deo gratias, Anglia! redde pro Victoria!
+
+                   [Footnote 152: For dread neither of least nor of
+                   greatest.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.                                                      (p. 203)
+
+REASONS FOR DELAYING A SECOND CAMPAIGN. -- SIGISMUND UNDERTAKES TO
+MEDIATE. -- RECEPTION OF SIGISMUND. -- FRENCH SHIPS SCOUR THE SEAS,
+AND LAY SIEGE TO HARFLEUR. -- HENRY'S VIGOROUS MEASURES THEREUPON. --
+THE EMPEROR DECLARES FOR "HENRY AND HIS JUST RIGHTS." -- JOINS WITH
+HIM IN CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL ON A DAY OF THANKSGIVING FOR VICTORY OVER
+THE FRENCH. -- WITH HIM MEETS THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY AT CALAIS. -- THE
+DUKE ALSO DECLARES FOR HENRY. -- SECOND INVASION OF FRANCE. -- SIEGE
+OF CAEN. -- HENRY'S BULLETIN TO THE MAYOR OF LONDON. -- HOSTILE
+MOVEMENT OF THE SCOTS.
+
+1415-1417.
+
+
+It has been made a subject of observation, and of conjecture as to its
+cause, that Henry did not take advantage of the next spring to
+prosecute his claims in France. Some[153] would have us suspect that
+it was "to show that personal honour had been his leading object, that
+he remained at home nearly two years afterwards without any military
+movement." But a much more intelligible and palpable cause         (p. 204)
+offers itself to the mind on the slightest reflection upon the
+circumstances in which he was placed.[154] He had not the means ready
+for invading France. His forces were diminished by a number of men
+appallingly great, in proportion to the body with which he had landed
+at Harfleur; and his treasury was exhausted. For his first expedition
+he had borrowed the utmost which his subjects and friends either would
+or could supply; and the grants made to him by his parliament had been
+anticipated even to carry on the former campaign. That it was his
+intention, however, when he left France after the victory of
+Agincourt, to return to that country in the following spring, seems
+clear from the circumstance that, on dismissing his less illustrious
+prisoners at Calais, he bound them on their words to bring their
+ransoms to him on the field of Lendi, at the feast of St. John in the
+summer; with this voluntary proviso, that, if they did not find him
+there, they should be free from all obligation to him.
+
+                   [Footnote 153: Mr. Turner.]
+
+                   [Footnote 154: Another view might be taken of the
+                   cause of this delay on the part of Henry. Perhaps
+                   he was acting prudently by allowing time for his
+                   enemies to weaken each other, and to exhaust their
+                   resources by the insatiable demands of civil
+                   warfare. Meanwhile, he was not himself idle.]
+
+In the mean time, a most influential mediator between the two kingdoms
+appeared, the intervention of whom would, even under other
+circumstances, have rendered delay imperative. Sigismund, Emperor  (p. 205)
+of Germany, first visited the King of France in his capital, and
+then extended his journey to England, with a view of bringing about a
+peace, though all his efforts proved unavailing.
+
+On his approach towards England, the utmost pains seem to have been
+taken to make his reception worthy of his high dignity and of the
+English people. The orders of council are very minute and
+interesting;[155] and the arrival of Sigismund seems to have occupied
+the time and thoughts of the whole nation. The Earl of Warwick was
+then Captain of Calais, whose character for gallantry and courteous
+bearing was so distinguished on this, as on all other occasions, that
+he was called the Father of courtesy. The Emperor and his retinue of
+one thousand persons, among whom were many German and Italian princes
+and nobles, embarked at Calais in thirty of the King's ships, and
+arrived at Dover on the 29th of April 1416. Here the Duke of       (p. 206)
+Gloucester, Constable of Dover, with many noblemen, met him; and gave
+him precisely that sort of reception which we should have expected
+from English gentlemen under the immediate direction of Henry. As the
+Emperor was ready to set his foot on land, they stepped into the water
+with their drawn swords, and told him with mingled firmness and
+courtesy, "that, if he came as a mediator of peace, they would receive
+him with all the honours due to the imperial dignity; but if as
+Emperor he challenged any sovereign power, they must tell him that the
+English nation was a free people, and their King had dependence on no
+monarch on earth; and they were resolved, in defence of the liberty of
+the people, and the rights of their King, to oppose his landing on
+their shores." The answer of the Emperor set them at ease on this
+point, and he was received with every mark of respect and honour;
+among other testimonies of Henry's feelings towards him, was his
+installation of him as a Knight of the Garter at Windsor.[156]
+
+                   [Footnote 155: Lord Talbot was to be associated
+                   with the Captain of Calais to receive the Emperor
+                   in that city. At Dover, the Duke of Gloucester,
+                   with the Lords Salisbury, Furnival, and Haryngton,
+                   were to welcome him to the English shores; at
+                   Rochester, the Constable and Marshal of England,
+                   the Earl of Oxford, and others; at Dartford, the
+                   Duke of Clarence, with the Earls of March and
+                   Huntingdon, Lord Grey of Ruthing, Lord Abergavenny,
+                   and others, were to meet him. At Blackheath, the
+                   Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and good people of London
+                   were to await his arrival; whilst Henry himself was
+                   to receive Sigismund between Deptford and
+                   Southwark, at a place called St. Thomas
+                   Watering.--"Privy Council," April 1416, Pour la
+                   venue de l'Empereur.]
+
+                   [Footnote 156: The Archbishop of Canterbury
+                   commanded all his suffragans to take especial care
+                   that prayers be offered in all congregations for
+                   the good estate of Sigismund.--Rymer's Foed.
+                   1416.]
+
+It is impossible not to contrast the conduct of our countrymen on this
+occasion and the behaviour of Sigismund, with his conduct in France,
+and the readiness with which that conduct, however humiliating, was
+submitted to. Sigismund was received with much ceremony and        (p. 207)
+magnificence at Paris; but, before he left it, he had surprised and
+disgusted the King by exercising an act of sovereignty in the very
+house of parliament. By courtesy he was seated on the chair usually
+occupied by the King himself. A trial was proceeding, the result of
+which seemed to turn on the knighthood of one of the litigants. The
+Emperor called for a sword, and knighted the individual forthwith.
+
+Whilst Sigismund was anxiously engaged in endeavouring to bring the
+two nations to terms of peace, news arrived of an event which must
+have made his efforts and mediation appear hopeless. The French had
+fallen upon part of the garrison of Harfleur, and cut off a
+considerable body of them. Not long after this, and whilst
+negociations were pending between London and Paris, with a more
+favourable appearance of a successful issue, tidings came that the
+French fleet had scoured the Channel, had blockaded Southampton, and
+had made various attempts on the Isle of Wight; that the Constable,
+D'Armagnac, had recalled them, and they were then besieging Harfleur.
+Henry and his council resolved on making an immediate and vigorous
+effort to destroy that fleet; and forthwith an armament was prepared,
+of which Henry expressed his determination to take the command
+himself. At the urgent request, however, of the Emperor, he desisted
+from that resolution, and gave the supreme command to his brother the
+Duke of Bedford; who, after a most obstinate battle, gained a      (p. 208)
+decided victory over the enemy, and relieved Harfleur.[157]
+
+                   [Footnote 157: Henry was at Smalhithe in Kent
+                   (August 22), superintending the building of some
+                   ships, when news of this success reached him. He
+                   hastened to join the Emperor, who was at
+                   Canterbury, and both went to the cathedral together
+                   to return thanks for the victory. This happened a
+                   week subsequently to their signing of the league of
+                   amity mentioned below.]
+
+The Emperor was soon convinced that his mediation must fail, and that
+France was resolved to renew the war. He then determined not to remain
+neutral, but to join himself by a solemn league with Henry. The
+preamble of this covenant is deeply interesting, as indicative, at
+least, of the professed sentiments of Sigismund with regard to the
+pretensions of Henry, and to the conduct and character of the two
+belligerent kings. Sigismund declared the object of his desire to have
+been the restoration of peace to the church and to Christendom; and,
+with that end in view, he had endeavoured to reconcile the Kings of
+England and France, but without success. The failure he ascribed
+entirely to the hatred of peace which influenced the French King, to
+whom he attributed also the prevalence of schism in the church, and
+the disturbed state of the Christian world. He then expresses his
+resolution "to form a league with Henry in the name of the Lord God of
+Hosts, and to assist him in the recovery of his JUST RIGHTS."[158]
+This league was signed August 15, 1416. The Emperor, shortly after (p. 209)
+this unlooked-for termination of his office as mediator, left England.
+Before he had proceeded onwards from Calais, Henry himself arrived at
+that town. After some days, the Duke of Burgundy also joined them; and
+much time was spent in secret negociations, the nature of which did
+not transpire, though we may suppose both the Emperor and King were
+anxious to make him a party to the league already concluded between
+themselves. A covenant, however, was signed by the Duke early in
+October, in which he declared that, "though he had taken part with the
+enemies of Henry in time past, yet now, _being assured of his lawful
+claim_, he would employ his arms in his service as the rightful King
+of France."
+
+                   [Footnote 158: Rymer, H. V. An. iv.]
+
+The Emperor left Calais for Germany; and Henry, having concluded a
+truce with France till the 2nd of February, returned to England, and
+met his parliament on October 19th. Much zeal was here shown in his
+behalf; and whilst the parliament granted two whole tenths and two
+whole fifteenths, to be levied on the laity, the clergy gave two
+tenths, to be paid by their own body. But all this was not enough;
+recourse was again had to borrowing, the Dukes of Clarence, Bedford,
+and Gloucester pledging themselves, in case of Henry's death, to the
+repayment of the loans. Henry pawned a valuable crown to his uncle,
+the Bishop of Winchester, for money to a great amount; and he pledged
+very valuable jewels to the Mayor of London for another large      (p. 210)
+sum. No measure was left untried, that Henry might be prepared by the
+ensuing spring with men and money for the invasion of France.[159] In
+the meanwhile, the French princes and nobles who had been taken
+prisoners at Agincourt were anxiously negociating for their release.
+In a communication of strict confidence to the Emperor, Henry declares
+that all their proceedings were suspicious, and selfish, and
+deceitful; that he had suffered the Duke of Bourbon to return to   (p. 211)
+France on certain conditions, but that the Emperor might be assured
+of his resolution to invade that country.
+
+                   [Footnote 159: The various expedients to which both
+                   Henry and his father were driven to raise supplies
+                   in any way commensurate with their wants, have
+                   repeatedly reminded the Author of the similar means
+                   to which their unhappy successor Charles, in his
+                   days of far more urgent need and necessity, had
+                   recourse. The reader may perhaps be interested by
+                   the following document. It is a copy of the letter
+                   in which Charles applies to the Provost and Fellows
+                   of Oriel College for a loan of their plate. The
+                   King's letter is dated January 6th, 1642; and the
+                   society, assembled in the chapel on the 8th, vote
+                   unanimously to put their silver and gilt vessels at
+                   the disposal of their sovereign, scarcely retaining
+                   one single piece of plate. (Allocata sunt ad usum
+                   serenissimi vasa argentea et deaurata pæne ad unum
+                   omnia.) The one retained is said to have been the
+                   chalice for the holy communion.
+
+                   (Extracted from the Register of Oriel College.)
+
+                         "To our trusty and well-beloved the Provost
+                         and Fellowes of Oriel Colledge, in our
+                         University of Oxon: Charles R.
+
+                         "Trusty and well-beloved, wee greete you
+                         well. Wee are so well satisfied with your
+                         readiness and affection to our service, that
+                         wee cannot doubt but you will take all
+                         occasions to expresse the same; and as wee
+                         are ready to sell or engage any of our land,
+                         so have wee melted downe our plate for the
+                         paiment of our army, raised for our defence,
+                         and the preservation of our kingdome. And
+                         having received severall quantityes of plate
+                         from divers of our loving subjects, we have
+                         removed our mint hither to our citty of
+                         Oxford, for the coyning thereof.
+
+                         "And we do hereby desire you that you will
+                         lend unto us all such plate, of what kind
+                         soever, which belongs to your colledge;
+                         promising you to see the same iustly repaid
+                         unto you after the rate of 5 _s._ the ounce
+                         for white, and 5 _s._ 6 _d._ for guilt plate,
+                         as soon as God shall enable us: for assure
+                         yourselves wee shall never let persons of
+                         whom wee have so great a care suffer for
+                         their affection to us, but shall take
+                         speciall order for the repaiment of what you
+                         have already lent us, according to our
+                         promise, and also of this you now lend in
+                         plate; well knowing it to bee the goods of
+                         youre colledge that you ought not to alien,
+                         though no man will doubt but in such a case
+                         you may lawfully lend to assist youre King in
+                         such visible necessity. And wee have
+                         entrusted our trusty and well-beloved Sir
+                         William Parkhurst, Knt. and Thomas Bushee,
+                         Esq. officers of our mint, or either of them,
+                         to receive the said plate from you; who,
+                         uppon weighing thereof, shall give you a
+                         receipt under theire or one of their hands
+                         for the same.
+
+                         "And wee assure our selfe of your willingness
+                         to gratify us herein; since, beside the more
+                         publiche considerations, you cannot but know
+                         how much your selves are concerned in our
+                         sufferings. And wee shall ever remember this
+                         particular service to your advantage.
+
+                          "Given at our Court at Oxford, the 6 day of
+                         January 1642."]
+
+Henry's exertions were effectual; and, soon after midsummer, he found
+himself prepared with men and money to renew his expedition to
+Normandy in a fleet of fifteen hundred sail, and with an army of not
+less than twenty-five thousand soldiers. Before he embarked,       (p. 212)
+however, he commissioned Holland, Earl of Huntingdon, whose father had
+been beheaded at Cirencester in the reign of Henry IV, with a squadron
+to scour the seas, and secure a free passage for the transports. The
+Earl was successful in a most hard-fought battle with a fleet of
+Genoese large ships, sent by their republic[160] to aid the French
+King; and on July 23rd 1417, Henry set sail for the coast of
+France.[161] A large body of French on the shore threatened to oppose
+him; but he landed his forces safely, on the 1st of August, at
+Beville. As soon as his people were all safe on shore, by an act
+characteristic of himself, he adopted the same measure which, on his
+former expedition, had compelled him to make his way to Calais by
+land. He dismissed all his ships homeward, excepting what were
+required for transporting cannon; thus assuring his soldiers that they
+must conquer or die, for they had no retreat.
+
+                   [Footnote 160: In the letter from Constance, dated
+                   the preceding February, Henry was informed that the
+                   French had sent a large sum to Genoa to wage [hire]
+                   ships to fight with England.]
+
+                   [Footnote 161: The Muster Roll of this expedition
+                   is preserved in the Chapter-house, Westminster, and
+                   is pronounced to be one of the most interesting
+                   records of military history now extant.--See
+                   Preface to the Norman Rolls, by T.D. Hardy, Esq.]
+
+Henry found the country altogether deserted, the inhabitants having
+fled from their homes in every direction on receiving the alarming
+tidings of his approach. It is said that twenty-five thousand families
+fled into Brittany; and so complete was the evacuation in some     (p. 213)
+districts, that there reigned through the country the stillness
+of death. In Lisieux, a considerable town eighteen miles from the sea,
+the English found but one old man and one woman. The people had
+secured themselves, to the utmost of their means, in fortified towns,
+all of which had been supplied with strong garrisons on the first news
+of the intended invasion.
+
+Henry systematically caused the most strict discipline to be observed
+in his army, of which many proofs are recorded. Among other instances
+we read that when a monk complained of having been robbed by a
+soldier, he was desired to fix upon the guilty man. On discovering the
+culprit, the King upbraided him with his baseness, and pronounced him
+worthy of death; but, on making restitution, and promising never again
+to be guilty of the offence, he pardoned him. "And you, friend," said
+he, turning to the monk, "go back to your brethren in peace, and
+attend all of you to your sacred duties without fear of me or my army.
+I am not come hither as a thief to rob your churches and altars, but
+as a just and merciful King to protect you from violence." Henry then
+proclaimed through the army that no one should injure an ecclesiastic
+on pain of death.[162] It was amusing, we are told, to see how the
+numbers of the regular clergy were suddenly swollen; rustics       (p. 214)
+shaving their heads, and putting on the dress of a monk, to be safe
+under the terms of that protection.
+
+                   [Footnote 162: A long list of the clergy, and of
+                   the churches then taken by Henry under his
+                   protection, is preserved in the Norman
+                   Rolls.--Hardy's edition, p. 331.]
+
+During this campaign Henry sent repeated bulletins of his proceedings
+and successes to the mayor and aldermen of London, many of the
+originals of which are still in existence; and which combine, with the
+answers to them, in bearing evidence to the popularity of Henry's
+person, and of the cause in which he was embarked. Some of these
+documents are exceedingly interesting; but it would be needless to
+transfer them all into these pages.[163] It is to be lamented that
+such indisputable records are not all published, or rendered
+accessible to every one who would wish to consult them. The
+interspersion of a few in this part of the volume may enable the
+reader to verify in more points than one the views which are here
+offered of Henry's character and the feeling of the people of England
+at this period. The first is a letter from Henry himself, dated August
+9, 1417, at Touque, the very day of the surrender of that place, and
+only a week after he landed.
+
+                   [Footnote 163: These letters did not come within
+                   the Author's knowledge before he had written these
+                   brief memoirs of the last years of Henry. It is
+                   very satisfactory to find them all confirmatory of
+                   his previous views. He has taken especial care to
+                   make every, the slightest, correction in his
+                   narrative, suggested by authorities from which
+                   there is no appeal.]
+
+     "Trusty and well-beloved, we greet you oftentimes well; doing (p. 215)
+     [giving] you to understand for your comfort, that, by the grace
+     of God, we be safely arrived into our land of Normandy, with all
+     our subjects ordained to go with us for the first passage. And
+     this day, the even of St. Lawrence, about mid-day, was yolden
+     [yielded] unto us the castle of Touque, about the which our
+     well-beloved cousin, the Earl of Huntingdon, lay; and the keys
+     of the said castle delivered unto us without the shedding of
+     Christian blood, or defence made by our enemies:--the which castle
+     is an honour, and all the viscounty and lordships of Ange hold
+     thereof, as we have been informed of such men as were therein.
+     Whereof we thank God lowly, that hym lust [he is pleased] of high
+     grace to show unto us so fair beginning in our present voyage;
+     desiring also that ye thank God thereof in the most best wise that
+     ye can, and that ye send us from time to time such tidings be
+     komerys be thwene [by comers between], as ye have in that side the
+     sea. Given under our signet, at our said Castle of Touque, the 9th
+     day of August.
+        "To the Mayor, Sheriffs, Aldermen,
+        and good people of our City of
+        London."--Endorsed in French.
+
+But though Henry speaks thus encouragingly of his present campaign, he
+had soon much to make him anxious, and to rouse all the energies of
+his mind. Among other sources of solicitude was the growing evil of
+desertion. Many of his soldiers grew tired of the war, and,
+dishonourably leaving his camp, stole back to their native country. Of
+the prevalence of this mischief we have too clear proof in the
+following writ, a copy of which was despatched to all the sheriffs of
+England. It is found among the Norman Rolls, and is one of the     (p. 216)
+few specimens with which Mr. Hardy has enriched the interesting
+introduction to his edition of those valuable documents.[164]
+
+                   [Footnote 164: Norman Rolls, preserved in the
+                   Tower, edited by T.D. Hardy, Esq.]
+
+     "The King to the Sheriffs of London and Middlesex, greeting.
+     Whereas we have received certain information and undoubted
+     evidence that divers of our lieges who lately came with us to our
+     kingdom of France, there as we hoped stoutly to oppose and resist
+     the pride and malice of our enemies, have deserted us in the
+     midst of these our enemies, and without our licence have in great
+     multitudes falsely and traitorously withdrawn and returned to our
+     kingdom of England, and are still daily withdrawing and
+     returning; which, if suffered to continue, would manifestly turn,
+     not only to the continual prejudice of us, but to the serious
+     injury and peril of our faithful lieges accompanying us (which
+     God avert!) We, desirous, as we are bound, to provide and ordain
+     a fitting remedy in this matter, do command and strictly enjoin
+     you to arrest and take into custody without delay all and each of
+     those whom by inquiry, information, or other means whatsoever,
+     you shall discover to have been with us in our said kingdom of
+     France, in our company, or in that of others, and who have
+     withdrawn themselves thence without our licence under our signet,
+     or that of the Constable of our army, and to deliver them as soon
+     as taken to our very dear brother, John Duke of Bedford, Guardian
+     of England. And, upon the fealty and allegiance wherein ye are
+     bound to us, let this by no means be neglected. Witness the King,
+     at his castle of Caen, in his duchy of Normandy, the 29th day of
+     September.--By the King himself."
+
+The most important siege in this campaign was that of Caen;[165]   (p. 217)
+at the taking of which, after a tremendous conflict and loss of life,
+Henry behaved towards the vanquished with so much mercy and kindness,
+that the governors of many neighbouring towns sent to him the keys of
+their gates.
+
+                   [Footnote 165: Henry's own letter to the Mayor and
+                   Aldermen of London (Liber F. fol. 200), written on
+                   the 5th of September, the day after the surrender
+                   of Caen, represents the loss on the part of the
+                   English to have been very trifling. "On St.
+                   Cuthbert's day, God, of his high grace, sent unto
+                   our hands our town of Caen by assault, and with
+                   right little death of our people, whereof we thank
+                   our Saviour as lowly as we can; praying that ye do
+                   the same, and as devoutly as ye can. Certifying you
+                   also that we and our host be in good prosperity and
+                   health, thanked be God of his mercy! who have you
+                   in his holy keeping."]
+
+So great was his success that the French court sent commissioners to
+him to negociate for peace, but the treaty resulted in no favourable
+issue; and Henry went on in his career of victory through the very
+depth of winter; and became master of Bayeux, Argentan, Alençon, and
+other places. He was engaged, however, in the siege of Falaise through
+the whole of December, the town not surrendering till the 2nd of
+January.
+
+It was at this time that the capture and execution of Lord Cobham took
+place in England; of which we have written fully in a separate
+dissertation at the close of this volume. Henry, however, probably
+knew nothing of that unfortunate man's capture till he heard of his
+death.
+
+Early in the preceding autumn [1417] an alarm spread through       (p. 218)
+England in consequence of the hostile demonstration of the Scots.
+There seems to be some doubt as to the extent of their movements.
+Buchanan represents the whole affair as one of very little moment,
+scarcely more than a border foray; but the English chroniclers lead us
+to believe that it was a formidable invasion. It is said that the
+Lollards were the instigators; though it is more probable that the
+invitation was sent to Scotland from France, and especially through
+the Duke of Orleans, then a prisoner in Pontefract, whose liberty was
+consequently much straitened, as we find by an original letter of
+Henry himself.[166]
+
+                   [Footnote 166: This letter of the King's is only a
+                   fragment, without date: who were the persons
+                   addressed does not appear; probably he wrote it to
+                   his council in 1417 or 1418. Sir Henry Ellis opens
+                   his second series of Original Letters with this of
+                   Henry V. It is found in MS. Cotton. Vesp. F. iii.
+                   fol. 5.]
+
+     "Furthermore, I would that ye commune with my brother, with the
+     Chancellor, with my cousin of Northumberland, and my cousin of
+     Westmorland; and that ye set a good ordinance for my north
+     marches, and specially for the Duke of Orleans and for all the
+     remnant of my prisoners of France, and also for the K. of
+     Scotland. For as I am secretly informed by a man of right notable
+     estate in this land, that there hath been a man of the Duke of
+     Orleans in Scotland, and accorded with the Duke of Albany that
+     this next summer he shall bring the mammet[167] of Scotland to
+     stir what he may; and also that there should be found         (p. 219)
+     ways to the having away specially of the Duke of Orleans, and
+     also of the K. as well as of the remnant of my said prisoners,
+     that God do defend! [which God forbid!] Wherefore I will that the
+     Duke of Orleans be kept still within the castle of Pomfret,
+     without going to Robertis Place, or to any other disport; for it
+     is better he lack his disport than we be deceived."
+
+                   [Footnote 167: Probably the mammet, or mawmet,
+                   [puppet,] (a corruption, they say, of Mahomet,) of
+                   Scotland, was the pretended Richard, the deposed
+                   King, whom even now many believed to be still alive
+                   there.]
+
+The Scots on one side laid siege to Berwick, from which they were
+driven by the Earl of Northumberland, Hotspur's son; the other part of
+the Scotch army directed their attack on Roxborough, where they were
+routed by the united forces of the Dukes of Exeter[168] and
+Bedford,[169] and the Archbishop of York. That military prelate,
+unable, from the weakness of age, to ride, yet caused himself to be
+carried to the field, that surrounded by his clergy he might encourage
+his people to defend their native land.
+
+                   [Footnote 168: The Duke of Exeter was then governor
+                   of Harfleur, but was in England recruiting soldiers
+                   to reinforce the King's army in Normandy.]
+
+                   [Footnote 169: It is curious to observe, that the
+                   Duke of Bedford is reported to have been engaged at
+                   his devotions at Bridlington in Yorkshire; and
+                   that, on hearing of the invasion, he threw away his
+                   beads, and marched with all the forces he could
+                   muster to meet the Scots. John of Bridlington seems
+                   to have been in an especial manner the patron saint
+                   of Henry IV.'s family.]
+
+After these successful military proceedings in the north of the
+kingdom, parliament met on Nov. 16. They prayed for speedy judgment on
+rioters and malefactors; presented a petition on the subject of Sir
+John Oldcastle; supplicated for a reward to the Lord Powys, who    (p. 220)
+was instrumental in seizing him; and then they voted the King a
+subsidy of a tenth and a fifteenth. The clergy also in convocation
+granted two tenths. In this convocation an attempt was made to
+encourage learning by promoting to benefices such as had laboured long
+and diligently in the Universities. This proposition was rejected in
+Oxford at that time; but it received the cordial promotion and
+assistance of the University in July 1421. On the latter occasion,
+however, the measure, opposed as it was most vigorously by the monks,
+would probably again have miscarried, had not Henry himself, "who
+favoured arts and loved learned men," interposed his own authority in
+its favour.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.                                                       (p. 221)
+
+HENRY'S PROGRESS IN HIS SECOND CAMPAIGN. -- SIEGE OF ROUEN. --
+CARDINAL DES URSINS. -- SUPPLIES FROM LONDON. -- CORRESPONDENCE
+BETWEEN HENRY AND THE CITIZENS. -- NEGOCIATION WITH THE DAUPHIN AND
+WITH THE FRENCH KING. -- HENRY'S IRISH AUXILIARIES. -- REFLECTIONS ON
+IRELAND. -- ITS MISERABLE CONDITION. -- WISE AND STRONG MEASURES
+ADOPTED BY HENRY FOR ITS TRANQUILLITY. -- DIVISIONS AND STRUGGLES, NOT
+BETWEEN ROMANISTS AND PROTESTANTS, BUT BETWEEN ENGLISH AND IRISH. --
+HENRY AND THE SEE OF ROME. -- THRALDOM OF CHRISTENDOM. -- THE DUKE OF
+BRITTANY DECLARES FOR HENRY. -- SPANIARDS JOIN THE DAUPHIN. --
+EXHAUSTED STATE OF ENGLAND.
+
+1418-1419.
+
+
+Henry[170] meanwhile was making rapid progress in subduing Normandy;
+and to induce the inhabitants to return to their homes, which they had
+abandoned, he issued a proclamation promising protection and favour to
+all who would acknowledge his sovereignty. He also pledged himself to
+relieve his subjects from all injustice and oppression.
+
+                   [Footnote 170: On the 12th of February 1418, an
+                   order is issued to press horses, carts, and other
+                   means of conveyance, to carry the jewels,
+                   ornaments, and other furniture of the King's chapel
+                   to Southampton.]
+
+Whilst he was lying before the town of Louviers, the Cardinal      (p. 222)
+des Ursins arrived in his camp with letters from the Pope, urging
+Henry to make peace; the Cardinal of St. Mark having been sent to the
+French King for the same purpose.
+
+These offers of mediation were unavailing; and Henry, encouraged by
+the distracted state of France, resolved to push his conquests to the
+utmost; and, after some severe skirmishing at Pont de Larche,[171] he
+proceeded to lay siege to Rouen. Did the plan of these Memoirs admit
+of a fuller inquiry into the affairs of France, we might here      (p. 223)
+with benefit review the proceedings of the different parties in that
+country since the field of Agincourt. The result of such a review
+would probably be the conviction that the divisions by which that
+country was distracted not only facilitated Henry's conquests, but
+alone admitted of them. His victories, even if they had ever been won,
+would scarcely have followed each other so rapidly, had the King of
+France, the Dauphin, and the Duke of Burgundy opposed him with united
+forces.
+
+                   [Footnote 171: Henry's own words, in a letter, 21
+                   July 1418, sent from Pont de Larche to the Mayor of
+                   London, are: "Since our last departing from Caen,
+                   we came before our town of Louviers, and won it by
+                   siege; to which place came to us the Cardinal of
+                   Ursin from our holy father the Pope, for to treat
+                   for the good of peace betwixt both realms, and is
+                   gone again to Paris to diligence there in this same
+                   matter; but what end it shall draw to we wot not as
+                   yet." In this letter he informs us that the attack
+                   on Pont de Larche was on the 4th of July; and that,
+                   though the enemy had "assembled in great power to
+                   resist us, yet God of his mercy showed so for us
+                   and for our right, that it was withouten the death
+                   of any man's person of ours." He adds that he had
+                   just heard of the decidedly hostile intentions of
+                   the Duke of Burgundy towards him; so "we hold him
+                   our full enemy. He is now at Paris." The King then
+                   tells them that he needs not to refer to the death
+                   of the Earl of Armagnac, and the slaughter that
+                   hath been at Paris; for he was assured that they
+                   had full knowledge thereof. He alludes to the
+                   massacre of the Armagnac faction by the partisans
+                   of the Duke of Burgundy, June 12, 1418. Two
+                   thousand persons were murdered in a very brief
+                   space of time. The mob dragged the bodies of the
+                   Constable and Chancellor through the streets (as
+                   Monstrelet tells us) for two or three days.]
+
+The citizens of Rouen, which was well garrisoned, and had an ample
+store of provisions, had declared themselves for the Duke of Burgundy;
+but now, in their alarm, they supplicate aid from the Dauphin against
+the common enemy. His answer was, that he was compelled to employ his
+troops in defending his own towns against the Duke of Burgundy.[172]
+
+                   [Footnote 172: Henry's army had received various
+                   reinforcements. One accession is recorded by an
+                   item in the Pell Rolls, of rather an interesting
+                   character, showing that both the Irish and the
+                   ecclesiastics of Ireland gave him good and
+                   acceptable proof of the interest they took in his
+                   success. It is the payment of 19_l._ 17_s._ on the
+                   1st of July 1418, "to masters and mariners of
+                   Bristol for embarking the Prior of Kilmaynham with
+                   two hundred horsemen and three hundred
+                   foot-soldiers from Waterford in Ireland, to go to
+                   the King in France." An entry also occurs in the
+                   following October: "To the Prior of Kilmaynham
+                   coming from Ireland to Southampton, with a good
+                   company of men, to proceed to Normandy to serve the
+                   King in the wars, 100_l._" An order from the King
+                   to his Chancellor, the Bishop of Durham, to
+                   expedite ships from Bristol for the transport of
+                   these men from Waterford to France, is preserved
+                   among the miscellaneous records in the Tower. It is
+                   dated June 3rd, at Ber-nay; to which a postscript
+                   was added on the next day, urging the utmost
+                   expedition, as the troops were tarrying only for
+                   the means of sailing.--See Bentley's Excerpta
+                   Historica, p. 388.]
+
+The whole English army, with a great train of artillery, came      (p. 224)
+up before the city on the last day of July 1418, before another
+harvest could afford new supplies of corn. To that one town the people
+of Normandy had brought all their treasures; and those who were
+intrusted with the safekeeping of the place seemed determined to
+endure all the miseries of blockade and famine, rather than surrender.
+Henry, with the resolution not to lavish the lives of his soldiers by
+attempting to take this town by storm, laid close siege to it by land;
+whilst some "good ships," which he had from the King of Portugal,
+blockaded the mouth of the Seine.
+
+Ten days after Henry laid siege to Rouen, he despatched a letter to
+the Mayor and Aldermen of London, which, with their answer, cannot be
+read without interest.
+
+     "BY THE KING.
+
+     "Right trusty and well-beloved! we greet you oft times well. And
+     for as much as, in the name of Almighty God, and in our right,
+     with his grace, we have laid the siege afore the city of Rouen,
+     which is the most notable place in France, save Paris; at which
+     siege, us nedeth [we need] greatly refreshing for us and for our
+     host; and we have found you, our true lieges and subjects, of
+     good will at all times to do all things that might do us worship
+     and ease, whereof we can you right heartily thank; and pray you
+     effectually that, in all the haste that ye may and ye will, do
+     arm as many small vessels as ye may goodly, with victuals,    (p. 225)
+     and namely [especially] with drink, for to come to Harfleur, and
+     from thence as far as they may up the river of Seyne to Rouen ward
+     with the said victual, for the refreshing of us and our said host,
+     as our trust is to you; for the which vessels there shall be
+     ordained sufficient conduct, with God's grace. Witting well also
+     that therein ye may do us right great pleasance, and refreshing
+     for all our host above said; and give us cause to show therefore
+     to you ever the better lordship in time to come, with the help of
+     our Saviour, the which we pray that He have you in his
+     safeward.--Given under our signet, in our host afore the said city
+     of Rouen, the 10th day of August.
+       "To our right trusty and well-beloved the
+       Mayor, Aldermen, and all the worthy
+       Commoners of our city of London."
+
+To this appeal the authorities of the city paid immediate and hearty
+attention, and forwarded to Henry an answer under their common seal on
+the 8th of September, (the Nativity of our Lady, the blissful maid,)
+of which the following is a copy. A memorandum in Latin informs us
+that the clause within brackets was for different causes kept back,
+and not sent with the letters. The letter is a curious specimen of the
+flattering and complimentary style of the good citizens of London when
+addressing their sovereign.
+
+     "Our most dread, most sovereign Lord, and noblest King, to the
+     sovereign highness of your kingly majesty, with all manner of
+     lowness and reverence, meekly we recommend us, not only as we
+     ought and should, but as we best can and may; with all our
+     hearts, thanking your sovereign excellence of your gracious   (p. 226)
+     letters in making [us] gladsome in understanding, and passing
+     comfortable in favouring our poor degrees, which ye liked late
+     to send us from your host afore the city of Rouen. In which
+     letters, after declaration of your most noble intent for the
+     refreshing of your host, ye record so highly the readiness of our
+     will and power at all times to your pleasance, and thanking us
+     thereof so heartily, that truly, save only our prayer to Him that
+     all good quiteth [requiteth], never was it nor might it half be
+     deserved. And after seeing in your foresaid gracious letters ye
+     pray us effectually to enarme as many small vessels as we may
+     with victual, and specially with drink, for to come as far as
+     they may in the river Seyne. And not only this, but in the
+     conclusion of your sovereign letters foresaid, ye fed us so
+     bounteously with the best showing of your good lordship to us in
+     time coming as ye have ever done, that now and ever we shall be
+     the joyfuller in this life when we remember us on so noble a
+     grace. [O how may the simpless of poor lieges better or more
+     clearly conceive the gracious love and favourable tendress of the
+     King, their sovereign Lord, than to hear how your most excellent
+     and noble person, more worth to us than all worldly riches or
+     plenty, in so thin abundance of victual heavily disposed, so
+     graciously and goodly declare and utter unto us, that are your
+     liege men and subjects, your plain lust and pleasance, as it is
+     in your said noble letters worthily contained. Certain, true
+     liege man is there none, ne faithful subject could there non ne
+     durst tarry or be lachesse [backward] in any wise to the
+     effectual prayer and commandment of so sovereign and high a lord,
+     which his noble body paineth and knightly adventureth for the
+     right and welfare of us.] Our most dread, most sovereign Lord,
+     and noblest King, may it please your sovereign highness to
+     understand, how that your foresaid kingly prayer, as most strait
+     charge and commandment, we willing in all points obey and execute
+     anon, from the receipt of your said gracious letter, which    (p. 227)
+     was the 19th day of August nigh noon, unto the making of these
+     simple letters. What in getting and enarming of as many small
+     vessels as we might, doing brew both ale and beer, purveying
+     wine and other victual, for to charge with the same vessels, we
+     have done our busy diligence and care, as God wot. In which vessels,
+     without [besides] great plenty of other victuals, that men of
+     your city of London aventuren for refreshing of your host to the
+     coasts where your sovereign presence is in, we lowly send with
+     gladdest will unto your sovereign excellence and kingly majesty
+     by John Credy and John Combe, your officers of your said city,
+     bringers of these letters, tritty botes [thirty butts] of sweet
+     wine, that is to say, ten of Tyre, ten of Romeney, ten of
+     Malmesey, and a thousand pipes of ale, with two thousand and five
+     hundred cups for your host to drink of, which we beseech your
+     high excellence and noble grace for our alder comfort and
+     gladness benignly to receive and accept; not having reward
+     [regard] to the little head or small value of the gift itself,
+     which is simple; but to the good will and high desire that your
+     poor givers thereof have to the good speed, worship, and welfare
+     of your most sovereign and excellent person, of which speed and
+     welfare, and all your other kingly lusts [desires] and
+     pleasances, we desire highly by the said bearers of these
+     letters, and other whom your sovereign highness shall like, fully
+     to be learned and informed. Our most dread, most sovereign Lord,
+     and noblest King, we lowly beseech the King of Heaven, whose body
+     refused not for our salvation worldly pain guiltless to endure,
+     that ye, your gracious person, which for our alder good and
+     profit so knightly laboureth, little or nought charging bodily
+     ease, in all worship and honour evermore to keep and
+     preserve.--Written at Gravesend, under the seal of Mayoralty of
+     your said city of London, on the day of the Nativity of our Lady,
+     the blissful maid.
+        "To the King, our most dread and most sovereign Lord."
+
+After every deduction is made from this singular epistle on the    (p. 228)
+ground of flattery and words of course, it proves that in expression,
+at least, the Mayor and good citizens of London not only heartily
+seconded Henry in his present undertakings, but identified his cause
+with their own, and regarded him as fighting their battles, and
+exposing himself to the dangers and privations of war in vindication
+of their own rights; and probably we are fully justified in regarding
+their sentiments as fairly representing the prevalent feelings of the
+people of England. There were, doubtless, many exceptions, as there
+ever must be in such a case, to the general unanimity; and we are not
+without evidence that, during this siege of Rouen, Henry's proceedings
+were commented upon unfavourably by some of his subjects at home.[173]
+
+                   [Footnote 173: One Glomyng was charged with having
+                   said, "What doth the King of England at siege
+                   before Rouen? An I were there with three thousand
+                   men, I would break his siege and make them of Rouen
+                   dock his tail." He said, moreover, that "he were
+                   not able to abide there, were it [not] that the
+                   Duke of Burgundy kept his enemies from
+                   him."--Donat. MS. 4601.]
+
+During this siege negociations were set on foot by the Dauphin for an
+alliance with Henry, who seemed to enter into the views of the
+ambassadors heartily;[174] but at the same time similar negociations
+were carried on between Henry and the King of France. In the       (p. 229)
+management of these a curious dispute arose as to the language in
+which the conference should be carried on: the French required that
+their own should be the medium of communication; the English
+remonstrating, and requiring the Latin to be employed, that the Pope
+and other potentates might understand their proceedings. It was
+proposed that all writings should be in duplicate, one copy in French,
+the other in Latin; but Henry insisted that his ambassadors should
+sign only an English or a Latin copy. During these negociations the
+French ambassadors presented to the King the portrait of the Princess
+Katharine,[175] which he received with great satisfaction. The treaty,
+however, was broken off, and the Cardinal Des Ursins returned to Pope
+Martin at Avignon. It is painful to read the account of the siege of
+Rouen; misery in all its shapes is painted there.[176] Indeed, if the
+accounts we have received be true, so complicated a tale of
+wretchedness is scarcely upon record. But the details can give no
+satisfaction; they would only harrow up the feelings, without
+supplying any facts essential to the history of those months of    (p. 230)
+human suffering. Henry was resolved neither to burn the town, nor
+to take it by storm; but to reduce it by starvation. At length his
+feelings overpowered this resolution, and he received the town upon
+conditions, on the 19th January 1419.[177] Thus was Rouen subdued to
+the Crown of England, two hundred and fifteen years after the conquest
+of it by Philip of France in the reign of King John. Stowe tells us,
+that to relieve this oppressed city Henry ordained it to be the chief
+chamber of all Normandy; and directed his exchequer, his treasury, and
+his coinage to be kept there. We have already seen that he caused his
+vast treasures before kept in Harfleur to be brought to Rouen.
+
+                   [Footnote 174: In a very long minute of the Privy
+                   Council, the reasons assigned by Henry for wishing
+                   to negociate an alliance with the Dauphin are given
+                   at length; and ambassadors were appointed to treat
+                   with that prince on the 26th of October
+                   1418.--Foed. ix. p. 626.]
+
+                   [Footnote 175: The Author, assisted by his friends,
+                   has made diligent inquiry, both in England and on
+                   the Continent, for a portrait of Katharine, with a
+                   copy of which he was desirous of enriching this
+                   volume; but his inquiries have ended in an
+                   assurance that no portrait of her is in existence.]
+
+                   [Footnote 176: Large cargoes of provisions of every
+                   kind were forwarded from England; among others,
+                   "stock fish and salmon" are enumerated in the Pell
+                   Rolls, 3rd July 1419.]
+
+                   [Footnote 177: Monstrelet says, that when Henry
+                   made his entry into Rouen, he was followed by a
+                   page mounted on a black horse, bearing a lance, at
+                   the end of which near the point was fastened a
+                   fox's brush by way of streamer, which afforded
+                   great matter of remark. Elmham and Stowe give the
+                   explanation of this. In 1414, he kept his Lent in
+                   the castle of Kenilworth, and caused an arbour to
+                   be planted there in the marsh for his pleasure,
+                   among the thorns and bushes, where a fox before had
+                   harboured; which fox he killed, being a thing then
+                   thought to prognosticate that he should expel the
+                   crafty deceit of the French King.--See Ellis,
+                   Original Letters.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It is confessedly beyond the province of these Memoirs even to glance
+at the affairs of Ireland, except so far as a reference to them may
+bear upon the character and conduct of Henry of Monmouth. Not only,
+however, does the presence of a body of native Irish, headed by    (p. 231)
+one of the regular clergy of Ireland, aiding Henry at the siege of
+Rouen, seem to draw our thoughts thitherward; but some documents also,
+relative to our sister-land, of that date, may be thought to require a
+few words in this place. During the reign of Richard II. the warlike
+movements of the native Irish, who had never been conquered or
+civilized, compelled that monarch to proceed to Ireland in person, and
+to take the field against those wild rebels. They had formerly been
+kept in comparative awe by a strong hand; but the continental wars of
+Edward III. had much slackened the wonted vigilance and activity of
+his government at home in checking their outbreakings against the
+English settlers. They had, consequently, grown bold, and threatened
+to extirpate the English altogether. Vigorous measures became
+necessary, and the King twice headed an army himself to restore peace.
+On his first visit he was summoned home by the prelates, to put down
+the spreading sect of the Lollards; in his second, his delay, after
+the landing of Bolinbroke at Ravenspurg, cost him his crown. In this
+latter expedition Henry of Monmouth (as we have seen) accompanied him,
+and had personal experience of the uncivilized state of the country,
+and the savage character of the warfare carried on by the inhabitants.
+It is curious to remark, that on several occasions Richard II.
+employed the Irish prelates as his ambassadors to Rome, "for the safe
+estate and prosperity of the most holy English church." The fact,  (p. 232)
+however, is too evident, that all Irish dignities were bestowed
+on Englishmen; and except by some assumed privilege of the Pope, or by
+other proceedings equally unacceptable to the English settlers, no
+native Irishman was ever in those times advanced to any high station
+in the church, or even promoted to an ordinary benefice. Indeed the
+law forbade such promotions.
+
+On the principle observed throughout these Memoirs, of avoiding all
+reference to the political struggles and controversies of the passing
+hour, the Author will make no reflections on the past, the present, or
+the future policy of England towards a country whose destinies seem so
+indissolubly bound up with her own. He humbly prays that HE, who says
+to the tempest "Peace, be still!" and is obeyed, may so guide and
+govern the religious and moral storms by which our age is shaken on
+the subject of Ireland, that in His own good time the troubled
+elements may be calmed; and that truth, peace, and charity may
+prevail, and bless both countries, then at length become like "a city
+that is at unity in itself."
+
+By most of those who take a wide and comprehensive range of its
+history, the dissensions which have distracted Ireland, and from time
+to time torn it in pieces, and caused it to flow with the blood of its
+neighbours and of its own children, will probably be ascribed, not
+more to the difference of religion among its inhabitants, than     (p. 233)
+to the difference of origin. The struggles have been, not more
+between Protestants and Romanists, not more between Catholics of the
+church of England and Ireland, and Catholics in communion with the
+sovereign pontiff, than between English and Irish, between those who
+have regarded themselves as the aboriginal sons of the soil, and those
+of Saxon or Norman descent, whom they have hated and abhorred as
+intruders and invaders. The conflicts between these classes in
+Ireland, as they may be traced in its chronicles, were just as
+dreadful and as sanguinary before the Reformation, as ever they have
+been since the separation of the reformed church from the see of Rome.
+At all events, whatever may be the nature of the unhappy causes of
+disunion in the present day, till within comparatively modern times
+the struggles have been not more of a religious than of a national, or
+perhaps of a predial, character. Authentic history teems with evidence
+bearing directly on this point; and even the original documents,
+references to which are interspersed through this volume, are quite
+sufficient to establish it.
+
+Among other documents confirmatory of the view here taken, which it
+would be beyond the province of these Memoirs to recite, the statute
+of 4 Hen. V. (1416), referring as it does to similar enactments of
+previous reigns, and strongly expressive of the bitter jealousies
+which existed between the two nations, seems to claim a place here.
+
+     "Whereas it was ordained in the times of the progenitors      (p. 234)
+     of our Lord the King, by statute made in the land of Ireland,
+     that no one of the Irish nation be elected archbishop, bishop,
+     abbot, prior, nor in any manner be received or accepted to any
+     dignity or benefice within the said land; and whereas many such
+     Irish, by the power of certain letters of licence to them made by
+     the Lieutenants of the King there to accept and receive such
+     dignities and benefices, are promoted and advanced to
+     archbishoprics and bishoprics within the said land, who also have
+     made their collations to Irish clerks of dignities and benefices
+     there, contrary to the form and effect of the said statute; and
+     consequently, since they are peers of parliament in that land,
+     they bring with them to the parliaments and councils held in that
+     land servants by whom the secrets of the English in that land
+     have been and are from day to day discovered to the Irish people
+     who are rebels against the King, to the great peril and mischief
+     of the King's loyal subjects in that land: our said Lord the
+     King, willing to provide remedy for his faithful subjects, with
+     the consent of the Lords, and at the request of the Commons,
+     wills and grants that the said statute shall be in full force,
+     and be well and duly guarded, and fully executed, on pain of his
+     grievous indignation."
+
+The statute then provides, that if any bishops act against this law,
+their temporalities shall be seized for the King till they have given
+satisfaction; that the Lieutenants shall be prohibited from granting
+such licences to Irishmen; and that all such licences, if made, shall
+be null and void.
+
+Perhaps, however, the words of the petition to the Commons, on which
+this enactment was founded, are still more striking and convincing on
+the subject.
+
+     "To the honourable and wise Sires, the Commons of this        (p. 235)
+     present Parliament, the poor loyal liegemen of our Sovereign Lord
+     the King in Ireland. Whereas the said land is divided between two
+     nations, that is to say, the said petitioners, English and of the
+     English nation, and the Irish nation, those enemies to our Lord
+     the King, who by crafty designs secretly, and by open destruction
+     making war, are continually purposed to destroy the said lieges,
+     and to conquer the land, the petitioners pray that remedy thereof
+     be made."[178]
+
+                   [Footnote 178: See Sir H. Ellis, Orig. Let. xix.]
+
+When Henry of Monmouth succeeded to the throne, Ireland was as
+wild[179] in its country, and as rude in its inhabitants, as it was in
+the reign of Henry II. The English pale (as it has been correctly
+said) was little more than a garrison of territory; and it was
+absolutely necessary either for the English inhabitants to leave their
+possessions and abandon Ireland altogether, or for the English
+government to keep the aboriginal Irish in check with a strong hand,
+and compel them by military force to abstain from outrage. What would
+have been at the present day the state of Ireland, had Henry directed
+his concentrated energies to subdue the island, and then to        (p. 236)
+civilize and improve it, (measures by no means improbable had not the
+conquest of France occupied him instead,) it would be profitless to
+speculate. Even with his thoughts distracted by his foreign
+expeditions, or rather, perhaps, almost absorbed by them, and whilst
+he had but a very scanty contingent of officers and men at his
+disposal for home-service, we have evidence that Ireland had not been
+in so peaceable a condition for very many years as it had become under
+his government. Whilst pursuing his victories on the Continent, he
+laboured (and his labours were in an astonishing degree successful) to
+provide for the effective administration of his own dominions with a
+view to peace and justice.
+
+                   [Footnote 179: Moryson, in his Travels, book iv. c.
+                   3, gives a most extraordinary and disgusting
+                   account of the habits of the Irish. The story of a
+                   Bohemian Baron, who visited Morane, one of the
+                   native princes, represents the Irish from the
+                   highest to the lowest to have continued in the most
+                   degraded state of barbarism. In their food, their
+                   dwellings, their clothing, (those who had any to
+                   wear,) and their general habits, if the accounts in
+                   Moryson are not exaggerated, the Irish were not
+                   removed many degrees from the wildest savages on
+                   earth.]
+
+A memorial forwarded this year to Henry, probably in consequence of
+certain complaints of maladministration which had been sent to the
+council the preceding winter, is very interesting. It is signed by a
+large number of persons, lay and ecclesiastical: bishops, abbots,
+priors, archdeacons, barons, knights, and esquires joined in the
+petition.[180] The prayer of the memorial was professedly to procure a
+fuller remuneration to the then Lord Lieutenant,[181] John Talbot,
+Lord Furnival, for his indefatigable and successful exertions      (p. 237)
+in subduing "the English rebels and the Irish enemies;" it was,
+however, evidently intended to obtain a still greater share of the
+King's attention, and of the public expenditure in that island. The
+memorial commences by expressions of loyalty to Henry's person, the
+petitioners desiring above all earthly things to hear and to know of
+the gracious prosperity and noble health of his renowned person, to
+the principal comfort of all his subjects, but "especially of us who
+are continuing in a land of war, environed by your Irish enemies and
+English rebels, in point to be destroyed, if it were not that the
+sovereign aid and comfort of God, and of you our gracious Lord, do
+deliver us." It then states that they had prevailed upon the
+Lieutenant[182] not to persevere in his intention to leave Ireland for
+the purpose of applying to Henry in person for payment and relief, (p. 238)
+expressing their great alarm should his presence be withdrawn from
+them. The memorialists then dwell at great length upon the vast
+labours, travails, and endeavours of Lord Furnival for the good of all
+Henry's lieges; but those labours were only military proceedings:
+every sentence of the memorial breathes of war, and slaughter, and
+destruction. One of the chief topics in his praise is that he remained
+many days and nights ("the which was not done before in our time") in
+the lands of various of the strongest Irish enemies (specifying them
+by name), taking their chief places and goods, burning, foraging, and
+destroying all the country, and in many places causing the Irish
+rebels to turn their weapons against each other. The document then
+shows the precarious tenure of goods and of life among the English at
+that time in Ireland; how they were "preyed upon and killed," and what
+a wonderful change had just been effected by the vigorous measures of
+Lord Furnival. "Now your lieges may suffer their goods and cattle to
+remain in the fields day and night, without being stolen or sustaining
+any loss, _which hath not been seen here by the space of these thirty
+years past_, God be thanked, and your gracious provision!" It also
+states that Maurice O'Keating, chieftain of his nation, traitor and
+rebel, did on the Monday in Whitsun-week, (_i.e._ May 31st, not a
+month before the date of the memorial,) "for the great fear which he
+had of the Lieutenant, for himself and his nation, yield himself   (p. 239)
+without any condition, with his breast against his sword's point, and
+a cord about his neck, delivering without ransom the English prisoners
+which he had taken before; to whom grace was granted by indenture, and
+his eldest son given in pledge to be loyal lieges from henceforward to
+you our sovereign Lord." This memorial, dated June 26th, "in the fifth
+year of your gracious reign," 1417, must have reached Henry on the
+very eve of his setting out on his second expedition to Normandy.
+
+                   [Footnote 180: It is remarkable, that among the
+                   many names affixed to this memorial, not one
+                   savours of Irish extraction. They all betray their
+                   Saxon or (some) their Norman origin.]
+
+                   [Footnote 181: This John Talbot, called by courtesy
+                   Lord Talbot by right of his wife, was appointed
+                   Lieutenant in Ireland in the first year of Henry's
+                   reign. He had been employed in the wars of Wales,
+                   and was the person against whom the Mayor of
+                   Shrewsbury shut the gates. He was conspicuous also
+                   as a warrior in the reign of Henry IV.]
+
+                   [Footnote 182: Lord Furnival had petitioned in the
+                   spring of the preceding year, 1416, for the payment
+                   of one thousand marks disallowed by the then late
+                   treasurer, the Earl of Arundel. Henry, who presided
+                   himself in council, gave his decision that the
+                   question should be submitted to the Barons of the
+                   Exchequer, who, after examining the indenture made
+                   between the King and the said lord, should ordain
+                   what the justice of the case required.
+
+                   The Lieutenant had also applied for a reinforcement
+                   of men-at-arms and archers, and for a supply of
+                   cannon. The King allows him to make such provision
+                   with regard to additional soldiers as he thinks
+                   best _at his own cost_, and agrees to let him have
+                   some cannon from the royal stores.--Acts of Privy
+                   Council, 1416.]
+
+The complaints, to answer which, among other objects, we have already
+intimated an opinion that this memorial might possibly have been
+partly prepared, were taken into consideration on the 28th of the
+preceding February by the King himself in council, and are by no means
+devoid of interest, though only a cursory allusion to them can be made
+here. Among the grievances are certain "impositions outrageously
+imposed upon them;" the seizure of the wheat and cattle belonging to
+churchmen by the officers and soldiers of the Lieutenant, contrary to
+the liberties of Holy Church; and the non-execution and non-observance
+of the laws in consequence of the insufficiency of the officers. To
+these complaints the King replies that, at the expiration of Lord
+Furnival's lieutenancy, he would provide a remedy by the appointment
+of good and sufficient officers. The terms of indenture, by which the
+King and Lieutenant were then usually bound, probably presented    (p. 240)
+an obstacle to any immediate interference.
+
+But the most interesting point in these complaints is the prayer with
+which they close. It proves that, in the view of the complainants,
+(and probably theirs was the general opinion,) absenteeism was then
+very prevalent, and was held to be one of the greatest evils under
+which Ireland was at that time suffering; it informs us also that
+Irishmen born (that is, however, men of English extraction born in
+Ireland,) were advanced to benefices in England; and it shows that
+many such natives of Ireland were in the habit of coming to England
+for the purposes of studying the law, and of residing in the
+Universities. The complainants "require that through the realm of
+England proclamation be made that all persons born in Ireland, being
+in England, except persons of the church beneficed, and students and
+others engaged in the departments of the law, and scholars studying in
+the Universities, betake themselves to the parts of Ireland, for
+defence of the same.
+
+To this petition the King only replies, that "he grants it according
+to the form of the statute made in that case."
+
+The statute to which Henry here refers was made in the first year of
+his reign. It bears incidental testimony to his mild and merciful
+disposition, as compared with the feelings and views of his
+contemporaries; and shows that in legislation he took the lead     (p. 241)
+of his parliament in preferring mild and moderate to violent and
+sanguinary measures.
+
+The Commons pray that the penalty of absenteeism after the
+proclamation should be loss of life or limb, and forfeiture of goods;
+the King consents only to imprisonment, instead of death and
+mutilation. "The Commons," (such are the words of the record,) "for
+the quiet and peace of the realm of England, and for the increase and
+welfare of the land of Ireland, pray that it may be ordained in the
+present parliament, that all Irishmen, and all Irish begging clerks,
+called Chaumber Deakyns [chamberdeacons], be voided the realm between
+Michaelmas and All Saints, on pain of loss of life and limb; except
+such as are graduates in the schools, and serjeants and students of
+law, and such as have inheritance in England, and 'professed
+religious;' and that all the Irish who have benefices and office in
+Ireland live on their benefices and offices, on pain of losing the
+profits of their benefices and offices,--for the protection of the
+land of Ireland." The King grants the prayer, but modifies the
+severity of the penalty proposed by the Commons, limiting the
+punishment to the loss of goods, and imprisonment during the royal
+pleasure; and excepting merchants born in Ireland of good fame, and
+their apprentices, now being in England, and those to whom the King
+may grant a dispensation.
+
+It was in the year following these proceedings that Henry received
+succours from Ireland, just before he laid siege to Rouen. The     (p. 242)
+Pell Rolls state that they were two hundred horse and three hundred
+foot, under the command of the Prior of Kilmaynham,[183] transported
+by Bristol vessels from Waterford to France. Others, doubtless, might
+have joined him also from the same quarter; but it seems very probable
+that Hall, or those whom he followed, exaggerated this statement, and
+substituted the Lord of Kylmaine for the Prior of Kilmaynham, when
+they tell us "that a band of one thousand six hundred native Irish,
+armed with their own weapons of war, in mail, with darts and skaynes,
+under the Lord of Kylmaine, were with Henry V. at the siege of Rouen,
+and kept the way from the forest of Lyons; and so did their devoir
+that none were more praised, nor did more damage to their enemies."
+Still the account given of these wild Irish, by Monstrelet, would seem
+to countenance the idea of a much greater number than were transported
+over with the warlike Prior. "The King of England" (says that author)
+"had with him in his company a vast number of Irish, of whom far the
+greatest part went on foot. One of their feet was covered, the other
+was naked, without having clouts, and poorly clad. Each had a target
+and little javelins, with large knives of a strange fashion. And   (p. 243)
+those who were mounted had no saddles, but they rode very adroitly
+on their little mountain horses: and they rode upon cloths, very
+nearly of the same fashion with those which the Blatiers of the French
+country carry. They were, however, a very poor and slight defence,
+compared with the English: besides, they were not so accoutred as to
+do much damage to the French when they met. These Irish would often,
+during the siege, together with the English, scour the country of
+Normandy, and do infinite mischief, beyond calculation; carrying back
+to their host great booty. Moreover, the said Irish on foot would
+seize little children, and leap on the backs of cows with them,
+carrying the children before them on the cows, and very often they
+were found in that condition by the French."[184]
+
+                   [Footnote 183: This Prior seems to have been Thomas
+                   Botiller, the brother of the Earl of Ormond. He is
+                   said to have died during the siege. He and his men
+                   are reported to have been sent over by Lord
+                   Furnival, the Lord Lieutenant. See Excerpta
+                   Historica above referred to.]
+
+                   [Footnote 184: Mons. vol. i. c. 95.]
+
+The only other document relating to Ireland at this time, which it is
+purposed to transfer into these pages, is chiefly interesting as
+affording one of the many instances upon record of the personal
+attention which Henry paid to the business necessary to be transacted
+at home, whilst he was engaged in battles and sieges and victories
+abroad. It is a petition, (in itself also of some importance in regard
+to Irish history,) from Donald Macmurough, (Macmore or Macmurcoo,)
+addressed to "the most high and excellent redoubted Lord the King of
+England," and is dated July 24, 1421.
+
+     "Most humbly supplicates, Donaal Macmurcoo, a prisoner in     (p. 244)
+     your Tower of London, that as above all things in the world,
+     (most gracious Lord,) with entire intent of his heart, he desires
+     to be your liege man, and to behave towards you from this day
+     forward in good faith, as is his right; and to do that loyally he
+     offers to be bound by the faith of his body [his corporal oath],
+     and all the sacraments of Holy Church, in any manner which you
+     please graciously to ordain and appoint; and all his friends who
+     are at his will, under his subjection, or at his command under
+     his lordships, will promise the same by word of mouth. And for
+     greater security for the time to come, as well to your most noble
+     and sovereign Lordship as to your heirs and the crown of England,
+     during his life loyally to hold and accomplish the same, he
+     offers you his son and heir in pledge. May it please your most
+     high and gracious excellence, according to his promises
+     aforesaid, graciously to receive and accept him to your most
+     noble and abundant grace, for God's sake and in a work of
+     charity."
+
+     The petition is in French.--The answer in English is this: "Ye
+     King will that he come before his counsel, and find surety as it
+     may be found reasonable."
+
+     "For Macmourgh.--Offer to be sworn to the King, and to give
+     hostage thereupon."
+
+The order of the council consequent upon this, in Latin, refers the
+matter to the Lieutenant and council in Ireland.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Henry at this time appears to have had considerable intercourse with
+the see of Rome. In a letter written to his resident ambassador in
+that city, John Keterich, Bishop of Lichfield, he requires, in very
+humble language, that his Holiness would not invade the rights of the
+crown of England as settled by a concordat between Edward III.     (p. 245)
+and Gregory XI; that he would provide for the admission of Englishmen
+only into the priories in England which the Conqueror had annexed to
+Norman abbeys; and that he would send strict injunctions to the
+bishops of Ireland that the people should be taught the English
+tongue, and that none should be capable of any ecclesiastical
+preferment who should be ignorant of it, since the best and greatest
+part of that nation understood it, and experience had shown what
+disorders and confusions arose from a diversity of languages.
+
+It is impossible to read the documents of this time without being
+struck by the evidence as well of the thraldom under which the Pope
+held the sovereigns and people of Christendom, as of the spirit of
+piety which habitually influenced Henry.
+
+His confessor had died, and he had applied to the Archbishop of
+Canterbury to select another for him. That primate's answer is full of
+interest. The Archbishop gives the King all the authority which he
+himself possessed; and yet Henry is obliged to seek permission at the
+court of Rome to have a confessor of his own, and to celebrate divine
+service at convenient times and in convenient places. He had sent for
+a chapel, with altars, vestments, and ministers, from England; and the
+warrant is in existence to press carriages and horses to carry them to
+the sea, to be transported to him in Normandy. This instrument is
+dated February 5th, 1418, and it should seem that all these        (p. 246)
+preparations were insufficient till he could obtain the Pope's licence
+and dispensation in the following August.[185]
+
+                   [Footnote 185: Archbishop Chicheley's letter to
+                   Henry is preserved among the manuscripts of the
+                   British Museum. MS. Cotton, Vesp. F. xiii. fol.
+                   29.]
+
+The Pope then gives Henry permission to have a confessor of his own
+choice, who should once a year during his life, and once also at the
+hour of death, give him full pardon for all the sins of which he
+repented from the heart, and which he confessed with the mouth;
+provided that the confessor take care to have satisfaction given to
+those to whom it is due. The Pope adds an earnest hope that this
+indulgence would not tempt Henry to commit unlawful acts at all more
+freely than before.[186]
+
+                   [Footnote 186: Gebennis, xv. kal. Sept. Pontif.
+                   nost. ann. I. (August 18, 1418.) Rymer.]
+
+By another act of grace, dated only ten days after the former, King
+Henry is permitted to have one or more portable altars, and to have
+mass at uncanonical times, and even in prohibited places, provided he
+were not himself the cause of the interdict. This grant has also some
+curious stipulations annexed: among others it is directed that the
+doors shall be shut at such masses, the excommunicated excluded, the
+service being conducted without sound of bell and with a low voice.
+Especially is it enjoined that liberty to have mass before day     (p. 247)
+should be used very sparingly, because since our Lord Jesus Christ,
+the Son of God, is offered as a sacrifice on that altar,--and he is
+the brightness of eternal light,--it is right for that to be done, not
+in the darkness of night, but in the light of day.
+
+Henry remained for some time at Rouen, and wore the ducal robes as
+Duke of Normandy. A conspiracy to surrender the town to the French
+King was defeated by the honourable conduct of De Bouteiller, who, on
+being requested to join the conspirators, on the contrary discovered
+their designs to Henry.
+
+Early in the year 1419, the Duke of Brittany, distrusting the power of
+France to defend him, were the English to turn their arms against his
+territory, sought and obtained an alliance with Henry; of whose just
+and honourable principles he had experienced practical proofs.
+
+At this time the Spaniards added much to Henry's difficulties. Having
+engaged to succour the Dauphin, they are said to have sent ships to
+Scotland for men, part of whom they probably landed at Rochelle.
+Henry's forces, however, were victorious in the south, no less than in
+the north.
+
+Still, though victorious and feared on every side, Henry found that
+war and disease had so reduced his army as to compel him to apply to
+his subjects at home for reinforcement. The reasons sent from      (p. 248)
+Norfolk, which are probably only specimens of the returns from other
+counties, would lead us to infer that most of his subjects, who were
+both willing and able to join his standard, had already been drained
+off. The Bishop of Norwich, and others, return that "the stoutest and
+strongest of their countrymen were already in the army, and others
+pleaded poverty and infirmities." Robert Waterton, to whom the King
+had made an especial appeal, assured him that at the approaching
+assizes at York he would urge the gentlemen of those parts to tender
+their services. There seems also to have been a growing disinclination
+or disability among the clergy to provide a supply of money; probably
+both their means and their zeal for the cause had diminished. In the
+diocese of York they complained loudly of the impoverished state of
+the church, but at last voted one-half of a tenth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.                                                      (p. 249)
+
+BAD FAITH OF THE DAUPHIN. -- THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY BRINGS ABOUT AN
+INTERVIEW BETWEEN HENRY AND THE FRENCH AUTHORITIES. -- HENRY'S FIRST
+INTERVIEW WITH THE PRINCESS KATHARINE OF VALOIS. -- HER CONQUEST. --
+THE QUEEN'S OVER-ANXIETY AND INDISCRETION. -- DOUBLE-DEALING OF THE
+DUKE OF BURGUNDY; HE JOINS THE DAUPHIN; IS MURDERED ON THE BRIDGE OF
+MONTEREAU. -- THE DAUPHIN DISINHERITED. -- HENRY'S ANXIETY TO PREVENT
+THE ESCAPE OF HIS PRISONERS.
+
+1419-1420.
+
+
+About the month of March in the year 1419, the Dauphin proposed to
+meet Henry with a view to the formation of an alliance, to which Henry
+was at this time by no means averse. The Dauphin, however, acted with
+very bad faith on the occasion; and, by neglecting to come according
+to his solemn engagement,[187] gave unintentionally another opening to
+the Duke of Burgundy to advocate a treaty between France and England.
+So utterly, indeed, had the Dauphin thrown aside all thoughts of an
+interview with Henry, on which he had appeared very anxiously      (p. 250)
+bent, that he even made a vigorous attack on the English ambassadors
+and their escort when on their road to the King of France.
+
+                   [Footnote 187: A letter from T.F., dated Evreux,
+                   (March 27th, 1419,) addressed to his friends in
+                   England, tells us that "the Dauphin made great
+                   instance sundry times to have personal speech with
+                   the King, for the good of peace between both
+                   realms;" and, on obtaining the King's consent, "he
+                   fixed on the third Sunday in Lent (March 19th), at
+                   his own desire and instance, making surety by his
+                   oath and his letters sealed to keep that day. The
+                   foresaid Rule Regent hath broke the surety
+                   aforesaid, and made the King a Beau Nient [made a
+                   fool of him]; so that there may be no hope had yet
+                   of peace.... And so now men suppose that the King
+                   will henceforth war on France; for Normandy is all
+                   his, except Gysors, Euere, the Castle Gaylard, and
+                   the Roche."
+
+                   This writer gives us to understand that he and his
+                   friends were heartily tired of the Continental
+                   warfare, which had so long kept them from the
+                   comforts of their home, and they longed to revisit
+                   the white cliffs of Britain. "Pray for us, that we
+                   may come soon out of this unlusty [unpleasant]
+                   soldier's life, unto the life of England."--MS.
+                   Donat. 4001. Sir H. Ellis assigns this to the year
+                   1420; but it must have been written March 27th (the
+                   Monday before Passion Sunday), 1419, just eight
+                   days after the Dauphin had broken his word.
+
+                   The same writer speaks in no very measured terms of
+                   the intrigue and duplicity of foreign courts. "And
+                   certes, all the ambassadors that we deal with are
+                   incongrue, that is to say, in old manner of speech
+                   in England, 'they be double and false;' with which
+                   manner of men, I pray God, let never no true men be
+                   coupled with."
+
+                   The reasons which had induced Henry some time
+                   previously to wish for an alliance with the Dauphin
+                   are found in the Cot. MS.--See "Acts of Privy
+                   Council," vol. ii. p. 350.]
+
+The Duke of Burgundy, taking advantage of this juncture, succeeded,
+not only in persuading the two Kings to interchange ambassadors, but
+in effecting a personal conference between the royal parties.      (p. 251)
+Henry agreed to come to Mante, on condition that Charles and the Duke
+of Burgundy would come to Ponthoise. A large field on the banks of the
+Seine, near to the gate of Melun, was selected for the meeting. The
+preparations for the interview are described with great minuteness by
+historians. A pavilion at an equal distance from the tents of both
+nations was erected by the Queen of France, and presented to Henry;
+adjoining to it were two withdrawing apartments. The King of France
+was detained by indisposition at Ponthoise on the day appointed, May
+30, 1419; but the Queen, the Princess, the Duke of Burgundy, and the
+Count de St. Pol, on the one side, with their council and guards, and,
+on the other, Henry, his two brothers, Clarence and Gloucester, his
+two uncles, the Duke of Exeter and the Bishop of Winchester, the Earls
+of March and Salisbury, with his council and his guard, met in this
+"fair and wide mead of Melun." The Queen's tent was "a fair pavilion
+of blue velvet richly embroidered with flower-de-luces; and on the top
+was the figure of a flying hart, in silver, with wings enamelled."
+Henry's tent was of blue and green velvet, with the figures of two
+antelopes embroidered; one drawing in a mill, the other seated on high
+with a branch of olive in his mouth, with this motto wrought in
+several places, "After busy labour, comes victorious rest." A great
+eagle of gold, with eyes of diamond, was placed above. At three    (p. 252)
+in the afternoon the royal parties, having entered within the
+barriers, approached each other, the Queen led by the Duke of
+Burgundy, the Princess by the Count de St. Pol. Henry with a solemn
+bow took the Queen by the hand and saluted her, and afterwards the
+Princess; as did also his brothers, bending one knee almost to the
+ground. The Duke of Burgundy paid his respects to Henry, and was
+honourably received by him. Henry led the Queen into the pavilion,
+taking the upper hand of her after a long dispute about this ceremony;
+and having placed her in one chair of state, of cloth of gold, himself
+occupied the other. Nothing further than ceremony was the apparent
+object of that day's conference, though the fate of Henry perhaps
+turned upon it. The Earl of Warwick, "the father of courtesy,"
+addressed the Queen, and the parties separated,--the Queen's for
+Ponthoise, Henry's for Mante; having first engaged to meet each other
+again on the following Thursday. These conferences were carried on at
+intervals till June 30th, without any satisfactory progress being made
+towards peace; on that day they agreed to meet on the 3rd July, and
+Henry kept his engagement, but the French disappointed him; and then,
+convinced of their insincerity, and the total absence of all real
+intentions on their part to bring the proceedings to a favourable
+issue, he dissolved the conference, complaining loudly of the unfair
+dealings of his enemies. He was chiefly, however, angry with the Duke
+of Burgundy, to whom he ascribed all the blame; and who is said    (p. 253)
+to have been guilty of such double-dealing as to have had frequent
+interviews with the Dauphin in the neighbourhood of Paris, even during
+the conference.
+
+A circumstance connected with this meeting is too closely interwoven
+with Henry's character, and conduct, and destiny, to be passed over in
+silence. In preparing for the interview, the Queen had shown much
+courteous attention to secure Henry's gratification; and she looked
+forward to it as the hour of her daughter Katharine's[188] conquest
+over his heart. That Princess was a lovely young person, and in the
+very prime and bloom of her beauty; and her mother had flattered
+herself that her charms would prevail over the young conqueror more
+than the arms or the statesmen of France. Nor had the designing lady
+altogether miscalculated the power of her daughter's charms, or the
+extent of Henry's susceptibility. His heart was touched at the first
+sight of Katharine, and the practised eyes of her mother saw that the
+victory was won. Her daughter (she observed) had overcome a prince who
+appeared till then invincible. But the wily Queen outwitted        (p. 254)
+herself; and, for the present, by her own act disengaged the toils in
+which Henry had been unquestionably taken. With a view of inflaming
+his love for her daughter the more by her absence, and of compelling
+him to comply with any conditions of a treaty, one of which would be
+Katharine's hand and heart, she would not suffer the Princess to be
+present at any of the following interviews: the first sight of so much
+beauty had so triumphant an effect, that she would not permit a
+second. But her scheme, however finely drawn, was observed by Henry;
+and, indignant at the artifice, he became more inflexible than ever,
+and insisted more firmly than before on his first proposals; assuring
+the Duke of Burgundy that he was resolved to have the Princess with
+all his other demands, or force the King of France from his throne,
+and drive the Duke from the kingdom.
+
+                   [Footnote 188: Katharine of Valois, the youngest
+                   child of Charles VI. of France, (he had twelve
+                   children,) was born on the 27th of October 1401;
+                   just two months subsequently to her elder sister
+                   Isabel's return from England after the death of her
+                   husband, the unfortunate King Richard.
+                   Consequently, at the date of this interview, May
+                   30th, 1419, she was only in her eighteenth year;
+                   Henry himself was in his thirty-second year.]
+
+The unsuccessful issue of this famous conference was undoubtedly owing
+in some measure to the Duke of Burgundy, who was for a long time
+balancing in his mind the policy of joining Henry or the Dauphin.
+Henry openly charged the Duke with dishonourable conduct; and then the
+Duke, in a conference at Melun,[189] on Tuesday, July 11th, 1419, made
+a solemn league, offensive and defensive, with the Dauphin. They   (p. 255)
+engaged to join in the administration of the government without
+jealousy and envy; and after mutual acts of courtesy, and ratifying
+the covenant of peace by solemn oaths, they parted, professedly sworn
+friends, but having war against each other in their hearts.
+
+                   [Footnote 189: This treaty is recorded in Rymer,
+                   vol. ix. p. 776. The circumstances of outward
+                   courtesy, and concealed suspicion, and want of
+                   faith, with which the contracting parties met,
+                   deliberated, and separated on this occasion, are
+                   detailed by Goodwin, p. 237.]
+
+Henry, after the respite of these abortive negociations, again entered
+upon his career of war and conquest. The next fortified town was
+Ponthoise, possession of which would open his way to Paris. His
+soldiers were in the highest spirits; and he seems himself, so far
+from being dismayed by the union of the Duke of Burgundy with the
+French court, to have been roused by a sense of his difficulties and
+dangers to a still higher spirit of valour and enterprise. Ponthoise
+was taken by surprise, and Henry regarded it as the most important
+place he had taken during the war. How resolved soever he was to be
+master of it, he would not make the attempt till after the expiration
+of the truce with the Duke of Burgundy, "so punctual was he to the
+observance of his faith and honour, which in brave princes are
+inviolable." And, to use the words of Goodwin, "his soul was so little
+altered from its natural moderation by this success, that he sent to
+the King of France to tell him, that though he had taken so
+considerable a town, which, being only a few leagues from Paris,
+opened a way to the conquest of that capital, yet he now offered him
+peace upon the same terms which he had propounded in the treaty    (p. 256)
+of Melun; with this only addition, that Ponthoise also should now be
+confirmed to him."
+
+The Dauphin's troops diminished the joy of this victory by taking one
+or two places by surprise. Still all Paris was in great consternation,
+and the panic ran through the Isle of France; whilst Clarence marched
+his troops to the very walls of the metropolis. Shortly after the fall
+of Ponthoise Henry despatched letters to the citizens of London; which
+were intercepted by the enemy, who took the bearer of them prisoner.
+He consequently sent another despatch to the same purport, from Trie
+Le Chastel, near Gisors, on the 12th of the next month. The importance
+he attached to this communication, his repetition of the intercepted
+letters clearly intimates: it is chiefly interesting now because it
+assures us that Henry believed himself to be almost within reach of
+the objects of his enterprise; whilst it acquaints us also with the
+fact, that he had applied for aid to all his friends through
+Christendom. The letter, it is believed, has never yet been published.
+
+     "BY THE KING.
+
+     "Trusty and well beloved, we greet you well; and we thank you
+     with all our heart of the good-will and service that we have
+     always found in you hither-to-ward; and specially of your kind
+     and notable proffer of an aid, the which ye have granted to us of
+     your own good motion, as our brother of Bedford and our
+     Chancellor of England have written unto us, giving therein    (p. 257)
+     good example in diverse wise to all the remanent of our subjects
+     in our land. And so we pray you, as our trust is ye will, for to
+     continue. And as to the said aid, the which ye have concluded to
+     do unto us now at this time, we pray you specially that we may
+     have [it] at such time and in such days as our brother of Bedford
+     shall more plainly declare unto you on our behalf; letting you
+     fully wit [giving you fully to understand] that we have written to
+     all our friends and allies through Christendom, for to have
+     succours and help of them against the same time that our said
+     brother shall declare you: the which, when they hear of the arming
+     and the array that ye and other of our subjects make at home in
+     help of us, shall give them great courage to haste their coming
+     unto us much the rather, and not fail, as we trust fully.
+     Wherefore we pray you heartily that ye would do, touching the
+     foresaid aid, as our said brother shall declare unto you on our
+     behalf: considering that [neither] so necessary ne [nor] so
+     acceptable a service as ye may do, and will do (as we trust into
+     you at this time), ye might never have done into us since our wars
+     in France began. For we trust fully to God's might and his mercy,
+     with good help of your aid and of our land, to have a good end of
+     our said war in short time, and for to come home unto you to great
+     comfort and singular joy of our heart, as God knoweth: the which
+     He grant us to his pleasance, and have you ever in his keeping!
+     Given under our signet in our town of Pontoise, the 17th day of
+     August.
+
+     "And weteth [know], that, the foresaid 17th day of August,
+     departed from us at Pontoise our letters to you direct in the
+     same tenour; and because it is said the bearer of them is by our
+     enemies taken into Crotey, we renouelle [renew] them here at Trye
+     the Castle, the 12th day of September."
+
+     "To the Mayor and Citizens of London."
+
+Henry's arms were victorious through this autumn, town after       (p. 258)
+town, and fortress after fortress, yielding to him; when an event took
+place which had a most decided and immediate influence on his affairs
+and those of France.[190] The Dauphin solicited another interview with
+the Duke of Burgundy, who was cautioned by some of his friends against
+trusting his person again to that prince's power; whilst others
+deprecated the appearance in the Duke of any suspicion of the
+Dauphin's faith and honour. The Duke proceeded to Montereau; where, on
+the bridge which led to the town, a room of wood-work was prepared for
+the conference; and at the end, towards the town, were successive
+barriers. These excited suspicion; still the Duke quitted the town,
+and entered into the place appointed. There he met the Dauphin, who
+was surrounded by assassins ready to despatch his enemy at a
+word.[191] Never was a more base and foul murder committed than that
+by which the Duke of Burgundy was butchered on the bridge of       (p. 259)
+Montereau. His own guilt is no justification of his murderers; and it
+is an unsafe interpretation of the inscrutable acts of Providence to
+regard his death "as the requital of divine justice."[192] He had
+caused the Duke of Orleans to be assassinated in the streets of Paris,
+and he now falls himself by the murderous hands of assassins. He was a
+bold, presumptuous, ambitious, and licentious man; and his own vices
+betrayed him to his ruin. But those by whom he fell were equally
+guilty of treachery and murder, as though he had through his life been
+guiltless of blood, and an example of virtue.
+
+                   [Footnote 190: The Author is fully aware that the
+                   brief notice he is able to take of many of the
+                   transactions of this period, whether diplomatic or
+                   military, (especially with reference to the
+                   proceedings of the different parties in France,)
+                   must leave his readers unfurnished with information
+                   on many points, and in some instances may cause the
+                   accounts which he thought indispensable in this
+                   work to appear obscure and confused. He could not,
+                   however, have avoided such a result of his plan in
+                   these Memoirs, without changing their character
+                   altogether. Goodwin, whose labours seem scarcely to
+                   have been ever duly appreciated, has filled up the
+                   outline here given, generally in a satisfactory
+                   manner, though many original documents which have
+                   been brought to light since his time have been
+                   employed.]
+
+                   [Footnote 191: See Monstrelet, c. 211.]
+
+                   [Footnote 192: Goodwin thus comments on his
+                   death:--"Thus fell the Duke of Burgundy, who, as he
+                   had caused the Duke of Orleans to be assassinated
+                   in the streets of Paris, so, _by the requital of
+                   divine justice_, his own life was abandoned to vile
+                   treachery." How very unwise and unsafe are such
+                   comments upon the dispensations of Providence is
+                   most clearly evinced here. Never was a more foul
+                   murder, or more desperate defiance of all law,
+                   human and divine, than the Dauphin was guilty of on
+                   the bridge of Montereau: and yet, instead of "his
+                   life being abandoned to vile treachery by the
+                   requital of divine justice," he lived forty-two
+                   years after his deed of blood, succeeded to the
+                   throne of his father, rescued his kingdom from the
+                   hands of the English, and died through abstinence
+                   from food, self-imposed from fear of poison. Far
+                   more wise and more pious is it to leave such
+                   speculations, and to refer all to that day of final
+                   retribution, when the _righteousness of_ the
+                   supreme Ruler of man's destinies shall be made _as
+                   clear as the light, and his just dealing as the
+                   noon day_.]
+
+This tragedy filled the people of France with affliction for the
+murdered Duke, and with horror at the Dauphin's perfidy and        (p. 260)
+cruelty; but no one seemed to be rendered more decidedly hostile to
+him for this act than his own mother and father. And whilst the son of
+the murdered Duke swore he would never lay down his arms till he had
+avenged his father's death upon his murderers, the King himself, by a
+proclamation dated Troyes, January 27, 1420, declared that Charles,
+Count of Ponthieu, condemned and cursed by God, by nature, and his own
+parents, could have no title to the throne; and that it was just and
+expedient, for the peace of the nation, that Henry, King of England,
+should be established Regent of France.
+
+Henry at this time seems to have been exceedingly apprehensive lest,
+by the escape of the princes and nobles of France, his prisoners in
+England, the prospect of securing his conquests by a treaty of peace
+might be interrupted. An original letter, addressed by him to his
+Chancellor, dated Gisors, October 1, 1419, acquaints us with his
+anxiety on this subject; whilst it affords another interesting
+specimen of the English language at that time, and Henry's own style.
+
+     "Worshipful Father in God, right trusty and well-beloved, we
+     greet you well.
+
+     "And we wol and pray you, and also charge you, that as we trust
+     unto you, and as ye look to have our good lordship, ye see and
+     ordain that good heed be taken unto the sure keeping of our
+     French prisoners within our realm, and in especial the Duke of
+     Orleans, and after to the Duke of Bourbon. For their escaping,
+     and principally the said Duke of Orleans, might never have    (p. 261)
+     been so harmful nor prejudicial to us as it might be now if
+     any of them escaped, and namely [especially] the said Duke of
+     Orleans, which God forbid! And therefore, as we trust, you seeth
+     that Robert Waterton, for no trust, fair speech, nor promises
+     that might be made unto him, nor for none other manner of cause,
+     be so blinded by the said Duke that he be the more reckless of
+     his keeping; but that, in eschewing of all perils that may befal,
+     he take as good heed unto the sure keeping of his person as
+     possible.
+
+     "And inquire if Robert of Waterton use any reckless governance
+     about the keeping of the said Duke, and writeth to him thereof
+     that it may be amended. And God have you in his keeping!--Given
+     under our signet, at Gizors, the first day of October.
+        "To the worshipful Father in God,[193] and right
+        trusty and well-beloved, the Bishop of
+        Durham, our Chancellor of England."
+
+                   [Footnote 193: This was Thomas Langley, who was
+                   elected Bishop of Durham in 1406. He succeeded
+                   Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, as
+                   Chancellor, on the 23rd of July, 1417, and
+                   continued in that office till July 1424, when Henry
+                   Beaufort succeeded him. Thomas Langley was in
+                   possession of the see of Durham from May 17th,
+                   1406, till his death in November 1437. Dugdale,
+                   (Orig. Judic.) by mistake, refers Bishop Langley's
+                   appointment as Chancellor to 1418. It was July
+                   23rd, 5 Henry V. in 1417.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.                                                     (p. 262)
+
+HENRY'S EXTRAORDINARY ATTENTION TO THE CIVIL AND PRIVATE DUTIES OF HIS
+STATION, IN THE MIDST OF HIS CAREER OF CONQUEST, INSTANCED IN VARIOUS
+CASES. -- PROVOST AND FELLOWS OF ORIEL COLLEGE. -- THE QUEEN DOWAGER
+IS ACCUSED OF TREASON. -- TREATY BETWEEN HENRY, THE FRENCH KING, AND
+THE YOUNG DUKE OF BURGUNDY. -- HENRY AFFIANCED TO KATHARINE. -- THE
+DAUPHIN IS REINFORCED FROM SCOTLAND. -- HENRY ACCOMPANIED BY HIS QUEEN
+RETURNS THROUGH NORMANDY TO ENGLAND.
+
+1419-1420.
+
+
+One of the most strikingly characteristic features of the
+extraordinary hero, whose life and character we are endeavouring to
+elucidate, forces itself especially upon our notice during his
+campaigns in Normandy. Neither the flush of victory, nor the
+disappointments and anxiety of a protracted siege, neither the
+multiplied and distracting cares of intricate negociations, nor the
+incessant trials of personal fatigue,[194] could withdraw his mind
+from what might perhaps be not unfitly called the private duties   (p. 263)
+of his high station.[195] If an act of injustice was made known to
+him, he could not rest till he had punished the guilty party, and
+compelled them to make restitution. If abuses in church or state came
+under his eye, (and his eye was never closed against them,) he would
+himself personally provide for the necessary reform. If disputes
+threatened the peace and welfare of a community over which he had any
+control, he delighted to act as mediator and to restore peace. And all
+this he did in the midst of the noise, and confusion, and          (p. 264)
+ceaseless disturbances of a camp in the heart of an enemy's country,
+with the same anxious zeal, and attention to details, as he could have
+shown in the times of profoundest peace; though now and then dropping
+an expression to make his correspondent understand how much more time
+and thought he would have devoted to the subject before them, were not
+his mind and body so occupied by war.
+
+                   [Footnote 194: October 28, 1419. The Pell Rolls
+                   record payment of 10_l._ to Master Peter Henewer,
+                   physician, appointed by the King and his council to
+                   go to the King in Normandy. Probably he felt his
+                   constitution even then giving way. But as early as
+                   13th October 1415, after the battle of Agincourt,
+                   payment is made for "diverse medicine, as well for
+                   the health of the King's person as for others of
+                   his army," sent to Calais.]
+
+                   [Footnote 195: A curious and interesting instance
+                   of Henry's personal attention to business in its
+                   most minute details, when many of his subjects
+                   would have been quite satisfied with the report of
+                   another, is preserved among some of the driest and
+                   most formal acts of the Privy Council. Certain
+                   auditors are instructed to examine, with greater
+                   accuracy than before, the accounts of the late
+                   Master of the Wardrobe; and to make an especial
+                   report to the council, most particularly
+                   (potissimè) of such items as they shall find marked
+                   in the King's own hand "ad inquirendum." Reference
+                   is also made to those sums against which a black
+                   mark has been placed by the King's hand. The date
+                   of this minute (4th July 1421), and the place
+                   (Calais) in which it states that these accounts
+                   were examined by the King, add considerably to the
+                   strength of this example. Henry had then just left
+                   England suddenly on hearing the sad news of a
+                   disastrous defeat of part of his army, and the
+                   death of his brother, the Duke of Clarence, in
+                   battle; and he was at Calais on his road to put
+                   himself again at the head of his forces.]
+
+Among many illustrations of this striking trait in Henry's character,
+the following instances will, it is presumed, be deemed generally
+interesting, and deserving a fuller notice than a brief statement of
+the facts might require.
+
+The first is a letter from Henry to his brother the Duke of Bedford,
+then Guardian of England, in which he urges him to attend without
+delay to some complaints from the subjects of the Duke of Brittany,
+and to take prompt and efficient measures to prevent a repetition of
+the injuries complained of.
+
+     "BY THE KING.
+
+     "Right trusty and well-beloved brother, we greet you as well. And
+     as we suppose it is not out of your remembrance in what wise and
+     how oft we have charged you by our letters that good and hasty
+     reparation and restitution were ordained and made at all times of
+     such attemptats as happened to be made by our subjects against
+     the truce taken betwixt us and our brother, the Duke of Brittany;
+     and, notwithstanding our said letters, diverse complaints be made
+     and sent unto us for default of reparation and restitution of
+     such attemptats as be made by certain of our subjects and     (p. 265)
+     lieges, as ye may understand by a supplication sent to us by
+     the said Duke; which supplication we send you closed within these
+     letters, for to have the more plain knowledge of the truth.
+     Wherefore we will and charge you that ye call to you our
+     chancellor, to have knowledge of the same supplication; and, that
+     done, we will that ye do send us in all haste all those persons
+     that been our subjects contained in the supplication aforesaid.
+     And that also in all other semblable matters ye do ordain so
+     hasty and just remedy, restitution, and reparation upon such
+     attemptats done by our subjects, in conservation of our truce,
+     that no man have cause hereafter to complain in such wise as they
+     [have] done for default of right doing; nor we cause to write to
+     you alway as we done for such causes, _considered the great
+     occupation we have otherwise_. And God have you in his
+     keeping!--Given under our signet, in our host afore Rouen, the
+     29th day of November."[196] [1418].
+
+                   [Footnote 196: Cotton. Julius, B. vi. f. 35.]
+
+The next instance occurs[197] on the apprehension entertained of
+intended violence and general disturbance of the public peace near (p. 266)
+Bourdeaux by two noblemen who disputed about the property of a
+deceased lord. Henry's letter is addressed to the Council of
+Bourdeaux, giving them peremptory orders to put an instant end to the
+feud in his name. It is written in French.
+
+                   [Footnote 197: The Author cannot undertake to
+                   pronounce how far beyond general instructions the
+                   King himself interfered in each of these
+                   transactions. The letters on the subject of
+                   Brittany and of Oriel College bear internal
+                   evidence that they were dictated by Henry himself.
+                   But the correspondence, still preserved, is too
+                   voluminous for us to believe that he dictated more
+                   of the letters than such as were most important or
+                   most interesting to himself. Still it must be borne
+                   in mind, that we have indisputable evidence of
+                   Henry having minutely examined accounts, at a time
+                   when he "_had great occupation otherwise_,"
+                   directing in his own hand-writing inquiries to be
+                   made as to various items.]
+
+     "Very dear and faithful.--Whereas we are given to understand that
+     great discord and division prevails between our dear and
+     well-beloved, the Lords de Montferrant and de Lescun, on account
+     of the lands of the late Lord de Castalhan; we wish this to be
+     appeased with all possible speed, in the best manner possible,
+     just as we ourselves would be able to end it. So we wish, and we
+     charge you, that, immediately on the sight of this, you take the
+     whole charge into _our_ [_? your_, _voz_, for _noz_] hands;
+     giving straitly in charge to the said Lords Montferrant and de
+     Lescun that neither of them make, or procure or suffer to be
+     made, any riots or assemblies of people, the one against the
+     other, in the meantime, under great pains upon them by you to be
+     imposed, and applied to our aid. And this omit in no way, as we
+     trust in you.--Given under our signet, in our castle of Gisors,
+     the 26th day of September."
+
+The following letter from Henry to the Bishop of Durham, his
+Chancellor, dated 10th February 1418, and written whilst he was
+engaged in the siege of Falaise, gives us a pleasing view of the care
+with which he attended to the claims of individuals, and his desire to
+do justice to a faithful servant.
+
+     "Worshipful Father in God, right trusty and well-beloved.
+     Forasmuch as our well-beloved squire, John Hull, hath         (p. 267)
+     long time been in our ambassiat and service in the parts of
+     Spain, for the which he hath complained to us he is endangered
+     greatly, and certain goods of his laid to wedde [pledge];
+     wherefore we wol that ye see that there be taken due accompts of
+     the said John, how many days he hath stand in our said ambassiat
+     and service, and thereupon that he be contented and agreed [have
+     satisfaction] in the best wise as longeth unto him in this
+     case.--Given under our signet, in our host beside our town of
+     Falaise, the 10th day of February."[198]
+
+                   [Footnote 198: Cotton. Vespasian, C. xii. f. 127 b.]
+
+But whilst Henry could thus direct his thoughts to the redress of
+individual grievances, in the midst of the din of war and the
+excitement of the camp, he equally shows calmness, and presence of
+mind, and comprehensive views of sound policy in his negociations with
+foreign powers, and his instructions to his representatives at home.
+In the spring of 1419, letters were received by Henry from several
+cities of Flanders, which, together with his answers to them and his
+instructions to his brother, will not be read without interest. The
+towns of Ghent, Ypres, Bruges, and Franc apply to Henry for his
+protection and friendship, or rather for a renewal or continuance of
+that especial favour which they had enjoyed in former days; they refer
+more particularly to the kindness of his "grandfather, John Duke of
+Lancaster, of noble memory, who, because he was born among them, ever
+showed them most singular love and regard." This letter,           (p. 268)
+written in French, and dated 24th March 1418, is given under the seals
+of the three first towns, and the seal of the Abbot of St. Andrew for
+the people of Franc, because they had no common seal. Henry's answer,
+in Latin, assures them, "If the people of Flanders will behave towards
+England as they are said to have done in times past, we shall rejoice
+to give no less valuable indications of our favour than did our father
+or grandfather; and we have instructed our brother, the Duke of
+Bedford, and our council, to send ambassadors with full powers to
+Calais, to negociate a peace between England and you." Probably Henry
+did not pen this letter himself; but, whoever indited it, the letter
+contains fewer barbarisms, and has more indications of classical
+scholarship in the writer, than are often found in modern Latin.[199]
+Henry forwarded both the Flemish prayer and his own answer to his
+brother, with instructions in English; and, shortly after, he sent a
+long letter to his Chancellor, the Bishop of Durham, as well on that
+negociation, as on an affair in dispute between the English merchants
+and the Genoese. This document shows how minutely Henry investigated
+the matters on which he wrote; and how sensible a view he took of the
+interests of our commerce, and how dispassionate was his judgment. The
+Genoese had seized goods belonging to English merchants, who laid
+claim for a compensation. Henry's letter states the exact sum      (p. 269)
+at which the English estimated their merchandise, and the lower price
+fixed by the Genoese;[200] and then, in consideration of the injury
+done to English commerce by the Genoese letters of marque, Henry
+recommends the English merchants to accept the offer made by the
+Genoese, provided they stipulate that the English merchant vessels
+shall have as free course of trade to Genoa as the Genoese desired to
+have to the ports of England. This correspondence is found among the
+"Proceedings of the Privy Council." The whole is well deserving the
+perusal of any one interested in the history of British commerce, but
+is on too extensive a scale for insertion at length in this work.[201]
+
+                   [Footnote 199: Bib. Cotton. Galba, B. i. f. 131.]
+
+                   [Footnote 200: The English merchants (Henry says)
+                   valued their goods captured at 10,000_l._ the
+                   Genoese estimated them at 7,180_l._ and they are
+                   willing "for to stand in our good grace and
+                   benevolence, to pay without any exception 4,000_l._
+                   at reasonable times; our subjects and our merchants
+                   of our land having hereafter free coming and going
+                   to Genoa, as they of Genoa desire to have into our
+                   realm of England."]
+
+                   [Footnote 201: A letter addressed by Henry, whilst
+                   he was at Mante, to one Thomas Rees and other
+                   merchants of Bristol, (October 11th, 1419,) shows
+                   what accurate information he received of even
+                   minute affairs in England. He tells them that they
+                   have imported goods from Genoa, and he desires to
+                   select from them such as he might wish to have,
+                   promising to pay for them honestly.]
+
+The only other instance which the Author of these Memoirs would add to
+the preceding (though many and various examples of the same kind are
+at hand) is one which brings all the associations of opening       (p. 270)
+life before his mind, and recals days which can never be forgotten,
+whilst they can never be remembered without the liveliest feelings of
+gratitude to the Giver of every good. The days which he spent within
+the walls of that college to which Henry's letter refers, are long ago
+past and gone; but they have left a fragrance and relish on the mind,
+and the remembrance of them is sweet.
+
+Oriel College, founded by Edward II, not long before his unhappy
+murder, for the promotion of sound learning and religious education,
+has been, if any college ever was, faithful to its trust. When Henry
+V. was (as we believe) studying under the care of his uncle, the
+future Cardinal, John Carpenter, afterwards Bishop of Worcester, was
+resident in Oriel; and between him and young Henry a close intimacy,
+we are told, was formed. These friendships, cherished when the heart
+is most warm, and the best feelings freshest, not only endear the two
+friends to each other through life, but excite in each an interest in
+whatever belongs to the other. On this principle we may believe that
+Oriel College, and its peace and welfare, were objects of no ordinary
+interest to Henry; certainly his friend, John Carpenter, felt so
+grateful to the society in which he had imbibed the principles of
+philosophy and religion, as to found one new fellowship in addition to
+the eight of its original foundation, and the four founded by his
+contemporary, though probably his senior, John Frank, Master       (p. 271)
+of the Rolls. About the time when Henry was pursuing his victories in
+France, an unhappy dispute arose to interrupt the harmony of this
+little community. Perfect peace is reserved for the faithful in
+heaven; on earth we must not expect to pass through life either as
+insulated individuals, or as members of any society, however sound may
+be its principles, and however Christian may be the general temper of
+its members, without some of those disturbing vexations which admonish
+us (with many other warnings) not to suffer our hopes to anchor here.
+Just as in a family, quarrels in a college are the more fatal to the
+comfort of its members in proportion to the narrowness of the circle
+which surrounds them, and to the closeness of the bond which more
+frequently compels them to meet together. The citizen of the world may
+avoid one whom he cannot meet with satisfaction and pleasure; the
+inmate of a college comes in contact with his brethren every day. The
+place of prayer, the refectory, the social board of kindly
+intercourse, all well calculated to cherish and ripen feelings of
+friendship, yet if unkind sentiments are lurking in the breast, only
+provoke their expression, and cherish the heartburnings, and fan the
+embers of discord into a flame.
+
+In a college the first spark of unkindness, unbrotherly, anti-social
+feelings, should especially be extinguished: disunion there is more
+fatal to comfort and ease, and peace of mind, and the enjoyment    (p. 272)
+of whatever blessings might otherwise be in store, than in any other
+community except that of husband and wife, parent and child, brother
+and brother. To no combination of Christians would the Apostle with
+greater earnestness repeat his injunction, "Love one another."
+
+What was the immediate subject of dispute at the time when Henry
+interfered with Oriel College, the Author has never been able to
+discover. There is no auxiliary evidence, and the only source of
+reasonable conjecture must be the internal testimony of the King's
+letter itself. The epistle is an original, preserved in the Tower of
+London; its date is 7th of July, and in the town of Mante. This fixes
+it (with as much certainty as we can ever expect in such matters) to
+the year 1419; when Henry seems to have made Mante his chief residence
+for some time, and was certainly there both before and after the 7th
+of July in that year.
+
+This letter is very interesting, particularly to Oriel men, for other
+reasons, and especially because it contains indisputable proof of the
+position maintained by them, that not the Chancellor, nor the King by
+his Chancellor, but the King himself in person, is the visitor. May
+his interference on a similar occasion be never again needed! May
+discord between the Head and the Fellows, or between the Fellows among
+themselves, be for ever banished! But should the voice and the hand of
+the visitor be ever required "to stint the controversy," the       (p. 273)
+visitor of this "ancient and royal house"--is the King of England
+only. The letter is in itself characteristic of Henry, and affords,
+probably, a fair specimen of the style of an English gentleman of that
+day.
+
+     "BY THE KING.[202]
+
+     "Worshipful father in God, our right trusty and well-beloved, we
+     greet you well. And for as much as we lately sent for Master
+     Richard Garsedale, one of the contendents of the Provost of the
+     Oriell, to that end that for his party should nothing be pursued,
+     neither at the court of Rome nor elsewhere, but that that
+     controversy should be put in respite unto our coming home with
+     God's grace: for our occupation is such that we may not well
+     intend to such matters here. Wherefore we will that ye make both
+     the said Garsdale, which cometh now home by our leave, and
+     sufficient of both the parties that neither of them shall     (p. 274)
+     make further pursuit of appeal at court of Rome, nor no manner of
+     pursuit there, or elsewhere, as touching the said controversy,
+     unto our coming as before; at which time our intent is to put the
+     same controversy to a good and righteous conclusion, and the said
+     party in rest. And if any of them have the said pursuit of appeal
+     hanging in court, that they abate it, and send to revoke it in all
+     haste: and that they make all such as been their attornies or
+     doers in court spiritual and temporal to surcease. And we will
+     furthermore, as touching our said College of the Oriell, that ye
+     put it in such governance as seemeth to your discretion for to do,
+     unto our coming. And God have you in his keeping!--Given under our
+     signet, in our town of Mante, the 7th day of July.
+        "To the worshipful father in God, our right
+        trusty and well-beloved, the Bishop
+        of Durham, our Chancellor of England."
+
+                   [Footnote 202: It is thought right to subjoin the
+                   following transcript of this epistle in its
+                   primitive garb, except the abbreviations.
+
+                   "BY THE KYNG.
+
+                   "Worshipful fader yn God oure right trusty and
+                   welbeloved, we grete yow wel. And forasmuche as we
+                   lete sende for Maistre Richard Garsedale oon of the
+                   contendentes of the prevoste of the Oriell to that
+                   ende that for his partie shulde no thyng be
+                   poursuyd neither at the courte of Rome ne
+                   elleswhere, but that that contraversie shulde be
+                   put in respit unto oure comyng hoom with Goddes
+                   grace, for oure occupacion is such that we mow nat
+                   wel entende to suche also Lentwardyn, come afore
+                   you, and that ye take surety matteres here.
+                   Wherefore we wol that ye make boothe the said
+                   Garsdale whiche cometh now hoom be oure leve, and
+                   also Lentwardyn com afore you, and that ye take
+                   seurte soufficeant of bothe the partiees, that
+                   neither of hem shal make ferther poursuyt of
+                   appelle at courte of Rome ner no manere of poursuyt
+                   there or elleswhere as touching the said
+                   contraversee unto oure comynge as before, at whiche
+                   tyme oure entent ys to put the same contraversie to
+                   a goode and rightwyse conclusion, and the said
+                   partie yn rest. And yf any of hem have ye saide
+                   poursuyt of apelle hangyng yn courte that they
+                   abate hit and sende to revoke hit yn al haste, and
+                   that thay make al suche as been thaire attornes or
+                   doeres yn court spirituel or temporel to surcesse.
+                   And we wol ferthermore as touching oure said
+                   college of the Orielle that ye put hit yn suche
+                   governance as semeth to yowre discrecion for to doo
+                   unto oure comyng. And God have you yn his keping.
+                   Yeven under oure signet in oure town of Mante, ye
+                   vii. day of Juyll.
+                       "To ye worshipful fader yn God our right
+                       trusty and welbeloved ye Bisshop of
+                       Duresme oure Chaunceller of England."]
+
+Whilst Henry was occupied by his campaign in France, a             (p. 275)
+parliament met October 16th, 1419, and voted one-fifteenth, and
+one-tenth, and one-half part of them both. In this parliament that
+enactment was made on which our authority chiefly rests for believing
+the Queen-Dowager, Bolinbroke's widow, to have been guilty of
+conspiring her son-in-law's death. The act, after declaring that she
+was accused by friar John Randolf, and other credible witnesses, of
+having compassed the King's death in the most horrible manner; and
+that Roger Colles of Shrewsbury, and Peronell Brocart, lately living
+with the Queen, were violently suspected of having been partners in
+her guilt; enacted that all the lands, and castles, and possessions,
+as well of the Queen as of her accomplices, should be seized for the
+King's use, provision being made for the maintenance of the Queen and
+her servants.
+
+Meanwhile, much progress was made in France towards a peace between
+Henry, the French King, and the young Duke of Burgundy. An armistice
+was signed between Henry and Charles at Mante, November 20, but only
+for the Isle of France; and, at the close of the month, the        (p. 276)
+Duke of Burgundy, then at Arras, signed his consent to the articles
+which Henry had commissioned his ambassadors to lay before him, which
+were these:
+
+First, that he should have the Princess of France in marriage.
+Secondly, that he should not disturb the King of France in the
+possession of the crown; but suffer him peaceably to enjoy it, and
+receive its revenues as long as he lived. Thirdly, that the Queen also
+should during her life retain her title and dignity, with such a part
+of the revenues of the crown as would be suitable to maintain the
+royal honour. Moreover, that the crown of France, with all its
+dominions, should, after the death of the King, descend to Henry and
+his heirs for ever; that, in consequence of the incapacity of the
+King's mind, Henry should as Regent administer the affairs of
+government, with a council of the nobles of France; with other
+stipulations subservient to these grand fundamental points.
+
+The Duke of Burgundy also agreed on certain articles[203] of amity
+between himself and Henry, stipulating to give his own support of
+Henry's authority and rights as Regent and King; in return for Henry's
+protection of him in all his rights, and against all his enemies,
+especially against the murderers of his father.
+
+                   [Footnote 203: These articles were signed on the
+                   following January during the armistice.]
+
+To effect these great ends, a general armistice was concluded at   (p. 277)
+Rouen, December 24th, to continue to the 1st of March, from which it
+was provided that the Dauphin should be excluded. This truce was
+afterwards prolonged to March 24th. Meanwhile, the war was vigorously
+carried on by the English and Burgundian forces against the Dauphin;
+whilst on the confines of Normandy, where the English at that time
+were stationed, every thing was conducted by the people of the two
+nations in as amicable and familiar a manner as though the peace had
+absolutely been concluded, and the English King were Regent of France;
+an object, as they professed, most devoutly desired by the people of
+Paris, who sent their deputies to bespeak the good offices of Henry
+for the preservation of their rights and liberties.[204] Henry's
+ambassadors made many objections to the terms of the proposed treaty,
+chiefly on the ground that, by accepting them, Henry would injure his
+then title to the throne of France. But he saw himself that all
+essentials were provided for; and desirous of terminating the war, and
+more anxious (we may believe) to make the beloved Princess his own
+wife, left Rouen on his journey to Troyes, where the French court and
+the Duke of Burgundy were. Henry passed so near to the walls of Paris,
+that the people hastened out of the city to see him; and they      (p. 278)
+greeted him with joyous and welcoming acclamations.
+
+                   [Footnote 204: About this time, John, Duke of
+                   Bedford, the King's brother, had an offer of the
+                   reversion of the crown of Naples; but the
+                   negociations ended in no successful issue.]
+
+Henry, arriving at Troyes, made an immediate visit to the King, the
+Queen, and the Princess. How far the love of Henry towards Katharine
+expedited the negociations we cannot tell. Every difficulty, however,
+vanished; and a final agreement and perpetual peace was made and sworn
+to "by Charles, King of France, and his dearest and most beloved son,
+Henry, King of England, constituted heir of the crown and Regent of
+France." Henry having consented during Charles's life not to assume
+the title of King of France, Charles promised always to style Henry
+"our most illustrious son, Henry, King of England, heir of France."
+After Charles's death, the two kingdoms of England and France were to
+be for ever united under one King. Many other articles swell this
+solemn league, which are all subservient to these leading provisions.
+
+This treaty was signed at Troyes, May 21, 1420, in the presence of the
+Emperor Sigismund and many of the Continental princes, all of whom
+became parties thereto. On the same day Katharine and Henry were
+affianced before the high altar of St. Peter's Church, in Troyes; in
+which city proclamation of the peace[205] was made both in the French
+and the English tongue. It was afterwards proclaimed at Paris,     (p. 279)
+and the principal cities of France; and, on June 24, it was proclaimed
+in London, after a solemn procession and a sermon at St. Paul's Cross:
+and an ordinance was made for breaking the great seal of England, and
+making another, on which to the King's title should be added, "Regent
+and heir-apparent of France;" and a corresponding order was given to
+the officers of his mint at Rouen for a change of the inscription on
+the coinage there."[206]
+
+                   [Footnote 205: The heartfelt satisfaction and joy
+                   with which this peace between the two countries was
+                   generally hailed as a new and unexpected blessing,
+                   is conveyed to us in a most lively manner by the
+                   letter which Sir Hugh Luttrell wrote to the King on
+                   the occasion, and which bears at the same time
+                   incidental testimony to Henry's condescending and
+                   kind attention to his old comrade in arms. Sir Hugh
+                   was the Lieutenant of Harfleur, and Henry had
+                   himself sent him an account of the happy issue of
+                   his struggle.... He ascribes it to the providence
+                   of the Creator that Henry had concluded a perpetual
+                   peace between two realms which ever, out of mind of
+                   any chroniclers, had been at dissension; and had
+                   brought to an end what no man had hitherto wrought;
+                   "thanking God," he continues, "with meek heart,
+                   that he hath sent me that grace to abide the time
+                   for to see it, as for the greatest gladness and
+                   consolation that ever came into my heart; not
+                   dreading in myself that He who hath sent you that
+                   grace in so short a time, shall send you much more
+                   in time coming."--Ellis's Original Letters,
+                   xxviii.]
+
+                   [Footnote 206: On this subject, T.D. Hardy, Esq. in
+                   his Introduction to the Charter Rolls, just
+                   published by the Record Commission, gives the
+                   following clear and satisfactory
+                   information:--Until the 9th of April 1420, Henry V.
+                   styled himself in his charters and on his great
+                   seal, "Henricus Dei gratia Rex Angliæ et Franciæ et
+                   Dominus Hiberniæ" And on the Norman Roll of the
+                   fifth year of his reign he is sometimes styled Duke
+                   of Normandy, in conjunction with his other titles,
+                   as "Henry par le grace de Dieu, Roy de Fraunce et
+                   d'Engleterre, Seigneur de Irlande, et Duc de
+                   Normandie." On the above 9th of April he
+                   relinquished the title of King of France during the
+                   life-time of his father-in-law, Charles,
+                   preliminary to the treaty of Troyes, which was
+                   signed the 21st of May, 1420; and during the
+                   remainder of his life he styled himself, "Henricus
+                   Dei gratia Rex Angliæ, Heres et Regens Franciæ, et
+                   Dominus Hiberniæ."
+
+                   Notwithstanding an article in the agreement of the
+                   9th of April, that during the life of Charles,
+                   Henry V. should not assume the title of King of
+                   France; yet within ten days he issued a precept
+                   from Rouen relative to the Norman coinage, upon one
+                   side of which was to be inscribed, "Henricus
+                   Francorum Rex." As Henry had not then signed the
+                   article of peace at Troyes, it did not perhaps
+                   occur to him that he was thus breaking his
+                   agreement with France.--Rot. Chart. p. xxi.]
+
+The marriage of Henry with Katharine[207] was celebrated with      (p. 280)
+great magnificence by the Archbishop of Sens, on the 30th of May, in
+the presence of the principal nobility of Burgundy and France. The
+Duke of Burgundy first, and then all the other assembled nobles, swore
+allegiance to Henry, as Regent of France. "For," (as the
+historians[208] say,) "the fame of his heroic actions in war, when his
+person was unknown to them, had acquired him a universal esteem; and
+they knew not what most to admire, his courage, conduct, or success.
+But now his noble presence, in which there was a due mixture of    (p. 281)
+majesty with affable deportment, procured a greater veneration. They
+knew him to be prudent in councils, experienced in war, of an
+undaunted courage in dangers, and prosperous in all his enterprises;
+and therefore they persuaded themselves that their country would be
+happy under the influences of his government." It is said that they
+were confirmed in these anticipations of good, as well as exceedingly
+delighted, by the speech which he addressed to them in full assembly,
+showing the moderation and temper of his soul. At the close of his
+address they unanimously expressed their confidence in his honour, and
+the highest regard for his interests.
+
+                   [Footnote 207: It is said, but whether on good
+                   authority does not appear, that Henry placed
+                   English attendants about the Queen's person;
+                   allowing only five French to wait on her, of whom
+                   three were matrons and the other two young ladies.
+                   Her confessor was John Boyery (query Bouverie?),
+                   doctor in theology.--Pell Rolls, 18th June 1421.]
+
+                   [Footnote 208: See Goodwin.]
+
+The Dauphin, however, continued to prevent the establishment of peace;
+and, having obtained from the Scotch parliament a reinforcement of
+seven thousand men, under the command of the Earl of Buchan, still
+proved a formidable enemy to Henry. But, never relaxing his exertion
+whilst any thing remained to be done, Henry prepared most vigorously
+to meet the forces thus united against him.[209]
+
+                   [Footnote 209: Among the forces which he had drawn
+                   together, were a body of chosen men and archers
+                   from the parts of Wales; but whether they were
+                   natives of the Principality, or English soldiers
+                   drawn from the garrisons there, does not
+                   appear.--Pell Rolls, 3rd June, 8 Henry V. i.e.
+                   1420.]
+
+He retained still in his camp the King of Scotland, by whose       (p. 282)
+influence he had hoped to draw the Scots from the service of the
+Dauphin; but they would not listen to their monarch whilst he was the
+King of England's prisoner. The English army, however, was recruited
+by a considerable reinforcement, which the Duke of Bedford had brought
+over with him. He had governed England as Regent, during the King's
+absence, with great zeal and wisdom; and he now left the Duke of
+Gloucester to rule the kingdom in his stead.
+
+Many cities and garrisons attached to the Dauphin held out with much
+resolution and fidelity to his cause, and the English had full
+employment in reducing them. The town of Melun was defended with most
+determined obstinacy. During the protracted siege of this place, Henry
+was surrounded by all the magnificence and state of a royal court
+amidst the noise and disorders of war. His Queen, also, "with a
+shining train of ladies," came to the camp; for whom "a fair house was
+built, at such a distance as secured them from any danger of shot from
+the town." The royal bride and bridegroom had been allowed a very
+brief interval for that enjoyment of each other's society in
+retirement and privacy which is denied to few in any rank of life
+immediately on their union. Their marriage was solemnized on the 30th
+of May at Paris, and for one short week only from that day are the
+records silent as to Henry's residence. On the 7th of June he was at
+Villeneuf, engaged again (if, indeed, there had been any           (p. 283)
+interruption of his public duties,) in the business of the state. From
+July the 9th to the end of September he passed, with very few
+exceptions, his day alternately at Paris, and in the camp before
+Melun, which was about ten leagues from the capital. It was, we may
+reasonably conjecture, to make this new life of war as little irksome
+to Katharine as the circumstances would allow, and to provide an
+additional source of amusement and gratification, that Henry sent to
+England for those new harps for himself and his Queen, to the purchase
+of which at that time we have already referred.
+
+At the surrender of Melun, a circumstance took place characteristic of
+Henry's firmness and justice, mingled at the same time with feelings
+of friendship and kindheartedness. A gentleman of his household, who
+had fought with him at Agincourt, and was high in his esteem, was
+convicted on clear evidence of having received a bribe during the
+treaty for the surrender of the town, which tempted him to favour the
+escape of one suspected of being an accomplice in the Duke of
+Burgundy's murder. The young Duke of Burgundy and the Duke of Clarence
+petitioned for his pardon; but Henry gave orders for his execution,
+saying he would have no traitors in his army. At the same time he was
+heard to declare he would have given fifty thousand nobles that
+Bertrand de Chaumont had not been guilty of such a crime.
+
+Shortly after the surrender of Melun, Charles and Henry went       (p. 284)
+together to Paris, accompanied by their Queens. The royal party were
+met by the citizens with every demonstration of joy and devotedness;
+and, in honour of Henry, most persons of quality dressed themselves in
+red.[210] The first solemn act performed at Paris after the rejoicings
+were ended, was the attainder of the Dauphin and his accomplices for
+the murder of the Duke of Burgundy. He was denounced as unworthy of
+succeeding to any inheritance, and sentenced to perpetual banishment;
+judgment of death being pronounced against all his accomplices. A
+knowledge of these proceedings only stimulated him to further acts of
+violence.
+
+                   [Footnote 210: "The English colour." See Goodwin.]
+
+Henry's court was at the Louvre, whilst Charles' was at the Hôtel de
+St. Paul. The two courts were marked by a wide difference in splendour
+and attendance. The palace of Charles was deserted, whilst Henry's was
+crowded by almost all the great men of France.
+
+Having now established the government of France, and provided for its
+maintenance during his absence, Henry proceeded with his royal bride
+towards England. In Normandy he was well received by the estates, who
+were assembled at Rouen, and who voted him a subsidy of 400,000
+livres. On leaving this place, he constituted the Duke of Clarence his
+Lieutenant of Normandy, and gave commission to the Duke of Exeter  (p. 285)
+to administer the government in Paris.[211] With his Queen and the
+Duke of Bedford he reached his native land in safety on the last day
+of January, or the first of February 1421; and he immediately
+communicated to the Archbishop his wish for him to appoint a day of
+public thanksgiving.[212]
+
+                   [Footnote 211: In the parliament (2nd December
+                   1420), Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester, being
+                   Lieutenant of the kingdom, provision was made that,
+                   should the King arrive, the parliament should
+                   continue to sit without any new summons: the reason
+                   also is given; because the King, being heir and
+                   Regent of France during the life-time of his
+                   father-in-law, and King after his death, would
+                   often be in England and often also in France. In
+                   this parliament a prayer is preferred against the
+                   Oxford scholars, who in vast numbers and armed
+                   attacked gentlemen in the counties of Oxford,
+                   Bucks, and Berks, and robbed them.]
+
+                   [Footnote 212: On 30th January, the Pell Rolls
+                   record payment of 20 _l._ for bows, arrows, and
+                   bowstrings, a present from Henry to his
+                   father-in-law, the King of France.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.                                                    (p. 286)
+
+KATHARINE CROWNED. -- HENRY AND HIS QUEEN MAKE A PROGRESS THROUGH A
+GREAT PART OF HIS DOMINIONS. -- ARRIVAL OF THE DISASTROUS NEWS OF HIS
+BROTHER'S DEATH (THE DUKE OF CLARENCE). -- HENRY MEETS HIS PARLIAMENT.
+-- HASTENS TO THE SEAT OF WAR. -- BIRTH OF HIS SON, HENRY OF WINDSOR.
+-- JOINS HIS QUEEN AT BOIS DE VINCENNES. -- THEIR MAGNIFICENT
+RECEPTION AT PARIS. -- HENRY HASTENS IN PERSON TO SUCCOUR THE DUKE OF
+BURGUNDY. -- IS SEIZED BY A FATAL MALADY. -- RETURNS TO VINCENNES. --
+HIS LAST HOUR. -- HIS DEATH.
+
+1421-1422.
+
+
+Henry, now in the enjoyment of peace in England, Ireland, and France,
+(except only so far as the Dauphin was yet unsubdued,) in the
+enjoyment, too, of a union with the most beautiful Princess of the
+age, seems to have reached the highest pinnacle of his ambition and
+his hopes. The Queen was crowned with great solemnity and magnificence
+in Westminster Abbey,[213] on the third Sunday in Lent. (23rd February
+1421.)
+
+                   [Footnote 213: Walsingham says, that she was
+                   crowned on the first Sunday in Lent, which in that
+                   year fell on the 9th February. But the Pell Roll
+                   (Mich. 8 Hen. V.) contains a payment to divers
+                   messengers sent through England, to summon the
+                   spiritualty and laity to assist at the solemnizing
+                   of the coronation of Katharine Queen of England, at
+                   Westminster, on the third Sunday in Lent.]
+
+After Henry had gratified his royal consort by proving to her how  (p. 287)
+deep and lively an interest the people of England took in her welfare
+and happiness, he retired with her for a time to Windsor. A
+combination, however, of various motives, induced him to propose to
+her to join him in the execution of a design on which he seems to have
+been bent, and to accompany him[214] in a progress through the
+kingdom. He was most anxious to ascertain by personal inspection the
+state and condition of his subjects in various parts of the realm;
+more especially with the view of satisfying himself that justice   (p. 288)
+was impartially administered, crimes repressed, and innocence
+protected. He felt also naturally a desire to present his loyal
+subjects to his Queen, of whom we have many proofs that he was in no
+ordinary degree proud; and, at the same time, to add to her
+gratification by visiting in her society those places with which he
+had early associations of pleasure, or which it would be most
+interesting to a foreigner to see. He was also influenced, perhaps, in
+some measure by a desire of visiting, in a sort of pilgrimage, the
+shrine of the patron saint of his family, John of Bridlington; and
+that of John of Beverley, the saint to whose merits the hierarchy, as
+we have seen, so presumptuously ascribed the turn of the battle on the
+day of Agincourt.
+
+                   [Footnote 214: There is so much inconsistency in the
+                   accounts of chroniclers as to the royal proceedings
+                   on this occasion, that to attempt to reconcile them
+                   all seems a hopeless task. The Author, however,
+                   having been furnished with the following facts
+                   ascertained from the "Teste" of several writs and
+                   patents preserved in the Tower, is able to
+                   recommend, with greater confidence in its accuracy,
+                   the adoption of the journal offered in the text.
+
+                   In the year 1421, King Henry V. was
+                         January, from 1 to 31, at Rouen.
+                               February 1,       "  Dover.
+                                       2 to 28,  "  Westminster.
+                                 March 1 to  5,  "  Westminster.
+                                       5 to 14,  "  Uncertain.
+                                            15,  "  Coventry.
+                                            27,  "  Leicester.
+                      From March 28 to April 2,  "  Uncertain.
+                                 April 2 to  4,  "  York.
+                                            15,  "  Lincoln.
+                                            18,  "  York.
+                                 From 18 to 30,  "  Uncertain.
+                                   May 1 to 31,  "  Westminster.]
+
+With these motives,[215] combined, it may be, with others, Henry lost
+no time in carrying his intention into effect. He seems to have always
+acted under a practical sense of the maxim, never to put off till
+to-morrow what is to be done, and what may be done, to-day. Without
+waiting for the summer, or a more advanced stage of the spring,--and,
+had he delayed for longer days and more genial weather, the journey
+would never have been taken,--we conclude that, about the beginning of
+the second week in March, the King and Queen, attended by a large  (p. 289)
+retinue of friends and nobles, began their journey northward.[216] The
+first place in which we are sure they rested is Coventry, which they
+reached probably about the 8th of March, and where they were certainly
+on the 15th of that month, the eve of Palm Sunday. Henry had a house
+at Coventry, in right of the duchy of Cornwall, called Cheylesmoor;
+and probably they took up their abode in that mansion during their
+stay at Coventry. The greater part of the time spent in Warwickshire
+was perhaps passed in the castle of Kenilworth, a favourite residence
+of his grandfather, John of Gaunt, who made very great additions to
+the mansion, always afterwards called the Lancaster Buildings. Henry
+himself, too, had been much employed in improving this place, and
+surrounding it with pleasure-grounds and arbours,[217] instead of the
+thorns and brakes which had formerly been seen there. Just seven years
+before this visit with his Queen, he had drained and planted the rough
+land near the castle; and the local historians tells us the spot was
+called "The Plesance in the Marsh."
+
+                   [Footnote 215: Rapin says, but, as it should seem,
+                   without reason, that Henry's aim was, under colour
+                   of shewing the country to the Queen, to procure by
+                   his presence the election of members for the
+                   parliament who would be favourable to him.]
+
+                   [Footnote 216: MS. Cott. Domit. A. 12.]
+
+                   [Footnote 217: Elmham says, that, in 1414, Henry
+                   kept his Lent in the castle of Kenilworth, and
+                   caused an arbour to be planted in the Marsh there,
+                   for his pleasure, amongst the thorns and bushes
+                   where a fox before had harboured, which he killed.]
+
+From Kenilworth the royal party went (probably about the 20th of
+March) to their house at Leicester, where they kept the festival   (p. 290)
+of Easter.[218] Easter Sunday fell that year on the 23rd of March.
+Could Henry have known of the sad calamity which befel him that very
+Easter, his rejoicings would have been turned into mourning. It was at
+that very time that the disastrous conflict took place, in which the
+English were routed, and the Duke of Clarence, whom Henry had left his
+representative on the Continent, was slain. Where the King was when
+the melancholy tidings reached him, and which induced him to cut short
+his progress, does not appear. We know that the joyful news of
+Agincourt reached London on the fourth morning after the battle; and
+probably the sad report of his brother's death, and of the
+discomfiture of his troops, was posted on to Henry whilst he was at
+York. Towards this, his northern capital, we conclude that he
+proceeded from Leicester, about the last day of March. The inhabitants
+of York had made most costly preparations for the reception of their
+royal visitors; and on their arrival they welcomed their conquering
+sovereign, and the partner of his joys and cares, with every
+demonstration of loyalty and devotedness. The most princely presents
+were offered to Henry in the most dutiful and cordial spirit of loving
+and admiring subjects. How many days they remained together        (p. 291)
+amidst the festivities and rejoicings of the province of York, is not
+recorded; perhaps the limit to this festival was the hour when the
+gloom which spread over the kingdom on the death of Clarence reached
+the royal party. It is not improbable that the news of his loss gave a
+turn to Henry's mind, and induced him with sentiments of piety and
+mourning to leave the splendour of his court for a while, and, laying
+aside the feelings of the triumphant monarch, to give himself up to
+exercises of devotion, and to a preparation for the same awful change
+which had so unexpectedly stopped the career of his younger brother.
+Leaving his Queen among his friends and faithful lieges of York, he
+proceeded on a kind of pilgrimage to Bridlington, Beverley, and
+Lincoln;[219] but in what order he visited those places it does not
+appear. He was at York on the 4th of April, and again on the 18th;
+whilst it is equally certain that on the 15th he was at Lincoln.   (p. 292)
+The author of the manuscript which tells us that his object in going
+to Lincoln was to be present at the installation of Richard Flemming,
+then lately elected Bishop, seems to be in error when he adds, that
+the King rejoined the Queen at Pontefract, and thence proceeded to
+Lincoln, and thence to London; unless, indeed, the King visited
+Lincoln once by himself, and once with Katharine; a supposition in the
+last degree improbable. He certainly returned to York after his
+sojourn at Lincoln on the 15th. It is very probable that, when he left
+York, he proceeded first to Bridlington, thence to Beverley, and so,
+crossing the Humber at Hull, reached Lincoln about the 13th of April,
+and, having passed two or three days there, returned to York on the
+17th. The only other town mentioned by chroniclers is Pontefract.
+Documents may, perhaps, be hereafter discovered to account for him
+between the 18th of April, when he was certainly at York, and the 1st
+of May, when he had returned to Westminster. At present we are left to
+conjecture: but it cannot be thought improbable if we suppose that,
+from his castle of Pontefract, (where he would have seen the Duke of
+Orleans[220], then a prisoner there, whom he always treated with   (p. 293)
+respect and kindness, and whom he indulged with as much relaxation of
+his confinement as was compatible with his safe custody,) he took the
+route for Chester, the place where he had formerly landed on his
+return from Trym Castle. Thence pointing out to his bride the country
+of Glyndowrdy, in which he passed his noviciate in arms; and the whole
+line of the Welsh borders, with which he had been long familiar, he
+would probably have passed on to Shrewsbury, where he might have taken
+Katharine to the spot in the battle-field on which Hotspur fell. From
+Shrewsbury, his line would be through Worcester, in which city he had
+often been stationed during the Welsh rebellion; and so onwards
+through Oxford, (a place he probably had visited on his journey
+northward, and where he would have been delighted to show Katharine
+the "narrow chamber" assigned to him when he studied there,) thus
+finishing his circuit where it began, at Windsor.
+
+                   [Footnote 218: Walsingham says, that Henry put off
+                   the celebration of the feast of St. George, (which,
+                   being the 23rd of April, must have fallen on a day
+                   after he had left York,) and directed it to be
+                   celebrated at Windsor on the Sunday after
+                   Ascension-day.]
+
+                   [Footnote 219: His visits to the hallowed
+                   resting-places of these saints are not at all
+                   inconsistent with the opinion which we have
+                   ventured already to give, that he was never heard
+                   to address in the language of prayer or
+                   thanksgiving any other being than the one true God.
+                   A similar feeling of love for the holy men of God,
+                   whether he could testify that love to the living,
+                   or merely record it for the memory of the dead,
+                   might have led him to the installation of the
+                   Bishop of Lincoln, and to the tomb of John of
+                   Bridlington and John of Beverley. Henry was not a
+                   Protestant by profession; but, compared with the
+                   hierarchy by whom he was surrounded, he approached
+                   almost, if not altogether, this fundamental point
+                   of difference between the two churches, the
+                   rejection of the adoration of any being, save the
+                   one only God.]
+
+                   [Footnote 220: Henry's prisoners of war were
+                   dispersed among various castles and strong places
+                   throughout the kingdom in England and Wales.
+                   Payment is recorded, July 10, 1422, to John
+                   Salghall, Constable of Harlech, of 30_l._ for the
+                   safe custody of thirty prisoners, conveyed by him
+                   from London.--Pell Rolls, 9 Henry V.]
+
+There are difficulties attending this supposition, to the existence of
+which the Author is fully alive; but in the whole affair there is only
+a choice of difficulties. He is aware that the journey from York
+through Chester and Shrewsbury to Windsor would have required the
+royal party to travel for fourteen days at the rate of twenty miles on
+the average each day consecutively. But, on the other hand, without
+such a supposition, the old chroniclers[221] must be altogether    (p. 294)
+laid aside, (though there is no other evidence to make their statement
+improbable,) when they assure us that Henry took Katharine to visit
+his principality, as well as the distant parts of his kingdom.[222] It
+must, moreover, be borne in mind that although he might have felt a
+reluctance (notwithstanding the melancholy event which hastened his
+return to the capital) to break off his intended progress without
+visiting at least the borders of Wales, yet he was pressed for time,
+and would therefore not willingly lose a day on the road. Be this as
+it may, we are assured[223] that, wherever he went, his ears were in
+all places open to the complaints of the injured and oppressed; he
+redressed their wrongs, punished the perverters of public trusts,  (p. 295)
+reformed many abuses in the local governments, and established such
+ordinances as should secure for the future the impartial
+administration of justice to high and low alike.
+
+                   [Footnote 221: Holinshed and others.]
+
+                   [Footnote 222: The Author has invariably discarded
+                   the assertions of the chroniclers, however
+                   positively affirmed, or frequently reiterated,
+                   whenever they have appeared to be incompatible with
+                   ascertained facts, or inconsistent with what would
+                   otherwise be probable. In the present instance,
+                   after a review of all the circumstances, and an
+                   examination of all the documents with which he is
+                   acquainted, though the supposition here adopted may
+                   be deemed ideal and fanciful, he is inclined to
+                   think that the acquiescence in that view will be
+                   attended with fewer difficulties than the adoption
+                   of any other.]
+
+                   [Footnote 223: But whilst Henry was thus actively
+                   employed in visiting his subjects, and spreading
+                   the blessing which a good King can never fail to
+                   dispense wherever his influence can be felt, his
+                   ministers of state sought his directions on all
+                   important matters for the management of his affairs
+                   on the Continent. Thus a despatch addressed to the
+                   Treasurer by William Bardolf, Lieutenant of Calais,
+                   is forwarded with all speed to the King in
+                   Yorkshire, that his especial pleasure might be
+                   taken thereon. Payment of the messenger appears in
+                   the Pell Rolls, April 1, 9 Hen. V.]
+
+If, as we are led to believe, Henry returned by the way of Chester,
+his ardent imagination and pious turn of thought would have reverted
+with mingled feelings of wonder and gratitude to his journey along the
+same road two-and-twenty years before; when, returning from his own
+captivity in Ireland, he accompanied the captive Richard towards his
+metropolis, to resign his throne there, and soon afterwards to lay
+down his life. To Henry, indeed, mementos presented themselves on
+every side of the frailty of all sublunary possessions, the precarious
+tenure by which king or peasant alike holds any earthly thing; whilst
+he was himself destined, in the revolution of the next year, to become
+in his own person a marked example of the same uncertainty. His spirit
+might seem to address us from the grave, in the words of a reflecting
+man.[224] "A day, an hour, a moment is sufficient for the overthrow of
+dominions which are thought to be grounded on foundations of adamant."
+
+                   [Footnote 224: Casaubon, quoted by Sir Walter
+                   Raleigh.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Where Henry was when the unexpected news arrested his progress is not
+known. The certainty is, that whilst he was anxiously engaged in
+reforming abuses, and preparing good laws at home; after he had    (p. 296)
+also just concluded a peace with Genoa, and, by generously releasing
+the King of Scotland, had bound him by the strongest ties of gratitude
+and affection; his exertions were suddenly arrested by the sad news of
+the defeat of his forces at Baugy in Anjou, and the death, in battle,
+of his brother, the Duke of Clarence.[225] These tidings caused him to
+shorten his progress, and to return to his capital, where he arrived
+at furthest on the 1st of May.
+
+                   [Footnote 225: Monstrelet says, that the flower of
+                   the English chivalry, who were with the Duke, fell
+                   in that field, and, besides knights and esquires,
+                   from two to three thousand men; and that, with the
+                   Earl of Somerset and others of noble and gentle
+                   blood, about two hundred were taken prisoners.
+                   There was also, he says, a dreadful slaughter of
+                   the French. The English, under the Earl of
+                   Salisbury, recovered the body of the Duke from the
+                   enemy, and it was carried with much ceremony to
+                   England, and there buried.]
+
+The Bishop of Durham, Chancellor of England, was charged to open the
+Parliament, which met on the second of that month, Henry himself being
+present, in the Painted Chamber. The Chancellor's address, though in
+many points strange, and well-nigh ridiculous, is too interesting to
+be passed by unnoticed. He began by uttering eulogies on the King,
+specifying, among other topics of praise, this merit in
+particular,--that, whilst God had granted him victories and conquests
+as the fruits of his labour, he never assumed the least merit to
+himself, but ascribed all the glory to God only, "_following in    (p. 297)
+a manner the example of the very valiant Emperor Julius Cæsar_;"
+and also because as Job, when news was brought to him of the death of
+all his children as they were feasting in their eldest brother's
+house, praised God, saying, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken
+away, the will of the Lord be done; blessed be the name of the Lord!"
+so our sovereign Lord the King, when he first heard of the death of
+the noble prince, the Duke of Clarence, his own dear brother, and of
+the gallant knights and others slain with him, praised and blessed God
+for the visitation of that calamity, as he had before had cause to
+praise Him for all his prosperity. In declaring the cause of summoning
+this Parliament, he mentions the desire the King had of rectifying,
+according to right and justice, all abuses and wrongs which had
+prevailed through the realm since his last passage to foreign lands,
+especially to the injury of those who had been with him there; and
+also his wish that all the laws of the realm should be maintained and
+enforced, and that further provision should be made for the
+[226]better governance, and peace, and universal good of the realm.
+The Parliament, it is said, cheerfully voted him a fifteenth,[227] (p. 298)
+though many persons petitioned against further taxation, and gave
+utterance to sad complaints of their poverty. The Convocation also met
+on May 5th, and on the 12th; they voted him a tenth from the revenues
+of the clergy: and his uncle, the Bishop of Winchester, advanced to
+him by way of loan twenty thousand pounds. The Parliament guaranteed
+payment of the loans to all who should advance money to the King for
+this expedition.
+
+                   [Footnote 226: In this Parliament a statute was
+                   passed, the enactment, but more especially the
+                   preamble of which presents a very formidable view
+                   of the drain which Henry's continental campaigns
+                   had made upon the English gentry.
+
+                   "Whereas by the statute made at Westminster, the
+                   14th year of King Edward III, it was ordained and
+                   established, that no Sheriff should abide in his
+                   bailiwick above one year, and that then another
+                   convenient should be set in his place, which should
+                   have lands sufficient within his bailiwick, and
+                   that no Escheator should tarry in his office above
+                   a year; and whereas also, at the time of making the
+                   said statute, divers valiant and sufficient persons
+                   were in every county of England, to occupy and
+                   govern the same offices well towards the King and
+                   all his liege people; forasmuch that as well by
+                   divers petilences within the realm of England, as
+                   by the wars without the realm, there is now not
+                   such sufficiency; it is ordained and stablished
+                   that the King by authority of this Parliament may
+                   make the Sheriffs and Escheators through the realm
+                   at his will until the end of four years."--9 Hen.
+                   V. stat. 1, c. v.]
+
+                   [Footnote 227: This vote does not appear on the
+                   Rolls of Parliament. Walsingham asserts that a
+                   fifteenth was voted. Holinshed distinctly says,
+                   that the "commonaltie gladly granted a fifteenth."
+                   But he is no authority in such a case. The
+                   Parliament, in the following December, granted a
+                   tenth, and a fifteenth.]
+
+Henry, impatient to repair the dishonour of the defeat which his
+forces had sustained, and to reduce his foreign dominions to peace,
+issued his writ, on the 27th of May, to the sheriffs of the several
+counties to publish his proclamation that all persons should       (p. 299)
+hasten with the utmost speed to join the King, and accompany him in
+his voyage. And now possessing under his command a larger force than
+he had ever yet raised; after procuring by subsidies and loans as
+large a sum as the power or inclination of his people supplied; having
+also appointed his brother, the Duke of Bedford, Regent; he left
+London (never to return to it alive), on the last day of May, or the
+1st of June. From the 1st to the 10th of that month he seems to have
+passed his days alternately at Canterbury and Dover; though the cause
+of this delay does not appear to have been recorded. To whatever the
+postponement of his departure is attributable, though he left the
+metropolis not later than the 1st, he did not finally quit the English
+shores till the 10th of June. On the 12th he was at Rouen.[228]
+
+                   [Footnote 228: Three days after landing his forces,
+                   he despatched the Earl of Dorset with twelve
+                   hundred men to relieve his uncle, the Duke of
+                   Exeter, who was closely blockaded in Paris.]
+
+The Dauphin himself with a large army was at this time besieging
+Chartres, and Henry having passed by Abbeville, Beauvais, Gisors, and
+Mante, marched himself with strong hand to raise that siege. On
+Henry's approach the Dauphin withdrew.
+
+Some of these facts, with others, are contained in a letter which was
+forwarded from Henry to the mayor and citizens of London, (it is the
+last we shall have occasion to transcribe,) and which is chiefly
+remarkable for his language when speaking of the Dauphin. He       (p. 300)
+will not acknowledge him to have any right to the title, and calls him
+a pretender. Another point of considerable interest is the unqualified
+manner in which he speaks of the cordial co-operation and sincere
+attachment of the young Duke of Burgundy.
+
+     BY THE KING.
+
+     "Trusty and well-beloved, we greet you well. And for as much as
+     we be certain that ye will be joyful to hear good tiding of our
+     estate and welfare, we signifie unto you that we be in good
+     health and prosperity of our person; and so be our brother of
+     Gloucester, and bel-uncle of Exeter, and all the remnant of lords
+     and other persons of our host, blessed be our Lord, which grant
+     you so for to be! Witting, moreover, that in our coming by
+     Picardy we had disposed us for to have tarried somewhat in the
+     country, for to have set it, with God's help, in better
+     governance; and, while we were busy to intend therto, come
+     tidings unto us that he that clepeth him [calleth himself]
+     Dauphin was coming down with a great puissance unto Chartres.
+     Wherefore we drove us in all haste to Paris, as well for to set
+     our father of France, as the said good town of Paris, in sure
+     governance, and from thence unto this our town of Mante, at which
+     place we arrived on Wednesday last, to the intent for to have
+     given succours, with God's grace, unto the said town of Chartres;
+     and hither come unto us our brother of Burgundy with a fair
+     fellowship, for to have gone with us to the said succours; the
+     which our brother of Burgundy we find right a trusty, loving, and
+     faithful brother unto us in all things. But, in our coming from
+     Paris unto this our town of Mante, we were certified upon the
+     way, by certain letters that were sent unto us, that the said
+     pretense Dauphin, for certain causes that moved him, hath raised
+     the said siege, and is gone into the country of Touraine      (p. 301)
+     in great haste, as it is said. And we trust fully unto our Lord
+     that, through his grace and mercy, all things here, that we shall
+     have to do with, shall go well from henceforth, to his plesance
+     and worship; who we beseech devoutly that it so may be, and to
+     have you in his keeping!--Given under our signet, in our host, at
+     our town of Mante, the 12th day of July."
+
+Though the Dauphin avoided Henry altogether, he was forced to engage
+with the Duke of Burgundy's army, and he suffered a most decided
+defeat near Blanche Tache. Henry, meanwhile, was engaged in reducing
+Dreux and other towns, still garrisoned for the Dauphin.
+
+The town of Meaux was so strong, and so well manned, that the siege of
+that one place occupied Henry from the 6th of October through the
+whole winter, and to the very end of the next April. During this
+protracted siege, in which the Earls of Dorset, and of Worcester, and
+Lord Clifford were killed, Henry sent ambassadors to the Emperor
+Sigismund for succours. He had the satisfaction, meanwhile, to hear
+that his Queen was delivered of a son, at Windsor, on St. Nicholas'
+day (December 6th). Whether the common report has any foundation in
+truth, cannot now be certainly known: his father, however, is said to
+have omened ill of the young prince when he heard of the place of his
+birth, and to have spoken thus to Lord Fitz-Hugh, his chamberlain: "My
+lord, I Henry, born at Monmouth, shall small time reign and get much;
+and Henry, born at Windsor, shall long reign and lose all: but     (p. 302)
+God's will be done!" Probably this was a prophecy forged after the
+event, and ascribed to Henry without any foundation in truth.
+
+In the session of Parliament held December 1st, 1421, under the Duke
+of Bedford as Regent, one fifteenth was voted for prosecuting the war,
+with this condition appended, that the first half of it should be paid
+in the money then current. The gold coin had been much lessened in
+value by clipping and washing; consequently the Parliament, to relieve
+the people, ordained that the receivers of the tax should take all
+light pieces, not wanting in weight more than 12_d._ in the noble. The
+people, therefore, got rid of their gold as fast as they could, and
+hoarded up their silver.[229] The Convocation also, which met at York,
+September 22nd, granted a tenth.
+
+                   [Footnote 229: Rot. Pat. ix. Henry V.]
+
+After reducing many towns and castles, Henry proceeded to the Château
+Bois de Vincennes, near Paris, to meet his Queen,[230] who had landed
+at Harfleur, on the 21st of May, with a noble retinue, and under
+convoy of the Regent himself. Henry and Katharine entered Paris
+together, where they were magnificently received; the same painful
+contrast still being felt by Charles between his court and that    (p. 303)
+of his heir-apparent. The young King had put the spirit of the
+Parisians to the test by a strong measure, in levying a most unpopular
+tax; but the discontent did not break out into any open tumult. Indeed
+(as the chroniclers record) their resentments were abated, or rather
+turned into affection, when they felt the kind influences of King
+Henry's just and moderate government, and observed his exact
+administration of justice in redressing wrongs, and punishing without
+partiality or favour the authors of them. By this just conduct he
+gained especially the love of the people, who regarded him as their
+father and protector.
+
+                   [Footnote 230: Preparations had been made as early
+                   as January 26th, 1422, for the Queen to leave
+                   England, and meet the King at Rouen, but she did
+                   not start till April.]
+
+The Dauphin in the mean time was anxiously bent on recovering a crown
+from which the victories of Henry, and the displeasure of the King his
+father, had excluded him. His army was comparatively small, and he
+therefore, whilst Henry was with an army in the neighbourhood, avoided
+a battle, keeping always two days' march distant from him. Finding,
+however, that Henry was now, at length, far away, he laid siege to
+Cone, a town on the Loire, the garrison of which agreed to surrender
+on the 16th of August, if they were not by that time relieved by the
+Duke of Burgundy. The Duke not only sent into Flanders and Picardy to
+levy troops to raise this siege, but importuned Henry also to
+strengthen him with English soldiers and officers. The King's answer
+was that he would come himself at the head of his whole army to    (p. 304)
+the Duke's relief. This was his resolution; but God decreed otherwise.
+
+Very shortly after this resolution, Henry was seized by a disorder, on
+the exact nature of which historians are not agreed, which proved
+fatal to him. Yet, though much weakened, he resolved to join his army,
+which, at the first approach of his disorder, he had commanded the
+Duke of Bedford to lead on to raise the siege of Cone. With this
+intention he left the King[231] and Queen of France, and his own
+beloved Katharine, at Senlis, and proceeded to Melun. His complaint
+was then making rapid and deadly progress; and, after having been
+carried in a litter with the intention of passing through his troops,
+he was compelled to return to Vincennes.[232] The Duke of Bedford, who
+had raised the siege of Cone without striking a blow, hearing now of
+the state of danger in which his brother was, left the army, and,
+accompanied by a few friends, rode full speed towards the castle,
+where the King lay.
+
+                   [Footnote 231: The King, his father-in-law,
+                   survived Henry not quite two months: he died
+                   October 21st, 1422.]
+
+                   [Footnote 232: A description and history of this
+                   castle will be found in a work entitled, "Histoire
+                   du Donjon et du Chateau de Vincennes, par L. B.,"
+                   published at Paris in 1807. The Author refers to
+                   the sojourn made in this castle by Henry's son
+                   (King Henry VI.) at the close of the year 1431,
+                   when he visited France for the purpose of being
+                   crowned.]
+
+Henry, sensible that his end was fast approaching, desired the Duke of
+Bedford, the Duke of Exeter, the Earl of Warwick, Sir Lewis        (p. 305)
+Robessart, and some others, to stand round his bed; to whom we are
+told he spoke to this effect: "I am come," said he, "to the end of a
+life which, though short, has yet been glorious, and employed to
+advance the good and honour of my people. I confess it has been spent
+in war and blood; yet, since the only motive of that war was to
+vindicate my rights after I had ineffectually tried milder methods,
+the guilt of all the miseries it occasioned belongs not to me, but to
+my enemies. As death never appeared formidable to me in so many
+battles and sieges, so now, without horror, I regard it making its
+gradual approach. And since it is the will of my Creator now to put a
+period to my day, I cheerfully submit myself to his will." He then
+mentioned two circumstances which tended to make him anxious on
+leaving the world: the one, that the war was not brought to a close;
+the other, that his son was an infant. But he was comforted on both
+these points by the tried friendship and sound principles of the Duke
+of Bedford, his brother; to whom he gave in charge both his kingdom
+and his boy. He then desired the Earl of Warwick to undertake the
+office of preceptor and guide to the young prince in learning and in
+arms. Henry next left a charge for his brother Humfrey to be careful
+that no division of affection and interests should take place between
+them; he conjured them also not to quarrel with the Duke of Burgundy,
+and enjoined them not to release the Duke of Orleans, and some     (p. 306)
+other prisoners, till his son was arrived at years of discretion.
+
+This was a mournful hour for those noblemen and friends and relatives
+who surrounded his bed. At length, having given all necessary
+directions for the government of his kingdom and his family,[233] he
+fixed his thoughts wholly on another world. He urged the physicians to
+tell him the real state of his disease; but they evaded any direct
+answer. Very soon he required them to tell him how long, in all human
+probability, he had to live. After some consultation, one of them,
+speaking for the rest, knelt down and said, "Sir, think of your soul;
+for, without a miracle, in our judgment you cannot survive two hours."
+His confessor and other ministers of religion then surrounded his bed,
+and administered the parting rite of the Roman church, as it was at
+that time and is still practised. He next desired them to join in the
+seven penitential psalms; and when in the 51st psalm they read, "Build
+thou the walls of Jerusalem," caught by the words, Henry bade them
+stop awhile; and with a loud voice declared to them, on the faith of a
+dying person, that it verily had been his fixed purpose, after
+settling peace in France, to proceed against the infidels, and rescue
+Jerusalem from their tyranny, if it had pleased his Creator to     (p. 307)
+lengthen out his days. He then requested them to proceed; and when
+they had finished their devotions, between two and three o'clock in
+the morning, he breathed his last.
+
+                   [Footnote 233: Elmham says, Henry added several
+                   codicils to his Will, leaving large sums to
+                   discharge the debts not only of himself, but also
+                   of his father, and also to reward many of his
+                   faithful servants.]
+
+Henry of Monmouth died 31st August 1422; and when he resigned his soul
+into the hands of his Redeemer, he seemed to fall asleep rather than
+to expire.[234]
+
+                   [Footnote 234: Elmham.]
+
+Such a Christian end of his mortal existence is not surprising when we
+remember (a point on which his own chaplain will not suffer us to
+doubt,) that every day of his life he read and meditated upon the word
+of God, for the express purpose of learning how best to fear and serve
+him; a daily exercise (says the chaplain) from which, when he was
+engaged in it, no one even of his chief nobles and the great men of
+his state[235] could withdraw him.[236]
+
+                   [Footnote 235: Sloane, 64.]
+
+                   [Footnote 236: It is satisfactory to find, even
+                   among the mere details of expenditure, testimony
+                   borne to his love of the Holy Scriptures. Among his
+                   last domestic expenses is this interesting item:
+                   "To John Heth 3_l._ 6_s._ for sixty-six quarterns
+                   of calfskins, purchased and provided by the said
+                   John, to write a Bible thereon for the use of the
+                   King."--Pell Rolls, February 23, 1422, just six
+                   months before his death.]
+
+     The bowels of Henry were buried in the monastery of St. Maur; and
+     his body embalmed, being put into a leaden coffin, was drawn to
+     St. Denis. Before and behind the corpse were two lamps burning;
+     and two hundred and fifty torches gave light to the procession.
+     The Abbot and Monks of St. Denis came out to meet it, and
+     solemnly preceded it to their church, where they performed    (p. 308)
+     the office for the dead, the Archbishop of Paris singing the
+     requiem. From St. Denis the procession advanced to Paris, where
+     the body was deposited for a while in Notre Dame; and thence,
+     with great and solemn pomp, it was carried to Rouen. The Queen,
+     from whom the death of her husband had been before concealed,
+     here met the Duke of Bedford; and made preparations for the
+     conveyance of the body to England. In a bed, in the same carriage
+     with the body, was laid the figure of the King, with a crown of
+     gold on his head, a sceptre in his right hand, and a ball in his
+     left. The covering of the bed was vermilion silk embroidered with
+     gold, and over the chariot was a rich silk canopy. The chariot
+     was drawn by six horses in rich harness. The first bore the arms
+     of St. George, the second, the arms of Normandy; the third, those
+     of King Arthur; the fourth, those of St. Edward; the fifth, the
+     arms of France; the sixth, the arms of England and France. James,
+     King of Scots, followed it as principal mourner. The banners of
+     the saints were borne by four lords. The hatchments were carried
+     by twelve captains; and around the carriage rode five hundred
+     men-at-arms, all in black armour,--their horses barbed black, and
+     their lances held with the points downwards. A great company
+     clothed in white, and bearing lighted torches, "encompassed the
+     hearse." Those of the King's household followed, and after them
+     the royal family; the Queen, with a great retinue, followed at a
+     league's distance. Whenever the corpse rested masses were sung
+     from the first dawn of the morning till nine o'clock. The
+     procession passed through Abbeville to Calais; and crossing to
+     Dover, proceeded with the same solemnities towards London. When
+     they approached the capital, they were met by fifteen bishops in
+     their pontifical habits, and many abbots in their mitres and
+     vestments, with a great company of priests and people. The
+     princes of the royal family went mourning next to the hearse. The
+     corpse was buried in Westminster Abbey, among its most valued
+     treasures.
+
+Among the public acts[237] of the realm his death is thus          (p. 309)
+recorded:
+
+                   [Footnote 237: Acts of Privy Council. Cleopatra, F.
+                   iv. f. I. a.]
+
+     "DEPARTED THIS LIFE, AT THE CASTLE OF BOIS DE VINCENNES, NEAR
+     PARIS, ON THE LAST DAY OF AUGUST, IN THE YEAR 1422, AND THE TENTH
+     OF HIS REIGN, THE MOST CHRISTIAN CHAMPION OF THE CHURCH, THE
+     BRIGHT BEAM OF WISDOM, THE MIRROR OF JUSTICE, THE UNCONQUERED
+     KING, THE FLOWER AND PRIDE OF ALL CHIVALRY--*HENRY THE FIFTH*, KING
+     OF ENGLAND, HEIR AND REGENT OF FRANCE, AND LORD OF IRELAND."
+
+Here we would have drawn the curtain round the bed of Henry of
+Monmouth; but truth and justice compel us to tarry somewhat longer in
+the chamber of death. The tongue and pen of calumny have not suffered
+the dying hero to pour out his soul with his last breath in prayer and
+pious ejaculations unmolested; and the accuser's name is too widely
+known, and has unhappily gained too much influence in the world, for
+his calumnies to be passed over as harmless. Henry, having "set his
+house in order," and being certified how short a time he had to live,
+declares, on the faith of a dying man, that he had been fully resolved
+(had the Almighty granted him length of days to put his resolve into
+effect) to proceed in person to the Holy Land, and rescue the city of
+God from the pollutions and abominations of the infidels. In recording
+this declaration of the expiring monarch, Hume adds a comment as full
+of bitter sarcasm as it is tinctured with his characteristic       (p. 310)
+spirit of scepticism. "So ingenious are men in deceiving themselves,
+that Henry forgot in these moments all the blood spilt by his
+ambition, and received comfort from this late and feeble resolve;
+which, as the mode of those enterprises was now past, he certainly
+would never have carried into execution." Had Hume been as faithful
+and painstaking in the search of truth, as he was ready to adopt the
+account of any transaction which was nearest at hand, and unscrupulous
+in substituting his own hasty remarks in the place of well-weighed
+reflections on ascertained facts, he never would have suffered so
+ignorant and ill-founded a comment to disgrace his pages. Hume[238]
+charges Henry with having left the world, forgetful of the
+bloodguiltiness by which his soul was stained, and with a sentence of
+hypocrisy and falsehood on his lips. To the first charge,--that Henry,
+at the awful moment of his dissolution, deceived himself into a
+forgetfulness "of all the blood spilt by his ambition,"--needs only to
+be replied, that so far from his having forgotten the loss of human
+life attendant upon his wars, the very page on which the historian is
+so severely commenting, records that Henry spoke of that subject
+openly and unreservedly to those who stood around his bed, expressing
+his sure trust that the guilt of that blood did not stain his soul,
+who sought only his just inheritance; but rested on the heads of   (p. 311)
+those who, by their obstinate perseverance in injustice, compelled
+him to appeal to the God of battle in vindication of his own rights.
+
+                   [Footnote 238: Hume's Hist. vol. iii. ch. xix.]
+
+Again, Henry declares, on the faith of a dying Christian Prince, that
+it had verily been his fixed resolution, as soon as his wars in France
+had been brought to a favourable issue, to proceed to the Holy Land.
+Hume says that this was a late and feeble resolve; and the ground on
+which he rests this charge of falsehood is, that the mode of those
+enterprises was then past. Hume ought to have known, as an ordinary
+historian, that the mode of those enterprises was not then past; and
+Hume might have known that Henry's was not a death-bed resolve, to
+which the expiring self-deceiver clung for comfort when the world was
+receding from his sight; but that in his health and strength, and in
+the mid-career of his victories, he had actually taken preliminary
+measures for facilitating the execution of that very design.
+
+With regard to the first position asserted by Hume, that "the mode of
+these enterprises was gone by," the facts of history are so far from
+authorizing him to make such an assertion, that they combine to expose
+its rashness and unsoundness. When Henry succeeded to the throne, he
+found a large naval and military force actually prepared by his father
+for the proclaimed purpose of executing such an enterprise, the
+undertaking of which was only prevented by his death.[239] And     (p. 312)
+even a century after, the mode of those enterprises had not yet
+passed; for Pope Leo X. successfully negociated a league between the
+chief powers of Christendom, engaging them to unite against the
+infidel dominion of the Turk. Not only were such crusades subjects of
+serious and practical consideration in Europe just before Henry's
+accession to the throne, and a full century after it, but, during the
+last years of Henry's life, most vigorous and persevering exertions
+were made by the Sovereign Pontiff to effect an immediate expedition
+of the confederated powers of Christendom to Palestine, with the
+avowed purpose of crushing the power of the infidels. The histories of
+those times bear varied evidence to the same points: we must here,
+however, confine our attention to some facts more immediately
+connected with the case before us. In the year 1420,[240] July 12,
+Pope Martin V, conceiving that Sigismund would very shortly bring the
+war which he was then waging against the Hussites in Bohemia to an
+end, in a bull dated Florence calls upon all Kings, Prelates, Lords,
+and people, adjuring them most solemnly, by the shedding of Christ's
+blood, to join Sigismund, and under his standard to invade the     (p. 313)
+lands of the Turks, and to exterminate them. He urges the formation of
+one grand general army, and for all true men to take the cross; with
+his apostolic promise to all who should so assume the cross, and join
+the army in their own persons and at their own charges, and also to
+all who should take up arms with the _bonâ fide_ intention of joining
+the army, should they die on their journey, a full remission of all
+sins of which they should have repented from the heart, and confessed
+with the mouth; and, "in the retribution of the just, we promise them
+(says the Pontiff) an increase of eternal salvation."[241]
+
+                   [Footnote 239: Fabyan, 388.]
+
+                   [Footnote 240: Annales Ecclesiastici, vol. xii.
+                   Ann. 1517. See much interesting matter relating to
+                   the whole of this subject in these Annales
+                   Ecclesiastici of Baronius, continued by Raynaldus.]
+
+                   [Footnote 241: Florentiæ, iv. idus Julii, anno 3.
+                   Annales Eccles. v. viii.]
+
+In the following year the Pope wrote a most urgent letter to
+Sigismund, pressing upon him, before and above all things, the duty of
+extirpating the heresy in Bohemia; assuring him that, however
+brilliant might be his career in other respects, yet by no means could
+he so well secure the favour of God, renown among men, and the
+stability of his throne. The Pontiff, in the same year, wrote
+repeatedly to Henry, King of England, urging him to consent to terms
+of peace between his country and France. We should have been glad had
+we been able to contemplate the Pontiff of Rome, in the character of a
+Christian mediator, urging two contending nations to be reconciled,
+solely with the Christian desire of stopping the dominion of war and
+blood, reconciling those who were at variance, checking the        (p. 314)
+violent passions of mankind, and restoring to Europe the blessing of
+peace. But his desire was to reconcile France and England, in order
+that the concentrated powers of the faithful in Europe might be turned
+against the heretics in the north; and, when they were exterminated,
+then that the same forces might proceed to crush the infidel, and
+rescue the lands of the faithful from his grasp. The ecclesiastical
+historian,[242] who records the letters of the Sovereign Pontiff,
+assures us that Henry, King of England, had been repeatedly admonished
+by "the vicar of Christ to make peace with the French, and to dedicate
+to Christ his skill in war against the Turks, those savage enemies of
+the Gospel; adding (what the facts of the case did not justify him in
+saying,) that, in the agonies of his last illness, Henry confessed
+that he was dreadfully tormented with remorse because he had not
+consecrated his martial powers by waging war against the
+Mahometans."[243] Surely this testimony is of itself sufficient to
+rescue Henry's memory from having vowed that he had resolved to do
+what he knew he never could have done. "The mode of those          (p. 315)
+enterprises was" not "past."
+
+                   [Footnote 242: Raynaldus, Annales Ecclesiastici,
+                   vol. viii. p. 556.]
+
+                   [Footnote 243: It is not to be forgotten that Henry
+                   of Monmouth had from his very childhood been
+                   interested by accounts of the state of Palestine.
+                   His father, as we have seen, went himself to the
+                   Holy Sepulchre; and, even during Henry's wars in
+                   France, his uncle, the Bishop of Winchester,
+                   visited Constance as he was proceeding in the guise
+                   of a pilgrim to the Holy Land.]
+
+But Hume would have it believed that this was a late and feeble
+resolve of Henry, formed on his death-bed, when he was acting the part
+of a self-deceiver, forgetful of the lamentable effects of his
+ambition, and seeking comfort from his self-deception in the last
+moments of his life. There is strong and clear evidence that he not
+only had contemplated such a measure, but had actually taken important
+preliminary steps to facilitate the execution of his design, whenever
+he might be happily released from his present engagements. "This
+vindicatory evidence" (to use the words of Mr. Granville Penn)[244]
+"of the veracity and sincerity of Henry, is a manuscript discovered at
+Lille, in Flanders, in the autumn of 1819, which proves to positive
+demonstration, that at the moment when Henry was suddenly arrested in
+his victorious progress by the hand of death, his mind was actually,
+though secretly, engaged in projecting an attack on the infidel power
+in Egypt and Syria, as soon as he should have pacified the internal
+agitations of France; and that a confidential military agent of high
+character and distinguished rank had been despatched by him to survey
+the maritime frontier of those two countries, and to procure, upon the
+spot, the information necessary towards embarking in so vast an    (p. 316)
+enterprise.
+
+                   [Footnote 244: Mr. Granville Penn's interesting
+                   paper was read before the Royal Society of
+                   Literature at their first meeting in the year 1825,
+                   and is recorded in the first volume of their
+                   Transactions.]
+
+"The manuscript is a small quarto in vellum, in old French, finely
+written in black character, and richly illuminated; consisting of
+fifty-four pages, and comprising a succinct military survey of the
+coasts and defences of Egypt and Syria, from Alexandria round to
+Gallipoli, made by the command of Henry within the three last years of
+his life, and completed and reported immediately after his unexpected
+death, by which death it was rendered unavailing. The confidential
+author of this survey was Gilbert de Lannoi, counsellor and
+chamberlain to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, and that Duke's
+ambassador to Henry."
+
+The same writer thus expresses himself in conclusion. "His declaration
+was not the prompting of a sickly conscience striving to procure
+delusive comfort from 'the late and feeble' resolves of a death-bed,
+as Hume unworthily asserts; it was the composed and deliberate
+communication of a dying captain and sovereign, disclosing to those
+around him, under a strong sentiment of devotion, a secret of that
+kingly office which he was then on the point of relinquishing for
+ever. To enter upon an appreciation of the moral value of the
+enterprise which Henry had then in prospect, would be as much out of
+place here, as it would be absurd to estimate it by the rule of the
+present age. In those ages, when all the higher orders of society
+were either clerical or martial, much real piety of sentiment      (p. 317)
+must, in innumerable instances, have been compounded with the
+widely-extended romantic spirit which was ardent to hazard life on
+sacred ground of Judea, rather than to suffer the continuance of its
+profanation by the avowed enemy of the Christian name.
+
+"The establishment of this point, certifying, as it does an
+interesting fact hitherto unknown, and effectually repelling and
+exposing an unjustifiable sarcasm directed against one of the most
+illustrious princes that have graced the English crown, may acquire in
+the history of truth the importance to which it might not be able to
+lay claim in the political history of a people."[245]
+
+                   [Footnote 245: This same interesting subject is far
+                   more elaborately discussed by that excellent
+                   antiquary the Rev. John Webb; whose Introductory
+                   Dissertation and Illustrative Notes, (in the
+                   Archæologia, vol. xxi. p. 281,) abound with most
+                   valuable information. The title prefixed to
+                   Lannoi's work is this:
+
+                   "The Report made by Sir Gilbert de Lannoy, Knight,
+                   upon surveys of several cities, ports, and rivers,
+                   taken by him in Egypt and Syria, in the year of
+                   grace of our Lord 1422, by order of the most high,
+                   most puissant, and most excellent prince, King
+                   Henry of England, heir and Regent of France, whom
+                   God assoil." The whole of Mr. Webb's paper well
+                   deserves perusal.]
+
+In dismissing the immediate subject of this inquiry, the Author of
+these Memoirs feels himself under the painful necessity of recording
+his deliberate judgment on the inaccuracies of that celebrated writer,
+whose reflections upon Henry's dying declaration have been         (p. 318)
+animadverted upon here. Through the whole series of years to the
+events of which these Memoirs are chiefly limited, he has been able to
+find very few transactions in recording or commenting upon which Hume
+has not been guilty of error; whilst the mistakes into which he has
+fallen (some more, some less, gravely affecting the character of an
+historian,) are generally such as an examination of the best evidence,
+conducted with ordinary care, would have enabled him successfully to
+avoid. Hume, unfortunately, supplied himself without stint from the
+stream after it had mingled with many turbid and discolouring waters.
+To draw, in each case of doubt and difficulty, from the well-head of
+historical truth, would have exacted more time and labour than he was
+ready to bestow. Had he prescribed to himself a system of research the
+very opposite to that in which he unhappily indulged, instead of
+representing Henry of Monmouth to have left the world with the
+falsehood of a self-deceiver on his tongue, he would have been
+compelled to record him as a man of piety, mercy, and truth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.                                                      (p. 319)
+
+WAS HENRY OF MONMOUTH A PERSECUTOR? -- JUST PRINCIPLES OF CONDUCTING
+THE INQUIRY, AND FORMING THE JUDGMENT. -- MODERN CHARGE AGAINST HENRY.
+-- REVIEW OF THE PREVALENT OPINIONS ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. -- TRUE
+PRINCIPLES OF CHRISTIAN FREEDOM. -- DUTY OF THE STATE AND OF
+INDIVIDUALS TO PROMOTE THE PREVALENCE OF TRUE RELIGION. -- CHARGE
+AGAINST HENRY, AS PRINCE OF WALES, FOR PRESENTING A PETITION AGAINST
+THE LOLLARDS. -- THE MERCIFUL INTENTION OF THAT PETITION. -- HIS
+CONDUCT AT THE DEATH OF BADBY.
+
+WAS HENRY OF MONMOUTH A PERSECUTOR?
+
+
+In estimating the character of an individual, nothing is more
+calculated to mislead ourselves, or to subject him to injustice at our
+hands, than a disregard of the time, and country, and circumstances in
+which he lived. It is equally unwise, and unfair, and deceitful, for a
+human judge to establish one fixed standard[246] of excellence in any
+department whatever of scientific or practical knowledge, and      (p. 320)
+then to try the merits of all persons alike with reference to that
+one test. The injustice and absurdity of estimating the talents for
+investigation and acumen, the skill, and industry, and perseverance of
+a chemical student, many centuries ago, by the knowledge of the most
+celebrated men of the present day, and to pronounce all who fell below
+that standard to have been deficient in natural talents, or in a
+faithful exercise of them, would be seen and acknowledged by all. At
+this time, errors in navigation would be unpardonable, which would
+have implicated a pilot in no culpability at all, who lived before the
+invention of the mariner's compass, and when half our globe was as yet
+unknown. The same observations are applicable when we would estimate
+the moral excellence of an individual, his worth in a private or a
+public capacity, his character as a subject or a governor,--as the
+framer, or the guardian, or the administrator of the laws. Many a
+practice in ordinary social intercourse, which would not be tolerated,
+and would fix a stigma on those who were examples of it as persons to
+be shunned and excluded from society in one age or country, might in
+another not only be endured, but be even countenanced and encouraged
+by those who would take the lead in the improvement and refinement (p. 321)
+of civilized life. The grand broad fundamental principles of right and
+wrong must abstractedly be acknowledged always and in every place; but
+in the interpretation[247] of them, and in their practical
+application, we shall find in the records of successive ages every
+conceivable diversity. If, in these days, we are tempted to brand with
+the mark of ignorance, and superstition, and cruelty, those among our
+predecessors who enacted laws against witchcraft, and condemned to
+death those who were found guilty of dealings with the spirit of
+wickedness, we must at the same time remember that persons who are
+examples of every Christian excellence, of reverence for God's law, of
+justice and charity, are now engaged in occupations which those men
+held in abhorrence. They believed in the reality of witchcraft, and
+condemned those who were pronounced guilty of the crime; we believe
+that the crime cannot be committed, that it is merely a creature of
+the imagination, and we denominate those who pretend to the power of
+committing it impostors: just as by the Mosaic law they were condemned
+as deceivers, pretending to possess a power and knowledge independently
+of the Almighty. Our predecessors considered the lending of        (p. 322)
+money upon interest as an offence against the law of God, and
+reprobated those who so employed their capital as usurers, who had
+forfeited all title to the name of merciful Christians;--whilst in the
+present day the most scrupulous person does not hesitate, as in a
+matter of conscience, to depend for the means of subsistence on such a
+source of income. Assuming that in each of these two cases our views
+are formed on a sounder principle of moral and religious philosophy,
+we have no more right to disparage the character of any individual,
+who did his best in the midst of less favourable circumstances, than
+we should have to reprobate the helmsman of former days, because in
+the darkness of a starless night he had no compass wherewith to save
+his ship from wreck.
+
+                   [Footnote 246: The Bible is always and everywhere
+                   the standard of divine truth; but to condemn an
+                   individual for wilful ignorance of its heavenly
+                   doctrines, to whom no opportunity has been afforded
+                   of learning them, would be unreasonable and unjust.
+                   A corresponding principle applies to the
+                   interpretation of the Bible. Our responsibility in
+                   every case increases with our privileges and
+                   opportunities.]
+
+                   [Footnote 247: It will be borne in mind, that the
+                   question here is not whether there be not one
+                   immutable principle, nor whether there ought not to
+                   be one uniform interpretation of that principle; we
+                   are inquiring only into the nature of that rule by
+                   which we may equitably judge of the moral and
+                   religious characters of men.]
+
+These principles must be borne in mind, and acted upon whenever we
+would examine the spirit and character of any individual on the charge
+of superstition, bigotry, cruelty, and unchristian persecution. Had
+not these principles unhappily been laid aside for a time and
+forgotten, we should scarcely have been pained by so severe a portrait
+of Henry of Monmouth, as a writer who ought to have known better has
+drawn, not in the warmth of debate and the hurry of controversy, but
+in the hour of reflection and quietude. "In the midst of these
+tragedies died Henry V, whose military greatness is known to most
+readers. His vast capacity and talents for government have been    (p. 323)
+also justly celebrated. But what is man without the genuine fear
+of God? This monarch, in the former part of his life, was remarkable
+for dissipation and extravagance of conduct; in the latter he became
+the slave of the popedom,[248] and for that reason was called the
+Prince of Priests. Voluptuousness, ambition, superstition, each in
+their turn, had the ascendant in this extraordinary character. Such,
+however, is the dazzling nature of personal bravery and of prosperity,
+that even the ignorance and folly of the bigot, and the barbarities of
+the persecutor, are lost or forgotten amidst the enterprises of the
+hero and the successes of the conqueror. Reason and justice lift   (p. 324)
+up their voice in vain. The great and substantial defects of Henry V.
+must hardly be touched on by Englishmen. The battle of Agincourt
+throws a delusive splendour around the name of this victorious
+King."[249]
+
+                   [Footnote 248: The attachment of Henry to the See
+                   of Rome, and the countenance given by him to the
+                   encroachments of the Pope, have been greatly
+                   exaggerated. Rapin took a different view of his
+                   measures. "The proclamation" (he says) "made by
+                   Henry, prohibiting the Pope's provisions, was a
+                   death-blow to the court of Rome." On the death of
+                   Henry, the Pope wrote a letter of condolence to the
+                   council, in which he says, "We loved our son of
+                   famous memory, Henry King of England, for there
+                   were many and royal virtues in that Prince for
+                   which he ought to be loved;" and then adds a strong
+                   appeal to the council to abrogate the obnoxious
+                   statutes which had so materially entrenched upon
+                   his assumed prerogative. In a letter to Henry
+                   himself (Kal. Nov. xiv. An. iv.) nearly two years
+                   before his death, the Pope refers to a promise made
+                   by Henry that he had no desire to curtail the
+                   authority of the Roman See in his new dominions;
+                   and also to an undertaking that he would bring the
+                   obnoxious statutes under the notice of his
+                   parliament; and that, "_if they could not be
+                   supported on honest and lawful grounds_," he would
+                   satisfy the Pope in that particular. Surely these
+                   are not the expressions of one who was "the slave
+                   of the Popedom."--See "Annales Ecclesiastici."]
+
+                   [Footnote 249: Milner's Church History, vol. iv. p.
+                   196.]
+
+It is very painful to read this sentence; but the historian and
+biographer must not be driven by such sweeping condemnation into the
+opposite extreme; nor be deterred by the apprehension of unpopularity
+from laying open his views both of the moral and religious question in
+the abstract, and also of the acts, and character, and spirit of the
+individual subject of inquiry.
+
+The principles of religious liberty were ill understood through many
+years before, and subsequently to, the time of Henry V. The sentiments
+of persons in every rank of life in those days seem to have been built
+upon an understanding, that the authorities, ecclesiastical and civil,
+were bound in duty to expel heresy by force. It was not the case of a
+dominant party enacting penalties abhorrent from the sympathies of the
+mass of the people; "the people themselves wished to have it so, and
+the priests bore rule by their means." So thorough a triumph had the
+gigantic policy of Rome achieved over the freedom, and the wills, and
+the judgments of the inhabitants of Europe! Like her other victories,
+this too was the work of progressive inroads on the liberties      (p. 325)
+of Christians. Never at rest, ever active, the arch-conqueror fastened
+to her chariot-wheels, one by one, the most valued rights and most
+solemn duties of responsible agents. The right of private judgment in
+matters of religion had been resigned by the vast majority of the
+people of Christendom, and the duty and responsibility in each
+individual of searching for the truth himself had been laid aside long
+before Henry V. was called to take a part in the affairs of this
+world. Bold and noble spirits, indeed, were found in successive
+periods to assert their own rights and to declare the privileges and
+the duties of their fellow-creatures, and to think for themselves in a
+matter which so deeply involved their own individual and eternal
+welfare; whilst the bulk of mankind in Christendom not only resigned
+their faith to the absolute control of the priesthood, but exacted
+also from their fellow-citizens a similar surrender, on pain of losing
+their share in the protection and advantages of the state. Thus had
+heresy, in various nations of Europe, become synonymous with rebellion
+and treason; a rejection of the determinations of the church in
+matters of doctrine was identified in most men's minds with rejection
+of the authority of the civil magistrate;[250] and every one who dared
+to dispute the jurisdiction of Rome was regarded as a dangerous    (p. 326)
+innovator, and an enemy to his own country.
+
+                   [Footnote 250: This view of heresy we find to have
+                   been at a very early date propagated and encouraged
+                   by the Pope and the See of Rome. Walsingham
+                   records, that, three years before Richard II.'s
+                   deposition from the throne, "the Pope wrote to him
+                   with a prayer (orans) that he would assist the
+                   prelates of the church in the cause of God, and of
+                   the King himself, and of the kingdom, against the
+                   Lollards; whom he declared to be traitors, not only
+                   of the church, but of the throne. And he besought
+                   him with the greatest urgency (obnixiùs) to condemn
+                   those whom the prelates should have declared
+                   heretics.--Ypod. Neust. 1396.]
+
+That this was a state of things to be deplored by every friend of
+liberty and lover of truth, is not questioned; that domination over
+the consciences of men has ever been the object of the church of Rome,
+and that the spirit of persecution will ever be characteristic of her
+principles, is not here denied; nor are these observations made for
+the purpose of softening the feelings of abhorrence with which any
+persons may be disposed to view the proceedings of a persecuting
+spirit in those things which concern our most momentous interests so
+awfully. We refer to these historical reminiscences solely for the
+purpose of forming a more correct estimate of the individual character
+of one who lived in those times, and was born, and cradled, and
+educated in that atmosphere. It is easy to charge Henry V. with "the
+ignorance and folly of the bigot, and the barbarities of the
+persecutor;" but it were more worthy of a historian (his eye bent
+singly on the truth) to substitute inquiry for assumption, and     (p. 327)
+careful weighing of the evidence for indiscriminate condemnation.
+There is such a thing as persecution, though the dungeon and the stake
+be not employed for its instruments; and true charity will be tender
+of the character of a fellow-mortal, though he is removed from this
+scene of trouble and trial, and has no longer the power of answering
+the accusations with which his good name is assailed. We may be as
+honest as those who write most bitterly, in our abhorrence of
+persecution; and yet think the individual who put its most rigid laws
+into effect, deserving of compassion and pity that his lot had fallen
+in such days of bigotry and ignorance, rather than of reprobation for
+not having discovered for himself a more enlightened path of duty.
+
+It is not because we are obliged to confess that even the outward acts
+of Henry V. have been those of a persecutor, that these preliminary
+remarks are offered; it is rather to prepare our minds for a fair
+examination of his conduct, with reference to the only just and equal
+standard; for a candid and searching analysis of the evidence drawn
+from original sources, before it has become turbid and coloured by the
+channel through which it is often forced to flow; and for an
+unprejudiced judgment on his character,--a judgment perverted neither,
+on the one hand, by the dazzling splendour of his victories, nor, on
+the other, by that very common but most iniquitous principle of    (p. 328)
+adjudication condemns the accused from hatred of the crime laid to
+his charge. The Author's sentiments on the character of religious
+persecution in general, and of the persecuting spirit of the church of
+Rome in particular, need not be disguised. He would never be disposed
+to acquit Henry V, or any other person, from a feeling of sympathy
+with the spirit of persecution.
+
+The religion of the Gospel abhors all persecution. The faith of Christ
+must be maintained and propagated by more holy and heavenly weapons
+than those which can be forged by human authority and power.
+Persecution prevails in a Christian community only so far as the
+genuine spirit of the Gospel is quenched or checked among its members.
+The church has a power of compelling men to come to Christ, and to
+embrace the true faith, but its instruments of compulsion must be
+spiritual only: its sword must be supplied from God's own armoury. The
+sentence, "Having the terrors of the Lord, we persuade men," conveys
+an idea of tremendous consequences in store for those who refuse to
+obey the truth; but the consequences are reserved for the immediate
+dispensation of Him "who knoweth the thoughts." That believers, when
+possessed of temporal power, should have recourse to bodily restraint,
+and torture, and death, as the earthly punishment of those who
+entertain unsound doctrine, is a monstrous invention, which can    (p. 329)
+derive no countenance from "the Word," and must be supported only
+by a worldly sword, and the arm of man wielding it. If, indeed,
+Christians are so far forgetful of the spirit of the Gospel as, on the
+plea of defending and spreading its genuine doctrines, to disturb the
+peace, and shake the foundations, and threaten the overthrow of
+society, the civil magistrate, whether Christian or heathen, will
+interpose. But neither has he, more than the church, any authority
+whatever for interfering by violence with the faith of any one. It is
+the duty of a Christian magistrate to provide for his people the means
+of religious instruction, and worship, and consolation; but, on the
+principles which alone can be justified, he must leave them at liberty
+to reject or to avail themselves of the benefit. Their neglect, or
+their abuse of it, will form a subject of inquiry at another tribunal;
+and the final, irreversible judgment to be pronounced there, man has
+no right to anticipate by pain and punishment on earth. These are the
+true principles of Christianity, and a church departs from the Gospel
+whenever these principles are neglected.
+
+In adopting, however, these principles, and making them practically
+one's own, it must never be forgotten that there is a danger of
+confounding them, as they are unhappily too often confounded, with the
+results of a philosophy, falsely so called, which would teach
+governments to be indifferent to the religion of their people,     (p. 330)
+and would encourage individuals to take no interest in the
+dissemination of religious truth. East is not more opposed to west,
+than the spirit of persecution, which would compel others by secular
+punishments to make profession of whatever doctrines the government of
+a country may adopt, is opposed to that Christian wisdom which
+maintains it to be equally the bounden duty of the state to provide
+for the religious instruction and comfort of its members, as it is the
+duty of a father to train up his own children in the faith and fear of
+God. The poles are not further asunder, than that holy anxiety for the
+salvation of our fellow-creatures which would impel Christians, to the
+very utmost bound of the sphere of their influence, to promote as well
+unity in the faith as the bond of peace and righteousness of life, is
+removed from that narrow bigotry which fixes on those who differ from
+ourselves the charge of wilful blindness, and obstinate hatred of the
+truth, to be visited by man's rebuke here, and God's displeasure for
+ever.[251] A wise and pious writer of our own has said,[252]       (p. 331)
+"Show me the man who would desire to travel to heaven alone,
+regardless of his fellow-creature's progress thitherward, and in that
+same person I will show you one who will never be admitted there." The
+principle applies equally to an individual and a commonwealth. Show me
+a State which neglects to provide for the spiritual edification and
+comfort of its members, and in its institutions proves itself
+unconcerned as to the advancement of religious truth, and in that
+State you see a commonwealth whose counsels are not guided by the
+spirit of the Gospel, and therefore on which, however for a time it
+may shine and dazzle men's eyes with the splendour of conquest, and be
+making gigantic strides in secular aggrandizement, the blessing    (p. 332)
+of the God of Truth and Love cannot be expected to descend.
+
+                   [Footnote 251: For Christians of the present age,
+                   and in our country, to pass through life without
+                   partaking in any persecution, such as once
+                   disgraced our legislature and the executive
+                   government, does not necessarily imply a freedom of
+                   the conscience from a persecuting spirit. The
+                   Christian can now evince the real tone and temper
+                   of his mind only in his behaviour towards his
+                   fellow-creatures, and by the sentiments to which he
+                   gives utterance. The Author hopes he may be
+                   pardoned, if he ventures, in further illustration
+                   of his principles on this subject, to make an
+                   extract from his sermon lately preached at the
+                   consecration of the Bishop of Salisbury. "In his
+                   intercourse with those Christians whose sentiments
+                   do not coincide with our own, the Christian
+                   minister will never by laxity of expression or
+                   conduct encourage in any an indifference to truth
+                   and error, nor countenance the insidious workings
+                   of latitudinarian principles. He will ever maintain
+                   the truth, but never with acrimony; and, whilst his
+                   duty compels him to banish and drive away all false
+                   doctrine, he will feel and show towards the persons
+                   of such as are in error compassionate indulgence
+                   and forbearing tenderness. He knows that truth can
+                   be only on one side, but he acknowledges that
+                   sincerity may be on both; and he will set his mind
+                   on winning back again by mild argument and
+                   conciliatory conduct those who have gone astray,
+                   rather than by severity in exposing their faults,
+                   and a cold, forbidding, and hostile bearing,
+                   indispose them to examine their mistaken views, and
+                   confirm them in their spirit of alienation."]
+
+                   [Footnote 252: Owen Feltham.]
+
+A Christian legislature is bound by the most solemn of all
+obligations to supply with parental care the means which, in the
+honest exercise of its wisdom, it deems best fitted for converting the
+community into a people serving God; each obedient to his law here,
+each personally preparing for the awful change from time to eternity.
+But with each individual member of the community, from those who make
+its laws or administer them to the humblest labourer for his daily
+bread, it must ultimately be left to accept or to reject, to cultivate
+or neglect, the offered blessing. The moment compulsion interferes
+with the free choice of the individual, the religion of the heart and
+the outward observance cease to coincide, and hypocrisy, not faith
+working by love, is the result. "Persecution[253] either punishes a
+man for keeping a good conscience, or forces him into a bad
+conscience; it either punishes sincerity, or persuades hypocrisy; it
+persecutes a truth, or drives into error; and it teaches a man to
+dissemble and to be safe, but never to be honest."
+
+                   [Footnote 253: Bishop Taylor's "Liberty of
+                   Prophesying," 13.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+With these observations we would proceed to inquire historically into
+the personal character of Henry V. with regard to religious
+persecution; a prince who lived when all Christendom was full of   (p. 333)
+the darkness of bigotry and superstition, and when persecution had
+established its "cruel habitations" in every corner of the land.
+
+The first occasion on which Henry of Monmouth's name is in any way
+connected with religious intolerance and persecution, is recorded in
+the Rolls of Parliament, 7 and 8 Henry IV. The circumstance is thus
+stated by Prynne,[254] or whoever was the author of the passage which
+is now found in the "Abridgment of Records in the Tower." "At this
+time the clergy suborned Henry, Prince, for and in the name of the
+clergy, and Sir John Tibetott the Speaker, for and in behalf of the
+Commons, to exhibit a long and _bloody_ bill against certain men
+called Lollards,--namely, against them that taught or preached
+anything against the temporal livings of the clergy. Other points
+touching Lollardy I read none; only this is to be marked, for the
+better expedition in this exploit, they joined prophecies touching the
+King's estate, and such as whispered and bruited that King Richard (p. 334)
+should be living; the which they inserted, to the end that by the same
+subtlety they might the better achieve against the poor Lollards
+aforesaid. Wherein note a most unlawful and monstrous tyranny; for the
+request of the same bill was, that every officer, or other minister
+whatever might apprehend and inquire of such Lollards without any
+other commission, and that no sanctuary should hold them."
+
+                   [Footnote 254: This work, "published by William
+                   Prynne, Esq. a Bencher of Lincoln's Inn, 1657," is
+                   ascribed by him to Cotton; but it proves not to
+                   have been written by Cotton, but by the two
+                   brothers William and Robert Bowyer. See manuscript
+                   note, by Francis Hargrave, at the commencement of
+                   his copy in the British Museum. What notes and
+                   observations came from the author, whether Cotton
+                   or one of the Bowyers, and what were added and
+                   interwoven by Prynne, it seems impossible to
+                   determine. This passage (p. 456) apparently carries
+                   with it internal evidence that it was penned by
+                   Prynne.]
+
+The Biographer of Henry V. needs not be very anxious as to the real
+intention of this petition. The allegation that Prince Henry and the
+Speaker of the House of Commons were suborned by the clergy, is a pure
+invention; no proof, or probable confirmation of any part of the
+charge, is afforded by history. The Speaker is named as the chief
+member of the House of Commons; the Prince is named as President of
+the Council, and chief member of the House of Lords; each acting in
+his official rather than in his individual character.
+
+The petition was presented on Wednesday, December 22, in the
+parliament 7 and 8 Henry IV. which was dissolved that same day. The
+Roll records that "The Commons came before the King and Lords, and
+prayed an interview with the Lords by John Tybetot the Speaker."
+Different petitions were presented; one touching the succession of the
+crown, and the petition in question. The petition is not drawn up in
+the name of the Commons and Lords; it purports to be addressed     (p. 335)
+to the King by "his humble son Henry the Prince, and the Lords
+Spiritual and Temporal in this present parliament assembled;" and the
+Speaker, in the name of the Commons, prays the King that the petition
+might be made the law of the land until the next parliament: and the
+King "graciously assents." Whatever were the real object of this law,
+if its aim were merciful, the Prince ought to have no additional share
+of the praise; if it were adding to the severity of the existing law,
+he deserves no additional blame, from the fact of his name appearing
+in the petition. In either case it appears there just as the Speaker's
+does, officially. But what was the real drift of this petition?
+Suppose it to have been on the side of severity, will it deserve the
+character assigned to it by the author of the "Abridgment?" Can it be
+called a "bloody" petition? It prayed that after the feast of Epiphany
+next ensuing, without any other commission, "Lollards, and other
+speakers and contrivers of news and lies, _might be apprehended_ and
+_kept in safe custody till the next parliament_, and _there to answer
+to the charges against them_." Suppose this to have been an extension
+of a former persecuting law, it gave no power of life or death, or any
+further severity against the person, than merely safe custody, a power
+now given to any magistrate against persons accused of any one of a
+large class of offences usually treated as light and trifling. But we
+may suppose that the real bearing of this petition were altogether (p. 336)
+the other way,--that it was intended to mitigate the severity of the
+existing law,--to deprive the real persecutors of the power, which
+they would undoubtedly have had, "of citing the suspected heretic,
+punishing him by fine and imprisonment, and, in the case of a relapsed
+or obstinate heretic, consigning him to the civil power for death."
+This power the statute[255] 2 Hen. IV. c. 15, conferred on the
+diocesans; and the petition in question might have been virtually a
+suspension of that sanguinary law till the next session. If this be
+so, we have precluded ourselves from ascribing any individual merit to
+Henry of Monmouth above the rest of the peers who drew up the
+petition; but he must share it equally with them; at all events, the
+charge of his having been suborned by the clergy to present "a long
+and bloody petition" falls to the ground. On this question, however,
+it were better to cite the opinion of an author certainly able     (p. 337)
+to take a correct view of such subjects; and who, not having Henry the
+Fifth's character before him at the time, but only the historical
+fact, must be regarded as an unprejudiced authority. Mr. Hallam,[256]
+in his History of the Middle Ages, makes this comment upon the
+proceeding in question. "We find a remarkable petition[257] in 8 Henry
+IV. professedly aimed against the Lollards, but intended, as I
+strongly suspect, in their favour. It condemns persons preaching
+against the Catholic faith or sacraments to imprisonment against the
+next parliament, where they were to abide such judgment as should be
+rendered by _the King and peers of the realm_. This seems to supersede
+the burning statute of 2 Henry IV, and the spiritual cognizance of
+heresy. Rot. Parl. p. 583; see too p. 626. The petition was expressly
+granted; but the clergy, I suppose, prevented its appearing in the
+Roll."[258] Certain it is, that, unless the statute framed upon this
+petition suspended the power of the existing law, the hierarchy had
+full authority, without the intervention of the civil magistrate,  (p. 338)
+to apprehend any one suspected of heresy, to try him, to sentence him,
+and to deliver him over to the secular power for death, upon receipt
+of the King's writ.[259] Certain it also is, that, on those who might
+be apprehended in consequence of this petition, none of those rigours
+could be visited: on the contrary, they would be placed beyond reach
+of the ecclesiastical arm. Surely to talk of Prince Henry being
+suborned by the priests to present a bloody petition, savours rather
+of blind prejudice than of upright judgment.
+
+                   [Footnote 255: Much doubt and many mistakes seem to
+                   have prevailed as to the real state of the law in
+                   England before the statute 2 Hen. IV. cap. 15. It
+                   is said by the annotator on Fitzherbert that,
+                   "before the time of Henry IV. no person had been
+                   put to death for opinions in religion in England;"
+                   but the same author himself tells us that, among
+                   the crimes to be punished by burning by the common
+                   law, heresy is enumerated. "No Bishop, indeed, by
+                   the common law, could convict of heresy, as to loss
+                   of life, but only as to penance, and for the health
+                   of the soul, 'pro salute animæ.' In the case of
+                   life, the conviction by the common law ought to
+                   have been before the Archbishop in convocation."
+                   Much information is found on this subject in
+                   Fitzherbert's Book, De Naturâ Brevium.]
+
+                   [Footnote 256: Hallam, Middle Ages, vol. iii. p.
+                   134.]
+
+                   [Footnote 257: An antiquary well versed in such
+                   matters says, that for many years previous to this
+                   petition there are several mandates upon the Patent
+                   Rolls, ordering the apprehension of heretics, (who
+                   appeared to have been all monks,) in consequence of
+                   complaints made to the King in council by the
+                   various monasteries. He had never met with any
+                   entry affecting the parochial clergy.]
+
+                   [Footnote 258: The clergy could not have prevented
+                   its appearance on the Roll, but the judges (it is
+                   said) might have done so.]
+
+                   [Footnote 259: See, however, Fitzherbert, De Naturâ
+                   Brevium, p. 601.]
+
+The only other occasion which places Henry of Monmouth, whilst Prince
+of Wales, before us in conjunction with bigotry, intolerance, and
+persecution, is the martyrdom of a condemned heretic, executed in
+Smithfield. Fox, and those who follow him, say, that the martyr was
+John Badby, an artificer of Worcester, condemned first in his own
+county, and then definitively sentenced by the Archbishop, the Duke of
+York, the Chancellor, and others in London; the Chronicle of London
+records the same transaction, but speaks of the individual as a
+"_clerk_, who believed nought of the sacrament of the altar!" There is
+no doubt, however, that the two accounts, as well as the Archbishop's
+record, refer to the same individual, though the Chronicle of London
+is mistaken as to the sphere of life in which he moved. It will be
+borne in mind that the question is not, whether John Badby ended his
+life gloriously in defence and in testimony of the truth, nor      (p. 339)
+whether those who charged, and tried, and condemned him, were
+merciless persecutors; the only point of inquiry immediately before us
+is, Whether, at the death of John Badby, Henry of Monmouth showed
+himself to be a persecutor. The circumstances, however, of this
+martyr's charge and condemnation, independently of that question, are
+by no means void of interest; though our plan precludes us from
+detailing them further than they may throw more or less direct light
+upon the subject of our investigation. The following statement is
+taken from Archbishop Arundel's record.[260]
+
+                   [Footnote 260: Wilkins' Concilia, Ex reg. Arundel,
+                   i. fol. 15.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+John Badby was an inhabitant of Evesham, in the diocese of Worcester,
+and by trade a tailor. He was charged before the bishop with heresy,
+and was condemned in the diocesan court. The point on which alone his
+persecutors charged him, was his denial of transubstantiation. His
+trial took place on the 2nd of January, 1409, and he was subsequently
+brought before the Archbishop and his court in London, as a heretic
+convict. His examination began on Saturday, the 1st of March 1410, at
+the close of which the court resolved that he should be kept a close
+prisoner till the next Wednesday, in the house of the Preaching
+Friars, where the proceedings were carried on. The Archbishop, for
+greater caution, said that he would himself keep possession of     (p. 340)
+the key. When the Wednesday arrived, the Archbishop took, as his
+advisers and assistants, so great a number of the bishops and nobles
+of the land, that (in the words of his own record) it would be a task
+to enumerate them: among others, however, the names of Edmund Duke of
+York, John Earl of Westmoreland, Thomas Beaufort Chancellor of
+England, and Lord Beaumond, are recorded.[261] Prince Henry, though
+present in London, and actively engaged with some of the same noblemen
+as members of the council, was not present at Badby's examination,
+either on the Saturday or on the Wednesday.[262] In all his
+examinations Badby seems to have conducted himself throughout with
+great firmness and self-possession, and, at the same time, with much
+respect towards those who were then his judges. Looking to the
+circumstances in which he was placed, it is almost impossible for any
+one not to be struck by the weight and pointedness of his answers. He
+openly professed his belief in the ever blessed Trinity, "one
+omnipotent God in Trinity;" and when pressed as to his belief in the
+sacrament of the altar, he declared that, after consecration,      (p. 341)
+the elements were signs of Christ's body, but he could not believe
+that they were changed into the substance of his flesh and blood.
+"If," he said, "a priest can by his word make God, there will be
+twenty thousand Gods in England at one time. Moreover, I cannot
+conceive how, when Christ at his last supper broke one piece of bread,
+and gave a portion to each of his disciples, the piece of bread could
+remain whole and entire as before, or that he then held his own body
+in his hand." At his last appearance before the large assemblage of
+the hierarchy and the temporality, when asked as to the nature of the
+elements, he said, that "in the sight of God, the Duke of York, or any
+child of Adam, was of higher value than the sacrament of the altar."
+The Archbishop declared openly to the accused that, if he would live
+according to the doctrine of Christ, he would pledge his soul for him
+at the last judgment day.
+
+                   [Footnote 261: De Roos, Master of the Rolls, was at
+                   the first meeting, and a large number (multitudo
+                   copiosa) of the laity and clergy.]
+
+                   [Footnote 262: The house (the Friars' Preachers)
+                   where they met, was a place in which the Prince at
+                   this time often presided at the council. On the
+                   10th of the following June, for example, he met the
+                   Chancellor, and the Bishops of Durham, Winchester,
+                   and Bath, with others, at this house.]
+
+The registrar, in recording these proceedings, employs expressions
+which too plainly indicate the frame of mind with which this poor man
+was viewed by his persecutors. Had the words been attributed either to
+the Archbishop himself, or to his remembrancer, by an enemy, they
+might have excited a suspicion of misrepresentation or misunderstanding.
+"Whilst he was under examination the poison of asps appeared about his
+lips; for a very large spider, which no one saw enter, suddenly and
+unexpectedly, in the sight of all, ran about his face." To this    (p. 342)
+absurd statement, however, the registrar adds a sentence abounding with
+painful and dreadful associations. "The Archbishop, weighing in his mind
+that the Holy Spirit was not in the man at all, and seeing by his
+unsubdued countenance that he had a heart hardened like Pharaoh's,
+freeing themselves from him altogether, delivered him to the secular
+arm; praying the noblemen who were present, not to put him to death for
+his offence, nor deliver him to be punished." Whatever force this prayer
+of the hierarchy was expected to have, the King's writ was ready. The
+Archbishop condemned him before their early dinner, and forthwith on the
+same day, after dinner, he was taken to Smithfield, and burnt in a sort
+of tub to ashes. The Lambeth Register[263] mentions the mode of his
+death, and affirms that he persevered in his obstinacy to the last, but
+says nothing whatever about the Prince of Wales. The further proceedings
+with regard to this martyr, and which connect him with the subject of
+these Memoirs, are thus stated by Fox, in his Book of Martyrs.
+
+                   [Footnote 263: Dictoque die, immediatè post
+                   prandium, ex decreto regio, apud Smythfield,
+                   præfatus Joh. Badby, in suâ obstinaciâ perseverans
+                   usque ad mortem, catenis ferreis stipiti ligatus,
+                   ac quodam vase concavo circumplexus, injectis
+                   fasciculis et appositis ignibus, incineratus
+                   extitit et consumptus.]
+
+     "This thing[264] [the condemnation by the Archbishop, and     (p. 343)
+     the delivery of Badby to the secular power,] being done and
+     concluded in the forenoon, in the afternoon the King's writ was
+     not far behind; by the force whereof John Badby was brought into
+     Smithfield, and there, being put into an empty barrel, was bound
+     with iron chains, fastened to a stake, having dry wood put about
+     him. And as he was thus standing in the pipe or tun, (for as yet
+     Perilous' bull was not in use among the bishops,) it happened
+     that the Prince, the King's eldest son, was there present; who,
+     showing some part of the good Samaritan, _began to endeavour and
+     assay how to save the life of him_ whom the hypocritical Levites
+     and Pharisees sought to put to death. _He admonished and
+     counselled him that, having respect unto himself he should
+     speedily withdraw himself out of these labyrinths of opinions_;
+     adding oftentimes threatenings, the which would have daunted any
+     man's stomach. Also Courtney, at that time Chancellor of Oxford,
+     preached unto him, and informed him of the faith of holy church.
+     In this mean season, the Prior of St. Bartlemew's in Smithfield,
+     brought, with all solemnity, the sacrament of God's body, with
+     twelve torches borne before, and so shewed the sacrament to the
+     poor man being at the stake: and then they demanded of him    (p. 344)
+     how he believed in it; he answered, that he well knew it was
+     hallowed bread, and not God's body. And then was the tunne put
+     over him, and fire put unto him. And when he felt the fire he
+     cried, 'Mercy!' (calling belike upon the Lord,) and so the Prince
+     immediately commanded to take away the tun and quench the fire.
+     The Prince, his commandment being done, asked him if he would
+     forsake heresy and take him to the faith of holy church; which
+     thing if he would do, he should have goods enough: promising also
+     unto him a yearly stipend out of the King's treasury, so much as
+     would suffice his contentation. But this valiant champion of
+     Christ rejected the Prince's fair words, as also contemned all
+     men's devices, and refused the offer of worldly promises, no
+     doubt but being more vehemently inflamed with the spirit of God
+     than with earthly desire. Wherefore, when as yet he continued
+     unmoveable in his former mind, the Prince commanded him straight
+     to be put again into the pipe or tun, and that he should not
+     afterwards look for any grace or favour."
+
+                   [Footnote 264: Fox makes a curious mistake here. He
+                   says, the examination in London began on _Sunday_,
+                   the 1st of March. But the 1st of March was not on a
+                   Sunday, but on a Saturday, in that year, 1410. Fox
+                   derives his information chiefly from the Latin
+                   record (_v._ Wilkins' Concilia) preserved in
+                   Lambeth; and there we find that the date is Die
+                   _Sabbati_, _i.e._ Saturday, not, as Fox mistakenly
+                   renders it, Sunday. The computation in these
+                   Memoirs is made of the historical, not the
+                   ecclesiastical year.
+
+                   The King's writ is dated March 5th, and informs us
+                   that Badby was of Evesham in Worcestershire.]
+
+Milner having told us, that "the memory of Henry is by no means free
+from the imputation of cruelty," gives an unfavourable turn to the
+whole affair, and ascribes a state of mind to the Prince, which Fox's
+account will scarcely justify. Milner's zeal against popery and its
+persecutions, often betrays him into expressions which a calm review
+of all the circumstances of the case would, probably, have suggested
+to his own mind the necessity of modifying and softening. Fox
+attributes to Henry "some part of the good Samaritan," and puts most
+prominently forward his desire and endeavour to save the poor      (p. 345)
+man's life. Milner ascribes to him a violence of temper, altogether
+unbecoming the melancholy circumstances of that hour of death, and
+directs our thoughts chiefly to his attempt to force a conscientious
+man to recant.
+
+The account of Milner is this: "After he, Badby, had been delivered to
+the secular power by the Bishops, he was by the King's writ condemned
+to be burned. The Prince of Wales, happening to be present, very
+earnestly exhorted him to recant, adding the most terrible menaces of
+the vengeance that would overtake him if he should continue in his
+obstinacy. Badby, however, was inflexible. As soon as he felt the
+fire, he cried 'Mercy!' The Prince, supposing he was entreating the
+mercy of his judges, ordered the fire to be quenched. 'Will you
+forsake heresy,' said young Henry, 'and will you conform to the faith
+of the holy church? If you will, you shall have a yearly stipend out
+of the King's treasury?' The martyr was unmoved, and Henry IN A RAGE
+declared that he might now look for no favour. Badby gloriously
+finished his course in the flames."
+
+The Chronicle of London, from which, in all probability, Fox drew the
+materials for his description, makes one shudder at the reckless,
+cold-blooded acquiescence of its author in the excruciating tortures
+of a fellow-creature suffering for his faith's sake. In his eyes,
+heretics were detestable pests; and an abhorrence of heresy seems  (p. 346)
+to have quenched every feeling of humanity in his heart. It must be
+observed, that this contemporary document speaks not a word of Henry
+having been "in a rage," nor of his having commanded the sufferer to
+be "straight put into the ton," nor of his having used "horrible
+menaces of vengeance," nor, even in the milder expression of Fox,
+"threatenings which would have daunted any man's stomach."
+
+     "A clerk," (says the Chronicle,) "that believed nought of the
+     sacrament of the altar, that is to say, God's body, was condemned
+     and brought to Smithfield to be burnt. And Henry, Prince of
+     Wales, then the King's eldest son, counselled him to forsake his
+     heresy and hold the right way of holy church. And the Prior of
+     St. Bartholomew's brought the holy sacrament of God's body with
+     twelve torches lighted before, and in this wise came to this
+     cursed heretic; and it was asked him how he believed, and he
+     answered that he believed well that it was hallowed bread, and
+     nought God's body. And then was the tonne put over him, and fire
+     kindled therein; and when the wretch felt the fire he cried
+     mercy, and anon the Prince commanded to take away the ton and to
+     quench the fire. And then the Prince asked him if he would
+     forsake his heresy, and take him to the faith of holy church;
+     which if he would have done, he should have his life, and goods
+     enough to live by; and the cursed shrew would not, but continued
+     forth in his heresy: wherefore he was burnt."[265]
+
+                   [Footnote 265: The chronicler adds, "A versifier
+                   made of him in metre these two verses:
+
+                       "Hereticus credat, ve perustus ab orbe recedat,
+                       Ne fidem lædat: Sathan hunc baratro sibi prædat."]
+
+There probably will not be great diversity of opinion as to the    (p. 347)
+conduct of Henry, and the spirit which influenced him on this
+occasion. He was present at the execution of a fellow-creature, who
+was condemned to an excruciating death by the blind and cruel, but
+still by the undoubted law of his country. Acting the "part of the
+good Samaritan," he earnestly endeavoured to withdraw him from those
+sentiments the publication of which had made him obnoxious to the law;
+and he employed the means which his high station afforded him of
+suspending the King's writ even at the very moment of its execution,
+promising the offender pardon on his princely word, and a full
+maintenance for his life. He could do no more: his humanity had
+carried him even then beyond his authority, and, considering all the
+circumstances, even beyond the line of discretion; and, when he found
+that all his efforts were in vain, he left the law to take its own
+course,--a law which had been passed and put in execution before he
+had anything whatever to do with legislation and government.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.                                                       (p. 348)
+
+THE CASE OF SIR JOHN OLDCASTLE, LORD COBHAM. -- REFERENCE TO HIS
+FORMER LIFE AND CHARACTER. -- FOX'S BOOK OF MARTYRS. -- THE
+ARCHBISHOP'S STATEMENT. -- MILNER. -- HALL. -- LINGARD. -- COBHAM
+OFFERS THE WAGER OF BATTLE. -- APPEALS PEREMPTORILY TO THE POPE. --
+HENRY'S ANXIETY TO SAVE HIM. -- HE IS CONDEMNED, BUT NO WRIT OF
+EXECUTION IS ISSUED BY THE KING. -- COBHAM ESCAPES FROM THE TOWER.
+
+1413.
+
+
+The death of Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, and the circumstances
+which preceded it, require a more patient and a more impartial
+examination than they have often met with. But it must be borne in
+mind throughout that our inquiry has for its object, neither the
+condemnation of religious persecution, nor the palliation of the
+spirit of Romanism,--neither the canonization of the Protestant
+martyr, nor the indiscriminate inculpation of all concerned in the sad
+tragedy of his condemnation and death,--but the real estimate of
+Henry's character. The pursuit of this inquiry of necessity leads  (p. 349)
+us through passages in the history of our country, and of our church,
+which must be of deep and lively interest to every Englishman and
+every Christian. It is impossible, as we proceed, not to fix our eyes
+upon objects somewhat removed from the direct road along which we are
+passing, and, contemplating the state of things as they were in those
+days, contrast them fairly and thankfully with what is our own lot
+now.
+
+It were a far easier work to assume that all who were engaged in
+prosecuting Sir John Oldcastle were men of heartless bigotry,
+unrelenting enemies to true religion, devoid of every principle of
+Gospel charity, men of Belial, delighting in deeds of violence and
+blood; and that the victim of their cruelty, persecuted even to the
+death solely for his religious sentiments, was a pattern of every
+Christian excellence, the undaunted champion of Gospel truth, the
+sainted martyr of the Protestant faith. This were the more easy task,
+for little further would need to be done in its accomplishment than to
+select from former writers passages of indiscriminate panegyric on the
+one hand, and equally indiscriminate vituperation on the other. The
+investigation of doubtful and disputed facts, to the generality of
+minds, is irksome and disagreeable; and its results, for the most part
+removed, as they are, from extreme opinions on either side, are
+received with a far less keen relish than the glowing eulogy of a
+partisan, and the unsparing invective of an enemy. Truth,          (p. 350)
+nevertheless, must be our object. Truth is a treasure of intrinsic
+value, and will retain its worth after the adventitious and forced
+estimate put upon party views and popular representations shall have
+passed away.
+
+Sir John Oldcastle, who derived the title of Lord Cobham from his
+wife, was a man of great military talents and prowess, and at the same
+time a man of piety and zeal for the general good. He was one of the
+chief benefactors towards the new bridge at Rochester, a work then
+considered of great public importance; and he founded a chantry for
+the maintenance of three chaplains. Oldcastle was by no means free
+from trouble during the reign of Richard II. Indeed, so unsettled was
+the government, and so violent were the measures adopted against
+political opponents, and so cheap and vile was human life held, that
+few could reckon upon security of property or person for an hour. One
+day a man was seen in a high civil or military station; the next
+arrested, imprisoned, banished, or put to death. Oldcastle was very
+nearly made an early victim of these violent proceedings. Among the
+strong measures to which parliament had recourse about the year 1386,
+they appointed fourteen lords to conduct the administration, among
+whom was Lord Cobham. Just ten years afterwards he was arrested, and
+adjudged to death by the parliament;[266] but his punishment, at the
+earnest request of certain lords, was commuted for perpetual       (p. 351)
+imprisonment,[267] a sentence from which the lords of parliament
+revolted,--and he was exiled.[268] From this banishment he returned
+with Henry of Lancaster, and was restored to all his possessions which
+had been forfeited. Through the whole reign of Henry IV. we find him
+in the King's service in Wales and on the Continent. In a summons for
+a general council of prelates, lords, and knights, dated July 21,
+1401, occurs the name of John Lord Cobham.[269] In the Minutes of
+Council about the end of August 1404, John Oldcastle is appointed to
+keep the castles and towns of the Hay and Brecknock; and when English
+auxiliaries were sent to aid the Duke of Burgundy, Oldcastle was among
+the officers selected for that successful enterprise. Between the
+Prince of Wales and this gallant brother in arms an intimacy was
+formed, which existed till the melancholy tissue of events interrupted
+their friendship, and ultimately separated them for ever.
+
+                   [Footnote 266: Monk of St. Alban's.]
+
+                   [Footnote 267: Monk of Evesham.]
+
+                   [Footnote 268: The Pell Rolls (22d May 1398)
+                   contain an item of 20_l._ paid to Thomas Duke of
+                   Surrey on account of Lord Cobham, then his
+                   prisoner.]
+
+                   [Footnote 269: Records of Privy Council.]
+
+We have already seen that Lord Cobham had given proof of a pious as
+well as a liberal mind; and his piety showed itself in acts which the
+Roman church sanctioned and fostered. He built and endowed a       (p. 352)
+chantry for the maintenance of three chaplains. But he had imbibed a
+portion of that spirit which Wickliffe's doctrines had diffused far
+and wide through the land; and he not only boldly professed his
+principles, but actively engaged in disseminating them. It is very
+difficult to ascertain the exact truth as to the tenour and extent of
+the religious opinions of the rising sect, and the degree in which
+they were political dissenters, aiming at the overthrow of the
+existing order of things in the state as well as in the church. Their
+enemies, doubtless, have exaggerated their intentions, and have
+endeavoured to rob them of all claim to the character of sincere
+religious reformers; probably misrepresenting their objects, and
+confounding their designs with the plots of those turbulent
+spirits[270] who then agitated several countries in Europe; whilst
+their friends have denied, perhaps injudiciously, any participation on
+their part in seditious and treasonable practices. By the one they
+have been condemned as reckless enemies to truth, and order, and
+peace; by the other they are exalted into self-devoted confessors and
+martyrs; in soundness of faith, integrity of life, and constancy unto
+death for the truth's sake, equalling those servants and soldiers of
+Christ who in the first ages sealed their belief with their blood. The
+truth lies between these extremes: their enemies were bigoted      (p. 353)
+or self-interested persecutors; but many among themselves, as a body,
+in their language, their actions, and their professed principles, were
+very far removed from that quiet, patient, peaceable demeanour which
+becomes the disciples of the Cross. Doubtless there were numbers at
+that time in England possessing their souls in patience, bewailing the
+gloom and superstition and tyranny which through that long night of
+error overspread their country, and anxiously but resignedly expecting
+the dawn of a holier and brighter day. It is, however, impossible to
+read the documents of the time without being convinced, not only that
+the temporal establishment of the Church was threatened, but that the
+civil government had good grounds for watching with a jealous eye, and
+repressing with a strong hand, the violent though ill-digested schemes
+of change then prevailing in England. Undoubtedly the hierarchy set
+all the engines in motion for the extirpation of Lollardism, as the
+principles of the rising sect were called. They felt that their
+dominion over the minds of men must cease as soon as the right of
+private judgment was generally acknowledged; and they resolved, at
+whatever cost of charity and of blood, to maintain the hold over the
+consciences, the minds, and the property of their fellow-creatures,
+which the Church had devoted so many years of steady, unwearied,
+undeviating policy to secure. The real question, the point on      (p. 354)
+which every other question between the Protestant communions and the
+Church of Rome must depend, is this: "Have individual Christians a
+right to test the doctrines of the Church by the written word of God;
+or must they receive with implicit credence whatever the church in
+communion with the See of Rome, the only authorized and infallible
+guardian and propagator of Gospel truth, decrees and propounds?" All
+the other differences, however important in themselves, and
+practically essential, must follow the fate of this question. The
+Romanists are still aware of this, and are as much alive to it as ever
+were the most uncompromising vindicators of their church in the days
+of Lollardism. They took their resolution, and it was this: "Come what
+will come, this heresy must be put down; the very existence of the
+Church is incompatible with this rivalry: either Lollardism must be
+extinguished, or it will shake the very foundations of Rome." And,
+having taken this resolution, they lost no favourable opportunity of
+carrying it into full effect.
+
+                   [Footnote 270: The states of Europe were much
+                   convulsed about this time by an apprehension of
+                   political revolutions.]
+
+Some writers seem to have fixed their thoughts so much on the bold and
+ruthless measures adopted, or compassed, by the Church under the house
+of Lancaster, as to have left unnoticed their proceedings previously
+to Henry IV.'s accession. In 1394, when Richard II. made his first
+expedition to Ireland, though he had been absent a very short time, so
+alarmed were the heads of the Church at the progress of the new    (p. 355)
+opinions, that the Archbishop of York[271] and the Bishop of London
+went over in person to implore him to return forthwith and put down
+the Lollards,[272] his own and the Church's formidable enemies. Many
+strong measures were resorted to on that King's return, but all short
+of those deeds of guilt and blood which disgraced our country through
+the next reigns. The Pope, the King, and the hierarchy put forth their
+united exertions, and for a season the growing danger seemed to be
+repressed; but it was still silently and widely spreading. In the year
+1400, before Henry IV. was settled in his throne, and whilst he was
+naturally alive to every report of danger, the several estates of the
+realm "pray the King to pass such a law as may effectually rid the
+kingdom of those plotters against all rule and right and liberty, (for
+so are the Lollards described,) whose aim is to dispossess the clergy
+of their benefices, the King of his throne, and the whole realm of
+tranquillity and order, exciting to the utmost of their power sedition
+and insurrection." And in that year was passed the statute De      (p. 356)
+hæretico comburendo, which enacted that a suspected heretic should be
+cited by his diocesan, be fined, and imprisoned; and, if pronounced a
+relapsed or obstinate heretic, be given over by the Church to the
+secular power, to be burnt, in an elevated spot, before the people, to
+strike terror the more. It was under this statute that Sir John
+Oldcastle was summoned, tried, adjudged, and delivered to the secular
+power.
+
+                   [Footnote 271: King Richard seems to have employed
+                   the Irish prelates on many occasions in his
+                   intercourse with Rome. Thomas Crawley, Archbishop
+                   of Dublin, was sent to Pope Urban (1398, May 22nd,)
+                   "for the safe estate and prosperity of the most
+                   holy English church;" and John Cotton, Archbishop
+                   of Armagh, was sent to Rome, (31st of August,) in
+                   the same year, "on the King's secret
+                   affairs."--Pell Rolls.]
+
+                   [Footnote 272: Otterbourne.]
+
+How long he had entertained the new opinions, or, by openly
+encouraging their propagators, had incurred the anger, and drawn down
+upon himself the concentrated violence of the hierarchy, does not
+appear. From one circumstance we may fairly infer, that, whilst he was
+aiding the Prince in the war against Owyn Glyndowr, he had not been
+silent or idle in the dissemination of these principles. In the synod
+held in St. Paul's, his offence of sending emissaries and preachers is
+said to have been especially committed (beside the dioceses of London
+and Rochester) in the diocese of Hereford; and, as we have seen, in
+1404 he was especially charged with the safeguard of the town and
+castle of Hay, in Herefordshire: he was also sheriff of that county in
+1407. Whether he had ever communicated his sentiments to the Prince,
+or not, must remain a matter only of conjecture: be this as it may, no
+sooner was the first parliament of Henry V. assembled,--and they met
+soon after Easter,--than Arundel convened a full assembly[273]     (p. 357)
+of prelates and clergy in St. Paul's Cathedral.[274] It was there
+speedily determined that the breaches in the Church could not be
+repaired, nor peace and security restored, unless certain noblemen and
+gentry, favourers of Lollardism, were removed, or effectually
+silenced, and brought back to their allegiance. Especially, and by
+name, was this decree passed against Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham;
+and a resolution was taken to proceed against him forthwith. But he
+was then in high favour with the King; and the Archbishop thought it
+discreet to endeavour first to withdraw from him the royal favour,
+before proceeding openly to put the law in force against him. And at
+this point our interest in the transactions, and our desire to
+ascertain the accuracy of the accounts in every particular begin to
+increase; for our estimate of the tone and temper of Henry's mind, and
+the real nature of his conduct, will be affected by a very slight
+change of expression and turn of thought. Was Henry V. a persecutor
+for religious opinions?
+
+                   [Footnote 273: The Chronicle of London states that
+                   the convocation assembled on the day of St. Edmund
+                   the King, and continued until December; and "that
+                   the archbishop and bishops, at St. Paul's Cross,
+                   accursed Sir John Oldcastle on the Sunday, after
+                   the dirge was performed royally at Westminster for
+                   Richard II., on the removal of his remains."]
+
+                   [Footnote 274: Archbishop Arundel (says Anthony à
+                   Wood), who never proceeded beyond the degree of
+                   bachelor of arts in this University [Oxford] or any
+                   other, decreed by a provincial council, 1404, that
+                   none should preach except privileged or licensed.]
+
+Perhaps the more satisfactory course will be, first to give the    (p. 358)
+statements of Fox, and one or two others, who have taken the view
+of the case least favourable to Henry, and then to add the account of
+the transaction as it is recorded by the Archbishop, on whose record
+Fox informs us that the ground and certainty of his own history of
+Lord Cobham depended. Almost all subsequent writers copy the
+martyrologist exclusively and implicitly, though often with much
+additional colouring.
+
+Fox, who certainly follows the original statement in Archbishop
+Arundel's register much more faithfully, than those who have taken
+their facts from him, and heightened them by their own exaggerated
+colouring, gives an unfavourable and an unfair turn to the whole
+proceeding by one or two strokes of his pencil. His version of the
+affair is this: "The King _gently_ heard those bloodthirsty prelates,
+and _far otherwise than became his princely dignity_; notwithstanding
+requiring, and instantly desiring them, that in respect of his noble
+stock and knighthood, they would deal favourably with him, and that
+they would, if possible, without all rigour or extreme handling,
+reduce him to the Church's unity. He promised them also, that, in case
+they were content to take some deliberation, himself would seriously
+commune the matter with him. Anon after, the King sent for Lord
+Cobham, and, as he was come, he called him, secretly admonishing him,
+betwixt him and him, to submit himself to his mother the holy      (p. 359)
+Church, and as an obedient child to acknowledge himself culpable. Unto
+whom the Christian knight made this answer: 'You, most worthy prince,
+I am always most ready to obey. Unto you, next my eternal God, I owe
+whole obedience, and submit thereto, as I have ever done. But as
+touching the Pope and his spirituality, I owe them neither suit nor
+service; forasmuch as I know him by the Scriptures to be the great
+Antichrist, the son of perdition, the open adversary of God, and the
+abomination standing in the holy place!' When the King had heard this,
+and such like sentences more, he would talk no longer with him, but
+left him so utterly. And as the Archbishop resorted again unto him for
+an answer, he gave him his full authority to cite him, examine him,
+and punish him according to their devilish decrees, which they called
+the laws of holy church."
+
+In his comment on the answer said to have been made by Lord Cobham to
+the King, Milner's zeal in favour of the accused, betrays him into
+expressions against Henry which cannot be justified: "The _extreme
+ignorance of Henry_ in matters of religion by no means disposed him to
+relish such an answer as this; _he immediately turned away from him in
+visible displeasure_, and gave up the disciple of Wickliff to the
+malice of his enemies."
+
+Hall's version is this: "The King, first having compassion on the  (p. 360)
+nobleman, required the prelates, if he were a strayed sheep,[275]
+rather by gentleness than by rigour to bring him back again to his old
+flock: after that, he, sending for him, godly exhorted and lovingly
+admonished him to reconcile himself to God and his laws. The Lord
+Cobham thanked the King for his most favourable clemency, affirming
+his grace to be his supreme head and competent judge, and no other."
+
+                   [Footnote 275: Carte suggests that Lord Cobham
+                   might have been one of Henry's [supposed] rakish
+                   companions. But such a supposition as would stain
+                   his memory with debauchery, is altogether at
+                   variance with his character. Carte has no doubt of
+                   the reality of Cobham's conspiracy in St. Giles'
+                   Field.]
+
+The record, as it is found in the Archbishop's Memoirs, is as follows.
+Having stated that, of the tracts which had been condemned to the
+flames for their heretical contents, one consisting of many smaller
+tracts full of more dangerous doctrine, tending to the subversion of
+the faith and the church, was found at an illuminator's in Paternoster
+Row, who confessed that it was Lord Cobham's, and another was brought
+from Coventry, full of poison against the Church of God, the
+Archbishop's record thus proceeds: "The day on which the said tracts
+were condemned and burnt, certain tracts, containing more important
+and more dangerous errors of the said Lord John Oldcastle, were read
+before the King, and almost all the prelates and nobles of England, in
+the closet of the King at Kennington; the said Lord John Oldcastle (p. 361)
+being present and hearing it, having been especially summoned for this
+purpose. Then our King himself expressed his abhorrence of those
+conclusions, as the worst against the faith and the church he had ever
+heard. And the said Lord John Oldcastle, being asked by the King
+whether he thought the said tract was justly and deservedly condemned,
+said that it was so. On being asked how he could use or possess a
+tract of this sort, he said that he had never read more than two
+leaves.
+
+"And be it remembered that in the said convocation the said Lord John
+Oldcastle was convicted by the whole clergy of the province of
+Canterbury, upon his ill-fame for errors and heretical wickedness, and
+how in various dioceses he had held, assumed, and defended erroneous
+and heretical conclusions; and that he had received to his house,
+favoured, refreshed, and defended, chaplains suspected and even
+convicted of such errors and heresies, and had sent them off to
+different parts of the province to preach and sow this evil seed, to
+the subversion of the faith and the state of the church.[276] And
+supplication was made on the part of the same clergy to the Lord
+Archbishop and the prelates, that the said John Oldcastle should   (p. 362)
+be summoned to answer in person to these points. And because it seemed
+right to the Lord Archbishop and the prelates, that the King ought
+first to be consulted on this point, because he had been his intimate
+friend, they waited upon the King at Kennington, and with all due
+reverence consulted with him upon the matter. And the King returned
+thanks for their obliging kindness, and prayed them, [regratiabatur
+benevolentiis eorundem, et eis supplicabat,] for respect to the King
+himself, because he had been his intimate friend, and also from
+respect to the military order, they would defer process and execution
+of every kind against him; promising them that he would labour, with
+regard to him, to bring him back with all mildness and lenity from the
+error of his way to the right path of truth. And if he could not
+succeed in this endeavour, he would deliver him to them according to
+the canonical obligations to be punished, and would assist them in
+this with all his aid and with the secular arm. And the said
+Archbishop and prelates acquiesced in the King's desire, but not
+without the dissatisfaction and murmurs of the clergy. Then, after the
+lapse of some time, when our said Lord the King had laboured long and
+in various ways in the endeavour to bring back the said knight to the
+sheepfold of Christ, and had reaped no fruit of his toil, but the
+knight continually relapsed into a worse state than before, at length
+the King, in the following month of August, being at Windsor,      (p. 363)
+without further lenity sharply chided the said Lord John for his
+obstinacy. And the said Lord, full of the Devil, not enduring such
+chiding, withdrew without leave to his castle of Cowling in Kent; and
+there fortified himself in the castle, as was publicly reported. After
+that, the King sent for the Lord Archbishop, who was then at
+Chichester, celebrating the Assumption of the blessed Virgin; and, on
+his coming to the King at his house in Windsor Park, the King, after
+rehearsing the pains he had taken, enjoined on the Archbishop, and
+required him on the part of God and the Church, to proceed with all
+expedition against the said Lord John Oldcastle according to the
+canonical rules; and then the Archbishop proceeded against him as the
+law required."[277]
+
+                   [Footnote 276: Henry V.'s own chaplain declares,
+                   "that Oldcastle attempted to infect the King's
+                   highness himself with his deadly poison by his
+                   crafty wiles of argument." If the King argued the
+                   points with Oldcastle, how could that confessor
+                   have done otherwise than strenuously endeavour to
+                   bring his liege Lord to the same views of doctrine
+                   which he entertained himself?]
+
+                   [Footnote 277: Lingard speaks of "a mandate to the
+                   Archbishop of Canterbury to proceed against the
+                   fugitive according to law. The spiritual powers of
+                   that prelate were soon exhausted. Oldcastle
+                   disobeyed the summons, and laughed at his
+                   excommunication; but was compelled to surrender to
+                   a military force sent by the King, and was
+                   conducted a prisoner to the Tower." The same author
+                   (but on what authority it does not appear) tells us
+                   that Oldcastle was at St. Alban's, and prophesied
+                   that he should rise on the third day; which is in
+                   itself most improbable.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+After attentively perusing this authentic statement, comparing it with
+subsequent representations, and recollecting that the utmost which
+Henry did was to direct the ecclesiastical authorities to proceed
+according to the laws of the land, where he had interrupted their  (p. 364)
+proceedings with a view of averting the extremities on which those
+authorities seemed bent--and when we learn that even that temporary
+delay had called forth the decided disapprobation and remonstrance of
+the clergy,--few probably among unprejudiced minds will be disposed to
+view this incident in any other light than as a proof that Henry, who
+was a sincere believer, was yet anxious to bring all to unity in faith
+and discipline by reason and gentle means, by the force of argument
+and persuasion only; and that he earnestly endeavoured to blunt the
+edge of the sword with which the law had supplied the hierarchy, and
+to avert the horrors of persecution. Undoubtedly, when he failed, he
+directed the authorities to proceed according to law, and assisted
+them in securing Cobham's person when he set them at defiance. But it
+is necessary to take a comprehensive view of all the circumstances
+before we pronounce judgment as to his principles or motives.
+
+The account of Henry's own chaplain, who was prejudiced in the extreme
+against the rising sect, seems undoubtedly to imply that in one stage
+of the melancholy transaction Henry was more than passive, and
+encouraged rather than checked the ecclesiastical authorities to
+proceed; but he at the same time adds, what is of course of equal
+credit, that the piety of the King deferred the extremity of
+punishment and his death. He adds, "that Henry had Oldcastle
+committed to the Tower, influenced by the hope that he might bring (p. 365)
+him back to the true faith; and that when, towards the end of October,
+the straitness of his confinement was softened, and he was, under
+promise of renouncing his errors, released from his bond, he broke
+prison and escaped." This was written between Oldcastle's escape and
+his subsequent capture and death. If we take one part of such
+evidence, we must in fairness take the other; and certainly, in that
+contemporary's view, Henry was fully determined to do all he could to
+save Cobham from the extreme penalty of the law.
+
+He solicited the hierarchy, as a favour to himself, to suspend their
+operations for a while; they consented to grant the suspension as a
+favour to the King, upon his royal word being pledged that, should he
+fail in his endeavours, he would interfere with their proceedings no
+further, but on the contrary would assist them. Consistently with his
+promise, and with his duty as the chief magistrate of the realm, he
+could scarcely have done otherwise than he appears to have done.
+
+After he had put forth his very utmost endeavours to rescue his
+subject and friend from the ruin to which the hierarchy had destined
+him, he made up his mind that the law should take its course, and that
+the accused should be tried as the statute directed. Lord Cobham wrote
+a confession of his faith, and, carrying it with him to the court,
+presented it to the King; who, having resolved to interpose no     (p. 366)
+further between the accused and the process of the law, directed him
+to present it to his judges: and probably few will be disposed to
+think that Henry could act otherwise, consistently with his high
+station. The case was now most materially altered; Lord Cobham was in
+a very different position, and so was the King. As long as his kind
+offices could prevent a public prosecution, Henry spared no personal
+labour or time, but zealously devoted himself to this object, though
+unsuccessfully. But now the proceedings had advanced almost to their
+consummation, and interference at this point could scarcely have been
+consistent with the royal duty; especially when we consider what those
+proceedings were. Lord Cobham had been summoned to appear before the
+spiritual court, had disobeyed the citation, had been pronounced
+"guilty of most deep contumacy," and had been excommunicated. Henry
+could not interfere in this stage of the business with any show of
+regard to the laws, agreeably to which (blind, and cruel, and
+bloodthirsty, and wicked, as we may deem them,) the proceedings
+undoubtedly had been conducted; he therefore, as it should seem, could
+not do otherwise than direct the schedule, then presented to him by
+Lord Cobham, to be referred to the tribunal which the law had
+appointed to hear and determine the charges. On this turn of his
+affairs, the valiant knight and sincere Christian had recourse to
+various pleas and measures, for which were we to condemn him, as   (p. 367)
+he has been condemned, we should act most unjustly. We must not judge
+him by the standard of our own times, nor with reference to principles
+on which we might justly be arraigned ourselves. But let the same
+measure of justice be dealt to all alike; and whilst the eulogist of
+Lord Cobham pleads in excuse the "wretched state of society" then
+existing,[278] let all the circumstances of time and society and law
+be taken into calm consideration before we condemn Henry, or rather
+before we withhold from him the praise of moderation, liberality, and
+true Christian kindness. The result of this visit to the King (to
+which the Archbishop's record does not allude) is thus stated by Fox.
+"Then desired Lord Cobham in the King's presence that a hundred
+knights and esquires might be suffered to come in upon his purgation,
+which he knew would clear him of all heresies. Moreover, he offered
+himself after the law of arms to fight for life or death with any man
+living, Christian or heathen, in the quarrel of his faith; the King
+and the Lords of his council excepted. Finally, with all gentleness he
+protested before all that were present, that he would refuse no manner
+of correction that should, after the laws of God, be ministered unto
+him; but that he would at all times with all meekness obey it.
+Notwithstanding all this, the King suffered him to be summoned
+personally in his own privy chamber." There is one circumstance of
+very great importance, omitted by Milner, Turner, and others;      (p. 368)
+but which cannot be neglected if we would deal fairly by Henry. Fox
+gives a circumstantial statement of it; and it is of itself sufficient
+to account for whatever of "strait handling" may have been shown by
+the King to his unhappy friend at that hour. Lord Cobham, though he
+had repeatedly professed that the King was his supreme head, and liege
+Lord, and competent judge, and no other; and that he owed neither suit
+nor service to the Pope, whom he denounced as Antichrist; yet now
+appealed in the presence of the King peremptorily to the Pope, not on
+the heat of the moment, but by a written document which he showed to
+the King. The King overruled this appeal;[279] at least, he informed
+the accused that he should remain in custody until it was allowed by
+the Pope, and that at all events the Archbishop should be his judge.
+He was then arrested again at the King's command, and taken to the
+Tower of London, "to keep his day," the time appointed for his trial.
+But the reader will judge more satisfactorily of the proceeding after
+reading the statement of Fox himself. "Then said the Lord Cobham to
+the King that he had appealed from the Archbishop to the Pope of   (p. 369)
+Rome, and therefore he ought, he said, in no cause to be his judge;
+and, having his appeal there at hand ready written, he showed it with
+all reverence to the King. Wherewith the King was then much more
+displeased than afore, and said angerly unto him that he should not
+pursue his appeal; but rather he should tarry in hold till such time
+as it were of the Pope allowed, and then, would he or nild he, the
+Archbishop should be his judge."[280]
+
+                   [Footnote 278: Milner.]
+
+                   [Footnote 279: Mr. Southey builds upon this
+                   circumstance a very unfavourable and unmerited
+                   reflection on Henry in comparison with other
+                   monarchs of England. "The Edwards' would have
+                   rejoiced in so high-minded a subject as Lord
+                   Cobham. But Henry V. had given his heart and
+                   understanding into the keeping of the prelates, and
+                   he refused to receive the paper, ordering it to be
+                   delivered to them who should be his judges."]
+
+                   [Footnote 280: It is painful to read the marginal
+                   notes of Fox here. "Lord Cobham would not obey the
+                   beast." Thomas Arundell, "Caiaphas sitteth in
+                   consistory. The wolf was hungry; he must needs be
+                   fed with blood. Bloody murderers." With many
+                   others, yet more ungentle. The justice of the
+                   judgment cannot but be questioned when the feelings
+                   of the historian give themselves vent in such
+                   language as this. Still we must make great
+                   allowances for the times.
+
+                   There are many other points in which Fox, who, be
+                   it remembered, refers us to the Archbishop's Memoir
+                   for evidence of the truth of his narrative, gives a
+                   turn and colour to minor circumstances calculated
+                   to prejudice the reader, but by no means sanctioned
+                   by that Memoir. Thus Fox says, the Archbishop swore
+                   all on the _Mass Book_: the Archbishop says, he
+                   caused them all to be sworn on the Holy
+                   Evangelists.]
+
+How far at this juncture the King was competent to take upon himself
+the responsibility of forbidding any further proceedings against the
+individual on whose head the church had resolved to pour the full vial
+of its wrath and vengeance; and, if he had by law the power, how far
+he could consistently with the safety of his throne and the peace of
+his kingdom have done so, are questions not hastily to be          (p. 370)
+determined. Certain it is, that, not two years after Lord Cobham's
+first citation, Henry seems to have been thought by the council[281]
+to be so far from forward in the work of persecution, as to need from
+them a memorial to be more vigilant and energetic in his measures
+"against the malice of the Lollards;" and to require the Archbishops
+and Bishops to do their duty in that respect. Henry, though sincerely
+attached to the religion of Rome, yet, whether at the stake in
+Smithfield, or in his own palace at Kennington, appears to have
+endeavoured "to do the work of the good Samaritan," and to the very
+verge of prudence to interpose between the execution of a cruel law,
+and the sufferings of a fellow-creature for conscience sake; not by
+setting himself up against the law of the kingdom over which he
+reigned, but by gentleness and persuasion, and promises and threats,
+to induce his subjects not to defy the law. Our inquiry does not
+require or allow us to follow the steps of the devoted Lord Cobham
+through his examinations before the ecclesiastical judges, nor to
+pronounce upon the conduct and language either of Arundel[282] or his
+prisoner. Henry seems to have taken no part in the proceedings
+whatever. But after the definitive sentence had been passed, and   (p. 371)
+he had been left to the secular power, and remanded in custody of  (p. 372)
+Sir Robert Morley to the Tower, we must observe that though according
+to Fox himself, the Archbishop had compelled the lay power by most
+terrible menacings of cursings and interdictions to assist him against
+that seditious apostate, schismatic, and heretic, and troubler of the
+public peace, that enemy of the realm and great adversary of holy
+church, (for all these hateful names did he give him,") yet the King's
+writ for his execution was not forthcoming, and, as far as we have any
+means of knowing, never was it issued. In the case of Sautre, the
+sentence of his degradation and delivery to the secular power was
+passed, and the King's writ for execution is tested on the very same
+day, February 26th, 1401.[283] In the case of Badby, the sentence, the
+King's writ, and the execution of the persecuted victim, followed in
+one and the same day hard upon each other.[284] But though Lord Cobham
+was sentenced on Monday, September 25, 1413, yet he remained in the
+Tower some time,--Fox says, "a certain space;" Milner says, "some
+weeks,"--and no warrant of execution was forthcoming. Indeed, as far
+as the record speaks, no such writ was ever issued by the King. The
+Tower was no ordinary prison, and yet Lord Cobham escaped[285] by  (p. 373)
+night, no one knew how. Whether by connivance or not, and, if by
+connivance, whether from any intimation of the King's wishes or not,
+was never stated.[286] Many conjectures and surmises were afloat, but
+no satisfactory account of his escape was ever made known to the
+public. Certain it is that, had the King been a "cruel persecutor,"
+had he been as ready to meet the desires of the hierarchy as his
+father was in the case of Sautre or Badby, a few hours only after the
+ecclesiastical sentence was passed would have borne Lord Cobham from
+the power of his persecutors to the place where the wicked cease from
+troubling, and where the weary are at rest. Walsingham says that both
+Henry and the Archbishop were desirous of saving Oldcastle's life, and
+that the Archbishop requested the King to give him a respite of forty
+days.[287] But, adds Walsingham, he escaped, and spent the time in
+preparing soldiers for revenge.
+
+                   [Footnote 281: Minutes of Council, 27th May 1415.
+                   Item, touching Commission "to the Archbishops and
+                   Bishops to take measures each in his own diocese to
+                   resist the malice of the Lollards." "The King has
+                   given it in charge to his Chancellor."]
+
+                   [Footnote 282: It is impossible not to observe upon
+                   the great inaccuracy of Fox's translation of the
+                   Archbishop's words, for he professes it to be a
+                   translation, and the unfair turn and tone given to
+                   his sentiments, together with the unjustifiable
+                   addition which he has made to his definitive
+                   sentence.
+
+                         FOX'S TRANSLATION.
+
+                         "We sententially and definitively,
+                         by this present writing,
+                         judge, declare, and condemn
+                         him for a most pernicious
+                         and detestable heretic,
+                         convicted upon the same, and
+                         refusing utterly to obey the
+                         church: again committing him
+                         here from henceforth to the
+                         secular jurisdiction, power, and
+                         judgment, to _do him thereupon
+                         to_ DEATH."
+
+                         ARUNDEL'S WORDS.
+
+                         "Him, convicted of and
+                         upon such a detestable offence,
+                         and unwilling to return penitently
+                         to the unity of the
+                         church, we sententially and
+                         definitively have judged, declared,
+                         and condemned for a
+                         heretic, and to be in error in
+                         those things which the holy
+                         church of Rome and the universal
+                         church teaches, hath determined,
+                         and preacheth, and
+                         especially in the Articles above
+                         written; leaving the same as
+                         a heretic henceforth to the
+                         secular power."
+
+                   "To do him unto death," may be the horrible
+                   implication; but it is not, as Fox unwarrantably
+                   represents it to be, part of the sentence.
+
+                   Another instance occurs in the translation of the
+                   passage in which the Archbishop gives his reasons
+                   for making this public and authoritative statement
+                   of the transaction.
+
+                         FOX.
+
+                         "That, _upon the fear of this
+                         declaration_, also the people
+                         may fall from _their evil_ opinions
+                         conceived _now of late_ by
+                         _seditious preachers_."
+
+                         ARUNDEL.
+
+                         "That the erroneous opinions
+                         of the people, who perhaps
+                         have conceived on this
+                         subject otherwise than as the
+                         truth of the fact stands, may
+                         by this public declaration be
+                         reversed."
+
+                   The Archbishop declares his object to be the
+                   substitution of the true statement of the affair of
+                   Lord Cobham's condemnation, in place of the false
+                   opinions which were abroad; not a word about
+                   "fear," or "evil opinions from seditious
+                   preachers."]
+
+                   [Footnote 283: In the Lambeth account Sautre's
+                   condemnation is dated, according to the
+                   ecclesiastical reckoning, February 1400; but that,
+                   according to our reckoning, is 1401.]
+
+                   [Footnote 284: The writ is dated March 5,
+                   1410.--Rymer.]
+
+                   [Footnote 285: His escape must have been, at the
+                   furthest, within fifteen days of his sentence; for,
+                   on the 10th October, messengers were sent about,
+                   forbidding any one to harbour "John Oldcastle, a
+                   proved and convicted heretic."--Pell Rolls.]
+
+                   [Footnote 286: If Cobham's escape was winked at by
+                   the King, and _he knew_ of the King's kindness, it
+                   is very improbable that he would immediately after
+                   have been so basely ungrateful as to imagine the
+                   death of his sovereign and benefactor. It is,
+                   however, most probable that, had the King favoured
+                   his escape, the royal interference would have been
+                   kept a profound secret, as well from the prisoner,
+                   as from the people at large.]
+
+                   [Footnote 287: Walsingham (as quoted by Milner)
+                   says that the Archbishop applied to the King for a
+                   respite for fifty days for Lord Cobham. "If this be
+                   so," Milner says, "the motives of Arundel can be no
+                   great mystery. It was thought expedient to employ a
+                   few weeks in lessening his credit among the people
+                   by a variety of scandalous aspersions;" Milner then
+                   quotes the forged recantation, of which we speak in
+                   a subsequent note. It did not occur to that writer,
+                   that the space of fifty days might be required to
+                   forward his appeal to Rome, and receive the Pope's
+                   judgment upon it.]
+
+Had Henry been merely indifferent on this point, the writ would    (p. 374)
+have issued as a matter of course. We have seen that, before any
+proceedings were instituted against him, Henry used his utmost
+endeavours and personal exertions to prevent the gallant knight from
+falling into the dangers which threatened; and now, when nothing but
+his own writ to the sheriff was wanted to bring the last scene of the
+sad tragedy to a close, the King withheld it. The Archbishop, we are
+told by Fox, compelled the lay power, by most terrible menacings of
+cursing and interdictions, to assist him against Lord Cobham; and we
+may be satisfied, the clergy, after denouncing him in convocation, and
+after such vast pains had been undergone to subject him to the penalty
+of death, would not have failed to press their sovereign to
+extremities against this ringleader of their enemies: and yet the writ
+of execution is withheld, and the condemned prisoner escapes. Whatever
+inference may be drawn from these proceedings, at all events they give
+no colour to the charge of persecution; on the contrary, the conduct
+of Henry of Monmouth shews throughout indications of a             (p. 375)
+kind-hearted good man, averse from violence, anxious to avoid
+extremities, withholding his hand from shedding of blood; and that not
+from a carelessness or ignorance in the matter, for he was sincerely
+attached to the Roman communion, believing it to be the true religion
+of Christ, and had also made proficiency in the learning of the time.
+Compared with the knowledge of those who have lived in more favoured
+times, and whilst the true light has shone from the sanctuary of the
+Gospel on the inhabitants of our land, Henry's acquaintance with
+divine things may appear scanty. But he certainly had possessed
+himself of a large share of Christian verity, and he was earnestly
+bent on maintaining the faith which he had espoused. The system,
+however, of the law of terror found no willing supporter in him. His
+forbearance from persecution sprang from a genuine feeling of
+humanity, the spirit of philanthropy and kindness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.                                                      (p. 376)
+
+CHANGE IN HENRY'S BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS THE LOLLARDS AFTER THE AFFAIR OF
+ST. GILES' FIELD. -- EXAMINATION OF THAT AFFAIR OFTEN CONDUCTED WITH
+GREAT PARTIALITY AND PREJUDICE. -- HUME AND THE OLD CHRONICLERS. --
+FOX, MILNER, LE BAS. -- PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. -- LORD COBHAM, TAKEN IN
+WALES, IS BROUGHT TO LONDON IN A WHIRLICOLE, CONDEMNED TO BE HANGED AS
+A TRAITOR, AND BURNT AS A HERETIC. -- HENRY, THEN IN FRANCE, IGNORANT,
+PROBABLY, OF COBHAM'S CAPTURE TILL AFTER HIS EXECUTION. -- CONCLUDING
+REFLECTIONS.
+
+
+From the escape of Lord Cobham, or perhaps from the extraordinary
+affair of St. Giles' Field, which must now engage our attention, we
+perceive a most evident change in the sentiments and conduct of King
+Henry towards the Lollards, and especially towards Lord Cobham. Up to
+that time he seems to have considered their only crime to have been
+heresy, and he anxiously employed his good offices to rescue and save
+them: after that time he appears to have regarded them as his own
+personal enemies, subverters of order, traitors to the throne and the
+kingdom; and their heresy and schism were identified in his mind   (p. 377)
+with the crimes of sedition and treason.[288] How far this view of
+their principles and designs was just, has been disputed. Both sides
+of the question have been strongly maintained. The inquiry is by no
+means devoid of interest in itself; and, as far as Henry's conduct and
+character are involved in the transactions of that time, is
+indispensable; and throughout the inquiry it must be remembered that
+the elucidation of his character, not the acquittal or conviction  (p. 378)
+of Oldcastle and the Lollards, is the object we have in view.
+
+                   [Footnote 288: Soon after the affair of St. Giles'
+                   Field much pains seem to have been taken to
+                   discover the retreat of Cobham. The Pell Rolls,
+                   February 19, 1414, record payments to constables
+                   and others for their careful watch and endeavours
+                   to take him; and "chiefly for having found and
+                   seized certain books of the Lollards in the house
+                   of a parchment-maker;" and one hundred shillings as
+                   an especial reward "for the great pains and
+                   diligence exercised by Thomas Burton, (the King's
+                   spy,) for his attentive watchfulness to the
+                   operations of the Lollards now _lately rebellious_;
+                   also because he fully certified _their intentions_
+                   to the King for his advantage." This document (for
+                   ignorance of which no former historian may deserve
+                   blame, though its existence should caution every
+                   one against drawing hasty conclusions from negative
+                   evidence,) proves that at the Exchequer the
+                   Lollards were considered as having been lately
+                   rebellious, and as having had designs against the
+                   King. In a deed too, signed and sealed by the
+                   tenants of Lord Powis, who themselves took Lord
+                   Cobham, both heresy and treason are specified as
+                   the crimes of which he had been convicted "that was
+                   miscreant and unbuxom to the law of God, and
+                   _traitor convict_ to our most gracious sovereign
+                   and his." The Patent Rolls record grants of ten
+                   pounds per annum to John de Burgh, carpenter,
+                   because he had discovered and delivered up certain
+                   Lollards. There are other similar grants. Pat. p.
+                   5. 1 Hen. V.]
+
+Hume, depending implicitly on the old chroniclers, pronounces Cobham
+as the ringleader, and his followers guilty of treason. Fox, in his
+Book of Martyrs, has supplied Milner and many others with a very
+different view. Even Le Bas, in his "Life of Wiclif," though he is
+compelled to acknowledge that, "with every allowance for the
+exaggerations of malice, of bigotry, and of terror, it is scarcely
+possible to believe that imputations so dark could have been _wholly_
+fictitious and unfounded," yet is unfortunately contented with the
+statements and arguments of later compilers, instead of satisfying
+himself from the original documents. He could scarcely have read the
+terms which Henry V. used in the different documents of his pardon to
+the offenders, or even in his proclamation of a reward for the capture
+of Sir John Oldcastle, when he tells us, "it should never be forgotten
+that the records of their persecution are wholly silent on the subject
+of sedition or conspiracy."
+
+It is curious to read the opposite accounts given of the affair of St.
+Giles' Field by two modern historians, both having access to precisely
+the same documents. Hume thus summarily disposes of the
+case:--"Cobham, who was confined in the Tower, made his escape before
+the day appointed for his execution.[289] The bold spirit of the man,
+provoked by persecution and stimulated by zeal, was urged to       (p. 379)
+attempt the most criminal enterprises; and his unlimited authority
+over the new sect proved that he well merited the attention of the
+civil magistrate. He formed, in his retreat, very violent designs
+against his enemies; and, despatching his emissaries to all quarters,
+appointed a general rendezvous of the party in order to seize the
+person of the King at Eltham, and put their persecutors to the sword.
+Henry, apprised of their intention, removed to Westminster: Cobham was
+not discouraged by this disappointment, but changed the place of
+rendezvous to the field near St. Giles's. The King, having shut the
+gates of the city to prevent any reinforcement to the Lollards from
+that quarter, came into the field in the night-time, seized such of
+the conspirators as appeared, and afterwards laid hold of the several
+parties who were hastening to the place appointed. It appeared that a
+few only were in the secret of the conspiracy; the rest implicitly
+followed their leaders: but, upon the trial of the prisoners, the
+treasonable designs of the sect were rendered certain, both from
+evidence and from the confession of the criminals themselves. Some
+were executed, the greater number pardoned. Cobham himself, who made
+his escape by flight, was not brought to justice till four years
+after; when he was hanged as a traitor, and his body was burnt on the
+gibbet, in execution of the sentence pronounced against him as     (p. 380)
+a heretic. This criminal design, which was perhaps aggravated by the
+clergy, brought discredit upon the party, and checked the progress
+of that sect, which had embraced the speculative doctrines of
+Wickliffe, and at the same time aspired to a reformation of
+ecclesiastical abuses."
+
+                   [Footnote 289: No day ever was appointed.]
+
+Of the same affair Milner's version is this:--"The royal proclamation
+did not put an end to the assemblies of the Lollards. Like the
+primitive Christians, they met in smaller companies and more
+privately, and often in the dead of the night. St. Giles' Fields, then
+a thicket, was a place of frequent resort on these occasions; and here
+a number of them assembled on the evening of January the 6th,
+1414,[290] with the intention, as was usual, of continuing together to
+a very late hour. The King was then at Eltham, a few miles from
+London. He received intelligence that Lord Cobham, at the head of
+twenty thousand of his party, was stationed in St. Giles' Fields for
+the purpose of seizing the person of the King, putting their
+persecutors to the sword, and making himself the regent of the realm.
+Henry suddenly armed the few soldiers he could muster, put himself at
+their head, and marched to the place. He attacked the Lollards, and
+soon put them into confusion. About twenty were killed, and sixty  (p. 381)
+taken: among these was one Beverley, their preacher; who, with two
+others, Sir Roger Acton and John Brown, was afterwards put to death.
+The King marched on, but found no more bodies of men. He thought he
+had surprised only the advanced guard, whereas he had routed the whole
+army. This extraordinary affair is represented by the popish writers
+as a real conspiracy; and it has given them occasion to talk loudly
+against the tenets of the reformers, which could encourage such
+crimes. Mr. Hume also has enlisted himself on the same side of the
+question, and in the most peremptory and decisive manner pronounced
+Lord Cobham guilty of high treason."
+
+                   [Footnote 290: The day was not January 6th, but
+                   Wednesday the 10th.--"Die mercurii proximo post
+                   Festum Epiphaniæ."--Pat. 2 Hen. V. p. 3. m. 23.]
+
+Milner[291] depends upon "the able and satisfactory vindication of
+Lord Cobham by Fox, the martyrologist," whom he affirms to have
+examined with great diligence and judgment _all_ the authentic
+documents. It is very dangerous to place implicit reliance on any one,
+however impartial he may be; especially ought we to seek evidence for
+ourselves, when an author professes, as Fox does, his object to be the
+vindication of one party and the conviction of another. On this point
+there are two or three unquestionably original documents, neither of
+which does Fox examine, and on which probably the large majority   (p. 382)
+of readers will be disposed to rest, as the safest ground for their
+opinion on Henry's conduct. In the course of the very day, on the
+early morning of which, and during the night preceding, the affair in
+St. Giles' Field took place, the King offers a reward of five hundred
+marks to any by whose counsel Lord Cobham should be taken, one
+thousand marks to any who should take him, and immunities and
+privileges to any city or town whose burgesses should bring him before
+the King. This proclamation, dated Westminster, 11th of January 1414,
+assigns these reasons for the offer of such rewards for his capture:
+"Since, by his abetting, very many of our subjects called Lollards
+have maintained diverse opinions against the Catholic faith; and
+contrary to their duty of allegiance, and falsely and traitorously,
+have imagined our death, because we have taken part against them and
+their opinions as a true Christian prince, and as we are bound by the
+obligation of an oath; and because they have plotted very many
+designs, as well for the destruction of the Catholic faith, as of the
+state of the lords and great men of our realm, as well spiritual as
+temporal; and, to fulfil their wicked purpose, have designed to make
+diverse unlawful assemblies, to the probable destruction of our own
+person, and of the states of the lords and nobles aforesaid."
+
+                   [Footnote 291: Milner's statement, "that it is
+                   extremely probable that popish emissaries mixed
+                   themselves among the Lollards for the express
+                   purpose of being brought to confession," is mere
+                   surmise.]
+
+In the same proclamation we find these words, which most persons   (p. 383)
+will probably interpret as a proof of Henry's desire to mingle mercy
+with justice: "We, observing how some of these Lollards and others,
+who have designed our death and other crimes and evils, have been
+taken on the past occasion, and are condemned to death; and wishing
+hereafter, in a better and more gentle manner, as far as we can, to
+avoid the shedding of the blood of Christians, especially of our
+subjects, whom, for the tender and especial regard we have towards
+them, we desire with all anxiety of mind to preserve from
+blood-shedding and personal punishment," &c.
+
+Another offer of pardon was made in a proclamation dated March 28,
+1414. It seems that many vexatious prosecutions had taken place, and
+great disquietude and alarm had in consequence prevailed, and there
+was danger lest the good and sound members of the community might be
+condemned with the wicked and reckless disturbers of the public peace.
+The King therefore offers a free pardon[292] to all who will apply for
+letters of pardon before the Feast of St. John the Baptist: there are,
+however, ten or twelve exceptions; among others, Sir John Oldcastle,
+Thomas Talbot, Thomas Drayton, rector of Drayton Beauchamp. In the
+body of this act of grace we read this pious sentiment of Henry:   (p. 384)
+"We, from reverence to HIM who hath suddenly granted to us protection
+and victory against many of our said enemies, and in his own holy and
+good time desires to give pardon and peace to all who offend against
+himself, lest he destroy them in their iniquities and sins,--we, for
+the tranquillity, security, and peace of our lieges and subjects,
+decree this pardon."
+
+                   [Footnote 292: The Patent Rolls of this year shew
+                   that the King's offer was gladly and gratefully
+                   accepted by numbers who applied for his pardon.]
+
+In the December of the same year was the following pardon proclaimed,
+which, among other things, fixes the precise date of the affair in St.
+Giles' Field, and supplies, what has been triumphantly demanded by
+those who will pronounce the whole to have been a mere invention, _the
+conviction of an accused party_. "Whereas John Longacre of Wykeham,
+formerly of London, mercer, was indicted before William Roos of
+Hamelak, and others our justices, assigned to try treasons, felonies,
+&c. in our county of Middlesex, for plotting to put us and our
+brothers to death, and to make Sir John Oldcastle regent of this
+kingdom; and had resolved, with twenty thousand men, to execute their
+wicked purpose; and on the Wednesday after the Epiphany, in the first
+year of our reign, there Sir John Oldcastle and others, traitorously
+persevering in such purpose, traitorously met together in St. Giles'
+Great Field, and compassed our death; and the said Longacre pleaded
+'not guilty,' and put himself on his country; and he was by the
+inquiry [inquest] found guilty, and condemned to be drawn from     (p. 385)
+the Tower of London to St. Giles' Field, and there to be hanged; we,
+of our special grace, have pardoned the said John Longacre."
+
+It is impossible for any candid mind to read these documents without
+being convinced that Henry was fully and reasonably assured of the
+treasonable practices of Oldcastle and his adherents, and that he was
+anxious to deal as mercifully with his enemies as would be consistent
+with a due regard to the peace and safety of the realm; and his
+biographer considers this as all which legitimately falls within his
+province. Whether Oldcastle himself were on that night in St. Giles'
+Field, is now a question probably beyond the reach of certain
+conclusion. The King's pardon to Longacre declares that he was
+present, and there is no evidence on record against it. These are the
+documents on which we must form our opinion. They are not traditionary
+stories, written many years after the event; they are not manifestos
+published in a foreign land; they are State-documents published on the
+very spot, all in the same year, one on the very day after the
+transaction, one in the March, and the last in the December following.
+With reference to Fox's arguments,--whilst every one would, on many
+accounts, do well to read them,--it will be immediately obvious, that
+"though twenty thousand were said to be expected, and a few hundreds
+only were found," yet that the large body of adherents who were to
+rendezvous in St. Giles' Field were to come from the city, and     (p. 386)
+that on the first news of the meeting of the Lollards Henry sent to
+order the city gates to be shut.[293] Fox also says that any
+conspiracy is incredible in which only three names could be fixed
+upon; but this only argues in him an ignorance of the documents above
+referred to, in which many persons are by name excepted from the
+pardon, and reference is made to many others accused in different
+parts of the country. It can no longer be doubted that Lord Cobham was
+believed by Henry to have entered into a treasonable conspiracy
+against the government and the person of the King; though, after he
+escaped from the Tower, there is no evidence yet discovered        (p. 387)
+(except the King's own declaration) to prove that he was in Fickett's
+Field, as the place of meeting near St. Giles' church was called.
+
+                   [Footnote 293: Any reference to the opinions of
+                   past writers would be imperfect which should omit
+                   Fuller's; he had access, it should seem, to little
+                   if any other data than Fox supplied him with, and
+                   yet the conclusion to which he came is this: "For
+                   mine own part, I must confess myself so lost in the
+                   intricacies of these relations, that I know not
+                   what to assent to. On the one side, I am loath to
+                   load the Lord Cobham's memory with causeless
+                   crimes, knowing the perfect hatred the clergy in
+                   that age bare unto him, and all that looked towards
+                   the reformation in religion. Besides, that twenty
+                   thousand men should be brought into the field, and
+                   no place assigned whence they should have been
+                   raised,[293-a] or where mustered, is clogged with
+                   much improbability, the rather because only the
+                   three persons as is aforesaid are mentioned by name
+                   of so vast a number.
+
+                   "On the other side (continues Fuller), I am much
+                   startled with the evidence which appeareth against
+                   him. Indeed I am little moved with what T.
+                   Walsingham writes, (whom all later authors follow,
+                   as a flock the bell-wether,) knowing him a
+                   Benedictine monk of St. Alban's, bowed by interest
+                   to partiality; but the records in the Tower, and
+                   acts of parliament therein, wherein he was solemnly
+                   condemned for a traitor as well as a heretic,
+                   challenge belief. For with what confidence can any
+                   private person promise credit from posterity to his
+                   own writings if such public documents be not
+                   entertained by him for authentical? Let Mr. Fox
+                   therefore be Lord Cobham's compurgator; I dare not.
+                   And, if my hand were put on the Bible, I should
+                   take it back again; yet so that, as I will not
+                   acquit, I will not condemn him, but leave all to
+                   the last day of the revelation of the righteous
+                   judgment of God."--Fuller's Church History, An.
+                   1414.]
+
+                       [Footnote 293-a: Fuller either had not read, or had
+                       forgotten, that the twenty thousand men were to be
+                       raised in the city, and to be mustered in St.
+                       Giles' Field; but that the timely closing of the
+                       city gates is said to have prevented their junction
+                       with the party beyond the walls: and he was not
+                       aware of the many persons mentioned by name in
+                       indictments, proclamations, and pardons.]
+
+Of the seditious and treasonable conduct of Oldcastle, no one seems to
+have entertained any doubt before the time of Fox, who wrote more than
+a century and a half after the event. The Chronicle of London, written
+about 1442, not thirty years after the transaction, after stating the
+capture and execution of "diverse men," "much folk," among the rest "a
+squire of Sir John Oldcastle," adds these words: "And certainly the
+said Sir John, with great multitude of Lollards and heretics, were
+purposed with full will and might to have destroyed the King and his
+brethren, which be protectors of holy church, and them also that   (p. 388)
+be in degree of holy order in the service of God and his church; the
+which will and purpose, as God would, was let, and Sir John fled and
+escaped."[294] Fox quotes the Monk of St. Alban's, whose testimony in
+the book entitled "Chronicles of England, and the Fruit of Time,"
+speaks in this strong language: "And in the same year (1 Henry V.)
+were certain of Lolleis taken, and false heretics, that had purpose of
+false treason for to have slain our King, and for to have destroyed
+all the clergy of the realm, and they might have had their false
+purpose. But our Lord God would not suffer it, for in haste our King
+had warning thereof, and of all their false ordinance and working; and
+came suddenly with his power to St. John without Smithfield: and anon
+they took a captain of the Lolleis and false heretics, and brought
+them unto the King's presence, and they told all their false purpose
+and ordinance; and then the King commanded them to the Tower, and then
+took more of them both within the city and without, and sent them to
+Newgate and both Counters; and then they were brought for examination
+before the clergy and the King's justices, and there they were
+convicted before the clergy for their false heresy, and condemned  (p. 389)
+before the justices for their false treason."
+
+                   [Footnote 294: The "Ecclesiastical Annals"
+                   attributing the respite of fifty days to the
+                   interposition of the Archbishop, add, "And in the
+                   course of that period Oldcastle escaped from
+                   prison, and excited all the followers of Wickliffe
+                   to arms, for the purpose of destroying the King and
+                   the clergy."--Annales Ecclesiastici, vol. viii. p.
+                   362.]
+
+Walsingham says, referring to the time of Henry's first expedition,
+that the Lollards, probably hearing of the treason of Grey, Scroop,
+and Cambridge, at Southampton, came out of their lurking-places, and
+spoke and wrote on the church-doors treason. And Oldcastle, who was in
+concealment near Malvern, having heard, though by a mistake, that the
+King had sailed, sent threats to Lord Burgoyne, who forthwith
+collected at his castle of Haneley, near Worcester, five thousand men.
+Cobham returned to his concealment; but a chaplain of his, and other
+partisans, being taken, were so closely questioned that they
+discovered the place in which he kept his arms concealed between two
+walls.
+
+The author published under the name of Otterbourne, refers to a
+document which, if authentic, would establish Oldcastle's treasonable
+practices beyond further question. "The Lollards," he says, "meanwhile
+were sadly grieved by the discovery of certain schedules and
+indentures between John Oldcastle and the Duke of Albany, in which the
+Scots are invited to besiege Roxburgh and Berwise [Berwick]. And on
+this the Duke laid siege to Berwise by sea and land." Whether all
+these testimonies and original documents establish Lord Cobham's guilt
+or not, it is impossible to read them without inferring that, at all
+events, there was abundant reason for Henry's own conduct with     (p. 390)
+regard to him.[295]
+
+                   [Footnote 295: How far these accounts of Walsingham
+                   and Otterbourne are confirmed by the authority of
+                   the Pell Rolls, the reader will weigh carefully. In
+                   the October and November of this year, payment is
+                   made "to the serjeant of the sheriff of Southampton
+                   for taking Wyche and W^m. Browne, chaplains, and
+                   bringing them to make disclosures about certain
+                   sums belonging to Sir John Oldcastle. Also to the
+                   escheator of the county of Kent, riding sometimes
+                   with twenty, sometimes with thirty horsemen, for
+                   fear of the soldiers and other malefactors
+                   obstinately favouring Sir John Oldcastle."]
+
+After his escape to Wales, however, and the exception of his name from
+the bill of pardon, and the offer of a reward for his capture, Henry
+does not appear to have had anything whatever to do with Lord Cobham
+in life or in death. There is something strange and affecting in the
+circumstances of his capture and execution. It was towards the close
+of the year 1417, whilst parliament was sitting, that news arrived of
+the Lord Cobham having been discovered and taken in Wales. After
+voting a subsidy to Henry, who was then pursuing his victories with
+all his energy in France, "as soon as they heard that the public enemy
+was taken, they all agreed not to dissolve parliament until he were
+examined and heard." The Lord Powis was sent to bring him to London,
+his men having taken him after a desperate struggle.[296] "He stood,"
+says the Monk of Croyland, "at great defence long time, and was    (p. 391)
+sore wounded or he would be taken. And so the Lord Powis' men brought
+him out of Wales to London in a whirlicole." He was forthwith carried
+before the parliament as an outlaw, on the charge of treason, and, as
+an excommunicated heretic, given over to the secular power. He heard
+the several convictions, and made no answer to the charges; and was
+then instantly condemned to be taken to the Tower, and thence to the
+new gallows in St. Giles' Field, and there to be hanged for his
+treason, and to be burnt hanging for his heresy. There was,
+undoubtedly, great irregularity and hurry in this proceeding. But
+probably the statement of the Monk of St. Alban's is not far from the
+truth. "So he was brought to Westminster, and there was examined on
+certain points, and he said not nay; and so he was convicted of the
+clergy for his heresy, and dampned before the justices to the death
+for treason: and he was led to the Tower again, and there he was laid
+on a hurdle, and drawn through the city to St. Giles' Field. And   (p. 392)
+there was made a new pair of gallows, and a strong chain, and a
+collar of iron for him; and there he was hanged, and burnt on the
+gallows, and all for his lewdness and false opinions."
+
+                   [Footnote 296: The warrant by the council, dated
+                   December 1, 1417, authorized Edward Charleton to
+                   bring the body of John Oldcastle, then in Pole
+                   Castle. On February 3, 1422, the wife and executor
+                   of the said Edward Charleton received part payment
+                   of one thousand marks for the capture of Sir John
+                   Oldcastle. There is also payment for the capture of
+                   certain of his clerks and servants. He was taken
+                   near Broniarth in Montgomeryshire, on a property
+                   now belonging to Mr. Ormsby Gore, among whose
+                   muniments there is said to be traditionary evidence
+                   that the manor of Broniarth was granted to one of
+                   its former possessors as a reward for securing Sir
+                   John Oldcastle. The place in which he is said to
+                   have been taken, is called "Lord Cobham's Field" to
+                   this day.
+
+                   There are, we are told, in the Welsh language
+                   original verses referring unquestionably to Lord
+                   Cobham's residence in Wales, among persons who
+                   entertained the same religious views with himself,
+                   and also to his return to England. The religion of
+                   Rome is called in these verses "the Faith of the
+                   Pharaohs."]
+
+And here we must close this sad tragedy, in the last scene of which
+King Henry took no part. He was spared the pain of either sanctioning
+or witnessing these transactions. The first information he received of
+his unhappy friend's capture, probably certified him also of his
+death; and whatever we may suppose to have been his sentiments on the
+removal from this world of one whom he certainly believed guilty of
+treason, and the enemy of his throne; his kindness of heart, and
+sympathy with the brave and the good, must have made him, even in the
+midst of the din of war and the flush of victory, lament the fate of
+one whom for so many years he had held in affection and esteem. Henry
+probably felt a melancholy satisfaction that he was spared the sad
+duty, for so he must have deemed it, of sanctioning the last sentence
+on his friend. They are now both in the hands of Him to whom all
+hearts are open, and from whom no secret is hid; and there we leave
+them to his just but merciful disposal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.                                                     (p. 393)
+
+THE CASE OF JOHN CLAYTON, OF GEORGE GURMYN, AND OF WILLIAM TAYLOR,
+EXAMINED. -- RESULTS OF THE INVESTIGATION. -- HENRY'S KINDNESS AND
+LIBERALITY TO THE WIDOWS AND ORPHANS OF CONVICTED HERETICS. --
+REFLECTIONS.
+
+
+Henry of Monmouth's name seems never to have been associated by our
+historians with the death of any one condemned to the flames as a
+heretic, except in the case of those two persons the circumstances of
+whose last hours have been examined at length in this inquiry,--Badby,
+whom he endeavoured to save even at the stake, and Oldcastle, whose
+execution he respited, and for whose death he never issued the
+warrant. There are, however, three prosecutions for heresy, which,
+though hitherto unconnected with the question discussed in these
+chapters, seem to claim a patient consideration before this inquiry is
+closed, and the final answer be returned to the question, Was Henry a
+persecutor for religious opinions? The names of the three persecuted
+for maintaining opinions different from the dogmas of the church   (p. 394)
+of Rome, to whose convictions and deaths our attention is here drawn,
+are John Clayton, or Claydon, George Gurmyn,[297] and William Taylor.
+
+                   [Footnote 297: There can be no doubt that George
+                   Gurmyn, a baker, was burnt for heresy this year,
+                   1415, and probably in the same fire with John
+                   Claydon. Fox mentions the name as Turming; but, not
+                   having been able to ascertain the truth of the
+                   tradition, he leaves the whole matter in
+                   uncertainty. In the Pipe Rolls, 3 Henry V, the
+                   sheriffs state they had expended twenty shillings
+                   about the burning of John Claydon, skinner, and
+                   George Gurmyn, baker, Lollards convicted of heresy.
+                   The Author has searched the records in St. Paul's
+                   Cathedral, but without success, for any account of
+                   the proceedings against Gurmyn. He is said to have
+                   been convicted before the Bishop of London.]
+
+The case of John Clayton, whether we look to it merely as a
+well-authenticated fact of history, or seek from it ancillary evidence
+as to the principles and conduct of Henry in the matter of religious
+persecution, involves subjects of deep interest. The satisfaction with
+which it is believed many may view it, as one of the incidents which
+seem to imply that Henry was an unwilling, reluctant executor of the
+penal laws of his kingdom, and took the lead of his people in
+liberality and toleration, must be mingled with pain sincerely felt on
+witnessing the stewards of the word of life becoming the zealous and
+relentless exactors of a cruel and iniquitous law, straining to the
+very utmost its enactments to cover their deeds of blood, and
+sacrificing their fellow-creatures to the image they had set up. The
+case of Clayton puts the excessive enormities of the hierarchy     (p. 395)
+of that day in a more striking point of view than many others of the
+more generally cited instances of persecution. Clayton's was not the
+case of a powerful man like Cobham, whose very character and station,
+and rank and influence, made him formidable: Clayton's was not the
+case of a learned man, or an eloquent preacher, or an active, zealous
+propagator of those new doctrines from which the see of Rome
+anticipated so much evil to her cause. His was the case of a
+tradesman, unable to read himself, and engaging another to read to him
+out of a book which seemed to give him pleasure; the place of reading
+being a private room in a private house, the time of reading being the
+Lord's day, and other festivals of the church; and the witnesses
+against him being his own servant and his own apprentice. Had the
+record of this sad persecution been written by an enemy to the
+priesthood, we should have suspected that the whole case was
+misrepresented, that a colouring had been unfairly given to the
+proceedings, to make them more odious in our sight; and though, at the
+best, such proceedings must be detestable, we should have deemed that
+in this case the facts had been distorted to meet the prejudiced views
+of the writer. But the proceedings are registered in the authentic
+records of the Archbishop of Canterbury,[298] and are minutely     (p. 396)
+detailed in all the circumstances of time, and place, and person.
+
+                   [Footnote 298: Printed in "Wilkins' Concilia."]
+
+John Clayton was a currier, or skinner, living in the parish of St.
+Anne's, "Aldrychgate." In those days few tradesmen could read, and he
+was not an exception. But he had at an early period formed a very
+favourable opinion of the new doctrines; the preaching of Wickliffe's
+followers, or, it may be, of Wickliffe himself, had made so deep an
+impression on his mind, that nothing could shake the firmness and
+constancy of his belief to the day of his death. His predilection for
+"Lollardy," as the profession of the new doctrines was called, became
+known to the ecclesiastical rulers long before the statute for burning
+heretics was passed in England; and his religious opinions exposed him
+to great troubles and hardships, even in the reign of Richard II. He
+was arrested on suspicion of heresy, and carried before Braybrook,
+Bishop of London. The consequence of his conviction was imprisonment,
+first in Conway Castle for two years, and subsequently in the Fleet
+for the term of three years more. He then renounced the errors alleged
+against him, and abjured them at the time when "Lord John Searle" was
+chancellor of England, about the year 1400. Through the reign of Henry
+IV, and the two first years of Henry V, Clayton seems to have remained
+unmolested. No sooner, however, had Henry left England on his first
+expedition to France, than Clayton was seized, tried, and          (p. 397)
+condemned. There seems to have been unusual despatch evinced in every
+stage of the proceedings. Clayton was not cited by regular process.
+The Mayor of London arrested him, and brought him before the
+Archbishop's consistory, on Saturday, August 17th, when he was
+examined, and remanded till the next Monday, August 19th. On which day
+he was brought up again, and finally condemned as a wilful relapsed
+heretic.
+
+At that very time, Henry, having dismissed his ships, was first
+commencing the siege of Harfleur; he had left England only the
+preceding Sunday. Whether the time selected for Clayton's arrest and
+trial was merely accidental, or whether the civil and ecclesiastical
+authorities (for both were equally eager for the blood of their
+victim) seized upon the opportunity of Henry's first absence from
+England, is a question which ought not to be decided before all the
+circumstances attending both Clayton's execution and the proceedings
+against Taylor (which will be next examined) shall have been carefully
+weighed. One of the witnesses, who testified to overt acts of heresy
+(such as those on which he was condemned) having been seen in
+Clayton's conduct a year before the time of trial, was living in the
+house of the Mayor of London; and that functionary seems to have
+hurried on the prosecution with more zeal than considerateness, and to
+have kept the young man in readiness to give his testimony whenever a
+favourable opportunity offered. Such circumstances cannot be       (p. 398)
+contemplated without suspicion. At all events, the plain fact is,
+that, on the very Saturday after Henry sailed from England, Clayton
+was brought under arrest, not under process of citation, before the
+ecclesiastical judges by the Mayor of London, who was ready with his
+witnesses.
+
+The charges brought against Clayton were, that, having renounced
+heresy, he had again been guilty of the same crime, by associating
+with persons suspected of heresy, and by having heretical books in his
+possession. To establish these facts, in addition to his own
+confession that he "had been imprisoned in the time of Bishop
+Braybrooke on a charge of heresy, and had subsequently renounced in
+the time of Chancellor Searle, and had heard read about one quarter of
+the book then produced," they proceeded to examine two witnesses who
+had been inmates in Clayton's family.
+
+The first witness swore that he had been, some time past, a servant
+and apprentice of John Clayton; that he had seen one John Fuller, a
+fellow-servant of his, reading the book, which he then identified, to
+his master, in St. Martin's Lane, on certain festival days since
+Easter; that in the book were the ten commandments in English, but
+what else it contained he knew not; that John Clayton seemed to be
+delighted with the book, and to regard it as sound and Catholic.
+
+Another witness, Saunder Philip, a lad fifteen years old, a        (p. 399)
+servant of Clayton's, but living at the time of the trial in the house
+of the Mayor of London, testified that he saw the book brought into
+Clayton's house about the middle of the preceding Lent; that he heard
+Clayton, his master, say that he would rather pay three times the
+price of the book than be without it; and that, on several occasions,
+through the year before, he saw and heard persons suspected of heresy
+conversing with Clayton.
+
+To what miserable, degrading expedients were these persecutors obliged
+to condescend in compassing their designs! compelling those who ate of
+the bread of the accused, and drank of his cup, and were his own
+domestic servants, and confidential inmates of his home, to bear the
+testimony of death against him: verifying among Christians what the
+Lord of Christians prophesied as the result of pagan opposition to the
+Gospel itself, "A man's foes shall be those of his own household."
+
+The poor man himself confessed that he believed he had heard about
+one-fourth part of the book read. The book produced, and identified by
+the witnesses, was called "The Lantern of Light;" in which the
+ecclesiastical judges pronounced many gross and wicked heresies to be
+contained. Among other articles objected to, some of which were
+doubtless in a more palpable manner adverse to the favourite doctrines
+of Romanism, we find the following criterion of the lawfulness and
+virtue of alms-giving. The author maintained that alms were        (p. 400)
+neither lawful nor virtuous, unless four conditions were observed in
+the distribution of them.
+
+  1.--Unless they be given to the honour of God.
+
+  2.--Unless they be given from goods justly gotten.
+
+  3.--Unless they be given to one whom the donor believed to be in a
+  state of Christian charity.
+
+  4.--Unless they be given to such as in very deed, without dissembling
+  or pretence, are in need.
+
+That the parts of the book which contained the heretical doctrines
+were ever read to Clayton, does not seem to have been elicited at the
+examination. The witnesses could only depose to having heard the
+Decalogue read in English, but nothing more; and the poor man's own
+confession acknowledged only that he had heard about one quarter of
+the work read. Still, on this confession and this evidence, and for
+this offence, John Clayton was convicted of heresy, was condemned as a
+relapsed heretic, and left without mercy to the secular power. Fox,
+who quotes no authority, adds only, that he "was by the temporal
+magistrates not long after had to Smithfield and burnt."
+
+The ecclesiastical record contains no information after the sentence
+passed on Monday the 19th of August, and our historians seem not to
+have made any inquiries as to the fate of this man. Recent researches,
+however, into original documents have been made by the Author,     (p. 401)
+with the view of facilitating the present inquiry, and rendering it
+more satisfactory; and the successful result of those researches
+enables him to throw some additional light on the subject under
+investigation. The following facts deserve especial attention. Shortly
+after the above sentence was passed by the ecclesiastical authorities,
+the Mayor and citizens of London wrote a letter to King Henry,
+rehearsing the judgment of the ecclesiastical court on John Clayton,
+and expressing their intention to make an example of the convict by
+carrying the sentence into execution. But they desired the King to
+send them his especial directions on the subject, as they were
+desirous to avoid giving offence in this as well as in all other
+affairs. The answer of Henry to this request, if it was ever made, is
+certainly not recorded. The strong probability is that the execution
+took place before there had been time for the King's answer, if he
+ever sent one, to reach London. The sheriffs of London state in this
+same year that "they had expended 20_s._ about the burning of John
+Claydon, skinner, and George Gurmyn, baker, Lollards convicted of
+heresy," though the day of the execution is not recorded.
+
+It must here be remembered, that the Mayor himself arrested Clayton,
+and produced the witnesses against him; that the King's writ[299] was
+not necessary to authorize execution after judgment passed by      (p. 402)
+the ecclesiastical authority in convocation; and that, even if it had
+been necessary to procure the royal sanction, the Duke of Clarence was
+left in England with full powers, as Henry's representative. Yet, in
+order to avoid giving offence, though they were determined to make an
+example of Clayton, they were afraid to proceed to the extreme penalty
+of the law without first taking the instructions of the King. This
+would scarcely have been necessary, nor would any hesitation, or   (p. 403)
+scruple, or misgiving have arisen in their minds, had they not been
+under a strong practical persuasion that the execution of this man
+would have given their King displeasure. And when we know what
+employment awaited Henry from the very day of Clayton's conviction
+till his return home,--the siege of Harfleur, the harassing march
+through France, the battle of Agincourt,--we cannot wonder at no
+answer being recorded. Perhaps he made no answer; perhaps the      (p. 404)
+letter never reached him in the midst of his struggles and dangers;
+probably he did not interfere, but allowed the law to take its course.
+Whatever took place between the condemnation and the death of Clayton,
+every stage of the transaction, from the first arrest of the accused
+on the very Saturday after Henry sailed for France, makes it quite
+clear that, in the opinion of the magistrates of London, Henry would
+be no willing abettor of persecution.
+
+                   [Footnote 299: "The person who shall be burnt for
+                   heresy ought to be first convict thereof by the
+                   Bishop who is his diocesan, and abjured thereof;
+                   and afterwards, if he relapse into that heresy, or
+                   any other, then he shall be sent from the clergy to
+                   the secular power, to do with him as it shall
+                   please the King. And then it seemeth, the King, if
+                   he will, may pardon him the same; and the form of
+                   the writ is such.
+
+                   "The King to the Mayor and Sheriffs of London,
+                   greeting. Whereas the venerable father, Thomas,
+                   Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of all England,
+                   and Legate of the Apostolic See, with the consent
+                   and assent of the Bishop and his brothers, the
+                   suffragans, and also of the whole clergy of his
+                   province in his provincial council assembled, the
+                   orders of law in this behalf requisite being in all
+                   things observed, by his definitive sentence
+                   pronounced and declared W. Sautre (some time
+                   chaplain, condemned for heresy, by him the said W.
+                   heretofore in form of law abjured, and him the said
+                   W. relapsed again into the said heresy) a manifest
+                   heretic, and decreed him to be degraded; and hath
+                   for that cause really degraded him from all
+                   clerical prerogative and privilege; and hath
+                   decreed him the said W. to be left, and hath really
+                   left him, to the secular court, according to the
+                   laws and canonical sanctions set forth in this
+                   behalf; and holy mother, the church, hath nothing
+                   further to do in the premises. We, therefore, being
+                   zealous for justice, and a lover of the Catholic
+                   faith, willing to maintain and defend holy church,
+                   and the rights and liberties thereof; and, as much
+                   as in us lies, to extirpate by the roots such
+                   heresies and errors out of our kingdom of England,
+                   and to punish heretics so convicted with condign
+                   punishment; and being mindful that such heretics,
+                   convicted in form aforesaid, and condemned
+                   according to law, divine and human, by canonical
+                   institutes on and in this behalf accustomed, ought
+                   to be burnt with a burning flame of fire; we
+                   command you most strictly as we can, firmly
+                   enjoining, that you commit to the fire the
+                   aforesaid W. being in your custody, in some public
+                   and open place within the liberties of the city
+                   aforesaid, before the people publicly, by reason of
+                   the premises, and cause him really to be burnt in
+                   the same fire in detestation of this crime, and to
+                   the manifest example of other Christians. And this
+                   you are by no means to omit under the peril falling
+                   thereon. Witness," &c.
+
+                   But by the statute of Henry IV. c. 15, it is
+                   enacted that every Bishop in his diocese may
+                   convict a man of heresy, and abjure him, and
+                   afterwards convict him anew thereof, and condemn
+                   him, and warn the sheriff or other officer to
+                   apprehend him and burn him; and that the sheriff or
+                   other officer ought to do the same by the precept
+                   of the Bishop, and _without any writ from the King
+                   to do the same_.
+
+                   And note by 29 Car. II., c. 9, this writ de
+                   heretico comburendo is abolished. "LAUS DEO!"--This
+                   last note is by an Editor. Fitzherbert, de Naturâ
+                   Brevium, p. 601.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A case, however, of no ordinary character as a matter of historical
+record, and doubly important to those who take an interest in the
+result of the present investigation, requires to be examined in all
+its bearings (especially with reference to the dates of its several
+stages) with greater care than has hitherto been bestowed upon it.
+
+In the July of 1416, whilst the Emperor Sigismund and Henry were both
+in England, Archbishop Chicheley gave evidence of his zeal by issuing
+most stringent mandates, directing his suffragan bishops to make
+diligent search for heretics, to report the names and circumstances of
+all who were suspected of heresy under seal to the metropolitan, and
+to institute process against them according to law. On the publication
+of these injunctions, a most strict and searching inquisition took
+place through the country. Still no one suffered the extreme penalty
+of the law as a heretic convict. In the next year, no sooner       (p. 405)
+was Pope Martin V. elected at Constance, than, complaining bitterly of
+the neglect and apathy of the ecclesiastical and civil authorities,
+the new Pontiff addressed every argument, both of encouragement and of
+intimidation, to the laity and the clergy alike, urging them to unite
+as one man in the work of extirpating heresy. He even applied to the
+English church, that, in their overflowing zeal for the Apostolic See,
+they would raise a subsidy in aid of the war then being carried on
+against the heretics in Bohemia. Among those who had fallen under
+suspicion of heresy, and who were watched with jealous vigilance by
+the ecclesiastical authorities, was one William Taylor, who had
+proceeded to his degree of Master of Arts in one of the Universities,
+and had been admitted into the order of priest in the church. Taylor
+was cited to appear before the consistory; and on Monday, February 12,
+1420, he confessed before Archbishop Chicheley that in the time of his
+predecessor (Arundel) he had been suspected of heresy; and for not
+appearing, or for not answering to the charge brought against him, he
+had been excommunicated, and had remained under that sentence for
+fourteen years.[300] Upon his expression of sorrow and repentance, he
+was commanded to appear on the following Wednesday at Lambeth, where,
+in the great chapel, he received the pardon of the church on       (p. 406)
+certain stipulated conditions. He was bound by solemn promises, and by
+an oath on the Gospels (thrice repeated), not to offend again; and he
+promised to appear in person or by his proctor at the next
+convocation, there to confess his penitence. He was then set at
+liberty.
+
+                   [Footnote 300: William Taylor had been cited March
+                   9th, 1409, when he treated the citation with
+                   contempt.--Archbishop's Register.]
+
+Taylor, however, was not long allowed to remain unmolested. Agreeably
+to the call of the sovereign Pontiff at Rome, and the peremptory
+injunctions of his metropolitan, agreeably also (as it too evidently
+appears by the sequel) to his own views of duty, Philip Morgan, Bishop
+of Worcester, denounced the same William Taylor in full convocation,
+May 5, 1421, as a person vehemently suspected of heresy. The King was
+then in London, but was on the eve of leaving the kingdom; and fully
+occupied in preparing to proceed forthwith to wipe off the disgrace
+which had fallen on the English arms, and to restore confidence to his
+troops, then much depressed by the unexpected discomfiture of their
+countrymen, and the death of the Duke of Clarence in battle. On
+Saturday, May 24, Taylor was put upon his trial, being produced before
+the court as the Bishop of Worcester's prisoner, who had caused him to
+be arrested. Of the three opinions savouring of heresy, (errorem et
+hæresin sapientes,) he pleaded guilty to having entertained the two
+last, but of the first he seems to have had no knowledge; indeed,  (p. 407)
+it is very difficult to say what meaning could have been attached
+to it.
+
+He was charged with having maintained at Bristol.
+
+First, That whosoever suspends on his neck any writing, by that act
+takes away the honour due to God only, and renders it to the
+Devil.[301]
+
+                   [Footnote 301: Quisquis suspenderit ad collum suum
+                   aliquod scriptum, ipso facto tollit honorem soli
+                   Deo debitum, et præbet Diabolo.]
+
+Secondly, That Christ was not to be prayed to in his character of man,
+but only as God.
+
+Thirdly, That the saints of heaven were not to be addressed in prayer.
+
+On the next Monday, May 26th, he was pronounced guilty of heresy, and
+condemned to perpetual imprisonment for the term of his life. So
+dreadful a punishment (to which, whatever it might be, he had on his
+previous release sworn to submit,) suddenly struck him to the very
+heart, and caused him to show some signs of a subdued mind. On which
+the Archbishop mitigated that sentence by adding to it an alternative,
+"Unless he shall be able to give bail, to the satisfaction of the
+Chancellor of England."
+
+We have already intimated that Henry's thoughts were at this time
+fully and anxiously occupied in preparing for an immediate expedition
+to France; and it is to be observed that, on the very day after
+Taylor's condemnation, the King issued his writ to the sheriffs,
+commanding them to publish his proclamation for all persons to hasten
+with the greatest speed to join the King in his voyage. Taylor     (p. 408)
+left the court in custody, as the prisoner of the Bishop of Worcester,
+to end his days in a dungeon, unless he should be able to produce the
+required bail; in which case the Bishop was authorized by the court to
+release him.
+
+When Henry left London, on the Monday after Taylor's condemnation, he
+left it never to return. His death, as we have seen, took place on the
+last day of August 1422. That Henry knew anything of the prosecution
+of this person, does not appear; and, if he had been made acquainted
+with the intended proceedings, whether he expressed any opinion upon
+them in favour of maintaining the faith by the secular arm, or in
+favour of the gentle and mild means of persuasion,--is a matter lost
+to history, and all inquiry into any of those points must be
+fruitless. Nor are we informed whether the poor man could produce the
+required bail, or whether he remained a prisoner till his death. Some
+expressions in the record of the subsequent transactions would induce
+us to infer that he had, after his condemnation, been at large and was
+again taken into custody (sub custodiâ carcerali iterum arrestatus).
+The striking fact, however, is this,--that Henry had not been dead six
+months before this same priest was brought up a prisoner in the
+custody of a jailor, and tried before the same court for a repetition
+of the very same offence; or rather, perhaps, for the very same    (p. 409)
+individual act for which, a year and three quarters before, he had
+been condemned to perpetual imprisonment. The same accuser, the Bishop
+of Worcester, charged him with having, _since his abjuration
+aforesaid_, written, maintained, and communicated with a certain
+priest, named Thomas Smyth, living at Bristol, on paper in his own
+hand-writing, the alleged heretical opinions. Here it must be
+observed, that the charge was made by the same accuser, the Bishop of
+Worcester, before the same Judge Chicheley; that the place in which he
+was said to have held these doctrines was in each case the same,
+Bristol; that in each case the doctrines were said to have been
+conveyed by writing; and that, as to the time of the offence, the
+Bishop did not say it was after his previous condemnation, but only
+after his recantation, which took place in February 1420, just a year
+and a quarter before his sentence of imprisonment. And if we examine
+the four heretical opinions which were extracted, in 1423, by the
+Canonists out of his written communication to Thomas Smyth, we shall
+find them in substance nothing more or less than two of the opinions
+on which he was before condemned to imprisonment in 1421.
+
+  1.--All prayer which is a petition for any supernatural or gratuitous
+  gift, is to be offered to God alone.
+
+  2.--Prayer is to be addressed only to God.[302]                  (p. 410)
+
+                   [Footnote 302: The Canonists seem to have made some
+                   distinction between the first and the second of
+                   these sentences.]
+
+  3.--To pray to any creature is to commit idolatry.
+
+  4.--The faithful ought to address their prayers to God, not in
+  reference to his humanity, but only with regard to his Deity.
+
+This was the sum of his offence, involving precisely the identical
+opinions of which he had been pronounced guilty in 1421, after his
+recantation in 1420.[303]
+
+                   [Footnote 303: Consequently he was then, in 1421,
+                   as much, as afterwards in 1423, a relapsed heretic,
+                   subject to the punishment of death.]
+
+After Lynewood had given his opinion that a relapsed heretic was to be
+left to the secular court, without hope of pardon, and without being
+heard as to the corporal punishment, his judges proceeded to the
+extreme execution of the law. Taylor was degraded on Monday the 1st of
+March, 1423, in the first year of Henry VI; and, the writ for his
+burning being issued on the same day, he suffered death in Smithfield.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+How far these circumstances may be pronounced to bear on the subject,
+and to conspire in acquitting Henry of Monmouth of the charge with
+which his name has been unsparingly assailed, of having been in spirit
+and conduct a persecutor for religious opinions, deserves serious
+consideration. When it is borne in mind that the Lollards were     (p. 411)
+certainly represented to Henry as the enemies of his throne and of the
+peace of the realm; that the Pope and the hierarchy of England were
+loud and incessant in their appeals to the authorities to extirpate
+such poisonous weeds from the garden of the Lord's heritage; that the
+Emperor Sigismund was most zealous in obeying such calls of the
+church, and caused his own land to flow with blood; that Henry's
+prelates made a direct personal appeal to him to prosecute heretics;
+that his council deemed it necessary to remind him of his duty in that
+point;[304] that his own chaplain openly charged him with want of zeal
+and with apathy in that good cause; that no single warrant for the
+execution of any one condemned for heresy alone was ever signed, or,
+as far as we can ascertain, was ever sanctioned, by him; that the only
+victims of the priesthood actually burnt for heresy alone during his
+reign were condemned and executed in Henry's absence from the kingdom;
+and that one person sentenced to imprisonment during Henry's life was,
+within a few months after his death, condemned to the flames, and
+actually burnt for the same offence; when all these points are fairly
+weighed, probably few will not feel satisfied that the judgment    (p. 412)
+passed upon Henry, on the charge of persecution, is inconsistent with
+the soundest principles of historical investigation.
+
+                   [Footnote 304: The Minutes of Council, 27th May,
+                   1415, record that the King should be advised, as to
+                   issuing a commission to the Archbishops and
+                   Bishops, to take measures, each in his own diocese,
+                   to resist the malice of the Lollards. The King
+                   replied, that he had committed the subject to the
+                   charge of the chancellor.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Author, however, is induced to confess that a comparison of the
+events of Henry's reign with those which preceded his accession, and
+followed his death, has compelled him to form more than a merely
+negative opinion on Henry of Monmouth's principles and conduct and
+influence. In addition to the circumstances detailed in these
+chapters, he would solicit attention to one fact, which no historical
+writer seems to have noticed. During the last years of Henry IV. a
+greater number of persons appear to have suffered in the fires of
+martyrdom than the accounts of our chroniclers would lead us to
+suppose.[305] By the cruel operation of the law, the goods and
+chattels of convicted heretics were escheated to the crown; and when
+Henry came to the throne, several widows and orphans were suffering
+severely from the effects of that ruthless enactment. No sooner had he
+the power of relieving their distress, than, in the exercise of the
+most divine prerogative of the kingly office, he restored to many
+their confiscated property. The most correct notion of the motives
+which influenced him will be conveyed by the language itself of    (p. 413)
+the several grants: "We, compassionating the poverty of Isabella,
+widow of Richard Turner, who was convicted and put to death for
+heresy, of our especial grace have granted to the said Isabella all
+the goods and chattels to us forfeited, for the maintenance of herself
+and of her children."[306] Similar grants are recorded, and all in the
+first year of his reign, to Alice widow of Walter Yonge, Isabella
+widow of John Horewood, and Matilda widow of John Fynche; their
+several husbands having suffered for maintaining opinions then
+pronounced heretical. This fact seems to be not only confirmatory of
+the views we have taken of Henry's tender-heartedness and sympathy
+with the afflicted and helpless, but indicative also of the absence of
+whatever approaches a persecuting and vindictive spirit towards those
+who had incurred the extreme penalty of the law for conscience-sake.
+The Author cannot but infer that Henry's dislike of persecution placed
+a considerable check on the fierceness with which it raged, both
+before and after his reign; that the sanguinary intentions of the
+priesthood were, to a very considerable degree, frustrated by his
+known love of gentler means; and that in England a greater portion of
+religious liberty was enjoyed during the years through which he sat on
+the throne, than had been tolerated under the government of his
+father, or was afterwards allowed through the minority of his son.
+
+                   [Footnote 305: It will be remembered, that those
+                   who were put to death in 1414, after the affair of
+                   St. Giles' Field, were sentenced by the civil
+                   courts on a charge of treason.]
+
+                   [Footnote 306: Pat. p. 5, 1 Henry V.]
+
+The Author entered upon the subject of the three last chapters     (p. 414)
+with the view of ascertaining, on the best original evidence, the
+validity or the unsoundness of the charge of persecution for religion
+brought against Henry of Monmouth. Independently of the result of that
+investigation, he confesses himself to have risen from the inquiry
+impressed with mingled feelings of apprehension and of
+gratitude:--gratitude for the blessings of the Reformation; and
+apprehension lest, in our use of those blessings, and in the return
+made to their Almighty Donor, we may be found wanting. For no maxim
+can be more firmly established by the sound deductions of human
+wisdom, or more unequivocally sanctioned by the express words of
+revelation, than the principle that to whom much is given, of them
+will much be required. And on this principle how awfully has our
+increase of privileges enhanced our responsibility! By the
+Reformation, Providence has rescued us from those dangers which once
+attended an honest avowal of a Christian's faith; has freed us from
+those gross superstitions which once darkened the whole of
+Christendom; and has released us from that galling yoke under which
+the disciples of the Cross were long held in bondage. The bestowal of
+these blessings exacts at our hands many duties of indispensable
+obligation. The Author hopes he may be pardoned, if, in closing this
+subject, he refers to some of those points which press upon his    (p. 415)
+own mind most seriously.
+
+Those who are intrusted with a brighter and a more pure light of
+spiritual truth, are, first of all, bound to prove by their lives that
+religion is not in them a dead and inoperative letter; but a vivifying
+principle, productive of practical holiness and virtue. Enlightened
+Christians are bound to show forth their principles by the exercise of
+every Christian excellence, and so to prove to the world that God is
+with them of a truth.
+
+Another indispensable duty is, that those who possess the truth should
+individually and by combined exertions labour to spread its heavenly
+influence throughout the whole mass of their fellow-creatures, not
+only in every corner of their own land, but to the utmost coasts of
+the civilized world, and through the still numberless regions of
+barbarism and idolatry. "Freely ye have received, freely give."
+
+Again, it were a narrow view of our duty were we to feel an anxiety
+for the preservation, through the period only of our own existence
+upon earth, of the benefits which we now enjoy. To be satisfied with
+the assurance that provision is made for our own times, is a principle
+altogether unworthy a philanthropic and a Christian mind: and the more
+valuable and essential the blessing, the more steady and vigorous
+should be our labour in providing for its permanency and its future
+increase. If we are honest in our own choice, we believe that      (p. 416)
+by delivering down to posterity, in its integrity and pureness, the
+blessing which has been committed to us in especial trust, we are
+transmitting not a state-device (as its enemies delight to call it),
+but an institution founded on the surest principles of true philosophy
+and of revelation, with a view to the best interests of the whole
+human race. If, aided by the Divine Founder of the church, we resign
+to those who come after us the fostering and mild, but firm and
+well-grounded establishment of the Protestant faith, removed equally
+from latitudinarian indifference and from the intolerance of bigotry,
+with an ungrudging spirit sharing with others the liberty of
+conscience we claim for ourselves, we shall transmit an inheritance
+which may be to future ages what it has proved itself to be towards
+many among ourselves, and of those who have gone before us,--the
+instructor and guide of their youth, the strength and stay of their
+manhood, the support and comfort of their declining years;--an
+institution which is the faithful depository of Christian truth; the
+surest guardian of civil and religious liberty; the parent of whatever
+is just, and generous, and charitable, and holy. ESTO PERPETUA!
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX. No. I.                                                   (p. 417)
+
+
+To those, as we are led to believe, contemporary poems, which appear
+in the body of the work, the Author is induced to subjoin a "Ballad of
+Agincourt," of much later date indeed, but which, for the noble
+national spirit which it breathes throughout, and the vigour of its
+description, cannot easily be exceeded: it is not so generally known
+as it deserves to be; though some of its expressions may sound
+strangely and quaintly to our ears. It will be found in Drayton's
+Works, p. 424.
+
+  "Fair stood the wind for France,
+  When we our sails advance;
+  Nor now to prove our chance,
+    Longer will tarry;
+  But, putting to the main,
+  At Kaux, the mouth of Seine,
+  With all his martial train,
+    Landed King Harry.
+
+  And taking many a fort,
+  Furnished in warlike sort,
+  Marcheth towards Agincourt,
+    In happy hour.
+  Skirmishing day by day,                                          (p. 418)
+  With those that stopped his way;
+  Where the French general lay
+    With all his power.
+
+  Who, in the height of pride,
+  King Henry to deride,
+  His ransom to provide,
+    To the King sending:
+  Which he neglects the while,
+  As from a nation vile;
+  Yet with an angry smile
+    Their fall portending.
+
+  And turning to his men,
+  Quoth our brave Henry then,
+  Though they to one be ten,
+    Be not amazed.
+  Yet have we well begun,
+  Battles so bravely won
+  Have ever to the sun
+    By fame been raised.
+
+  And for myself, quoth he,
+  This my full rest shall be:
+  England ne'er mourn for me,
+    Nor more esteem me.
+  Victor I will remain,
+  Or on this earth be slain;--
+  Never shall she sustain
+    Loss to redeem me.[307]
+
+  Poitiers and Cressy tell,                                        (p. 419)
+  Where most their pride did swell;
+  Under our swords they fell;--
+    No less our skill is,
+  Than when our grandsire great,
+  Claiming the regal seat,
+  By many a warlike feat
+    Lopped the French lilies.
+
+  The Duke of York so dread,
+  The eager vaward led;
+  With the main Henry sped
+    Amongst his henchmen.
+  Exeter had the rear,
+  A braver man not there!
+  How fierce and hot they were[308]
+    On the false Frenchmen!
+
+  They now to fight are gone,
+  Armour on armour shone;
+  Drum now to drum did groan--
+    To hear was wonder;
+  That with the cries they make,
+  The very earth did shake;
+  Trumpet to trumpet spake,
+    Thunder to thunder.
+
+  Well it thine age became,
+  O noble Erpingham!
+  Who didst the signal aim
+    To our hid forces;
+  When, from a meadow by,
+  Like a storm suddenly,
+  The English archery
+    Stuck the French horses.
+
+  With Spanish yew so strong,                                      (p. 420)
+  Arrows a cloth-yard long,
+  That like to serpent stung,
+    Piercing the weather.
+  None from his fellow starts,
+  But playing manly parts,
+  And, like true English hearts,
+    Stuck close together.
+
+  When down their bows they threw,
+  And forth their bilbows drew,
+  And on the French they flew;--
+    Not one was tardy;
+  Arms were from shoulders sent,
+  Scalps to the teeth were rent;
+  Down the French peasants went:--
+    Our men were hardy.
+
+  This while our noble King,
+  His broad sword brandishing,
+  Down the French host did ding,
+    As to o'erwhelm it.
+  And many a deep wound lent,
+  His arms with blood besprent;
+  And many a cruel dent
+    Bruised his helmet.
+
+  Gloucester, that Duke so good,
+  Next of the royal blood,
+  For famous England stood
+    With his brave brother;
+  Clarence, in steel so bright,
+  Though but a maiden knight,
+  Yet in that famous fight
+    Scarce such another.
+
+  Warwick in blood did wade,
+  Oxford the foe invade,
+  And cruel slaughter made,--
+    Still as they ran up;
+  Suffolk his axe did ply;                                         (p. 421)
+  Beaumont and Willoughby
+  Bare them right doughtily;
+    Ferrers and Fanhope.
+
+  Upon St. Crispin's day,
+  Fought was this noble fray;
+  Which fame did not delay
+    To England to carry;
+  Oh! when shall English men
+  With such acts fill a pen,
+  Or England breed again
+    Such a King Harry!"
+
+                   [Footnote 307: This refers to the resolution which
+                   Henry is said to have made, and to have declared to
+                   his men immediately before the battle: That, as he
+                   was a true King and knight, England should never be
+                   charged with the payment of his ransom on that day,
+                   for he had rather be slain.--MS. Cott. Cleop. C.
+                   iv.]
+
+                   [Footnote 308: The two first words of this line are
+                   different in the original.]
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX, No. II.                                                  (p. 422)
+
+
+To the miseries which fell upon the inhabitants of Rouen during the
+siege, a brief reference has been made in the body of this work. The
+following lines, by an eye-witness, record a very pleasing
+circumstance indicative of Henry's piety and benevolence. The wretched
+inhabitants, who could contribute no aid in the defence of the town,
+were driven by the garrison beyond the gates with the most unmerciful
+hardheartedness. On Christmas-day Henry offered, in honour of the
+festival, to supply all the inhabitants, great and small [meste and
+least], with meat and drink. His offer was met very uncourteously by
+the garrison, and his benevolent intentions were in a great degree
+frustrated. The poem called "The Siege of Rouen" may now be read in
+the Archæologia, vol. xxi, with an interesting introduction by the
+Reverend William Conybeare.
+
+
+SIEGE OF ROUEN.
+
+  "But then, within a little space,
+  The poor people of that same place
+  At every gate they were put out,
+  Many a hundred on a rout.
+  It was great pity them for to see,
+  How women came kneeling on their knee;
+  And their children also in their arms,
+  For to save them from harms.
+  And old men came kneeling them by,                               (p. 423)
+  And there they made a doleful cry;
+  And all they cried at once then,
+  'Have mercy on us, ye English men!'
+  Our men gave them some of their bread,
+  Though they to us were now so quede.[309]
+  Harm to them we did none,
+  But made them again to the ditch gone:
+  And there we kept them all abache,
+  Because they should not see our watch:
+  Many one said they would liefer be slain,
+  Than turn to the city of Rouen again.
+  They went forth with a strong murmuration,
+  And ever they cursed their own nation;
+  For the city would not let them in,
+  Therefore they did full great sin;
+  For many one died there for cold,
+  That might full well their life have hold.
+  This was at the time of Christmas:
+  I may you tell of a full fair case,
+  As of great meekness of our good King;
+  And also of meekness a great tokening.
+  Our King sent into Rouen on Christmas day,
+  His heralds in a rich array;
+  And said, because of this high feast,
+  Both to the meste and to the least
+  Within the city, and also without,
+  To tell, that be scanty of victuals all about,
+  All they to have meat and drink thereto,
+  And again safe-conduct to come and to go.
+  They said, 'Gramercy!' all lightly,
+  As they had set little prize thereby;
+  And unnese [scarcely] they would grant any grace
+  To the poor people that out put was,
+  Save to two priests, and no more them with,
+  For to bring meat they granted therewith;
+  'But an there come with you and mo [more],                       (p. 424)
+  Truly we will shoot you too.'
+  All on a row the poor people were set,
+  The priests come and brought them meat;
+  They ate and drank, and were full fain,
+  And thanked our King with all their main;
+  And as they sate, their meat to fong,
+  Thus they talked them among:
+  'O Mightiful Jesu!' they said then,
+  'Of tender heart is the Englishmen;
+  For see how this excellent King,
+  That we have been ever again standing;
+  And never would we obey him to,
+  Nor no homage to him would we never do;
+  And yet he hath on us more compassion,
+  Than hath our own countrymen;
+  And therefore, Lord Jesu, as Thou art full of mercy,
+  Grant him grace to win his right in hey.'[310]
+  And thus the poor people that time spake,
+  And full good tent thereto was take;
+  But when they had eaten and went their way,
+  The truce adrew, and war took his way."
+
+                   [Footnote 309: _Quede_, or quade,--evil, bad.--See
+                   Glossary to Chaucer.]
+
+                   [Footnote 310: _In hey_,--in haste, speedily.]
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX, No. III.                                                 (p. 425)
+
+AUTHENTICITY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS
+
+Sloane 1776, and Reg. 13, c. 1.
+
+
+It will be borne in mind that the only document which contains the
+charge brought against Henry of Monmouth of unfilial conduct and cruel
+behaviour towards his afflicted father is a manuscript, two copies of
+which are preserved in the British Museum; and that a thorough
+examination of the authenticity of that manuscript was reserved for
+the Appendix. Every right-minded person will agree that the magnitude
+and dark character of a charge, so far from justifying a prejudice
+against the accused, should induce us to sift with more scrutinizing
+jealousy the evidence alleged in support of the accusation.
+
+It will require but a very brief inspection of the two MSS., Sloane
+1776, and Reg. 13, c. 1.,[311] to be assured that they are either both
+transcripts from one document in that part of the volume which
+contains the history of Henry IV, or that one of these is copied from
+the other.[312] Unless, therefore, an intimation be given to the
+contrary, it will be understood that reference is made to the Sloane
+MS., which, though not copied with equal correctness in point of   (p. 426)
+orthography and grammar, is still far superior to the King's in the
+clearness of the writing.
+
+                   [Footnote 311: See Sloane, p. 27. King's, p. 11, b.
+                   The same gap between "nominati" and "fratris," &c.]
+
+                   [Footnote 312: The volume in the King's Library is
+                   made up of a great variety of documents independent
+                   of that history and of each other.]
+
+The Sloane MS. 1776,[313] appears to consist of four portions, though
+the same hand copied the whole.
+
+                   [Footnote 313: The Sloane MS. is assigned in the
+                   Catalogue to Higden. By Sir H. Ellis, it is
+                   attributed, though not correctly, to a Chaplain of
+                   Henry V; a small portion only having been the work
+                   of that eye-witness of the field of Agincourt. By
+                   Mr. Sharon Turner, it is attributed, without a
+                   shadow of reason, to Walsingham. Mr. Turner,
+                   however, has, though in a very inadequate manner,
+                   attempted in one part of his new edition to rectify
+                   the error, leaving it altogether unacknowledged
+                   where the correction is most needed, in the passage
+                   where he grounds upon its testimony his severe
+                   charge against Henry's character. See Turner, third
+                   ed. vol. ii. p. 373 and p. 398.]
+
+The first portion extends from the commencement to page 40.
+
+The second from page 40 to the end of the account of Henry IV. at page
+49.
+
+The third from the commencement of the reign of Henry V. page 50, to
+his second expedition to France, mentioned in page 72.
+
+The fourth from that point to the end, at page 94, b.
+
+1. The first portion embraces that part of the reigns of Richard II.
+and Henry IV. which falls within the range of the chronicle of the
+Monk of Evesham; ending with an account of the marriage of Edmund
+Mortimer with a daughter of Owyn Glyndowr, and two cases of sacrilege.
+
+2. The second carries on the history of Henry IV. to the beginning of
+his thirteenth year, and contains the passage which charges Henry V.
+with the unfilial attempt to supplant his father on the throne. These
+first two parts must be examined together, and in detail; the last (p. 427)
+two will require only a few remarks, and may then be dismissed.
+
+That the history which commences at p. 50 of the Sloane MS. was the
+work of an ecclesiastic who attended Henry V. in his first expedition
+to France, is made evident at a much earlier point of the narrative
+than the translation of it by Sir Harris Nicolas, in the Appendix to
+his "Battle of Agincourt," would enable us to infer. The passage
+"After having passed the Isle of Wight, swans were seen," should have
+been rendered, "After _we_ left the shores of the Isle of Wight
+behind, swans appeared." The writer was at the battle of Agincourt,
+stationed with the baggage, and with his clerical associates praying
+for God's mercy to spare themselves and their countrymen.
+
+That he was not the same person who wrote the history of Richard II.
+and Henry IV, now found in the same fasciculus, seems to be placed
+beyond doubt; his style is very different, and his tone of sentiment
+directly at variance with what is found in the preceding portion. He
+is a devoted admirer of Henry V, a characteristic which no one will
+ascribe to the writer of the preceding page.[314]
+
+                   [Footnote 314: In p. 48, b, the writer speaks of
+                   "Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham," being sent as a
+                   military commander to aid the Duke of Burgundy. In
+                   p. 50 the same person is spoken of as Johannes _de
+                   Veteri Castro_. In the former parts the word used
+                   for the _enemy_ is "_æmuli_;" the Chaplain employs
+                   "_adversarii_."]
+
+This writer had composed his history before the year 1418; for of Sir
+John Oldcastle he says, "that he broke prison after his condemnation,
+and lurked in caves and hiding-places, _and is still lurking_."[315]
+This portion of the MS. offers evidence in almost every page that its
+author was an eye-witness of what he describes. Probably no        (p. 428)
+doubt will be entertained that it is the genuine production of an
+ecclesiastic in attendance on the King. But his work evidently ceases
+at page 72, where he offers a prayer that the Almighty "would give
+good success to his master, then going on his second expedition, and
+grant him victory as he had twice before; and fill him with the spirit
+of wisdom, and heavenly strength, and holy fear."
+
+                   [Footnote 315: Latitavit et latitat.]
+
+After the close of the Chaplain's narrative, the MS. loses almost all
+its interest: it carries on the history through the first years of the
+reign of Henry VI, and is evidently only part of what the volume once
+contained.[316]
+
+                   [Footnote 316: From this point the manuscript
+                   proceeds, in the very words of Elmham, to describe
+                   Henry's second expedition.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The two former portions of the volume now claim our careful
+examination; and, of these two, especially the second.
+
+It has been already intimated, that the first part of the MS. contains
+that portion of the history of Richard II. and Henry IV. which is
+embraced by the memoirs of the Monk of Evesham. A careful examination
+of both, and a comparison of each with the other, have induced the
+Author to conclude (with what degree of probability he must leave
+others to decide) that the writer had the work of the Monk before him,
+and copied from it very largely, but made such alterations as we
+should expect to find made by a _foreigner_, and one whose feelings
+were _opposed to the Lancastrian party_; a supporter rather of the
+cause of Richard, and the French, and the other enemies of
+Bolinbroke's house. The Monk's work bears every mark of being the
+genuine production of one who witnessed Henry IV.'s expeditions to
+Wales, and who was in all his sentiments and prejudices an Englishman
+and a Lancastrian. The Author fears he may be considered too minute
+and tedious on this point; but, since the circumstance of the      (p. 429)
+writer of the manuscript bear immediately upon the authenticity of
+the charge, he trusts he shall be excused a detail which, except for
+that consideration, would be superfluous.
+
+1. They both record the execution of a Welshman, who preferred death
+to treachery. The Monk adds this comment: "_We English_ too [possumus
+et _nos Angli_] may derive an example here; to preserve our fidelity,
+&c. even to death." The MS. thus expresses its comment: "_All English
+servants_ may contemplate an example of fidelity towards their own
+masters from the conduct of that Welshman."
+
+2. Thus too, in mentioning the introduction of the fashion into
+England of wearing long sleeves like a _bagpipe_, the two MSS. of the
+Monk most clearly write "Bagpipe." Of the MSS. in question, the Sloane
+writes Bagebyte, the Reg. "Babepipæ;"--evidently the writer in neither
+case knowing the meaning of the English word which he attempted so
+unsuccessfully to copy.
+
+3. In relating the capture of Lord Grey, the Monk adds, "which we
+grieve to say." The MS., without any such, expression of sympathy or
+sorrow, says that "he fell into the snare which he had prepared for
+others."[317]
+
+                   [Footnote 317: In the MS. the word is "lacum,"
+                   probably a mistake for "laqueum."]
+
+4. The Monk merely records the return of Isabel to France; the MS.
+reflects strongly on her return _without her dower_, and her feelings
+of repugnance against receiving any boon from Henry, whom she regarded
+as _Richard's enemy_.
+
+5. Speaking of the battle of Homildon, the Monk says, "Of _our
+countrymen_ only five were slain;" and adds, "We praise thee, O God,
+because thou hast been mindful of us." The MS. says, "_And of the
+English_ scarcely five were slain;" but adds no word of praise.
+
+6. The Monk says, "From this time Owyn's cause seemed to grow      (p. 430)
+and prosper, _ours_ to decrease." This is omitted in the MS.
+
+7. Whereas the Monk (describing the character of Richard in the very
+words--and many are unusual words--adopted by the MS.) records that
+Richard was in the habit of sitting throughout the night till the
+morning in drinking, and "other occupations not to be named:" the MS.
+omits the latter phrase. The Monk says there were _two_ points of
+excellence in Richard's character; the MS., though confining itself to
+the two specified by the Monk, calls them "very many," "_plura_."
+
+8. In recording the commencement of Owyn Glyndowr's rebellion, the
+Monk, speaking of it as "an execrable revolt," says that the Welsh
+elected Owyn against the principles of peace [contra pacem elegerunt].
+The MS. says that the Welsh elected a respectable and venerable
+gentleman to be their leader and prince.
+
+Our attention is now especially called to some points in which the MS.
+seems to be so full of historical mistakes and improbabilities as to
+render any statement of a fact, especially of an improbable fact, not
+supported by other evidence, suspicious.[318]
+
+                   [Footnote 318: The Author on the whole is rather
+                   disposed to think that, whilst the Monk records
+                   accurately what fell within his own knowledge, both
+                   he and the author of the Sloane MS. in this part
+                   borrowed from some common document, probably more
+                   than one; for in some points they vary from each
+                   other in a way best reconciled by that supposition.
+                   Thus, whilst the Sloane MS. tells us that Richard
+                   II. on his landing came to a place _called
+                   Cardech_, from which he started for Conway, the
+                   Monk (not differing from him in other points) says
+                   that he came to the castle of Hertlowli. They both
+                   have fallen into the error of making the Earl of
+                   Salisbury accompany Richard, whereas he had
+                   undoubtedly been sent on before from Dublin to
+                   Conway. They are both equally wrong about the
+                   relative positions of Flint and Conway, and make
+                   the parties all cross and recross _the bridge_ at
+                   the castle of Conway, where a noble suspension
+                   bridge is now thrown over the arm of the sea. After
+                   the period, however, at which the Monk's narrative
+                   closes, the writer of the manuscript seems to be
+                   seldom free from error.]
+
+1. Froissart (who appears to be well acquainted with the           (p. 431)
+proceedings of Bolinbroke till he left the coast of France, but to
+have been altogether mistaken as to his proceedings from that hour,)
+states, with the greatest probability, that Bolinbroke left Paris
+under plea of visiting his friend the Duke of Brittany, and having
+been well received and assisted by him, set sail from some port of
+Brittany [intimating that his embarkation was (as was natural) carried
+on in secret, for he "_had only been informed_" that it was from
+Vennes].[319] The MS., on the contrary, with the greatest
+improbability, roundly asserts that Bolinbroke went to Calais,
+obtained money from the treasurer, though against his will, and seized
+all the ships which he could find in the port. The improbability that
+Bolinbroke should have excited the suspicions of the authorities of
+Calais not in his interest, from which a single boat in a few hours
+could have carried the news of his hostile attempts to Richard's
+friends in England, and the absurdity of making him seize all the
+ships in the port of Calais to carry over his handful of friends, can
+impress the reader with no favourable idea of this writer's accuracy.
+
+                   [Footnote 319: The Monk of Evesham makes no mention
+                   of Bolinbroke's proceedings before he landed in
+                   England.]
+
+2. No fact is more undeniably certain than that Henry IV. made his
+eldest son (our Henry V.) Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall in the
+parliament held immediately upon his accession; whereas the MS.
+declares that Henry V. was so created in the year of the Emperor of
+Constantinople's visit to England, and in the parliament which     (p. 432)
+began at the feast of St. Hilary, during which Sautre was burned for a
+heretic;--that is, a year and a quarter later.
+
+3. The MS. account of Hotspur's rebellion is quite inconsistent with
+facts, and altogether, in other respects, as improbable as it is
+singular. The MS. says that Hotspur,[320] about Candlemas, was
+commissioned to go against the Welsh rebels; but when he reached the
+country with his forces, and found it to be mountainous, and fit
+neither for horse nor infantry, he made a truce with Owyn, and went to
+London to take the King's pleasure upon it. The reception he met with
+at court drove him to his own country; and the King, as soon as he
+heard of Percy gathering his people, collected those whom he believed
+to be faithful to him, and hastened to meet him near Shrewsbury.
+Whereas the fact is, that Henry Percy had been resident as Chief
+Justice in North Wales, Constable of Caernarvon, &c. at least three
+years; had besieged Conway with his own men; had routed the rebels at
+Cader Idris, and most zealously persevered in his attempts to suppress
+the rebellion; and had returned from the Principality at least a year
+and a half before the Candlemas (1403), at which the MS. says that he
+was first commissioned to go there.
+
+                   [Footnote 320: This account of Hotspur's mission to
+                   Wales is the first circumstance mentioned by the
+                   manuscript after the chronicle of the Monk of
+                   Evesham ends.]
+
+The next point to which the attention of the reader is solicited will
+perhaps be considered by many to involve a greater improbability than
+the Author may himself attach to it. Every one who has ever read, or
+heard, or written about the "Tripartite Indenture of Division" made
+between Glyndowr, Mortimer, and Northumberland, fixes it, as       (p. 433)
+Shakspeare does, before the battle of Shrewsbury.[321] The scene in
+the house of the Archdeacon of Bangor is too exquisite for any one to
+desire it to be proved a fable. But (as the Author believes) this MS.
+is the only document extant which professes to record the words of
+that treaty; and yet this document fixes it to a date long after the
+Percies lost that "sorry field." It is represented to have been made
+in the February of the year of Pope Innocent's election: if before
+that election, it was made in 1404; if after it, in 1405. And
+certainly the tradition is general that Northumberland, after his
+flight to Scotland, visited Wales.
+
+                   [Footnote 321: The Sloane MS. says that it was on
+                   the 28th day of February; the King's MS. assigns it
+                   to the 18th.]
+
+Another point deserving consideration is the account of the conspiracy
+of Mowbray and the Archbishop of York. That account is drawn up in a
+manner most unfavourable to Henry IV. The MS. boldly also records the
+miracle wrought in the field of the Archbishop's execution, and states
+that various miracles attracted multitudes to his tomb daily. It also
+affirms that, on the very day and hour of the Archbishop's execution,
+Henry IV. was struck with the leprosy.[322]
+
+                   [Footnote 322: There are similar statements in
+                   Maydstone, Ang. Sac. vii. 371.]
+
+Perhaps too it may appear strange to others, as the Author confesses
+it has appeared to himself, that, up to the very last chapter of this
+history of Richard II. and Henry IV, no mention whatever is made of
+Henry of Monmouth, except in the unaccountable anachronism of his
+creation as Prince of Wales. It is curious that an historian should
+state that the young Duke of Gloucester was sent for from Ireland, and
+not allude to the circumstance of the Prince being in prison with him,
+and being sent for back at the same time.[323]
+
+                   [Footnote 323: The MS. and Monk here agree.]
+
+We are now arrived at the very last chapter, the chapter           (p. 434)
+containing the charge on which Henry of Monmouth's character has been
+so severely, and, if that charge be true, so justly arraigned. The
+chapter professes to record the transactions of the thirteenth year of
+Henry IV. The question is one of such essential importance as far as
+Henry's good name is at stake, and (as the Author cannot but think) in
+point too of the philosophy of history, involving principles of such
+deep interest to the genuine pursuer of truth, that he would not feel
+himself justified were he to abstain from transcribing the whole
+chapter.
+
+"In the thirteenth year there was a great disturbance between the Duke
+of Burgundy and the Duke of Orleans. Wherefore the Duke of Burgundy
+sent to the Lord Henry, Prince of England,[324] for aid to oppose the
+Duke of Orleans: who sent to his succour the Earl Arundell, John
+Oldcastle the Lord of Cobham, the Lord Gilbert Umfravill, the Lord of
+Kyme, and with them a great army; by whose prowess at Senlow [Reg.
+'Senlowe'], near Paris, the Duke of Orleans was vanquished, and
+cruelly routed from the field, and his followers crushed, routed, and
+slain. And the same Duke of Orleans thought how he could avenge
+himself against the Duke of Burgundy; and immediately he sent to King
+Henry of England a great sum of gold, together with William Count
+Anglam [Reg. "de Anglam"], his brother, as a hostage or surety for a
+greater sum, to obtain succour from the King of England himself. And
+the King did not put off sending him succour; and he appointed Lord
+Thomas, his second son, Duke of Clarence, and conferred on him the
+dukedom (or, as it was of old time, the earldom) of Albemarle; and
+Edmund, who before was Duke of Albemarle, then, after the death    (p. 435)
+of his father, he advanced to be Duke of York. And Lord John Cornwall,
+who married his sister, the Duchess of Exeter, and whom the King
+appointed Captain of Calais, he sent towards the parts of France with
+a great power of men. And when they landed in Normandy, near Hogges,
+forthwith the Lord de Hambe, with seven thousand armed men, went up
+against the English to oppose them, and thus on that day there was a
+great slaughter of men; for on the part of the Duke of Burgundy eight
+hundred men were taken, and four hundred slain: and thus at length
+victory was on the side of the English. After which the Duke, with his
+army, turned off towards the country of Bourdeaux,[325] [               ]
+destroying [               ] of the countrymen, collecting great sums
+of money, at length arrived at Bourdeaux, and from thence they
+returned to England about the vintage."
+
+                   [Footnote 324: This is another sign that it was
+                   written by a foreigner. No Englishman would have
+                   been likely to call Henry the Prince of England. He
+                   was either called Prince of Wales, or more
+                   frequently the Prince.]
+
+                   [Footnote 325: The Author confesses his inability
+                   to discover the meaning of the words which fill up
+                   the gaps left in this translation of the passage
+                   "Per suas patenas de patriotis," &c. The passage
+                   seems to him altogether corrupt.]
+
+The reader's especial attention is here called to the confusion of
+facts and dates, the mistakes historical, geographical, chronological,
+biographical, with which this short section abounds to the overflow.
+It will perhaps be difficult to find a page in any author, ancient or
+modern, more full of such blunders as tend to destroy confidence in
+him, when he records as a fact what is not found in any other writer,
+nor is supported by ancillary evidence. The MS. states that all these
+events took place in the thirteenth year of Henry IV: the MS. writes
+it at length, "Anno decimo tertio," which began on the 20th September
+1411. Now, allowing to the writer every latitude not involving
+positive confusion, it is impossible for us to suppose, when he    (p. 436)
+crowds all these events within one year, that he had any such
+information on the affairs of England as would predispose us to regard
+him as an authority.
+
+1. The first application by the Duke of Burgundy for English
+auxiliaries was in August 1411; and the battle of St. Cloud (the place
+which the MS., evidently ignorant of its situation and name, calls
+Senlow) was fought on the 10th of November 1411. The Duke of Orleans,
+at the beginning of the following year, 1412, made his application to
+the English court for aid against the Duke of Burgundy, but it was not
+till the 18th of May 1412 that the final treaty was concluded between
+Henry IV. and the Duke of Orleans; and it was not till the middle, or
+the latter end of August 1412, that the Duke of Clarence was
+despatched to aid the Duke of Orleans; and he remained in France till
+he received news of his father's death, in April 1413; when, and not
+before, he returned to England after his expedition to aid the Duke of
+Orleans.[326] Yet all these events are stated in the MS. to have
+fallen within the same year.[327]
+
+                   [Footnote 326: The Duke of Clarence was at
+                   Bourdeaux, February 5, 1413, and signed an
+                   acquittance there, April 14, 1413. (See Rymer; and
+                   Additional Charters.)]
+
+                   [Footnote 327: The words are written in one MS. at
+                   length, "decimo tertio."]
+
+2. The MS. says that the English, after their victory over the Duke of
+Burgundy's forces, returned to England at the time of vintage. The
+English returned to England at the end of autumn; not after their
+struggle against the Duke of Burgundy, but after their victory over
+the Duke of Orleans at the bridge of St. Cloud, a year and a quarter
+at least before their return from the expedition against the Duke of
+Burgundy.
+
+3. Again, the MS. says that the Duke of Orleans sent, immediately
+after the battle of St. Cloud (the Senlow of the MS.), a large     (p. 437)
+sum of money to the King of England, together with his brother, the
+Earl of Angouleme, as a hostage or pledge for the payment of a greater
+sum, to induce the King to comply with his request. This is utter
+confusion. The Earl was sent as an hostage,--not beforehand, to induce
+Henry IV. to send auxiliaries,--but afterwards, to insure the payment
+of large sums which the Duke of Orleans stipulated to pay to the
+English after they had been some time in France, on condition of their
+quitting it. The Earl of Angouleme was sent as an hostage to England
+somewhat before January 25, 1413; the MS. says, at the end of 1411.
+
+4. Again, the MS. having dated the death of John, Earl of Somerset,
+Captain of Calais, in the preceding year, says that the King then made
+John Cornwall Captain of Calais. Whereas the fact is, that John
+Beaufort, Captain of Calais, died on Palm Sunday, 1410, and Prince
+Henry was appointed to succeed him on the following Tuesday. His
+appointment, by writ of privy seal, bears date March 18, 1410; and he
+continued to be Captain of Calais till he succeeded to the throne.
+
+The MS. having recorded the marriage of the Duke of Clarence with the
+Countess of Somerset, and the dispute between him and the Bishop of
+Winchester, in which Prince Henry took the Bishop's part against his
+brother, as having taken place in this same year, proceeds with the
+passage, for the purpose of ascertaining the accuracy and authenticity
+of which we have been led to make so many prefatory observations.
+
+"In the same year,[328] on the morrow of All Souls, began a parliament
+at Westminster; and because the King, by reason of his infirmity,
+could not in his own person be present, he appointed and ordained  (p. 438)
+in his name his brother, Thomas Beaufort, then Chancellor of England,
+to open, continue, and prorogue it. In which parliament Prince Henry
+desired from his father the resignation of his kingdom and crown,
+because that his father, by reason of his malady, could not labour for
+the honour and advantage of the kingdom any longer; but in this he was
+altogether unwilling to consent to him,--nay, he wished to govern the
+kingdom, together with the crown and its appurtenances, as long as he
+retained his vital breath. Whence the Prince, in a manner, with his
+counsellors retired aggrieved; and afterwards, as it were through the
+greater part of England, he joined all the nobles under his authority
+in homage and pay. In the same parliament the money, as well in gold
+as in silver, was somewhat lessened in weight in consequence of the
+exchange of foreigners, &c."
+
+                   [Footnote 328: Bibl. Reg. 13, C. I. 10. An. 13 Hen.
+                   IV. "Eodem anno in Crastino Animarum incepit
+                   parliamentum apud Westmonasterium. Et quia Rex
+                   ratione suæ infirmitatis non poterat in personâ
+                   propriâ interesse, assignavit et ordinavit in
+                   nomine suo fratrem suum Thomam Beuforde,
+                   Cancellarium tunc Angliæ, ad inchoandum,
+                   continuandum, et prorogandum; in quo parliamento
+                   Henricus Princeps desidevavit à patre suo regni et
+                   coronæ resignacionem, eo quod pater ratione
+                   ægritudinis non poterat circa honorem et utilitatem
+                   regni ulteriùs laborare; sed sibi in hoc noluit
+                   penitùs assentire; ymmo regnum unà cum coronâ et
+                   pertinenciis, dummodo haberet spiritus vitales,
+                   voluit gubernare: unde Princeps quodammodo cum suis
+                   consiliariis aggravatus recessit; et posteriùs
+                   quasi pro majori parte Angliæ omnes proceres suo
+                   dominio in humagio et stipendio copulavit. In eodem
+                   parliamento moneta tam in auro quam in argento
+                   fuerat aliqualiter in pondere minorata ex causà
+                   permutationis extraneorum, qui in suis partibus
+                   ratione cambii magnum sibi cumulabant emolumentum,
+                   et Regi et suis mercatoribus Angligenis in magnum
+                   dispendium et detrimentum, &c."]
+
+Now, there can be no doubt (1) that a parliament was held on the   (p. 439)
+morrow of All Souls, in the thirteenth year of Henry IV. (1411);
+(2) that it was _opened_, _continued_, and _prorogued_ by Thomas
+Beaufort, the Chancellor, by commission from the King, in his absence;
+(3) that an alteration in the coin was agreed upon in that parliament;
+and (4), moreover, that the King declared in that parliament his
+determination to allow of no innovations, nor of any encroachments on
+his prerogative, but to maintain the rights and privileges of his
+crown in full enjoyment, as his royal predecessors had delivered them
+down.
+
+A superficial glance at these facts would doubtless suggest a strong
+confirmation of the details of the MS. in other points, and thus
+predispose us to receive the statement with regard to Prince Henry's
+unfilial conduct on the authority of this document alone. But, on
+close examination, these very facts, which the records of the realm
+place beyond doubt, coupled with others equally indisputable, to which
+we shall presently refer, demonstrate to the Author's mind that no
+dependence whatever can be placed on this MS., and that the statement
+is altogether apocryphal, and founded on palpable confusion.
+
+The parliament met on the morrow of All Souls, Tuesday, November 3,
+1411, (13th Henry IV,) and was opened, continued, and prorogued by the
+Chancellor; but not on account of the King's indisposition, or
+inability to be present. The Rolls of Parliament are most explicit on
+this point. They state that the King, having been informed that very
+many lords, spiritual and temporal, knights of the shire, and
+burgesses, who ought to attend that parliament, had not assembled on
+the appointed day, commissions the Chancellor to open the parliament,
+and to prorogue it _till the following day_. And on the following day,
+Wednesday, (the Lords and Commons then being in the presence of    (p. 440)
+the King,) the Chancellor, by the King's command, recited the reasons
+for convening the parliament, and charged the Commons to retire and
+elect their Speaker.
+
+Not only so. On the Thursday (Nov. 5), the Commons came before the
+King and the Lords, and presented Thomas Chaucer as their Speaker. And
+the Speaker prayed liberty of speech, &c.: and the King granted the
+request, but declared that he would admit of no innovation nor
+encroachment on his prerogative, but resolved to maintain his rights
+as fully as his predecessors had done. On this the Speaker prayed him
+to grant to the Commons, till the day following, time for putting
+their protest, &c. in writing. To this the King agreed. But, forasmuch
+as the King could not attend on the Friday in consequence of diverse
+great and pressing matters, the time was postponed to the following
+day, Saturday; when the Commons came before the King, and presented
+their prayer, &c.
+
+The fact is, that the King was repeatedly present at this parliament,
+from the day before the Speaker was chosen to the very last day. On a
+subsequent occasion, the Prince of Wales also, as well as the King, is
+recorded to have been present, (as doubtless he was on various
+occasions throughout,--probably an habitual attendant,) in what
+character, and under what circumstances, whether as the supplanter of
+his father or not, perhaps the words of the record may, to a certain
+extent at least, enable us to pronounce.
+
+"On Monday, the last day of November, the Speaker, in the name of the
+Commons, prayed the King to thank my Lord the Prince, the Bishops of
+Winchester and Durham, &c. who were assigned to be of council to the
+King in the last parliament, for their great labour and diligence;
+for, as it appears to the said Commons, my said Lord the Prince, and
+the other Lords, have well and loyally done their duty according to
+their promise in that parliament. And upon that, kneeling, my Lord the
+Prince, and the other Lords, declared, by the mouth of my Lord     (p. 441)
+the Prince, how they had taken pains, and labour, and diligence,
+according to their promise, and the charge given them in parliament,
+to their skill and knowledge. This the King remembered well [or made
+good mention of], and thanked them most graciously. And he said
+besides, that he was well assured, if they had had more than they had,
+in the manner it had been spoken by the mouth of my Lord the Prince,
+at the time the King charged them to be of his council in the said
+parliament, they would have done their duty to effect more good than
+was done in diverse parts for the defence, honour, good, and profit of
+him and his kingdom. And our Lord the King also said, that he felt
+very contented with their good and loyal diligence, counsel, and duty,
+for the time they had been of his council."
+
+This took place on the 30th of November, a month (saving two days)
+after the parliament had assembled, and within less than three weeks
+of its termination. It would scarcely be credible, even had the report
+come through a less questionable channel, that Henry of Monmouth up to
+that time had been guilty of the unfilial delinquency with which the
+MS. charges him. Nor could he have made the "unnatural attempt to
+dethrone his diseased father" at any period through the remaining
+three weeks of the session of that parliament. At all events, such a
+proceeding appears altogether irreconcilable with the conduct both of
+the parliament and of the King on the very last day of their sitting.
+"On Saturday, December 20th, (say the Rolls,) being the last day of
+parliament, the Speaker, recommending the persons of the Queen, of the
+Prince, and of other the King's sons, prayeth the advancement of their
+estates; for the which the King giveth hearty thanks."
+
+Had any such transaction taken place during this parliament as the MS.
+records, would the King, on the last day of the session, without any
+allusion to it, have given hearty thanks to the Commons for their
+recommendation of the Prince's person (coupled with the name of    (p. 442)
+his Queen and his other sons), and their prayer for further provision
+for his dignity and comfort?
+
+There are, however, two or three more circumstances upon which it may
+appear material to make some observations; or even, should these
+closing observations not seem altogether indispensable, yet, since
+this is all new and untrodden ground, it may yet be thought safer to
+anticipate conjectures, than to leave any questions unopened and
+unexamined on this point--a point which the Author trusts may be set
+at rest at once, and for ever.
+
+The Author then is ready to confess his belief that both the MS. and
+its commentator, the modern historian, have confounded this parliament
+of November 1411 with the parliament of February 3, 1413, which was
+opened in the illness of the King, and which he never was able to
+attend. But if it be attempted to engraft on this fact the surmise
+that it might have been in the latter parliament that the Prince
+demanded the surrender of the throne, and that it is after all a mere
+mistake of dates, the material fact being unshaken and unaffected,--to
+this suggestion he replies, that there is no evidence, directly or
+indirectly bearing on the subject, in support of such a surmise. The
+only statement in printed book or manuscript known, is that which we
+have now been sifting; and which with a precision, as though of set
+purpose, minute and pointed, fixes the alleged transaction to the year
+1411.[329] Not only so. We have, on the contrary, reason to believe
+that before the meeting of the next parliament, February 1413, _all
+differences had been made up between the King and his son_; and that
+from the day of their reconciliation they lived in the full
+interchange of paternal and filial kindness to the end. For that   (p. 443)
+jealousies and alienations of confidence, fostered by the malevolence
+of others,[330] had taken place between them in the course of the
+preceding year, the very mention of the "ridings of gentils and huge
+people with the Prince," twice recurring in the Chronicle of London,
+seems of itself to force upon us. The accounts, at all events, such as
+they are, which chroniclers give of their reconciliation, fix the date
+of that happy issue of their estrangement to a period antecedent to
+the last parliament of Henry IV. February 3.--Cras. Purif. 1413.
+
+                   [Footnote 329: It cannot, however, be supposed that
+                   this anonymous writer fabricated the story; he must
+                   have copied it from some other writer, or put down
+                   what he had learned by hearsay.]
+
+                   [Footnote 330: The Author confesses his own opinion
+                   to be that a party was formed at court (headed
+                   probably by the Queen), jealous of the Prince's
+                   influence, and determined to destroy his power with
+                   his father. That, to oppose this party, the Prince
+                   summoned his friends, and made a demonstration of
+                   his power; (it is possible that he might have
+                   expressed his readiness to act again in the
+                   government for his father, as he had undoubtedly
+                   done before:) and that, after much coldness and
+                   alienation, father and son were fully reconciled.]
+
+Although the life and reign of Henry IV. continued more than a year
+and four months after the passing of the ordinance respecting the
+coin, with an account of which this MS. abruptly closes, yet
+(excepting what is involved in the extract above cited) not one single
+word is said of the foreign and domestic affairs of the kingdom, or of
+the life of the King, or of his death; though much of interesting
+matter was at hand, and though a parliament was summoned, and actually
+met fourteen months after the alteration of the coin. And such is the
+close of a document, not like a yearly chronicle, or general register
+of events, satisfied with giving a summary of the most remarkable
+casualties in the briefest form; but a narrative which transcribes,
+with unusual minuteness, the very words (at full, and with all their
+technicalities,) of some of the most unimportant and prolix statutes
+of Henry IV.'s reign.[331] It is not that the MS. is mechanically  (p. 444)
+cut short by loss of leaves, or other accident; the Sloane ends with
+an "etc." in the very middle of a page, and the King's at the foot of
+the first column.
+
+                   [Footnote 331: Sloane, p. 42. The statute for
+                   assigning certain imposts for the King's household
+                   is transcribed at full length, word for word. So,
+                   too, in the seventh year, the statute relative to
+                   the succession is copied verbatim. Of the same
+                   character is the copy of the Tripartite Indenture
+                   of Division.]
+
+We need not encumber this inquiry (already too long) by any
+reflections on the avidity with which this passage of the MS. has been
+seized, and made the groundwork of charges against Henry of "unfilial
+conduct," "unnatural rebellion" towards his father, and "the
+unprincipled ambition of a Catilinarian temper," with other hard words
+and harder surmises; because we are trying the value of testimony. If
+that testimony is sound, modern historians may doubtless build upon it
+what comments seem to them good; if we utterly destroy the validity of
+the evidence, their foundation sinks from under their superstructure.
+
+The reader, however, has probably already determined that, unless
+there be in reserve some other independent, or at least auxiliary
+source of evidence, the palpable contradiction and manifest confusion
+reigning through this part of the MS., together with the high degree
+of improbability thrown over the whole statement by the undoubted
+records of the very parliament in question, justify the rejection of
+the passage altogether from the pale of authentic history. The Author
+confesses that he has step by step come to that conclusion.
+
+THE END.
+
+LONDON
+PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY,
+Dorset Street, Fleet Street.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Henry of Monmouth, Volume 2, by J. Endell Tyler
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+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
+<html>
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+<head>
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Henri of Monmouth Vol. II by
+J. Endell Tyler</title>
+
+
+<style type="text/css">
+<!--
+body {font-size: 1em; text-align: justify; margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%;}
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+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's Henry of Monmouth, Volume 2, by J. Endell Tyler
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Henry of Monmouth, Volume 2
+       Memoirs of Henry the Fifth
+
+Author: J. Endell Tyler
+
+Release Date: January 31, 2007 [EBook #20489]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HENRY OF MONMOUTH, VOLUME 2 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Christine P. Travers, Ted Garvin and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+<p>[Transcriber's note: Obvious printer's errors have been corrected.
+The original spelling has been retained.</p>
+
+<p>Different spelling as been kept, e.g.:<br>
+- Ruisseauville and Ruissauville<br>
+- Azincour and Azincourt, etc ...</p>
+
+<p>Some words on page 94 were partly unclear / illegible.<br>
+- Page 249: ii. vol. changed to vol. ii.<br>
+- Page 412: The anchor for the footnote 305 was missing and has been added.]</p>
+
+
+<a id="img001_02" name="img001_02"></a>
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/img001_02.jpg" width="400" height="189"
+alt="Great seal of Owen Glyndowr as Prince of Wales" title="Great seal of Owen Glyndowr as Prince of Wales">
+</div>
+<p class="figcenter">Great seal of Owen Glyndowr as Prince of Wales</p>
+
+
+
+
+<h1>HENRY OF MONMOUTH:</h1>
+
+<h5>OR,</h5>
+
+<h1>MEMOIRS</h1>
+
+<h5>OF THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF</h5>
+
+<h1>HENRY THE FIFTH,</h1>
+
+<h5>AS</h5>
+
+<h5>PRINCE OF WALES AND KING OF ENGLAND.</h5>
+
+
+
+<h5>BY J. ENDELL TYLER, B.D.</h5>
+
+<h6>RECTOR OF ST. GILES IN THE FIELDS.</h6>
+
+
+<h6>
+"Go, call up Cheshire and Lancashire,<br>
+  And Derby hills, that are so free;<br>
+But neither married man, nor widow's son;<br>
+  No widow's curse shall go with me."
+</h6>
+
+
+<h5>IN TWO VOLUMES.</h5>
+
+<h5>VOL. II.</h5>
+
+
+<h5>
+LONDON:<br>
+RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET,</h5>
+<h6>Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty.</h6>
+
+<h5>1838.</h5>
+
+
+
+
+
+<h6>
+LONDON:<br>
+PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY,<br>
+Dorset Street, Fleet Street.</h6>
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="pageiii" name="pageiii">(p. iii)</a></span>
+
+
+<h2>CONTENTS
+
+OF
+
+THE SECOND VOLUME.</h2>
+
+
+
+<h5>CHAPTER XVII.</h5>
+
+<h4>1413-1414.</h4>
+
+
+<p class="figcenter">
+<a href="#page001">Henry of Monmouth's Accession. &mdash; National rejoicings. &mdash; His profound
+sense of the Awfulness of the Charge devolved upon him. &mdash; Coronation.
+&mdash; First Parliament. &mdash; Habits of business. &mdash; He removes the remains
+of Richard to Westminster. &mdash; Redeems the Son of Hotspur, and restores
+him to his forfeited honours and estates. &mdash; Generous conduct towards
+the Earl of March. &mdash; Parliament at Leicester. &mdash; Enactments against
+Lollards. &mdash; Henry's Foundations at Shene and Sion.</a></p>
+
+
+<h5>CHAPTER XVIII.</h5>
+
+<h4>1414-1417.</h4>
+
+
+<p class="figcenter">
+<a href="#page032">State of the Church. &mdash; Henry a sincere Christian, but no Bigot. &mdash;
+Degraded state of Religion. &mdash; Council of Constance. &mdash; Henry's
+Representatives zealous promoters of Reform. &mdash; Hallam, Bishop of
+Salisbury, avowed enemy of the Popedom. &mdash; Richard Ullerston:
+primitive views of Clerical duties. &mdash; Walden, his own Chaplain,
+accuses Henry of remissness in the extirpation of Heresy. &mdash;
+Forester's Letter to the King. &mdash; Henry Beaufort's unhappy
+interference. &mdash; Petition from Oxford. &mdash; Henry's personal exertions
+in the business of Reform. &mdash; Reflections on the then apparent dawn of
+the Reformation.</a></p>
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="pageiv" name="pageiv">(p. iv)</a></span>
+
+<h5>CHAPTER XIX.</h5>
+
+<h4>1414.</h4>
+
+<p class="figcenter">
+<a href="#page070">Wars with France. &mdash; Causes which influenced Henry. &mdash; Summary of the
+affairs of France from the time of Edward III. &mdash; Reflections on
+Henry's Title. &mdash; Affairs of France from Henry's resolution to claim
+his "Dormant Rights," and "Rightful Heritage," to his invasion of
+Normandy. &mdash; Negociations. &mdash; His Right denied by the French. &mdash;
+Parliament votes him Supplies.</a></p>
+
+
+<h5>CHAPTER XX.</h5>
+
+<p class="figcenter">
+<a href="#page089">Modern triple charge against Henry of Falsehood, Hypocrisy, and
+Impiety. &mdash; Futility of the Charge, and utter failure of the Evidence
+on which alone it is grounded. &mdash; He is urged by his people to
+vindicate the Rights of his Crown, himself having a conscientious
+conviction of the Justice of his Claim. &mdash; Story of the Tennis-Balls.
+&mdash; Preparations for invading France. &mdash; Henry's Will made at
+Southampton. &mdash; Charge of Hypocrisy again grounded on the close of
+that Testament. &mdash; Its Futility. &mdash; He despatches to the various
+Powers of Europe the grounds of his Claim on France.</a></p>
+
+
+<h5>CHAPTER XXI.</h5>
+
+<h4>1415.</h4>
+
+<p class="figcenter">
+<a href="#page119">Preparations for invading France. &mdash; Reflections on the Military and
+Naval State of England. &mdash; Mode of raising and supporting an Army. &mdash;
+Song of Agincourt. &mdash; Henry of Monmouth the Founder of the English
+Royal Navy. &mdash; Custom of impressing Vessels for the transporting of
+Troops. &mdash; Henry's exertions in Ship-building. &mdash; Gratitude due to
+him. &mdash; Conspiracy at Southampton. &mdash; Prevalent delusion as to Richard
+II. &mdash; The Earl of March. &mdash; Henry's Forces. &mdash; He sails for Normandy.</a></p>
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="pagev" name="pagev">(p. v)</a></span>
+
+<h5>CHAPTER XXII.</h5>
+
+<h4>1415.</h4>
+
+<p class="figcenter">
+<a href="#page143">Henry crosses the Sea: lands at Clef de Caus: lays Siege to Harfleur.
+&mdash; Devoted Attendance on his dying Friend the Bishop of Norwich. &mdash;
+Vast Treasure falls into his hands on the Surrender of Harfleur. &mdash; He
+challenges the Dauphin. &mdash; Futile Modern Charge brought against him on
+that ground.</a></p>
+
+
+<h5>CHAPTER XXIII.</h5>
+
+<h4>1415.</h4>
+
+<p class="figcenter">
+<a href="#page156">Henry, with Troops much weakened, leaves Harfleur, fully purposed to
+make for Calais, notwithstanding the threatened resistance of the
+French. &mdash; Passes the Field of Cressy. &mdash; French resolved to engage.
+&mdash; Night before the Conflict. &mdash; <span class="smcap">FIELD of AGINCOURT.</span> &mdash; Slaughter of
+Prisoners. &mdash; Henry, his enemies themselves being Judges, fully
+exculpated from every suspicion of cruelty or unchivalrous bearing. &mdash;
+He proceeds to Calais. &mdash; Thence to London. &mdash; Reception by his
+Subjects. &mdash; His modest and pious Demeanour. &mdash; Superstitious
+proceedings of the Ecclesiastical Authorities. &mdash; Reflections. &mdash;
+Songs of Agincourt.</a></p>
+
+
+<h5>CHAPTER XXIV.</h5>
+
+<h4>1415-1417.</h4>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="pagevi" name="pagevi">(p. vi)</a></span>
+
+<p class="figcenter">
+<a href="#page203">Reasons for delaying a Second Campaign. &mdash; Sigismund undertakes to
+mediate. &mdash; Reception of Sigismund. &mdash; French Ships scour the seas,
+and lay siege to Harfleur. &mdash; Henry's vigorous measures thereupon. &mdash;
+The Emperor declares for "Henry and his Just Rights." &mdash; Joins with
+him in Canterbury Cathedral on a Day of Thanksgiving for Victory over
+the French. &mdash; With him meets the Duke of Burgundy at Calais.
+&mdash; The Duke also declares for Henry. &mdash; Second Invasion of France. &mdash;
+Siege of Caen. &mdash; Henry's Bulletin to the Mayor of London. &mdash; Hostile
+Movement of the Scots.</a></p>
+
+
+<h5>CHAPTER XXV.</h5>
+
+<h4>1418-1419.</h4>
+
+<p class="figcenter">
+<a href="#page221">Henry's progress in his Second Campaign. &mdash; Siege of Rouen. &mdash;
+Cardinal des Ursins. &mdash; Supplies from London. &mdash; Correspondence
+between Henry and the Citizens. &mdash; Negociation with the Dauphin and
+with the French King. &mdash; Henry's Irish Auxiliaries. &mdash; Reflections on
+Ireland. &mdash; Its miserable condition. &mdash; Wise and strong measures
+adopted by Henry for its Tranquillity. &mdash; Divisions and struggles, not
+between Romanists and Protestants, but between English and Irish. &mdash;
+Henry and the See of Rome. &mdash; Thraldom of Christendom. &mdash; The Duke of
+Brittany declares for Henry. &mdash; Spaniards join the Dauphin. &mdash;
+Exhausted State of England.</a></p>
+
+
+<h5>CHAPTER XXVI.</h5>
+
+<h4>1419-1420.</h4>
+
+<p class="figcenter">
+<a href="#page249">Bad faith of the Dauphin. &mdash; The Duke of Burgundy brings about an
+Interview between Henry and the French Authorities. &mdash; Henry's first
+Interview with the Princess Katharine of Valois. &mdash; Her Conquest. &mdash;
+The Queen's over-anxiety and indiscretion. &mdash; Double-dealing of the
+Duke of Burgundy; he joins the Dauphin; is murdered on the Bridge of
+Montereau. &mdash; The Dauphin disinherited. &mdash; Henry's anxiety to prevent
+the Escape of his Prisoners.</a></p>
+
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="pagevii" name="pagevii">(p. vii)</a></span>
+<h5>CHAPTER XXVII.</h5>
+
+<h4>1419-1420.</h4>
+
+<p class="figcenter">
+<a href="#page262">Henry's extraordinary attention to the Civil and Private duties of his
+station, in the midst of his career of Conquest, instanced in various
+cases. &mdash; Provost and Fellows of Oriel College. &mdash; The Queen Dowager
+is accused of Treason. &mdash; Treaty between Henry, the French King, and
+the young Duke of Burgundy. &mdash; Henry affianced to Katharine. &mdash; The
+Dauphin is reinforced from Scotland. &mdash; Henry, accompanied by his
+Queen, returns through Normandy to England.</a></p>
+
+
+<h5>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h5>
+
+<h4>1421-1422.</h4>
+
+<p class="figcenter">
+<a href="#page286">Katharine crowned. &mdash; Henry and his Queen make a progress through a
+great part of his Dominions. &mdash; Arrival of the disastrous news of his
+Brother's Death (the Duke of Clarence). &mdash; Henry meets his Parliament.
+&mdash; Hastens to the Seat of War. &mdash; Birth of his Son, Henry of Windsor.
+&mdash; Joins his Queen at Bois de Vincennes. &mdash; Their magnificent
+Reception at Paris. &mdash; Henry hastens in person to succour the Duke of
+Burgundy. &mdash; Is seized by a fatal Malady. &mdash; Returns to Vincennes. &mdash;
+His Last Hour. &mdash; HIS DEATH.</a></p>
+
+
+<h5>CHAPTER XXIX.</h5>
+
+<p class="figcenter">
+<a href="#page319">Was Henry of Monmouth a Persecutor? &mdash; Just principles of conducting
+the Inquiry, and forming the Judgment. &mdash; Modern charge against Henry.
+&mdash; Review of the prevalent opinions on Religious Liberty. &mdash; True
+principles of Christian Freedom. &mdash; Duty of the State and of
+Individuals to promote the prevalence of True Religion. &mdash; Charge
+against Henry, as Prince of Wales, for presenting a Petition against
+the Lollards. &mdash; The merciful intention of that Petition. &mdash; His
+Conduct at the Death of Badby.</a></p>
+
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="pageviii" name="pageviii">(p. viii)</a></span>
+
+<h5>CHAPTER XXX.</h5>
+
+<h4>1413.</h4>
+
+<p class="figcenter">
+<a href="#page348">The Case of Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham. &mdash; Reference to his
+former Life and Character. &mdash; Fox's Book of Martyrs. &mdash; The
+Archbishop's Statement. &mdash; Milner. &mdash; Hall. &mdash; Lingard. Cobham offers
+the Wager of Battle. &mdash; Appeals peremptorily to the Pope. &mdash; Henry's
+anxiety to save him. &mdash; He is condemned, but no Writ of Execution is
+issued by the King. &mdash; Cobham escapes from the Tower.</a></p>
+
+
+<h5>CHAPTER XXXI.</h5>
+
+<p class="figcenter">
+<a href="#page376">Change in Henry's behaviour towards the Lollards after the affair of
+St. Giles' Field. &mdash; Examination of that affair often conducted with
+great Partiality and Prejudice. &mdash; Hume and the Old Chroniclers. &mdash;
+Fox, Milner, Le Bas. &mdash; Public Documents. &mdash; Lord Cobham, taken in
+Wales, is brought to London in a Whirlicole; condemned to be hanged as
+a Traitor, and burned as a Heretic. &mdash; Henry, then in France,
+ignorant, probably, of Cobham's Capture till after his Execution. &mdash;
+Concluding Reflections.</a></p>
+
+
+<h5>CHAPTER XXXII.</h5>
+
+<p class="figcenter">
+<a href="#page393">The Case of John Clayton, Richard Gurmyn, and William Taylor, burnt
+for Heresy, examined. &mdash; Result of the Investigation. &mdash; Henry not a
+Persecutor. &mdash; Reflections.</a></p>
+
+
+<h5>APPENDIX.</h5>
+
+<p>
+No. I. <a href="#page417">Ballad of Agincourt.</a><br>
+      II. <a href="#page422">Siege of Rouen.</a><br>
+     III. <a href="#page425">Authenticity of the Manuscripts&mdash;Sloane
+    1776, and Reg. 13, c. 1.</a></p>
+
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page001" name="page001">(p. 001)</a></span>
+
+<h1>MEMOIRS<br><br>
+
+OF<br><br>
+
+HENRY OF MONMOUTH.</h1>
+
+
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XVII.</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">henry of monmouth's accession. &mdash; national rejoicings. &mdash; his profound
+sense of the awfulness of the charge devolved upon him. &mdash; coronation.
+&mdash; first parliament. &mdash; habits of business. &mdash; he removes the remains
+of richard to westminster. &mdash; redeems the son of hotspur, and restores
+him to his forfeited honours and estates. &mdash; generous conduct towards
+the earl of march. &mdash; parliament at leicester. &mdash; enactments against
+lollards. &mdash; henry's foundations at shene and sion.</span><br><br>
+
+1413-1414.<br><br>
+
+<span class="smcap">HENRY, KING.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>Henry IV. died at Westminster on Monday, March 20, 1413, and Henry of
+Monmouth's proclamation bears date on the morrow, March
+21.<a id="notetag001" name="notetag001"></a><a href="#note001">[1]</a> Never
+perhaps was the accession of any prince to the throne of a kingdom
+hailed with a more general or enthusiastic welcome. If serious minds
+had <span class="pagenum"><a id="page002" name="page002">(p. 002)</a></span>
+entertained forebodings of evil from his reign, (as we
+believe they had not,) all feelings seem to have been absorbed in one
+burst of gladness. Both houses of parliament offered to swear
+allegiance to him before he was crowned: a testimony of confidence and
+affection never (it is said) before tendered to any English
+monarch.<a id="notetag002" name="notetag002"></a><a href="#note002">[2]</a> This prevalence of joyous anticipations from the accession
+of their young King could not have sprung from any change of conduct
+or of principle then first made known. Those who charge Henry most
+unsparingly represent his conversion as having begun only at his
+father's hour of dissolution. But, before that father breathed his
+last, the people of England were ready to welcome most heartily his
+son, such as he was then, without, as it should seem,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page003" name="page003">(p. 003)</a></span>
+either
+hearing of, or wishing for, any change. His principles and his conduct
+as a ruler had been put to the test during the time he had presided at
+the council-board; and the people only desired in their new King a
+continuance of the same wisdom, valour, justice, integrity, and
+kind-heartedness, which had so much endeared him to the nation as
+their Prince. In his subjects there appears to have been room for
+nothing but exultation; in the new King himself widely different
+feelings prevailed. Ever, as it should seem, under an awful practical
+sense, as well of the Almighty's presence and providence and majesty,
+as of his own responsibility and unworthiness, Henry seems to have
+been suddenly oppressed by the increased solemnity and weight of the
+new duties which he found himself now called upon to discharge. The
+scene of his father's death-bed, (carried off, as that monarch was, in
+the very meridian of life, by a lingering loathsome disease,) and the
+dying injunctions of that father, may doubtless have added much to the
+acuteness and the depth of his feelings at that time. And whether he
+be deemed to have been the licentious, reckless rioter which some
+writers have been anxious to describe, or whether we regard him as a
+sincere believer, comparing his past life (though neither licentious
+nor reckless) with the perfectness of the divine law, the retrospect
+might well depress him with a consciousness of his own unworthiness,
+and of his total inability
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page004" name="page004">(p. 004)</a></span>
+to perform the work which he saw
+before him, without the strength and guidance of divine grace. For
+that strength and that guidance, we are assured, he prayed, and
+laboured, and watched with all the intenseness and perseverance of an
+humble faithful Christian. Those who are familiar with the expressions
+of a contrite soul, will fully understand the sentiments recorded of
+Henry of Monmouth at this season of his self-humiliation, and the
+dedication of himself to God, and may yet be far from discovering in
+them conclusive arguments in proof of his having passed his youth in
+habits of gross violation of religious and moral principle. We have
+already quoted the assertions of his biographer, that day and night he
+sought pardon for the past, and grace for the future, to enable him to
+bend his heart in faith and obedience to the Sovereign of all. And
+even during the splendour and rejoicings of his coronation he appeared
+to withdraw his mind entirely from the greatness of his worldly state,
+thus forced upon him, and to fix his thoughts on the King of
+kings.<a id="notetag003" name="notetag003"></a><a href="#note003">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p>But he never seems for a day to have been drawn aside by his private
+devotions from the full discharge of the practical duties of his new
+station. On the Wednesday he issued summonses for a parliament to meet
+within three weeks of Easter. On Friday the 7th of April, he was
+conducted to
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page005" name="page005">(p. 005)</a></span>
+the Tower by a large body of men of London, who
+went on horseback to attend him. The next day he was accompanied back
+to Westminster, with every demonstration of loyalty and devotedness to
+his person, by a great concourse of lords and knights, many of whom he
+had created on the preceding evening. On the following morning, being
+Passion Sunday, April
+9th,<a id="notetag004" name="notetag004"></a><a href="#note004">[4]</a>
+he was crowned with
+much<a id="notetag005" name="notetag005"></a><a href="#note005">[5]</a> magnificence
+in Westminster
+Abbey.<a id="notetag006" name="notetag006"></a><a href="#note006">[6]</a></p>
+
+<p>One of the first acts of a sovereign in England at that time was to
+re-appoint the judges who were in office at the demise of his
+predecessor, or to constitute new ones in their stead. Among other
+changes, we find Hankford appointed as Chief Justice in the room of
+Gascoyne, at least within ten days of the King's accession. For any
+observation which this fact may suggest, so contrary to those
+histories which repeat tales instead of seeking for the truth in
+ancient records, we must refer to the chapter in which we have already
+examined the credibility of the alleged insult offered by Prince Henry
+to a Judge on the bench of
+justice.<a id="notetag007" name="notetag007"></a><a href="#note007">[7]</a></p>
+
+<p>The <span class="pagenum"><a id="page006" name="page006">(p. 006)</a></span>
+first parliament of Henry V. met in the Painted Chamber
+at Westminster, on Monday, 15th of May. The King was on his throne;
+but the Bishop of Winchester, his uncle, then Chancellor of England,
+opened the business of the session. On this, as on many similar
+occasions, the chancellor, generally a prelate, addressed the
+assembled states in an oration, half speech and half sermon, upon a
+passage of Scripture selected as a text. On the opening of this
+parliament, the chancellor informed the peers and the commons that the
+King's purpose in calling them together as the Great Council of the
+nation was threefold:&mdash;First, he was desirous of supporting the
+throne,&mdash;"his high and royal estate;" secondly, he was bent on
+maintaining the law and good government within his realm; and thirdly,
+he desired to cherish the friends and to resist the enemies of his
+kingdom. It is remarkable that no mention is made in this parliament
+at all on the part of the King, or his chancellor, of either heresy or
+Lollardism. The speaker refers to some tumults, especially at
+Cirencester, where the populace appear to have attacked the abbey;
+complaints also were made against the conduct of ordinaries, and some
+strong enactments were passed against
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page007" name="page007">(p. 007)</a></span>
+the usurpations of
+Rome, to which reference will again be made: but not a word in answer
+to these complaints would lead to the inference that the spirit of
+persecution was then in the ascendant. It was not till the last day of
+April 1414, after the affair of St. Giles' Field, that the statute
+against the Lollards was passed at
+Leicester.<a id="notetag008" name="notetag008"></a><a href="#note008">[8]</a>
+The chancellor at
+that subsequent period speaks of their treasonable designs to destroy
+the King having been lately discovered and discomfited; and the record
+expressly declares that the ordinance was made with the consent and at
+the prayer of the commons.</p>
+
+<p>But though neither the King nor his council gave any indication, in
+his first parliament, of a desire to interfere with men's consciences
+in matters of religion, the churchmen were by no means slumbering at
+their post. Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, convened a council of
+the bishops and clergy, who met by adjournment, in full numbers, at
+St. Paul's, on the 26th of June
+1413;<a id="notetag009" name="notetag009"></a><a href="#note009">[9]</a>
+and adopted most rigorous
+measures for the extirpation of heresy, levelled professedly with a
+more especial aim
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page008" name="page008">(p. 008)</a></span>
+against the ringleader of Lollardism, as
+he was called, the valiant and unfortunate Lord Cobham. On these
+proceedings we purpose to dwell separately in another part of this
+work; and, in addition to what we shall there allege, little needs be
+observed here by way of anticipation. In leaving the subject, however,
+as far as Henry V.'s character is concerned, it may not be out of
+place to remark, that historical facts, so far from stamping on him
+the mark of a religious persecutor, prove that it required all the
+united efforts of the clergy and laity to induce him to put the
+existing laws in force against those who were bold enough to dissent
+from the Romish faith. So far from his "having watched the Lollards as
+his greatest enemies," so far from "having listened to every calumny
+which the zeal and hatred of the hierarchy could invent or propagate
+against the unfortunate followers of Wickliff," (the conduct and
+disposition ascribed to him by Milner,) we have sufficient proof of
+the dissatisfaction of the church with him in this respect; and their
+repeated attempts to excite him to more vigorous measures against the
+rising and spreading sect. By a minute of council, May 27, 1415, we
+find that, whilst preparing for his expedition to France, he is
+reminded to instruct the archbishops and bishops to take measures,
+each within his respective diocese, to resist the malice of the
+Lollards. The King merely answered, that he had given the subject in
+charge to his chancellor; and we are assured that Dr. Thomas
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page009" name="page009">(p. 009)</a></span>
+Walden,<a id="notetag010" name="notetag010"></a><a href="#note010">[10]</a>
+one of the most learned and powerful divines of the day,
+but very violent in his opposition to the new doctrines, openly
+inveighed against Henry <i>for his great negligence in regard to the
+duty of punishing
+heretics</i>.<a id="notetag011" name="notetag011"></a><a href="#note011">[11]</a>
+To his religious sentiments we must
+again refer in the sequel, and also as the course of events may
+successively suggest any observations on that head.</p>
+
+<p>When Henry IV. ascended the throne, parliament prayed that the Prince
+might not leave the realm, but remain in England as the anchor of the
+people's hopes; and, soon after his own
+accession,<a id="notetag012" name="notetag012"></a><a href="#note012">[12]</a>
+Henry V. is
+advised by his council to remain near London, that he might receive
+prompt intelligence of whatever might arise in any quarter, and be
+able to take immediate steps for the safety of the commonweal. He
+seems to have carried with him even from his earliest youth, wherever
+he went, a peculiar talent of exciting confidence in every one.
+Whether in the field of battle, or the chamber of council,&mdash;whether as
+the young Prince, just initiated in affairs of war and government, or
+as the experienced captain and statesman,&mdash;his contemporaries looked
+to him as a kind of guardian spirit, to
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page010" name="page010">(p. 010)</a></span>
+protect them from
+harm, and lead them onward to good success. No despondency, nor even
+misgivings, show themselves in the agents of any enterprise in which
+he was personally engaged. The prodigious effects of these feelings in
+the English towards their prince were displayed in their full
+strength, perhaps, at the battle of Agincourt; but similar results are
+equally, though not so strikingly, visible in many other passages of
+his life.</p>
+
+<p>Among the various causes to which historians have been accustomed to
+attribute the general anticipations of good from Henry's reign, which
+pervaded all classes, is the appointment of Gascoyne to the high
+station of Chief Justice immediately upon his ascending the throne.
+But we have already seen that, however gladly an eulogist would seize
+on such an exalted instance of magnanimity and noble generosity, the
+truth of history forbids our even admitting its probability in this
+place. Henry certainly did not re-appoint Gascoyne. But, whilst we
+cannot admit the tradition which would mark the true character of
+Henry's mind by his behaviour to the Chief Justice, there is not
+wanting many an authentic record which would amply account for his
+almost unprecedented popularity at the very commencement of his reign.
+Among these we must not omit to notice the resolution which he put in
+practice of retiring for an hour or more every day, after his early
+dinner, to receive petitions
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page011" name="page011">(p. 011)</a></span>
+from any of his subjects,
+however
+humble,<a id="notetag013" name="notetag013"></a><a href="#note013">[13]</a>
+who would appeal to him for his royal
+interposition; to examine and consider the several cases patiently;
+and to redress real grievances. Indeed, numberless little occurrences
+meet us on every side, which seem to indicate very clearly that he
+loved the right and hated iniquity; and that he was never more happy
+than whilst engaged in deeds of justice, mercy, and charity. He seems
+to have received the golden law for his rule, "See that they who are
+in need and necessity have right;" and to have rejoiced in
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page012" name="page012">(p. 012)</a></span>
+keeping that law himself, and compelling all within the sphere of his
+authority and influence to observe it also.</p>
+
+<p>Another incident recorded of Henry of Monmouth at this period,
+strongly marking the kindness and generosity and nobleness of his
+mind, was the removal of the remains of Richard II. from Langley to
+Westminster. Without implying any consciousness, or even suspicion of
+guilt, on the part of his father as to Richard's death, we may easily
+suppose Henry to have regarded the deposition of that monarch as an
+act of violence, justifiable only on the ground of extreme necessity:
+he might have considered him as an injured man, by whose fall his
+father and himself had been raised to the throne. Instead of allowing
+his name and his mortal remains to be buried in oblivion, (with the
+chance moreover of raising again in men's minds fresh doubts and
+surmises of his own title to the throne, for he was not Richard's
+right heir,) Henry resolved to pay all the respect in his power to the
+memory of the friend of his youth, and by the only means at his
+command to make a sort of reparation for the indignities to which the
+royal corpse had been exposed. He caused the body to be brought in
+solemn funeral state to Westminster, and there to be
+buried,<a id="notetag014" name="notetag014"></a><a href="#note014">[14]</a> with
+all the honour and circumstance accustomed to be paid to the earthly
+remains of royalty,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page013" name="page013">(p. 013)</a></span>
+by the side of his former Queen, Anne,
+in the tomb prepared by Richard for her and for himself. The diligent
+investigator will discover many such incidents recorded of Henry V;
+some of a more public and important nature than others, but all
+combining to stamp on his name in broad and indelible letters the
+character of a truly high-minded, generous, grateful, warm-hearted
+man.</p>
+
+<p>Another instance of the same feeling, carried, perhaps, in one point a
+step further in generosity and Christian principle, was evinced in his
+conduct towards the son of Sir Henry Percy, Hotspur, the former
+antagonist of his house. This young nobleman had been carried by his
+friends into Scotland, for safe keeping, on the breaking out of his
+grandfather's (Northumberland's) rebellion; and was detained there, as
+some say, in concealment, till Henry V. made known his determination
+to restore him to his title and estates. The Scots, who were in
+possession of his person, kept him as a prisoner and hostage; and
+although Henry might have considered a foreign land the best home for
+the son of the enemy of his family, yet so bent was he on effecting
+the noble design of reinstating him in all which his father's and his
+grandfather's treason had forfeited, that he consented to exchange for
+him a noble Scot, who had been detained in England for thirteen years.
+Mordak of Fife, son and heir of the Duke of Albany, had been taken
+prisoner at the battle of Homildon Hill, in 1402, (it is curious to
+remark,) by Hotspur,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page014" name="page014">(p. 014)</a></span>
+and his father Northumberland; and now
+Henry V. exchanges this personage for Hotspur's son, the heir of
+Northumberland. This youth was only an infant when his father fell at
+the battle of Shrewsbury; his mother was Elizabeth, eldest daughter of
+Edmund
+Mortimer,<a id="notetag015" name="notetag015"></a><a href="#note015">[15]</a>
+Earl of March: and thus a king, under the
+circumstances of Henry, but with a less noble mind, might have
+regarded him with jealousy on both sides of his parentage, and been
+glad (without exposing himself to the charge of any positive act of
+harshness) to allow him to remain in a foreign country deprived of his
+honours and his estates. But Henry's spirit soared above these
+considerations; and, in the orphan of a generous rival, he saw only a
+fit object on whom to exercise his generosity and Christian charity. A
+negotiation was carried on between Henry and some who represented
+young Percy; care being taken to ascertain the identity of the person
+who should be offered in exchange for Mordak. After certain prescribed
+oaths were taken, and pledges given, and the payment of a stipulated
+sum, 10,000<i>l.</i>, the young man was invited to come to Henry's court
+with all speed.</p>
+
+<p>There seems to have intervened some considerable impediment to this
+proposed
+exchange.<a id="notetag016" name="notetag016"></a><a href="#note016">[16]</a>
+The commission to John Hull and William
+Chancellor to
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page015" name="page015">(p. 015)</a></span>
+convey Mordak to the north bears date 21st of
+May; and yet instructions for a negotiation with his father, the Duke
+of Albany, then Regent of Scotland, for the exchange, were issued to
+Sir Ralph Evre and others, as late as the 10th of the following
+December. At the parliament, however, held March 16, 1416, Henry
+Percy, in the presence of the King himself, does homage for his lands
+and honours. And, before Henry's death, the Pell Rolls record payments
+to this Earl of Northumberland, appointed guardian of Berwick and the
+East March, as regularly as, in the early part of Henry IV.'s reign,
+issues had been made to his father Hotspur, and his grandfather, the
+aged Earl, for the execution of the same duties. The lands of the
+Percies, on their attainder, were confiscated, and given to the King's
+brother, the Duke of Bedford; to whom, on restoring his lands and
+honours to the young Earl, Henry made an annual compensation in part
+at least for the
+loss.<a id="notetag017" name="notetag017"></a><a href="#note017">[17]</a></p>
+
+<p>Another example of generous behaviour in the young King towards those
+whom he had in his power, and of whom less noble minds would have
+entertained suspicion and jealousy, is seen in his conduct towards the
+Earl of
+March.<a id="notetag018" name="notetag018"></a><a href="#note018">[18]</a>
+This young nobleman,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page016" name="page016">(p. 016)</a></span>
+by the law of
+primogeniture, was rightful heir to the throne; being descended from
+Lionel Duke of Clarence, third son of Edward III. And so much was he a
+cause of apprehension and uneasiness to Henry IV. and his council,
+that it was thought necessary to keep him in close custody, and also
+near the person of the King, whenever the court removed towards the
+borders of the kingdom. It was in the name of this young man that his
+uncle Edmund Mortimer excited all his tenantry and dependents to join
+Owyn Glyndowr in rebellion against Henry IV; and on all occasions the
+malcontents of the whole country, supposing Richard to be dead, held
+forth the Earl of March as their liege sovereign. Henry V. could not
+have been charged with unwarrantable suspicions or severity, had he
+continued the same system of watchfulness over this formidable
+personage, which had been observed under the reign of his predecessor.
+Provided only that he treated him with kindness, few would have
+wondered or complained if he had still kept him as a prisoner on
+parole.<a id="notetag019" name="notetag019"></a><a href="#note019">[19]</a>
+But Henry, to whose guardianship,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page017" name="page017">(p. 017)</a></span>
+whilst Prince
+of Wales, the young Earl had been intrusted, was no sooner seated on
+the throne, than he admitted this young man into a full share of his
+confidence; not with the suspicion of a rival, nor with the fear of an
+enemy, but with the openness of an acknowledged and kind master
+towards a trustworthy and devoted servant.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page018" name="page018">(p. 018)</a></span>
+The references to
+him which are found in the authentic records of that time (and they
+are not a few) all tend to establish this
+point.<a id="notetag020" name="notetag020"></a><a href="#note020">[20]</a>
+Henry immediately
+gave him, on his coming of age, full and free possession of all his
+manors, castles, lands, advowsons, and honours; and seems to have had
+him continually in his retinue as a companion and friend. On one
+occasion we may suppose that Henry's suspicions and apprehensions of
+danger from the young Earl must have been roused; and yet we find him
+still continued in his confidence, and still left without any
+restraint or estrangement. When the conspiracy against Henry was
+discovered at Southampton, the Earl of Cambridge, (as we shall see
+more in detail hereafter,) in his letter of confession, declares it to
+have been the intention of the conspirators to carry the Earl of March
+into Wales, and to proclaim him as their lawful king. How far the
+young Earl was privy to this conspiracy, or to what extent he was "art
+and part" in it, does not distinctly appear. An expression, indeed, in
+the early part of the Earl of Cambridge's letter, "Having the Earl of
+March by his own consent, and by the assent of myself," should seem to
+imply that he was by no means ignorant of the plans of the
+conspirators, nor averse to them. How far, moreover, Henry thought him
+guilty, is matter of doubt;
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page019" name="page019">(p. 019)</a></span>
+but certain it is, that he deemed
+it necessary to have the King's pardon regularly signed in the usual
+manner for all treasons, felonies, and misdemeanors. The instrument
+bears date August 7, 1415, at Southampton. This document, however, by
+no means proves his guilt: on many occasions such patents of pardon
+were granted to prevent malicious and vexatious prosecutions.
+Nevertheless, at all events, it shows that Henry's thoughts must have
+been especially drawn to the relative circumstances under which
+himself and the Earl of March were placed; and yet he continued to
+behave towards him with the same confidence and friendship as before.
+Two years afterwards, Henry appointed him his lieutenant at sea, with
+full powers; yet so as not to supersede the privileges and authority
+of the high admiral, the Duke of
+Exeter.<a id="notetag021" name="notetag021"></a><a href="#note021">[21]</a>
+The following year, in
+the summer, he was made lieutenant and guardian-general of all
+Normandy; and in the December of the same year he was commissioned to
+receive the homage and oaths of all in that country who owed suit and
+service to the King. He fought side by side with Henry at the field of
+Agincourt; and there seems to have grown stronger and riper between
+them a spirit of friendship and mutual
+confidence.<a id="notetag022" name="notetag022"></a><a href="#note022">[22]</a></p>
+
+<p>These <span class="pagenum"><a id="page020" name="page020">(p. 020)</a></span>
+are a few among the many examples upon record of the
+generous and noble spirit of Henry; whilst history may be challenged
+to bring forward any instances of cruelty or oppression to neutralize
+them. Sir Matthew Hale confessed that he could never discover any act
+of public injustice and tyranny during the Lancastrian sway; and the
+inquirer into Henry of Monmouth's character may be emboldened to
+declare, that he can discover no act of wanton severity, or cruelty,
+or unkindness in his life. The case of the prisoners in the day and on
+the field of Agincourt, the fate of Lord Cobham, and the wars in
+France, require each a separate examination; and in our inquiry we
+must not forget the kind, and gentle, and compassionate spirit which
+appears to breathe so naturally and uniformly from his heart: on the
+other hand, we must not suffer ourselves to be betrayed into such a
+full reliance on his character for mercy, as would lead us to give a
+blind implicit sanction to all his deeds of arms. In our estimate of
+his character, moreover, as indicated by his conduct previously to his
+first invasion of France, and during his struggles and conquests
+there, it is quite as necessary for us to bear in mind the tone, and
+temper, and standard of political and moral government which prevailed
+in his age, as it is essential for us, when we would estimate his
+religious character, to recollect what were in
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page021" name="page021">(p. 021)</a></span>
+that age
+throughout Christendom the acknowledged principles of the church in
+communion with the see of Rome.</p>
+
+<p>On Monday, April 30, 1414, Henry met his parliament at
+Leicester.<a id="notetag023" name="notetag023"></a><a href="#note023">[23]</a>
+Why it was not held at Westminster, we have no positive reasons
+assigned in
+history;<a id="notetag024" name="notetag024"></a><a href="#note024">[24]</a>
+and the suggestion of some, that the
+enactments there made against the Lollards were too hateful to be
+passed at the metropolis, is scarcely
+reasonable.<a id="notetag025" name="notetag025"></a><a href="#note025">[25]</a>
+The Bishop of
+Winchester, as Chancellor, set forth in very strong language the
+treasonable practices lately discovered and discomfited; and the
+parliament enacted a very severe law against all disturbers of the
+peace of the realm and of the unity of the church. It is generally
+said that the reading of the Bible in English was forbidden in this
+session under very severe penalties; but no such
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page022" name="page022">(p. 022)</a></span>
+enactment
+seems to have been recorded. The prelates, however, were the judges of
+what heresy was; and to study the Holy Scriptures in the vernacular
+language might well have seemed to them a very dangerous practice; to
+be checked, therefore, with a strong hand. The judges, and other state
+officers, were directed to take an oath to exert themselves for the
+suppression of Lollardism.</p>
+
+<p>Again and again are we reminded, through the few years of Henry's
+reign, that the cause of liberty was progressive; and any
+encroachments of the royal prerogative upon the liberties of the
+Commons were restrained and corrected, with the free consent and full
+approbation of the King. A petition in English, presented to him in
+this parliament, in many respects a curious document, with the King's
+answer, bears testimony to the same point. "Our sovereign lord,&mdash;your
+humble and true lieges that been come for the commons of your land,
+beseech unto your right righteousness, that so as it hath ever been
+their liberty and freedom that there should be no statute nor law made
+otherwise than they gave their assent thereto, considering that the
+commons of your land (the which is and ever hath been a member of your
+parliament) been as well assenters as petitioners, that from this time
+forward, by complaint of the commons of any mischief asking remedy by
+mouth of their Speaker, or else by petition written, that there never
+be no law made thereupon, and engrossed as statute
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page023" name="page023">(p. 023)</a></span>
+and law,
+neither by addition, neither by diminution, by no manner of term or
+terms, the which should change the sentence and the intent asked by
+the Speaker's mouth, or the petitions before said, given up in writing
+without assent of the aforesaid commons." To this petition the
+following answer was made: "The King, of his grace especial, granteth,
+that from henceforth nothing be enacted to the petitions of his
+commons that be contrary to their asking, whereby they should be bound
+without their assent; saving alway to our liege lord his real
+prerogative to grant or deny what him lust of their petitions and
+askings aforesaid."</p>
+
+<p>This parliament was adjourned from Leicester, and re-assembled at
+Westminster on the Octaves of St. Martin, 18th November 1414. The most
+gratifying record of this great council of the realm is that which
+informs us of the restoration of Henry Percy to his estates and
+honours. The most important subject to which the thoughts of the peers
+and commons were drawn was the King's determination to recover his
+rights in the realm of France.</p>
+
+<p>The motives which influenced Henry to undertake this extraordinary
+step can be known only to the Searcher of hearts. Some writers, in
+their excessive zeal for Protestantism, anxiously bent on stamping
+upon Henry the character of an ambitious tyrant and a religious
+persecutor, employ no measured language
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page024" name="page024">(p. 024)</a></span>
+in their
+condemnation of his designs against France. Milner thus gives his
+summary of the proceedings of this reign at home and abroad. "Henry
+Chicheley, now Archbishop of Canterbury, continued at the head of that
+see from February 1414, to April 1443. This man deserves to be called
+the firebrand of the age in which he lived. To subserve the purposes
+of his own pride and tyranny, he engaged King Henry in his famous
+contest with France, by which a prodigious carnage was made of the
+human race, and the most dreadful miseries were brought upon both
+kingdoms. But Henry was a soldier, and understood the art of war,
+though perfectly ignorant of religion; and that ardour of spirit,
+which in
+youth<a id="notetag026" name="notetag026"></a><a href="#note026">[26]</a>
+had spent itself in vicious indulgences, was now
+employed under the management of Chicheley in desolating France by one
+of the most unjust wars ever waged by ambition, and in furnishing for
+vulgar minds matter of declamation on the valour of the English
+nation. While this scene was carrying on in France, the Archbishop at
+home, partly by exile, partly by forced abjurations, and partly by the
+flames, domineered over the Lollards, and almost effaced the vestiges
+of godliness in the kingdom."</p>
+
+<p>These are very hard words, much more readily written than justified.
+Such sentences of condemnation require
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page025" name="page025">(p. 025)</a></span>
+a much clearer
+insight into the workings of the human heart than falls to the lot of
+any human being to possess, when he would examine into the motives of
+a fellow-mortal. It is very easy by one sweeping clause to denounce
+the war as unjust, and to ascribe it to the ambition of Henry,
+reckless of human suffering. But truth requires us to weigh the whole
+matter far more patiently, and to substitute evidence in the place of
+assumptions, and argument instead of declamation. And it is impossible
+for the biographer of Henry V. to carry his reader with him through
+the scenes of his preparation for the struggle with France, and his
+conduct in the several campaigns which chiefly engaged from this time
+till his death all the energies of his mind and body, without
+recalling somewhat in detail the circumstances of Henry's position at
+this time. This, however, will require also a brief review of the
+state of France through some previous years of her internal discords
+and misery. Reserving them for another chapter, there are some
+circumstances of a more private and domestic character which it might
+be well for us first to mention in this place.</p>
+
+<p>That Henry was habitually under the influence of strong religious
+feelings, though his views of Christian doctrine partook much of the
+general superstition of the age, is evident; and one of the first acts
+of his government was to satisfy his own conscience, and to give full
+testimony to the church of
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page026" name="page026">(p. 026)</a></span>
+his piety, and zeal, and
+devotedness, by founding three religious houses. When, exactly a
+century later, Richard Fox, Bishop of Winchester, communicated to his
+friend, Hugh Oldham, Bishop of Exeter, his intention of founding a
+monastery, his friend, instead of giving him encouragement to proceed
+with his plan, remonstrated with him on the folly of building houses,
+and providing a maintenance for monks, who would live in idleness,
+unprofitable to themselves and to
+society;<a id="notetag027" name="notetag027"></a><a href="#note027">[27]</a>
+urging him at the same
+time rather to found a college for the encouragement of sound
+learning: and the College of Corpus Christi in Oxford owes its
+existence, humanly speaking, to that sound admonition. Perhaps, had
+Henry V. been fortunate enough to meet with so able and honest an
+adviser, Oxford might have had within its walls now another nursery of
+religion and learning,&mdash;a monument of his piety and of his love for
+whatever was commendable and of good report. Our Oxford chronicles
+record his expressed intention both to reform the statutes of the
+University, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page027" name="page027">(p. 027)</a></span>
+also to found an establishment within the
+castle walls, annexing to it all the alien priories in England for its
+endowment, in which efficient provision should be made for the
+instruction of youth in all the best literature of the
+age.<a id="notetag028" name="notetag028"></a><a href="#note028">[28]</a>
+Had he
+first resolved to found his college, and reserved his religious houses
+for later years, his work might still have been flourishing at this
+day, and might have yet continued to flourish till the hand of
+spoliation and refined barbarism shall be strong and bold enough
+(should ever such a calamity visit our native land) to wrest these
+seminaries of Christian principles and sound learning from the friends
+of religion, and order, and peace. As it is, Henry's establishments
+survived him little more than a century; and the lands which he had
+destined to support them passed away into other hands, and were
+alienated from religious purposes altogether.</p>
+
+<p>The sites which Henry selected for his establishments were,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page028" name="page028">(p. 028)</a></span>
+one at Shene, in Surrey; the other at Sion, in the manor of Isleworth,
+on the Thames.</p>
+
+<p>The terms of the foundation-charters of these religious houses, their
+rules, and circumstances, and possessions, it does not fall within the
+plan of this work to specify in detail. The brothers and sisters
+admitted into these asylums appear to have been bound by very strict
+rules of self-denial and poverty.</p>
+
+<p>The monastery at Shene, built on the site of Richard II.'s palace,
+which he never would enter after the loss of his wife Anne, who died
+there, and which on that account he utterly destroyed, was called "The
+House of Jesus of Bethlehem," and was dedicated "to the honour, and
+glory, and exaltation of the name of Jesus most dear;" Henry
+expressing in the foundation-charter, among sentiments less worthy of
+an enlightened Christian, and savouring of the superstition of those
+days, that he founded the institution in pious gratitude for the
+blessings of time and of eternity, which flow only from <span class="smcap">Him</span>.</p>
+
+<p>The house of Sion in Isleworth, or Mount Sion, as it is called in the
+Pope's bull of confirmation, was dedicated "to the honour, praise, and
+glory of the Trinity most High, of the Virgin Mary, of the Disciples
+and Apostles of God, of all Saints, and especially of the most holy
+Bridget." This house was suppressed by Henry VIII; when the nuns fled
+from their native country, and took refuge, first in Zealand, then at
+Mechlin, whence they removed to Rouen;
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page029" name="page029">(p. 029)</a></span>
+at last, fifteen
+reached Lisbon in 1594. The history of this little company of sisters
+is very remarkable and interesting. In Lisbon they were well received,
+and were afterwards supported by royal bounty, as well as by the
+benevolence of individuals. They seem to have settled there peaceably,
+and to have lived in their own house, and to have had their own
+church, for more than fifty years. In 1651 their house and church were
+both burnt to the ground; but, through the beneficence of the pious,
+they had the happiness of seeing them restored. In 1755 this little
+community suffered in common with the other unfortunate inhabitants of
+Lisbon, and seem to have lost their all in the earthquake. In their
+distress they cast their eyes to the land of their fathers, and
+applied for the charity of their countrymen. There is something very
+affecting in the language of the petition by which our countrywomen in
+their calamity sought to excite the sympathy, and obtain the
+benevolent aid, of their fellow-Christians at home.</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+     We, the underwritten, and company, having on the 1st of November
+     last suffered such irreparable losses and damage by the dreadful
+     earthquake and fire which destroyed this city and other parts of
+     the kingdom, that we have neither house nor sanctuary left us
+     wherein to retire; nor even the necessaries of life, it being out
+     of the power of our friends and benefactors here to relieve us,
+     they all having undergone the same misfortune and disaster. So
+     that we see no other means of establishing ourselves than by
+     applying to the nobility, ladies, and gentlemen of our
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page030" name="page030">(p. 030)</a></span>
+     dear country, humbly imploring your tender compassion and pious
+     charity; that, so being assisted and succoured from your
+     bountiful hands, we may for the present subsist under our
+     deplorable misfortune, and in time retrieve so much of our losses
+     as to be able to continue always to pray for the prosperity and
+     conservation of our benefactors.<br>
+
+<span class="col10-45">Augustus Sulyard,</span>
+<span class="col50-90">Eliz. Hodgeskin,</span><br>
+<span class="col10-45">Peter Willcock.</span>
+<span class="col50-90">Frances Huddleston,</span><br>
+         <span class="col50-90">Cath. Baldwin,</span><br>
+         <span class="col50-90">Winifred Hill.</span><br>
+<span class="left05"><i>Sion House, Lisbon</i>,</span><br>
+<span class="left05"><i>May 25, 1756</i>.</span></p>
+
+
+
+<p>Through another fifty years, the little band, still keeping up the
+succession by novices from England, remained in the land of their
+refuge; till, in 1810, nine of them, the majority, it is said, of the
+survivors, fled from the horrors of war to their native island; and
+their convent, whose founder was Henry, the greatest general of his
+age, became the barracks of English soldiers under Wellington, the
+greatest general of the present day. On their first return they lived
+in a small house in Walworth; and in 1825, the remainder, now advanced
+in years and reduced to two or three in number, were still living in
+the vicinity of the Potteries in Staffordshire,&mdash;the last remnant of
+an English convent dissolved in the time of Henry VIII. There are at
+this time mulberry-trees growing at Sion House, one of the Duke of
+Northumberland's<a id="notetag029" name="notetag029"></a><a href="#note029">[29]</a>
+mansions, which
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page031" name="page031">(p. 031)</a></span>
+are believed, not only
+to have been living, but to have borne fruit, in the time of the
+monastery.<a id="notetag030" name="notetag030"></a><a href="#note030">[30]</a></p>
+
+<p>Henry seems to have had much at heart the intellectual, moral, and
+religious improvement of those who might be admitted to a share of his
+bounty in these establishments. The Pell Rolls record a payment "of
+100<i>l.</i> part only of a larger sum, to the prior and convent of Mount
+Grace, for books and other things to be supplied by them to his new
+foundation at
+Sion."<a id="notetag031" name="notetag031"></a><a href="#note031">[31]</a>
+Whether the prior and brethren of Mount Grace
+had duplicates, or were mere agents, or parted with their own stock to
+meet the wishes of their King, the record does not tell.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page032" name="page032">(p. 032)</a></span>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">state of the church. &mdash; henry a sincere christian, but no bigot. &mdash;
+degraded state of religion. &mdash; council of constance. &mdash; henry's
+representatives zealous promoters of reform. &mdash; hallam, bishop of
+salisbury, avowed enemy of the popedom. &mdash; richard ulleston: primitive
+views of clerical duties. &mdash; walden, his own chaplain, accuses henry
+of remissness in the extirpation of heresy. &mdash; forester's letter to
+the king. &mdash; henry beaufort's unhappy interference. &mdash; petition from
+oxford. &mdash; henry's personal exertions in the business of reform. &mdash;
+reflections on the then apparent dawn of the reformation.</span><br><br>
+
+1414-1417.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Some writers, (taking a very narrow and prejudiced view of the affairs
+of the age to which our thoughts are directed in these Memoirs, and of
+the agents employed in those transactions,) when they tell us, that
+Henry was so devotedly attached to the church, and so zealous a friend
+of her ministers, that he was called the Prince of Priests, would have
+us believe that he "entirely resigned his understanding to the
+guidance of the clergy." But his principles and his conduct
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page033" name="page033">(p. 033)</a></span>
+in ecclesiastical matters have been misunderstood, and very unfairly
+exaggerated and distorted. That Henry was a sincere believer in the
+religion of the Cross is unquestionable; and that, in common with the
+large body of believers through Christendom, he had been bred up in
+the baneful error of identifying the Catholic church of Christ with
+the see of Rome, is in some points of view equally evident: but that
+he was a supporter of the Pope against the rights of the church in
+England and other his dominions, or was an upholder of the abuses
+which had then overspread the whole garden of Christ's heritage, so
+far from being established by evidence, is inconsistent with the
+testimony of facts. The usurpations of the Romish see called for
+resistance,<a id="notetag032" name="notetag032"></a><a href="#note032">[32]</a>
+and Henry to a certain extent resisted them. The
+abuses in the church needed reformation, and Henry showed that he
+possessed the spirit of a real reformer, bent on the correction of
+what was wrong, but uncompromising in his maintenance of the religion
+which he embraced in his heart. He gave proof of a spirit more
+Catholic than Roman, more Apostolic than Papal.</p>
+
+<p>In his very first parliament strong enactments were passed forbidding
+ecclesiastics to receive bishoprics and benefices from Rome, on pain
+of forfeiture and exile. And on complaints being made against
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page034" name="page034">(p. 034)</a></span>
+the ordinaries, Henry's answer is very characteristic of his
+principles of church reform: "I will direct the bishops to remedy
+these evils themselves; and, if they fail, then I will myself take the
+matter into my own hands."</p>
+
+<p>He had been little more than half a year on the
+throne,<a id="notetag033" name="notetag033"></a><a href="#note033">[33]</a>
+when he
+sent a peremptory mandate to the bishops of Aquitain, that they should
+on no account obey any provision from the court of Rome, by which
+preferment would be given to an enemy of England. And in the following
+month, Dec. 11, 1413, Henry issued a prohibition, forbidding John
+Bremore, clerk, whom the Pope had recommended to him when Prince of
+Wales, to return to the court of Rome for the purpose of carrying on
+mischievous designs against the King and his people, under a penalty
+of 100<i>l.</i> And among his own bishops, countenanced and confidentially
+employed by himself, were found men who protested honestly and
+decidedly against the tyranny and corruption of Rome, and were as
+zealously bent on restoring the church to the purity of its better
+days, as were those martyrs to the truth who in the middle of the next
+century sealed their testimony by their blood. To what extent Henry V.
+must be regarded as having given a fair promise that, had he lived, he
+would have devoted the energies of his mind to work out such an
+effective reformation as would have satisfied the majority of the
+people in England, and left little in that
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page035" name="page035">(p. 035)</a></span>
+way for his
+successors to do, every one must determine for himself. In forming our
+judgment, however, we must take into account, not only what he
+actually did, but also whatever the tone, and temper, and turn of his
+mind (from such intimations as we may be enabled to glean scattered up
+and down through his life) might seem to have justified persons in
+anticipating. It would be vain to build any theory on what might have
+happened had the course of Providence in Henry's destinies been
+different: and yet we may without presumption express a belief that,
+had his life been spared, and had he found himself seated in peace and
+security on the united throne of England and France, instead of
+exhausting his resources, his powers of body and mind, and his time,
+in a fruitless crusade to the Holy Land, (by which he certainly once
+purposed to vindicate the honour of his Redeemer's name,) he might
+have concentrated all his vast energies on the internal reformation of
+the church itself. Instead of leaving her then large possessions for
+the hand of the future spoiler, he might have effectually provided for
+their full employment in the religious education of the whole people,
+and in the maintenance of a well-educated, pious, and zealous body of
+clergy, restored to their pastoral duties and devoted to the ministry.
+That the church needed a vigorous and thorough, but honest and
+friendly reform,&mdash;not the confiscation of her property to personal
+aggrandizement and secular purposes, but the re-adjustment of what
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page036" name="page036">(p. 036)</a></span>
+had degenerated from its original intention,&mdash;is proved by
+evidence most painfully conclusive. Indeed, the enormities which had
+grown up, and which were defended and cherished by the agents of Rome,
+far exceed both in number and magnitude the present general opinion
+with regard to those times. The Conventual
+system<a id="notetag034" name="notetag034"></a><a href="#note034">[34]</a>
+had well nigh
+destroyed the efficiency of parochial ministrations: what was intended
+for the support of the pastor, was withdrawn to uphold the dignity and
+luxury of the monastery; parsonage houses were left to fall to decay,
+and hirelings of a very inferior class were employed on a miserable
+pittance to discharge their perfunctory duties as they might.
+"Provisions" from Rome had exempted so large a proportion of the
+spirituality from episcopal jurisdiction, that, even had all the
+bishops been appointed on the principle of professional excellence,
+their power of restoring discipline would have been lamentably
+deficient. But in their appointment was evinced the most reckless
+prostitution of their sacred order. Not only was the selection of
+bishops made without reference to personal merit and individual
+fitness, whilst regard was had chiefly to high connexions and the
+interests of the Papacy;
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page037" name="page037">(p. 037)</a></span>
+but even children were made
+bishops, and the richest dignities of the church were heaped upon
+them: foreigners unacquainted with the language of the people were
+thrust into offices, for the due discharge of the duties of which a
+knowledge of the vernacular language was absolutely necessary. The
+courts ecclesiastical ground down the clergy by shameless extortions;
+whilst appeals to Rome put a complete bar against any suit for
+justice. Their luxury and excesses, their pride and overbearing
+presumption, their devotedness to secular pursuits, the rapacious
+aggrandizement of themselves and their connexions, and the total
+abandonment of their spiritual duties in the cure of souls, coupled
+with an ignorance almost incredible, had brought the large body of the
+clergy into great disrepute, and had filled sincere Christians
+(whether lay or clerical, for there were many exceptions among the
+clergy themselves) with an ardent longing for a thorough and efficient
+reformation. It is true that their indignation was chiefly roused by
+the prostitution of the property of the church, and its alienation
+from the holy purposes for which the church was endowed; and that
+gross neglect of discipline rather than errors in doctrine called into
+life the spirit of reformation: but even in points of faith we
+perceive in many clear signs of a genuine love of Evangelical and
+Catholic truth; among whom we are not without evidence sufficient to
+justify us in numbering the subject of these Memoirs. Henry of
+Monmouth, whilst
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page038" name="page038">(p. 038)</a></span>
+he adhered constantly to the faith of his
+fathers, yet manifested a sincere desire to become more perfectly
+acquainted with the truth of the Gospel; and spared no pains, even
+during his career of war and victory, in providing himself with the
+assistance of those teachers who had the reputation of preaching the
+Gospel most sincerely and efficiently. Henry's, indeed, was not the
+religion which would substitute in the scale of Christian duties
+punctuality of attendance on frequent preaching for the higher and
+nobler exercises of adoration. Many an unobtrusive incident intimates
+that his soul took chief delight in communing with God by acts of
+confession, and prayer, and praise. He seems to have imbibed the same
+spirit which in a brother-monarch once gave utterance to expressions
+no less valuable in the matter of sound theology, than exquisitely
+beautiful in their
+conception:<a id="notetag035" name="notetag035"></a><a href="#note035">[35]</a>
+"I had rather pass an hour in
+conversation with my friend than hear twenty discourses in his
+praise." And yet Henry delighted also in hearing Heaven's message of
+reconciliation faithfully expounded, and enforced home.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst, for example, he was pursuing his conquests in Normandy, the
+report no sooner reached him of a preacher named Vincentius, (who was
+labouring zealously in the cause of Christ in various parts of
+Brittany, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page039" name="page039">(p. 039)</a></span>
+who was said by his earnest and affectionate
+preaching to have converted many to the Lord their God,) than Henry
+sent for him, and took great delight in hearing his faithful
+expositions of the word of truth and life. And we have good reason for
+believing that the consolations of the pure doctrines of the Gospel,
+as a guardian angel ministering the cup of Heaven, attended him
+through life and in death.</p>
+
+<p>There is no intimation dropped by historians, nor is it intended in
+these Memoirs to intimate, that Henry's eyes were opened to the
+doctrinal errors of the church of Rome. But there are circumstances
+well worthy of consideration before we pronounce definitively on that
+point. When we bear in mind that, in those days, prayers and vows were
+habitually made to the Virgin for success, and, after any prosperous
+issue of the supplicants' exertions in war or peace, offerings of
+thanksgiving were addressed to her as the giver of victory and of
+every blessing; and whilst, at the same time, we find in Henry of
+Monmouth's letters and words no acknowledgment of any help but God's
+only; the question may be fairly entertained, whether he had not
+imbibed some portion of the pure light of Gospel truth on this very
+important article of Christian faith. The Author is well aware of the
+words at the close of his Will, referred to hereafter; and is very far
+from saying that he should be surprised to find other instances of a
+similar character. Still Henry's silence as
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page040" name="page040">(p. 040)</a></span>
+to the power and
+assistance of the Virgin, the absence of prayer to her in his
+devotions, many of which are especially recorded; the absence of
+praise to her after victory and success, though he was very far from
+taking praise to himself, always ascribing it to God Almighty only,
+may seem to justify the suggestion of an inquiry into this point.</p>
+
+<p>For a knowledge of the degraded state to which the church had sunk,
+and her inefficiency as the guardian and dispenser of religious truth,
+we are not left to the vague representations of declaimers, or the
+heated exaggerations of those by whom everything savouring of Rome is
+held in abomination. The preambles of the laws which were intended to
+cure the evils, bear the most direct and full evidence of their
+existence and extent. One parliamentary document, after prefacing that
+"Benefices were founded for the honour of God, the good of the
+founders, the government and relief of the parishioners, and the
+advancement of the clergy," then states "that the spiritual patrons,
+the regular clergy throughout the whole realm, mischievously
+appropriate to themselves the said benefices, and lamentably cast to
+the ground the houses and buildings, and cruelly take away and destroy
+divine service, hospitality, and other works of charity, which used to
+be performed in the said benefices to the poor and distressed; that
+they exclude and ever debar the clergymen from promotion, and
+privately convey the treasure of the realm in great sums to the court
+of Rome,&mdash;to the confusion
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page041" name="page041">(p. 041)</a></span>
+of their own souls, the grievous
+desolation of the
+parishioners<a id="notetag036" name="notetag036"></a><a href="#note036">[36]</a>
+and the whole country, the ultimate
+ruin of the clergy, the great impoverishment of the realm, and the
+irrecoverable ruin of the holy church of
+England."<a id="notetag037" name="notetag037"></a><a
+href="#note037">[37]</a></p>
+
+<p>A case argued before the judges in the time of Henry IV, very
+interesting in itself, and closely connected in many points with the
+subject of this chapter, is recorded in the Year Books. The argument
+arose on a writ of Quare impedit, directed against Halomm (Hallam)
+Bishop of Salisbury and Chichel (Chicheley) Bishop of St. David's,
+afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. The question at issue regarded
+the voidance of a prebend in the church of Salisbury, caused by
+Chicheley being created Bishop of St. David's, who held that prebend,
+to which he had been presented by Richard Medford, a former Bishop of
+Sarum. Against the King's claim of right of presentation to the void
+prebend, the defendants answered that the Pope had granted to
+Chicheley licence to enjoy all the preferments which he held before,
+together with his bishopric.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page042" name="page042">(p. 042)</a></span>
+For the King's right it was
+pleaded, that the creation of Chicheley took place whilst the
+temporalities of Sarum were in the hands of the King, on the
+translation of Hallam from York to
+Sarum;<a id="notetag038" name="notetag038"></a><a href="#note038">[38]</a>
+but the question at
+length turned virtually upon the power of the see of Rome to dispense
+with the laws of England.</p>
+
+<p>In the first sitting (Mich. 11 Henry IV.&mdash;<i>i.e.</i> 1409), Horton for the
+defendants alleged, "We continued in possession of the prebend after
+Richard Hallam had received the temporalities from the hands of the
+King. Subsequently to which, and before we were created Bishop of St.
+David's, our Saint Peter the Apostle, reciting by his bulls that we
+were elected Bishop of St. David's, granted us licence to enjoy all
+our other benefices." On which, Thirning, Justice, observed, "The
+grant of the Apostle in this case cannot change the law of the land."
+To which Hankford (who proved himself throughout the most zealous
+supporter of the omnipotence of the Popedom) merely replied, "The Pope
+can do all things;" his use of the Latin words evidently showing that
+he was quoting a dictum,&mdash;"Papa omnia potest." After some discussion,
+and a reference to former precedents chiefly alleged by Hankford,
+Thirning rejoins very significantly, "That was in ancient times, and I
+will not raise the question as to the power of the Apostle;
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page043" name="page043">(p. 043)</a></span>
+but I cannot see how he by his bulls can change the law of
+England."<a id="notetag039" name="notetag039"></a><a href="#note039">[39]</a>
+In the third deliberation, Culpeper says, "The intention
+of the statute is now to be considered; and I conceive that it was
+made to protect the King and other patrons in their rights, and to
+restrain the encroachment of the Apostle which he makes against the
+law." On the third discussion, Till argued, "Since by the law of the
+land the creation of a bishop causes a voidance in fact of a benefice
+before held, and by such voidance the title of presentation or
+collation accrues to the patron, I say that the Apostle can by no
+grant beforehand oust the patron of his right, and restrain the title
+which ought to accrue to him upon such creation: for if so, he ought
+to restrain and change the course of inheritance by the law of the
+land; <span class="pagenum"><a id="page044" name="page044">(p. 044)</a></span>
+and that he cannot do, no more than if the King wished
+to give or grant to a man that he should hold his lands after he has
+entered upon a monastic life, and professed; for such grant would be
+contrary to the common law of the land, and therefore would be
+altogether void. So also in this case." To this argument Horton
+replied, among other points, "I take it that the Apostle may grant to
+a man to hold three bishoprics at a time;" in which Hankford agreed,
+"provided it were with the consent of the patrons." On which Skeene
+observed, "If the Pope made such a grant, the King might retain the
+temporalities in his own hands, if he wished it." To this observation,
+Hankford, among many other things, said, "The Apostle can in many
+cases change the course of the law of the land, and prevent the
+occurrence of that which ought to follow." The same judge, pressing
+again the argument on which he had before relied, asks, "What say ye?
+suppose the Apostle, before a man becomes a professed monk, grants him
+a dispensation to hold his benefices after his profession?"&mdash;"I say,"
+replied Hill, "that in such a case he cannot deprive me of my right of
+patronage."</p>
+
+<p>The question at issue was found to be so difficult of solution, and
+the judges viewed the law of the case in such opposite lights, that it
+was argued and debated between them by adjournment in four several
+terms; at length the advocates of the Pope's omnipotence
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page045" name="page045">(p. 045)</a></span>
+gave way, and judgment was given for the
+Crown.<a id="notetag040" name="notetag040"></a><a href="#note040">[40]</a></p>
+
+<p>Among many memorable facts recorded by the Year Book during the
+progress of this cause, most persons probably will regard with
+interest the resistance made by the Crown, at this period, against the
+encroachments of the Pope,&mdash;the boundless power, ecclesiastical and
+political, assumed and exercised by the pontiff, and conceded to him
+in England,&mdash;and, at the same time, the spirit which shows itself on
+the part of some of our judges to vindicate the supremacy of the law
+of England over the alleged omnipotence of the court of Rome. The
+great difference of opinion also as to the power of the Pope,
+expressed by the members of the judicial bench, cannot fail to
+interest every Englishman, whether lawyer or not; whilst the terms in
+which some of the judges speak of the encroachments of the Apostolic
+see, against which the legislature of England had deemed it necessary
+to enact some stringent laws, are not a little remarkable. But to
+Protestants of the present day, perhaps the most surprising feature of
+all may appear to be the title ascribed to the Pope by the judges,
+whilst publicly and solemnly dispensing the laws of the country. They
+do not speak of him as the Pope, except once in the citation of a
+Latin dictum; nor do they refer to him as a sovereign pontiff
+exercising the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page046" name="page046">(p. 046)</a></span>
+delegated authority of the chief Apostle, and
+representing him in the church militant on earth: they do not give him
+the title of "successor to St. Peter," or "our father filling the
+Apostolic chair:"&mdash;they speak of him throughout in direct terms as
+"the Apostle;" and in some passages they even call him "Saint Peter,"
+and "our Saint Peter" the
+Apostle.<a id="notetag041" name="notetag041"></a><a href="#note041">[41]</a>
+It is however very curious, in
+tracing the argument in this cause, to lay the strong terms employed
+by the advocates of the Pope's paramount authority side by side with
+the striking expressions used by others of those high functionaries on
+the supremacy of the English law, and the inability of the Apostolic
+see in the plenitude of its power to change or dispense with the
+common or statute law of the realm.</p>
+
+<p>Abuses such as we have referred to in the previous sections of this
+chapter prevailed everywhere, and called loudly for vigorous measures
+to rectify them. At the same period the church through Christendom was
+distracted and torn by contending factions, each supporting a pontiff
+of its own.</p>
+
+<p>To put an end to these disgraceful and unhappy feuds, as destructive
+of the peace of Europe as they were hurtful to the cause of true
+religion, and to effect a full reformation in the church, the Council
+of Constance was professedly convened. That synod was summoned
+nominally by Pope John XXIII,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page047" name="page047">(p. 047)</a></span>
+but in reality by the united
+voice of the sovereigns of Europe, especially at the instance of the
+Emperor Sigismund himself. It falls not within the province of these
+Memoirs to record the proceedings of that council, either in
+extinguishing the flame of discord within the pale of the church, or
+in kindling the sadder flame of
+persecution<a id="notetag042" name="notetag042"></a><a href="#note042">[42]</a>
+against all who dared
+to think for themselves in a matter peculiarly their own, or in its
+lamentable forgetfulness of the abuses for the correction of which it
+was mainly convened. The records of the Council of Constance, however,
+abound in matters of interest in connection with the immediate and
+professed object of this work. We infer from them that Henry V. was
+then taking a lead in religious matters, and, whilst he was anxious to
+resist the overbearing tyranny of Rome, he was at the same time bent
+on making the religious establishment within his own kingdom an
+efficient means of conveying to all his subjects the blessings of the
+Gospel; he was an honest reformer of abuses, but, at the same time,
+the conscientious and uncompromising supporter of the religion of his
+fathers.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+
+<p>It was on the 20th of October 1414, that Robert Hallam, Bishop of
+Salisbury, the Bishops of Bath and
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page048" name="page048">(p. 048)</a></span>
+Hereford, the Abbot of
+Westminster, the Prior of Worcester, Lord Warwick, and others, were
+commissioned by Henry to proceed to Constance, and as his
+representatives<a id="notetag043" name="notetag043"></a><a href="#note043">[43]</a>
+to treat about the reformation of the universal
+church; or, as the Pell Rolls speak, "for the salvation of Christian
+souls." Another body of commissioners was subsequently sent, when not
+less than four hundred Englishmen went in company of the embassy,
+among whom were reckoned two archbishops, seven bishops, and many
+other lords and gentlemen. Of those who were first commissioned by
+Henry, Robert Hallam (or
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page049" name="page049">(p. 049)</a></span>
+Allam) was most strenuous in urging
+the work of reformation before and above all other matters with which
+they had to do. The Cardinals were equally urgent to have the election
+of Pope first settled, and then to proceed afterwards to the question
+of reformation. The Bishop of Salisbury, acting, doubtless, with the
+full approbation, it may be at the immediate suggestion of Henry, was
+instant, in season and out of season, in forcing the work of
+reformation on the Council. He was called the Emperor's right hand, so
+entirely did he and Sigismund co-operate for this purpose. Indeed, the
+English generally appear at first to have been among the principal
+promoters of reform, and, as long as Hallam lived, to have pursued it
+zealously; but on his
+death<a id="notetag044" name="notetag044"></a><a href="#note044">[44]</a>
+they were much less noted for the same
+zeal. Previously, however, to that event, a
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page050" name="page050">(p. 050)</a></span>
+great schism
+arose among the English at Constance, and the authority of the bishops
+was much disregarded. To remedy these disorders, Henry wrote a
+peremptory letter (18 July 1417), commanding all his people to be
+obedient to the bishops, and to abstain from all factious conduct;
+enjoining them, on pain of forfeiting their goods, either to behave in
+a manner becoming his subjects, or to return home; directing also,
+that, in all differences of opinion, the minority should conform to
+the decision of the majority.</p>
+
+<p>Bishop Hallam entertained a most rooted antipathy to the Pope and the
+Popedom; and he once gave expression to his sentiments so freely and
+unreservedly to the Pope himself, that his Holiness complained
+grievously of him to the Emperor: but Sigismund was himself too
+heartily bent on reforming the abuses of the Popedom to chide the zeal
+and freedom of the English prelate. On one occasion the Bishop
+maintained that a General Council was superior to the Pope (a doctrine
+subsequently recognised, but then, as it should seem, new and bold);
+on <span class="pagenum"><a id="page051" name="page051">(p. 051)</a></span>
+another he is reported to have gone so far as to affirm
+that the Pope, for his enormities, deserved to be burnt alive. Bishop
+Hallam<a id="notetag045" name="notetag045"></a><a href="#note045">[45]</a>
+was by no means singular either in the sentiments which he
+entertained with regard to the corruptions of the Romish Church "<i>in
+its head and its members</i>," and the imperative necessity of an
+universal reform, or in the unreserved boldness and plainness with
+which he published those sentiments. The whole of Christendom rang
+with loud and bitter complaints against the avarice, the sensuality,
+the overreaching and overbearing tyranny, the total degeneracy and
+worthlessness of the Popes, the Cardinals, and the religious orders;
+but in no place were the protests against
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page052" name="page052">(p. 052)</a></span>
+such deplorable
+corruptions more unsparingly uttered than at the Council of Constance
+itself: and among those who willingly offered themselves to testify,
+in their Saviour's name, against such a prostitution of his blessed
+Gospel to the purposes of worldly ambition, such gross depravity and
+total neglect of duty, the names of many of our own countrymen are
+recorded. These pillars of the church, these lights in the midst of
+darkness, seem indeed to have entertained sentiments, as to the duties
+and responsibilities of the Christian priesthood, worthy of the purest
+age. Some of their recorded doctrines are truly edifying, and find a
+response in some of the best episcopal charges and admonitions of the
+Protestant church at the present day.</p>
+
+<p>Among these excellent men, Dr. Richard Ullerston, of Oxford, seems to
+have taken a most primitive view of the duties of a Christian bishop.
+He wrote a treatise in 1408, by way of memorial for Bishop Hallam, his
+friend, who urged him to the work, when that uncompromising reformer
+went to the Council of Pisa. At the close of a long and powerful
+exhortation to provide for the due execution by the Popes of their own
+ministerial duties, and for the restoration of discipline in the
+church, he thus expresses himself: "Things being thus restored to
+their right order, and all abuses being cut away, the Pope will employ
+himself, agreeably to the duties of his charge, in procuring peace for
+Christians, not only by praying, but
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page053" name="page053">(p. 053)</a></span>
+by preaching the Gospel
+himself, and sending everywhere good preachers, who by their doctrine
+and example might urge on princes and people throughout the world
+their several duties, and who might make a holy war upon the passions
+of mankind, rooting up those sensual desires which, according to St.
+James, are the source of wars and divisions in the church and in the
+state." This treatise was published in Germany about the year 1700,
+from a manuscript in Trinity College, Cambridge; and may be found at
+the end of Van der Hardt's work on the Council of Constance. It
+consists chiefly of petitions for the remedy of abuses, and is full
+from beginning to end of the true spirit of genuine evangelical
+religion. Dr. Ullerston remained in uninterrupted and perfect
+communion with the church of Rome; and yet no Protestant, who ever
+suffered at the stake for his opposition to her, could have more
+faithfully exposed the practical grievances under which Christendom
+then mourned in consequence of her dereliction of duty, whilst she
+assumed to herself all supreme authority, and paralyzed the efforts of
+national churches to remedy the crying evils of the time. The heads of
+Ullerston's petitions abound with salutary suggestions; by many of the
+items we are apprised of the grievances then chiefly complained of, or
+the departments in which those grievances were found.</p>
+
+<p>1. On the election of a Pope.</p>
+
+<p>2. On the suppression of simony.</p>
+
+<p>3. On
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page054" name="page054">(p. 054)</a></span>
+the exaltation of the law of Christ above all human
+authority.</p>
+
+<p>4. Against appropriations, <i>i. e.</i> assigning the proceeds of parochial
+cures to monasteries.</p>
+
+<p>5. On appointing only fit persons to ecclesiastical stations.</p>
+
+<p>6. Against exemptions of monasteries and individuals from episcopal
+jurisdiction.</p>
+
+<p>7. Against dispensations,&mdash;those, among others, by which benefices and
+bishoprics were given to children.</p>
+
+<p>8. Against pluralities.</p>
+
+<p>9. Against appeals to Rome.</p>
+
+<p>10. Against the abuse of privileges.</p>
+
+<p>11. Against the clergy devoting themselves to secular affairs.</p>
+
+<p>12. Against the prerogatives of
+chanters<a id="notetag046" name="notetag046"></a><a href="#note046">[46]</a>
+and other officers in the
+houses of the great.</p>
+
+
+<p>13. Generally
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page055" name="page055">(p. 055)</a></span>
+against extortions.</p>
+
+<p>14. Against excessive expenses in the persons and the families of the
+clergy.</p>
+
+<p>15. For a provision for more efficient divine service in parishes.</p>
+
+<p>16. For the restoration of peace through Christendom.</p>
+
+<p>In his reflections on these points there is so much sound sense and
+genuine affection for true religion, such an ardent desire pervades
+them of promoting the ends for which alone an establishment can be
+justified on warrant of Scripture, or is in itself desirable,&mdash;the
+salvation of souls through Christ for ever,&mdash;that, had it not been out
+of place, the Author would have gladly transcribed a great part of Dr.
+Ullerston's sentiments into these pages. His suggestions savour
+throughout of genuine piety and true practical wisdom.</p>
+
+<p>To Ullerston must be added Walter Dysse, who was commissioned by Pope
+Boniface IX. to proceed to Spain, Portugal, and Aquitain, to preach a
+crusade against the infidels. He was a most deadly enemy to the
+followers of Wicliffe, and a devoted friend to the court of Rome; yet
+he could not pass over in silence the cause of the divisions and
+corruptions of the church, nor the means of their effectual
+reformation.</p>
+
+<p>But, perhaps, among all those whom the history of this Council records
+as zealous promoters of a real reformation within the church itself,
+our more immediate object
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page056" name="page056">(p. 056)</a></span>
+in these Memoirs would require us
+to make especial mention of Thomas Walden, because he was one of Henry
+of Monmouth's own
+chaplains,<a id="notetag047" name="notetag047"></a><a href="#note047">[47]</a>
+and was employed by him not only in
+domestic concerns, but in foreign
+embassies.<a id="notetag048" name="notetag048"></a><a href="#note048">[48]</a>
+He was called the
+Netter, from the expertness and success with which he caught and
+mastered his antagonists in argument. He was present at the Council of
+Pisa as well as of Constance. He proved himself throughout a most
+bitter persecutor of heretics; and (as Van der Hardt expresses
+himself) the less imbued he was with any affection towards the
+disciples of Huss, or influenced by it, so much the more sincere a
+censor was he of the ecclesiastical corruptions of his time. He was
+bent on reforming the abuses of the church with a strong hand, and so
+far the wishes of his royal master coincided with his own; but he
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page057" name="page057">(p. 057)</a></span>
+could not prevail upon the King to go hand-in-hand with him in
+persecuting the heretics. Walden was bold enough, in his mistaken
+zeal, to charge Henry with a culpable remissness in what was then too
+generally supposed to be the duty of a Christian
+sovereign.<a id="notetag049" name="notetag049"></a><a href="#note049">[49]</a></p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+
+<p>A communication made personally to Henry from Constance, in the
+beginning of the year
+1417,<a id="notetag050" name="notetag050"></a><a href="#note050">[50]</a>
+deserves in this place our especial
+attention. The letter, written by John
+Forester,<a id="notetag051" name="notetag051"></a><a href="#note051">[51]</a>
+may perhaps be
+considered a fair specimen of correspondence between Englishmen of
+education at that period. As a vehicle of information on the real
+state of feeling in England with regard to the church of Rome, it is
+very interesting. It is, moreover, impossible to read it without
+inferring that, in the opinion of the writer at least, and of those in
+whose behalf he wrote, Henry's earnest desire was to reform the abuses
+of the church, and to render churchmen zealous servants of the Gospel.</p>
+
+<div class="letter">
+<p><span class="smcap">JOHN FORESTER'S LETTER FROM CONSTANCE TO HENRY V.</span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page058" name="page058">(p. 058)</a></span></p>
+
+
+<p>"My sovereign liege Lord, and most redoubted Prince Christian to
+     me on earth. I recommend me unto your high royal and imperial
+     Majesty with all manner [of] honours, worships, grace, and
+     goodnesses. My most glorious Lord, liketh you to wit, that the
+     Wednesday, the third hour after noon, or near thereto, the seven
+     and twentieth day of January, your brother['s] gracious person
+     the King of Rome entered the city of Constance with your livery
+     of the Collar about his neck,&mdash;a glad sight for all your liege
+     men to see,&mdash;with a solemn procession of all estates, both of
+     Cardinals of all nations, and your Lords in their best array with
+     all your nation. He received your Lords graciously, with right
+     good cheer. Of all the worshipful men of your nation he touched
+     their hands, [and theirs] only, in all the great press. And then
+     went my Lord of Salisbury [Hallam] before heartily to the place
+     of the general Council, where that royal King should rest; and he
+     entered into the pulpit where the Cardinal
+Candacence,<a id="notetag052" name="notetag052"></a><a href="#note052">[52]</a> chief
+     of the nation of France, and your especial enemy also, had
+     purposed to have made the first
+collation<a id="notetag053" name="notetag053"></a><a href="#note053">[53]</a>
+before the
+     King,<a id="notetag054" name="notetag054"></a><a href="#note054">[54]</a>
+in worship of the French nation. But my Lord of
+     Salisbury kept possession, in worship of you and your nation; and
+     he made there a right good collation that pleased the King right
+     well: and forasmuch as the King was fasting at that hour, then
+     would no man occupy
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page059" name="page059">(p. 059)</a></span>
+him more that day; but on the morn
+     (my liege Lord) liketh you to wit, that at nine of the bell all
+     your ambassadors, with all your nation in their best array, went
+     to worship him in his palace, and that he gave them glad and
+     gracious audience. There my Lord of Chester, the president of
+     your nation, had his words to him in such a wise that it was
+     worship to him and all our nation; and soon after this they took
+     their leave of him. And on the morrow he sends after them again
+     at ten of the clock. There he received them again every man by
+     hand. Then he made a collation to our nation, and he thanked them
+     especially that they had been so loving, trusty, and true to his
+     nation in his absence. Also, he rehearsed there how the
+     brotherhood [friendship] began between him and my Lord your
+     father; and how it is now so continued and knit for you and your
+     successors, with the grace of God, for ever. And he told them so
+     great worship of your royal person, and such of all my Lords your
+     brethren; and then of the governance of holy church, divine
+     service, ornaments, and all state thereof, kept as though it were
+     in Paradise, in comparison with any place that he ever came in
+     before; so that from the highest unto the lowest he commended
+     your glorious and gracious person, your realm, and your good
+     governance. And then my Lord of Chester, our president, in the
+     name of all our nation (as belongeth to his office) rehearsed
+     compendiously, and in a gentle wise, all that ever the Emperor
+     had said; and gave him an answer to every point so good and so
+     reasonable, in so short avisement, that he has got him the thanks
+     of your nation for ever. And also, sovereign liege Lord, as I may
+     understand, my Lords of Salisbury and Chester are fully disposed,
+     by the consent of all your other ambassadors, to suive [pursue]
+     the reformation in the church, in the head and the members,
+     having no regard to no
+benefices<a id="notetag055" name="notetag055"></a><a href="#note055">[55]</a>
+that they
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page060" name="page060">(p. 060)</a></span> have,
+     rather than it should be left undone. And of this I doubt me
+     nought that these two lords will abide hard and nigh, always by
+     the good advice and deliberation of your brother the King of
+     Rome. Moreover, liketh you to wit, that on Sunday, the last day
+     of January, your brother, the King of Rome, wore the gown of the
+     Garters, with your collar, openly at the high mass; and he was
+     lereth [learned] that the Duke of Beyer and the borough-grave
+     should eat with my Lord of London the same day, and he said he
+     would eat with them. Other tidings be there none, but, as it is
+     said, the ambassadors of Spain should be here in Constance within
+     a few days. And, on Candlemas eve, came letters from the French
+     King, commanding to his nation to put out the ambassadors of the
+     Duke of Burgundy from their nation; also, as it is said openly,
+     that the foresaid French King hath sent to the city of Genoa, and
+     forwarded a great sum of gold to
+[hire<a id="notetag056" name="notetag056"></a><a href="#note056">[56]</a>]
+wage great ships and
+     galleys, to destroy your ordinance and your navy of England. And
+     further, the day of making this letter, Master Philip Moyar
+     entered Constance in good health, thanked be God! The which God,
+     of his gracious goodness, keep your high, honourable, and
+     gracious person in his pleasance, and send you sovereignty and
+     victory of all your enemies. Written at Constance, the second day
+     of February,<br>
+
+<span class="left15">"By your poor, true, and continual</span><br>
+<span class="left25">"Orator,<a id="notetag057"
+name="notetag057"></a><a href="#note057">[57]</a></span><br>
+<span class="left35">&nbsp;</span>"<span class="smcap">John Forester</span>."
+</p></div>
+
+<p>It <span class="pagenum"><a id="page061" name="page061">(p. 061)</a></span>
+is curious to remark that, on the very Sunday before this
+letter was written, the English bishops caused a sort of pious comedy
+to be acted in the presence of the Emperor Sigismund. It was one of
+those mysteries, as they were called, which had so long mingled
+religious instruction (of a very questionable character) with
+amusement. The fruits of these exhibitions were probably very
+equivocal in that age in England, as they are on the Continent at this
+day. The Germans consider this play, which was the representation of
+the Nativity,<a id="notetag058" name="notetag058"></a><a href="#note058">[58]</a>
+the Massacre of the Innocents, and the Visit of the
+Magi, as the first introduction of that sort of dramatic performance
+into their country. The English had caused a rehearsal to be performed
+before the authorities of the place three or four times previously, in
+order to make the actors perfect for their imperial audience.</p>
+
+<p>About half a year after the date of this letter to Henry, his uncle,
+Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, reached Constance in the garb of
+a pilgrim, on his journey to the Holy Land. His safe-conduct is dated
+July 21, 1417. His arrival at Constance was very prejudicial to the
+cause of the reform of the church. The struggle then was between the
+imperial party
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page062" name="page062">(p. 062)</a></span>
+(to which the English were closely attached)
+and the Cardinals, whether the Pope should be first elected, or
+whether the reformations in the church should take precedence of his
+election. Henry Beaufort, to whom all parties seem to have paid the
+utmost deference, suggested the expediency of first electing the Pope;
+the Cardinals pledging themselves, that done, to proceed forthwith to
+the reformation. His advice was followed, and the result must have
+been a disappointment to all sincere Christians: a death-blow was
+given to the hopes which had been entertained of a reform in
+ecclesiastical affairs to be effected by that Council. No sooner was
+Pope Martin V. elected, than both himself and the Cardinals frustrated
+every attempt to secure a sound reformation; and, after sitting three
+years and six months, the Council was dissolved.</p>
+
+<p>The records of this Council of Constance bear incidentally most
+valuable evidence to the warm interest taken by Henry in everything
+over which he had any control, and in which he could beneficially
+employ his power and influence. They prove, moreover, that whilst he
+was a sincere promoter of a sound and wholesome reformation, and most
+zealously attached to the religion in which he had been brought up,
+and in which he was a conscientious believer, he was no persecutor.
+Though our souls are harrowed up by the unchristian proceedings
+against John Huss and Jerome of Prague, (and, could truth allow it, we
+would gladly wipe away so
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page063" name="page063">(p. 063)</a></span>
+black a stain from the annals of
+ages and nations called Christian,) it is a source of great
+satisfaction to find that the name of Henry of Monmouth is not at all
+mixed up with those deeds of blood: we find him neither encouraging
+nor approving them. Not one shadow of suspicion is suggested that the
+persecuting spirit, which in that Council displayed itself so
+outrageously and inhumanly, found any thoughts in his breast
+responsive to its cruel aspirations. We know, indeed, that Thomas
+Walden, his priest and chaplain, was actuated by the spirit of
+persecution towards the Lollards; but we are equally assured that, so
+far from being countenanced and encouraged by his master in acts of
+persecuting bigotry, he did not scruple openly in public, and solemnly
+in a sermon, to charge him with a want of zeal in extirpating the
+enemies of the church. From such a witness the testimony so borne to
+the charity and moderation of Henry of Monmouth is very valuable and
+satisfactory; abundantly outweighing all the declamation of modern
+enthusiastic censors. Henry was a reformer,&mdash;he could not be persuaded
+to become a
+persecutor.<a id="notetag059" name="notetag059"></a><a href="#note059">[59]</a></p>
+
+<p>Henry's reputation for having at heart the correction of all abuses in
+the church, encouraged the University of Oxford to present to him a
+petition, setting forth a multitude of corrupt practices which
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page064" name="page064">(p. 064)</a></span>
+were a disgrace to the Christian religion in England; and praying
+him, since God had raised him up to such an exalted place in the
+church, to put forth his power in effecting a
+reformation.<a id="notetag060" name="notetag060"></a><a href="#note060">[60]</a>
+This
+document, preserved in Corpus Christi College in Oxford, abounds in
+topics of deep and lively interest; it marks the fearful extent to
+which the corrupt practices in the church had been fostered by Rome,
+the ardent desire entertained in England for a reformation so early as
+the commencement of the fifteenth century, and Henry's anxiety to
+bring about such a reform in the discipline of the church as might
+safely be adopted without giving countenance and encouragement to the
+Lollards, against whom the University seems at this time to have been
+decidedly hostile.</p>
+
+<p>The points to which Oxford then solicited Henry to direct his especial
+care, were partly such as are no longer of general interest among us,
+(excepting so far as they remind us of the mass of evils from which
+the Reformation rescued us,) and partly
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page065" name="page065">(p. 065)</a></span>
+such as must be
+interesting to Christians of every age.</p>
+
+<p>Among the former grievances were reckoned the Pope's unlimited
+creation of cardinals, all to be supported out of the revenues of the
+church; the excessive grants of indulgences, by which persons were
+encouraged in licentiousness; the privileges and exemptions and
+scandalous immorality of the monks. The petitioners complained
+bitterly that though the church of England would not admit persons
+into sacred orders who were unfit and unworthy, yet the court of Rome
+would repeatedly recognise such as lawful ministers.</p>
+
+<p>Among the latter evils were the non-residence of incumbents, the
+inadequacy of the stipends of curates, and the commendams of bishops.
+The petitioners prayed, that whereas a great number both of regulars
+and seculars who were presumptuous and ignorant were ordained, a
+decree might be passed that all before ordination should be strictly
+examined; and that a remedy should be provided against
+simony.<a id="notetag061" name="notetag061"></a><a href="#note061">[61]</a>
+They petitioned, also, that foreigners who could not speak English
+should have no cures in England; and they complained of the practice
+of patrons exacting from the priests whom they nominated to a benefice
+a pledge that they would
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page066" name="page066">(p. 066)</a></span>
+not sue for an augmentation of
+their stipend, were it never so small. They closed their petition by
+praying that all bishops who were remiss in punishing heresy, and
+extirpating Lollardy, might be deposed; and that all magistrates and
+officers should be bound by their oath to aid in its
+extirpation.<a id="notetag062" name="notetag062"></a><a href="#note062">[62]</a></p>
+
+<p>Henry, deeply lamenting the gross abuses referred to in this petition,
+implored the Pope to suffer them to be redressed. His Holiness agreed
+to certain constitutions, by which, if fully acted upon, most of the
+evils complained of would have been rectified. The Pope, however,
+begged Henry in return to abrogate all the laws which had been enacted
+in England to the prejudice of Rome; but the King declared his
+inability to meet the wishes of his Holiness.</p>
+
+<p>The extent to which the abuse of the
+Pope's<a id="notetag063" name="notetag063"></a><a href="#note063">[63]</a>
+authority had been
+connived at in this country,&mdash;a state of things which naturally
+indisposed him towards any change for the better,&mdash;may be inferred
+from two facts: that he (in defiance of the statutes of Edward III.
+and Richard II.) had by his own authority
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page067" name="page067">(p. 067)</a></span>
+created thirteen
+bishops in the province of Canterbury in two years; and had appointed
+his nephew, Prospero Colonna, a boy of only fourteen years of age,
+Archdeacon of Canterbury, with fourteen benefices in England.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+
+<p>Before we leave this subject, we cannot but record an instance
+(mentioned by Walsingham) of Henry's personal exertions in reforming
+abuses. He had received complaints against the Benedictine monks of
+certain grievous corruptions; and, attended only by four persons, he
+went into the midst of a full assembly of that order. The meeting
+consisted of sixty abbots and priors of convents, and more than three
+hundred monks, who were all assembled in the Chapter-house of
+Westminster. After a speech from the Bishop of Exeter, (one of those
+who accompanied him,) Henry himself addressed them at great length. He
+reminded them of the ancient piety of the monks, and the devotion of
+his predecessors and others in founding and endowing monasteries; he
+expatiated on the negligence and remissness in the discharge of their
+sacred duties, which, he said, had become notorious in their times;
+and he then exhibited certain articles according to which he required
+them to reform themselves; earnestly entreating them to recover the
+ancient spirit of religion which they had lost, and habitually to pray
+for the King, the country, and the church; assuring them that, if they
+followed <span class="pagenum"><a id="page068" name="page068">(p. 068)</a></span>
+his directions, they needed fear none of their
+enemies.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+
+<p>That Henry V, though earnestly desirous of a sound reform in the
+discipline of the church, and the lives and ministrations of the
+clergy, did never lay the axe to the root of the evil, cannot be
+denied. Perhaps he was disheartened by the total failure of the united
+efforts of himself and Sigismund, with their honest and zealous
+adherents, at Constance. Perhaps he resolved to wait till, at the
+close of his continental campaigns, in the enjoyment of peace at home
+and abroad, he might be able to devote his concentrated exertions to
+an object of such paramount importance. Perhaps the ambition of his
+uncle Henry Beaufort, who evidently was looking for personal
+aggrandizement in wealth and dignity, and who had given so decided and
+unhappy a turn in the council of Constance in favour of the Pope's
+party, might have devised some means for seducing his nephew's ardent
+thoughts into another channel. To whatever cause we may be disposed to
+attribute it, the reality is, that Henry V, when he died, had not
+effected reform on any comprehensive scale in his own realm; nor had
+he given any decided blow to the dominion and the corruptions of the
+church of Rome. His short life was a career of wars and victories.</p>
+
+<p>It <span class="pagenum"><a id="page069" name="page069">(p. 069)</a></span>
+pleased the Almighty, in his inscrutable wisdom, to bring
+about the reformation of the church in his own way, by his own means,
+and at his own appointed time. We recognise his hand in the blessing
+which we have inherited, and are thankful.</p>
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page070" name="page070">(p. 070)</a></span>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XIX.</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">wars with france. &mdash; causes which influenced henry. &mdash; summary of the
+affairs of france from the time of edward iii. &mdash; reflections on
+henry's title. &mdash; affairs of france from henry's resolution to claim
+his "dormant rights," and "rightful heritage," to his invasion of
+normandy. &mdash; negociations. &mdash; his right denied by the french. &mdash;
+parliament votes him supplies.</span><br><br>
+
+1414.<br><br>
+
+<span class="smcap">WARS WITH FRANCE.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>It falls not within the province of these Memoirs to justify the
+proceedings of Henry of Monmouth with regard to France, by an
+examination into the soundness of his claims, and the abstract
+principles on which he and his subjects and advisers rested them. But
+it is incumbent on any one who would estimate his character uprightly,
+to weigh the considerations by which he was influenced in the
+undertaking, neither according to our present standard, nor
+independently of all the circumstances of the age in which he lived,
+and the sentiments then generally prevalent among men of education and
+reputed probity.</p>
+
+<p>Historians
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page071" name="page071">(p. 071)</a></span>
+have generally represented it as an established
+fact that the clergy, especially the Archbishop of Canterbury, alarmed
+at the bold and urgent call of the Commons upon the King to seize the
+church patrimony, and from its proceeds apply whatever was required by
+the exigencies of the state, hit upon the expedient of stimulating him
+to claim France as his inheritance; thus withdrawing his mind from a
+measure so fatal to their interests. Though the evidence on which such
+a tradition rests is by no means satisfactory, we may perhaps receive
+it as probable. That the Commons were clamorous for the confiscation
+of the ecclesiastical revenues, and that the clergy voluntarily voted
+a very large subsidy to aid the King in prosecuting his alleged rights
+on the Continent, are matters of historical certainty. That the
+ecclesiastics, moreover, originally suggested to him the design of
+reviving his dormant claim to an inheritance in the fair realm of
+France, and then fostered the thought, and justified the undertaking
+by argument, and pledged their priestly word for the righteousness of
+his cause, is doubtless no unreasonable supposition. Still the clergy
+do not appear to have been in the least more eager in the scheme, or
+more anxious to protect themselves and their revenues from spoliation
+by such a scheme, than were the laity enthusiastically bent on a
+harvest of national glory and aggrandizement from its
+success.<a id="notetag064" name="notetag064"></a><a href="#note064">[64]</a> In
+a word, the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page072" name="page072">(p. 072)</a></span>
+King himself, the nobles, and the people, all
+seem to have been equally determined to engage in the enterprise, and
+to support each other in the resolution that it was not only
+practicable, but most fully justifiable by the laws of God and man.</p>
+
+<p>That Henry's high spirit predisposed him to listen with readiness and
+satisfaction to the suggestions of his subjects in this behalf, we may
+well believe; but that he would have been driven by a dominant
+ambition to engage in a war of conquest against the acknowledged
+principles of justice, his character, firmly established by undeniable
+proofs of a private as well as a public nature, forbids us to admit.
+It must never be forgotten that those persons who were then
+universally regarded as the best and safest interpreters of law, human
+and divine, assured him, on his solemn appeal to them for their
+judgment,<a id="notetag065" name="notetag065"></a><a href="#note065">[65]</a>
+that the cause in which he was embarking was just;
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page073" name="page073">(p. 073)</a></span>
+and, as many incidents in the sequel establish, he did embark in
+it without any doubts or misgivings, without the slightest scruple of
+conscience; on the contrary, with a full confidence in the entire
+righteousness of his cause, and a most unbounded reliance on the arm
+of the God of Justice for success.</p>
+
+<p>The facts which laid the groundwork for his enterprising spirit to
+build upon are very interesting; and, though they may perhaps belong
+rather to general history than to Memoirs of Henry of Monmouth, yet a
+brief review of them might seem altogether indispensable in this
+place.</p>
+
+<p>"The preference given by the States-General to Philip of Valois above
+Edward III, when he laid claim to the crown of France, led to that
+disastrous war, the prominent incidents of which are familiar to every
+one at all acquainted with the history of that time. Edward gained a
+naval victory over the French, and conquered Philip at Cressy, and
+possessed
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page074" name="page074">(p. 074)</a></span>
+himself of Calais, which gave him an entrance into
+France at all times. After some interval, Edward the Black Prince, his
+son, gained the famous battle of Poictiers; where King John, son and
+successor of Philip of Valois, was taken prisoner. Whilst that monarch
+was a captive in England, Edward entered France at the head of one
+hundred thousand men, and marched to the very gates of Paris. This
+successful invasion led to the treaty of Bretigny. By the terms of
+that peace, Edward recovered all those ancient dependencies of Guienne
+which had been wrested from his ancestors. These provinces had fallen
+to the Kings of England by the marriage of Eleanor, heiress of
+Guienne, with Henry II; but, from the time of John (Lackland) and
+Henry III, Philip Augustus and St. Lewis, Kings of France, had so
+shorn that vast territory, that nothing remained to England except
+Bourdeaux, Bayonne, and Gascony. Besides, by the same treaty, Edward
+secured Montreuil and Ponthieu, Calais and Guienne; and all these
+possessions were ceded to him in full sovereignty without any suit or
+homage due to France. Finally, he stipulated for the sum of three
+millions of golden crowns as the ransom of King John. On his side, he
+consented to forego all right and claim which he might have on the
+crown of France. Especially he renounced all title to Normandy and
+other places, which were said to be the heritage of his ancestors, and
+to all the sovereignty of Brittany. This
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page075" name="page075">(p. 075)</a></span>
+treaty was solemnly
+executed by King John, and observed during his life, except as to the
+ransom, two-thirds of which remained undischarged at his death. But
+Charles V, his son and successor, finding this peace very
+disadvantageous to France, though he had himself been a party to it,
+and had sworn to observe its conditions, broke it on very frivolous
+grounds. He declared war against Edward, and in a very few years
+recovered all that had been ceded to England by the treaty of
+Bretigny, except Calais, Bayonne, Bourdeaux, and part of Guienne. This
+second war was interrupted by a truce, which continued till the death
+of Edward III. in 1377. During the reign of Richard II, and the
+remainder of Charles V.'s life, and the first years of Charles VI, war
+and peace followed each other in mutual succession, without any
+important or decided advantage on either side. At last, Richard II.
+and Charles VI. concluded a truce for twenty-eight years, which was
+ratified by the marriage of Richard with Isabel, Charles's daughter.
+From the deposition of Richard to the death of Henry IV,
+notwithstanding frequent violations of the truce, both sides
+maintained that it still subsisted. Such was the state of the two
+crowns when Henry of Monmouth mounted the throne. France having broken
+the peace of Bretigny, and maintaining that the treaty was void,
+evidently the Kings of England were reinstated in all their rights
+which they had before that peace. On this principle, immediately
+after <span class="pagenum"><a id="page076" name="page076">(p. 076)</a></span>
+the disclaimer of that peace on the part of France,
+Edward III. resumed the title of King of France, which he had laid
+aside; and his successors assumed it also. Since the commencement of
+the war which followed the treaty of Bretigny there never had been
+peace between the two crowns, but only truces, which do not affect the
+rights of the parties. It is evident, therefore, that, when he
+ascended the throne, Henry V. found himself under precisely the same
+circumstances in point of right in which his great grandfather, Edward
+III, was eighty years before, when he commenced the first war. Besides
+this, Henry had to allege a solemn treaty, which, after it had been
+unequivocally acted upon, France broke on a most trifling pretext."</p>
+
+<p>Such is the representation made by the author of the Abrégé
+Historique<a id="notetag066" name="notetag066"></a><a href="#note066">[66]</a>
+of the affairs of England; and the Author is desirous
+of transferring into his pages this clear and candid statement the
+rather because it is written by a foreigner, who seems to have viewed
+the transaction with enlightened and unprejudiced eyes.</p>
+
+<p>More modern writers, indeed, would teach us to deem it "unnecessary
+for them to comment on the absurdity of Henry's claim to the French
+crown in right of his descent from Isabella wife of Edward II. For
+futile as her son Edward's (III.) pretensions were,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page077" name="page077">(p. 077)</a></span>
+Henry's
+were still less reasonable, as the Earl of March was in 1415 the heir
+of those persons."<a id="notetag067" name="notetag067"></a><a
+href="#note067">[67]</a></p>
+
+<p>The fact on which this reasoning rests is undoubtedly true, and yet
+considerations connected with that claim require to be entertained,
+and weighed without haste and without prejudice; and the truth itself
+warns us not to dismiss the point so summarily. Henry (it must never
+be forgotten) had been bred up in the belief that Richard II. had in
+the most full and unreserved manner, by his act of resignation,
+yielded all his rights into the hands of the people of England, and
+that those rights had been as fully and unreservedly conferred by the
+nation on Henry's father. Whatever rights, moreover, the Earl of March
+possessed as lineal heir to the crown, he had, as far as his own
+personal interest was concerned, over and over again, not merely by a
+passive acquiescence, but by repeated voluntary acts, virtually
+resigned, and made over to Henry as actual King; and, lastly, it is
+clear that Henry's claim was always by himself and by the nation
+rested on the ground of his being King of England, and, ipso facto, as
+such, heir of all his predecessors Kings of England.</p>
+
+<p>On these grounds, and with such an opening offered to his ardent mind
+by the distracted state of the realm of France, Henry resolved to
+prefer his claim; negociating first for its amicable concession, and,
+if unsuccessful in negociation, then pursuing it in the field of
+battle. This appears to have been his determination from
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page078" name="page078">(p. 078)</a></span>
+the
+first; but from the first he seems also to have contemplated the
+probability of failure by treaty; for, from the first intimation of
+his designs, he and his subjects were steadily engaged in making every
+preparation<a id="notetag068" name="notetag068"></a><a href="#note068">[68]</a>
+for a vigorous invasion of France.</p>
+
+<p>In this part of our treatise a brief outline is required of the
+proceedings between the resolution first taken by Henry, and his
+appearance in arms on French land; nor can we satisfactorily pass on
+without taking a succinct view of the internal state of that kingdom
+at the time of Henry's original claim and subsequent invasion.</p>
+
+
+<p class="figcenter"><span class="smcap">SUMMARY OF THE AFFAIRS OF FRANCE.</span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page079" name="page079">(p. 079)</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Charles V, surnamed the Wise, died in
+1380.<a id="notetag069" name="notetag069"></a><a href="#note069">[69]</a>
+He left to succeed him
+his son Charles VI, twelve years of age; and he appointed his three
+brothers to govern the kingdom during the minority,&mdash;Lewis, Duke of
+Anjou, John, Duke of Berry, and Philip, Duke of Burgundy, who by their
+ambition and rivalry threw the whole realm into confusion. Charles V.
+left also another son, called the Duke of Orleans, who in his time
+contributed to the general confusion no less than his uncles. Through
+the first days of Charles's (VI.) reign, the three regents, differing
+in every other point, agreed only in burdening the nation with taxes;
+a circumstance which bred great discontent, and prepared the people
+for separating into different factions whenever an opportunity might
+occur.</p>
+
+<p>The Duke of Anjou quitted France in 1381, to take possession of his
+kingdom of Sicily. The King was of age to be his own master, according
+to the will of his father, at fourteen; yet his uncles governed both
+his estate and his person till he was twenty. In 1385, he was married
+to Isabella, daughter of Stephen, Duke of Bavaria.</p>
+
+<p>In 1388, Charles assumed the reins of government, discharging his
+uncles, and keeping about his person his brother, the Duke of Orleans,
+then seventeen, and his maternal uncle the Duke of Bourbon.</p>
+
+<p>The
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page080" name="page080">(p. 080)</a></span>
+Duke of Burgundy could not endure to see the Dukes of
+Orleans and Bourbon govern the kingdom in the name of the King; and in
+1391 he succeeded in causing the Estates-General to transfer the
+government to him under the pretext of aiding his nephew to bear the
+burden of the state. Probably the King had already shown symptoms of
+that imbecility which afterwards incapacitated him altogether for
+managing the affairs of his kingdom. In 1395 his malady increased in
+violence; and for some time the Queen his wife, the Dukes of Orleans,
+Berry, Burgundy, and Bourbon, each struggled hard to retain the reins
+of government in their own hands. At length the Dukes of Orleans and
+Burgundy formed two opposite parties; under the banners of which, as
+well the members of the court, as the subjects of the kingdom at
+large, arranged themselves in hostile ranks. Queen Isabella joined the
+Duke of Orleans. The Duke of Berry fluctuated between the two
+factions, and had great difficulty in preventing them from coming to
+extremities. In these struggles the two chiefs were so equal, and so
+determined not to yield either to the other, that they left the
+government to the council of the King. The Duke of Burgundy withdrew
+to the Netherlands, where he was master of the earldoms of Flanders
+and Artois, and the duchy of Brabant: there he died in 1403, leaving
+his son John to succeed him, who became Duke of Burgundy and Count of
+Flanders and Artois. His brothers shared the residue of their father's
+inheritance.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page081" name="page081">(p. 081)</a></span>
+the new Duke of Burgundy was employed in arranging his
+own affairs, the Queen and the Duke of Orleans conducted the
+government; but with little satisfaction to the people, who found
+themselves grievously oppressed by taxation. Meanwhile, the Duke of
+Burgundy married his son Philip, Earl of Charolois, to Michelle, the
+King's daughter; and one of his daughters was also espoused to the
+Dauphin, Louis, then only nine years of age.</p>
+
+<p>Some time afterwards, Charles VI. finding himself in one of his
+intervals of mental health, and hearing complaints from all sides
+against his Queen and the Duke of Orleans, convened an assembly of
+nobles to deliberate on a remedy; and commanded the presence of the
+Duke of Burgundy. On his approach, the Queen and the Duke of Orleans
+withdrew, taking with them the young Dauphin. The Duke of Burgundy
+followed, and overtook them; and rescued the Dauphin from their
+custody. This was a source of open rupture between those princes.
+There followed, indeed, an outward show of reconciliation; but their
+mutual hatred was deadly still. In 1407 the Duke of Burgundy caused
+the Duke of Orleans to be assassinated. He was bold enough to profess
+himself the author of the murder, and powerful enough to shield
+himself from any punishment, and to procure letters of free pardon.
+Next year he was obliged to visit his own territory, and in his
+absence his enemies caused the bill of amnesty to be reversed.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page082" name="page082">(p. 082)</a></span>
+the Duke gained a victory over the troops of Liege,
+and marched at the head of four thousand horsemen direct upon Paris.
+The Queen withdrew at his approach, taking the King with her to Tours;
+and, finding herself unable to cope with her antagonist, she consented
+to an accommodation. The King received Burgundy, and reconciled him in
+appearance to the Duke of Orleans, son of the murdered Duke. After
+this, the Duke of Burgundy remained master of the government, and of
+the person of the King.</p>
+
+<p>It will be remembered that, in 1411, a powerful league was formed in
+Guienne against the Duke of Burgundy, by the Dukes of Berry, Orleans,
+Alençon, and the Count of Armagnac, who was governor of Languedoc and
+father-in-law to the Duke of Berry; and who, being the chief conductor
+of the whole affair, gave the name of Armagnacs to the party in
+general opposed to
+Burgundy.<a id="notetag070" name="notetag070"></a><a href="#note070">[70]</a>
+At the beginning, the Duke of
+Burgundy, having received succours from Henry IV. of England, gained a
+great advantage over his opponents. Subsequently, the Armagnacs,
+obtaining considerable assistance from the same King, forced the Duke
+of Burgundy, who was besieging them in Bourges, to make peace; one
+condition of which, however, being that no one of those chiefs should
+return to the court, the Duke of Burgundy still remained master of the
+King's person. In
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page083" name="page083">(p. 083)</a></span>
+this state of triumph on the part of the
+Duke of Burgundy, and of depression of the Armagnacs, another opponent
+arose against the Duke, of whom he seems to have been previously under
+no apprehension,&mdash;the Dauphin himself, his son-in-law, then only
+sixteen years of age. This prince, persuaded that during his father's
+illness the government could of right belong to no one but himself,
+resolved to secure his own. He gained over the governor of the
+Bastille, and seized that fortress. The Parisians flew to arms at the
+secret instigation of the Duke of Burgundy. A surgeon, named John of
+Troyes, at the head of ten or twelve thousand men, forced the gates of
+the Dauphin's palace; and, carrying off the chief friends of that
+prince, lodged them in prison.</p>
+
+<p>These events took place at the opening of the year 1413, whilst Henry
+IV. was labouring under the malady of which he died. Henry V.
+succeeded to the throne, March 20th of that year. At the end of April,
+the malcontents of Paris, all of the Burgundian faction, committed
+various excesses, and compelled both the King and the Dauphin to wear
+the white cap, the badge of their party. The
+Dauphin<a id="notetag071" name="notetag071"></a><a href="#note071">[71]</a>
+betook
+himself at last to the Armagnacs, of whom many lived in Paris,
+grievously oppressed by the government of the Duke of Burgundy; and he
+planned his scheme so well, and so secretly, that
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page084" name="page084">(p. 084)</a></span>
+at the
+beginning of September he found thirty thousand men in Paris ready to
+support him. By his sudden and vigorous efforts he struck terror into
+the opposite faction, who abandoned the Bastille and other places in
+their possession, and thought of nothing but their own personal
+safety. The Duke of Burgundy himself withdrew to Flanders. The
+Dauphin, however, gained no permanent advantage from this success; for
+the King, in one of his favourable intervals, immediately seized the
+reins of government, and called his nephew the young Duke of Orleans
+to his counsels. This youth induced the King to issue very violent
+decrees against the Duke of Burgundy, and to execute a great number of
+his partisans.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the state of affairs in France when Henry of Monmouth first
+resolved to prosecute his claims in that kingdom. The Duke of Burgundy
+lost no time in endeavouring to secure the assistance of so powerful
+an ally; as we find by the many safe-conducts dated before the Duke's
+expulsion from Paris, which did not take place till September. Whether
+Henry had, before these embassies from the Duke of Burgundy, formed
+any design of claiming his supposed rights in France, or not, the
+Duke's negociations must have strongly impressed him with the
+distracted state of that country, and with an opening offered to the
+enterprising spirit of any powerful neighbour who would promptly and
+vigorously seize upon that opportunity of invading France.</p>
+
+<p>"Although<a id="notetag072" name="notetag072"></a><a href="#note072">[72]</a>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page085" name="page085">(p. 085)</a></span>
+several negociations had taken place between
+September 1413, and the January following, for the purpose of
+prolonging the subsisting truce between England and France, it was not
+until January 28, 1414, that ambassadors were appointed to treat of
+peace. From the engagement then made, that Henry would not propose
+marriage to any other woman than Katharine, daughter of the King of
+France, until after the 1st of the ensuing May, (which term was
+extended from the 18th of June to the 1st of August, and afterwards to
+the 2nd of February 1415,) it is evident that a marriage with that
+princess was to form one of the conditions of the treaty. But the
+first intimation of a claim to the crown of France is in a commission,
+dated May 1, 1414, by which the Bishop of Durham, Richard Lord Grey,
+and others, were instructed to negociate that alliance, and the
+restitution of such of their sovereign's rights as were withheld by
+Charles. The principal claim was no less than the crown and kingdom of
+France. Concession to this demand, however, being at once declared
+impossible, the English ambassadors waived it, without prejudice
+nevertheless to Henry's rights. They then demanded the sovereignty of
+the duchies of Normandy and Touraine, the earldom of Anjou, the duchy
+of Brittany, the earldom of Flanders, with all other parts of the
+duchy of Aquitain, the territories which had been ceded
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page086" name="page086">(p. 086)</a></span>
+to
+Edward III. by the treaty of Bretigny, and the lands between the Somme
+and Graveline; to be held by Henry and his heirs, without any claim of
+superiority on the part of Charles or his successors. To these demands
+were added the cession of the county of Provence, and payment of the
+arrears of the ransom of King John, amounting to one million six
+hundred thousand crowns. It was also intimated that the marriage with
+Katharine could not take place, unless a firm peace were also
+established with France, and that two millions of crowns would be
+expected as her dower.</p>
+
+<p>On March 14, 1415, the French ministers denied Henry's right to any
+part of the dominion of their master; but, to avoid extremities, they
+offered to cede the counties of Angouleme and Bayonne, with various
+other territories. They said that Provence, not being among Charles's
+lordships, was not withheld by him. With respect to the arrears of
+ransom, they thought that, having offered so much to extend the
+possessions of England, with a view of securing peace, the claim ought
+to be withdrawn. Touching the marriage, which had been so frequently
+discussed, though the Kings of France had been accustomed to give much
+less with their daughters than six hundred thousand crowns, which sum
+the Duke of Berry had offered with her in the preceding August, yet
+that it should be enlarged to eight hundred thousand crowns, besides
+her jewels and apparel, and the expense of
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page087" name="page087">(p. 087)</a></span>
+sending the
+princess in a suitable manner to the place where she might be
+delivered to Henry. But as the English ambassadors said they were not
+permitted to prolong their stay in France, and had no authority to
+vary their demands, Charles engaged to send an embassy to England to
+conclude the treaty.</p>
+
+<p>During the progress of these protracted negociations Henry grew
+dissatisfied; and either from impatience, or with a view of awing
+France into submission, issued writs of 26th September 1414, for a
+parliament to be held at Westminster after the Octaves of St. Martin,
+18th November following. On that day parliament met; and the session
+was opened at the command of the King by Henry Beaufort, Bishop of
+Winchester, then Chancellor. In a long harangue he informed the
+assembly, that their King (who was present in person) had resolved to
+recover his inheritance, which had been so long and unjustly kept from
+him and his progenitors, Kings of England; and that, for this purpose,
+many things were necessary. Taking for his theme the text, "Whilst we
+have time, let us do good," he pointed out, with more pedantry than
+eloquence, that for every natural thing there were two seasons; and
+that just as for the tree there was one time to bud, to flower, and to
+bring forth fruit, and another time through which it was left to
+repose, so was there given to man a time for peace, and a time for war
+and labour: that the King,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page088" name="page088">(p. 088)</a></span>
+considering the value of peace
+and tranquillity which this kingdom then enjoyed, and also the justice
+of his present quarrel, (considerations most necessary for every
+prince who had to encounter enemies abroad,) deemed that the proper
+time had arrived for the accomplishment of his purpose. But, to attain
+this great and honourable object, three things, he said, were wanted;
+namely, wise and faithful counsel from his vassals, strong and true
+support from his people, and a copious subsidy from his subjects;
+which each of them would readily grant, because the more their
+prince's dominions were extended, the less would their burdens become;
+and, these things being performed, great honour and glory would
+necessarily ensue.</p>
+
+<p>This address was not without effect, for the Commons, after electing
+Thomas Chaucer (son, as it is said, of the poet) for their Speaker,
+"granted the King, for the honour of God, and from the great love and
+affection which they bore towards their sovereign, two entire
+fifteenths and two entire tenths, <i>for the defence of the kingdom of
+England and the safeguard of the seas</i>."</p>
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page089" name="page089">(p. 089)</a></span>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XX.</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">modern triple charge against henry of falsehood, hypocrisy, and
+impiety. &mdash; futility of the charge, and utter failure of the evidence
+on which alone it is grounded. &mdash; he is urged by his people to
+vindicate the rights of his crown, himself having a conscientious
+conviction of the justice of his claim. &mdash; story of the tennis-balls.
+&mdash; preparations for invading france. &mdash; henry's will made at
+southampton. &mdash; charge of hypocrisy again grounded on the close of
+that testament. &mdash; its futility. &mdash; he despatches to the various
+powers of europe the grounds of his claim on france.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>At this point of his work, the Author finds the painful duty devolved
+upon him of investigating a triple charge, now for the first time
+brought against Henry by a living writer. He must not shrink from the
+task, though he enter upon it with a consciousness that, if
+established, the charge must brand Henry's memory with indelible
+disgrace, whilst his acquittal may imply censure on his
+accuser.<a id="notetag073" name="notetag073"></a><a href="#note073">[73]</a>
+He feels, nevertheless, that only one course is
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page090" name="page090">(p. 090)</a></span>
+open for him
+to pursue; he must follow up the inquiry fully, fearlessly, and
+impartially, whatever may be the result; and, whether he looks to
+Henry or his accuser, he must adhere rigidly to the golden maxim,
+"Friends are dear, but truth is dearer!"</p>
+
+<p>An Author,<a id="notetag074" name="notetag074"></a><a href="#note074">[74]</a>
+then, to whom (as we gladly and gratefully acknowledge)
+we are largely indebted for many helps supplied to the biographer and
+historian, and from whom we have borrowed copiously in this part of
+our work, brings a wide and violent charge against Henry's character
+in those very points on which the general tenour and complexion of his
+whole life would lead us to regard him as of all least assailable. He
+charges him with <i>falsehood</i>, <i>hypocrisy</i>, and <i>impiety</i>. The
+groundwork on which he founds these accusations is a series of letters
+recorded in M. Le Laboureur's History of Charles VI. of France.</p>
+
+<p>To <span class="pagenum"><a id="page091" name="page091">(p. 091)</a></span>
+ascertain more satisfactorily whether the charge is really
+substantiated, or whether it has been built upon an unsound
+foundation, we will first extract the whole passage as it stands in
+his work, "The Battle of Agincourt," and then sift the evidence which
+the writer alleges in support of so grave an imputation.</p>
+
+<p>"On the 7th April, Henry is said to have addressed the King of France
+on the subject of his claims, and in reference to the embassy which
+Charles had signified his intention of sending to discuss them. No
+part<a id="notetag075" name="notetag075"></a><a href="#note075">[75]</a>
+of the correspondence on this occasion occurs in the
+F&oelig;dera, and it is very slightly alluded to by our historians. "To
+the first of those letters Charles replied on the 16th of April, and
+to the last on the 26th of that month; it
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page092" name="page092">(p. 092)</a></span>
+is therefore
+evident that Henry did not wait for the answer to the first before the
+second was written. These documents occur in contemporary writers;
+and, as the internal evidence which they contain of being genuine is
+very strong, there is no cause to doubt their authenticity. Their most
+striking features are falsehood, hypocrisy, and impiety; for Henry's
+solemn assurance that he was not actuated by his own ambition, but by
+the wishes of his subjects, is rendered very doubtful by the fact
+that, on the day after the Chancellor had solicited supplies for the
+invasion of France, the Commons <i>merely stated</i> that they granted
+<i>them for the defence of the realm, and the safety of the seas</i>. The
+justice claimed was, that France should be dismembered of many
+important territories; and that, with the hand of Katharine, Henry
+should receive a sum as unprecedented as it was exorbitant. But this
+was not all, for his first demand was the crown of France itself; and
+it was not until he was convinced of the impossibility of such a
+concession, that he required those points to which his letters refer.
+If then there was <span class="smcap">falsehood</span> in his assertion that his demands were
+dictated by the wishes of his people rather than by his own, there was
+<span class="smcap">hypocrisy</span> in the assurances of his moderation and love of peace, and
+<span class="smcap">impiety</span> in calling the Almighty to witness the sincerity of his
+protestation, and in profaning the holy writings by citing them on
+such an occasion. These letters, which were probably dictated by
+Cardinal <span class="pagenum"><a id="page093" name="page093">(p. 093)</a></span>
+Beaufort, are remarkable for the style in which
+they are written; in some places they approach nearly to eloquence,
+and they are throughout clear, nervous, and impressive."</p>
+
+<p>In this threefold indictment, the first charge is "falsehood." The
+falsehood is made to consist in Henry's assertion, that he was
+stimulated to prosecute his claim by the wishes of his people; and the
+only evidence alleged to sustain this charge of falsehood, is the fact
+that parliament, in granting the supplies, so far from specifying that
+the grant was made for the purpose of recovering the King's rights in
+France, merely stated that it was "<i>for the defence of the realm, and
+the safety of the seas</i>."</p>
+
+<p>Before a charge, fixing an indelible stain on the character of a
+fellow-creature, whether the individual were a king leading his armies
+to victory, or the humblest subject in his realm, were made on such
+grounds as these, it had been well,&mdash;well for the cause of truth, and
+well for the satisfaction of the accuser,&mdash;had the nature and force of
+the evidence adduced been first more carefully examined. The slightest
+acquaintance with the language of parliament at that time, and the
+most cursory comparison of the words of its members with their
+conduct, must satisfy every one that not a shadow of suspicion is
+suggested of any unwillingness on the part of the Commons to support
+the King in demanding his supposed rights, and vindicating them by
+arms. On the contrary, the very records of
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page094" name="page094">(p. 094)</a></span>
+parliament
+themselves, which are cited to maintain against Henry the charge of
+falsehood, carry with them a full and perfect refutation of the
+accusation, complete in all its parts; and compel us to lament that it
+has been brought so hastily, unadvisedly, and inconsiderately. Our
+first point is to ascertain the force of those words in the grant
+alone cited to substantiate the charge of falsehood against
+Henry,&mdash;what meaning was attached to them by the Commons themselves.
+We shall find that the subsidy was granted in the usual formal words,
+"for the defence of the realm of England and so forth." In the first
+parliament of Henry for example, the subsidy is granted in these
+words: "To the honour of God, and for the great love and affection
+which your poor Commons of your realm of England have to you our dread
+sovereign Lord, for the good of the realm and its good governance in
+time to come, we have, with the consent of the Lords Spiritual and
+Temporal, granted to you <i>for defence of your realm of England</i>," and
+so forth,&mdash;specifying a subsidy from wools and other merchandise; and
+then, in voting an entire fifteenth and a tenth, they add, "for <i>the
+defence of the realm, and the safeguard of the seas</i>." With precisely
+the same justice might it be argued in this case that the Commons
+would not vote the subsidy for "the support of the King's dignity and
+high estate," (though that was one of the especial grounds on which he
+appealed himself to the liberality of his parliament,) as
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page095" name="page095">(p. 095)</a></span> it
+can be inferred, from the same words used in the parliament of 1415,
+that the Commons of England were not forward to promote the expedition
+to France. In that parallel case, however, we are quite sure the
+argument would be fallacious; because in the very same session they
+voted that the King's own allowance should take precedence of all
+other payments of annuities and other demands, to the amount of
+10,000<i>l.</i> annually.</p>
+
+<p>Another instance occurs in the parliament which met October 19, 1416,
+the King himself presiding: though the Chancellor, after referring
+with exultation to the victories of Harfleur, "the key of France," and
+of Agincourt, "where greatest part of the chivalry of France had
+fallen in battle," asks for new supplies <i>for the express purpose</i> of
+carrying on the wars in France; the Commons, in voting those supplies,
+as expressly state that they grant them "<i>for the defence of your
+realm of England</i>."</p>
+
+<p>The same conclusion is warranted by the grants of 1417 and 1419;
+excepting that in these the Commons make the argument intended to
+support the charge against Henry's veracity still less tenable, by
+inserting a phrase which might seem to exclude the very object for
+which application for the subsidy was made. The application was made
+especially for the supplies necessary to carry on the war abroad; the
+Commons vote the subsidy "for the defence of the realm of England <i>in
+especial</i>."</p>
+
+<p>But, to remove all possible doubt as to the true intent
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page096" name="page096">(p. 096)</a></span> and
+meaning of the people of England in the grant in 1414 of two entire
+tenths and two entire fifteenths, we need only refer to the first act
+of the next parliament, which, after rehearsing the impossibility of
+the King effectually carrying on his wars abroad unless one tenth and
+one fifteenth made by the former parliament, payable on the 2nd of
+February, should be collected before that time, decrees that subsidy
+to be due and payable on the feast of St. Lucie in the next coming
+December. Nor is this all. The next act of this same parliament would
+of itself prove the utter futility of the charge against Henry, as far
+as that charge rests upon the evidence adduced. The parliament first
+state the necessity of supplying the King with more efficient means
+<i>for pursuing his campaign in France</i>, and then vote one entire tenth
+and one entire fifteenth,&mdash;for what? not for the purpose which they
+have expressly specified, but "<i>for the defence of his said realm of
+England</i>." The preamble, however, of this act shows so clearly what
+were the views and feelings of his subjects on this very point, as
+well as on the justice of his claim, that a transcript of it seems
+indispensable in this place.</p>
+
+<p>"The Commons of the realm, in this present parliament assembled,
+considering that the King our sovereign lord, for the honour of God,
+and to avoid the shedding of human blood, hath caused various requests
+to be made to his adversary of France to have restitution of his
+<i>inheritance</i> according to
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page097" name="page097">(p. 097)</a></span>
+<i>right and
+justice</i>;<a id="notetag076" name="notetag076"></a><a href="#note076">[76]</a>
+and for
+that end there have been diverse treaties, as well here as beyond the
+sea, to his great costs; nevertheless he hath not, by such requests
+and treaties, obtained his said inheritance, nor any important part
+thereof: and since the King, neither by the revenues of his realm, nor
+by any previous grant of subsidy, hath had enough wherewith to pursue
+<i>his right</i>; yet, always <i>trusting in God</i> that in his <span class="smcap">just</span> <i>quarrel</i>
+he shall be upheld and supported, of his own good courage hath
+undertaken an expedition into those parts, pawning his jewels to
+procure a supply of money, and in his own person hath passed over, and
+arrived at Harfleur, and laid siege to it and taken it, and holds it
+at present, having placed lords and many others there for its defence;
+and then of his excellent courage, with few people in regard to the
+power of France, he marched by land towards Calais, where, on his
+route, many dukes, earls, and other lords, with the power of the realm
+of France, to an exceeding great number, opposed him, and gave him
+battle; and God, of his grace, hath given victory to our King, to the
+honour and exaltation of his
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page098" name="page098">(p. 098)</a></span>
+crown, of his own fair fame, the
+singular comfort of his faithful lieges, to the terror of all his
+enemies, and probably to the lasting profit of all his realm."</p>
+
+<p>We may safely leave the issue to the verdict of any impartial mind.
+The argument drawn from the language of parliament to convict Henry of
+falsehood falls to the ground; it has no colour of reason in it; and
+no other argument is even alluded to by the accuser. It is, moreover,
+much to be regretted that the Editor of "The Battle of Agincourt,"
+when he was translating so large a portion of the Chaplain's memoir,
+which with great reason he implicitly follows, had not begun the work
+of translation a few sentences only before its present commencement.
+Our countrymen would then have seen that, from whatever sources that
+Editor drew the evidence on which to build his triple charge of
+hypocrisy, falsehood, and impiety against Henry V, those who knew him
+best, and had the most ample opportunities of witnessing his character
+and conduct, expressed at least a very opposite opinion on the point
+at issue. The following are the genuine words of one who accompanied
+Henry from his native shores to France, was with him at the battle of
+Agincourt, and returned with him in safety to England. "Meanwhile,
+after the interchange of many solemn embassies between England and
+France, with a view to permanent peace, when the King found that very
+many negociations and most exact
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page099" name="page099">(p. 099)</a></span>
+treaties had been carried
+on in vain, by reason that the council of France, <i>clinging to their
+own will, which they adopted as their law</i>, could be induced to peace
+by no just mean of equity, without immense injury to the crown of
+England, and perpetual disinheritance of some of the noblest portions
+of his right in that realm, though for the sake of peace he was ready
+to make great concessions, seeing no other remedy or means by which he
+could come to his right, had recourse to the sentence of the supreme
+judicature, and without blame sought to recover by the sword what the
+blameworthy and unjust violence of the French had struggled so long to
+usurp and keep.... He determined to regain the duchy of Normandy,
+which had for a long time been <i>kept, against God and all justice, by
+the violence of the French</i>."</p>
+
+<p>There is, however, one declaration contained in the very volume from
+which these alleged letters of Henry are extracted, which makes the
+charge brought by the commentator on those letters still more
+surprising.<a id="notetag077" name="notetag077"></a><a href="#note077">[77]</a>
+It is in that very volume positively asserted, with
+regard to the first rumour through France of Henry's intended
+invasion, that "his
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page100" name="page100">(p. 100)</a></span>
+subjects <i>had strongly</i> remonstrated with
+him for his love of peace and rest, and his dislike of active
+measures, and had <i>now</i> <span class="smcap">insisted</span> upon his undertaking the
+expedition."<a id="notetag078" name="notetag078"></a><a href="#note078">[78]</a></p>
+
+<p>The charge of hypocrisy is made to rest "on Henry assuring the French
+monarch of his moderation and love of peace, whereas he must have been
+conscious that he was immoderate in his demands, and was not desirous
+of peace." To prove that his demands were immoderate, is not enough to
+sustain this accusation; to constitute him a hypocrite, he must
+<i>himself have been conscious</i> that his demands were
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page101" name="page101">(p. 101)</a></span>
+immoderate. But how stands the probability? He was fully persuaded
+that the crown of France was his own; and he first demands the full
+surrender of his alleged rights. The Commons declare that what he
+sought was "the restitution of his inheritance according to <i>right and
+justice</i>," and testify that he "trusted in God for support in his
+<i>just quarrel</i>." He then, agreeably to the advice of his
+council,<a id="notetag079" name="notetag079"></a><a href="#note079">[79]</a>
+(who acknowledge that what he sought to
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page102" name="page102">(p. 102)</a></span>
+recover was "his
+righteous heritage, the redintegration of the old rights of his
+crown,") withdrawing his full demand, proposes other terms,
+unreasonable, no
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page103" name="page103">(p. 103)</a></span>
+doubt, as we may view them now, but, if
+regarded as a substitute for the fair kingdom of France, far from
+stamping on Henry the brand of hypocrisy, when he made a profession of
+moderation and a love of
+peace.<a id="notetag080" name="notetag080"></a><a href="#note080">[80]</a></p>
+
+<p>There remains the charge of impiety, which is made to rest on Henry
+having called the Almighty to witness a falsehood, and quoted
+Scripture in support of what he affirmed. It was undoubtedly too much
+the practice then, as unhappily it is now, for Christians, on trivial
+occasions, to appeal to Heaven, and to quote the sanction of Scripture
+in very questionable matters of worldly policy. But Henry does not
+appeal presumptuously, nor quote lightly; he appeals solemnly, and he
+quotes reverently, in a matter of very great importance to both
+kingdoms, and in a cause which he believed to be founded in right and
+justice. He appealed to Heaven to witness what he regarded as true.
+The page we have been examining accuses Henry of falsehood, hypocrisy,
+and impiety: the evidence of facts, and the testimony of his
+contemporaries, represent him to us in the character of an honest,
+undisguised, and pious King.</p>
+
+<p>On Tuesday, April 16, Henry held a council at Westminster,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page104" name="page104">(p. 104)</a></span>
+at which the Chancellor, Henry Beaufort, briefly explained the
+proceedings of the great council, enumerating the causes which induced
+their King, in the name of God, to undertake in his own person an
+expedition for the recovery of his inheritance. On the next day the
+Chancellor informed the council that the King had appointed the Duke
+of Bedford to be lieutenant of
+England<a id="notetag081" name="notetag081"></a><a href="#note081">[81]</a>
+during his absence; with
+the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Winchester, and other
+prelates and lay lords to form his council.</p>
+
+<p>As early as May 26, an order was issued to suspend the assizes through
+England during the King's absence, lest his lieges who accompanied him
+might be subjected to inconvenience and injustice. The defence of the
+country towards Scotland and Wales was provided for, and the rate of
+wages payable to his retinue and soldiers was fixed. Every duke was to
+receive 13<i>s.</i> 4<i>d.</i>, every earl 6<i>s.</i> 8<i>d.</i>, every baron 4<i>s.</i>, and
+every knight 2<i>s.</i>, every esquire being a man-at-arms 12<i>d.</i>, every
+archer 6<i>d.</i> each day; whilst for every thirty men-at-arms a reward
+was assigned of one hundred marks a quarter; together with some other
+stipulations.</p>
+
+<p>In <span class="pagenum"><a id="page105" name="page105">(p. 105)</a></span>
+the spring and summer the King
+issued<a id="notetag082" name="notetag082"></a><a href="#note082">[82]</a>
+commissions to
+hire ships from Holland and Zealand; to press sailors to navigate his
+vessels; to provide workmen to make and repair bows; to procure carts
+and waggons for the conveyance of his stores; also a supply of masons,
+carpenters, and smiths, together with the materials of the respective
+trades. The sheriffs of different counties were ordered to buy cattle;
+and the sheriff of Hampshire was to cause bread to be baked, and ale
+to be brewed, at Winchester and Southampton, and the parts adjacent,
+for the use of the army.</p>
+
+<p>The King not only thus took effective measures for the transport and
+supply of his forces, but commanded also the Archbishop and the other
+prelates to array the clergy for the defence of the kingdom at home
+during his absence. Every sheriff also was to proclaim that a nightly
+watch should be kept till All-Saints' Day; and no taverner was to
+allow any stranger to remain in his house more than one day and night,
+without knowledge of the cause of his delay; and all suspicious
+persons were to be committed to prison.</p>
+
+<p>Though parliament had granted a liberal supply, the King, finding his
+expenses to exceed his means, made a direct and powerful appeal to all
+his <span class="pagenum"><a id="page106" name="page106">(p. 106)</a></span>
+loving subjects for a loan, with promise of repayment;
+and a considerable sum was raised in consequence of that appeal, but
+still not enough. He was, therefore, compelled to pawn his plate and
+jewels, (as he had done with his small stock in early youth during the
+Welsh rebellion,) and to have recourse to all expedients for raising
+the necessary sums. These expedients were often totally incompatible
+with our present notions of the royal dignity; but no intimation
+appears anywhere of the least unfair and dishonourable dealing on the
+part of the King. His appeals to the people much resembled those of
+Charles I, under still more urgent circumstances, in after ages.</p>
+
+<p>A curious fact is recorded in the minutes of a council held May 25,
+1415, respecting a demand for money from the companies of foreign
+merchants resident in London. They were summoned before the council,
+and informed that it was usual for merchants who traded in any other
+country than their own to lend the government such sums as they could
+bear, or else be committed to prison during pleasure. This custom was
+justified on the ground of many and great privileges secured to them
+in their traffic by the King's favour, from which they derived great
+wealth. Certain sums were demanded, and sufficient pledges of gold,
+silver, and jewels were offered; but the merchants of Florence,
+Venice, and Lucca [de Luk] refused to comply, and were committed to
+the custody of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page107" name="page107">(p. 107)</a></span>
+warden of the Fleet Prison. From the
+merchants of Florence was required 1,200<i>l.</i>, from those of Venice
+1,000<i>l.</i>, from those of Lucca 200<i>l.</i> These strong measures seem to
+have worked their intended effect, for all those guilds granted loans
+afterwards.</p>
+
+<p>Having now effected every preparation in his power, the King passed
+through London, accompanied by the Mayor and citizens (who attended
+him as far as Kingston); and having made an offering at St. Paul's,
+and taken leave of his mother-in-law the Queen, he proceeded on his
+way towards Southampton, where all his ships and contingents were
+directed to await his arrival.</p>
+
+<p>Reaching Winchester, he remained there for some days from June 26th,
+probably to give audience to the French ambassadors, who were
+presented to him on the 30th. The Archbishop of Bourges headed that
+embassy, and the Bishop of Winchester was Henry's representative and
+spokesman. Much of negociating and bartering ensued, and at first many
+conciliatory communications were made on both sides; the French
+yielding much, the English adhering to their original demands, or
+remitting little from them. At length, the reply of the Archbishop put
+an abrupt end to further discussion; and Henry commanded the
+ambassadors to depart, with a promise that he would soon follow them.</p>
+
+<p>It is here again painful to read the unkind and unjustifiable language
+of the same author, whose triple
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page108" name="page108">(p. 108)</a></span>
+charge against Henry's
+religious and moral character we have just investigated, when he
+describes the surprise of the French monarch and his court on the
+return of these ambassadors. "Until that moment," he says, "the French
+court, either <i>cajoled</i> by Henry's <i>hypocrisy</i>, or lulled into
+security by a mistaken estimate of his power, had neglected every
+means for resisting the storm which was about to burst upon their
+country." Henry stands convicted of no hypocrisy; and his accuser
+alleges no evidence on which an impartial mind would pronounce him
+guilty. It is curious as it is satisfactory to lay side by side with
+this unguarded calumny the version of the circumstances of that time,
+made by an unprejudiced foreigner, and a very sensible well-versed
+historian.<a id="notetag083" name="notetag083"></a><a href="#note083">[83]</a>
+"France was then governed by the Dauphin Louis, a young
+and presumptuous prince, who had up to this point thought himself able
+to amuse Henry by feigned negociations. Nevertheless, the preparations
+going on in England having opened the eyes of his council, a
+resolution was taken to send to England twelve ambassadors, at the
+head of whom was the Archbishop of Bourges."</p>
+
+<p>Several contemporary writers, as well as general tradition, state
+that, on occasion of one of the various embassies sent to and fro
+between the courts of London and Paris, the Dauphin, then about
+eighteen or nineteen years of age, sent an insulting present
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page109" name="page109">(p. 109)</a></span>
+to Henry of a tun of tennis-balls, with a message full of contempt and
+scorn,<a id="notetag084" name="notetag084"></a><a href="#note084">[84]</a>
+implying that a racket-court was a more fit place for him
+than a battle-field. It is well observed, that such an act of wilful
+provocation must have convinced both parties of the hopelessness of
+any attempts towards a pacific arrangement; and, since the
+negociations were carried on to the very last, some discredit has
+thence been attempted to be thrown on the story altogether. But it
+must be remembered (as the author of the Abrégé Historique justly
+remarks) that these negociations were continued, on the part of
+France, merely to gain time, and withdraw Henry from his purpose;
+whilst Henry, on the other side, by his renewed proposals for the hand
+of Katharine, (an union on which he appears from the first to have
+been heartily bent,) kept up in his enemies the hope that, to gain
+that object, he would ultimately relax from many of his original
+demands. Henry certainly afterwards challenged the Dauphin to single
+combat, as though he had a quarrel with him personally; and nothing
+can fairly be inferred against the truth of the tradition, from the
+silence in the challenge on the point of such an insult having been
+offered. On the whole, the evidence is decidedly in favour of the
+reality of the incident; whilst Henry's reported answer is very
+characteristic: "I
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page110" name="page110">(p. 110)</a></span>
+will thank the Dauphin in person, and will
+carry him such tennis-balls as shall rattle his hall's roof about his
+ears." And they, says the contemporary
+chronicler,<a id="notetag085" name="notetag085"></a><a href="#note085">[85]</a>
+were great
+gunstones for the Dauphin to play withal.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+
+<p>Anxious to proceed in our narrative without further allusion to such
+sweeping and unsupported charges, we must, nevertheless, here
+introduce (though reluctantly) the remarks which have been suffered to
+fall from the same pen, as its chief comment on the closing words of
+Henry's last Will, made at this
+time.<a id="notetag086" name="notetag086"></a><a href="#note086">[86]</a>
+He signed that document at
+Southampton, July 24th, just three days after discovering the
+conspiracy of which we must soon speak. Probably a sense of the
+uncertainty of life, and the necessity of setting his house in order
+without delay, were impressed deeply upon him by that unhappy event.
+He felt not only that he had embarked in an enterprise the result of
+which was doubtful, in which at all events he must expose his life to
+numberless unforeseen perils; but that the thread of his mortal
+existence might at a moment be cut asunder by the hands of the very
+men to whom he looked for protection and victory. Compared with the
+wills of other princes
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page111" name="page111">(p. 111)</a></span>
+and nobles of that day, there is
+nothing very remarkable in Henry's. From first to last it is tinctured
+with the superstitions of the corrupt form of our holy religion, then
+over-spreading
+England.<a id="notetag087" name="notetag087"></a><a href="#note087">[87]</a></p>
+
+<p>The subscription to this testament is couched in these words: "This
+is my last Will subscribed with my own hand. R.H. Jesu Mercy and
+Gramercy Ladie Mary Help:" and on these words the same author makes
+this observation: "According to all the biographers of Henry,
+extraordinary piety was a leading trait in his character, from which
+feeling the addition to his Will appears to have arisen. It seems
+indeed difficult to reconcile the <i>lawless ambition</i>, much less the
+<i>hypocrisy</i>,<a id="notetag088" name="notetag088"></a><a href="#note088">[88]</a>
+which Henry displayed in his negociations, with an
+obedience to the genuine dictates
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page112" name="page112">(p. 112)</a></span>
+of Christianity; but as he
+rigidly observed every rite of the church, was bountiful towards its
+members, and uniformly ascribed success to the Almighty, it is not
+surprising that his contemporaries should have described him as
+eminently pious."</p>
+
+<p>On this passage the biographer of Henry had rather that his readers
+should form their own comment, than that he should express the
+sentiments which he cannot but entertain: he invites, however, the
+lover of truth to compare this charge of <i>lawless ambition and
+hypocrisy</i> with the actual conduct of Henry at this very time.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst resident in the Abbey of
+Tichfield,<a id="notetag089" name="notetag089"></a><a href="#note089">[89]</a>
+about ten miles from
+Southampton, he despatched to the Council of Constance, addressing
+himself chiefly to the Emperor Sigismund and the other princes
+assembled there, copies of the treaties between Henry IV. and the
+French court relative to the restoration of Aquitain to the English
+crown; remarking upon the wrong that was done to him by the gross
+violation of those treaties. This shows at all events that he was not
+conscious of being actuated by lawless ambition, or of acting the part
+of a hypocrite; it proves that he was desirous of having the merits of
+his quarrel with France examined and understood: and he seems to have
+felt an assurance that those who made themselves acquainted with the
+real grounds of his intended invasion would pronounce his quarrel to
+be just. Otherwise he would scarcely have
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page113" name="page113">(p. 113)</a></span>
+gone out of his way
+to draw the eyes of assembled Europe, (not to the boldness of an
+enterprise, nor to the splendour of conquests, but) to a calm
+investigation of the righteousness of his
+cause.<a id="notetag090" name="notetag090"></a><a href="#note090">[90]</a></p>
+
+<p>The words of his chaplain in recording this measure of Henry deserve a
+place here. Indeed, every page of contemporary history proves that the
+King himself had no misgivings as to the uprightness and justice of
+his cause, and was ready to refer the whole to the judgment of
+Christendom. "The King caused transcripts of all treaties to be
+forwarded to the general council, to the Emperor Sigismund and other
+Catholic princes, to the intent that all Christendom might know how
+great injuries the duplicity of the French had inflicted upon him, and
+that he was, reluctantly and against his will, compelled, as it were,
+to raise his standard against the
+rebels."<a id="notetag091" name="notetag091"></a><a href="#note091">[91]</a></p>
+
+<p>Nor <span class="pagenum"><a id="page114" name="page114">(p. 114)</a></span>
+can we here omit to observe, (though it be anticipating
+what must hereafter be again referred to in the course of the
+history,) that the behaviour of the Emperor, when, in the spring of
+the following year, he made a personal voyage to England on purpose to
+visit Henry, and the solemn declaration of the Duke of Burgundy, (of
+whose sincerity, however, no one can speak without hesitation,) "that
+he had at first thought Henry unjust in his demands, but was at length
+convinced of their justice," show that in the estimation of
+contemporaries, and those neither churchmen nor his own subjects, who
+may be suspected of partiality, Henry's character deserved better than
+to be stamped with the imputation of "lawless ambition and hypocrisy."
+It is very easy for any one to charge a fellow-creature with immoral
+and unchristian motives; and it may carry with it the appearance of
+honest indignation, and of an heroic love of virtue, religion, and
+truth, when one can tear off the veil of conquest and martial glory
+from the individual, and expose his naked faults to pity, or contempt,
+or hatred. But a good judge, in forming his own estimate of the
+motives which may have given birth to acts which fall under his
+cognizance, or in guiding others to return a righteous verdict, will
+not consider the most ready method of solving a difficulty to be
+always the safest.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page115" name="page115">(p. 115)</a></span>
+Take for granted that Henry's conduct
+towards France is intelligible on the ground of lawless ambition and
+gross hypocrisy, (though there is no proof of either,) it is equally,
+at least, intelligible on the supposition of his full and undoubting
+conviction of his right to all he claimed. And just as open would any
+individual plaintiff be to the charge of hypocrisy, who, after having
+insisted upon his full rights, and given notice of trial, and
+collected his witnesses, should, on the very eve of the issue being
+tried, write to the defendant, urging him to yield, and avoid the
+expense and irritation of a protracted law-suit, offering at the same
+time a remission of some portion of his claim,&mdash;as Henry is in
+fairness chargeable with hypocrisy because he wrote to his "adversary
+of France," urging him to yield, and avoid the effusion of blood. On
+the very eve of his departure for the shores of Normandy, many facts
+and circumstances assure us that Henry acted under a full persuasion
+that he demanded of France only what was in strict justice his due
+when he laid claim to those territories and honours which had been so
+long withheld from the Kings of England, his predecessors. Facts are
+decidedly against the charge of hypocrisy; but, even were the facts
+doubtful, his general character for honesty, and openness, and manly
+straightforward dealing, (to which history bears abundant evidence,)
+would make the scale of justice preponderate in his favour.</p>
+
+<p>In <span class="pagenum"><a id="page116" name="page116">(p. 116)</a></span>
+dismissing this subject, parallel with these modern
+accusations of Henry on the ground of "cajoling hypocrisy" we may lay
+the testimony borne by his contemporary,
+Walsingham,<a id="notetag092" name="notetag092"></a><a href="#note092">[92]</a>
+to the
+unsuspecting simplicity of his mind, which exposed him to
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page117" name="page117">(p. 117)</a></span>
+the
+overreaching designs of the unprincipled and crafty. In his Ypodigma
+Neustriæ, a work expressly written for the use and profit of Henry,
+and with a view of putting him upon his guard against the intrigues
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page118" name="page118">(p. 118)</a></span>
+of foreign courts, he refers to his "innocence liable to be
+circumvented, and his noble character likely to be deceived, by the
+cunning craftiness and hypocritical fraud and false promises of his
+enemies."</p>
+
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page119" name="page119">(p. 119)</a></span>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XXI.</h2>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">preparations for invading france. &mdash; reflections on the military and
+naval state of england. &mdash; mode of raising and supporting an army. &mdash;
+song of agincourt. &mdash; henry of monmouth the founder of the english
+royal navy. &mdash; custom of impressing vessels for the transporting of
+troops. &mdash; henry's exertions in ship-building. &mdash; gratitude due to
+him. &mdash; conspiracy at southampton. &mdash; prevalent delusion as to richard
+ii. &mdash; the earl of march. &mdash; henry's forces. &mdash; he sails for normandy.</span><br><br>
+
+
+1415.<br><br>
+
+<span class="smcap">PREPARATIONS FOR INVADING FRANCE.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>It is impossible for us to revert with never so cursory a glance to
+the departure of Henry of Monmouth from his native shores at the head
+of an armament intended to recover his alleged rights in France,
+without finding various questions suggesting themselves, both on the
+mode adopted for raising and embodying the men, and for transporting
+the troops and military stores, and all the accompaniments of an
+invading army. The Kings of England
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page120" name="page120">(p. 120)</a></span>
+had then no standing
+army, nor any permanent royal fleet.</p>
+
+<p>In the present volume we have often seen that on an emergence, such as
+an irruption of the Scots, or the necessity of resisting the Welsh
+more effectually, the sheriffs of different counties were commanded to
+array the able-bodied men within their jurisdiction, and join the
+royal standard by an appointed day; and, no doubt, many a motley, and
+ill-favoured, and ill-appointed company were seen in the sheriff's
+train. We have also been reminded with how great difficulty even these
+musters could be collected, and kept together, and marched to the
+place of rendezvous; and how seldom could they be brought in time to
+join in the engagement for which they were destined. We have
+repeatedly also learned that the nobles who would recommend themselves
+to the royal favour, or espoused heartily the cause in which they were
+engaged, headed their own retainers to the field, and made themselves
+responsible for their maintenance and pay. In the present case we have
+reason to believe that the army consisted mainly of volunteers; at
+least, that the principal persons in rank and fortune joined the
+King's standard without compulsion. A very lively and enthusiastic
+interest in the success of his expedition prevailed through the whole
+country; and the nobles redeemed their pledge, without grudging, that
+they would aid him in their persons. The pay of the army
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page121" name="page121">(p. 121)</a></span>
+was
+settled beforehand, at a fixed rate, from a duke
+downwards.<a id="notetag093" name="notetag093"></a><a href="#note093">[93]</a></p>
+
+<p>Whether there is any foundation at all in fact for the tradition of
+Henry's resolution to take with him no married man or widow's son, the
+tradition itself bears such strong testimony to the general estimate
+of Henry's character for bravery at once and kindness of heart, that
+it would be unpardonable to omit every reference to it altogether. The
+song of Agincourt, in which it occurs, is unquestionably of ancient
+origin; probably written and sung within a very few years of the
+expedition.<a id="notetag094" name="notetag094"></a><a href="#note094">[94]</a>
+Internal evidence would induce us to infer that it was
+composed before Henry's death, and just after his marriage with
+Katharine:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"The fairest flower in all France,<br>
+To the rose of England I give free."
+</p>
+
+<p>The ballad, at all events, is among the earliest of our English songs,
+and was delivered down from father
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page122" name="page122">(p. 122)</a></span>
+to son in the most
+distant parts of the kingdom, when very few of those who preserved the
+national poetry from oblivion could read. This circumstance easily
+accounts for the many various readings which are found in different
+copies now, whilst these in their turn tend to establish the antiquity
+of the song. The admirable simplicity and true natural beauty of the
+verse will justify its repetition here, though it has already appeared
+in our title-page, when it ascribes to Henry the combination of valour
+and high resolve, with merciful considerateness and tender feeling for
+others. Be the authority for this reported restriction, imposed by
+Henry on those who were commissioned to recruit soldiers for his
+expedition, what it may, (let it be founded in fact, or in the
+imagination of the writer,) it bears that testimony to Henry's
+character,<a id="notetag095" name="notetag095"></a><a href="#note095">[95]</a>
+which the whole current of authentic documents tends
+fully to establish. He was brave, and he was merciful.</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+  "Go!
+    <span class="pagenum"><a id="page123" name="page123">(p. 123)</a></span>
+    call up Cheshire and Lancashire,<br>
+And Derby hills,<a id="notetag096" name="notetag096"></a><a href="#note096">[96]</a>
+which are so free;<br>
+  But neither married man, nor widow's son,&mdash;<br>
+  No widow's curse shall go with me."
+</p>
+
+<p>Of the numbers who went with Henry to France various accounts are
+delivered down, and different calculations have been made. The song of
+Agincourt raises the sum of the "right good company" to "thirty
+thousand stout men and three:" and probably this total, embracing
+servants and attendants of every kind, is not at all an exaggeration
+of the number actually transported from England to Normandy; though,
+if by "stout men" we are to understand warriors able to handle the
+spear, the bow, the sword, and the battleaxe, we must not reckon them
+at more than one-third of that number.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+
+<p>The expedients which Henry found it necessary to adopt for the safe
+transportation of this armament, compel us to review, however briefly,
+the state and circumstances of English navigation at the period. The
+Author has already hazarded the opinion in his Preface, that Henry of
+Monmouth may with justice be regarded as the founder of the British
+navy; and he feels himself called upon to refer to some facts by which
+such a representation might
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page124" name="page124">(p. 124)</a></span>
+seem to be countenanced. He
+gladly acknowledges that the idea was first suggested to him by the
+publication of Sir Henry Ellis; whilst every subsequent research, and
+every additional fact, have tended to confirm and illustrate the same
+view.<a id="notetag097" name="notetag097"></a><a href="#note097">[97]</a></p>
+
+<p>Though few subjects are more interesting, or more deserve the
+attention of our fellow-countrymen, yet it is confessedly beyond the
+province of these Memoirs to enter at any length upon a dissertation
+on the naval affairs of Great Britain. Since, however, if
+satisfactorily established, the fact will recommend the hero of
+Agincourt to the grateful remembrance of his father-land in a
+department of national strength and glory in which few of us have
+probably hitherto felt indebted to him, it is hoped that these brief
+remarks may not be deemed out of place.</p>
+
+<p>Unquestionably, many previous sovereigns of England had directed much
+of their thoughts to the maritime power of the country. From the time
+of Alfred himself, downwards, we may trace, at various intervals,
+evident marks of the measures adopted by our Kings and the
+legislature, and also by
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page125" name="page125">(p. 125)</a></span>
+powerful individuals and merchant
+companies, to keep up a succession of sea-worthy vessels, and mariners
+to man them. Two hundred years before the date of Henry's expedition,
+as early as the year 1212, King John seems to have established a sort
+of dry covered dock at Portsmouth for the preservation of ships and
+their rigging during the winter. But the very instances to which
+appeals have been made by various writers, to prove the antiquity of
+the naval force of South Britain, tend by their testimony to confirm
+the opinions we are here disposed to adopt. In every successive reign,
+the annals of which supply any information on the subject, the
+evidence is clear that the rulers of England did not contemplate the
+establishment of a fleet belonging to the nation as its own property.
+The tenures, moreover, by which many maritime towns held their
+charters, whilst they evince the importance attached to this
+department of an island's political power, coincide altogether with
+the view we are taking. The obligation, for example, under which the
+Cinque Ports lay of furnishing, whenever required, fifty ships, manned
+each with twenty-four mariners, for fifteen days, enabled the monarch
+indeed to calculate, from the fulfilment of such stipulated
+engagements, on a certain supply, adequate, it may be, to meet the
+usual demand; but at the same time it implied that he had no fleet of
+his own on which he could rely. Whilst the limited extent to which
+ships could be supplied by the most rigid exaction of
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page126" name="page126">(p. 126)</a></span>
+the
+terms of those tenures compelled the state, on any occasion when
+extraordinary efforts were requisite, to depend upon the varying and
+precarious supply produced by the system of
+impressment.<a id="notetag098" name="notetag098"></a><a href="#note098">[98]</a></p>
+
+<p>When Henry ascended the throne, he found still in full operation this
+old system of our maritime proceedings. Whenever, as we have seen, an
+occasion required the transport of a considerable body of men from our
+havens, or forces to be embarked for the protection of our shores and
+of our merchants, in addition to the contingent, which could be
+exacted from various chartered towns, the King's government was
+obliged either to hire ships from foreign countries, or to lay
+forcible hands by way of impressment on the vessels of his own
+subjects. A few instances, more or less closely connected with the
+immediate subject of our present inquiry, will serve to illustrate
+that point.</p>
+
+<p>When, for example, Henry's great grandfather Edward III. was preparing
+for the expedition, which he headed in person, intended to relieve
+Rochelle, his grandfather John of Gaunt, February 10, 1372, as we find
+by the records of the Duchy of Lancaster, commanded all his stewards
+in Wales to assist Walter de Wodeburgh, serjeant-at-arms, appointed by
+the King to arrest all ships of twenty tons' burden [and upwards?] for
+the passage of the King
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page127" name="page127">(p. 127)</a></span>
+and his army to France, and to take
+sufficient security that they be all ready by the 1st of May either at
+Southampton, Portsmouth, Hamel in the Rys, or Hamel Stoke.</p>
+
+<p>The records of the Privy Council (11 December, probably 1405,) supply
+us with an instance (one out of many) which shows, at the same time,
+the great injury which the public service sustained by this system,
+and the ruinous consequences which it was calculated to entail on the
+merchants and the owners of ships. Henry IV. had intended to proceed
+in person to Guienne; and for that purpose, with the advice of his
+council, had impressed all the ships westward. His voyage was
+deferred; but the ships were still, as they had been for a long time,
+under arrest. The masters had sent a deputation to him to implore some
+compensation for their great
+expenses,<a id="notetag099" name="notetag099"></a><a href="#note099">[99]</a>
+and some means of support.
+Henry then wrote to the council, praying them [vous prions] to provide
+some help for these poor men; and to assure them that no long time
+would elapse before their services would be called for, since either
+himself or his representative would undertake the voyage. In the same
+letter he prayed the council also to write under his privy seal to the
+King of Portugal, to beg of him a supply of galleys, sufficient to
+enable him to resist the malice of his enemies the French, and to
+protect his land and his realm.</p>
+
+<p>We <span class="pagenum"><a id="page128" name="page128">(p. 128)</a></span>
+must not suppose that the French monarch found himself
+under more favourable circumstances when he would prepare for any
+important affair on the sea. The same system of impressment and hiring
+was necessarily adopted in France. Thus we find, in 1417, when the
+French government resolved to make a powerful effort to crush the navy
+of England, the ships were first to be "hired, at a great sum of gold,
+from the state of Genoa." These mercenary vessels formed the fleet
+over which the Earl of Huntingdon gained a decided victory immediately
+before Henry's second expedition to France.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, too, (not to cite any more examples,) no sooner had Henry
+determined to assert his rights on the Continent, and to enforce them
+by the sword, than he despatched ambassadors to Zealand and Holland to
+negociate with the Duke of Holland for a supply of ships; doubtless
+assured that all which he could impress or hire in all his ports would
+not be sufficient for the safe transport of his troops, and "their
+furniture of war." But Henry's ardent and commanding mind soon saw how
+powerful an engine, both of defence and of conquest, would be found in
+a permanent royal navy, and how indispensable such an establishment
+was to any insular sovereign who desired to provide for his country
+the means of offering a bold front against aggression, protecting
+herself from insult, maintaining her rights, and taking a lead among
+the surrounding powers. He resolved, therefore, not
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page129" name="page129">(p. 129)</a></span> to
+depend upon the precarious and unsatisfactory expedients either of
+hiring vessels, which would never be his own, (in a market, too, where
+his enemy might forestal him, and where his necessities would enhance
+the price,) or of compelling his merchants to leave their trading, and
+minister to the emergence of the state, at their own inevitable loss,
+and not improbable ruin. His immediate determination was to spare
+neither labour nor expense in providing a navy of his own, such as
+would be ever ready at the sovereign's command to protect the coast,
+to sweep the seas of those hordes of pirates which then infested them,
+and to bear his forces with safety and credit to any distant shores.
+He thus thought he should best secure his own ports and provinces from
+foreign invasion; afford a safeguard to his own merchants, and to
+those traders who would traffic with his people; and generally make
+England a more formidable antagonist and a more respected neighbour.</p>
+
+<p>This new line of policy he adopted very early in his reign. Whilst he
+was at Southampton, (at the date of this digression, on his first
+expedition to Normandy,) we find him superintending the building of
+various large ships: and, two years afterwards, when news reached him
+of the victory gained by his brother the Duke of Bedford over the
+French fleet off Harfleur, the tidings found him making the most
+effectual means for securing future victories; he was at Smalhithe in
+Kent, personally superintending
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page130" name="page130">(p. 130)</a></span>
+the building of some ships
+to add to his own royal navy, then only in its
+infancy.<a id="notetag100" name="notetag100"></a><a href="#note100">[100]</a></p>
+
+<p>Nor did he confine his labours in this great work to England; he
+employed also his Continental resources in forwarding the same object.
+A letter from one John Alcestre, from
+Bayonne,<a id="notetag101" name="notetag101"></a><a href="#note101">[101]</a>
+informs us of a
+ship of very considerable dimensions then on the stocks at that port,
+for the building of which the mayor and "his consorts" had contracted
+with Henry. The vessel was one hundred and eighty-six feet in length
+from "the onmost end of the stem onto the post behind." "The stem" was
+in height ninety-six feet, and the keel was in length one hundred and
+twelve feet.</p>
+
+<p>Henry appears also to have acquired the reputation in foreign
+countries of having a desire to possess large vessels of his own. An
+agent in Spain, for example, after informing one of the King's
+officers in England of his unsuccessful endeavour to cause to be
+seized for the King's use four armed galleys of Provence, expected to
+enter the port of Valencia, and which the King of Arragon's government
+had consented to arrest for Henry,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page131" name="page131">(p. 131)</a></span>
+but which disappointed
+them by not coming to land, mentions that two new carraks (a species
+of large transport vessel) were in building "at Bartholem," which the
+King might have if he pleased.</p>
+
+<p>The high importance which Henry attached to these rising bulwarks of
+his country shows itself in various ways; in none more curious and
+striking than (a fact, it is presumed, new to history,) in the solemn
+religious ceremony with which they were consecrated before he
+committed them to the mighty waters. One of the highest order of the
+Christian ministry was employed, and similar devotions were performed
+at the dedication of one of the royal "great ships," as we should find
+in the consecration of a cathedral. They were called also by some of
+the holiest of all names ever uttered by
+Christians.<a id="notetag102" name="notetag102"></a><a href="#note102">[102]</a>
+Thus, on the
+completion of the good ship the Grace-Dieu at Southampton, the
+"venerable father in Christ, the Bishop of
+Bangor,"<a id="notetag103" name="notetag103"></a><a href="#note103">[103]</a> was
+commissioned by the King's council to proceed from London at the
+public expense to consecrate it.</p>
+
+<p>When Henry of Monmouth died, the navy of England was doubtless yet in
+its
+infancy;<a id="notetag104" name="notetag104"></a><a href="#note104">[104]</a>
+but it owed its
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page132" name="page132">(p. 132)</a></span>
+existence as a permanent
+royal establishment to him. We cannot look back on that "day of small
+things" without feelings of admiration and gratitude; nor now that we
+seem, for a time at least, free from the danger of foreign invasion,
+must we forget that, in the late tremendous struggle which swept away
+the monarchies and the liberties of Europe in one resistless flood, to
+our navy, which had grown with the growth of our country, and
+strengthened with her strength, our native land may, under the
+blessing of Heaven, have been indebted for its continuance in freedom
+and independence. Of those wooden walls of Old England, as a royal
+establishment based on systematic principles, Henry of Monmouth was
+undoubtedly the founder.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+
+<p>Whilst Henry was engaged at Southampton in personally superintending
+the preparations for invading France, an event occurred well fitted to
+fill him equally with surprise, and indignation, and sorrow. A
+conspiracy against his crown and his life was brought to light, which
+had been formed by three in his company against whom he could have
+entertained no suspicions: Richard of York, whom he had created Earl
+of Cambridge; Henry Lord Scrope, the treasurer; and Sir Thomas Grey of
+Heton. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page133" name="page133">(p. 133)</a></span>
+The Rolls of Parliament, containing the authentic
+record of the proceedings consequent upon the discovery, and the
+original letters of the Earl of Cambridge, leave no question as to the
+designs of the conspirators. Some doubts may exist as to their
+motives: whether they were influenced singly by a generous resolution
+to restore the crown to its alleged rightful
+heir,<a id="notetag105" name="notetag105"></a><a href="#note105">[105]</a>
+or by some
+less honourable and more selfish
+feeling;<a id="notetag106" name="notetag106"></a><a href="#note106">[106]</a>
+whether by any offence
+taken against Henry, or, as it is alleged, by the vast bribe offered
+to them by the crown of France; or whether by more than one of these
+motives combined, must remain a matter of conjecture. We cannot,
+perhaps, be certified of the means by which Henry became acquainted
+with the plot, nor if, as we are told, he was informed of it by the
+Earl of March himself, can we ascertain beyond doubt how large or how
+small a share that nobleman had in the previous deliberations and
+resolutions of the conspirators.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page134" name="page134">(p. 134)</a></span>
+Whether he first consented
+to their design of setting him up as king, and then repented of so
+ungrateful an act towards one who had behaved to him with so much
+kindness and confidence, or whether he instantly took the resolve to
+nip this treason in the bud, no documents enable us to decide. If the
+Earl of Cambridge's confession be the truth, the Earl of March at one
+time was himself consenting to the plot.</p>
+
+<p>On the 21st of July a commission was appointed, consisting of the
+Earl Marshal, two of the
+judges,<a id="notetag107" name="notetag107"></a><a href="#note107">[107]</a>
+six lords, and Sir Thomas
+Erpingham, to try the conspirators: and the sheriff of the county was
+ordered to summon a jury, who assembled at Southampton on the 2nd of
+August, and found as their verdict, that, on the 20th of July, the
+Earl of Cambridge and Sir Thomas Grey had traitorously conspired to
+collect a body of armed men, to conduct Edmund
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page135" name="page135">(p. 135)</a></span>
+Earl of March
+to the frontiers of Wales, and to proclaim him the rightful heir to
+the crown, in case Richard II. were actually dead, against the
+pretensions of the King, whom they intended to style "the Usurper of
+England;" that they purposed to destroy the King and his brothers,
+with other nobles of the land; and that Lord Scrope consented to the
+said treasonable designs, and concealed them from the King.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Scrope denied having consented to the death of the King, or
+having had any communication with the other conspirators on that
+point; and he declared that he had communicated with them on the other
+points solely to possess himself of a knowledge of their designs in
+order to frustrate them. He then pleaded his peerage, and his right to
+be tried by his peers.</p>
+
+<p>Sentence of death in the usual manner was passed upon Grey; but the
+King having, by a most rare instance of mercy in those days, remitted
+that part of the sentence which directed him to be drawn on a hurdle
+and hung, he was allowed to walk through the town to the Northgate,
+and was there immediately beheaded. On Monday, August 5, the Duke of
+Clarence presided in a court of the peers, who, having satisfied
+themselves by carefully examining the record of the conviction of the
+prisoners, Scrope and Cambridge, adjudged them to death. They were
+both executed within a few hours of this judgment. The head of Scrope
+was ordered
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page136" name="page136">(p. 136)</a></span>
+to be affixed on one of the gates of York and
+the head of Grey to be stuck up at Newcastle upon Tyne, to mark the
+baseness of their ingratitude, who had enjoyed so closely the
+confidence and friendship of
+Henry.<a id="notetag108" name="notetag108"></a><a href="#note108">[108]</a></p>
+
+<p>Nothing is recorded officially of any bribe from France, but the fact
+of "one million of gold" having been promised as the wages of their
+treason is asserted by historians. "These lords, for lucre of money,"
+(to use the words of a
+manuscript<a id="notetag109" name="notetag109"></a><a href="#note109">[109]</a>
+apparently contemporary with
+the event,) "had made promise to the Frenchmen to have slayne King
+Henry and all his worthy brethren by a false trayne [treason?]
+suddenly or they had beware. But Almighty God, of his great grace,
+held his holy hand over them, and saved them from this perilous meyne
+[band]. And for to have done this they received of the Frenchmen a
+million of gold, and that was there proved openly."</p>
+
+<p>As to the guilt or innocence of the Earl of March himself, no proof
+can be drawn from the fact of his having obtained a full and free
+pardon<a id="notetag110" name="notetag110"></a><a href="#note110">[110]</a>
+a few days after the event. "Such pardons" (as Dr. Lingard
+rightly observes) "were frequently solicited by the innocent as a
+measure of precaution to defeat
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page137" name="page137">(p. 137)</a></span>
+the malice and prevent the
+accusations of their enemies." Sir Harris Nicolas indeed suggests,
+"that it would be difficult to show an instance in which they were
+granted in favour of a person who was not strongly suspected, or who
+had not purchased them at the expense of his accomplices." But it
+requires little more than a cursory glance at our authentic records to
+be assured that Dr. Lingard's view is the more correct. Take, for
+example, the pardon granted in 1412 to the Archbishop of Canterbury,
+and couched in almost the same words. There is indeed in this pardon a
+clause very different from the pardon of the Earl of March; but it is
+a difference which only tends to establish this point, that the
+pardons in many cases were <i>formal</i>, and altogether independent of the
+guilt or innocence of the party. The Archbishop (Arundel) is pardoned
+for all treasons, felonies, and so forth, excepting some outrageous
+crimes of which he was never suspected; and also provided he was not
+then lying in prison as a felon convict, or as an adherent to Owyn
+Glyndowr. Many such instances
+occur.<a id="notetag111" name="notetag111"></a><a href="#note111">[111]</a></p>
+
+<p>On this sad subject two original letters are preserved, addressed to
+Henry by the Earl of Cambridge; they are found among the "Original
+Letters" published
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page138" name="page138">(p. 138)</a></span>
+by Sir Henry Ellis, accompanied, as is
+usual<a id="notetag112" name="notetag112"></a><a href="#note112">[112]</a>
+in his valuable collection, by a succinct and clear
+statement of such facts as may be necessary for their elucidation. The
+first contains the Earl's confession; whether written before or after
+his trial, is not evident. The second sues for mercy, probably after
+the jury had returned their verdict; it may be even after the sentence
+was passed by the peers, though a very short portion of a day elapsed
+between that sentence and his execution.</p>
+
+<p>It is curious to learn, from the first of these letters, that even
+down to the year of Henry's first expedition to France, the people
+were from time to time deluded by rumours that Richard II. was still
+alive. The Earl of Cambridge acknowledged that the conspirators
+intended to set up the Earl of March, "taking upon him the sovereignty
+of this land, if yonder man's person, which they call King Richard,
+had not been alive, as I wot well that he is not alive." He confessed,
+also, a guilty knowledge of a conspiracy to "bring in that person
+which they named King Richard, and Harry Percy out of Scotland, with a
+power of Scots."</p>
+
+<p>Another very curious fact is alleged in this document, interesting in
+more points than one. It shows
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page139" name="page139">(p. 139)</a></span>
+what a powerful engine in
+those days was the <i>Confessional</i>; and it proves also that, though
+Henry has been called the King of Priests, there were some of the
+sacred order in high station who were bent on his overthrow. Cambridge
+declares that both the Earl of March and his man Lusy had assured him
+that the Earl "was not shriven of a great while [had not attended the
+priests for the purposes of confession] without his confessors, on
+every occasion, putting him in penance to claim what they called his
+right." His confessors would not absolve him without imposing upon
+him, by way of penance, this condition, that he should claim his right
+to the crown.</p>
+
+<div class="letter">
+<p><span class="smcap">LETTER OF CONFESSION FROM THE EARL OF CAMBRIDGE.</span></p>
+
+<p>My most dreadful and sovereign liege Lord, like to your Highness
+     to wit [please your Highness to know] touching the purpose cast
+     against your high estate. Having the Earl of March, by his own
+     assent, and by the assent of myself, whereof I most me repent of
+     all worldly things; and by the accord of Lord Scrope and Sir
+     Thomas Grey, to have had the aforesaid Earl in the land of Wales
+     without your licence, taking upon him the sovereignty of this
+     land, if yonder man's person, which they call King Richard, had
+     not been alive, as I wot well that he is not
+alive;<a id="notetag113" name="notetag113"></a><a href="#note113">[113]</a> for
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page140" name="page140">(p. 140)</a></span>
+which point I put me wholly in your grace. And as for the
+     form of a proclamation which should have been cried in the Earl's
+     name as the heir to the crown of England against you, my liege
+     Lord, called by untrue name Harry of Lancaster, usurper of
+     England, to the intent to have made the more people to have drawn
+     to him and from you; of the which cry Scrope knew not of as from
+     me, but Grey did; having with the Earl a banner of the arms of
+     England, having also the crown of Spain on a pallet, which, my
+     liege Lord, is one of your weddys, for the which offence I put me
+     wholly in your grace. And as for the purpose taken by Umfrevyle
+     and Wederyngtoun for the bringing in of that person which they
+     named King Richard, and Herry Percy, out of Scotland, with a
+     power of Scots, and their power together seeming to them able to
+     give you a battle, of the which intent Sir Thomas Grey wist of,
+     but not Scrope as by me; of the which knowing I submit me wholly
+     into your grace. And as for the taking of your castles in Wales,
+     Davy Howell made me be host, so there were a stirring in the
+     North; of the which point I put me wholly in your grace. And as
+     touching the Earl of March and Lusy his man, they said me both,
+     that the Earl was not shriven of a great while, but at all his
+     confessors put
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page141" name="page141">(p. 141)</a></span>
+him in penance to claim that they called
+     his right, that would be that time that every iknew anything that
+     ever to him longed.... [The MS. is here imperfect.] Of the which
+     points and articles here before written, and of all other which
+     now are not in my mind, but truly as often as any to my mind
+     fallen I shall duly and truly certify you thereof; beseeching to
+     you, my liege Lord, for His love that suffered passion on the
+     Good Friday, so have ye compassion on me, your liege man; and if
+     any of these persons, whose names are contained in this bill,
+     holden contrary the substance of that I have written at this
+     time, I shall be ready with the might of God to make it good, as
+     ye, my liege Lord, will award me.</p></div>
+
+<div class="letter">
+<p><span class="smcap">LETTER OF THE EARL OF CAMBRIDGE, SUING FOR MERCY.</span></p>
+
+<p>My most dreadful and sovereign liege Lord, I, Richard York, your
+     humble subject and very liege man, beseech you of grace of all
+     manner offenses which I have done or assented to in any kind, by
+     stirring of other folk egging me thereto, wherein I wot well I
+     han ill offended to your Highness; beseeching you at the
+     reverence of God, that you like to take me into the hands of your
+     merciful and piteous grace, thinking ye well of your great
+     goodness. My liege Lord, my full trust is that ye will have
+     consideration, though that my person be of no value, your high
+     goodness, where God hath set you in so high estate to every liege
+     man that to you longeth plenteously to give grace, that you like
+     to accept this mine simple request for the love of Our Lady and
+     the blissful Holy Ghost, to whom I pray that they might your
+     heart induce to all pity and grace for their high goodness.
+</p></div>
+
+<p>Henry having taken every precaution for the preservation of his people
+at home, as well against foreign designs as against disturbers of the
+peace within the realm, left Porchester Castle on the 7th of
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page142" name="page142">(p. 142)</a></span>
+August, with the intention of superintending in person the embarkation
+of his troops. This seems to have occupied him to the 10th, when he
+went on board the "Royal Trinity," and immediately gave signal for the
+ships to join him from the different stations in which they were
+awaiting his command. The fleet consisted of about thirteen hundred
+vessels of very different sizes, varying from twenty to three hundred
+tons' burden. Probably, reckoning servants, attendants of every kind,
+as well as fighting men, this fleet transported to the shores of
+France not less than thirty thousand persons. Of these there were only
+about two thousand five hundred men-at-arms, four thousand
+horse-archers, four thousand foot-archers, and one thousand gunners,
+miners, masons, smiths, with others. The whole amount of fighting men,
+according to this calculation, does not exceed eleven thousand five
+hundred. The expedition sailed with a favourable wind on Sunday,
+August 11,
+1415.<a id="notetag114" name="notetag114"></a><a href="#note114">[114]</a></p>
+
+<p>Every document, probably, now known relative to this expedition, has
+been examined by Sir Harris Nicolas; and to his able digest of the
+facts relating to this part of Henry's proceedings the reader is
+referred for the more minute details.</p>
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page143" name="page143">(p. 143)</a></span>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XXII.</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">henry crosses the sea: lands at clef de caus: lays siege to harfleur.
+&mdash; devoted attendance on his dying friend the bishop of norwich. &mdash;
+vast treasure falls into his hands on the surrender of harfleur. &mdash; he
+challenges the dauphin. &mdash; futile modern charge brought against him on
+that ground.</span><br><br>
+
+1415.</h3>
+
+
+<p>From this time Henry's is the life rather of a general than of a King.
+His successive battles, and sieges, and victories throw but
+occasionally more or new light on his character; and it is not within
+the limits of these Memoirs to describe his military achievements, or
+to enter upon a detailed examination of his campaigns, except so far
+only as the events elucidate his character, or as a knowledge of them
+may be necessary for a fuller acquaintance with his life. Many
+circumstances of this kind occur between the day when he quitted his
+port of Southampton, and the hour which terminated his brief but
+eventful career on earth. The enemies of his fair fame cite some one
+or other of those transactions to prove him a mass of ambition,
+superstition, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page144" name="page144">(p. 144)</a></span>
+cruelty. It will be the reader's part to
+decide for himself whether the facts in evidence bear out those
+charges, or whether a more equitable judgment would not rather
+pronounce him to be a man who, in the midst of a most exciting and
+distracting career, never forgot the principles of piety, justice, and
+mercy. To attest his valour we need summon no evidence; though even in
+that point, which the universal voice of Europe had pronounced to be
+unassailable, his challenge to the Dauphin has been cited by one
+author as an act that must tarnish his character. The justness of the
+reflection we shall weigh hereafter. Of licentiousness after his
+accession to the throne his enemies themselves have never ventured to
+whisper a suspicion.</p>
+
+<p>As Henry's fleet was leaving his native shores, two incidents are said
+to have occurred of opposite omen, such as in those days of
+superstition were wont to exercise powerful influence over the minds
+of men far removed from the lowest ranks of the people. Swans were
+seen swimming gaily and fearlessly around the ships, as if hailing
+them on their own watery element; and their appearance was noted as a
+happy and encouraging auspice. On the other hand, a fire broke out in
+one of the large ships before Henry sailed, which did considerable
+damage among the vessels, not without loss of many lives; and this was
+deemed an omen of such dire portent, that many of the King's followers
+would have dissuaded him from persevering in his expedition.</p>
+
+<p>Henry's
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page145" name="page145">(p. 145)</a></span>
+was a pious, but not a religiously timid or
+superstitious mind; and, unaffected by this incident, or the
+entreaties of his friends, he proceeded on his voyage forthwith, and
+on Friday, August 13, at five o'clock in the afternoon, he entered the
+mouth of the Seine, and anchored at a place called Clef de
+Caus,<a id="notetag115" name="notetag115"></a><a href="#note115">[115]</a>
+between Honfleur and Harfleur, three miles from the latter town. He
+landed his forces without opposition; and, on coming on shore himself,
+he knelt down, and prayed to Almighty God to prosper his just
+cause.<a id="notetag116" name="notetag116"></a><a href="#note116">[116]</a></p>
+
+<p>Henry resolved on laying siege to Harfleur, the inhabitants of which
+seemed equally determined to resist him. The siege of Harfleur, which
+commenced on Sunday, August 18, is described with great minuteness by
+several writers. His brother, the Duke of Clarence, appears to have
+held the most prominent place among Henry's officers; and much praise
+is ascribed to him for his prowess and military talent. Every mode of
+attack and defence then reckoned among martial tactics was carried out
+on both sides.</p>
+
+<p>In addition, however, to the wonted privations and hardships of a
+protracted siege, the English host
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page146" name="page146">(p. 146)</a></span>
+was visited by a violent
+disease, which spread rapidly through every grade of the army,
+unsparingly thinning its ranks and carrying off its officers, and
+threatening annihilation to the whole body. Whilst this calamity was
+raging at its height, and making dreadful havoc among the soldiery, an
+incident is recorded to have taken place, to which the mind gladly
+turns from the din and turmoil of the siege, and the devastations of
+that fatal scourge; and though the scene is itself the chamber of
+death, we cannot but feel a melancholy satisfaction in contemplating
+it for a while. An ecclesiastic, who was present in the camp, and in
+attendance on his royal master, records the anecdote in the most
+casual
+manner,<a id="notetag117" name="notetag117"></a><a href="#note117">[117]</a>
+without a word of admiration or remark to call our
+attention to it, as though he were relating a circumstance of no
+unusual occurrence, and such merely as those who knew his master might
+hear of without surprise; whilst few pages of history bear to any
+monarch more beautiful and affecting evidence of habitual kindness of
+heart, pure sympathy with a suffering fellow-creature, and devoted
+fulfilment of the dearest offices of friendship. Whilst Richard
+Courtenay, Bishop of Norwich, one of the victims of the dysentery, was
+lingering in the agonies of death, we find Henry in the midst of his
+besieging army, at the height of a very severe struggle, war and
+disease raging on every side,&mdash;not in a council of his
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page147" name="page147">(p. 147)</a></span>
+officers, planning the operations of to-morrow,&mdash;nor on his couch,
+giving his body and mind repose from the fatigues and excitement of
+his opening campaign,&mdash;but we see him on his knees at the death-bed of
+a dying minister of religion, joining in the offices of the church so
+long as the waning spirit could partake of its consolations; and then
+not commissioning others, however faithful representatives they might
+have been, to act in his stead, but by his own hands soothing the
+sufferings of the dying prelate, and striving to make the struggle of
+his latter moments less bitter. Had Henry visited the tent of the good
+Bishop when he first knew of his malady, and charged any of his
+numerous retinue to pay especial attention to his wants and comforts,
+it would have been regarded, at such an hour of pressing emergence, as
+an act worthy of a Christian King. But Henry, who in no department of
+his public duties ever willingly deputed to others what he could
+personally attend to himself, carried the same principle into the
+exercise of the charities of private life; and has here left a pattern
+of Christian sympathy and lowliness of mind, of genuine philanthropy,
+and the sincere affection of true friendship, worthy of prince and
+peasant alike to imitate. Bishop Courtenay is said to have been among
+Henry's chosen friends, recommended to him by the singular qualities
+of his head and his heart. He was a person (we are told) endowed with
+intellectual and moral excellences of a very high character;
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page148" name="page148">(p. 148)</a></span>
+and Henry knew how to appreciate the value, and cultivate the
+friendship, of such a man. Having enjoyed the satisfaction and benefit
+of his society in life, now, when he was on the point of quitting this
+world for ever, Henry never withdrew from his bed; but, watching him
+with tender anxiety till the ministers of religion had solemnized the
+last rite according to the prevailing practice of the church in those
+days, even then, "in his own person," he continued to supply the wants
+of sinking mortality, "with his own
+hands<a id="notetag118" name="notetag118"></a><a href="#note118">[118]</a>
+wiping the chilled
+feet" of his dying friend. The manuscript proceeds to say, that, when
+life was extinct, with pious regard for his memory, Henry caused his
+body to be conveyed to England, and to be honourably buried among the
+royal corpses in Westminster.</p>
+
+<p>Three days after this prelate's death, on Wednesday, September 18th,
+an agreement to surrender on
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page149" name="page149">(p. 149)</a></span>
+the following Sunday was entered
+into; the inhabitants of the town pledging themselves by a most solemn
+oath to abide by the terms of the agreement. The ceremony on this
+occasion must have had a very imposing effect. The King's chaplain,
+Benedict Bishop of Bangor, in his pontifical dress, carried the
+consecrated Host to the walls of the town, preceded by thirty-two
+chaplains, each in full canonicals, and attended by as many esquires,
+one of whom bore a lighted taper before each priest. As soon as the
+parties were sworn on the elements, the townsmen were assured that
+they need fear no acts of wrong or violence, for the King wished
+rather to preserve than to destroy his own territory.</p>
+
+<p>On Sunday, September 22, the town was surrendered with much solemn
+state into Henry's hands. At the appointed hour, Henry, being dressed
+in the robes of royalty, ascended a throne erected under a silk
+pavilion on the top of the hill opposite to the town. All his peers
+and great men were assembled around him. "Our
+King"<a id="notetag119" name="notetag119"></a><a href="#note119">[119]</a>
+(says a
+writer who was probably an eye-witness) "sat in his estate as royal as
+did ever any King; and, as it is said, there never was a Christian
+King so royal, neither so lordly, sat in his seat as did he." From
+this seat to the town a passage was formed by the English soldiers,
+through which the late governor, Sir Lionel Braquemont, the Lord de
+Gaucourt, and others, with the Host borne before them, attended by
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page150" name="page150">(p. 150)</a></span>
+those who had sworn to observe the treaty, and by thirty-four
+of the chief inhabitants, passed to Henry's presence, "who forgave
+them their injustice in keeping his own town from him; and, having
+hospitably entertained them, dismissed them courteously." Thus fell
+into Henry's hand one of the most important towns of Normandy, after a
+siege of about thirty-six days, during which the zeal and valour of
+the assailants and the besieged were equally
+displayed.<a id="notetag120" name="notetag120"></a><a href="#note120">[120]</a></p>
+
+<p>On the following day Henry entered the town, dismounting at the gate,
+and walking barefoot to St. Martin's church, in which he gave solemn
+thanks to God for his success. He then commanded all the women and
+children, and the disabled, to be separated from those who had sworn
+allegiance to him, as well as from those who, having refused that
+oath, were regarded as prisoners. The persons thus separated were next
+day sent out of the town, to the number of nearly two thousand, loudly
+lamenting their fate. They were escorted by the English; and
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page151" name="page151">(p. 151)</a></span>
+all persons belonging to the church, and the women and children, had a
+present of five sous for their journey, and were permitted to dress
+themselves in their best apparel, and carry each a moderate bundle
+with them. It was forbidden to search the priests, and also the heads
+or the bosoms of the women. At St. Aubon, about four miles from
+Harfleur, they were entreated to refresh themselves with bread and
+cheese and wine; at Lislebone the Marshal Boucicault received them,
+and they were forwarded by water to Rouen. At Henry's invitation, many
+tradesmen and others came over from England, and became inhabitants of
+Harfleur; the King, with the desire of strengthening the place, having
+guaranteed, by a proclamation through England, a house of inheritance
+to all who would settle there.</p>
+
+<p>About this time Henry sent a message to the Dauphin, challenging him
+to single combat, and so to decide the dreadful struggle in which the
+two kingdoms were engaged, without the further effusion of blood.
+Occasion has been taken to reflect on this act of Henry's, as a stain
+both on his personal valour and on his principles of justice: the
+first, because he was twenty-seven years old, and the Dauphin not
+twenty; the latter, because it were unjust "to expect that so
+important a stake should be hazarded on the result of such a meeting."
+To enhance Henry's guilt of cowardice, we are told that he challenged
+"a mere youth, of
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page152" name="page152">(p. 152)</a></span>
+whose prowess or bodily strength there is
+not the slightest evidence, and who died <i>in the December following</i>."
+This is not the first time we have had occasion to remark on this same
+writer's injustice towards Henry's memory. Why mention the Dauphin's
+death in the following December, except to insinuate that Henry <i>knew</i>
+he was then in a weak state of bodily health? Of this, however, there
+is not the shadow of reason for suspecting Henry. On the contrary, the
+evidence tends to the directly opposite conclusion. The Dauphin died
+on the 25th December following; but so sudden was his decease, that a
+suspicion was excited of his having been poisoned. He had for a long
+time been actively engaged in heading one of the contending parties in
+France, and he is reported to have been a bold and presumptuous
+prince.<a id="notetag121" name="notetag121"></a><a href="#note121">[121]</a>
+And, even a month after the battle of Agincourt, we find
+him, apparently in full strength both of body and mind, exercising the
+authority of the King, his father, in Paris; vigorously and
+effectually resisting the entrance of the Duke of Burgundy, who
+marched with his army direct to the gates of that city, determined to
+force for himself an entrance into it. And, on his father's relapsing
+into his malady, he vigorously seized the government, setting the Duke
+of Orleans at defiance, and carrying off the King, his father, ill as
+he was, to the siege of
+Arras.<a id="notetag122" name="notetag122"></a><a href="#note122">[122]</a>
+Whether the difference of
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page153" name="page153">(p. 153)</a></span>
+age between these two young warriors is so great as to justify
+such strong reflections on Henry's courage, must be left to the
+judgment of impartial minds. But, when the Dauphin is called a mere
+youth, it must be borne in mind that he was considerably older than
+Henry was when he headed his father's troops in Wales, or fought so
+gallantly in the field of Shrewsbury.</p>
+
+<p>But we must not let this charge, affecting Henry's valour and justice,
+be dismissed without observing that not only did Henry believe, but it
+was the universal belief of the age, that "trial by battle" was a
+proper way of ending a dispute, and one acceptable to God: one in
+which the justice of the quarrel decided, more than the strength or
+skill of the combatants. We have proved that there could have been no
+grounds for Henry's supposing that he was sending a challenge to a
+youth enervated by sickness; and the difference of age alleged now, at
+length, in disparagement of Henry's valour, would have been scouted by
+all the good knights of Christendom, had it been pleaded as an apology
+for the Dauphin declining the challenge. Surely it indicates a
+conviction that the points in which the character of a man, famed for
+bravery and justice, is assailable, are few and unimportant, when such
+frivolous attacks as this are made on his fair fame.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="smcap">Henry's challenge to the Dauphin</span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page154" name="page154">(p. 154)</a></span>
+ may be thus translated:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="letter">
+<p>
+     Henry, by the grace of God, King of France and England, Lord of
+     Ireland, to the high and mighty Prince, the Dauphin of Vienne,
+     our cousin, eldest son of the most mighty Prince, our cousin and
+     adversary of France. Whereas, from reverence to God, and to avoid
+     the shedding of human blood, we have many times and in many ways
+     followed and sought for peace, and have not been able to possess
+     it, yet our desire to secure it increases more and more; and well
+     considering that our wars are followed by the death of men, the
+     destruction of countries, the wailings of women and children, and
+     so many evils generally as every good Christian must lament and
+     pity, especially ourselves, whom this affair most affects, as it
+     does, to take all pains and diligence to find every means within
+     our knowledge to avoid the above-mentioned evils and distresses,
+     and to acquire the grace of God and the praise of the world. And,
+     since we have thought and advised, it has seemed to us,
+     considering it has pleased God to visit our cousin with
+     infirmity, that the remedy rests upon us and you. And to the end
+     that every one might know that we withdraw not ourselves from it,
+     nor from our part in it, we offer you to put our whole quarrel,
+     with God's grace, between our person and yours. And if it should
+     seem to you that you cannot agree to this, because of the
+     interest which you conceive our cousin, your father, has in it,
+     we declare to you in this our intention, that if you will
+     entertain it, and engage in it, we are well pleased that our said
+     cousin, for our reverence to God, and because he is a sacred
+     person, shall have and enjoy all he has at present for the term
+     of his life, whatever shall happen by the will of God between us
+     and <span class="pagenum"><a id="page155" name="page155">(p. 155)</a></span>
+you, as it shall be agreed between his council,
+     ours, and yours.</p>
+
+<p>So that if God shall give us the victory, the crown of France
+     with its appurtenances, as our right, shall be immediately
+     rendered to us without difficulty after his decease. And to this
+     all the lords and estates of France shall be bound, as it shall
+     be agreed between us.</p>
+
+<p>For it is better for us, cousin, thus to decide this war for ever
+     between our two persons, than to suffer the misbelievers, by
+     occasion of our wars, to destroy Christianity, our holy mother
+     the church to remain in divisions, and the people of God to
+     destroy one another. We pray much that you may have as strong a
+     desire to avoid that, and to come to peace, and seek all means of
+     finding it. And let us trust in God that no better way than this
+     can be found. And, therefore, in discharge of our soul, and in
+     charge of yours, if such great evils follow, we make to you the
+     above offer.</p>
+
+<p>Protesting ever that we make this offer for the honour and fear
+     of God, and for the above causes, of our own motion, without our
+     royal relations, councillors, and subjects daring in so high a
+     matter to advise us. Nor can it at any time to come be urged to
+     our prejudice, nor in prejudice of our good right and title which
+     we have at present to the said crown with its appurtenances, nor
+     to the good right and title which we now have to other our lands
+     and heritages on this side the sea, nor to our heirs and
+     successors, if this our offer does not take full effect between
+     us and you in the manner aforesaid. Given under our privy seal,
+     at our town of Harfleur, the
+16th<a id="notetag123" name="notetag123"></a><a href="#note123">[123]</a>
+day of September."
+</p></div>
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page156" name="page156">(p. 156)</a></span>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">henry, with troops much weakened, leaves harfleur, fully purposed to
+make for calais, notwithstanding the threatened resistance of the
+french. &mdash; passes the field of cressy. &mdash; french resolved to engage.
+&mdash; night before the conflict. &mdash; <b>FIELD</b> of <b>AGINCOURT</b>. &mdash; slaughter of
+prisoners. &mdash; henry, his enemies themselves being judges, fully
+exculpated from every suspicion of cruelty or unchivalrous bearing. &mdash;
+he proceeds to calais. &mdash; thence to london. &mdash; reception by his
+subjects. &mdash; his modest and pious demeanour. &mdash; superstitious
+proceedings of the ecclesiastical authorities. &mdash; reflections. &mdash;
+songs of agincourt.</span><br><br>
+
+1415.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Immediately after the surrender of Harfleur, Henry held a council to
+deliberate on his future measures. All agreed that, as winter was fast
+approaching, the King and his army should return to England; but there
+arose a difference of opinion as to the manner of their return. Henry
+entertained an insuperable objection against returning by sea; and,
+notwithstanding all the dangers to which he must inevitably be
+exposed, he resolved to march through Normandy to his town of Calais.
+He wished to see with his own eyes, he said, the territories which
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page157" name="page157">(p. 157)</a></span>
+were by right his own; adding, that he put full trust in God,
+in whose name he had engaged in this, as he certainly deemed it, his
+righteous cause. His army had been frightfully diminished by the
+dysentery; he was compelled to leave a portion of the remainder to
+garrison Harfleur; and, after the most impartial consideration, the
+number of fighting men with whom he could enter upon his perilous
+journey cannot be supposed to have exceeded 9000, whilst the strong
+probability is that the army consisted of little more than 6000. What
+portion of admiration for bravery, and what of blame for rashness, an
+unprejudiced mind would mingle together, when endeavouring to assign
+the just reward to Henry for his decision to make his way through the
+very heart of his enemy's country, himself so weak in resources, his
+enemy both so strong already, and gathering in overwhelming numbers
+from every side, is a problem of no easy solution. Probably we are
+very scantily provided with a knowledge of all his motives; and our
+praise or our censure might now be very different from what it would
+be, were we acquainted with all the circumstances of the case. How far
+he expected that the dissensions among the French would prevent them
+from uniting to offer him any formidable opposition, though not easy
+to answer, is a question not to be neglected. Especially might he have
+been influenced by the expectation that the French would not withdraw
+their forces from the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page158" name="page158">(p. 158)</a></span>
+interior, from fear of the Duke of
+Burgundy, who was ever on the watch to seize a favourable moment of
+attack. The fact is beyond doubt, that, having garrisoned Harfleur, he
+quitted that town about the 8th of October; leaving there all the
+heavy articles and carriages, with whatever would be an impediment to
+his progress, and conveying all the baggage of the army on horseback.
+Henry issued a proclamation, forbidding his soldiers, on pain of
+death, to be guilty of any kind of injustice or cruelty towards the
+inhabitants as they passed along.</p>
+
+<p>The King of France had collected an army from all sides: he had more
+than 14,000 men-at-arms under valiant generals, with the greater part
+of whom he remained at Rouen, watching the motions of the English. On
+the 20th of October it was resolved in his council, by a large
+majority, that the English should be resisted in a regular and pitched
+battle. The King had received the celebrated standard, the Oriflamme,
+with much solemnity: and war had been declared by unfurling that
+consecrated ensign. There seemed at length to have spread through King
+and princes, and nobles and people alike, an enthusiastic spirit,
+determined to crush the invaders. The Dauphin himself could scarcely
+be prevailed upon to obey his father's injunctions, and to abstain
+from joining the army; his life being considered too precious to be
+exposed to such danger.</p>
+
+<p>Henry <span class="pagenum"><a id="page159" name="page159">(p. 159)</a></span>
+meanwhile, after leaving
+Harfleur,<a id="notetag124" name="notetag124"></a><a href="#note124">[124]</a>
+proceeded
+without any important interruption through Montevilliers, Fecamp,
+Arques, a town about four miles inland from Dieppe; and on Saturday,
+October 12, he passed about half a mile to the right of the town of
+Eu, where part of the French troops were quartered. These sallied out
+on the English in great numbers, and very fiercely, but were soon
+repulsed; and a treaty was agreed upon between Henry and the
+inhabitants, who supplied refreshments to his army. He was now
+informed that the French would offer him battle in a day or two,
+whilst he was passing the river Somme. Undaunted by these tidings, he
+resolved to advance; and to cross that river at Blanchetache, the very
+spot at which Edward III. had passed it before the battle of Cressy.
+The field of Cressy was only ten English miles in advance; and it may
+be safely inferred that the remembrance of the struggle and victory of
+that day filled both Henry himself and his men with additional zeal
+and resolution. By the false assurance of a
+prisoner,<a id="notetag125" name="notetag125"></a><a href="#note125">[125]</a>
+that the
+passage there was defended by many noblemen with a strong force, Henry
+was induced to change his route, and to proceed up the Somme on its
+left bank. He reached Abbeville
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page160" name="page160">(p. 160)</a></span>
+on Sunday the 13th of
+October; but, to his sad disappointment, he found all the bridges
+broken down, and the enemy stationed on the opposite bank to resist
+his passage. At this time Henry's situation was most perilous and
+dispiriting. His provisions were nearly exhausted,&mdash;the enemy had laid
+waste their own country to deprive his army of all sustenance; and no
+prospect was before them but famine at once, and annihilation from the
+overwhelming forces of the French. His army proceeded next day, and
+passed within a league of Amiens, and were much refreshed with plenty
+of provisions; wine was found in such abundance that the King was
+obliged to issue a proclamation prohibiting excess. On the Thursday
+they reached a plain near Corbie, from which town the French made a
+sally against them, but were repulsed after a brief but spirited
+engagement. Here John Bromley gallantly recovered the standard of
+Guienne, and for his valour was allowed to bear its figure for his
+crest. Here too Henry showed that, amidst all his perils and
+hardships, he was resolved to maintain the discipline of his army by
+inflicting the punishment denounced by his proclamation against
+violence or sacrilege. One of the soldiers was detected with a
+copper-gilt pix in his
+sleeve,<a id="notetag126" name="notetag126"></a><a href="#note126">[126]</a>
+which he had stolen from a
+neighbouring church. Henry sentenced him forthwith to be hung, as a
+warning to
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page161" name="page161">(p. 161)</a></span>
+all others not to offend with the hope of
+impunity.</p>
+
+<p>Quitting Corbie, they passed close to Nesle on the 18th October; when
+Henry, on the point of laying waste that district, heard that a
+passage over the Somme was at length discovered. The French,
+meanwhile, had contented themselves with proceeding before him, and
+guarding the passages of the river. Whether the policy of allowing the
+English to exhaust their strength of body and mind be sufficient, or
+not, to account for their conduct, we have not evidence enough to
+pronounce decidedly; but, on many occasions, their abstinence from
+striking a blow seems otherwise almost inexplicable. Henry made now
+one of his most vigorous efforts to effect a passage; nothing, we are
+told, could exceed his own personal
+exertions.<a id="notetag127" name="notetag127"></a><a href="#note127">[127]</a>
+The French had
+broken up the lanes leading to the fords, and thrown every obstacle in
+the way. However, nothing seemed able to resist his resolution; and in
+a few hours the whole of his army had crossed. Great was the joy of
+the English on having surmounted this formidable obstacle; and they
+now hoped to reach Calais without a battle. But on the following day
+two heralds came
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page162" name="page162">(p. 162)</a></span>
+to announce to Henry the resolution of the
+French to give him battle, and to take vengeance on him for invading
+their country. Henry, without any change of countenance, with much
+gentleness replied, "All would be done according to the will of God."
+On the heralds then asking him by what route he proposed to proceed,
+"Straight to Calais" was the reply. He then advised them not to
+attempt to interrupt his march, but to avoid the shedding of Christian
+blood. The heralds fell down upon their knees as they first approached
+him; and on dismissing them, he gave them a hundred golden crowns.
+From the hour of these heralds departing, Henry and his men always
+wore their warrior-dress, in readiness for battle; and he spoke to his
+army with much tenderness and spirit, and evidently with a powerful
+effect. To his surprise, next morning none appeared to oppose him, and
+he proceeded on his journey. Many circumstances happened from day to
+day, and hour to hour, calculated to dispirit the English, by exciting
+an assurance that the French army was near, and waiting their own time
+to seize upon their prey; delaying only in order to make their utter
+demolition more certain. Henry's route probably was taken through
+Peronne, Albert,
+Bonnieres,<a id="notetag128" name="notetag128"></a><a href="#note128">[128]</a>
+Frevent; and he reached the river
+Ternoise (called the River of Swords)
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page163" name="page163">(p. 163)</a></span>
+without any remarkable
+occurrence. No sooner, however, had he passed the Ternoise, and
+mounted the hill not far from Maisoncelle, than a man came,
+breathless, and told the Duke of York that the enemy was approaching
+in countless numbers. Henry forthwith commanded the main body to halt,
+and setting spurs to his horse hastened to view the enemy, who seemed
+to him like an immense forest covering the whole country. Nothing
+dismayed, he ordered his troops to dismount and prepare for battle;
+animating them by his calm, intrepid bearing, and by his language of
+kindness and encouragement. The French, who were first seen as they
+were emerging from a valley a mile off in three columns, halted at the
+distance of about half a mile.</p>
+
+<p>The English felt assured that they would be immediately attacked; and,
+as soon as they were drawn up in order of battle, they prepared for
+death. The greatest want then felt in the camp was the lack of
+priests,<a id="notetag129" name="notetag129"></a><a href="#note129">[129]</a>
+every one being anxiously desirous of making confession
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page164" name="page164">(p. 164)</a></span>
+and obtaining absolution. Henry's presence of mind, and noble
+soul, and pious trust, and intrepid spirit, showed themselves on this
+occasion in words which ought never to be forgotten. Sir Walter
+Hungerford having expressed his sorrow that they had not ten thousand
+of those gallant archers who would be most desirous of aiding their
+King in his hour of need, the King rebuked him, saying, "He spoke
+idly, for, as his hope was in God, in whom he trusted for victory, he
+would not, if he could, increase his forces even by a single person;
+for, if it was the pleasure of the Almighty, few as were his
+followers, they were sufficient to chastise the confidence of the
+enemy, who relied on their numbers."</p>
+
+<p>About sun-set the French took up their quarters in the orchards and
+villages of Agincourt and Ruissauville. Henry, anxiously seeking
+lodgings for his exhausted soldiers, at length found in the village of
+Maisoncelle a better supply for their wants than they had met with
+since they left Harfleur; and a small hut afforded the King himself
+protection from the
+weather.<a id="notetag130" name="notetag130"></a><a href="#note130">[130]</a>
+Before the English quitted
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page165" name="page165">(p. 165)</a></span>
+their position to go to Maisoncelle, Henry permitted all his prisoners
+to depart, upon condition that if he gained the approaching battle,
+they should return and surrender themselves; but, if he were defeated,
+they should be released from their engagements. This night, through
+nearly the whole of which rain fell heavily, was passed by the two
+hostile armies, about one mile distant from each other, very
+differently, but not inconsistently with their relative circumstances.
+Both suffered severely from the weather as well as from fatigue; but
+whilst the French, anticipating an easy and sure victory, played at
+dice for their prisoners as their stake; the English, having prepared
+their weapons for the conflict, betook themselves to prayer, and the
+observance of the other ordinances of their religion.</p>
+
+<p>At day-break, on Friday, October 25, the French drew up in order of
+battle, in three lines, on the plain of Agincourt, through which was
+the route
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page166" name="page166">(p. 166)</a></span>
+to Calais. Of their numbers the accounts both of
+English and French writers vary exceedingly, and it is impossible to
+fix upon any amount with confidence; probably, however, at the very
+lowest calculation they were more than fifty thousand men.</p>
+
+<p>Henry was up at break of day, and immediately attended mass. He then,
+mounted on a small grey horse, bearing on his coat the arms of France
+and England, and wearing a magnificent crown on his head, drew up his
+men in order of battle in an open field. His main body, consisting of
+men-at-arms, he commanded himself; the vanguard was committed, as a
+right wing, to the Duke of York at his own request; and the rear-guard
+was posted, as a left wing, under the command of the Lord Camois. The
+archers were placed between the wings in the form of a wedge, with
+their poles fixed before them as a protection against the cavalry.
+Henry then rode along the lines, and addressed them in a speech full
+of spirit, well fitted to inspire in his men enthusiastic ardour and
+devotedness. "Sir," was the reply, "we pray God to give you a good
+life, and victory over your enemies." At this juncture (we are told by
+one historian<a id="notetag131" name="notetag131"></a><a href="#note131">[131]</a>)
+an attempt was made at negociation, but it failed;
+Henry, in the midst of all his present perils, insisting virtually on
+the same terms which he
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page167" name="page167">(p. 167)</a></span>
+had offered when in safety within
+the realm of England.<a id="notetag132"
+name="notetag132"></a><a href="#note132">[132]</a></p>
+
+<p>The King assigned to the gallant veteran, Sir Thomas Erpingham, a
+friend of Henry, no less venerable for his age than distinguished for
+his bravery and military skill, the honourable duty of arraying his
+host. He first calmly marshalled the troops, placing the archers
+foremost and the men-at-arms behind them; and then, riding in front of
+the line, exhorted his brother-warriors in the name of their prince to
+fight valiantly. A third time did this aged and fearless knight ride
+before the ranks which were stationed to receive the first shock of
+the enemy, and if possible to turn back the apparently resistless and
+overwhelming tide of battle; and then, having deliberately executed
+his commission to the full, he threw up into the air the truncheon
+which he held in his hand, shouting, "Now strike!" and, immediately
+dismounting, joined the King and his attendants, who were all on foot.
+When the soldiers saw the staff in the air, and heard the cry of the
+veteran, they raised such a tremendous shout as startled the enemy,
+and filled them with
+amazement.<a id="notetag133" name="notetag133"></a><a href="#note133">[133]</a></p>
+
+<p>It <span class="pagenum"><a id="page168" name="page168">(p. 168)</a></span>
+was now approaching mid-day; when Henry, perceiving that
+the enemy would not commence the attack, but were waiting either for
+reinforcements, or in the hope of compelling him by want of provisions
+to surrender, issued the command, "Banners, advance!" His soldiers
+fell down instantly upon the ground prostrate, and implored the
+Almighty to succour them; each, as it is said, putting a morsel of
+earth into his mouth in remembrance of their mortality. They then
+rose, and advanced firmly towards the enemy, shouting, and with the
+sound of trumpets. The Constable of France commanded his advanced
+guard to meet them, who instantly obeyed, with the war-cry "Montjoye!"
+The battle commenced by a shower of arrows from the English, which did
+great execution. The French cavalry were immediately thrown into
+confusion, chiefly in consequence of the horses rushing on the pointed
+stakes which were fixed before the English archers, and, maddened with
+pain, turning upon their own ranks. The battle was then tremendously
+obstinate: at one time, the shock of the French body caused the
+English to give way; but it was only to rush again upon their enemies
+with a renewed and still more impetuous and desperate attack. Their
+charge, like a torrent of mighty waters, was resistless; and the
+archers, having exhausted their quivers, and betaking themselves
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page169" name="page169">(p. 169)</a></span>
+to their swords and bills and hatchets, the slaughter among the
+ranks of the French was dreadful. The Duke of Alençon endeavoured in
+vain to rally his men, now giving way, and being worsted on every
+side; and, returning himself to the struggle, he fell in single combat
+with King Henry himself. Whilst the conflict was raging, Anthony, Duke
+of Brabant, came up with such of his forces as could keep pace with
+him in his rapid haste towards the field of battle, and instantly
+mingled in the thickest of the fight: he fell too; gallantly, but
+unsuccessfully, striving to stem the flood. The battle seemed now to
+be decided, when that event took place, which every one must lament,
+and which nothing but necessity could justify,&mdash;</p>
+
+
+<p class="figcenter"><span class="smcap">THE SLAUGHTER OF THE PRISONERS AT AGINCOURT.</span></p>
+
+<p>The name of Henry of Monmouth is inseparable from the Battle of
+Agincourt; and immeasurably better had it been for his fair fame had
+himself and his little army been crushed in that tremendous struggle,
+by the overwhelming chivalry of France, than that he should have
+stained that day of conquest and glory by an act of cruelty or
+vengeance. If any cause except palpable and inevitable necessity could
+be proved to have suggested the dreadful mandate for his soldiers to
+put their prisoners to the sword, his memory must be branded by a
+stigma which no personal courage, not a whole
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page170" name="page170">(p. 170)</a></span>
+life devoted
+to deeds of arms, nor any unprecedented career of conquest, could
+obliterate. The charge of cruelty, however, like some other
+accusations, examined at length in these Memoirs, is of comparatively
+recent origin; and as in those former instances, so in this, our duty
+is to ascertain the facts from the best evidence, and dispassionately
+to draw our inference from those facts after an upright scrutiny and
+patient weighing of the whole question in all its bearings. Our
+abhorrence of the crime may well make us hesitate before we pronounce
+judgment against one to whose mercy and chivalrous honour his
+contemporaries bore willing and abundant testimony; the enormity of so
+dreadful an example compels us, in the name of humanity and of
+justice, not to screen the guilty. We may be wisely jealous of the
+bias and prejudice which his brilliant talents, and his life of
+patriotism and glory, may unconsciously communicate to our minds; we
+must be also upon our guard lest an excessive resolution to do
+justice, foster imperceptibly a morbid acquiescence in the
+condemnation of the accused.</p>
+
+<p>The facts, then, as they are gleaned from those authors who wrote
+nearest to the time (two of whom, one French, the other English, were
+actually themselves present on the field of battle, and were
+eye-witnesses of some portion at least of the circumstances which they
+narrate,) seem to have been these, in their order and character.</p>
+
+<p>At <span class="pagenum"><a id="page171" name="page171">(p. 171)</a></span>
+the close of one of the most desperate struggles ever
+recorded in the annals of ancient or modern warfare, whilst the enemy
+were in the act of quitting the field, but had not left it, the
+English were employing what remained of their well nigh exhausted
+strength in guarding their prisoners, and separating the living from
+the dead, who lay upon each other, heaps upon heaps, in one confused
+and indiscriminate mass. On a sudden a shout was raised, and reached
+Henry, that a fresh
+reinforcement<a id="notetag134" name="notetag134"></a><a href="#note134">[134]</a>
+of the enemy in overwhelming
+numbers had attacked the baggage, and were advancing in battle-array
+against him. He was himself just released from the furious conflict in
+which, at the close of his almost unparalleled personal exertion, he
+engaged with the Duke of Alençon, and slew him on the spot. Precisely,
+also, at this juncture, the main body of the French who had been
+engaged in the battle, and were apparently retreating, were seen to be
+collecting in great numbers, and forming themselves into bodies,
+throughout the plain, with the purpose, as it appeared, of returning
+to the engagement.</p>
+
+<p>To delay might have been the total sacrifice of himself and his
+gallant little band; to hesitate might
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page172" name="page172">(p. 172)</a></span>
+have been death.
+Henry instantly, without a moment's interval, by sound of trumpet
+ordered his men to form themselves, and attack the body who were
+advancing upon his rear, and to put the prisoners to death, "lest they
+should rush upon his men during the fight." These mandates were
+obeyed.<a id="notetag135" name="notetag135"></a><a href="#note135">[135]</a>
+The French reinforcement, advancing from the quarter
+where the baggage was stationed, no sooner felt a shower of arrows,
+and saw a body of men ready to give them battle, than they turned to
+flight; and instantly Henry, on seeing them run, stopped the slaughter
+of the prisoners, and made it known to all that he had had recourse to
+the measure only in self-defence. Henry, in order to prevent the
+recurrence of such a dreadful catastrophe, sent forthwith a herald to
+those companies of the enemy who were still lingering very
+suspiciously through the field, and charged them either to come to
+battle at once, or to withdraw from his sight; adding, that, should
+they array themselves afterwards to renew the battle, he would show no
+mercy, nor spare either fighting-men or prisoners.</p>
+
+<p>Of the general accuracy of this statement of the facts little doubt
+can be entertained, though in the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page173" name="page173">(p. 173)</a></span>
+midst of the confusion of
+such a battle-field it would not be matter of surprise were some of
+the circumstances mistaken or exaggerated. In reflecting on this
+course of incidents, the thought forces itself upon our mind, that the
+mandate was given, not in cool blood, nor when there was time and
+opportunity for deliberation and for calculating upon the means and
+chances of safety, but upon the instant, on a sudden unexpected
+renewal of the engagement from a quarter from which no danger was
+anticipated; at a moment, too, when, just after the heat of the battle
+was passing over, the routed enemy were collecting again in great
+numbers in various parts of the field, with a view evidently of
+returning to the charge and crushing their conquerors; at a moment,
+too, when the English were scattered about, separating the living from
+the dead, and all was yet confusion and uncertainty. Another fact, as
+clearly and distinctly recorded as the original issuing of the
+mandate, is, that no sooner was the danger of the immediate and
+inevitable sacrifice of the lives of his men removed by the retreat of
+the assailants, than, without waiting for the dispersion of those
+menacing bodies then congregating around him, Henry instantly
+countermanded the order, and saved the remainder of the prisoners. The
+bare facts of the case, from first to last, admit of no other
+alternative than for our judgment to pronounce it to have been
+altogether an imperative inevitable act of self-preservation, without
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page174" name="page174">(p. 174)</a></span>
+the sacrifice of any life, or the suffering of any human
+being, beyond the absolute and indispensable necessity of the case.</p>
+
+<p>But, perhaps, the most striking and conclusive testimony in
+vindication of Henry's character on that day of slaughter and victory,
+is borne both by the silence and also by the expressed sentiments of
+the contemporary historians. This evidence deserves to be put more
+prominently forward than it has ever yet been. Indeed, as long as
+there was no charge of cruelty, or unnecessary violence, brought
+against his name in this particular, there was little need of alleging
+any evidence in his defence. It remained for modern writers, after a
+lapse of centuries, to stigmatize the command as an act of barbarity,
+and to represent it as having tarnished and stained the victory of him
+who gave it.<a id="notetag136" name="notetag136"></a><a href="#note136">[136]</a>
+It is, however, a most remarkable and satisfactory
+circumstance that, of the contemporary historians, and those who
+followed most closely upon them, who have
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page175" name="page175">(p. 175)</a></span>
+detailed the
+proceedings with more or less minuteness, and with a great variety
+though no inconsistency of circumstances, in whose views, moreover,
+all subsequent writers, with few exceptions, have unreservedly
+acquiesced, not one single individual is found to cast the slightest
+imputation on Henry for injustice or cruelty; while some, in their
+account of the battle, have not made the most distant allusion to the
+circumstance. All the earlier writers who refer to it appear, with one
+consent, to have considered the order as the result of dire and
+unavoidable necessity on the part of the English King. Not only so:
+whilst no one who witnessed the engagement, or lived at the time, ever
+threw the shadow of reproach or of complaint on Henry or his army,
+various writers, especially among the French historians, join in
+reprobating the unjustifiable conduct of those among the French troops
+who rendered the massacre inevitable, and cast on their own countrymen
+the entire responsibility and blame for the whole melancholy affair.
+Instead of any attempt to sully and tarnish the glory won by the
+English on that day, by pointing to their cruel and barbarous
+treatment of unarmed prisoners, they visit their own people with the
+very strongest terms of malediction, as the sole culpable origin and
+cause of the evil. And that these were not only the sentiments of the
+writers themselves, but were participated in by their countrymen at
+large, is evidenced by the record of a fact which has been generally
+overlooked. Those who were
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page176" name="page176">(p. 176)</a></span>
+deemed guilty of thus exposing
+their countrymen to death, by unjustifiably renewing the attack when
+the conflict was acknowledged to be over, and after the French
+soldiery had given up the field, not only were exposed to disgrace in
+their characters, but suffered punishment also for the offence in
+their persons. Anticipating censure and severe handling as the
+consequences of their misconduct, they made valuable presents to such
+as they thought able to screen them; but so decided was the
+indignation and resentment of their countrymen, that the leaders of
+the offending parties were cast into prison, and suffered a long
+confinement, as the punishment for their misconduct on that day.</p>
+
+<p>The inference, then, which the facts, as they are delivered by English
+and French writers, compel us to draw, coincides with the professed
+sentiments of all contemporaries. Those, on the one hand, who shared
+the glory and were proud of the day of Agincourt, and those, on the
+other, whose national pride, and wounded honour, and participation in
+the calamities poured that day upon the noblest families of France,
+and in the mourning spread far and wide throughout the land, caused
+them to abhor the very name of Agincourt, all sanction our adoption of
+that one inference: <i>Henry did not stain his victory by any act of
+cruelty</i>. His character comes out of the investigation untarnished by
+a suspicion of his having wantonly shed the blood of a single
+fellow-creature.</p>
+
+<p>To <span class="pagenum"><a id="page177" name="page177">(p. 177)</a></span>
+enable the reader to judge for himself how far the view
+taken in the text is justified by the evidence, the Author has thought
+it desirable to cite from different writers, French as well as
+English, the passages at length in which they describe the
+transaction.</p>
+
+<div class="letter">
+<p>
+     The Chaplain of Henry V, an eye-witness, who was himself
+     stationed with the baggage, and whose account is contained in the
+     fasciculus known as "MS. Sloane, 1776, p. 67," thus reports the
+     transaction:</p>
+
+<p>"When some of the enemy's foreranks were slain, those behind
+     pressed over the dead, and others again falling on them were
+     immediately put to death; and near Henry's banners so large was
+     the pile of corpses, and of those who were thrown upon them, that
+     the English stood on heaps which exceeded a man's height, and
+     felled their adversaries below with swords and axes. And when, at
+     length, for the space of two or three hours, that powerful body
+     of the first ranks had been broken through and crushed to pieces,
+     and the rest were forced to fly, our men began to move those
+     heaps, and to separate the living from the dead. And behold,
+     suddenly, with what angry dispensation of Providence it is not
+     known, (nescitur in quâ irâ Dei,) a shout is made that the
+     cavalry of the enemy in an overwhelming and fresh body were
+     rallying, and forming themselves to attack our men, few in
+     number, and worn out with fatigue. And the captives, without any
+     respect of persons, (except the Dukes of Orleans and Bourbon, and
+     certain other illustrious men, and a few besides,) were put the
+     sword, to prevent their becoming our ruin in the approaching
+     struggle. And, after a little while, the enemy, (by the
+     Almighty's will,) having tasted the sharpness of our arrows, and
+     seeing that our King was approaching them, left us a field of
+     blood, with chariots and many other carriages filled
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page178" name="page178">(p. 178)</a></span>
+     with provisions and weapons, lances and bows."
+</p>
+
+<p>Jean Le Fevre, Seigneur de St. Remy, who was also an eye-witness,
+being present in the English camp, records the event, and his own
+opinion of it, thus:</p>
+
+<p>
+     "Then there befel them a very great misfortune; for a large body
+     of the rear-guard, in which were many French, Bretons, Gascons,
+     and others, who had betaken themselves to flight, and had with
+     them a large number of standards and flags, showed signs of an
+     intention to fight, and were marching in order. When the English
+     perceived them thus congregated, orders were given by the King of
+     England for every one to slay his prisoners; but those who had
+     taken them were unwilling to put them to death, because they had
+     taken those only who could give a high ransom. On the King being
+     apprised that they would not kill their prisoners, he gave in
+     charge to a gentleman with two hundred archers to put them all to
+     death. The order of the King was obeyed by this esquire, which
+     was a lamentable affair; for all that body of French nobility
+     were <i>in cold blood</i> cut and hewed, head and face,&mdash;a wonderful
+     thing to see. <span class="smcap">That accursed band of Frenchmen, who thus caused
+     that noble chivalry to be murdered</span>, when they saw that the
+     English were ready to receive them and give them battle, betook
+     themselves to flight suddenly; and those who could, saved
+     themselves; and the greater part of those who were on horseback
+     saved themselves, but of them who were on foot the greater part
+     were put to death."</p>
+
+<p>Elmham thus records the transaction:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>
+     "The English, already wearied, and for the most part destitute of
+     arms fit for a charge, when the French were arraying themselves
+     for battle with a view to the renewal of the conflict, fearing
+     lest the persons they had taken should rush upon them in the
+     struggle, slew many of them, though
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page179" name="page179">(p. 179)</a></span>
+noble, with the
+     sword. The King then, by a herald, commanded those French
+     soldiers who were still occupying the field either to come to
+     battle at once, or speedily to depart out of his sight; assuring
+     them that, if they should again array themselves for a renewed
+     engagement, both they and the prisoners yet remaining should
+     perish without mercy, with the most dire vengeance which the
+     English could inflict."
+</p>
+
+<p>Fabyan's account differs from that of other writers only in one
+particular; he represents the retirement of the French, who had
+rallied for a renewal of the conflict, to have been the result of the
+message sent to them by the Duke of Orleans and his fellow-prisoners,
+in their panic on hearing Henry's mandate, which seemed to put their
+lives into immediate jeopardy.</p>
+
+<p>
+     "When the King, by power and grace of God more than by force of
+     man, had gotten this triumphant victory, and returned his people
+     from the chase of his enemies, tidings were brought to him that a
+     new host of Frenchmen were coming towards him. Wherefore he
+     commanded his people to be embattled; and, that done, made
+     proclamation through the host that every man should slay his
+     prisoners: by reason of which proclamation the Duke of Orleans,
+     and the other lords of France, were in such fear, that anon, by
+     the licence of the King, they sent such word unto the said host
+     that they withdrew."
+</p>
+
+<p>The contemporary author whose work is translated by Laboureur, having
+in impassioned language spoken of the "eternal reproach, and ever
+deplorable calamity of the miserable battle of Agincourt," instead of
+attempting to make the English partake in any degree of the disgrace
+which on that day stained the annals of France, tells us that Henry,
+believing a great body of the vanguard, who had been broken through,
+were running, not in flight, but to
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page180" name="page180">(p. 180)</a></span>
+join the rest of the
+army and renew the attack, gave orders for all the prisoners to be put
+to the sword; and the carnage lasted till it was known they were
+actually running away. He then stopped it; and explained that his
+orders were given in doubt of the enemy's intentions.&mdash;This writer
+seems to have been mistaken in his view of the circumstances; but the
+thought of Henry having acted unjustifiably does not seem to have
+crossed his mind.</p>
+
+<p>Monstrelet's account is somewhat different from the two last, and more
+full in its details:</p>
+
+<p>
+     "During the heat of the combat the English made several
+     prisoners; and then came news to the King of England that the
+     French were attacking them from the rear, and that they had
+     already taken his sumpter-horses and baggage. This was true; for
+     Robinet de Bournonville and Rifflart de Clamasse, Ysambert
+     d'Azencourt, and some other men-at-arms, accompanied by six
+     hundred peasants, went to plunder the baggage, and carried off a
+     great quantity of the property of the camp, and a large number of
+     horses, whilst those who were their guards were engaged in the
+     battle. This pillage caused the King great trouble, for he saw
+     also at the same time in the open field those French who had
+     taken to flight rallying themselves in companies; and he doubted
+     whether their intention was not to renew the engagement. He
+     therefore caused a proclamation to be made by sound of trumpet,
+     that every Englishman should on pain of
+death<a id="notetag137" name="notetag137"></a><a href="#note137">[137]</a>
+slay his
+     prisoners, to prevent their succouring their own people in the
+     time of need; and then, on the sudden, followed a very great
+     carnage of French prisoners. For which proceeding, Robinet de
+     Bournonville and Ysambart d'Azencourt were afterwards
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page181" name="page181">(p. 181)</a></span>
+     punished and imprisoned a long time by order of John Duke of
+     Burgundy, notwithstanding they had given to Philip Earl of
+     Charolois, his son, an exceedingly valuable sword, studded with
+     precious stones and jewels, belonging to the King of England,
+     which they had found and taken with the other booty, that the
+     Earl might interest himself for them should any trouble overtake
+     them in consequence of this circumstance."</p>
+
+<p>Des Ursins represents the catastrophe to have been occasioned by
+     the news spread through the field that the Duke of Brittany was
+     arrived with a powerful reinforcement, on which the French
+     rallied. He gives, however, two accounts; in one of which he
+     reports the prisoners taken by the English to be fourteen
+     thousand, a number exceeding the whole body of fighting men in
+     the English army.</p>
+
+<p>Paradin de Cuyseault, in his Annals of Burgundy, marks very
+     strongly in how serious a light the offence of the French
+     assailants was viewed by their contemporaries:</p>
+
+<p>"And this [the order for the slaughter of the prisoners] was
+     executed, of which the said Bournonville and Azencourt were the
+     cause: and they being accused of this charge before the Duke of
+     Burgundy, his will was that they should suffer death: but the
+     Earl of Charolois saved them, in return for the beautiful sword."</p>
+
+<p>Pierre de Fenin, a contemporary esquire, and a clerk of the
+     household to Charles VI, employs expressions very pointedly
+     exculpatory of the English; he does not speak of Henry's mandate
+     at all:</p>
+
+<p>"Whilst the battle between the English and French <i>was yet
+     pending and going on</i>, and the English had already almost gained
+     the mastery, Isambert d'Azencourt, and Robinet de Bournonville,
+     accompanied by some men-at-arms of little note, made an assault
+     on the baggage of the English, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page182" name="page182">(p. 182)</a></span>
+caused a great
+     [affray] terror. When the English saw that it was the French who
+     were coming upon them to attack them, <i>in that necessity they
+     felt themselves obliged</i> to put to death many whom they had
+     already made prisoners; for which the two persons above mentioned
+     were afterwards made the objects of severe execration, and were
+     also punished for the offence by the Duke of
+Burgundy."<a id="notetag138" name="notetag138"></a><a href="#note138">[138]</a>
+</p></div>
+
+<p>Among the many instances of heroism which occurred during the battle,
+Henry's conduct was particularly distinguished. He fought on foot like
+a lion, as our annalists express themselves, and was throughout the
+noblest example of valour. Especially was his gallant rescue of his
+brother, the Duke of Gloucester, remembered with admiration. That
+prince had been wounded by a dagger, and thrown on the ground by the
+Duke of Alençon and his soldiers, when Henry rushed between them, and
+defended his brother till he was removed from the conflict. This noble
+deed nearly cost him his life; for, stooping down to raise his
+brother, the Duke of Alençon,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page183" name="page183">(p. 183)</a></span>
+or one of his men, struck him
+such a blow as to break off a part of his crown.</p>
+
+<p>The loss on both sides has been very variously reported. Probably of
+the French not less than ten thousand fell in that field of
+blood;<a id="notetag139" name="notetag139"></a><a href="#note139">[139]</a>
+of the English perhaps less than one-tenth of that number.
+But France did not on that day reckon her loss by the number of the
+slain; the chief of her
+chivalry<a id="notetag140" name="notetag140"></a><a href="#note140">[140]</a>
+and nobility
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page184" name="page184">(p. 184)</a></span> fell
+there. On the English side the only men of note who were slain in the
+battle were the Duke of York, the Earl of Suffolk, Sir Richard
+Keghley, Thomas Fitz-Henry, John de Peniton, and David
+Gamme.<a id="notetag141" name="notetag141"></a><a href="#note141">[141]</a></p>
+
+<p>The last-mentioned person is that David Gamme who
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page185" name="page185">(p. 185)</a></span> was
+ransomed from Owyn Glendowr, and who is reported to have replied, when
+questioned as to the number of the enemy, "My liege, there are enough
+to be slain, enough to be taken prisoners, and enough to run away!"
+This gallant speech of
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page186" name="page186">(p. 186)</a></span>
+David Gamme immediately before the
+battle, has been delivered down from father to son among his Cambrian
+compatriots with feelings of exultation and pride. A circumstance of a
+very opposite character and tendency (which has never, it is believed,
+hitherto appeared in our histories,) must not be suppressed here.
+Among those who swelled the enormous host which on that day gave
+battle to the King of England, were found natives of his own
+Principality. During the dreadful devastations caused by Owyn
+Glyndowr, great numbers left their mansions and estates a prey to his
+fury, and saved themselves from personal violence by taking refuge in
+England, or beyond the seas. Many, too, of those who had made
+themselves notorious as Owyn's partisans, fled from Wales when his
+cause began to falter, and avoided the penalty of perseverance in
+their rebellion, or the humiliating alternative of submission to one
+whom they deemed a tyrant and usurper. Quitting their native soil in
+the enjoyment of health and strength, not a few of these inhabitants
+of the Principality enlisted under the standard of foreign powers;
+especially (as it is reasonable to conclude) of the King of France,
+who had espoused the cause for which they were expatriated. How large
+or how small a number of Welshmen fell in the ranks of the French on
+that day, or how many escaped, we have no means of ascertaining. Our
+attention is drawn to the subject by the record of a fact too
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page187" name="page187">(p. 187)</a></span>
+specific, and too well authenticated, to be doubted or
+evaded.<a id="notetag142" name="notetag142"></a><a href="#note142">[142]</a>
+William Gwyn of Llanstephan, was in the army of the enemy
+on the field of Agincourt, and his corpse was found among the slain.
+His castle of Llanstephan was in consequence forfeited to the crown,
+and was granted to the King's brother, Humphrey Duke of Gloucester.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+
+<p>Being left master of the field, Henry withdrew his army a few paces,
+and addressed them in a speech very characteristic of his mind. After
+thanking them for their services, he bade them consider his success as
+undoubted proof of the justice of his cause; and directed them not to
+pride themselves on the event, but to give the glory to God. Henry
+then called to him Montjoye, the principal herald of France, and
+demanded of him to whom the victory belonged; who replied, that it was
+to the King of England. He then asked the name of the neighbouring
+castle; and, being informed that it was Agincourt, "Then," said he,
+"this shall for ever be called</p>
+
+<p class="figcenter"><span class="smcap">"THE BATTLE OF AGINCOURT."</span><a id="notetag143"
+name="notetag143"></a><a href="#note143">[143]</a></p>
+
+<p>Henry, naturally anxious to hasten with his troops beyond the reach of
+his enemies, and to arrive at
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page188" name="page188">(p. 188)</a></span>
+Calais before they could
+recover from their present overwhelming distress, removed from his
+quarters, passing through the field of battle early on the next day,
+taking his prisoners with him. Many vague expressions occur in some
+writers, which might be wrested to imply wanton cruelty in the English
+after the battle; but no direct charge of the sort is brought
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page189" name="page189">(p. 189)</a></span>
+against them; and we may reasonably hope that there was no more
+of human suffering than of necessity followed so tremendous a
+conflict: whilst all writers agree in recording and extolling the
+kindness, and compassion, and courtesy shown by Henry to his
+prisoners, especially to the Duke of Orleans; endeavouring by all
+means in his power to cheer and console them. Just as after the battle
+of <span class="pagenum"><a id="page190" name="page190">(p. 190)</a></span>
+Grosmont, when he was only seventeen years old, so now in
+the prime of manhood, on the field of Agincourt, we find in him the
+same kind and warm-hearted conqueror: "In battle a lion; but, duty
+appeased, in mercy a lamb!"</p>
+
+<p>The army found great difficulty at Calais from the scarcity of
+provisions; and the prisoners, as may be supposed, were in still
+greater distress. The moment Henry, who was staying at Guisnes, heard
+of it, he ordered vessels to be procured to convey both soldiers and
+prisoners to England. Henry himself reached
+Calais<a id="notetag144" name="notetag144"></a><a href="#note144">[144]</a>
+on the 29th of
+October, and was received with every demonstration of loyalty. He was
+met by the clergy singing Te Deum; whilst the inhabitants shouted,
+"Welcome the King, our Sovereign Lord!" News reached London very
+early, whilst the citizens were yet in bed, on Tuesday, October 29;
+and on that day the victory was celebrated by religious processions,
+in which we are
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page191" name="page191">(p. 191)</a></span>
+told the Queen Dowager joined, though
+Arthur, Count of Richmond, her own son, was among the prisoners. On
+Monday, November 4, the Duke of Bedford announced the welcome news
+officially to parliament. Henry embarked for England on Saturday, 16th
+of November, and reached Dover late on the same day, though the wind
+had been very boisterous, and one or two of his vessels were lost. So
+overflowing was the joy and zeal of his subjects, that we are told
+they rushed into the sea, and brought him to shore in their arms. At
+Canterbury he was met by the archbishop and clergy: on Friday, 22nd of
+November, he slept at Eltham. The next day he was met, about ten
+o'clock, at Blackheath, by the Mayor and all the civic authorities of
+London, dressed in their most splendid robes, and accompanied by not
+less than twenty thousand citizens on horseback.</p>
+
+<p>In London a most magnificent pageant was ready to welcome him. Minute
+descriptions of the various devices, such probably as England had
+never seen before, have come down to us. But we need take no further
+notice of them than to remark, that during the splendid scene, which
+lasted from ten o'clock till three, (in the course of which Henry
+humbly returned thanks both in St. Paul's and in Westminster Abbey,)
+the King's deportment was singularly modest. His dress was simple; he
+rode gravely on, attended by a small retinue; and, his thoughts
+apparently wrapped up in contemplating the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page192" name="page192">(p. 192)</a></span>
+power and
+goodness of the Almighty, he seemed altogether indifferent to the
+splendour of the scenes and the devotedness of the crowds through
+which he passed. So anxious was he to avoid exciting the applause of
+his people, that he would not allow the helmet which he wore at
+Agincourt to be exhibited on this occasion; the battered state of
+which bore evidence to the danger he had encountered: nor would he
+allow the minstrels to compose verses, or sing songs, to his praise;
+but persisted in attributing the glory of his victory to God alone.</p>
+
+<p>It is pleasing to trace the
+rewards<a id="notetag145" name="notetag145"></a><a href="#note145">[145]</a>
+bestowed by Henry on his
+companions in arms at Agincourt, and the measures which he adopted to
+preserve their names from oblivion. With this view he doubtless caused
+a roll to be made recording their names; though only a transcript of
+one part has been yet discovered among the archives. We may hope that
+not many years will elapse before numbers of those most interesting
+documents which now lie buried in heaps of confusion will be brought
+to light. Henry selected to fill every vacancy in the order of the
+Garter, (not bestowed on sovereign princes,) the peers and
+distinguished commanders who fought with him at Agincourt; and when he
+restricted the use of coats of arms in a subsequent expedition to
+those who could prove their right to them, he excepts those only who
+bore arms with him at Agincourt. To commemorate this victory with more
+especial <span class="pagenum"><a id="page193" name="page193">(p. 193)</a></span>
+honour, he created a King-at-arms, called
+"Agincourt."</p>
+
+<p>Our reformed views of Christian truth must not make us undervalue the
+testimony borne to Henry's gratitude towards his companions in arms,
+though they were removed by death from all earthly favours and
+rewards. He did for them what he could; and though we believe him to
+have been performing a vain office, and profitless to those whom it
+was intended to benefit, in the prevailing superstition of those days
+we see traces of the kindness and grateful spirit of the
+hero.<a id="notetag146" name="notetag146"></a><a href="#note146">[146]</a></p>
+
+<p>Many of the French princes taken at Agincourt remained prisoners in
+England for many years. The Duke of Bourbon died in confinement. The
+Duke of Orleans was not released for five-and-twenty years. Whilst a
+captive in the Tower of London, he had recourse to the solace of
+literature; and composed many pieces of poetry, still preserved in the
+British
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page194" name="page194">(p. 194)</a></span>
+Museum, which indicate genius and cultivated taste.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+
+<p>How highly the people of England valued this victory is seen in very
+many particulars. The superstition of those times was also made to
+contribute to its celebrity. The victory of Agincourt was gained on
+the feast of the Translation of St. John of Beverley, and was ascribed
+to his merits. His festival had before been kept on the 7th of May;
+but now it was ordained to be celebrated for ever on the 25th of
+October. But that was the feast of Crispin and Crispianus; and so the
+authorities of the church decreed that all three saints should share
+in the offices of that
+day.<a id="notetag147" name="notetag147"></a><a href="#note147">[147]</a></p>
+
+<p>The Archbishop declares that this ecclesiastical constitution was made
+in full convocation by the will, counsel, and consent of all his
+brothers, and also at the special instance of their most Christian
+King.</p>
+
+<p>The document abounds to the overflow with the gross superstition of
+the age. It is only by recalling what that degrading superstition was,
+that we can estimate at their proper value the blessings of the
+Reformation. Of the genuineness of this document there can be no
+doubt. It was addressed by Henry Chicheley, Archbishop of Canterbury,
+to the Vicar of the Bishop of London, who was then at the council of
+Constance; and its preamble at least deserves a place here.</p>
+
+<div class="letter">
+<p>"Henry,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page195" name="page195">(p. 195)</a></span>
+by divine permission, Archbishop of Canterbury,
+     Primate of all England, and Legate of the Apostolic see, to our
+     beloved son the spiritual Vicar-general of our venerable brother
+     R. by the grace of God, Bishop of London, now in foreign parts.
+     The holy honour of the English church (whose praise and fame, in
+     devoted veneration of God and his saints, the whole world extols
+     above the churches of other regions and provinces,) requires that
+     the same church shall more abound with the praises of those, and
+     more exultingly rejoice in glad devotion to them, by whose
+     patronage and grace of miracles she rejoices to flourish; and by
+     whose pious intercession the state, not only of the church, but
+     of the whole realm, together with the inward sweetness of peace
+     and quiet, and with victory gained over foreign enemies, is
+     defended by just rulers.</p>
+
+<p> "The grace of this help, though God to the same church, and to
+     the inhabitants of the realm of England, hath often decreed to
+     show by the merits of divers saints, (with whom she shines
+     gloriously on every side,) yet in these last days He has
+     evidently deigned more miraculously and more especially to
+     console the aforesaid church, together with the aforesaid nobles,
+     inhabitants, and all members of the kingdom, by the especial
+     suffrage of her (almifici) gracious confessor and bishop, the
+     most blessed John of Beverley, as we verily believe!</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! ineffable consolation, especially in our times, in every age
+     pleasant, and ever to be called to mind; namely, the victory of
+     our most Christian Prince, King Henry V. of England, and of his
+     army, in the battle of Agincourt, lately fought in the parts of
+     Picardy; which on the Feast of the Translation of the said Saint,
+     to the honour of the divine name, and to the honour of the realm
+     of England, from the boundless mercy of God, was granted to the
+     English.</p>
+
+<p>"On which Feast of his Translation, whilst the struggle between
+     our countrymen and the French was being carried on, as to the
+     hearing of us and our brethren in our last convocation,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page196" name="page196">(p. 196)</a></span>
+     abundantly and especially, the true report of the inhabitants of
+     that country brought the tidings, that from his tomb sacred oil
+     flowed, drops falling as of sweat, indicative of the divine mercy
+     towards his people, doubtless obtained by the merits of that most
+     holy man.</p>
+
+<p>"Wishing, therefore, in our province to spread an increase of
+     divine worship, and especially to extol further the praise of so
+     great a patron, with the wills, counsel, and assent of our
+     brethren and the clergy in the said convocation, and no less at
+     the special instance of the said most Christian Prince, we have
+     determined that the memory of that most holy confessor everywhere
+     throughout our province should be exalted with feelings of
+     prayers and devotions [votivis et devotis affectibus]."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="p2">
+
+<p>Then follows the decree above mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>This mass of extravagant folly and blind superstition, this
+presumptuous sharing of God's omnipotence and sovereign might with the
+power of such poor erring fellow-mortals as the corrupt ministers of a
+corrupt church had presumptuously ranked among the inhabitants of
+heaven,&mdash;thus daring to forestal the judgment of Christ at the last
+day, and to pronounce on the glory of a man whose spiritual state
+Omniscience alone can know,&mdash;it is impossible to contemplate without
+feelings of gratitude that Heaven's mercy has released us from such
+perverted use of the Gospel of the Saviour; nor without a prayer that
+the Spirit of light and truth would guide those of our
+fellow-creatures who are still walking in the same land of darkness
+and error, into the clear light of Christian truth.</p>
+
+<p>The
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page197" name="page197">(p. 197)</a></span>
+Author, to whom the following "Song of Agincourt" has
+been familiar from his childhood, cannot refrain from inserting it
+here. This is that ancient, and, as it is believed, contemporary
+ballad, which has preserved to our times that golden stanza which
+appears in the title page of these volumes; and every word of which
+reflects the character of Henry as a hero and a merciful man. The
+quotation, also, from Burnet's History of Music, and the contemporary
+song to which he refers, will, it is presumed, be generally
+acceptable.</p>
+
+
+<p class="left20">SONG OF AGINCOURT.</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p>As our King lay on his bed,<br>
+<span class="poem1">All musing at the hour of prime,<a id="notetag148"
+      name="notetag148"></a><a href="#note148">[148]</a></span><br>
+He bethought him of the King of France,<br>
+<span class="poem1">And tribute due for so long a time.</span></p>
+
+<p>He called unto him his lovely page,<br>
+<span class="poem1">His lovely page then called he;</span><br>
+Saying, You must go to the King in France,<br>
+<span class="poem1">To the King in France right speedily.</span></p>
+
+<p>Tell him to send me my tribute home,<br>
+<span class="poem1">Ten ton of gold that is due to me;</span><br>
+Unless he send me my tribute home,<br>
+<span class="poem1">Soon in French land I will him see.</span></p>
+
+<p>Away
+   <span class="pagenum"><a id="page198" name="page198">(p. 198)</a></span>
+     then goes this lovely page<br>
+<span class="poem1">As fast, as fast as he could hie;</span><br>
+And, when he came to the King in France,<br>
+<span class="poem1">He fell all down on his bended knee.</span></p>
+
+<p>My master greets you, sir, and says,<br>
+<span class="poem1">Ten ton of gold is due to me;</span><br>
+Unless you send me my tribute home,<br>
+<span class="poem1">You in French land soon shall see me.</span></p>
+
+<p>Your master is young, and of tender age,<br>
+<span class="poem1">Not fit to come into my degree;</span><br>
+I'll send him home some tennis-balls<br>
+<span class="poem1">That with them he may learn for to play.</span></p>
+
+<p>Away then goes this lovely page,<br>
+<span class="poem1">As fast, as fast as he could hie;</span><br>
+And, when he came to our gracious King,<br>
+<span class="poem1">He fell all down on his bended knee.</span></p>
+
+<p>What news, what news, my trusty page?<br>
+<span class="poem1">What news, what news dost thou bring to me?</span><br>
+I bring such news from the King of France,<br>
+<span class="poem1">That you and he can never agree.</span></p>
+
+<p>He says you are young, and of tender age,<br>
+<span class="poem1">Not fit to come up to his degree;</span><br>
+He has sent you home some tennis-balls,<br>
+<span class="poem1">That with them you may learn for to play.</span></p>
+
+<p>Oh! then bespoke our noble King,<br>
+<span class="poem1">A solemn vow then vowed he;</span><br>
+I'll promise him such English balls<br>
+<span class="poem1">As in French land he ne'er did see.</span></p>
+
+<p>Go! <span class="pagenum"><a id="page199" name="page199">(p. 199)</a></span>
+     call up Cheshire and Lancashire,<br>
+<span class="poem1">And Derby hills that are so free;</span><br>
+But neither married man, nor widow's son,<br>
+<span class="poem1">No widow's curse shall go with me!</span></p>
+
+<p>They called up Cheshire and Lancashire,<br>
+<span class="poem1">And Derby hills that are so free;</span><br>
+But neither married man nor widow's son,<br>
+<span class="poem1">Yet they had a right good company.</span></p>
+
+<p>He called unto him his merry men all,<br>
+<span class="poem1">And numbered them by three and three,</span><br>
+Until their number it did amount<br>
+<span class="poem1">To thirty thousand stout men and three.</span></p>
+
+<p>Away then marched they into French land,<br>
+<span class="poem1">With drums and fifes so merrily;</span><br>
+Then out and spoke the King of France,<br>
+<span class="poem1">Lo! here comes proud King Henrie!</span></p>
+
+<p>The first that fired, it was the French,<br>
+<span class="poem1">They killed our Englishmen so free;</span><br>
+But we killed ten thousand of the French,<br>
+<span class="poem1">And the rest of them they did run away.</span></p>
+
+<p>Then marched they on to Paris gates,<br>
+<span class="poem1">With drums and fifes so merrily;</span><br>
+Oh! then bespoke the King of France,<br>
+<span class="poem1">The Lord have mercy on my men and me!</span></p>
+
+<p>Oh! I will send him his tribute home,<br>
+<span class="poem1">Ten ton of gold that is due from me;</span><br>
+And the very best flower that is in all France<br>
+<span class="poem1">To the rose of England will I give free.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="smsize">
+<p>"At <span class="pagenum"><a id="page200" name="page200">(p. 200)</a></span>
+the coronation of Henry V," observes Dr. Burney, "in
+1413, we hear of <i>no other instruments than
+harps</i>;<a id="notetag149" name="notetag149"></a><a href="#note149">[149]</a>
+but one of
+that prince's
+historians<a id="notetag150" name="notetag150"></a><a href="#note150">[150]</a>
+tells us that their number in the hall
+was prodigious. Henry, however, though a successful hero and a
+conqueror, did not seem to take the advantage of his claim to praise;
+and either was so modest or so tasteless as to discourage and even
+prohibit the poets and musicians from celebrating his victories and
+singing his valiant deeds. When he entered the city of London, after
+the battle of Agincourt, the gates and streets were hung with
+tapestry, representing the history of ancient heroes; and children
+were placed in temporary turrets to sing verses. But Henry, disgusted
+at these vanities, commanded, by a formal edict, that for the future
+no songs should be recited by harpers, or others, in honour of the
+recent victory. '<i>Cantus de suo triumpho fieri, seu per citharistas,
+vel alios quoscunque, cantari, penitus prohibebat</i>.'</p>
+
+<p>"It is somewhat extraordinary that, in spite of Henry's edicts and
+prohibitions, <i>the only English song of so early a date, that has come
+to my knowledge, of which the original music has been preserved</i>, is
+one that was written on his victory at Agincourt in 1415. It is
+preserved in the Pepysian Collection, at Magdalen College,
+Cambridge."<a id="notetag151"
+name="notetag151"></a><a href="#note151">[151]</a></p></div>
+
+<p>After
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page201" name="page201">(p. 201)</a></span>
+some observations upon the general ignorance of the
+transcribers of ancient music, Dr. Burney proceeds to say, "that the
+copy in the Pepysian Collection is written upon vellum in Gregorian
+notes, and can be little less ancient than the event which it
+recorded;" and that there is with it a paper which shows that an
+attempt was made in the last century (17th) to give it a modern dress,
+but that too many liberties had been taken with the melody, and the
+drone bass, which had been set to it for the lute, is a mere jargon.
+He then presents what he says is a faithful copy of this venerable
+relic of our nation's prowess and glory.</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p>Owre Kynge went forth to Normandy,<br>
+With grace, and myght of chyvalry;<br>
+The God for hym wrought marv'lusly,<br>
+Wherefore Englonde may calle and cry,</p>
+
+<p class="left30">CHORUS.</p>
+
+<p class="poem1">Deo gratias, Anglia!<br>
+  Redde pro Victoria!</p>
+
+<p>He sette a sege, the sothe to say,<br>
+To Harflue town, with royal array;<br>
+That toune he wan, and made a fray<br>
+That Fraunce shall rywe tyl domes-day.<br>
+<span class="left30">Deo gratias! &amp;c.</span></p>
+
+<p>Than, for sothe, that Knyght comely<br>
+In Agincourt feld faught manly;<br>
+Thorow grace of God, most myghty,<br>
+He hath bothe felde and victory.<br>
+<span class="left30">Deo gratias! &amp;c.</span></p>
+
+<p>Then <span class="pagenum"><a id="page202" name="page202">(p. 202)</a></span>
+      went owre Kynge, with all his oste,<br>
+Thorowe Fraunce, for all the Frenshe boste;<br>
+He spared<a id="notetag152"
+       name="notetag152"></a><a href="#note152">[152]</a>
+       for drede of leste ne most,<br>
+Till he come to Agincourt coste.<br>
+<span class="left30">Deo gratias! &amp;c.</span></p>
+
+<p>Ther Dukys and Earlys, Lorde and Barone,<br>
+  Were take and slayne, and that wel sone;<br>
+  And some were ledde into Lundone;<br>
+  With joye, and merth, and grete renone,<br>
+<span class="left30">Deo gratias! &amp;c.</span></p>
+
+<p>Now gracious God he save owre Kynge,<br>
+  His peple, and all his well wyllinge;<br>
+  Gef him gode lyfe, and gode endynge,<br>
+  That we with merth may safely synge,<br>
+<span class="poem-1">Deo gratias, Anglia! redde pro Victoria!</span></p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page203" name="page203">(p. 203)</a></span>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">reasons for delaying a second campaign. &mdash; sigismund undertakes to
+mediate. &mdash; reception of sigismund. &mdash; french ships scour the seas,
+and lay siege to harfleur. &mdash; henry's vigorous measures thereupon. &mdash;
+the emperor declares for "henry and his just rights." &mdash; joins with
+him in canterbury cathedral on a day of thanksgiving for victory over
+the french. &mdash; with him meets the duke of burgundy at calais. &mdash; the
+duke also declares for henry. &mdash; second invasion of france. &mdash; siege
+of caen. &mdash; henry's bulletin to the mayor of london. &mdash; hostile
+movement of the scots.</span><br><br>
+
+1415-1417.</h3>
+
+
+<p>It has been made a subject of observation, and of conjecture as to its
+cause, that Henry did not take advantage of the next spring to
+prosecute his claims in France.
+Some<a id="notetag153" name="notetag153"></a><a href="#note153">[153]</a>
+would have us suspect that
+it was "to show that personal honour had been his leading object, that
+he remained at home nearly two years afterwards without any military
+movement." But a much more intelligible and palpable cause
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page204" name="page204">(p. 204)</a></span>
+offers itself to the mind on the slightest reflection upon the
+circumstances in which he was
+placed.<a id="notetag154" name="notetag154"></a><a href="#note154">[154]</a>
+He had not the means ready
+for invading France. His forces were diminished by a number of men
+appallingly great, in proportion to the body with which he had landed
+at Harfleur; and his treasury was exhausted. For his first expedition
+he had borrowed the utmost which his subjects and friends either would
+or could supply; and the grants made to him by his parliament had been
+anticipated even to carry on the former campaign. That it was his
+intention, however, when he left France after the victory of
+Agincourt, to return to that country in the following spring, seems
+clear from the circumstance that, on dismissing his less illustrious
+prisoners at Calais, he bound them on their words to bring their
+ransoms to him on the field of Lendi, at the feast of St. John in the
+summer; with this voluntary proviso, that, if they did not find him
+there, they should be free from all obligation to him.</p>
+
+<p>In the mean time, a most influential mediator between the two kingdoms
+appeared, the intervention of whom would, even under other
+circumstances, have rendered delay imperative. Sigismund, Emperor
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page205" name="page205">(p. 205)</a></span>
+of Germany, first visited the King of France in his capital, and
+then extended his journey to England, with a view of bringing about a
+peace, though all his efforts proved unavailing.</p>
+
+<p>On his approach towards England, the utmost pains seem to have been
+taken to make his reception worthy of his high dignity and of the
+English people. The orders of council are very minute and
+interesting;<a id="notetag155" name="notetag155"></a><a href="#note155">[155]</a>
+and the arrival of Sigismund seems to have occupied
+the time and thoughts of the whole nation. The Earl of Warwick was
+then Captain of Calais, whose character for gallantry and courteous
+bearing was so distinguished on this, as on all other occasions, that
+he was called the Father of courtesy. The Emperor and his retinue of
+one thousand persons, among whom were many German and Italian princes
+and nobles, embarked at Calais in thirty of the King's ships, and
+arrived at Dover on the 29th of April 1416. Here the Duke
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page206" name="page206">(p. 206)</a></span> of
+Gloucester, Constable of Dover, with many noblemen, met him; and gave
+him precisely that sort of reception which we should have expected
+from English gentlemen under the immediate direction of Henry. As the
+Emperor was ready to set his foot on land, they stepped into the water
+with their drawn swords, and told him with mingled firmness and
+courtesy, "that, if he came as a mediator of peace, they would receive
+him with all the honours due to the imperial dignity; but if as
+Emperor he challenged any sovereign power, they must tell him that the
+English nation was a free people, and their King had dependence on no
+monarch on earth; and they were resolved, in defence of the liberty of
+the people, and the rights of their King, to oppose his landing on
+their shores." The answer of the Emperor set them at ease on this
+point, and he was received with every mark of respect and honour;
+among other testimonies of Henry's feelings towards him, was his
+installation of him as a Knight of the Garter at
+Windsor.<a id="notetag156" name="notetag156"></a><a href="#note156">[156]</a></p>
+
+<p>It is impossible not to contrast the conduct of our countrymen on this
+occasion and the behaviour of Sigismund, with his conduct in France,
+and the readiness with which that conduct, however humiliating, was
+submitted to. Sigismund was received with
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page207" name="page207">(p. 207)</a></span>
+much ceremony and
+magnificence at Paris; but, before he left it, he had surprised and
+disgusted the King by exercising an act of sovereignty in the very
+house of parliament. By courtesy he was seated on the chair usually
+occupied by the King himself. A trial was proceeding, the result of
+which seemed to turn on the knighthood of one of the litigants. The
+Emperor called for a sword, and knighted the individual forthwith.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst Sigismund was anxiously engaged in endeavouring to bring the
+two nations to terms of peace, news arrived of an event which must
+have made his efforts and mediation appear hopeless. The French had
+fallen upon part of the garrison of Harfleur, and cut off a
+considerable body of them. Not long after this, and whilst
+negociations were pending between London and Paris, with a more
+favourable appearance of a successful issue, tidings came that the
+French fleet had scoured the Channel, had blockaded Southampton, and
+had made various attempts on the Isle of Wight; that the Constable,
+D'Armagnac, had recalled them, and they were then besieging Harfleur.
+Henry and his council resolved on making an immediate and vigorous
+effort to destroy that fleet; and forthwith an armament was prepared,
+of which Henry expressed his determination to take the command
+himself. At the urgent request, however, of the Emperor, he desisted
+from that resolution, and gave the supreme command to his brother the
+Duke of Bedford; who, after a most obstinate
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page208" name="page208">(p. 208)</a></span>
+battle, gained
+a decided victory over the enemy, and relieved
+Harfleur.<a id="notetag157" name="notetag157"></a><a href="#note157">[157]</a></p>
+
+<p>The Emperor was soon convinced that his mediation must fail, and that
+France was resolved to renew the war. He then determined not to remain
+neutral, but to join himself by a solemn league with Henry. The
+preamble of this covenant is deeply interesting, as indicative, at
+least, of the professed sentiments of Sigismund with regard to the
+pretensions of Henry, and to the conduct and character of the two
+belligerent kings. Sigismund declared the object of his desire to have
+been the restoration of peace to the church and to Christendom; and,
+with that end in view, he had endeavoured to reconcile the Kings of
+England and France, but without success. The failure he ascribed
+entirely to the hatred of peace which influenced the French King, to
+whom he attributed also the prevalence of schism in the church, and
+the disturbed state of the Christian world. He then expresses his
+resolution "to form a league with Henry in the name of the Lord God of
+Hosts, and to assist him in the recovery of his <span class="smcap">JUST
+RIGHTS</span>."<a id="notetag158" name="notetag158"></a><a href="#note158">[158]</a>
+This league was signed August 15, 1416. The Emperor,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page209" name="page209">(p. 209)</a></span>
+shortly
+after this unlooked-for termination of his office as mediator, left
+England. Before he had proceeded onwards from Calais, Henry himself
+arrived at that town. After some days, the Duke of Burgundy also
+joined them; and much time was spent in secret negociations, the
+nature of which did not transpire, though we may suppose both the
+Emperor and King were anxious to make him a party to the league
+already concluded between themselves. A covenant, however, was signed
+by the Duke early in October, in which he declared that, "though he
+had taken part with the enemies of Henry in time past, yet now, <i>being
+assured of his lawful claim</i>, he would employ his arms in his service
+as the rightful King of France."</p>
+
+<p>The Emperor left Calais for Germany; and Henry, having concluded a
+truce with France till the 2nd of February, returned to England, and
+met his parliament on October 19th. Much zeal was here shown in his
+behalf; and whilst the parliament granted two whole tenths and two
+whole fifteenths, to be levied on the laity, the clergy gave two
+tenths, to be paid by their own body. But all this was not enough;
+recourse was again had to borrowing, the Dukes of Clarence, Bedford,
+and Gloucester pledging themselves, in case of Henry's death, to the
+repayment of the loans. Henry pawned a valuable crown to his uncle,
+the Bishop of Winchester, for money to a great amount; and he pledged
+very valuable jewels to the Mayor of London
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page210" name="page210">(p. 210)</a></span>
+for another
+large sum. No measure was left untried, that Henry might be prepared
+by the ensuing spring with men and money for the invasion of
+France.<a id="notetag159" name="notetag159"></a><a href="#note159">[159]</a>
+In the meanwhile, the French princes and nobles who had
+been taken prisoners at Agincourt were anxiously negociating for their
+release. In a communication of strict confidence to the Emperor, Henry
+declares that all their proceedings were suspicious, and selfish, and
+deceitful; that he
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page211" name="page211">(p. 211)</a></span>
+had suffered the Duke of Bourbon to return
+to France on certain conditions, but that the Emperor might be assured
+of his resolution to invade that country.</p>
+
+
+<p>Henry's exertions were effectual; and, soon after midsummer, he found
+himself prepared with men and money to renew his expedition to
+Normandy in a fleet of fifteen hundred sail, and with an army of not
+less than twenty-five thousand soldiers. Before
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page212" name="page212">(p. 212)</a></span>
+he embarked,
+however, he commissioned Holland, Earl of Huntingdon, whose father had
+been beheaded at Cirencester in the reign of Henry IV, with a squadron
+to scour the seas, and secure a free passage for the transports. The
+Earl was successful in a most hard-fought battle with a fleet of
+Genoese large ships, sent by their
+republic<a id="notetag160" name="notetag160"></a><a href="#note160">[160]</a>
+to aid the French
+King; and on July 23rd 1417, Henry set sail for the coast of
+France.<a id="notetag161" name="notetag161"></a><a href="#note161">[161]</a>
+A large body of French on the shore threatened to oppose
+him; but he landed his forces safely, on the 1st of August, at
+Beville. As soon as his people were all safe on shore, by an act
+characteristic of himself, he adopted the same measure which, on his
+former expedition, had compelled him to make his way to Calais by
+land. He dismissed all his ships homeward, excepting what were
+required for transporting cannon; thus assuring his soldiers that they
+must conquer or die, for they had no retreat.</p>
+
+<p>Henry found the country altogether deserted, the inhabitants having
+fled from their homes in every direction on receiving the alarming
+tidings of his approach. It is said that twenty-five thousand families
+fled into Brittany; and so complete was the evacuation
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page213" name="page213">(p. 213)</a></span> in
+some districts, that there reigned through the country the stillness
+of death. In Lisieux, a considerable town eighteen miles from the sea,
+the English found but one old man and one woman. The people had
+secured themselves, to the utmost of their means, in fortified towns,
+all of which had been supplied with strong garrisons on the first news
+of the intended invasion.</p>
+
+<p>Henry systematically caused the most strict discipline to be observed
+in his army, of which many proofs are recorded. Among other instances
+we read that when a monk complained of having been robbed by a
+soldier, he was desired to fix upon the guilty man. On discovering the
+culprit, the King upbraided him with his baseness, and pronounced him
+worthy of death; but, on making restitution, and promising never again
+to be guilty of the offence, he pardoned him. "And you, friend," said
+he, turning to the monk, "go back to your brethren in peace, and
+attend all of you to your sacred duties without fear of me or my army.
+I am not come hither as a thief to rob your churches and altars, but
+as a just and merciful King to protect you from violence." Henry then
+proclaimed through the army that no one should injure an ecclesiastic
+on pain of
+death.<a id="notetag162" name="notetag162"></a><a href="#note162">[162]</a>
+It was amusing, we are told, to see how the
+numbers of the regular clergy were suddenly swollen;
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page214" name="page214">(p. 214)</a></span> rustics
+shaving their heads, and putting on the dress of a monk, to be safe
+under the terms of that protection.</p>
+
+<p>During this campaign Henry sent repeated bulletins of his proceedings
+and successes to the mayor and aldermen of London, many of the
+originals of which are still in existence; and which combine, with the
+answers to them, in bearing evidence to the popularity of Henry's
+person, and of the cause in which he was embarked. Some of these
+documents are exceedingly interesting; but it would be needless to
+transfer them all into these
+pages.<a id="notetag163" name="notetag163"></a><a href="#note163">[163]</a>
+It is to be lamented that
+such indisputable records are not all published, or rendered
+accessible to every one who would wish to consult them. The
+interspersion of a few in this part of the volume may enable the
+reader to verify in more points than one the views which are here
+offered of Henry's character and the feeling of the people of England
+at this period. The first is a letter from Henry himself, dated August
+9, 1417, at Touque, the very day of the surrender of that place, and
+only a week after he landed.</p>
+
+<div class="letter">
+<p> "Trusty
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page215" name="page215">(p. 215)</a></span>
+and well-beloved, we greet you oftentimes well;
+     doing [giving] you to understand for your comfort, that, by the
+     grace of God, we be safely arrived into our land of Normandy,
+     with all our subjects ordained to go with us for the first
+     passage. And this day, the even of St. Lawrence, about mid-day,
+     was yolden [yielded] unto us the castle of Touque, about the
+     which our well-beloved cousin, the Earl of Huntingdon, lay; and
+     the keys of the said castle delivered unto us without the
+     shedding of Christian blood, or defence made by our enemies:&mdash;the
+     which castle is an honour, and all the viscounty and lordships of
+     Ange hold thereof, as we have been informed of such men as were
+     therein. Whereof we thank God lowly, that hym lust [he is
+     pleased] of high grace to show unto us so fair beginning in our
+     present voyage; desiring also that ye thank God thereof in the
+     most best wise that ye can, and that ye send us from time to time
+     such tidings be komerys be thwene [by comers between], as ye have
+     in that side the sea. Given under our signet, at our said Castle
+     of Touque, the 9th day of August.</p>
+
+<p class="left0-70">
+  "To the Mayor, Sheriffs, Aldermen,
+  and good people of our City of
+  London."&mdash;Endorsed in French.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>But though Henry speaks thus encouragingly of his present campaign, he
+had soon much to make him anxious, and to rouse all the energies of
+his mind. Among other sources of solicitude was the growing evil of
+desertion. Many of his soldiers grew tired of the war, and,
+dishonourably leaving his camp, stole back to their native country. Of
+the prevalence of this mischief we have too clear proof in the
+following writ, a copy of which was despatched to all the sheriffs of
+England. It is found
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page216" name="page216">(p. 216)</a></span>
+among the Norman Rolls, and is one of
+the few specimens with which Mr. Hardy has enriched the interesting
+introduction to his edition of those valuable
+documents.<a id="notetag164" name="notetag164"></a><a href="#note164">[164]</a></p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+     "The King to the Sheriffs of London and Middlesex, greeting.
+     Whereas we have received certain information and undoubted
+     evidence that divers of our lieges who lately came with us to our
+     kingdom of France, there as we hoped stoutly to oppose and resist
+     the pride and malice of our enemies, have deserted us in the
+     midst of these our enemies, and without our licence have in great
+     multitudes falsely and traitorously withdrawn and returned to our
+     kingdom of England, and are still daily withdrawing and
+     returning; which, if suffered to continue, would manifestly turn,
+     not only to the continual prejudice of us, but to the serious
+     injury and peril of our faithful lieges accompanying us (which
+     God avert!) We, desirous, as we are bound, to provide and ordain
+     a fitting remedy in this matter, do command and strictly enjoin
+     you to arrest and take into custody without delay all and each of
+     those whom by inquiry, information, or other means whatsoever,
+     you shall discover to have been with us in our said kingdom of
+     France, in our company, or in that of others, and who have
+     withdrawn themselves thence without our licence under our signet,
+     or that of the Constable of our army, and to deliver them as soon
+     as taken to our very dear brother, John Duke of Bedford, Guardian
+     of England. And, upon the fealty and allegiance wherein ye are
+     bound to us, let this by no means be neglected. Witness the King,
+     at his castle of Caen, in his duchy of Normandy, the 29th day of
+     September.&mdash;By the King himself."
+</p>
+
+<p>The
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page217" name="page217">(p. 217)</a></span>
+most important siege in this campaign was that of
+Caen;<a id="notetag165" name="notetag165"></a><a href="#note165">[165]</a>
+at the taking of which, after a tremendous conflict and
+loss of life, Henry behaved towards the vanquished with so much mercy
+and kindness, that the governors of many neighbouring towns sent to
+him the keys of their gates.</p>
+
+<p>So great was his success that the French court sent commissioners to
+him to negociate for peace, but the treaty resulted in no favourable
+issue; and Henry went on in his career of victory through the very
+depth of winter; and became master of Bayeux, Argentan, Alençon, and
+other places. He was engaged, however, in the siege of Falaise through
+the whole of December, the town not surrendering till the 2nd of
+January.</p>
+
+<p>It was at this time that the capture and execution of Lord Cobham took
+place in England; of which we have written fully in a separate
+dissertation at the close of this volume. Henry, however, probably
+knew nothing of that unfortunate man's capture till he heard of his
+death.</p>
+
+<p>Early in the preceding autumn [1417] an alarm spread
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page218" name="page218">(p. 218)</a></span>
+through
+England in consequence of the hostile demonstration of the Scots.
+There seems to be some doubt as to the extent of their movements.
+Buchanan represents the whole affair as one of very little moment,
+scarcely more than a border foray; but the English chroniclers lead us
+to believe that it was a formidable invasion. It is said that the
+Lollards were the instigators; though it is more probable that the
+invitation was sent to Scotland from France, and especially through
+the Duke of Orleans, then a prisoner in Pontefract, whose liberty was
+consequently much straitened, as we find by an original letter of
+Henry himself.<a id="notetag166" name="notetag166"></a><a href="#note166">[166]</a></p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+     "Furthermore, I would that ye commune with my brother, with the
+     Chancellor, with my cousin of Northumberland, and my cousin of
+     Westmorland; and that ye set a good ordinance for my north
+     marches, and specially for the Duke of Orleans and for all the
+     remnant of my prisoners of France, and also for the K. of
+     Scotland. For as I am secretly informed by a man of right notable
+     estate in this land, that there hath been a man of the Duke of
+     Orleans in Scotland, and accorded with the Duke of Albany that
+     this next summer he shall bring the
+mammet<a id="notetag167" name="notetag167"></a><a href="#note167">[167]</a>
+of Scotland to
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page219" name="page219">(p. 219)</a></span>
+stir what he may; and also that there should be found
+     ways to the having away specially of the Duke of Orleans, and
+     also of the K. as well as of the remnant of my said prisoners,
+     that God do defend! [which God forbid!] Wherefore I will that the
+     Duke of Orleans be kept still within the castle of Pomfret,
+     without going to Robertis Place, or to any other disport; for it
+     is better he lack his disport than we be deceived."
+</p>
+
+<p>The Scots on one side laid siege to Berwick, from which they were
+driven by the Earl of Northumberland, Hotspur's son; the other part of
+the Scotch army directed their attack on Roxborough, where they were
+routed by the united forces of the Dukes of
+Exeter<a id="notetag168" name="notetag168"></a><a href="#note168">[168]</a> and
+Bedford,<a id="notetag169" name="notetag169"></a><a href="#note169">[169]</a>
+and the Archbishop of York. That military prelate,
+unable, from the weakness of age, to ride, yet caused himself to be
+carried to the field, that surrounded by his clergy he might encourage
+his people to defend their native land.</p>
+
+<p>After these successful military proceedings in the north of the
+kingdom, parliament met on Nov. 16. They prayed for speedy judgment on
+rioters and malefactors; presented a petition on the subject of Sir
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page220" name="page220">(p. 220)</a></span>
+John Oldcastle; supplicated for a reward to the Lord Powys,
+who was instrumental in seizing him; and then they voted the King a
+subsidy of a tenth and a fifteenth. The clergy also in convocation
+granted two tenths. In this convocation an attempt was made to
+encourage learning by promoting to benefices such as had laboured long
+and diligently in the Universities. This proposition was rejected in
+Oxford at that time; but it received the cordial promotion and
+assistance of the University in July 1421. On the latter occasion,
+however, the measure, opposed as it was most vigorously by the monks,
+would probably again have miscarried, had not Henry himself, "who
+favoured arts and loved learned men," interposed his own authority in
+its favour.</p>
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page221" name="page221">(p. 221)</a></span>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XXV.</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">henry's progress in his second campaign. &mdash; siege of rouen. &mdash;
+cardinal des ursins. &mdash; supplies from london. &mdash; correspondence
+between henry and the citizens. &mdash; negociation with the dauphin and
+with the french king. &mdash; henry's irish auxiliaries. &mdash; reflections on
+ireland. &mdash; its miserable condition. &mdash; wise and strong measures
+adopted by henry for its tranquillity. &mdash; divisions and struggles, not
+between romanists and protestants, but between english and irish. &mdash;
+henry and the see of rome. &mdash; thraldom of christendom. &mdash; the duke of
+brittany declares for henry. &mdash; spaniards join the dauphin. &mdash;
+exhausted state of england.</span><br><br>
+
+1418-1419.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Henry<a id="notetag170" name="notetag170"></a><a href="#note170">[170]</a>
+meanwhile was making rapid progress in subduing Normandy;
+and to induce the inhabitants to return to their homes, which they had
+abandoned, he issued a proclamation promising protection and favour to
+all who would acknowledge his sovereignty. He also pledged himself to
+relieve his subjects from all injustice and oppression.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page222" name="page222">(p. 222)</a></span>
+he was lying before the town of Louviers, the Cardinal
+des Ursins arrived in his camp with letters from the Pope, urging
+Henry to make peace; the Cardinal of St. Mark having been sent to the
+French King for the same purpose.</p>
+
+<p>These offers of mediation were unavailing; and Henry, encouraged by
+the distracted state of France, resolved to push his conquests to the
+utmost; and, after some severe skirmishing at Pont de
+Larche,<a id="notetag171" name="notetag171"></a><a href="#note171">[171]</a> he
+proceeded to lay siege to Rouen. Did the plan of these Memoirs admit
+of a fuller inquiry into the affairs of
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page223" name="page223">(p. 223)</a></span>
+France, we might here
+with benefit review the proceedings of the different parties in that
+country since the field of Agincourt. The result of such a review
+would probably be the conviction that the divisions by which that
+country was distracted not only facilitated Henry's conquests, but
+alone admitted of them. His victories, even if they had ever been won,
+would scarcely have followed each other so rapidly, had the King of
+France, the Dauphin, and the Duke of Burgundy opposed him with united
+forces.</p>
+
+<p>The citizens of Rouen, which was well garrisoned, and had an ample
+store of provisions, had declared themselves for the Duke of Burgundy;
+but now, in their alarm, they supplicate aid from the Dauphin against
+the common enemy. His answer was, that he was compelled to employ his
+troops in defending his own towns against the Duke of
+Burgundy.<a id="notetag172" name="notetag172"></a><a href="#note172">[172]</a></p>
+
+<p>The
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page224" name="page224">(p. 224)</a></span>
+whole English army, with a great train of artillery, came
+up before the city on the last day of July 1418, before another
+harvest could afford new supplies of corn. To that one town the people
+of Normandy had brought all their treasures; and those who were
+intrusted with the safekeeping of the place seemed determined to
+endure all the miseries of blockade and famine, rather than surrender.
+Henry, with the resolution not to lavish the lives of his soldiers by
+attempting to take this town by storm, laid close siege to it by land;
+whilst some "good ships," which he had from the King of Portugal,
+blockaded the mouth of the Seine.</p>
+
+<p>Ten days after Henry laid siege to Rouen, he despatched a letter to
+the Mayor and Aldermen of London, which, with their answer, cannot be
+read without interest.</p>
+
+<div class="letter">
+<p>"<span class="smcap">BY THE KING.</span></p>
+
+<p>"Right trusty and well-beloved! we greet you oft times well. And
+     for as much as, in the name of Almighty God, and in our right,
+     with his grace, we have laid the siege afore the city of Rouen,
+     which is the most notable place in France, save Paris; at which
+     siege, us nedeth [we need] greatly refreshing for us and for our
+     host; and we have found you, our true lieges and subjects, of
+     good will at all times to do all things that might do us worship
+     and ease, whereof we can you right heartily thank; and pray you
+     effectually that, in all the haste that ye may and ye will, do
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page225" name="page225">(p. 225)</a></span>
+arm as many small vessels as ye may goodly, with
+     victuals, and namely [especially] with drink, for to come to
+     Harfleur, and from thence as far as they may up the river of
+     Seyne to Rouen ward with the said victual, for the refreshing of
+     us and our said host, as our trust is to you; for the which
+     vessels there shall be ordained sufficient conduct, with God's
+     grace. Witting well also that therein ye may do us right great
+     pleasance, and refreshing for all our host above said; and give
+     us cause to show therefore to you ever the better lordship in
+     time to come, with the help of our Saviour, the which we pray
+     that He have you in his safeward.&mdash;Given under our signet, in our
+     host afore the said city of Rouen, the 10th day of August.</p>
+
+<p class="left0-70">
+  "To our right trusty and well-beloved the
+  Mayor, Aldermen, and all the worthy
+  Commoners of our city of London."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>To this appeal the authorities of the city paid immediate and hearty
+attention, and forwarded to Henry an answer under their common seal on
+the 8th of September, (the Nativity of our Lady, the blissful maid,)
+of which the following is a copy. A memorandum in Latin informs us
+that the clause within brackets was for different causes kept back,
+and not sent with the letters. The letter is a curious specimen of the
+flattering and complimentary style of the good citizens of London when
+addressing their sovereign.</p>
+
+<div class="letter">
+<p> "Our most dread, most sovereign Lord, and noblest King, to the
+     sovereign highness of your kingly majesty, with all manner of
+     lowness and reverence, meekly we recommend us, not only as we
+     ought and should, but as we best can and may; with all our
+     hearts, thanking your sovereign excellence
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page226" name="page226">(p. 226)</a></span>
+of your
+     gracious letters in making [us] gladsome in understanding, and
+     passing comfortable in favouring our poor degrees, which ye liked
+     late to send us from your host afore the city of Rouen. In which
+     letters, after declaration of your most noble intent for the
+     refreshing of your host, ye record so highly the readiness of our
+     will and power at all times to your pleasance, and thanking us
+     thereof so heartily, that truly, save only our prayer to Him that
+     all good quiteth [requiteth], never was it nor might it half be
+     deserved. And after seeing in your foresaid gracious letters ye
+     pray us effectually to enarme as many small vessels as we may
+     with victual, and specially with drink, for to come as far as
+     they may in the river Seyne. And not only this, but in the
+     conclusion of your sovereign letters foresaid, ye fed us so
+     bounteously with the best showing of your good lordship to us in
+     time coming as ye have ever done, that now and ever we shall be
+     the joyfuller in this life when we remember us on so noble a
+     grace. [O how may the simpless of poor lieges better or more
+     clearly conceive the gracious love and favourable tendress of the
+     King, their sovereign Lord, than to hear how your most excellent
+     and noble person, more worth to us than all worldly riches or
+     plenty, in so thin abundance of victual heavily disposed, so
+     graciously and goodly declare and utter unto us, that are your
+     liege men and subjects, your plain lust and pleasance, as it is
+     in your said noble letters worthily contained. Certain, true
+     liege man is there none, ne faithful subject could there non ne
+     durst tarry or be lachesse [backward] in any wise to the
+     effectual prayer and commandment of so sovereign and high a lord,
+     which his noble body paineth and knightly adventureth for the
+     right and welfare of us.] Our most dread, most sovereign Lord,
+     and noblest King, may it please your sovereign highness to
+     understand, how that your foresaid kingly prayer, as most strait
+     charge and commandment, we willing in all points obey and execute
+     anon, from the receipt of your
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page227" name="page227">(p. 227)</a></span>
+said gracious letter,
+     which was the 19th day of August nigh noon, unto the making of
+     these simple letters. What in getting and enarming of as many
+     small vessels as we might, doing brew both ale and beer,
+     purveying wine and other victual, for to charge with the same
+     vessels, we have done our busy diligence and care, as God wot. In
+     which vessels, without [besides] great plenty of other victuals,
+     that men of your city of London aventuren for refreshing of your
+     host to the coasts where your sovereign presence is in, we lowly
+     send with gladdest will unto your sovereign excellence and kingly
+     majesty by John Credy and John Combe, your officers of your said
+     city, bringers of these letters, tritty botes [thirty butts] of
+     sweet wine, that is to say, ten of Tyre, ten of Romeney, ten of
+     Malmesey, and a thousand pipes of ale, with two thousand and five
+     hundred cups for your host to drink of, which we beseech your
+     high excellence and noble grace for our alder comfort and
+     gladness benignly to receive and accept; not having reward
+     [regard] to the little head or small value of the gift itself,
+     which is simple; but to the good will and high desire that your
+     poor givers thereof have to the good speed, worship, and welfare
+     of your most sovereign and excellent person, of which speed and
+     welfare, and all your other kingly lusts [desires] and
+     pleasances, we desire highly by the said bearers of these
+     letters, and other whom your sovereign highness shall like, fully
+     to be learned and informed. Our most dread, most sovereign Lord,
+     and noblest King, we lowly beseech the King of Heaven, whose body
+     refused not for our salvation worldly pain guiltless to endure,
+     that ye, your gracious person, which for our alder good and
+     profit so knightly laboureth, little or nought charging bodily
+     ease, in all worship and honour evermore to keep and
+     preserve.&mdash;Written at Gravesend, under the seal of Mayoralty of
+     your said city of London, on the day of the Nativity of our Lady,
+     the blissful maid.</p>
+
+<p class="left0-70">
+  "To the King, our most dread and most
+  sovereign Lord."</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>After
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page228" name="page228">(p. 228)</a></span>
+every deduction is made from this singular epistle on
+the ground of flattery and words of course, it proves that in
+expression, at least, the Mayor and good citizens of London not only
+heartily seconded Henry in his present undertakings, but identified
+his cause with their own, and regarded him as fighting their battles,
+and exposing himself to the dangers and privations of war in
+vindication of their own rights; and probably we are fully justified
+in regarding their sentiments as fairly representing the prevalent
+feelings of the people of England. There were, doubtless, many
+exceptions, as there ever must be in such a case, to the general
+unanimity; and we are not without evidence that, during this siege of
+Rouen, Henry's proceedings were commented upon unfavourably by some of
+his subjects at
+home.<a id="notetag173" name="notetag173"></a><a href="#note173">[173]</a></p>
+
+<p>During this siege negociations were set on foot by the Dauphin for an
+alliance with Henry, who seemed to enter into the views of the
+ambassadors
+heartily;<a id="notetag174" name="notetag174"></a><a href="#note174">[174]</a>
+but at the same time similar negociations
+were <span class="pagenum"><a id="page229" name="page229">(p. 229)</a></span>
+carried on between Henry and the King of France. In the
+management of these a curious dispute arose as to the language in
+which the conference should be carried on: the French required that
+their own should be the medium of communication; the English
+remonstrating, and requiring the Latin to be employed, that the Pope
+and other potentates might understand their proceedings. It was
+proposed that all writings should be in duplicate, one copy in French,
+the other in Latin; but Henry insisted that his ambassadors should
+sign only an English or a Latin copy. During these negociations the
+French ambassadors presented to the King the portrait of the Princess
+Katharine,<a id="notetag175" name="notetag175"></a><a href="#note175">[175]</a>
+which he received with great satisfaction. The treaty,
+however, was broken off, and the Cardinal Des Ursins returned to Pope
+Martin at Avignon. It is painful to read the account of the siege of
+Rouen; misery in all its shapes is painted
+there.<a id="notetag176" name="notetag176"></a><a href="#note176">[176]</a>
+Indeed, if the
+accounts we have received be true, so complicated a tale of
+wretchedness is scarcely upon record. But the details can give no
+satisfaction; they would only harrow up the feelings, without
+supplying any facts essential
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page230" name="page230">(p. 230)</a></span>
+to the history of those months
+of human suffering. Henry was resolved neither to burn the town, nor
+to take it by storm; but to reduce it by starvation. At length his
+feelings overpowered this resolution, and he received the town upon
+conditions, on the 19th January
+1419.<a id="notetag177" name="notetag177"></a><a href="#note177">[177]</a>
+Thus was Rouen subdued to
+the Crown of England, two hundred and fifteen years after the conquest
+of it by Philip of France in the reign of King John. Stowe tells us,
+that to relieve this oppressed city Henry ordained it to be the chief
+chamber of all Normandy; and directed his exchequer, his treasury, and
+his coinage to be kept there. We have already seen that he caused his
+vast treasures before kept in Harfleur to be brought to Rouen.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+
+<p>It is confessedly beyond the province of these Memoirs even to glance
+at the affairs of Ireland, except so far as a reference to them may
+bear upon the character and conduct of Henry of Monmouth. Not only,
+however, does the presence of a body of native
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page231" name="page231">(p. 231)</a></span>
+Irish, headed
+by one of the regular clergy of Ireland, aiding Henry at the siege of
+Rouen, seem to draw our thoughts thitherward; but some documents also,
+relative to our sister-land, of that date, may be thought to require a
+few words in this place. During the reign of Richard II. the warlike
+movements of the native Irish, who had never been conquered or
+civilized, compelled that monarch to proceed to Ireland in person, and
+to take the field against those wild rebels. They had formerly been
+kept in comparative awe by a strong hand; but the continental wars of
+Edward III. had much slackened the wonted vigilance and activity of
+his government at home in checking their outbreakings against the
+English settlers. They had, consequently, grown bold, and threatened
+to extirpate the English altogether. Vigorous measures became
+necessary, and the King twice headed an army himself to restore peace.
+On his first visit he was summoned home by the prelates, to put down
+the spreading sect of the Lollards; in his second, his delay, after
+the landing of Bolinbroke at Ravenspurg, cost him his crown. In this
+latter expedition Henry of Monmouth (as we have seen) accompanied him,
+and had personal experience of the uncivilized state of the country,
+and the savage character of the warfare carried on by the inhabitants.
+It is curious to remark, that on several occasions Richard II.
+employed the Irish prelates as his ambassadors to Rome, "for the safe
+estate and prosperity of
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page232" name="page232">(p. 232)</a></span>
+the most holy English church." The
+fact, however, is too evident, that all Irish dignities were bestowed
+on Englishmen; and except by some assumed privilege of the Pope, or by
+other proceedings equally unacceptable to the English settlers, no
+native Irishman was ever in those times advanced to any high station
+in the church, or even promoted to an ordinary benefice. Indeed the
+law forbade such promotions.</p>
+
+<p>On the principle observed throughout these Memoirs, of avoiding all
+reference to the political struggles and controversies of the passing
+hour, the Author will make no reflections on the past, the present, or
+the future policy of England towards a country whose destinies seem so
+indissolubly bound up with her own. He humbly prays that HE, who says
+to the tempest "Peace, be still!" and is obeyed, may so guide and
+govern the religious and moral storms by which our age is shaken on
+the subject of Ireland, that in His own good time the troubled
+elements may be calmed; and that truth, peace, and charity may
+prevail, and bless both countries, then at length become like "a city
+that is at unity in itself."</p>
+
+<p>By most of those who take a wide and comprehensive range of its
+history, the dissensions which have distracted Ireland, and from time
+to time torn it in pieces, and caused it to flow with the blood of its
+neighbours and of its own children, will probably be ascribed, not
+more to the difference of religion among
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page233" name="page233">(p. 233)</a></span>
+its inhabitants,
+than to the difference of origin. The struggles have been, not more
+between Protestants and Romanists, not more between Catholics of the
+church of England and Ireland, and Catholics in communion with the
+sovereign pontiff, than between English and Irish, between those who
+have regarded themselves as the aboriginal sons of the soil, and those
+of Saxon or Norman descent, whom they have hated and abhorred as
+intruders and invaders. The conflicts between these classes in
+Ireland, as they may be traced in its chronicles, were just as
+dreadful and as sanguinary before the Reformation, as ever they have
+been since the separation of the reformed church from the see of Rome.
+At all events, whatever may be the nature of the unhappy causes of
+disunion in the present day, till within comparatively modern times
+the struggles have been not more of a religious than of a national, or
+perhaps of a predial, character. Authentic history teems with evidence
+bearing directly on this point; and even the original documents,
+references to which are interspersed through this volume, are quite
+sufficient to establish it.</p>
+
+<p>Among other documents confirmatory of the view here taken, which it
+would be beyond the province of these Memoirs to recite, the statute
+of 4 Hen. V. (1416), referring as it does to similar enactments of
+previous reigns, and strongly expressive of the bitter jealousies
+which existed between the two nations, seems to claim a place here.</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+     "Whereas
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page234" name="page234">(p. 234)</a></span>
+it was ordained in the times of the progenitors
+     of our Lord the King, by statute made in the land of Ireland,
+     that no one of the Irish nation be elected archbishop, bishop,
+     abbot, prior, nor in any manner be received or accepted to any
+     dignity or benefice within the said land; and whereas many such
+     Irish, by the power of certain letters of licence to them made by
+     the Lieutenants of the King there to accept and receive such
+     dignities and benefices, are promoted and advanced to
+     archbishoprics and bishoprics within the said land, who also have
+     made their collations to Irish clerks of dignities and benefices
+     there, contrary to the form and effect of the said statute; and
+     consequently, since they are peers of parliament in that land,
+     they bring with them to the parliaments and councils held in that
+     land servants by whom the secrets of the English in that land
+     have been and are from day to day discovered to the Irish people
+     who are rebels against the King, to the great peril and mischief
+     of the King's loyal subjects in that land: our said Lord the
+     King, willing to provide remedy for his faithful subjects, with
+     the consent of the Lords, and at the request of the Commons,
+     wills and grants that the said statute shall be in full force,
+     and be well and duly guarded, and fully executed, on pain of his
+     grievous indignation."
+</p>
+
+<p>The statute then provides, that if any bishops act against this law,
+their temporalities shall be seized for the King till they have given
+satisfaction; that the Lieutenants shall be prohibited from granting
+such licences to Irishmen; and that all such licences, if made, shall
+be null and void.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps, however, the words of the petition to the Commons, on which
+this enactment was founded, are still more striking and convincing on
+the subject.</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+     "To
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page235" name="page235">(p. 235)</a></span>
+the honourable and wise Sires, the Commons of this
+     present Parliament, the poor loyal liegemen of our Sovereign Lord
+     the King in Ireland. Whereas the said land is divided between two
+     nations, that is to say, the said petitioners, English and of the
+     English nation, and the Irish nation, those enemies to our Lord
+     the King, who by crafty designs secretly, and by open destruction
+     making war, are continually purposed to destroy the said lieges,
+     and to conquer the land, the petitioners pray that remedy thereof
+     be made."<a id="notetag178" name="notetag178"></a><a href="#note178">[178]</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>When Henry of Monmouth succeeded to the throne, Ireland was as
+wild<a id="notetag179" name="notetag179"></a><a href="#note179">[179]</a>
+in its country, and as rude in its inhabitants, as it was in
+the reign of Henry II. The English pale (as it has been correctly
+said) was little more than a garrison of territory; and it was
+absolutely necessary either for the English inhabitants to leave their
+possessions and abandon Ireland altogether, or for the English
+government to keep the aboriginal Irish in check with a strong hand,
+and compel them by military force to abstain from outrage. What would
+have been at the present day the state of Ireland, had Henry directed
+his concentrated energies to subdue the island, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page236" name="page236">(p. 236)</a></span>
+then to
+civilize and improve it, (measures by no means improbable had not the
+conquest of France occupied him instead,) it would be profitless to
+speculate. Even with his thoughts distracted by his foreign
+expeditions, or rather, perhaps, almost absorbed by them, and whilst
+he had but a very scanty contingent of officers and men at his
+disposal for home-service, we have evidence that Ireland had not been
+in so peaceable a condition for very many years as it had become under
+his government. Whilst pursuing his victories on the Continent, he
+laboured (and his labours were in an astonishing degree successful) to
+provide for the effective administration of his own dominions with a
+view to peace and justice.</p>
+
+<p>A memorial forwarded this year to Henry, probably in consequence of
+certain complaints of maladministration which had been sent to the
+council the preceding winter, is very interesting. It is signed by a
+large number of persons, lay and ecclesiastical: bishops, abbots,
+priors, archdeacons, barons, knights, and esquires joined in the
+petition.<a id="notetag180" name="notetag180"></a><a href="#note180">[180]</a>
+The prayer of the memorial was professedly to procure a
+fuller remuneration to the then Lord
+Lieutenant,<a id="notetag181" name="notetag181"></a><a href="#note181">[181]</a>
+John Talbot,
+Lord Furnival, for his indefatigable and
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page237" name="page237">(p. 237)</a></span>
+successful
+exertions in subduing "the English rebels and the Irish enemies;" it
+was, however, evidently intended to obtain a still greater share of
+the King's attention, and of the public expenditure in that island.
+The memorial commences by expressions of loyalty to Henry's person,
+the petitioners desiring above all earthly things to hear and to know
+of the gracious prosperity and noble health of his renowned person, to
+the principal comfort of all his subjects, but "especially of us who
+are continuing in a land of war, environed by your Irish enemies and
+English rebels, in point to be destroyed, if it were not that the
+sovereign aid and comfort of God, and of you our gracious Lord, do
+deliver us." It then states that they had prevailed upon the
+Lieutenant<a id="notetag182" name="notetag182"></a><a href="#note182">[182]</a>
+not to persevere in his intention to leave Ireland for
+the purpose of applying to Henry
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page238" name="page238">(p. 238)</a></span>
+in person for payment and
+relief, expressing their great alarm should his presence be withdrawn
+from them. The memorialists then dwell at great length upon the vast
+labours, travails, and endeavours of Lord Furnival for the good of all
+Henry's lieges; but those labours were only military proceedings:
+every sentence of the memorial breathes of war, and slaughter, and
+destruction. One of the chief topics in his praise is that he remained
+many days and nights ("the which was not done before in our time") in
+the lands of various of the strongest Irish enemies (specifying them
+by name), taking their chief places and goods, burning, foraging, and
+destroying all the country, and in many places causing the Irish
+rebels to turn their weapons against each other. The document then
+shows the precarious tenure of goods and of life among the English at
+that time in Ireland; how they were "preyed upon and killed," and what
+a wonderful change had just been effected by the vigorous measures of
+Lord Furnival. "Now your lieges may suffer their goods and cattle to
+remain in the fields day and night, without being stolen or sustaining
+any loss, <i>which hath not been seen here by the space of these thirty
+years past</i>, God be thanked, and your gracious provision!" It also
+states that Maurice O'Keating, chieftain of his nation, traitor and
+rebel, did on the Monday in Whitsun-week, (<i>i.e.</i> May 31st, not a
+month before the date of the memorial,) "for the great fear which he
+had of the Lieutenant, for himself and his nation, yield
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page239" name="page239">(p. 239)</a></span>
+himself without any condition, with his breast against his sword's
+point, and a cord about his neck, delivering without ransom the
+English prisoners which he had taken before; to whom grace was granted
+by indenture, and his eldest son given in pledge to be loyal lieges
+from henceforward to you our sovereign Lord." This memorial, dated
+June 26th, "in the fifth year of your gracious reign," 1417, must have
+reached Henry on the very eve of his setting out on his second
+expedition to Normandy.</p>
+
+<p>The complaints, to answer which, among other objects, we have already
+intimated an opinion that this memorial might possibly have been
+partly prepared, were taken into consideration on the 28th of the
+preceding February by the King himself in council, and are by no means
+devoid of interest, though only a cursory allusion to them can be made
+here. Among the grievances are certain "impositions outrageously
+imposed upon them;" the seizure of the wheat and cattle belonging to
+churchmen by the officers and soldiers of the Lieutenant, contrary to
+the liberties of Holy Church; and the non-execution and non-observance
+of the laws in consequence of the insufficiency of the officers. To
+these complaints the King replies that, at the expiration of Lord
+Furnival's lieutenancy, he would provide a remedy by the appointment
+of good and sufficient officers. The terms of indenture, by which the
+King and Lieutenant were then usually bound,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page240" name="page240">(p. 240)</a></span>
+probably
+presented an obstacle to any immediate interference.</p>
+
+<p>But the most interesting point in these complaints is the prayer with
+which they close. It proves that, in the view of the complainants,
+(and probably theirs was the general opinion,) absenteeism was then
+very prevalent, and was held to be one of the greatest evils under
+which Ireland was at that time suffering; it informs us also that
+Irishmen born (that is, however, men of English extraction born in
+Ireland,) were advanced to benefices in England; and it shows that
+many such natives of Ireland were in the habit of coming to England
+for the purposes of studying the law, and of residing in the
+Universities. The complainants "require that through the realm of
+England proclamation be made that all persons born in Ireland, being
+in England, except persons of the church beneficed, and students and
+others engaged in the departments of the law, and scholars studying in
+the Universities, betake themselves to the parts of Ireland, for
+defence of the same.</p>
+
+<p>To this petition the King only replies, that "he grants it according
+to the form of the statute made in that case."</p>
+
+<p>The statute to which Henry here refers was made in the first year of
+his reign. It bears incidental testimony to his mild and merciful
+disposition, as compared with the feelings and views of his
+contemporaries; and shows that in legislation he took
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page241" name="page241">(p. 241)</a></span>
+the
+lead of his parliament in preferring mild and moderate to violent and
+sanguinary measures.</p>
+
+<p>The Commons pray that the penalty of absenteeism after the
+proclamation should be loss of life or limb, and forfeiture of goods;
+the King consents only to imprisonment, instead of death and
+mutilation. "The Commons," (such are the words of the record,) "for
+the quiet and peace of the realm of England, and for the increase and
+welfare of the land of Ireland, pray that it may be ordained in the
+present parliament, that all Irishmen, and all Irish begging clerks,
+called Chaumber Deakyns [chamberdeacons], be voided the realm between
+Michaelmas and All Saints, on pain of loss of life and limb; except
+such as are graduates in the schools, and serjeants and students of
+law, and such as have inheritance in England, and 'professed
+religious;' and that all the Irish who have benefices and office in
+Ireland live on their benefices and offices, on pain of losing the
+profits of their benefices and offices,&mdash;for the protection of the
+land of Ireland." The King grants the prayer, but modifies the
+severity of the penalty proposed by the Commons, limiting the
+punishment to the loss of goods, and imprisonment during the royal
+pleasure; and excepting merchants born in Ireland of good fame, and
+their apprentices, now being in England, and those to whom the King
+may grant a dispensation.</p>
+
+<p>It was in the year following these proceedings that Henry received
+succours from Ireland, just before
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page242" name="page242">(p. 242)</a></span>
+he laid siege to Rouen.
+The Pell Rolls state that they were two hundred horse and three
+hundred foot, under the command of the Prior of
+Kilmaynham,<a id="notetag183" name="notetag183"></a><a href="#note183">[183]</a>
+transported by Bristol vessels from Waterford to France. Others,
+doubtless, might have joined him also from the same quarter; but it
+seems very probable that Hall, or those whom he followed, exaggerated
+this statement, and substituted the Lord of Kylmaine for the Prior of
+Kilmaynham, when they tell us "that a band of one thousand six hundred
+native Irish, armed with their own weapons of war, in mail, with darts
+and skaynes, under the Lord of Kylmaine, were with Henry V. at the
+siege of Rouen, and kept the way from the forest of Lyons; and so did
+their devoir that none were more praised, nor did more damage to their
+enemies." Still the account given of these wild Irish, by Monstrelet,
+would seem to countenance the idea of a much greater number than were
+transported over with the warlike Prior. "The King of England" (says
+that author) "had with him in his company a vast number of Irish, of
+whom far the greatest part went on foot. One of their feet was
+covered, the other was naked, without having clouts, and poorly clad.
+Each had a target and little javelins,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page243" name="page243">(p. 243)</a></span>
+with large knives of
+a strange fashion. And those who were mounted had no saddles, but they
+rode very adroitly on their little mountain horses: and they rode upon
+cloths, very nearly of the same fashion with those which the Blatiers
+of the French country carry. They were, however, a very poor and
+slight defence, compared with the English: besides, they were not so
+accoutred as to do much damage to the French when they met. These
+Irish would often, during the siege, together with the English, scour
+the country of Normandy, and do infinite mischief, beyond calculation;
+carrying back to their host great booty. Moreover, the said Irish on
+foot would seize little children, and leap on the backs of cows with
+them, carrying the children before them on the cows, and very often
+they were found in that condition by the
+French."<a id="notetag184" name="notetag184"></a><a href="#note184">[184]</a></p>
+
+<p>The only other document relating to Ireland at this time, which it is
+purposed to transfer into these pages, is chiefly interesting as
+affording one of the many instances upon record of the personal
+attention which Henry paid to the business necessary to be transacted
+at home, whilst he was engaged in battles and sieges and victories
+abroad. It is a petition, (in itself also of some importance in regard
+to Irish history,) from Donald Macmurough, (Macmore or Macmurcoo,)
+addressed to "the most high and excellent redoubted Lord the King of
+England," and is dated July 24, 1421.</p>
+
+<div class="letter">
+<p>"Most
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page244" name="page244">(p. 244)</a></span>
+humbly supplicates, Donaal Macmurcoo, a prisoner
+     in your Tower of London, that as above all things in the world,
+     (most gracious Lord,) with entire intent of his heart, he desires
+     to be your liege man, and to behave towards you from this day
+     forward in good faith, as is his right; and to do that loyally he
+     offers to be bound by the faith of his body [his corporal oath],
+     and all the sacraments of Holy Church, in any manner which you
+     please graciously to ordain and appoint; and all his friends who
+     are at his will, under his subjection, or at his command under
+     his lordships, will promise the same by word of mouth. And for
+     greater security for the time to come, as well to your most noble
+     and sovereign Lordship as to your heirs and the crown of England,
+     during his life loyally to hold and accomplish the same, he
+     offers you his son and heir in pledge. May it please your most
+     high and gracious excellence, according to his promises
+     aforesaid, graciously to receive and accept him to your most
+     noble and abundant grace, for God's sake and in a work of
+     charity."</p>
+
+<p>The petition is in French.&mdash;The answer in English is this: "Ye
+     King will that he come before his counsel, and find surety as it
+     may be found reasonable."</p>
+
+<p> "For Macmourgh.&mdash;Offer to be sworn to the King, and to give
+     hostage thereupon."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The order of the council consequent upon this, in Latin, refers the
+matter to the Lieutenant and council in Ireland.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+
+<p>Henry at this time appears to have had considerable intercourse with
+the see of Rome. In a letter written to his resident ambassador in
+that city, John Keterich, Bishop of Lichfield, he requires, in very
+humble language, that his Holiness would not invade the rights of the
+crown of England as settled
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page245" name="page245">(p. 245)</a></span>
+by a concordat between Edward
+III. and Gregory XI; that he would provide for the admission of
+Englishmen only into the priories in England which the Conqueror had
+annexed to Norman abbeys; and that he would send strict injunctions to
+the bishops of Ireland that the people should be taught the English
+tongue, and that none should be capable of any ecclesiastical
+preferment who should be ignorant of it, since the best and greatest
+part of that nation understood it, and experience had shown what
+disorders and confusions arose from a diversity of languages.</p>
+
+<p>It is impossible to read the documents of this time without being
+struck by the evidence as well of the thraldom under which the Pope
+held the sovereigns and people of Christendom, as of the spirit of
+piety which habitually influenced Henry.</p>
+
+<p>His confessor had died, and he had applied to the Archbishop of
+Canterbury to select another for him. That primate's answer is full of
+interest. The Archbishop gives the King all the authority which he
+himself possessed; and yet Henry is obliged to seek permission at the
+court of Rome to have a confessor of his own, and to celebrate divine
+service at convenient times and in convenient places. He had sent for
+a chapel, with altars, vestments, and ministers, from England; and the
+warrant is in existence to press carriages and horses to carry them to
+the sea, to be transported to him in Normandy. This instrument is
+dated February
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page246" name="page246">(p. 246)</a></span>
+5th, 1418, and it should seem that all these
+preparations were insufficient till he could obtain the Pope's licence
+and dispensation in the following
+August.<a id="notetag185" name="notetag185"></a><a href="#note185">[185]</a></p>
+
+<p>The Pope then gives Henry permission to have a confessor of his own
+choice, who should once a year during his life, and once also at the
+hour of death, give him full pardon for all the sins of which he
+repented from the heart, and which he confessed with the mouth;
+provided that the confessor take care to have satisfaction given to
+those to whom it is due. The Pope adds an earnest hope that this
+indulgence would not tempt Henry to commit unlawful acts at all more
+freely than
+before.<a id="notetag186" name="notetag186"></a><a href="#note186">[186]</a></p>
+
+<p>By another act of grace, dated only ten days after the former, King
+Henry is permitted to have one or more portable altars, and to have
+mass at uncanonical times, and even in prohibited places, provided he
+were not himself the cause of the interdict. This grant has also some
+curious stipulations annexed: among others it is directed that the
+doors shall be shut at such masses, the excommunicated excluded, the
+service being conducted without sound of bell and with a low voice.
+Especially is
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page247" name="page247">(p. 247)</a></span>
+it enjoined that liberty to have mass before
+day should be used very sparingly, because since our Lord Jesus
+Christ, the Son of God, is offered as a sacrifice on that altar,&mdash;and
+he is the brightness of eternal light,&mdash;it is right for that to be
+done, not in the darkness of night, but in the light of day.</p>
+
+<p>Henry remained for some time at Rouen, and wore the ducal robes as
+Duke of Normandy. A conspiracy to surrender the town to the French
+King was defeated by the honourable conduct of De Bouteiller, who, on
+being requested to join the conspirators, on the contrary discovered
+their designs to Henry.</p>
+
+<p>Early in the year 1419, the Duke of Brittany, distrusting the power of
+France to defend him, were the English to turn their arms against his
+territory, sought and obtained an alliance with Henry; of whose just
+and honourable principles he had experienced practical proofs.</p>
+
+<p>At this time the Spaniards added much to Henry's difficulties. Having
+engaged to succour the Dauphin, they are said to have sent ships to
+Scotland for men, part of whom they probably landed at Rochelle.
+Henry's forces, however, were victorious in the south, no less than in
+the north.</p>
+
+<p>Still, though victorious and feared on every side, Henry found that
+war and disease had so reduced his army as to compel him to apply to
+his subjects at home for reinforcement. The reasons sent from
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page248" name="page248">(p. 248)</a></span>
+Norfolk, which are probably only specimens of the returns from
+other counties, would lead us to infer that most of his subjects, who
+were both willing and able to join his standard, had already been
+drained off. The Bishop of Norwich, and others, return that "the
+stoutest and strongest of their countrymen were already in the army,
+and others pleaded poverty and infirmities." Robert Waterton, to whom
+the King had made an especial appeal, assured him that at the
+approaching assizes at York he would urge the gentlemen of those parts
+to tender their services. There seems also to have been a growing
+disinclination or disability among the clergy to provide a supply of
+money; probably both their means and their zeal for the cause had
+diminished. In the diocese of York they complained loudly of the
+impoverished state of the church, but at last voted one-half of a
+tenth.</p>
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page249" name="page249">(p. 249)</a></span>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">bad faith of the dauphin. &mdash; the duke of burgundy brings about an
+interview between henry and the french authorities. &mdash; henry's first
+interview with the princess katharine of valois. &mdash; her conquest. &mdash;
+the queen's over-anxiety and indiscretion. &mdash; double-dealing of the
+duke of burgundy; he joins the dauphin; is murdered on the bridge of
+montereau. &mdash; the dauphin disinherited. &mdash; henry's anxiety to prevent
+the escape of his prisoners.</span><br><br>
+
+1419-1420.</h3>
+
+
+<p>About the month of March in the year 1419, the Dauphin proposed to
+meet Henry with a view to the formation of an alliance, to which Henry
+was at this time by no means averse. The Dauphin, however, acted with
+very bad faith on the occasion; and, by neglecting to come according
+to his solemn
+engagement,<a id="notetag187" name="notetag187"></a><a href="#note187">[187]</a>
+gave unintentionally another opening to
+the Duke of Burgundy to advocate a treaty between France and England.
+So utterly, indeed, had the Dauphin thrown aside all thoughts of an
+interview
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page250" name="page250">(p. 250)</a></span>
+with Henry, on which he had appeared very anxiously
+bent, that he even made a vigorous attack on the English ambassadors
+and their escort when on their road to the King of France.</p>
+
+<p>The Duke of Burgundy, taking advantage of this juncture, succeeded,
+not only in persuading the two Kings to interchange ambassadors, but
+in effecting a
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page251" name="page251">(p. 251)</a></span>
+personal conference between the royal
+parties. Henry agreed to come to Mante, on condition that Charles and
+the Duke of Burgundy would come to Ponthoise. A large field on the
+banks of the Seine, near to the gate of Melun, was selected for the
+meeting. The preparations for the interview are described with great
+minuteness by historians. A pavilion at an equal distance from the
+tents of both nations was erected by the Queen of France, and
+presented to Henry; adjoining to it were two withdrawing apartments.
+The King of France was detained by indisposition at Ponthoise on the
+day appointed, May 30, 1419; but the Queen, the Princess, the Duke of
+Burgundy, and the Count de St. Pol, on the one side, with their
+council and guards, and, on the other, Henry, his two brothers,
+Clarence and Gloucester, his two uncles, the Duke of Exeter and the
+Bishop of Winchester, the Earls of March and Salisbury, with his
+council and his guard, met in this "fair and wide mead of Melun." The
+Queen's tent was "a fair pavilion of blue velvet richly embroidered
+with flower-de-luces; and on the top was the figure of a flying hart,
+in silver, with wings enamelled." Henry's tent was of blue and green
+velvet, with the figures of two antelopes embroidered; one drawing in
+a mill, the other seated on high with a branch of olive in his mouth,
+with this motto wrought in several places, "After busy labour, comes
+victorious rest." A great eagle of gold, with eyes of diamond, was
+placed above. At
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page252" name="page252">(p. 252)</a></span>
+three in the afternoon the royal parties,
+having entered within the barriers, approached each other, the Queen
+led by the Duke of Burgundy, the Princess by the Count de St. Pol.
+Henry with a solemn bow took the Queen by the hand and saluted her,
+and afterwards the Princess; as did also his brothers, bending one
+knee almost to the ground. The Duke of Burgundy paid his respects to
+Henry, and was honourably received by him. Henry led the Queen into
+the pavilion, taking the upper hand of her after a long dispute about
+this ceremony; and having placed her in one chair of state, of cloth
+of gold, himself occupied the other. Nothing further than ceremony was
+the apparent object of that day's conference, though the fate of Henry
+perhaps turned upon it. The Earl of Warwick, "the father of courtesy,"
+addressed the Queen, and the parties separated,&mdash;the Queen's for
+Ponthoise, Henry's for Mante; having first engaged to meet each other
+again on the following Thursday. These conferences were carried on at
+intervals till June 30th, without any satisfactory progress being made
+towards peace; on that day they agreed to meet on the 3rd July, and
+Henry kept his engagement, but the French disappointed him; and then,
+convinced of their insincerity, and the total absence of all real
+intentions on their part to bring the proceedings to a favourable
+issue, he dissolved the conference, complaining loudly of the unfair
+dealings of his enemies. He was chiefly, however, angry with the Duke
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page253" name="page253">(p. 253)</a></span>
+of Burgundy, to whom he ascribed all the blame; and who is
+said to have been guilty of such double-dealing as to have had
+frequent interviews with the Dauphin in the neighbourhood of Paris,
+even during the conference.</p>
+
+<p>A circumstance connected with this meeting is too closely interwoven
+with Henry's character, and conduct, and destiny, to be passed over in
+silence. In preparing for the interview, the Queen had shown much
+courteous attention to secure Henry's gratification; and she looked
+forward to it as the hour of her daughter
+Katharine's<a id="notetag188" name="notetag188"></a><a href="#note188">[188]</a>
+conquest
+over his heart. That Princess was a lovely young person, and in the
+very prime and bloom of her beauty; and her mother had flattered
+herself that her charms would prevail over the young conqueror more
+than the arms or the statesmen of France. Nor had the designing lady
+altogether miscalculated the power of her daughter's charms, or the
+extent of Henry's susceptibility. His heart was touched at the first
+sight of Katharine, and the practised eyes of her mother saw that the
+victory was won. Her daughter (she observed) had overcome a prince who
+appeared till then invincible. But
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page254" name="page254">(p. 254)</a></span>
+the wily Queen outwitted
+herself; and, for the present, by her own act disengaged the toils in
+which Henry had been unquestionably taken. With a view of inflaming
+his love for her daughter the more by her absence, and of compelling
+him to comply with any conditions of a treaty, one of which would be
+Katharine's hand and heart, she would not suffer the Princess to be
+present at any of the following interviews: the first sight of so much
+beauty had so triumphant an effect, that she would not permit a
+second. But her scheme, however finely drawn, was observed by Henry;
+and, indignant at the artifice, he became more inflexible than ever,
+and insisted more firmly than before on his first proposals; assuring
+the Duke of Burgundy that he was resolved to have the Princess with
+all his other demands, or force the King of France from his throne,
+and drive the Duke from the kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>The unsuccessful issue of this famous conference was undoubtedly owing
+in some measure to the Duke of Burgundy, who was for a long time
+balancing in his mind the policy of joining Henry or the Dauphin.
+Henry openly charged the Duke with dishonourable conduct; and then the
+Duke, in a conference at
+Melun,<a id="notetag189" name="notetag189"></a><a href="#note189">[189]</a>
+on Tuesday, July 11th, 1419, made
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page255" name="page255">(p. 255)</a></span>
+a solemn league, offensive and defensive, with the Dauphin.
+They engaged to join in the administration of the government without
+jealousy and envy; and after mutual acts of courtesy, and ratifying
+the covenant of peace by solemn oaths, they parted, professedly sworn
+friends, but having war against each other in their hearts.</p>
+
+<p>Henry, after the respite of these abortive negociations, again entered
+upon his career of war and conquest. The next fortified town was
+Ponthoise, possession of which would open his way to Paris. His
+soldiers were in the highest spirits; and he seems himself, so far
+from being dismayed by the union of the Duke of Burgundy with the
+French court, to have been roused by a sense of his difficulties and
+dangers to a still higher spirit of valour and enterprise. Ponthoise
+was taken by surprise, and Henry regarded it as the most important
+place he had taken during the war. How resolved soever he was to be
+master of it, he would not make the attempt till after the expiration
+of the truce with the Duke of Burgundy, "so punctual was he to the
+observance of his faith and honour, which in brave princes are
+inviolable." And, to use the words of Goodwin, "his soul was so little
+altered from its natural moderation by this success, that he sent to
+the King of France to tell him, that though he had taken so
+considerable a town, which, being only a few leagues from Paris,
+opened a way to the conquest of that capital, yet he now offered him
+peace
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page256" name="page256">(p. 256)</a></span>
+upon the same terms which he had propounded in the
+treaty of Melun; with this only addition, that Ponthoise also should
+now be confirmed to him."</p>
+
+<p>The Dauphin's troops diminished the joy of this victory by taking one
+or two places by surprise. Still all Paris was in great consternation,
+and the panic ran through the Isle of France; whilst Clarence marched
+his troops to the very walls of the metropolis. Shortly after the fall
+of Ponthoise Henry despatched letters to the citizens of London; which
+were intercepted by the enemy, who took the bearer of them prisoner.
+He consequently sent another despatch to the same purport, from Trie
+Le Chastel, near Gisors, on the 12th of the next month. The importance
+he attached to this communication, his repetition of the intercepted
+letters clearly intimates: it is chiefly interesting now because it
+assures us that Henry believed himself to be almost within reach of
+the objects of his enterprise; whilst it acquaints us also with the
+fact, that he had applied for aid to all his friends through
+Christendom. The letter, it is believed, has never yet been published.</p>
+
+<div class="letter">
+<p> "<span class="smcap">By The King.</span></p>
+
+<p> "Trusty and well beloved, we greet you well; and we thank you
+     with all our heart of the good-will and service that we have
+     always found in you hither-to-ward; and specially of your kind
+     and notable proffer of an aid, the which ye have granted to us of
+     your own good motion, as our brother of Bedford and our
+     Chancellor of England have written unto
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page257" name="page257">(p. 257)</a></span>
+us, giving
+     therein good example in diverse wise to all the remanent of our
+     subjects in our land. And so we pray you, as our trust is ye
+     will, for to continue. And as to the said aid, the which ye have
+     concluded to do unto us now at this time, we pray you specially
+     that we may have [it] at such time and in such days as our
+     brother of Bedford shall more plainly declare unto you on our
+     behalf; letting you fully wit [giving you fully to understand]
+     that we have written to all our friends and allies through
+     Christendom, for to have succours and help of them against the
+     same time that our said brother shall declare you: the which,
+     when they hear of the arming and the array that ye and other of
+     our subjects make at home in help of us, shall give them great
+     courage to haste their coming unto us much the rather, and not
+     fail, as we trust fully. Wherefore we pray you heartily that ye
+     would do, touching the foresaid aid, as our said brother shall
+     declare unto you on our behalf: considering that [neither] so
+     necessary ne [nor] so acceptable a service as ye may do, and will
+     do (as we trust into you at this time), ye might never have done
+     into us since our wars in France began. For we trust fully to
+     God's might and his mercy, with good help of your aid and of our
+     land, to have a good end of our said war in short time, and for
+     to come home unto you to great comfort and singular joy of our
+     heart, as God knoweth: the which He grant us to his pleasance,
+     and have you ever in his keeping! Given under our signet in our
+     town of Pontoise, the 17th day of August.</p>
+
+<p> "And weteth [know], that, the foresaid 17th day of August,
+     departed from us at Pontoise our letters to you direct in the
+     same tenour; and because it is said the bearer of them is by our
+     enemies taken into Crotey, we renouelle [renew] them here at Trye
+     the Castle, the 12th day of September."</p>
+
+<p> "To the Mayor and Citizens of London."</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>Henry's
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page258" name="page258">(p. 258)</a></span>
+arms were victorious through this autumn, town after
+town, and fortress after fortress, yielding to him; when an event took
+place which had a most decided and immediate influence on his affairs
+and those of
+France.<a id="notetag190" name="notetag190"></a><a href="#note190">[190]</a>
+The Dauphin solicited another interview with
+the Duke of Burgundy, who was cautioned by some of his friends against
+trusting his person again to that prince's power; whilst others
+deprecated the appearance in the Duke of any suspicion of the
+Dauphin's faith and honour. The Duke proceeded to Montereau; where, on
+the bridge which led to the town, a room of wood-work was prepared for
+the conference; and at the end, towards the town, were successive
+barriers. These excited suspicion; still the Duke quitted the town,
+and entered into the place appointed. There he met the Dauphin, who
+was surrounded by assassins ready to despatch his enemy at a
+word.<a id="notetag191" name="notetag191"></a><a href="#note191">[191]</a>
+Never was a more base and foul murder committed than that
+by which the Duke
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page259" name="page259">(p. 259)</a></span>
+of Burgundy was butchered on the bridge of
+Montereau. His own guilt is no justification of his murderers; and it
+is an unsafe interpretation of the inscrutable acts of Providence to
+regard his death "as the requital of divine
+justice."<a id="notetag192" name="notetag192"></a><a href="#note192">[192]</a>
+He had
+caused the Duke of Orleans to be assassinated in the streets of Paris,
+and he now falls himself by the murderous hands of assassins. He was a
+bold, presumptuous, ambitious, and licentious man; and his own vices
+betrayed him to his ruin. But those by whom he fell were equally
+guilty of treachery and murder, as though he had through his life been
+guiltless of blood, and an example of virtue.</p>
+
+<p>This tragedy filled the people of France with affliction for the
+murdered Duke, and with horror at
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page260" name="page260">(p. 260)</a></span>
+the Dauphin's perfidy and
+cruelty; but no one seemed to be rendered more decidedly hostile to
+him for this act than his own mother and father. And whilst the son of
+the murdered Duke swore he would never lay down his arms till he had
+avenged his father's death upon his murderers, the King himself, by a
+proclamation dated Troyes, January 27, 1420, declared that Charles,
+Count of Ponthieu, condemned and cursed by God, by nature, and his own
+parents, could have no title to the throne; and that it was just and
+expedient, for the peace of the nation, that Henry, King of England,
+should be established Regent of France.</p>
+
+<p>Henry at this time seems to have been exceedingly apprehensive lest,
+by the escape of the princes and nobles of France, his prisoners in
+England, the prospect of securing his conquests by a treaty of peace
+might be interrupted. An original letter, addressed by him to his
+Chancellor, dated Gisors, October 1, 1419, acquaints us with his
+anxiety on this subject; whilst it affords another interesting
+specimen of the English language at that time, and Henry's own style.</p>
+
+<div class="letter">
+<p> "Worshipful Father in God, right trusty and well-beloved, we
+     greet you well.</p>
+
+<p> "And we wol and pray you, and also charge you, that as we trust
+     unto you, and as ye look to have our good lordship, ye see and
+     ordain that good heed be taken unto the sure keeping of our
+     French prisoners within our realm, and in especial the Duke of
+     Orleans, and after to the Duke of Bourbon. For their escaping,
+     and principally the said Duke
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page261" name="page261">(p. 261)</a></span>
+of Orleans, might never
+     have been so harmful nor prejudicial to us as it might be now if
+     any of them escaped, and namely [especially] the said Duke of
+     Orleans, which God forbid! And therefore, as we trust, you seeth
+     that Robert Waterton, for no trust, fair speech, nor promises
+     that might be made unto him, nor for none other manner of cause,
+     be so blinded by the said Duke that he be the more reckless of
+     his keeping; but that, in eschewing of all perils that may befal,
+     he take as good heed unto the sure keeping of his person as
+     possible.</p>
+
+<p>"And inquire if Robert of Waterton use any reckless governance
+     about the keeping of the said Duke, and writeth to him thereof
+     that it may be amended. And God have you in his keeping!&mdash;Given
+     under our signet, at Gizors, the first day of October.</p>
+
+<p class="left0-70">
+  "To the worshipful Father in
+      God,<a id="notetag193" name="notetag193"></a><a href="#note193">[193]</a>
+      and right
+  trusty and well-beloved, the Bishop of
+  Durham, our Chancellor of England."</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page262" name="page262">(p. 262)</a></span>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">henry's extraordinary attention to the civil and private duties of his
+station, in the midst of his career of conquest, instanced in various
+cases. &mdash; provost and fellows of oriel college. &mdash; the queen dowager
+is accused of treason. &mdash; treaty between henry, the french king, and
+the young duke of burgundy. &mdash; henry affianced to katharine. &mdash; the
+dauphin is reinforced from scotland. &mdash; henry accompanied by his queen
+returns through normandy to england.</span><br><br>
+
+1419-1420.</h3>
+
+
+<p>One of the most strikingly characteristic features of the
+extraordinary hero, whose life and character we are endeavouring to
+elucidate, forces itself especially upon our notice during his
+campaigns in Normandy. Neither the flush of victory, nor the
+disappointments and anxiety of a protracted siege, neither the
+multiplied and distracting cares of intricate negociations, nor the
+incessant trials of personal
+fatigue,<a id="notetag194" name="notetag194"></a><a href="#note194">[194]</a>
+could withdraw his mind
+from what might
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page263" name="page263">(p. 263)</a></span>
+perhaps be not unfitly called the private
+duties of his high
+station.<a id="notetag195" name="notetag195"></a><a href="#note195">[195]</a>
+If an act of injustice was made known
+to him, he could not rest till he had punished the guilty party, and
+compelled them to make restitution. If abuses in church or state came
+under his eye, (and his eye was never closed against them,) he would
+himself personally provide for the necessary reform. If disputes
+threatened the peace and welfare of a community over which he had any
+control, he delighted to act as mediator and to restore peace. And all
+this he did in the midst
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page264" name="page264">(p. 264)</a></span>
+of the noise, and confusion, and
+ceaseless disturbances of a camp in the heart of an enemy's country,
+with the same anxious zeal, and attention to details, as he could have
+shown in the times of profoundest peace; though now and then dropping
+an expression to make his correspondent understand how much more time
+and thought he would have devoted to the subject before them, were not
+his mind and body so occupied by war.</p>
+
+<p>Among many illustrations of this striking trait in Henry's character,
+the following instances will, it is presumed, be deemed generally
+interesting, and deserving a fuller notice than a brief statement of
+the facts might require.</p>
+
+<p>The first is a letter from Henry to his brother the Duke of Bedford,
+then Guardian of England, in which he urges him to attend without
+delay to some complaints from the subjects of the Duke of Brittany,
+and to take prompt and efficient measures to prevent a repetition of
+the injuries complained of.</p>
+
+<div class="letter">
+<p> "<span class="smcap">By the King</span>.</p>
+
+<p> "Right trusty and well-beloved brother, we greet you as well. And
+     as we suppose it is not out of your remembrance in what wise and
+     how oft we have charged you by our letters that good and hasty
+     reparation and restitution were ordained and made at all times of
+     such attemptats as happened to be made by our subjects against
+     the truce taken betwixt us and our brother, the Duke of Brittany;
+     and, notwithstanding our said letters, diverse complaints be made
+     and sent unto us for default of reparation and restitution of
+     <span class="pagenum"><a id="page265" name="page265">(p. 265)</a></span>
+such attemptats as be made by certain of our subjects
+     and lieges, as ye may understand by a supplication sent to us by
+     the said Duke; which supplication we send you closed within these
+     letters, for to have the more plain knowledge of the truth.
+     Wherefore we will and charge you that ye call to you our
+     chancellor, to have knowledge of the same supplication; and, that
+     done, we will that ye do send us in all haste all those persons
+     that been our subjects contained in the supplication aforesaid.
+     And that also in all other semblable matters ye do ordain so
+     hasty and just remedy, restitution, and reparation upon such
+     attemptats done by our subjects, in conservation of our truce,
+     that no man have cause hereafter to complain in such wise as they
+     [have] done for default of right doing; nor we cause to write to
+     you alway as we done for such causes, <i>considered the great
+     occupation we have otherwise</i>. And God have you in his
+     keeping!&mdash;Given under our signet, in our host afore Rouen, the
+     29th day of
+November."<a id="notetag196" name="notetag196"></a><a href="#note196">[196]</a>
+ [1418].</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The next instance
+occurs<a id="notetag197" name="notetag197"></a><a href="#note197">[197]</a>
+on the apprehension entertained of
+intended violence and general disturbance of
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page266" name="page266">(p. 266)</a></span>
+the public peace
+near Bourdeaux by two noblemen who disputed about the property of a
+deceased lord. Henry's letter is addressed to the Council of
+Bourdeaux, giving them peremptory orders to put an instant end to the
+feud in his name. It is written in French.</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+     "Very dear and faithful.&mdash;Whereas we are given to understand that
+     great discord and division prevails between our dear and
+     well-beloved, the Lords de Montferrant and de Lescun, on account
+     of the lands of the late Lord de Castalhan; we wish this to be
+     appeased with all possible speed, in the best manner possible,
+     just as we ourselves would be able to end it. So we wish, and we
+     charge you, that, immediately on the sight of this, you take the
+     whole charge into <i>our</i> [<i>? your</i>, <i>voz</i>, for <i>noz</i>] hands;
+     giving straitly in charge to the said Lords Montferrant and de
+     Lescun that neither of them make, or procure or suffer to be
+     made, any riots or assemblies of people, the one against the
+     other, in the meantime, under great pains upon them by you to be
+     imposed, and applied to our aid. And this omit in no way, as we
+     trust in you.&mdash;Given under our signet, in our castle of Gisors,
+     the 26th day of September."
+</p>
+
+<p>The following letter from Henry to the Bishop of Durham, his
+Chancellor, dated 10th February 1418, and written whilst he was
+engaged in the siege of Falaise, gives us a pleasing view of the care
+with which he attended to the claims of individuals, and his desire to
+do justice to a faithful servant.</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+     "Worshipful Father in God, right trusty and well-beloved.
+     Forasmuch
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page267" name="page267">(p. 267)</a></span>
+as our well-beloved squire, John Hull, hath
+     long time been in our ambassiat and service in the parts of
+     Spain, for the which he hath complained to us he is endangered
+     greatly, and certain goods of his laid to wedde [pledge];
+     wherefore we wol that ye see that there be taken due accompts of
+     the said John, how many days he hath stand in our said ambassiat
+     and service, and thereupon that he be contented and agreed [have
+     satisfaction] in the best wise as longeth unto him in this
+     case.&mdash;Given under our signet, in our host beside our town of
+     Falaise, the 10th day of
+February."<a id="notetag198" name="notetag198"></a><a href="#note198">[198]</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>But whilst Henry could thus direct his thoughts to the redress of
+individual grievances, in the midst of the din of war and the
+excitement of the camp, he equally shows calmness, and presence of
+mind, and comprehensive views of sound policy in his negociations with
+foreign powers, and his instructions to his representatives at home.
+In the spring of 1419, letters were received by Henry from several
+cities of Flanders, which, together with his answers to them and his
+instructions to his brother, will not be read without interest. The
+towns of Ghent, Ypres, Bruges, and Franc apply to Henry for his
+protection and friendship, or rather for a renewal or continuance of
+that especial favour which they had enjoyed in former days; they refer
+more particularly to the kindness of his "grandfather, John Duke of
+Lancaster, of noble memory, who, because he was born among them, ever
+showed them most singular love and regard." This letter,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page268" name="page268">(p. 268)</a></span>
+written in French, and dated 24th March 1418, is given under the seals
+of the three first towns, and the seal of the Abbot of St. Andrew for
+the people of Franc, because they had no common seal. Henry's answer,
+in Latin, assures them, "If the people of Flanders will behave towards
+England as they are said to have done in times past, we shall rejoice
+to give no less valuable indications of our favour than did our father
+or grandfather; and we have instructed our brother, the Duke of
+Bedford, and our council, to send ambassadors with full powers to
+Calais, to negociate a peace between England and you." Probably Henry
+did not pen this letter himself; but, whoever indited it, the letter
+contains fewer barbarisms, and has more indications of classical
+scholarship in the writer, than are often found in modern
+Latin.<a id="notetag199" name="notetag199"></a><a href="#note199">[199]</a>
+Henry forwarded both the Flemish prayer and his own answer to his
+brother, with instructions in English; and, shortly after, he sent a
+long letter to his Chancellor, the Bishop of Durham, as well on that
+negociation, as on an affair in dispute between the English merchants
+and the Genoese. This document shows how minutely Henry investigated
+the matters on which he wrote; and how sensible a view he took of the
+interests of our commerce, and how dispassionate was his judgment. The
+Genoese had seized goods belonging to English merchants, who laid
+claim for a compensation. Henry's letter states
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page269" name="page269">(p. 269)</a></span>
+the exact sum
+at which the English estimated their merchandise, and the lower price
+fixed by the
+Genoese;<a id="notetag200" name="notetag200"></a><a href="#note200">[200]</a>
+and then, in consideration of the injury
+done to English commerce by the Genoese letters of marque, Henry
+recommends the English merchants to accept the offer made by the
+Genoese, provided they stipulate that the English merchant vessels
+shall have as free course of trade to Genoa as the Genoese desired to
+have to the ports of England. This correspondence is found among the
+"Proceedings of the Privy Council." The whole is well deserving the
+perusal of any one interested in the history of British commerce, but
+is on too extensive a scale for insertion at length in this
+work.<a id="notetag201" name="notetag201"></a><a href="#note201">[201]</a></p>
+
+<p>The only other instance which the Author of these Memoirs would add to
+the preceding (though many and various examples of the same kind are
+at <span class="pagenum"><a id="page270" name="page270">(p. 270)</a></span>
+hand) is one which brings all the associations of opening
+life before his mind, and recals days which can never be forgotten,
+whilst they can never be remembered without the liveliest feelings of
+gratitude to the Giver of every good. The days which he spent within
+the walls of that college to which Henry's letter refers, are long ago
+past and gone; but they have left a fragrance and relish on the mind,
+and the remembrance of them is sweet.</p>
+
+<p>Oriel College, founded by Edward II, not long before his unhappy
+murder, for the promotion of sound learning and religious education,
+has been, if any college ever was, faithful to its trust. When Henry
+V. was (as we believe) studying under the care of his uncle, the
+future Cardinal, John Carpenter, afterwards Bishop of Worcester, was
+resident in Oriel; and between him and young Henry a close intimacy,
+we are told, was formed. These friendships, cherished when the heart
+is most warm, and the best feelings freshest, not only endear the two
+friends to each other through life, but excite in each an interest in
+whatever belongs to the other. On this principle we may believe that
+Oriel College, and its peace and welfare, were objects of no ordinary
+interest to Henry; certainly his friend, John Carpenter, felt so
+grateful to the society in which he had imbibed the principles of
+philosophy and religion, as to found one new fellowship in addition to
+the eight of its original foundation, and the four founded by his
+contemporary, though probably
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page271" name="page271">(p. 271)</a></span>
+his senior, John Frank, Master
+of the Rolls. About the time when Henry was pursuing his victories in
+France, an unhappy dispute arose to interrupt the harmony of this
+little community. Perfect peace is reserved for the faithful in
+heaven; on earth we must not expect to pass through life either as
+insulated individuals, or as members of any society, however sound may
+be its principles, and however Christian may be the general temper of
+its members, without some of those disturbing vexations which admonish
+us (with many other warnings) not to suffer our hopes to anchor here.
+Just as in a family, quarrels in a college are the more fatal to the
+comfort of its members in proportion to the narrowness of the circle
+which surrounds them, and to the closeness of the bond which more
+frequently compels them to meet together. The citizen of the world may
+avoid one whom he cannot meet with satisfaction and pleasure; the
+inmate of a college comes in contact with his brethren every day. The
+place of prayer, the refectory, the social board of kindly
+intercourse, all well calculated to cherish and ripen feelings of
+friendship, yet if unkind sentiments are lurking in the breast, only
+provoke their expression, and cherish the heartburnings, and fan the
+embers of discord into a flame.</p>
+
+<p>In a college the first spark of unkindness, unbrotherly, anti-social
+feelings, should especially be extinguished: disunion there is more
+fatal to comfort and
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page272" name="page272">(p. 272)</a></span>
+ease, and peace of mind, and the
+enjoyment of whatever blessings might otherwise be in store, than in
+any other community except that of husband and wife, parent and child,
+brother and brother. To no combination of Christians would the Apostle
+with greater earnestness repeat his injunction, "Love one another."</p>
+
+<p>What was the immediate subject of dispute at the time when Henry
+interfered with Oriel College, the Author has never been able to
+discover. There is no auxiliary evidence, and the only source of
+reasonable conjecture must be the internal testimony of the King's
+letter itself. The epistle is an original, preserved in the Tower of
+London; its date is 7th of July, and in the town of Mante. This fixes
+it (with as much certainty as we can ever expect in such matters) to
+the year 1419; when Henry seems to have made Mante his chief residence
+for some time, and was certainly there both before and after the 7th
+of July in that year.</p>
+
+<p>This letter is very interesting, particularly to Oriel men, for other
+reasons, and especially because it contains indisputable proof of the
+position maintained by them, that not the Chancellor, nor the King by
+his Chancellor, but the King himself in person, is the visitor. May
+his interference on a similar occasion be never again needed! May
+discord between the Head and the Fellows, or between the Fellows among
+themselves, be for ever banished! But should the voice and the hand of
+the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page273" name="page273">(p. 273)</a></span>
+visitor be ever required "to stint the controversy," the
+visitor of this "ancient and royal house"&mdash;is the King of England
+only. The letter is in itself characteristic of Henry, and affords,
+probably, a fair specimen of the style of an English gentleman of that
+day.</p>
+
+<div class="letter">
+<p> "<span class="smcap">BY THE KING.</span><a id="notetag202" name="notetag202"></a><a
+        href="#note202">[202]</a></p>
+
+<p>"Worshipful father in God, our right trusty and well-beloved, we
+     greet you well. And for as much as we lately sent for Master
+     Richard Garsedale, one of the contendents of the Provost of the
+     Oriell, to that end that for his party should nothing be pursued,
+     neither at the court of Rome nor elsewhere, but that that
+     controversy should be put in respite unto our coming home with
+     God's grace: for our occupation is such that we may not well
+     intend to such matters here. Wherefore we will that ye make both
+     the said Garsdale, which cometh now home by our leave, and
+     sufficient
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page274" name="page274">(p. 274)</a></span>
+of both the parties that neither of them
+     shall make further pursuit of appeal at court of Rome, nor no
+     manner of pursuit there, or elsewhere, as touching the said
+     controversy, unto our coming as before; at which time our intent
+     is to put the same controversy to a good and righteous
+     conclusion, and the said party in rest. And if any of them have
+     the said pursuit of appeal hanging in court, that they abate it,
+     and send to revoke it in all haste: and that they make all such
+     as been their attornies or doers in court spiritual and temporal
+     to surcease. And we will furthermore, as touching our said
+     College of the Oriell, that ye put it in such governance as
+     seemeth to your discretion for to do, unto our coming. And God
+     have you in his keeping!&mdash;Given under our signet, in our town of
+     Mante, the 7th day of July.</p>
+
+<p class="left0-70">
+  "To the worshipful father in God, our right
+  trusty and well-beloved, the Bishop
+  of Durham, our Chancellor of England."</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<p>Whilst <span class="pagenum"><a id="page275" name="page275">(p. 275)</a></span>
+Henry was occupied by his campaign in France, a
+parliament met October 16th, 1419, and voted one-fifteenth, and
+one-tenth, and one-half part of them both. In this parliament that
+enactment was made on which our authority chiefly rests for believing
+the Queen-Dowager, Bolinbroke's widow, to have been guilty of
+conspiring her son-in-law's death. The act, after declaring that she
+was accused by friar John Randolf, and other credible witnesses, of
+having compassed the King's death in the most horrible manner; and
+that Roger Colles of Shrewsbury, and Peronell Brocart, lately living
+with the Queen, were violently suspected of having been partners in
+her guilt; enacted that all the lands, and castles, and possessions,
+as well of the Queen as of her accomplices, should be seized for the
+King's use, provision being made for the maintenance of the Queen and
+her servants.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, much progress was made in France towards a peace between
+Henry, the French King, and the young Duke of Burgundy. An armistice
+was signed between Henry and Charles at Mante, November 20, but only
+for the Isle of France; and, at
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page276" name="page276">(p. 276)</a></span>
+the close of the month, the
+Duke of Burgundy, then at Arras, signed his consent to the articles
+which Henry had commissioned his ambassadors to lay before him, which
+were these:</p>
+
+<p>First, that he should have the Princess of France in marriage.
+Secondly, that he should not disturb the King of France in the
+possession of the crown; but suffer him peaceably to enjoy it, and
+receive its revenues as long as he lived. Thirdly, that the Queen also
+should during her life retain her title and dignity, with such a part
+of the revenues of the crown as would be suitable to maintain the
+royal honour. Moreover, that the crown of France, with all its
+dominions, should, after the death of the King, descend to Henry and
+his heirs for ever; that, in consequence of the incapacity of the
+King's mind, Henry should as Regent administer the affairs of
+government, with a council of the nobles of France; with other
+stipulations subservient to these grand fundamental points.</p>
+
+<p>The Duke of Burgundy also agreed on certain
+articles<a id="notetag203" name="notetag203"></a><a href="#note203">[203]</a>
+of amity
+between himself and Henry, stipulating to give his own support of
+Henry's authority and rights as Regent and King; in return for Henry's
+protection of him in all his rights, and against all his enemies,
+especially against the murderers of his father.</p>
+
+<p>To effect these great ends, a general armistice was
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page277" name="page277">(p. 277)</a></span>
+concluded at Rouen, December 24th, to continue to the 1st of March,
+from which it was provided that the Dauphin should be excluded. This
+truce was afterwards prolonged to March 24th. Meanwhile, the war was
+vigorously carried on by the English and Burgundian forces against the
+Dauphin; whilst on the confines of Normandy, where the English at that
+time were stationed, every thing was conducted by the people of the
+two nations in as amicable and familiar a manner as though the peace
+had absolutely been concluded, and the English King were Regent of
+France; an object, as they professed, most devoutly desired by the
+people of Paris, who sent their deputies to bespeak the good offices
+of Henry for the preservation of their rights and
+liberties.<a id="notetag204" name="notetag204"></a><a href="#note204">[204]</a>
+Henry's ambassadors made many objections to the terms of the proposed
+treaty, chiefly on the ground that, by accepting them, Henry would
+injure his then title to the throne of France. But he saw himself that
+all essentials were provided for; and desirous of terminating the war,
+and more anxious (we may believe) to make the beloved Princess his own
+wife, left Rouen on his journey to Troyes, where the French court and
+the Duke of Burgundy were. Henry passed so near to the walls of Paris,
+that the people hastened out of the city to see him; and they
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page278" name="page278">(p. 278)</a></span>
+greeted him with joyous and welcoming acclamations.</p>
+
+<p>Henry, arriving at Troyes, made an immediate visit to the King, the
+Queen, and the Princess. How far the love of Henry towards Katharine
+expedited the negociations we cannot tell. Every difficulty, however,
+vanished; and a final agreement and perpetual peace was made and sworn
+to "by Charles, King of France, and his dearest and most beloved son,
+Henry, King of England, constituted heir of the crown and Regent of
+France." Henry having consented during Charles's life not to assume
+the title of King of France, Charles promised always to style Henry
+"our most illustrious son, Henry, King of England, heir of France."
+After Charles's death, the two kingdoms of England and France were to
+be for ever united under one King. Many other articles swell this
+solemn league, which are all subservient to these leading provisions.</p>
+
+<p>This treaty was signed at Troyes, May 21, 1420, in the presence of the
+Emperor Sigismund and many of the Continental princes, all of whom
+became parties thereto. On the same day Katharine and Henry were
+affianced before the high altar of St. Peter's Church, in Troyes; in
+which city proclamation of the
+peace<a id="notetag205" name="notetag205"></a><a href="#note205">[205]</a>
+was made both in the French
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page279" name="page279">(p. 279)</a></span>
+and the English tongue. It was afterwards proclaimed at
+Paris, and the principal cities of France; and, on June 24, it was
+proclaimed in London, after a solemn procession and a sermon at St.
+Paul's Cross: and an ordinance was made for breaking the great seal of
+England, and making another, on which to the King's title should be
+added, "Regent and heir-apparent of France;" and a corresponding order
+was given to the officers of his mint at Rouen for a change of the
+inscription on the coinage
+there."<a id="notetag206" name="notetag206"></a><a href="#note206">[206]</a></p>
+
+<p>The <span class="pagenum"><a id="page280" name="page280">(p. 280)</a></span>
+marriage of Henry with
+Katharine<a id="notetag207" name="notetag207"></a><a href="#note207">[207]</a>
+was celebrated with
+great magnificence by the Archbishop of Sens, on the 30th of May, in
+the presence of the principal nobility of Burgundy and France. The
+Duke of Burgundy first, and then all the other assembled nobles, swore
+allegiance to Henry, as Regent of France. "For," (as the
+historians<a id="notetag208" name="notetag208"></a><a href="#note208">[208]</a>
+say,) "the fame of his heroic actions in war, when his
+person was unknown to them, had acquired him a universal esteem; and
+they knew not what most to admire, his courage, conduct, or success.
+But now
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page281" name="page281">(p. 281)</a></span>
+his noble presence, in which there was a due mixture
+of majesty with affable deportment, procured a greater veneration.
+They knew him to be prudent in councils, experienced in war, of an
+undaunted courage in dangers, and prosperous in all his enterprises;
+and therefore they persuaded themselves that their country would be
+happy under the influences of his government." It is said that they
+were confirmed in these anticipations of good, as well as exceedingly
+delighted, by the speech which he addressed to them in full assembly,
+showing the moderation and temper of his soul. At the close of his
+address they unanimously expressed their confidence in his honour, and
+the highest regard for his interests.</p>
+
+<p>The Dauphin, however, continued to prevent the establishment of peace;
+and, having obtained from the Scotch parliament a reinforcement of
+seven thousand men, under the command of the Earl of Buchan, still
+proved a formidable enemy to Henry. But, never relaxing his exertion
+whilst any thing remained to be done, Henry prepared most vigorously
+to meet the forces thus united against
+him.<a id="notetag209" name="notetag209"></a><a href="#note209">[209]</a></p>
+
+<p>He retained still in his camp the King of Scotland, by
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page282" name="page282">(p. 282)</a></span> whose
+influence he had hoped to draw the Scots from the service of the
+Dauphin; but they would not listen to their monarch whilst he was the
+King of England's prisoner. The English army, however, was recruited
+by a considerable reinforcement, which the Duke of Bedford had brought
+over with him. He had governed England as Regent, during the King's
+absence, with great zeal and wisdom; and he now left the Duke of
+Gloucester to rule the kingdom in his stead.</p>
+
+<p>Many cities and garrisons attached to the Dauphin held out with much
+resolution and fidelity to his cause, and the English had full
+employment in reducing them. The town of Melun was defended with most
+determined obstinacy. During the protracted siege of this place, Henry
+was surrounded by all the magnificence and state of a royal court
+amidst the noise and disorders of war. His Queen, also, "with a
+shining train of ladies," came to the camp; for whom "a fair house was
+built, at such a distance as secured them from any danger of shot from
+the town." The royal bride and bridegroom had been allowed a very
+brief interval for that enjoyment of each other's society in
+retirement and privacy which is denied to few in any rank of life
+immediately on their union. Their marriage was solemnized on the 30th
+of May at Paris, and for one short week only from that day are the
+records silent as to Henry's residence. On the 7th of June he was at
+Villeneuf, engaged again (if, indeed, there
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page283" name="page283">(p. 283)</a></span>
+had been any
+interruption of his public duties,) in the business of the state. From
+July the 9th to the end of September he passed, with very few
+exceptions, his day alternately at Paris, and in the camp before
+Melun, which was about ten leagues from the capital. It was, we may
+reasonably conjecture, to make this new life of war as little irksome
+to Katharine as the circumstances would allow, and to provide an
+additional source of amusement and gratification, that Henry sent to
+England for those new harps for himself and his Queen, to the purchase
+of which at that time we have already referred.</p>
+
+<p>At the surrender of Melun, a circumstance took place characteristic of
+Henry's firmness and justice, mingled at the same time with feelings
+of friendship and kindheartedness. A gentleman of his household, who
+had fought with him at Agincourt, and was high in his esteem, was
+convicted on clear evidence of having received a bribe during the
+treaty for the surrender of the town, which tempted him to favour the
+escape of one suspected of being an accomplice in the Duke of
+Burgundy's murder. The young Duke of Burgundy and the Duke of Clarence
+petitioned for his pardon; but Henry gave orders for his execution,
+saying he would have no traitors in his army. At the same time he was
+heard to declare he would have given fifty thousand nobles that
+Bertrand de Chaumont had not been guilty of such a crime.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly <span class="pagenum"><a id="page284" name="page284">(p. 284)</a></span>
+after the surrender of Melun, Charles and Henry went
+together to Paris, accompanied by their Queens. The royal party were
+met by the citizens with every demonstration of joy and devotedness;
+and, in honour of Henry, most persons of quality dressed themselves in
+red.<a id="notetag210" name="notetag210"></a><a href="#note210">[210]</a>
+The first solemn act performed at Paris after the rejoicings
+were ended, was the attainder of the Dauphin and his accomplices for
+the murder of the Duke of Burgundy. He was denounced as unworthy of
+succeeding to any inheritance, and sentenced to perpetual banishment;
+judgment of death being pronounced against all his accomplices. A
+knowledge of these proceedings only stimulated him to further acts of
+violence.</p>
+
+<p>Henry's court was at the Louvre, whilst Charles' was at the Hôtel de
+St. Paul. The two courts were marked by a wide difference in splendour
+and attendance. The palace of Charles was deserted, whilst Henry's was
+crowded by almost all the great men of France.</p>
+
+<p>Having now established the government of France, and provided for its
+maintenance during his absence, Henry proceeded with his royal bride
+towards England. In Normandy he was well received by the estates, who
+were assembled at Rouen, and who voted him a subsidy of 400,000
+livres. On leaving this place, he constituted the Duke of Clarence his
+Lieutenant of Normandy, and gave commission to the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page285" name="page285">(p. 285)</a></span>
+Duke of
+Exeter to administer the government in
+Paris.<a id="notetag211" name="notetag211"></a><a href="#note211">[211]</a>
+With his Queen and
+the Duke of Bedford he reached his native land in safety on the last
+day of January, or the first of February 1421; and he immediately
+communicated to the Archbishop his wish for him to appoint a day of
+public
+thanksgiving.<a id="notetag212" name="notetag212"></a><a href="#note212">[212]</a></p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page286" name="page286">(p. 286)</a></span>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">katharine crowned. &mdash; henry and his queen make a progress through a
+great part of his dominions. &mdash; arrival of the disastrous news of his
+brother's death (the duke of clarence). &mdash; henry meets his parliament.
+&mdash; hastens to the seat of war. &mdash; birth of his son, henry of windsor.
+&mdash; joins his queen at bois de vincennes. &mdash; their magnificent
+reception at paris. &mdash; henry hastens in person to succour the duke of
+burgundy. &mdash; is seized by a fatal malady. &mdash; returns to vincennes. &mdash;
+his last hour. &mdash; his death.</span><br><br>
+
+1421-1422.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Henry, now in the enjoyment of peace in England, Ireland, and France,
+(except only so far as the Dauphin was yet unsubdued,) in the
+enjoyment, too, of a union with the most beautiful Princess of the
+age, seems to have reached the highest pinnacle of his ambition and
+his hopes. The Queen was crowned with great solemnity and magnificence
+in Westminster
+Abbey,<a id="notetag213" name="notetag213"></a><a href="#note213">[213]</a>
+on the third Sunday in Lent. (23rd February
+1421.)</p>
+
+<p>After
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page287" name="page287">(p. 287)</a></span>
+Henry had gratified his royal consort by proving to
+her how deep and lively an interest the people of England took in her
+welfare and happiness, he retired with her for a time to Windsor. A
+combination, however, of various motives, induced him to propose to
+her to join him in the execution of a design on which he seems to have
+been bent, and to accompany
+him<a id="notetag214" name="notetag214"></a><a href="#note214">[214]</a>
+in a progress through the
+kingdom. He was most anxious to ascertain by personal inspection the
+state and condition of his subjects in various parts of the realm;
+more especially with
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page288" name="page288">(p. 288)</a></span>
+the view of satisfying himself that
+justice was impartially administered, crimes repressed, and innocence
+protected. He felt also naturally a desire to present his loyal
+subjects to his Queen, of whom we have many proofs that he was in no
+ordinary degree proud; and, at the same time, to add to her
+gratification by visiting in her society those places with which he
+had early associations of pleasure, or which it would be most
+interesting to a foreigner to see. He was also influenced, perhaps, in
+some measure by a desire of visiting, in a sort of pilgrimage, the
+shrine of the patron saint of his family, John of Bridlington; and
+that of John of Beverley, the saint to whose merits the hierarchy, as
+we have seen, so presumptuously ascribed the turn of the battle on the
+day of Agincourt.</p>
+
+
+<p>With these
+motives,<a id="notetag215" name="notetag215"></a><a href="#note215">[215]</a>
+combined, it may be, with others, Henry lost
+no time in carrying his intention into effect. He seems to have always
+acted under a practical sense of the maxim, never to put off till
+to-morrow what is to be done, and what may be done, to-day. Without
+waiting for the summer, or a more advanced stage of the spring,&mdash;and,
+had he delayed for longer days and more genial weather, the journey
+would never have been taken,&mdash;we conclude that, about the beginning of
+the second week in
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page289" name="page289">(p. 289)</a></span>
+March, the King and Queen, attended by a
+large retinue of friends and nobles, began their journey
+northward.<a id="notetag216" name="notetag216"></a><a href="#note216">[216]</a>
+The first place in which we are sure they rested is
+Coventry, which they reached probably about the 8th of March, and
+where they were certainly on the 15th of that month, the eve of Palm
+Sunday. Henry had a house at Coventry, in right of the duchy of
+Cornwall, called Cheylesmoor; and probably they took up their abode in
+that mansion during their stay at Coventry. The greater part of the
+time spent in Warwickshire was perhaps passed in the castle of
+Kenilworth, a favourite residence of his grandfather, John of Gaunt,
+who made very great additions to the mansion, always afterwards called
+the Lancaster Buildings. Henry himself, too, had been much employed in
+improving this place, and surrounding it with pleasure-grounds and
+arbours,<a id="notetag217" name="notetag217"></a><a href="#note217">[217]</a>
+instead of the thorns and brakes which had formerly been
+seen there. Just seven years before this visit with his Queen, he had
+drained and planted the rough land near the castle; and the local
+historians tells us the spot was called "The Plesance in the Marsh."</p>
+
+<p>From Kenilworth the royal party went (probably about the 20th of
+March) to their house at Leicester, where
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page290" name="page290">(p. 290)</a></span>
+they kept the
+festival of
+Easter.<a id="notetag218" name="notetag218"></a><a href="#note218">[218]</a>
+Easter Sunday fell that year on the 23rd of
+March. Could Henry have known of the sad calamity which befel him that
+very Easter, his rejoicings would have been turned into mourning. It
+was at that very time that the disastrous conflict took place, in
+which the English were routed, and the Duke of Clarence, whom Henry
+had left his representative on the Continent, was slain. Where the
+King was when the melancholy tidings reached him, and which induced
+him to cut short his progress, does not appear. We know that the
+joyful news of Agincourt reached London on the fourth morning after
+the battle; and probably the sad report of his brother's death, and of
+the discomfiture of his troops, was posted on to Henry whilst he was
+at York. Towards this, his northern capital, we conclude that he
+proceeded from Leicester, about the last day of March. The inhabitants
+of York had made most costly preparations for the reception of their
+royal visitors; and on their arrival they welcomed their conquering
+sovereign, and the partner of his joys and cares, with every
+demonstration of loyalty and devotedness. The most princely presents
+were offered to Henry in the most dutiful and cordial spirit of loving
+and admiring subjects. How many days they remained together
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page291" name="page291">(p. 291)</a></span>
+amidst the festivities and rejoicings of the province of York, is not
+recorded; perhaps the limit to this festival was the hour when the
+gloom which spread over the kingdom on the death of Clarence reached
+the royal party. It is not improbable that the news of his loss gave a
+turn to Henry's mind, and induced him with sentiments of piety and
+mourning to leave the splendour of his court for a while, and, laying
+aside the feelings of the triumphant monarch, to give himself up to
+exercises of devotion, and to a preparation for the same awful change
+which had so unexpectedly stopped the career of his younger brother.
+Leaving his Queen among his friends and faithful lieges of York, he
+proceeded on a kind of pilgrimage to Bridlington, Beverley, and
+Lincoln;<a id="notetag219" name="notetag219"></a><a href="#note219">[219]</a>
+but in what order he visited those places it does not
+appear. He was at York on the 4th of April, and again on the 18th;
+whilst it is equally certain that on the 15th he was at Lincoln.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page292" name="page292">(p. 292)</a></span>
+The author of the manuscript which tells us that his object in
+going to Lincoln was to be present at the installation of Richard
+Flemming, then lately elected Bishop, seems to be in error when he
+adds, that the King rejoined the Queen at Pontefract, and thence
+proceeded to Lincoln, and thence to London; unless, indeed, the King
+visited Lincoln once by himself, and once with Katharine; a
+supposition in the last degree improbable. He certainly returned to
+York after his sojourn at Lincoln on the 15th. It is very probable
+that, when he left York, he proceeded first to Bridlington, thence to
+Beverley, and so, crossing the Humber at Hull, reached Lincoln about
+the 13th of April, and, having passed two or three days there,
+returned to York on the 17th. The only other town mentioned by
+chroniclers is Pontefract. Documents may, perhaps, be hereafter
+discovered to account for him between the 18th of April, when he was
+certainly at York, and the 1st of May, when he had returned to
+Westminster. At present we are left to conjecture: but it cannot be
+thought improbable if we suppose that, from his castle of Pontefract,
+(where he would have seen the Duke of
+Orleans<a id="notetag220" name="notetag220"></a><a href="#note220">[220]</a>,
+then a prisoner
+there, whom he always treated
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page293" name="page293">(p. 293)</a></span>
+with respect and kindness, and
+whom he indulged with as much relaxation of his confinement as was
+compatible with his safe custody,) he took the route for Chester, the
+place where he had formerly landed on his return from Trym Castle.
+Thence pointing out to his bride the country of Glyndowrdy, in which
+he passed his noviciate in arms; and the whole line of the Welsh
+borders, with which he had been long familiar, he would probably have
+passed on to Shrewsbury, where he might have taken Katharine to the
+spot in the battle-field on which Hotspur fell. From Shrewsbury, his
+line would be through Worcester, in which city he had often been
+stationed during the Welsh rebellion; and so onwards through Oxford,
+(a place he probably had visited on his journey northward, and where
+he would have been delighted to show Katharine the "narrow chamber"
+assigned to him when he studied there,) thus finishing his circuit
+where it began, at Windsor.</p>
+
+<p>There are difficulties attending this supposition, to the existence of
+which the Author is fully alive; but in the whole affair there is only
+a choice of difficulties. He is aware that the journey from York
+through Chester and Shrewsbury to Windsor would have required the
+royal party to travel for fourteen days at the rate of twenty miles on
+the average each day consecutively. But, on the other hand, without
+such a supposition, the old
+chroniclers<a id="notetag221" name="notetag221"></a><a href="#note221">[221]</a>
+must <span class="pagenum"><a id="page294" name="page294">(p. 294)</a></span> be
+altogether laid aside, (though there is no other evidence to make
+their statement improbable,) when they assure us that Henry took
+Katharine to visit his principality, as well as the distant parts of
+his
+kingdom.<a id="notetag222" name="notetag222"></a><a href="#note222">[222]</a>
+It must, moreover, be borne in mind that although he
+might have felt a reluctance (notwithstanding the melancholy event
+which hastened his return to the capital) to break off his intended
+progress without visiting at least the borders of Wales, yet he was
+pressed for time, and would therefore not willingly lose a day on the
+road. Be this as it may, we are
+assured<a id="notetag223" name="notetag223"></a><a href="#note223">[223]</a>
+that, wherever he went,
+his ears were in all places open to the complaints of the injured and
+oppressed; he redressed their
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page295" name="page295">(p. 295)</a></span>
+wrongs, punished the perverters
+of public trusts, reformed many abuses in the local governments, and
+established such ordinances as should secure for the future the
+impartial administration of justice to high and low alike.</p>
+
+<p>If, as we are led to believe, Henry returned by the way of Chester,
+his ardent imagination and pious turn of thought would have reverted
+with mingled feelings of wonder and gratitude to his journey along the
+same road two-and-twenty years before; when, returning from his own
+captivity in Ireland, he accompanied the captive Richard towards his
+metropolis, to resign his throne there, and soon afterwards to lay
+down his life. To Henry, indeed, mementos presented themselves on
+every side of the frailty of all sublunary possessions, the precarious
+tenure by which king or peasant alike holds any earthly thing; whilst
+he was himself destined, in the revolution of the next year, to become
+in his own person a marked example of the same uncertainty. His spirit
+might seem to address us from the grave, in the words of a reflecting
+man.<a id="notetag224" name="notetag224"></a><a href="#note224">[224]</a>
+"A day, an hour, a moment is sufficient for the overthrow of
+dominions which are thought to be grounded on foundations of adamant."</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+
+<p>Where Henry was when the unexpected news arrested his progress is not
+known. The certainty is, that whilst he was anxiously engaged in
+reforming abuses,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page296" name="page296">(p. 296)</a></span>
+and preparing good laws at home; after he
+had also just concluded a peace with Genoa, and, by generously
+releasing the King of Scotland, had bound him by the strongest ties of
+gratitude and affection; his exertions were suddenly arrested by the
+sad news of the defeat of his forces at Baugy in Anjou, and the death,
+in battle, of his brother, the Duke of
+Clarence.<a id="notetag225" name="notetag225"></a><a href="#note225">[225]</a>
+These tidings
+caused him to shorten his progress, and to return to his capital,
+where he arrived at furthest on the 1st of May.</p>
+
+<p>The Bishop of Durham, Chancellor of England, was charged to open the
+Parliament, which met on the second of that month, Henry himself being
+present, in the Painted Chamber. The Chancellor's address, though in
+many points strange, and well-nigh ridiculous, is too interesting to
+be passed by unnoticed. He began by uttering eulogies on the King,
+specifying, among other topics of praise, this merit in
+particular,&mdash;that, whilst God had granted him victories and conquests
+as the fruits of his labour, he never assumed the least merit to
+himself, but ascribed all the glory to
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page297" name="page297">(p. 297)</a></span>
+God only, "<i>following
+in a manner the example of the very valiant Emperor Julius Cæsar</i>;"
+and also because as Job, when news was brought to him of the death of
+all his children as they were feasting in their eldest brother's
+house, praised God, saying, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken
+away, the will of the Lord be done; blessed be the name of the Lord!"
+so our sovereign Lord the King, when he first heard of the death of
+the noble prince, the Duke of Clarence, his own dear brother, and of
+the gallant knights and others slain with him, praised and blessed God
+for the visitation of that calamity, as he had before had cause to
+praise Him for all his prosperity. In declaring the cause of summoning
+this Parliament, he mentions the desire the King had of rectifying,
+according to right and justice, all abuses and wrongs which had
+prevailed through the realm since his last passage to foreign lands,
+especially to the injury of those who had been with him there; and
+also his wish that all the laws of the realm should be maintained and
+enforced, and that further provision should be made for the
+<a id="notetag226" name="notetag226"></a><a href="#note226">[226]</a>better
+governance, and peace, and universal good of the realm.
+The Parliament, it is said, cheerfully voted
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page298" name="page298">(p. 298)</a></span> him a
+fifteenth,<a id="notetag227" name="notetag227"></a><a href="#note227">[227]</a>
+though many persons petitioned against further
+taxation, and gave utterance to sad complaints of their poverty. The
+Convocation also met on May 5th, and on the 12th; they voted him a
+tenth from the revenues of the clergy: and his uncle, the Bishop of
+Winchester, advanced to him by way of loan twenty thousand pounds. The
+Parliament guaranteed payment of the loans to all who should advance
+money to the King for this expedition.</p>
+
+<p>Henry, impatient to repair the dishonour of the defeat which his
+forces had sustained, and to reduce his foreign dominions to peace,
+issued his writ, on the 27th of May, to the sheriffs of the several
+counties to publish his proclamation that all persons should
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page299" name="page299">(p. 299)</a></span>
+hasten with the utmost speed to join the King, and accompany him in
+his voyage. And now possessing under his command a larger force than
+he had ever yet raised; after procuring by subsidies and loans as
+large a sum as the power or inclination of his people supplied; having
+also appointed his brother, the Duke of Bedford, Regent; he left
+London (never to return to it alive), on the last day of May, or the
+1st of June. From the 1st to the 10th of that month he seems to have
+passed his days alternately at Canterbury and Dover; though the cause
+of this delay does not appear to have been recorded. To whatever the
+postponement of his departure is attributable, though he left the
+metropolis not later than the 1st, he did not finally quit the English
+shores till the 10th of June. On the 12th he was at
+Rouen.<a id="notetag228" name="notetag228"></a><a href="#note228">[228]</a></p>
+
+<p>The Dauphin himself with a large army was at this time besieging
+Chartres, and Henry having passed by Abbeville, Beauvais, Gisors, and
+Mante, marched himself with strong hand to raise that siege. On
+Henry's approach the Dauphin withdrew.</p>
+
+<p>Some of these facts, with others, are contained in a letter which was
+forwarded from Henry to the mayor and citizens of London, (it is the
+last we shall have occasion to transcribe,) and which is chiefly
+remarkable for his language when speaking of the Dauphin.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page300" name="page300">(p. 300)</a></span> He
+will not acknowledge him to have any right to the title, and calls him
+a pretender. Another point of considerable interest is the unqualified
+manner in which he speaks of the cordial co-operation and sincere
+attachment of the young Duke of Burgundy.</p>
+
+<div class="letter">
+<p><span class="smcap">BY THE KING.</span></p>
+
+<p> "Trusty and well-beloved, we greet you well. And for as much as
+     we be certain that ye will be joyful to hear good tiding of our
+     estate and welfare, we signifie unto you that we be in good
+     health and prosperity of our person; and so be our brother of
+     Gloucester, and bel-uncle of Exeter, and all the remnant of lords
+     and other persons of our host, blessed be our Lord, which grant
+     you so for to be! Witting, moreover, that in our coming by
+     Picardy we had disposed us for to have tarried somewhat in the
+     country, for to have set it, with God's help, in better
+     governance; and, while we were busy to intend therto, come
+     tidings unto us that he that clepeth him [calleth himself]
+     Dauphin was coming down with a great puissance unto Chartres.
+     Wherefore we drove us in all haste to Paris, as well for to set
+     our father of France, as the said good town of Paris, in sure
+     governance, and from thence unto this our town of Mante, at which
+     place we arrived on Wednesday last, to the intent for to have
+     given succours, with God's grace, unto the said town of Chartres;
+     and hither come unto us our brother of Burgundy with a fair
+     fellowship, for to have gone with us to the said succours; the
+     which our brother of Burgundy we find right a trusty, loving, and
+     faithful brother unto us in all things. But, in our coming from
+     Paris unto this our town of Mante, we were certified upon the
+     way, by certain letters that were sent unto us, that the said
+     pretense Dauphin, for certain causes that moved him, hath raised
+     the said siege, and is gone into the country of
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page301" name="page301">(p. 301)</a></span>
+     Touraine in great haste, as it is said. And we trust fully unto
+     our Lord that, through his grace and mercy, all things here, that
+     we shall have to do with, shall go well from henceforth, to his
+     plesance and worship; who we beseech devoutly that it so may be,
+     and to have you in his keeping!&mdash;Given under our signet, in our
+     host, at our town of Mante, the 12th day of July."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Though the Dauphin avoided Henry altogether, he was forced to engage
+with the Duke of Burgundy's army, and he suffered a most decided
+defeat near Blanche Tache. Henry, meanwhile, was engaged in reducing
+Dreux and other towns, still garrisoned for the Dauphin.</p>
+
+<p>The town of Meaux was so strong, and so well manned, that the siege of
+that one place occupied Henry from the 6th of October through the
+whole winter, and to the very end of the next April. During this
+protracted siege, in which the Earls of Dorset, and of Worcester, and
+Lord Clifford were killed, Henry sent ambassadors to the Emperor
+Sigismund for succours. He had the satisfaction, meanwhile, to hear
+that his Queen was delivered of a son, at Windsor, on St. Nicholas'
+day (December 6th). Whether the common report has any foundation in
+truth, cannot now be certainly known: his father, however, is said to
+have omened ill of the young prince when he heard of the place of his
+birth, and to have spoken thus to Lord Fitz-Hugh, his chamberlain: "My
+lord, I Henry, born at Monmouth, shall small time reign and get much;
+and Henry,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page302" name="page302">(p. 302)</a></span>
+born at Windsor, shall long reign and lose all:
+but God's will be done!" Probably this was a prophecy forged after the
+event, and ascribed to Henry without any foundation in truth.</p>
+
+<p>In the session of Parliament held December 1st, 1421, under the Duke
+of Bedford as Regent, one fifteenth was voted for prosecuting the war,
+with this condition appended, that the first half of it should be paid
+in the money then current. The gold coin had been much lessened in
+value by clipping and washing; consequently the Parliament, to relieve
+the people, ordained that the receivers of the tax should take all
+light pieces, not wanting in weight more than 12<i>d.</i> in the noble. The
+people, therefore, got rid of their gold as fast as they could, and
+hoarded up their
+silver.<a id="notetag229" name="notetag229"></a><a href="#note229">[229]</a>
+The Convocation also, which met at York,
+September 22nd, granted a tenth.</p>
+
+<p>After reducing many towns and castles, Henry proceeded to the Château
+Bois de Vincennes, near Paris, to meet his
+Queen,<a id="notetag230" name="notetag230"></a><a href="#note230">[230]</a>
+who had landed
+at Harfleur, on the 21st of May, with a noble retinue, and under
+convoy of the Regent himself. Henry and Katharine entered Paris
+together, where they were magnificently received; the same painful
+contrast still being felt by Charles between his court and that
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page303" name="page303">(p. 303)</a></span>
+of his heir-apparent. The young King had put the spirit of the
+Parisians to the test by a strong measure, in levying a most unpopular
+tax; but the discontent did not break out into any open tumult. Indeed
+(as the chroniclers record) their resentments were abated, or rather
+turned into affection, when they felt the kind influences of King
+Henry's just and moderate government, and observed his exact
+administration of justice in redressing wrongs, and punishing without
+partiality or favour the authors of them. By this just conduct he
+gained especially the love of the people, who regarded him as their
+father and protector.</p>
+
+<p>The Dauphin in the mean time was anxiously bent on recovering a crown
+from which the victories of Henry, and the displeasure of the King his
+father, had excluded him. His army was comparatively small, and he
+therefore, whilst Henry was with an army in the neighbourhood, avoided
+a battle, keeping always two days' march distant from him. Finding,
+however, that Henry was now, at length, far away, he laid siege to
+Cone, a town on the Loire, the garrison of which agreed to surrender
+on the 16th of August, if they were not by that time relieved by the
+Duke of Burgundy. The Duke not only sent into Flanders and Picardy to
+levy troops to raise this siege, but importuned Henry also to
+strengthen him with English soldiers and officers. The King's answer
+was that he would come
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page304" name="page304">(p. 304)</a></span>
+himself at the head of his whole army
+to the Duke's relief. This was his resolution; but God decreed
+otherwise.</p>
+
+<p>Very shortly after this resolution, Henry was seized by a disorder, on
+the exact nature of which historians are not agreed, which proved
+fatal to him. Yet, though much weakened, he resolved to join his army,
+which, at the first approach of his disorder, he had commanded the
+Duke of Bedford to lead on to raise the siege of Cone. With this
+intention he left the
+King<a id="notetag231" name="notetag231"></a><a href="#note231">[231]</a>
+and Queen of France, and his own
+beloved Katharine, at Senlis, and proceeded to Melun. His complaint
+was then making rapid and deadly progress; and, after having been
+carried in a litter with the intention of passing through his troops,
+he was compelled to return to
+Vincennes.<a id="notetag232" name="notetag232"></a><a href="#note232">[232]</a>
+The Duke of Bedford, who
+had raised the siege of Cone without striking a blow, hearing now of
+the state of danger in which his brother was, left the army, and,
+accompanied by a few friends, rode full speed towards the castle,
+where the King lay.</p>
+
+<p>Henry, sensible that his end was fast approaching, desired the Duke of
+Bedford, the Duke of Exeter, the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page305" name="page305">(p. 305)</a></span>
+Earl of Warwick, Sir Lewis
+Robessart, and some others, to stand round his bed; to whom we are
+told he spoke to this effect: "I am come," said he, "to the end of a
+life which, though short, has yet been glorious, and employed to
+advance the good and honour of my people. I confess it has been spent
+in war and blood; yet, since the only motive of that war was to
+vindicate my rights after I had ineffectually tried milder methods,
+the guilt of all the miseries it occasioned belongs not to me, but to
+my enemies. As death never appeared formidable to me in so many
+battles and sieges, so now, without horror, I regard it making its
+gradual approach. And since it is the will of my Creator now to put a
+period to my day, I cheerfully submit myself to his will." He then
+mentioned two circumstances which tended to make him anxious on
+leaving the world: the one, that the war was not brought to a close;
+the other, that his son was an infant. But he was comforted on both
+these points by the tried friendship and sound principles of the Duke
+of Bedford, his brother; to whom he gave in charge both his kingdom
+and his boy. He then desired the Earl of Warwick to undertake the
+office of preceptor and guide to the young prince in learning and in
+arms. Henry next left a charge for his brother Humfrey to be careful
+that no division of affection and interests should take place between
+them; he conjured them also not to quarrel with the Duke of Burgundy,
+and enjoined them not to release
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page306" name="page306">(p. 306)</a></span>
+the Duke of Orleans, and
+some other prisoners, till his son was arrived at years of discretion.</p>
+
+<p>This was a mournful hour for those noblemen and friends and relatives
+who surrounded his bed. At length, having given all necessary
+directions for the government of his kingdom and his
+family,<a id="notetag233" name="notetag233"></a><a href="#note233">[233]</a> he
+fixed his thoughts wholly on another world. He urged the physicians to
+tell him the real state of his disease; but they evaded any direct
+answer. Very soon he required them to tell him how long, in all human
+probability, he had to live. After some consultation, one of them,
+speaking for the rest, knelt down and said, "Sir, think of your soul;
+for, without a miracle, in our judgment you cannot survive two hours."
+His confessor and other ministers of religion then surrounded his bed,
+and administered the parting rite of the Roman church, as it was at
+that time and is still practised. He next desired them to join in the
+seven penitential psalms; and when in the 51st psalm they read, "Build
+thou the walls of Jerusalem," caught by the words, Henry bade them
+stop awhile; and with a loud voice declared to them, on the faith of a
+dying person, that it verily had been his fixed purpose, after
+settling peace in France, to proceed against the infidels, and rescue
+Jerusalem from their tyranny, if it had pleased his Creator
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page307" name="page307">(p. 307)</a></span>
+to lengthen out his days. He then requested them to proceed; and when
+they had finished their devotions, between two and three o'clock in
+the morning, he breathed his last.</p>
+
+<p>Henry of Monmouth died 31st August 1422; and when he resigned his soul
+into the hands of his Redeemer, he seemed to fall asleep rather than
+to expire.<a id="notetag234" name="notetag234"></a><a href="#note234">[234]</a></p>
+
+<p>Such a Christian end of his mortal existence is not surprising when we
+remember (a point on which his own chaplain will not suffer us to
+doubt,) that every day of his life he read and meditated upon the word
+of God, for the express purpose of learning how best to fear and serve
+him; a daily exercise (says the chaplain) from which, when he was
+engaged in it, no one even of his chief nobles and the great men of
+his state<a id="notetag235" name="notetag235"></a><a href="#note235">[235]</a>
+could withdraw him.<a id="notetag236" name="notetag236"></a><a href="#note236">[236]</a></p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+     The bowels of Henry were buried in the monastery of St. Maur; and
+     his body embalmed, being put into a leaden coffin, was drawn to
+     St. Denis. Before and behind the corpse were two lamps burning;
+     and two hundred and fifty torches gave light to the procession.
+     The Abbot and Monks of St. Denis came out to meet it, and
+     solemnly preceded it to their church,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page308" name="page308">(p. 308)</a></span> where they
+     performed the office for the dead, the Archbishop of Paris
+     singing the requiem. From St. Denis the procession advanced to
+     Paris, where the body was deposited for a while in Notre Dame;
+     and thence, with great and solemn pomp, it was carried to Rouen.
+     The Queen, from whom the death of her husband had been before
+     concealed, here met the Duke of Bedford; and made preparations
+     for the conveyance of the body to England. In a bed, in the same
+     carriage with the body, was laid the figure of the King, with a
+     crown of gold on his head, a sceptre in his right hand, and a
+     ball in his left. The covering of the bed was vermilion silk
+     embroidered with gold, and over the chariot was a rich silk
+     canopy. The chariot was drawn by six horses in rich harness. The
+     first bore the arms of St. George, the second, the arms of
+     Normandy; the third, those of King Arthur; the fourth, those of
+     St. Edward; the fifth, the arms of France; the sixth, the arms of
+     England and France. James, King of Scots, followed it as
+     principal mourner. The banners of the saints were borne by four
+     lords. The hatchments were carried by twelve captains; and around
+     the carriage rode five hundred men-at-arms, all in black
+     armour,&mdash;their horses barbed black, and their lances held with
+     the points downwards. A great company clothed in white, and
+     bearing lighted torches, "encompassed the hearse." Those of the
+     King's household followed, and after them the royal family; the
+     Queen, with a great retinue, followed at a league's distance.
+     Whenever the corpse rested masses were sung from the first dawn
+     of the morning till nine o'clock. The procession passed through
+     Abbeville to Calais; and crossing to Dover, proceeded with the
+     same solemnities towards London. When they approached the
+     capital, they were met by fifteen bishops in their pontifical
+     habits, and many abbots in their mitres and vestments, with a
+     great company of priests and people. The princes of the royal
+     family went mourning next to the hearse. The corpse was buried in
+     Westminster Abbey, among its most valued treasures.
+</p>
+
+
+<p>Among <span class="pagenum"><a id="page309" name="page309">(p. 309)</a></span>
+the public acts<a id="notetag237"
+name="notetag237"></a><a href="#note237">[237]</a> of the realm his death is thus
+recorded:</p>
+
+
+     <p class="smcap">"DEPARTED THIS LIFE, AT THE CASTLE OF BOIS DE VINCENNES, NEAR
+     PARIS, ON THE LAST DAY OF AUGUST, IN THE YEAR 1422, AND THE TENTH
+     OF HIS REIGN, THE MOST CHRISTIAN CHAMPION OF THE CHURCH, THE
+     BRIGHT BEAM OF WISDOM, THE MIRROR OF JUSTICE, THE UNCONQUERED
+     KING, THE FLOWER AND PRIDE OF ALL CHIVALRY&mdash;<b>HENRY THE FIFTH</b>, KING
+     OF ENGLAND, HEIR AND REGENT OF FRANCE, AND LORD OF IRELAND."</p>
+
+
+
+<p>Here we would have drawn the curtain round the bed of Henry of
+Monmouth; but truth and justice compel us to tarry somewhat longer in
+the chamber of death. The tongue and pen of calumny have not suffered
+the dying hero to pour out his soul with his last breath in prayer and
+pious ejaculations unmolested; and the accuser's name is too widely
+known, and has unhappily gained too much influence in the world, for
+his calumnies to be passed over as harmless. Henry, having "set his
+house in order," and being certified how short a time he had to live,
+declares, on the faith of a dying man, that he had been fully resolved
+(had the Almighty granted him length of days to put his resolve into
+effect) to proceed in person to the Holy Land, and rescue the city of
+God from the pollutions and abominations of the infidels. In recording
+this declaration of the expiring monarch, Hume adds a comment as full
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page310" name="page310">(p. 310)</a></span>
+of bitter sarcasm as it is tinctured with his characteristic
+spirit of scepticism. "So ingenious are men in deceiving themselves,
+that Henry forgot in these moments all the blood spilt by his
+ambition, and received comfort from this late and feeble resolve;
+which, as the mode of those enterprises was now past, he certainly
+would never have carried into execution." Had Hume been as faithful
+and painstaking in the search of truth, as he was ready to adopt the
+account of any transaction which was nearest at hand, and unscrupulous
+in substituting his own hasty remarks in the place of well-weighed
+reflections on ascertained facts, he never would have suffered so
+ignorant and ill-founded a comment to disgrace his pages.
+Hume<a id="notetag238" name="notetag238"></a><a href="#note238">[238]</a>
+charges Henry with having left the world, forgetful of the
+bloodguiltiness by which his soul was stained, and with a sentence of
+hypocrisy and falsehood on his lips. To the first charge,&mdash;that Henry,
+at the awful moment of his dissolution, deceived himself into a
+forgetfulness "of all the blood spilt by his ambition,"&mdash;needs only to
+be replied, that so far from his having forgotten the loss of human
+life attendant upon his wars, the very page on which the historian is
+so severely commenting, records that Henry spoke of that subject
+openly and unreservedly to those who stood around his bed, expressing
+his sure trust that the guilt of that blood did not stain his soul,
+who sought
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page311" name="page311">(p. 311)</a></span>
+only his just inheritance; but rested on the heads
+of those who, by their obstinate perseverance in injustice, compelled
+him to appeal to the God of battle in vindication of his own rights.</p>
+
+<p>Again, Henry declares, on the faith of a dying Christian Prince, that
+it had verily been his fixed resolution, as soon as his wars in France
+had been brought to a favourable issue, to proceed to the Holy Land.
+Hume says that this was a late and feeble resolve; and the ground on
+which he rests this charge of falsehood is, that the mode of those
+enterprises was then past. Hume ought to have known, as an ordinary
+historian, that the mode of those enterprises was not then past; and
+Hume might have known that Henry's was not a death-bed resolve, to
+which the expiring self-deceiver clung for comfort when the world was
+receding from his sight; but that in his health and strength, and in
+the mid-career of his victories, he had actually taken preliminary
+measures for facilitating the execution of that very design.</p>
+
+<p>With regard to the first position asserted by Hume, that "the mode of
+these enterprises was gone by," the facts of history are so far from
+authorizing him to make such an assertion, that they combine to expose
+its rashness and unsoundness. When Henry succeeded to the throne, he
+found a large naval and military force actually prepared by his father
+for the proclaimed purpose of executing such an enterprise, the
+undertaking of which was
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page312" name="page312">(p. 312)</a></span>
+only prevented by his
+death.<a id="notetag239" name="notetag239"></a><a href="#note239">[239]</a>
+And even a century after, the mode of those enterprises had not yet
+passed; for Pope Leo X. successfully negociated a league between the
+chief powers of Christendom, engaging them to unite against the
+infidel dominion of the Turk. Not only were such crusades subjects of
+serious and practical consideration in Europe just before Henry's
+accession to the throne, and a full century after it, but, during the
+last years of Henry's life, most vigorous and persevering exertions
+were made by the Sovereign Pontiff to effect an immediate expedition
+of the confederated powers of Christendom to Palestine, with the
+avowed purpose of crushing the power of the infidels. The histories of
+those times bear varied evidence to the same points: we must here,
+however, confine our attention to some facts more immediately
+connected with the case before us. In the year
+1420,<a id="notetag240" name="notetag240"></a><a href="#note240">[240]</a>
+July 12,
+Pope Martin V, conceiving that Sigismund would very shortly bring the
+war which he was then waging against the Hussites in Bohemia to an
+end, in a bull dated Florence calls upon all Kings, Prelates, Lords,
+and people, adjuring them most solemnly, by the shedding of Christ's
+blood, to join Sigismund, and under his
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page313" name="page313">(p. 313)</a></span>
+standard to invade
+the lands of the Turks, and to exterminate them. He urges the
+formation of one grand general army, and for all true men to take the
+cross; with his apostolic promise to all who should so assume the
+cross, and join the army in their own persons and at their own
+charges, and also to all who should take up arms with the <i>bonâ fide</i>
+intention of joining the army, should they die on their journey, a
+full remission of all sins of which they should have repented from the
+heart, and confessed with the mouth; and, "in the retribution of the
+just, we promise them (says the Pontiff) an increase of eternal
+salvation."<a id="notetag241" name="notetag241"></a><a href="#note241">[241]</a></p>
+
+<p>In the following year the Pope wrote a most urgent letter to
+Sigismund, pressing upon him, before and above all things, the duty of
+extirpating the heresy in Bohemia; assuring him that, however
+brilliant might be his career in other respects, yet by no means could
+he so well secure the favour of God, renown among men, and the
+stability of his throne. The Pontiff, in the same year, wrote
+repeatedly to Henry, King of England, urging him to consent to terms
+of peace between his country and France. We should have been glad had
+we been able to contemplate the Pontiff of Rome, in the character of a
+Christian mediator, urging two contending nations to be reconciled,
+solely with the Christian desire of stopping the dominion of war and
+blood, reconciling those who were
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page314" name="page314">(p. 314)</a></span>
+at variance, checking the
+violent passions of mankind, and restoring to Europe the blessing of
+peace. But his desire was to reconcile France and England, in order
+that the concentrated powers of the faithful in Europe might be turned
+against the heretics in the north; and, when they were exterminated,
+then that the same forces might proceed to crush the infidel, and
+rescue the lands of the faithful from his grasp. The ecclesiastical
+historian,<a id="notetag242" name="notetag242"></a><a href="#note242">[242]</a>
+who records the letters of the Sovereign Pontiff,
+assures us that Henry, King of England, had been repeatedly admonished
+by "the vicar of Christ to make peace with the French, and to dedicate
+to Christ his skill in war against the Turks, those savage enemies of
+the Gospel; adding (what the facts of the case did not justify him in
+saying,) that, in the agonies of his last illness, Henry confessed
+that he was dreadfully tormented with remorse because he had not
+consecrated his martial powers by waging war against the
+Mahometans."<a id="notetag243" name="notetag243"></a><a href="#note243">[243]</a>
+Surely this testimony is of itself sufficient to
+rescue Henry's memory from having vowed that he had resolved to do
+what he knew he
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page315" name="page315">(p. 315)</a></span>
+never could have done. "The mode of those
+enterprises was" not "past."</p>
+
+<p>But Hume would have it believed that this was a late and feeble
+resolve of Henry, formed on his death-bed, when he was acting the part
+of a self-deceiver, forgetful of the lamentable effects of his
+ambition, and seeking comfort from his self-deception in the last
+moments of his life. There is strong and clear evidence that he not
+only had contemplated such a measure, but had actually taken important
+preliminary steps to facilitate the execution of his design, whenever
+he might be happily released from his present engagements. "This
+vindicatory evidence" (to use the words of Mr. Granville
+Penn)<a id="notetag244" name="notetag244"></a><a href="#note244">[244]</a>
+"of the veracity and sincerity of Henry, is a manuscript discovered at
+Lille, in Flanders, in the autumn of 1819, which proves to positive
+demonstration, that at the moment when Henry was suddenly arrested in
+his victorious progress by the hand of death, his mind was actually,
+though secretly, engaged in projecting an attack on the infidel power
+in Egypt and Syria, as soon as he should have pacified the internal
+agitations of France; and that a confidential military agent of high
+character and distinguished rank had been despatched by him to survey
+the maritime frontier of those two countries, and to procure, upon the
+spot, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page316" name="page316">(p. 316)</a></span>
+the information necessary towards embarking in so vast
+an enterprise.</p>
+
+<p>"The manuscript is a small quarto in vellum, in old French, finely
+written in black character, and richly illuminated; consisting of
+fifty-four pages, and comprising a succinct military survey of the
+coasts and defences of Egypt and Syria, from Alexandria round to
+Gallipoli, made by the command of Henry within the three last years of
+his life, and completed and reported immediately after his unexpected
+death, by which death it was rendered unavailing. The confidential
+author of this survey was Gilbert de Lannoi, counsellor and
+chamberlain to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, and that Duke's
+ambassador to Henry."</p>
+
+<p>The same writer thus expresses himself in conclusion. "His declaration
+was not the prompting of a sickly conscience striving to procure
+delusive comfort from 'the late and feeble' resolves of a death-bed,
+as Hume unworthily asserts; it was the composed and deliberate
+communication of a dying captain and sovereign, disclosing to those
+around him, under a strong sentiment of devotion, a secret of that
+kingly office which he was then on the point of relinquishing for
+ever. To enter upon an appreciation of the moral value of the
+enterprise which Henry had then in prospect, would be as much out of
+place here, as it would be absurd to estimate it by the rule of the
+present age. In those ages, when all the higher orders of society
+were
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page317" name="page317">(p. 317)</a></span>
+either clerical or martial, much real piety of
+sentiment must, in innumerable instances, have been compounded with
+the widely-extended romantic spirit which was ardent to hazard life on
+sacred ground of Judea, rather than to suffer the continuance of its
+profanation by the avowed enemy of the Christian name.</p>
+
+<p>"The establishment of this point, certifying, as it does an
+interesting fact hitherto unknown, and effectually repelling and
+exposing an unjustifiable sarcasm directed against one of the most
+illustrious princes that have graced the English crown, may acquire in
+the history of truth the importance to which it might not be able to
+lay claim in the political history of a
+people."<a id="notetag245" name="notetag245"></a><a href="#note245">[245]</a></p>
+
+<p>In dismissing the immediate subject of this inquiry, the Author of
+these Memoirs feels himself under the painful necessity of recording
+his deliberate judgment on the inaccuracies of that celebrated writer,
+whose reflections upon Henry's dying declaration
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page318" name="page318">(p. 318)</a></span>
+have been
+animadverted upon here. Through the whole series of years to the
+events of which these Memoirs are chiefly limited, he has been able to
+find very few transactions in recording or commenting upon which Hume
+has not been guilty of error; whilst the mistakes into which he has
+fallen (some more, some less, gravely affecting the character of an
+historian,) are generally such as an examination of the best evidence,
+conducted with ordinary care, would have enabled him successfully to
+avoid. Hume, unfortunately, supplied himself without stint from the
+stream after it had mingled with many turbid and discolouring waters.
+To draw, in each case of doubt and difficulty, from the well-head of
+historical truth, would have exacted more time and labour than he was
+ready to bestow. Had he prescribed to himself a system of research the
+very opposite to that in which he unhappily indulged, instead of
+representing Henry of Monmouth to have left the world with the
+falsehood of a self-deceiver on his tongue, he would have been
+compelled to record him as a man of piety, mercy, and truth.</p>
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page319" name="page319">(p. 319)</a></span>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIX.</h2>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">was henry of monmouth a persecutor? &mdash; just principles of conducting
+the inquiry, and forming the judgment. &mdash; modern charge against henry.
+&mdash; review of the prevalent opinions on religious liberty. &mdash; true
+principles of christian freedom. &mdash; duty of the state and of
+individuals to promote the prevalence of true religion. &mdash; charge
+against henry, as prince of wales, for presenting a petition against
+the lollards. &mdash; the merciful intention of that petition. &mdash; his
+conduct at the death of badby.</span><br><br>
+
+<span class="smcap">WAS HENRY OF MONMOUTH A PERSECUTOR?</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>In estimating the character of an individual, nothing is more
+calculated to mislead ourselves, or to subject him to injustice at our
+hands, than a disregard of the time, and country, and circumstances in
+which he lived. It is equally unwise, and unfair, and deceitful, for a
+human judge to establish one fixed
+standard<a id="notetag246" name="notetag246"></a><a href="#note246">[246]</a>
+of excellence in any
+department whatever of scientific or practical knowledge, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page320" name="page320">(p. 320)</a></span>
+then to try the merits of all persons alike with reference to
+that one test. The injustice and absurdity of estimating the talents
+for investigation and acumen, the skill, and industry, and
+perseverance of a chemical student, many centuries ago, by the
+knowledge of the most celebrated men of the present day, and to
+pronounce all who fell below that standard to have been deficient in
+natural talents, or in a faithful exercise of them, would be seen and
+acknowledged by all. At this time, errors in navigation would be
+unpardonable, which would have implicated a pilot in no culpability at
+all, who lived before the invention of the mariner's compass, and when
+half our globe was as yet unknown. The same observations are
+applicable when we would estimate the moral excellence of an
+individual, his worth in a private or a public capacity, his character
+as a subject or a governor,&mdash;as the framer, or the guardian, or the
+administrator of the laws. Many a practice in ordinary social
+intercourse, which would not be tolerated, and would fix a stigma on
+those who were examples of it as persons to be shunned and excluded
+from society in one age or country, might in another not only be
+endured, but be even countenanced and encouraged by those who would
+take the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page321" name="page321">(p. 321)</a></span>
+lead in the improvement and refinement of civilized
+life. The grand broad fundamental principles of right and wrong must
+abstractedly be acknowledged always and in every place; but in the
+interpretation<a id="notetag247" name="notetag247"></a><a href="#note247">[247]</a>
+of them, and in their practical application, we
+shall find in the records of successive ages every conceivable
+diversity. If, in these days, we are tempted to brand with the mark of
+ignorance, and superstition, and cruelty, those among our predecessors
+who enacted laws against witchcraft, and condemned to death those who
+were found guilty of dealings with the spirit of wickedness, we must
+at the same time remember that persons who are examples of every
+Christian excellence, of reverence for God's law, of justice and
+charity, are now engaged in occupations which those men held in
+abhorrence. They believed in the reality of witchcraft, and condemned
+those who were pronounced guilty of the crime; we believe that the
+crime cannot be committed, that it is merely a creature of the
+imagination, and we denominate those who pretend to the power of
+committing it impostors: just as by the Mosaic law they were condemned
+as deceivers, pretending to possess a power and knowledge
+independently of the Almighty.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page322" name="page322">(p. 322)</a></span>
+Our predecessors considered
+the lending of money upon interest as an offence against the law of
+God, and reprobated those who so employed their capital as usurers,
+who had forfeited all title to the name of merciful
+Christians;&mdash;whilst in the present day the most scrupulous person does
+not hesitate, as in a matter of conscience, to depend for the means of
+subsistence on such a source of income. Assuming that in each of these
+two cases our views are formed on a sounder principle of moral and
+religious philosophy, we have no more right to disparage the character
+of any individual, who did his best in the midst of less favourable
+circumstances, than we should have to reprobate the helmsman of former
+days, because in the darkness of a starless night he had no compass
+wherewith to save his ship from wreck.</p>
+
+<p>These principles must be borne in mind, and acted upon whenever we
+would examine the spirit and character of any individual on the charge
+of superstition, bigotry, cruelty, and unchristian persecution. Had
+not these principles unhappily been laid aside for a time and
+forgotten, we should scarcely have been pained by so severe a portrait
+of Henry of Monmouth, as a writer who ought to have known better has
+drawn, not in the warmth of debate and the hurry of controversy, but
+in the hour of reflection and quietude. "In the midst of these
+tragedies died Henry V, whose military greatness is known to most
+readers. His vast capacity
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page323" name="page323">(p. 323)</a></span>
+and talents for government have
+been also justly celebrated. But what is man without the genuine fear
+of God? This monarch, in the former part of his life, was remarkable
+for dissipation and extravagance of conduct; in the latter he became
+the slave of the
+popedom,<a id="notetag248" name="notetag248"></a><a href="#note248">[248]</a>
+and for that reason was called the
+Prince of Priests. Voluptuousness, ambition, superstition, each in
+their turn, had the ascendant in this extraordinary character. Such,
+however, is the dazzling nature of personal bravery and of prosperity,
+that even the ignorance and folly of the bigot, and the barbarities of
+the persecutor, are lost or forgotten amidst the enterprises of the
+hero and
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page324" name="page324">(p. 324)</a></span>
+the successes of the conqueror. Reason and justice
+lift up their voice in vain. The great and substantial defects of
+Henry V. must hardly be touched on by Englishmen. The battle of
+Agincourt throws a delusive splendour around the name of this
+victorious King."<a id="notetag249" name="notetag249"></a><a href="#note249">[249]</a></p>
+
+<p>It is very painful to read this sentence; but the historian and
+biographer must not be driven by such sweeping condemnation into the
+opposite extreme; nor be deterred by the apprehension of unpopularity
+from laying open his views both of the moral and religious question in
+the abstract, and also of the acts, and character, and spirit of the
+individual subject of inquiry.</p>
+
+<p>The principles of religious liberty were ill understood through many
+years before, and subsequently to, the time of Henry V. The sentiments
+of persons in every rank of life in those days seem to have been built
+upon an understanding, that the authorities, ecclesiastical and civil,
+were bound in duty to expel heresy by force. It was not the case of a
+dominant party enacting penalties abhorrent from the sympathies of the
+mass of the people; "the people themselves wished to have it so, and
+the priests bore rule by their means." So thorough a triumph had the
+gigantic policy of Rome achieved over the freedom, and the wills, and
+the judgments of the inhabitants of Europe! Like her other victories,
+this too was the work of progressive
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page325" name="page325">(p. 325)</a></span>
+inroads on the
+liberties of Christians. Never at rest, ever active, the
+arch-conqueror fastened to her chariot-wheels, one by one, the most
+valued rights and most solemn duties of responsible agents. The right
+of private judgment in matters of religion had been resigned by the
+vast majority of the people of Christendom, and the duty and
+responsibility in each individual of searching for the truth himself
+had been laid aside long before Henry V. was called to take a part in
+the affairs of this world. Bold and noble spirits, indeed, were found
+in successive periods to assert their own rights and to declare the
+privileges and the duties of their fellow-creatures, and to think for
+themselves in a matter which so deeply involved their own individual
+and eternal welfare; whilst the bulk of mankind in Christendom not
+only resigned their faith to the absolute control of the priesthood,
+but exacted also from their fellow-citizens a similar surrender, on
+pain of losing their share in the protection and advantages of the
+state. Thus had heresy, in various nations of Europe, become
+synonymous with rebellion and treason; a rejection of the
+determinations of the church in matters of doctrine was identified in
+most men's minds with rejection of the authority of the civil
+magistrate;<a id="notetag250" name="notetag250"></a><a href="#note250">[250]</a>
+and every one who dared to
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page326" name="page326">(p. 326)</a></span>
+dispute the
+jurisdiction of Rome was regarded as a dangerous innovator, and an
+enemy to his own country.</p>
+
+<p>That this was a state of things to be deplored by every friend of
+liberty and lover of truth, is not questioned; that domination over
+the consciences of men has ever been the object of the church of Rome,
+and that the spirit of persecution will ever be characteristic of her
+principles, is not here denied; nor are these observations made for
+the purpose of softening the feelings of abhorrence with which any
+persons may be disposed to view the proceedings of a persecuting
+spirit in those things which concern our most momentous interests so
+awfully. We refer to these historical reminiscences solely for the
+purpose of forming a more correct estimate of the individual character
+of one who lived in those times, and was born, and cradled, and
+educated in that atmosphere. It is easy to charge Henry V. with "the
+ignorance and folly of the bigot, and the barbarities of the
+persecutor;" but it were more worthy of a historian (his eye bent
+singly on the truth) to substitute inquiry
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page327" name="page327">(p. 327)</a></span>
+for assumption,
+and careful weighing of the evidence for indiscriminate condemnation.
+There is such a thing as persecution, though the dungeon and the stake
+be not employed for its instruments; and true charity will be tender
+of the character of a fellow-mortal, though he is removed from this
+scene of trouble and trial, and has no longer the power of answering
+the accusations with which his good name is assailed. We may be as
+honest as those who write most bitterly, in our abhorrence of
+persecution; and yet think the individual who put its most rigid laws
+into effect, deserving of compassion and pity that his lot had fallen
+in such days of bigotry and ignorance, rather than of reprobation for
+not having discovered for himself a more enlightened path of duty.</p>
+
+<p>It is not because we are obliged to confess that even the outward acts
+of Henry V. have been those of a persecutor, that these preliminary
+remarks are offered; it is rather to prepare our minds for a fair
+examination of his conduct, with reference to the only just and equal
+standard; for a candid and searching analysis of the evidence drawn
+from original sources, before it has become turbid and coloured by the
+channel through which it is often forced to flow; and for an
+unprejudiced judgment on his character,&mdash;a judgment perverted neither,
+on the one hand, by the dazzling splendour of his victories, nor, on
+the other, by that very common but most
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page328" name="page328">(p. 328)</a></span>
+iniquitous principle
+of adjudication condemns the accused from hatred of the crime laid to
+his charge. The Author's sentiments on the character of religious
+persecution in general, and of the persecuting spirit of the church of
+Rome in particular, need not be disguised. He would never be disposed
+to acquit Henry V, or any other person, from a feeling of sympathy
+with the spirit of persecution.</p>
+
+<p>The religion of the Gospel abhors all persecution. The faith of Christ
+must be maintained and propagated by more holy and heavenly weapons
+than those which can be forged by human authority and power.
+Persecution prevails in a Christian community only so far as the
+genuine spirit of the Gospel is quenched or checked among its members.
+The church has a power of compelling men to come to Christ, and to
+embrace the true faith, but its instruments of compulsion must be
+spiritual only: its sword must be supplied from God's own armoury. The
+sentence, "Having the terrors of the Lord, we persuade men," conveys
+an idea of tremendous consequences in store for those who refuse to
+obey the truth; but the consequences are reserved for the immediate
+dispensation of Him "who knoweth the thoughts." That believers, when
+possessed of temporal power, should have recourse to bodily restraint,
+and torture, and death, as the earthly punishment of those who
+entertain unsound doctrine, is a monstrous invention,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page329" name="page329">(p. 329)</a></span> which
+can derive no countenance from "the Word," and must be supported only
+by a worldly sword, and the arm of man wielding it. If, indeed,
+Christians are so far forgetful of the spirit of the Gospel as, on the
+plea of defending and spreading its genuine doctrines, to disturb the
+peace, and shake the foundations, and threaten the overthrow of
+society, the civil magistrate, whether Christian or heathen, will
+interpose. But neither has he, more than the church, any authority
+whatever for interfering by violence with the faith of any one. It is
+the duty of a Christian magistrate to provide for his people the means
+of religious instruction, and worship, and consolation; but, on the
+principles which alone can be justified, he must leave them at liberty
+to reject or to avail themselves of the benefit. Their neglect, or
+their abuse of it, will form a subject of inquiry at another tribunal;
+and the final, irreversible judgment to be pronounced there, man has
+no right to anticipate by pain and punishment on earth. These are the
+true principles of Christianity, and a church departs from the Gospel
+whenever these principles are neglected.</p>
+
+<p>In adopting, however, these principles, and making them practically
+one's own, it must never be forgotten that there is a danger of
+confounding them, as they are unhappily too often confounded, with the
+results of a philosophy, falsely so called, which would teach
+governments to be indifferent to
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page330" name="page330">(p. 330)</a></span>
+the religion of their
+people, and would encourage individuals to take no interest in the
+dissemination of religious truth. East is not more opposed to west,
+than the spirit of persecution, which would compel others by secular
+punishments to make profession of whatever doctrines the government of
+a country may adopt, is opposed to that Christian wisdom which
+maintains it to be equally the bounden duty of the state to provide
+for the religious instruction and comfort of its members, as it is the
+duty of a father to train up his own children in the faith and fear of
+God. The poles are not further asunder, than that holy anxiety for the
+salvation of our fellow-creatures which would impel Christians, to the
+very utmost bound of the sphere of their influence, to promote as well
+unity in the faith as the bond of peace and righteousness of life, is
+removed from that narrow bigotry which fixes on those who differ from
+ourselves the charge of wilful blindness, and obstinate hatred of the
+truth, to be visited by man's rebuke here, and God's displeasure for
+ever.<a id="notetag251" name="notetag251"></a><a href="#note251">[251]</a>
+A wise and pious writer of our own
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page331" name="page331">(p. 331)</a></span>
+has
+said,<a id="notetag252" name="notetag252"></a><a href="#note252">[252]</a>
+"Show me the man who would desire to travel to heaven alone,
+regardless of his fellow-creature's progress thitherward, and in that
+same person I will show you one who will never be admitted there." The
+principle applies equally to an individual and a commonwealth. Show me
+a State which neglects to provide for the spiritual edification and
+comfort of its members, and in its institutions proves itself
+unconcerned as to the advancement of religious truth, and in that
+State you see a commonwealth whose counsels are not guided by the
+spirit of the Gospel, and therefore on which, however for a time it
+may shine and dazzle men's eyes with the splendour of conquest, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page332" name="page332">(p. 332)</a></span>
+be making gigantic strides in secular aggrandizement, the
+blessing of the God of Truth and Love cannot be expected to descend.</p>
+
+<p>A Christian legislature is bound by the most solemn of all
+obligations to supply with parental care the means which, in the
+honest exercise of its wisdom, it deems best fitted for converting the
+community into a people serving God; each obedient to his law here,
+each personally preparing for the awful change from time to eternity.
+But with each individual member of the community, from those who make
+its laws or administer them to the humblest labourer for his daily
+bread, it must ultimately be left to accept or to reject, to cultivate
+or neglect, the offered blessing. The moment compulsion interferes
+with the free choice of the individual, the religion of the heart and
+the outward observance cease to coincide, and hypocrisy, not faith
+working by love, is the result.
+"Persecution<a id="notetag253" name="notetag253"></a><a href="#note253">[253]</a>
+either punishes a
+man for keeping a good conscience, or forces him into a bad
+conscience; it either punishes sincerity, or persuades hypocrisy; it
+persecutes a truth, or drives into error; and it teaches a man to
+dissemble and to be safe, but never to be honest."</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+
+<p>With these observations we would proceed to inquire historically into
+the personal character of Henry V. with regard to religious
+persecution; a prince
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page333" name="page333">(p. 333)</a></span>
+who lived when all Christendom was
+full of the darkness of bigotry and superstition, and when persecution
+had established its "cruel habitations" in every corner of the land.</p>
+
+<p>The first occasion on which Henry of Monmouth's name is in any way
+connected with religious intolerance and persecution, is recorded in
+the Rolls of Parliament, 7 and 8 Henry IV. The circumstance is thus
+stated by
+Prynne,<a id="notetag254" name="notetag254"></a><a href="#note254">[254]</a>
+or whoever was the author of the passage which
+is now found in the "Abridgment of Records in the Tower." "At this
+time the clergy suborned Henry, Prince, for and in the name of the
+clergy, and Sir John Tibetott the Speaker, for and in behalf of the
+Commons, to exhibit a long and <i>bloody</i> bill against certain men
+called Lollards,&mdash;namely, against them that taught or preached
+anything against the temporal livings of the clergy. Other points
+touching Lollardy I read none; only this is to be marked, for the
+better expedition in this exploit, they joined prophecies touching the
+King's <span class="pagenum"><a id="page334" name="page334">(p. 334)</a></span>
+estate, and such as whispered and bruited that King
+Richard should be living; the which they inserted, to the end that by
+the same subtlety they might the better achieve against the poor
+Lollards aforesaid. Wherein note a most unlawful and monstrous
+tyranny; for the request of the same bill was, that every officer, or
+other minister whatever might apprehend and inquire of such Lollards
+without any other commission, and that no sanctuary should hold them."</p>
+
+<p>The Biographer of Henry V. needs not be very anxious as to the real
+intention of this petition. The allegation that Prince Henry and the
+Speaker of the House of Commons were suborned by the clergy, is a pure
+invention; no proof, or probable confirmation of any part of the
+charge, is afforded by history. The Speaker is named as the chief
+member of the House of Commons; the Prince is named as President of
+the Council, and chief member of the House of Lords; each acting in
+his official rather than in his individual character.</p>
+
+<p>The petition was presented on Wednesday, December 22, in the
+parliament 7 and 8 Henry IV. which was dissolved that same day. The
+Roll records that "The Commons came before the King and Lords, and
+prayed an interview with the Lords by John Tybetot the Speaker."
+Different petitions were presented; one touching the succession of the
+crown, and the petition in question. The petition is not drawn up in
+the name of the Commons and
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page335" name="page335">(p. 335)</a></span>
+Lords; it purports to be
+addressed to the King by "his humble son Henry the Prince, and the
+Lords Spiritual and Temporal in this present parliament assembled;"
+and the Speaker, in the name of the Commons, prays the King that the
+petition might be made the law of the land until the next parliament:
+and the King "graciously assents." Whatever were the real object of
+this law, if its aim were merciful, the Prince ought to have no
+additional share of the praise; if it were adding to the severity of
+the existing law, he deserves no additional blame, from the fact of
+his name appearing in the petition. In either case it appears there
+just as the Speaker's does, officially. But what was the real drift of
+this petition? Suppose it to have been on the side of severity, will
+it deserve the character assigned to it by the author of the
+"Abridgment?" Can it be called a "bloody" petition? It prayed that
+after the feast of Epiphany next ensuing, without any other
+commission, "Lollards, and other speakers and contrivers of news and
+lies, <i>might be apprehended</i> and <i>kept in safe custody till the next
+parliament</i>, and <i>there to answer to the charges against them</i>."
+Suppose this to have been an extension of a former persecuting law, it
+gave no power of life or death, or any further severity against the
+person, than merely safe custody, a power now given to any magistrate
+against persons accused of any one of a large class of offences
+usually treated as light and trifling. But we may suppose that
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page336" name="page336">(p. 336)</a></span>
+the real bearing of this petition were altogether the other
+way,&mdash;that it was intended to mitigate the severity of the existing
+law,&mdash;to deprive the real persecutors of the power, which they would
+undoubtedly have had, "of citing the suspected heretic, punishing him
+by fine and imprisonment, and, in the case of a relapsed or obstinate
+heretic, consigning him to the civil power for death." This power the
+statute<a id="notetag255" name="notetag255"></a><a href="#note255">[255]</a>
+2 Hen. IV. c. 15, conferred on the diocesans; and the
+petition in question might have been virtually a suspension of that
+sanguinary law till the next session. If this be so, we have precluded
+ourselves from ascribing any individual merit to Henry of Monmouth
+above the rest of the peers who drew up the petition; but he must
+share it equally with them; at all events, the charge of his having
+been suborned by the clergy to present "a long and bloody petition"
+falls to the ground. On this question, however, it were better to cite
+the opinion
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page337" name="page337">(p. 337)</a></span>
+of an author certainly able to take a correct
+view of such subjects; and who, not having Henry the Fifth's character
+before him at the time, but only the historical fact, must be regarded
+as an unprejudiced authority. Mr.
+Hallam,<a id="notetag256" name="notetag256"></a><a href="#note256">[256]</a>
+in his History of the
+Middle Ages, makes this comment upon the proceeding in question. "We
+find a remarkable
+petition<a id="notetag257" name="notetag257"></a><a href="#note257">[257]</a>
+in 8 Henry IV. professedly aimed
+against the Lollards, but intended, as I strongly suspect, in their
+favour. It condemns persons preaching against the Catholic faith or
+sacraments to imprisonment against the next parliament, where they
+were to abide such judgment as should be rendered by <i>the King and
+peers of the realm</i>. This seems to supersede the burning statute of 2
+Henry IV, and the spiritual cognizance of heresy. Rot. Parl. p. 583;
+see too p. 626. The petition was expressly granted; but the clergy, I
+suppose, prevented its appearing in the
+Roll."<a id="notetag258" name="notetag258"></a><a href="#note258">[258]</a>
+Certain it is,
+that, unless the statute framed upon this petition suspended the power
+of the existing law, the hierarchy had full authority, without the
+intervention of
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page338" name="page338">(p. 338)</a></span>
+the civil magistrate, to apprehend any one
+suspected of heresy, to try him, to sentence him, and to deliver him
+over to the secular power for death, upon receipt of the King's
+writ.<a id="notetag259" name="notetag259"></a><a href="#note259">[259]</a>
+Certain it also is, that, on those who might be apprehended
+in consequence of this petition, none of those rigours could be
+visited: on the contrary, they would be placed beyond reach of the
+ecclesiastical arm. Surely to talk of Prince Henry being suborned by
+the priests to present a bloody petition, savours rather of blind
+prejudice than of upright judgment.</p>
+
+<p>The only other occasion which places Henry of Monmouth, whilst Prince
+of Wales, before us in conjunction with bigotry, intolerance, and
+persecution, is the martyrdom of a condemned heretic, executed in
+Smithfield. Fox, and those who follow him, say, that the martyr was
+John Badby, an artificer of Worcester, condemned first in his own
+county, and then definitively sentenced by the Archbishop, the Duke of
+York, the Chancellor, and others in London; the Chronicle of London
+records the same transaction, but speaks of the individual as a
+"<i>clerk</i>, who believed nought of the sacrament of the altar!" There is
+no doubt, however, that the two accounts, as well as the Archbishop's
+record, refer to the same individual, though the Chronicle of London
+is mistaken as to the sphere of life in which he moved. It will be
+borne in mind that the question is not, whether John Badby ended his
+life gloriously in
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page339" name="page339">(p. 339)</a></span>
+defence and in testimony of the truth,
+nor whether those who charged, and tried, and condemned him, were
+merciless persecutors; the only point of inquiry immediately before us
+is, Whether, at the death of John Badby, Henry of Monmouth showed
+himself to be a persecutor. The circumstances, however, of this
+martyr's charge and condemnation, independently of that question, are
+by no means void of interest; though our plan precludes us from
+detailing them further than they may throw more or less direct light
+upon the subject of our investigation. The following statement is
+taken from Archbishop Arundel's
+record.<a id="notetag260" name="notetag260"></a><a href="#note260">[260]</a></p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+
+<p>John Badby was an inhabitant of Evesham, in the diocese of Worcester,
+and by trade a tailor. He was charged before the bishop with heresy,
+and was condemned in the diocesan court. The point on which alone his
+persecutors charged him, was his denial of transubstantiation. His
+trial took place on the 2nd of January, 1409, and he was subsequently
+brought before the Archbishop and his court in London, as a heretic
+convict. His examination began on Saturday, the 1st of March 1410, at
+the close of which the court resolved that he should be kept a close
+prisoner till the next Wednesday, in the house of the Preaching
+Friars, where the proceedings were carried on. The Archbishop, for
+greater caution, said that he would himself
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page340" name="page340">(p. 340)</a></span>
+keep possession
+of the key. When the Wednesday arrived, the Archbishop took, as his
+advisers and assistants, so great a number of the bishops and nobles
+of the land, that (in the words of his own record) it would be a task
+to enumerate them: among others, however, the names of Edmund Duke of
+York, John Earl of Westmoreland, Thomas Beaufort Chancellor of
+England, and Lord Beaumond, are
+recorded.<a id="notetag261" name="notetag261"></a><a href="#note261">[261]</a>
+Prince Henry, though
+present in London, and actively engaged with some of the same noblemen
+as members of the council, was not present at Badby's examination,
+either on the Saturday or on the
+Wednesday.<a id="notetag262" name="notetag262"></a><a href="#note262">[262]</a>
+In all his
+examinations Badby seems to have conducted himself throughout with
+great firmness and self-possession, and, at the same time, with much
+respect towards those who were then his judges. Looking to the
+circumstances in which he was placed, it is almost impossible for any
+one not to be struck by the weight and pointedness of his answers. He
+openly professed his belief in the ever blessed Trinity, "one
+omnipotent God in Trinity;" and when pressed as to his belief in the
+sacrament of the altar,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page341" name="page341">(p. 341)</a></span>
+he declared that, after consecration,
+the elements were signs of Christ's body, but he could not believe
+that they were changed into the substance of his flesh and blood.
+"If," he said, "a priest can by his word make God, there will be
+twenty thousand Gods in England at one time. Moreover, I cannot
+conceive how, when Christ at his last supper broke one piece of bread,
+and gave a portion to each of his disciples, the piece of bread could
+remain whole and entire as before, or that he then held his own body
+in his hand." At his last appearance before the large assemblage of
+the hierarchy and the temporality, when asked as to the nature of the
+elements, he said, that "in the sight of God, the Duke of York, or any
+child of Adam, was of higher value than the sacrament of the altar."
+The Archbishop declared openly to the accused that, if he would live
+according to the doctrine of Christ, he would pledge his soul for him
+at the last judgment day.</p>
+
+<p>The registrar, in recording these proceedings, employs expressions
+which too plainly indicate the frame of mind with which this poor man
+was viewed by his persecutors. Had the words been attributed either to
+the Archbishop himself, or to his remembrancer, by an enemy, they
+might have excited a suspicion of misrepresentation or
+misunderstanding. "Whilst he was under examination the poison of asps
+appeared about his lips; for a very large spider, which no one saw
+enter, suddenly and
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page342" name="page342">(p. 342)</a></span>
+unexpectedly, in the sight of all, ran
+about his face." To this absurd statement, however, the registrar adds
+a sentence abounding with painful and dreadful associations. "The
+Archbishop, weighing in his mind that the Holy Spirit was not in the
+man at all, and seeing by his unsubdued countenance that he had a
+heart hardened like Pharaoh's, freeing themselves from him altogether,
+delivered him to the secular arm; praying the noblemen who were
+present, not to put him to death for his offence, nor deliver him to
+be punished." Whatever force this prayer of the hierarchy was expected
+to have, the King's writ was ready. The Archbishop condemned him
+before their early dinner, and forthwith on the same day, after
+dinner, he was taken to Smithfield, and burnt in a sort of tub to
+ashes. The Lambeth
+Register<a id="notetag263" name="notetag263"></a><a href="#note263">[263]</a>
+mentions the mode of his death, and
+affirms that he persevered in his obstinacy to the last, but says
+nothing whatever about the Prince of Wales. The further proceedings
+with regard to this martyr, and which connect him with the subject of
+these Memoirs, are thus stated by Fox, in his Book of Martyrs.</p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+     "This
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page343" name="page343">(p. 343)</a></span>
+thing<a id="notetag264" name="notetag264"></a><a href="#note264">[264]</a>
+[the condemnation by the Archbishop,
+     and the delivery of Badby to the secular power,] being done and
+     concluded in the forenoon, in the afternoon the King's writ was
+     not far behind; by the force whereof John Badby was brought into
+     Smithfield, and there, being put into an empty barrel, was bound
+     with iron chains, fastened to a stake, having dry wood put about
+     him. And as he was thus standing in the pipe or tun, (for as yet
+     Perilous' bull was not in use among the bishops,) it happened
+     that the Prince, the King's eldest son, was there present; who,
+     showing some part of the good Samaritan, <i>began to endeavour and
+     assay how to save the life of him</i> whom the hypocritical Levites
+     and Pharisees sought to put to death. <i>He admonished and
+     counselled him that, having respect unto himself he should
+     speedily withdraw himself out of these labyrinths of opinions</i>;
+     adding oftentimes threatenings, the which would have daunted any
+     man's stomach. Also Courtney, at that time Chancellor of Oxford,
+     preached unto him, and informed him of the faith of holy church.
+     In this mean season, the Prior of St. Bartlemew's in Smithfield,
+     brought, with all solemnity, the sacrament of God's body, with
+     twelve torches borne before, and so shewed the sacrament to the
+     poor man being at the stake: and then they demanded
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page344" name="page344">(p. 344)</a></span> of
+     him how he believed in it; he answered, that he well knew it was
+     hallowed bread, and not God's body. And then was the tunne put
+     over him, and fire put unto him. And when he felt the fire he
+     cried, 'Mercy!' (calling belike upon the Lord,) and so the Prince
+     immediately commanded to take away the tun and quench the fire.
+     The Prince, his commandment being done, asked him if he would
+     forsake heresy and take him to the faith of holy church; which
+     thing if he would do, he should have goods enough: promising also
+     unto him a yearly stipend out of the King's treasury, so much as
+     would suffice his contentation. But this valiant champion of
+     Christ rejected the Prince's fair words, as also contemned all
+     men's devices, and refused the offer of worldly promises, no
+     doubt but being more vehemently inflamed with the spirit of God
+     than with earthly desire. Wherefore, when as yet he continued
+     unmoveable in his former mind, the Prince commanded him straight
+     to be put again into the pipe or tun, and that he should not
+     afterwards look for any grace or favour."
+</p>
+
+<p>Milner having told us, that "the memory of Henry is by no means free
+from the imputation of cruelty," gives an unfavourable turn to the
+whole affair, and ascribes a state of mind to the Prince, which Fox's
+account will scarcely justify. Milner's zeal against popery and its
+persecutions, often betrays him into expressions which a calm review
+of all the circumstances of the case would, probably, have suggested
+to his own mind the necessity of modifying and softening. Fox
+attributes to Henry "some part of the good Samaritan," and puts most
+prominently forward his desire and endeavour
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page345" name="page345">(p. 345)</a></span>
+to save the
+poor man's life. Milner ascribes to him a violence of temper,
+altogether unbecoming the melancholy circumstances of that hour of
+death, and directs our thoughts chiefly to his attempt to force a
+conscientious man to recant.</p>
+
+<p>The account of Milner is this: "After he, Badby, had been delivered to
+the secular power by the Bishops, he was by the King's writ condemned
+to be burned. The Prince of Wales, happening to be present, very
+earnestly exhorted him to recant, adding the most terrible menaces of
+the vengeance that would overtake him if he should continue in his
+obstinacy. Badby, however, was inflexible. As soon as he felt the
+fire, he cried 'Mercy!' The Prince, supposing he was entreating the
+mercy of his judges, ordered the fire to be quenched. 'Will you
+forsake heresy,' said young Henry, 'and will you conform to the faith
+of the holy church? If you will, you shall have a yearly stipend out
+of the King's treasury?' The martyr was unmoved, and Henry <span class="smcap">in a rage</span>
+declared that he might now look for no favour. Badby gloriously
+finished his course in the flames."</p>
+
+<p>The Chronicle of London, from which, in all probability, Fox drew the
+materials for his description, makes one shudder at the reckless,
+cold-blooded acquiescence of its author in the excruciating tortures
+of a fellow-creature suffering for his faith's sake. In his eyes,
+heretics were detestable pests;
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page346" name="page346">(p. 346)</a></span>
+and an abhorrence of heresy
+seems to have quenched every feeling of humanity in his heart. It must
+be observed, that this contemporary document speaks not a word of
+Henry having been "in a rage," nor of his having commanded the
+sufferer to be "straight put into the ton," nor of his having used
+"horrible menaces of vengeance," nor, even in the milder expression of
+Fox, "threatenings which would have daunted any man's stomach."</p>
+
+<p class="smsize">
+"A clerk," (says the Chronicle,) "that believed nought of the
+sacrament of the altar, that is to say, God's body, was condemned and
+brought to Smithfield to be burnt. And Henry, Prince of Wales, then
+the King's eldest son, counselled him to forsake his heresy and hold
+the right way of holy church. And the Prior of St. Bartholomew's
+brought the holy sacrament of God's body with twelve torches lighted
+before, and in this wise came to this cursed heretic; and it was asked
+him how he believed, and he answered that he believed well that it was
+hallowed bread, and nought God's body. And then was the tonne put over
+him, and fire kindled therein; and when the wretch felt the fire he
+cried mercy, and anon the Prince commanded to take away the ton and to
+quench the fire. And then the Prince asked him if he would forsake his
+heresy, and take him to the faith of holy church; which if he would
+have done, he should have his life, and goods enough to live by; and
+the cursed shrew would not, but continued forth in his heresy:
+wherefore he was
+burnt."<a id="notetag265" name="notetag265"></a><a href="#note265">[265]</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>There
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page347" name="page347">(p. 347)</a></span>
+probably will not be great diversity of opinion as to
+the conduct of Henry, and the spirit which influenced him on this
+occasion. He was present at the execution of a fellow-creature, who
+was condemned to an excruciating death by the blind and cruel, but
+still by the undoubted law of his country. Acting the "part of the
+good Samaritan," he earnestly endeavoured to withdraw him from those
+sentiments the publication of which had made him obnoxious to the law;
+and he employed the means which his high station afforded him of
+suspending the King's writ even at the very moment of its execution,
+promising the offender pardon on his princely word, and a full
+maintenance for his life. He could do no more: his humanity had
+carried him even then beyond his authority, and, considering all the
+circumstances, even beyond the line of discretion; and, when he found
+that all his efforts were in vain, he left the law to take its own
+course,&mdash;a law which had been passed and put in execution before he
+had anything whatever to do with legislation and government.</p>
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page348" name="page348">(p. 348)</a></span>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XXX.</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">the case of sir john oldcastle, lord cobham. &mdash; reference to his
+former life and character. &mdash; fox's book of martyrs. &mdash; the
+archbishop's statement. &mdash; milner. &mdash; hall. &mdash; lingard. &mdash; cobham
+offers the wager of battle. &mdash; appeals peremptorily to the pope. &mdash;
+henry's anxiety to save him. &mdash; he is condemned, but no writ of
+execution is issued by the king. &mdash; cobham escapes from the tower.</span><br><br>
+
+1413.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The death of Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, and the circumstances
+which preceded it, require a more patient and a more impartial
+examination than they have often met with. But it must be borne in
+mind throughout that our inquiry has for its object, neither the
+condemnation of religious persecution, nor the palliation of the
+spirit of Romanism,&mdash;neither the canonization of the Protestant
+martyr, nor the indiscriminate inculpation of all concerned in the sad
+tragedy of his condemnation and death,&mdash;but the real estimate of
+Henry's character. The pursuit of this inquiry of necessity
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page349" name="page349">(p. 349)</a></span>
+leads us through passages in the history of our country, and of our
+church, which must be of deep and lively interest to every Englishman
+and every Christian. It is impossible, as we proceed, not to fix our
+eyes upon objects somewhat removed from the direct road along which we
+are passing, and, contemplating the state of things as they were in
+those days, contrast them fairly and thankfully with what is our own
+lot now.</p>
+
+<p>It were a far easier work to assume that all who were engaged in
+prosecuting Sir John Oldcastle were men of heartless bigotry,
+unrelenting enemies to true religion, devoid of every principle of
+Gospel charity, men of Belial, delighting in deeds of violence and
+blood; and that the victim of their cruelty, persecuted even to the
+death solely for his religious sentiments, was a pattern of every
+Christian excellence, the undaunted champion of Gospel truth, the
+sainted martyr of the Protestant faith. This were the more easy task,
+for little further would need to be done in its accomplishment than to
+select from former writers passages of indiscriminate panegyric on the
+one hand, and equally indiscriminate vituperation on the other. The
+investigation of doubtful and disputed facts, to the generality of
+minds, is irksome and disagreeable; and its results, for the most part
+removed, as they are, from extreme opinions on either side, are
+received with a far less keen relish than the glowing eulogy of a
+partisan, and the unsparing invective of an enemy.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page350" name="page350">(p. 350)</a></span> Truth,
+nevertheless, must be our object. Truth is a treasure of intrinsic
+value, and will retain its worth after the adventitious and forced
+estimate put upon party views and popular representations shall have
+passed away.</p>
+
+<p>Sir John Oldcastle, who derived the title of Lord Cobham from his
+wife, was a man of great military talents and prowess, and at the same
+time a man of piety and zeal for the general good. He was one of the
+chief benefactors towards the new bridge at Rochester, a work then
+considered of great public importance; and he founded a chantry for
+the maintenance of three chaplains. Oldcastle was by no means free
+from trouble during the reign of Richard II. Indeed, so unsettled was
+the government, and so violent were the measures adopted against
+political opponents, and so cheap and vile was human life held, that
+few could reckon upon security of property or person for an hour. One
+day a man was seen in a high civil or military station; the next
+arrested, imprisoned, banished, or put to death. Oldcastle was very
+nearly made an early victim of these violent proceedings. Among the
+strong measures to which parliament had recourse about the year 1386,
+they appointed fourteen lords to conduct the administration, among
+whom was Lord Cobham. Just ten years afterwards he was arrested, and
+adjudged to death by the
+parliament;<a id="notetag266" name="notetag266"></a><a href="#note266">[266]</a>
+but his punishment, at the
+earnest request
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page351" name="page351">(p. 351)</a></span>
+of certain lords, was commuted for perpetual
+imprisonment,<a id="notetag267" name="notetag267"></a><a href="#note267">[267]</a>
+a sentence from which the lords of parliament
+revolted,&mdash;and he was
+exiled.<a id="notetag268" name="notetag268"></a><a href="#note268">[268]</a>
+From this banishment he returned
+with Henry of Lancaster, and was restored to all his possessions which
+had been forfeited. Through the whole reign of Henry IV. we find him
+in the King's service in Wales and on the Continent. In a summons for
+a general council of prelates, lords, and knights, dated July 21,
+1401, occurs the name of John Lord
+Cobham.<a id="notetag269" name="notetag269"></a><a href="#note269">[269]</a>
+In the Minutes of
+Council about the end of August 1404, John Oldcastle is appointed to
+keep the castles and towns of the Hay and Brecknock; and when English
+auxiliaries were sent to aid the Duke of Burgundy, Oldcastle was among
+the officers selected for that successful enterprise. Between the
+Prince of Wales and this gallant brother in arms an intimacy was
+formed, which existed till the melancholy tissue of events interrupted
+their friendship, and ultimately separated them for ever.</p>
+
+<p>We have already seen that Lord Cobham had given proof of a pious as
+well as a liberal mind; and his piety showed itself in acts which the
+Roman church sanctioned and fostered. He built and endowed a
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page352" name="page352">(p. 352)</a></span>
+chantry for the maintenance of three chaplains. But he had imbibed a
+portion of that spirit which Wickliffe's doctrines had diffused far
+and wide through the land; and he not only boldly professed his
+principles, but actively engaged in disseminating them. It is very
+difficult to ascertain the exact truth as to the tenour and extent of
+the religious opinions of the rising sect, and the degree in which
+they were political dissenters, aiming at the overthrow of the
+existing order of things in the state as well as in the church. Their
+enemies, doubtless, have exaggerated their intentions, and have
+endeavoured to rob them of all claim to the character of sincere
+religious reformers; probably misrepresenting their objects, and
+confounding their designs with the plots of those turbulent
+spirits<a id="notetag270" name="notetag270"></a><a href="#note270">[270]</a>
+who then agitated several countries in Europe; whilst
+their friends have denied, perhaps injudiciously, any participation on
+their part in seditious and treasonable practices. By the one they
+have been condemned as reckless enemies to truth, and order, and
+peace; by the other they are exalted into self-devoted confessors and
+martyrs; in soundness of faith, integrity of life, and constancy unto
+death for the truth's sake, equalling those servants and soldiers of
+Christ who in the first ages sealed their belief with their blood. The
+truth lies between these extremes:
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page353" name="page353">(p. 353)</a></span>
+their enemies were
+bigoted or self-interested persecutors; but many among themselves, as
+a body, in their language, their actions, and their professed
+principles, were very far removed from that quiet, patient, peaceable
+demeanour which becomes the disciples of the Cross. Doubtless there
+were numbers at that time in England possessing their souls in
+patience, bewailing the gloom and superstition and tyranny which
+through that long night of error overspread their country, and
+anxiously but resignedly expecting the dawn of a holier and brighter
+day. It is, however, impossible to read the documents of the time
+without being convinced, not only that the temporal establishment of
+the Church was threatened, but that the civil government had good
+grounds for watching with a jealous eye, and repressing with a strong
+hand, the violent though ill-digested schemes of change then
+prevailing in England. Undoubtedly the hierarchy set all the engines
+in motion for the extirpation of Lollardism, as the principles of the
+rising sect were called. They felt that their dominion over the minds
+of men must cease as soon as the right of private judgment was
+generally acknowledged; and they resolved, at whatever cost of charity
+and of blood, to maintain the hold over the consciences, the minds,
+and the property of their fellow-creatures, which the Church had
+devoted so many years of steady, unwearied, undeviating policy to
+secure. The real question, the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page354" name="page354">(p. 354)</a></span>
+point on which every other
+question between the Protestant communions and the Church of Rome must
+depend, is this: "Have individual Christians a right to test the
+doctrines of the Church by the written word of God; or must they
+receive with implicit credence whatever the church in communion with
+the See of Rome, the only authorized and infallible guardian and
+propagator of Gospel truth, decrees and propounds?" All the other
+differences, however important in themselves, and practically
+essential, must follow the fate of this question. The Romanists are
+still aware of this, and are as much alive to it as ever were the most
+uncompromising vindicators of their church in the days of Lollardism.
+They took their resolution, and it was this: "Come what will come,
+this heresy must be put down; the very existence of the Church is
+incompatible with this rivalry: either Lollardism must be
+extinguished, or it will shake the very foundations of Rome." And,
+having taken this resolution, they lost no favourable opportunity of
+carrying it into full effect.</p>
+
+<p>Some writers seem to have fixed their thoughts so much on the bold and
+ruthless measures adopted, or compassed, by the Church under the house
+of Lancaster, as to have left unnoticed their proceedings previously
+to Henry IV.'s accession. In 1394, when Richard II. made his first
+expedition to Ireland, though he had been absent a very short time, so
+alarmed were the heads of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page355" name="page355">(p. 355)</a></span>
+Church at the progress of the
+new opinions, that the Archbishop of
+York<a id="notetag271" name="notetag271"></a><a href="#note271">[271]</a>
+and the Bishop of
+London went over in person to implore him to return forthwith and put
+down the
+Lollards,<a id="notetag272" name="notetag272"></a><a href="#note272">[272]</a>
+his own and the Church's formidable enemies.
+Many strong measures were resorted to on that King's return, but all
+short of those deeds of guilt and blood which disgraced our country
+through the next reigns. The Pope, the King, and the hierarchy put
+forth their united exertions, and for a season the growing danger
+seemed to be repressed; but it was still silently and widely
+spreading. In the year 1400, before Henry IV. was settled in his
+throne, and whilst he was naturally alive to every report of danger,
+the several estates of the realm "pray the King to pass such a law as
+may effectually rid the kingdom of those plotters against all rule and
+right and liberty, (for so are the Lollards described,) whose aim is
+to dispossess the clergy of their benefices, the King of his throne,
+and the whole realm of tranquillity and order, exciting to the utmost
+of their power sedition and insurrection." And in that year was passed
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page356" name="page356">(p. 356)</a></span>
+the statute De hæretico comburendo, which enacted that a
+suspected heretic should be cited by his diocesan, be fined, and
+imprisoned; and, if pronounced a relapsed or obstinate heretic, be
+given over by the Church to the secular power, to be burnt, in an
+elevated spot, before the people, to strike terror the more. It was
+under this statute that Sir John Oldcastle was summoned, tried,
+adjudged, and delivered to the secular power.</p>
+
+<p>How long he had entertained the new opinions, or, by openly
+encouraging their propagators, had incurred the anger, and drawn down
+upon himself the concentrated violence of the hierarchy, does not
+appear. From one circumstance we may fairly infer, that, whilst he was
+aiding the Prince in the war against Owyn Glyndowr, he had not been
+silent or idle in the dissemination of these principles. In the synod
+held in St. Paul's, his offence of sending emissaries and preachers is
+said to have been especially committed (beside the dioceses of London
+and Rochester) in the diocese of Hereford; and, as we have seen, in
+1404 he was especially charged with the safeguard of the town and
+castle of Hay, in Herefordshire: he was also sheriff of that county in
+1407. Whether he had ever communicated his sentiments to the Prince,
+or not, must remain a matter only of conjecture: be this as it may, no
+sooner was the first parliament of Henry V. assembled,&mdash;and they met
+soon after Easter,&mdash;than Arundel convened a full
+assembly<a id="notetag273" name="notetag273"></a><a href="#note273">[273]</a>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page357" name="page357">(p. 357)</a></span>
+of prelates and clergy in St. Paul's
+Cathedral.<a id="notetag274" name="notetag274"></a><a href="#note274">[274]</a>
+It was there
+speedily determined that the breaches in the Church could not be
+repaired, nor peace and security restored, unless certain noblemen and
+gentry, favourers of Lollardism, were removed, or effectually
+silenced, and brought back to their allegiance. Especially, and by
+name, was this decree passed against Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham;
+and a resolution was taken to proceed against him forthwith. But he
+was then in high favour with the King; and the Archbishop thought it
+discreet to endeavour first to withdraw from him the royal favour,
+before proceeding openly to put the law in force against him. And at
+this point our interest in the transactions, and our desire to
+ascertain the accuracy of the accounts in every particular begin to
+increase; for our estimate of the tone and temper of Henry's mind, and
+the real nature of his conduct, will be affected by a very slight
+change of expression and turn of thought. Was Henry V. a persecutor
+for religious opinions?</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps <span class="pagenum"><a id="page358" name="page358">(p. 358)</a></span>
+the more satisfactory course will be, first to give
+the statements of Fox, and one or two others, who have taken the view
+of the case least favourable to Henry, and then to add the account of
+the transaction as it is recorded by the Archbishop, on whose record
+Fox informs us that the ground and certainty of his own history of
+Lord Cobham depended. Almost all subsequent writers copy the
+martyrologist exclusively and implicitly, though often with much
+additional colouring.</p>
+
+<p>Fox, who certainly follows the original statement in Archbishop
+Arundel's register much more faithfully, than those who have taken
+their facts from him, and heightened them by their own exaggerated
+colouring, gives an unfavourable and an unfair turn to the whole
+proceeding by one or two strokes of his pencil. His version of the
+affair is this: "The King <i>gently</i> heard those bloodthirsty prelates,
+and <i>far otherwise than became his princely dignity</i>; notwithstanding
+requiring, and instantly desiring them, that in respect of his noble
+stock and knighthood, they would deal favourably with him, and that
+they would, if possible, without all rigour or extreme handling,
+reduce him to the Church's unity. He promised them also, that, in case
+they were content to take some deliberation, himself would seriously
+commune the matter with him. Anon after, the King sent for Lord
+Cobham, and, as he was come, he called him, secretly admonishing him,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page359" name="page359">(p. 359)</a></span>
+betwixt him and him, to submit himself to his mother the holy
+Church, and as an obedient child to acknowledge himself culpable. Unto
+whom the Christian knight made this answer: 'You, most worthy prince,
+I am always most ready to obey. Unto you, next my eternal God, I owe
+whole obedience, and submit thereto, as I have ever done. But as
+touching the Pope and his spirituality, I owe them neither suit nor
+service; forasmuch as I know him by the Scriptures to be the great
+Antichrist, the son of perdition, the open adversary of God, and the
+abomination standing in the holy place!' When the King had heard this,
+and such like sentences more, he would talk no longer with him, but
+left him so utterly. And as the Archbishop resorted again unto him for
+an answer, he gave him his full authority to cite him, examine him,
+and punish him according to their devilish decrees, which they called
+the laws of holy church."</p>
+
+<p>In his comment on the answer said to have been made by Lord Cobham to
+the King, Milner's zeal in favour of the accused, betrays him into
+expressions against Henry which cannot be justified: "The <i>extreme
+ignorance of Henry</i> in matters of religion by no means disposed him to
+relish such an answer as this; <i>he immediately turned away from him in
+visible displeasure</i>, and gave up the disciple of Wickliff to the
+malice of his enemies."</p>
+
+<p>Hall's version is this: "The King, first having compassion
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page360" name="page360">(p. 360)</a></span>
+on the nobleman, required the prelates, if he were a strayed
+sheep,<a id="notetag275" name="notetag275"></a><a href="#note275">[275]</a>
+rather by gentleness than by rigour to bring him back
+again to his old flock: after that, he, sending for him, godly
+exhorted and lovingly admonished him to reconcile himself to God and
+his laws. The Lord Cobham thanked the King for his most favourable
+clemency, affirming his grace to be his supreme head and competent
+judge, and no other."</p>
+
+<p>The record, as it is found in the Archbishop's Memoirs, is as follows.
+Having stated that, of the tracts which had been condemned to the
+flames for their heretical contents, one consisting of many smaller
+tracts full of more dangerous doctrine, tending to the subversion of
+the faith and the church, was found at an illuminator's in Paternoster
+Row, who confessed that it was Lord Cobham's, and another was brought
+from Coventry, full of poison against the Church of God, the
+Archbishop's record thus proceeds: "The day on which the said tracts
+were condemned and burnt, certain tracts, containing more important
+and more dangerous errors of the said Lord John Oldcastle, were read
+before the King, and almost all the prelates and nobles of England, in
+the closet of the King at Kennington; the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page361" name="page361">(p. 361)</a></span>
+said Lord John
+Oldcastle being present and hearing it, having been especially
+summoned for this purpose. Then our King himself expressed his
+abhorrence of those conclusions, as the worst against the faith and
+the church he had ever heard. And the said Lord John Oldcastle, being
+asked by the King whether he thought the said tract was justly and
+deservedly condemned, said that it was so. On being asked how he could
+use or possess a tract of this sort, he said that he had never read
+more than two leaves.</p>
+
+<p>"And be it remembered that in the said convocation the said Lord John
+Oldcastle was convicted by the whole clergy of the province of
+Canterbury, upon his ill-fame for errors and heretical wickedness, and
+how in various dioceses he had held, assumed, and defended erroneous
+and heretical conclusions; and that he had received to his house,
+favoured, refreshed, and defended, chaplains suspected and even
+convicted of such errors and heresies, and had sent them off to
+different parts of the province to preach and sow this evil seed, to
+the subversion of the faith and the state of the
+church.<a id="notetag276" name="notetag276"></a><a href="#note276">[276]</a> And
+supplication was made on the part of the same clergy to the Lord
+Archbishop and the prelates, that the said John
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page362" name="page362">(p. 362)</a></span>
+Oldcastle
+should be summoned to answer in person to these points. And because it
+seemed right to the Lord Archbishop and the prelates, that the King
+ought first to be consulted on this point, because he had been his
+intimate friend, they waited upon the King at Kennington, and with all
+due reverence consulted with him upon the matter. And the King
+returned thanks for their obliging kindness, and prayed them,
+[regratiabatur benevolentiis eorundem, et eis supplicabat,] for
+respect to the King himself, because he had been his intimate friend,
+and also from respect to the military order, they would defer process
+and execution of every kind against him; promising them that he would
+labour, with regard to him, to bring him back with all mildness and
+lenity from the error of his way to the right path of truth. And if he
+could not succeed in this endeavour, he would deliver him to them
+according to the canonical obligations to be punished, and would
+assist them in this with all his aid and with the secular arm. And the
+said Archbishop and prelates acquiesced in the King's desire, but not
+without the dissatisfaction and murmurs of the clergy. Then, after the
+lapse of some time, when our said Lord the King had laboured long and
+in various ways in the endeavour to bring back the said knight to the
+sheepfold of Christ, and had reaped no fruit of his toil, but the
+knight continually relapsed into a worse state than before, at length
+the King, in the following month of August, being at
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page363" name="page363">(p. 363)</a></span>
+Windsor, without further lenity sharply chided the said Lord John for
+his obstinacy. And the said Lord, full of the Devil, not enduring such
+chiding, withdrew without leave to his castle of Cowling in Kent; and
+there fortified himself in the castle, as was publicly reported. After
+that, the King sent for the Lord Archbishop, who was then at
+Chichester, celebrating the Assumption of the blessed Virgin; and, on
+his coming to the King at his house in Windsor Park, the King, after
+rehearsing the pains he had taken, enjoined on the Archbishop, and
+required him on the part of God and the Church, to proceed with all
+expedition against the said Lord John Oldcastle according to the
+canonical rules; and then the Archbishop proceeded against him as the
+law required."<a id="notetag277" name="notetag277"></a><a href="#note277">[277]</a></p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+
+<p>After attentively perusing this authentic statement, comparing it with
+subsequent representations, and recollecting that the utmost which
+Henry did was to direct the ecclesiastical authorities to proceed
+according <span class="pagenum"><a id="page364" name="page364">(p. 364)</a></span>
+to the laws of the land, where he had interrupted
+their proceedings with a view of averting the extremities on which
+those authorities seemed bent&mdash;and when we learn that even that
+temporary delay had called forth the decided disapprobation and
+remonstrance of the clergy,&mdash;few probably among unprejudiced minds
+will be disposed to view this incident in any other light than as a
+proof that Henry, who was a sincere believer, was yet anxious to bring
+all to unity in faith and discipline by reason and gentle means, by
+the force of argument and persuasion only; and that he earnestly
+endeavoured to blunt the edge of the sword with which the law had
+supplied the hierarchy, and to avert the horrors of persecution.
+Undoubtedly, when he failed, he directed the authorities to proceed
+according to law, and assisted them in securing Cobham's person when
+he set them at defiance. But it is necessary to take a comprehensive
+view of all the circumstances before we pronounce judgment as to his
+principles or motives.</p>
+
+<p>The account of Henry's own chaplain, who was prejudiced in the extreme
+against the rising sect, seems undoubtedly to imply that in one stage
+of the melancholy transaction Henry was more than passive, and
+encouraged rather than checked the ecclesiastical authorities to
+proceed; but he at the same time adds, what is of course of equal
+credit, that the piety of the King deferred the extremity of
+punishment and his death. He adds, "that Henry had Oldcastle
+committed <span class="pagenum"><a id="page365" name="page365">(p. 365)</a></span>
+to the Tower, influenced by the hope that he might
+bring him back to the true faith; and that when, towards the end of
+October, the straitness of his confinement was softened, and he was,
+under promise of renouncing his errors, released from his bond, he
+broke prison and escaped." This was written between Oldcastle's escape
+and his subsequent capture and death. If we take one part of such
+evidence, we must in fairness take the other; and certainly, in that
+contemporary's view, Henry was fully determined to do all he could to
+save Cobham from the extreme penalty of the law.</p>
+
+<p>He solicited the hierarchy, as a favour to himself, to suspend their
+operations for a while; they consented to grant the suspension as a
+favour to the King, upon his royal word being pledged that, should he
+fail in his endeavours, he would interfere with their proceedings no
+further, but on the contrary would assist them. Consistently with his
+promise, and with his duty as the chief magistrate of the realm, he
+could scarcely have done otherwise than he appears to have done.</p>
+
+<p>After he had put forth his very utmost endeavours to rescue his
+subject and friend from the ruin to which the hierarchy had destined
+him, he made up his mind that the law should take its course, and that
+the accused should be tried as the statute directed. Lord Cobham wrote
+a confession of his faith, and, carrying it with him to the court,
+presented it to the King; who, having resolved to interpose no
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page366" name="page366">(p. 366)</a></span>
+further between the accused and the process of the law, directed
+him to present it to his judges: and probably few will be disposed to
+think that Henry could act otherwise, consistently with his high
+station. The case was now most materially altered; Lord Cobham was in
+a very different position, and so was the King. As long as his kind
+offices could prevent a public prosecution, Henry spared no personal
+labour or time, but zealously devoted himself to this object, though
+unsuccessfully. But now the proceedings had advanced almost to their
+consummation, and interference at this point could scarcely have been
+consistent with the royal duty; especially when we consider what those
+proceedings were. Lord Cobham had been summoned to appear before the
+spiritual court, had disobeyed the citation, had been pronounced
+"guilty of most deep contumacy," and had been excommunicated. Henry
+could not interfere in this stage of the business with any show of
+regard to the laws, agreeably to which (blind, and cruel, and
+bloodthirsty, and wicked, as we may deem them,) the proceedings
+undoubtedly had been conducted; he therefore, as it should seem, could
+not do otherwise than direct the schedule, then presented to him by
+Lord Cobham, to be referred to the tribunal which the law had
+appointed to hear and determine the charges. On this turn of his
+affairs, the valiant knight and sincere Christian had recourse to
+various pleas and measures, for which were we
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page367" name="page367">(p. 367)</a></span>
+to condemn
+him, as he has been condemned, we should act most unjustly. We must
+not judge him by the standard of our own times, nor with reference to
+principles on which we might justly be arraigned ourselves. But let
+the same measure of justice be dealt to all alike; and whilst the
+eulogist of Lord Cobham pleads in excuse the "wretched state of
+society" then
+existing,<a id="notetag278" name="notetag278"></a><a href="#note278">[278]</a>
+let all the circumstances of time and
+society and law be taken into calm consideration before we condemn
+Henry, or rather before we withhold from him the praise of moderation,
+liberality, and true Christian kindness. The result of this visit to
+the King (to which the Archbishop's record does not allude) is thus
+stated by Fox. "Then desired Lord Cobham in the King's presence that a
+hundred knights and esquires might be suffered to come in upon his
+purgation, which he knew would clear him of all heresies. Moreover, he
+offered himself after the law of arms to fight for life or death with
+any man living, Christian or heathen, in the quarrel of his faith; the
+King and the Lords of his council excepted. Finally, with all
+gentleness he protested before all that were present, that he would
+refuse no manner of correction that should, after the laws of God, be
+ministered unto him; but that he would at all times with all meekness
+obey it. Notwithstanding all this, the King suffered him to be
+summoned personally in his own privy chamber." There is one
+circumstance of very great importance, omitted
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page368" name="page368">(p. 368)</a></span>
+by Milner,
+Turner, and others; but which cannot be neglected if we would deal
+fairly by Henry. Fox gives a circumstantial statement of it; and it is
+of itself sufficient to account for whatever of "strait handling" may
+have been shown by the King to his unhappy friend at that hour. Lord
+Cobham, though he had repeatedly professed that the King was his
+supreme head, and liege Lord, and competent judge, and no other; and
+that he owed neither suit nor service to the Pope, whom he denounced
+as Antichrist; yet now appealed in the presence of the King
+peremptorily to the Pope, not on the heat of the moment, but by a
+written document which he showed to the King. The King overruled this
+appeal;<a id="notetag279" name="notetag279"></a><a href="#note279">[279]</a>
+at least, he informed the accused that he should remain
+in custody until it was allowed by the Pope, and that at all events
+the Archbishop should be his judge. He was then arrested again at the
+King's command, and taken to the Tower of London, "to keep his day,"
+the time appointed for his trial. But the reader will judge more
+satisfactorily of the proceeding after reading the statement of Fox
+himself. "Then said the Lord Cobham to the King that he had appealed
+from the Archbishop
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page369" name="page369">(p. 369)</a></span>
+to the Pope of Rome, and therefore he
+ought, he said, in no cause to be his judge; and, having his appeal
+there at hand ready written, he showed it with all reverence to the
+King. Wherewith the King was then much more displeased than afore, and
+said angerly unto him that he should not pursue his appeal; but rather
+he should tarry in hold till such time as it were of the Pope allowed,
+and then, would he or nild he, the Archbishop should be his
+judge."<a id="notetag280" name="notetag280"></a><a href="#note280">[280]</a></p>
+
+<p>How far at this juncture the King was competent to take upon himself
+the responsibility of forbidding any further proceedings against the
+individual on whose head the church had resolved to pour the full vial
+of its wrath and vengeance; and, if he had by law the power, how far
+he could consistently with the safety of his throne and the peace of
+his kingdom have done so, are questions not hastily to be
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page370" name="page370">(p. 370)</a></span>
+determined. Certain it is, that, not two years after Lord Cobham's
+first citation, Henry seems to have been thought by the
+council<a id="notetag281" name="notetag281"></a><a href="#note281">[281]</a>
+to be so far from forward in the work of persecution, as to need from
+them a memorial to be more vigilant and energetic in his measures
+"against the malice of the Lollards;" and to require the Archbishops
+and Bishops to do their duty in that respect. Henry, though sincerely
+attached to the religion of Rome, yet, whether at the stake in
+Smithfield, or in his own palace at Kennington, appears to have
+endeavoured "to do the work of the good Samaritan," and to the very
+verge of prudence to interpose between the execution of a cruel law,
+and the sufferings of a fellow-creature for conscience sake; not by
+setting himself up against the law of the kingdom over which he
+reigned, but by gentleness and persuasion, and promises and threats,
+to induce his subjects not to defy the law. Our inquiry does not
+require or allow us to follow the steps of the devoted Lord Cobham
+through his examinations before the ecclesiastical judges, nor to
+pronounce upon the conduct and language either of
+Arundel<a id="notetag282" name="notetag282"></a><a href="#note282">[282]</a> or his
+prisoner. Henry seems to have taken no part in the proceedings
+whatever.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page371" name="page371">(p. 371)</a></span>
+But after the definitive sentence had been passed,
+and he had been left to the secular power,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page372" name="page372">(p. 372)</a></span>
+and remanded in
+custody of Sir Robert Morley to the Tower, we must observe that though
+according to Fox himself, the Archbishop had compelled the lay power
+by most terrible menacings of cursings and interdictions to assist him
+against that seditious apostate, schismatic, and heretic, and troubler
+of the public peace, that enemy of the realm and great adversary of
+holy church, (for all these hateful names did he give him,") yet the
+King's writ for his execution was not forthcoming, and, as far as we
+have any means of knowing, never was it issued. In the case of Sautre,
+the sentence of his degradation and delivery to the secular power was
+passed, and the King's writ for execution is tested on the very same
+day, February 26th,
+1401.<a id="notetag283" name="notetag283"></a><a href="#note283">[283]</a>
+In the case of Badby, the sentence, the
+King's writ, and the execution of the persecuted victim, followed in
+one and the same day hard upon each
+other.<a id="notetag284" name="notetag284"></a><a href="#note284">[284]</a>
+But though Lord Cobham
+was sentenced on Monday, September 25, 1413, yet he remained in the
+Tower some time,&mdash;Fox says, "a certain space;" Milner says, "some
+weeks,"&mdash;and no warrant of execution was forthcoming. Indeed, as far
+as the record speaks, no such writ was ever issued by the King. The
+Tower was no ordinary prison,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page373" name="page373">(p. 373)</a></span>
+and yet Lord Cobham
+escaped<a id="notetag285" name="notetag285"></a><a href="#note285">[285]</a>
+by night, no one knew how. Whether by connivance or not,
+and, if by connivance, whether from any intimation of the King's
+wishes or not, was never
+stated.<a id="notetag286" name="notetag286"></a><a href="#note286">[286]</a>
+Many conjectures and surmises
+were afloat, but no satisfactory account of his escape was ever made
+known to the public. Certain it is that, had the King been a "cruel
+persecutor," had he been as ready to meet the desires of the hierarchy
+as his father was in the case of Sautre or Badby, a few hours only
+after the ecclesiastical sentence was passed would have borne Lord
+Cobham from the power of his persecutors to the place where the wicked
+cease from troubling, and where the weary are at rest. Walsingham says
+that both Henry and the Archbishop were desirous of saving Oldcastle's
+life, and that the Archbishop requested the King to give him a respite
+of forty
+days.<a id="notetag287" name="notetag287"></a><a href="#note287">[287]</a>
+But, adds Walsingham, he escaped, and spent the
+time in preparing soldiers for revenge.</p>
+
+<p>Had
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page374" name="page374">(p. 374)</a></span>
+Henry been merely indifferent on this point, the writ
+would have issued as a matter of course. We have seen that, before any
+proceedings were instituted against him, Henry used his utmost
+endeavours and personal exertions to prevent the gallant knight from
+falling into the dangers which threatened; and now, when nothing but
+his own writ to the sheriff was wanted to bring the last scene of the
+sad tragedy to a close, the King withheld it. The Archbishop, we are
+told by Fox, compelled the lay power, by most terrible menacings of
+cursing and interdictions, to assist him against Lord Cobham; and we
+may be satisfied, the clergy, after denouncing him in convocation, and
+after such vast pains had been undergone to subject him to the penalty
+of death, would not have failed to press their sovereign to
+extremities against this ringleader of their enemies: and yet the writ
+of execution is withheld, and the condemned prisoner escapes. Whatever
+inference may be drawn from these proceedings, at all events they give
+no colour to the charge of persecution; on the contrary, the conduct
+of Henry of Monmouth shews throughout indications
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page375" name="page375">(p. 375)</a></span>
+of a
+kind-hearted good man, averse from violence, anxious to avoid
+extremities, withholding his hand from shedding of blood; and that not
+from a carelessness or ignorance in the matter, for he was sincerely
+attached to the Roman communion, believing it to be the true religion
+of Christ, and had also made proficiency in the learning of the time.
+Compared with the knowledge of those who have lived in more favoured
+times, and whilst the true light has shone from the sanctuary of the
+Gospel on the inhabitants of our land, Henry's acquaintance with
+divine things may appear scanty. But he certainly had possessed
+himself of a large share of Christian verity, and he was earnestly
+bent on maintaining the faith which he had espoused. The system,
+however, of the law of terror found no willing supporter in him. His
+forbearance from persecution sprang from a genuine feeling of
+humanity, the spirit of philanthropy and kindness.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page376" name="page376">(p. 376)</a></span>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXI.</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">change in henry's behaviour towards the lollards after the affair of
+st. giles' field. &mdash; examination of that affair often conducted with
+great partiality and prejudice. &mdash; hume and the old chroniclers. &mdash;
+fox, milner, le bas. &mdash; public documents. &mdash; lord cobham, taken in
+wales, is brought to london in a whirlicole, condemned to be hanged as
+a traitor, and burnt as a heretic. &mdash; henry, then in france, ignorant,
+probably, of cobham's capture till after his execution. &mdash; concluding
+reflections.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>From the escape of Lord Cobham, or perhaps from the extraordinary
+affair of St. Giles' Field, which must now engage our attention, we
+perceive a most evident change in the sentiments and conduct of King
+Henry towards the Lollards, and especially towards Lord Cobham. Up to
+that time he seems to have considered their only crime to have been
+heresy, and he anxiously employed his good offices to rescue and save
+them: after that time he appears to have regarded them as his own
+personal enemies, subverters of order, traitors to the throne and the
+kingdom; and their heresy and schism
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page377" name="page377">(p. 377)</a></span>
+were identified in his
+mind with the crimes of sedition and
+treason.<a id="notetag288" name="notetag288"></a><a href="#note288">[288]</a>
+How far this view
+of their principles and designs was just, has been disputed. Both
+sides of the question have been strongly maintained. The inquiry is by
+no means devoid of interest in itself; and, as far as Henry's conduct
+and character are involved in the transactions of that time, is
+indispensable; and throughout the inquiry it must be remembered that
+the elucidation of his character, not the acquittal or conviction
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page378" name="page378">(p. 378)</a></span>
+of Oldcastle and the Lollards, is the object we have in view.</p>
+
+<p>Hume, depending implicitly on the old chroniclers, pronounces Cobham
+as the ringleader, and his followers guilty of treason. Fox, in his
+Book of Martyrs, has supplied Milner and many others with a very
+different view. Even Le Bas, in his "Life of Wiclif," though he is
+compelled to acknowledge that, "with every allowance for the
+exaggerations of malice, of bigotry, and of terror, it is scarcely
+possible to believe that imputations so dark could have been <i>wholly</i>
+fictitious and unfounded," yet is unfortunately contented with the
+statements and arguments of later compilers, instead of satisfying
+himself from the original documents. He could scarcely have read the
+terms which Henry V. used in the different documents of his pardon to
+the offenders, or even in his proclamation of a reward for the capture
+of Sir John Oldcastle, when he tells us, "it should never be forgotten
+that the records of their persecution are wholly silent on the subject
+of sedition or conspiracy."</p>
+
+<p>It is curious to read the opposite accounts given of the affair of St.
+Giles' Field by two modern historians, both having access to precisely
+the same documents. Hume thus summarily disposes of the
+case:&mdash;"Cobham, who was confined in the Tower, made his escape before
+the day appointed for his
+execution.<a id="notetag289" name="notetag289"></a><a href="#note289">[289]</a>
+The bold spirit of the man,
+provoked by
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page379" name="page379">(p. 379)</a></span>
+persecution and stimulated by zeal, was urged to
+attempt the most criminal enterprises; and his unlimited authority
+over the new sect proved that he well merited the attention of the
+civil magistrate. He formed, in his retreat, very violent designs
+against his enemies; and, despatching his emissaries to all quarters,
+appointed a general rendezvous of the party in order to seize the
+person of the King at Eltham, and put their persecutors to the sword.
+Henry, apprised of their intention, removed to Westminster: Cobham was
+not discouraged by this disappointment, but changed the place of
+rendezvous to the field near St. Giles's. The King, having shut the
+gates of the city to prevent any reinforcement to the Lollards from
+that quarter, came into the field in the night-time, seized such of
+the conspirators as appeared, and afterwards laid hold of the several
+parties who were hastening to the place appointed. It appeared that a
+few only were in the secret of the conspiracy; the rest implicitly
+followed their leaders: but, upon the trial of the prisoners, the
+treasonable designs of the sect were rendered certain, both from
+evidence and from the confession of the criminals themselves. Some
+were executed, the greater number pardoned. Cobham himself, who made
+his escape by flight, was not brought to justice till four years
+after; when he was hanged as a traitor, and his body was burnt on the
+gibbet, in execution of the sentence pronounced against
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page380" name="page380">(p. 380)</a></span>
+him
+as a heretic. This criminal design, which was perhaps aggravated by
+the clergy, brought discredit upon the party, and checked the progress
+of that sect, which had embraced the speculative doctrines of
+Wickliffe, and at the same time aspired to a reformation of
+ecclesiastical abuses."</p>
+
+<p>Of the same affair Milner's version is this:&mdash;"The royal proclamation
+did not put an end to the assemblies of the Lollards. Like the
+primitive Christians, they met in smaller companies and more
+privately, and often in the dead of the night. St. Giles' Fields, then
+a thicket, was a place of frequent resort on these occasions; and here
+a number of them assembled on the evening of January the 6th,
+1414,<a id="notetag290" name="notetag290"></a><a href="#note290">[290]</a>
+with the intention, as was usual, of continuing together to
+a very late hour. The King was then at Eltham, a few miles from
+London. He received intelligence that Lord Cobham, at the head of
+twenty thousand of his party, was stationed in St. Giles' Fields for
+the purpose of seizing the person of the King, putting their
+persecutors to the sword, and making himself the regent of the realm.
+Henry suddenly armed the few soldiers he could muster, put himself at
+their head, and marched to the place. He attacked the Lollards, and
+soon put them into confusion.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page381" name="page381">(p. 381)</a></span>
+About twenty were killed, and
+sixty taken: among these was one Beverley, their preacher; who, with
+two others, Sir Roger Acton and John Brown, was afterwards put to
+death. The King marched on, but found no more bodies of men. He
+thought he had surprised only the advanced guard, whereas he had
+routed the whole army. This extraordinary affair is represented by the
+popish writers as a real conspiracy; and it has given them occasion to
+talk loudly against the tenets of the reformers, which could encourage
+such crimes. Mr. Hume also has enlisted himself on the same side of
+the question, and in the most peremptory and decisive manner
+pronounced Lord Cobham guilty of high treason."</p>
+
+<p>Milner<a id="notetag291" name="notetag291"></a><a href="#note291">[291]</a>
+depends upon "the able and satisfactory vindication of
+Lord Cobham by Fox, the martyrologist," whom he affirms to have
+examined with great diligence and judgment <i>all</i> the authentic
+documents. It is very dangerous to place implicit reliance on any one,
+however impartial he may be; especially ought we to seek evidence for
+ourselves, when an author professes, as Fox does, his object to be the
+vindication of one party and the conviction of another. On this point
+there are two or three unquestionably original documents, neither of
+which does Fox
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page382" name="page382">(p. 382)</a></span>
+examine, and on which probably the large
+majority of readers will be disposed to rest, as the safest ground for
+their opinion on Henry's conduct. In the course of the very day, on
+the early morning of which, and during the night preceding, the affair
+in St. Giles' Field took place, the King offers a reward of five
+hundred marks to any by whose counsel Lord Cobham should be taken, one
+thousand marks to any who should take him, and immunities and
+privileges to any city or town whose burgesses should bring him before
+the King. This proclamation, dated Westminster, 11th of January 1414,
+assigns these reasons for the offer of such rewards for his capture:
+"Since, by his abetting, very many of our subjects called Lollards
+have maintained diverse opinions against the Catholic faith; and
+contrary to their duty of allegiance, and falsely and traitorously,
+have imagined our death, because we have taken part against them and
+their opinions as a true Christian prince, and as we are bound by the
+obligation of an oath; and because they have plotted very many
+designs, as well for the destruction of the Catholic faith, as of the
+state of the lords and great men of our realm, as well spiritual as
+temporal; and, to fulfil their wicked purpose, have designed to make
+diverse unlawful assemblies, to the probable destruction of our own
+person, and of the states of the lords and nobles aforesaid."</p>
+
+<p>In the same proclamation we find these words, which
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page383" name="page383">(p. 383)</a></span> most
+persons will probably interpret as a proof of Henry's desire to mingle
+mercy with justice: "We, observing how some of these Lollards and
+others, who have designed our death and other crimes and evils, have
+been taken on the past occasion, and are condemned to death; and
+wishing hereafter, in a better and more gentle manner, as far as we
+can, to avoid the shedding of the blood of Christians, especially of
+our subjects, whom, for the tender and especial regard we have towards
+them, we desire with all anxiety of mind to preserve from
+blood-shedding and personal punishment," &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>Another offer of pardon was made in a proclamation dated March 28,
+1414. It seems that many vexatious prosecutions had taken place, and
+great disquietude and alarm had in consequence prevailed, and there
+was danger lest the good and sound members of the community might be
+condemned with the wicked and reckless disturbers of the public peace.
+The King therefore offers a free
+pardon<a id="notetag292" name="notetag292"></a><a href="#note292">[292]</a>
+to all who will apply for
+letters of pardon before the Feast of St. John the Baptist: there are,
+however, ten or twelve exceptions; among others, Sir John Oldcastle,
+Thomas Talbot, Thomas Drayton, rector of Drayton Beauchamp. In the
+body of this act of grace we read this pious sentiment of
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page384" name="page384">(p. 384)</a></span>
+Henry: "We, from reverence to HIM who hath suddenly granted to us
+protection and victory against many of our said enemies, and in his
+own holy and good time desires to give pardon and peace to all who
+offend against himself, lest he destroy them in their iniquities and
+sins,&mdash;we, for the tranquillity, security, and peace of our lieges and
+subjects, decree this pardon."</p>
+
+<p>In the December of the same year was the following pardon proclaimed,
+which, among other things, fixes the precise date of the affair in St.
+Giles' Field, and supplies, what has been triumphantly demanded by
+those who will pronounce the whole to have been a mere invention, <i>the
+conviction of an accused party</i>. "Whereas John Longacre of Wykeham,
+formerly of London, mercer, was indicted before William Roos of
+Hamelak, and others our justices, assigned to try treasons, felonies,
+&amp;c. in our county of Middlesex, for plotting to put us and our
+brothers to death, and to make Sir John Oldcastle regent of this
+kingdom; and had resolved, with twenty thousand men, to execute their
+wicked purpose; and on the Wednesday after the Epiphany, in the first
+year of our reign, there Sir John Oldcastle and others, traitorously
+persevering in such purpose, traitorously met together in St. Giles'
+Great Field, and compassed our death; and the said Longacre pleaded
+'not guilty,' and put himself on his country; and he was by the
+inquiry [inquest] found guilty,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page385" name="page385">(p. 385)</a></span>
+and condemned to be drawn
+from the Tower of London to St. Giles' Field, and there to be hanged;
+we, of our special grace, have pardoned the said John Longacre."</p>
+
+<p>It is impossible for any candid mind to read these documents without
+being convinced that Henry was fully and reasonably assured of the
+treasonable practices of Oldcastle and his adherents, and that he was
+anxious to deal as mercifully with his enemies as would be consistent
+with a due regard to the peace and safety of the realm; and his
+biographer considers this as all which legitimately falls within his
+province. Whether Oldcastle himself were on that night in St. Giles'
+Field, is now a question probably beyond the reach of certain
+conclusion. The King's pardon to Longacre declares that he was
+present, and there is no evidence on record against it. These are the
+documents on which we must form our opinion. They are not traditionary
+stories, written many years after the event; they are not manifestos
+published in a foreign land; they are State-documents published on the
+very spot, all in the same year, one on the very day after the
+transaction, one in the March, and the last in the December following.
+With reference to Fox's arguments,&mdash;whilst every one would, on many
+accounts, do well to read them,&mdash;it will be immediately obvious, that
+"though twenty thousand were said to be expected, and a few hundreds
+only were found," yet that the large body of adherents who were to
+rendezvous in St. Giles'
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page386" name="page386">(p. 386)</a></span>
+Field were to come from the city,
+and that on the first news of the meeting of the Lollards Henry sent
+to order the city gates to be
+shut.<a id="notetag293" name="notetag293"></a><a href="#note293">[293]</a>
+Fox also says that any
+conspiracy is incredible in which only three names could be fixed
+upon; but this only argues in him an ignorance of the documents above
+referred to, in which many persons are by name excepted from the
+pardon, and reference is made to many others accused in different
+parts of the country. It can no longer be doubted that Lord Cobham was
+believed by Henry to have entered into a treasonable conspiracy
+against the government and the person of the King; though, after he
+escaped from the Tower, there is no evidence yet
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page387" name="page387">(p. 387)</a></span>
+discovered
+(except the King's own declaration) to prove that he was in Fickett's
+Field, as the place of meeting near St. Giles' church was called.</p>
+
+<p>Of the seditious and treasonable conduct of Oldcastle, no one seems to
+have entertained any doubt before the time of Fox, who wrote more than
+a century and a half after the event. The Chronicle of London, written
+about 1442, not thirty years after the transaction, after stating the
+capture and execution of "diverse men," "much folk," among the rest "a
+squire of Sir John Oldcastle," adds these words: "And certainly the
+said Sir John, with great multitude of Lollards and heretics, were
+purposed with full will and might to have destroyed the King and his
+brethren, which be protectors
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page388" name="page388">(p. 388)</a></span>
+of holy church, and them also
+that be in degree of holy order in the service of God and his church;
+the which will and purpose, as God would, was let, and Sir John fled
+and escaped."<a id="notetag294" name="notetag294"></a><a href="#note294">[294]</a>
+Fox quotes the Monk of St. Alban's, whose testimony
+in the book entitled "Chronicles of England, and the Fruit of Time,"
+speaks in this strong language: "And in the same year (1 Henry V.)
+were certain of Lolleis taken, and false heretics, that had purpose of
+false treason for to have slain our King, and for to have destroyed
+all the clergy of the realm, and they might have had their false
+purpose. But our Lord God would not suffer it, for in haste our King
+had warning thereof, and of all their false ordinance and working; and
+came suddenly with his power to St. John without Smithfield: and anon
+they took a captain of the Lolleis and false heretics, and brought
+them unto the King's presence, and they told all their false purpose
+and ordinance; and then the King commanded them to the Tower, and then
+took more of them both within the city and without, and sent them to
+Newgate and both Counters; and then they were brought for examination
+before the clergy and the King's justices, and there they were
+convicted before the clergy
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page389" name="page389">(p. 389)</a></span>
+for their false heresy, and
+condemned before the justices for their false treason."</p>
+
+<p>Walsingham says, referring to the time of Henry's first expedition,
+that the Lollards, probably hearing of the treason of Grey, Scroop,
+and Cambridge, at Southampton, came out of their lurking-places, and
+spoke and wrote on the church-doors treason. And Oldcastle, who was in
+concealment near Malvern, having heard, though by a mistake, that the
+King had sailed, sent threats to Lord Burgoyne, who forthwith
+collected at his castle of Haneley, near Worcester, five thousand men.
+Cobham returned to his concealment; but a chaplain of his, and other
+partisans, being taken, were so closely questioned that they
+discovered the place in which he kept his arms concealed between two
+walls.</p>
+
+<p>The author published under the name of Otterbourne, refers to a
+document which, if authentic, would establish Oldcastle's treasonable
+practices beyond further question. "The Lollards," he says, "meanwhile
+were sadly grieved by the discovery of certain schedules and
+indentures between John Oldcastle and the Duke of Albany, in which the
+Scots are invited to besiege Roxburgh and Berwise [Berwick]. And on
+this the Duke laid siege to Berwise by sea and land." Whether all
+these testimonies and original documents establish Lord Cobham's guilt
+or not, it is impossible to read them without inferring that, at all
+events, there was abundant reason
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page390" name="page390">(p. 390)</a></span>
+for Henry's own conduct
+with regard to
+him.<a id="notetag295" name="notetag295"></a><a href="#note295">[295]</a></p>
+
+<p>After his escape to Wales, however, and the exception of his name from
+the bill of pardon, and the offer of a reward for his capture, Henry
+does not appear to have had anything whatever to do with Lord Cobham
+in life or in death. There is something strange and affecting in the
+circumstances of his capture and execution. It was towards the close
+of the year 1417, whilst parliament was sitting, that news arrived of
+the Lord Cobham having been discovered and taken in Wales. After
+voting a subsidy to Henry, who was then pursuing his victories with
+all his energy in France, "as soon as they heard that the public enemy
+was taken, they all agreed not to dissolve parliament until he were
+examined and heard." The Lord Powis was sent to bring him to London,
+his men having taken him after a desperate
+struggle.<a id="notetag296" name="notetag296"></a><a href="#note296">[296]</a>
+"He stood,"
+says the Monk of Croyland,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page391" name="page391">(p. 391)</a></span>
+"at great defence long time, and
+was sore wounded or he would be taken. And so the Lord Powis' men
+brought him out of Wales to London in a whirlicole." He was forthwith
+carried before the parliament as an outlaw, on the charge of treason,
+and, as an excommunicated heretic, given over to the secular power. He
+heard the several convictions, and made no answer to the charges; and
+was then instantly condemned to be taken to the Tower, and thence to
+the new gallows in St. Giles' Field, and there to be hanged for his
+treason, and to be burnt hanging for his heresy. There was,
+undoubtedly, great irregularity and hurry in this proceeding. But
+probably the statement of the Monk of St. Alban's is not far from the
+truth. "So he was brought to Westminster, and there was examined on
+certain points, and he said not nay; and so he was convicted of the
+clergy for his heresy, and dampned before the justices to the death
+for treason: and he was led to the Tower again, and there he was laid
+on a hurdle, and drawn through
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page392" name="page392">(p. 392)</a></span>
+the city to St. Giles' Field.
+And there was made a new pair of gallows, and a strong chain, and a
+collar of iron for him; and there he was hanged, and burnt on the
+gallows, and all for his lewdness and false opinions."</p>
+
+<p>And here we must close this sad tragedy, in the last scene of which
+King Henry took no part. He was spared the pain of either sanctioning
+or witnessing these transactions. The first information he received of
+his unhappy friend's capture, probably certified him also of his
+death; and whatever we may suppose to have been his sentiments on the
+removal from this world of one whom he certainly believed guilty of
+treason, and the enemy of his throne; his kindness of heart, and
+sympathy with the brave and the good, must have made him, even in the
+midst of the din of war and the flush of victory, lament the fate of
+one whom for so many years he had held in affection and esteem. Henry
+probably felt a melancholy satisfaction that he was spared the sad
+duty, for so he must have deemed it, of sanctioning the last sentence
+on his friend. They are now both in the hands of Him to whom all
+hearts are open, and from whom no secret is hid; and there we leave
+them to his just but merciful disposal.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page393" name="page393">(p. 393)</a></span>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXII.</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">the case of john clayton, of george gurmyn, and of william taylor,
+examined. &mdash; results of the investigation. &mdash; henry's kindness and
+liberality to the widows and orphans of convicted heretics. &mdash;
+reflections.</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>Henry of Monmouth's name seems never to have been associated by our
+historians with the death of any one condemned to the flames as a
+heretic, except in the case of those two persons the circumstances of
+whose last hours have been examined at length in this inquiry,&mdash;Badby,
+whom he endeavoured to save even at the stake, and Oldcastle, whose
+execution he respited, and for whose death he never issued the
+warrant. There are, however, three prosecutions for heresy, which,
+though hitherto unconnected with the question discussed in these
+chapters, seem to claim a patient consideration before this inquiry is
+closed, and the final answer be returned to the question, Was Henry a
+persecutor for religious opinions? The names of the three persecuted
+for maintaining opinions
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page394" name="page394">(p. 394)</a></span>
+different from the dogmas of the
+church of Rome, to whose convictions and deaths our attention is here
+drawn, are John Clayton, or Claydon, George
+Gurmyn,<a id="notetag297" name="notetag297"></a><a href="#note297">[297]</a>
+and William
+Taylor.</p>
+
+<p>The case of John Clayton, whether we look to it merely as a
+well-authenticated fact of history, or seek from it ancillary evidence
+as to the principles and conduct of Henry in the matter of religious
+persecution, involves subjects of deep interest. The satisfaction with
+which it is believed many may view it, as one of the incidents which
+seem to imply that Henry was an unwilling, reluctant executor of the
+penal laws of his kingdom, and took the lead of his people in
+liberality and toleration, must be mingled with pain sincerely felt on
+witnessing the stewards of the word of life becoming the zealous and
+relentless exactors of a cruel and iniquitous law, straining to the
+very utmost its enactments to cover their deeds of blood, and
+sacrificing their fellow-creatures to the image they had set up. The
+case of Clayton puts
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page395" name="page395">(p. 395)</a></span>
+the excessive enormities of the
+hierarchy of that day in a more striking point of view than many
+others of the more generally cited instances of persecution. Clayton's
+was not the case of a powerful man like Cobham, whose very character
+and station, and rank and influence, made him formidable: Clayton's
+was not the case of a learned man, or an eloquent preacher, or an
+active, zealous propagator of those new doctrines from which the see
+of Rome anticipated so much evil to her cause. His was the case of a
+tradesman, unable to read himself, and engaging another to read to him
+out of a book which seemed to give him pleasure; the place of reading
+being a private room in a private house, the time of reading being the
+Lord's day, and other festivals of the church; and the witnesses
+against him being his own servant and his own apprentice. Had the
+record of this sad persecution been written by an enemy to the
+priesthood, we should have suspected that the whole case was
+misrepresented, that a colouring had been unfairly given to the
+proceedings, to make them more odious in our sight; and though, at the
+best, such proceedings must be detestable, we should have deemed that
+in this case the facts had been distorted to meet the prejudiced views
+of the writer. But the proceedings are registered in the authentic
+records of the Archbishop of
+Canterbury,<a id="notetag298" name="notetag298"></a><a href="#note298">[298]</a>
+and are minutely
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page396" name="page396">(p. 396)</a></span>
+detailed in all the circumstances of time, and place, and person.</p>
+
+<p>John Clayton was a currier, or skinner, living in the parish of St.
+Anne's, "Aldrychgate." In those days few tradesmen could read, and he
+was not an exception. But he had at an early period formed a very
+favourable opinion of the new doctrines; the preaching of Wickliffe's
+followers, or, it may be, of Wickliffe himself, had made so deep an
+impression on his mind, that nothing could shake the firmness and
+constancy of his belief to the day of his death. His predilection for
+"Lollardy," as the profession of the new doctrines was called, became
+known to the ecclesiastical rulers long before the statute for burning
+heretics was passed in England; and his religious opinions exposed him
+to great troubles and hardships, even in the reign of Richard II. He
+was arrested on suspicion of heresy, and carried before Braybrook,
+Bishop of London. The consequence of his conviction was imprisonment,
+first in Conway Castle for two years, and subsequently in the Fleet
+for the term of three years more. He then renounced the errors alleged
+against him, and abjured them at the time when "Lord John Searle" was
+chancellor of England, about the year 1400. Through the reign of Henry
+IV, and the two first years of Henry V, Clayton seems to have remained
+unmolested. No sooner, however, had Henry left England on his first
+expedition to France, than Clayton was seized, tried, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page397" name="page397">(p. 397)</a></span>
+condemned. There seems to have been unusual despatch evinced in every
+stage of the proceedings. Clayton was not cited by regular process.
+The Mayor of London arrested him, and brought him before the
+Archbishop's consistory, on Saturday, August 17th, when he was
+examined, and remanded till the next Monday, August 19th. On which day
+he was brought up again, and finally condemned as a wilful relapsed
+heretic.</p>
+
+<p>At that very time, Henry, having dismissed his ships, was first
+commencing the siege of Harfleur; he had left England only the
+preceding Sunday. Whether the time selected for Clayton's arrest and
+trial was merely accidental, or whether the civil and ecclesiastical
+authorities (for both were equally eager for the blood of their
+victim) seized upon the opportunity of Henry's first absence from
+England, is a question which ought not to be decided before all the
+circumstances attending both Clayton's execution and the proceedings
+against Taylor (which will be next examined) shall have been carefully
+weighed. One of the witnesses, who testified to overt acts of heresy
+(such as those on which he was condemned) having been seen in
+Clayton's conduct a year before the time of trial, was living in the
+house of the Mayor of London; and that functionary seems to have
+hurried on the prosecution with more zeal than considerateness, and to
+have kept the young man in readiness to give his testimony whenever a
+favourable opportunity offered.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page398" name="page398">(p. 398)</a></span>
+Such circumstances cannot be
+contemplated without suspicion. At all events, the plain fact is,
+that, on the very Saturday after Henry sailed from England, Clayton
+was brought under arrest, not under process of citation, before the
+ecclesiastical judges by the Mayor of London, who was ready with his
+witnesses.</p>
+
+<p>The charges brought against Clayton were, that, having renounced
+heresy, he had again been guilty of the same crime, by associating
+with persons suspected of heresy, and by having heretical books in his
+possession. To establish these facts, in addition to his own
+confession that he "had been imprisoned in the time of Bishop
+Braybrooke on a charge of heresy, and had subsequently renounced in
+the time of Chancellor Searle, and had heard read about one quarter of
+the book then produced," they proceeded to examine two witnesses who
+had been inmates in Clayton's family.</p>
+
+<p>The first witness swore that he had been, some time past, a servant
+and apprentice of John Clayton; that he had seen one John Fuller, a
+fellow-servant of his, reading the book, which he then identified, to
+his master, in St. Martin's Lane, on certain festival days since
+Easter; that in the book were the ten commandments in English, but
+what else it contained he knew not; that John Clayton seemed to be
+delighted with the book, and to regard it as sound and Catholic.</p>
+
+<p>Another witness, Saunder Philip, a lad fifteen years
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page399" name="page399">(p. 399)</a></span>
+old, a
+servant of Clayton's, but living at the time of the trial in the house
+of the Mayor of London, testified that he saw the book brought into
+Clayton's house about the middle of the preceding Lent; that he heard
+Clayton, his master, say that he would rather pay three times the
+price of the book than be without it; and that, on several occasions,
+through the year before, he saw and heard persons suspected of heresy
+conversing with Clayton.</p>
+
+<p>To what miserable, degrading expedients were these persecutors obliged
+to condescend in compassing their designs! compelling those who ate of
+the bread of the accused, and drank of his cup, and were his own
+domestic servants, and confidential inmates of his home, to bear the
+testimony of death against him: verifying among Christians what the
+Lord of Christians prophesied as the result of pagan opposition to the
+Gospel itself, "A man's foes shall be those of his own household."</p>
+
+<p>The poor man himself confessed that he believed he had heard about
+one-fourth part of the book read. The book produced, and identified by
+the witnesses, was called "The Lantern of Light;" in which the
+ecclesiastical judges pronounced many gross and wicked heresies to be
+contained. Among other articles objected to, some of which were
+doubtless in a more palpable manner adverse to the favourite doctrines
+of Romanism, we find the following criterion of the lawfulness and
+virtue of alms-giving.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page400" name="page400">(p. 400)</a></span>
+The author maintained that alms were
+neither lawful nor virtuous, unless four conditions were observed in
+the distribution of them.</p>
+
+<p>1.&mdash;Unless they be given to the honour of God.</p>
+
+<p>2.&mdash;Unless they be given from goods justly gotten.</p>
+
+<p>3.&mdash;Unless they be given to one whom the donor believed to be in a
+state of Christian charity.</p>
+
+<p>4.&mdash;Unless they be given to such as in very deed, without dissembling
+or pretence, are in need.</p>
+
+<p>That the parts of the book which contained the heretical doctrines
+were ever read to Clayton, does not seem to have been elicited at the
+examination. The witnesses could only depose to having heard the
+Decalogue read in English, but nothing more; and the poor man's own
+confession acknowledged only that he had heard about one quarter of
+the work read. Still, on this confession and this evidence, and for
+this offence, John Clayton was convicted of heresy, was condemned as a
+relapsed heretic, and left without mercy to the secular power. Fox,
+who quotes no authority, adds only, that he "was by the temporal
+magistrates not long after had to Smithfield and burnt."</p>
+
+<p>The ecclesiastical record contains no information after the sentence
+passed on Monday the 19th of August, and our historians seem not to
+have made any inquiries as to the fate of this man. Recent researches,
+however, into original documents have
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page401" name="page401">(p. 401)</a></span>
+been made by the
+Author, with the view of facilitating the present inquiry, and
+rendering it more satisfactory; and the successful result of those
+researches enables him to throw some additional light on the subject
+under investigation. The following facts deserve especial attention.
+Shortly after the above sentence was passed by the ecclesiastical
+authorities, the Mayor and citizens of London wrote a letter to King
+Henry, rehearsing the judgment of the ecclesiastical court on John
+Clayton, and expressing their intention to make an example of the
+convict by carrying the sentence into execution. But they desired the
+King to send them his especial directions on the subject, as they were
+desirous to avoid giving offence in this as well as in all other
+affairs. The answer of Henry to this request, if it was ever made, is
+certainly not recorded. The strong probability is that the execution
+took place before there had been time for the King's answer, if he
+ever sent one, to reach London. The sheriffs of London state in this
+same year that "they had expended 20<i>s.</i> about the burning of John
+Claydon, skinner, and George Gurmyn, baker, Lollards convicted of
+heresy," though the day of the execution is not recorded.</p>
+
+<p>It must here be remembered, that the Mayor himself arrested Clayton,
+and produced the witnesses against him; that the King's
+writ<a id="notetag299" name="notetag299"></a><a href="#note299">[299]</a> was
+not necessary
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page402" name="page402">(p. 402)</a></span>
+to authorize execution after judgment passed by
+the ecclesiastical authority in convocation; and that, even if it had
+been necessary to procure the royal sanction, the Duke of Clarence was
+left in England with full powers, as Henry's representative. Yet, in
+order to avoid giving offence, though they were determined to make an
+example of Clayton, they were afraid to proceed to the extreme penalty
+of the law without first taking the instructions of the King. This
+would scarcely
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page403" name="page403">(p. 403)</a></span>
+have been necessary, nor would any hesitation,
+or scruple, or misgiving have arisen in their minds, had they not been
+under a strong practical persuasion that the execution of this man
+would have given their King displeasure. And when we know what
+employment awaited Henry from the very day of Clayton's conviction
+till his return home,&mdash;the siege of Harfleur, the harassing march
+through France, the battle of Agincourt,&mdash;we cannot wonder at no
+answer being recorded. Perhaps
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page404" name="page404">(p. 404)</a></span>
+he made no answer; perhaps the
+letter never reached him in the midst of his struggles and dangers;
+probably he did not interfere, but allowed the law to take its course.
+Whatever took place between the condemnation and the death of Clayton,
+every stage of the transaction, from the first arrest of the accused
+on the very Saturday after Henry sailed for France, makes it quite
+clear that, in the opinion of the magistrates of London, Henry would
+be no willing abettor of persecution.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+
+<p>A case, however, of no ordinary character as a matter of historical
+record, and doubly important to those who take an interest in the
+result of the present investigation, requires to be examined in all
+its bearings (especially with reference to the dates of its several
+stages) with greater care than has hitherto been bestowed upon it.</p>
+
+<p>In the July of 1416, whilst the Emperor Sigismund and Henry were both
+in England, Archbishop Chicheley gave evidence of his zeal by issuing
+most stringent mandates, directing his suffragan bishops to make
+diligent search for heretics, to report the names and circumstances of
+all who were suspected of heresy under seal to the metropolitan, and
+to institute process against them according to law. On the publication
+of these injunctions, a most strict and searching inquisition took
+place through the country. Still no one suffered the extreme penalty
+of the law as a heretic convict.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page405" name="page405">(p. 405)</a></span>
+In the next year, no sooner
+was Pope Martin V. elected at Constance, than, complaining bitterly of
+the neglect and apathy of the ecclesiastical and civil authorities,
+the new Pontiff addressed every argument, both of encouragement and of
+intimidation, to the laity and the clergy alike, urging them to unite
+as one man in the work of extirpating heresy. He even applied to the
+English church, that, in their overflowing zeal for the Apostolic See,
+they would raise a subsidy in aid of the war then being carried on
+against the heretics in Bohemia. Among those who had fallen under
+suspicion of heresy, and who were watched with jealous vigilance by
+the ecclesiastical authorities, was one William Taylor, who had
+proceeded to his degree of Master of Arts in one of the Universities,
+and had been admitted into the order of priest in the church. Taylor
+was cited to appear before the consistory; and on Monday, February 12,
+1420, he confessed before Archbishop Chicheley that in the time of his
+predecessor (Arundel) he had been suspected of heresy; and for not
+appearing, or for not answering to the charge brought against him, he
+had been excommunicated, and had remained under that sentence for
+fourteen
+years.<a id="notetag300" name="notetag300"></a><a href="#note300">[300]</a>
+Upon his expression of sorrow and repentance, he
+was commanded to appear on the following Wednesday at Lambeth, where,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page406" name="page406">(p. 406)</a></span>
+in the great chapel, he received the pardon of the church on
+certain stipulated conditions. He was bound by solemn promises, and by
+an oath on the Gospels (thrice repeated), not to offend again; and he
+promised to appear in person or by his proctor at the next
+convocation, there to confess his penitence. He was then set at
+liberty.</p>
+
+<p>Taylor, however, was not long allowed to remain unmolested. Agreeably
+to the call of the sovereign Pontiff at Rome, and the peremptory
+injunctions of his metropolitan, agreeably also (as it too evidently
+appears by the sequel) to his own views of duty, Philip Morgan, Bishop
+of Worcester, denounced the same William Taylor in full convocation,
+May 5, 1421, as a person vehemently suspected of heresy. The King was
+then in London, but was on the eve of leaving the kingdom; and fully
+occupied in preparing to proceed forthwith to wipe off the disgrace
+which had fallen on the English arms, and to restore confidence to his
+troops, then much depressed by the unexpected discomfiture of their
+countrymen, and the death of the Duke of Clarence in battle. On
+Saturday, May 24, Taylor was put upon his trial, being produced before
+the court as the Bishop of Worcester's prisoner, who had caused him to
+be arrested. Of the three opinions savouring of heresy, (errorem et
+hæresin sapientes,) he pleaded guilty to having entertained the two
+last, but of the first he seems to have had no knowledge; indeed,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page407" name="page407">(p. 407)</a></span>
+it is very difficult to say what meaning could have been attached
+to it.</p>
+
+<p>He was charged with having maintained at Bristol.</p>
+
+<p>First, That whosoever suspends on his neck any writing, by that act
+takes away the honour due to God only, and renders it to the
+Devil.<a id="notetag301" name="notetag301"></a><a href="#note301">[301]</a></p>
+
+<p>Secondly, That Christ was not to be prayed to in his character of man,
+but only as God.</p>
+
+<p>Thirdly, That the saints of heaven were not to be addressed in prayer.</p>
+
+<p>On the next Monday, May 26th, he was pronounced guilty of heresy, and
+condemned to perpetual imprisonment for the term of his life. So
+dreadful a punishment (to which, whatever it might be, he had on his
+previous release sworn to submit,) suddenly struck him to the very
+heart, and caused him to show some signs of a subdued mind. On which
+the Archbishop mitigated that sentence by adding to it an alternative,
+"Unless he shall be able to give bail, to the satisfaction of the
+Chancellor of England."</p>
+
+<p>We have already intimated that Henry's thoughts were at this time
+fully and anxiously occupied in preparing for an immediate expedition
+to France; and it is to be observed that, on the very day after
+Taylor's condemnation, the King issued his writ to the sheriffs,
+commanding them to publish his proclamation for all persons to hasten
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page408" name="page408">(p. 408)</a></span>
+with the greatest speed to join the King in his voyage.
+Taylor left the court in custody, as the prisoner of the Bishop of
+Worcester, to end his days in a dungeon, unless he should be able to
+produce the required bail; in which case the Bishop was authorized by
+the court to release him.</p>
+
+<p>When Henry left London, on the Monday after Taylor's condemnation, he
+left it never to return. His death, as we have seen, took place on the
+last day of August 1422. That Henry knew anything of the prosecution
+of this person, does not appear; and, if he had been made acquainted
+with the intended proceedings, whether he expressed any opinion upon
+them in favour of maintaining the faith by the secular arm, or in
+favour of the gentle and mild means of persuasion,&mdash;is a matter lost
+to history, and all inquiry into any of those points must be
+fruitless. Nor are we informed whether the poor man could produce the
+required bail, or whether he remained a prisoner till his death. Some
+expressions in the record of the subsequent transactions would induce
+us to infer that he had, after his condemnation, been at large and was
+again taken into custody (sub custodiâ carcerali iterum arrestatus).
+The striking fact, however, is this,&mdash;that Henry had not been dead six
+months before this same priest was brought up a prisoner in the
+custody of a jailor, and tried before the same court for a repetition
+of the very same
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page409" name="page409">(p. 409)</a></span>
+offence; or rather, perhaps, for the very
+same individual act for which, a year and three quarters before, he
+had been condemned to perpetual imprisonment. The same accuser, the
+Bishop of Worcester, charged him with having, <i>since his abjuration
+aforesaid</i>, written, maintained, and communicated with a certain
+priest, named Thomas Smyth, living at Bristol, on paper in his own
+hand-writing, the alleged heretical opinions. Here it must be observed,
+that the charge was made by the same accuser, the Bishop of Worcester,
+before the same Judge Chicheley; that the place in which he was said
+to have held these doctrines was in each case the same, Bristol; that
+in each case the doctrines were said to have been conveyed by writing;
+and that, as to the time of the offence, the Bishop did not say it was
+after his previous condemnation, but only after his recantation, which
+took place in February 1420, just a year and a quarter before his
+sentence of imprisonment. And if we examine the four heretical
+opinions which were extracted, in 1423, by the Canonists out of his
+written communication to Thomas Smyth, we shall find them in substance
+nothing more or less than two of the opinions on which he was before
+condemned to imprisonment in 1421.</p>
+
+<p>1.&mdash;All prayer which is a petition for any supernatural or gratuitous
+gift, is to be offered to God alone.</p>
+
+<p>2.&mdash;Prayer
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page410" name="page410">(p. 410)</a></span>
+is to be addressed only to
+God.<a id="notetag302" name="notetag302"></a><a href="#note302">[302]</a></p>
+
+<p>3.&mdash;To pray to any creature is to commit idolatry.</p>
+
+<p>4.&mdash;The faithful ought to address their prayers to God, not in
+reference to his humanity, but only with regard to his Deity.</p>
+
+<p>This was the sum of his offence, involving precisely the identical
+opinions of which he had been pronounced guilty in 1421, after his
+recantation in
+1420.<a id="notetag303" name="notetag303"></a><a href="#note303">[303]</a></p>
+
+<p>After Lynewood had given his opinion that a relapsed heretic was to be
+left to the secular court, without hope of pardon, and without being
+heard as to the corporal punishment, his judges proceeded to the
+extreme execution of the law. Taylor was degraded on Monday the 1st of
+March, 1423, in the first year of Henry VI; and, the writ for his
+burning being issued on the same day, he suffered death in Smithfield.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+
+<p>How far these circumstances may be pronounced to bear on the subject,
+and to conspire in acquitting Henry of Monmouth of the charge with
+which his name has been unsparingly assailed, of having been in spirit
+and conduct a persecutor for religious opinions, deserves serious
+consideration. When
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page411" name="page411">(p. 411)</a></span>
+it is borne in mind that the Lollards
+were certainly represented to Henry as the enemies of his throne and
+of the peace of the realm; that the Pope and the hierarchy of England
+were loud and incessant in their appeals to the authorities to
+extirpate such poisonous weeds from the garden of the Lord's heritage;
+that the Emperor Sigismund was most zealous in obeying such calls of
+the church, and caused his own land to flow with blood; that Henry's
+prelates made a direct personal appeal to him to prosecute heretics;
+that his council deemed it necessary to remind him of his duty in that
+point;<a id="notetag304" name="notetag304"></a><a href="#note304">[304]</a>
+that his own chaplain openly charged him with want of zeal
+and with apathy in that good cause; that no single warrant for the
+execution of any one condemned for heresy alone was ever signed, or,
+as far as we can ascertain, was ever sanctioned, by him; that the only
+victims of the priesthood actually burnt for heresy alone during his
+reign were condemned and executed in Henry's absence from the kingdom;
+and that one person sentenced to imprisonment during Henry's life was,
+within a few months after his death, condemned to the flames, and
+actually burnt for the same offence; when all these points are fairly
+weighed, probably
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page412" name="page412">(p. 412)</a></span>
+few will not feel satisfied that the
+judgment passed upon Henry, on the charge of persecution, is
+inconsistent with the soundest principles of historical investigation.</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+
+<p>The Author, however, is induced to confess that a comparison of the
+events of Henry's reign with those which preceded his accession, and
+followed his death, has compelled him to form more than a merely
+negative opinion on Henry of Monmouth's principles and conduct and
+influence. In addition to the circumstances detailed in these
+chapters, he would solicit attention to one fact, which no historical
+writer seems to have noticed. During the last years of Henry IV. a
+greater number of persons appear to have suffered in the fires of
+martyrdom than the accounts of our chroniclers would lead us to
+suppose.<a id="notetag305" name="notetag305"></a><a href="#note305">[305]</a>
+By the cruel operation of the law, the goods and
+chattels of convicted heretics were escheated to the crown; and when
+Henry came to the throne, several widows and orphans were suffering
+severely from the effects of that ruthless enactment. No sooner had he
+the power of relieving their distress, than, in the exercise of the
+most divine prerogative of the kingly office, he restored to many
+their confiscated property. The most correct notion of the motives
+which influenced him will be conveyed
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page413" name="page413">(p. 413)</a></span>
+by the language itself
+of the several grants: "We, compassionating the poverty of Isabella,
+widow of Richard Turner, who was convicted and put to death for
+heresy, of our especial grace have granted to the said Isabella all
+the goods and chattels to us forfeited, for the maintenance of herself
+and of her
+children."<a id="notetag306" name="notetag306"></a><a href="#note306">[306]</a>
+Similar grants are recorded, and all in the
+first year of his reign, to Alice widow of Walter Yonge, Isabella
+widow of John Horewood, and Matilda widow of John Fynche; their
+several husbands having suffered for maintaining opinions then
+pronounced heretical. This fact seems to be not only confirmatory of
+the views we have taken of Henry's tender-heartedness and sympathy
+with the afflicted and helpless, but indicative also of the absence of
+whatever approaches a persecuting and vindictive spirit towards those
+who had incurred the extreme penalty of the law for conscience-sake.
+The Author cannot but infer that Henry's dislike of persecution placed
+a considerable check on the fierceness with which it raged, both
+before and after his reign; that the sanguinary intentions of the
+priesthood were, to a very considerable degree, frustrated by his
+known love of gentler means; and that in England a greater portion of
+religious liberty was enjoyed during the years through which he sat on
+the throne, than had been tolerated under the government of his
+father, or was afterwards allowed through the minority of his son.</p>
+
+<p>The
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page414" name="page414">(p. 414)</a></span>
+Author entered upon the subject of the three last
+chapters with the view of ascertaining, on the best original evidence,
+the validity or the unsoundness of the charge of persecution for
+religion brought against Henry of Monmouth. Independently of the
+result of that investigation, he confesses himself to have risen from
+the inquiry impressed with mingled feelings of apprehension and of
+gratitude:&mdash;gratitude for the blessings of the Reformation; and
+apprehension lest, in our use of those blessings, and in the return
+made to their Almighty Donor, we may be found wanting. For no maxim
+can be more firmly established by the sound deductions of human
+wisdom, or more unequivocally sanctioned by the express words of
+revelation, than the principle that to whom much is given, of them
+will much be required. And on this principle how awfully has our
+increase of privileges enhanced our responsibility! By the
+Reformation, Providence has rescued us from those dangers which once
+attended an honest avowal of a Christian's faith; has freed us from
+those gross superstitions which once darkened the whole of
+Christendom; and has released us from that galling yoke under which
+the disciples of the Cross were long held in bondage. The bestowal of
+these blessings exacts at our hands many duties of indispensable
+obligation. The Author hopes he may be pardoned, if, in closing this
+subject, he refers to some of those points
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page415" name="page415">(p. 415)</a></span>
+which press upon
+his own mind most seriously.</p>
+
+<p>Those who are intrusted with a brighter and a more pure light of
+spiritual truth, are, first of all, bound to prove by their lives that
+religion is not in them a dead and inoperative letter; but a vivifying
+principle, productive of practical holiness and virtue. Enlightened
+Christians are bound to show forth their principles by the exercise of
+every Christian excellence, and so to prove to the world that God is
+with them of a truth.</p>
+
+<p>Another indispensable duty is, that those who possess the truth should
+individually and by combined exertions labour to spread its heavenly
+influence throughout the whole mass of their fellow-creatures, not
+only in every corner of their own land, but to the utmost coasts of
+the civilized world, and through the still numberless regions of
+barbarism and idolatry. "Freely ye have received, freely give."</p>
+
+<p>Again, it were a narrow view of our duty were we to feel an anxiety
+for the preservation, through the period only of our own existence
+upon earth, of the benefits which we now enjoy. To be satisfied with
+the assurance that provision is made for our own times, is a principle
+altogether unworthy a philanthropic and a Christian mind: and the more
+valuable and essential the blessing, the more steady and vigorous
+should be our labour in providing for its permanency and its future
+increase.
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page416" name="page416">(p. 416)</a></span>
+If we are honest in our own choice, we believe
+that by delivering down to posterity, in its integrity and pureness,
+the blessing which has been committed to us in especial trust, we are
+transmitting not a state-device (as its enemies delight to call it),
+but an institution founded on the surest principles of true philosophy
+and of revelation, with a view to the best interests of the whole
+human race. If, aided by the Divine Founder of the church, we resign
+to those who come after us the fostering and mild, but firm and
+well-grounded establishment of the Protestant faith, removed equally
+from latitudinarian indifference and from the intolerance of bigotry,
+with an ungrudging spirit sharing with others the liberty of
+conscience we claim for ourselves, we shall transmit an inheritance
+which may be to future ages what it has proved itself to be towards
+many among ourselves, and of those who have gone before us,&mdash;the
+instructor and guide of their youth, the strength and stay of their
+manhood, the support and comfort of their declining years;&mdash;an
+institution which is the faithful depository of Christian truth; the
+surest guardian of civil and religious liberty; the parent of whatever
+is just, and generous, and charitable, and holy. <span class="smcap">Esto perpetua</span>!</p>
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page417" name="page417">(p. 417)</a></span>
+
+<h2>APPENDIX. No. I.</h2>
+
+
+
+<p>To those, as we are led to believe, contemporary poems, which appear
+in the body of the work, the Author is induced to subjoin a "Ballad of
+Agincourt," of much later date indeed, but which, for the noble
+national spirit which it breathes throughout, and the vigour of its
+description, cannot easily be exceeded: it is not so generally known
+as it deserves to be; though some of its expressions may sound
+strangely and quaintly to our ears. It will be found in Drayton's
+Works, p. 424.</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p>"Fair stood the wind for France,<br>
+  When we our sails advance;<br>
+  Nor now to prove our chance,<br>
+<span class="poem1">Longer will tarry;</span><br>
+  But, putting to the main,<br>
+  At Kaux, the mouth of Seine,<br>
+  With all his martial train,<br>
+<span class="poem1">Landed King Harry.</span></p>
+
+<p>And taking many a fort,<br>
+  Furnished in warlike sort,<br>
+  Marcheth towards Agincourt,<br>
+<span class="poem1">In happy hour.</span>
+   <span class="pagenum"><a id="page418" name="page418">(p. 418)</a></span><br>
+  Skirmishing day by day,<br>
+  With those that stopped his way;<br>
+  Where the French general lay<br>
+<span class="poem1">With all his power.</span></p>
+
+<p>Who, in the height of pride,<br>
+  King Henry to deride,<br>
+  His ransom to provide,<br>
+<span class="poem1">To the King sending:</span><br>
+  Which he neglects the while,<br>
+  As from a nation vile;<br>
+  Yet with an angry smile<br>
+<span class="poem1">Their fall portending.</span></p>
+
+<p>And turning to his men,<br>
+  Quoth our brave Henry then,<br>
+  Though they to one be ten,<br>
+<span class="poem1">Be not amazed.</span><br>
+  Yet have we well begun,<br>
+  Battles so bravely won<br>
+  Have ever to the sun<br>
+<span class="poem1">By fame been raised.</span></p>
+
+<p>And for myself, quoth he,<br>
+  This my full rest shall be:<br>
+  England ne'er mourn for me,<br>
+<span class="poem1">Nor more esteem me.</span><br>
+  Victor I will remain,<br>
+  Or on this earth be slain;&mdash;<br>
+  Never shall she sustain<br>
+<span class="poem1">Loss to redeem
+        me.<a id="notetag307" name="notetag307"></a><a
+href="#note307">[307]</a></span></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page419" name="page419">(p. 419)</a></span>
+  Poitiers and Cressy tell,<br>
+  Where most their pride did swell;<br>
+  Under our swords they fell;&mdash;<br>
+<span class="poem1">No less our skill is,</span><br>
+  Than when our grandsire great,<br>
+  Claiming the regal seat,<br>
+  By many a warlike feat<br>
+<span class="poem1">Lopped the French lilies.</span></p>
+
+<p>The Duke of York so dread,<br>
+  The eager vaward led;<br>
+  With the main Henry sped<br>
+<span class="poem1">Amongst his henchmen.</span><br>
+  Exeter had the rear,<br>
+  A braver man not there!<br>
+  How fierce and hot they
+         were<a id="notetag308" name="notetag308"></a><a href="#note308">[308]</a><br>
+<span class="poem1">On the false Frenchmen!</span></p>
+
+<p>They now to fight are gone,<br>
+  Armour on armour shone;<br>
+  Drum now to drum did groan&mdash;<br>
+<span class="poem1">To hear was wonder;</span><br>
+  That with the cries they make,<br>
+  The very earth did shake;<br>
+  Trumpet to trumpet spake,<br>
+<span class="poem1">Thunder to thunder.</span></p>
+
+<p>Well it thine age became,<br>
+  O noble Erpingham!<br>
+  Who didst the signal aim<br>
+<span class="poem1">To our hid forces;</span><br>
+  When, from a meadow by,<br>
+  Like a storm suddenly,<br>
+  The English archery<br>
+<span class="poem1">Stuck the French horses.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page420" name="page420">(p. 420)</a></span>
+  With Spanish yew so strong,<br>
+  Arrows a cloth-yard long,<br>
+  That like to serpent stung,<br>
+<span class="poem1">Piercing the weather.</span><br>
+  None from his fellow starts,<br>
+  But playing manly parts,<br>
+  And, like true English hearts,<br>
+<span class="poem1">Stuck close together.</span></p>
+
+<p>When down their bows they threw,<br>
+  And forth their bilbows drew,<br>
+  And on the French they flew;&mdash;<br>
+<span class="poem1">Not one was tardy;</span><br>
+  Arms were from shoulders sent,<br>
+  Scalps to the teeth were rent;<br>
+  Down the French peasants went:&mdash;<br>
+<span class="poem1">Our men were hardy.</span></p>
+
+<p>This while our noble King,<br>
+  His broad sword brandishing,<br>
+  Down the French host did ding,<br>
+<span class="poem1">As to o'erwhelm it.</span><br>
+  And many a deep wound lent,<br>
+  His arms with blood besprent;<br>
+  And many a cruel dent<br>
+<span class="poem1">Bruised his helmet.</span></p>
+
+<p>Gloucester, that Duke so good,<br>
+  Next of the royal blood,<br>
+  For famous England stood<br>
+<span class="poem1">With his brave brother;</span><br>
+  Clarence, in steel so bright,<br>
+  Though but a maiden knight,<br>
+  Yet in that famous fight<br>
+<span class="poem1">Scarce such another.</span></p>
+
+<p>Warwick in blood did wade,<br>
+  Oxford the foe invade,<br>
+  And cruel slaughter made,&mdash;<br>
+<span class="poem1">Still as they ran up;</span>
+  <span class="pagenum"><a id="page421" name="page421">(p. 421)</a></span><br>
+  Suffolk his axe did ply;<br>
+  Beaumont and Willoughby<br>
+  Bare them right doughtily;<br>
+<span class="poem1">Ferrers and Fanhope.</span></p>
+
+<p>Upon St. Crispin's day,<br>
+  Fought was this noble fray;<br>
+  Which fame did not delay<br>
+<span class="poem1">To England to carry;</span><br>
+  Oh! when shall English men<br>
+  With such acts fill a pen,<br>
+  Or England breed again<br>
+<span class="poem1">Such a King Harry!"</span></p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page422" name="page422">(p. 422)</a></span>
+
+<h2>APPENDIX, No. II.</h2>
+
+
+<p>To the miseries which fell upon the inhabitants of Rouen during the
+siege, a brief reference has been made in the body of this work. The
+following lines, by an eye-witness, record a very pleasing
+circumstance indicative of Henry's piety and benevolence. The wretched
+inhabitants, who could contribute no aid in the defence of the town,
+were driven by the garrison beyond the gates with the most unmerciful
+hardheartedness. On Christmas-day Henry offered, in honour of the
+festival, to supply all the inhabitants, great and small [meste and
+least], with meat and drink. His offer was met very uncourteously by
+the garrison, and his benevolent intentions were in a great degree
+frustrated. The poem called "The Siege of Rouen" may now be read in
+the Archæologia, vol. xxi, with an interesting introduction by the
+Reverend William Conybeare.</p>
+
+<p class="left15">SIEGE OF ROUEN.</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+  "But then, within a little space,<br>
+  The poor people of that same place<br>
+  At every gate they were put out,<br>
+  Many a hundred on a rout.<br>
+  It was great pity them for to see,<br>
+  How women came kneeling on their knee;<br>
+  And their children also in their arms,<br>
+  For to save them from harms.
+   <span class="pagenum"><a id="page423" name="page423">(p. 423)</a></span><br>
+  And old men came kneeling them by,<br>
+  And there they made a doleful cry;<br>
+  And all they cried at once then,<br>
+  'Have mercy on us, ye English men!'<br>
+  Our men gave them some of their bread,<br>
+  Though they to us were now so
+        quede.<a id="notetag309" name="notetag309"></a><a href="#note309">[309]</a><br>
+  Harm to them we did none,<br>
+  But made them again to the ditch gone:<br>
+  And there we kept them all abache,<br>
+  Because they should not see our watch:<br>
+  Many one said they would liefer be slain,<br>
+  Than turn to the city of Rouen again.<br>
+  They went forth with a strong murmuration,<br>
+  And ever they cursed their own nation;<br>
+  For the city would not let them in,<br>
+  Therefore they did full great sin;<br>
+  For many one died there for cold,<br>
+  That might full well their life have hold.<br>
+  This was at the time of Christmas:<br>
+  I may you tell of a full fair case,<br>
+  As of great meekness of our good King;<br>
+  And also of meekness a great tokening.<br>
+  Our King sent into Rouen on Christmas day,<br>
+  His heralds in a rich array;<br>
+  And said, because of this high feast,<br>
+  Both to the meste and to the least<br>
+  Within the city, and also without,<br>
+  To tell, that be scanty of victuals all about,<br>
+  All they to have meat and drink thereto,<br>
+  And again safe-conduct to come and to go.<br>
+  They said, 'Gramercy!' all lightly,<br>
+  As they had set little prize thereby;<br>
+  And unnese [scarcely] they would grant any grace<br>
+  To the poor people that out put was,<br>
+  Save to two priests, and no more them with,<br>
+  For to bring meat they granted therewith;
+   <span class="pagenum"><a id="page424" name="page424">(p. 424)</a></span><br>
+  'But an there come with you and mo [more],<br>
+  Truly we will shoot you too.'<br>
+  All on a row the poor people were set,<br>
+  The priests come and brought them meat;<br>
+  They ate and drank, and were full fain,<br>
+  And thanked our King with all their main;<br>
+  And as they sate, their meat to fong,<br>
+  Thus they talked them among:<br>
+  'O Mightiful Jesu!' they said then,<br>
+  'Of tender heart is the Englishmen;<br>
+  For see how this excellent King,<br>
+  That we have been ever again standing;<br>
+  And never would we obey him to,<br>
+  Nor no homage to him would we never do;<br>
+  And yet he hath on us more compassion,<br>
+  Than hath our own countrymen;<br>
+  And therefore, Lord Jesu, as Thou art full of mercy,<br>
+  Grant him grace to win his right in
+       hey.'<a id="notetag310" name="notetag310"></a><a href="#note310">[310]</a><br>
+  And thus the poor people that time spake,<br>
+  And full good tent thereto was take;<br>
+  But when they had eaten and went their way,<br>
+  The truce adrew, and war took his way."
+</p>
+
+
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page425" name="page425">(p. 425)</a></span>
+
+<h2>APPENDIX, No. III.</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">AUTHENTICITY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS</span></h3>
+
+<p class="figcenter">Sloane 1776, and Reg. 13, c. 1.</p>
+
+
+<p>It will be borne in mind that the only document which contains the
+charge brought against Henry of Monmouth of unfilial conduct and cruel
+behaviour towards his afflicted father is a manuscript, two copies of
+which are preserved in the British Museum; and that a thorough
+examination of the authenticity of that manuscript was reserved for
+the Appendix. Every right-minded person will agree that the magnitude
+and dark character of a charge, so far from justifying a prejudice
+against the accused, should induce us to sift with more scrutinizing
+jealousy the evidence alleged in support of the accusation.</p>
+
+<p>It will require but a very brief inspection of the two MSS., Sloane
+1776, and Reg. 13,
+c. 1.,<a id="notetag311" name="notetag311"></a><a href="#note311">[311]</a>
+to be assured that they are either both
+transcripts from one document in that part of the volume which
+contains the history of Henry IV, or that one of these is copied from
+the other.<a id="notetag312" name="notetag312"></a><a href="#note312">[312]</a>
+Unless, therefore, an intimation be given to the
+contrary, it will be understood that reference is made to the Sloane
+MS., <span class="pagenum"><a id="page426" name="page426">(p. 426)</a></span>
+which, though not copied with equal correctness in point
+of orthography and grammar, is still far superior to the King's in the
+clearness of the writing.</p>
+
+<p>The Sloane MS.
+1776,<a id="notetag313" name="notetag313"></a><a href="#note313">[313]</a>
+appears to consist of four portions, though
+the same hand copied the whole.</p>
+
+<p>The first portion extends from the commencement to page 40.</p>
+
+<p>The second from page 40 to the end of the account of Henry IV. at page
+49.</p>
+
+<p>The third from the commencement of the reign of Henry V. page 50, to
+his second expedition to France, mentioned in page 72.</p>
+
+<p>The fourth from that point to the end, at page 94, b.</p>
+
+<p>1. The first portion embraces that part of the reigns of Richard II.
+and Henry IV. which falls within the range of the chronicle of the
+Monk of Evesham; ending with an account of the marriage of Edmund
+Mortimer with a daughter of Owyn Glyndowr, and two cases of sacrilege.</p>
+
+<p>2. The second carries on the history of Henry IV. to the beginning of
+his thirteenth year, and contains the passage which charges Henry V.
+with the unfilial attempt to supplant his father on the throne. These
+first two parts
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page427" name="page427">(p. 427)</a></span>
+must be examined together, and in detail;
+the last two will require only a few remarks, and may then be
+dismissed.</p>
+
+<p>That the history which commences at p. 50 of the Sloane MS. was the
+work of an ecclesiastic who attended Henry V. in his first expedition
+to France, is made evident at a much earlier point of the narrative
+than the translation of it by Sir Harris Nicolas, in the Appendix to
+his "Battle of Agincourt," would enable us to infer. The passage
+"After having passed the Isle of Wight, swans were seen," should have
+been rendered, "After <i>we</i> left the shores of the Isle of Wight
+behind, swans appeared." The writer was at the battle of Agincourt,
+stationed with the baggage, and with his clerical associates praying
+for God's mercy to spare themselves and their countrymen.</p>
+
+<p>That he was not the same person who wrote the history of Richard II.
+and Henry IV, now found in the same fasciculus, seems to be placed
+beyond doubt; his style is very different, and his tone of sentiment
+directly at variance with what is found in the preceding portion. He
+is a devoted admirer of Henry V, a characteristic which no one will
+ascribe to the writer of the preceding
+page.<a id="notetag314" name="notetag314"></a><a href="#note314">[314]</a></p>
+
+<p>This writer had composed his history before the year 1418; for of Sir
+John Oldcastle he says, "that he broke prison after his condemnation,
+and lurked in caves and hiding-places, <i>and is still
+lurking</i>."<a id="notetag315" name="notetag315"></a><a href="#note315">[315]</a>
+This portion of the MS. offers evidence in almost every page that its
+author was an eye-witness of what he describes. Probably no
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page428" name="page428">(p. 428)</a></span>
+doubt will be entertained that it is the genuine production of an
+ecclesiastic in attendance on the King. But his work evidently ceases
+at page 72, where he offers a prayer that the Almighty "would give
+good success to his master, then going on his second expedition, and
+grant him victory as he had twice before; and fill him with the spirit
+of wisdom, and heavenly strength, and holy fear."</p>
+
+<p>After the close of the Chaplain's narrative, the MS. loses almost all
+its interest: it carries on the history through the first years of the
+reign of Henry VI, and is evidently only part of what the volume once
+contained.<a id="notetag316" name="notetag316"></a><a href="#note316">[316]</a></p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+
+<p>The two former portions of the volume now claim our careful
+examination; and, of these two, especially the second.</p>
+
+<p>It has been already intimated, that the first part of the MS. contains
+that portion of the history of Richard II. and Henry IV. which is
+embraced by the memoirs of the Monk of Evesham. A careful examination
+of both, and a comparison of each with the other, have induced the
+Author to conclude (with what degree of probability he must leave
+others to decide) that the writer had the work of the Monk before him,
+and copied from it very largely, but made such alterations as we
+should expect to find made by a <i>foreigner</i>, and one whose feelings
+were <i>opposed to the Lancastrian party</i>; a supporter rather of the
+cause of Richard, and the French, and the other enemies of
+Bolinbroke's house. The Monk's work bears every mark of being the
+genuine production of one who witnessed Henry IV.'s expeditions to
+Wales, and who was in all his sentiments and prejudices an Englishman
+and a Lancastrian. The Author fears he may be considered too minute
+and tedious on this point; but, since the circumstance of
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page429" name="page429">(p. 429)</a></span>
+the writer of the manuscript bear immediately upon the authenticity of
+the charge, he trusts he shall be excused a detail which, except for
+that consideration, would be superfluous.</p>
+
+<p>1. They both record the execution of a Welshman, who preferred death
+to treachery. The Monk adds this comment: "<i>We English</i> too [possumus
+et <i>nos Angli</i>] may derive an example here; to preserve our fidelity,
+&amp;c. even to death." The MS. thus expresses its comment: "<i>All English
+servants</i> may contemplate an example of fidelity towards their own
+masters from the conduct of that Welshman."</p>
+
+<p>2. Thus too, in mentioning the introduction of the fashion into
+England of wearing long sleeves like a <i>bagpipe</i>, the two MSS. of the
+Monk most clearly write "Bagpipe." Of the MSS. in question, the Sloane
+writes Bagebyte, the Reg. "Babepipæ;"&mdash;evidently the writer in neither
+case knowing the meaning of the English word which he attempted so
+unsuccessfully to copy.</p>
+
+<p>3. In relating the capture of Lord Grey, the Monk adds, "which we
+grieve to say." The MS., without any such, expression of sympathy or
+sorrow, says that "he fell into the snare which he had prepared for
+others."<a id="notetag317" name="notetag317"></a><a href="#note317">[317]</a></p>
+
+<p>4. The Monk merely records the return of Isabel to France; the MS.
+reflects strongly on her return <i>without her dower</i>, and her feelings
+of repugnance against receiving any boon from Henry, whom she regarded
+as <i>Richard's enemy</i>.</p>
+
+<p>5. Speaking of the battle of Homildon, the Monk says, "Of <i>our
+countrymen</i> only five were slain;" and adds, "We praise thee, O God,
+because thou hast been mindful of us." The MS. says, "<i>And of the
+English</i> scarcely five were slain;" but adds no word of praise.</p>
+
+<p>6. <span class="pagenum"><a id="page430" name="page430">(p. 430)</a></span>
+The Monk says, "From this time Owyn's cause seemed to grow
+and prosper, <i>ours</i> to decrease." This is omitted in the MS.</p>
+
+<p>7. Whereas the Monk (describing the character of Richard in the very
+words&mdash;and many are unusual words&mdash;adopted by the MS.) records that
+Richard was in the habit of sitting throughout the night till the
+morning in drinking, and "other occupations not to be named:" the MS.
+omits the latter phrase. The Monk says there were <i>two</i> points of
+excellence in Richard's character; the MS., though confining itself to
+the two specified by the Monk, calls them "very many," "<i>plura</i>."</p>
+
+<p>8. In recording the commencement of Owyn Glyndowr's rebellion, the
+Monk, speaking of it as "an execrable revolt," says that the Welsh
+elected Owyn against the principles of peace [contra pacem elegerunt].
+The MS. says that the Welsh elected a respectable and venerable
+gentleman to be their leader and prince.</p>
+
+<p>Our attention is now especially called to some points in which the MS.
+seems to be so full of historical mistakes and improbabilities as to
+render any statement of a fact, especially of an improbable fact, not
+supported by other evidence,
+suspicious.<a id="notetag318" name="notetag318"></a><a href="#note318">[318]</a></p>
+
+<p>1. Froissart
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page431" name="page431">(p. 431)</a></span>
+(who appears to be well acquainted with the
+proceedings of Bolinbroke till he left the coast of France, but to
+have been altogether mistaken as to his proceedings from that hour,)
+states, with the greatest probability, that Bolinbroke left Paris
+under plea of visiting his friend the Duke of Brittany, and having
+been well received and assisted by him, set sail from some port of
+Brittany [intimating that his embarkation was (as was natural) carried
+on in secret, for he "<i>had only been informed</i>" that it was from
+Vennes].<a id="notetag319" name="notetag319"></a><a href="#note319">[319]</a>
+The MS., on the contrary, with the greatest
+improbability, roundly asserts that Bolinbroke went to Calais,
+obtained money from the treasurer, though against his will, and seized
+all the ships which he could find in the port. The improbability that
+Bolinbroke should have excited the suspicions of the authorities of
+Calais not in his interest, from which a single boat in a few hours
+could have carried the news of his hostile attempts to Richard's
+friends in England, and the absurdity of making him seize all the
+ships in the port of Calais to carry over his handful of friends, can
+impress the reader with no favourable idea of this writer's accuracy.</p>
+
+<p>2. No fact is more undeniably certain than that Henry IV. made his
+eldest son (our Henry V.) Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall in the
+parliament held immediately upon his accession; whereas the MS.
+declares that Henry V. was so created in the year of the Emperor of
+Constantinople's visit
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page432" name="page432">(p. 432)</a></span>
+to England, and in the parliament
+which began at the feast of St. Hilary, during which Sautre was burned
+for a heretic;&mdash;that is, a year and a quarter later.</p>
+
+<p>3. The MS. account of Hotspur's rebellion is quite inconsistent with
+facts, and altogether, in other respects, as improbable as it is
+singular. The MS. says that
+Hotspur,<a id="notetag320" name="notetag320"></a><a href="#note320">[320]</a>
+about Candlemas, was
+commissioned to go against the Welsh rebels; but when he reached the
+country with his forces, and found it to be mountainous, and fit
+neither for horse nor infantry, he made a truce with Owyn, and went to
+London to take the King's pleasure upon it. The reception he met with
+at court drove him to his own country; and the King, as soon as he
+heard of Percy gathering his people, collected those whom he believed
+to be faithful to him, and hastened to meet him near Shrewsbury.
+Whereas the fact is, that Henry Percy had been resident as Chief
+Justice in North Wales, Constable of Caernarvon, &amp;c. at least three
+years; had besieged Conway with his own men; had routed the rebels at
+Cader Idris, and most zealously persevered in his attempts to suppress
+the rebellion; and had returned from the Principality at least a year
+and a half before the Candlemas (1403), at which the MS. says that he
+was first commissioned to go there.</p>
+
+<p>The next point to which the attention of the reader is solicited will
+perhaps be considered by many to involve a greater improbability than
+the Author may himself attach to it. Every one who has ever read, or
+heard, or written about the "Tripartite Indenture of Division" made
+between Glyndowr, Mortimer, and Northumberland, fixes it,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page433" name="page433">(p. 433)</a></span> as
+Shakspeare does, before the battle of
+Shrewsbury.<a id="notetag321" name="notetag321"></a><a href="#note321">[321]</a>
+The scene in
+the house of the Archdeacon of Bangor is too exquisite for any one to
+desire it to be proved a fable. But (as the Author believes) this MS.
+is the only document extant which professes to record the words of
+that treaty; and yet this document fixes it to a date long after the
+Percies lost that "sorry field." It is represented to have been made
+in the February of the year of Pope Innocent's election: if before
+that election, it was made in 1404; if after it, in 1405. And
+certainly the tradition is general that Northumberland, after his
+flight to Scotland, visited Wales.</p>
+
+<p>Another point deserving consideration is the account of the conspiracy
+of Mowbray and the Archbishop of York. That account is drawn up in a
+manner most unfavourable to Henry IV. The MS. boldly also records the
+miracle wrought in the field of the Archbishop's execution, and states
+that various miracles attracted multitudes to his tomb daily. It also
+affirms that, on the very day and hour of the Archbishop's execution,
+Henry IV. was struck with the
+leprosy.<a id="notetag322" name="notetag322"></a><a href="#note322">[322]</a></p>
+
+<p>Perhaps too it may appear strange to others, as the Author confesses
+it has appeared to himself, that, up to the very last chapter of this
+history of Richard II. and Henry IV, no mention whatever is made of
+Henry of Monmouth, except in the unaccountable anachronism of his
+creation as Prince of Wales. It is curious that an historian should
+state that the young Duke of Gloucester was sent for from Ireland, and
+not allude to the circumstance of the Prince being in prison with him,
+and being sent for back at the same
+time.<a id="notetag323" name="notetag323"></a><a href="#note323">[323]</a></p>
+
+<p>We <span class="pagenum"><a id="page434" name="page434">(p. 434)</a></span>
+are now arrived at the very last chapter, the chapter
+containing the charge on which Henry of Monmouth's character has been
+so severely, and, if that charge be true, so justly arraigned. The
+chapter professes to record the transactions of the thirteenth year of
+Henry IV. The question is one of such essential importance as far as
+Henry's good name is at stake, and (as the Author cannot but think) in
+point too of the philosophy of history, involving principles of such
+deep interest to the genuine pursuer of truth, that he would not feel
+himself justified were he to abstain from transcribing the whole
+chapter.</p>
+
+<p>"In the thirteenth year there was a great disturbance between the Duke
+of Burgundy and the Duke of Orleans. Wherefore the Duke of Burgundy
+sent to the Lord Henry, Prince of
+England,<a id="notetag324" name="notetag324"></a><a href="#note324">[324]</a>
+for aid to oppose the
+Duke of Orleans: who sent to his succour the Earl Arundell, John
+Oldcastle the Lord of Cobham, the Lord Gilbert Umfravill, the Lord of
+Kyme, and with them a great army; by whose prowess at Senlow [Reg.
+'Senlowe'], near Paris, the Duke of Orleans was vanquished, and
+cruelly routed from the field, and his followers crushed, routed, and
+slain. And the same Duke of Orleans thought how he could avenge
+himself against the Duke of Burgundy; and immediately he sent to King
+Henry of England a great sum of gold, together with William Count
+Anglam [Reg. "de Anglam"], his brother, as a hostage or surety for a
+greater sum, to obtain succour from the King of England himself. And
+the King did not put off sending him succour; and he appointed Lord
+Thomas, his second son, Duke of Clarence, and conferred on him the
+dukedom (or, as it was of old time, the earldom) of Albemarle; and
+Edmund, who before
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page435" name="page435">(p. 435)</a></span>
+was Duke of Albemarle, then, after the
+death of his father, he advanced to be Duke of York. And Lord John
+Cornwall, who married his sister, the Duchess of Exeter, and whom the
+King appointed Captain of Calais, he sent towards the parts of France
+with a great power of men. And when they landed in Normandy, near
+Hogges, forthwith the Lord de Hambe, with seven thousand armed men,
+went up against the English to oppose them, and thus on that day there
+was a great slaughter of men; for on the part of the Duke of Burgundy
+eight hundred men were taken, and four hundred slain: and thus at
+length victory was on the side of the English. After which the Duke,
+with his army, turned off towards the country of
+Bourdeaux,<a id="notetag325" name="notetag325"></a><a href="#note325">[325]</a>
+[               ] destroying [               ] of the countrymen,
+collecting great sums of money, at length arrived at Bourdeaux, and
+from thence they returned to England about the vintage."</p>
+
+<p>The reader's especial attention is here called to the confusion of
+facts and dates, the mistakes historical, geographical, chronological,
+biographical, with which this short section abounds to the overflow.
+It will perhaps be difficult to find a page in any author, ancient or
+modern, more full of such blunders as tend to destroy confidence in
+him, when he records as a fact what is not found in any other writer,
+nor is supported by ancillary evidence. The MS. states that all these
+events took place in the thirteenth year of Henry IV: the MS. writes
+it at length, "Anno decimo tertio," which began on the 20th September
+1411. Now, allowing to the writer every latitude not involving
+positive confusion, it is impossible for us to suppose, when he
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page436" name="page436">(p. 436)</a></span>
+crowds all these events within one year, that he had any such
+information on the affairs of England as would predispose us to regard
+him as an authority.</p>
+
+<p>1. The first application by the Duke of Burgundy for English
+auxiliaries was in August 1411; and the battle of St. Cloud (the place
+which the MS., evidently ignorant of its situation and name, calls
+Senlow) was fought on the 10th of November 1411. The Duke of Orleans,
+at the beginning of the following year, 1412, made his application to
+the English court for aid against the Duke of Burgundy, but it was not
+till the 18th of May 1412 that the final treaty was concluded between
+Henry IV. and the Duke of Orleans; and it was not till the middle, or
+the latter end of August 1412, that the Duke of Clarence was
+despatched to aid the Duke of Orleans; and he remained in France till
+he received news of his father's death, in April 1413; when, and not
+before, he returned to England after his expedition to aid the Duke of
+Orleans.<a id="notetag326" name="notetag326"></a><a href="#note326">[326]</a>
+Yet all these events are stated in the MS. to have
+fallen within the same
+year.<a id="notetag327" name="notetag327"></a><a href="#note327">[327]</a></p>
+
+<p>2. The MS. says that the English, after their victory over the Duke of
+Burgundy's forces, returned to England at the time of vintage. The
+English returned to England at the end of autumn; not after their
+struggle against the Duke of Burgundy, but after their victory over
+the Duke of Orleans at the bridge of St. Cloud, a year and a quarter
+at least before their return from the expedition against the Duke of
+Burgundy.</p>
+
+<p>3. Again, the MS. says that the Duke of Orleans sent, immediately
+after the battle of St. Cloud (the Senlow of the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page437" name="page437">(p. 437)</a></span>
+MS.), a
+large sum of money to the King of England, together with his brother,
+the Earl of Angouleme, as a hostage or pledge for the payment of a
+greater sum, to induce the King to comply with his request. This is
+utter confusion. The Earl was sent as an hostage,&mdash;not beforehand, to
+induce Henry IV. to send auxiliaries,&mdash;but afterwards, to insure the
+payment of large sums which the Duke of Orleans stipulated to pay to
+the English after they had been some time in France, on condition of
+their quitting it. The Earl of Angouleme was sent as an hostage to
+England somewhat before January 25, 1413; the MS. says, at the end of
+1411.</p>
+
+<p>4. Again, the MS. having dated the death of John, Earl of Somerset,
+Captain of Calais, in the preceding year, says that the King then made
+John Cornwall Captain of Calais. Whereas the fact is, that John
+Beaufort, Captain of Calais, died on Palm Sunday, 1410, and Prince
+Henry was appointed to succeed him on the following Tuesday. His
+appointment, by writ of privy seal, bears date March 18, 1410; and he
+continued to be Captain of Calais till he succeeded to the throne.</p>
+
+<p>The MS. having recorded the marriage of the Duke of Clarence with the
+Countess of Somerset, and the dispute between him and the Bishop of
+Winchester, in which Prince Henry took the Bishop's part against his
+brother, as having taken place in this same year, proceeds with the
+passage, for the purpose of ascertaining the accuracy and authenticity
+of which we have been led to make so many prefatory observations.</p>
+
+<p>"In the same
+year,<a id="notetag328" name="notetag328"></a><a href="#note328">[328]</a>
+on the morrow of All Souls, began a parliament
+at Westminster; and because the King, by reason of his infirmity,
+could not in his own person be present,
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page438" name="page438">(p. 438)</a></span>
+he appointed and
+ordained in his name his brother, Thomas Beaufort, then Chancellor of
+England, to open, continue, and prorogue it. In which parliament
+Prince Henry desired from his father the resignation of his kingdom
+and crown, because that his father, by reason of his malady, could not
+labour for the honour and advantage of the kingdom any longer; but in
+this he was altogether unwilling to consent to him,&mdash;nay, he wished to
+govern the kingdom, together with the crown and its appurtenances, as
+long as he retained his vital breath. Whence the Prince, in a manner,
+with his counsellors retired aggrieved; and afterwards, as it were
+through the greater part of England, he joined all the nobles under
+his authority in homage and pay. In the same parliament the money, as
+well in gold as in silver, was somewhat lessened in weight in
+consequence of the exchange of foreigners, &amp;c."</p>
+
+<p>Now, <span class="pagenum"><a id="page439" name="page439">(p. 439)</a></span>
+there can be no doubt (1) that a parliament was held on
+the morrow of All Souls, in the thirteenth year of Henry IV. (1411);
+(2) that it was <i>opened</i>, <i>continued</i>, and <i>prorogued</i> by Thomas
+Beaufort, the Chancellor, by commission from the King, in his absence;
+(3) that an alteration in the coin was agreed upon in that parliament;
+and (4), moreover, that the King declared in that parliament his
+determination to allow of no innovations, nor of any encroachments on
+his prerogative, but to maintain the rights and privileges of his
+crown in full enjoyment, as his royal predecessors had delivered them
+down.</p>
+
+<p>A superficial glance at these facts would doubtless suggest a strong
+confirmation of the details of the MS. in other points, and thus
+predispose us to receive the statement with regard to Prince Henry's
+unfilial conduct on the authority of this document alone. But, on
+close examination, these very facts, which the records of the realm
+place beyond doubt, coupled with others equally indisputable, to which
+we shall presently refer, demonstrate to the Author's mind that no
+dependence whatever can be placed on this MS., and that the statement
+is altogether apocryphal, and founded on palpable confusion.</p>
+
+<p>The parliament met on the morrow of All Souls, Tuesday, November 3,
+1411, (13th Henry IV,) and was opened, continued, and prorogued by the
+Chancellor; but not on account of the King's indisposition, or
+inability to be present. The Rolls of Parliament are most explicit on
+this point. They state that the King, having been informed that very
+many lords, spiritual and temporal, knights of the shire, and
+burgesses, who ought to attend that parliament, had not assembled on
+the appointed day, commissions the Chancellor to open the parliament,
+and to prorogue it <i>till the following day</i>. And on the following day,
+Wednesday, (the Lords and Commons then being in the presence
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page440" name="page440">(p. 440)</a></span>
+of the King,) the Chancellor, by the King's command, recited the
+reasons for convening the parliament, and charged the Commons to
+retire and elect their Speaker.</p>
+
+<p>Not only so. On the Thursday (Nov. 5), the Commons came before the
+King and the Lords, and presented Thomas Chaucer as their Speaker. And
+the Speaker prayed liberty of speech, &amp;c.: and the King granted the
+request, but declared that he would admit of no innovation nor
+encroachment on his prerogative, but resolved to maintain his rights
+as fully as his predecessors had done. On this the Speaker prayed him
+to grant to the Commons, till the day following, time for putting
+their protest, &amp;c. in writing. To this the King agreed. But, forasmuch
+as the King could not attend on the Friday in consequence of diverse
+great and pressing matters, the time was postponed to the following
+day, Saturday; when the Commons came before the King, and presented
+their prayer, &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>The fact is, that the King was repeatedly present at this parliament,
+from the day before the Speaker was chosen to the very last day. On a
+subsequent occasion, the Prince of Wales also, as well as the King, is
+recorded to have been present, (as doubtless he was on various
+occasions throughout,&mdash;probably an habitual attendant,) in what
+character, and under what circumstances, whether as the supplanter of
+his father or not, perhaps the words of the record may, to a certain
+extent at least, enable us to pronounce.</p>
+
+<p>"On Monday, the last day of November, the Speaker, in the name of the
+Commons, prayed the King to thank my Lord the Prince, the Bishops of
+Winchester and Durham, &amp;c. who were assigned to be of council to the
+King in the last parliament, for their great labour and diligence;
+for, as it appears to the said Commons, my said Lord the Prince, and
+the other Lords, have well and loyally done their duty according to
+their promise in that parliament. And upon that, kneeling, my Lord the
+Prince, and the other
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page441" name="page441">(p. 441)</a></span>
+Lords, declared, by the mouth of my
+Lord the Prince, how they had taken pains, and labour, and diligence,
+according to their promise, and the charge given them in parliament,
+to their skill and knowledge. This the King remembered well [or made
+good mention of], and thanked them most graciously. And he said
+besides, that he was well assured, if they had had more than they had,
+in the manner it had been spoken by the mouth of my Lord the Prince,
+at the time the King charged them to be of his council in the said
+parliament, they would have done their duty to effect more good than
+was done in diverse parts for the defence, honour, good, and profit of
+him and his kingdom. And our Lord the King also said, that he felt
+very contented with their good and loyal diligence, counsel, and duty,
+for the time they had been of his council."</p>
+
+<p>This took place on the 30th of November, a month (saving two days)
+after the parliament had assembled, and within less than three weeks
+of its termination. It would scarcely be credible, even had the report
+come through a less questionable channel, that Henry of Monmouth up to
+that time had been guilty of the unfilial delinquency with which the
+MS. charges him. Nor could he have made the "unnatural attempt to
+dethrone his diseased father" at any period through the remaining
+three weeks of the session of that parliament. At all events, such a
+proceeding appears altogether irreconcilable with the conduct both of
+the parliament and of the King on the very last day of their sitting.
+"On Saturday, December 20th, (say the Rolls,) being the last day of
+parliament, the Speaker, recommending the persons of the Queen, of the
+Prince, and of other the King's sons, prayeth the advancement of their
+estates; for the which the King giveth hearty thanks."</p>
+
+<p>Had any such transaction taken place during this parliament as the MS.
+records, would the King, on the last day of the session, without any
+allusion to it, have given hearty thanks to the Commons for their
+recommendation of the Prince's
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page442" name="page442">(p. 442)</a></span>
+person (coupled with the name
+of his Queen and his other sons), and their prayer for further
+provision for his dignity and comfort?</p>
+
+<p>There are, however, two or three more circumstances upon which it may
+appear material to make some observations; or even, should these
+closing observations not seem altogether indispensable, yet, since
+this is all new and untrodden ground, it may yet be thought safer to
+anticipate conjectures, than to leave any questions unopened and
+unexamined on this point&mdash;a point which the Author trusts may be set
+at rest at once, and for ever.</p>
+
+<p>The Author then is ready to confess his belief that both the MS. and
+its commentator, the modern historian, have confounded this parliament
+of November 1411 with the parliament of February 3, 1413, which was
+opened in the illness of the King, and which he never was able to
+attend. But if it be attempted to engraft on this fact the surmise
+that it might have been in the latter parliament that the Prince
+demanded the surrender of the throne, and that it is after all a mere
+mistake of dates, the material fact being unshaken and unaffected,&mdash;to
+this suggestion he replies, that there is no evidence, directly or
+indirectly bearing on the subject, in support of such a surmise. The
+only statement in printed book or manuscript known, is that which we
+have now been sifting; and which with a precision, as though of set
+purpose, minute and pointed, fixes the alleged transaction to the year
+1411.<a id="notetag329" name="notetag329"></a><a href="#note329">[329]</a>
+Not only so. We have, on the contrary, reason to believe
+that before the meeting of the next parliament, February 1413, <i>all
+differences had been made up between the King and his son</i>; and that
+from the day of their reconciliation they lived in the full
+interchange of paternal and filial kindness to the
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page443" name="page443">(p. 443)</a></span>
+end. For
+that jealousies and alienations of confidence, fostered by the
+malevolence of
+others,<a id="notetag330" name="notetag330"></a><a href="#note330">[330]</a>
+had taken place between them in the course
+of the preceding year, the very mention of the "ridings of gentils and
+huge people with the Prince," twice recurring in the Chronicle of
+London, seems of itself to force upon us. The accounts, at all events,
+such as they are, which chroniclers give of their reconciliation, fix
+the date of that happy issue of their estrangement to a period
+antecedent to the last parliament of Henry IV. February 3.&mdash;Cras.
+Purif. 1413.</p>
+
+<p>Although the life and reign of Henry IV. continued more than a year
+and four months after the passing of the ordinance respecting the
+coin, with an account of which this MS. abruptly closes, yet
+(excepting what is involved in the extract above cited) not one single
+word is said of the foreign and domestic affairs of the kingdom, or of
+the life of the King, or of his death; though much of interesting
+matter was at hand, and though a parliament was summoned, and actually
+met fourteen months after the alteration of the coin. And such is the
+close of a document, not like a yearly chronicle, or general register
+of events, satisfied with giving a summary of the most remarkable
+casualties in the briefest form; but a narrative which transcribes,
+with unusual minuteness, the very words (at full, and with all their
+technicalities,) of some of the most unimportant and prolix statutes
+of Henry IV.'s
+reign.<a id="notetag331" name="notetag331"></a><a href="#note331">[331]</a>
+<span class="pagenum"><a id="page444" name="page444">(p. 444)</a></span>
+It is not that the MS. is
+mechanically cut short by loss of leaves, or other accident; the
+Sloane ends with an "etc." in the very middle of a page, and the
+King's at the foot of the first column.</p>
+
+<p>We need not encumber this inquiry (already too long) by any
+reflections on the avidity with which this passage of the MS. has been
+seized, and made the groundwork of charges against Henry of "unfilial
+conduct," "unnatural rebellion" towards his father, and "the
+unprincipled ambition of a Catilinarian temper," with other hard words
+and harder surmises; because we are trying the value of testimony. If
+that testimony is sound, modern historians may doubtless build upon it
+what comments seem to them good; if we utterly destroy the validity of
+the evidence, their foundation sinks from under their superstructure.</p>
+
+<p>The reader, however, has probably already determined that, unless
+there be in reserve some other independent, or at least auxiliary
+source of evidence, the palpable contradiction and manifest confusion
+reigning through this part of the MS., together with the high degree
+of improbability thrown over the whole statement by the undoubted
+records of the very parliament in question, justify the rejection of
+the passage altogether from the pale of authentic history. The Author
+confesses that he has step by step come to that conclusion.</p>
+
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">THE END.</span></h3>
+
+
+<h6>
+LONDON:<br>
+PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY,<br>
+Dorset Street, Fleet Street.</h6>
+
+
+<p><a id="note001" name="note001"></a>
+<b>Footnote 1:</b> Close Roll.<a href="#notetag001">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note002" name="note002"></a>
+<b>Footnote 2:</b> "The high esteem which the nation had of Henry's person
+produced such an entire confidence in him, that both houses of
+parliament in an address offered to swear allegiance to him before he
+was crowned, or had taken the customary oath to govern according to
+the laws. The King thanked them for their good affections, and
+exhorted them in their several places and stations to employ all their
+power for the good of the nation. He told them that he began his reign
+in pardoning all that had offended him, and with such a desire for his
+people's happiness, that he would be crowned on no other condition
+than to make use of all his authority to promote it; and prayed God
+that, if he foresaw he was like to be any other than a just and good
+king, he would please to take him immediately out of the world, rather
+than seat him on the throne, to live a public calamity to his
+country."&mdash;Goodwin. See Stowe. Polyd. Verg. Elmham.<a
+href="#notetag002">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note003" name="note003"></a>
+<b>Footnote 3:</b> Elmham.<a
+href="#notetag003">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note004" name="note004"></a>
+<b>Footnote 4:</b> Not Palm Sunday, but the fifth Sunday in Lent, was called
+Passion Sunday.<a href="#notetag004">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note005" name="note005"></a>
+<b>Footnote 5:</b> "With mickle royalty."&mdash;Chron. Lond.<a
+href="#notetag005">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note006" name="note006"></a>
+<b>Footnote 6:</b> Chroniclers record that the day of his coronation was a
+day of storm and tempest, frost and snow, and that various omens of
+ill portent arose from the circumstance.<a href="#notetag006">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note007" name="note007"></a>
+<b>Footnote 7:</b> Henry had excited feelings of confidence and admiration in
+the minds of foreign potentates, as well as in his subjects at home.
+Among the embassies, with offers and pledges of friendship and amity,
+which hastened to his court on his accession, are numbered those of
+John of Portugal, Robert Duke of Albany, Regent of Scotland, John King
+of Castile, John Duke of Brittany, Charles King of France, and Pope
+John XXIII.<a href="#notetag007">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note008" name="note008"></a>
+<b>Footnote 8:</b> Sir Edward Coke, in his 4th Inst. ch. i. declares that
+this act was disavowed in the next parliament by the Commons, for that
+they never assented. The Author has searched the Parliament Rolls in
+vain for the authority on which that assertion was founded.<a
+href="#notetag008">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note009" name="note009"></a>
+<b>Footnote 9:</b> The Monday after Corpus Christi day; which feast, being
+the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, fell in the year 1413 on June 22.<a
+href="#notetag009">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note010" name="note010"></a>
+<b>Footnote 10:</b> This Dr. Walden (so called from the place of his birth in
+Essex) was so able a disputant that he was called the Netter. He seems
+to have written many works, which are either totally lost, or are
+buried in temporary oblivion.<a href="#notetag010">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note011" name="note011"></a>
+<b>Footnote 11:</b> Goodwin. Appendix, p. 361.<a href="#notetag011">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note012" name="note012"></a>
+<b>Footnote 12:</b> Minutes of Council, 29 June 1413.<a
+href="#notetag012">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note013" name="note013"></a>
+<b>Footnote 13:</b> Many original petitions addressed to Henry are still
+preserved among our records. In one, which may serve as a specimen of
+the kind of application to which this custom compelled him to open his
+ear, Richard Hunt appeals to him as a "right merciable lord, moved
+with pity, mercy, and grace." "In great desolation and heaviness of
+heart," the petitioner states that his son-in-law, Richard Peke, who
+had a wife and four children, and had been all his life a true
+labourer and innocent man, and well-beloved by his neighbours, had
+been detected in taking from a vessel goods not worth three shillings;
+for which crime his mortal enemies (though they might have their
+property again) "sued to have him dead." He urges Henry to grant him
+"full noble grace," at the reverence of Almighty God, and for passion
+that Christ suffered for all mankind, and for the pity that he had on
+Mary Magdalene. The petitioner then promised (as petitioners now do)
+to pray for endless mercy on Henry; he adds, moreover, what would
+certainly sound strange in a modern petition to a monarch, "And ye,
+gracious and sovereign lord, shall have a good ox to your larder."
+Henry granted the petition. "The King woll that this bill pass without
+any manner of fine, or fees that longeth to him."<a
+href="#notetag013">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note014" name="note014"></a>
+<b>Footnote 14:</b> The Pell Rolls acquaint us with the very great expense
+incurred on this occasion.<a href="#notetag014">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note015" name="note015"></a>
+<b>Footnote 15:</b> Dugdale's Baronage.<a href="#notetag015">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note016" name="note016"></a>
+<b>Footnote 16:</b> Minutes of Council, 21 May and 10 Dec. 1415. Addit. MS.
+4600. Art. 147.<a href="#notetag016">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note017" name="note017"></a>
+<b>Footnote 17:</b> Pell Rolls, Mich. 4. Hen. V. Many documents also in Rymer
+refer to this transaction.<a href="#notetag017">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note018" name="note018"></a>
+<b>Footnote 18:</b> Roger Mortimer, fifth Earl of March, son and heir of
+Philippa, daughter and heiress of Lionel Duke of Clarence, third son
+of Edward III, died in 1398; leaving two sons, Edmund, of whom we are
+here speaking, then about six years of age, and Roger, about a year
+younger.<a href="#notetag018">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<div>
+<p><a id="note019" name="note019"></a>
+<b>Footnote 19:</b> In a previous section of these Memoirs, brief mention has
+been made of the abortive attempt to carry off into Wales this young
+Earl of March and his brother, and of the generous conduct of Henry of
+Monmouth in his endeavour to restore the Duke of York to the King's
+favour, which he had forfeited in consequence of his alleged
+participation in that bold design. A manuscript has since been brought
+under the Author's notice, which places in a very strong light the
+treasonable and murderous purpose of those who originated the plot,
+and would account for the most watchful and jealous caution on the
+part of the reigning family against a repetition of such attempts.
+Henry must have been fully aware of his danger; and the fact of his
+throwing off all suspicion towards the young Earl, and receiving him
+with confidence and friendship, enhances our estimate of the generous
+and noble spirit which actuated him. The document, in other points
+curious, seems to deserve a place here:</p>
+
+<p class="letter">"The Friday after St. Vallentyne's day, anno 6 Henrici Quarti, ye Erll
+of Marche's sons was secretly conveyd out of Wyndsor Castell yerly in
+ye morninge, and fond af[ter?] by diligent serche. But ye smythe, for
+makyng the key, lost fyrst his lands; after, his heed. Ye Lady
+Spenser, wydow to the Lord Spenser executed at Bristow, and syster to
+ye Duke of York, was comytted cloase prysonner, whare she accused her
+brother predict for the actor, for ye children predict; and that he
+sholde entend to breake into the King's manor att Eltham ye last
+Crystmas by scaling the walles in ye nighte, and there to murther ye
+Kinge; and, for better proaffe hereof, that yf eyther knight or squyer
+of England wold combatt for her in the quarrell, she wold endure her
+body to be burned yf he war vanquished. Then W. Maydsten, one of her
+sqyres [undertook?] his Mrs. quarrell with gage of his wheed [so], and
+was presently arrested by Lord Thomas, ye Kyng's son, to the Tower,
+and his goods confyscatt. Thomas Mowbray, Erll Marshall, accused to be
+privy to the same, butt was pardoned."&mdash;Lansdown, 860 a, fol. 288 b.<a
+href="#notetag019">(back)</a></p></div>
+
+
+<p><a id="note020" name="note020"></a>
+<b>Footnote 20:</b> 14 Nov. 1414. MS. Donat. 4600. Reference is made there to
+June 9, 1413, not three months after Henry's accession.<a
+href="#notetag020">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note021" name="note021"></a>
+<b>Footnote 21:</b> 1417, July 20, at Porchester. 1418, 2 June, at Berneye.
+December 1418, in the camp before Rouen. 11 June 1416.&mdash;Rymer.<a
+href="#notetag021">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note022" name="note022"></a>
+<b>Footnote 22:</b> In the summer after the battle of Agincourt the King
+"takes into his especial care William of Agincourt, the prisoner of
+his very dear cousin Edmund Earl of March."<a href="#notetag022">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note023" name="note023"></a>
+<b>Footnote 23:</b> This parliament was summoned to be at Leicester on the
+29th of February, but was prorogued to the 30th of April. At this
+period parliaments were by no means uniformly held at Westminster.<a
+href="#notetag023">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note024" name="note024"></a>
+<b>Footnote 24:</b> In this parliament we find a petition loudly complaining
+of the outrages of the Welsh.<a href="#notetag024">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note025" name="note025"></a>
+<b>Footnote 25:</b> About this time there seems to have been entertained by
+the legislature a most determined resolution to limit the salaries of
+chaplains in private families. Many sumptuary laws were made on this
+subject. Provisions were made repeatedly in this and other parliaments
+against excessive payments to them. The origin of this feeling does
+not appear to have transpired. Probably it was nothing more than a
+jealousy excited by the increasing wealth of the church.&mdash;Parl. Rolls,
+2 Henry V.<a href="#notetag025">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note026" name="note026"></a>
+<b>Footnote 26:</b> When his determination to recover his rights was
+announced in parliament, he was twenty-seven years of age.<a
+href="#notetag026">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note027" name="note027"></a>
+<b>Footnote 27:</b> The answer which Bishop Oldham is said to have made on
+this occasion is chiefly remarkable for the intimation it conveys,
+that the downfall of the monasteries was anticipated a quarter of a
+century before their actual dissolution. "What, my lord, shall we
+build houses and provide livelihoods for a company of bussing monks,
+whose end and fall we may ourselves live to see? No, no; it is more
+meet that we should provide for the increase of learning, and for such
+as by their learning shall do good to the church and
+commonwealth."&mdash;Anthony Wood.<a href="#notetag027">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note028" name="note028"></a>
+<b>Footnote 28:</b> Henry had much at heart the maintenance of the truth of
+the Christian religion, such as he received it. Of this he is thought
+to have given early proof, by confirming a grant of fifty marks
+yearly, during pleasure, to the prior and convent of the order of
+Preachers in the University of Oxford, to support the doctrine of the
+Catholic faith. It will be said that this was merely to repress the
+Lollards. Be it so, though the original document is silent on that
+point. It proves, at least, that he wished to maintain his religion by
+argument rather than by violence. The circumstance, however, of its
+being merely a confirmation of a grant, which even his father found in
+existence when he became King, takes away much from the importance of
+the fact.&mdash;Pell Rolls, 1 Henry IV.<a href="#notetag028">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note029" name="note029"></a>
+<b>Footnote 29:</b> The present Duke and Duchess kindly searched out and
+visited the remaining sisters in Staffordshire.<a
+href="#notetag029">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note030" name="note030"></a>
+<b>Footnote 30:</b> Dugdale; ed. 1830.<a href="#notetag030">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note031" name="note031"></a>
+<b>Footnote 31:</b> April 11, 1415.<a href="#notetag031">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note032" name="note032"></a>
+<b>Footnote 32:</b> In the early part of his father's reign, an ordinance was
+made, charging the King's officers not to suffer aliens to bring bulls
+or other letters into the kingdom, which might injure the King or his
+realm.&mdash;Cleop. F. III. f. 114.<a href="#notetag032">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note033" name="note033"></a>
+<b>Footnote 33:</b> November 7, 1413.<a href="#notetag033">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note034" name="note034"></a>
+<b>Footnote 34:</b> By a statute (4 Hen. IV. 1402), after the Legislature
+had complained that the Convents put monks, and canons, and secular
+chaplains into the parochial ministry, by no means fit for the cure of
+souls, it is enacted, that a vicar adequately endowed should be
+everywhere instituted; and, in default of such reformation, that the
+licence of appropriation should be forfeited.<a href="#notetag034">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note035" name="note035"></a>
+<b>Footnote 35:</b> Henry III. is said to have assigned to Louis IX. this
+reason for his preference of devotional exercises to sermons.<a
+href="#notetag035">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note036" name="note036"></a>
+<b>Footnote 36:</b> It is curious at the same time to observe what
+extraordinary notions the Commons, who presented this petition, had
+formed of freedom; how jealous they were of the lower orders, and how
+determined to exclude them from sharing with themselves the good
+things of the church's temporalities. The Commons pray that (no nief
+or vileyn) no bondswoman or bondsman, be allowed to send a son to
+school with a view of being advanced in the church; and that for the
+maintenance and safety of the honour of all the free men of the land.<a
+href="#notetag036">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note037" name="note037"></a>
+<b>Foonote 37:</b> 15 Richard II. (1391.)<a href="#notetag037">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note038" name="note038"></a>
+<b>Footnote 38:</b> Some persons would probably be surprised, among the facts
+recorded in this cause, (all which however are confirmed by the
+ecclesiastical registers,) to find that by a sort of retrograde
+promotion, according to our usual ideas of episcopal preferment, a
+Bishop of London, Nicoll Bubwith, was translated from London to
+Salisbury, and from Salisbury to Bath and Wells. The pleading also
+reminds us of a curious fact with regard to Bishop Hallam's promotion,
+not generally known. The record merely states that "the Bishop of
+Sarum, that now is, was translated from York to the church of Sarum."
+This latter translation, however, (if such it can be properly called,)
+admits of a more easy solution than the preceding. The fact is, that
+Hallam was actually appointed by the Pope to the archbishopric of
+York; to which appointment the King objected. The nomination of the
+Pope was not persisted in, and Hallam was consecrated Bishop of
+Salisbury.<a href="#notetag038">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note039" name="note039"></a>
+<b>Footnote 39:</b> "Jeo ne ferra disputation del poiar l'appost', mes jeo ne
+scay veier coment il par ses bull' changer, le ley d'Engleterre."<a
+href="#notetag039">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note040" name="note040"></a>
+<b>Footnote 40:</b> See Year Book, "Anno xi. Hen. IIII."&mdash;Term. Mich. fol.
+37; Hilar. fol. 38; Pasc. fol. 59; Trin. fol. 76.<a href="#notetag040">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note041" name="note041"></a>
+<b>Footnote 41:</b> "L'appost'." "Nostre Saint Pier l'appost'." "Bulls fait
+par Saint Pier."<a href="#notetag041">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note042" name="note042"></a>
+<b>Footnote 42:</b> It is very painful to reflect on the intolerant spirit of
+this very Sigismund, who was so anxious to reform the abuses of the
+church; but it is forced upon us whilst we are inquiring into the
+times of Henry. Sigismund had paid (as we shall see) a visit to Henry,
+and he meditated another. But he never put that design into execution.
+A letter from Heretong Van Clux, Henry's minister, informed his master
+that he must not expect to see the Emperor, for he had employment at
+home in putting down the followers of Huss. "Now I know well he might
+not come, for this cause, that many of the great lords of Bohemia have
+required him for to let them hold the same belief that they are in.
+And thereupon he sent them word, that rather he would be dead than he
+would sustain them in their malice. And they have answered him again,
+that they will rather die than go from their belief. There is a great
+power of them, lords, knights, and esquires; but the greatest power is
+of the commoners. Therefore the Emperor gathers all the power that he
+may, to go into Bohemia upon them."&mdash;See Ellis's Original Letters.<a
+href="#notetag042">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note043" name="note043"></a>
+<b>Footnote 43:</b> This council seems to have entailed, first and last, on
+England, a very considerable expense. Within a week of the date of the
+commission, the Pell Rolls record the payment of 333<i>l.</i> 6<i>s.</i> 8<i>d.</i>
+(a large sum in those days) "to Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick,
+sent as the King's ambassador to the General Council held at Constance
+before our lord the Pope, the Emperor, and others, there assembled for
+the salvation of Christian souls." Payments also to others are
+recorded.<a href="#notetag043">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<div>
+<p><a id="note044" name="note044"></a>
+<b>Footnote 44:</b> Bishop Hallam died at Constance, Sept. 5, 1417. On which
+day the Cardinal des Ursins addressed a letter to Henry, praying him
+to appoint as Hallam's successor at Salisbury, John Ketterich, Bishop
+of Lichfield, to whose ability and zeal and worth the Cardinal bears
+strong testimony. This same Cardinal had a personal interview with
+Henry in 1418, just before the taking of Rouen.</p>
+
+<p>Le Neve leaves it in doubt whether Bishop Hallam was buried at
+Constance, or in Westminster Abbey. But the Author has been kindly
+furnished by Sir Francis Palgrave, who visited Constance last year,
+with the following interesting particulars relative to the
+resting-place of that excellent man. "The monument of Bishop Hallam
+consists of a slab inlaid with brass, in the usual style of English
+memorials of the same period, but quite unlike those of Germany; and I
+have no doubt but that the brasses were sent from England. He is
+represented at full length in the episcopal dress, his head lying
+between two shields, the royal arms of England within the Garter, (as
+Chancellor of the order,) and his own bearings. But the tomb being
+placed exactly in front of the high altar, the attrition to which it
+has been exposed in this part of the church has nearly effaced the
+engravings." His funeral, we are told, was attended by the assembled
+princes and prelates and nobles of the council, who followed him to
+the grave with every demonstration of respect and sorrow.<a
+href="#notetag044">(back)</a></p></div>
+
+
+<p><a id="note045" name="note045"></a>
+<b>Footnote 45:</b> Anthony à Wood, referring to the alleged resolution of
+the University of Oxford in favour of Wickliff and his doctrines,
+refers to this Bishop Hallam, though with some mistake. "The prime
+broacher," he says, "of this testimonial, of which we have nothing in
+our registers, records, or books of epistles, was John Husse in the
+first tome of his works, and from him John Fox. Against the former of
+whom it was objected in the Council of Constance, that he had openly
+divulged the said commendatory letter in behalf of John Wickliff,
+falsely conveyed to Prague, under the title of the University of
+Oxford, by two students, one a Bohemian, the other an Englishman.
+Whereupon those of England who were present at the council, of whom,
+if I mistake not, Robert Hallam, about these times Bishop of Oxford
+[Salisbury], was one, produce another letter under the seal of the
+University, wherein, on the contrary, the members thereof as much
+denounce against him as the other was in behalf of him, and referred
+the matter to the council to judge of it as they thought fit; but how
+it was decided I find not."<a href="#notetag045">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<div>
+<p><a id="note046" name="note046"></a>
+<b>Footnote 46:</b> In his arguments on this article Dr. Ullerston offers
+some excellent reflections upon the use and abuse of singing in the
+church. The sentiments of Augustin, which he quotes, are truly
+judicious and edifying. That eloquent father lamented that often the
+beauty of the singing withdrew his mind from the divine matter and
+substance of what was sung; but when he remembered how, on occasions
+of peculiar interest to him, psalmody carried his soul towards heaven
+in holy raptures, he could not help voting for its continuance in the
+church service. Ullerston quotes also two lines, not indeed specimens
+of classical accuracy, but the spirit of which should never be absent
+from the mind of a Christian worshipper, whether a Protestant or in
+communion with the see of Rome:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+                         "Non vox sed votum, non musica chordula sed cor,<br>
+                         Non clamor sed amor, sonat in aure Dei."<a
+href="#notetag046">(back)</a></p></div>
+
+
+<p><a id="note047" name="note047"></a>
+<b>Footnote 47:</b> Thomas Gascoyne, a contemporary writer, born 1403,
+ordained 1427, who gives us a deplorable view of the ignorance and
+immorality of the clergy of his time, mentions the appointment of
+Walden as Henry's chaplain, in confirmation of his position that he
+never could find that any King of England retained any bishop after
+consecration as his confessor or resident chaplain till the time of
+Henry VI. "When (he says) Henry IV.'s confessor was made a bishop, he
+sent him to his cure and his bishopric; and Henry V, who was a very
+prudent King indeed, and terrible to many nations, had with him one
+doctor proficient in divinity, Thomas Walden, as his confessor, who
+was burdened with no cure of souls. Thus were Kings and Lords
+accustomed to retain as their chaplains persons who were free from all
+cure of souls."<a href="#notetag047">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note048" name="note048"></a>
+<b>Footnote 48:</b> Pell Rolls, Mich. 7 Hen. V, he is paid for his expenses
+in an embassy to the King of Poland.<a href="#notetag048">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note049" name="note049"></a>
+<b>Footnote 49:</b> L'Estrange, Counc. Constance, vol. ii. p. 282; and Van
+der Hardt, tom. i. p. 501.<a href="#notetag049">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note050" name="note050"></a>
+<b>Footnote 50:</b> Not 1418, as it has been supposed, but 1417. The date is
+fixed by the specifying of Wednesday the 27th January, as also by the
+mention of the Genoese ships. These ships were hired, and they fought
+under the French against the English, and were beat in July 1417,
+after a severe engagement.<a href="#notetag050">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note051" name="note051"></a>
+<b>Footnote 51:</b> Cott. MSS. Cleopatra, t. vii. p. 148.<a
+href="#notetag051">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note052" name="note052"></a>
+<b>Footnote 52:</b> Cardinalis Camaracensis, or Cardinal of Cambray.<a
+href="#notetag052">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note053" name="note053"></a>
+<b>Footnote 53:</b> "Collation" meant discourse, or speech, generally of a
+laudatory character.<a href="#notetag053">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note054" name="note054"></a>
+<b>Footnote 54:</b> The Spaniards, the French, and others were jealous of
+the English enjoying the privilege of ranking and voting single-handed
+as one of the nations, and insisted upon their being regarded only as
+a part of a larger section of Europe, just as Austria was only part of
+Germany. But the English resisted, and preserved their privilege.<a
+href="#notetag054">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note055" name="note055"></a>
+<b>Footnote 55:</b> This alludes to the intention of putting a stop to the
+rich and numerous commendams which were then heaped on bishops. Our
+English prelates were determined to carry on the reformation, though
+at their own personal sacrifice.<a href="#notetag055">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note056" name="note056"></a>
+<b>Footnote 56:</b> This negotiation was successful. The French hired a fleet
+of long ships of the Genoese.<a href="#notetag056">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note057" name="note057"></a>
+<b>Footnote 57:</b> Orator.&mdash;Petitioner, one who prayed for the welfare of
+another.<a href="#notetag057">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note058" name="note058"></a>
+<b>Footnote 58:</b> A curious entry occurs (11th July 1390) in the Pell Rolls
+of 10<i>l.</i> ordered by the King (Richard II.) to be paid to the clerks
+of the parish churches, and other clerks in the city of London, on
+account of the play of the Passion of our Lord and the Creation of the
+World, by them performed at Skynnerswell after the feast of
+Bartholomew last past.<a href="#notetag058">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note059" name="note059"></a>
+<b>Footnote 59:</b> For satisfaction on this point, the reader is especially
+referred to the chapter entitled, "Was Henry of Monmouth a religious
+persecutor?"<a href="#notetag059">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note060" name="note060"></a>
+<b>Footnote 60:</b> In this petition of the University, Henry is told, that
+what Constantinus, Marcianus, and Theodosius had been in the East,
+that was he in the West; by his eminent Christian piety resisting the
+accomplices of Satan, and preventing the western church from sinking
+utterly. By his wise and peaceable government of the church he was
+(they say) best providing for the peace and security of the state,
+whilst he cut off and cast away the rank, luxuriant offshoots of
+offences as they grew. In marking out the most notable defects and
+abuses, they obeyed (they say) his sacred commands; and they prayed
+him to exert his authority in correcting them.<a href="#notetag060">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note061" name="note061"></a>
+<b>Footnote 61:</b> There was also a prayer to prohibit the practice of
+confiscating the goods of Jews and heathens at their baptism, a
+practice tending to debar them from offering themselves at the font.<a
+href="#notetag061">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note062" name="note062"></a>
+<b>Footnote 62:</b> Cotton. Tiber. B. vi. F. 64.<a href="#notetag062">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note063" name="note063"></a>
+<b>Footnote 63:</b> The fact is, that Henry, during his wars in France,
+suffered Pope Martin to exercise his pretended prerogative in the
+disposal of benefices to an extent, if not unprecedented, certainly
+most unjustifiable. The Chapter of York gave the first blow to this
+growing usurpation by refusing to admit, in obedience to the Pope's
+mandate, Richard Fleming, Bishop of Lincoln, into the archiepiscopal
+see.<a href="#notetag063">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note064" name="note064"></a>
+<b>Footnote 64:</b> The people of England gave frequent proofs of their
+desire to seize every opportunity of reaping glory from conquests in
+France. When the Duke of Burgundy and the confederated princes, in the
+struggle to which we have before referred, applied in the first
+instance for assistance to Henry IV, Laboureur tells us that Henry
+replied to the latter that he was compelled to accept the offer of the
+Duke of Burgundy, to avoid the irritation and discontent of his
+subjects, which would be raised if he neglected so favourable an
+opportunity of forwarding the national interests.<a href="#notetag064">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note065" name="note065"></a>
+<b>Footnote 65:</b> The "Chronicles of England" record, that, "in the second
+year of King Henry's reign, he held a council of all the lords of his
+realm at Westminster; and there he put to them this demand, and prayed
+and besought them of their goodness, and of their good counsel and
+good-will, as touching the right and title that he had to Normandy,
+Gascony, and Guienne&mdash;the which the King of France withheld wrongfully
+and unrightfully&mdash;the which his ancestors before him had by true title
+of conquest and right heritage&mdash;the which Normandy, Gascony, and
+Guienne the good King Edward of Windsor, and his ancestors before him,
+had holden all their life's time. And his lords gave him counsel to
+send ambassadors unto the King of France and his council, demanding
+that he should give up to him his right heritage,&mdash;that is to say,
+Normandy, Gascony, and Guienne,&mdash;the which his predecessors had holden
+before him, or else he would win it with dint of sword in short time
+with the help of Almighty God."<a href="#notetag065">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note066" name="note066"></a>
+<b>Footnote 66:</b> "Abrégé Historique des Actes Publics d'Angleterre," which
+now accompanies the foreign edition of Rymer's F&oelig;dera.<a
+href="#notetag066">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note067" name="note067"></a>
+<b>Footnote 67:</b> Sir H. Nicolas.<a href="#notetag067">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<div>
+<p><a id="note068" name="note068"></a>
+<b>Footnote 68:</b> The only measures mentioned in the "F&oelig;dera,"
+before April 1415, indicative of Henry's expectation that the
+negociations with France would not terminate pacifically, are, that on
+September 26, 1414, the exportation of gunpowder was prohibited;
+whilst, on the 22nd, Nicholas Merbury, the master, and John Louth, the
+clerk of the King's works, guns, and other ordnance, had been
+commanded to provide smiths and workmen, with conveyance for them;
+that, on the 18th of the following March, Richard Clyderowe and Simon
+Flete were directed to treat with Holland for ships; and, on the 22nd,
+the Sheriff of London was ordered to summon knights, esquires, and
+valets, who held fees, wages, or annuities by grant from the King or
+his ancestors, to repair forthwith to London, and, on pain of
+forfeiture, to be there by the 24th of April at the latest.&mdash;Sir H.
+Nicolas.</p>
+
+<p>The Pell Rolls record the payment of "2,000<i>l.</i> to Richard Clitherow
+and Reginald Curtys, (27th February 1415; ordered by the King himself
+to go to Zealand and Holland, for the purpose of treating with the
+Duke of Holland and others to supply ships for the King's present
+voyage,) therewith to pay divers masters and mariners, who were to
+accompany him abroad, whither he was going in his own person."<a
+href="#notetag068">(back)</a></p></div>
+
+
+<p><a id="note069" name="note069"></a>
+<b>Footnote 69:</b> The Author has been, in this portion of his work, chiefly
+assisted by the authors of the "Abrégé Historique," above referred
+to.<a href="#notetag069">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note070" name="note070"></a>
+<b>Footnote 70:</b> See vol. i. p. 268.<a href="#notetag070">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note071" name="note071"></a>
+<b>Footnote 71:</b> The Dauphin, eldest son of Charles VI, was born 22nd
+January 1396, and died before his father, without issue, on the 18th
+December 1415, in his twentieth year.<a href="#notetag071">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note072" name="note072"></a>
+<b>Footnote 72:</b> The following paragraphs are almost literally extracted
+from Sir Harris Nicolas's "Battle of Agincourt."<a href="#notetag072">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note073" name="note073"></a>
+<b>Footnote 73:</b> Here, however, the Author begs to state his most
+unfeigned conviction that, had the Editor of the "Battle of Agincourt"
+allowed himself more time for reflection and reconsideration of his
+subject, his love of truth and justice (which evidences itself in
+various parts of his works) would have induced him to withdraw this
+triple accusation. The Author sincerely gives that valuable writer
+full credit for his generous indignation at the idea of any thing
+savouring of falsehood, as well as for his anxious desire to enlist
+all our ancient documents, whether published or yet in manuscript, in
+the cause of historical truth; and he sincerely trusts that not one
+expression may escape his pen which may give, unnecessarily, the
+slightest pain to an Editor for the assistance derived from whose
+labours he will not allow this note to escape him (even at the risk of
+tautology) without again expressing his obligations.<a href="#notetag073">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note074" name="note074"></a>
+<b>Footnote 74:</b> Sir Harris Nicolas.<a href="#notetag074">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note075" name="note075"></a>
+<b>Footnote 75:</b> That a correspondence took place, there can be no doubt;
+but very much doubt is thrown upon the accuracy of these documents;
+they do not appear in such a shape that we can rely upon them as
+evidence. The Author who gives them says, that he considers them
+capable of embellishing and adorning his history. The reader is
+invited to sift this matter thoroughly, if he thinks that the writer
+of these Memoirs has taken a partial view of the merits of the
+question; and he is, at the same time, cautioned against regarding the
+principal work in which these letters are found as the production of
+M. Laboureur. Into this error he might easily be led by the manner in
+which the book has been quoted. Laboureur translated the work of an
+anonymous writer of St. Denis, of whose character nothing is known.
+The manuscript, in Latin, is said to have been found in the library of
+M. Le President De Thou. The original author brought the history down
+to the year 1415, and St. Jean Le Fevre continued it to 1422.<a
+href="#notetag075">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<div>
+<p><a id="note076" name="note076"></a>
+<b>Footnote 76:</b> This seems to have been the language of judges,
+councillors, parliament, poets, and the people at large. The voice of
+all England seemed to be echoed by Lydgate.</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+                         "In honour great; for, by his puissant might,<br>
+                          He conquered all Normandy again<br>
+                         And valiantly, for all the power of France,<br>
+                         And won from them <span class="smcap">his own inheritance</span>."<a
+href="#notetag076">(back)</a></p></div>
+
+
+<p><a id="note077" name="note077"></a>
+<b>Footnote 77:</b> The Author does not mean to imply, as
+the result of his inquiries, that Henry was altogether influenced in
+his determination to claim the crown of France by the instigations of
+his people. If, as we believe, he was urged by them to adopt that
+measure, we believe also that he listened with much readiness to their
+appeal.<a href="#notetag077">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note078" name="note078"></a>
+<b>Footnote 78:</b> The words of the writer of that history are too clear and
+forcible to justify us in merely quoting their substance. The very
+title of his chapter directs our attention to the point. "Henry, King
+of England, constrained by his subjects to renew his pretension to the
+crown of France, makes a great movement." "The present year, on the
+incidents of which I proceed to remark, seems to me not less full of
+troubles and evils than any of those which preceded it. It commenced
+by a rumour, sudden but true, and which spread itself everywhere, that
+the English, impatient of repose, blaming for carelessness and want of
+heart the repose and inactivity of their King Henry, had <i>compelled
+him</i> to arouse himself, and to revive by the same means the
+pretensions of some of his predecessors on the crown of France." "Les
+Anglais, impatiens de repos à leur ordinance, blâmans de nonchalance
+et de manque de coeur le repos et l'oisiveté de leur Roi Henri,
+l'avaient obligé de se reveiller."&mdash;M. Laboureur, Life of Charles VI,
+translated from the Latin of a contemporary ecclesiastic. Whatever be
+the degree of authority to which this author is entitled, whilst he
+supplies the letters on which the accusation alone is founded, he as
+expressly contradicts, by positive assertion, the inference now drawn
+from those letters.<a href="#notetag078">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<div>
+<p><a id="note079" name="note079"></a>
+<b>Footnote 79:</b> Among the records of the council, the minutes of one of
+their meetings held at Westminster in the second year of Henry's reign
+deserve especial attention. The manuscript is much damaged, but the
+general meaning is clearly intelligible. The minutes first rehearse
+that "the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the true and humble lieges
+and knights of the King's noble realm, were there present, gathered by
+his royal command." It then proceeds: "Ye, our noble and righteous
+Lord and King, have in your chivalrous heart and desire determined to
+stir and labour in your recovery and redintegration of the old rights
+of your crown, as well as for your righteous heritage ... desiring
+upon this knightful intent and purpose to have the good and high
+advice and true meaning of us, your true knights and humble lieges
+aforesaid. Whereupon, our sovereign Lord, as well our Lords as we have
+communed by your high commandment in these matters: and known well
+among us all without [doubt ye are] so Christian a Prince that ye
+would in so high a matter begin nothing but that were to God's
+pleasance, and to eschew by all ways the shedding of Christian blood;
+and that, if algate [at all events] ye should do it, that denying of
+right and reason were the cause [rather] than wilfulheadedness.
+Wherefore, our sovereign and gracious high Lord, it thinks, as well
+our Lords as us in our own hearts, that it were speedful to send such
+ambassadors to every party as [your] claim requireth, sufficiently
+instructed for the right and recovery of that is above said. And if
+ye, our sovereign Lord, at the reverence of God, like of your proper
+motion, without our counsel given thereto, any mesne [middle] way to
+offer, that were moderating of your whole title, or of any of your
+claims beyond the sea; and hereupon your adverse party denying you
+both right and reason and all reasonable mesne [middle] ways, we trust
+all in God's grace that all your works in pursuing them should take
+the better speed and conclusion: and in the mean while that all the
+works of readiness that may be to your voyage thought or wrought, that
+it be done by the high advice of you and your noble council; seeing
+that the surety of your royal estate, the peace of your land, the safe
+ward of all your [realm] be well and sufficiently provided for above
+all things. And, these observed, we shall be ready with our bodies and
+goods, to do you the service that we may to our powers, as far as we
+ought of right, and as our ancestors have done to your noble
+progenitors in like case."</p>
+
+<p>This advice appears to have been followed by Henry throughout.</p>
+
+<p>The Minutes of Council, February 2, 1415, after stating the measures
+proposed for the safeguard of the sea, and the marches of Scotland and
+Wales, &amp;c. during the King's absence, record this remarkable
+advice: that Henry would direct his treasurer to bring a clear
+statement of his debtor and creditor account, the demands of the
+treasury, and the income; also the debts incurred since the
+coronation, and the annuities to which he was pledged; "in order that,
+before the departure of the King, such provision may be made in every
+part, according to the amount of the charges, that the mind and soul
+of the King might be set at ease and comfort, that he might depart
+like a Christian Prince with a good government, and the better
+accomplish his voyage, to the pleasure of God, and the singular
+comfort of all his faithful lieges."&mdash;Acts of Privy Council, vol. ii.
+p. 148.<a href="#notetag079">(back)</a></p></div>
+
+
+<p><a id="note080" name="note080"></a>
+<b>Footnote 80:</b> A renewed charge of hypocrisy, brought against Henry by
+the same pen, will call for a renewed inquiry; and whatever further
+remarks may be made on that topic, are reserved for the page in which
+we shall shortly enter upon the investigation of the charges.<a
+href="#notetag080">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note081" name="note081"></a>
+<b>Footnote 81:</b> Hall says, that "he left for governor behind him his
+mother-in-law, the Queen." And Goodwin (referring for his authority to
+Hall and Pat. 3 Hen. V. p. 2. m. 41.) states that he made her regent,
+and the Duke of Bedford protector. But this seems to have originated
+in mere mistake.<a href="#notetag081">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note082" name="note082"></a>
+<b>Footnote 82:</b> The particulars of these commissions may be found in
+Rymer, or in Sir Harris Nicolas's "Battle of Agincourt," to whom the
+reader is referred for more minute information on the subject.<a
+href="#notetag082">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note083" name="note083"></a>
+<b>Footnote 83:</b> Abrégé Historique des Actes publics d'Angleterre.<a
+href="#notetag083">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note084" name="note084"></a>
+<b>Footnote 84:</b> Otterbourne says Henry received the tennis-balls whilst
+he was keeping his Lent at Kenilworth.<a href="#notetag084">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note085" name="note085"></a>
+<b>Footnote 85:</b> Cotton MS. Claudius, A. viii.<a href="#notetag085">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note086" name="note086"></a>
+<b>Footnote 86:</b> His very last will is not known to be in existence. This
+testament was made seven years before his death, and was probably soon
+cancelled.<a href="#notetag086">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note087" name="note087"></a>
+<b>Footnote 87:</b> Among the saints to whose custody he bequeaths his soul,
+his favourite and patron, John of Bridlington, finds a place. Among
+the legacies connected with his family history, we meet with a
+bequest, to the "Bishop of Durham, of the Missal and Portophore which
+he had received as a present from his dear grandmother Joan, Countess
+of Hereford." To the same countess a gold cyphus,&mdash;a proof that in
+1415 his maternal grandmother was still alive. It may be worth
+observing that, in this will, there is no legacy to the Queen, his
+father's widow. He had, however, on the 30th June preceding, "granted
+of especial grace to his dearest mother, Joanna, Queen of England,
+licence to live, during his absence, in his castles of Windsor,
+Wallingford, Berkhamstead, and Hertford."<a href="#notetag087">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note088" name="note088"></a>
+<b>Footnote 88:</b> In a few pages further, the same writer thinks himself
+justified in adding this note on a letter of Henry to Charles, "A
+translation of this <i>hypocritical</i> letter is given in the Appendix."<a
+href="#notetag088">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note089" name="note089"></a>
+<b>Footnote 89:</b> See Cott. MS. Julius, E. iv. f. 115.<a href="#notetag089">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note090" name="note090"></a>
+<b>Footnote 90:</b> The Emperor, in the league which he made with Henry,
+records his resolution to assist him in the recovery of his just
+rights.<a href="#notetag090">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note091" name="note091"></a>
+<b>Footnote 91:</b> Here we cannot but recal the words with which Henry
+afterwards, it is said, addressed the Cardinal des Ursins, who was
+sent by the Pope to mediate between him and Charles just before he
+laid siege to Rouen. "See you not that God hath brought me here as it
+were by the hand? There is no longer a King in France. <i>I have a legal
+right over that realm.</i> All is in confusion there; and no one dreams
+of opposing me. Can I have a more sensible proof that God, who
+disposes of crowns, has decreed that I should place on my head the
+crown of France?" And in his mandate to the Archbishop of Canterbury
+to array the clergy against the enemies of the church and of the
+faith, should any appear in his absence, he says, "We are now going to
+recover our inheritance and the rights of our crown, now a long time,
+as is <i>evident to all</i>, unjustly kept from us."&mdash;Sloane,
+p. 52.<a href="#notetag091">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note092" name="note092"></a>
+<b>Footnote 92:</b> The Dedication of the Ypodigma Neustriæ claims for itself
+a place in this work; and to no part can it be more appropriately
+appended than to this, in which modern charges strongly contrasted
+with his view are examined. The following is a literal translation of
+the introduction to this work of Walsingham:&mdash;"To the most noble and
+illustrious King of the French and English, Henry, conqueror of
+Normandy, most serene Prince of Wales, Lord of Ireland and Aquitain,
+by God's grace always and everywhere victor, the humblest of his
+servants who pray for him, Brother Thomas of Walsingham, monk of the
+monastery of St. Alban, who was first of the English martyrs, with
+lowly recommendation wisheth health in Him who giveth health to Kings.
+Whilst I reflected, among the contemplative studies of the cloister,
+with how great talents of virtue, and titles of victory, God Almighty
+hath exalted,&mdash;with what gifts of especial grace He hath abundantly
+filled you,&mdash;so that even your enemies proclaim your wisdom, admire
+and everywhere extol your discretion, and celebrate your justice by
+the testimony of their praise, I confess that I have been filled with
+pleasure and inward joy, more gratifying far than the choicest
+dainties. But, in the midst of this, there arises in my mind a kind of
+cloud, which throws a shade on the glad thought of my heart, whilst I
+am compelled to fear the general habits of a nation which very often
+has trifled with the publicly plighted vows and their oath solemnly
+pledged. And whilst I meditate on past days,&mdash;recalling the frauds,
+crimes, factions, and enormities committed by your enemies,&mdash;my soul
+is made anxious, and my heart is disquieted within me, and my life has
+well-nigh failed from grief, knowing that to-morrow base deeds may be
+done as well as yesterday. And fearing lest by any means your
+innocence may be circumvented, I revolved in my mind what would best
+minister to your safety in the midst of so many dangers. At length it
+occurred to me to write something to your Highness (whom my soul
+cordially loves) by which you may be made more safe at once and more
+cautious. Love conquers all things; ah! it has wrought in me not to
+fear, though in an uncultivated and unpolished style, to offer to so
+wise and glorious a Prince what I reflected upon in my mind, and to
+open to your serene Highness as I best may what I have conceived in my
+heart for your royal safety. Hence it is that I have endeavoured to
+draw up a brief table of events from the commencement of the conquest
+of Neustria [Normandy] by the Normans down to their conquest of
+England; which I have carried on to the time when your Majesty, with
+power and victory, compelled the same Normandy, alienated against
+right and justice from your ancestors for about two hundred and twenty
+years, to come under your yoke, and royally to be governed according
+to your desire. Wherefore, my redoubted Lord and King, in this little
+work I offer to your inspection past deeds, various wars, mutual
+covenants of peace; leagues, though confirmed by an oath, violated;
+the promises, pledges, offerings, treacherously made to your
+predecessors; the deceit and hypocrisy of the enemy; and whatever the
+antagonist could with exquisite craftiness invent, by which they might
+entrap your noble spirit. Wherefore, since it becomes no one to
+possess knowledge more than a Prince, whose learning may be most
+beneficial to his subjects,&mdash;I, a poor and humble votary, offer (if it
+be your will) this volume to the inspection of your Highness; giving
+it the name of Ypodigma Neustriæ, because it especially portrays the
+events and falls of that country from the time of Rollo the first Duke
+down to the sixth year of your happy reign, which may God Almighty of
+his great mercy crown with peace, and preserve in all prosperity!
+Amen."<a href="#notetag092">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note093" name="note093"></a>
+<b>Footnote 93:</b> But though a person were a volunteer, yet if, after
+"making his muster," he failed in his duty, the punishment was both
+summary and severe. In a subsequent expedition of Henry, Hugh Annesley
+had made his muster in the company of Lord Grey of Codnor, and had
+received the King's pay from him, but tarried nevertheless in England.
+He was summoned before the council, and confessed his delinquency; his
+person was forthwith committed to the Fleet, and his estates seized
+into the King's hands.<a href="#notetag093">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note094" name="note094"></a>
+<b>Footnote 94:</b> The song will be found in a note on our account of the
+battle of Agincourt.<a href="#notetag094">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note095" name="note095"></a>
+<b>Footnote 95:</b> Should it occur to any one, that if in this case we allow
+the poet to have weight when he speaks of what reflects honour on
+Henry's name, we ought to assign the same credit to Shakspeare; when
+he tells us of madcap frolics and precocious dissipation, it must be
+remembered, that on testing the accuracy of Shakspeare by an appeal to
+history, we established a striking discrepancy between them; and that
+Shakspeare lived more than a century after the death of Henry; whereas
+we are led to regard this song of Agincourt as contemporary with the
+events which it celebrates; and its eulogy harmonizes in perfect
+accordance with what history might lead us to expect.<a
+href="#notetag095">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note096" name="note096"></a>
+<b>Footnote 96:</b> Query, Are these counties especially mentioned as being
+more peculiarly Henry's own? He was Duke of Lancaster, and Earl of
+Chester and Derby.<a href="#notetag096">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note097" name="note097"></a>
+<b>Footnote 97:</b> Mr. James, in his Naval History of Great Britain, does
+not seem to have carried back his researches beyond the reign of Henry
+VIII, to whom he ascribes "the honour of having by his own
+prerogative, and at his sole expense, settled the constitution of the
+present royal navy." Much undoubtedly does the English navy owe to
+that monarch; but he would be more justly regarded as its restorer and
+especial benefactor, than its founder.<a href="#notetag097">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note098" name="note098"></a>
+<b>Footnote 98:</b> See Hardy's Introduction to the Close Rolls, and Lord
+Lyttelton's History of Henry II.<a href="#notetag098">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note099" name="note099"></a>
+<b>Footnote 99:</b> "Par long temps a lour grantz custages et despenses."
+<a href="#notetag099">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note100" name="note100"></a>
+<b>Footnote 100:</b> The Pell Rolls record the payment of a pension which
+bears testimony to the interest taken by Henry in his infant navy, and
+to the kindness with which he rewarded those who had faithfully served
+him. The pension is stated to have been given "to John Hoggekyns,
+master-carpenter, of special grace, because by long working at the
+ships his body was much shaken and worsted."<a href="#notetag100">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note101" name="note101"></a>
+<b>Footnote 101:</b> Ellis, Second Series, Letter XXI.<a href="#notetag101">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<div>
+<p><a id="note102" name="note102"></a>
+<b>Footnote 102:</b> When he sailed from Southampton in his first expedition
+to France, he went on board his own good ship, the Trinity:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+                         "But the grandest ship of all that went,<br>
+                         Was that in which our good King sailed."
+                      <span class="jump"><i>Old Ballad.</i></span><a
+href="#notetag102">(back)</a></p></div>
+
+
+<p><a id="note103" name="note103"></a>
+<b>Footnote 103:</b> Pell Rolls, 16 July 1418.<a href="#notetag103">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note104" name="note104"></a>
+<b>Footnote 104:</b> Among the preparations for bringing Henry's corpse with
+all the solemn pomp which an admiring, grateful, and mourning nation
+could provide, all ships and vessels on the east coast were impressed,
+and sent to Calais.&mdash;Pell Rolls, Sept. 26, 1422.<a href="#notetag104">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note105" name="note105"></a>
+<b>Footnote 105:</b> To suppose that this conspiracy could have originated,
+as it has been lately (Turner's History) suggested, in "the resisting
+spirit which Henry's religious persecutions occasioned, and which led
+some to wish for another sovereign," is altogether gratuitous, and
+contrary to fact. He was not carrying on religious persecution, and no
+resisting spirit on that ground had manifested itself at all.<a
+href="#notetag105">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note106" name="note106"></a>
+<b>Footnote 106:</b> Richard of Coningsburg, second son of Edmund of Langley,
+Duke of York, fifth son of Edward III, was high in favour with Henry
+V, who created him Earl of Cambridge in the second year of his reign.
+He married Ann, daughter of Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, whose son
+Richard (aged fourteen in the third year of Henry V,) was heir to
+Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March. Leland says, that the "main design of
+the Earl of Cambridge's conspiracy was to raise Edmund Mortimer, Earl
+of March, to the throne, as heir to Lionel, Duke of Clarence; and
+then, in case that Earl had no child, the right would come to the Earl
+of Cambridge's wife, (sister to the same Edmund,) and to her issue, as
+it afterwards did; and this is most likely to be true, whatever hath
+been otherwise reported."&mdash;Lel. Coll. i. 701.<a href="#notetag106">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note107" name="note107"></a>
+<b>Footnote 107:</b> To one of these, Robert Hull, the payment of one hundred
+marks was ordered to be made, February 7, 1418, for lately holding his
+sessions in South Wales; and also for his trouble and expenses in
+delivering the gaol at Southampton of Richard Earl of Cambridge, Henry
+Lord Scrope, and Thomas Grey, Knight, there for treason adjudged and
+put to death.<a href="#notetag107">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note108" name="note108"></a>
+<b>Footnote 108:</b> The King's writ, dated Southampton, 8th of August,
+orders "the head of Henry Lescrop de Masham to be stuck up at York,
+and the head of Thomas Grey de Heton to be stuck up at Newcastle upon
+Tyne."&mdash;Close Roll, 3 Henry V. m. 16.<a href="#notetag108">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note109" name="note109"></a>
+<b>Footnote 109:</b> Cotton MS. Claudius A. viii. 2.<a href="#notetag109">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note110" name="note110"></a>
+<b>Footnote 110:</b> His pardon is dated 8th August.<a href="#notetag110">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note111" name="note111"></a>
+<b>Footnote 111:</b> Some of the best antiquaries of the present day are
+disposed to pronounce, that a pardon was never granted, unless there
+had existed some cause of suspicion or offence,&mdash;something, in short,
+which might have involved in trouble the individual for whom the
+pardon was obtained.<a href="#notetag111">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note112" name="note112"></a>
+<b>Footnote 112:</b> (Ellis, Second Series, vol. i. p. 44.) "This conspiracy
+was the first spark of the flame which in the course of time consumed
+the two houses of Lancaster and York. Richard Earl of Cambridge was
+the father of Richard Duke of York, and the grandfather of King Edward
+IV."<a href="#notetag112">(back)</a></p>
+
+<p><a id="note113" name="note113"></a>
+<b>Footnote 113:</b> The extraordinary prevalence of an opinion that Richard
+was still alive and in Scotland, has already been noticed. The
+Chronicle of England informs us of some particulars relative to the
+means by which the reports concerning him were propagated, and the
+prompt, severe, and decisive measures adopted by the King and his
+supporters for suppressing them. "And at this time (5 Henry IV.)
+Serle, yeoman of King Richard, came into England out of Scotland, and
+told to divers people that King Richard was alive in Scotland, and so
+much people believed in his words. Wherefore a great part of the
+people of the realm were in great error and grudging against the King,
+through information of lies and false leasing that this Serle had
+made. But at the last he was taken in the North country, and by law
+was judged to be drawn through every city and good burgh town in
+England, and was afterwards hanged at Tyburn and quartered." It is
+also certain that many members of the monastic orders were executed
+for spreading similar reports. See Nichols' Leicester, vol. i. p.
+368.<a href="#notetag113">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note114" name="note114"></a>
+<b>Footnote 114:</b> It was shortly before he left London on this expedition
+that Henry made that grant (to which reference was made in the early
+part of our first volume) of 20<i>l.</i> per annum on Joan Waring, his
+nurse.&mdash;Rol. Pat. 3 Henry V. m. 13. It is dated June 5th.<a href="#notetag114">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note115" name="note115"></a>
+<b>Footnote 115:</b> At the place also where he encamped, he solemnly
+celebrated the festival of the Assumption [so called] of the Virgin
+Mary, a feast observed, in the countries on the Continent in communion
+with Rome, with great rejoicings and religious ceremonies, in the
+present day.<a href="#notetag115">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note116" name="note116"></a>
+<b>Footnote 116:</b> See Chronicler A, and St. Remy, p. 82, quoted in
+Nicolas' Agincourt.<a href="#notetag116">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note117" name="note117"></a>
+<b>Footnote 117:</b> Sloane MS. 1776.<a href="#notetag117">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note118" name="note118"></a>
+<b>Footnote 118:</b> A very curious turn has been given inadvertently to this
+circumstance by the translation of the ecclesiastic's sentence, and
+the comment upon it, now found in the Appendix to the "Battle of
+Agincourt." "Rege præsente, pedes ejus tergente post extremam
+unctionem propriis manibus,"&mdash;words which can only be translated so as
+to represent the King, "after extreme unction, wiping the feet" of the
+Bishop,&mdash;the Editor of that work, by the careless blunder of an
+amanuensis, or some unaccountable accident, is made to render by the
+strange sentence, "<i>covering</i> his feet <i>with</i> extreme unction;" and he
+is then led, as a comment upon that text, to observe, that "the Bishop
+received from Henry's own hand the last offices of <i>religion</i>."
+Extreme unction, the last of the seven sacraments of the see of Rome,
+was administered doubtless by an attendant priest.<a href="#notetag118">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note119" name="note119"></a>
+<b>Footnote 119:</b> Cotton MS. Cleopatra, C. iv.
+f. 24.<a href="#notetag119">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note120" name="note120"></a>
+<b>Footnote 120:</b> Monstrelet informs us that the treasure found by Henry
+at Harfleur was immense. A letter to Henry from two of his officers,
+"<i>counters of your receipt</i>," specifies that they were then in
+possession for the King of treasure to this amount: of coined gold,
+30,000<i>l.</i>; in silver coined, 1,000,000<i>l.</i>; and in wedges of silver,
+drawing by estimation to half a ton weight; at the same time desiring
+to receive instructions as to the mode of conveying it to Rouen. This
+letter, dated 19th of May, must belong to the year 1419, in the
+January of which Rouen was taken.&mdash;Ellis's Letters, xxvi.<a href="#notetag120">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note121" name="note121"></a>
+<b>Footnote 121:</b> Abrégé Historique.<a href="#notetag121">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note122" name="note122"></a>
+<b>Footnote 122:</b> Ibid. p. 114.<a href="#notetag122">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note123" name="note123"></a>
+<b>Footnote 123:</b> There is a doubt whether it is the xvi. or the
+xxvi.&mdash;the first x in the manuscript having, perhaps, been obliterated
+by the fire which damaged it.&mdash;F&oelig;d. vol. ix.
+313.<a href="#notetag123">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note124" name="note124"></a>
+<b>Footnote 124:</b> On the 4th of October fishermen in different parts were
+ordered to go with all speed, taking their tackle with them, to
+Harfleur, to fish for the support of the King and his army.<a
+href="#notetag124">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note125" name="note125"></a>
+<b>Footnote 125:</b> This is a very curious fact, not generally known. The
+battle of Agincourt, humanly speaking, would not have been fought, had
+it not been for the falsehood of a Frenchman.<a href="#notetag125">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note126" name="note126"></a>
+<b>Footnote 126:</b> Shakspeare makes use of this anecdote, and fixes the
+robbery on Bardolph.<a href="#notetag126">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note127" name="note127"></a>
+<b>Footnote 127:</b> Sir William Bardolf, Lieutenant of Calais, hearing of
+the King's danger, sent part of his garrison to his assistance; but
+that little body, consisting of about three hundred men-at-arms, were
+either destroyed or taken prisoners by the men of Picardy.<a href="#notetag127">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note128" name="note128"></a>
+<b>Footnote 128:</b> After quitting Bonnieres, Henry passed unawares beyond
+the place intended by his officers for his quarters; but, instead of
+returning, he replied that, being in his war-coat, he could not return
+without displeasing God. He therefore ordered his advanced guard to
+take a more distant position, and himself occupied the spot which had
+been intended for them. This anecdote is recorded as an instance of
+the care with which Henry avoided whatever might appear of ill omen.
+Probably he only followed the usual maxims of an army in march; that
+maxim originating, it may be, in superstition.<a href="#notetag128">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note129" name="note129"></a>
+<b>Footnote 129:</b> And yet there were so many priests present (with the
+baggage) during the battle, that the chaplain calls them the clerical
+army, whose weapons were prayers and intercessions, "Nos qui ascripti
+sumus clericali militiæ."<a href="#notetag129">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note130" name="note130"></a>
+<b>Footnote 130:</b> In the "History of Agincourt," the translator of the
+Chaplain's Memoir (Sloane 1776) has given a far more faint
+representation than the original will warrant of the sufferings to
+which the English troops were exposed through this night of present
+fatigue and discomfort, and of anxious preparation for so tremendous a
+struggle as awaited them on the morrow. The ecclesiastic, who was
+himself among the sufferers, and who has furnished a very graphic
+description of the whole affair, says, "The King turned aside to a
+small village, where we had houses, but very few indeed, and gardens
+and orchards to rest in." "Ubi habuimus domos sed paucissimas,
+hortosque et pomaria pro requiescione nostra." This the translator
+renders, "Where we had houses to rest in, but very scanty gardens and
+orchards." The scanty supply was not of gardens and orchards, but of
+houses to rest in. Consequently, except such as those very few houses
+could accommodate, the English soldiers were all compelled to bivouac,
+exposed to the drenching rains which fell through the night. Of
+orchards and gardens there was doubtless an abundant supply, but they
+afforded little shelter from the weather, and no means to the troops
+of taking refreshing rest.<a href="#notetag130">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note131" name="note131"></a>
+<b>Footnote 131:</b> St. Remy.<a href="#notetag131">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note132" name="note132"></a>
+<b>Footnote 132:</b> The statement that Henry offered to repair all the
+injury he had done to France, is deservedly considered unworthy of
+credit.<a href="#notetag132">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note133" name="note133"></a>
+<b>Footnote 133:</b> The present reading in Monstrelet, who details these
+circumstances with much life and clearness, reports the word used by
+the English warrior to have been "Nestroque," which has been, with
+much probability, considered a corruption of "Now strike!" Whether the
+word is now read as the Author wrote it, is very questionable; many
+French words in Monstrelet have been mistaken and corrupted by his
+copyists.<a href="#notetag133">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note134" name="note134"></a>
+<b>Footnote 134:</b> It must be remembered that the arrival of fresh
+reinforcements was by no means an improbable occurrence. Anthony, Duke
+of Brabant, had only reached the field with his men just before the
+tide of battle turned finally and fatally against the French; nor
+could Henry possibly know what forces were yet hastening on to dispute
+with him for the victory afresh.<a href="#notetag134">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note135" name="note135"></a>
+<b>Footnote 135:</b> One author alone, Jean Le Fevre, states that some of the
+English, who had taken the prisoners of greatest note and wealth,
+hesitated to execute the order, from an unwillingness to lose their
+ransom; and that two hundred archers were commissioned to perform the
+dreadful office in their stead.<a href="#notetag135">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note136" name="note136"></a>
+<b>Footnote 136:</b> The passage of M. Petitot, in his History, published in
+the year 1825, vol. vi. p. 322, which contains this accusation, is as
+follows: "The Duke of Alençon fought hand to hand with the King of
+England, and fell gloriously. Towards the end of the struggle, some
+hundreds of peasants of Picardy, commanded by two gentlemen of the
+country, believing that the English were vanquished, came to plunder
+their camp. Henry, fancying that he was about to be attacked by a
+reinforcement, whose march had been concealed from him, ordered the
+massacre of the prisoners, and only excepted the princes and generals.
+This barbarous order was put into execution, and tarnished his
+victory."<a href="#notetag136">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note137" name="note137"></a>
+<b>Footnote 137:</b> In the printed copies of Monstrelet the reading is "de
+la <i>hart</i>," a mistake, it is presumed, for <i>mort</i>. Many such errors
+occur in his work.<a href="#notetag137">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note138" name="note138"></a>
+<b>Footnote 138:</b> The Author is compelled to express his regret that some
+of our own modern writers (among others Goldsmith and Mackintosh) have
+been led to take a different estimate of the character of this
+transaction. Whether their judgments were formed after a careful
+weighing of the several accounts furnished by contemporary authors and
+eye-witnesses of the conflict, or whether they allowed their feelings
+of philanthropy, and their abhorrence of cruelty, to dictate their
+sentence in this case, the Author cannot refer to their works without
+appealing from them to the facts as they stand in those undisputed
+records which were accessible alike to them and to ourselves. On this
+subject Rapin, Carte, Holinshed, Nicolas, with others, may be
+consulted.<a href="#notetag138">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<div>
+<p><a id="note139" name="note139"></a>
+<b>Footnote 139:</b> It is quite impossible to reconcile the different
+accounts of the loss on the part of the English. Walsingham speaks of
+thirty only having fallen; De Fenin reports them to have been four or
+five hundred; whilst Monstrelet raises the number to sixteen hundred.</p>
+
+<p>On the part of the French, Le Fevre says, that from a hundred to six
+score princes fell, and about seven or eight thousand of noble blood.
+In the Annales Ecclesiastici of Baronius, continued by Raynaldus, the
+statement of Theodoric Niemius is quoted, who says (unquestionably
+without authority) that Henry advanced from Harfleur with sixty
+thousand men, besides two thousand in attendance on the carriages. He
+affirms that the French had one hundred thousand men; among whom were
+one thousand Italians, commanded by Buligard, who had long governed
+Genoa in favour of the French. He says, moreover, that more than five
+thousand five hundred French nobles were slain; and fifteen hundred
+taken prisoners, and carried to England.<a href="#notetag139">(back)</a></p></div>
+
+
+<p><a id="note140" name="note140"></a>
+<b>Footnote 140:</b> Hume, with his usual inaccuracy, asserts that the French
+army at Agincourt was headed as well by the Dauphin, as by all the
+other princes of the blood. The Dauphin wished to assist his
+countrymen, when they resolved to intercept the invaders; but, as we
+are expressly told by Le Fevre (c. 59), was not suffered to join the
+rendezvous. This is not the only mistake into which Hume has fallen in
+his account of this battle. In one paragraph he reports Henry to have
+been under the necessity of marching by land from Harfleur to Calais,
+in order to reach a place of safety from which he might transport his
+soldiers back to England; in another paragraph he represents him (with
+the same temerity which had been evinced by his predecessors before
+the battles of Poictiers and of Cressy) to have ventured without any
+object of moment, and merely for the <i>sake of plunder</i>, so far into
+the enemy's country as to leave himself no retreat. He tells us,
+moreover, that "Henry was master of fourteen thousand prisoners," whom
+he afterwards says that the King "carried with him to Paris, thence to
+England." Hume took this also without inquiry. Walsingham says, "Henry
+took (as they say&mdash;ut ferunt,&mdash;as though even that estimate required
+to be supported by common report,) seven hundred prisoners;" and of
+his prisoners, how many soever they were, he transported (as Des
+Ursins tells us) only the most considerable to England, dismissing the
+rest under promise to bring their ransom to him in the field of Lendi,
+on the feast of St. John in the summer, and, if he were not there,
+they should be discharged of the debt.<a href="#notetag140">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<div>
+<p><a id="note141" name="note141"></a>
+<b>Footnote 141:</b> Of this gallant Welshman, the following account is taken
+from the Appendix of the "Battle of Agincourt." "Dr. Meyrick (now Sir
+Samuel) says, Davydd Gam, <i>i.e.</i> Squint-eyed David, was a native of
+Brecknockshire, and, holding his land of the honour of Hereford, was a
+strenuous supporter of the Lancastrian interests. He was the son of
+Llewellyn, descended from Einion Sais, who possessed a handsome
+property in the parishes of Garthbrengy and Llanddeu. In consequence
+of an affray in the high street of Brecknock, in which he
+unfortunately killed his kinsman, he was compelled to fly into England
+to avoid a threatened prosecution, and became the implacable enemy of
+Owain Glyndowr, whom he attempted to assassinate. Gam, it may be
+supposed, was his nick-name, as he called himself David Llewellyn; and
+there are good grounds for supposing that Shakspeare has caricatured
+him in Captain Fluellin. His descendants, however, conceiving that his
+prowess more than redeemed his natural defect, took the name of Game.
+Sir Walter Raleigh has an eulogium upon his bravery and exploits on
+the field of Agincourt, in which he compares him to Hannibal. He was
+knighted on the field with his two companions in glory and death, Sir
+Roger Vaughan, of Bedwardine in Herefordshire, and Sir Walter, or
+rather Watkin Llwyd, of the lordship of Brecknock. Sir Roger had
+married Gwladis, the daughter of Sir David Gamme, who survived him,
+and became the wife of another hero of Agincourt, Sir William Thomas
+of Raglan; and Sir Watkin was by his marriage related to Sir Roger."</p>
+
+<p>The Author gives this passage as he finds it, without having attempted
+to verify the statement as to David Gamme's descent or history.
+Certainly the testimony which Sir Samuel Meyrick makes Sir Walter
+Raleigh bear to his "bravery and exploits on the field of Agincourt,"
+cannot be fairly extracted from Sir Walter's own words: "But if
+Hannibal himself had been sent forth by Mago to view the Romans, he
+could not have returned with a more gallant report in his mouth than
+Captain Gamme made unto King Henry the Fifth, saying, 'That of the
+Frenchmen there were enow to be killed, enow to be taken prisoners,
+and enow to run away!'" We have no doubt of Captain Gamme's gallant
+bearing at Agincourt; but Raleigh refers to nothing beyond his report
+of the numbers of the enemy.&mdash;Raleigh, book v. sect. 8.<a
+href="#notetag141">(back)</a></p></div>
+
+
+<p><a id="note142" name="note142"></a>
+<b>Footnote 142:</b> The fact is recorded in the Patent Rolls, P. 2, 3 Hen.
+V.<a href="#notetag142">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<div>
+<p><a id="note143" name="note143"></a>
+<b>Footnote 143:</b> The spot from which the battle of Agincourt took its
+name has been confounded with a place named Azincourt, near the town
+of Bouchain in French Flanders. On the position of the real field of
+battle, and its present condition, the Author has much satisfaction in
+making the following extract from a paper read before the Royal
+Society of Literature, April 4, 1827, by John Gordon Smith, M.D. who
+had visited and examined the spot under circumstances of peculiar
+interest:</p>
+
+<p class="letter">"Perhaps I may be pardoned for relating that I had the honour to
+receive a Waterloo medal on the field of Azincour, or rather, that I
+had the fortune to belong to one of the British regiments that
+signalized themselves in the campaign of 1815, and which afterwards
+was invested with the above-mentioned mark of their sovereign's
+approbation on the very spot which, nearly four hundred years before,
+was the scene of the scarcely less glorious triumph of Harry the Fifth
+of England. In 1816 a portion of the British army was cantoned in the
+immediate neighbourhood of this celebrated field, and the corps in
+which I then served made use of it during several months as their
+ordinary drill-ground.... We amused ourselves with reconnoitring
+excursions, comparing the actual state of the localities with
+authentic accounts of the transactions of 1415. The changes that have
+taken place have been singularly few, and an attentive explorer would
+be able to trace with considerable accuracy the greater part of the
+route pursued by the English army in their retreat out of Normandy
+towards Calais. The field of Azincour remains sufficiently in statu
+quo to render every account of the battle perfectly intelligible; nor
+are those wanting near the spot, whose traditionary information
+enables them to heighten the interest with oral description,
+accompanied by a sort of ocular demonstration.</p>
+
+<p class="letter">"Those who travel to Paris by way of St. Omer and Abbeville, pass over
+the field of the battle, which skirts the high road to the left, about
+sixteen miles beyond St. Omer; two on the Paris side of a considerable
+village or bourg named Fruges; about eight north of the fortified town
+of Hesdin; and thirty from Abbeville. All accounts of the battle
+mention the hamlet of Ruisseauville, through which very place the high
+road to Paris now passes.</p>
+
+<p class="letter">"Azincour is a commune or parish consisting of a most uninteresting
+collection of farmers' residences and cottages, once however
+distinguished by a castle, of which nothing now remains but the
+foundation. The scene of the contest lies between this commune and the
+adjoining one of Tramecour, in a wood belonging to which latter the
+King concealed those archers whose prowess and vigour contributed so
+eminently to the glorious result. Part of the wood still remains;
+though, if I remember rightly, at the time of our visit, the corner
+into which the bowmen were thrown had been materially thinned, if,
+indeed, the original timber had not been entirely cut down, and its
+place been scantily supplied by brush or underwood. Some of the trees,
+however, in the wood of Tramecour were very old in 1816.</p>
+
+<p class="letter">"The road above mentioned is the great post-road; the old road, now
+degenerated into a mere cart-track, from Abbeville to the once
+celebrated city of Therouanne, passes over the scene of action, and
+must have been that by which the French army reached the ground before
+the English, who had been compelled to make a great circuit."&mdash;Vol. i.
+part ii. p. 57.<a href="#notetag143">(back)</a></p></div>
+
+
+<p><a id="note144" name="note144"></a>
+<b>Footnote 144:</b> Before his departure from Calais, a dispute arose
+between him and two noblemen, who had been taken prisoners at
+Harfleur, and set at liberty on condition of surrendering themselves
+at Calais. The merits of the case cannot now be known. The one, De
+Gaucourt, brought an action against the representatives of the other,
+after his death, and after the death of Henry, to recover what he paid
+for that other's [D'Estouteville's] ransom. To give a colouring to his
+case, he charges Henry with refusing to confirm the stipulations made
+by his representatives at Harfleur, and with other harsh conduct. But
+an ex parte statement at that time, and under those circumstances, can
+form no ground of suspicion against a third party.<a href="#notetag144">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note145" name="note145"></a>
+<b>Footnote 145:</b> See "Battle of Agincourt."<a href="#notetag145">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note146" name="note146"></a>
+<b>Footnote 146:</b> Various entries occur in the Pell Rolls of money paid
+for masses for the souls of those who fell in these wars. Among the
+rest are specified (26th September 1418) Lord Grey of Codnor and Sir
+John Blount. Two thousand masses were ordered for the souls of Lord
+Talbot and another. See extracts in English, translated lately, from
+the Pell Rolls, by Mr. F. Devon. This work, whilst it acquaints the
+student with the sort of information and evidence which the Pell Rolls
+may supply, will in other respects assist him in his inquiries; for
+many valuable and interesting facts are presented to him in the
+volume: but, to ascertain what those documents really do contain, it
+is necessary (as in all other cases) to apply at the fountain-head.<a
+href="#notetag146">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note147" name="note147"></a>
+<b>Footnote 147:</b> F&oelig;d. viii. 236.<a href="#notetag147">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note148" name="note148"></a>
+<b>Footnote 148:</b> The second line of this song is variously read. Probably
+the original words are lost. The reading in the text is
+conjectural.<a href="#notetag148">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note149" name="note149"></a>
+<b>Footnote 149:</b> Dr. Burney has here fallen into a most extraordinary
+mistake. In the very page to which he refers, Elmham, in his turgid
+manner, assures us that at Henry's coronation the tumultuous clang of
+so many trumpets made the heavens resound with the roar of thunder. He
+then describes the sweet strings of the harps soothing the souls of
+the guests by their soft melody; and the united music of other
+instruments also, by their dulcet sounds, in which no discord
+interrupted the harmony, inviting the royal banqueters to full
+enjoyment of the festival.<a href="#notetag149">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note150" name="note150"></a>
+<b>Footnote 150:</b> Thomas de Elmham, Vit. et Gest. Hen. V. edit. Hearne,
+Oxon. 1727, cap. xii. p. 23.<a href="#notetag150">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note151" name="note151"></a>
+<b>Footnote 151:</b> Burney's History of Music, vol. ii.
+p. 382.<a href="#notetag151">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note152" name="note152"></a>
+<b>Footnote 152:</b> For dread neither of least nor of
+greatest.<a href="#notetag152">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note153" name="note153"></a>
+<b>Footnote 153:</b> Mr. Turner.<a href="#notetag153">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note154" name="note154"></a>
+<b>Footnote 154:</b> Another view might be taken of the cause of this delay
+on the part of Henry. Perhaps he was acting prudently by allowing time
+for his enemies to weaken each other, and to exhaust their resources
+by the insatiable demands of civil warfare. Meanwhile, he was not
+himself idle.<a href="#notetag154">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note155" name="note155"></a>
+<b>Footnote 155:</b> Lord Talbot was to be associated with the Captain of
+Calais to receive the Emperor in that city. At Dover, the Duke of
+Gloucester, with the Lords Salisbury, Furnival, and Haryngton, were to
+welcome him to the English shores; at Rochester, the Constable and
+Marshal of England, the Earl of Oxford, and others; at Dartford, the
+Duke of Clarence, with the Earls of March and Huntingdon, Lord Grey of
+Ruthing, Lord Abergavenny, and others, were to meet him. At
+Blackheath, the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and good people of London were
+to await his arrival; whilst Henry himself was to receive Sigismund
+between Deptford and Southwark, at a place called St. Thomas
+Watering.&mdash;"Privy Council," April 1416, Pour la venue de
+l'Empereur.<a href="#notetag155">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note156" name="note156"></a>
+<b>Footnote 156:</b> The Archbishop of Canterbury commanded all his
+suffragans to take especial care that prayers be offered in all
+congregations for the good estate of Sigismund.&mdash;Rymer's F&oelig;d.
+1416.<a href="#notetag156">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note157" name="note157"></a>
+<b>Footnote 157:</b> Henry was at Smalhithe in Kent (August 22),
+superintending the building of some ships, when news of this success
+reached him. He hastened to join the Emperor, who was at Canterbury,
+and both went to the cathedral together to return thanks for the
+victory. This happened a week subsequently to their signing of the
+league of amity mentioned below.<a href="#notetag157">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note158" name="note158"></a>
+<b>Footnote 158:</b> Rymer, H. V. An. iv.<a href="#notetag158">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note159" name="note159"></a>
+<b>Footnote 159:</b> The various expedients to which both Henry and his
+father were driven to raise supplies in any way commensurate with
+their wants, have repeatedly reminded the Author of the similar means
+to which their unhappy successor Charles, in his days of far more
+urgent need and necessity, had recourse. The reader may perhaps be
+interested by the following document. It is a copy of the letter in
+which Charles applies to the Provost and Fellows of Oriel College for
+a loan of their plate. The King's letter is dated January 6th, 1642;
+and the society, assembled in the chapel on the 8th, vote unanimously
+to put their silver and gilt vessels at the disposal of their
+sovereign, scarcely retaining one single piece of plate. (Allocata
+sunt ad usum serenissimi vasa argentea et deaurata pæne ad unum
+omnia.) The one retained is said to have been the chalice for the holy
+communion.</p>
+
+<p>(Extracted from the Register of Oriel College.)</p>
+
+<div class="letter">
+<p> "To our trusty and well-beloved the Provost and Fellowes of Oriel
+Colledge, in our University of Oxon: Charles R.</p>
+
+<p> "Trusty and well-beloved, wee greete you well. Wee are so well
+satisfied with your readiness and affection to our service, that wee
+cannot doubt but you will take all occasions to expresse the same; and
+as wee are ready to sell or engage any of our land, so have wee melted
+downe our plate for the paiment of our army, raised for our defence,
+and the preservation of our kingdome. And having received severall
+quantityes of plate from divers of our loving subjects, we have
+removed our mint hither to our citty of Oxford, for the coyning
+thereof.</p>
+
+<p> "And we do hereby desire you that you will lend unto us all such
+plate, of what kind soever, which belongs to your colledge; promising
+you to see the same iustly repaid unto you after the rate of 5 <i>s.</i>
+the ounce for white, and 5 <i>s.</i> 6 <i>d.</i> for guilt plate, as soon as God
+shall enable us: for assure yourselves wee shall never let persons of
+whom wee have so great a care suffer for their affection to us, but
+shall take speciall order for the repaiment of what you have already
+lent us, according to our promise, and also of this you now lend in
+plate; well knowing it to bee the goods of youre colledge that you
+ought not to alien, though no man will doubt but in such a case you
+may lawfully lend to assist youre King in such visible necessity. And
+wee have entrusted our trusty and well-beloved Sir William Parkhurst,
+Knt. and Thomas Bushee, Esq. officers of our mint, or either of them,
+to receive the said plate from you; who, uppon weighing thereof, shall
+give you a receipt under theire or one of their hands for the same.</p>
+
+<p>"And wee assure our selfe of your willingness to gratify us herein;
+since, beside the more publiche considerations, you cannot but know
+how much your selves are concerned in our sufferings. And wee shall
+ever remember this particular service to your advantage.</p>
+
+<p>"Given at our Court at Oxford, the 6 day of
+          January 1642."<a href="#notetag159">(back)</a></p></div>
+
+
+<p><a id="note160" name="note160"></a>
+<b>Footnote 160:</b> In the letter from Constance, dated the preceding
+February, Henry was informed that the French had sent a large sum to
+Genoa to wage [hire] ships to fight with England.<a href="#notetag160">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note161" name="note161"></a>
+<b>Footnote 161:</b> The Muster Roll of this expedition is preserved in the
+Chapter-house, Westminster, and is pronounced to be one of the most
+interesting records of military history now extant.&mdash;See Preface to
+the Norman Rolls, by T.D. Hardy, Esq.<a href="#notetag161">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note162" name="note162"></a>
+<b>Footnote 162:</b> A long list of the clergy, and of the churches then
+taken by Henry under his protection, is preserved in the Norman
+Rolls.&mdash;Hardy's edition, p. 331.<a href="#notetag162">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note163" name="note163"></a>
+<b>Footnote 163:</b> These letters did not come within the Author's knowledge
+before he had written these brief memoirs of the last years of Henry.
+It is very satisfactory to find them all confirmatory of his previous
+views. He has taken especial care to make every, the slightest,
+correction in his narrative, suggested by authorities from which there
+is no appeal.<a href="#notetag163">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note164" name="note164"></a>
+<b>Footnote 164:</b> Norman Rolls, preserved in the Tower, edited by T.D.
+Hardy, Esq.<a href="#notetag164">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note165" name="note165"></a>
+<b>Footnote 165:</b> Henry's own letter to the Mayor and Aldermen of London
+(Liber F. fol. 200), written on the 5th of September, the day after
+the surrender of Caen, represents the loss on the part of the English
+to have been very trifling. "On St. Cuthbert's day, God, of his high
+grace, sent unto our hands our town of Caen by assault, and with right
+little death of our people, whereof we thank our Saviour as lowly as
+we can; praying that ye do the same, and as devoutly as ye can.
+Certifying you also that we and our host be in good prosperity and
+health, thanked be God of his mercy! who have you in his holy
+keeping."<a href="#notetag165">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note166" name="note166"></a>
+<b>Footnote 166:</b> This letter of the King's is only a fragment, without
+date: who were the persons addressed does not appear; probably he
+wrote it to his council in 1417 or 1418. Sir Henry Ellis opens his
+second series of Original Letters with this of Henry V. It is found in
+MS. Cotton. Vesp. F. iii. fol. 5.<a href="#notetag166">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note167" name="note167"></a>
+<b>Footnote 167:</b> Probably the mammet, or mawmet, [puppet,] (a corruption,
+they say, of Mahomet,) of Scotland, was the pretended Richard, the
+deposed King, whom even now many believed to be still alive
+there.<a href="#notetag167">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note168" name="note168"></a>
+<b>Footnote 168:</b> The Duke of Exeter was then governor of Harfleur, but
+was in England recruiting soldiers to reinforce the King's army in
+Normandy.<a href="#notetag168">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note169" name="note169"></a>
+<b>Footnote 169:</b> It is curious to observe, that the Duke of Bedford is
+reported to have been engaged at his devotions at Bridlington in
+Yorkshire; and that, on hearing of the invasion, he threw away his
+beads, and marched with all the forces he could muster to meet the
+Scots. John of Bridlington seems to have been in an especial manner
+the patron saint of Henry IV.'s family.<a href="#notetag169">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note170" name="note170"></a>
+<b>Footnote 170:</b> On the 12th of February 1418, an order is issued to
+press horses, carts, and other means of conveyance, to carry the
+jewels, ornaments, and other furniture of the King's chapel to
+Southampton.<a href="#notetag170">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note171" name="note171"></a>
+<b>Footnote 171:</b> Henry's own words, in a letter, 21 July 1418, sent from
+Pont de Larche to the Mayor of London, are: "Since our last departing
+from Caen, we came before our town of Louviers, and won it by siege;
+to which place came to us the Cardinal of Ursin from our holy father
+the Pope, for to treat for the good of peace betwixt both realms, and
+is gone again to Paris to diligence there in this same matter; but
+what end it shall draw to we wot not as yet." In this letter he
+informs us that the attack on Pont de Larche was on the 4th of July;
+and that, though the enemy had "assembled in great power to resist us,
+yet God of his mercy showed so for us and for our right, that it was
+withouten the death of any man's person of ours." He adds that he had
+just heard of the decidedly hostile intentions of the Duke of Burgundy
+towards him; so "we hold him our full enemy. He is now at Paris." The
+King then tells them that he needs not to refer to the death of the
+Earl of Armagnac, and the slaughter that hath been at Paris; for he
+was assured that they had full knowledge thereof. He alludes to the
+massacre of the Armagnac faction by the partisans of the Duke of
+Burgundy, June 12, 1418. Two thousand persons were murdered in a very
+brief space of time. The mob dragged the bodies of the Constable and
+Chancellor through the streets (as Monstrelet tells us) for two or
+three days.<a href="#notetag171">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note172" name="note172"></a>
+<b>Footnote 172:</b> Henry's army had received various reinforcements. One
+accession is recorded by an item in the Pell Rolls, of rather an
+interesting character, showing that both the Irish and the
+ecclesiastics of Ireland gave him good and acceptable proof of the
+interest they took in his success. It is the payment of 19<i>l.</i> 17<i>s.</i>
+on the 1st of July 1418, "to masters and mariners of Bristol for
+embarking the Prior of Kilmaynham with two hundred horsemen and three
+hundred foot-soldiers from Waterford in Ireland, to go to the King in
+France." An entry also occurs in the following October: "To the Prior
+of Kilmaynham coming from Ireland to Southampton, with a good company
+of men, to proceed to Normandy to serve the King in the wars, 100<i>l.</i>"
+An order from the King to his Chancellor, the Bishop of Durham, to
+expedite ships from Bristol for the transport of these men from
+Waterford to France, is preserved among the miscellaneous records in
+the Tower. It is dated June 3rd, at Ber-nay; to which a postscript was
+added on the next day, urging the utmost expedition, as the troops
+were tarrying only for the means of sailing.&mdash;See Bentley's Excerpta
+Historica, p. 388.<a href="#notetag172">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note173" name="note173"></a>
+<b>Footnote 173:</b> One Glomyng was charged with having said, "What doth the
+King of England at siege before Rouen? An I were there with three
+thousand men, I would break his siege and make them of Rouen dock his
+tail." He said, moreover, that "he were not able to abide there, were
+it [not] that the Duke of Burgundy kept his enemies from him."&mdash;Donat.
+MS. 4601.<a href="#notetag173">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note174" name="note174"></a>
+<b>Footnote 174:</b> In a very long minute of the Privy Council, the reasons
+assigned by Henry for wishing to negociate an alliance with the
+Dauphin are given at length; and ambassadors were appointed to treat
+with that prince on the 26th of October 1418.&mdash;F&oelig;d. ix.
+p. 626.<a href="#notetag174">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note175" name="note175"></a>
+<b>Footnote 175:</b> The Author, assisted by his friends, has made diligent
+inquiry, both in England and on the Continent, for a portrait of
+Katharine, with a copy of which he was desirous of enriching this
+volume; but his inquiries have ended in an assurance that no portrait
+of her is in existence.<a href="#notetag175">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note176" name="note176"></a>
+<b>Footnote 176:</b> Large cargoes of provisions of every kind were forwarded
+from England; among others, "stock fish and salmon" are enumerated in
+the Pell Rolls, 3rd July 1419.<a href="#notetag176">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note177" name="note177"></a>
+<b>Footnote 177:</b> Monstrelet says, that when Henry made his entry into
+Rouen, he was followed by a page mounted on a black horse, bearing a
+lance, at the end of which near the point was fastened a fox's brush
+by way of streamer, which afforded great matter of remark. Elmham and
+Stowe give the explanation of this. In 1414, he kept his Lent in the
+castle of Kenilworth, and caused an arbour to be planted there in the
+marsh for his pleasure, among the thorns and bushes, where a fox
+before had harboured; which fox he killed, being a thing then thought
+to prognosticate that he should expel the crafty deceit of the French
+King.&mdash;See Ellis, Original Letters.<a href="#notetag177">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note178" name="note178"></a>
+<b>Footnote 178:</b> See Sir H. Ellis, Orig. Let.
+xix.<a href="#notetag178">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note179" name="note179"></a>
+<b>Footnote 179:</b> Moryson, in his Travels, book iv. c. 3, gives a most
+extraordinary and disgusting account of the habits of the Irish. The
+story of a Bohemian Baron, who visited Morane, one of the native
+princes, represents the Irish from the highest to the lowest to have
+continued in the most degraded state of barbarism. In their food,
+their dwellings, their clothing, (those who had any to wear,) and
+their general habits, if the accounts in Moryson are not exaggerated,
+the Irish were not removed many degrees from the wildest savages on
+earth.<a href="#notetag179">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note180" name="note180"></a>
+<b>Footnote 180:</b> It is remarkable, that among the many names affixed to
+this memorial, not one savours of Irish extraction. They all betray
+their Saxon or (some) their Norman origin.<a href="#notetag180">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note181" name="note181"></a>
+<b>Footnote 181:</b> This John Talbot, called by courtesy Lord Talbot by
+right of his wife, was appointed Lieutenant in Ireland in the first
+year of Henry's reign. He had been employed in the wars of Wales, and
+was the person against whom the Mayor of Shrewsbury shut the gates. He
+was conspicuous also as a warrior in the reign of Henry
+IV.<a href="#notetag181">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<div>
+<p><a id="note182" name="note182"></a>
+<b>Footnote 182:</b> Lord Furnival had petitioned in the spring of the
+preceding year, 1416, for the payment of one thousand marks disallowed
+by the then late treasurer, the Earl of Arundel. Henry, who presided
+himself in council, gave his decision that the question should be
+submitted to the Barons of the Exchequer, who, after examining the
+indenture made between the King and the said lord, should ordain what
+the justice of the case required.</p>
+
+<p>The Lieutenant had also applied for a reinforcement of men-at-arms and
+archers, and for a supply of cannon. The King allows him to make such
+provision with regard to additional soldiers as he thinks best <i>at his
+own cost</i>, and agrees to let him have some cannon from the royal
+stores.&mdash;Acts of Privy Council, 1416.<a href="#notetag182">(back)</a></p></div>
+
+
+<p><a id="note183" name="note183"></a>
+<b>Footnote 183:</b> This Prior seems to have been Thomas Botiller, the
+brother of the Earl of Ormond. He is said to have died during the
+siege. He and his men are reported to have been sent over by Lord
+Furnival, the Lord Lieutenant. See Excerpta Historica above referred
+to.<a href="#notetag183">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note184" name="note184"></a>
+<b>Footnote 184:</b> Mons. vol. i. c. 95.<a href="#notetag184">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note185" name="note185"></a>
+<b>Footnote 185:</b> Archbishop Chicheley's letter to Henry is preserved
+among the manuscripts of the British Museum. MS. Cotton, Vesp. F.
+xiii. fol. 29.<a href="#notetag185">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note186" name="note186"></a>
+<b>Footnote 186:</b> Gebennis, xv. kal. Sept. Pontif. nost. ann. I. (August
+18, 1418.) Rymer.<a href="#notetag186">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<div>
+<p><a id="note187" name="note187"></a>
+<b>Footnote 187:</b> A letter from T.F., dated Evreux, (March 27th, 1419,)
+addressed to his friends in England, tells us that "the Dauphin made
+great instance sundry times to have personal speech with the King, for
+the good of peace between both realms;" and, on obtaining the King's
+consent, "he fixed on the third Sunday in Lent (March 19th), at his
+own desire and instance, making surety by his oath and his letters
+sealed to keep that day. The foresaid Rule Regent hath broke the
+surety aforesaid, and made the King a Beau Nient [made a fool of him];
+so that there may be no hope had yet of peace.... And so now men
+suppose that the King will henceforth war on France; for Normandy is
+all his, except Gysors, Euere, the Castle Gaylard, and the Roche."</p>
+
+<p>This writer gives us to understand that he and his friends were
+heartily tired of the Continental warfare, which had so long kept them
+from the comforts of their home, and they longed to revisit the white
+cliffs of Britain. "Pray for us, that we may come soon out of this
+unlusty [unpleasant] soldier's life, unto the life of England."&mdash;MS.
+Donat. 4001. Sir H. Ellis assigns this to the year 1420; but it must
+have been written March 27th (the Monday before Passion Sunday), 1419,
+just eight days after the Dauphin had broken his word.</p>
+
+<p>The same writer speaks in no very measured terms of the intrigue and
+duplicity of foreign courts. "And certes, all the ambassadors that we
+deal with are incongrue, that is to say, in old manner of speech in
+England, 'they be double and false;' with which manner of men, I pray
+God, let never no true men be coupled with."</p>
+
+<p>The reasons which had induced Henry some time previously to wish for
+an alliance with the Dauphin are found in the Cot. MS.&mdash;See "Acts of
+Privy Council," vol. ii. p. 350.<a href="#notetag187">(back)</a></p></div>
+
+
+<p><a id="note188" name="note188"></a>
+<b>Footnote 188:</b> Katharine of Valois, the youngest child of Charles VI.
+of France, (he had twelve children,) was born on the 27th of October
+1401; just two months subsequently to her elder sister Isabel's return
+from England after the death of her husband, the unfortunate King
+Richard. Consequently, at the date of this interview, May 30th, 1419,
+she was only in her eighteenth year; Henry himself was in his
+thirty-second year.<a href="#notetag188">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note189" name="note189"></a>
+<b>Footnote 189:</b> This treaty is recorded in Rymer, vol. ix. p. 776. The
+circumstances of outward courtesy, and concealed suspicion, and want
+of faith, with which the contracting parties met, deliberated, and
+separated on this occasion, are detailed by Goodwin, p. 237.<a href="#notetag189">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note190" name="note190"></a>
+<b>Footnote 190:</b> The Author is fully aware that the brief notice he is
+able to take of many of the transactions of this period, whether
+diplomatic or military, (especially with reference to the proceedings
+of the different parties in France,) must leave his readers
+unfurnished with information on many points, and in some instances may
+cause the accounts which he thought indispensable in this work to
+appear obscure and confused. He could not, however, have avoided such
+a result of his plan in these Memoirs, without changing their
+character altogether. Goodwin, whose labours seem scarcely to have
+been ever duly appreciated, has filled up the outline here given,
+generally in a satisfactory manner, though many original documents
+which have been brought to light since his time have been
+employed.<a href="#notetag190">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note191" name="note191"></a>
+<b>Footnote 191:</b> See Monstrelet, c. 211.<a href="#notetag191">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note192" name="note192"></a>
+<b>Footnote 192:</b> Goodwin thus comments on his death:&mdash;"Thus fell the Duke
+of Burgundy, who, as he had caused the Duke of Orleans to be
+assassinated in the streets of Paris, so, <i>by the requital of divine
+justice</i>, his own life was abandoned to vile treachery." How very
+unwise and unsafe are such comments upon the dispensations of
+Providence is most clearly evinced here. Never was a more foul murder,
+or more desperate defiance of all law, human and divine, than the
+Dauphin was guilty of on the bridge of Montereau: and yet, instead of
+"his life being abandoned to vile treachery by the requital of divine
+justice," he lived forty-two years after his deed of blood, succeeded
+to the throne of his father, rescued his kingdom from the hands of the
+English, and died through abstinence from food, self-imposed from fear
+of poison. Far more wise and more pious is it to leave such
+speculations, and to refer all to that day of final retribution, when
+the <i>righteousness of</i> the supreme Ruler of man's destinies shall be
+made <i>as clear as the light, and his just dealing as the noon
+day</i>.<a href="#notetag192">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note193" name="note193"></a>
+<b>Footnote 193:</b> This was Thomas Langley, who was elected Bishop of
+Durham in 1406. He succeeded Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, as
+Chancellor, on the 23rd of July, 1417, and continued in that office
+till July 1424, when Henry Beaufort succeeded him. Thomas Langley was
+in possession of the see of Durham from May 17th, 1406, till his death
+in November 1437. Dugdale, (Orig. Judic.) by mistake, refers Bishop
+Langley's appointment as Chancellor to 1418. It was July 23rd, 5 Henry
+V. in 1417.<a href="#notetag193">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note194" name="note194"></a>
+<b>Footnote 194:</b> October 28, 1419. The Pell Rolls record payment of
+10<i>l.</i> to Master Peter Henewer, physician, appointed by the King and
+his council to go to the King in Normandy. Probably he felt his
+constitution even then giving way. But as early as 13th October 1415,
+after the battle of Agincourt, payment is made for "diverse medicine,
+as well for the health of the King's person as for others of his
+army," sent to Calais.<a href="#notetag194">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note195" name="note195"></a>
+<b>Footnote 195:</b> A curious and interesting instance of Henry's personal
+attention to business in its most minute details, when many of his
+subjects would have been quite satisfied with the report of another,
+is preserved among some of the driest and most formal acts of the
+Privy Council. Certain auditors are instructed to examine, with
+greater accuracy than before, the accounts of the late Master of the
+Wardrobe; and to make an especial report to the council, most
+particularly (potissimè) of such items as they shall find marked in
+the King's own hand "ad inquirendum." Reference is also made to those
+sums against which a black mark has been placed by the King's hand.
+The date of this minute (4th July 1421), and the place (Calais) in
+which it states that these accounts were examined by the King, add
+considerably to the strength of this example. Henry had then just left
+England suddenly on hearing the sad news of a disastrous defeat of
+part of his army, and the death of his brother, the Duke of Clarence,
+in battle; and he was at Calais on his road to put himself again at
+the head of his forces.<a href="#notetag195">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note196" name="note196"></a>
+<b>Footnote 196:</b> Cotton. Julius, B. vi. f.
+35.<a href="#notetag196">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note197" name="note197"></a>
+<b>Footnote 197:</b> The Author cannot undertake to pronounce how far beyond
+general instructions the King himself interfered in each of these
+transactions. The letters on the subject of Brittany and of Oriel
+College bear internal evidence that they were dictated by Henry
+himself. But the correspondence, still preserved, is too voluminous
+for us to believe that he dictated more of the letters than such as
+were most important or most interesting to himself. Still it must be
+borne in mind, that we have indisputable evidence of Henry having
+minutely examined accounts, at a time when he "<i>had great occupation
+otherwise</i>," directing in his own hand-writing inquiries to be made as
+to various items.<a href="#notetag197">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note198" name="note198"></a>
+<b>Footnote 198:</b> Cotton. Vespasian, C. xii. f.
+127 b.<a href="#notetag198">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note199" name="note199"></a>
+<b>Footnote 199:</b> Bib. Cotton. Galba, B. i. f. 131.
+<a href="#notetag199">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note200" name="note200"></a>
+<b>Footnote 200:</b> The English merchants (Henry says) valued their goods
+captured at 10,000<i>l.</i> the Genoese estimated them at 7,180<i>l.</i> and
+they are willing "for to stand in our good grace and benevolence, to
+pay without any exception 4,000<i>l.</i> at reasonable times; our subjects
+and our merchants of our land having hereafter free coming and going
+to Genoa, as they of Genoa desire to have into our realm of
+England."<a href="#notetag200">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note201" name="note201"></a>
+<b>Footnote 201:</b> A letter addressed by Henry, whilst he was at Mante, to
+one Thomas Rees and other merchants of Bristol, (October 11th, 1419,)
+shows what accurate information he received of even minute affairs in
+England. He tells them that they have imported goods from Genoa, and
+he desires to select from them such as he might wish to have,
+promising to pay for them honestly.<a href="#notetag201">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+
+<p><a id="note202" name="note202"></a>
+<b>Footnote 202:</b> It is thought right to subjoin the
+                   following transcript of this epistle in its
+                   primitive garb, except the abbreviations.</p>
+<div class="letter">
+<p>
+     "<span class="smcap">BY THE KYNG.</span></p>
+
+<p>"Worshipful fader yn God oure right trusty and welbeloved, we
+     grete yow wel. And forasmuche as we lete sende for Maistre
+     Richard Garsedale oon of the contendentes of the prevoste of the
+     Oriell to that ende that for his partie shulde no thyng be
+     poursuyd neither at the courte of Rome ne elleswhere, but that
+     that contraversie shulde be put in respit unto oure comyng hoom
+     with Goddes grace, for oure occupacion is such that we mow nat
+     wel entende to suche also Lentwardyn, come afore you, and that ye
+     take surety matteres here. Wherefore we wol that ye make boothe
+     the said Garsdale whiche cometh now hoom be oure leve, and also
+     Lentwardyn com afore you, and that ye take seurte soufficeant of
+     bothe the partiees, that neither of hem shal make ferther
+     poursuyt of appelle at courte of Rome ner no manere of poursuyt
+     there or elleswhere as touching the said contraversee unto oure
+     comynge as before, at whiche tyme oure entent ys to put the same
+     contraversie to a goode and rightwyse conclusion, and the said
+     partie yn rest. And yf any of hem have ye saide poursuyt of
+     apelle hangyng yn courte that they abate hit and sende to revoke
+     hit yn al haste, and that thay make al suche as been thaire
+     attornes or doeres yn court spirituel or temporel to surcesse.
+     And we wol ferthermore as touching oure said college of the
+     Orielle that ye put hit yn suche governance as semeth to yowre
+     discrecion for to doo unto oure comyng. And God have you yn his
+     keping. Yeven under oure signet in oure town of Mante, ye vii.
+     day of Juyll.</p>
+
+<p class="left0-70">
+  "To ye worshipful fader yn God our right
+  trusty and welbeloved ye Bisshop of
+  Duresme oure Chaunceller of England."<a href="#notetag202">(back)</a></p></div>
+
+
+<p><a id="note203" name="note203"></a>
+<b>Footnote 203:</b> These articles were signed on the following January
+during the armistice.<a href="#notetag203">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note204" name="note204"></a>
+<b>Footnote 204:</b> About this time, John, Duke of Bedford, the King's
+brother, had an offer of the reversion of the crown of Naples; but the
+negociations ended in no successful issue.<a href="#notetag204">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note205" name="note205"></a>
+<b>Footnote 205:</b> The heartfelt satisfaction and joy with which this peace
+between the two countries was generally hailed as a new and unexpected
+blessing, is conveyed to us in a most lively manner by the letter
+which Sir Hugh Luttrell wrote to the King on the occasion, and which
+bears at the same time incidental testimony to Henry's condescending
+and kind attention to his old comrade in arms. Sir Hugh was the
+Lieutenant of Harfleur, and Henry had himself sent him an account of
+the happy issue of his struggle.... He ascribes it to the providence
+of the Creator that Henry had concluded a perpetual peace between two
+realms which ever, out of mind of any chroniclers, had been at
+dissension; and had brought to an end what no man had hitherto
+wrought; "thanking God," he continues, "with meek heart, that he hath
+sent me that grace to abide the time for to see it, as for the
+greatest gladness and consolation that ever came into my heart; not
+dreading in myself that He who hath sent you that grace in so short a
+time, shall send you much more in time coming."&mdash;Ellis's Original
+Letters, xxviii.<a href="#notetag205">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<div>
+<p><a id="note206" name="note206"></a>
+<b>Footnote 206:</b> On this subject, T.D. Hardy, Esq. in his Introduction to
+the Charter Rolls, just published by the Record Commission, gives the
+following clear and satisfactory information:&mdash;Until the 9th of April
+1420, Henry V. styled himself in his charters and on his great seal,
+"Henricus Dei gratia Rex Angliæ et Franciæ et Dominus Hiberniæ" And on
+the Norman Roll of the fifth year of his reign he is sometimes styled
+Duke of Normandy, in conjunction with his other titles, as "Henry par
+le grace de Dieu, Roy de Fraunce et d'Engleterre, Seigneur de Irlande,
+et Duc de Normandie." On the above 9th of April he relinquished the
+title of King of France during the life-time of his father-in-law,
+Charles, preliminary to the treaty of Troyes, which was signed the
+21st of May, 1420; and during the remainder of his life he styled
+himself, "Henricus Dei gratia Rex Angliæ, Heres et Regens Franciæ, et
+Dominus Hiberniæ."</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding an article in the agreement of the 9th of April, that
+during the life of Charles, Henry V. should not assume the title of
+King of France; yet within ten days he issued a precept from Rouen
+relative to the Norman coinage, upon one side of which was to be
+inscribed, "Henricus Francorum Rex." As Henry had not then signed the
+article of peace at Troyes, it did not perhaps occur to him that he
+was thus breaking his agreement with France.&mdash;Rot. Chart.
+p. xxi.<a href="#notetag206">(back)</a></p></div>
+
+
+<p><a id="note207" name="note207"></a>
+<b>Footnote 207:</b> It is said, but whether on good authority does not
+appear, that Henry placed English attendants about the Queen's person;
+allowing only five French to wait on her, of whom three were matrons
+and the other two young ladies. Her confessor was John Boyery (query
+Bouverie?), doctor in theology.&mdash;Pell Rolls, 18th June 1421.<a href="#notetag207">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note208" name="note208"></a>
+<b>Footnote 208:</b> See Goodwin.<a href="#notetag208">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note209" name="note209"></a>
+<b>Footnote 209:</b> Among the forces which he had drawn together, were a
+body of chosen men and archers from the parts of Wales; but whether
+they were natives of the Principality, or English soldiers drawn from
+the garrisons there, does not appear.&mdash;Pell Rolls, 3rd June, 8 Henry
+V. i.e. 1420.<a href="#notetag209">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note210" name="note210"></a>
+<b>Footnote 210:</b> "The English colour." See Goodwin.<a href="#notetag210">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note211" name="note211"></a>
+<b>Footnote 211:</b> In the parliament (2nd December 1420), Humfrey, Duke of
+Gloucester, being Lieutenant of the kingdom, provision was made that,
+should the King arrive, the parliament should continue to sit without
+any new summons: the reason also is given; because the King, being
+heir and Regent of France during the life-time of his father-in-law,
+and King after his death, would often be in England and often also in
+France. In this parliament a prayer is preferred against the Oxford
+scholars, who in vast numbers and armed attacked gentlemen in the
+counties of Oxford, Bucks, and Berks, and robbed them.<a href="#notetag211">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note212" name="note212"></a>
+<b>Footnote 212:</b> On 30th January, the Pell Rolls record payment of 20
+<i>l.</i> for bows, arrows, and bowstrings, a present from Henry to his
+father-in-law, the King of France.<a href="#notetag212">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note213" name="note213"></a>
+<b>Footnote 213:</b> Walsingham says, that she was crowned on the first
+Sunday in Lent, which in that year fell on the 9th February. But the
+Pell Roll (Mich. 8 Hen. V.) contains a payment to divers messengers
+sent through England, to summon the spiritualty and laity to assist at
+the solemnizing of the coronation of Katharine Queen of England, at
+Westminster, on the third Sunday in Lent.<a href="#notetag213">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+
+<p><a id="note214" name="note214"></a>
+<b>Footnote 214:</b> There is so much inconsistency in the accounts of
+chroniclers as to the royal proceedings on this occasion, that to
+attempt to reconcile them all seems a hopeless task. The Author,
+however, having been furnished with the following facts ascertained
+from the "Teste" of several writs and patents preserved in the Tower,
+is able to recommend, with greater confidence in its accuracy, the
+adoption of the journal offered in the text.</p>
+
+<div>
+In the year 1421, King Henry V. was<br>
+<span class="col30 td-right"> January, from 1 to 31,</span>
+<span class="col65"> at </span>
+<span class="col70 td-left">Rouen.</span><br>
+<span class="col30"> February 1,</span>
+<span class="col65">"</span>
+<span class="col70">Dover.</span><br>
+<span class="col30"> 2 to 28,</span>
+<span class="col65">"</span>
+<span class="col70">Westminster.</span><br>
+<span class="col30">March 1 to  5,</span>
+<span class="col65">"</span>
+<span class="col70">Westminster.</span><br>
+<span class="col30">5 to 14,</span>
+<span class="col65">"</span>
+<span class="col70">Uncertain.</span><br>
+<span class="col30">15,</span>
+<span class="col65">"</span>
+<span class="col70">Coventry.</span><br>
+<span class="col30">27,</span>
+<span class="col65">"</span>
+<span class="col70">Leicester.</span><br>
+<span class="col30">From March 28 to April 2,</span>
+<span class="col65">"</span>
+<span class="col70">Uncertain.</span><br>
+<span class="col30">April 2 to  4,</span>
+<span class="col65">"</span>
+<span class="col70">York.</span><br>
+<span class="col30">15,</span>
+<span class="col65">"</span>
+<span class="col70">Lincoln.</span><br>
+<span class="col30">18,</span>
+<span class="col65">"</span>
+<span class="col70">York.</span><br>
+<span class="col30">From 18 to 30,</span>
+<span class="col65">"</span>
+<span class="col70">Uncertain.</span><br>
+<span class="col30">May 1 to 31,</span>
+<span class="col65">"</span>
+<span class="col70">Westminster.<a href="#notetag214">(back)</a></span></div>
+
+
+<p class="p2"><a id="note215" name="note215"></a>
+<b>Footnote 215:</b> Rapin says, but, as it should seem, without reason, that
+Henry's aim was, under colour of shewing the country to the Queen, to
+procure by his presence the election of members for the parliament who
+would be favourable to him.<a href="#notetag215">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note216" name="note216"></a>
+<b>Footnote 216:</b> MS. Cott. Domit. A. 12.<a href="#notetag216">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note217" name="note217"></a>
+<b>Footnote 217:</b> Elmham says, that, in 1414, Henry kept his Lent in the
+castle of Kenilworth, and caused an arbour to be planted in the Marsh
+there, for his pleasure, amongst the thorns and bushes where a fox
+before had harboured, which he killed.<a href="#notetag217">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note218" name="note218"></a>
+<b>Footnote 218:</b> Walsingham says, that Henry put off the celebration of
+the feast of St. George, (which, being the 23rd of April, must have
+fallen on a day after he had left York,) and directed it to be
+celebrated at Windsor on the Sunday after Ascension-day.<a
+href="#notetag218">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note219" name="note219"></a>
+<b>Footnote 219:</b> His visits to the hallowed resting-places of these
+saints are not at all inconsistent with the opinion which we have
+ventured already to give, that he was never heard to address in the
+language of prayer or thanksgiving any other being than the one true
+God. A similar feeling of love for the holy men of God, whether he
+could testify that love to the living, or merely record it for the
+memory of the dead, might have led him to the installation of the
+Bishop of Lincoln, and to the tomb of John of Bridlington and John of
+Beverley. Henry was not a Protestant by profession; but, compared with
+the hierarchy by whom he was surrounded, he approached almost, if not
+altogether, this fundamental point of difference between the two
+churches, the rejection of the adoration of any being, save the one
+only God.<a href="#notetag219">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note220" name="note220"></a>
+<b>Footnote 220:</b> Henry's prisoners of war were dispersed among various
+castles and strong places throughout the kingdom in England and Wales.
+Payment is recorded, July 10, 1422, to John Salghall, Constable of
+Harlech, of 30<i>l.</i> for the safe custody of thirty prisoners, conveyed
+by him from London.&mdash;Pell Rolls, 9 Henry V.<a href="#notetag220">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note221" name="note221"></a>
+<b>Footnote 221:</b> Holinshed and others.<a href="#notetag221">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note222" name="note222"></a>
+<b>Footnote 222:</b> The Author has invariably discarded the assertions of
+the chroniclers, however positively affirmed, or frequently
+reiterated, whenever they have appeared to be incompatible with
+ascertained facts, or inconsistent with what would otherwise be
+probable. In the present instance, after a review of all the
+circumstances, and an examination of all the documents with which he
+is acquainted, though the supposition here adopted may be deemed ideal
+and fanciful, he is inclined to think that the acquiescence in that
+view will be attended with fewer difficulties than the adoption of any
+other.<a href="#notetag222">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note223" name="note223"></a>
+<b>Footnote 223:</b> But whilst Henry was thus actively employed in visiting
+his subjects, and spreading the blessing which a good King can never
+fail to dispense wherever his influence can be felt, his ministers of
+state sought his directions on all important matters for the
+management of his affairs on the Continent. Thus a despatch addressed
+to the Treasurer by William Bardolf, Lieutenant of Calais, is
+forwarded with all speed to the King in Yorkshire, that his especial
+pleasure might be taken thereon. Payment of the messenger appears in
+the Pell Rolls, April 1, 9 Hen. V.<a href="#notetag223">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note224" name="note224"></a>
+<b>Footnote 224:</b> Casaubon, quoted by Sir Walter
+Raleigh.<a href="#notetag224">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note225" name="note225"></a>
+<b>Footnote 225:</b> Monstrelet says, that the flower of the English
+chivalry, who were with the Duke, fell in that field, and, besides
+knights and esquires, from two to three thousand men; and that, with
+the Earl of Somerset and others of noble and gentle blood, about two
+hundred were taken prisoners. There was also, he says, a dreadful
+slaughter of the French. The English, under the Earl of Salisbury,
+recovered the body of the Duke from the enemy, and it was carried with
+much ceremony to England, and there buried.<a href="#notetag225">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<div>
+<p><a id="note226" name="note226"></a>
+<b>Footnote 226:</b> In this Parliament a statute was passed, the enactment,
+but more especially the preamble of which presents a very formidable
+view of the drain which Henry's continental campaigns had made upon
+the English gentry.</p>
+
+<p>"Whereas by the statute made at Westminster, the 14th year of King
+Edward III, it was ordained and established, that no Sheriff should
+abide in his bailiwick above one year, and that then another
+convenient should be set in his place, which should have lands
+sufficient within his bailiwick, and that no Escheator should tarry in
+his office above a year; and whereas also, at the time of making the
+said statute, divers valiant and sufficient persons were in every
+county of England, to occupy and govern the same offices well towards
+the King and all his liege people; forasmuch that as well by divers
+petilences within the realm of England, as by the wars without the
+realm, there is now not such sufficiency; it is ordained and
+stablished that the King by authority of this Parliament may make the
+Sheriffs and Escheators through the realm at his will until the end of
+four years."&mdash;9 Hen. V. stat. 1, c. v.<a href="#notetag226">(back)</a></p></div>
+
+
+<p><a id="note227" name="note227"></a>
+<b>Footnote 227:</b> This vote does not appear on the Rolls of Parliament.
+Walsingham asserts that a fifteenth was voted. Holinshed distinctly
+says, that the "commonaltie gladly granted a fifteenth." But he is no
+authority in such a case. The Parliament, in the following December,
+granted a tenth, and a fifteenth.<a href="#notetag227">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note228" name="note228"></a>
+<b>Footnote 228:</b> Three days after landing his forces, he despatched the
+Earl of Dorset with twelve hundred men to relieve his uncle, the Duke
+of Exeter, who was closely blockaded in Paris.<a href="#notetag228">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note229" name="note229"></a>
+<b>Footnote 229:</b> Rot. Pat. ix. Henry V.<a href="#notetag229">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note230" name="note230"></a>
+<b>Footnote 230:</b> Preparations had been made as early as January 26th,
+1422, for the Queen to leave England, and meet the King at Rouen, but
+she did not start till April.<a href="#notetag230">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note231" name="note231"></a>
+<b>Footnote 231:</b> The King, his father-in-law, survived Henry not quite
+two months: he died October 21st, 1422.<a href="#notetag231">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note232" name="note232"></a>
+<b>Footnote 232:</b> A description and history of this castle will be found
+in a work entitled, "Histoire du Donjon et du Chateau de Vincennes,
+par L. B.," published at Paris in 1807. The Author refers to the
+sojourn made in this castle by Henry's son (King Henry VI.) at the
+close of the year 1431, when he visited France for the purpose of
+being crowned.<a href="#notetag232">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note233" name="note233"></a>
+<b>Footnote 233:</b> Elmham says, Henry added several codicils to his Will,
+leaving large sums to discharge the debts not only of himself, but
+also of his father, and also to reward many of his faithful
+servants.<a href="#notetag233">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note234" name="note234"></a>
+<b>Footnote 234:</b> Elmham.<a href="#notetag234">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note235" name="note235"></a>
+<b>Footnote 235:</b> Sloane, 64.<a href="#notetag235">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note236" name="note236"></a>
+<b>Footnote 236:</b> It is satisfactory to find, even among the mere details
+of expenditure, testimony borne to his love of the Holy Scriptures.
+Among his last domestic expenses is this interesting item: "To John
+Heth 3<i>l.</i> 6<i>s.</i> for sixty-six quarterns of calfskins, purchased and
+provided by the said John, to write a Bible thereon for the use of the
+King."&mdash;Pell Rolls, February 23, 1422, just six months before his
+death.<a href="#notetag236">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note237" name="note237"></a>
+<b>Footnote 237:</b> Acts of Privy Council. Cleopatra, F. iv. f. I.
+a.<a href="#notetag237">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note238" name="note238"></a>
+<b>Footnote 238:</b> Hume's Hist. vol. iii. ch. xix.<a href="#notetag238">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note239" name="note239"></a>
+<b>Footnote 239:</b> Fabyan, 388.<a href="#notetag239">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note240" name="note240"></a>
+<b>Footnote 240:</b> Annales Ecclesiastici, vol. xii. Ann. 1517. See much
+interesting matter relating to the whole of this subject in these
+Annales Ecclesiastici of Baronius, continued by
+Raynaldus.<a href="#notetag240">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note241" name="note241"></a>
+<b>Footnote 241:</b> Florentiæ, iv. idus Julii, anno 3. Annales Eccles. v.
+viii.<a href="#notetag241">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note242" name="note242"></a>
+<b>Footnote 242:</b> Raynaldus, Annales Ecclesiastici, vol. viii. p. 556.
+<a href="#notetag242">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note243" name="note243"></a>
+<b>Footnote 243:</b> It is not to be forgotten that Henry
+of Monmouth had from his very childhood been interested by accounts of
+the state of Palestine. His father, as we have seen, went himself to
+the Holy Sepulchre; and, even during Henry's wars in France, his
+uncle, the Bishop of Winchester, visited Constance as he was
+proceeding in the guise of a pilgrim to the Holy Land.<a
+href="#notetag243">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note244" name="note244"></a>
+<b>Footnote 244:</b> Mr. Granville Penn's interesting paper was read before
+the Royal Society of Literature at their first meeting in the year
+1825, and is recorded in the first volume of their
+Transactions.<a href="#notetag244">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<div>
+<p><a id="note245" name="note245"></a>
+<b>Footnote 245:</b> This same interesting subject is far more elaborately
+discussed by that excellent antiquary the Rev. John Webb; whose
+Introductory Dissertation and Illustrative Notes, (in the Archæologia,
+vol. xxi. p. 281,) abound with most valuable information. The title
+prefixed to Lannoi's work is this:</p>
+
+<p class="left05">"The Report made by Sir Gilbert de Lannoy, Knight, upon surveys of
+several cities, ports, and rivers, taken by him in Egypt and Syria, in
+the year of grace of our Lord 1422, by order of the most high, most
+puissant, and most excellent prince, King Henry of England, heir and
+Regent of France, whom God assoil." The whole of Mr. Webb's paper well
+deserves perusal.<a href="#notetag245">(back)</a></p></div>
+
+
+<p><a id="note246" name="note246"></a>
+<b>Footnote 246:</b> The Bible is always and everywhere the standard of
+divine truth; but to condemn an individual for wilful ignorance of its
+heavenly doctrines, to whom no opportunity has been afforded of
+learning them, would be unreasonable and unjust. A corresponding
+principle applies to the interpretation of the Bible. Our
+responsibility in every case increases with our privileges and
+opportunities.<a href="#notetag246">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note247" name="note247"></a>
+<b>Footnote 247:</b> It will be borne in mind, that the question here is not
+whether there be not one immutable principle, nor whether there ought
+not to be one uniform interpretation of that principle; we are
+inquiring only into the nature of that rule by which we may equitably
+judge of the moral and religious characters of men.<a href="#notetag247">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note248" name="note248"></a>
+<b>Footnote 248:</b> The attachment of Henry to the See of Rome, and the
+countenance given by him to the encroachments of the Pope, have been
+greatly exaggerated. Rapin took a different view of his measures. "The
+proclamation" (he says) "made by Henry, prohibiting the Pope's
+provisions, was a death-blow to the court of Rome." On the death of
+Henry, the Pope wrote a letter of condolence to the council, in which
+he says, "We loved our son of famous memory, Henry King of England,
+for there were many and royal virtues in that Prince for which he
+ought to be loved;" and then adds a strong appeal to the council to
+abrogate the obnoxious statutes which had so materially entrenched
+upon his assumed prerogative. In a letter to Henry himself (Kal. Nov.
+xiv. An. iv.) nearly two years before his death, the Pope refers to a
+promise made by Henry that he had no desire to curtail the authority
+of the Roman See in his new dominions; and also to an undertaking that
+he would bring the obnoxious statutes under the notice of his
+parliament; and that, "<i>if they could not be supported on honest and
+lawful grounds</i>," he would satisfy the Pope in that particular. Surely
+these are not the expressions of one who was "the slave of the
+Popedom."&mdash;See "Annales Ecclesiastici."<a href="#notetag248">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note249" name="note249"></a>
+<b>Footnote 249:</b> Milner's Church History, vol. iv. p.
+ 196.<a href="#notetag249">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note250" name="note250"></a>
+<b>Footnote 250:</b> This view of heresy we find to have been at a very early
+date propagated and encouraged by the Pope and the See of Rome.
+Walsingham records, that, three years before Richard II.'s deposition
+from the throne, "the Pope wrote to him with a prayer (orans) that he
+would assist the prelates of the church in the cause of God, and of
+the King himself, and of the kingdom, against the Lollards; whom he
+declared to be traitors, not only of the church, but of the throne.
+And he besought him with the greatest urgency (obnixiùs) to condemn
+those whom the prelates should have declared heretics.&mdash;Ypod. Neust.
+1396.<a href="#notetag250">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note251" name="note251"></a>
+<b>Footnote 251:</b> For Christians of the present age, and in our country,
+to pass through life without partaking in any persecution, such as
+once disgraced our legislature and the executive government, does not
+necessarily imply a freedom of the conscience from a persecuting
+spirit. The Christian can now evince the real tone and temper of his
+mind only in his behaviour towards his fellow-creatures, and by the
+sentiments to which he gives utterance. The Author hopes he may be
+pardoned, if he ventures, in further illustration of his principles on
+this subject, to make an extract from his sermon lately preached at
+the consecration of the Bishop of Salisbury. "In his intercourse with
+those Christians whose sentiments do not coincide with our own, the
+Christian minister will never by laxity of expression or conduct
+encourage in any an indifference to truth and error, nor countenance
+the insidious workings of latitudinarian principles. He will ever
+maintain the truth, but never with acrimony; and, whilst his duty
+compels him to banish and drive away all false doctrine, he will feel
+and show towards the persons of such as are in error compassionate
+indulgence and forbearing tenderness. He knows that truth can be only
+on one side, but he acknowledges that sincerity may be on both; and he
+will set his mind on winning back again by mild argument and
+conciliatory conduct those who have gone astray, rather than by
+severity in exposing their faults, and a cold, forbidding, and hostile
+bearing, indispose them to examine their mistaken views, and confirm
+them in their spirit of alienation."<a href="#notetag251">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note252" name="note252"></a>
+<b>Footnote 252:</b> Owen Feltham.<a href="#notetag252">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note253" name="note253"></a>
+<b>Footnote 253:</b> Bishop Taylor's "Liberty of Prophesying,"
+13.<a href="#notetag253">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note254" name="note254"></a>
+<b>Footnote 254:</b> This work, "published by William Prynne, Esq. a Bencher
+of Lincoln's Inn, 1657," is ascribed by him to Cotton; but it proves
+not to have been written by Cotton, but by the two brothers William
+and Robert Bowyer. See manuscript note, by Francis Hargrave, at the
+commencement of his copy in the British Museum. What notes and
+observations came from the author, whether Cotton or one of the
+Bowyers, and what were added and interwoven by Prynne, it seems
+impossible to determine. This passage (p. 456) apparently carries with
+it internal evidence that it was penned by Prynne.<a href="#notetag254">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note255" name="note255"></a>
+<b>Footnote 255:</b> Much doubt and many mistakes seem to have prevailed as
+to the real state of the law in England before the statute 2 Hen. IV.
+cap. 15. It is said by the annotator on Fitzherbert that, "before the
+time of Henry IV. no person had been put to death for opinions in
+religion in England;" but the same author himself tells us that, among
+the crimes to be punished by burning by the common law, heresy is
+enumerated. "No Bishop, indeed, by the common law, could convict of
+heresy, as to loss of life, but only as to penance, and for the health
+of the soul, 'pro salute animæ.' In the case of life, the conviction
+by the common law ought to have been before the Archbishop in
+convocation." Much information is found on this subject in
+Fitzherbert's Book, De Naturâ Brevium.<a href="#notetag255">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note256" name="note256"></a>
+<b>Footnote 256:</b> Hallam, Middle Ages, vol. iii. p.
+ 134.<a href="#notetag256">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note257" name="note257"></a>
+<b>Footnote 257:</b> An antiquary well versed in such matters says, that for
+many years previous to this petition there are several mandates upon
+the Patent Rolls, ordering the apprehension of heretics, (who appeared
+to have been all monks,) in consequence of complaints made to the King
+in council by the various monasteries. He had never met with any entry
+affecting the parochial clergy.<a href="#notetag257">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note258" name="note258"></a>
+<b>Footnote 258:</b> The clergy could not have prevented its appearance on
+the Roll, but the judges (it is said) might have done
+so.<a href="#notetag258">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note259" name="note259"></a>
+<b>Footnote 259:</b> See, however, Fitzherbert, De Naturâ Brevium,
+p. 601.<a href="#notetag259">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note260" name="note260"></a>
+<b>Footnote 260:</b> Wilkins' Concilia, Ex reg. Arundel, i.
+fol. 15.<a href="#notetag260">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note261" name="note261"></a>
+<b>Footnote 261:</b> De Roos, Master of the Rolls, was at the first meeting,
+and a large number (multitudo copiosa) of the laity and
+clergy.<a href="#notetag261">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note262" name="note262"></a>
+<b>Footnote 262:</b> The house (the Friars' Preachers) where they met, was a
+place in which the Prince at this time often presided at the council.
+On the 10th of the following June, for example, he met the Chancellor,
+and the Bishops of Durham, Winchester, and Bath, with others, at this
+house.<a href="#notetag262">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note263" name="note263"></a>
+<b>Footnote 263:</b> Dictoque die, immediatè post prandium, ex decreto regio,
+apud Smythfield, præfatus Joh. Badby, in suâ obstinaciâ perseverans
+usque ad mortem, catenis ferreis stipiti ligatus, ac quodam vase
+concavo circumplexus, injectis fasciculis et appositis ignibus,
+incineratus extitit et consumptus.<a href="#notetag263">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<div>
+<p><a id="note264" name="note264"></a>
+<b>Footnote 264:</b> Fox makes a curious mistake here. He says, the
+examination in London began on <i>Sunday</i>, the 1st of March. But the 1st
+of March was not on a Sunday, but on a Saturday, in that year, 1410.
+Fox derives his information chiefly from the Latin record (<i>v.</i>
+Wilkins' Concilia) preserved in Lambeth; and there we find that the
+date is Die <i>Sabbati</i>, <i>i.e.</i> Saturday, not, as Fox mistakenly renders
+it, Sunday. The computation in these Memoirs is made of the
+historical, not the ecclesiastical year.</p>
+
+<p>The King's writ is dated March 5th, and informs us that Badby was of
+Evesham in Worcestershire.<a href="#notetag264">(back)</a></p></div>
+
+
+<div>
+<p><a id="note265" name="note265"></a>
+<b>Footnote 265:</b> The chronicler adds, "A versifier
+                   made of him in metre these two verses:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"Hereticus credat, ve perustus ab orbe recedat,<br>
+Ne fidem lædat: Sathan hunc baratro sibi prædat."<a href="#notetag265">(back)</a></p></div>
+
+
+<p><a id="note266" name="note266"></a>
+<b>Footnote 266:</b> Monk of St. Alban's.<a href="#notetag266">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note267" name="note267"></a>
+<b>Footnote 267:</b> Monk of Evesham.<a href="#notetag267">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note268" name="note268"></a>
+<b>Footnote 268:</b> The Pell Rolls (22d May 1398) contain an item of 20<i>l.</i>
+paid to Thomas Duke of Surrey on account of Lord Cobham, then his
+prisoner.<a href="#notetag268">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note269" name="note269"></a>
+<b>Footnote 269:</b> Records of Privy Council.<a href="#notetag269">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note270" name="note270"></a>
+<b>Footnote 270:</b> The states of Europe were much convulsed about this time
+by an apprehension of political revolutions.<a href="#notetag270">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note271" name="note271"></a>
+<b>Footnote 271:</b> King Richard seems to have employed the Irish prelates
+on many occasions in his intercourse with Rome. Thomas Crawley,
+Archbishop of Dublin, was sent to Pope Urban (1398, May 22nd,) "for
+the safe estate and prosperity of the most holy English church;" and
+John Cotton, Archbishop of Armagh, was sent to Rome, (31st of August,)
+in the same year, "on the King's secret affairs."&mdash;Pell
+Rolls.<a href="#notetag271">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note272" name="note272"></a>
+<b>Footnote 272:</b> Otterbourne.<a href="#notetag272">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note273" name="note273"></a>
+<b>Footnote 273:</b> The Chronicle of London states that the convocation
+assembled on the day of St. Edmund the King, and continued until
+December; and "that the archbishop and bishops, at St. Paul's Cross,
+accursed Sir John Oldcastle on the Sunday, after the dirge was
+performed royally at Westminster for Richard II., on the removal of
+his remains."<a href="#notetag273">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note274" name="note274"></a>
+<b>Footnote 274:</b> Archbishop Arundel (says Anthony à Wood), who never
+proceeded beyond the degree of bachelor of arts in this University
+[Oxford] or any other, decreed by a provincial council, 1404, that
+none should preach except privileged or licensed.<a href="#notetag274">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note275" name="note275"></a>
+<b>Footnote 275:</b> Carte suggests that Lord Cobham might have been one of
+Henry's [supposed] rakish companions. But such a supposition as would
+stain his memory with debauchery, is altogether at variance with his
+character. Carte has no doubt of the reality of Cobham's conspiracy in
+St. Giles' Field.<a href="#notetag275">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note276" name="note276"></a>
+<b>Footnote 276:</b> Henry V.'s own chaplain declares, "that Oldcastle
+attempted to infect the King's highness himself with his deadly poison
+by his crafty wiles of argument." If the King argued the points with
+Oldcastle, how could that confessor have done otherwise than
+strenuously endeavour to bring his liege Lord to the same views of
+doctrine which he entertained himself?<a href="#notetag276">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note277" name="note277"></a>
+<b>Footnote 277:</b> Lingard speaks of "a mandate to the Archbishop of
+Canterbury to proceed against the fugitive according to law. The
+spiritual powers of that prelate were soon exhausted. Oldcastle
+disobeyed the summons, and laughed at his excommunication; but was
+compelled to surrender to a military force sent by the King, and was
+conducted a prisoner to the Tower." The same author (but on what
+authority it does not appear) tells us that Oldcastle was at St.
+Alban's, and prophesied that he should rise on the third day; which is
+in itself most improbable.<a href="#notetag277">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note278" name="note278"></a>
+<b>Footnote 278:</b> Milner.<a href="#notetag278">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note279" name="note279"></a>
+<b>Footnote 279:</b> Mr. Southey builds upon this circumstance a very
+unfavourable and unmerited reflection on Henry in comparison with
+other monarchs of England. "The Edwards' would have rejoiced in so
+high-minded a subject as Lord Cobham. But Henry V. had given his heart
+and understanding into the keeping of the prelates, and he refused to
+receive the paper, ordering it to be delivered to them who should be
+his judges."<a href="#notetag279">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<div>
+<p><a id="note280" name="note280"></a>
+<b>Footnote 280:</b> It is painful to read the marginal notes of Fox here.
+"Lord Cobham would not obey the beast." Thomas Arundell, "Caiaphas
+sitteth in consistory. The wolf was hungry; he must needs be fed with
+blood. Bloody murderers." With many others, yet more ungentle. The
+justice of the judgment cannot but be questioned when the feelings of
+the historian give themselves vent in such language as this. Still we
+must make great allowances for the times.</p>
+
+<p>There are many other points in which Fox, who, be it remembered,
+refers us to the Archbishop's Memoir for evidence of the truth of his
+narrative, gives a turn and colour to minor circumstances calculated
+to prejudice the reader, but by no means sanctioned by that Memoir.
+Thus Fox says, the Archbishop swore all on the <i>Mass Book</i>: the
+Archbishop says, he caused them all to be sworn on the Holy
+Evangelists.<a href="#notetag280">(back)</a></p></div>
+
+
+<p><a id="note281" name="note281"></a>
+<b>Footnote 281:</b> Minutes of Council, 27th May 1415. Item, touching
+Commission "to the Archbishops and Bishops to take measures each in
+his own diocese to resist the malice of the Lollards." "The King has
+given it in charge to his Chancellor."<a href="#notetag281">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+
+<p><a id="note282" name="note282"></a>
+<b>Footnote 282:</b> It is impossible not to observe upon the great
+inaccuracy of Fox's translation of the Archbishop's words, for he
+professes it to be a translation, and the unfair turn and tone given
+to his sentiments, together with the unjustifiable addition which he
+has made to his definitive sentence.</p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" summary="Fox and Arundel translations">
+<colgroup>
+    <col width="50%">
+    <col width="50%">
+</colgroup>
+
+<tbody>
+<tr>
+  <td>
+    <span class="smcap">Fox's Translation.</span>
+  </td>
+  <td>
+    <span class="smcap">Arundel's Words.</span>.
+  </td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+  <td>
+    "We sententially and definitively,
+by this present writing,
+judge, declare, and condemn
+him for a most pernicious
+and detestable heretic,
+convicted upon the same, and
+refusing utterly to obey the
+church: again committing him
+here from henceforth to the
+secular jurisdiction, power, and
+judgment, to <i>do him thereupon
+to</i> <span class="smcap">death</span>."
+  </td>
+  <td>
+ "Him, convicted of and
+upon such a detestable offence,
+and unwilling to return penitently
+to the unity of the
+church, we sententially and
+definitively have judged, declared,
+and condemned for a
+heretic, and to be in error in
+those things which the holy
+church of Rome and the universal
+church teaches, hath determined,
+and preacheth, and
+especially in the Articles above
+written; leaving the same as
+a heretic henceforth to the
+secular power."
+  </td>
+</tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+
+
+<p>"To do him unto death," may be the horrible implication; but it is
+not, as Fox unwarrantably represents it to be, part of the sentence.</p>
+
+<p>Another instance occurs in the translation of the passage in which the
+Archbishop gives his reasons for making this public and authoritative
+statement of the transaction.</p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" summary="Fox and Arundel translations">
+<colgroup>
+    <col width="50%">
+    <col width="50%">
+</colgroup>
+
+<tbody>
+<tr>
+  <td>
+    <span class="smcap">Fox.</span>
+  </td>
+  <td>
+    <span class="smcap">Arundel.</span>
+  </td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+  <td>
+ "That, <i>upon the fear of this
+ declaration</i>, also the people
+ may fall from <i>their evil</i> opinions
+ conceived <i>now of late</i> by
+ <i>seditious preachers</i>."
+  </td>
+  <td>
+"That the erroneous opinions
+ of the people, who perhaps
+ have conceived on this
+ subject otherwise than as the
+ truth of the fact stands, may
+ by this public declaration be
+ reversed."
+  </td>
+</tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+
+<p>The Archbishop declares his object to be the substitution of the true
+statement of the affair of Lord Cobham's condemnation, in place of the
+false opinions which were abroad; not a word about "fear," or "evil
+opinions from seditious preachers."<a href="#notetag282">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note283" name="note283"></a>
+<b>Footnote 283:</b> In the Lambeth account Sautre's condemnation is dated,
+according to the ecclesiastical reckoning, February 1400; but that,
+according to our reckoning, is 1401.<a href="#notetag283">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note284" name="note284"></a>
+<b>Footnote 284:</b> The writ is dated March 5,
+1410.&mdash;Rymer.<a href="#notetag284">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note285" name="note285"></a>
+<b>Footnote 285:</b> His escape must have been, at the furthest, within
+fifteen days of his sentence; for, on the 10th October, messengers
+were sent about, forbidding any one to harbour "John Oldcastle, a
+proved and convicted heretic."&mdash;Pell Rolls.<a href="#notetag285">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note286" name="note286"></a>
+<b>Footnote 286:</b> If Cobham's escape was winked at by the King, and <i>he
+knew</i> of the King's kindness, it is very improbable that he would
+immediately after have been so basely ungrateful as to imagine the
+death of his sovereign and benefactor. It is, however, most probable
+that, had the King favoured his escape, the royal interference would
+have been kept a profound secret, as well from the prisoner, as from
+the people at large.<a href="#notetag286">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note287" name="note287"></a>
+<b>Footnote 287:</b> Walsingham (as quoted by Milner) says that the
+Archbishop applied to the King for a respite for fifty days for Lord
+Cobham. "If this be so," Milner says, "the motives of Arundel can be
+no great mystery. It was thought expedient to employ a few weeks in
+lessening his credit among the people by a variety of scandalous
+aspersions;" Milner then quotes the forged recantation, of which we
+speak in a subsequent note. It did not occur to that writer, that the
+space of fifty days might be required to forward his appeal to Rome,
+and receive the Pope's judgment upon it.<a href="#notetag287">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note288" name="note288"></a>
+<b>Footnote 288:</b> Soon after the affair of St. Giles' Field much pains
+seem to have been taken to discover the retreat of Cobham. The Pell
+Rolls, February 19, 1414, record payments to constables and others for
+their careful watch and endeavours to take him; and "chiefly for
+having found and seized certain books of the Lollards in the house of
+a parchment-maker;" and one hundred shillings as an especial reward
+"for the great pains and diligence exercised by Thomas Burton, (the
+King's spy,) for his attentive watchfulness to the operations of the
+Lollards now <i>lately rebellious</i>; also because he fully certified
+<i>their intentions</i> to the King for his advantage." This document (for
+ignorance of which no former historian may deserve blame, though its
+existence should caution every one against drawing hasty conclusions
+from negative evidence,) proves that at the Exchequer the Lollards
+were considered as having been lately rebellious, and as having had
+designs against the King. In a deed too, signed and sealed by the
+tenants of Lord Powis, who themselves took Lord Cobham, both heresy
+and treason are specified as the crimes of which he had been convicted
+"that was miscreant and unbuxom to the law of God, and <i>traitor
+convict</i> to our most gracious sovereign and his." The Patent Rolls
+record grants of ten pounds per annum to John de Burgh, carpenter,
+because he had discovered and delivered up certain Lollards. There are
+other similar grants. Pat. p. 5. 1 Hen. V.<a href="#notetag288">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note289" name="note289"></a>
+<b>Footnote 289:</b> No day ever was appointed.<a href="#notetag289">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note290" name="note290"></a>
+<b>Footnote 290:</b> The day was not January 6th, but Wednesday the
+10th.&mdash;"Die mercurii proximo post Festum Epiphaniæ."&mdash;Pat. 2 Hen. V.
+p. 3. m. 23.<a href="#notetag290">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note291" name="note291"></a>
+<b>Footnote 291:</b> Milner's statement, "that it is extremely probable that
+popish emissaries mixed themselves among the Lollards for the express
+purpose of being brought to confession," is mere
+surmise.<a href="#notetag291">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note292" name="note292"></a>
+<b>Footnote 292:</b> The Patent Rolls of this year shew that the King's offer
+was gladly and gratefully accepted by numbers who applied for his
+pardon.<a href="#notetag292">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<div>
+<p><a id="note293" name="note293"></a>
+<b>Footnote 293:</b> Any reference to the opinions of past writers would be
+imperfect which should omit Fuller's; he had access, it should seem,
+to little if any other data than Fox supplied him with, and yet the
+conclusion to which he came is this: "For mine own part, I must
+confess myself so lost in the intricacies of these relations, that I
+know not what to assent to. On the one side, I am loath to load the
+Lord Cobham's memory with causeless crimes, knowing the perfect hatred
+the clergy in that age bare unto him, and all that looked towards the
+reformation in religion. Besides, that twenty thousand men should be
+brought into the field, and no place assigned whence they should have
+been raised,<a id="notetag293-a" name="notetag293-a"></a><a
+href="#note293-a">[293-a]</a> or where mustered, is clogged with much
+improbability, the rather because only the three persons as is
+aforesaid are mentioned by name of so vast a number.</p>
+
+<p>"On the other side (continues Fuller), I am much startled with the
+evidence which appeareth against him. Indeed I am little moved with
+what T. Walsingham writes, (whom all later authors follow, as a flock
+the bell-wether,) knowing him a Benedictine monk of St. Alban's, bowed
+by interest to partiality; but the records in the Tower, and acts of
+parliament therein, wherein he was solemnly condemned for a traitor as
+well as a heretic, challenge belief. For with what confidence can any
+private person promise credit from posterity to his own writings if
+such public documents be not entertained by him for authentical? Let
+Mr. Fox therefore be Lord Cobham's compurgator; I dare not. And, if my
+hand were put on the Bible, I should take it back again; yet so that,
+as I will not acquit, I will not condemn him, but leave all to the
+last day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of
+God."&mdash;Fuller's Church History, An. 1414.<a href="#notetag293">(back)</a></p></div>
+
+
+<p class="left05"><a id="note293-a" name="note293-a"></a>
+<b>Footnote 293-a:</b> Fuller either had not read, or had forgotten, that the
+twenty thousand men were to be raised in the city, and to be mustered
+in St. Giles' Field; but that the timely closing of the city gates is
+said to have prevented their junction with the party beyond the walls:
+and he was not aware of the many persons mentioned by name in
+indictments, proclamations, and pardons.<a href="#notetag293-a">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note294" name="note294"></a>
+<b>Footnote 294:</b> The "Ecclesiastical Annals" attributing the respite of
+fifty days to the interposition of the Archbishop, add, "And in the
+course of that period Oldcastle escaped from prison, and excited all
+the followers of Wickliffe to arms, for the purpose of destroying the
+King and the clergy."&mdash;Annales Ecclesiastici, vol. viii.
+p. 362.<a href="#notetag294">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note295" name="note295"></a>
+<b>Footnote 295:</b> How far these accounts of Walsingham and Otterbourne are
+confirmed by the authority of the Pell Rolls, the reader will weigh
+carefully. In the October and November of this year, payment is made
+"to the serjeant of the sheriff of Southampton for taking Wyche and
+W<sup>m</sup>. Browne, chaplains, and bringing them to make disclosures about
+certain sums belonging to Sir John Oldcastle. Also to the escheator of
+the county of Kent, riding sometimes with twenty, sometimes with
+thirty horsemen, for fear of the soldiers and other malefactors
+obstinately favouring Sir John Oldcastle."<a href="#notetag295">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<div>
+<p><a id="note296" name="note296"></a>
+<b>Footnote 296:</b> The warrant by the council, dated December 1, 1417,
+authorized Edward Charleton to bring the body of John Oldcastle, then
+in Pole Castle. On February 3, 1422, the wife and executor of the said
+Edward Charleton received part payment of one thousand marks for the
+capture of Sir John Oldcastle. There is also payment for the capture
+of certain of his clerks and servants. He was taken near Broniarth in
+Montgomeryshire, on a property now belonging to Mr. Ormsby Gore, among
+whose muniments there is said to be traditionary evidence that the
+manor of Broniarth was granted to one of its former possessors as a
+reward for securing Sir John Oldcastle. The place in which he is said
+to have been taken, is called "Lord Cobham's Field" to this day.</p>
+
+<p>There are, we are told, in the Welsh language original verses
+referring unquestionably to Lord Cobham's residence in Wales, among
+persons who entertained the same religious views with himself, and
+also to his return to England. The religion of Rome is called in these
+verses "the Faith of the Pharaohs."<a href="#notetag296">(back)</a></p></div>
+
+
+<p><a id="note297" name="note297"></a>
+<b>Footnote 297:</b> There can be no doubt that George Gurmyn, a baker, was
+burnt for heresy this year, 1415, and probably in the same fire with
+John Claydon. Fox mentions the name as Turming; but, not having been
+able to ascertain the truth of the tradition, he leaves the whole
+matter in uncertainty. In the Pipe Rolls, 3 Henry V, the sheriffs
+state they had expended twenty shillings about the burning of John
+Claydon, skinner, and George Gurmyn, baker, Lollards convicted of
+heresy. The Author has searched the records in St. Paul's Cathedral,
+but without success, for any account of the proceedings against
+Gurmyn. He is said to have been convicted before the Bishop of
+London.<a href="#notetag297">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note298" name="note298"></a>
+<b>Footnote 298:</b> Printed in "Wilkins' Concilia."<a href="#notetag298">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<div>
+<p><a id="note299" name="note299"></a>
+<b>Footnote 299:</b> "The person who shall be burnt for heresy ought to be
+first convict thereof by the Bishop who is his diocesan, and abjured
+thereof; and afterwards, if he relapse into that heresy, or any other,
+then he shall be sent from the clergy to the secular power, to do with
+him as it shall please the King. And then it seemeth, the King, if he
+will, may pardon him the same; and the form of the writ is such.</p>
+
+<p>"The King to the Mayor and Sheriffs of London, greeting. Whereas the
+venerable father, Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of all
+England, and Legate of the Apostolic See, with the consent and assent
+of the Bishop and his brothers, the suffragans, and also of the whole
+clergy of his province in his provincial council assembled, the orders
+of law in this behalf requisite being in all things observed, by his
+definitive sentence pronounced and declared W. Sautre (some time
+chaplain, condemned for heresy, by him the said W. heretofore in form
+of law abjured, and him the said W. relapsed again into the said
+heresy) a manifest heretic, and decreed him to be degraded; and hath
+for that cause really degraded him from all clerical prerogative and
+privilege; and hath decreed him the said W. to be left, and hath
+really left him, to the secular court, according to the laws and
+canonical sanctions set forth in this behalf; and holy mother, the
+church, hath nothing further to do in the premises. We, therefore,
+being zealous for justice, and a lover of the Catholic faith, willing
+to maintain and defend holy church, and the rights and liberties
+thereof; and, as much as in us lies, to extirpate by the roots such
+heresies and errors out of our kingdom of England, and to punish
+heretics so convicted with condign punishment; and being mindful that
+such heretics, convicted in form aforesaid, and condemned according to
+law, divine and human, by canonical institutes on and in this behalf
+accustomed, ought to be burnt with a burning flame of fire; we command
+you most strictly as we can, firmly enjoining, that you commit to the
+fire the aforesaid W. being in your custody, in some public and open
+place within the liberties of the city aforesaid, before the people
+publicly, by reason of the premises, and cause him really to be burnt
+in the same fire in detestation of this crime, and to the manifest
+example of other Christians. And this you are by no means to omit
+under the peril falling thereon. Witness," &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>But by the statute of Henry IV. c. 15, it is enacted that every Bishop
+in his diocese may convict a man of heresy, and abjure him, and
+afterwards convict him anew thereof, and condemn him, and warn the
+sheriff or other officer to apprehend him and burn him; and that the
+sheriff or other officer ought to do the same by the precept of the
+Bishop, and <i>without any writ from the King to do the same</i>.</p>
+
+<p>And note by 29 Car. II., c. 9, this writ de heretico comburendo is
+abolished. "<span class="smcap">Laus Deo</span>!"&mdash;This last note is by an Editor. Fitzherbert,
+de Naturâ Brevium, p. 601.<a href="#notetag299">(back)</a></p></div>
+
+
+<p><a id="note300" name="note300"></a>
+<b>Footnote 300:</b> William Taylor had been cited March 9th, 1409, when he
+treated the citation with contempt.&mdash;Archbishop's
+Register.<a href="#notetag300">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note301" name="note301"></a>
+<b>Footnote 301:</b> Quisquis suspenderit ad collum suum aliquod scriptum,
+ipso facto tollit honorem soli Deo debitum, et præbet
+Diabolo.<a href="#notetag301">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note302" name="note302"></a>
+<b>Footnote 302:</b> The Canonists seem to have made some distinction between
+the first and the second of these sentences.<a href="#notetag302">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note303" name="note303"></a>
+<b>Footnote 303:</b> Consequently he was then, in 1421, as much, as
+afterwards in 1423, a relapsed heretic, subject to the punishment of
+death.<a href="#notetag303">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note304" name="note304"></a>
+<b>Footnote 304:</b> The Minutes of Council, 27th May, 1415, record that the
+King should be advised, as to issuing a commission to the Archbishops
+and Bishops, to take measures, each in his own diocese, to resist the
+malice of the Lollards. The King replied, that he had committed the
+subject to the charge of the chancellor.<a href="#notetag304">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note305" name="note305"></a>
+<b>Footnote 305:</b> It will be remembered, that those who were put to death
+in 1414, after the affair of St. Giles' Field, were sentenced by the
+civil courts on a charge of treason.<a href="#notetag305">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note306" name="note306"></a>
+<b>Footnote 306:</b> Pat. p. 5, 1 Henry V.<a href="#notetag306">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note307" name="note307"></a>
+<b>Footnote 307:</b> This refers to the resolution which Henry is said to
+have made, and to have declared to his men immediately before the
+battle: That, as he was a true King and knight, England should never
+be charged with the payment of his ransom on that day, for he had
+rather be slain.&mdash;MS. Cott. Cleop. C. iv.<a href="#notetag307">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note308" name="note308"></a>
+<b>Footnote 308:</b> The two first words of this line are different in the
+original.<a href="#notetag308">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note309" name="note309"></a>
+<b>Footnote 309:</b> <i>Quede</i>, or quade,&mdash;evil, bad.&mdash;See Glossary to
+Chaucer.<a href="#notetag309">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note310" name="note310"></a>
+<b>Footnote 310:</b> <i>In hey</i>,&mdash;in haste, speedily.<a href="#notetag310">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note311" name="note311"></a>
+<b>Footnote 311:</b> See Sloane, p. 27. King's, p. 11, b. The same gap
+between "nominati" and "fratris," &amp;c.<a href="#notetag311">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note312" name="note312"></a>
+<b>Footnote 312:</b> The volume in the King's Library is made up of a great
+variety of documents independent of that history and of each
+other.<a href="#notetag312">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note313" name="note313"></a>
+<b>Footnote 313:</b> The Sloane MS. is assigned in the Catalogue to Higden.
+By Sir H. Ellis, it is attributed, though not correctly, to a Chaplain
+of Henry V; a small portion only having been the work of that
+eye-witness of the field of Agincourt. By Mr. Sharon Turner, it is
+attributed, without a shadow of reason, to Walsingham. Mr. Turner,
+however, has, though in a very inadequate manner, attempted in one
+part of his new edition to rectify the error, leaving it altogether
+unacknowledged where the correction is most needed, in the passage
+where he grounds upon its testimony his severe charge against Henry's
+character. See Turner, third ed. vol. ii. p. 373 and
+p. 398.<a href="#notetag313">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note314" name="note314"></a>
+<b>Footnote 314:</b> In p. 48, b, the writer speaks of "Sir John Oldcastle,
+Lord Cobham," being sent as a military commander to aid the Duke of
+Burgundy. In p. 50 the same person is spoken of as Johannes <i>de Veteri
+Castro</i>. In the former parts the word used for the <i>enemy</i> is
+"<i>æmuli</i>;" the Chaplain employs
+"<i>adversarii</i>."<a href="#notetag314">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note315" name="note315"></a>
+<b>Footnote 315:</b> Latitavit et latitat.<a href="#notetag315">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note316" name="note316"></a>
+<b>Footnote 316:</b> From this point the manuscript proceeds, in the very
+words of Elmham, to describe Henry's second
+expedition.<a href="#notetag316">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note317" name="note317"></a>
+<b>Footnote 317:</b> In the MS. the word is "lacum," probably a mistake for
+"laqueum."<a href="#notetag317">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note318" name="note318"></a>
+<b>Footnote 318:</b> The Author on the whole is rather disposed to think
+that, whilst the Monk records accurately what fell within his own
+knowledge, both he and the author of the Sloane MS. in this part
+borrowed from some common document, probably more than one; for in
+some points they vary from each other in a way best reconciled by that
+supposition. Thus, whilst the Sloane MS. tells us that Richard II. on
+his landing came to a place <i>called Cardech</i>, from which he started
+for Conway, the Monk (not differing from him in other points) says
+that he came to the castle of Hertlowli. They both have fallen into
+the error of making the Earl of Salisbury accompany Richard, whereas
+he had undoubtedly been sent on before from Dublin to Conway. They are
+both equally wrong about the relative positions of Flint and Conway,
+and make the parties all cross and recross <i>the bridge</i> at the castle
+of Conway, where a noble suspension bridge is now thrown over the arm
+of the sea. After the period, however, at which the Monk's narrative
+closes, the writer of the manuscript seems to be seldom free from
+error.<a href="#notetag318">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note319" name="note319"></a>
+<b>Footnote 319:</b> The Monk of Evesham makes no mention of Bolinbroke's
+proceedings before he landed in England.<a href="#notetag319">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note320" name="note320"></a>
+<b>Footnote 320:</b> This account of Hotspur's mission to Wales is the first
+circumstance mentioned by the manuscript after the chronicle of the
+Monk of Evesham ends.<a href="#notetag320">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note321" name="note321"></a>
+<b>Footnote 321:</b> The Sloane MS. says that it was on the 28th day of
+February; the King's MS. assigns it to the 18th.<a href="#notetag321">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note322" name="note322"></a>
+<b>Footnote 322:</b> There are similar statements in Maydstone, Ang. Sac.
+vii. 371.<a href="#notetag322">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note323" name="note323"></a>
+<b>Footnote 323:</b> The MS. and Monk here agree.<a href="#notetag323">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note324" name="note324"></a>
+<b>Footnote 324:</b> This is another sign that it was written by a foreigner.
+No Englishman would have been likely to call Henry the Prince of
+England. He was either called Prince of Wales, or more frequently the
+Prince.<a href="#notetag324">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note325" name="note325"></a>
+<b>Footnote 325:</b> The Author confesses his inability to discover the
+meaning of the words which fill up the gaps left in this translation
+of the passage "Per suas patenas de patriotis," &amp;c. The passage
+seems to him altogether corrupt.<a href="#notetag325">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note326" name="note326"></a>
+<b>Footnote 326:</b> The Duke of Clarence was at Bourdeaux, February 5, 1413,
+and signed an acquittance there, April 14, 1413. (See Rymer; and
+Additional Charters.)<a href="#notetag326">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note327" name="note327"></a>
+<b>Footnote 327:</b> The words are written in one MS. at length, "decimo
+tertio."<a href="#notetag327">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note328" name="note328"></a>
+<b>Footnote 328:</b> Bibl. Reg. 13, C. <span class="smcap">i</span>. 10. An. 13 Hen. IV. "Eodem anno in
+Crastino Animarum incepit parliamentum apud Westmonasterium. Et quia
+Rex ratione suæ infirmitatis non poterat in personâ propriâ interesse,
+assignavit et ordinavit in nomine suo fratrem suum Thomam Beuforde,
+Cancellarium tunc Angliæ, ad inchoandum, continuandum, et prorogandum;
+in quo parliamento Henricus Princeps desidevavit à patre suo regni et
+coronæ resignacionem, eo quod pater ratione ægritudinis non poterat
+circa honorem et utilitatem regni ulteriùs laborare; sed sibi in hoc
+noluit penitùs assentire; ymmo regnum unà cum coronâ et pertinenciis,
+dummodo haberet spiritus vitales, voluit gubernare: unde Princeps
+quodammodo cum suis consiliariis aggravatus recessit; et posteriùs
+quasi pro majori parte Angliæ omnes proceres suo dominio in humagio et
+stipendio copulavit. In eodem parliamento moneta tam in auro quam in
+argento fuerat aliqualiter in pondere minorata ex causà permutationis
+extraneorum, qui in suis partibus ratione cambii magnum sibi
+cumulabant emolumentum, et Regi et suis mercatoribus Angligenis in
+magnum dispendium et detrimentum, &amp;c."<a href="#notetag328">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note329" name="note329"></a>
+<b>Footnote 329:</b> It cannot, however, be supposed that this anonymous
+writer fabricated the story; he must have copied it from some other
+writer, or put down what he had learned by
+hearsay.<a href="#notetag329">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note330" name="note330"></a>
+<b>Footnote 330:</b> The Author confesses his own opinion to be that a party
+was formed at court (headed probably by the Queen), jealous of the
+Prince's influence, and determined to destroy his power with his
+father. That, to oppose this party, the Prince summoned his friends,
+and made a demonstration of his power; (it is possible that he might
+have expressed his readiness to act again in the government for his
+father, as he had undoubtedly done before:) and that, after much
+coldness and alienation, father and son were fully
+reconciled.<a href="#notetag330">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+<p><a id="note331" name="note331"></a>
+<b>Footnote 331:</b> Sloane, p. 42. The statute for assigning certain imposts
+for the King's household is transcribed at full length, word for word.
+So, too, in the seventh year, the statute relative to the succession
+is copied verbatim. Of the same character is the copy of the
+Tripartite Indenture of Division.<a href="#notetag331">(back)</a></p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Henry of Monmouth, Volume 2, by J. Endell Tyler
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+Project Gutenberg's Henry of Monmouth, Volume 2, by J. Endell Tyler
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Henry of Monmouth, Volume 2
+       Memoirs of Henry the Fifth
+
+Author: J. Endell Tyler
+
+Release Date: January 31, 2007 [EBook #20489]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HENRY OF MONMOUTH, VOLUME 2 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Christine P. Travers, Ted Garvin and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's note: Obvious printer's errors have been corrected.
+The original spelling has been retained.
+
+Different spelling as been kept, e.g.:
+- Ruisseauville and Ruissauville
+- Azincour and Azincourt, etc ...
+
+Some words on page 94 were partly unclear / illegible.
+- Page 249: ii. vol. changed to vol. ii.
+- Page 412: The missing anchor for the footnote 305 has been added.]
+
+
+[Illustration: Great Seal of Owen Glyndowr as Prince of Wales.
+Published by R. Bentley, 1838]
+
+
+
+
+
+                         HENRY OF MONMOUTH:
+
+
+                                OR,
+
+
+                              MEMOIRS
+
+                   OF THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF
+
+
+
+                          HENRY THE FIFTH,
+
+
+                                AS
+
+                PRINCE OF WALES AND KING OF ENGLAND.
+
+
+
+                      BY J. ENDELL TYLER, B.D.
+
+                RECTOR OF ST. GILES IN THE FIELDS.
+
+
+
+               "Go, call up Cheshire and Lancashire,
+                  And Derby hills, that are so free;
+                But neither married man, nor widow's son;
+                  No widow's curse shall go with me."
+
+
+
+                          IN TWO VOLUMES.
+
+                              VOL. II.
+
+
+
+                              LONDON:
+               RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET,
+                Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty.
+
+                               1838.
+
+
+                              LONDON:
+                    PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY,
+                   Dorset Street, Fleet Street.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME.                                     (p. iii)
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+1413-1414.
+
+Henry of Monmouth's Accession. -- National rejoicings. -- His profound
+sense of the Awfulness of the Charge devolved upon him. -- Coronation.
+-- First Parliament. -- Habits of business. -- He removes the remains
+of Richard to Westminster. -- Redeems the Son of Hotspur, and restores
+him to his forfeited honours and estates. -- Generous conduct towards
+the Earl of March. -- Parliament at Leicester. -- Enactments against
+Lollards. -- Henry's Foundations at Shene and Sion.                 Page 1
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+1414-1417.
+
+State of the Church. -- Henry a sincere Christian, but no Bigot. --
+Degraded state of Religion. -- Council of Constance. -- Henry's
+Representatives zealous promoters of Reform. -- Hallam, Bishop of
+Salisbury, avowed enemy of the Popedom. -- Richard Ullerston:
+primitive views of Clerical duties. -- Walden, his own Chaplain,
+accuses Henry of remissness in the extirpation of Heresy. --
+Forester's Letter to the King. -- Henry Beaufort's unhappy
+interference. -- Petition from Oxford. -- Henry's personal exertions
+in the business of Reform. -- Reflections on the then apparent dawn of
+the Reformation.                                                   Page 32
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.                                                        (p. iv)
+
+1414.
+
+Wars with France. -- Causes which influenced Henry. -- Summary of the
+affairs of France from the time of Edward III. -- Reflections on
+Henry's Title. -- Affairs of France from Henry's resolution to claim
+his "Dormant Rights," and "Rightful Heritage," to his invasion of
+Normandy. -- Negociations. -- His Right denied by the French. --
+Parliament votes him Supplies.                                     Page 70
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+Modern triple charge against Henry of Falsehood, Hypocrisy, and
+Impiety. -- Futility of the Charge, and utter failure of the Evidence
+on which alone it is grounded. -- He is urged by his people to
+vindicate the Rights of his Crown, himself having a conscientious
+conviction of the Justice of his Claim. -- Story of the Tennis-Balls.
+-- Preparations for invading France. -- Henry's Will made at
+Southampton. -- Charge of Hypocrisy again grounded on the close of
+that Testament. -- Its Futility. -- He despatches to the various
+Powers of Europe the grounds of his Claim on France.               Page 89
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+1415.
+
+Preparations for invading France. -- Reflections on the Military and
+Naval State of England. -- Mode of raising and supporting an Army. --
+Song of Agincourt. -- Henry of Monmouth the Founder of the English
+Royal Navy. -- Custom of impressing Vessels for the transporting of
+Troops. -- Henry's exertions in Ship-building. -- Gratitude due to
+him. -- Conspiracy at Southampton. -- Prevalent delusion as to Richard
+II. -- The Earl of March. -- Henry's Forces. -- He sails for Normandy.
+                                                                  Page 119
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.                                                        (p. v)
+
+1415.
+
+Henry crosses the Sea: lands at Clef de Caus: lays Siege to Harfleur.
+-- Devoted Attendance on his dying Friend the Bishop of Norwich. --
+Vast Treasure falls into his hands on the Surrender of Harfleur. -- He
+challenges the Dauphin. -- Futile Modern Charge brought against him on
+that ground.                                                      Page 143
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+1415.
+
+Henry, with Troops much weakened, leaves Harfleur, fully purposed to
+make for Calais, notwithstanding the threatened resistance of the
+French. -- Passes the Field of Cressy. -- French resolved to engage.
+-- Night before the Conflict. -- FIELD of AGINCOURT. -- Slaughter of
+Prisoners. -- Henry, his enemies themselves being Judges, fully
+exculpated from every suspicion of cruelty or unchivalrous bearing. --
+He proceeds to Calais. -- Thence to London. -- Reception by his
+Subjects. -- His modest and pious Demeanour. -- Superstitious
+proceedings of the Ecclesiastical Authorities. -- Reflections. --
+Songs of Agincourt.                                               Page 156
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+1415-1417.
+
+Reasons for delaying a Second Campaign. -- Sigismund undertakes to
+mediate. -- Reception of Sigismund. -- French Ships scour the seas,
+and lay siege to Harfleur. -- Henry's vigorous measures thereupon. --
+The Emperor declares for "Henry and his Just Rights." -- Joins with
+him in Canterbury Cathedral on a Day of Thanksgiving for Victory over
+the French. -- With him meets the Duke of Burgundy at Calais.       (p. vi)
+-- The Duke also declares for Henry. -- Second Invasion of France. --
+Siege of Caen. -- Henry's Bulletin to the Mayor of London. -- Hostile
+Movement of the Scots.                                            Page 203
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+1418-1419.
+
+Henry's progress in his Second Campaign. -- Siege of Rouen. --
+Cardinal des Ursins. -- Supplies from London. -- Correspondence
+between Henry and the Citizens. -- Negociation with the Dauphin and
+with the French King. -- Henry's Irish Auxiliaries. -- Reflections on
+Ireland. -- Its miserable condition. -- Wise and strong measures
+adopted by Henry for its Tranquillity. -- Divisions and struggles, not
+between Romanists and Protestants, but between English and Irish. --
+Henry and the See of Rome. -- Thraldom of Christendom. -- The Duke of
+Brittany declares for Henry. -- Spaniards join the Dauphin. --
+Exhausted State of England.                                       Page 221
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+1419-1420.
+
+Bad faith of the Dauphin. -- The Duke of Burgundy brings about an
+Interview between Henry and the French Authorities. -- Henry's first
+Interview with the Princess Katharine of Valois. -- Her Conquest. --
+The Queen's over-anxiety and indiscretion. -- Double-dealing of the
+Duke of Burgundy; he joins the Dauphin; is murdered on the Bridge of
+Montereau. -- The Dauphin disinherited. -- Henry's anxiety to prevent
+the Escape of his Prisoners.                                      Page 249
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.                                                     (p. vii)
+
+1419-1420.
+
+Henry's extraordinary attention to the Civil and Private duties of his
+station, in the midst of his career of Conquest, instanced in various
+cases. -- Provost and Fellows of Oriel College. -- The Queen Dowager
+is accused of Treason. -- Treaty between Henry, the French King, and
+the young Duke of Burgundy. -- Henry affianced to Katharine. -- The
+Dauphin is reinforced from Scotland. -- Henry, accompanied by his
+Queen, returns through Normandy to England.                       Page 262
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+1421-1422.
+
+Katharine crowned. -- Henry and his Queen make a progress through a
+great part of his Dominions. -- Arrival of the disastrous news of his
+Brother's Death (the Duke of Clarence). -- Henry meets his Parliament.
+-- Hastens to the Seat of War. -- Birth of his Son, Henry of Windsor.
+-- Joins his Queen at Bois de Vincennes. -- Their magnificent
+Reception at Paris. -- Henry hastens in person to succour the Duke of
+Burgundy. -- Is seized by a fatal Malady. -- Returns to Vincennes. --
+His Last Hour. -- HIS DEATH.                                      Page 286
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+Was Henry of Monmouth a Persecutor? -- Just principles of conducting
+the Inquiry, and forming the Judgment. -- Modern charge against Henry.
+-- Review of the prevalent opinions on Religious Liberty. -- True
+principles of Christian Freedom. -- Duty of the State and of
+Individuals to promote the prevalence of True Religion. -- Charge
+against Henry, as Prince of Wales, for presenting a Petition against
+the Lollards. -- The merciful intention of that Petition. -- His
+Conduct at the Death of Badby.                                    Page 319
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.                                                      (p. viii)
+
+1413.
+
+The Case of Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham. -- Reference to his
+former Life and Character. -- Fox's Book of Martyrs. -- The
+Archbishop's Statement. -- Milner. -- Hall. -- Lingard. Cobham offers
+the Wager of Battle. -- Appeals peremptorily to the Pope. -- Henry's
+anxiety to save him. -- He is condemned, but no Writ of Execution is
+issued by the King. -- Cobham escapes from the Tower.             Page 348
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+Change in Henry's behaviour towards the Lollards after the affair of
+St. Giles' Field. -- Examination of that affair often conducted with
+great Partiality and Prejudice. -- Hume and the Old Chroniclers. --
+Fox, Milner, Le Bas. -- Public Documents. -- Lord Cobham, taken in
+Wales, is brought to London in a Whirlicole; condemned to be hanged as
+a Traitor, and burned as a Heretic. -- Henry, then in France,
+ignorant, probably, of Cobham's Capture till after his Execution. --
+Concluding Reflections.                                           Page 376
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+The Case of John Clayton, Richard Gurmyn, and William Taylor, burnt
+for Heresy, examined. -- Result of the Investigation. -- Henry not a
+Persecutor. -- Reflections.                                       Page 393
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+No.   I. Ballad of Agincourt.                               417
+No.  II. Siege of Rouen.                                    422
+No. III. Authenticity of the Manuscripts--Sloane 1776, and
+         Reg. 13, c. 1.                                     425
+
+
+
+
+MEMOIRS OF HENRY OF MONMOUTH                                       (p. 001)
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+HENRY OF MONMOUTH'S ACCESSION. -- NATIONAL REJOICINGS. -- HIS PROFOUND
+SENSE OF THE AWFULNESS OF THE CHARGE DEVOLVED UPON HIM. -- CORONATION.
+-- FIRST PARLIAMENT. -- HABITS OF BUSINESS. -- HE REMOVES THE REMAINS
+OF RICHARD TO WESTMINSTER. -- REDEEMS THE SON OF HOTSPUR, AND RESTORES
+HIM TO HIS FORFEITED HONOURS AND ESTATES. -- GENEROUS CONDUCT TOWARDS
+THE EARL OF MARCH. -- PARLIAMENT AT LEICESTER. -- ENACTMENTS AGAINST
+LOLLARDS. -- HENRY'S FOUNDATIONS AT SHENE AND SION.
+
+1413-1414.
+
+HENRY, KING.
+
+
+Henry IV. died at Westminster on Monday, March 20, 1413, and Henry of
+Monmouth's proclamation bears date on the morrow, March 21.[1] Never
+perhaps was the accession of any prince to the throne of a kingdom
+hailed with a more general or enthusiastic welcome. If serious minds
+had entertained forebodings of evil from his reign, (as we         (p. 002)
+believe they had not,) all feelings seem to have been absorbed in one
+burst of gladness. Both houses of parliament offered to swear
+allegiance to him before he was crowned: a testimony of confidence and
+affection never (it is said) before tendered to any English
+monarch.[2] This prevalence of joyous anticipations from the accession
+of their young King could not have sprung from any change of conduct
+or of principle then first made known. Those who charge Henry most
+unsparingly represent his conversion as having begun only at his
+father's hour of dissolution. But, before that father breathed his
+last, the people of England were ready to welcome most heartily his
+son, such as he was then, without, as it should seem, either       (p. 003)
+hearing of, or wishing for, any change. His principles and his conduct
+as a ruler had been put to the test during the time he had presided at
+the council-board; and the people only desired in their new King a
+continuance of the same wisdom, valour, justice, integrity, and
+kind-heartedness, which had so much endeared him to the nation as
+their Prince. In his subjects there appears to have been room for
+nothing but exultation; in the new King himself widely different
+feelings prevailed. Ever, as it should seem, under an awful practical
+sense, as well of the Almighty's presence and providence and majesty,
+as of his own responsibility and unworthiness, Henry seems to have
+been suddenly oppressed by the increased solemnity and weight of the
+new duties which he found himself now called upon to discharge. The
+scene of his father's death-bed, (carried off, as that monarch was, in
+the very meridian of life, by a lingering loathsome disease,) and the
+dying injunctions of that father, may doubtless have added much to the
+acuteness and the depth of his feelings at that time. And whether he
+be deemed to have been the licentious, reckless rioter which some
+writers have been anxious to describe, or whether we regard him as a
+sincere believer, comparing his past life (though neither licentious
+nor reckless) with the perfectness of the divine law, the retrospect
+might well depress him with a consciousness of his own unworthiness,
+and of his total inability to perform the work which he saw        (p. 004)
+before him, without the strength and guidance of divine grace. For
+that strength and that guidance, we are assured, he prayed, and
+laboured, and watched with all the intenseness and perseverance of an
+humble faithful Christian. Those who are familiar with the expressions
+of a contrite soul, will fully understand the sentiments recorded of
+Henry of Monmouth at this season of his self-humiliation, and the
+dedication of himself to God, and may yet be far from discovering in
+them conclusive arguments in proof of his having passed his youth in
+habits of gross violation of religious and moral principle. We have
+already quoted the assertions of his biographer, that day and night he
+sought pardon for the past, and grace for the future, to enable him to
+bend his heart in faith and obedience to the Sovereign of all. And
+even during the splendour and rejoicings of his coronation he appeared
+to withdraw his mind entirely from the greatness of his worldly state,
+thus forced upon him, and to fix his thoughts on the King of kings.[3]
+
+                   [Footnote 1: Close Roll.]
+
+                   [Footnote 2: "The high esteem which the nation had
+                   of Henry's person produced such an entire
+                   confidence in him, that both houses of parliament
+                   in an address offered to swear allegiance to him
+                   before he was crowned, or had taken the customary
+                   oath to govern according to the laws. The King
+                   thanked them for their good affections, and
+                   exhorted them in their several places and stations
+                   to employ all their power for the good of the
+                   nation. He told them that he began his reign in
+                   pardoning all that had offended him, and with such
+                   a desire for his people's happiness, that he would
+                   be crowned on no other condition than to make use
+                   of all his authority to promote it; and prayed God
+                   that, if he foresaw he was like to be any other
+                   than a just and good king, he would please to take
+                   him immediately out of the world, rather than seat
+                   him on the throne, to live a public calamity to his
+                   country."--Goodwin. See Stowe. Polyd. Verg.
+                   Elmham.]
+
+                   [Footnote 3: Elmham.]
+
+But he never seems for a day to have been drawn aside by his private
+devotions from the full discharge of the practical duties of his new
+station. On the Wednesday he issued summonses for a parliament to meet
+within three weeks of Easter. On Friday the 7th of April, he was
+conducted to the Tower by a large body of men of London, who       (p. 005)
+went on horseback to attend him. The next day he was accompanied back
+to Westminster, with every demonstration of loyalty and devotedness to
+his person, by a great concourse of lords and knights, many of whom he
+had created on the preceding evening. On the following morning, being
+Passion Sunday, April 9th,[4] he was crowned with much[5] magnificence
+in Westminster Abbey.[6]
+
+                   [Footnote 4: Not Palm Sunday, but the fifth Sunday
+                   in Lent, was called Passion Sunday.]
+
+                   [Footnote 5: "With mickle royalty."--Chron. Lond.]
+
+                   [Footnote 6: Chroniclers record that the day of his
+                   coronation was a day of storm and tempest, frost
+                   and snow, and that various omens of ill portent
+                   arose from the circumstance.]
+
+One of the first acts of a sovereign in England at that time was to
+re-appoint the judges who were in office at the demise of his
+predecessor, or to constitute new ones in their stead. Among other
+changes, we find Hankford appointed as Chief Justice in the room of
+Gascoyne, at least within ten days of the King's accession. For any
+observation which this fact may suggest, so contrary to those
+histories which repeat tales instead of seeking for the truth in
+ancient records, we must refer to the chapter in which we have already
+examined the credibility of the alleged insult offered by Prince Henry
+to a Judge on the bench of justice.[7]
+
+                   [Footnote 7: Henry had excited feelings of
+                   confidence and admiration in the minds of foreign
+                   potentates, as well as in his subjects at home.
+                   Among the embassies, with offers and pledges of
+                   friendship and amity, which hastened to his court
+                   on his accession, are numbered those of John of
+                   Portugal, Robert Duke of Albany, Regent of
+                   Scotland, John King of Castile, John Duke of
+                   Brittany, Charles King of France, and Pope John
+                   XXIII.]
+
+The first parliament of Henry V. met in the Painted Chamber        (p. 006)
+at Westminster, on Monday, 15th of May. The King was on his throne;
+but the Bishop of Winchester, his uncle, then Chancellor of England,
+opened the business of the session. On this, as on many similar
+occasions, the chancellor, generally a prelate, addressed the
+assembled states in an oration, half speech and half sermon, upon a
+passage of Scripture selected as a text. On the opening of this
+parliament, the chancellor informed the peers and the commons that the
+King's purpose in calling them together as the Great Council of the
+nation was threefold:--First, he was desirous of supporting the
+throne,--"his high and royal estate;" secondly, he was bent on
+maintaining the law and good government within his realm; and thirdly,
+he desired to cherish the friends and to resist the enemies of his
+kingdom. It is remarkable that no mention is made in this parliament
+at all on the part of the King, or his chancellor, of either heresy or
+Lollardism. The speaker refers to some tumults, especially at
+Cirencester, where the populace appear to have attacked the abbey;
+complaints also were made against the conduct of ordinaries, and some
+strong enactments were passed against the usurpations of Rome,     (p. 007)
+to which reference will again be made: but not a word in answer
+to these complaints would lead to the inference that the spirit of
+persecution was then in the ascendant. It was not till the last day of
+April 1414, after the affair of St. Giles' Field, that the statute
+against the Lollards was passed at Leicester.[8] The chancellor at
+that subsequent period speaks of their treasonable designs to destroy
+the King having been lately discovered and discomfited; and the record
+expressly declares that the ordinance was made with the consent and at
+the prayer of the commons.
+
+                   [Footnote 8: Sir Edward Coke, in his 4th Inst. ch.
+                   i. declares that this act was disavowed in the next
+                   parliament by the Commons, for that they never
+                   assented. The Author has searched the Parliament
+                   Rolls in vain for the authority on which that
+                   assertion was founded.]
+
+But though neither the King nor his council gave any indication, in
+his first parliament, of a desire to interfere with men's consciences
+in matters of religion, the churchmen were by no means slumbering at
+their post. Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, convened a council of
+the bishops and clergy, who met by adjournment, in full numbers, at
+St. Paul's, on the 26th of June 1413;[9] and adopted most rigorous
+measures for the extirpation of heresy, levelled professedly with a
+more especial aim against the ringleader of Lollardism, as he      (p. 008)
+was called, the valiant and unfortunate Lord Cobham. On these
+proceedings we purpose to dwell separately in another part of this
+work; and, in addition to what we shall there allege, little needs be
+observed here by way of anticipation. In leaving the subject, however,
+as far as Henry V.'s character is concerned, it may not be out of
+place to remark, that historical facts, so far from stamping on him
+the mark of a religious persecutor, prove that it required all the
+united efforts of the clergy and laity to induce him to put the
+existing laws in force against those who were bold enough to dissent
+from the Romish faith. So far from his "having watched the Lollards as
+his greatest enemies," so far from "having listened to every calumny
+which the zeal and hatred of the hierarchy could invent or propagate
+against the unfortunate followers of Wickliff," (the conduct and
+disposition ascribed to him by Milner,) we have sufficient proof of
+the dissatisfaction of the church with him in this respect; and their
+repeated attempts to excite him to more vigorous measures against the
+rising and spreading sect. By a minute of council, May 27, 1415, we
+find that, whilst preparing for his expedition to France, he is
+reminded to instruct the archbishops and bishops to take measures,
+each within his respective diocese, to resist the malice of the
+Lollards. The King merely answered, that he had given the subject in
+charge to his chancellor; and we are assured that Dr. Thomas       (p. 009)
+Walden,[10] one of the most learned and powerful divines of the day,
+but very violent in his opposition to the new doctrines, openly
+inveighed against Henry _for his great negligence in regard to the
+duty of punishing heretics_.[11] To his religious sentiments we must
+again refer in the sequel, and also as the course of events may
+successively suggest any observations on that head.
+
+                   [Footnote 9: The Monday after Corpus Christi day;
+                   which feast, being the Thursday after Trinity
+                   Sunday, fell in the year 1413 on June 22.]
+
+                   [Footnote 10: This Dr. Walden (so called from the
+                   place of his birth in Essex) was so able a
+                   disputant that he was called the Netter. He seems
+                   to have written many works, which are either
+                   totally lost, or are buried in temporary oblivion.]
+
+                   [Footnote 11: Goodwin. Appendix, p. 361.]
+
+When Henry IV. ascended the throne, parliament prayed that the Prince
+might not leave the realm, but remain in England as the anchor of the
+people's hopes; and, soon after his own accession,[12] Henry V. is
+advised by his council to remain near London, that he might receive
+prompt intelligence of whatever might arise in any quarter, and be
+able to take immediate steps for the safety of the commonweal. He
+seems to have carried with him even from his earliest youth, wherever
+he went, a peculiar talent of exciting confidence in every one.
+Whether in the field of battle, or the chamber of council,--whether as
+the young Prince, just initiated in affairs of war and government, or
+as the experienced captain and statesman,--his contemporaries looked
+to him as a kind of guardian spirit, to protect them from          (p. 010)
+harm, and lead them onward to good success. No despondency, nor even
+misgivings, show themselves in the agents of any enterprise in which
+he was personally engaged. The prodigious effects of these feelings in
+the English towards their prince were displayed in their full
+strength, perhaps, at the battle of Agincourt; but similar results are
+equally, though not so strikingly, visible in many other passages of
+his life.
+
+                   [Footnote 12: Minutes of Council, 29 June 1413.]
+
+Among the various causes to which historians have been accustomed to
+attribute the general anticipations of good from Henry's reign, which
+pervaded all classes, is the appointment of Gascoyne to the high
+station of Chief Justice immediately upon his ascending the throne.
+But we have already seen that, however gladly an eulogist would seize
+on such an exalted instance of magnanimity and noble generosity, the
+truth of history forbids our even admitting its probability in this
+place. Henry certainly did not re-appoint Gascoyne. But, whilst we
+cannot admit the tradition which would mark the true character of
+Henry's mind by his behaviour to the Chief Justice, there is not
+wanting many an authentic record which would amply account for his
+almost unprecedented popularity at the very commencement of his reign.
+Among these we must not omit to notice the resolution which he put in
+practice of retiring for an hour or more every day, after his early
+dinner, to receive petitions from any of his subjects, however     (p. 011)
+humble,[13] who would appeal to him for his royal interposition;
+to examine and consider the several cases patiently; and to redress
+real grievances. Indeed, numberless little occurrences meet us on
+every side, which seem to indicate very clearly that he loved the
+right and hated iniquity; and that he was never more happy than whilst
+engaged in deeds of justice, mercy, and charity. He seems to have
+received the golden law for his rule, "See that they who are in need
+and necessity have right;" and to have rejoiced in keeping that    (p. 012)
+law himself, and compelling all within the sphere of his authority and
+influence to observe it also.
+
+                   [Footnote 13: Many original petitions addressed to
+                   Henry are still preserved among our records. In
+                   one, which may serve as a specimen of the kind of
+                   application to which this custom compelled him to
+                   open his ear, Richard Hunt appeals to him as a
+                   "right merciable lord, moved with pity, mercy, and
+                   grace." "In great desolation and heaviness of
+                   heart," the petitioner states that his son-in-law,
+                   Richard Peke, who had a wife and four children, and
+                   had been all his life a true labourer and innocent
+                   man, and well-beloved by his neighbours, had been
+                   detected in taking from a vessel goods not worth
+                   three shillings; for which crime his mortal enemies
+                   (though they might have their property again) "sued
+                   to have him dead." He urges Henry to grant him
+                   "full noble grace," at the reverence of Almighty
+                   God, and for passion that Christ suffered for all
+                   mankind, and for the pity that he had on Mary
+                   Magdalene. The petitioner then promised (as
+                   petitioners now do) to pray for endless mercy on
+                   Henry; he adds, moreover, what would certainly
+                   sound strange in a modern petition to a monarch,
+                   "And ye, gracious and sovereign lord, shall have a
+                   good ox to your larder." Henry granted the
+                   petition. "The King woll that this bill pass
+                   without any manner of fine, or fees that longeth to
+                   him."]
+
+Another incident recorded of Henry of Monmouth at this period,
+strongly marking the kindness and generosity and nobleness of his
+mind, was the removal of the remains of Richard II. from Langley to
+Westminster. Without implying any consciousness, or even suspicion of
+guilt, on the part of his father as to Richard's death, we may easily
+suppose Henry to have regarded the deposition of that monarch as an
+act of violence, justifiable only on the ground of extreme necessity:
+he might have considered him as an injured man, by whose fall his
+father and himself had been raised to the throne. Instead of allowing
+his name and his mortal remains to be buried in oblivion, (with the
+chance moreover of raising again in men's minds fresh doubts and
+surmises of his own title to the throne, for he was not Richard's
+right heir,) Henry resolved to pay all the respect in his power to the
+memory of the friend of his youth, and by the only means at his
+command to make a sort of reparation for the indignities to which the
+royal corpse had been exposed. He caused the body to be brought in
+solemn funeral state to Westminster, and there to be buried,[14] with
+all the honour and circumstance accustomed to be paid to the earthly
+remains of royalty, by the side of his former Queen, Anne,         (p. 013)
+in the tomb prepared by Richard for her and for himself. The diligent
+investigator will discover many such incidents recorded of Henry V;
+some of a more public and important nature than others, but all
+combining to stamp on his name in broad and indelible letters the
+character of a truly high-minded, generous, grateful, warm-hearted
+man.
+
+                   [Footnote 14: The Pell Rolls acquaint us with the
+                   very great expense incurred on this occasion.]
+
+Another instance of the same feeling, carried, perhaps, in one point a
+step further in generosity and Christian principle, was evinced in his
+conduct towards the son of Sir Henry Percy, Hotspur, the former
+antagonist of his house. This young nobleman had been carried by his
+friends into Scotland, for safe keeping, on the breaking out of his
+grandfather's (Northumberland's) rebellion; and was detained there, as
+some say, in concealment, till Henry V. made known his determination
+to restore him to his title and estates. The Scots, who were in
+possession of his person, kept him as a prisoner and hostage; and
+although Henry might have considered a foreign land the best home for
+the son of the enemy of his family, yet so bent was he on effecting
+the noble design of reinstating him in all which his father's and his
+grandfather's treason had forfeited, that he consented to exchange for
+him a noble Scot, who had been detained in England for thirteen years.
+Mordak of Fife, son and heir of the Duke of Albany, had been taken
+prisoner at the battle of Homildon Hill, in 1402, (it is curious to
+remark,) by Hotspur, and his father Northumberland; and now        (p. 014)
+Henry V. exchanges this personage for Hotspur's son, the heir of
+Northumberland. This youth was only an infant when his father fell at
+the battle of Shrewsbury; his mother was Elizabeth, eldest daughter of
+Edmund Mortimer,[15] Earl of March: and thus a king, under the
+circumstances of Henry, but with a less noble mind, might have
+regarded him with jealousy on both sides of his parentage, and been
+glad (without exposing himself to the charge of any positive act of
+harshness) to allow him to remain in a foreign country deprived of his
+honours and his estates. But Henry's spirit soared above these
+considerations; and, in the orphan of a generous rival, he saw only a
+fit object on whom to exercise his generosity and Christian charity. A
+negotiation was carried on between Henry and some who represented
+young Percy; care being taken to ascertain the identity of the person
+who should be offered in exchange for Mordak. After certain prescribed
+oaths were taken, and pledges given, and the payment of a stipulated
+sum, 10,000_l._, the young man was invited to come to Henry's court
+with all speed.
+
+                   [Footnote 15: Dugdale's Baronage.]
+
+There seems to have intervened some considerable impediment to this
+proposed exchange.[16] The commission to John Hull and William
+Chancellor to convey Mordak to the north bears date 21st of        (p. 015)
+May; and yet instructions for a negotiation with his father, the Duke
+of Albany, then Regent of Scotland, for the exchange, were issued to
+Sir Ralph Evre and others, as late as the 10th of the following
+December. At the parliament, however, held March 16, 1416, Henry
+Percy, in the presence of the King himself, does homage for his lands
+and honours. And, before Henry's death, the Pell Rolls record payments
+to this Earl of Northumberland, appointed guardian of Berwick and the
+East March, as regularly as, in the early part of Henry IV.'s reign,
+issues had been made to his father Hotspur, and his grandfather, the
+aged Earl, for the execution of the same duties. The lands of the
+Percies, on their attainder, were confiscated, and given to the King's
+brother, the Duke of Bedford; to whom, on restoring his lands and
+honours to the young Earl, Henry made an annual compensation in part
+at least for the loss.[17]
+
+                   [Footnote 16: Minutes of Council, 21 May and 10
+                   Dec. 1415. Addit. MS. 4600. Art. 147.]
+
+                   [Footnote 17: Pell Rolls, Mich. 4. Hen. V. Many
+                   documents also in Rymer refer to this transaction.]
+
+Another example of generous behaviour in the young King towards those
+whom he had in his power, and of whom less noble minds would have
+entertained suspicion and jealousy, is seen in his conduct towards the
+Earl of March.[18] This young nobleman, by the law of              (p. 016)
+primogeniture, was rightful heir to the throne; being descended from
+Lionel Duke of Clarence, third son of Edward III. And so much was he a
+cause of apprehension and uneasiness to Henry IV. and his council,
+that it was thought necessary to keep him in close custody, and also
+near the person of the King, whenever the court removed towards the
+borders of the kingdom. It was in the name of this young man that his
+uncle Edmund Mortimer excited all his tenantry and dependents to join
+Owyn Glyndowr in rebellion against Henry IV; and on all occasions the
+malcontents of the whole country, supposing Richard to be dead, held
+forth the Earl of March as their liege sovereign. Henry V. could not
+have been charged with unwarrantable suspicions or severity, had he
+continued the same system of watchfulness over this formidable
+personage, which had been observed under the reign of his predecessor.
+Provided only that he treated him with kindness, few would have
+wondered or complained if he had still kept him as a prisoner on
+parole.[19] But Henry, to whose guardianship, whilst Prince        (p. 017)
+of Wales, the young Earl had been intrusted, was no sooner seated on
+the throne, than he admitted this young man into a full share of his
+confidence; not with the suspicion of a rival, nor with the fear of an
+enemy, but with the openness of an acknowledged and kind master
+towards a trustworthy and devoted servant. The references to       (p. 018)
+him which are found in the authentic records of that time (and they
+are not a few) all tend to establish this point.[20] Henry immediately
+gave him, on his coming of age, full and free possession of all his
+manors, castles, lands, advowsons, and honours; and seems to have had
+him continually in his retinue as a companion and friend. On one
+occasion we may suppose that Henry's suspicions and apprehensions of
+danger from the young Earl must have been roused; and yet we find him
+still continued in his confidence, and still left without any
+restraint or estrangement. When the conspiracy against Henry was
+discovered at Southampton, the Earl of Cambridge, (as we shall see
+more in detail hereafter,) in his letter of confession, declares it to
+have been the intention of the conspirators to carry the Earl of March
+into Wales, and to proclaim him as their lawful king. How far the
+young Earl was privy to this conspiracy, or to what extent he was "art
+and part" in it, does not distinctly appear. An expression, indeed, in
+the early part of the Earl of Cambridge's letter, "Having the Earl of
+March by his own consent, and by the assent of myself," should seem to
+imply that he was by no means ignorant of the plans of the
+conspirators, nor averse to them. How far, moreover, Henry thought him
+guilty, is matter of doubt; but certain it is, that he deemed      (p. 019)
+it necessary to have the King's pardon regularly signed in the usual
+manner for all treasons, felonies, and misdemeanors. The instrument
+bears date August 7, 1415, at Southampton. This document, however, by
+no means proves his guilt: on many occasions such patents of pardon
+were granted to prevent malicious and vexatious prosecutions.
+Nevertheless, at all events, it shows that Henry's thoughts must have
+been especially drawn to the relative circumstances under which
+himself and the Earl of March were placed; and yet he continued to
+behave towards him with the same confidence and friendship as before.
+Two years afterwards, Henry appointed him his lieutenant at sea, with
+full powers; yet so as not to supersede the privileges and authority
+of the high admiral, the Duke of Exeter.[21] The following year, in
+the summer, he was made lieutenant and guardian-general of all
+Normandy; and in the December of the same year he was commissioned to
+receive the homage and oaths of all in that country who owed suit and
+service to the King. He fought side by side with Henry at the field of
+Agincourt; and there seems to have grown stronger and riper between
+them a spirit of friendship and mutual confidence.[22]
+
+                   [Footnote 18: Roger Mortimer, fifth Earl of March,
+                   son and heir of Philippa, daughter and heiress of
+                   Lionel Duke of Clarence, third son of Edward III,
+                   died in 1398; leaving two sons, Edmund, of whom we
+                   are here speaking, then about six years of age, and
+                   Roger, about a year younger.]
+
+                   [Footnote 19: In a previous section of these
+                   Memoirs, brief mention has been made of the
+                   abortive attempt to carry off into Wales this young
+                   Earl of March and his brother, and of the generous
+                   conduct of Henry of Monmouth in his endeavour to
+                   restore the Duke of York to the King's favour,
+                   which he had forfeited in consequence of his
+                   alleged participation in that bold design. A
+                   manuscript has since been brought under the
+                   Author's notice, which places in a very strong
+                   light the treasonable and murderous purpose of
+                   those who originated the plot, and would account
+                   for the most watchful and jealous caution on the
+                   part of the reigning family against a repetition of
+                   such attempts. Henry must have been fully aware of
+                   his danger; and the fact of his throwing off all
+                   suspicion towards the young Earl, and receiving him
+                   with confidence and friendship, enhances our
+                   estimate of the generous and noble spirit which
+                   actuated him. The document, in other points
+                   curious, seems to deserve a place here:
+
+                   "The Friday after St. Vallentyne's day, anno 6
+                   Henrici Quarti, ye Erll of Marche's sons was
+                   secretly conveyd out of Wyndsor Castell yerly in ye
+                   morninge, and fond af[ter?] by diligent serche. But
+                   ye smythe, for makyng the key, lost fyrst his
+                   lands; after, his heed. Ye Lady Spenser, wydow to
+                   the Lord Spenser executed at Bristow, and syster to
+                   ye Duke of York, was comytted cloase prysonner,
+                   whare she accused her brother predict for the
+                   actor, for ye children predict; and that he sholde
+                   entend to breake into the King's manor att Eltham
+                   ye last Crystmas by scaling the walles in ye
+                   nighte, and there to murther ye Kinge; and, for
+                   better proaffe hereof, that yf eyther knight or
+                   squyer of England wold combatt for her in the
+                   quarrell, she wold endure her body to be burned yf
+                   he war vanquished. Then W. Maydsten, one of her
+                   sqyres [undertook?] his Mrs. quarrell with gage of
+                   his wheed [so], and was presently arrested by Lord
+                   Thomas, ye Kyng's son, to the Tower, and his goods
+                   confyscatt. Thomas Mowbray, Erll Marshall, accused
+                   to be privy to the same, butt was
+                   pardoned."--Lansdown, 860 a, fol. 288 b.]
+
+                   [Footnote 20: 14 Nov. 1414. MS. Donat. 4600.
+                   Reference is made there to June 9, 1413, not three
+                   months after Henry's accession.]
+
+                   [Footnote 21: 1417, July 20, at Porchester. 1418, 2
+                   June, at Berneye. December 1418, in the camp before
+                   Rouen. 11 June 1416.--Rymer.]
+
+                   [Footnote 22: In the summer after the battle of
+                   Agincourt the King "takes into his especial care
+                   William of Agincourt, the prisoner of his very dear
+                   cousin Edmund Earl of March."]
+
+These are a few among the many examples upon record of the         (p. 020)
+generous and noble spirit of Henry; whilst history may be challenged
+to bring forward any instances of cruelty or oppression to neutralize
+them. Sir Matthew Hale confessed that he could never discover any act
+of public injustice and tyranny during the Lancastrian sway; and the
+inquirer into Henry of Monmouth's character may be emboldened to
+declare, that he can discover no act of wanton severity, or cruelty,
+or unkindness in his life. The case of the prisoners in the day and on
+the field of Agincourt, the fate of Lord Cobham, and the wars in
+France, require each a separate examination; and in our inquiry we
+must not forget the kind, and gentle, and compassionate spirit which
+appears to breathe so naturally and uniformly from his heart: on the
+other hand, we must not suffer ourselves to be betrayed into such a
+full reliance on his character for mercy, as would lead us to give a
+blind implicit sanction to all his deeds of arms. In our estimate of
+his character, moreover, as indicated by his conduct previously to his
+first invasion of France, and during his struggles and conquests
+there, it is quite as necessary for us to bear in mind the tone, and
+temper, and standard of political and moral government which prevailed
+in his age, as it is essential for us, when we would estimate his
+religious character, to recollect what were in that age            (p. 021)
+throughout Christendom the acknowledged principles of the church in
+communion with the see of Rome.
+
+On Monday, April 30, 1414, Henry met his parliament at Leicester.[23]
+Why it was not held at Westminster, we have no positive reasons
+assigned in history;[24] and the suggestion of some, that the
+enactments there made against the Lollards were too hateful to be
+passed at the metropolis, is scarcely reasonable.[25] The Bishop of
+Winchester, as Chancellor, set forth in very strong language the
+treasonable practices lately discovered and discomfited; and the
+parliament enacted a very severe law against all disturbers of the
+peace of the realm and of the unity of the church. It is generally
+said that the reading of the Bible in English was forbidden in this
+session under very severe penalties; but no such enactment         (p. 022)
+seems to have been recorded. The prelates, however, were the judges of
+what heresy was; and to study the Holy Scriptures in the vernacular
+language might well have seemed to them a very dangerous practice; to
+be checked, therefore, with a strong hand. The judges, and other state
+officers, were directed to take an oath to exert themselves for the
+suppression of Lollardism.
+
+                   [Footnote 23: This parliament was summoned to be at
+                   Leicester on the 29th of February, but was
+                   prorogued to the 30th of April. At this period
+                   parliaments were by no means uniformly held at
+                   Westminster.]
+
+                   [Footnote 24: In this parliament we find a petition
+                   loudly complaining of the outrages of the Welsh.]
+
+                   [Footnote 25: About this time there seems to have
+                   been entertained by the legislature a most
+                   determined resolution to limit the salaries of
+                   chaplains in private families. Many sumptuary laws
+                   were made on this subject. Provisions were made
+                   repeatedly in this and other parliaments against
+                   excessive payments to them. The origin of this
+                   feeling does not appear to have transpired.
+                   Probably it was nothing more than a jealousy
+                   excited by the increasing wealth of the
+                   church.--Parl. Rolls, 2 Henry V.]
+
+Again and again are we reminded, through the few years of Henry's
+reign, that the cause of liberty was progressive; and any
+encroachments of the royal prerogative upon the liberties of the
+Commons were restrained and corrected, with the free consent and full
+approbation of the King. A petition in English, presented to him in
+this parliament, in many respects a curious document, with the King's
+answer, bears testimony to the same point. "Our sovereign lord,--your
+humble and true lieges that been come for the commons of your land,
+beseech unto your right righteousness, that so as it hath ever been
+their liberty and freedom that there should be no statute nor law made
+otherwise than they gave their assent thereto, considering that the
+commons of your land (the which is and ever hath been a member of your
+parliament) been as well assenters as petitioners, that from this time
+forward, by complaint of the commons of any mischief asking remedy by
+mouth of their Speaker, or else by petition written, that there never
+be no law made thereupon, and engrossed as statute and law,        (p. 023)
+neither by addition, neither by diminution, by no manner of term or
+terms, the which should change the sentence and the intent asked by
+the Speaker's mouth, or the petitions before said, given up in writing
+without assent of the aforesaid commons." To this petition the
+following answer was made: "The King, of his grace especial, granteth,
+that from henceforth nothing be enacted to the petitions of his
+commons that be contrary to their asking, whereby they should be bound
+without their assent; saving alway to our liege lord his real
+prerogative to grant or deny what him lust of their petitions and
+askings aforesaid."
+
+This parliament was adjourned from Leicester, and re-assembled at
+Westminster on the Octaves of St. Martin, 18th November 1414. The most
+gratifying record of this great council of the realm is that which
+informs us of the restoration of Henry Percy to his estates and
+honours. The most important subject to which the thoughts of the peers
+and commons were drawn was the King's determination to recover his
+rights in the realm of France.
+
+The motives which influenced Henry to undertake this extraordinary
+step can be known only to the Searcher of hearts. Some writers, in
+their excessive zeal for Protestantism, anxiously bent on stamping
+upon Henry the character of an ambitious tyrant and a religious
+persecutor, employ no measured language in their condemnation      (p. 024)
+of his designs against France. Milner thus gives his summary of the
+proceedings of this reign at home and abroad. "Henry Chicheley, now
+Archbishop of Canterbury, continued at the head of that see from
+February 1414, to April 1443. This man deserves to be called the
+firebrand of the age in which he lived. To subserve the purposes of
+his own pride and tyranny, he engaged King Henry in his famous contest
+with France, by which a prodigious carnage was made of the human race,
+and the most dreadful miseries were brought upon both kingdoms. But
+Henry was a soldier, and understood the art of war, though perfectly
+ignorant of religion; and that ardour of spirit, which in youth[26]
+had spent itself in vicious indulgences, was now employed under the
+management of Chicheley in desolating France by one of the most unjust
+wars ever waged by ambition, and in furnishing for vulgar minds matter
+of declamation on the valour of the English nation. While this scene
+was carrying on in France, the Archbishop at home, partly by exile,
+partly by forced abjurations, and partly by the flames, domineered
+over the Lollards, and almost effaced the vestiges of godliness in the
+kingdom."
+
+                   [Footnote 26: When his determination to recover his
+                   rights was announced in parliament, he was
+                   twenty-seven years of age.]
+
+These are very hard words, much more readily written than justified.
+Such sentences of condemnation require a much clearer insight      (p. 025)
+into the workings of the human heart than falls to the lot of any
+human being to possess, when he would examine into the motives of a
+fellow-mortal. It is very easy by one sweeping clause to denounce the
+war as unjust, and to ascribe it to the ambition of Henry, reckless of
+human suffering. But truth requires us to weigh the whole matter far
+more patiently, and to substitute evidence in the place of
+assumptions, and argument instead of declamation. And it is impossible
+for the biographer of Henry V. to carry his reader with him through
+the scenes of his preparation for the struggle with France, and his
+conduct in the several campaigns which chiefly engaged from this time
+till his death all the energies of his mind and body, without
+recalling somewhat in detail the circumstances of Henry's position at
+this time. This, however, will require also a brief review of the
+state of France through some previous years of her internal discords
+and misery. Reserving them for another chapter, there are some
+circumstances of a more private and domestic character which it might
+be well for us first to mention in this place.
+
+That Henry was habitually under the influence of strong religious
+feelings, though his views of Christian doctrine partook much of the
+general superstition of the age, is evident; and one of the first acts
+of his government was to satisfy his own conscience, and to give full
+testimony to the church of his piety, and zeal, and devotedness,   (p. 026)
+by founding three religious houses. When, exactly a century later,
+Richard Fox, Bishop of Winchester, communicated to his friend, Hugh
+Oldham, Bishop of Exeter, his intention of founding a monastery, his
+friend, instead of giving him encouragement to proceed with his plan,
+remonstrated with him on the folly of building houses, and providing a
+maintenance for monks, who would live in idleness, unprofitable to
+themselves and to society;[27] urging him at the same time rather to
+found a college for the encouragement of sound learning: and the
+College of Corpus Christi in Oxford owes its existence, humanly
+speaking, to that sound admonition. Perhaps, had Henry V. been
+fortunate enough to meet with so able and honest an adviser, Oxford
+might have had within its walls now another nursery of religion and
+learning,--a monument of his piety and of his love for whatever was
+commendable and of good report. Our Oxford chronicles record his
+expressed intention both to reform the statutes of the University,
+and also to found an establishment within the castle walls,        (p. 027)
+annexing to it all the alien priories in England for its endowment, in
+which efficient provision should be made for the instruction of youth
+in all the best literature of the age.[28] Had he first resolved to
+found his college, and reserved his religious houses for later years,
+his work might still have been flourishing at this day, and might have
+yet continued to flourish till the hand of spoliation and refined
+barbarism shall be strong and bold enough (should ever such a calamity
+visit our native land) to wrest these seminaries of Christian
+principles and sound learning from the friends of religion, and order,
+and peace. As it is, Henry's establishments survived him little more
+than a century; and the lands which he had destined to support them
+passed away into other hands, and were alienated from religious
+purposes altogether.
+
+                   [Footnote 27: The answer which Bishop Oldham is
+                   said to have made on this occasion is chiefly
+                   remarkable for the intimation it conveys, that the
+                   downfall of the monasteries was anticipated a
+                   quarter of a century before their actual
+                   dissolution. "What, my lord, shall we build houses
+                   and provide livelihoods for a company of bussing
+                   monks, whose end and fall we may ourselves live to
+                   see? No, no; it is more meet that we should provide
+                   for the increase of learning, and for such as by
+                   their learning shall do good to the church and
+                   commonwealth."--Anthony Wood.]
+
+                   [Footnote 28: Henry had much at heart the
+                   maintenance of the truth of the Christian religion,
+                   such as he received it. Of this he is thought to
+                   have given early proof, by confirming a grant of
+                   fifty marks yearly, during pleasure, to the prior
+                   and convent of the order of Preachers in the
+                   University of Oxford, to support the doctrine of
+                   the Catholic faith. It will be said that this was
+                   merely to repress the Lollards. Be it so, though
+                   the original document is silent on that point. It
+                   proves, at least, that he wished to maintain his
+                   religion by argument rather than by violence. The
+                   circumstance, however, of its being merely a
+                   confirmation of a grant, which even his father
+                   found in existence when he became King, takes away
+                   much from the importance of the fact.--Pell Rolls,
+                   1 Henry IV.]
+
+The sites which Henry selected for his establishments were,        (p. 028)
+one at Shene, in Surrey; the other at Sion, in the manor of Isleworth,
+on the Thames.
+
+The terms of the foundation-charters of these religious houses, their
+rules, and circumstances, and possessions, it does not fall within the
+plan of this work to specify in detail. The brothers and sisters
+admitted into these asylums appear to have been bound by very strict
+rules of self-denial and poverty.
+
+The monastery at Shene, built on the site of Richard II.'s palace,
+which he never would enter after the loss of his wife Anne, who died
+there, and which on that account he utterly destroyed, was called "The
+House of Jesus of Bethlehem," and was dedicated "to the honour, and
+glory, and exaltation of the name of Jesus most dear;" Henry
+expressing in the foundation-charter, among sentiments less worthy of
+an enlightened Christian, and savouring of the superstition of those
+days, that he founded the institution in pious gratitude for the
+blessings of time and of eternity, which flow only from HIM.
+
+The house of Sion in Isleworth, or Mount Sion, as it is called in the
+Pope's bull of confirmation, was dedicated "to the honour, praise, and
+glory of the Trinity most High, of the Virgin Mary, of the Disciples
+and Apostles of God, of all Saints, and especially of the most holy
+Bridget." This house was suppressed by Henry VIII; when the nuns fled
+from their native country, and took refuge, first in Zealand, then at
+Mechlin, whence they removed to Rouen; at last, fifteen reached    (p. 029)
+Lisbon in 1594. The history of this little company of sisters is very
+remarkable and interesting. In Lisbon they were well received, and
+were afterwards supported by royal bounty, as well as by the
+benevolence of individuals. They seem to have settled there peaceably,
+and to have lived in their own house, and to have had their own
+church, for more than fifty years. In 1651 their house and church were
+both burnt to the ground; but, through the beneficence of the pious,
+they had the happiness of seeing them restored. In 1755 this little
+community suffered in common with the other unfortunate inhabitants of
+Lisbon, and seem to have lost their all in the earthquake. In their
+distress they cast their eyes to the land of their fathers, and
+applied for the charity of their countrymen. There is something very
+affecting in the language of the petition by which our countrywomen in
+their calamity sought to excite the sympathy, and obtain the
+benevolent aid, of their fellow-Christians at home.
+
+     We, the underwritten, and company, having on the 1st of November
+     last suffered such irreparable losses and damage by the dreadful
+     earthquake and fire which destroyed this city and other parts of
+     the kingdom, that we have neither house nor sanctuary left us
+     wherein to retire; nor even the necessaries of life, it being out
+     of the power of our friends and benefactors here to relieve us,
+     they all having undergone the same misfortune and disaster. So
+     that we see no other means of establishing ourselves than by
+     applying to the nobility, ladies, and gentlemen of our        (p. 030)
+     dear country, humbly imploring your tender compassion and pious
+     charity; that, so being assisted and succoured from your
+     bountiful hands, we may for the present subsist under our
+     deplorable misfortune, and in time retrieve so much of our losses
+     as to be able to continue always to pray for the prosperity and
+     conservation of our benefactors.
+                  Augustus Sulyard,           Eliz. Hodgeskin,
+                  Peter Willcock.             Frances Huddleston,
+                                              Cath. Baldwin,
+     _Sion House, Lisbon_,                    Winifred Hill.
+        _May 25, 1756_.
+
+Through another fifty years, the little band, still keeping up the
+succession by novices from England, remained in the land of their
+refuge; till, in 1810, nine of them, the majority, it is said, of the
+survivors, fled from the horrors of war to their native island; and
+their convent, whose founder was Henry, the greatest general of his
+age, became the barracks of English soldiers under Wellington, the
+greatest general of the present day. On their first return they lived
+in a small house in Walworth; and in 1825, the remainder, now advanced
+in years and reduced to two or three in number, were still living in
+the vicinity of the Potteries in Staffordshire,--the last remnant of
+an English convent dissolved in the time of Henry VIII. There are at
+this time mulberry-trees growing at Sion House, one of the Duke of
+Northumberland's[29] mansions, which are believed, not only        (p. 031)
+to have been living, but to have borne fruit, in the time of the
+monastery.[30]
+
+                   [Footnote 29: The present Duke and Duchess kindly
+                   searched out and visited the remaining sisters in
+                   Staffordshire.]
+
+                   [Footnote 30: Dugdale; ed. 1830.]
+
+Henry seems to have had much at heart the intellectual, moral, and
+religious improvement of those who might be admitted to a share of his
+bounty in these establishments. The Pell Rolls record a payment "of
+100_l._ part only of a larger sum, to the prior and convent of Mount
+Grace, for books and other things to be supplied by them to his new
+foundation at Sion."[31] Whether the prior and brethren of Mount Grace
+had duplicates, or were mere agents, or parted with their own stock to
+meet the wishes of their King, the record does not tell.
+
+                   [Footnote 31: April 11, 1415.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.                                                     (p. 032)
+
+STATE OF THE CHURCH. -- HENRY A SINCERE CHRISTIAN, BUT NO BIGOT. --
+DEGRADED STATE OF RELIGION. -- COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE. -- HENRY'S
+REPRESENTATIVES ZEALOUS PROMOTERS OF REFORM. -- HALLAM, BISHOP OF
+SALISBURY, AVOWED ENEMY OF THE POPEDOM. -- RICHARD ULLESTON: PRIMITIVE
+VIEWS OF CLERICAL DUTIES. -- WALDEN, HIS OWN CHAPLAIN, ACCUSES HENRY
+OF REMISSNESS IN THE EXTIRPATION OF HERESY. -- FORESTER'S LETTER TO
+THE KING. -- HENRY BEAUFORT'S UNHAPPY INTERFERENCE. -- PETITION FROM
+OXFORD. -- HENRY'S PERSONAL EXERTIONS IN THE BUSINESS OF REFORM. --
+REFLECTIONS ON THE THEN APPARENT DAWN OF THE REFORMATION.
+
+1414-1417.
+
+
+Some writers, (taking a very narrow and prejudiced view of the affairs
+of the age to which our thoughts are directed in these Memoirs, and of
+the agents employed in those transactions,) when they tell us, that
+Henry was so devotedly attached to the church, and so zealous a friend
+of her ministers, that he was called the Prince of Priests, would have
+us believe that he "entirely resigned his understanding to the
+guidance of the clergy." But his principles and his conduct        (p. 033)
+in ecclesiastical matters have been misunderstood, and very unfairly
+exaggerated and distorted. That Henry was a sincere believer in the
+religion of the Cross is unquestionable; and that, in common with the
+large body of believers through Christendom, he had been bred up in
+the baneful error of identifying the Catholic church of Christ with
+the see of Rome, is in some points of view equally evident: but that
+he was a supporter of the Pope against the rights of the church in
+England and other his dominions, or was an upholder of the abuses
+which had then overspread the whole garden of Christ's heritage, so
+far from being established by evidence, is inconsistent with the
+testimony of facts. The usurpations of the Romish see called for
+resistance,[32] and Henry to a certain extent resisted them. The
+abuses in the church needed reformation, and Henry showed that he
+possessed the spirit of a real reformer, bent on the correction of
+what was wrong, but uncompromising in his maintenance of the religion
+which he embraced in his heart. He gave proof of a spirit more
+Catholic than Roman, more Apostolic than Papal.
+
+                   [Footnote 32: In the early part of his father's
+                   reign, an ordinance was made, charging the King's
+                   officers not to suffer aliens to bring bulls or
+                   other letters into the kingdom, which might injure
+                   the King or his realm.--Cleop. F. III. f. 114.]
+
+In his very first parliament strong enactments were passed forbidding
+ecclesiastics to receive bishoprics and benefices from Rome, on pain
+of forfeiture and exile. And on complaints being made against      (p. 034)
+the ordinaries, Henry's answer is very characteristic of his
+principles of church reform: "I will direct the bishops to remedy
+these evils themselves; and, if they fail, then I will myself take the
+matter into my own hands."
+
+He had been little more than half a year on the throne,[33] when he
+sent a peremptory mandate to the bishops of Aquitain, that they should
+on no account obey any provision from the court of Rome, by which
+preferment would be given to an enemy of England. And in the following
+month, Dec. 11, 1413, Henry issued a prohibition, forbidding John
+Bremore, clerk, whom the Pope had recommended to him when Prince of
+Wales, to return to the court of Rome for the purpose of carrying on
+mischievous designs against the King and his people, under a penalty
+of 100_l._ And among his own bishops, countenanced and confidentially
+employed by himself, were found men who protested honestly and
+decidedly against the tyranny and corruption of Rome, and were as
+zealously bent on restoring the church to the purity of its better
+days, as were those martyrs to the truth who in the middle of the next
+century sealed their testimony by their blood. To what extent Henry V.
+must be regarded as having given a fair promise that, had he lived, he
+would have devoted the energies of his mind to work out such an
+effective reformation as would have satisfied the majority of the
+people in England, and left little in that way for his successors  (p. 035)
+to do, every one must determine for himself. In forming our judgment,
+however, we must take into account, not only what he actually did, but
+also whatever the tone, and temper, and turn of his mind (from such
+intimations as we may be enabled to glean scattered up and down
+through his life) might seem to have justified persons in
+anticipating. It would be vain to build any theory on what might have
+happened had the course of Providence in Henry's destinies been
+different: and yet we may without presumption express a belief that,
+had his life been spared, and had he found himself seated in peace and
+security on the united throne of England and France, instead of
+exhausting his resources, his powers of body and mind, and his time,
+in a fruitless crusade to the Holy Land, (by which he certainly once
+purposed to vindicate the honour of his Redeemer's name,) he might
+have concentrated all his vast energies on the internal reformation of
+the church itself. Instead of leaving her then large possessions for
+the hand of the future spoiler, he might have effectually provided for
+their full employment in the religious education of the whole people,
+and in the maintenance of a well-educated, pious, and zealous body of
+clergy, restored to their pastoral duties and devoted to the ministry.
+That the church needed a vigorous and thorough, but honest and
+friendly reform,--not the confiscation of her property to personal
+aggrandizement and secular purposes, but the re-adjustment of what
+had degenerated from its original intention,--is proved by         (p. 036)
+evidence most painfully conclusive. Indeed, the enormities which had
+grown up, and which were defended and cherished by the agents of Rome,
+far exceed both in number and magnitude the present general opinion
+with regard to those times. The Conventual system[34] had well nigh
+destroyed the efficiency of parochial ministrations: what was intended
+for the support of the pastor, was withdrawn to uphold the dignity and
+luxury of the monastery; parsonage houses were left to fall to decay,
+and hirelings of a very inferior class were employed on a miserable
+pittance to discharge their perfunctory duties as they might.
+"Provisions" from Rome had exempted so large a proportion of the
+spirituality from episcopal jurisdiction, that, even had all the
+bishops been appointed on the principle of professional excellence,
+their power of restoring discipline would have been lamentably
+deficient. But in their appointment was evinced the most reckless
+prostitution of their sacred order. Not only was the selection of
+bishops made without reference to personal merit and individual
+fitness, whilst regard was had chiefly to high connexions and the
+interests of the Papacy; but even children were made bishops,      (p. 037)
+and the richest dignities of the church were heaped upon them:
+foreigners unacquainted with the language of the people were thrust
+into offices, for the due discharge of the duties of which a knowledge
+of the vernacular language was absolutely necessary. The courts
+ecclesiastical ground down the clergy by shameless extortions; whilst
+appeals to Rome put a complete bar against any suit for justice. Their
+luxury and excesses, their pride and overbearing presumption, their
+devotedness to secular pursuits, the rapacious aggrandizement of
+themselves and their connexions, and the total abandonment of their
+spiritual duties in the cure of souls, coupled with an ignorance
+almost incredible, had brought the large body of the clergy into great
+disrepute, and had filled sincere Christians (whether lay or clerical,
+for there were many exceptions among the clergy themselves) with an
+ardent longing for a thorough and efficient reformation. It is true
+that their indignation was chiefly roused by the prostitution of the
+property of the church, and its alienation from the holy purposes for
+which the church was endowed; and that gross neglect of discipline
+rather than errors in doctrine called into life the spirit of
+reformation: but even in points of faith we perceive in many clear
+signs of a genuine love of Evangelical and Catholic truth; among whom
+we are not without evidence sufficient to justify us in numbering the
+subject of these Memoirs. Henry of Monmouth, whilst he adhered     (p. 038)
+constantly to the faith of his fathers, yet manifested a sincere
+desire to become more perfectly acquainted with the truth of the
+Gospel; and spared no pains, even during his career of war and
+victory, in providing himself with the assistance of those teachers
+who had the reputation of preaching the Gospel most sincerely and
+efficiently. Henry's, indeed, was not the religion which would
+substitute in the scale of Christian duties punctuality of attendance
+on frequent preaching for the higher and nobler exercises of
+adoration. Many an unobtrusive incident intimates that his soul took
+chief delight in communing with God by acts of confession, and prayer,
+and praise. He seems to have imbibed the same spirit which in a
+brother-monarch once gave utterance to expressions no less valuable in
+the matter of sound theology, than exquisitely beautiful in their
+conception:[35] "I had rather pass an hour in conversation with my
+friend than hear twenty discourses in his praise." And yet Henry
+delighted also in hearing Heaven's message of reconciliation
+faithfully expounded, and enforced home.
+
+                   [Footnote 33: November 7, 1413.]
+
+                   [Footnote 34: By a statute (4 Hen. IV. 1402), after
+                   the Legislature had complained that the Convents
+                   put monks, and canons, and secular chaplains into
+                   the parochial ministry, by no means fit for the
+                   cure of souls, it is enacted, that a vicar
+                   adequately endowed should be everywhere instituted;
+                   and, in default of such reformation, that the
+                   licence of appropriation should be forfeited.]
+
+                   [Footnote 35: Henry III. is said to have assigned
+                   to Louis IX. this reason for his preference of
+                   devotional exercises to sermons.]
+
+Whilst, for example, he was pursuing his conquests in Normandy, the
+report no sooner reached him of a preacher named Vincentius, (who was
+labouring zealously in the cause of Christ in various parts of
+Brittany, and who was said by his earnest and affectionate         (p. 039)
+preaching to have converted many to the Lord their God,) than Henry
+sent for him, and took great delight in hearing his faithful
+expositions of the word of truth and life. And we have good reason for
+believing that the consolations of the pure doctrines of the Gospel,
+as a guardian angel ministering the cup of Heaven, attended him
+through life and in death.
+
+There is no intimation dropped by historians, nor is it intended in
+these Memoirs to intimate, that Henry's eyes were opened to the
+doctrinal errors of the church of Rome. But there are circumstances
+well worthy of consideration before we pronounce definitively on that
+point. When we bear in mind that, in those days, prayers and vows were
+habitually made to the Virgin for success, and, after any prosperous
+issue of the supplicants' exertions in war or peace, offerings of
+thanksgiving were addressed to her as the giver of victory and of
+every blessing; and whilst, at the same time, we find in Henry of
+Monmouth's letters and words no acknowledgment of any help but God's
+only; the question may be fairly entertained, whether he had not
+imbibed some portion of the pure light of Gospel truth on this very
+important article of Christian faith. The Author is well aware of the
+words at the close of his Will, referred to hereafter; and is very far
+from saying that he should be surprised to find other instances of a
+similar character. Still Henry's silence as to the power and       (p. 040)
+assistance of the Virgin, the absence of prayer to her in his
+devotions, many of which are especially recorded; the absence of
+praise to her after victory and success, though he was very far from
+taking praise to himself, always ascribing it to God Almighty only,
+may seem to justify the suggestion of an inquiry into this point.
+
+For a knowledge of the degraded state to which the church had sunk,
+and her inefficiency as the guardian and dispenser of religious truth,
+we are not left to the vague representations of declaimers, or the
+heated exaggerations of those by whom everything savouring of Rome is
+held in abomination. The preambles of the laws which were intended to
+cure the evils, bear the most direct and full evidence of their
+existence and extent. One parliamentary document, after prefacing that
+"Benefices were founded for the honour of God, the good of the
+founders, the government and relief of the parishioners, and the
+advancement of the clergy," then states "that the spiritual patrons,
+the regular clergy throughout the whole realm, mischievously
+appropriate to themselves the said benefices, and lamentably cast to
+the ground the houses and buildings, and cruelly take away and destroy
+divine service, hospitality, and other works of charity, which used to
+be performed in the said benefices to the poor and distressed; that
+they exclude and ever debar the clergymen from promotion, and
+privately convey the treasure of the realm in great sums to the court
+of Rome,--to the confusion of their own souls, the grievous        (p. 041)
+desolation of the parishioners[36] and the whole country, the ultimate
+ruin of the clergy, the great impoverishment of the realm, and the
+irrecoverable ruin of the holy church of England."[37]
+
+                   [Footnote 36: It is curious at the same time to
+                   observe what extraordinary notions the Commons, who
+                   presented this petition, had formed of freedom; how
+                   jealous they were of the lower orders, and how
+                   determined to exclude them from sharing with
+                   themselves the good things of the church's
+                   temporalities. The Commons pray that (no nief or
+                   vileyn) no bondswoman or bondsman, be allowed to
+                   send a son to school with a view of being advanced
+                   in the church; and that for the maintenance and
+                   safety of the honour of all the free men of the
+                   land.]
+
+                   [Foonote 37: 15 Richard II. (1391.)]
+
+A case argued before the judges in the time of Henry IV, very
+interesting in itself, and closely connected in many points with the
+subject of this chapter, is recorded in the Year Books. The argument
+arose on a writ of Quare impedit, directed against Halomm (Hallam)
+Bishop of Salisbury and Chichel (Chicheley) Bishop of St. David's,
+afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. The question at issue regarded
+the voidance of a prebend in the church of Salisbury, caused by
+Chicheley being created Bishop of St. David's, who held that prebend,
+to which he had been presented by Richard Medford, a former Bishop of
+Sarum. Against the King's claim of right of presentation to the void
+prebend, the defendants answered that the Pope had granted to
+Chicheley licence to enjoy all the preferments which he held before,
+together with his bishopric. For the King's right it was pleaded,  (p. 042)
+that the creation of Chicheley took place whilst the temporalities of
+Sarum were in the hands of the King, on the translation of Hallam from
+York to Sarum;[38] but the question at length turned virtually upon
+the power of the see of Rome to dispense with the laws of England.
+
+                   [Footnote 38: Some persons would probably be
+                   surprised, among the facts recorded in this cause,
+                   (all which however are confirmed by the
+                   ecclesiastical registers,) to find that by a sort
+                   of retrograde promotion, according to our usual
+                   ideas of episcopal preferment, a Bishop of London,
+                   Nicoll Bubwith, was translated from London to
+                   Salisbury, and from Salisbury to Bath and Wells.
+                   The pleading also reminds us of a curious fact with
+                   regard to Bishop Hallam's promotion, not generally
+                   known. The record merely states that "the Bishop of
+                   Sarum, that now is, was translated from York to the
+                   church of Sarum." This latter translation, however,
+                   (if such it can be properly called,) admits of a
+                   more easy solution than the preceding. The fact is,
+                   that Hallam was actually appointed by the Pope to
+                   the archbishopric of York; to which appointment the
+                   King objected. The nomination of the Pope was not
+                   persisted in, and Hallam was consecrated Bishop of
+                   Salisbury.]
+
+In the first sitting (Mich. 11 Henry IV.--_i.e._ 1409), Horton for the
+defendants alleged, "We continued in possession of the prebend after
+Richard Hallam had received the temporalities from the hands of the
+King. Subsequently to which, and before we were created Bishop of St.
+David's, our Saint Peter the Apostle, reciting by his bulls that we
+were elected Bishop of St. David's, granted us licence to enjoy all
+our other benefices." On which, Thirning, Justice, observed, "The
+grant of the Apostle in this case cannot change the law of the land."
+To which Hankford (who proved himself throughout the most zealous
+supporter of the omnipotence of the Popedom) merely replied, "The Pope
+can do all things;" his use of the Latin words evidently showing that
+he was quoting a dictum,--"Papa omnia potest." After some discussion,
+and a reference to former precedents chiefly alleged by Hankford,
+Thirning rejoins very significantly, "That was in ancient times, and I
+will not raise the question as to the power of the Apostle;        (p. 043)
+but I cannot see how he by his bulls can change the law of
+England."[39] In the third deliberation, Culpeper says, "The intention
+of the statute is now to be considered; and I conceive that it was
+made to protect the King and other patrons in their rights, and to
+restrain the encroachment of the Apostle which he makes against the
+law." On the third discussion, Till argued, "Since by the law of the
+land the creation of a bishop causes a voidance in fact of a benefice
+before held, and by such voidance the title of presentation or
+collation accrues to the patron, I say that the Apostle can by no
+grant beforehand oust the patron of his right, and restrain the title
+which ought to accrue to him upon such creation: for if so, he ought
+to restrain and change the course of inheritance by the law of the
+land; and that he cannot do, no more than if the King wished to    (p. 044)
+give or grant to a man that he should hold his lands after he has
+entered upon a monastic life, and professed; for such grant would be
+contrary to the common law of the land, and therefore would be
+altogether void. So also in this case." To this argument Horton
+replied, among other points, "I take it that the Apostle may grant to
+a man to hold three bishoprics at a time;" in which Hankford agreed,
+"provided it were with the consent of the patrons." On which Skeene
+observed, "If the Pope made such a grant, the King might retain the
+temporalities in his own hands, if he wished it." To this observation,
+Hankford, among many other things, said, "The Apostle can in many
+cases change the course of the law of the land, and prevent the
+occurrence of that which ought to follow." The same judge, pressing
+again the argument on which he had before relied, asks, "What say ye?
+suppose the Apostle, before a man becomes a professed monk, grants him
+a dispensation to hold his benefices after his profession?"--"I say,"
+replied Hill, "that in such a case he cannot deprive me of my right of
+patronage."
+
+                   [Footnote 39: "Jeo ne ferra disputation del poiar
+                   l'appost', mes jeo ne scay veier coment il par ses
+                   bull' changer, le ley d'Engleterre."]
+
+The question at issue was found to be so difficult of solution, and
+the judges viewed the law of the case in such opposite lights, that it
+was argued and debated between them by adjournment in four several
+terms; at length the advocates of the Pope's omnipotence gave      (p. 045)
+way, and judgment was given for the Crown.[40]
+
+                   [Footnote 40: See Year Book, "Anno xi. Hen.
+                   IIII."--Term. Mich. fol. 37; Hilar. fol. 38; Pasc.
+                   fol. 59; Trin. fol. 76.]
+
+Among many memorable facts recorded by the Year Book during the
+progress of this cause, most persons probably will regard with
+interest the resistance made by the Crown, at this period, against the
+encroachments of the Pope,--the boundless power, ecclesiastical and
+political, assumed and exercised by the pontiff, and conceded to him
+in England,--and, at the same time, the spirit which shows itself on
+the part of some of our judges to vindicate the supremacy of the law
+of England over the alleged omnipotence of the court of Rome. The
+great difference of opinion also as to the power of the Pope,
+expressed by the members of the judicial bench, cannot fail to
+interest every Englishman, whether lawyer or not; whilst the terms in
+which some of the judges speak of the encroachments of the Apostolic
+see, against which the legislature of England had deemed it necessary
+to enact some stringent laws, are not a little remarkable. But to
+Protestants of the present day, perhaps the most surprising feature of
+all may appear to be the title ascribed to the Pope by the judges,
+whilst publicly and solemnly dispensing the laws of the country. They
+do not speak of him as the Pope, except once in the citation of a
+Latin dictum; nor do they refer to him as a sovereign pontiff
+exercising the delegated authority of the chief Apostle, and       (p. 046)
+representing him in the church militant on earth: they do not give him
+the title of "successor to St. Peter," or "our father filling the
+Apostolic chair:"--they speak of him throughout in direct terms as
+"the Apostle;" and in some passages they even call him "Saint Peter,"
+and "our Saint Peter" the Apostle.[41] It is however very curious, in
+tracing the argument in this cause, to lay the strong terms employed
+by the advocates of the Pope's paramount authority side by side with
+the striking expressions used by others of those high functionaries on
+the supremacy of the English law, and the inability of the Apostolic
+see in the plenitude of its power to change or dispense with the
+common or statute law of the realm.
+
+                   [Footnote 41: "L'appost'." "Nostre Saint Pier
+                   l'appost'." "Bulls fait par Saint Pier."]
+
+Abuses such as we have referred to in the previous sections of this
+chapter prevailed everywhere, and called loudly for vigorous measures
+to rectify them. At the same period the church through Christendom was
+distracted and torn by contending factions, each supporting a pontiff
+of its own.
+
+To put an end to these disgraceful and unhappy feuds, as destructive
+of the peace of Europe as they were hurtful to the cause of true
+religion, and to effect a full reformation in the church, the Council
+of Constance was professedly convened. That synod was summoned
+nominally by Pope John XXIII, but in reality by the united voice   (p. 047)
+of the sovereigns of Europe, especially at the instance of the Emperor
+Sigismund himself. It falls not within the province of these Memoirs
+to record the proceedings of that council, either in extinguishing the
+flame of discord within the pale of the church, or in kindling the
+sadder flame of persecution[42] against all who dared to think for
+themselves in a matter peculiarly their own, or in its lamentable
+forgetfulness of the abuses for the correction of which it was mainly
+convened. The records of the Council of Constance, however, abound in
+matters of interest in connection with the immediate and professed
+object of this work. We infer from them that Henry V. was then taking
+a lead in religious matters, and, whilst he was anxious to resist the
+overbearing tyranny of Rome, he was at the same time bent on making
+the religious establishment within his own kingdom an efficient means
+of conveying to all his subjects the blessings of the Gospel; he was
+an honest reformer of abuses, but, at the same time, the conscientious
+and uncompromising supporter of the religion of his fathers.
+
+                   [Footnote 42: It is very painful to reflect on the
+                   intolerant spirit of this very Sigismund, who was
+                   so anxious to reform the abuses of the church; but
+                   it is forced upon us whilst we are inquiring into
+                   the times of Henry. Sigismund had paid (as we shall
+                   see) a visit to Henry, and he meditated another.
+                   But he never put that design into execution. A
+                   letter from Heretong Van Clux, Henry's minister,
+                   informed his master that he must not expect to see
+                   the Emperor, for he had employment at home in
+                   putting down the followers of Huss. "Now I know
+                   well he might not come, for this cause, that many
+                   of the great lords of Bohemia have required him for
+                   to let them hold the same belief that they are in.
+                   And thereupon he sent them word, that rather he
+                   would be dead than he would sustain them in their
+                   malice. And they have answered him again, that they
+                   will rather die than go from their belief. There is
+                   a great power of them, lords, knights, and
+                   esquires; but the greatest power is of the
+                   commoners. Therefore the Emperor gathers all the
+                   power that he may, to go into Bohemia upon
+                   them."--See Ellis's Original Letters.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was on the 20th of October 1414, that Robert Hallam, Bishop of
+Salisbury, the Bishops of Bath and Hereford, the Abbot of          (p. 048)
+Westminster, the Prior of Worcester, Lord Warwick, and others, were
+commissioned by Henry to proceed to Constance, and as his
+representatives[43] to treat about the reformation of the universal
+church; or, as the Pell Rolls speak, "for the salvation of Christian
+souls." Another body of commissioners was subsequently sent, when not
+less than four hundred Englishmen went in company of the embassy,
+among whom were reckoned two archbishops, seven bishops, and many
+other lords and gentlemen. Of those who were first commissioned by
+Henry, Robert Hallam (or Allam) was most strenuous in urging       (p. 049)
+the work of reformation before and above all other matters with which
+they had to do. The Cardinals were equally urgent to have the election
+of Pope first settled, and then to proceed afterwards to the question
+of reformation. The Bishop of Salisbury, acting, doubtless, with the
+full approbation, it may be at the immediate suggestion of Henry, was
+instant, in season and out of season, in forcing the work of
+reformation on the Council. He was called the Emperor's right hand, so
+entirely did he and Sigismund co-operate for this purpose. Indeed, the
+English generally appear at first to have been among the principal
+promoters of reform, and, as long as Hallam lived, to have pursued it
+zealously; but on his death[44] they were much less noted for the same
+zeal. Previously, however, to that event, a great schism arose     (p. 050)
+among the English at Constance, and the authority of the bishops
+was much disregarded. To remedy these disorders, Henry wrote a
+peremptory letter (18 July 1417), commanding all his people to be
+obedient to the bishops, and to abstain from all factious conduct;
+enjoining them, on pain of forfeiting their goods, either to behave in
+a manner becoming his subjects, or to return home; directing also,
+that, in all differences of opinion, the minority should conform to
+the decision of the majority.
+
+                   [Footnote 43: This council seems to have entailed,
+                   first and last, on England, a very considerable
+                   expense. Within a week of the date of the
+                   commission, the Pell Rolls record the payment of
+                   333_l._ 6_s._ 8_d._ (a large sum in those days) "to
+                   Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, sent as the
+                   King's ambassador to the General Council held at
+                   Constance before our lord the Pope, the Emperor,
+                   and others, there assembled for the salvation of
+                   Christian souls." Payments also to others are
+                   recorded.]
+
+                   [Footnote 44: Bishop Hallam died at Constance,
+                   Sept. 5, 1417. On which day the Cardinal des Ursins
+                   addressed a letter to Henry, praying him to appoint
+                   as Hallam's successor at Salisbury, John Ketterich,
+                   Bishop of Lichfield, to whose ability and zeal and
+                   worth the Cardinal bears strong testimony. This
+                   same Cardinal had a personal interview with Henry
+                   in 1418, just before the taking of Rouen.
+
+                   Le Neve leaves it in doubt whether Bishop Hallam
+                   was buried at Constance, or in Westminster Abbey.
+                   But the Author has been kindly furnished by Sir
+                   Francis Palgrave, who visited Constance last year,
+                   with the following interesting particulars relative
+                   to the resting-place of that excellent man. "The
+                   monument of Bishop Hallam consists of a slab inlaid
+                   with brass, in the usual style of English memorials
+                   of the same period, but quite unlike those of
+                   Germany; and I have no doubt but that the brasses
+                   were sent from England. He is represented at full
+                   length in the episcopal dress, his head lying
+                   between two shields, the royal arms of England
+                   within the Garter, (as Chancellor of the order,)
+                   and his own bearings. But the tomb being placed
+                   exactly in front of the high altar, the attrition
+                   to which it has been exposed in this part of the
+                   church has nearly effaced the engravings." His
+                   funeral, we are told, was attended by the assembled
+                   princes and prelates and nobles of the council, who
+                   followed him to the grave with every demonstration
+                   of respect and sorrow.]
+
+Bishop Hallam entertained a most rooted antipathy to the Pope and the
+Popedom; and he once gave expression to his sentiments so freely and
+unreservedly to the Pope himself, that his Holiness complained
+grievously of him to the Emperor: but Sigismund was himself too
+heartily bent on reforming the abuses of the Popedom to chide the zeal
+and freedom of the English prelate. On one occasion the Bishop
+maintained that a General Council was superior to the Pope (a doctrine
+subsequently recognised, but then, as it should seem, new and bold);
+on another he is reported to have gone so far as to affirm         (p. 051)
+that the Pope, for his enormities, deserved to be burnt alive. Bishop
+Hallam[45] was by no means singular either in the sentiments which he
+entertained with regard to the corruptions of the Romish Church "_in
+its head and its members_," and the imperative necessity of an
+universal reform, or in the unreserved boldness and plainness with
+which he published those sentiments. The whole of Christendom rang
+with loud and bitter complaints against the avarice, the sensuality,
+the overreaching and overbearing tyranny, the total degeneracy and
+worthlessness of the Popes, the Cardinals, and the religious orders;
+but in no place were the protests against such deplorable          (p. 052)
+corruptions more unsparingly uttered than at the Council of Constance
+itself: and among those who willingly offered themselves to testify,
+in their Saviour's name, against such a prostitution of his blessed
+Gospel to the purposes of worldly ambition, such gross depravity and
+total neglect of duty, the names of many of our own countrymen are
+recorded. These pillars of the church, these lights in the midst of
+darkness, seem indeed to have entertained sentiments, as to the duties
+and responsibilities of the Christian priesthood, worthy of the purest
+age. Some of their recorded doctrines are truly edifying, and find a
+response in some of the best episcopal charges and admonitions of the
+Protestant church at the present day.
+
+                   [Footnote 45: Anthony a Wood, referring to the
+                   alleged resolution of the University of Oxford in
+                   favour of Wickliff and his doctrines, refers to
+                   this Bishop Hallam, though with some mistake. "The
+                   prime broacher," he says, "of this testimonial, of
+                   which we have nothing in our registers, records, or
+                   books of epistles, was John Husse in the first tome
+                   of his works, and from him John Fox. Against the
+                   former of whom it was objected in the Council of
+                   Constance, that he had openly divulged the said
+                   commendatory letter in behalf of John Wickliff,
+                   falsely conveyed to Prague, under the title of the
+                   University of Oxford, by two students, one a
+                   Bohemian, the other an Englishman. Whereupon those
+                   of England who were present at the council, of
+                   whom, if I mistake not, Robert Hallam, about these
+                   times Bishop of Oxford [Salisbury], was one,
+                   produce another letter under the seal of the
+                   University, wherein, on the contrary, the members
+                   thereof as much denounce against him as the other
+                   was in behalf of him, and referred the matter to
+                   the council to judge of it as they thought fit; but
+                   how it was decided I find not."]
+
+Among these excellent men, Dr. Richard Ullerston, of Oxford, seems to
+have taken a most primitive view of the duties of a Christian bishop.
+He wrote a treatise in 1408, by way of memorial for Bishop Hallam, his
+friend, who urged him to the work, when that uncompromising reformer
+went to the Council of Pisa. At the close of a long and powerful
+exhortation to provide for the due execution by the Popes of their own
+ministerial duties, and for the restoration of discipline in the
+church, he thus expresses himself: "Things being thus restored to
+their right order, and all abuses being cut away, the Pope will employ
+himself, agreeably to the duties of his charge, in procuring peace for
+Christians, not only by praying, but by preaching the Gospel       (p. 053)
+himself, and sending everywhere good preachers, who by their doctrine
+and example might urge on princes and people throughout the world
+their several duties, and who might make a holy war upon the passions
+of mankind, rooting up those sensual desires which, according to St.
+James, are the source of wars and divisions in the church and in the
+state." This treatise was published in Germany about the year 1700,
+from a manuscript in Trinity College, Cambridge; and may be found at
+the end of Van der Hardt's work on the Council of Constance. It
+consists chiefly of petitions for the remedy of abuses, and is full
+from beginning to end of the true spirit of genuine evangelical
+religion. Dr. Ullerston remained in uninterrupted and perfect
+communion with the church of Rome; and yet no Protestant, who ever
+suffered at the stake for his opposition to her, could have more
+faithfully exposed the practical grievances under which Christendom
+then mourned in consequence of her dereliction of duty, whilst she
+assumed to herself all supreme authority, and paralyzed the efforts of
+national churches to remedy the crying evils of the time. The heads of
+Ullerston's petitions abound with salutary suggestions; by many of the
+items we are apprised of the grievances then chiefly complained of, or
+the departments in which those grievances were found.
+
+  1. On the election of a Pope.
+
+  2. On the suppression of simony.
+
+  3. On the exaltation of the law of Christ above all human        (p. 054)
+  authority.
+
+  4. Against appropriations, _i.e._ assigning the proceeds of parochial
+  cures to monasteries.
+
+  5. On appointing only fit persons to ecclesiastical stations.
+
+  6. Against exemptions of monasteries and individuals from episcopal
+  jurisdiction.
+
+  7. Against dispensations,--those, among others, by which benefices and
+  bishoprics were given to children.
+
+  8. Against pluralities.
+
+  9. Against appeals to Rome.
+
+  10. Against the abuse of privileges.
+
+  11. Against the clergy devoting themselves to secular affairs.
+
+  12. Against the prerogatives of chanters[46] and other officers in the
+  houses of the great.
+
+                   [Footnote 46: In his arguments on this article Dr.
+                   Ullerston offers some excellent reflections upon
+                   the use and abuse of singing in the church. The
+                   sentiments of Augustin, which he quotes, are truly
+                   judicious and edifying. That eloquent father
+                   lamented that often the beauty of the singing
+                   withdrew his mind from the divine matter and
+                   substance of what was sung; but when he remembered
+                   how, on occasions of peculiar interest to him,
+                   psalmody carried his soul towards heaven in holy
+                   raptures, he could not help voting for its
+                   continuance in the church service. Ullerston quotes
+                   also two lines, not indeed specimens of classical
+                   accuracy, but the spirit of which should never be
+                   absent from the mind of a Christian worshipper,
+                   whether a Protestant or in communion with the see
+                   of Rome:
+
+                         "Non vox sed votum, non musica chordula sed cor,
+                         Non clamor sed amor, sonat in aure Dei."]
+
+  13. Generally against extortions.                                (p. 055)
+
+  14. Against excessive expenses in the persons and the families of the
+  clergy.
+
+  15. For a provision for more efficient divine service in parishes.
+
+  16. For the restoration of peace through Christendom.
+
+In his reflections on these points there is so much sound sense and
+genuine affection for true religion, such an ardent desire pervades
+them of promoting the ends for which alone an establishment can be
+justified on warrant of Scripture, or is in itself desirable,--the
+salvation of souls through Christ for ever,--that, had it not been out
+of place, the Author would have gladly transcribed a great part of Dr.
+Ullerston's sentiments into these pages. His suggestions savour
+throughout of genuine piety and true practical wisdom.
+
+To Ullerston must be added Walter Dysse, who was commissioned by Pope
+Boniface IX. to proceed to Spain, Portugal, and Aquitain, to preach a
+crusade against the infidels. He was a most deadly enemy to the
+followers of Wicliffe, and a devoted friend to the court of Rome; yet
+he could not pass over in silence the cause of the divisions and
+corruptions of the church, nor the means of their effectual
+reformation.
+
+But, perhaps, among all those whom the history of this Council records
+as zealous promoters of a real reformation within the church itself,
+our more immediate object in these Memoirs would require us        (p. 056)
+to make especial mention of Thomas Walden, because he was one of Henry
+of Monmouth's own chaplains,[47] and was employed by him not only in
+domestic concerns, but in foreign embassies.[48] He was called the
+Netter, from the expertness and success with which he caught and
+mastered his antagonists in argument. He was present at the Council of
+Pisa as well as of Constance. He proved himself throughout a most
+bitter persecutor of heretics; and (as Van der Hardt expresses
+himself) the less imbued he was with any affection towards the
+disciples of Huss, or influenced by it, so much the more sincere a
+censor was he of the ecclesiastical corruptions of his time. He was
+bent on reforming the abuses of the church with a strong hand, and so
+far the wishes of his royal master coincided with his own; but he  (p. 057)
+could not prevail upon the King to go hand-in-hand with him in
+persecuting the heretics. Walden was bold enough, in his mistaken
+zeal, to charge Henry with a culpable remissness in what was then too
+generally supposed to be the duty of a Christian sovereign.[49]
+
+                   [Footnote 47: Thomas Gascoyne, a contemporary
+                   writer, born 1403, ordained 1427, who gives us a
+                   deplorable view of the ignorance and immorality of
+                   the clergy of his time, mentions the appointment of
+                   Walden as Henry's chaplain, in confirmation of his
+                   position that he never could find that any King of
+                   England retained any bishop after consecration as
+                   his confessor or resident chaplain till the time of
+                   Henry VI. "When (he says) Henry IV.'s confessor was
+                   made a bishop, he sent him to his cure and his
+                   bishopric; and Henry V, who was a very prudent King
+                   indeed, and terrible to many nations, had with him
+                   one doctor proficient in divinity, Thomas Walden,
+                   as his confessor, who was burdened with no cure of
+                   souls. Thus were Kings and Lords accustomed to
+                   retain as their chaplains persons who were free
+                   from all cure of souls."]
+
+                   [Footnote 48: Pell Rolls, Mich. 7 Hen. V, he is
+                   paid for his expenses in an embassy to the King of
+                   Poland.]
+
+                   [Footnote 49: L'Estrange, Counc. Constance, vol.
+                   ii. p. 282; and Van der Hardt, tom. i. p. 501.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A communication made personally to Henry from Constance, in the
+beginning of the year 1417,[50] deserves in this place our especial
+attention. The letter, written by John Forester,[51] may perhaps be
+considered a fair specimen of correspondence between Englishmen of
+education at that period. As a vehicle of information on the real
+state of feeling in England with regard to the church of Rome, it is
+very interesting. It is, moreover, impossible to read it without
+inferring that, in the opinion of the writer at least, and of those in
+whose behalf he wrote, Henry's earnest desire was to reform the abuses
+of the church, and to render churchmen zealous servants of the Gospel.
+
+                   [Footnote 50: Not 1418, as it has been supposed,
+                   but 1417. The date is fixed by the specifying of
+                   Wednesday the 27th January, as also by the mention
+                   of the Genoese ships. These ships were hired, and
+                   they fought under the French against the English,
+                   and were beat in July 1417, after a severe
+                   engagement.]
+
+                   [Footnote 51: Cott. MSS. Cleopatra, t. vii. p.
+                   148.]
+
+     JOHN FORESTER'S LETTER FROM CONSTANCE TO HENRY V.             (p. 058)
+
+     "My sovereign liege Lord, and most redoubted Prince Christian to
+     me on earth. I recommend me unto your high royal and imperial
+     Majesty with all manner [of] honours, worships, grace, and
+     goodnesses. My most glorious Lord, liketh you to wit, that the
+     Wednesday, the third hour after noon, or near thereto, the seven
+     and twentieth day of January, your brother['s] gracious person
+     the King of Rome entered the city of Constance with your livery
+     of the Collar about his neck,--a glad sight for all your liege
+     men to see,--with a solemn procession of all estates, both of
+     Cardinals of all nations, and your Lords in their best array with
+     all your nation. He received your Lords graciously, with right
+     good cheer. Of all the worshipful men of your nation he touched
+     their hands, [and theirs] only, in all the great press. And then
+     went my Lord of Salisbury [Hallam] before heartily to the place
+     of the general Council, where that royal King should rest; and he
+     entered into the pulpit where the Cardinal Candacence,[52] chief
+     of the nation of France, and your especial enemy also, had
+     purposed to have made the first collation[53] before the
+     King,[54] in worship of the French nation. But my Lord of
+     Salisbury kept possession, in worship of you and your nation; and
+     he made there a right good collation that pleased the King right
+     well: and forasmuch as the King was fasting at that hour, then
+     would no man occupy him more that day; but on the morn        (p. 059)
+     (my liege Lord) liketh you to wit, that at nine of the bell all
+     your ambassadors, with all your nation in their best array, went
+     to worship him in his palace, and that he gave them glad and
+     gracious audience. There my Lord of Chester, the president of
+     your nation, had his words to him in such a wise that it was
+     worship to him and all our nation; and soon after this they took
+     their leave of him. And on the morrow he sends after them again
+     at ten of the clock. There he received them again every man by
+     hand. Then he made a collation to our nation, and he thanked them
+     especially that they had been so loving, trusty, and true to his
+     nation in his absence. Also, he rehearsed there how the
+     brotherhood [friendship] began between him and my Lord your
+     father; and how it is now so continued and knit for you and your
+     successors, with the grace of God, for ever. And he told them so
+     great worship of your royal person, and such of all my Lords your
+     brethren; and then of the governance of holy church, divine
+     service, ornaments, and all state thereof, kept as though it were
+     in Paradise, in comparison with any place that he ever came in
+     before; so that from the highest unto the lowest he commended
+     your glorious and gracious person, your realm, and your good
+     governance. And then my Lord of Chester, our president, in the
+     name of all our nation (as belongeth to his office) rehearsed
+     compendiously, and in a gentle wise, all that ever the Emperor
+     had said; and gave him an answer to every point so good and so
+     reasonable, in so short avisement, that he has got him the thanks
+     of your nation for ever. And also, sovereign liege Lord, as I may
+     understand, my Lords of Salisbury and Chester are fully disposed,
+     by the consent of all your other ambassadors, to suive [pursue]
+     the reformation in the church, in the head and the members,
+     having no regard to no benefices[55] that they have,          (p. 060)
+     rather than it should be left undone. And of this I doubt me
+     nought that these two lords will abide hard and nigh, always by
+     the good advice and deliberation of your brother the King of
+     Rome. Moreover, liketh you to wit, that on Sunday, the last day
+     of January, your brother, the King of Rome, wore the gown of the
+     Garters, with your collar, openly at the high mass; and he was
+     lereth [learned] that the Duke of Beyer and the borough-grave
+     should eat with my Lord of London the same day, and he said he
+     would eat with them. Other tidings be there none, but, as it is
+     said, the ambassadors of Spain should be here in Constance within
+     a few days. And, on Candlemas eve, came letters from the French
+     King, commanding to his nation to put out the ambassadors of the
+     Duke of Burgundy from their nation; also, as it is said openly,
+     that the foresaid French King hath sent to the city of Genoa, and
+     forwarded a great sum of gold to [hire[56]] wage great ships and
+     galleys, to destroy your ordinance and your navy of England. And
+     further, the day of making this letter, Master Philip Moyar
+     entered Constance in good health, thanked be God! The which God,
+     of his gracious goodness, keep your high, honourable, and
+     gracious person in his pleasance, and send you sovereignty and
+     victory of all your enemies. Written at Constance, the second day
+     of February,
+                 "By your poor, true, and continual
+                                      "Orator,[57]
+                                             "JOHN FORESTER."
+
+                   [Footnote 52: Cardinalis Camaracensis, or Cardinal
+                   of Cambray.]
+
+                   [Footnote 53: "Collation" meant discourse, or
+                   speech, generally of a laudatory character.]
+
+                   [Footnote 54: The Spaniards, the French, and others
+                   were jealous of the English enjoying the privilege
+                   of ranking and voting single-handed as one of the
+                   nations, and insisted upon their being regarded
+                   only as a part of a larger section of Europe, just
+                   as Austria was only part of Germany. But the
+                   English resisted, and preserved their privilege.]
+
+                   [Footnote 55: This alludes to the intention of
+                   putting a stop to the rich and numerous commendams
+                   which were then heaped on bishops. Our English
+                   prelates were determined to carry on the
+                   reformation, though at their own personal
+                   sacrifice.]
+
+                   [Footnote 56: This negotiation was successful. The
+                   French hired a fleet of long ships of the Genoese.]
+
+                   [Footnote 57: Orator.--Petitioner, one who prayed
+                   for the welfare of another.]
+
+It is curious to remark that, on the very Sunday before this       (p. 061)
+letter was written, the English bishops caused a sort of pious comedy
+to be acted in the presence of the Emperor Sigismund. It was one of
+those mysteries, as they were called, which had so long mingled
+religious instruction (of a very questionable character) with
+amusement. The fruits of these exhibitions were probably very
+equivocal in that age in England, as they are on the Continent at this
+day. The Germans consider this play, which was the representation of
+the Nativity,[58] the Massacre of the Innocents, and the Visit of the
+Magi, as the first introduction of that sort of dramatic performance
+into their country. The English had caused a rehearsal to be performed
+before the authorities of the place three or four times previously, in
+order to make the actors perfect for their imperial audience.
+
+                   [Footnote 58: A curious entry occurs (11th July
+                   1390) in the Pell Rolls of 10_l._ ordered by the
+                   King (Richard II.) to be paid to the clerks of the
+                   parish churches, and other clerks in the city of
+                   London, on account of the play of the Passion of
+                   our Lord and the Creation of the World, by them
+                   performed at Skynnerswell after the feast of
+                   Bartholomew last past.]
+
+About half a year after the date of this letter to Henry, his uncle,
+Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, reached Constance in the garb of
+a pilgrim, on his journey to the Holy Land. His safe-conduct is dated
+July 21, 1417. His arrival at Constance was very prejudicial to the
+cause of the reform of the church. The struggle then was between the
+imperial party (to which the English were closely attached)        (p. 062)
+and the Cardinals, whether the Pope should be first elected, or
+whether the reformations in the church should take precedence of his
+election. Henry Beaufort, to whom all parties seem to have paid the
+utmost deference, suggested the expediency of first electing the Pope;
+the Cardinals pledging themselves, that done, to proceed forthwith to
+the reformation. His advice was followed, and the result must have
+been a disappointment to all sincere Christians: a death-blow was
+given to the hopes which had been entertained of a reform in
+ecclesiastical affairs to be effected by that Council. No sooner was
+Pope Martin V. elected, than both himself and the Cardinals frustrated
+every attempt to secure a sound reformation; and, after sitting three
+years and six months, the Council was dissolved.
+
+The records of this Council of Constance bear incidentally most
+valuable evidence to the warm interest taken by Henry in everything
+over which he had any control, and in which he could beneficially
+employ his power and influence. They prove, moreover, that whilst he
+was a sincere promoter of a sound and wholesome reformation, and most
+zealously attached to the religion in which he had been brought up,
+and in which he was a conscientious believer, he was no persecutor.
+Though our souls are harrowed up by the unchristian proceedings
+against John Huss and Jerome of Prague, (and, could truth allow it, we
+would gladly wipe away so black a stain from the annals of ages    (p. 063)
+and nations called Christian,) it is a source of great satisfaction to
+find that the name of Henry of Monmouth is not at all mixed up with
+those deeds of blood: we find him neither encouraging nor approving
+them. Not one shadow of suspicion is suggested that the persecuting
+spirit, which in that Council displayed itself so outrageously and
+inhumanly, found any thoughts in his breast responsive to its cruel
+aspirations. We know, indeed, that Thomas Walden, his priest and
+chaplain, was actuated by the spirit of persecution towards the
+Lollards; but we are equally assured that, so far from being
+countenanced and encouraged by his master in acts of persecuting
+bigotry, he did not scruple openly in public, and solemnly in a
+sermon, to charge him with a want of zeal in extirpating the enemies
+of the church. From such a witness the testimony so borne to the
+charity and moderation of Henry of Monmouth is very valuable and
+satisfactory; abundantly outweighing all the declamation of modern
+enthusiastic censors. Henry was a reformer,--he could not be persuaded
+to become a persecutor.[59]
+
+                   [Footnote 59: For satisfaction on this point, the
+                   reader is especially referred to the chapter
+                   entitled, "Was Henry of Monmouth a religious
+                   persecutor?"]
+
+Henry's reputation for having at heart the correction of all abuses in
+the church, encouraged the University of Oxford to present to him a
+petition, setting forth a multitude of corrupt practices which     (p. 064)
+were a disgrace to the Christian religion in England; and praying
+him, since God had raised him up to such an exalted place in the
+church, to put forth his power in effecting a reformation.[60] This
+document, preserved in Corpus Christi College in Oxford, abounds in
+topics of deep and lively interest; it marks the fearful extent to
+which the corrupt practices in the church had been fostered by Rome,
+the ardent desire entertained in England for a reformation so early as
+the commencement of the fifteenth century, and Henry's anxiety to
+bring about such a reform in the discipline of the church as might
+safely be adopted without giving countenance and encouragement to the
+Lollards, against whom the University seems at this time to have been
+decidedly hostile.
+
+                   [Footnote 60: In this petition of the University,
+                   Henry is told, that what Constantinus, Marcianus,
+                   and Theodosius had been in the East, that was he in
+                   the West; by his eminent Christian piety resisting
+                   the accomplices of Satan, and preventing the
+                   western church from sinking utterly. By his wise
+                   and peaceable government of the church he was (they
+                   say) best providing for the peace and security of
+                   the state, whilst he cut off and cast away the
+                   rank, luxuriant offshoots of offences as they grew.
+                   In marking out the most notable defects and abuses,
+                   they obeyed (they say) his sacred commands; and
+                   they prayed him to exert his authority in
+                   correcting them.]
+
+The points to which Oxford then solicited Henry to direct his especial
+care, were partly such as are no longer of general interest among us,
+(excepting so far as they remind us of the mass of evils from which
+the Reformation rescued us,) and partly such as must be            (p. 065)
+interesting to Christians of every age.
+
+Among the former grievances were reckoned the Pope's unlimited
+creation of cardinals, all to be supported out of the revenues of the
+church; the excessive grants of indulgences, by which persons were
+encouraged in licentiousness; the privileges and exemptions and
+scandalous immorality of the monks. The petitioners complained
+bitterly that though the church of England would not admit persons
+into sacred orders who were unfit and unworthy, yet the court of Rome
+would repeatedly recognise such as lawful ministers.
+
+Among the latter evils were the non-residence of incumbents, the
+inadequacy of the stipends of curates, and the commendams of bishops.
+The petitioners prayed, that whereas a great number both of regulars
+and seculars who were presumptuous and ignorant were ordained, a
+decree might be passed that all before ordination should be strictly
+examined; and that a remedy should be provided against simony.[61]
+They petitioned, also, that foreigners who could not speak English
+should have no cures in England; and they complained of the practice
+of patrons exacting from the priests whom they nominated to a benefice
+a pledge that they would not sue for an augmentation of their      (p. 066)
+stipend, were it never so small. They closed their petition by
+praying that all bishops who were remiss in punishing heresy, and
+extirpating Lollardy, might be deposed; and that all magistrates and
+officers should be bound by their oath to aid in its extirpation.[62]
+
+                   [Footnote 61: There was also a prayer to prohibit
+                   the practice of confiscating the goods of Jews and
+                   heathens at their baptism, a practice tending to
+                   debar them from offering themselves at the font.]
+
+                   [Footnote 62: Cotton. Tiber. B. vi. F. 64.]
+
+Henry, deeply lamenting the gross abuses referred to in this petition,
+implored the Pope to suffer them to be redressed. His Holiness agreed
+to certain constitutions, by which, if fully acted upon, most of the
+evils complained of would have been rectified. The Pope, however,
+begged Henry in return to abrogate all the laws which had been enacted
+in England to the prejudice of Rome; but the King declared his
+inability to meet the wishes of his Holiness.
+
+The extent to which the abuse of the Pope's[63] authority had been
+connived at in this country,--a state of things which naturally
+indisposed him towards any change for the better,--may be inferred
+from two facts: that he (in defiance of the statutes of Edward III.
+and Richard II.) had by his own authority created thirteen         (p. 067)
+bishops in the province of Canterbury in two years; and had appointed
+his nephew, Prospero Colonna, a boy of only fourteen years of age,
+Archdeacon of Canterbury, with fourteen benefices in England.
+
+                   [Footnote 63: The fact is, that Henry, during his
+                   wars in France, suffered Pope Martin to exercise
+                   his pretended prerogative in the disposal of
+                   benefices to an extent, if not unprecedented,
+                   certainly most unjustifiable. The Chapter of York
+                   gave the first blow to this growing usurpation by
+                   refusing to admit, in obedience to the Pope's
+                   mandate, Richard Fleming, Bishop of Lincoln, into
+                   the archiepiscopal see.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Before we leave this subject, we cannot but record an instance
+(mentioned by Walsingham) of Henry's personal exertions in reforming
+abuses. He had received complaints against the Benedictine monks of
+certain grievous corruptions; and, attended only by four persons, he
+went into the midst of a full assembly of that order. The meeting
+consisted of sixty abbots and priors of convents, and more than three
+hundred monks, who were all assembled in the Chapter-house of
+Westminster. After a speech from the Bishop of Exeter, (one of those
+who accompanied him,) Henry himself addressed them at great length. He
+reminded them of the ancient piety of the monks, and the devotion of
+his predecessors and others in founding and endowing monasteries; he
+expatiated on the negligence and remissness in the discharge of their
+sacred duties, which, he said, had become notorious in their times;
+and he then exhibited certain articles according to which he required
+them to reform themselves; earnestly entreating them to recover the
+ancient spirit of religion which they had lost, and habitually to pray
+for the King, the country, and the church; assuring them that, if they
+followed his directions, they needed fear none of their enemies.   (p. 068)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+That Henry V, though earnestly desirous of a sound reform in the
+discipline of the church, and the lives and ministrations of the
+clergy, did never lay the axe to the root of the evil, cannot be
+denied. Perhaps he was disheartened by the total failure of the united
+efforts of himself and Sigismund, with their honest and zealous
+adherents, at Constance. Perhaps he resolved to wait till, at the
+close of his continental campaigns, in the enjoyment of peace at home
+and abroad, he might be able to devote his concentrated exertions to
+an object of such paramount importance. Perhaps the ambition of his
+uncle Henry Beaufort, who evidently was looking for personal
+aggrandizement in wealth and dignity, and who had given so decided and
+unhappy a turn in the council of Constance in favour of the Pope's
+party, might have devised some means for seducing his nephew's ardent
+thoughts into another channel. To whatever cause we may be disposed to
+attribute it, the reality is, that Henry V, when he died, had not
+effected reform on any comprehensive scale in his own realm; nor had
+he given any decided blow to the dominion and the corruptions of the
+church of Rome. His short life was a career of wars and victories.
+
+It pleased the Almighty, in his inscrutable wisdom, to bring       (p. 069)
+about the reformation of the church in his own way, by his own means,
+and at his own appointed time. We recognise his hand in the blessing
+which we have inherited, and are thankful.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.                                                       (p. 070)
+
+WARS WITH FRANCE. -- CAUSES WHICH INFLUENCED HENRY. -- SUMMARY OF THE
+AFFAIRS OF FRANCE FROM THE TIME OF EDWARD III. -- REFLECTIONS ON
+HENRY'S TITLE. -- AFFAIRS OF FRANCE FROM HENRY'S RESOLUTION TO CLAIM
+HIS "DORMANT RIGHTS," AND "RIGHTFUL HERITAGE," TO HIS INVASION OF
+NORMANDY. -- NEGOCIATIONS. -- HIS RIGHT DENIED BY THE FRENCH. --
+PARLIAMENT VOTES HIM SUPPLIES.
+
+1414.
+
+WARS WITH FRANCE.
+
+
+It falls not within the province of these Memoirs to justify the
+proceedings of Henry of Monmouth with regard to France, by an
+examination into the soundness of his claims, and the abstract
+principles on which he and his subjects and advisers rested them. But
+it is incumbent on any one who would estimate his character uprightly,
+to weigh the considerations by which he was influenced in the
+undertaking, neither according to our present standard, nor
+independently of all the circumstances of the age in which he lived,
+and the sentiments then generally prevalent among men of education and
+reputed probity.
+
+Historians have generally represented it as an established fact    (p. 071)
+that the clergy, especially the Archbishop of Canterbury, alarmed
+at the bold and urgent call of the Commons upon the King to seize the
+church patrimony, and from its proceeds apply whatever was required by
+the exigencies of the state, hit upon the expedient of stimulating him
+to claim France as his inheritance; thus withdrawing his mind from a
+measure so fatal to their interests. Though the evidence on which such
+a tradition rests is by no means satisfactory, we may perhaps receive
+it as probable. That the Commons were clamorous for the confiscation
+of the ecclesiastical revenues, and that the clergy voluntarily voted
+a very large subsidy to aid the King in prosecuting his alleged rights
+on the Continent, are matters of historical certainty. That the
+ecclesiastics, moreover, originally suggested to him the design of
+reviving his dormant claim to an inheritance in the fair realm of
+France, and then fostered the thought, and justified the undertaking
+by argument, and pledged their priestly word for the righteousness of
+his cause, is doubtless no unreasonable supposition. Still the clergy
+do not appear to have been in the least more eager in the scheme, or
+more anxious to protect themselves and their revenues from spoliation
+by such a scheme, than were the laity enthusiastically bent on a
+harvest of national glory and aggrandizement from its success.[64] In
+a word, the King himself, the nobles, and the people, all seem     (p. 072)
+to have been equally determined to engage in the enterprise, and
+to support each other in the resolution that it was not only
+practicable, but most fully justifiable by the laws of God and man.
+
+                   [Footnote 64: The people of England gave frequent
+                   proofs of their desire to seize every opportunity
+                   of reaping glory from conquests in France. When the
+                   Duke of Burgundy and the confederated princes, in
+                   the struggle to which we have before referred,
+                   applied in the first instance for assistance to
+                   Henry IV, Laboureur tells us that Henry replied to
+                   the latter that he was compelled to accept the
+                   offer of the Duke of Burgundy, to avoid the
+                   irritation and discontent of his subjects, which
+                   would be raised if he neglected so favourable an
+                   opportunity of forwarding the national interests.]
+
+That Henry's high spirit predisposed him to listen with readiness and
+satisfaction to the suggestions of his subjects in this behalf, we may
+well believe; but that he would have been driven by a dominant
+ambition to engage in a war of conquest against the acknowledged
+principles of justice, his character, firmly established by undeniable
+proofs of a private as well as a public nature, forbids us to admit.
+It must never be forgotten that those persons who were then
+universally regarded as the best and safest interpreters of law, human
+and divine, assured him, on his solemn appeal to them for their
+judgment,[65] that the cause in which he was embarking was just;   (p. 073)
+and, as many incidents in the sequel establish, he did embark in
+it without any doubts or misgivings, without the slightest scruple of
+conscience; on the contrary, with a full confidence in the entire
+righteousness of his cause, and a most unbounded reliance on the arm
+of the God of Justice for success.
+
+                   [Footnote 65: The "Chronicles of England" record,
+                   that, "in the second year of King Henry's reign, he
+                   held a council of all the lords of his realm at
+                   Westminster; and there he put to them this demand,
+                   and prayed and besought them of their goodness, and
+                   of their good counsel and good-will, as touching
+                   the right and title that he had to Normandy,
+                   Gascony, and Guienne--the which the King of France
+                   withheld wrongfully and unrightfully--the which his
+                   ancestors before him had by true title of conquest
+                   and right heritage--the which Normandy, Gascony,
+                   and Guienne the good King Edward of Windsor, and
+                   his ancestors before him, had holden all their
+                   life's time. And his lords gave him counsel to send
+                   ambassadors unto the King of France and his
+                   council, demanding that he should give up to him
+                   his right heritage,--that is to say, Normandy,
+                   Gascony, and Guienne,--the which his predecessors
+                   had holden before him, or else he would win it with
+                   dint of sword in short time with the help of
+                   Almighty God."]
+
+The facts which laid the groundwork for his enterprising spirit to
+build upon are very interesting; and, though they may perhaps belong
+rather to general history than to Memoirs of Henry of Monmouth, yet a
+brief review of them might seem altogether indispensable in this
+place.
+
+"The preference given by the States-General to Philip of Valois above
+Edward III, when he laid claim to the crown of France, led to that
+disastrous war, the prominent incidents of which are familiar to every
+one at all acquainted with the history of that time. Edward gained a
+naval victory over the French, and conquered Philip at Cressy, and
+possessed himself of Calais, which gave him an entrance into       (p. 074)
+France at all times. After some interval, Edward the Black Prince, his
+son, gained the famous battle of Poictiers; where King John, son and
+successor of Philip of Valois, was taken prisoner. Whilst that monarch
+was a captive in England, Edward entered France at the head of one
+hundred thousand men, and marched to the very gates of Paris. This
+successful invasion led to the treaty of Bretigny. By the terms of
+that peace, Edward recovered all those ancient dependencies of Guienne
+which had been wrested from his ancestors. These provinces had fallen
+to the Kings of England by the marriage of Eleanor, heiress of
+Guienne, with Henry II; but, from the time of John (Lackland) and
+Henry III, Philip Augustus and St. Lewis, Kings of France, had so
+shorn that vast territory, that nothing remained to England except
+Bourdeaux, Bayonne, and Gascony. Besides, by the same treaty, Edward
+secured Montreuil and Ponthieu, Calais and Guienne; and all these
+possessions were ceded to him in full sovereignty without any suit or
+homage due to France. Finally, he stipulated for the sum of three
+millions of golden crowns as the ransom of King John. On his side, he
+consented to forego all right and claim which he might have on the
+crown of France. Especially he renounced all title to Normandy and
+other places, which were said to be the heritage of his ancestors, and
+to all the sovereignty of Brittany. This treaty was solemnly       (p. 075)
+executed by King John, and observed during his life, except as to the
+ransom, two-thirds of which remained undischarged at his death. But
+Charles V, his son and successor, finding this peace very
+disadvantageous to France, though he had himself been a party to it,
+and had sworn to observe its conditions, broke it on very frivolous
+grounds. He declared war against Edward, and in a very few years
+recovered all that had been ceded to England by the treaty of
+Bretigny, except Calais, Bayonne, Bourdeaux, and part of Guienne. This
+second war was interrupted by a truce, which continued till the death
+of Edward III. in 1377. During the reign of Richard II, and the
+remainder of Charles V.'s life, and the first years of Charles VI, war
+and peace followed each other in mutual succession, without any
+important or decided advantage on either side. At last, Richard II.
+and Charles VI. concluded a truce for twenty-eight years, which was
+ratified by the marriage of Richard with Isabel, Charles's daughter.
+From the deposition of Richard to the death of Henry IV,
+notwithstanding frequent violations of the truce, both sides
+maintained that it still subsisted. Such was the state of the two
+crowns when Henry of Monmouth mounted the throne. France having broken
+the peace of Bretigny, and maintaining that the treaty was void,
+evidently the Kings of England were reinstated in all their rights
+which they had before that peace. On this principle, immediately
+after the disclaimer of that peace on the part of France,          (p. 076)
+Edward III. resumed the title of King of France, which he had laid
+aside; and his successors assumed it also. Since the commencement of
+the war which followed the treaty of Bretigny there never had been
+peace between the two crowns, but only truces, which do not affect the
+rights of the parties. It is evident, therefore, that, when he
+ascended the throne, Henry V. found himself under precisely the same
+circumstances in point of right in which his great grandfather, Edward
+III, was eighty years before, when he commenced the first war. Besides
+this, Henry had to allege a solemn treaty, which, after it had been
+unequivocally acted upon, France broke on a most trifling pretext."
+
+Such is the representation made by the author of the Abrege
+Historique[66] of the affairs of England; and the Author is desirous
+of transferring into his pages this clear and candid statement the
+rather because it is written by a foreigner, who seems to have viewed
+the transaction with enlightened and unprejudiced eyes.
+
+                   [Footnote 66: "Abrege Historique des Actes Publics
+                   d'Angleterre," which now accompanies the foreign
+                   edition of Rymer's Foedera.]
+
+More modern writers, indeed, would teach us to deem it "unnecessary
+for them to comment on the absurdity of Henry's claim to the French
+crown in right of his descent from Isabella wife of Edward II. For
+futile as her son Edward's (III.) pretensions were, Henry's were   (p. 077)
+still less reasonable, as the Earl of March was in 1415 the heir
+of those persons."[67]
+
+                   [Footnote 67: Sir H. Nicolas.]
+
+The fact on which this reasoning rests is undoubtedly true, and yet
+considerations connected with that claim require to be entertained,
+and weighed without haste and without prejudice; and the truth itself
+warns us not to dismiss the point so summarily. Henry (it must never
+be forgotten) had been bred up in the belief that Richard II. had in
+the most full and unreserved manner, by his act of resignation,
+yielded all his rights into the hands of the people of England, and
+that those rights had been as fully and unreservedly conferred by the
+nation on Henry's father. Whatever rights, moreover, the Earl of March
+possessed as lineal heir to the crown, he had, as far as his own
+personal interest was concerned, over and over again, not merely by a
+passive acquiescence, but by repeated voluntary acts, virtually
+resigned, and made over to Henry as actual King; and, lastly, it is
+clear that Henry's claim was always by himself and by the nation
+rested on the ground of his being King of England, and, ipso facto, as
+such, heir of all his predecessors Kings of England.
+
+On these grounds, and with such an opening offered to his ardent mind
+by the distracted state of the realm of France, Henry resolved to
+prefer his claim; negociating first for its amicable concession, and,
+if unsuccessful in negociation, then pursuing it in the field of
+battle. This appears to have been his determination from the       (p. 078)
+first; but from the first he seems also to have contemplated the
+probability of failure by treaty; for, from the first intimation of
+his designs, he and his subjects were steadily engaged in making every
+preparation[68] for a vigorous invasion of France.
+
+In this part of our treatise a brief outline is required of the
+proceedings between the resolution first taken by Henry, and his
+appearance in arms on French land; nor can we satisfactorily pass on
+without taking a succinct view of the internal state of that kingdom
+at the time of Henry's original claim and subsequent invasion.
+
+                   [Footnote 68: The only measures mentioned in the
+                   "Foedera," before April 1415, indicative of
+                   Henry's expectation that the negociations with
+                   France would not terminate pacifically, are, that
+                   on September 26, 1414, the exportation of gunpowder
+                   was prohibited; whilst, on the 22nd, Nicholas
+                   Merbury, the master, and John Louth, the clerk of
+                   the King's works, guns, and other ordnance, had
+                   been commanded to provide smiths and workmen, with
+                   conveyance for them; that, on the 18th of the
+                   following March, Richard Clyderowe and Simon Flete
+                   were directed to treat with Holland for ships; and,
+                   on the 22nd, the Sheriff of London was ordered to
+                   summon knights, esquires, and valets, who held
+                   fees, wages, or annuities by grant from the King or
+                   his ancestors, to repair forthwith to London, and,
+                   on pain of forfeiture, to be there by the 24th of
+                   April at the latest.--Sir H. Nicolas.
+
+                   The Pell Rolls record the payment of "2,000_l._ to
+                   Richard Clitherow and Reginald Curtys, (27th
+                   February 1415; ordered by the King himself to go to
+                   Zealand and Holland, for the purpose of treating
+                   with the Duke of Holland and others to supply ships
+                   for the King's present voyage,) therewith to pay
+                   divers masters and mariners, who were to accompany
+                   him abroad, whither he was going in his own
+                   person."]
+
+
+SUMMARY OF THE AFFAIRS OF FRANCE.                                  (p. 079)
+
+Charles V, surnamed the Wise, died in 1380.[69] He left to succeed him
+his son Charles VI, twelve years of age; and he appointed his three
+brothers to govern the kingdom during the minority,--Lewis, Duke of
+Anjou, John, Duke of Berry, and Philip, Duke of Burgundy, who by their
+ambition and rivalry threw the whole realm into confusion. Charles V.
+left also another son, called the Duke of Orleans, who in his time
+contributed to the general confusion no less than his uncles. Through
+the first days of Charles's (VI.) reign, the three regents, differing
+in every other point, agreed only in burdening the nation with taxes;
+a circumstance which bred great discontent, and prepared the people
+for separating into different factions whenever an opportunity might
+occur.
+
+                   [Footnote 69: The Author has been, in this portion
+                   of his work, chiefly assisted by the authors of the
+                   "Abrege Historique," above referred to.]
+
+The Duke of Anjou quitted France in 1381, to take possession of his
+kingdom of Sicily. The King was of age to be his own master, according
+to the will of his father, at fourteen; yet his uncles governed both
+his estate and his person till he was twenty. In 1385, he was married
+to Isabella, daughter of Stephen, Duke of Bavaria.
+
+In 1388, Charles assumed the reins of government, discharging his
+uncles, and keeping about his person his brother, the Duke of Orleans,
+then seventeen, and his maternal uncle the Duke of Bourbon.
+
+The Duke of Burgundy could not endure to see the Dukes of          (p. 080)
+Orleans and Bourbon govern the kingdom in the name of the King; and in
+1391 he succeeded in causing the Estates-General to transfer the
+government to him under the pretext of aiding his nephew to bear the
+burden of the state. Probably the King had already shown symptoms of
+that imbecility which afterwards incapacitated him altogether for
+managing the affairs of his kingdom. In 1395 his malady increased in
+violence; and for some time the Queen his wife, the Dukes of Orleans,
+Berry, Burgundy, and Bourbon, each struggled hard to retain the reins
+of government in their own hands. At length the Dukes of Orleans and
+Burgundy formed two opposite parties; under the banners of which, as
+well the members of the court, as the subjects of the kingdom at
+large, arranged themselves in hostile ranks. Queen Isabella joined the
+Duke of Orleans. The Duke of Berry fluctuated between the two
+factions, and had great difficulty in preventing them from coming to
+extremities. In these struggles the two chiefs were so equal, and so
+determined not to yield either to the other, that they left the
+government to the council of the King. The Duke of Burgundy withdrew
+to the Netherlands, where he was master of the earldoms of Flanders
+and Artois, and the duchy of Brabant: there he died in 1403, leaving
+his son John to succeed him, who became Duke of Burgundy and Count of
+Flanders and Artois. His brothers shared the residue of their father's
+inheritance.
+
+Whilst the new Duke of Burgundy was employed in arranging his      (p. 081)
+own affairs, the Queen and the Duke of Orleans conducted the
+government; but with little satisfaction to the people, who found
+themselves grievously oppressed by taxation. Meanwhile, the Duke of
+Burgundy married his son Philip, Earl of Charolois, to Michelle, the
+King's daughter; and one of his daughters was also espoused to the
+Dauphin, Louis, then only nine years of age.
+
+Some time afterwards, Charles VI. finding himself in one of his
+intervals of mental health, and hearing complaints from all sides
+against his Queen and the Duke of Orleans, convened an assembly of
+nobles to deliberate on a remedy; and commanded the presence of the
+Duke of Burgundy. On his approach, the Queen and the Duke of Orleans
+withdrew, taking with them the young Dauphin. The Duke of Burgundy
+followed, and overtook them; and rescued the Dauphin from their
+custody. This was a source of open rupture between those princes.
+There followed, indeed, an outward show of reconciliation; but their
+mutual hatred was deadly still. In 1407 the Duke of Burgundy caused
+the Duke of Orleans to be assassinated. He was bold enough to profess
+himself the author of the murder, and powerful enough to shield
+himself from any punishment, and to procure letters of free pardon.
+Next year he was obliged to visit his own territory, and in his
+absence his enemies caused the bill of amnesty to be reversed.
+
+Meantime, the Duke gained a victory over the troops of Liege,      (p. 082)
+and marched at the head of four thousand horsemen direct upon Paris.
+The Queen withdrew at his approach, taking the King with her to Tours;
+and, finding herself unable to cope with her antagonist, she consented
+to an accommodation. The King received Burgundy, and reconciled him in
+appearance to the Duke of Orleans, son of the murdered Duke. After
+this, the Duke of Burgundy remained master of the government, and of
+the person of the King.
+
+It will be remembered that, in 1411, a powerful league was formed in
+Guienne against the Duke of Burgundy, by the Dukes of Berry, Orleans,
+Alencon, and the Count of Armagnac, who was governor of Languedoc and
+father-in-law to the Duke of Berry; and who, being the chief conductor
+of the whole affair, gave the name of Armagnacs to the party in
+general opposed to Burgundy.[70] At the beginning, the Duke of
+Burgundy, having received succours from Henry IV. of England, gained a
+great advantage over his opponents. Subsequently, the Armagnacs,
+obtaining considerable assistance from the same King, forced the Duke
+of Burgundy, who was besieging them in Bourges, to make peace; one
+condition of which, however, being that no one of those chiefs should
+return to the court, the Duke of Burgundy still remained master of the
+King's person. In this state of triumph on the part of the         (p. 083)
+Duke of Burgundy, and of depression of the Armagnacs, another opponent
+arose against the Duke, of whom he seems to have been previously under
+no apprehension,--the Dauphin himself, his son-in-law, then only
+sixteen years of age. This prince, persuaded that during his father's
+illness the government could of right belong to no one but himself,
+resolved to secure his own. He gained over the governor of the
+Bastille, and seized that fortress. The Parisians flew to arms at the
+secret instigation of the Duke of Burgundy. A surgeon, named John of
+Troyes, at the head of ten or twelve thousand men, forced the gates of
+the Dauphin's palace; and, carrying off the chief friends of that
+prince, lodged them in prison.
+
+                   [Footnote 70: See vol. i. p. 268.]
+
+These events took place at the opening of the year 1413, whilst Henry
+IV. was labouring under the malady of which he died. Henry V.
+succeeded to the throne, March 20th of that year. At the end of April,
+the malcontents of Paris, all of the Burgundian faction, committed
+various excesses, and compelled both the King and the Dauphin to wear
+the white cap, the badge of their party. The Dauphin[71] betook
+himself at last to the Armagnacs, of whom many lived in Paris,
+grievously oppressed by the government of the Duke of Burgundy; and he
+planned his scheme so well, and so secretly, that at the           (p. 084)
+beginning of September he found thirty thousand men in Paris ready to
+support him. By his sudden and vigorous efforts he struck terror into
+the opposite faction, who abandoned the Bastille and other places in
+their possession, and thought of nothing but their own personal
+safety. The Duke of Burgundy himself withdrew to Flanders. The
+Dauphin, however, gained no permanent advantage from this success; for
+the King, in one of his favourable intervals, immediately seized the
+reins of government, and called his nephew the young Duke of Orleans
+to his counsels. This youth induced the King to issue very violent
+decrees against the Duke of Burgundy, and to execute a great number of
+his partisans.
+
+                   [Footnote 71: The Dauphin, eldest son of Charles
+                   VI, was born 22nd January 1396, and died before his
+                   father, without issue, on the 18th December 1415,
+                   in his twentieth year.]
+
+Such was the state of affairs in France when Henry of Monmouth first
+resolved to prosecute his claims in that kingdom. The Duke of Burgundy
+lost no time in endeavouring to secure the assistance of so powerful
+an ally; as we find by the many safe-conducts dated before the Duke's
+expulsion from Paris, which did not take place till September. Whether
+Henry had, before these embassies from the Duke of Burgundy, formed
+any design of claiming his supposed rights in France, or not, the
+Duke's negociations must have strongly impressed him with the
+distracted state of that country, and with an opening offered to the
+enterprising spirit of any powerful neighbour who would promptly and
+vigorously seize upon that opportunity of invading France.
+
+"Although[72] several negociations had taken place between         (p. 085)
+September 1413, and the January following, for the purpose of
+prolonging the subsisting truce between England and France, it was not
+until January 28, 1414, that ambassadors were appointed to treat of
+peace. From the engagement then made, that Henry would not propose
+marriage to any other woman than Katharine, daughter of the King of
+France, until after the 1st of the ensuing May, (which term was
+extended from the 18th of June to the 1st of August, and afterwards to
+the 2nd of February 1415,) it is evident that a marriage with that
+princess was to form one of the conditions of the treaty. But the
+first intimation of a claim to the crown of France is in a commission,
+dated May 1, 1414, by which the Bishop of Durham, Richard Lord Grey,
+and others, were instructed to negociate that alliance, and the
+restitution of such of their sovereign's rights as were withheld by
+Charles. The principal claim was no less than the crown and kingdom of
+France. Concession to this demand, however, being at once declared
+impossible, the English ambassadors waived it, without prejudice
+nevertheless to Henry's rights. They then demanded the sovereignty of
+the duchies of Normandy and Touraine, the earldom of Anjou, the duchy
+of Brittany, the earldom of Flanders, with all other parts of the
+duchy of Aquitain, the territories which had been ceded to         (p. 086)
+Edward III. by the treaty of Bretigny, and the lands between the Somme
+and Graveline; to be held by Henry and his heirs, without any claim of
+superiority on the part of Charles or his successors. To these demands
+were added the cession of the county of Provence, and payment of the
+arrears of the ransom of King John, amounting to one million six
+hundred thousand crowns. It was also intimated that the marriage with
+Katharine could not take place, unless a firm peace were also
+established with France, and that two millions of crowns would be
+expected as her dower.
+
+                   [Footnote 72: The following paragraphs are almost
+                   literally extracted from Sir Harris Nicolas's
+                   "Battle of Agincourt."]
+
+On March 14, 1415, the French ministers denied Henry's right to any
+part of the dominion of their master; but, to avoid extremities, they
+offered to cede the counties of Angouleme and Bayonne, with various
+other territories. They said that Provence, not being among Charles's
+lordships, was not withheld by him. With respect to the arrears of
+ransom, they thought that, having offered so much to extend the
+possessions of England, with a view of securing peace, the claim ought
+to be withdrawn. Touching the marriage, which had been so frequently
+discussed, though the Kings of France had been accustomed to give much
+less with their daughters than six hundred thousand crowns, which sum
+the Duke of Berry had offered with her in the preceding August, yet
+that it should be enlarged to eight hundred thousand crowns, besides
+her jewels and apparel, and the expense of sending the princess    (p. 087)
+in a suitable manner to the place where she might be delivered to
+Henry. But as the English ambassadors said they were not permitted to
+prolong their stay in France, and had no authority to vary their
+demands, Charles engaged to send an embassy to England to conclude the
+treaty.
+
+During the progress of these protracted negociations Henry grew
+dissatisfied; and either from impatience, or with a view of awing
+France into submission, issued writs of 26th September 1414, for a
+parliament to be held at Westminster after the Octaves of St. Martin,
+18th November following. On that day parliament met; and the session
+was opened at the command of the King by Henry Beaufort, Bishop of
+Winchester, then Chancellor. In a long harangue he informed the
+assembly, that their King (who was present in person) had resolved to
+recover his inheritance, which had been so long and unjustly kept from
+him and his progenitors, Kings of England; and that, for this purpose,
+many things were necessary. Taking for his theme the text, "Whilst we
+have time, let us do good," he pointed out, with more pedantry than
+eloquence, that for every natural thing there were two seasons; and
+that just as for the tree there was one time to bud, to flower, and to
+bring forth fruit, and another time through which it was left to
+repose, so was there given to man a time for peace, and a time for war
+and labour: that the King, considering the value of peace and      (p. 088)
+tranquillity which this kingdom then enjoyed, and also the justice
+of his present quarrel, (considerations most necessary for every
+prince who had to encounter enemies abroad,) deemed that the proper
+time had arrived for the accomplishment of his purpose. But, to attain
+this great and honourable object, three things, he said, were wanted;
+namely, wise and faithful counsel from his vassals, strong and true
+support from his people, and a copious subsidy from his subjects;
+which each of them would readily grant, because the more their
+prince's dominions were extended, the less would their burdens become;
+and, these things being performed, great honour and glory would
+necessarily ensue.
+
+This address was not without effect, for the Commons, after electing
+Thomas Chaucer (son, as it is said, of the poet) for their Speaker,
+"granted the King, for the honour of God, and from the great love and
+affection which they bore towards their sovereign, two entire
+fifteenths and two entire tenths, _for the defence of the kingdom of
+England and the safeguard of the seas_."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.                                                        (p. 089)
+
+MODERN TRIPLE CHARGE AGAINST HENRY OF FALSEHOOD, HYPOCRISY, AND
+IMPIETY. -- FUTILITY OF THE CHARGE, AND UTTER FAILURE OF THE EVIDENCE
+ON WHICH ALONE IT IS GROUNDED. -- HE IS URGED BY HIS PEOPLE TO
+VINDICATE THE RIGHTS OF HIS CROWN, HIMSELF HAVING A CONSCIENTIOUS
+CONVICTION OF THE JUSTICE OF HIS CLAIM. -- STORY OF THE TENNIS-BALLS.
+-- PREPARATIONS FOR INVADING FRANCE. -- HENRY'S WILL MADE AT
+SOUTHAMPTON. -- CHARGE OF HYPOCRISY AGAIN GROUNDED ON THE CLOSE OF
+THAT TESTAMENT. -- ITS FUTILITY. -- HE DESPATCHES TO THE VARIOUS
+POWERS OF EUROPE THE GROUNDS OF HIS CLAIM ON FRANCE.
+
+
+At this point of his work, the Author finds the painful duty devolved
+upon him of investigating a triple charge, now for the first time
+brought against Henry by a living writer. He must not shrink from the
+task, though he enter upon it with a consciousness that, if
+established, the charge must brand Henry's memory with indelible
+disgrace, whilst his acquittal may imply censure on his accuser.[73]
+He feels, nevertheless, that only one course is open for him to    (p. 090)
+pursue; he must follow up the inquiry fully, fearlessly, and
+impartially, whatever may be the result; and, whether he looks to
+Henry or his accuser, he must adhere rigidly to the golden maxim,
+"Friends are dear, but truth is dearer!"
+
+                   [Footnote 73: Here, however, the Author begs to
+                   state his most unfeigned conviction that, had the
+                   Editor of the "Battle of Agincourt" allowed himself
+                   more time for reflection and reconsideration of his
+                   subject, his love of truth and justice (which
+                   evidences itself in various parts of his works)
+                   would have induced him to withdraw this triple
+                   accusation. The Author sincerely gives that
+                   valuable writer full credit for his generous
+                   indignation at the idea of any thing savouring of
+                   falsehood, as well as for his anxious desire to
+                   enlist all our ancient documents, whether published
+                   or yet in manuscript, in the cause of historical
+                   truth; and he sincerely trusts that not one
+                   expression may escape his pen which may give,
+                   unnecessarily, the slightest pain to an Editor for
+                   the assistance derived from whose labours he will
+                   not allow this note to escape him (even at the risk
+                   of tautology) without again expressing his
+                   obligations.]
+
+An Author,[74] then, to whom (as we gladly and gratefully acknowledge)
+we are largely indebted for many helps supplied to the biographer and
+historian, and from whom we have borrowed copiously in this part of
+our work, brings a wide and violent charge against Henry's character
+in those very points on which the general tenour and complexion of his
+whole life would lead us to regard him as of all least assailable. He
+charges him with _falsehood_, _hypocrisy_, and _impiety_. The
+groundwork on which he founds these accusations is a series of letters
+recorded in M. Le Laboureur's History of Charles VI. of France.
+
+                   [Footnote 74: Sir Harris Nicolas.]
+
+To ascertain more satisfactorily whether the charge is really      (p. 091)
+substantiated, or whether it has been built upon an unsound
+foundation, we will first extract the whole passage as it stands in
+his work, "The Battle of Agincourt," and then sift the evidence which
+the writer alleges in support of so grave an imputation.
+
+"On the 7th April, Henry is said to have addressed the King of France
+on the subject of his claims, and in reference to the embassy which
+Charles had signified his intention of sending to discuss them. No
+part[75] of the correspondence on this occasion occurs in the
+Foedera, and it is very slightly alluded to by our historians. "To
+the first of those letters Charles replied on the 16th of April, and
+to the last on the 26th of that month; it is therefore evident     (p. 092)
+that Henry did not wait for the answer to the first before the second
+was written. These documents occur in contemporary writers; and, as
+the internal evidence which they contain of being genuine is very
+strong, there is no cause to doubt their authenticity. Their most
+striking features are falsehood, hypocrisy, and impiety; for Henry's
+solemn assurance that he was not actuated by his own ambition, but by
+the wishes of his subjects, is rendered very doubtful by the fact
+that, on the day after the Chancellor had solicited supplies for the
+invasion of France, the Commons _merely stated_ that they granted
+_them for the defence of the realm, and the safety of the seas_. The
+justice claimed was, that France should be dismembered of many
+important territories; and that, with the hand of Katharine, Henry
+should receive a sum as unprecedented as it was exorbitant. But this
+was not all, for his first demand was the crown of France itself; and
+it was not until he was convinced of the impossibility of such a
+concession, that he required those points to which his letters refer.
+If then there was FALSEHOOD in his assertion that his demands were
+dictated by the wishes of his people rather than by his own, there was
+HYPOCRISY in the assurances of his moderation and love of peace, and
+IMPIETY in calling the Almighty to witness the sincerity of his
+protestation, and in profaning the holy writings by citing them on
+such an occasion. These letters, which were probably dictated by
+Cardinal Beaufort, are remarkable for the style in which they      (p. 093)
+are written; in some places they approach nearly to eloquence, and they
+are throughout clear, nervous, and impressive."
+
+                   [Footnote 75: That a correspondence took place,
+                   there can be no doubt; but very much doubt is
+                   thrown upon the accuracy of these documents; they
+                   do not appear in such a shape that we can rely upon
+                   them as evidence. The Author who gives them says,
+                   that he considers them capable of embellishing and
+                   adorning his history. The reader is invited to sift
+                   this matter thoroughly, if he thinks that the
+                   writer of these Memoirs has taken a partial view of
+                   the merits of the question; and he is, at the same
+                   time, cautioned against regarding the principal
+                   work in which these letters are found as the
+                   production of M. Laboureur. Into this error he
+                   might easily be led by the manner in which the book
+                   has been quoted. Laboureur translated the work of
+                   an anonymous writer of St. Denis, of whose
+                   character nothing is known. The manuscript, in
+                   Latin, is said to have been found in the library of
+                   M. Le President De Thou. The original author
+                   brought the history down to the year 1415, and St.
+                   Jean Le Fevre continued it to 1422.]
+
+In this threefold indictment, the first charge is "falsehood." The
+falsehood is made to consist in Henry's assertion, that he was
+stimulated to prosecute his claim by the wishes of his people; and the
+only evidence alleged to sustain this charge of falsehood, is the fact
+that parliament, in granting the supplies, so far from specifying that
+the grant was made for the purpose of recovering the King's rights in
+France, merely stated that it was "_for the defence of the realm, and
+the safety of the seas_."
+
+Before a charge, fixing an indelible stain on the character of a
+fellow-creature, whether the individual were a king leading his armies
+to victory, or the humblest subject in his realm, were made on such
+grounds as these, it had been well,--well for the cause of truth, and
+well for the satisfaction of the accuser,--had the nature and force of
+the evidence adduced been first more carefully examined. The slightest
+acquaintance with the language of parliament at that time, and the
+most cursory comparison of the words of its members with their
+conduct, must satisfy every one that not a shadow of suspicion is
+suggested of any unwillingness on the part of the Commons to support
+the King in demanding his supposed rights, and vindicating them by
+arms. On the contrary, the very records of parliament themselves,  (p. 094)
+which are cited to maintain against Henry the charge of falsehood,
+carry with them a full and perfect refutation of the accusation,
+complete in all its parts; and compel us to lament that it has been
+brought so hastily, unadvisedly, and inconsiderately. Our first point
+is to ascertain the force of those words in the grant alone cited to
+substantiate the charge of falsehood against Henry,--what meaning was
+attached to them by the Commons themselves. We shall find that the
+subsidy was granted in the usual formal words, "for the defence of the
+realm of England and so forth." In the first parliament of Henry for
+example, the subsidy is granted in these words: "To the honour of God,
+and for the great love and affection which your poor Commons of your
+realm of England have to you our dread sovereign Lord, for the good of
+the realm and its good governance in time to come, we have, with the
+consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, granted to you _for
+defence of your realm of England_," and so forth,--specifying a
+subsidy from wools and other merchandise; and then, in voting an
+entire fifteenth and a tenth, they add, "for _the defence of the
+realm, and the safeguard of the seas_." With precisely the same
+justice might it be argued in this case that the Commons would not
+vote the subsidy for "the support of the King's dignity and high
+estate," (though that was one of the especial grounds on which he
+appealed himself to the liberality of his parliament,) as it can   (p. 095)
+be inferred, from the same words used in the parliament of 1415,
+that the Commons of England were not forward to promote the expedition
+to France. In that parallel case, however, we are quite sure the
+argument would be fallacious; because in the very same session they
+voted that the King's own allowance should take precedence of all
+other payments of annuities and other demands, to the amount of
+10,000_l._ annually.
+
+Another instance occurs in the parliament which met October 19, 1416,
+the King himself presiding: though the Chancellor, after referring
+with exultation to the victories of Harfleur, "the key of France," and
+of Agincourt, "where greatest part of the chivalry of France had
+fallen in battle," asks for new supplies _for the express purpose_ of
+carrying on the wars in France; the Commons, in voting those supplies,
+as expressly state that they grant them "_for the defence of your
+realm of England_."
+
+The same conclusion is warranted by the grants of 1417 and 1419;
+excepting that in these the Commons make the argument intended to
+support the charge against Henry's veracity still less tenable, by
+inserting a phrase which might seem to exclude the very object for
+which application for the subsidy was made. The application was made
+especially for the supplies necessary to carry on the war abroad; the
+Commons vote the subsidy "for the defence of the realm of England _in
+especial_."
+
+But, to remove all possible doubt as to the true intent and        (p. 096)
+meaning of the people of England in the grant in 1414 of two entire
+tenths and two entire fifteenths, we need only refer to the first act
+of the next parliament, which, after rehearsing the impossibility of
+the King effectually carrying on his wars abroad unless one tenth and
+one fifteenth made by the former parliament, payable on the 2nd of
+February, should be collected before that time, decrees that subsidy
+to be due and payable on the feast of St. Lucie in the next coming
+December. Nor is this all. The next act of this same parliament would
+of itself prove the utter futility of the charge against Henry, as far
+as that charge rests upon the evidence adduced. The parliament first
+state the necessity of supplying the King with more efficient means
+_for pursuing his campaign in France_, and then vote one entire tenth
+and one entire fifteenth,--for what? not for the purpose which they
+have expressly specified, but "_for the defence of his said realm of
+England_." The preamble, however, of this act shows so clearly what
+were the views and feelings of his subjects on this very point, as
+well as on the justice of his claim, that a transcript of it seems
+indispensable in this place.
+
+"The Commons of the realm, in this present parliament assembled,
+considering that the King our sovereign lord, for the honour of God,
+and to avoid the shedding of human blood, hath caused various requests
+to be made to his adversary of France to have restitution of his
+_inheritance_ according to _right and justice_;[76] and for that   (p. 097)
+end there have been diverse treaties, as well here as beyond the
+sea, to his great costs; nevertheless he hath not, by such requests
+and treaties, obtained his said inheritance, nor any important part
+thereof: and since the King, neither by the revenues of his realm, nor
+by any previous grant of subsidy, hath had enough wherewith to pursue
+_his right_; yet, always _trusting in God_ that in his JUST _quarrel_
+he shall be upheld and supported, of his own good courage hath
+undertaken an expedition into those parts, pawning his jewels to
+procure a supply of money, and in his own person hath passed over, and
+arrived at Harfleur, and laid siege to it and taken it, and holds it
+at present, having placed lords and many others there for its defence;
+and then of his excellent courage, with few people in regard to the
+power of France, he marched by land towards Calais, where, on his
+route, many dukes, earls, and other lords, with the power of the realm
+of France, to an exceeding great number, opposed him, and gave him
+battle; and God, of his grace, hath given victory to our King, to the
+honour and exaltation of his crown, of his own fair fame, the      (p. 098)
+singular comfort of his faithful lieges, to the terror of all his
+enemies, and probably to the lasting profit of all his realm."
+
+                   [Footnote 76: This seems to have been the language
+                   of judges, councillors, parliament, poets, and the
+                   people at large. The voice of all England seemed to
+                   be echoed by Lydgate.
+
+                         "In honour great; for, by his puissant might,
+                         He conquered all Normandy again
+                         And valiantly, for all the power of France,
+                         And won from them HIS OWN INHERITANCE."]
+
+We may safely leave the issue to the verdict of any impartial mind.
+The argument drawn from the language of parliament to convict Henry of
+falsehood falls to the ground; it has no colour of reason in it; and
+no other argument is even alluded to by the accuser. It is, moreover,
+much to be regretted that the Editor of "The Battle of Agincourt,"
+when he was translating so large a portion of the Chaplain's memoir,
+which with great reason he implicitly follows, had not begun the work
+of translation a few sentences only before its present commencement.
+Our countrymen would then have seen that, from whatever sources that
+Editor drew the evidence on which to build his triple charge of
+hypocrisy, falsehood, and impiety against Henry V, those who knew him
+best, and had the most ample opportunities of witnessing his character
+and conduct, expressed at least a very opposite opinion on the point
+at issue. The following are the genuine words of one who accompanied
+Henry from his native shores to France, was with him at the battle of
+Agincourt, and returned with him in safety to England. "Meanwhile,
+after the interchange of many solemn embassies between England and
+France, with a view to permanent peace, when the King found that very
+many negociations and most exact treaties had been carried on in   (p. 099)
+vain, by reason that the council of France, _clinging to their own
+will, which they adopted as their law_, could be induced to peace by
+no just mean of equity, without immense injury to the crown of
+England, and perpetual disinheritance of some of the noblest portions
+of his right in that realm, though for the sake of peace he was ready
+to make great concessions, seeing no other remedy or means by which he
+could come to his right, had recourse to the sentence of the supreme
+judicature, and without blame sought to recover by the sword what the
+blameworthy and unjust violence of the French had struggled so long to
+usurp and keep.... He determined to regain the duchy of Normandy,
+which had for a long time been _kept, against God and all justice, by
+the violence of the French_."
+
+There is, however, one declaration contained in the very volume from
+which these alleged letters of Henry are extracted, which makes the
+charge brought by the commentator on those letters still more
+surprising.[77] It is in that very volume positively asserted, with
+regard to the first rumour through France of Henry's intended
+invasion, that "his subjects _had strongly_ remonstrated with      (p. 100)
+him for his love of peace and rest, and his dislike of active
+measures, and had _now_ INSISTED upon his undertaking the
+expedition."[78]
+
+                   [Footnote 77: The Author does not mean to imply, as
+                   the result of his inquiries, that Henry was
+                   altogether influenced in his determination to claim
+                   the crown of France by the instigations of his
+                   people. If, as we believe, he was urged by them to
+                   adopt that measure, we believe also that he
+                   listened with much readiness to their appeal.]
+
+                   [Footnote 78: The words of the writer of that
+                   history are too clear and forcible to justify us in
+                   merely quoting their substance. The very title of
+                   his chapter directs our attention to the point.
+                   "Henry, King of England, constrained by his
+                   subjects to renew his pretension to the crown of
+                   France, makes a great movement." "The present year,
+                   on the incidents of which I proceed to remark,
+                   seems to me not less full of troubles and evils
+                   than any of those which preceded it. It commenced
+                   by a rumour, sudden but true, and which spread
+                   itself everywhere, that the English, impatient of
+                   repose, blaming for carelessness and want of heart
+                   the repose and inactivity of their King Henry, had
+                   _compelled him_ to arouse himself, and to revive by
+                   the same means the pretensions of some of his
+                   predecessors on the crown of France." "Les Anglais,
+                   impatiens de repos a leur ordinance, blamans de
+                   nonchalance et de manque de coeur le repos et
+                   l'oisivete de leur Roi Henri, l'avaient oblige de
+                   se reveiller."--M. Laboureur, Life of Charles VI,
+                   translated from the Latin of a contemporary
+                   ecclesiastic. Whatever be the degree of authority
+                   to which this author is entitled, whilst he
+                   supplies the letters on which the accusation alone
+                   is founded, he as expressly contradicts, by
+                   positive assertion, the inference now drawn from
+                   those letters.]
+
+The charge of hypocrisy is made to rest "on Henry assuring the French
+monarch of his moderation and love of peace, whereas he must have been
+conscious that he was immoderate in his demands, and was not desirous
+of peace." To prove that his demands were immoderate, is not enough to
+sustain this accusation; to constitute him a hypocrite, he must
+_himself have been conscious_ that his demands were immoderate.    (p. 101)
+But how stands the probability? He was fully persuaded that the crown
+of France was his own; and he first demands the full surrender of his
+alleged rights. The Commons declare that what he sought was "the
+restitution of his inheritance according to _right and justice_," and
+testify that he "trusted in God for support in his _just quarrel_." He
+then, agreeably to the advice of his council,[79] (who acknowledge
+that what he sought to recover was "his righteous heritage,        (p. 102)
+the redintegration of the old rights of his crown,") withdrawing his
+full demand, proposes other terms, unreasonable, no doubt, as we   (p. 103)
+may view them now, but, if regarded as a substitute for the fair
+kingdom of France, far from stamping on Henry the brand of hypocrisy,
+when he made a profession of moderation and a love of peace.[80]
+
+                   [Footnote 79: Among the records of the council, the
+                   minutes of one of their meetings held at
+                   Westminster in the second year of Henry's reign
+                   deserve especial attention. The manuscript is much
+                   damaged, but the general meaning is clearly
+                   intelligible. The minutes first rehearse that "the
+                   Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the true and
+                   humble lieges and knights of the King's noble
+                   realm, were there present, gathered by his royal
+                   command." It then proceeds: "Ye, our noble and
+                   righteous Lord and King, have in your chivalrous
+                   heart and desire determined to stir and labour in
+                   your recovery and redintegration of the old rights
+                   of your crown, as well as for your righteous
+                   heritage ... desiring upon this knightful intent
+                   and purpose to have the good and high advice and
+                   true meaning of us, your true knights and humble
+                   lieges aforesaid. Whereupon, our sovereign Lord, as
+                   well our Lords as we have communed by your high
+                   commandment in these matters: and known well among
+                   us all without [doubt ye are] so Christian a Prince
+                   that ye would in so high a matter begin nothing but
+                   that were to God's pleasance, and to eschew by all
+                   ways the shedding of Christian blood; and that, if
+                   algate [at all events] ye should do it, that
+                   denying of right and reason were the cause [rather]
+                   than wilfulheadedness. Wherefore, our sovereign and
+                   gracious high Lord, it thinks, as well our Lords as
+                   us in our own hearts, that it were speedful to send
+                   such ambassadors to every party as [your] claim
+                   requireth, sufficiently instructed for the right
+                   and recovery of that is above said. And if ye, our
+                   sovereign Lord, at the reverence of God, like of
+                   your proper motion, without our counsel given
+                   thereto, any mesne [middle] way to offer, that were
+                   moderating of your whole title, or of any of your
+                   claims beyond the sea; and hereupon your adverse
+                   party denying you both right and reason and all
+                   reasonable mesne [middle] ways, we trust all in
+                   God's grace that all your works in pursuing them
+                   should take the better speed and conclusion: and in
+                   the mean while that all the works of readiness that
+                   may be to your voyage thought or wrought, that it
+                   be done by the high advice of you and your noble
+                   council; seeing that the surety of your royal
+                   estate, the peace of your land, the safe ward of
+                   all your [realm] be well and sufficiently provided
+                   for above all things. And, these observed, we shall
+                   be ready with our bodies and goods, to do you the
+                   service that we may to our powers, as far as we
+                   ought of right, and as our ancestors have done to
+                   your noble progenitors in like case."
+
+                   This advice appears to have been followed by Henry
+                   throughout.
+
+                   The Minutes of Council, February 2, 1415, after
+                   stating the measures proposed for the safeguard of
+                   the sea, and the marches of Scotland and Wales, &c.
+                   during the King's absence, record this remarkable
+                   advice: that Henry would direct his treasurer to
+                   bring a clear statement of his debtor and creditor
+                   account, the demands of the treasury, and the
+                   income; also the debts incurred since the
+                   coronation, and the annuities to which he was
+                   pledged; "in order that, before the departure of
+                   the King, such provision may be made in every part,
+                   according to the amount of the charges, that the
+                   mind and soul of the King might be set at ease and
+                   comfort, that he might depart like a Christian
+                   Prince with a good government, and the better
+                   accomplish his voyage, to the pleasure of God, and
+                   the singular comfort of all his faithful
+                   lieges."--Acts of Privy Council, vol. ii. p. 148.]
+
+                   [Footnote 80: A renewed charge of hypocrisy,
+                   brought against Henry by the same pen, will call
+                   for a renewed inquiry; and whatever further remarks
+                   may be made on that topic, are reserved for the
+                   page in which we shall shortly enter upon the
+                   investigation of the charges.]
+
+There remains the charge of impiety, which is made to rest on Henry
+having called the Almighty to witness a falsehood, and quoted
+Scripture in support of what he affirmed. It was undoubtedly too much
+the practice then, as unhappily it is now, for Christians, on trivial
+occasions, to appeal to Heaven, and to quote the sanction of Scripture
+in very questionable matters of worldly policy. But Henry does not
+appeal presumptuously, nor quote lightly; he appeals solemnly, and he
+quotes reverently, in a matter of very great importance to both
+kingdoms, and in a cause which he believed to be founded in right and
+justice. He appealed to Heaven to witness what he regarded as true.
+The page we have been examining accuses Henry of falsehood, hypocrisy,
+and impiety: the evidence of facts, and the testimony of his
+contemporaries, represent him to us in the character of an honest,
+undisguised, and pious King.
+
+On Tuesday, April 16, Henry held a council at Westminster, at      (p. 104)
+which the Chancellor, Henry Beaufort, briefly explained the
+proceedings of the great council, enumerating the causes which induced
+their King, in the name of God, to undertake in his own person an
+expedition for the recovery of his inheritance. On the next day the
+Chancellor informed the council that the King had appointed the Duke
+of Bedford to be lieutenant of England[81] during his absence; with
+the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Winchester, and other
+prelates and lay lords to form his council.
+
+                   [Footnote 81: Hall says, that "he left for governor
+                   behind him his mother-in-law, the Queen." And
+                   Goodwin (referring for his authority to Hall and
+                   Pat. 3 Hen. V. p. 2. m. 41.) states that he made
+                   her regent, and the Duke of Bedford protector. But
+                   this seems to have originated in mere mistake.]
+
+As early as May 26, an order was issued to suspend the assizes through
+England during the King's absence, lest his lieges who accompanied him
+might be subjected to inconvenience and injustice. The defence of the
+country towards Scotland and Wales was provided for, and the rate of
+wages payable to his retinue and soldiers was fixed. Every duke was to
+receive 13_s._ 4_d._, every earl 6_s._ 8_d._, every baron 4_s._, and
+every knight 2_s._, every esquire being a man-at-arms 12_d._, every
+archer 6_d._ each day; whilst for every thirty men-at-arms a reward
+was assigned of one hundred marks a quarter; together with some other
+stipulations.
+
+In the spring and summer the King issued[82] commissions to hire   (p. 105)
+ships from Holland and Zealand; to press sailors to navigate his
+vessels; to provide workmen to make and repair bows; to procure carts
+and waggons for the conveyance of his stores; also a supply of masons,
+carpenters, and smiths, together with the materials of the respective
+trades. The sheriffs of different counties were ordered to buy cattle;
+and the sheriff of Hampshire was to cause bread to be baked, and ale
+to be brewed, at Winchester and Southampton, and the parts adjacent,
+for the use of the army.
+
+                   [Footnote 82: The particulars of these commissions
+                   may be found in Rymer, or in Sir Harris Nicolas's
+                   "Battle of Agincourt," to whom the reader is
+                   referred for more minute information on the
+                   subject.]
+
+The King not only thus took effective measures for the transport and
+supply of his forces, but commanded also the Archbishop and the other
+prelates to array the clergy for the defence of the kingdom at home
+during his absence. Every sheriff also was to proclaim that a nightly
+watch should be kept till All-Saints' Day; and no taverner was to
+allow any stranger to remain in his house more than one day and night,
+without knowledge of the cause of his delay; and all suspicious
+persons were to be committed to prison.
+
+Though parliament had granted a liberal supply, the King, finding his
+expenses to exceed his means, made a direct and powerful appeal to all
+his loving subjects for a loan, with promise of repayment; and     (p. 106)
+a considerable sum was raised in consequence of that appeal, but
+still not enough. He was, therefore, compelled to pawn his plate and
+jewels, (as he had done with his small stock in early youth during the
+Welsh rebellion,) and to have recourse to all expedients for raising
+the necessary sums. These expedients were often totally incompatible
+with our present notions of the royal dignity; but no intimation
+appears anywhere of the least unfair and dishonourable dealing on the
+part of the King. His appeals to the people much resembled those of
+Charles I, under still more urgent circumstances, in after ages.
+
+A curious fact is recorded in the minutes of a council held May 25,
+1415, respecting a demand for money from the companies of foreign
+merchants resident in London. They were summoned before the council,
+and informed that it was usual for merchants who traded in any other
+country than their own to lend the government such sums as they could
+bear, or else be committed to prison during pleasure. This custom was
+justified on the ground of many and great privileges secured to them
+in their traffic by the King's favour, from which they derived great
+wealth. Certain sums were demanded, and sufficient pledges of gold,
+silver, and jewels were offered; but the merchants of Florence,
+Venice, and Lucca [de Luk] refused to comply, and were committed to
+the custody of the warden of the Fleet Prison. From the merchants  (p. 107)
+of Florence was required 1,200_l._, from those of Venice 1,000_l._,
+from those of Lucca 200_l._ These strong measures seem to have worked
+their intended effect, for all those guilds granted loans afterwards.
+
+Having now effected every preparation in his power, the King passed
+through London, accompanied by the Mayor and citizens (who attended
+him as far as Kingston); and having made an offering at St. Paul's,
+and taken leave of his mother-in-law the Queen, he proceeded on his
+way towards Southampton, where all his ships and contingents were
+directed to await his arrival.
+
+Reaching Winchester, he remained there for some days from June 26th,
+probably to give audience to the French ambassadors, who were
+presented to him on the 30th. The Archbishop of Bourges headed that
+embassy, and the Bishop of Winchester was Henry's representative and
+spokesman. Much of negociating and bartering ensued, and at first many
+conciliatory communications were made on both sides; the French
+yielding much, the English adhering to their original demands, or
+remitting little from them. At length, the reply of the Archbishop put
+an abrupt end to further discussion; and Henry commanded the
+ambassadors to depart, with a promise that he would soon follow them.
+
+It is here again painful to read the unkind and unjustifiable language
+of the same author, whose triple charge against Henry's religious  (p. 108)
+and moral character we have just investigated, when he describes the
+surprise of the French monarch and his court on the return of these
+ambassadors. "Until that moment," he says, "the French court, either
+_cajoled_ by Henry's _hypocrisy_, or lulled into security by a
+mistaken estimate of his power, had neglected every means for
+resisting the storm which was about to burst upon their country."
+Henry stands convicted of no hypocrisy; and his accuser alleges no
+evidence on which an impartial mind would pronounce him guilty. It is
+curious as it is satisfactory to lay side by side with this unguarded
+calumny the version of the circumstances of that time, made by an
+unprejudiced foreigner, and a very sensible well-versed historian.[83]
+"France was then governed by the Dauphin Louis, a young and
+presumptuous prince, who had up to this point thought himself able to
+amuse Henry by feigned negociations. Nevertheless, the preparations
+going on in England having opened the eyes of his council, a
+resolution was taken to send to England twelve ambassadors, at the
+head of whom was the Archbishop of Bourges."
+
+                   [Footnote 83: Abrege Historique des Actes publics
+                   d'Angleterre.]
+
+Several contemporary writers, as well as general tradition, state
+that, on occasion of one of the various embassies sent to and fro
+between the courts of London and Paris, the Dauphin, then about
+eighteen or nineteen years of age, sent an insulting present       (p. 109)
+to Henry of a tun of tennis-balls, with a message full of contempt and
+scorn,[84] implying that a racket-court was a more fit place for him
+than a battle-field. It is well observed, that such an act of wilful
+provocation must have convinced both parties of the hopelessness of
+any attempts towards a pacific arrangement; and, since the
+negociations were carried on to the very last, some discredit has
+thence been attempted to be thrown on the story altogether. But it
+must be remembered (as the author of the Abrege Historique justly
+remarks) that these negociations were continued, on the part of
+France, merely to gain time, and withdraw Henry from his purpose;
+whilst Henry, on the other side, by his renewed proposals for the hand
+of Katharine, (an union on which he appears from the first to have
+been heartily bent,) kept up in his enemies the hope that, to gain
+that object, he would ultimately relax from many of his original
+demands. Henry certainly afterwards challenged the Dauphin to single
+combat, as though he had a quarrel with him personally; and nothing
+can fairly be inferred against the truth of the tradition, from the
+silence in the challenge on the point of such an insult having been
+offered. On the whole, the evidence is decidedly in favour of the
+reality of the incident; whilst Henry's reported answer is very
+characteristic: "I will thank the Dauphin in person, and will      (p. 110)
+carry him such tennis-balls as shall rattle his hall's roof about his
+ears." And they, says the contemporary chronicler,[85] were great
+gunstones for the Dauphin to play withal.
+
+                   [Footnote 84: Otterbourne says Henry received the
+                   tennis-balls whilst he was keeping his Lent at
+                   Kenilworth.]
+
+                   [Footnote 85: Cotton MS. Claudius, A. viii.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Anxious to proceed in our narrative without further allusion to such
+sweeping and unsupported charges, we must, nevertheless, here
+introduce (though reluctantly) the remarks which have been suffered to
+fall from the same pen, as its chief comment on the closing words of
+Henry's last Will, made at this time.[86] He signed that document at
+Southampton, July 24th, just three days after discovering the
+conspiracy of which we must soon speak. Probably a sense of the
+uncertainty of life, and the necessity of setting his house in order
+without delay, were impressed deeply upon him by that unhappy event.
+He felt not only that he had embarked in an enterprise the result of
+which was doubtful, in which at all events he must expose his life to
+numberless unforeseen perils; but that the thread of his mortal
+existence might at a moment be cut asunder by the hands of the very
+men to whom he looked for protection and victory. Compared with the
+wills of other princes and nobles of that day, there is nothing    (p. 111)
+very remarkable in Henry's. From first to last it is tinctured with
+the superstitions of the corrupt form of our holy religion, then
+over-spreading England.[87]
+
+                   [Footnote 86: His very last will is not known to be
+                   in existence. This testament was made seven years
+                   before his death, and was probably soon cancelled.]
+
+                   [Footnote 87: Among the saints to whose custody he
+                   bequeaths his soul, his favourite and patron, John
+                   of Bridlington, finds a place. Among the legacies
+                   connected with his family history, we meet with a
+                   bequest, to the "Bishop of Durham, of the Missal
+                   and Portophore which he had received as a present
+                   from his dear grandmother Joan, Countess of
+                   Hereford." To the same countess a gold cyphus,--a
+                   proof that in 1415 his maternal grandmother was
+                   still alive. It may be worth observing that, in
+                   this will, there is no legacy to the Queen, his
+                   father's widow. He had, however, on the 30th June
+                   preceding, "granted of especial grace to his
+                   dearest mother, Joanna, Queen of England, licence
+                   to live, during his absence, in his castles of
+                   Windsor, Wallingford, Berkhamstead, and Hertford."]
+
+The subscription to this testament is couched in these words: "This
+is my last Will subscribed with my own hand. R.H. Jesu Mercy and
+Gramercy Ladie Mary Help:" and on these words the same author makes
+this observation: "According to all the biographers of Henry,
+extraordinary piety was a leading trait in his character, from which
+feeling the addition to his Will appears to have arisen. It seems
+indeed difficult to reconcile the _lawless ambition_, much less the
+_hypocrisy_,[88] which Henry displayed in his negociations, with an
+obedience to the genuine dictates of Christianity; but as he       (p. 112)
+rigidly observed every rite of the church, was bountiful towards its
+members, and uniformly ascribed success to the Almighty, it is not
+surprising that his contemporaries should have described him as
+eminently pious."
+
+                   [Footnote 88: In a few pages further, the same
+                   writer thinks himself justified in adding this note
+                   on a letter of Henry to Charles, "A translation of
+                   this _hypocritical_ letter is given in the
+                   Appendix."]
+
+On this passage the biographer of Henry had rather that his readers
+should form their own comment, than that he should express the
+sentiments which he cannot but entertain: he invites, however, the
+lover of truth to compare this charge of _lawless ambition and
+hypocrisy_ with the actual conduct of Henry at this very time.
+
+Whilst resident in the Abbey of Tichfield,[89] about ten miles from
+Southampton, he despatched to the Council of Constance, addressing
+himself chiefly to the Emperor Sigismund and the other princes
+assembled there, copies of the treaties between Henry IV. and the
+French court relative to the restoration of Aquitain to the English
+crown; remarking upon the wrong that was done to him by the gross
+violation of those treaties. This shows at all events that he was not
+conscious of being actuated by lawless ambition, or of acting the part
+of a hypocrite; it proves that he was desirous of having the merits of
+his quarrel with France examined and understood: and he seems to have
+felt an assurance that those who made themselves acquainted with the
+real grounds of his intended invasion would pronounce his quarrel to
+be just. Otherwise he would scarcely have gone out of his way to   (p. 113)
+draw the eyes of assembled Europe, (not to the boldness of an
+enterprise, nor to the splendour of conquests, but) to a calm
+investigation of the righteousness of his cause.[90]
+
+                   [Footnote 89: See Cott. MS. Julius, E. iv. f. 115.]
+
+                   [Footnote 90: The Emperor, in the league which he
+                   made with Henry, records his resolution to assist
+                   him in the recovery of his just rights.]
+
+The words of his chaplain in recording this measure of Henry deserve a
+place here. Indeed, every page of contemporary history proves that the
+King himself had no misgivings as to the uprightness and justice of
+his cause, and was ready to refer the whole to the judgment of
+Christendom. "The King caused transcripts of all treaties to be
+forwarded to the general council, to the Emperor Sigismund and other
+Catholic princes, to the intent that all Christendom might know how
+great injuries the duplicity of the French had inflicted upon him, and
+that he was, reluctantly and against his will, compelled, as it were,
+to raise his standard against the rebels."[91]
+
+                   [Footnote 91: Here we cannot but recal the words
+                   with which Henry afterwards, it is said, addressed
+                   the Cardinal des Ursins, who was sent by the Pope
+                   to mediate between him and Charles just before he
+                   laid siege to Rouen. "See you not that God hath
+                   brought me here as it were by the hand? There is no
+                   longer a King in France. _I have a legal right over
+                   that realm._ All is in confusion there; and no one
+                   dreams of opposing me. Can I have a more sensible
+                   proof that God, who disposes of crowns, has decreed
+                   that I should place on my head the crown of
+                   France?" And in his mandate to the Archbishop of
+                   Canterbury to array the clergy against the enemies
+                   of the church and of the faith, should any appear
+                   in his absence, he says, "We are now going to
+                   recover our inheritance and the rights of our
+                   crown, now a long time, as is _evident to all_,
+                   unjustly kept from us."--Sloane, p. 52.]
+
+Nor can we here omit to observe, (though it be anticipating what   (p. 114)
+must hereafter be again referred to in the course of the history,)
+that the behaviour of the Emperor, when, in the spring of the
+following year, he made a personal voyage to England on purpose to
+visit Henry, and the solemn declaration of the Duke of Burgundy, (of
+whose sincerity, however, no one can speak without hesitation,) "that
+he had at first thought Henry unjust in his demands, but was at length
+convinced of their justice," show that in the estimation of
+contemporaries, and those neither churchmen nor his own subjects, who
+may be suspected of partiality, Henry's character deserved better than
+to be stamped with the imputation of "lawless ambition and hypocrisy."
+It is very easy for any one to charge a fellow-creature with immoral
+and unchristian motives; and it may carry with it the appearance of
+honest indignation, and of an heroic love of virtue, religion, and
+truth, when one can tear off the veil of conquest and martial glory
+from the individual, and expose his naked faults to pity, or contempt,
+or hatred. But a good judge, in forming his own estimate of the
+motives which may have given birth to acts which fall under his
+cognizance, or in guiding others to return a righteous verdict, will
+not consider the most ready method of solving a difficulty to be
+always the safest. Take for granted that Henry's conduct towards   (p. 115)
+France is intelligible on the ground of lawless ambition and gross
+hypocrisy, (though there is no proof of either,) it is equally, at
+least, intelligible on the supposition of his full and undoubting
+conviction of his right to all he claimed. And just as open would any
+individual plaintiff be to the charge of hypocrisy, who, after having
+insisted upon his full rights, and given notice of trial, and
+collected his witnesses, should, on the very eve of the issue being
+tried, write to the defendant, urging him to yield, and avoid the
+expense and irritation of a protracted law-suit, offering at the same
+time a remission of some portion of his claim,--as Henry is in
+fairness chargeable with hypocrisy because he wrote to his "adversary
+of France," urging him to yield, and avoid the effusion of blood. On
+the very eve of his departure for the shores of Normandy, many facts
+and circumstances assure us that Henry acted under a full persuasion
+that he demanded of France only what was in strict justice his due
+when he laid claim to those territories and honours which had been so
+long withheld from the Kings of England, his predecessors. Facts are
+decidedly against the charge of hypocrisy; but, even were the facts
+doubtful, his general character for honesty, and openness, and manly
+straightforward dealing, (to which history bears abundant evidence,)
+would make the scale of justice preponderate in his favour.
+
+In dismissing this subject, parallel with these modern accusations (p. 116)
+of Henry on the ground of "cajoling hypocrisy" we may lay the
+testimony borne by his contemporary, Walsingham,[92] to the
+unsuspecting simplicity of his mind, which exposed him to the      (p. 117)
+overreaching designs of the unprincipled and crafty. In his Ypodigma
+Neustriae, a work expressly written for the use and profit of Henry,
+and with a view of putting him upon his guard against the intrigues
+of foreign courts, he refers to his "innocence liable to be        (p. 118)
+circumvented, and his noble character likely to be deceived, by the
+cunning craftiness and hypocritical fraud and false promises of his
+enemies."
+
+                   [Footnote 92: The Dedication of the Ypodigma
+                   Neustriae claims for itself a place in this work;
+                   and to no part can it be more appropriately
+                   appended than to this, in which modern charges
+                   strongly contrasted with his view are examined. The
+                   following is a literal translation of the
+                   introduction to this work of Walsingham:--"To the
+                   most noble and illustrious King of the French and
+                   English, Henry, conqueror of Normandy, most serene
+                   Prince of Wales, Lord of Ireland and Aquitain, by
+                   God's grace always and everywhere victor, the
+                   humblest of his servants who pray for him, Brother
+                   Thomas of Walsingham, monk of the monastery of St.
+                   Alban, who was first of the English martyrs, with
+                   lowly recommendation wisheth health in Him who
+                   giveth health to Kings. Whilst I reflected, among
+                   the contemplative studies of the cloister, with how
+                   great talents of virtue, and titles of victory, God
+                   Almighty hath exalted,--with what gifts of especial
+                   grace He hath abundantly filled you,--so that even
+                   your enemies proclaim your wisdom, admire and
+                   everywhere extol your discretion, and celebrate
+                   your justice by the testimony of their praise, I
+                   confess that I have been filled with pleasure and
+                   inward joy, more gratifying far than the choicest
+                   dainties. But, in the midst of this, there arises
+                   in my mind a kind of cloud, which throws a shade on
+                   the glad thought of my heart, whilst I am compelled
+                   to fear the general habits of a nation which very
+                   often has trifled with the publicly plighted vows
+                   and their oath solemnly pledged. And whilst I
+                   meditate on past days,--recalling the frauds,
+                   crimes, factions, and enormities committed by your
+                   enemies,--my soul is made anxious, and my heart is
+                   disquieted within me, and my life has well-nigh
+                   failed from grief, knowing that to-morrow base
+                   deeds may be done as well as yesterday. And fearing
+                   lest by any means your innocence may be
+                   circumvented, I revolved in my mind what would best
+                   minister to your safety in the midst of so many
+                   dangers. At length it occurred to me to write
+                   something to your Highness (whom my soul cordially
+                   loves) by which you may be made more safe at once
+                   and more cautious. Love conquers all things; ah! it
+                   has wrought in me not to fear, though in an
+                   uncultivated and unpolished style, to offer to so
+                   wise and glorious a Prince what I reflected upon in
+                   my mind, and to open to your serene Highness as I
+                   best may what I have conceived in my heart for your
+                   royal safety. Hence it is that I have endeavoured
+                   to draw up a brief table of events from the
+                   commencement of the conquest of Neustria [Normandy]
+                   by the Normans down to their conquest of England;
+                   which I have carried on to the time when your
+                   Majesty, with power and victory, compelled the same
+                   Normandy, alienated against right and justice from
+                   your ancestors for about two hundred and twenty
+                   years, to come under your yoke, and royally to be
+                   governed according to your desire. Wherefore, my
+                   redoubted Lord and King, in this little work I
+                   offer to your inspection past deeds, various wars,
+                   mutual covenants of peace; leagues, though
+                   confirmed by an oath, violated; the promises,
+                   pledges, offerings, treacherously made to your
+                   predecessors; the deceit and hypocrisy of the
+                   enemy; and whatever the antagonist could with
+                   exquisite craftiness invent, by which they might
+                   entrap your noble spirit. Wherefore, since it
+                   becomes no one to possess knowledge more than a
+                   Prince, whose learning may be most beneficial to
+                   his subjects,--I, a poor and humble votary, offer
+                   (if it be your will) this volume to the inspection
+                   of your Highness; giving it the name of Ypodigma
+                   Neustriae, because it especially portrays the events
+                   and falls of that country from the time of Rollo
+                   the first Duke down to the sixth year of your happy
+                   reign, which may God Almighty of his great mercy
+                   crown with peace, and preserve in all prosperity!
+                   Amen."]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.                                                       (p. 119)
+
+PREPARATIONS FOR INVADING FRANCE. -- REFLECTIONS ON THE MILITARY AND
+NAVAL STATE OF ENGLAND. -- MODE OF RAISING AND SUPPORTING AN ARMY. --
+SONG OF AGINCOURT. -- HENRY OF MONMOUTH THE FOUNDER OF THE ENGLISH
+ROYAL NAVY. -- CUSTOM OF IMPRESSING VESSELS FOR THE TRANSPORTING OF
+TROOPS. -- HENRY'S EXERTIONS IN SHIP-BUILDING. -- GRATITUDE DUE TO
+HIM. -- CONSPIRACY AT SOUTHAMPTON. -- PREVALENT DELUSION AS TO RICHARD
+II. -- THE EARL OF MARCH. -- HENRY'S FORCES. -- HE SAILS FOR NORMANDY.
+
+1415.
+
+PREPARATIONS FOR INVADING FRANCE.
+
+
+It is impossible for us to revert with never so cursory a glance to
+the departure of Henry of Monmouth from his native shores at the head
+of an armament intended to recover his alleged rights in France,
+without finding various questions suggesting themselves, both on the
+mode adopted for raising and embodying the men, and for transporting
+the troops and military stores, and all the accompaniments of an
+invading army. The Kings of England had then no standing army,     (p. 120)
+nor any permanent royal fleet.
+
+In the present volume we have often seen that on an emergence, such as
+an irruption of the Scots, or the necessity of resisting the Welsh
+more effectually, the sheriffs of different counties were commanded to
+array the able-bodied men within their jurisdiction, and join the
+royal standard by an appointed day; and, no doubt, many a motley, and
+ill-favoured, and ill-appointed company were seen in the sheriff's
+train. We have also been reminded with how great difficulty even these
+musters could be collected, and kept together, and marched to the
+place of rendezvous; and how seldom could they be brought in time to
+join in the engagement for which they were destined. We have
+repeatedly also learned that the nobles who would recommend themselves
+to the royal favour, or espoused heartily the cause in which they were
+engaged, headed their own retainers to the field, and made themselves
+responsible for their maintenance and pay. In the present case we have
+reason to believe that the army consisted mainly of volunteers; at
+least, that the principal persons in rank and fortune joined the
+King's standard without compulsion. A very lively and enthusiastic
+interest in the success of his expedition prevailed through the whole
+country; and the nobles redeemed their pledge, without grudging, that
+they would aid him in their persons. The pay of the army was       (p. 121)
+settled beforehand, at a fixed rate, from a duke downwards.[93]
+
+                   [Footnote 93: But though a person were a volunteer,
+                   yet if, after "making his muster," he failed in his
+                   duty, the punishment was both summary and severe.
+                   In a subsequent expedition of Henry, Hugh Annesley
+                   had made his muster in the company of Lord Grey of
+                   Codnor, and had received the King's pay from him,
+                   but tarried nevertheless in England. He was
+                   summoned before the council, and confessed his
+                   delinquency; his person was forthwith committed to
+                   the Fleet, and his estates seized into the King's
+                   hands.]
+
+Whether there is any foundation at all in fact for the tradition of
+Henry's resolution to take with him no married man or widow's son, the
+tradition itself bears such strong testimony to the general estimate
+of Henry's character for bravery at once and kindness of heart, that
+it would be unpardonable to omit every reference to it altogether. The
+song of Agincourt, in which it occurs, is unquestionably of ancient
+origin; probably written and sung within a very few years of the
+expedition.[94] Internal evidence would induce us to infer that it was
+composed before Henry's death, and just after his marriage with
+Katharine:
+
+  "The fairest flower in all France,
+  To the rose of England I give free."
+
+                   [Footnote 94: The song will be found in a note on
+                   our account of the battle of Agincourt.]
+
+The ballad, at all events, is among the earliest of our English songs,
+and was delivered down from father to son in the most distant      (p. 122)
+parts of the kingdom, when very few of those who preserved the national
+poetry from oblivion could read. This circumstance easily accounts for
+the many various readings which are found in different copies now,
+whilst these in their turn tend to establish the antiquity of the
+song. The admirable simplicity and true natural beauty of the verse
+will justify its repetition here, though it has already appeared in
+our title-page, when it ascribes to Henry the combination of valour
+and high resolve, with merciful considerateness and tender feeling for
+others. Be the authority for this reported restriction, imposed by
+Henry on those who were commissioned to recruit soldiers for his
+expedition, what it may, (let it be founded in fact, or in the
+imagination of the writer,) it bears that testimony to Henry's
+character,[95] which the whole current of authentic documents tends
+fully to establish. He was brave, and he was merciful.
+
+                   [Footnote 95: Should it occur to any one, that if
+                   in this case we allow the poet to have weight when
+                   he speaks of what reflects honour on Henry's name,
+                   we ought to assign the same credit to Shakspeare;
+                   when he tells us of madcap frolics and precocious
+                   dissipation, it must be remembered, that on testing
+                   the accuracy of Shakspeare by an appeal to history,
+                   we established a striking discrepancy between them;
+                   and that Shakspeare lived more than a century after
+                   the death of Henry; whereas we are led to regard
+                   this song of Agincourt as contemporary with the
+                   events which it celebrates; and its eulogy
+                   harmonizes in perfect accordance with what history
+                   might lead us to expect.]
+
+  "Go! call up Cheshire and Lancashire,                            (p. 123)
+  And Derby hills,[96] which are so free;
+  But neither married man, nor widow's son,--
+  No widow's curse shall go with me."
+
+                   [Footnote 96: Query, Are these counties especially
+                   mentioned as being more peculiarly Henry's own? He
+                   was Duke of Lancaster, and Earl of Chester and
+                   Derby.]
+
+Of the numbers who went with Henry to France various accounts are
+delivered down, and different calculations have been made. The song of
+Agincourt raises the sum of the "right good company" to "thirty
+thousand stout men and three:" and probably this total, embracing
+servants and attendants of every kind, is not at all an exaggeration
+of the number actually transported from England to Normandy; though,
+if by "stout men" we are to understand warriors able to handle the
+spear, the bow, the sword, and the battleaxe, we must not reckon them
+at more than one-third of that number.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The expedients which Henry found it necessary to adopt for the safe
+transportation of this armament, compel us to review, however briefly,
+the state and circumstances of English navigation at the period. The
+Author has already hazarded the opinion in his Preface, that Henry of
+Monmouth may with justice be regarded as the founder of the British
+navy; and he feels himself called upon to refer to some facts by which
+such a representation might seem to be countenanced. He gladly     (p. 124)
+acknowledges that the idea was first suggested to him by the
+publication of Sir Henry Ellis; whilst every subsequent research, and
+every additional fact, have tended to confirm and illustrate the same
+view.[97]
+
+                   [Footnote 97: Mr. James, in his Naval History of
+                   Great Britain, does not seem to have carried back
+                   his researches beyond the reign of Henry VIII, to
+                   whom he ascribes "the honour of having by his own
+                   prerogative, and at his sole expense, settled the
+                   constitution of the present royal navy." Much
+                   undoubtedly does the English navy owe to that
+                   monarch; but he would be more justly regarded as
+                   its restorer and especial benefactor, than its
+                   founder.]
+
+Though few subjects are more interesting, or more deserve the
+attention of our fellow-countrymen, yet it is confessedly beyond the
+province of these Memoirs to enter at any length upon a dissertation
+on the naval affairs of Great Britain. Since, however, if
+satisfactorily established, the fact will recommend the hero of
+Agincourt to the grateful remembrance of his father-land in a
+department of national strength and glory in which few of us have
+probably hitherto felt indebted to him, it is hoped that these brief
+remarks may not be deemed out of place.
+
+Unquestionably, many previous sovereigns of England had directed much
+of their thoughts to the maritime power of the country. From the time
+of Alfred himself, downwards, we may trace, at various intervals,
+evident marks of the measures adopted by our Kings and the legislature,
+and also by powerful individuals and merchant companies, to keep   (p. 125)
+up a succession of sea-worthy vessels, and mariners to man them. Two
+hundred years before the date of Henry's expedition, as early as the
+year 1212, King John seems to have established a sort of dry covered
+dock at Portsmouth for the preservation of ships and their rigging
+during the winter. But the very instances to which appeals have been
+made by various writers, to prove the antiquity of the naval force of
+South Britain, tend by their testimony to confirm the opinions we are
+here disposed to adopt. In every successive reign, the annals of which
+supply any information on the subject, the evidence is clear that the
+rulers of England did not contemplate the establishment of a fleet
+belonging to the nation as its own property. The tenures, moreover, by
+which many maritime towns held their charters, whilst they evince the
+importance attached to this department of an island's political power,
+coincide altogether with the view we are taking. The obligation, for
+example, under which the Cinque Ports lay of furnishing, whenever
+required, fifty ships, manned each with twenty-four mariners, for
+fifteen days, enabled the monarch indeed to calculate, from the
+fulfilment of such stipulated engagements, on a certain supply,
+adequate, it may be, to meet the usual demand; but at the same time it
+implied that he had no fleet of his own on which he could rely. Whilst
+the limited extent to which ships could be supplied by the most rigid
+exaction of the terms of those tenures compelled the state, on     (p. 126)
+any occasion when extraordinary efforts were requisite, to depend
+upon the varying and precarious supply produced by the system of
+impressment.[98]
+
+                   [Footnote 98: See Hardy's Introduction to the Close
+                   Rolls, and Lord Lyttelton's History of Henry II.]
+
+When Henry ascended the throne, he found still in full operation this
+old system of our maritime proceedings. Whenever, as we have seen, an
+occasion required the transport of a considerable body of men from our
+havens, or forces to be embarked for the protection of our shores and
+of our merchants, in addition to the contingent, which could be
+exacted from various chartered towns, the King's government was
+obliged either to hire ships from foreign countries, or to lay
+forcible hands by way of impressment on the vessels of his own
+subjects. A few instances, more or less closely connected with the
+immediate subject of our present inquiry, will serve to illustrate
+that point.
+
+When, for example, Henry's great grandfather Edward III. was preparing
+for the expedition, which he headed in person, intended to relieve
+Rochelle, his grandfather John of Gaunt, February 10, 1372, as we find
+by the records of the Duchy of Lancaster, commanded all his stewards
+in Wales to assist Walter de Wodeburgh, serjeant-at-arms, appointed by
+the King to arrest all ships of twenty tons' burden [and upwards?] for
+the passage of the King and his army to France, and to take        (p. 127)
+sufficient security that they be all ready by the 1st of May either at
+Southampton, Portsmouth, Hamel in the Rys, or Hamel Stoke.
+
+The records of the Privy Council (11 December, probably 1405,) supply
+us with an instance (one out of many) which shows, at the same time,
+the great injury which the public service sustained by this system,
+and the ruinous consequences which it was calculated to entail on the
+merchants and the owners of ships. Henry IV. had intended to proceed
+in person to Guienne; and for that purpose, with the advice of his
+council, had impressed all the ships westward. His voyage was
+deferred; but the ships were still, as they had been for a long time,
+under arrest. The masters had sent a deputation to him to implore some
+compensation for their great expenses,[99] and some means of support.
+Henry then wrote to the council, praying them [vous prions] to provide
+some help for these poor men; and to assure them that no long time
+would elapse before their services would be called for, since either
+himself or his representative would undertake the voyage. In the same
+letter he prayed the council also to write under his privy seal to the
+King of Portugal, to beg of him a supply of galleys, sufficient to
+enable him to resist the malice of his enemies the French, and to
+protect his land and his realm.
+
+                   [Footnote 99: "Par long temps a lour grantz
+                   custages et despenses."]
+
+We must not suppose that the French monarch found himself under    (p. 128)
+more favourable circumstances when he would prepare for any important
+affair on the sea. The same system of impressment and hiring was
+necessarily adopted in France. Thus we find, in 1417, when the French
+government resolved to make a powerful effort to crush the navy of
+England, the ships were first to be "hired, at a great sum of gold,
+from the state of Genoa." These mercenary vessels formed the fleet
+over which the Earl of Huntingdon gained a decided victory immediately
+before Henry's second expedition to France.
+
+Thus, too, (not to cite any more examples,) no sooner had Henry
+determined to assert his rights on the Continent, and to enforce them
+by the sword, than he despatched ambassadors to Zealand and Holland to
+negociate with the Duke of Holland for a supply of ships; doubtless
+assured that all which he could impress or hire in all his ports would
+not be sufficient for the safe transport of his troops, and "their
+furniture of war." But Henry's ardent and commanding mind soon saw how
+powerful an engine, both of defence and of conquest, would be found in
+a permanent royal navy, and how indispensable such an establishment
+was to any insular sovereign who desired to provide for his country
+the means of offering a bold front against aggression, protecting
+herself from insult, maintaining her rights, and taking a lead among
+the surrounding powers. He resolved, therefore, not to depend      (p. 129)
+upon the precarious and unsatisfactory expedients either of hiring
+vessels, which would never be his own, (in a market, too, where his
+enemy might forestal him, and where his necessities would enhance the
+price,) or of compelling his merchants to leave their trading, and
+minister to the emergence of the state, at their own inevitable loss,
+and not improbable ruin. His immediate determination was to spare
+neither labour nor expense in providing a navy of his own, such as
+would be ever ready at the sovereign's command to protect the coast,
+to sweep the seas of those hordes of pirates which then infested them,
+and to bear his forces with safety and credit to any distant shores.
+He thus thought he should best secure his own ports and provinces from
+foreign invasion; afford a safeguard to his own merchants, and to
+those traders who would traffic with his people; and generally make
+England a more formidable antagonist and a more respected neighbour.
+
+This new line of policy he adopted very early in his reign. Whilst he
+was at Southampton, (at the date of this digression, on his first
+expedition to Normandy,) we find him superintending the building of
+various large ships: and, two years afterwards, when news reached him
+of the victory gained by his brother the Duke of Bedford over the
+French fleet off Harfleur, the tidings found him making the most
+effectual means for securing future victories; he was at Smalhithe in
+Kent, personally superintending the building of some ships to      (p. 130)
+add to his own royal navy, then only in its infancy.[100]
+
+                   [Footnote 100: The Pell Rolls record the payment of
+                   a pension which bears testimony to the interest
+                   taken by Henry in his infant navy, and to the
+                   kindness with which he rewarded those who had
+                   faithfully served him. The pension is stated to
+                   have been given "to John Hoggekyns,
+                   master-carpenter, of special grace, because by long
+                   working at the ships his body was much shaken and
+                   worsted."]
+
+Nor did he confine his labours in this great work to England; he
+employed also his Continental resources in forwarding the same object.
+A letter from one John Alcestre, from Bayonne,[101] informs us of a
+ship of very considerable dimensions then on the stocks at that port,
+for the building of which the mayor and "his consorts" had contracted
+with Henry. The vessel was one hundred and eighty-six feet in length
+from "the onmost end of the stem onto the post behind." "The stem" was
+in height ninety-six feet, and the keel was in length one hundred and
+twelve feet.
+
+                   [Footnote 101: Ellis, Second Series, Letter XXI.]
+
+Henry appears also to have acquired the reputation in foreign
+countries of having a desire to possess large vessels of his own. An
+agent in Spain, for example, after informing one of the King's
+officers in England of his unsuccessful endeavour to cause to be
+seized for the King's use four armed galleys of Provence, expected to
+enter the port of Valencia, and which the King of Arragon's government
+had consented to arrest for Henry, but which disappointed them     (p. 131)
+by not coming to land, mentions that two new carraks (a species of
+large transport vessel) were in building "at Bartholem," which the
+King might have if he pleased.
+
+The high importance which Henry attached to these rising bulwarks of
+his country shows itself in various ways; in none more curious and
+striking than (a fact, it is presumed, new to history,) in the solemn
+religious ceremony with which they were consecrated before he
+committed them to the mighty waters. One of the highest order of the
+Christian ministry was employed, and similar devotions were performed
+at the dedication of one of the royal "great ships," as we should find
+in the consecration of a cathedral. They were called also by some of
+the holiest of all names ever uttered by Christians.[102] Thus, on the
+completion of the good ship the Grace-Dieu at Southampton, the
+"venerable father in Christ, the Bishop of Bangor,"[103] was
+commissioned by the King's council to proceed from London at the
+public expense to consecrate it.
+
+                   [Footnote 102: When he sailed from Southampton in
+                   his first expedition to France, he went on board
+                   his own good ship, the Trinity:
+
+                         "But the grandest ship of all that went,
+                         Was that in which our good King sailed."
+                                                         _Old Ballad._]
+
+                   [Footnote 103: Pell Rolls, 16 July 1418.]
+
+When Henry of Monmouth died, the navy of England was doubtless yet in
+its infancy;[104] but it owed its existence as a permanent royal   (p. 132)
+establishment to him. We cannot look back on that "day of small
+things" without feelings of admiration and gratitude; nor now that we
+seem, for a time at least, free from the danger of foreign invasion,
+must we forget that, in the late tremendous struggle which swept away
+the monarchies and the liberties of Europe in one resistless flood, to
+our navy, which had grown with the growth of our country, and
+strengthened with her strength, our native land may, under the
+blessing of Heaven, have been indebted for its continuance in freedom
+and independence. Of those wooden walls of Old England, as a royal
+establishment based on systematic principles, Henry of Monmouth was
+undoubtedly the founder.
+
+                   [Footnote 104: Among the preparations for bringing
+                   Henry's corpse with all the solemn pomp which an
+                   admiring, grateful, and mourning nation could
+                   provide, all ships and vessels on the east coast
+                   were impressed, and sent to Calais.--Pell Rolls,
+                   Sept. 26, 1422.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Whilst Henry was engaged at Southampton in personally superintending
+the preparations for invading France, an event occurred well fitted to
+fill him equally with surprise, and indignation, and sorrow. A
+conspiracy against his crown and his life was brought to light, which
+had been formed by three in his company against whom he could have
+entertained no suspicions: Richard of York, whom he had created Earl
+of Cambridge; Henry Lord Scrope, the treasurer; and Sir Thomas Grey of
+Heton. The Rolls of Parliament, containing the authentic record    (p. 133)
+of the proceedings consequent upon the discovery, and the original
+letters of the Earl of Cambridge, leave no question as to the designs
+of the conspirators. Some doubts may exist as to their motives:
+whether they were influenced singly by a generous resolution to
+restore the crown to its alleged rightful heir,[105] or by some less
+honourable and more selfish feeling;[106] whether by any offence taken
+against Henry, or, as it is alleged, by the vast bribe offered to them
+by the crown of France; or whether by more than one of these motives
+combined, must remain a matter of conjecture. We cannot, perhaps, be
+certified of the means by which Henry became acquainted with the plot,
+nor if, as we are told, he was informed of it by the Earl of March
+himself, can we ascertain beyond doubt how large or how small a share
+that nobleman had in the previous deliberations and resolutions of the
+conspirators. Whether he first consented to their design of        (p. 134)
+setting him up as king, and then repented of so ungrateful an act
+towards one who had behaved to him with so much kindness and
+confidence, or whether he instantly took the resolve to nip this
+treason in the bud, no documents enable us to decide. If the Earl of
+Cambridge's confession be the truth, the Earl of March at one time was
+himself consenting to the plot.
+
+                   [Footnote 105: To suppose that this conspiracy
+                   could have originated, as it has been lately
+                   (Turner's History) suggested, in "the resisting
+                   spirit which Henry's religious persecutions
+                   occasioned, and which led some to wish for another
+                   sovereign," is altogether gratuitous, and contrary
+                   to fact. He was not carrying on religious
+                   persecution, and no resisting spirit on that ground
+                   had manifested itself at all.]
+
+                   [Footnote 106: Richard of Coningsburg, second son
+                   of Edmund of Langley, Duke of York, fifth son of
+                   Edward III, was high in favour with Henry V, who
+                   created him Earl of Cambridge in the second year of
+                   his reign. He married Ann, daughter of Roger
+                   Mortimer, Earl of March, whose son Richard (aged
+                   fourteen in the third year of Henry V,) was heir to
+                   Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March. Leland says, that
+                   the "main design of the Earl of Cambridge's
+                   conspiracy was to raise Edmund Mortimer, Earl of
+                   March, to the throne, as heir to Lionel, Duke of
+                   Clarence; and then, in case that Earl had no child,
+                   the right would come to the Earl of Cambridge's
+                   wife, (sister to the same Edmund,) and to her
+                   issue, as it afterwards did; and this is most
+                   likely to be true, whatever hath been otherwise
+                   reported."--Lel. Coll. i. 701.]
+
+On the 21st of July a commission was appointed, consisting of the
+Earl Marshal, two of the judges,[107] six lords, and Sir Thomas
+Erpingham, to try the conspirators: and the sheriff of the county was
+ordered to summon a jury, who assembled at Southampton on the 2nd of
+August, and found as their verdict, that, on the 20th of July, the
+Earl of Cambridge and Sir Thomas Grey had traitorously conspired to
+collect a body of armed men, to conduct Edmund Earl of March to    (p. 135)
+the frontiers of Wales, and to proclaim him the rightful heir to
+the crown, in case Richard II. were actually dead, against the
+pretensions of the King, whom they intended to style "the Usurper of
+England;" that they purposed to destroy the King and his brothers,
+with other nobles of the land; and that Lord Scrope consented to the
+said treasonable designs, and concealed them from the King.
+
+                   [Footnote 107: To one of these, Robert Hull, the
+                   payment of one hundred marks was ordered to be
+                   made, February 7, 1418, for lately holding his
+                   sessions in South Wales; and also for his trouble
+                   and expenses in delivering the gaol at Southampton
+                   of Richard Earl of Cambridge, Henry Lord Scrope,
+                   and Thomas Grey, Knight, there for treason adjudged
+                   and put to death.]
+
+Lord Scrope denied having consented to the death of the King, or
+having had any communication with the other conspirators on that
+point; and he declared that he had communicated with them on the other
+points solely to possess himself of a knowledge of their designs in
+order to frustrate them. He then pleaded his peerage, and his right to
+be tried by his peers.
+
+Sentence of death in the usual manner was passed upon Grey; but the
+King having, by a most rare instance of mercy in those days, remitted
+that part of the sentence which directed him to be drawn on a hurdle
+and hung, he was allowed to walk through the town to the Northgate,
+and was there immediately beheaded. On Monday, August 5, the Duke of
+Clarence presided in a court of the peers, who, having satisfied
+themselves by carefully examining the record of the conviction of the
+prisoners, Scrope and Cambridge, adjudged them to death. They were
+both executed within a few hours of this judgment. The head of Scrope
+was ordered to be affixed on one of the gates of York and the      (p. 136)
+head of Grey to be stuck up at Newcastle upon Tyne, to mark the baseness
+of their ingratitude, who had enjoyed so closely the confidence and
+friendship of Henry.[108]
+
+                   [Footnote 108: The King's writ, dated Southampton,
+                   8th of August, orders "the head of Henry Lescrop de
+                   Masham to be stuck up at York, and the head of
+                   Thomas Grey de Heton to be stuck up at Newcastle
+                   upon Tyne."--Close Roll, 3 Henry V. m. 16.]
+
+Nothing is recorded officially of any bribe from France, but the fact
+of "one million of gold" having been promised as the wages of their
+treason is asserted by historians. "These lords, for lucre of money,"
+(to use the words of a manuscript[109] apparently contemporary with
+the event,) "had made promise to the Frenchmen to have slayne King
+Henry and all his worthy brethren by a false trayne [treason?]
+suddenly or they had beware. But Almighty God, of his great grace,
+held his holy hand over them, and saved them from this perilous meyne
+[band]. And for to have done this they received of the Frenchmen a
+million of gold, and that was there proved openly."
+
+                   [Footnote 109: Cotton MS. Claudius A. viii. 2.]
+
+As to the guilt or innocence of the Earl of March himself, no proof
+can be drawn from the fact of his having obtained a full and free
+pardon[110] a few days after the event. "Such pardons" (as Dr. Lingard
+rightly observes) "were frequently solicited by the innocent as a
+measure of precaution to defeat the malice and prevent the         (p. 137)
+accusations of their enemies." Sir Harris Nicolas indeed suggests,
+"that it would be difficult to show an instance in which they were
+granted in favour of a person who was not strongly suspected, or who
+had not purchased them at the expense of his accomplices." But it
+requires little more than a cursory glance at our authentic records to
+be assured that Dr. Lingard's view is the more correct. Take, for
+example, the pardon granted in 1412 to the Archbishop of Canterbury,
+and couched in almost the same words. There is indeed in this pardon a
+clause very different from the pardon of the Earl of March; but it is
+a difference which only tends to establish this point, that the
+pardons in many cases were _formal_, and altogether independent of the
+guilt or innocence of the party. The Archbishop (Arundel) is pardoned
+for all treasons, felonies, and so forth, excepting some outrageous
+crimes of which he was never suspected; and also provided he was not
+then lying in prison as a felon convict, or as an adherent to Owyn
+Glyndowr. Many such instances occur.[111]
+
+                   [Footnote 110: His pardon is dated 8th August.]
+
+                   [Footnote 111: Some of the best antiquaries of the
+                   present day are disposed to pronounce, that a
+                   pardon was never granted, unless there had existed
+                   some cause of suspicion or offence,--something, in
+                   short, which might have involved in trouble the
+                   individual for whom the pardon was obtained.]
+
+On this sad subject two original letters are preserved, addressed to
+Henry by the Earl of Cambridge; they are found among the "Original
+Letters" published by Sir Henry Ellis, accompanied, as is          (p. 138)
+usual[112] in his valuable collection, by a succinct and clear
+statement of such facts as may be necessary for their elucidation. The
+first contains the Earl's confession; whether written before or after
+his trial, is not evident. The second sues for mercy, probably after
+the jury had returned their verdict; it may be even after the sentence
+was passed by the peers, though a very short portion of a day elapsed
+between that sentence and his execution.
+
+                   [Footnote 112: (Ellis, Second Series, vol. i. p.
+                   44.) "This conspiracy was the first spark of the
+                   flame which in the course of time consumed the two
+                   houses of Lancaster and York. Richard Earl of
+                   Cambridge was the father of Richard Duke of York,
+                   and the grandfather of King Edward IV."]
+
+It is curious to learn, from the first of these letters, that even
+down to the year of Henry's first expedition to France, the people
+were from time to time deluded by rumours that Richard II. was still
+alive. The Earl of Cambridge acknowledged that the conspirators
+intended to set up the Earl of March, "taking upon him the sovereignty
+of this land, if yonder man's person, which they call King Richard,
+had not been alive, as I wot well that he is not alive." He confessed,
+also, a guilty knowledge of a conspiracy to "bring in that person
+which they named King Richard, and Harry Percy out of Scotland, with a
+power of Scots."
+
+Another very curious fact is alleged in this document, interesting in
+more points than one. It shows what a powerful engine in those     (p. 139)
+days was the _Confessional_; and it proves also that, though Henry
+has been called the King of Priests, there were some of the sacred
+order in high station who were bent on his overthrow. Cambridge
+declares that both the Earl of March and his man Lusy had assured him
+that the Earl "was not shriven of a great while [had not attended the
+priests for the purposes of confession] without his confessors, on
+every occasion, putting him in penance to claim what they called his
+right." His confessors would not absolve him without imposing upon
+him, by way of penance, this condition, that he should claim his right
+to the crown.
+
+     LETTER OF CONFESSION FROM THE EARL OF CAMBRIDGE.
+
+     My most dreadful and sovereign liege Lord, like to your Highness
+     to wit [please your Highness to know] touching the purpose cast
+     against your high estate. Having the Earl of March, by his own
+     assent, and by the assent of myself, whereof I most me repent of
+     all worldly things; and by the accord of Lord Scrope and Sir
+     Thomas Grey, to have had the aforesaid Earl in the land of Wales
+     without your licence, taking upon him the sovereignty of this
+     land, if yonder man's person, which they call King Richard, had
+     not been alive, as I wot well that he is not alive;[113] for  (p. 140)
+     which point I put me wholly in your grace. And as for the form
+     of a proclamation which should have been cried in the Earl's
+     name as the heir to the crown of England against you, my liege
+     Lord, called by untrue name Harry of Lancaster, usurper of
+     England, to the intent to have made the more people to have drawn
+     to him and from you; of the which cry Scrope knew not of as from
+     me, but Grey did; having with the Earl a banner of the arms of
+     England, having also the crown of Spain on a pallet, which, my
+     liege Lord, is one of your weddys, for the which offence I put me
+     wholly in your grace. And as for the purpose taken by Umfrevyle
+     and Wederyngtoun for the bringing in of that person which they
+     named King Richard, and Herry Percy, out of Scotland, with a
+     power of Scots, and their power together seeming to them able to
+     give you a battle, of the which intent Sir Thomas Grey wist of,
+     but not Scrope as by me; of the which knowing I submit me wholly
+     into your grace. And as for the taking of your castles in Wales,
+     Davy Howell made me be host, so there were a stirring in the
+     North; of the which point I put me wholly in your grace. And as
+     touching the Earl of March and Lusy his man, they said me both,
+     that the Earl was not shriven of a great while, but at all his
+     confessors put him in penance to claim that they called his   (p. 141)
+     right, that would be that time that every iknew anything that
+     ever to him longed.... [The MS. is here imperfect.] Of the which
+     points and articles here before written, and of all other which
+     now are not in my mind, but truly as often as any to my mind
+     fallen I shall duly and truly certify you thereof; beseeching to
+     you, my liege Lord, for His love that suffered passion on the
+     Good Friday, so have ye compassion on me, your liege man; and if
+     any of these persons, whose names are contained in this bill,
+     holden contrary the substance of that I have written at this
+     time, I shall be ready with the might of God to make it good, as
+     ye, my liege Lord, will award me.
+
+                   [Footnote 113: The extraordinary prevalence of an
+                   opinion that Richard was still alive and in
+                   Scotland, has already been noticed. The Chronicle
+                   of England informs us of some particulars relative
+                   to the means by which the reports concerning him
+                   were propagated, and the prompt, severe, and
+                   decisive measures adopted by the King and his
+                   supporters for suppressing them. "And at this time
+                   (5 Henry IV.) Serle, yeoman of King Richard, came
+                   into England out of Scotland, and told to divers
+                   people that King Richard was alive in Scotland, and
+                   so much people believed in his words. Wherefore a
+                   great part of the people of the realm were in great
+                   error and grudging against the King, through
+                   information of lies and false leasing that this
+                   Serle had made. But at the last he was taken in the
+                   North country, and by law was judged to be drawn
+                   through every city and good burgh town in England,
+                   and was afterwards hanged at Tyburn and quartered."
+                   It is also certain that many members of the
+                   monastic orders were executed for spreading similar
+                   reports. See Nichols' Leicester, vol. i. p. 368.]
+
+     LETTER OF THE EARL OF CAMBRIDGE, SUING FOR MERCY.
+
+     My most dreadful and sovereign liege Lord, I, Richard York, your
+     humble subject and very liege man, beseech you of grace of all
+     manner offenses which I have done or assented to in any kind, by
+     stirring of other folk egging me thereto, wherein I wot well I
+     han ill offended to your Highness; beseeching you at the
+     reverence of God, that you like to take me into the hands of your
+     merciful and piteous grace, thinking ye well of your great
+     goodness. My liege Lord, my full trust is that ye will have
+     consideration, though that my person be of no value, your high
+     goodness, where God hath set you in so high estate to every liege
+     man that to you longeth plenteously to give grace, that you like
+     to accept this mine simple request for the love of Our Lady and
+     the blissful Holy Ghost, to whom I pray that they might your
+     heart induce to all pity and grace for their high goodness.
+
+Henry having taken every precaution for the preservation of his people
+at home, as well against foreign designs as against disturbers of the
+peace within the realm, left Porchester Castle on the 7th of       (p. 142)
+August, with the intention of superintending in person the embarkation
+of his troops. This seems to have occupied him to the 10th, when he
+went on board the "Royal Trinity," and immediately gave signal for the
+ships to join him from the different stations in which they were
+awaiting his command. The fleet consisted of about thirteen hundred
+vessels of very different sizes, varying from twenty to three hundred
+tons' burden. Probably, reckoning servants, attendants of every kind,
+as well as fighting men, this fleet transported to the shores of
+France not less than thirty thousand persons. Of these there were only
+about two thousand five hundred men-at-arms, four thousand
+horse-archers, four thousand foot-archers, and one thousand gunners,
+miners, masons, smiths, with others. The whole amount of fighting men,
+according to this calculation, does not exceed eleven thousand five
+hundred. The expedition sailed with a favourable wind on Sunday,
+August 11, 1415.[114]
+
+                   [Footnote 114: It was shortly before he left London
+                   on this expedition that Henry made that grant (to
+                   which reference was made in the early part of our
+                   first volume) of 20_l._ per annum on Joan Waring,
+                   his nurse.--Rol. Pat. 3 Henry V. m. 13. It is dated
+                   June 5th.]
+
+Every document, probably, now known relative to this expedition, has
+been examined by Sir Harris Nicolas; and to his able digest of the
+facts relating to this part of Henry's proceedings the reader is
+referred for the more minute details.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.                                                      (p. 143)
+
+HENRY CROSSES THE SEA: LANDS AT CLEF DE CAUS: LAYS SIEGE TO HARFLEUR.
+-- DEVOTED ATTENDANCE ON HIS DYING FRIEND THE BISHOP OF NORWICH. --
+VAST TREASURE FALLS INTO HIS HANDS ON THE SURRENDER OF HARFLEUR. -- HE
+CHALLENGES THE DAUPHIN. -- FUTILE MODERN CHARGE BROUGHT AGAINST HIM ON
+THAT GROUND.
+
+1415.
+
+
+From this time Henry's is the life rather of a general than of a King.
+His successive battles, and sieges, and victories throw but
+occasionally more or new light on his character; and it is not within
+the limits of these Memoirs to describe his military achievements, or
+to enter upon a detailed examination of his campaigns, except so far
+only as the events elucidate his character, or as a knowledge of them
+may be necessary for a fuller acquaintance with his life. Many
+circumstances of this kind occur between the day when he quitted his
+port of Southampton, and the hour which terminated his brief but
+eventful career on earth. The enemies of his fair fame cite some one
+or other of those transactions to prove him a mass of ambition,
+superstition, and cruelty. It will be the reader's part to decide  (p. 144)
+for himself whether the facts in evidence bear out those charges, or
+whether a more equitable judgment would not rather pronounce him to be
+a man who, in the midst of a most exciting and distracting career,
+never forgot the principles of piety, justice, and mercy. To attest
+his valour we need summon no evidence; though even in that point,
+which the universal voice of Europe had pronounced to be unassailable,
+his challenge to the Dauphin has been cited by one author as an act
+that must tarnish his character. The justness of the reflection we
+shall weigh hereafter. Of licentiousness after his accession to the
+throne his enemies themselves have never ventured to whisper a
+suspicion.
+
+As Henry's fleet was leaving his native shores, two incidents are said
+to have occurred of opposite omen, such as in those days of
+superstition were wont to exercise powerful influence over the minds
+of men far removed from the lowest ranks of the people. Swans were
+seen swimming gaily and fearlessly around the ships, as if hailing
+them on their own watery element; and their appearance was noted as a
+happy and encouraging auspice. On the other hand, a fire broke out in
+one of the large ships before Henry sailed, which did considerable
+damage among the vessels, not without loss of many lives; and this was
+deemed an omen of such dire portent, that many of the King's followers
+would have dissuaded him from persevering in his expedition.
+
+Henry's was a pious, but not a religiously timid or superstitious  (p. 145)
+mind; and, unaffected by this incident, or the entreaties of his
+friends, he proceeded on his voyage forthwith, and on Friday, August
+13, at five o'clock in the afternoon, he entered the mouth of the
+Seine, and anchored at a place called Clef de Caus,[115] between
+Honfleur and Harfleur, three miles from the latter town. He landed his
+forces without opposition; and, on coming on shore himself, he knelt
+down, and prayed to Almighty God to prosper his just cause.[116]
+
+                   [Footnote 115: At the place also where he encamped,
+                   he solemnly celebrated the festival of the
+                   Assumption [so called] of the Virgin Mary, a feast
+                   observed, in the countries on the Continent in
+                   communion with Rome, with great rejoicings and
+                   religious ceremonies, in the present day.]
+
+                   [Footnote 116: See Chronicler A, and St. Remy, p.
+                   82, quoted in Nicolas' Agincourt.]
+
+Henry resolved on laying siege to Harfleur, the inhabitants of which
+seemed equally determined to resist him. The siege of Harfleur, which
+commenced on Sunday, August 18, is described with great minuteness by
+several writers. His brother, the Duke of Clarence, appears to have
+held the most prominent place among Henry's officers; and much praise
+is ascribed to him for his prowess and military talent. Every mode of
+attack and defence then reckoned among martial tactics was carried out
+on both sides.
+
+In addition, however, to the wonted privations and hardships of a
+protracted siege, the English host was visited by a violent        (p. 146)
+disease, which spread rapidly through every grade of the army,
+unsparingly thinning its ranks and carrying off its officers, and
+threatening annihilation to the whole body. Whilst this calamity was
+raging at its height, and making dreadful havoc among the soldiery, an
+incident is recorded to have taken place, to which the mind gladly
+turns from the din and turmoil of the siege, and the devastations of
+that fatal scourge; and though the scene is itself the chamber of
+death, we cannot but feel a melancholy satisfaction in contemplating
+it for a while. An ecclesiastic, who was present in the camp, and in
+attendance on his royal master, records the anecdote in the most
+casual manner,[117] without a word of admiration or remark to call our
+attention to it, as though he were relating a circumstance of no
+unusual occurrence, and such merely as those who knew his master might
+hear of without surprise; whilst few pages of history bear to any
+monarch more beautiful and affecting evidence of habitual kindness of
+heart, pure sympathy with a suffering fellow-creature, and devoted
+fulfilment of the dearest offices of friendship. Whilst Richard
+Courtenay, Bishop of Norwich, one of the victims of the dysentery, was
+lingering in the agonies of death, we find Henry in the midst of his
+besieging army, at the height of a very severe struggle, war and
+disease raging on every side,--not in a council of his officers,   (p. 147)
+planning the operations of to-morrow,--nor on his couch, giving his
+body and mind repose from the fatigues and excitement of his opening
+campaign,--but we see him on his knees at the death-bed of a dying
+minister of religion, joining in the offices of the church so long as
+the waning spirit could partake of its consolations; and then not
+commissioning others, however faithful representatives they might have
+been, to act in his stead, but by his own hands soothing the
+sufferings of the dying prelate, and striving to make the struggle of
+his latter moments less bitter. Had Henry visited the tent of the good
+Bishop when he first knew of his malady, and charged any of his
+numerous retinue to pay especial attention to his wants and comforts,
+it would have been regarded, at such an hour of pressing emergence, as
+an act worthy of a Christian King. But Henry, who in no department of
+his public duties ever willingly deputed to others what he could
+personally attend to himself, carried the same principle into the
+exercise of the charities of private life; and has here left a pattern
+of Christian sympathy and lowliness of mind, of genuine philanthropy,
+and the sincere affection of true friendship, worthy of prince and
+peasant alike to imitate. Bishop Courtenay is said to have been among
+Henry's chosen friends, recommended to him by the singular qualities
+of his head and his heart. He was a person (we are told) endowed with
+intellectual and moral excellences of a very high character;       (p. 148)
+and Henry knew how to appreciate the value, and cultivate the friendship,
+of such a man. Having enjoyed the satisfaction and benefit of his
+society in life, now, when he was on the point of quitting this world
+for ever, Henry never withdrew from his bed; but, watching him with
+tender anxiety till the ministers of religion had solemnized the last
+rite according to the prevailing practice of the church in those days,
+even then, "in his own person," he continued to supply the wants of
+sinking mortality, "with his own hands[118] wiping the chilled feet"
+of his dying friend. The manuscript proceeds to say, that, when life
+was extinct, with pious regard for his memory, Henry caused his body
+to be conveyed to England, and to be honourably buried among the royal
+corpses in Westminster.
+
+                   [Footnote 117: Sloane MS. 1776.]
+
+                   [Footnote 118: A very curious turn has been given
+                   inadvertently to this circumstance by the
+                   translation of the ecclesiastic's sentence, and the
+                   comment upon it, now found in the Appendix to the
+                   "Battle of Agincourt." "Rege praesente, pedes ejus
+                   tergente post extremam unctionem propriis
+                   manibus,"--words which can only be translated so as
+                   to represent the King, "after extreme unction,
+                   wiping the feet" of the Bishop,--the Editor of that
+                   work, by the careless blunder of an amanuensis, or
+                   some unaccountable accident, is made to render by
+                   the strange sentence, "_covering_ his feet _with_
+                   extreme unction;" and he is then led, as a comment
+                   upon that text, to observe, that "the Bishop
+                   received from Henry's own hand the last offices of
+                   _religion_." Extreme unction, the last of the seven
+                   sacraments of the see of Rome, was administered
+                   doubtless by an attendant priest.]
+
+Three days after this prelate's death, on Wednesday, September 18th,
+an agreement to surrender on the following Sunday was entered      (p. 149)
+into; the inhabitants of the town pledging themselves by a most solemn
+oath to abide by the terms of the agreement. The ceremony on this
+occasion must have had a very imposing effect. The King's chaplain,
+Benedict Bishop of Bangor, in his pontifical dress, carried the
+consecrated Host to the walls of the town, preceded by thirty-two
+chaplains, each in full canonicals, and attended by as many esquires,
+one of whom bore a lighted taper before each priest. As soon as the
+parties were sworn on the elements, the townsmen were assured that
+they need fear no acts of wrong or violence, for the King wished
+rather to preserve than to destroy his own territory.
+
+On Sunday, September 22, the town was surrendered with much solemn
+state into Henry's hands. At the appointed hour, Henry, being dressed
+in the robes of royalty, ascended a throne erected under a silk
+pavilion on the top of the hill opposite to the town. All his peers
+and great men were assembled around him. "Our King"[119] (says a
+writer who was probably an eye-witness) "sat in his estate as royal as
+did ever any King; and, as it is said, there never was a Christian
+King so royal, neither so lordly, sat in his seat as did he." From
+this seat to the town a passage was formed by the English soldiers,
+through which the late governor, Sir Lionel Braquemont, the Lord de
+Gaucourt, and others, with the Host borne before them, attended by (p. 150)
+those who had sworn to observe the treaty, and by thirty-four of the
+chief inhabitants, passed to Henry's presence, "who forgave them their
+injustice in keeping his own town from him; and, having hospitably
+entertained them, dismissed them courteously." Thus fell into Henry's
+hand one of the most important towns of Normandy, after a siege of
+about thirty-six days, during which the zeal and valour of the
+assailants and the besieged were equally displayed.[120]
+
+                   [Footnote 119: Cotton MS. Cleopatra, C. iv. f. 24.]
+
+                   [Footnote 120: Monstrelet informs us that the
+                   treasure found by Henry at Harfleur was immense. A
+                   letter to Henry from two of his officers,
+                   "_counters of your receipt_," specifies that they
+                   were then in possession for the King of treasure to
+                   this amount: of coined gold, 30,000_l._; in silver
+                   coined, 1,000,000_l._; and in wedges of silver,
+                   drawing by estimation to half a ton weight; at the
+                   same time desiring to receive instructions as to
+                   the mode of conveying it to Rouen. This letter,
+                   dated 19th of May, must belong to the year 1419, in
+                   the January of which Rouen was taken.--Ellis's
+                   Letters, xxvi.]
+
+On the following day Henry entered the town, dismounting at the gate,
+and walking barefoot to St. Martin's church, in which he gave solemn
+thanks to God for his success. He then commanded all the women and
+children, and the disabled, to be separated from those who had sworn
+allegiance to him, as well as from those who, having refused that
+oath, were regarded as prisoners. The persons thus separated were next
+day sent out of the town, to the number of nearly two thousand, loudly
+lamenting their fate. They were escorted by the English; and all   (p. 151)
+persons belonging to the church, and the women and children, had a
+present of five sous for their journey, and were permitted to dress
+themselves in their best apparel, and carry each a moderate bundle
+with them. It was forbidden to search the priests, and also the heads
+or the bosoms of the women. At St. Aubon, about four miles from
+Harfleur, they were entreated to refresh themselves with bread and
+cheese and wine; at Lislebone the Marshal Boucicault received them,
+and they were forwarded by water to Rouen. At Henry's invitation, many
+tradesmen and others came over from England, and became inhabitants of
+Harfleur; the King, with the desire of strengthening the place, having
+guaranteed, by a proclamation through England, a house of inheritance
+to all who would settle there.
+
+About this time Henry sent a message to the Dauphin, challenging him
+to single combat, and so to decide the dreadful struggle in which the
+two kingdoms were engaged, without the further effusion of blood.
+Occasion has been taken to reflect on this act of Henry's, as a stain
+both on his personal valour and on his principles of justice: the
+first, because he was twenty-seven years old, and the Dauphin not
+twenty; the latter, because it were unjust "to expect that so
+important a stake should be hazarded on the result of such a meeting."
+To enhance Henry's guilt of cowardice, we are told that he challenged
+"a mere youth, of whose prowess or bodily strength there is not    (p. 152)
+the slightest evidence, and who died _in the December following_."
+This is not the first time we have had occasion to remark on this same
+writer's injustice towards Henry's memory. Why mention the Dauphin's
+death in the following December, except to insinuate that Henry _knew_
+he was then in a weak state of bodily health? Of this, however, there
+is not the shadow of reason for suspecting Henry. On the contrary, the
+evidence tends to the directly opposite conclusion. The Dauphin died
+on the 25th December following; but so sudden was his decease, that a
+suspicion was excited of his having been poisoned. He had for a long
+time been actively engaged in heading one of the contending parties in
+France, and he is reported to have been a bold and presumptuous
+prince.[121] And, even a month after the battle of Agincourt, we find
+him, apparently in full strength both of body and mind, exercising the
+authority of the King, his father, in Paris; vigorously and
+effectually resisting the entrance of the Duke of Burgundy, who
+marched with his army direct to the gates of that city, determined to
+force for himself an entrance into it. And, on his father's relapsing
+into his malady, he vigorously seized the government, setting the Duke
+of Orleans at defiance, and carrying off the King, his father, ill as
+he was, to the siege of Arras.[122] Whether the difference of      (p. 153)
+age between these two young warriors is so great as to justify such
+strong reflections on Henry's courage, must be left to the judgment of
+impartial minds. But, when the Dauphin is called a mere youth, it must
+be borne in mind that he was considerably older than Henry was when he
+headed his father's troops in Wales, or fought so gallantly in the
+field of Shrewsbury.
+
+                   [Footnote 121: Abrege Historique.]
+
+                   [Footnote 122: Ibid. p. 114.]
+
+But we must not let this charge, affecting Henry's valour and justice,
+be dismissed without observing that not only did Henry believe, but it
+was the universal belief of the age, that "trial by battle" was a
+proper way of ending a dispute, and one acceptable to God: one in
+which the justice of the quarrel decided, more than the strength or
+skill of the combatants. We have proved that there could have been no
+grounds for Henry's supposing that he was sending a challenge to a
+youth enervated by sickness; and the difference of age alleged now, at
+length, in disparagement of Henry's valour, would have been scouted by
+all the good knights of Christendom, had it been pleaded as an apology
+for the Dauphin declining the challenge. Surely it indicates a
+conviction that the points in which the character of a man, famed for
+bravery and justice, is assailable, are few and unimportant, when such
+frivolous attacks as this are made on his fair fame.
+
+HENRY'S CHALLENGE TO THE DAUPHIN may be thus translated:--         (p. 154)
+
+     Henry, by the grace of God, King of France and England, Lord of
+     Ireland, to the high and mighty Prince, the Dauphin of Vienne,
+     our cousin, eldest son of the most mighty Prince, our cousin and
+     adversary of France. Whereas, from reverence to God, and to avoid
+     the shedding of human blood, we have many times and in many ways
+     followed and sought for peace, and have not been able to possess
+     it, yet our desire to secure it increases more and more; and well
+     considering that our wars are followed by the death of men, the
+     destruction of countries, the wailings of women and children, and
+     so many evils generally as every good Christian must lament and
+     pity, especially ourselves, whom this affair most affects, as it
+     does, to take all pains and diligence to find every means within
+     our knowledge to avoid the above-mentioned evils and distresses,
+     and to acquire the grace of God and the praise of the world. And,
+     since we have thought and advised, it has seemed to us,
+     considering it has pleased God to visit our cousin with
+     infirmity, that the remedy rests upon us and you. And to the end
+     that every one might know that we withdraw not ourselves from it,
+     nor from our part in it, we offer you to put our whole quarrel,
+     with God's grace, between our person and yours. And if it should
+     seem to you that you cannot agree to this, because of the
+     interest which you conceive our cousin, your father, has in it,
+     we declare to you in this our intention, that if you will
+     entertain it, and engage in it, we are well pleased that our said
+     cousin, for our reverence to God, and because he is a sacred
+     person, shall have and enjoy all he has at present for the term
+     of his life, whatever shall happen by the will of God between us
+     and you, as it shall be agreed between his council, ours,     (p. 155)
+     and yours.
+
+     So that if God shall give us the victory, the crown of France
+     with its appurtenances, as our right, shall be immediately
+     rendered to us without difficulty after his decease. And to this
+     all the lords and estates of France shall be bound, as it shall
+     be agreed between us.
+
+     For it is better for us, cousin, thus to decide this war for ever
+     between our two persons, than to suffer the misbelievers, by
+     occasion of our wars, to destroy Christianity, our holy mother
+     the church to remain in divisions, and the people of God to
+     destroy one another. We pray much that you may have as strong a
+     desire to avoid that, and to come to peace, and seek all means of
+     finding it. And let us trust in God that no better way than this
+     can be found. And, therefore, in discharge of our soul, and in
+     charge of yours, if such great evils follow, we make to you the
+     above offer.
+
+     Protesting ever that we make this offer for the honour and fear
+     of God, and for the above causes, of our own motion, without our
+     royal relations, councillors, and subjects daring in so high a
+     matter to advise us. Nor can it at any time to come be urged to
+     our prejudice, nor in prejudice of our good right and title which
+     we have at present to the said crown with its appurtenances, nor
+     to the good right and title which we now have to other our lands
+     and heritages on this side the sea, nor to our heirs and
+     successors, if this our offer does not take full effect between
+     us and you in the manner aforesaid. Given under our privy seal,
+     at our town of Harfleur, the 16th[123] day of September."
+
+                   [Footnote 123: There is a doubt whether it is the
+                   xvi. or the xxvi.--the first x in the manuscript
+                   having, perhaps, been obliterated by the fire which
+                   damaged it.--Foed. vol. ix. 313.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.                                                     (p. 156)
+
+HENRY, WITH TROOPS MUCH WEAKENED, LEAVES HARFLEUR, FULLY PURPOSED TO
+MAKE FOR CALAIS, NOTWITHSTANDING THE THREATENED RESISTANCE OF THE
+FRENCH. -- PASSES THE FIELD OF CRESSY. -- FRENCH RESOLVED TO ENGAGE.
+-- NIGHT BEFORE THE CONFLICT. -- *FIELD* OF *AGINCOURT*. -- SLAUGHTER OF
+PRISONERS. -- HENRY, HIS ENEMIES THEMSELVES BEING JUDGES, FULLY
+EXCULPATED FROM EVERY SUSPICION OF CRUELTY OR UNCHIVALROUS BEARING. --
+HE PROCEEDS TO CALAIS. -- THENCE TO LONDON. -- RECEPTION BY HIS
+SUBJECTS. -- HIS MODEST AND PIOUS DEMEANOUR. -- SUPERSTITIOUS
+PROCEEDINGS OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITIES. -- REFLECTIONS. --
+SONGS OF AGINCOURT.
+
+1415.
+
+
+Immediately after the surrender of Harfleur, Henry held a council to
+deliberate on his future measures. All agreed that, as winter was fast
+approaching, the King and his army should return to England; but there
+arose a difference of opinion as to the manner of their return. Henry
+entertained an insuperable objection against returning by sea; and,
+notwithstanding all the dangers to which he must inevitably be
+exposed, he resolved to march through Normandy to his town of Calais.
+He wished to see with his own eyes, he said, the territories which (p. 157)
+were by right his own; adding, that he put full trust in God, in whose
+name he had engaged in this, as he certainly deemed it, his righteous
+cause. His army had been frightfully diminished by the dysentery; he
+was compelled to leave a portion of the remainder to garrison
+Harfleur; and, after the most impartial consideration, the number of
+fighting men with whom he could enter upon his perilous journey cannot
+be supposed to have exceeded 9000, whilst the strong probability is
+that the army consisted of little more than 6000. What portion of
+admiration for bravery, and what of blame for rashness, an
+unprejudiced mind would mingle together, when endeavouring to assign
+the just reward to Henry for his decision to make his way through the
+very heart of his enemy's country, himself so weak in resources, his
+enemy both so strong already, and gathering in overwhelming numbers
+from every side, is a problem of no easy solution. Probably we are
+very scantily provided with a knowledge of all his motives; and our
+praise or our censure might now be very different from what it would
+be, were we acquainted with all the circumstances of the case. How far
+he expected that the dissensions among the French would prevent them
+from uniting to offer him any formidable opposition, though not easy
+to answer, is a question not to be neglected. Especially might he have
+been influenced by the expectation that the French would not withdraw
+their forces from the interior, from fear of the Duke of Burgundy, (p. 158)
+who was ever on the watch to seize a favourable moment of attack. The
+fact is beyond doubt, that, having garrisoned Harfleur, he quitted
+that town about the 8th of October; leaving there all the heavy
+articles and carriages, with whatever would be an impediment to his
+progress, and conveying all the baggage of the army on horseback.
+Henry issued a proclamation, forbidding his soldiers, on pain of
+death, to be guilty of any kind of injustice or cruelty towards the
+inhabitants as they passed along.
+
+The King of France had collected an army from all sides: he had more
+than 14,000 men-at-arms under valiant generals, with the greater part
+of whom he remained at Rouen, watching the motions of the English. On
+the 20th of October it was resolved in his council, by a large
+majority, that the English should be resisted in a regular and pitched
+battle. The King had received the celebrated standard, the Oriflamme,
+with much solemnity: and war had been declared by unfurling that
+consecrated ensign. There seemed at length to have spread through King
+and princes, and nobles and people alike, an enthusiastic spirit,
+determined to crush the invaders. The Dauphin himself could scarcely
+be prevailed upon to obey his father's injunctions, and to abstain
+from joining the army; his life being considered too precious to be
+exposed to such danger.
+
+Henry meanwhile, after leaving Harfleur,[124] proceeded without    (p. 159)
+any important interruption through Montevilliers, Fecamp, Arques, a
+town about four miles inland from Dieppe; and on Saturday, October 12,
+he passed about half a mile to the right of the town of Eu, where part
+of the French troops were quartered. These sallied out on the English
+in great numbers, and very fiercely, but were soon repulsed; and a
+treaty was agreed upon between Henry and the inhabitants, who supplied
+refreshments to his army. He was now informed that the French would
+offer him battle in a day or two, whilst he was passing the river
+Somme. Undaunted by these tidings, he resolved to advance; and to
+cross that river at Blanchetache, the very spot at which Edward III.
+had passed it before the battle of Cressy. The field of Cressy was
+only ten English miles in advance; and it may be safely inferred that
+the remembrance of the struggle and victory of that day filled both
+Henry himself and his men with additional zeal and resolution. By the
+false assurance of a prisoner,[125] that the passage there was
+defended by many noblemen with a strong force, Henry was induced to
+change his route, and to proceed up the Somme on its left bank. He
+reached Abbeville on Sunday the 13th of October; but, to his sad   (p. 160)
+disappointment, he found all the bridges broken down, and the enemy
+stationed on the opposite bank to resist his passage. At this time
+Henry's situation was most perilous and dispiriting. His provisions
+were nearly exhausted,--the enemy had laid waste their own country to
+deprive his army of all sustenance; and no prospect was before them
+but famine at once, and annihilation from the overwhelming forces of
+the French. His army proceeded next day, and passed within a league of
+Amiens, and were much refreshed with plenty of provisions; wine was
+found in such abundance that the King was obliged to issue a
+proclamation prohibiting excess. On the Thursday they reached a plain
+near Corbie, from which town the French made a sally against them, but
+were repulsed after a brief but spirited engagement. Here John Bromley
+gallantly recovered the standard of Guienne, and for his valour was
+allowed to bear its figure for his crest. Here too Henry showed that,
+amidst all his perils and hardships, he was resolved to maintain the
+discipline of his army by inflicting the punishment denounced by his
+proclamation against violence or sacrilege. One of the soldiers was
+detected with a copper-gilt pix in his sleeve,[126] which he had
+stolen from a neighbouring church. Henry sentenced him forthwith to be
+hung, as a warning to all others not to offend with the hope of    (p. 161)
+impunity.
+
+                   [Footnote 124: On the 4th of October fishermen in
+                   different parts were ordered to go with all speed,
+                   taking their tackle with them, to Harfleur, to fish
+                   for the support of the King and his army.]
+
+                   [Footnote 125: This is a very curious fact, not
+                   generally known. The battle of Agincourt, humanly
+                   speaking, would not have been fought, had it not
+                   been for the falsehood of a Frenchman.]
+
+                   [Footnote 126: Shakspeare makes use of this
+                   anecdote, and fixes the robbery on Bardolph.]
+
+Quitting Corbie, they passed close to Nesle on the 18th October; when
+Henry, on the point of laying waste that district, heard that a
+passage over the Somme was at length discovered. The French,
+meanwhile, had contented themselves with proceeding before him, and
+guarding the passages of the river. Whether the policy of allowing the
+English to exhaust their strength of body and mind be sufficient, or
+not, to account for their conduct, we have not evidence enough to
+pronounce decidedly; but, on many occasions, their abstinence from
+striking a blow seems otherwise almost inexplicable. Henry made now
+one of his most vigorous efforts to effect a passage; nothing, we are
+told, could exceed his own personal exertions.[127] The French had
+broken up the lanes leading to the fords, and thrown every obstacle in
+the way. However, nothing seemed able to resist his resolution; and in
+a few hours the whole of his army had crossed. Great was the joy of
+the English on having surmounted this formidable obstacle; and they
+now hoped to reach Calais without a battle. But on the following day
+two heralds came to announce to Henry the resolution of the French (p. 162)
+to give him battle, and to take vengeance on him for invading their
+country. Henry, without any change of countenance, with much
+gentleness replied, "All would be done according to the will of God."
+On the heralds then asking him by what route he proposed to proceed,
+"Straight to Calais" was the reply. He then advised them not to
+attempt to interrupt his march, but to avoid the shedding of Christian
+blood. The heralds fell down upon their knees as they first approached
+him; and on dismissing them, he gave them a hundred golden crowns.
+From the hour of these heralds departing, Henry and his men always
+wore their warrior-dress, in readiness for battle; and he spoke to his
+army with much tenderness and spirit, and evidently with a powerful
+effect. To his surprise, next morning none appeared to oppose him, and
+he proceeded on his journey. Many circumstances happened from day to
+day, and hour to hour, calculated to dispirit the English, by exciting
+an assurance that the French army was near, and waiting their own time
+to seize upon their prey; delaying only in order to make their utter
+demolition more certain. Henry's route probably was taken through
+Peronne, Albert, Bonnieres,[128] Frevent; and he reached the river
+Ternoise (called the River of Swords) without any remarkable       (p. 163)
+occurrence. No sooner, however, had he passed the Ternoise, and
+mounted the hill not far from Maisoncelle, than a man came, breathless,
+and told the Duke of York that the enemy was approaching in countless
+numbers. Henry forthwith commanded the main body to halt, and setting
+spurs to his horse hastened to view the enemy, who seemed to him like
+an immense forest covering the whole country. Nothing dismayed, he
+ordered his troops to dismount and prepare for battle; animating them
+by his calm, intrepid bearing, and by his language of kindness and
+encouragement. The French, who were first seen as they were emerging
+from a valley a mile off in three columns, halted at the distance of
+about half a mile.
+
+                   [Footnote 127: Sir William Bardolf, Lieutenant of
+                   Calais, hearing of the King's danger, sent part of
+                   his garrison to his assistance; but that little
+                   body, consisting of about three hundred
+                   men-at-arms, were either destroyed or taken
+                   prisoners by the men of Picardy.]
+
+                   [Footnote 128: After quitting Bonnieres, Henry
+                   passed unawares beyond the place intended by his
+                   officers for his quarters; but, instead of
+                   returning, he replied that, being in his war-coat,
+                   he could not return without displeasing God. He
+                   therefore ordered his advanced guard to take a more
+                   distant position, and himself occupied the spot
+                   which had been intended for them. This anecdote is
+                   recorded as an instance of the care with which
+                   Henry avoided whatever might appear of ill omen.
+                   Probably he only followed the usual maxims of an
+                   army in march; that maxim originating, it may be,
+                   in superstition.]
+
+The English felt assured that they would be immediately attacked; and,
+as soon as they were drawn up in order of battle, they prepared for
+death. The greatest want then felt in the camp was the lack of
+priests,[129] every one being anxiously desirous of making confession
+and obtaining absolution. Henry's presence of mind, and noble      (p. 164)
+soul, and pious trust, and intrepid spirit, showed themselves on this
+occasion in words which ought never to be forgotten. Sir Walter
+Hungerford having expressed his sorrow that they had not ten thousand
+of those gallant archers who would be most desirous of aiding their
+King in his hour of need, the King rebuked him, saying, "He spoke
+idly, for, as his hope was in God, in whom he trusted for victory, he
+would not, if he could, increase his forces even by a single person;
+for, if it was the pleasure of the Almighty, few as were his
+followers, they were sufficient to chastise the confidence of the
+enemy, who relied on their numbers."
+
+                   [Footnote 129: And yet there were so many priests
+                   present (with the baggage) during the battle, that
+                   the chaplain calls them the clerical army, whose
+                   weapons were prayers and intercessions, "Nos qui
+                   ascripti sumus clericali militiae."]
+
+About sun-set the French took up their quarters in the orchards and
+villages of Agincourt and Ruissauville. Henry, anxiously seeking
+lodgings for his exhausted soldiers, at length found in the village of
+Maisoncelle a better supply for their wants than they had met with
+since they left Harfleur; and a small hut afforded the King himself
+protection from the weather.[130] Before the English quitted       (p. 165)
+their position to go to Maisoncelle, Henry permitted all his prisoners
+to depart, upon condition that if he gained the approaching battle,
+they should return and surrender themselves; but, if he were defeated,
+they should be released from their engagements. This night, through
+nearly the whole of which rain fell heavily, was passed by the two
+hostile armies, about one mile distant from each other, very
+differently, but not inconsistently with their relative circumstances.
+Both suffered severely from the weather as well as from fatigue; but
+whilst the French, anticipating an easy and sure victory, played at
+dice for their prisoners as their stake; the English, having prepared
+their weapons for the conflict, betook themselves to prayer, and the
+observance of the other ordinances of their religion.
+
+                   [Footnote 130: In the "History of Agincourt," the
+                   translator of the Chaplain's Memoir (Sloane 1776)
+                   has given a far more faint representation than the
+                   original will warrant of the sufferings to which
+                   the English troops were exposed through this night
+                   of present fatigue and discomfort, and of anxious
+                   preparation for so tremendous a struggle as awaited
+                   them on the morrow. The ecclesiastic, who was
+                   himself among the sufferers, and who has furnished
+                   a very graphic description of the whole affair,
+                   says, "The King turned aside to a small village,
+                   where we had houses, but very few indeed, and
+                   gardens and orchards to rest in." "Ubi habuimus
+                   domos sed paucissimas, hortosque et pomaria pro
+                   requiescione nostra." This the translator renders,
+                   "Where we had houses to rest in, but very scanty
+                   gardens and orchards." The scanty supply was not of
+                   gardens and orchards, but of houses to rest in.
+                   Consequently, except such as those very few houses
+                   could accommodate, the English soldiers were all
+                   compelled to bivouac, exposed to the drenching
+                   rains which fell through the night. Of orchards and
+                   gardens there was doubtless an abundant supply, but
+                   they afforded little shelter from the weather, and
+                   no means to the troops of taking refreshing rest.]
+
+At day-break, on Friday, October 25, the French drew up in order of
+battle, in three lines, on the plain of Agincourt, through which was
+the route to Calais. Of their numbers the accounts both of         (p. 166)
+English and French writers vary exceedingly, and it is impossible to
+fix upon any amount with confidence; probably, however, at the very
+lowest calculation they were more than fifty thousand men.
+
+Henry was up at break of day, and immediately attended mass. He then,
+mounted on a small grey horse, bearing on his coat the arms of France
+and England, and wearing a magnificent crown on his head, drew up his
+men in order of battle in an open field. His main body, consisting of
+men-at-arms, he commanded himself; the vanguard was committed, as a
+right wing, to the Duke of York at his own request; and the rear-guard
+was posted, as a left wing, under the command of the Lord Camois. The
+archers were placed between the wings in the form of a wedge, with
+their poles fixed before them as a protection against the cavalry.
+Henry then rode along the lines, and addressed them in a speech full
+of spirit, well fitted to inspire in his men enthusiastic ardour and
+devotedness. "Sir," was the reply, "we pray God to give you a good
+life, and victory over your enemies." At this juncture (we are told by
+one historian[131]) an attempt was made at negociation, but it failed;
+Henry, in the midst of all his present perils, insisting virtually on
+the same terms which he had offered when in safety within the      (p. 167)
+realm of England.[132]
+
+                   [Footnote 131: St. Remy.]
+
+                   [Footnote 132: The statement that Henry offered to
+                   repair all the injury he had done to France, is
+                   deservedly considered unworthy of credit.]
+
+The King assigned to the gallant veteran, Sir Thomas Erpingham, a
+friend of Henry, no less venerable for his age than distinguished for
+his bravery and military skill, the honourable duty of arraying his
+host. He first calmly marshalled the troops, placing the archers
+foremost and the men-at-arms behind them; and then, riding in front of
+the line, exhorted his brother-warriors in the name of their prince to
+fight valiantly. A third time did this aged and fearless knight ride
+before the ranks which were stationed to receive the first shock of
+the enemy, and if possible to turn back the apparently resistless and
+overwhelming tide of battle; and then, having deliberately executed
+his commission to the full, he threw up into the air the truncheon
+which he held in his hand, shouting, "Now strike!" and, immediately
+dismounting, joined the King and his attendants, who were all on foot.
+When the soldiers saw the staff in the air, and heard the cry of the
+veteran, they raised such a tremendous shout as startled the enemy,
+and filled them with amazement.[133]
+
+                   [Footnote 133: The present reading in Monstrelet,
+                   who details these circumstances with much life and
+                   clearness, reports the word used by the English
+                   warrior to have been "Nestroque," which has been,
+                   with much probability, considered a corruption of
+                   "Now strike!" Whether the word is now read as the
+                   Author wrote it, is very questionable; many French
+                   words in Monstrelet have been mistaken and
+                   corrupted by his copyists.]
+
+It was now approaching mid-day; when Henry, perceiving that the    (p. 168)
+enemy would not commence the attack, but were waiting either for
+reinforcements, or in the hope of compelling him by want of provisions
+to surrender, issued the command, "Banners, advance!" His soldiers
+fell down instantly upon the ground prostrate, and implored the
+Almighty to succour them; each, as it is said, putting a morsel of
+earth into his mouth in remembrance of their mortality. They then
+rose, and advanced firmly towards the enemy, shouting, and with the
+sound of trumpets. The Constable of France commanded his advanced
+guard to meet them, who instantly obeyed, with the war-cry "Montjoye!"
+The battle commenced by a shower of arrows from the English, which did
+great execution. The French cavalry were immediately thrown into
+confusion, chiefly in consequence of the horses rushing on the pointed
+stakes which were fixed before the English archers, and, maddened with
+pain, turning upon their own ranks. The battle was then tremendously
+obstinate: at one time, the shock of the French body caused the
+English to give way; but it was only to rush again upon their enemies
+with a renewed and still more impetuous and desperate attack. Their
+charge, like a torrent of mighty waters, was resistless; and the
+archers, having exhausted their quivers, and betaking themselves   (p. 169)
+to their swords and bills and hatchets, the slaughter among the
+ranks of the French was dreadful. The Duke of Alencon endeavoured in
+vain to rally his men, now giving way, and being worsted on every
+side; and, returning himself to the struggle, he fell in single combat
+with King Henry himself. Whilst the conflict was raging, Anthony, Duke
+of Brabant, came up with such of his forces as could keep pace with
+him in his rapid haste towards the field of battle, and instantly
+mingled in the thickest of the fight: he fell too; gallantly, but
+unsuccessfully, striving to stem the flood. The battle seemed now to
+be decided, when that event took place, which every one must lament,
+and which nothing but necessity could justify,--
+
+THE SLAUGHTER OF THE PRISONERS AT AGINCOURT.
+
+The name of Henry of Monmouth is inseparable from the Battle of
+Agincourt; and immeasurably better had it been for his fair fame had
+himself and his little army been crushed in that tremendous struggle,
+by the overwhelming chivalry of France, than that he should have
+stained that day of conquest and glory by an act of cruelty or
+vengeance. If any cause except palpable and inevitable necessity could
+be proved to have suggested the dreadful mandate for his soldiers to
+put their prisoners to the sword, his memory must be branded by a
+stigma which no personal courage, not a whole life devoted         (p. 170)
+to deeds of arms, nor any unprecedented career of conquest, could
+obliterate. The charge of cruelty, however, like some other accusations,
+examined at length in these Memoirs, is of comparatively recent
+origin; and as in those former instances, so in this, our duty is to
+ascertain the facts from the best evidence, and dispassionately to
+draw our inference from those facts after an upright scrutiny and
+patient weighing of the whole question in all its bearings. Our
+abhorrence of the crime may well make us hesitate before we pronounce
+judgment against one to whose mercy and chivalrous honour his
+contemporaries bore willing and abundant testimony; the enormity of so
+dreadful an example compels us, in the name of humanity and of
+justice, not to screen the guilty. We may be wisely jealous of the
+bias and prejudice which his brilliant talents, and his life of
+patriotism and glory, may unconsciously communicate to our minds; we
+must be also upon our guard lest an excessive resolution to do
+justice, foster imperceptibly a morbid acquiescence in the
+condemnation of the accused.
+
+The facts, then, as they are gleaned from those authors who wrote
+nearest to the time (two of whom, one French, the other English, were
+actually themselves present on the field of battle, and were
+eye-witnesses of some portion at least of the circumstances which they
+narrate,) seem to have been these, in their order and character.
+
+At the close of one of the most desperate struggles ever recorded  (p. 171)
+in the annals of ancient or modern warfare, whilst the enemy were in
+the act of quitting the field, but had not left it, the English were
+employing what remained of their well nigh exhausted strength in
+guarding their prisoners, and separating the living from the dead, who
+lay upon each other, heaps upon heaps, in one confused and
+indiscriminate mass. On a sudden a shout was raised, and reached
+Henry, that a fresh reinforcement[134] of the enemy in overwhelming
+numbers had attacked the baggage, and were advancing in battle-array
+against him. He was himself just released from the furious conflict in
+which, at the close of his almost unparalleled personal exertion, he
+engaged with the Duke of Alencon, and slew him on the spot. Precisely,
+also, at this juncture, the main body of the French who had been
+engaged in the battle, and were apparently retreating, were seen to be
+collecting in great numbers, and forming themselves into bodies,
+throughout the plain, with the purpose, as it appeared, of returning
+to the engagement.
+
+                   [Footnote 134: It must be remembered that the
+                   arrival of fresh reinforcements was by no means an
+                   improbable occurrence. Anthony, Duke of Brabant,
+                   had only reached the field with his men just before
+                   the tide of battle turned finally and fatally
+                   against the French; nor could Henry possibly know
+                   what forces were yet hastening on to dispute with
+                   him for the victory afresh.]
+
+To delay might have been the total sacrifice of himself and his
+gallant little band; to hesitate might have been death. Henry      (p. 172)
+instantly, without a moment's interval, by sound of trumpet ordered
+his men to form themselves, and attack the body who were advancing
+upon his rear, and to put the prisoners to death, "lest they should
+rush upon his men during the fight." These mandates were obeyed.[135]
+The French reinforcement, advancing from the quarter where the baggage
+was stationed, no sooner felt a shower of arrows, and saw a body of
+men ready to give them battle, than they turned to flight; and
+instantly Henry, on seeing them run, stopped the slaughter of the
+prisoners, and made it known to all that he had had recourse to the
+measure only in self-defence. Henry, in order to prevent the
+recurrence of such a dreadful catastrophe, sent forthwith a herald to
+those companies of the enemy who were still lingering very
+suspiciously through the field, and charged them either to come to
+battle at once, or to withdraw from his sight; adding, that, should
+they array themselves afterwards to renew the battle, he would show no
+mercy, nor spare either fighting-men or prisoners.
+
+                   [Footnote 135: One author alone, Jean Le Fevre,
+                   states that some of the English, who had taken the
+                   prisoners of greatest note and wealth, hesitated to
+                   execute the order, from an unwillingness to lose
+                   their ransom; and that two hundred archers were
+                   commissioned to perform the dreadful office in
+                   their stead.]
+
+Of the general accuracy of this statement of the facts little doubt
+can be entertained, though in the midst of the confusion of such   (p. 173)
+a battle-field it would not be matter of surprise were some of
+the circumstances mistaken or exaggerated. In reflecting on this
+course of incidents, the thought forces itself upon our mind, that the
+mandate was given, not in cool blood, nor when there was time and
+opportunity for deliberation and for calculating upon the means and
+chances of safety, but upon the instant, on a sudden unexpected
+renewal of the engagement from a quarter from which no danger was
+anticipated; at a moment, too, when, just after the heat of the battle
+was passing over, the routed enemy were collecting again in great
+numbers in various parts of the field, with a view evidently of
+returning to the charge and crushing their conquerors; at a moment,
+too, when the English were scattered about, separating the living from
+the dead, and all was yet confusion and uncertainty. Another fact, as
+clearly and distinctly recorded as the original issuing of the
+mandate, is, that no sooner was the danger of the immediate and
+inevitable sacrifice of the lives of his men removed by the retreat of
+the assailants, than, without waiting for the dispersion of those
+menacing bodies then congregating around him, Henry instantly
+countermanded the order, and saved the remainder of the prisoners. The
+bare facts of the case, from first to last, admit of no other
+alternative than for our judgment to pronounce it to have been
+altogether an imperative inevitable act of self-preservation, without
+the sacrifice of any life, or the suffering of any human being,    (p. 174)
+beyond the absolute and indispensable necessity of the case.
+
+But, perhaps, the most striking and conclusive testimony in
+vindication of Henry's character on that day of slaughter and victory,
+is borne both by the silence and also by the expressed sentiments of
+the contemporary historians. This evidence deserves to be put more
+prominently forward than it has ever yet been. Indeed, as long as
+there was no charge of cruelty, or unnecessary violence, brought
+against his name in this particular, there was little need of alleging
+any evidence in his defence. It remained for modern writers, after a
+lapse of centuries, to stigmatize the command as an act of barbarity,
+and to represent it as having tarnished and stained the victory of him
+who gave it.[136] It is, however, a most remarkable and satisfactory
+circumstance that, of the contemporary historians, and those who
+followed most closely upon them, who have detailed the proceedings (p. 175)
+with more or less minuteness, and with a great variety though no
+inconsistency of circumstances, in whose views, moreover, all
+subsequent writers, with few exceptions, have unreservedly acquiesced,
+not one single individual is found to cast the slightest imputation on
+Henry for injustice or cruelty; while some, in their account of the
+battle, have not made the most distant allusion to the circumstance.
+All the earlier writers who refer to it appear, with one consent, to
+have considered the order as the result of dire and unavoidable
+necessity on the part of the English King. Not only so: whilst no one
+who witnessed the engagement, or lived at the time, ever threw the
+shadow of reproach or of complaint on Henry or his army, various
+writers, especially among the French historians, join in reprobating
+the unjustifiable conduct of those among the French troops who
+rendered the massacre inevitable, and cast on their own countrymen the
+entire responsibility and blame for the whole melancholy affair.
+Instead of any attempt to sully and tarnish the glory won by the
+English on that day, by pointing to their cruel and barbarous
+treatment of unarmed prisoners, they visit their own people with the
+very strongest terms of malediction, as the sole culpable origin and
+cause of the evil. And that these were not only the sentiments of the
+writers themselves, but were participated in by their countrymen at
+large, is evidenced by the record of a fact which has been generally
+overlooked. Those who were deemed guilty of thus exposing their    (p. 176)
+countrymen to death, by unjustifiably renewing the attack when
+the conflict was acknowledged to be over, and after the French
+soldiery had given up the field, not only were exposed to disgrace in
+their characters, but suffered punishment also for the offence in
+their persons. Anticipating censure and severe handling as the
+consequences of their misconduct, they made valuable presents to such
+as they thought able to screen them; but so decided was the
+indignation and resentment of their countrymen, that the leaders of
+the offending parties were cast into prison, and suffered a long
+confinement, as the punishment for their misconduct on that day.
+
+                   [Footnote 136: The passage of M. Petitot, in his
+                   History, published in the year 1825, vol. vi. p.
+                   322, which contains this accusation, is as follows:
+                   "The Duke of Alencon fought hand to hand with the
+                   King of England, and fell gloriously. Towards the
+                   end of the struggle, some hundreds of peasants of
+                   Picardy, commanded by two gentlemen of the country,
+                   believing that the English were vanquished, came to
+                   plunder their camp. Henry, fancying that he was
+                   about to be attacked by a reinforcement, whose
+                   march had been concealed from him, ordered the
+                   massacre of the prisoners, and only excepted the
+                   princes and generals. This barbarous order was put
+                   into execution, and tarnished his victory."]
+
+The inference, then, which the facts, as they are delivered by English
+and French writers, compel us to draw, coincides with the professed
+sentiments of all contemporaries. Those, on the one hand, who shared
+the glory and were proud of the day of Agincourt, and those, on the
+other, whose national pride, and wounded honour, and participation in
+the calamities poured that day upon the noblest families of France,
+and in the mourning spread far and wide throughout the land, caused
+them to abhor the very name of Agincourt, all sanction our adoption of
+that one inference: _Henry did not stain his victory by any act of
+cruelty_. His character comes out of the investigation untarnished by
+a suspicion of his having wantonly shed the blood of a single
+fellow-creature.
+
+To enable the reader to judge for himself how far the view taken   (p. 177)
+in the text is justified by the evidence, the Author has thought it
+desirable to cite from different writers, French as well as English,
+the passages at length in which they describe the transaction.
+
+     The Chaplain of Henry V, an eye-witness, who was himself
+     stationed with the baggage, and whose account is contained in the
+     fasciculus known as "MS. Sloane, 1776, p. 67," thus reports the
+     transaction:
+
+     "When some of the enemy's foreranks were slain, those behind
+     pressed over the dead, and others again falling on them were
+     immediately put to death; and near Henry's banners so large was
+     the pile of corpses, and of those who were thrown upon them, that
+     the English stood on heaps which exceeded a man's height, and
+     felled their adversaries below with swords and axes. And when, at
+     length, for the space of two or three hours, that powerful body
+     of the first ranks had been broken through and crushed to pieces,
+     and the rest were forced to fly, our men began to move those
+     heaps, and to separate the living from the dead. And behold,
+     suddenly, with what angry dispensation of Providence it is not
+     known, (nescitur in qua ira Dei,) a shout is made that the
+     cavalry of the enemy in an overwhelming and fresh body were
+     rallying, and forming themselves to attack our men, few in
+     number, and worn out with fatigue. And the captives, without any
+     respect of persons, (except the Dukes of Orleans and Bourbon, and
+     certain other illustrious men, and a few besides,) were put the
+     sword, to prevent their becoming our ruin in the approaching
+     struggle. And, after a little while, the enemy, (by the
+     Almighty's will,) having tasted the sharpness of our arrows, and
+     seeing that our King was approaching them, left us a field of
+     blood, with chariots and many other carriages filled          (p. 178)
+     with provisions and weapons, lances and bows."
+
+Jean Le Fevre, Seigneur de St. Remy, who was also an eye-witness,
+being present in the English camp, records the event, and his own
+opinion of it, thus:
+
+     "Then there befel them a very great misfortune; for a large body
+     of the rear-guard, in which were many French, Bretons, Gascons,
+     and others, who had betaken themselves to flight, and had with
+     them a large number of standards and flags, showed signs of an
+     intention to fight, and were marching in order. When the English
+     perceived them thus congregated, orders were given by the King of
+     England for every one to slay his prisoners; but those who had
+     taken them were unwilling to put them to death, because they had
+     taken those only who could give a high ransom. On the King being
+     apprised that they would not kill their prisoners, he gave in
+     charge to a gentleman with two hundred archers to put them all to
+     death. The order of the King was obeyed by this esquire, which
+     was a lamentable affair; for all that body of French nobility
+     were _in cold blood_ cut and hewed, head and face,--a wonderful
+     thing to see. THAT ACCURSED BAND OF FRENCHMEN, WHO THUS CAUSED
+     THAT NOBLE CHIVALRY TO BE MURDERED, when they saw that the
+     English were ready to receive them and give them battle, betook
+     themselves to flight suddenly; and those who could, saved
+     themselves; and the greater part of those who were on horseback
+     saved themselves, but of them who were on foot the greater part
+     were put to death."
+
+Elmham thus records the transaction:--
+
+     "The English, already wearied, and for the most part destitute of
+     arms fit for a charge, when the French were arraying themselves
+     for battle with a view to the renewal of the conflict, fearing
+     lest the persons they had taken should rush upon them in the
+     struggle, slew many of them, though noble, with the sword.    (p. 179)
+     The King then, by a herald, commanded those French soldiers who
+     were still occupying the field either to come to battle at once,
+     or speedily to depart out of his sight; assuring them that, if
+     they should again array themselves for a renewed engagement, both
+     they and the prisoners yet remaining should perish without mercy,
+     with the most dire vengeance which the English could inflict."
+
+Fabyan's account differs from that of other writers only in one
+particular; he represents the retirement of the French, who had
+rallied for a renewal of the conflict, to have been the result of the
+message sent to them by the Duke of Orleans and his fellow-prisoners,
+in their panic on hearing Henry's mandate, which seemed to put their
+lives into immediate jeopardy.
+
+     "When the King, by power and grace of God more than by force of
+     man, had gotten this triumphant victory, and returned his people
+     from the chase of his enemies, tidings were brought to him that a
+     new host of Frenchmen were coming towards him. Wherefore he
+     commanded his people to be embattled; and, that done, made
+     proclamation through the host that every man should slay his
+     prisoners: by reason of which proclamation the Duke of Orleans,
+     and the other lords of France, were in such fear, that anon, by
+     the licence of the King, they sent such word unto the said host
+     that they withdrew."
+
+The contemporary author whose work is translated by Laboureur, having
+in impassioned language spoken of the "eternal reproach, and ever
+deplorable calamity of the miserable battle of Agincourt," instead of
+attempting to make the English partake in any degree of the disgrace
+which on that day stained the annals of France, tells us that Henry,
+believing a great body of the vanguard, who had been broken through,
+were running, not in flight, but to join the rest of the army      (p. 180)
+and renew the attack, gave orders for all the prisoners to be put
+to the sword; and the carnage lasted till it was known they were
+actually running away. He then stopped it; and explained that his
+orders were given in doubt of the enemy's intentions.--This writer
+seems to have been mistaken in his view of the circumstances; but the
+thought of Henry having acted unjustifiably does not seem to have
+crossed his mind.
+
+Monstrelet's account is somewhat different from the two last, and more
+full in its details:
+
+     "During the heat of the combat the English made several
+     prisoners; and then came news to the King of England that the
+     French were attacking them from the rear, and that they had
+     already taken his sumpter-horses and baggage. This was true; for
+     Robinet de Bournonville and Rifflart de Clamasse, Ysambert
+     d'Azencourt, and some other men-at-arms, accompanied by six
+     hundred peasants, went to plunder the baggage, and carried off a
+     great quantity of the property of the camp, and a large number of
+     horses, whilst those who were their guards were engaged in the
+     battle. This pillage caused the King great trouble, for he saw
+     also at the same time in the open field those French who had
+     taken to flight rallying themselves in companies; and he doubted
+     whether their intention was not to renew the engagement. He
+     therefore caused a proclamation to be made by sound of trumpet,
+     that every Englishman should on pain of death[137] slay his
+     prisoners, to prevent their succouring their own people in the
+     time of need; and then, on the sudden, followed a very great
+     carnage of French prisoners. For which proceeding, Robinet de
+     Bournonville and Ysambart d'Azencourt were afterwards         (p. 181)
+     punished and imprisoned a long time by order of John Duke of
+     Burgundy, notwithstanding they had given to Philip Earl of
+     Charolois, his son, an exceedingly valuable sword, studded with
+     precious stones and jewels, belonging to the King of England,
+     which they had found and taken with the other booty, that the
+     Earl might interest himself for them should any trouble overtake
+     them in consequence of this circumstance."
+
+     Des Ursins represents the catastrophe to have been occasioned by
+     the news spread through the field that the Duke of Brittany was
+     arrived with a powerful reinforcement, on which the French
+     rallied. He gives, however, two accounts; in one of which he
+     reports the prisoners taken by the English to be fourteen
+     thousand, a number exceeding the whole body of fighting men in
+     the English army.
+
+     Paradin de Cuyseault, in his Annals of Burgundy, marks very
+     strongly in how serious a light the offence of the French
+     assailants was viewed by their contemporaries:
+
+     "And this [the order for the slaughter of the prisoners] was
+     executed, of which the said Bournonville and Azencourt were the
+     cause: and they being accused of this charge before the Duke of
+     Burgundy, his will was that they should suffer death: but the
+     Earl of Charolois saved them, in return for the beautiful sword."
+
+     Pierre de Fenin, a contemporary esquire, and a clerk of the
+     household to Charles VI, employs expressions very pointedly
+     exculpatory of the English; he does not speak of Henry's mandate
+     at all:
+
+     "Whilst the battle between the English and French _was yet
+     pending and going on_, and the English had already almost gained
+     the mastery, Isambert d'Azencourt, and Robinet de Bournonville,
+     accompanied by some men-at-arms of little note, made an assault
+     on the baggage of the English, and caused a great [affray]    (p. 182)
+     terror. When the English saw that it was the French who were coming
+     upon them to attack them, _in that necessity they felt themselves
+     obliged_ to put to death many whom they had already made prisoners;
+     for which the two persons above mentioned were afterwards made
+     the objects of severe execration, and were also punished for the
+     offence by the Duke of Burgundy."[138]
+
+                   [Footnote 137: In the printed copies of Monstrelet
+                   the reading is "de la _hart_," a mistake, it is
+                   presumed, for _mort_. Many such errors occur in his
+                   work.]
+
+                   [Footnote 138: The Author is compelled to express
+                   his regret that some of our own modern writers
+                   (among others Goldsmith and Mackintosh) have been
+                   led to take a different estimate of the character
+                   of this transaction. Whether their judgments were
+                   formed after a careful weighing of the several
+                   accounts furnished by contemporary authors and
+                   eye-witnesses of the conflict, or whether they
+                   allowed their feelings of philanthropy, and their
+                   abhorrence of cruelty, to dictate their sentence in
+                   this case, the Author cannot refer to their works
+                   without appealing from them to the facts as they
+                   stand in those undisputed records which were
+                   accessible alike to them and to ourselves. On this
+                   subject Rapin, Carte, Holinshed, Nicolas, with
+                   others, may be consulted.]
+
+Among the many instances of heroism which occurred during the battle,
+Henry's conduct was particularly distinguished. He fought on foot like
+a lion, as our annalists express themselves, and was throughout the
+noblest example of valour. Especially was his gallant rescue of his
+brother, the Duke of Gloucester, remembered with admiration. That
+prince had been wounded by a dagger, and thrown on the ground by the
+Duke of Alencon and his soldiers, when Henry rushed between them, and
+defended his brother till he was removed from the conflict. This noble
+deed nearly cost him his life; for, stooping down to raise his brother,
+the Duke of Alencon, or one of his men, struck him such a blow as  (p. 183)
+to break off a part of his crown.
+
+The loss on both sides has been very variously reported. Probably of
+the French not less than ten thousand fell in that field of
+blood;[139] of the English perhaps less than one-tenth of that number.
+But France did not on that day reckon her loss by the number of the
+slain; the chief of her chivalry[140] and nobility fell there.     (p. 184)
+On the English side the only men of note who were slain in the battle
+were the Duke of York, the Earl of Suffolk, Sir Richard Keghley, Thomas
+Fitz-Henry, John de Peniton, and David Gamme.[141]
+
+                   [Footnote 139: It is quite impossible to reconcile
+                   the different accounts of the loss on the part of
+                   the English. Walsingham speaks of thirty only
+                   having fallen; De Fenin reports them to have been
+                   four or five hundred; whilst Monstrelet raises the
+                   number to sixteen hundred.
+
+                   On the part of the French, Le Fevre says, that from
+                   a hundred to six score princes fell, and about
+                   seven or eight thousand of noble blood. In the
+                   Annales Ecclesiastici of Baronius, continued by
+                   Raynaldus, the statement of Theodoric Niemius is
+                   quoted, who says (unquestionably without authority)
+                   that Henry advanced from Harfleur with sixty
+                   thousand men, besides two thousand in attendance on
+                   the carriages. He affirms that the French had one
+                   hundred thousand men; among whom were one thousand
+                   Italians, commanded by Buligard, who had long
+                   governed Genoa in favour of the French. He says,
+                   moreover, that more than five thousand five hundred
+                   French nobles were slain; and fifteen hundred taken
+                   prisoners, and carried to England.]
+
+                   [Footnote 140: Hume, with his usual inaccuracy,
+                   asserts that the French army at Agincourt was
+                   headed as well by the Dauphin, as by all the other
+                   princes of the blood. The Dauphin wished to assist
+                   his countrymen, when they resolved to intercept the
+                   invaders; but, as we are expressly told by Le Fevre
+                   (c. 59), was not suffered to join the rendezvous.
+                   This is not the only mistake into which Hume has
+                   fallen in his account of this battle. In one
+                   paragraph he reports Henry to have been under the
+                   necessity of marching by land from Harfleur to
+                   Calais, in order to reach a place of safety from
+                   which he might transport his soldiers back to
+                   England; in another paragraph he represents him
+                   (with the same temerity which had been evinced by
+                   his predecessors before the battles of Poictiers
+                   and of Cressy) to have ventured without any object
+                   of moment, and merely for the _sake of plunder_, so
+                   far into the enemy's country as to leave himself no
+                   retreat. He tells us, moreover, that "Henry was
+                   master of fourteen thousand prisoners," whom he
+                   afterwards says that the King "carried with him to
+                   Paris, thence to England." Hume took this also
+                   without inquiry. Walsingham says, "Henry took (as
+                   they say--ut ferunt,--as though even that estimate
+                   required to be supported by common report,) seven
+                   hundred prisoners;" and of his prisoners, how many
+                   soever they were, he transported (as Des Ursins
+                   tells us) only the most considerable to England,
+                   dismissing the rest under promise to bring their
+                   ransom to him in the field of Lendi, on the feast
+                   of St. John in the summer, and, if he were not
+                   there, they should be discharged of the debt.]
+
+                   [Footnote 141: Of this gallant Welshman, the
+                   following account is taken from the Appendix of the
+                   "Battle of Agincourt." "Dr. Meyrick (now Sir
+                   Samuel) says, Davydd Gam, _i.e._ Squint-eyed David,
+                   was a native of Brecknockshire, and, holding his
+                   land of the honour of Hereford, was a strenuous
+                   supporter of the Lancastrian interests. He was the
+                   son of Llewellyn, descended from Einion Sais, who
+                   possessed a handsome property in the parishes of
+                   Garthbrengy and Llanddeu. In consequence of an
+                   affray in the high street of Brecknock, in which he
+                   unfortunately killed his kinsman, he was compelled
+                   to fly into England to avoid a threatened
+                   prosecution, and became the implacable enemy of
+                   Owain Glyndowr, whom he attempted to assassinate.
+                   Gam, it may be supposed, was his nick-name, as he
+                   called himself David Llewellyn; and there are good
+                   grounds for supposing that Shakspeare has
+                   caricatured him in Captain Fluellin. His
+                   descendants, however, conceiving that his prowess
+                   more than redeemed his natural defect, took the
+                   name of Game. Sir Walter Raleigh has an eulogium
+                   upon his bravery and exploits on the field of
+                   Agincourt, in which he compares him to Hannibal. He
+                   was knighted on the field with his two companions
+                   in glory and death, Sir Roger Vaughan, of
+                   Bedwardine in Herefordshire, and Sir Walter, or
+                   rather Watkin Llwyd, of the lordship of Brecknock.
+                   Sir Roger had married Gwladis, the daughter of Sir
+                   David Gamme, who survived him, and became the wife
+                   of another hero of Agincourt, Sir William Thomas of
+                   Raglan; and Sir Watkin was by his marriage related
+                   to Sir Roger."
+
+                   The Author gives this passage as he finds it,
+                   without having attempted to verify the statement as
+                   to David Gamme's descent or history. Certainly the
+                   testimony which Sir Samuel Meyrick makes Sir Walter
+                   Raleigh bear to his "bravery and exploits on the
+                   field of Agincourt," cannot be fairly extracted
+                   from Sir Walter's own words: "But if Hannibal
+                   himself had been sent forth by Mago to view the
+                   Romans, he could not have returned with a more
+                   gallant report in his mouth than Captain Gamme made
+                   unto King Henry the Fifth, saying, 'That of the
+                   Frenchmen there were enow to be killed, enow to be
+                   taken prisoners, and enow to run away!'" We have no
+                   doubt of Captain Gamme's gallant bearing at
+                   Agincourt; but Raleigh refers to nothing beyond his
+                   report of the numbers of the enemy.--Raleigh, book
+                   v. sect. 8.]
+
+The last-mentioned person is that David Gamme who was ransomed     (p. 185)
+from Owyn Glendowr, and who is reported to have replied, when
+questioned as to the number of the enemy, "My liege, there are enough
+to be slain, enough to be taken prisoners, and enough to run away!"
+This gallant speech of David Gamme immediately before the battle,  (p. 186)
+has been delivered down from father to son among his Cambrian
+compatriots with feelings of exultation and pride. A circumstance of a
+very opposite character and tendency (which has never, it is believed,
+hitherto appeared in our histories,) must not be suppressed here.
+Among those who swelled the enormous host which on that day gave
+battle to the King of England, were found natives of his own
+Principality. During the dreadful devastations caused by Owyn
+Glyndowr, great numbers left their mansions and estates a prey to his
+fury, and saved themselves from personal violence by taking refuge in
+England, or beyond the seas. Many, too, of those who had made
+themselves notorious as Owyn's partisans, fled from Wales when his
+cause began to falter, and avoided the penalty of perseverance in
+their rebellion, or the humiliating alternative of submission to one
+whom they deemed a tyrant and usurper. Quitting their native soil in
+the enjoyment of health and strength, not a few of these inhabitants
+of the Principality enlisted under the standard of foreign powers;
+especially (as it is reasonable to conclude) of the King of France,
+who had espoused the cause for which they were expatriated. How large
+or how small a number of Welshmen fell in the ranks of the French on
+that day, or how many escaped, we have no means of ascertaining. Our
+attention is drawn to the subject by the record of a fact too      (p. 187)
+specific, and too well authenticated, to be doubted or evaded.[142]
+William Gwyn of Llanstephan, was in the army of the enemy on the field
+of Agincourt, and his corpse was found among the slain. His castle of
+Llanstephan was in consequence forfeited to the crown, and was granted
+to the King's brother, Humphrey Duke of Gloucester.
+
+                   [Footnote 142: The fact is recorded in the Patent
+                   Rolls, P. 2, 3 Hen. V.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Being left master of the field, Henry withdrew his army a few paces,
+and addressed them in a speech very characteristic of his mind. After
+thanking them for their services, he bade them consider his success as
+undoubted proof of the justice of his cause; and directed them not to
+pride themselves on the event, but to give the glory to God. Henry
+then called to him Montjoye, the principal herald of France, and
+demanded of him to whom the victory belonged; who replied, that it was
+to the King of England. He then asked the name of the neighbouring
+castle; and, being informed that it was Agincourt, "Then," said he,
+"this shall for ever be called
+
+"THE BATTLE OF AGINCOURT."[143]
+
+                   [Footnote 143: The spot from which the battle of
+                   Agincourt took its name has been confounded with a
+                   place named Azincourt, near the town of Bouchain in
+                   French Flanders. On the position of the real field
+                   of battle, and its present condition, the Author
+                   has much satisfaction in making the following
+                   extract from a paper read before the Royal Society
+                   of Literature, April 4, 1827, by John Gordon Smith,
+                   M.D. who had visited and examined the spot under
+                   circumstances of peculiar interest:
+
+                   "Perhaps I may be pardoned for relating that I had
+                   the honour to receive a Waterloo medal on the field
+                   of Azincour, or rather, that I had the fortune to
+                   belong to one of the British regiments that
+                   signalized themselves in the campaign of 1815, and
+                   which afterwards was invested with the
+                   above-mentioned mark of their sovereign's
+                   approbation on the very spot which, nearly four
+                   hundred years before, was the scene of the scarcely
+                   less glorious triumph of Harry the Fifth of
+                   England. In 1816 a portion of the British army was
+                   cantoned in the immediate neighbourhood of this
+                   celebrated field, and the corps in which I then
+                   served made use of it during several months as
+                   their ordinary drill-ground.... We amused ourselves
+                   with reconnoitring excursions, comparing the actual
+                   state of the localities with authentic accounts of
+                   the transactions of 1415. The changes that have
+                   taken place have been singularly few, and an
+                   attentive explorer would be able to trace with
+                   considerable accuracy the greater part of the route
+                   pursued by the English army in their retreat out of
+                   Normandy towards Calais. The field of Azincour
+                   remains sufficiently in statu quo to render every
+                   account of the battle perfectly intelligible; nor
+                   are those wanting near the spot, whose traditionary
+                   information enables them to heighten the interest
+                   with oral description, accompanied by a sort of
+                   ocular demonstration.
+
+                   "Those who travel to Paris by way of St. Omer and
+                   Abbeville, pass over the field of the battle, which
+                   skirts the high road to the left, about sixteen
+                   miles beyond St. Omer; two on the Paris side of a
+                   considerable village or bourg named Fruges; about
+                   eight north of the fortified town of Hesdin; and
+                   thirty from Abbeville. All accounts of the battle
+                   mention the hamlet of Ruisseauville, through which
+                   very place the high road to Paris now passes.
+
+                   "Azincour is a commune or parish consisting of a
+                   most uninteresting collection of farmers'
+                   residences and cottages, once however distinguished
+                   by a castle, of which nothing now remains but the
+                   foundation. The scene of the contest lies between
+                   this commune and the adjoining one of Tramecour, in
+                   a wood belonging to which latter the King concealed
+                   those archers whose prowess and vigour contributed
+                   so eminently to the glorious result. Part of the
+                   wood still remains; though, if I remember rightly,
+                   at the time of our visit, the corner into which the
+                   bowmen were thrown had been materially thinned, if,
+                   indeed, the original timber had not been entirely
+                   cut down, and its place been scantily supplied by
+                   brush or underwood. Some of the trees, however, in
+                   the wood of Tramecour were very old in 1816.
+
+                   "The road above mentioned is the great post-road;
+                   the old road, now degenerated into a mere
+                   cart-track, from Abbeville to the once celebrated
+                   city of Therouanne, passes over the scene of
+                   action, and must have been that by which the French
+                   army reached the ground before the English, who had
+                   been compelled to make a great circuit."--Vol. i.
+                   part ii. p. 57.]
+
+Henry, naturally anxious to hasten with his troops beyond the reach of
+his enemies, and to arrive at Calais before they could recover     (p. 188)
+from their present overwhelming distress, removed from his quarters,
+passing through the field of battle early on the next day, taking his
+prisoners with him. Many vague expressions occur in some writers,
+which might be wrested to imply wanton cruelty in the English after
+the battle; but no direct charge of the sort is brought against    (p. 189)
+them; and we may reasonably hope that there was no more of human
+suffering than of necessity followed so tremendous a conflict: whilst
+all writers agree in recording and extolling the kindness, and
+compassion, and courtesy shown by Henry to his prisoners, especially
+to the Duke of Orleans; endeavouring by all means in his power to
+cheer and console them. Just as after the battle of Grosmont,      (p. 190)
+when he was only seventeen years old, so now in the prime of manhood,
+on the field of Agincourt, we find in him the same kind and
+warm-hearted conqueror: "In battle a lion; but, duty appeased, in
+mercy a lamb!"
+
+The army found great difficulty at Calais from the scarcity of
+provisions; and the prisoners, as may be supposed, were in still
+greater distress. The moment Henry, who was staying at Guisnes, heard
+of it, he ordered vessels to be procured to convey both soldiers and
+prisoners to England. Henry himself reached Calais[144] on the 29th of
+October, and was received with every demonstration of loyalty. He was
+met by the clergy singing Te Deum; whilst the inhabitants shouted,
+"Welcome the King, our Sovereign Lord!" News reached London very
+early, whilst the citizens were yet in bed, on Tuesday, October 29;
+and on that day the victory was celebrated by religious processions,
+in which we are told the Queen Dowager joined, though Arthur,      (p. 191)
+Count of Richmond, her own son, was among the prisoners. On Monday,
+November 4, the Duke of Bedford announced the welcome news officially
+to parliament. Henry embarked for England on Saturday, 16th of
+November, and reached Dover late on the same day, though the wind had
+been very boisterous, and one or two of his vessels were lost. So
+overflowing was the joy and zeal of his subjects, that we are told
+they rushed into the sea, and brought him to shore in their arms. At
+Canterbury he was met by the archbishop and clergy: on Friday, 22nd of
+November, he slept at Eltham. The next day he was met, about ten
+o'clock, at Blackheath, by the Mayor and all the civic authorities of
+London, dressed in their most splendid robes, and accompanied by not
+less than twenty thousand citizens on horseback.
+
+                   [Footnote 144: Before his departure from Calais, a
+                   dispute arose between him and two noblemen, who had
+                   been taken prisoners at Harfleur, and set at
+                   liberty on condition of surrendering themselves at
+                   Calais. The merits of the case cannot now be known.
+                   The one, De Gaucourt, brought an action against the
+                   representatives of the other, after his death, and
+                   after the death of Henry, to recover what he paid
+                   for that other's [D'Estouteville's] ransom. To give
+                   a colouring to his case, he charges Henry with
+                   refusing to confirm the stipulations made by his
+                   representatives at Harfleur, and with other harsh
+                   conduct. But an ex parte statement at that time,
+                   and under those circumstances, can form no ground
+                   of suspicion against a third party.]
+
+In London a most magnificent pageant was ready to welcome him. Minute
+descriptions of the various devices, such probably as England had
+never seen before, have come down to us. But we need take no further
+notice of them than to remark, that during the splendid scene, which
+lasted from ten o'clock till three, (in the course of which Henry
+humbly returned thanks both in St. Paul's and in Westminster Abbey,)
+the King's deportment was singularly modest. His dress was simple; he
+rode gravely on, attended by a small retinue; and, his thoughts
+apparently wrapped up in contemplating the power and goodness of   (p. 192)
+the Almighty, he seemed altogether indifferent to the splendour of the
+scenes and the devotedness of the crowds through which he passed. So
+anxious was he to avoid exciting the applause of his people, that he
+would not allow the helmet which he wore at Agincourt to be exhibited
+on this occasion; the battered state of which bore evidence to the
+danger he had encountered: nor would he allow the minstrels to compose
+verses, or sing songs, to his praise; but persisted in attributing the
+glory of his victory to God alone.
+
+It is pleasing to trace the rewards[145] bestowed by Henry on his
+companions in arms at Agincourt, and the measures which he adopted to
+preserve their names from oblivion. With this view he doubtless caused
+a roll to be made recording their names; though only a transcript of
+one part has been yet discovered among the archives. We may hope that
+not many years will elapse before numbers of those most interesting
+documents which now lie buried in heaps of confusion will be brought
+to light. Henry selected to fill every vacancy in the order of the
+Garter, (not bestowed on sovereign princes,) the peers and
+distinguished commanders who fought with him at Agincourt; and when he
+restricted the use of coats of arms in a subsequent expedition to
+those who could prove their right to them, he excepts those only who
+bore arms with him at Agincourt. To commemorate this victory with more
+especial honour, he created a King-at-arms, called "Agincourt."    (p. 193)
+
+                   [Footnote 145: See "Battle of Agincourt."]
+
+Our reformed views of Christian truth must not make us undervalue the
+testimony borne to Henry's gratitude towards his companions in arms,
+though they were removed by death from all earthly favours and
+rewards. He did for them what he could; and though we believe him to
+have been performing a vain office, and profitless to those whom it
+was intended to benefit, in the prevailing superstition of those days
+we see traces of the kindness and grateful spirit of the hero.[146]
+
+                   [Footnote 146: Various entries occur in the Pell
+                   Rolls of money paid for masses for the souls of
+                   those who fell in these wars. Among the rest are
+                   specified (26th September 1418) Lord Grey of Codnor
+                   and Sir John Blount. Two thousand masses were
+                   ordered for the souls of Lord Talbot and another.
+                   See extracts in English, translated lately, from
+                   the Pell Rolls, by Mr. F. Devon. This work, whilst
+                   it acquaints the student with the sort of
+                   information and evidence which the Pell Rolls may
+                   supply, will in other respects assist him in his
+                   inquiries; for many valuable and interesting facts
+                   are presented to him in the volume: but, to
+                   ascertain what those documents really do contain,
+                   it is necessary (as in all other cases) to apply at
+                   the fountain-head.]
+
+Many of the French princes taken at Agincourt remained prisoners in
+England for many years. The Duke of Bourbon died in confinement. The
+Duke of Orleans was not released for five-and-twenty years. Whilst a
+captive in the Tower of London, he had recourse to the solace of
+literature; and composed many pieces of poetry, still preserved in the
+British Museum, which indicate genius and cultivated taste.        (p. 194)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+How highly the people of England valued this victory is seen in very
+many particulars. The superstition of those times was also made to
+contribute to its celebrity. The victory of Agincourt was gained on
+the feast of the Translation of St. John of Beverley, and was ascribed
+to his merits. His festival had before been kept on the 7th of May;
+but now it was ordained to be celebrated for ever on the 25th of
+October. But that was the feast of Crispin and Crispianus; and so the
+authorities of the church decreed that all three saints should share
+in the offices of that day.[147]
+
+                   [Footnote 147: Foed. viii. 236.]
+
+The Archbishop declares that this ecclesiastical constitution was made
+in full convocation by the will, counsel, and consent of all his
+brothers, and also at the special instance of their most Christian
+King.
+
+The document abounds to the overflow with the gross superstition of
+the age. It is only by recalling what that degrading superstition was,
+that we can estimate at their proper value the blessings of the
+Reformation. Of the genuineness of this document there can be no
+doubt. It was addressed by Henry Chicheley, Archbishop of Canterbury,
+to the Vicar of the Bishop of London, who was then at the council of
+Constance; and its preamble at least deserves a place here.
+
+     "Henry, by divine permission, Archbishop of Canterbury,       (p. 195)
+     Primate of all England, and Legate of the Apostolic see, to our
+     beloved son the spiritual Vicar-general of our venerable brother
+     R. by the grace of God, Bishop of London, now in foreign parts.
+     The holy honour of the English church (whose praise and fame, in
+     devoted veneration of God and his saints, the whole world extols
+     above the churches of other regions and provinces,) requires that
+     the same church shall more abound with the praises of those, and
+     more exultingly rejoice in glad devotion to them, by whose
+     patronage and grace of miracles she rejoices to flourish; and by
+     whose pious intercession the state, not only of the church, but
+     of the whole realm, together with the inward sweetness of peace
+     and quiet, and with victory gained over foreign enemies, is
+     defended by just rulers.
+
+     "The grace of this help, though God to the same church, and to
+     the inhabitants of the realm of England, hath often decreed to
+     show by the merits of divers saints, (with whom she shines
+     gloriously on every side,) yet in these last days He has
+     evidently deigned more miraculously and more especially to
+     console the aforesaid church, together with the aforesaid nobles,
+     inhabitants, and all members of the kingdom, by the especial
+     suffrage of her (almifici) gracious confessor and bishop, the
+     most blessed John of Beverley, as we verily believe!
+
+     "Oh! ineffable consolation, especially in our times, in every age
+     pleasant, and ever to be called to mind; namely, the victory of
+     our most Christian Prince, King Henry V. of England, and of his
+     army, in the battle of Agincourt, lately fought in the parts of
+     Picardy; which on the Feast of the Translation of the said Saint,
+     to the honour of the divine name, and to the honour of the realm
+     of England, from the boundless mercy of God, was granted to the
+     English.
+
+     "On which Feast of his Translation, whilst the struggle between
+     our countrymen and the French was being carried on, as to the
+     hearing of us and our brethren in our last convocation,       (p. 196)
+     abundantly and especially, the true report of the inhabitants of
+     that country brought the tidings, that from his tomb sacred oil
+     flowed, drops falling as of sweat, indicative of the divine mercy
+     towards his people, doubtless obtained by the merits of that most
+     holy man.
+
+     "Wishing, therefore, in our province to spread an increase of
+     divine worship, and especially to extol further the praise of so
+     great a patron, with the wills, counsel, and assent of our
+     brethren and the clergy in the said convocation, and no less at
+     the special instance of the said most Christian Prince, we have
+     determined that the memory of that most holy confessor everywhere
+     throughout our province should be exalted with feelings of
+     prayers and devotions [votivis et devotis affectibus]."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Then follows the decree above mentioned.
+
+This mass of extravagant folly and blind superstition, this presumptuous
+sharing of God's omnipotence and sovereign might with the power of such
+poor erring fellow-mortals as the corrupt ministers of a corrupt church
+had presumptuously ranked among the inhabitants of heaven,--thus daring
+to forestal the judgment of Christ at the last day, and to pronounce on
+the glory of a man whose spiritual state Omniscience alone can know,--it
+is impossible to contemplate without feelings of gratitude that Heaven's
+mercy has released us from such perverted use of the Gospel of the
+Saviour; nor without a prayer that the Spirit of light and truth would
+guide those of our fellow-creatures who are still walking in the same
+land of darkness and error, into the clear light of Christian truth.
+
+The Author, to whom the following "Song of Agincourt" has been     (p. 197)
+familiar from his childhood, cannot refrain from inserting it here.
+This is that ancient, and, as it is believed, contemporary ballad,
+which has preserved to our times that golden stanza which appears in
+the title page of these volumes; and every word of which reflects the
+character of Henry as a hero and a merciful man. The quotation, also,
+from Burnet's History of Music, and the contemporary song to which he
+refers, will, it is presumed, be generally acceptable.
+
+
+  SONG OF AGINCOURT.
+
+  As our King lay on his bed,
+    All musing at the hour of prime,[148]
+  He bethought him of the King of France,
+    And tribute due for so long a time.
+
+  He called unto him his lovely page,
+    His lovely page then called he;
+  Saying, You must go to the King in France,
+    To the King in France right speedily.
+
+  Tell him to send me my tribute home,
+    Ten ton of gold that is due to me;
+  Unless he send me my tribute home,
+    Soon in French land I will him see.
+
+  Away then goes this lovely page                                  (p. 198)
+    As fast, as fast as he could hie;
+  And, when he came to the King in France,
+    He fell all down on his bended knee.
+
+  My master greets you, sir, and says,
+    Ten ton of gold is due to me;
+  Unless you send me my tribute home,
+    You in French land soon shall see me.
+
+  Your master is young, and of tender age,
+    Not fit to come into my degree;
+  I'll send him home some tennis-balls
+    That with them he may learn for to play.
+
+  Away then goes this lovely page,
+    As fast, as fast as he could hie;
+  And, when he came to our gracious King,
+    He fell all down on his bended knee.
+
+  What news, what news, my trusty page?
+    What news, what news dost thou bring to me?
+  I bring such news from the King of France,
+    That you and he can never agree.
+
+  He says you are young, and of tender age,
+    Not fit to come up to his degree;
+  He has sent you home some tennis-balls,
+    That with them you may learn for to play.
+
+  Oh! then bespoke our noble King,
+    A solemn vow then vowed he;
+  I'll promise him such English balls
+    As in French land he ne'er did see.
+
+  Go! call up Cheshire and Lancashire,                             (p. 199)
+    And Derby hills that are so free;
+  BUT NEITHER MARRIED MAN, NOR WIDOW'S SON,
+    NO WIDOW'S CURSE SHALL GO WITH ME!
+
+  They called up Cheshire and Lancashire,
+    And Derby hills that are so free;
+  But neither married man nor widow's son,
+    Yet they had a right good company.
+
+  He called unto him his merry men all,
+    And numbered them by three and three,
+  Until their number it did amount
+    To thirty thousand stout men and three.
+
+  Away then marched they into French land,
+    With drums and fifes so merrily;
+  Then out and spoke the King of France,
+    Lo! here comes proud King Henrie!
+
+  The first that fired, it was the French,
+    They killed our Englishmen so free;
+  But we killed ten thousand of the French,
+    And the rest of them they did run away.
+
+  Then marched they on to Paris gates,
+    With drums and fifes so merrily;
+  Oh! then bespoke the King of France,
+    The Lord have mercy on my men and me!
+
+  Oh! I will send him his tribute home,
+    Ten ton of gold that is due from me;
+  And the very best flower that is in all France
+    To the rose of England will I give free.
+
+                   [Footnote 148: The second line of this song is
+                   variously read. Probably the original words are
+                   lost. The reading in the text is conjectural.]
+
+"At the coronation of Henry V," observes Dr. Burney, "in 1413,     (p. 200)
+we hear of _no other instruments than harps_;[149] but one of that
+prince's historians[150] tells us that their number in the hall was
+prodigious. Henry, however, though a successful hero and a conqueror,
+did not seem to take the advantage of his claim to praise; and either
+was so modest or so tasteless as to discourage and even prohibit the
+poets and musicians from celebrating his victories and singing his
+valiant deeds. When he entered the city of London, after the battle of
+Agincourt, the gates and streets were hung with tapestry, representing
+the history of ancient heroes; and children were placed in temporary
+turrets to sing verses. But Henry, disgusted at these vanities,
+commanded, by a formal edict, that for the future no songs should be
+recited by harpers, or others, in honour of the recent victory.
+'_Cantus de suo triumpho fieri, seu per citharistas, vel alios
+quoscunque, cantari, penitus prohibebat._'
+
+                   [Footnote 149: Dr. Burney has here fallen into a
+                   most extraordinary mistake. In the very page to
+                   which he refers, Elmham, in his turgid manner,
+                   assures us that at Henry's coronation the
+                   tumultuous clang of so many trumpets made the
+                   heavens resound with the roar of thunder. He then
+                   describes the sweet strings of the harps soothing
+                   the souls of the guests by their soft melody; and
+                   the united music of other instruments also, by
+                   their dulcet sounds, in which no discord
+                   interrupted the harmony, inviting the royal
+                   banqueters to full enjoyment of the festival.]
+
+                   [Footnote 150: Thomas de Elmham, Vit. et Gest. Hen.
+                   V. edit. Hearne, Oxon. 1727, cap. xii. p. 23.]
+
+"It is somewhat extraordinary that, in spite of Henry's edicts and
+prohibitions, _the only English song of so early a date, that has come
+to my knowledge, of which the original music has been preserved_, is
+one that was written on his victory at Agincourt in 1415. It is
+preserved in the Pepysian Collection, at Magdalen College,
+Cambridge."[151]
+
+                   [Footnote 151: Burney's History of Music, vol. ii.
+                   p. 382.]
+
+After some observations upon the general ignorance of the          (p. 201)
+transcribers of ancient music, Dr. Burney proceeds to say, "that the
+copy in the Pepysian Collection is written upon vellum in Gregorian
+notes, and can be little less ancient than the event which it
+recorded;" and that there is with it a paper which shows that an
+attempt was made in the last century (17th) to give it a modern dress,
+but that too many liberties had been taken with the melody, and the
+drone bass, which had been set to it for the lute, is a mere jargon.
+He then presents what he says is a faithful copy of this venerable
+relic of our nation's prowess and glory.
+
+  Owre Kynge went forth to Normandy,
+  With grace, and myght of chyvalry;
+  The God for hym wrought marv'lusly,
+  Wherefore Englonde may calle and cry,
+
+      CHORUS.
+
+    Deo gratias, Anglia!
+    Redde pro Victoria!
+
+  He sette a sege, the sothe to say,
+  To Harflue town, with royal array;
+  That toune he wan, and made a fray
+  That Fraunce shall rywe tyl domes-day.
+          Deo gratias! &c.
+
+  Than, for sothe, that Knyght comely
+  In Agincourt feld faught manly;
+  Thorow grace of God, most myghty,
+  He hath bothe felde and victory.
+          Deo gratias! &c.
+
+  Then went owre Kynge, with all his oste,                         (p. 202)
+  Thorowe Fraunce, for all the Frenshe boste;
+  He spared[152] for drede of leste ne most,
+  Till he come to Agincourt coste.
+           Deo gratias! &c.
+
+  Ther Dukys and Earlys, Lorde and Barone,
+  Were take and slayne, and that wel sone;
+  And some were ledde into Lundone;
+  With joye, and merth, and grete renone,
+          Deo gratias! &c.
+
+  Now gracious God he save owre Kynge,
+  His peple, and all his well wyllinge;
+  Gef him gode lyfe, and gode endynge,
+  That we with merth may safely synge,
+  Deo gratias, Anglia! redde pro Victoria!
+
+                   [Footnote 152: For dread neither of least nor of
+                   greatest.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.                                                      (p. 203)
+
+REASONS FOR DELAYING A SECOND CAMPAIGN. -- SIGISMUND UNDERTAKES TO
+MEDIATE. -- RECEPTION OF SIGISMUND. -- FRENCH SHIPS SCOUR THE SEAS,
+AND LAY SIEGE TO HARFLEUR. -- HENRY'S VIGOROUS MEASURES THEREUPON. --
+THE EMPEROR DECLARES FOR "HENRY AND HIS JUST RIGHTS." -- JOINS WITH
+HIM IN CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL ON A DAY OF THANKSGIVING FOR VICTORY OVER
+THE FRENCH. -- WITH HIM MEETS THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY AT CALAIS. -- THE
+DUKE ALSO DECLARES FOR HENRY. -- SECOND INVASION OF FRANCE. -- SIEGE
+OF CAEN. -- HENRY'S BULLETIN TO THE MAYOR OF LONDON. -- HOSTILE
+MOVEMENT OF THE SCOTS.
+
+1415-1417.
+
+
+It has been made a subject of observation, and of conjecture as to its
+cause, that Henry did not take advantage of the next spring to
+prosecute his claims in France. Some[153] would have us suspect that
+it was "to show that personal honour had been his leading object, that
+he remained at home nearly two years afterwards without any military
+movement." But a much more intelligible and palpable cause         (p. 204)
+offers itself to the mind on the slightest reflection upon the
+circumstances in which he was placed.[154] He had not the means ready
+for invading France. His forces were diminished by a number of men
+appallingly great, in proportion to the body with which he had landed
+at Harfleur; and his treasury was exhausted. For his first expedition
+he had borrowed the utmost which his subjects and friends either would
+or could supply; and the grants made to him by his parliament had been
+anticipated even to carry on the former campaign. That it was his
+intention, however, when he left France after the victory of
+Agincourt, to return to that country in the following spring, seems
+clear from the circumstance that, on dismissing his less illustrious
+prisoners at Calais, he bound them on their words to bring their
+ransoms to him on the field of Lendi, at the feast of St. John in the
+summer; with this voluntary proviso, that, if they did not find him
+there, they should be free from all obligation to him.
+
+                   [Footnote 153: Mr. Turner.]
+
+                   [Footnote 154: Another view might be taken of the
+                   cause of this delay on the part of Henry. Perhaps
+                   he was acting prudently by allowing time for his
+                   enemies to weaken each other, and to exhaust their
+                   resources by the insatiable demands of civil
+                   warfare. Meanwhile, he was not himself idle.]
+
+In the mean time, a most influential mediator between the two kingdoms
+appeared, the intervention of whom would, even under other
+circumstances, have rendered delay imperative. Sigismund, Emperor  (p. 205)
+of Germany, first visited the King of France in his capital, and
+then extended his journey to England, with a view of bringing about a
+peace, though all his efforts proved unavailing.
+
+On his approach towards England, the utmost pains seem to have been
+taken to make his reception worthy of his high dignity and of the
+English people. The orders of council are very minute and
+interesting;[155] and the arrival of Sigismund seems to have occupied
+the time and thoughts of the whole nation. The Earl of Warwick was
+then Captain of Calais, whose character for gallantry and courteous
+bearing was so distinguished on this, as on all other occasions, that
+he was called the Father of courtesy. The Emperor and his retinue of
+one thousand persons, among whom were many German and Italian princes
+and nobles, embarked at Calais in thirty of the King's ships, and
+arrived at Dover on the 29th of April 1416. Here the Duke of       (p. 206)
+Gloucester, Constable of Dover, with many noblemen, met him; and gave
+him precisely that sort of reception which we should have expected
+from English gentlemen under the immediate direction of Henry. As the
+Emperor was ready to set his foot on land, they stepped into the water
+with their drawn swords, and told him with mingled firmness and
+courtesy, "that, if he came as a mediator of peace, they would receive
+him with all the honours due to the imperial dignity; but if as
+Emperor he challenged any sovereign power, they must tell him that the
+English nation was a free people, and their King had dependence on no
+monarch on earth; and they were resolved, in defence of the liberty of
+the people, and the rights of their King, to oppose his landing on
+their shores." The answer of the Emperor set them at ease on this
+point, and he was received with every mark of respect and honour;
+among other testimonies of Henry's feelings towards him, was his
+installation of him as a Knight of the Garter at Windsor.[156]
+
+                   [Footnote 155: Lord Talbot was to be associated
+                   with the Captain of Calais to receive the Emperor
+                   in that city. At Dover, the Duke of Gloucester,
+                   with the Lords Salisbury, Furnival, and Haryngton,
+                   were to welcome him to the English shores; at
+                   Rochester, the Constable and Marshal of England,
+                   the Earl of Oxford, and others; at Dartford, the
+                   Duke of Clarence, with the Earls of March and
+                   Huntingdon, Lord Grey of Ruthing, Lord Abergavenny,
+                   and others, were to meet him. At Blackheath, the
+                   Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and good people of London
+                   were to await his arrival; whilst Henry himself was
+                   to receive Sigismund between Deptford and
+                   Southwark, at a place called St. Thomas
+                   Watering.--"Privy Council," April 1416, Pour la
+                   venue de l'Empereur.]
+
+                   [Footnote 156: The Archbishop of Canterbury
+                   commanded all his suffragans to take especial care
+                   that prayers be offered in all congregations for
+                   the good estate of Sigismund.--Rymer's Foed.
+                   1416.]
+
+It is impossible not to contrast the conduct of our countrymen on this
+occasion and the behaviour of Sigismund, with his conduct in France,
+and the readiness with which that conduct, however humiliating, was
+submitted to. Sigismund was received with much ceremony and        (p. 207)
+magnificence at Paris; but, before he left it, he had surprised and
+disgusted the King by exercising an act of sovereignty in the very
+house of parliament. By courtesy he was seated on the chair usually
+occupied by the King himself. A trial was proceeding, the result of
+which seemed to turn on the knighthood of one of the litigants. The
+Emperor called for a sword, and knighted the individual forthwith.
+
+Whilst Sigismund was anxiously engaged in endeavouring to bring the
+two nations to terms of peace, news arrived of an event which must
+have made his efforts and mediation appear hopeless. The French had
+fallen upon part of the garrison of Harfleur, and cut off a
+considerable body of them. Not long after this, and whilst
+negociations were pending between London and Paris, with a more
+favourable appearance of a successful issue, tidings came that the
+French fleet had scoured the Channel, had blockaded Southampton, and
+had made various attempts on the Isle of Wight; that the Constable,
+D'Armagnac, had recalled them, and they were then besieging Harfleur.
+Henry and his council resolved on making an immediate and vigorous
+effort to destroy that fleet; and forthwith an armament was prepared,
+of which Henry expressed his determination to take the command
+himself. At the urgent request, however, of the Emperor, he desisted
+from that resolution, and gave the supreme command to his brother the
+Duke of Bedford; who, after a most obstinate battle, gained a      (p. 208)
+decided victory over the enemy, and relieved Harfleur.[157]
+
+                   [Footnote 157: Henry was at Smalhithe in Kent
+                   (August 22), superintending the building of some
+                   ships, when news of this success reached him. He
+                   hastened to join the Emperor, who was at
+                   Canterbury, and both went to the cathedral together
+                   to return thanks for the victory. This happened a
+                   week subsequently to their signing of the league of
+                   amity mentioned below.]
+
+The Emperor was soon convinced that his mediation must fail, and that
+France was resolved to renew the war. He then determined not to remain
+neutral, but to join himself by a solemn league with Henry. The
+preamble of this covenant is deeply interesting, as indicative, at
+least, of the professed sentiments of Sigismund with regard to the
+pretensions of Henry, and to the conduct and character of the two
+belligerent kings. Sigismund declared the object of his desire to have
+been the restoration of peace to the church and to Christendom; and,
+with that end in view, he had endeavoured to reconcile the Kings of
+England and France, but without success. The failure he ascribed
+entirely to the hatred of peace which influenced the French King, to
+whom he attributed also the prevalence of schism in the church, and
+the disturbed state of the Christian world. He then expresses his
+resolution "to form a league with Henry in the name of the Lord God of
+Hosts, and to assist him in the recovery of his JUST RIGHTS."[158]
+This league was signed August 15, 1416. The Emperor, shortly after (p. 209)
+this unlooked-for termination of his office as mediator, left England.
+Before he had proceeded onwards from Calais, Henry himself arrived at
+that town. After some days, the Duke of Burgundy also joined them; and
+much time was spent in secret negociations, the nature of which did
+not transpire, though we may suppose both the Emperor and King were
+anxious to make him a party to the league already concluded between
+themselves. A covenant, however, was signed by the Duke early in
+October, in which he declared that, "though he had taken part with the
+enemies of Henry in time past, yet now, _being assured of his lawful
+claim_, he would employ his arms in his service as the rightful King
+of France."
+
+                   [Footnote 158: Rymer, H. V. An. iv.]
+
+The Emperor left Calais for Germany; and Henry, having concluded a
+truce with France till the 2nd of February, returned to England, and
+met his parliament on October 19th. Much zeal was here shown in his
+behalf; and whilst the parliament granted two whole tenths and two
+whole fifteenths, to be levied on the laity, the clergy gave two
+tenths, to be paid by their own body. But all this was not enough;
+recourse was again had to borrowing, the Dukes of Clarence, Bedford,
+and Gloucester pledging themselves, in case of Henry's death, to the
+repayment of the loans. Henry pawned a valuable crown to his uncle,
+the Bishop of Winchester, for money to a great amount; and he pledged
+very valuable jewels to the Mayor of London for another large      (p. 210)
+sum. No measure was left untried, that Henry might be prepared by the
+ensuing spring with men and money for the invasion of France.[159] In
+the meanwhile, the French princes and nobles who had been taken
+prisoners at Agincourt were anxiously negociating for their release.
+In a communication of strict confidence to the Emperor, Henry declares
+that all their proceedings were suspicious, and selfish, and
+deceitful; that he had suffered the Duke of Bourbon to return to   (p. 211)
+France on certain conditions, but that the Emperor might be assured
+of his resolution to invade that country.
+
+                   [Footnote 159: The various expedients to which both
+                   Henry and his father were driven to raise supplies
+                   in any way commensurate with their wants, have
+                   repeatedly reminded the Author of the similar means
+                   to which their unhappy successor Charles, in his
+                   days of far more urgent need and necessity, had
+                   recourse. The reader may perhaps be interested by
+                   the following document. It is a copy of the letter
+                   in which Charles applies to the Provost and Fellows
+                   of Oriel College for a loan of their plate. The
+                   King's letter is dated January 6th, 1642; and the
+                   society, assembled in the chapel on the 8th, vote
+                   unanimously to put their silver and gilt vessels at
+                   the disposal of their sovereign, scarcely retaining
+                   one single piece of plate. (Allocata sunt ad usum
+                   serenissimi vasa argentea et deaurata paene ad unum
+                   omnia.) The one retained is said to have been the
+                   chalice for the holy communion.
+
+                   (Extracted from the Register of Oriel College.)
+
+                         "To our trusty and well-beloved the Provost
+                         and Fellowes of Oriel Colledge, in our
+                         University of Oxon: Charles R.
+
+                         "Trusty and well-beloved, wee greete you
+                         well. Wee are so well satisfied with your
+                         readiness and affection to our service, that
+                         wee cannot doubt but you will take all
+                         occasions to expresse the same; and as wee
+                         are ready to sell or engage any of our land,
+                         so have wee melted downe our plate for the
+                         paiment of our army, raised for our defence,
+                         and the preservation of our kingdome. And
+                         having received severall quantityes of plate
+                         from divers of our loving subjects, we have
+                         removed our mint hither to our citty of
+                         Oxford, for the coyning thereof.
+
+                         "And we do hereby desire you that you will
+                         lend unto us all such plate, of what kind
+                         soever, which belongs to your colledge;
+                         promising you to see the same iustly repaid
+                         unto you after the rate of 5 _s._ the ounce
+                         for white, and 5 _s._ 6 _d._ for guilt plate,
+                         as soon as God shall enable us: for assure
+                         yourselves wee shall never let persons of
+                         whom wee have so great a care suffer for
+                         their affection to us, but shall take
+                         speciall order for the repaiment of what you
+                         have already lent us, according to our
+                         promise, and also of this you now lend in
+                         plate; well knowing it to bee the goods of
+                         youre colledge that you ought not to alien,
+                         though no man will doubt but in such a case
+                         you may lawfully lend to assist youre King in
+                         such visible necessity. And wee have
+                         entrusted our trusty and well-beloved Sir
+                         William Parkhurst, Knt. and Thomas Bushee,
+                         Esq. officers of our mint, or either of them,
+                         to receive the said plate from you; who,
+                         uppon weighing thereof, shall give you a
+                         receipt under theire or one of their hands
+                         for the same.
+
+                         "And wee assure our selfe of your willingness
+                         to gratify us herein; since, beside the more
+                         publiche considerations, you cannot but know
+                         how much your selves are concerned in our
+                         sufferings. And wee shall ever remember this
+                         particular service to your advantage.
+
+                          "Given at our Court at Oxford, the 6 day of
+                         January 1642."]
+
+Henry's exertions were effectual; and, soon after midsummer, he found
+himself prepared with men and money to renew his expedition to
+Normandy in a fleet of fifteen hundred sail, and with an army of not
+less than twenty-five thousand soldiers. Before he embarked,       (p. 212)
+however, he commissioned Holland, Earl of Huntingdon, whose father had
+been beheaded at Cirencester in the reign of Henry IV, with a squadron
+to scour the seas, and secure a free passage for the transports. The
+Earl was successful in a most hard-fought battle with a fleet of
+Genoese large ships, sent by their republic[160] to aid the French
+King; and on July 23rd 1417, Henry set sail for the coast of
+France.[161] A large body of French on the shore threatened to oppose
+him; but he landed his forces safely, on the 1st of August, at
+Beville. As soon as his people were all safe on shore, by an act
+characteristic of himself, he adopted the same measure which, on his
+former expedition, had compelled him to make his way to Calais by
+land. He dismissed all his ships homeward, excepting what were
+required for transporting cannon; thus assuring his soldiers that they
+must conquer or die, for they had no retreat.
+
+                   [Footnote 160: In the letter from Constance, dated
+                   the preceding February, Henry was informed that the
+                   French had sent a large sum to Genoa to wage [hire]
+                   ships to fight with England.]
+
+                   [Footnote 161: The Muster Roll of this expedition
+                   is preserved in the Chapter-house, Westminster, and
+                   is pronounced to be one of the most interesting
+                   records of military history now extant.--See
+                   Preface to the Norman Rolls, by T.D. Hardy, Esq.]
+
+Henry found the country altogether deserted, the inhabitants having
+fled from their homes in every direction on receiving the alarming
+tidings of his approach. It is said that twenty-five thousand families
+fled into Brittany; and so complete was the evacuation in some     (p. 213)
+districts, that there reigned through the country the stillness
+of death. In Lisieux, a considerable town eighteen miles from the sea,
+the English found but one old man and one woman. The people had
+secured themselves, to the utmost of their means, in fortified towns,
+all of which had been supplied with strong garrisons on the first news
+of the intended invasion.
+
+Henry systematically caused the most strict discipline to be observed
+in his army, of which many proofs are recorded. Among other instances
+we read that when a monk complained of having been robbed by a
+soldier, he was desired to fix upon the guilty man. On discovering the
+culprit, the King upbraided him with his baseness, and pronounced him
+worthy of death; but, on making restitution, and promising never again
+to be guilty of the offence, he pardoned him. "And you, friend," said
+he, turning to the monk, "go back to your brethren in peace, and
+attend all of you to your sacred duties without fear of me or my army.
+I am not come hither as a thief to rob your churches and altars, but
+as a just and merciful King to protect you from violence." Henry then
+proclaimed through the army that no one should injure an ecclesiastic
+on pain of death.[162] It was amusing, we are told, to see how the
+numbers of the regular clergy were suddenly swollen; rustics       (p. 214)
+shaving their heads, and putting on the dress of a monk, to be safe
+under the terms of that protection.
+
+                   [Footnote 162: A long list of the clergy, and of
+                   the churches then taken by Henry under his
+                   protection, is preserved in the Norman
+                   Rolls.--Hardy's edition, p. 331.]
+
+During this campaign Henry sent repeated bulletins of his proceedings
+and successes to the mayor and aldermen of London, many of the
+originals of which are still in existence; and which combine, with the
+answers to them, in bearing evidence to the popularity of Henry's
+person, and of the cause in which he was embarked. Some of these
+documents are exceedingly interesting; but it would be needless to
+transfer them all into these pages.[163] It is to be lamented that
+such indisputable records are not all published, or rendered
+accessible to every one who would wish to consult them. The
+interspersion of a few in this part of the volume may enable the
+reader to verify in more points than one the views which are here
+offered of Henry's character and the feeling of the people of England
+at this period. The first is a letter from Henry himself, dated August
+9, 1417, at Touque, the very day of the surrender of that place, and
+only a week after he landed.
+
+                   [Footnote 163: These letters did not come within
+                   the Author's knowledge before he had written these
+                   brief memoirs of the last years of Henry. It is
+                   very satisfactory to find them all confirmatory of
+                   his previous views. He has taken especial care to
+                   make every, the slightest, correction in his
+                   narrative, suggested by authorities from which
+                   there is no appeal.]
+
+     "Trusty and well-beloved, we greet you oftentimes well; doing (p. 215)
+     [giving] you to understand for your comfort, that, by the grace
+     of God, we be safely arrived into our land of Normandy, with all
+     our subjects ordained to go with us for the first passage. And
+     this day, the even of St. Lawrence, about mid-day, was yolden
+     [yielded] unto us the castle of Touque, about the which our
+     well-beloved cousin, the Earl of Huntingdon, lay; and the keys
+     of the said castle delivered unto us without the shedding of
+     Christian blood, or defence made by our enemies:--the which castle
+     is an honour, and all the viscounty and lordships of Ange hold
+     thereof, as we have been informed of such men as were therein.
+     Whereof we thank God lowly, that hym lust [he is pleased] of high
+     grace to show unto us so fair beginning in our present voyage;
+     desiring also that ye thank God thereof in the most best wise that
+     ye can, and that ye send us from time to time such tidings be
+     komerys be thwene [by comers between], as ye have in that side the
+     sea. Given under our signet, at our said Castle of Touque, the 9th
+     day of August.
+        "To the Mayor, Sheriffs, Aldermen,
+        and good people of our City of
+        London."--Endorsed in French.
+
+But though Henry speaks thus encouragingly of his present campaign, he
+had soon much to make him anxious, and to rouse all the energies of
+his mind. Among other sources of solicitude was the growing evil of
+desertion. Many of his soldiers grew tired of the war, and,
+dishonourably leaving his camp, stole back to their native country. Of
+the prevalence of this mischief we have too clear proof in the
+following writ, a copy of which was despatched to all the sheriffs of
+England. It is found among the Norman Rolls, and is one of the     (p. 216)
+few specimens with which Mr. Hardy has enriched the interesting
+introduction to his edition of those valuable documents.[164]
+
+                   [Footnote 164: Norman Rolls, preserved in the
+                   Tower, edited by T.D. Hardy, Esq.]
+
+     "The King to the Sheriffs of London and Middlesex, greeting.
+     Whereas we have received certain information and undoubted
+     evidence that divers of our lieges who lately came with us to our
+     kingdom of France, there as we hoped stoutly to oppose and resist
+     the pride and malice of our enemies, have deserted us in the
+     midst of these our enemies, and without our licence have in great
+     multitudes falsely and traitorously withdrawn and returned to our
+     kingdom of England, and are still daily withdrawing and
+     returning; which, if suffered to continue, would manifestly turn,
+     not only to the continual prejudice of us, but to the serious
+     injury and peril of our faithful lieges accompanying us (which
+     God avert!) We, desirous, as we are bound, to provide and ordain
+     a fitting remedy in this matter, do command and strictly enjoin
+     you to arrest and take into custody without delay all and each of
+     those whom by inquiry, information, or other means whatsoever,
+     you shall discover to have been with us in our said kingdom of
+     France, in our company, or in that of others, and who have
+     withdrawn themselves thence without our licence under our signet,
+     or that of the Constable of our army, and to deliver them as soon
+     as taken to our very dear brother, John Duke of Bedford, Guardian
+     of England. And, upon the fealty and allegiance wherein ye are
+     bound to us, let this by no means be neglected. Witness the King,
+     at his castle of Caen, in his duchy of Normandy, the 29th day of
+     September.--By the King himself."
+
+The most important siege in this campaign was that of Caen;[165]   (p. 217)
+at the taking of which, after a tremendous conflict and loss of life,
+Henry behaved towards the vanquished with so much mercy and kindness,
+that the governors of many neighbouring towns sent to him the keys of
+their gates.
+
+                   [Footnote 165: Henry's own letter to the Mayor and
+                   Aldermen of London (Liber F. fol. 200), written on
+                   the 5th of September, the day after the surrender
+                   of Caen, represents the loss on the part of the
+                   English to have been very trifling. "On St.
+                   Cuthbert's day, God, of his high grace, sent unto
+                   our hands our town of Caen by assault, and with
+                   right little death of our people, whereof we thank
+                   our Saviour as lowly as we can; praying that ye do
+                   the same, and as devoutly as ye can. Certifying you
+                   also that we and our host be in good prosperity and
+                   health, thanked be God of his mercy! who have you
+                   in his holy keeping."]
+
+So great was his success that the French court sent commissioners to
+him to negociate for peace, but the treaty resulted in no favourable
+issue; and Henry went on in his career of victory through the very
+depth of winter; and became master of Bayeux, Argentan, Alencon, and
+other places. He was engaged, however, in the siege of Falaise through
+the whole of December, the town not surrendering till the 2nd of
+January.
+
+It was at this time that the capture and execution of Lord Cobham took
+place in England; of which we have written fully in a separate
+dissertation at the close of this volume. Henry, however, probably
+knew nothing of that unfortunate man's capture till he heard of his
+death.
+
+Early in the preceding autumn [1417] an alarm spread through       (p. 218)
+England in consequence of the hostile demonstration of the Scots.
+There seems to be some doubt as to the extent of their movements.
+Buchanan represents the whole affair as one of very little moment,
+scarcely more than a border foray; but the English chroniclers lead us
+to believe that it was a formidable invasion. It is said that the
+Lollards were the instigators; though it is more probable that the
+invitation was sent to Scotland from France, and especially through
+the Duke of Orleans, then a prisoner in Pontefract, whose liberty was
+consequently much straitened, as we find by an original letter of
+Henry himself.[166]
+
+                   [Footnote 166: This letter of the King's is only a
+                   fragment, without date: who were the persons
+                   addressed does not appear; probably he wrote it to
+                   his council in 1417 or 1418. Sir Henry Ellis opens
+                   his second series of Original Letters with this of
+                   Henry V. It is found in MS. Cotton. Vesp. F. iii.
+                   fol. 5.]
+
+     "Furthermore, I would that ye commune with my brother, with the
+     Chancellor, with my cousin of Northumberland, and my cousin of
+     Westmorland; and that ye set a good ordinance for my north
+     marches, and specially for the Duke of Orleans and for all the
+     remnant of my prisoners of France, and also for the K. of
+     Scotland. For as I am secretly informed by a man of right notable
+     estate in this land, that there hath been a man of the Duke of
+     Orleans in Scotland, and accorded with the Duke of Albany that
+     this next summer he shall bring the mammet[167] of Scotland to
+     stir what he may; and also that there should be found         (p. 219)
+     ways to the having away specially of the Duke of Orleans, and
+     also of the K. as well as of the remnant of my said prisoners,
+     that God do defend! [which God forbid!] Wherefore I will that the
+     Duke of Orleans be kept still within the castle of Pomfret,
+     without going to Robertis Place, or to any other disport; for it
+     is better he lack his disport than we be deceived."
+
+                   [Footnote 167: Probably the mammet, or mawmet,
+                   [puppet,] (a corruption, they say, of Mahomet,) of
+                   Scotland, was the pretended Richard, the deposed
+                   King, whom even now many believed to be still alive
+                   there.]
+
+The Scots on one side laid siege to Berwick, from which they were
+driven by the Earl of Northumberland, Hotspur's son; the other part of
+the Scotch army directed their attack on Roxborough, where they were
+routed by the united forces of the Dukes of Exeter[168] and
+Bedford,[169] and the Archbishop of York. That military prelate,
+unable, from the weakness of age, to ride, yet caused himself to be
+carried to the field, that surrounded by his clergy he might encourage
+his people to defend their native land.
+
+                   [Footnote 168: The Duke of Exeter was then governor
+                   of Harfleur, but was in England recruiting soldiers
+                   to reinforce the King's army in Normandy.]
+
+                   [Footnote 169: It is curious to observe, that the
+                   Duke of Bedford is reported to have been engaged at
+                   his devotions at Bridlington in Yorkshire; and
+                   that, on hearing of the invasion, he threw away his
+                   beads, and marched with all the forces he could
+                   muster to meet the Scots. John of Bridlington seems
+                   to have been in an especial manner the patron saint
+                   of Henry IV.'s family.]
+
+After these successful military proceedings in the north of the
+kingdom, parliament met on Nov. 16. They prayed for speedy judgment on
+rioters and malefactors; presented a petition on the subject of Sir
+John Oldcastle; supplicated for a reward to the Lord Powys, who    (p. 220)
+was instrumental in seizing him; and then they voted the King a
+subsidy of a tenth and a fifteenth. The clergy also in convocation
+granted two tenths. In this convocation an attempt was made to
+encourage learning by promoting to benefices such as had laboured long
+and diligently in the Universities. This proposition was rejected in
+Oxford at that time; but it received the cordial promotion and
+assistance of the University in July 1421. On the latter occasion,
+however, the measure, opposed as it was most vigorously by the monks,
+would probably again have miscarried, had not Henry himself, "who
+favoured arts and loved learned men," interposed his own authority in
+its favour.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.                                                       (p. 221)
+
+HENRY'S PROGRESS IN HIS SECOND CAMPAIGN. -- SIEGE OF ROUEN. --
+CARDINAL DES URSINS. -- SUPPLIES FROM LONDON. -- CORRESPONDENCE
+BETWEEN HENRY AND THE CITIZENS. -- NEGOCIATION WITH THE DAUPHIN AND
+WITH THE FRENCH KING. -- HENRY'S IRISH AUXILIARIES. -- REFLECTIONS ON
+IRELAND. -- ITS MISERABLE CONDITION. -- WISE AND STRONG MEASURES
+ADOPTED BY HENRY FOR ITS TRANQUILLITY. -- DIVISIONS AND STRUGGLES, NOT
+BETWEEN ROMANISTS AND PROTESTANTS, BUT BETWEEN ENGLISH AND IRISH. --
+HENRY AND THE SEE OF ROME. -- THRALDOM OF CHRISTENDOM. -- THE DUKE OF
+BRITTANY DECLARES FOR HENRY. -- SPANIARDS JOIN THE DAUPHIN. --
+EXHAUSTED STATE OF ENGLAND.
+
+1418-1419.
+
+
+Henry[170] meanwhile was making rapid progress in subduing Normandy;
+and to induce the inhabitants to return to their homes, which they had
+abandoned, he issued a proclamation promising protection and favour to
+all who would acknowledge his sovereignty. He also pledged himself to
+relieve his subjects from all injustice and oppression.
+
+                   [Footnote 170: On the 12th of February 1418, an
+                   order is issued to press horses, carts, and other
+                   means of conveyance, to carry the jewels,
+                   ornaments, and other furniture of the King's chapel
+                   to Southampton.]
+
+Whilst he was lying before the town of Louviers, the Cardinal      (p. 222)
+des Ursins arrived in his camp with letters from the Pope, urging
+Henry to make peace; the Cardinal of St. Mark having been sent to the
+French King for the same purpose.
+
+These offers of mediation were unavailing; and Henry, encouraged by
+the distracted state of France, resolved to push his conquests to the
+utmost; and, after some severe skirmishing at Pont de Larche,[171] he
+proceeded to lay siege to Rouen. Did the plan of these Memoirs admit
+of a fuller inquiry into the affairs of France, we might here      (p. 223)
+with benefit review the proceedings of the different parties in that
+country since the field of Agincourt. The result of such a review
+would probably be the conviction that the divisions by which that
+country was distracted not only facilitated Henry's conquests, but
+alone admitted of them. His victories, even if they had ever been won,
+would scarcely have followed each other so rapidly, had the King of
+France, the Dauphin, and the Duke of Burgundy opposed him with united
+forces.
+
+                   [Footnote 171: Henry's own words, in a letter, 21
+                   July 1418, sent from Pont de Larche to the Mayor of
+                   London, are: "Since our last departing from Caen,
+                   we came before our town of Louviers, and won it by
+                   siege; to which place came to us the Cardinal of
+                   Ursin from our holy father the Pope, for to treat
+                   for the good of peace betwixt both realms, and is
+                   gone again to Paris to diligence there in this same
+                   matter; but what end it shall draw to we wot not as
+                   yet." In this letter he informs us that the attack
+                   on Pont de Larche was on the 4th of July; and that,
+                   though the enemy had "assembled in great power to
+                   resist us, yet God of his mercy showed so for us
+                   and for our right, that it was withouten the death
+                   of any man's person of ours." He adds that he had
+                   just heard of the decidedly hostile intentions of
+                   the Duke of Burgundy towards him; so "we hold him
+                   our full enemy. He is now at Paris." The King then
+                   tells them that he needs not to refer to the death
+                   of the Earl of Armagnac, and the slaughter that
+                   hath been at Paris; for he was assured that they
+                   had full knowledge thereof. He alludes to the
+                   massacre of the Armagnac faction by the partisans
+                   of the Duke of Burgundy, June 12, 1418. Two
+                   thousand persons were murdered in a very brief
+                   space of time. The mob dragged the bodies of the
+                   Constable and Chancellor through the streets (as
+                   Monstrelet tells us) for two or three days.]
+
+The citizens of Rouen, which was well garrisoned, and had an ample
+store of provisions, had declared themselves for the Duke of Burgundy;
+but now, in their alarm, they supplicate aid from the Dauphin against
+the common enemy. His answer was, that he was compelled to employ his
+troops in defending his own towns against the Duke of Burgundy.[172]
+
+                   [Footnote 172: Henry's army had received various
+                   reinforcements. One accession is recorded by an
+                   item in the Pell Rolls, of rather an interesting
+                   character, showing that both the Irish and the
+                   ecclesiastics of Ireland gave him good and
+                   acceptable proof of the interest they took in his
+                   success. It is the payment of 19_l._ 17_s._ on the
+                   1st of July 1418, "to masters and mariners of
+                   Bristol for embarking the Prior of Kilmaynham with
+                   two hundred horsemen and three hundred
+                   foot-soldiers from Waterford in Ireland, to go to
+                   the King in France." An entry also occurs in the
+                   following October: "To the Prior of Kilmaynham
+                   coming from Ireland to Southampton, with a good
+                   company of men, to proceed to Normandy to serve the
+                   King in the wars, 100_l._" An order from the King
+                   to his Chancellor, the Bishop of Durham, to
+                   expedite ships from Bristol for the transport of
+                   these men from Waterford to France, is preserved
+                   among the miscellaneous records in the Tower. It is
+                   dated June 3rd, at Ber-nay; to which a postscript
+                   was added on the next day, urging the utmost
+                   expedition, as the troops were tarrying only for
+                   the means of sailing.--See Bentley's Excerpta
+                   Historica, p. 388.]
+
+The whole English army, with a great train of artillery, came      (p. 224)
+up before the city on the last day of July 1418, before another
+harvest could afford new supplies of corn. To that one town the people
+of Normandy had brought all their treasures; and those who were
+intrusted with the safekeeping of the place seemed determined to
+endure all the miseries of blockade and famine, rather than surrender.
+Henry, with the resolution not to lavish the lives of his soldiers by
+attempting to take this town by storm, laid close siege to it by land;
+whilst some "good ships," which he had from the King of Portugal,
+blockaded the mouth of the Seine.
+
+Ten days after Henry laid siege to Rouen, he despatched a letter to
+the Mayor and Aldermen of London, which, with their answer, cannot be
+read without interest.
+
+     "BY THE KING.
+
+     "Right trusty and well-beloved! we greet you oft times well. And
+     for as much as, in the name of Almighty God, and in our right,
+     with his grace, we have laid the siege afore the city of Rouen,
+     which is the most notable place in France, save Paris; at which
+     siege, us nedeth [we need] greatly refreshing for us and for our
+     host; and we have found you, our true lieges and subjects, of
+     good will at all times to do all things that might do us worship
+     and ease, whereof we can you right heartily thank; and pray you
+     effectually that, in all the haste that ye may and ye will, do
+     arm as many small vessels as ye may goodly, with victuals,    (p. 225)
+     and namely [especially] with drink, for to come to Harfleur, and
+     from thence as far as they may up the river of Seyne to Rouen ward
+     with the said victual, for the refreshing of us and our said host,
+     as our trust is to you; for the which vessels there shall be
+     ordained sufficient conduct, with God's grace. Witting well also
+     that therein ye may do us right great pleasance, and refreshing
+     for all our host above said; and give us cause to show therefore
+     to you ever the better lordship in time to come, with the help of
+     our Saviour, the which we pray that He have you in his
+     safeward.--Given under our signet, in our host afore the said city
+     of Rouen, the 10th day of August.
+       "To our right trusty and well-beloved the
+       Mayor, Aldermen, and all the worthy
+       Commoners of our city of London."
+
+To this appeal the authorities of the city paid immediate and hearty
+attention, and forwarded to Henry an answer under their common seal on
+the 8th of September, (the Nativity of our Lady, the blissful maid,)
+of which the following is a copy. A memorandum in Latin informs us
+that the clause within brackets was for different causes kept back,
+and not sent with the letters. The letter is a curious specimen of the
+flattering and complimentary style of the good citizens of London when
+addressing their sovereign.
+
+     "Our most dread, most sovereign Lord, and noblest King, to the
+     sovereign highness of your kingly majesty, with all manner of
+     lowness and reverence, meekly we recommend us, not only as we
+     ought and should, but as we best can and may; with all our
+     hearts, thanking your sovereign excellence of your gracious   (p. 226)
+     letters in making [us] gladsome in understanding, and passing
+     comfortable in favouring our poor degrees, which ye liked late
+     to send us from your host afore the city of Rouen. In which
+     letters, after declaration of your most noble intent for the
+     refreshing of your host, ye record so highly the readiness of our
+     will and power at all times to your pleasance, and thanking us
+     thereof so heartily, that truly, save only our prayer to Him that
+     all good quiteth [requiteth], never was it nor might it half be
+     deserved. And after seeing in your foresaid gracious letters ye
+     pray us effectually to enarme as many small vessels as we may
+     with victual, and specially with drink, for to come as far as
+     they may in the river Seyne. And not only this, but in the
+     conclusion of your sovereign letters foresaid, ye fed us so
+     bounteously with the best showing of your good lordship to us in
+     time coming as ye have ever done, that now and ever we shall be
+     the joyfuller in this life when we remember us on so noble a
+     grace. [O how may the simpless of poor lieges better or more
+     clearly conceive the gracious love and favourable tendress of the
+     King, their sovereign Lord, than to hear how your most excellent
+     and noble person, more worth to us than all worldly riches or
+     plenty, in so thin abundance of victual heavily disposed, so
+     graciously and goodly declare and utter unto us, that are your
+     liege men and subjects, your plain lust and pleasance, as it is
+     in your said noble letters worthily contained. Certain, true
+     liege man is there none, ne faithful subject could there non ne
+     durst tarry or be lachesse [backward] in any wise to the
+     effectual prayer and commandment of so sovereign and high a lord,
+     which his noble body paineth and knightly adventureth for the
+     right and welfare of us.] Our most dread, most sovereign Lord,
+     and noblest King, may it please your sovereign highness to
+     understand, how that your foresaid kingly prayer, as most strait
+     charge and commandment, we willing in all points obey and execute
+     anon, from the receipt of your said gracious letter, which    (p. 227)
+     was the 19th day of August nigh noon, unto the making of these
+     simple letters. What in getting and enarming of as many small
+     vessels as we might, doing brew both ale and beer, purveying
+     wine and other victual, for to charge with the same vessels, we
+     have done our busy diligence and care, as God wot. In which vessels,
+     without [besides] great plenty of other victuals, that men of
+     your city of London aventuren for refreshing of your host to the
+     coasts where your sovereign presence is in, we lowly send with
+     gladdest will unto your sovereign excellence and kingly majesty
+     by John Credy and John Combe, your officers of your said city,
+     bringers of these letters, tritty botes [thirty butts] of sweet
+     wine, that is to say, ten of Tyre, ten of Romeney, ten of
+     Malmesey, and a thousand pipes of ale, with two thousand and five
+     hundred cups for your host to drink of, which we beseech your
+     high excellence and noble grace for our alder comfort and
+     gladness benignly to receive and accept; not having reward
+     [regard] to the little head or small value of the gift itself,
+     which is simple; but to the good will and high desire that your
+     poor givers thereof have to the good speed, worship, and welfare
+     of your most sovereign and excellent person, of which speed and
+     welfare, and all your other kingly lusts [desires] and
+     pleasances, we desire highly by the said bearers of these
+     letters, and other whom your sovereign highness shall like, fully
+     to be learned and informed. Our most dread, most sovereign Lord,
+     and noblest King, we lowly beseech the King of Heaven, whose body
+     refused not for our salvation worldly pain guiltless to endure,
+     that ye, your gracious person, which for our alder good and
+     profit so knightly laboureth, little or nought charging bodily
+     ease, in all worship and honour evermore to keep and
+     preserve.--Written at Gravesend, under the seal of Mayoralty of
+     your said city of London, on the day of the Nativity of our Lady,
+     the blissful maid.
+        "To the King, our most dread and most sovereign Lord."
+
+After every deduction is made from this singular epistle on the    (p. 228)
+ground of flattery and words of course, it proves that in expression,
+at least, the Mayor and good citizens of London not only heartily
+seconded Henry in his present undertakings, but identified his cause
+with their own, and regarded him as fighting their battles, and
+exposing himself to the dangers and privations of war in vindication
+of their own rights; and probably we are fully justified in regarding
+their sentiments as fairly representing the prevalent feelings of the
+people of England. There were, doubtless, many exceptions, as there
+ever must be in such a case, to the general unanimity; and we are not
+without evidence that, during this siege of Rouen, Henry's proceedings
+were commented upon unfavourably by some of his subjects at home.[173]
+
+                   [Footnote 173: One Glomyng was charged with having
+                   said, "What doth the King of England at siege
+                   before Rouen? An I were there with three thousand
+                   men, I would break his siege and make them of Rouen
+                   dock his tail." He said, moreover, that "he were
+                   not able to abide there, were it [not] that the
+                   Duke of Burgundy kept his enemies from
+                   him."--Donat. MS. 4601.]
+
+During this siege negociations were set on foot by the Dauphin for an
+alliance with Henry, who seemed to enter into the views of the
+ambassadors heartily;[174] but at the same time similar negociations
+were carried on between Henry and the King of France. In the       (p. 229)
+management of these a curious dispute arose as to the language in
+which the conference should be carried on: the French required that
+their own should be the medium of communication; the English
+remonstrating, and requiring the Latin to be employed, that the Pope
+and other potentates might understand their proceedings. It was
+proposed that all writings should be in duplicate, one copy in French,
+the other in Latin; but Henry insisted that his ambassadors should
+sign only an English or a Latin copy. During these negociations the
+French ambassadors presented to the King the portrait of the Princess
+Katharine,[175] which he received with great satisfaction. The treaty,
+however, was broken off, and the Cardinal Des Ursins returned to Pope
+Martin at Avignon. It is painful to read the account of the siege of
+Rouen; misery in all its shapes is painted there.[176] Indeed, if the
+accounts we have received be true, so complicated a tale of
+wretchedness is scarcely upon record. But the details can give no
+satisfaction; they would only harrow up the feelings, without
+supplying any facts essential to the history of those months of    (p. 230)
+human suffering. Henry was resolved neither to burn the town, nor
+to take it by storm; but to reduce it by starvation. At length his
+feelings overpowered this resolution, and he received the town upon
+conditions, on the 19th January 1419.[177] Thus was Rouen subdued to
+the Crown of England, two hundred and fifteen years after the conquest
+of it by Philip of France in the reign of King John. Stowe tells us,
+that to relieve this oppressed city Henry ordained it to be the chief
+chamber of all Normandy; and directed his exchequer, his treasury, and
+his coinage to be kept there. We have already seen that he caused his
+vast treasures before kept in Harfleur to be brought to Rouen.
+
+                   [Footnote 174: In a very long minute of the Privy
+                   Council, the reasons assigned by Henry for wishing
+                   to negociate an alliance with the Dauphin are given
+                   at length; and ambassadors were appointed to treat
+                   with that prince on the 26th of October
+                   1418.--Foed. ix. p. 626.]
+
+                   [Footnote 175: The Author, assisted by his friends,
+                   has made diligent inquiry, both in England and on
+                   the Continent, for a portrait of Katharine, with a
+                   copy of which he was desirous of enriching this
+                   volume; but his inquiries have ended in an
+                   assurance that no portrait of her is in existence.]
+
+                   [Footnote 176: Large cargoes of provisions of every
+                   kind were forwarded from England; among others,
+                   "stock fish and salmon" are enumerated in the Pell
+                   Rolls, 3rd July 1419.]
+
+                   [Footnote 177: Monstrelet says, that when Henry
+                   made his entry into Rouen, he was followed by a
+                   page mounted on a black horse, bearing a lance, at
+                   the end of which near the point was fastened a
+                   fox's brush by way of streamer, which afforded
+                   great matter of remark. Elmham and Stowe give the
+                   explanation of this. In 1414, he kept his Lent in
+                   the castle of Kenilworth, and caused an arbour to
+                   be planted there in the marsh for his pleasure,
+                   among the thorns and bushes, where a fox before had
+                   harboured; which fox he killed, being a thing then
+                   thought to prognosticate that he should expel the
+                   crafty deceit of the French King.--See Ellis,
+                   Original Letters.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It is confessedly beyond the province of these Memoirs even to glance
+at the affairs of Ireland, except so far as a reference to them may
+bear upon the character and conduct of Henry of Monmouth. Not only,
+however, does the presence of a body of native Irish, headed by    (p. 231)
+one of the regular clergy of Ireland, aiding Henry at the siege of
+Rouen, seem to draw our thoughts thitherward; but some documents also,
+relative to our sister-land, of that date, may be thought to require a
+few words in this place. During the reign of Richard II. the warlike
+movements of the native Irish, who had never been conquered or
+civilized, compelled that monarch to proceed to Ireland in person, and
+to take the field against those wild rebels. They had formerly been
+kept in comparative awe by a strong hand; but the continental wars of
+Edward III. had much slackened the wonted vigilance and activity of
+his government at home in checking their outbreakings against the
+English settlers. They had, consequently, grown bold, and threatened
+to extirpate the English altogether. Vigorous measures became
+necessary, and the King twice headed an army himself to restore peace.
+On his first visit he was summoned home by the prelates, to put down
+the spreading sect of the Lollards; in his second, his delay, after
+the landing of Bolinbroke at Ravenspurg, cost him his crown. In this
+latter expedition Henry of Monmouth (as we have seen) accompanied him,
+and had personal experience of the uncivilized state of the country,
+and the savage character of the warfare carried on by the inhabitants.
+It is curious to remark, that on several occasions Richard II.
+employed the Irish prelates as his ambassadors to Rome, "for the safe
+estate and prosperity of the most holy English church." The fact,  (p. 232)
+however, is too evident, that all Irish dignities were bestowed
+on Englishmen; and except by some assumed privilege of the Pope, or by
+other proceedings equally unacceptable to the English settlers, no
+native Irishman was ever in those times advanced to any high station
+in the church, or even promoted to an ordinary benefice. Indeed the
+law forbade such promotions.
+
+On the principle observed throughout these Memoirs, of avoiding all
+reference to the political struggles and controversies of the passing
+hour, the Author will make no reflections on the past, the present, or
+the future policy of England towards a country whose destinies seem so
+indissolubly bound up with her own. He humbly prays that HE, who says
+to the tempest "Peace, be still!" and is obeyed, may so guide and
+govern the religious and moral storms by which our age is shaken on
+the subject of Ireland, that in His own good time the troubled
+elements may be calmed; and that truth, peace, and charity may
+prevail, and bless both countries, then at length become like "a city
+that is at unity in itself."
+
+By most of those who take a wide and comprehensive range of its
+history, the dissensions which have distracted Ireland, and from time
+to time torn it in pieces, and caused it to flow with the blood of its
+neighbours and of its own children, will probably be ascribed, not
+more to the difference of religion among its inhabitants, than     (p. 233)
+to the difference of origin. The struggles have been, not more
+between Protestants and Romanists, not more between Catholics of the
+church of England and Ireland, and Catholics in communion with the
+sovereign pontiff, than between English and Irish, between those who
+have regarded themselves as the aboriginal sons of the soil, and those
+of Saxon or Norman descent, whom they have hated and abhorred as
+intruders and invaders. The conflicts between these classes in
+Ireland, as they may be traced in its chronicles, were just as
+dreadful and as sanguinary before the Reformation, as ever they have
+been since the separation of the reformed church from the see of Rome.
+At all events, whatever may be the nature of the unhappy causes of
+disunion in the present day, till within comparatively modern times
+the struggles have been not more of a religious than of a national, or
+perhaps of a predial, character. Authentic history teems with evidence
+bearing directly on this point; and even the original documents,
+references to which are interspersed through this volume, are quite
+sufficient to establish it.
+
+Among other documents confirmatory of the view here taken, which it
+would be beyond the province of these Memoirs to recite, the statute
+of 4 Hen. V. (1416), referring as it does to similar enactments of
+previous reigns, and strongly expressive of the bitter jealousies
+which existed between the two nations, seems to claim a place here.
+
+     "Whereas it was ordained in the times of the progenitors      (p. 234)
+     of our Lord the King, by statute made in the land of Ireland,
+     that no one of the Irish nation be elected archbishop, bishop,
+     abbot, prior, nor in any manner be received or accepted to any
+     dignity or benefice within the said land; and whereas many such
+     Irish, by the power of certain letters of licence to them made by
+     the Lieutenants of the King there to accept and receive such
+     dignities and benefices, are promoted and advanced to
+     archbishoprics and bishoprics within the said land, who also have
+     made their collations to Irish clerks of dignities and benefices
+     there, contrary to the form and effect of the said statute; and
+     consequently, since they are peers of parliament in that land,
+     they bring with them to the parliaments and councils held in that
+     land servants by whom the secrets of the English in that land
+     have been and are from day to day discovered to the Irish people
+     who are rebels against the King, to the great peril and mischief
+     of the King's loyal subjects in that land: our said Lord the
+     King, willing to provide remedy for his faithful subjects, with
+     the consent of the Lords, and at the request of the Commons,
+     wills and grants that the said statute shall be in full force,
+     and be well and duly guarded, and fully executed, on pain of his
+     grievous indignation."
+
+The statute then provides, that if any bishops act against this law,
+their temporalities shall be seized for the King till they have given
+satisfaction; that the Lieutenants shall be prohibited from granting
+such licences to Irishmen; and that all such licences, if made, shall
+be null and void.
+
+Perhaps, however, the words of the petition to the Commons, on which
+this enactment was founded, are still more striking and convincing on
+the subject.
+
+     "To the honourable and wise Sires, the Commons of this        (p. 235)
+     present Parliament, the poor loyal liegemen of our Sovereign Lord
+     the King in Ireland. Whereas the said land is divided between two
+     nations, that is to say, the said petitioners, English and of the
+     English nation, and the Irish nation, those enemies to our Lord
+     the King, who by crafty designs secretly, and by open destruction
+     making war, are continually purposed to destroy the said lieges,
+     and to conquer the land, the petitioners pray that remedy thereof
+     be made."[178]
+
+                   [Footnote 178: See Sir H. Ellis, Orig. Let. xix.]
+
+When Henry of Monmouth succeeded to the throne, Ireland was as
+wild[179] in its country, and as rude in its inhabitants, as it was in
+the reign of Henry II. The English pale (as it has been correctly
+said) was little more than a garrison of territory; and it was
+absolutely necessary either for the English inhabitants to leave their
+possessions and abandon Ireland altogether, or for the English
+government to keep the aboriginal Irish in check with a strong hand,
+and compel them by military force to abstain from outrage. What would
+have been at the present day the state of Ireland, had Henry directed
+his concentrated energies to subdue the island, and then to        (p. 236)
+civilize and improve it, (measures by no means improbable had not the
+conquest of France occupied him instead,) it would be profitless to
+speculate. Even with his thoughts distracted by his foreign
+expeditions, or rather, perhaps, almost absorbed by them, and whilst
+he had but a very scanty contingent of officers and men at his
+disposal for home-service, we have evidence that Ireland had not been
+in so peaceable a condition for very many years as it had become under
+his government. Whilst pursuing his victories on the Continent, he
+laboured (and his labours were in an astonishing degree successful) to
+provide for the effective administration of his own dominions with a
+view to peace and justice.
+
+                   [Footnote 179: Moryson, in his Travels, book iv. c.
+                   3, gives a most extraordinary and disgusting
+                   account of the habits of the Irish. The story of a
+                   Bohemian Baron, who visited Morane, one of the
+                   native princes, represents the Irish from the
+                   highest to the lowest to have continued in the most
+                   degraded state of barbarism. In their food, their
+                   dwellings, their clothing, (those who had any to
+                   wear,) and their general habits, if the accounts in
+                   Moryson are not exaggerated, the Irish were not
+                   removed many degrees from the wildest savages on
+                   earth.]
+
+A memorial forwarded this year to Henry, probably in consequence of
+certain complaints of maladministration which had been sent to the
+council the preceding winter, is very interesting. It is signed by a
+large number of persons, lay and ecclesiastical: bishops, abbots,
+priors, archdeacons, barons, knights, and esquires joined in the
+petition.[180] The prayer of the memorial was professedly to procure a
+fuller remuneration to the then Lord Lieutenant,[181] John Talbot,
+Lord Furnival, for his indefatigable and successful exertions      (p. 237)
+in subduing "the English rebels and the Irish enemies;" it was,
+however, evidently intended to obtain a still greater share of the
+King's attention, and of the public expenditure in that island. The
+memorial commences by expressions of loyalty to Henry's person, the
+petitioners desiring above all earthly things to hear and to know of
+the gracious prosperity and noble health of his renowned person, to
+the principal comfort of all his subjects, but "especially of us who
+are continuing in a land of war, environed by your Irish enemies and
+English rebels, in point to be destroyed, if it were not that the
+sovereign aid and comfort of God, and of you our gracious Lord, do
+deliver us." It then states that they had prevailed upon the
+Lieutenant[182] not to persevere in his intention to leave Ireland for
+the purpose of applying to Henry in person for payment and relief, (p. 238)
+expressing their great alarm should his presence be withdrawn from
+them. The memorialists then dwell at great length upon the vast
+labours, travails, and endeavours of Lord Furnival for the good of all
+Henry's lieges; but those labours were only military proceedings:
+every sentence of the memorial breathes of war, and slaughter, and
+destruction. One of the chief topics in his praise is that he remained
+many days and nights ("the which was not done before in our time") in
+the lands of various of the strongest Irish enemies (specifying them
+by name), taking their chief places and goods, burning, foraging, and
+destroying all the country, and in many places causing the Irish
+rebels to turn their weapons against each other. The document then
+shows the precarious tenure of goods and of life among the English at
+that time in Ireland; how they were "preyed upon and killed," and what
+a wonderful change had just been effected by the vigorous measures of
+Lord Furnival. "Now your lieges may suffer their goods and cattle to
+remain in the fields day and night, without being stolen or sustaining
+any loss, _which hath not been seen here by the space of these thirty
+years past_, God be thanked, and your gracious provision!" It also
+states that Maurice O'Keating, chieftain of his nation, traitor and
+rebel, did on the Monday in Whitsun-week, (_i.e._ May 31st, not a
+month before the date of the memorial,) "for the great fear which he
+had of the Lieutenant, for himself and his nation, yield himself   (p. 239)
+without any condition, with his breast against his sword's point, and
+a cord about his neck, delivering without ransom the English prisoners
+which he had taken before; to whom grace was granted by indenture, and
+his eldest son given in pledge to be loyal lieges from henceforward to
+you our sovereign Lord." This memorial, dated June 26th, "in the fifth
+year of your gracious reign," 1417, must have reached Henry on the
+very eve of his setting out on his second expedition to Normandy.
+
+                   [Footnote 180: It is remarkable, that among the
+                   many names affixed to this memorial, not one
+                   savours of Irish extraction. They all betray their
+                   Saxon or (some) their Norman origin.]
+
+                   [Footnote 181: This John Talbot, called by courtesy
+                   Lord Talbot by right of his wife, was appointed
+                   Lieutenant in Ireland in the first year of Henry's
+                   reign. He had been employed in the wars of Wales,
+                   and was the person against whom the Mayor of
+                   Shrewsbury shut the gates. He was conspicuous also
+                   as a warrior in the reign of Henry IV.]
+
+                   [Footnote 182: Lord Furnival had petitioned in the
+                   spring of the preceding year, 1416, for the payment
+                   of one thousand marks disallowed by the then late
+                   treasurer, the Earl of Arundel. Henry, who presided
+                   himself in council, gave his decision that the
+                   question should be submitted to the Barons of the
+                   Exchequer, who, after examining the indenture made
+                   between the King and the said lord, should ordain
+                   what the justice of the case required.
+
+                   The Lieutenant had also applied for a reinforcement
+                   of men-at-arms and archers, and for a supply of
+                   cannon. The King allows him to make such provision
+                   with regard to additional soldiers as he thinks
+                   best _at his own cost_, and agrees to let him have
+                   some cannon from the royal stores.--Acts of Privy
+                   Council, 1416.]
+
+The complaints, to answer which, among other objects, we have already
+intimated an opinion that this memorial might possibly have been
+partly prepared, were taken into consideration on the 28th of the
+preceding February by the King himself in council, and are by no means
+devoid of interest, though only a cursory allusion to them can be made
+here. Among the grievances are certain "impositions outrageously
+imposed upon them;" the seizure of the wheat and cattle belonging to
+churchmen by the officers and soldiers of the Lieutenant, contrary to
+the liberties of Holy Church; and the non-execution and non-observance
+of the laws in consequence of the insufficiency of the officers. To
+these complaints the King replies that, at the expiration of Lord
+Furnival's lieutenancy, he would provide a remedy by the appointment
+of good and sufficient officers. The terms of indenture, by which the
+King and Lieutenant were then usually bound, probably presented    (p. 240)
+an obstacle to any immediate interference.
+
+But the most interesting point in these complaints is the prayer with
+which they close. It proves that, in the view of the complainants,
+(and probably theirs was the general opinion,) absenteeism was then
+very prevalent, and was held to be one of the greatest evils under
+which Ireland was at that time suffering; it informs us also that
+Irishmen born (that is, however, men of English extraction born in
+Ireland,) were advanced to benefices in England; and it shows that
+many such natives of Ireland were in the habit of coming to England
+for the purposes of studying the law, and of residing in the
+Universities. The complainants "require that through the realm of
+England proclamation be made that all persons born in Ireland, being
+in England, except persons of the church beneficed, and students and
+others engaged in the departments of the law, and scholars studying in
+the Universities, betake themselves to the parts of Ireland, for
+defence of the same.
+
+To this petition the King only replies, that "he grants it according
+to the form of the statute made in that case."
+
+The statute to which Henry here refers was made in the first year of
+his reign. It bears incidental testimony to his mild and merciful
+disposition, as compared with the feelings and views of his
+contemporaries; and shows that in legislation he took the lead     (p. 241)
+of his parliament in preferring mild and moderate to violent and
+sanguinary measures.
+
+The Commons pray that the penalty of absenteeism after the
+proclamation should be loss of life or limb, and forfeiture of goods;
+the King consents only to imprisonment, instead of death and
+mutilation. "The Commons," (such are the words of the record,) "for
+the quiet and peace of the realm of England, and for the increase and
+welfare of the land of Ireland, pray that it may be ordained in the
+present parliament, that all Irishmen, and all Irish begging clerks,
+called Chaumber Deakyns [chamberdeacons], be voided the realm between
+Michaelmas and All Saints, on pain of loss of life and limb; except
+such as are graduates in the schools, and serjeants and students of
+law, and such as have inheritance in England, and 'professed
+religious;' and that all the Irish who have benefices and office in
+Ireland live on their benefices and offices, on pain of losing the
+profits of their benefices and offices,--for the protection of the
+land of Ireland." The King grants the prayer, but modifies the
+severity of the penalty proposed by the Commons, limiting the
+punishment to the loss of goods, and imprisonment during the royal
+pleasure; and excepting merchants born in Ireland of good fame, and
+their apprentices, now being in England, and those to whom the King
+may grant a dispensation.
+
+It was in the year following these proceedings that Henry received
+succours from Ireland, just before he laid siege to Rouen. The     (p. 242)
+Pell Rolls state that they were two hundred horse and three hundred
+foot, under the command of the Prior of Kilmaynham,[183] transported
+by Bristol vessels from Waterford to France. Others, doubtless, might
+have joined him also from the same quarter; but it seems very probable
+that Hall, or those whom he followed, exaggerated this statement, and
+substituted the Lord of Kylmaine for the Prior of Kilmaynham, when
+they tell us "that a band of one thousand six hundred native Irish,
+armed with their own weapons of war, in mail, with darts and skaynes,
+under the Lord of Kylmaine, were with Henry V. at the siege of Rouen,
+and kept the way from the forest of Lyons; and so did their devoir
+that none were more praised, nor did more damage to their enemies."
+Still the account given of these wild Irish, by Monstrelet, would seem
+to countenance the idea of a much greater number than were transported
+over with the warlike Prior. "The King of England" (says that author)
+"had with him in his company a vast number of Irish, of whom far the
+greatest part went on foot. One of their feet was covered, the other
+was naked, without having clouts, and poorly clad. Each had a target
+and little javelins, with large knives of a strange fashion. And   (p. 243)
+those who were mounted had no saddles, but they rode very adroitly
+on their little mountain horses: and they rode upon cloths, very
+nearly of the same fashion with those which the Blatiers of the French
+country carry. They were, however, a very poor and slight defence,
+compared with the English: besides, they were not so accoutred as to
+do much damage to the French when they met. These Irish would often,
+during the siege, together with the English, scour the country of
+Normandy, and do infinite mischief, beyond calculation; carrying back
+to their host great booty. Moreover, the said Irish on foot would
+seize little children, and leap on the backs of cows with them,
+carrying the children before them on the cows, and very often they
+were found in that condition by the French."[184]
+
+                   [Footnote 183: This Prior seems to have been Thomas
+                   Botiller, the brother of the Earl of Ormond. He is
+                   said to have died during the siege. He and his men
+                   are reported to have been sent over by Lord
+                   Furnival, the Lord Lieutenant. See Excerpta
+                   Historica above referred to.]
+
+                   [Footnote 184: Mons. vol. i. c. 95.]
+
+The only other document relating to Ireland at this time, which it is
+purposed to transfer into these pages, is chiefly interesting as
+affording one of the many instances upon record of the personal
+attention which Henry paid to the business necessary to be transacted
+at home, whilst he was engaged in battles and sieges and victories
+abroad. It is a petition, (in itself also of some importance in regard
+to Irish history,) from Donald Macmurough, (Macmore or Macmurcoo,)
+addressed to "the most high and excellent redoubted Lord the King of
+England," and is dated July 24, 1421.
+
+     "Most humbly supplicates, Donaal Macmurcoo, a prisoner in     (p. 244)
+     your Tower of London, that as above all things in the world,
+     (most gracious Lord,) with entire intent of his heart, he desires
+     to be your liege man, and to behave towards you from this day
+     forward in good faith, as is his right; and to do that loyally he
+     offers to be bound by the faith of his body [his corporal oath],
+     and all the sacraments of Holy Church, in any manner which you
+     please graciously to ordain and appoint; and all his friends who
+     are at his will, under his subjection, or at his command under
+     his lordships, will promise the same by word of mouth. And for
+     greater security for the time to come, as well to your most noble
+     and sovereign Lordship as to your heirs and the crown of England,
+     during his life loyally to hold and accomplish the same, he
+     offers you his son and heir in pledge. May it please your most
+     high and gracious excellence, according to his promises
+     aforesaid, graciously to receive and accept him to your most
+     noble and abundant grace, for God's sake and in a work of
+     charity."
+
+     The petition is in French.--The answer in English is this: "Ye
+     King will that he come before his counsel, and find surety as it
+     may be found reasonable."
+
+     "For Macmourgh.--Offer to be sworn to the King, and to give
+     hostage thereupon."
+
+The order of the council consequent upon this, in Latin, refers the
+matter to the Lieutenant and council in Ireland.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Henry at this time appears to have had considerable intercourse with
+the see of Rome. In a letter written to his resident ambassador in
+that city, John Keterich, Bishop of Lichfield, he requires, in very
+humble language, that his Holiness would not invade the rights of the
+crown of England as settled by a concordat between Edward III.     (p. 245)
+and Gregory XI; that he would provide for the admission of Englishmen
+only into the priories in England which the Conqueror had annexed to
+Norman abbeys; and that he would send strict injunctions to the
+bishops of Ireland that the people should be taught the English
+tongue, and that none should be capable of any ecclesiastical
+preferment who should be ignorant of it, since the best and greatest
+part of that nation understood it, and experience had shown what
+disorders and confusions arose from a diversity of languages.
+
+It is impossible to read the documents of this time without being
+struck by the evidence as well of the thraldom under which the Pope
+held the sovereigns and people of Christendom, as of the spirit of
+piety which habitually influenced Henry.
+
+His confessor had died, and he had applied to the Archbishop of
+Canterbury to select another for him. That primate's answer is full of
+interest. The Archbishop gives the King all the authority which he
+himself possessed; and yet Henry is obliged to seek permission at the
+court of Rome to have a confessor of his own, and to celebrate divine
+service at convenient times and in convenient places. He had sent for
+a chapel, with altars, vestments, and ministers, from England; and the
+warrant is in existence to press carriages and horses to carry them to
+the sea, to be transported to him in Normandy. This instrument is
+dated February 5th, 1418, and it should seem that all these        (p. 246)
+preparations were insufficient till he could obtain the Pope's licence
+and dispensation in the following August.[185]
+
+                   [Footnote 185: Archbishop Chicheley's letter to
+                   Henry is preserved among the manuscripts of the
+                   British Museum. MS. Cotton, Vesp. F. xiii. fol.
+                   29.]
+
+The Pope then gives Henry permission to have a confessor of his own
+choice, who should once a year during his life, and once also at the
+hour of death, give him full pardon for all the sins of which he
+repented from the heart, and which he confessed with the mouth;
+provided that the confessor take care to have satisfaction given to
+those to whom it is due. The Pope adds an earnest hope that this
+indulgence would not tempt Henry to commit unlawful acts at all more
+freely than before.[186]
+
+                   [Footnote 186: Gebennis, xv. kal. Sept. Pontif.
+                   nost. ann. I. (August 18, 1418.) Rymer.]
+
+By another act of grace, dated only ten days after the former, King
+Henry is permitted to have one or more portable altars, and to have
+mass at uncanonical times, and even in prohibited places, provided he
+were not himself the cause of the interdict. This grant has also some
+curious stipulations annexed: among others it is directed that the
+doors shall be shut at such masses, the excommunicated excluded, the
+service being conducted without sound of bell and with a low voice.
+Especially is it enjoined that liberty to have mass before day     (p. 247)
+should be used very sparingly, because since our Lord Jesus Christ,
+the Son of God, is offered as a sacrifice on that altar,--and he is
+the brightness of eternal light,--it is right for that to be done, not
+in the darkness of night, but in the light of day.
+
+Henry remained for some time at Rouen, and wore the ducal robes as
+Duke of Normandy. A conspiracy to surrender the town to the French
+King was defeated by the honourable conduct of De Bouteiller, who, on
+being requested to join the conspirators, on the contrary discovered
+their designs to Henry.
+
+Early in the year 1419, the Duke of Brittany, distrusting the power of
+France to defend him, were the English to turn their arms against his
+territory, sought and obtained an alliance with Henry; of whose just
+and honourable principles he had experienced practical proofs.
+
+At this time the Spaniards added much to Henry's difficulties. Having
+engaged to succour the Dauphin, they are said to have sent ships to
+Scotland for men, part of whom they probably landed at Rochelle.
+Henry's forces, however, were victorious in the south, no less than in
+the north.
+
+Still, though victorious and feared on every side, Henry found that
+war and disease had so reduced his army as to compel him to apply to
+his subjects at home for reinforcement. The reasons sent from      (p. 248)
+Norfolk, which are probably only specimens of the returns from other
+counties, would lead us to infer that most of his subjects, who were
+both willing and able to join his standard, had already been drained
+off. The Bishop of Norwich, and others, return that "the stoutest and
+strongest of their countrymen were already in the army, and others
+pleaded poverty and infirmities." Robert Waterton, to whom the King
+had made an especial appeal, assured him that at the approaching
+assizes at York he would urge the gentlemen of those parts to tender
+their services. There seems also to have been a growing disinclination
+or disability among the clergy to provide a supply of money; probably
+both their means and their zeal for the cause had diminished. In the
+diocese of York they complained loudly of the impoverished state of
+the church, but at last voted one-half of a tenth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.                                                      (p. 249)
+
+BAD FAITH OF THE DAUPHIN. -- THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY BRINGS ABOUT AN
+INTERVIEW BETWEEN HENRY AND THE FRENCH AUTHORITIES. -- HENRY'S FIRST
+INTERVIEW WITH THE PRINCESS KATHARINE OF VALOIS. -- HER CONQUEST. --
+THE QUEEN'S OVER-ANXIETY AND INDISCRETION. -- DOUBLE-DEALING OF THE
+DUKE OF BURGUNDY; HE JOINS THE DAUPHIN; IS MURDERED ON THE BRIDGE OF
+MONTEREAU. -- THE DAUPHIN DISINHERITED. -- HENRY'S ANXIETY TO PREVENT
+THE ESCAPE OF HIS PRISONERS.
+
+1419-1420.
+
+
+About the month of March in the year 1419, the Dauphin proposed to
+meet Henry with a view to the formation of an alliance, to which Henry
+was at this time by no means averse. The Dauphin, however, acted with
+very bad faith on the occasion; and, by neglecting to come according
+to his solemn engagement,[187] gave unintentionally another opening to
+the Duke of Burgundy to advocate a treaty between France and England.
+So utterly, indeed, had the Dauphin thrown aside all thoughts of an
+interview with Henry, on which he had appeared very anxiously      (p. 250)
+bent, that he even made a vigorous attack on the English ambassadors
+and their escort when on their road to the King of France.
+
+                   [Footnote 187: A letter from T.F., dated Evreux,
+                   (March 27th, 1419,) addressed to his friends in
+                   England, tells us that "the Dauphin made great
+                   instance sundry times to have personal speech with
+                   the King, for the good of peace between both
+                   realms;" and, on obtaining the King's consent, "he
+                   fixed on the third Sunday in Lent (March 19th), at
+                   his own desire and instance, making surety by his
+                   oath and his letters sealed to keep that day. The
+                   foresaid Rule Regent hath broke the surety
+                   aforesaid, and made the King a Beau Nient [made a
+                   fool of him]; so that there may be no hope had yet
+                   of peace.... And so now men suppose that the King
+                   will henceforth war on France; for Normandy is all
+                   his, except Gysors, Euere, the Castle Gaylard, and
+                   the Roche."
+
+                   This writer gives us to understand that he and his
+                   friends were heartily tired of the Continental
+                   warfare, which had so long kept them from the
+                   comforts of their home, and they longed to revisit
+                   the white cliffs of Britain. "Pray for us, that we
+                   may come soon out of this unlusty [unpleasant]
+                   soldier's life, unto the life of England."--MS.
+                   Donat. 4001. Sir H. Ellis assigns this to the year
+                   1420; but it must have been written March 27th (the
+                   Monday before Passion Sunday), 1419, just eight
+                   days after the Dauphin had broken his word.
+
+                   The same writer speaks in no very measured terms of
+                   the intrigue and duplicity of foreign courts. "And
+                   certes, all the ambassadors that we deal with are
+                   incongrue, that is to say, in old manner of speech
+                   in England, 'they be double and false;' with which
+                   manner of men, I pray God, let never no true men be
+                   coupled with."
+
+                   The reasons which had induced Henry some time
+                   previously to wish for an alliance with the Dauphin
+                   are found in the Cot. MS.--See "Acts of Privy
+                   Council," vol. ii. p. 350.]
+
+The Duke of Burgundy, taking advantage of this juncture, succeeded,
+not only in persuading the two Kings to interchange ambassadors, but
+in effecting a personal conference between the royal parties.      (p. 251)
+Henry agreed to come to Mante, on condition that Charles and the Duke
+of Burgundy would come to Ponthoise. A large field on the banks of the
+Seine, near to the gate of Melun, was selected for the meeting. The
+preparations for the interview are described with great minuteness by
+historians. A pavilion at an equal distance from the tents of both
+nations was erected by the Queen of France, and presented to Henry;
+adjoining to it were two withdrawing apartments. The King of France
+was detained by indisposition at Ponthoise on the day appointed, May
+30, 1419; but the Queen, the Princess, the Duke of Burgundy, and the
+Count de St. Pol, on the one side, with their council and guards, and,
+on the other, Henry, his two brothers, Clarence and Gloucester, his
+two uncles, the Duke of Exeter and the Bishop of Winchester, the Earls
+of March and Salisbury, with his council and his guard, met in this
+"fair and wide mead of Melun." The Queen's tent was "a fair pavilion
+of blue velvet richly embroidered with flower-de-luces; and on the top
+was the figure of a flying hart, in silver, with wings enamelled."
+Henry's tent was of blue and green velvet, with the figures of two
+antelopes embroidered; one drawing in a mill, the other seated on high
+with a branch of olive in his mouth, with this motto wrought in
+several places, "After busy labour, comes victorious rest." A great
+eagle of gold, with eyes of diamond, was placed above. At three    (p. 252)
+in the afternoon the royal parties, having entered within the
+barriers, approached each other, the Queen led by the Duke of
+Burgundy, the Princess by the Count de St. Pol. Henry with a solemn
+bow took the Queen by the hand and saluted her, and afterwards the
+Princess; as did also his brothers, bending one knee almost to the
+ground. The Duke of Burgundy paid his respects to Henry, and was
+honourably received by him. Henry led the Queen into the pavilion,
+taking the upper hand of her after a long dispute about this ceremony;
+and having placed her in one chair of state, of cloth of gold, himself
+occupied the other. Nothing further than ceremony was the apparent
+object of that day's conference, though the fate of Henry perhaps
+turned upon it. The Earl of Warwick, "the father of courtesy,"
+addressed the Queen, and the parties separated,--the Queen's for
+Ponthoise, Henry's for Mante; having first engaged to meet each other
+again on the following Thursday. These conferences were carried on at
+intervals till June 30th, without any satisfactory progress being made
+towards peace; on that day they agreed to meet on the 3rd July, and
+Henry kept his engagement, but the French disappointed him; and then,
+convinced of their insincerity, and the total absence of all real
+intentions on their part to bring the proceedings to a favourable
+issue, he dissolved the conference, complaining loudly of the unfair
+dealings of his enemies. He was chiefly, however, angry with the Duke
+of Burgundy, to whom he ascribed all the blame; and who is said    (p. 253)
+to have been guilty of such double-dealing as to have had frequent
+interviews with the Dauphin in the neighbourhood of Paris, even during
+the conference.
+
+A circumstance connected with this meeting is too closely interwoven
+with Henry's character, and conduct, and destiny, to be passed over in
+silence. In preparing for the interview, the Queen had shown much
+courteous attention to secure Henry's gratification; and she looked
+forward to it as the hour of her daughter Katharine's[188] conquest
+over his heart. That Princess was a lovely young person, and in the
+very prime and bloom of her beauty; and her mother had flattered
+herself that her charms would prevail over the young conqueror more
+than the arms or the statesmen of France. Nor had the designing lady
+altogether miscalculated the power of her daughter's charms, or the
+extent of Henry's susceptibility. His heart was touched at the first
+sight of Katharine, and the practised eyes of her mother saw that the
+victory was won. Her daughter (she observed) had overcome a prince who
+appeared till then invincible. But the wily Queen outwitted        (p. 254)
+herself; and, for the present, by her own act disengaged the toils in
+which Henry had been unquestionably taken. With a view of inflaming
+his love for her daughter the more by her absence, and of compelling
+him to comply with any conditions of a treaty, one of which would be
+Katharine's hand and heart, she would not suffer the Princess to be
+present at any of the following interviews: the first sight of so much
+beauty had so triumphant an effect, that she would not permit a
+second. But her scheme, however finely drawn, was observed by Henry;
+and, indignant at the artifice, he became more inflexible than ever,
+and insisted more firmly than before on his first proposals; assuring
+the Duke of Burgundy that he was resolved to have the Princess with
+all his other demands, or force the King of France from his throne,
+and drive the Duke from the kingdom.
+
+                   [Footnote 188: Katharine of Valois, the youngest
+                   child of Charles VI. of France, (he had twelve
+                   children,) was born on the 27th of October 1401;
+                   just two months subsequently to her elder sister
+                   Isabel's return from England after the death of her
+                   husband, the unfortunate King Richard.
+                   Consequently, at the date of this interview, May
+                   30th, 1419, she was only in her eighteenth year;
+                   Henry himself was in his thirty-second year.]
+
+The unsuccessful issue of this famous conference was undoubtedly owing
+in some measure to the Duke of Burgundy, who was for a long time
+balancing in his mind the policy of joining Henry or the Dauphin.
+Henry openly charged the Duke with dishonourable conduct; and then the
+Duke, in a conference at Melun,[189] on Tuesday, July 11th, 1419, made
+a solemn league, offensive and defensive, with the Dauphin. They   (p. 255)
+engaged to join in the administration of the government without
+jealousy and envy; and after mutual acts of courtesy, and ratifying
+the covenant of peace by solemn oaths, they parted, professedly sworn
+friends, but having war against each other in their hearts.
+
+                   [Footnote 189: This treaty is recorded in Rymer,
+                   vol. ix. p. 776. The circumstances of outward
+                   courtesy, and concealed suspicion, and want of
+                   faith, with which the contracting parties met,
+                   deliberated, and separated on this occasion, are
+                   detailed by Goodwin, p. 237.]
+
+Henry, after the respite of these abortive negociations, again entered
+upon his career of war and conquest. The next fortified town was
+Ponthoise, possession of which would open his way to Paris. His
+soldiers were in the highest spirits; and he seems himself, so far
+from being dismayed by the union of the Duke of Burgundy with the
+French court, to have been roused by a sense of his difficulties and
+dangers to a still higher spirit of valour and enterprise. Ponthoise
+was taken by surprise, and Henry regarded it as the most important
+place he had taken during the war. How resolved soever he was to be
+master of it, he would not make the attempt till after the expiration
+of the truce with the Duke of Burgundy, "so punctual was he to the
+observance of his faith and honour, which in brave princes are
+inviolable." And, to use the words of Goodwin, "his soul was so little
+altered from its natural moderation by this success, that he sent to
+the King of France to tell him, that though he had taken so
+considerable a town, which, being only a few leagues from Paris,
+opened a way to the conquest of that capital, yet he now offered him
+peace upon the same terms which he had propounded in the treaty    (p. 256)
+of Melun; with this only addition, that Ponthoise also should now be
+confirmed to him."
+
+The Dauphin's troops diminished the joy of this victory by taking one
+or two places by surprise. Still all Paris was in great consternation,
+and the panic ran through the Isle of France; whilst Clarence marched
+his troops to the very walls of the metropolis. Shortly after the fall
+of Ponthoise Henry despatched letters to the citizens of London; which
+were intercepted by the enemy, who took the bearer of them prisoner.
+He consequently sent another despatch to the same purport, from Trie
+Le Chastel, near Gisors, on the 12th of the next month. The importance
+he attached to this communication, his repetition of the intercepted
+letters clearly intimates: it is chiefly interesting now because it
+assures us that Henry believed himself to be almost within reach of
+the objects of his enterprise; whilst it acquaints us also with the
+fact, that he had applied for aid to all his friends through
+Christendom. The letter, it is believed, has never yet been published.
+
+     "BY THE KING.
+
+     "Trusty and well beloved, we greet you well; and we thank you
+     with all our heart of the good-will and service that we have
+     always found in you hither-to-ward; and specially of your kind
+     and notable proffer of an aid, the which ye have granted to us of
+     your own good motion, as our brother of Bedford and our
+     Chancellor of England have written unto us, giving therein    (p. 257)
+     good example in diverse wise to all the remanent of our subjects
+     in our land. And so we pray you, as our trust is ye will, for to
+     continue. And as to the said aid, the which ye have concluded to
+     do unto us now at this time, we pray you specially that we may
+     have [it] at such time and in such days as our brother of Bedford
+     shall more plainly declare unto you on our behalf; letting you
+     fully wit [giving you fully to understand] that we have written to
+     all our friends and allies through Christendom, for to have
+     succours and help of them against the same time that our said
+     brother shall declare you: the which, when they hear of the arming
+     and the array that ye and other of our subjects make at home in
+     help of us, shall give them great courage to haste their coming
+     unto us much the rather, and not fail, as we trust fully.
+     Wherefore we pray you heartily that ye would do, touching the
+     foresaid aid, as our said brother shall declare unto you on our
+     behalf: considering that [neither] so necessary ne [nor] so
+     acceptable a service as ye may do, and will do (as we trust into
+     you at this time), ye might never have done into us since our wars
+     in France began. For we trust fully to God's might and his mercy,
+     with good help of your aid and of our land, to have a good end of
+     our said war in short time, and for to come home unto you to great
+     comfort and singular joy of our heart, as God knoweth: the which
+     He grant us to his pleasance, and have you ever in his keeping!
+     Given under our signet in our town of Pontoise, the 17th day of
+     August.
+
+     "And weteth [know], that, the foresaid 17th day of August,
+     departed from us at Pontoise our letters to you direct in the
+     same tenour; and because it is said the bearer of them is by our
+     enemies taken into Crotey, we renouelle [renew] them here at Trye
+     the Castle, the 12th day of September."
+
+     "To the Mayor and Citizens of London."
+
+Henry's arms were victorious through this autumn, town after       (p. 258)
+town, and fortress after fortress, yielding to him; when an event took
+place which had a most decided and immediate influence on his affairs
+and those of France.[190] The Dauphin solicited another interview with
+the Duke of Burgundy, who was cautioned by some of his friends against
+trusting his person again to that prince's power; whilst others
+deprecated the appearance in the Duke of any suspicion of the
+Dauphin's faith and honour. The Duke proceeded to Montereau; where, on
+the bridge which led to the town, a room of wood-work was prepared for
+the conference; and at the end, towards the town, were successive
+barriers. These excited suspicion; still the Duke quitted the town,
+and entered into the place appointed. There he met the Dauphin, who
+was surrounded by assassins ready to despatch his enemy at a
+word.[191] Never was a more base and foul murder committed than that
+by which the Duke of Burgundy was butchered on the bridge of       (p. 259)
+Montereau. His own guilt is no justification of his murderers; and it
+is an unsafe interpretation of the inscrutable acts of Providence to
+regard his death "as the requital of divine justice."[192] He had
+caused the Duke of Orleans to be assassinated in the streets of Paris,
+and he now falls himself by the murderous hands of assassins. He was a
+bold, presumptuous, ambitious, and licentious man; and his own vices
+betrayed him to his ruin. But those by whom he fell were equally
+guilty of treachery and murder, as though he had through his life been
+guiltless of blood, and an example of virtue.
+
+                   [Footnote 190: The Author is fully aware that the
+                   brief notice he is able to take of many of the
+                   transactions of this period, whether diplomatic or
+                   military, (especially with reference to the
+                   proceedings of the different parties in France,)
+                   must leave his readers unfurnished with information
+                   on many points, and in some instances may cause the
+                   accounts which he thought indispensable in this
+                   work to appear obscure and confused. He could not,
+                   however, have avoided such a result of his plan in
+                   these Memoirs, without changing their character
+                   altogether. Goodwin, whose labours seem scarcely to
+                   have been ever duly appreciated, has filled up the
+                   outline here given, generally in a satisfactory
+                   manner, though many original documents which have
+                   been brought to light since his time have been
+                   employed.]
+
+                   [Footnote 191: See Monstrelet, c. 211.]
+
+                   [Footnote 192: Goodwin thus comments on his
+                   death:--"Thus fell the Duke of Burgundy, who, as he
+                   had caused the Duke of Orleans to be assassinated
+                   in the streets of Paris, so, _by the requital of
+                   divine justice_, his own life was abandoned to vile
+                   treachery." How very unwise and unsafe are such
+                   comments upon the dispensations of Providence is
+                   most clearly evinced here. Never was a more foul
+                   murder, or more desperate defiance of all law,
+                   human and divine, than the Dauphin was guilty of on
+                   the bridge of Montereau: and yet, instead of "his
+                   life being abandoned to vile treachery by the
+                   requital of divine justice," he lived forty-two
+                   years after his deed of blood, succeeded to the
+                   throne of his father, rescued his kingdom from the
+                   hands of the English, and died through abstinence
+                   from food, self-imposed from fear of poison. Far
+                   more wise and more pious is it to leave such
+                   speculations, and to refer all to that day of final
+                   retribution, when the _righteousness of_ the
+                   supreme Ruler of man's destinies shall be made _as
+                   clear as the light, and his just dealing as the
+                   noon day_.]
+
+This tragedy filled the people of France with affliction for the
+murdered Duke, and with horror at the Dauphin's perfidy and        (p. 260)
+cruelty; but no one seemed to be rendered more decidedly hostile to
+him for this act than his own mother and father. And whilst the son of
+the murdered Duke swore he would never lay down his arms till he had
+avenged his father's death upon his murderers, the King himself, by a
+proclamation dated Troyes, January 27, 1420, declared that Charles,
+Count of Ponthieu, condemned and cursed by God, by nature, and his own
+parents, could have no title to the throne; and that it was just and
+expedient, for the peace of the nation, that Henry, King of England,
+should be established Regent of France.
+
+Henry at this time seems to have been exceedingly apprehensive lest,
+by the escape of the princes and nobles of France, his prisoners in
+England, the prospect of securing his conquests by a treaty of peace
+might be interrupted. An original letter, addressed by him to his
+Chancellor, dated Gisors, October 1, 1419, acquaints us with his
+anxiety on this subject; whilst it affords another interesting
+specimen of the English language at that time, and Henry's own style.
+
+     "Worshipful Father in God, right trusty and well-beloved, we
+     greet you well.
+
+     "And we wol and pray you, and also charge you, that as we trust
+     unto you, and as ye look to have our good lordship, ye see and
+     ordain that good heed be taken unto the sure keeping of our
+     French prisoners within our realm, and in especial the Duke of
+     Orleans, and after to the Duke of Bourbon. For their escaping,
+     and principally the said Duke of Orleans, might never have    (p. 261)
+     been so harmful nor prejudicial to us as it might be now if
+     any of them escaped, and namely [especially] the said Duke of
+     Orleans, which God forbid! And therefore, as we trust, you seeth
+     that Robert Waterton, for no trust, fair speech, nor promises
+     that might be made unto him, nor for none other manner of cause,
+     be so blinded by the said Duke that he be the more reckless of
+     his keeping; but that, in eschewing of all perils that may befal,
+     he take as good heed unto the sure keeping of his person as
+     possible.
+
+     "And inquire if Robert of Waterton use any reckless governance
+     about the keeping of the said Duke, and writeth to him thereof
+     that it may be amended. And God have you in his keeping!--Given
+     under our signet, at Gizors, the first day of October.
+        "To the worshipful Father in God,[193] and right
+        trusty and well-beloved, the Bishop of
+        Durham, our Chancellor of England."
+
+                   [Footnote 193: This was Thomas Langley, who was
+                   elected Bishop of Durham in 1406. He succeeded
+                   Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, as
+                   Chancellor, on the 23rd of July, 1417, and
+                   continued in that office till July 1424, when Henry
+                   Beaufort succeeded him. Thomas Langley was in
+                   possession of the see of Durham from May 17th,
+                   1406, till his death in November 1437. Dugdale,
+                   (Orig. Judic.) by mistake, refers Bishop Langley's
+                   appointment as Chancellor to 1418. It was July
+                   23rd, 5 Henry V. in 1417.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.                                                     (p. 262)
+
+HENRY'S EXTRAORDINARY ATTENTION TO THE CIVIL AND PRIVATE DUTIES OF HIS
+STATION, IN THE MIDST OF HIS CAREER OF CONQUEST, INSTANCED IN VARIOUS
+CASES. -- PROVOST AND FELLOWS OF ORIEL COLLEGE. -- THE QUEEN DOWAGER
+IS ACCUSED OF TREASON. -- TREATY BETWEEN HENRY, THE FRENCH KING, AND
+THE YOUNG DUKE OF BURGUNDY. -- HENRY AFFIANCED TO KATHARINE. -- THE
+DAUPHIN IS REINFORCED FROM SCOTLAND. -- HENRY ACCOMPANIED BY HIS QUEEN
+RETURNS THROUGH NORMANDY TO ENGLAND.
+
+1419-1420.
+
+
+One of the most strikingly characteristic features of the
+extraordinary hero, whose life and character we are endeavouring to
+elucidate, forces itself especially upon our notice during his
+campaigns in Normandy. Neither the flush of victory, nor the
+disappointments and anxiety of a protracted siege, neither the
+multiplied and distracting cares of intricate negociations, nor the
+incessant trials of personal fatigue,[194] could withdraw his mind
+from what might perhaps be not unfitly called the private duties   (p. 263)
+of his high station.[195] If an act of injustice was made known to
+him, he could not rest till he had punished the guilty party, and
+compelled them to make restitution. If abuses in church or state came
+under his eye, (and his eye was never closed against them,) he would
+himself personally provide for the necessary reform. If disputes
+threatened the peace and welfare of a community over which he had any
+control, he delighted to act as mediator and to restore peace. And all
+this he did in the midst of the noise, and confusion, and          (p. 264)
+ceaseless disturbances of a camp in the heart of an enemy's country,
+with the same anxious zeal, and attention to details, as he could have
+shown in the times of profoundest peace; though now and then dropping
+an expression to make his correspondent understand how much more time
+and thought he would have devoted to the subject before them, were not
+his mind and body so occupied by war.
+
+                   [Footnote 194: October 28, 1419. The Pell Rolls
+                   record payment of 10_l._ to Master Peter Henewer,
+                   physician, appointed by the King and his council to
+                   go to the King in Normandy. Probably he felt his
+                   constitution even then giving way. But as early as
+                   13th October 1415, after the battle of Agincourt,
+                   payment is made for "diverse medicine, as well for
+                   the health of the King's person as for others of
+                   his army," sent to Calais.]
+
+                   [Footnote 195: A curious and interesting instance
+                   of Henry's personal attention to business in its
+                   most minute details, when many of his subjects
+                   would have been quite satisfied with the report of
+                   another, is preserved among some of the driest and
+                   most formal acts of the Privy Council. Certain
+                   auditors are instructed to examine, with greater
+                   accuracy than before, the accounts of the late
+                   Master of the Wardrobe; and to make an especial
+                   report to the council, most particularly
+                   (potissime) of such items as they shall find marked
+                   in the King's own hand "ad inquirendum." Reference
+                   is also made to those sums against which a black
+                   mark has been placed by the King's hand. The date
+                   of this minute (4th July 1421), and the place
+                   (Calais) in which it states that these accounts
+                   were examined by the King, add considerably to the
+                   strength of this example. Henry had then just left
+                   England suddenly on hearing the sad news of a
+                   disastrous defeat of part of his army, and the
+                   death of his brother, the Duke of Clarence, in
+                   battle; and he was at Calais on his road to put
+                   himself again at the head of his forces.]
+
+Among many illustrations of this striking trait in Henry's character,
+the following instances will, it is presumed, be deemed generally
+interesting, and deserving a fuller notice than a brief statement of
+the facts might require.
+
+The first is a letter from Henry to his brother the Duke of Bedford,
+then Guardian of England, in which he urges him to attend without
+delay to some complaints from the subjects of the Duke of Brittany,
+and to take prompt and efficient measures to prevent a repetition of
+the injuries complained of.
+
+     "BY THE KING.
+
+     "Right trusty and well-beloved brother, we greet you as well. And
+     as we suppose it is not out of your remembrance in what wise and
+     how oft we have charged you by our letters that good and hasty
+     reparation and restitution were ordained and made at all times of
+     such attemptats as happened to be made by our subjects against
+     the truce taken betwixt us and our brother, the Duke of Brittany;
+     and, notwithstanding our said letters, diverse complaints be made
+     and sent unto us for default of reparation and restitution of
+     such attemptats as be made by certain of our subjects and     (p. 265)
+     lieges, as ye may understand by a supplication sent to us by
+     the said Duke; which supplication we send you closed within these
+     letters, for to have the more plain knowledge of the truth.
+     Wherefore we will and charge you that ye call to you our
+     chancellor, to have knowledge of the same supplication; and, that
+     done, we will that ye do send us in all haste all those persons
+     that been our subjects contained in the supplication aforesaid.
+     And that also in all other semblable matters ye do ordain so
+     hasty and just remedy, restitution, and reparation upon such
+     attemptats done by our subjects, in conservation of our truce,
+     that no man have cause hereafter to complain in such wise as they
+     [have] done for default of right doing; nor we cause to write to
+     you alway as we done for such causes, _considered the great
+     occupation we have otherwise_. And God have you in his
+     keeping!--Given under our signet, in our host afore Rouen, the
+     29th day of November."[196] [1418].
+
+                   [Footnote 196: Cotton. Julius, B. vi. f. 35.]
+
+The next instance occurs[197] on the apprehension entertained of
+intended violence and general disturbance of the public peace near (p. 266)
+Bourdeaux by two noblemen who disputed about the property of a
+deceased lord. Henry's letter is addressed to the Council of
+Bourdeaux, giving them peremptory orders to put an instant end to the
+feud in his name. It is written in French.
+
+                   [Footnote 197: The Author cannot undertake to
+                   pronounce how far beyond general instructions the
+                   King himself interfered in each of these
+                   transactions. The letters on the subject of
+                   Brittany and of Oriel College bear internal
+                   evidence that they were dictated by Henry himself.
+                   But the correspondence, still preserved, is too
+                   voluminous for us to believe that he dictated more
+                   of the letters than such as were most important or
+                   most interesting to himself. Still it must be borne
+                   in mind, that we have indisputable evidence of
+                   Henry having minutely examined accounts, at a time
+                   when he "_had great occupation otherwise_,"
+                   directing in his own hand-writing inquiries to be
+                   made as to various items.]
+
+     "Very dear and faithful.--Whereas we are given to understand that
+     great discord and division prevails between our dear and
+     well-beloved, the Lords de Montferrant and de Lescun, on account
+     of the lands of the late Lord de Castalhan; we wish this to be
+     appeased with all possible speed, in the best manner possible,
+     just as we ourselves would be able to end it. So we wish, and we
+     charge you, that, immediately on the sight of this, you take the
+     whole charge into _our_ [_? your_, _voz_, for _noz_] hands;
+     giving straitly in charge to the said Lords Montferrant and de
+     Lescun that neither of them make, or procure or suffer to be
+     made, any riots or assemblies of people, the one against the
+     other, in the meantime, under great pains upon them by you to be
+     imposed, and applied to our aid. And this omit in no way, as we
+     trust in you.--Given under our signet, in our castle of Gisors,
+     the 26th day of September."
+
+The following letter from Henry to the Bishop of Durham, his
+Chancellor, dated 10th February 1418, and written whilst he was
+engaged in the siege of Falaise, gives us a pleasing view of the care
+with which he attended to the claims of individuals, and his desire to
+do justice to a faithful servant.
+
+     "Worshipful Father in God, right trusty and well-beloved.
+     Forasmuch as our well-beloved squire, John Hull, hath         (p. 267)
+     long time been in our ambassiat and service in the parts of
+     Spain, for the which he hath complained to us he is endangered
+     greatly, and certain goods of his laid to wedde [pledge];
+     wherefore we wol that ye see that there be taken due accompts of
+     the said John, how many days he hath stand in our said ambassiat
+     and service, and thereupon that he be contented and agreed [have
+     satisfaction] in the best wise as longeth unto him in this
+     case.--Given under our signet, in our host beside our town of
+     Falaise, the 10th day of February."[198]
+
+                   [Footnote 198: Cotton. Vespasian, C. xii. f. 127 b.]
+
+But whilst Henry could thus direct his thoughts to the redress of
+individual grievances, in the midst of the din of war and the
+excitement of the camp, he equally shows calmness, and presence of
+mind, and comprehensive views of sound policy in his negociations with
+foreign powers, and his instructions to his representatives at home.
+In the spring of 1419, letters were received by Henry from several
+cities of Flanders, which, together with his answers to them and his
+instructions to his brother, will not be read without interest. The
+towns of Ghent, Ypres, Bruges, and Franc apply to Henry for his
+protection and friendship, or rather for a renewal or continuance of
+that especial favour which they had enjoyed in former days; they refer
+more particularly to the kindness of his "grandfather, John Duke of
+Lancaster, of noble memory, who, because he was born among them, ever
+showed them most singular love and regard." This letter,           (p. 268)
+written in French, and dated 24th March 1418, is given under the seals
+of the three first towns, and the seal of the Abbot of St. Andrew for
+the people of Franc, because they had no common seal. Henry's answer,
+in Latin, assures them, "If the people of Flanders will behave towards
+England as they are said to have done in times past, we shall rejoice
+to give no less valuable indications of our favour than did our father
+or grandfather; and we have instructed our brother, the Duke of
+Bedford, and our council, to send ambassadors with full powers to
+Calais, to negociate a peace between England and you." Probably Henry
+did not pen this letter himself; but, whoever indited it, the letter
+contains fewer barbarisms, and has more indications of classical
+scholarship in the writer, than are often found in modern Latin.[199]
+Henry forwarded both the Flemish prayer and his own answer to his
+brother, with instructions in English; and, shortly after, he sent a
+long letter to his Chancellor, the Bishop of Durham, as well on that
+negociation, as on an affair in dispute between the English merchants
+and the Genoese. This document shows how minutely Henry investigated
+the matters on which he wrote; and how sensible a view he took of the
+interests of our commerce, and how dispassionate was his judgment. The
+Genoese had seized goods belonging to English merchants, who laid
+claim for a compensation. Henry's letter states the exact sum      (p. 269)
+at which the English estimated their merchandise, and the lower price
+fixed by the Genoese;[200] and then, in consideration of the injury
+done to English commerce by the Genoese letters of marque, Henry
+recommends the English merchants to accept the offer made by the
+Genoese, provided they stipulate that the English merchant vessels
+shall have as free course of trade to Genoa as the Genoese desired to
+have to the ports of England. This correspondence is found among the
+"Proceedings of the Privy Council." The whole is well deserving the
+perusal of any one interested in the history of British commerce, but
+is on too extensive a scale for insertion at length in this work.[201]
+
+                   [Footnote 199: Bib. Cotton. Galba, B. i. f. 131.]
+
+                   [Footnote 200: The English merchants (Henry says)
+                   valued their goods captured at 10,000_l._ the
+                   Genoese estimated them at 7,180_l._ and they are
+                   willing "for to stand in our good grace and
+                   benevolence, to pay without any exception 4,000_l._
+                   at reasonable times; our subjects and our merchants
+                   of our land having hereafter free coming and going
+                   to Genoa, as they of Genoa desire to have into our
+                   realm of England."]
+
+                   [Footnote 201: A letter addressed by Henry, whilst
+                   he was at Mante, to one Thomas Rees and other
+                   merchants of Bristol, (October 11th, 1419,) shows
+                   what accurate information he received of even
+                   minute affairs in England. He tells them that they
+                   have imported goods from Genoa, and he desires to
+                   select from them such as he might wish to have,
+                   promising to pay for them honestly.]
+
+The only other instance which the Author of these Memoirs would add to
+the preceding (though many and various examples of the same kind are
+at hand) is one which brings all the associations of opening       (p. 270)
+life before his mind, and recals days which can never be forgotten,
+whilst they can never be remembered without the liveliest feelings of
+gratitude to the Giver of every good. The days which he spent within
+the walls of that college to which Henry's letter refers, are long ago
+past and gone; but they have left a fragrance and relish on the mind,
+and the remembrance of them is sweet.
+
+Oriel College, founded by Edward II, not long before his unhappy
+murder, for the promotion of sound learning and religious education,
+has been, if any college ever was, faithful to its trust. When Henry
+V. was (as we believe) studying under the care of his uncle, the
+future Cardinal, John Carpenter, afterwards Bishop of Worcester, was
+resident in Oriel; and between him and young Henry a close intimacy,
+we are told, was formed. These friendships, cherished when the heart
+is most warm, and the best feelings freshest, not only endear the two
+friends to each other through life, but excite in each an interest in
+whatever belongs to the other. On this principle we may believe that
+Oriel College, and its peace and welfare, were objects of no ordinary
+interest to Henry; certainly his friend, John Carpenter, felt so
+grateful to the society in which he had imbibed the principles of
+philosophy and religion, as to found one new fellowship in addition to
+the eight of its original foundation, and the four founded by his
+contemporary, though probably his senior, John Frank, Master       (p. 271)
+of the Rolls. About the time when Henry was pursuing his victories in
+France, an unhappy dispute arose to interrupt the harmony of this
+little community. Perfect peace is reserved for the faithful in
+heaven; on earth we must not expect to pass through life either as
+insulated individuals, or as members of any society, however sound may
+be its principles, and however Christian may be the general temper of
+its members, without some of those disturbing vexations which admonish
+us (with many other warnings) not to suffer our hopes to anchor here.
+Just as in a family, quarrels in a college are the more fatal to the
+comfort of its members in proportion to the narrowness of the circle
+which surrounds them, and to the closeness of the bond which more
+frequently compels them to meet together. The citizen of the world may
+avoid one whom he cannot meet with satisfaction and pleasure; the
+inmate of a college comes in contact with his brethren every day. The
+place of prayer, the refectory, the social board of kindly
+intercourse, all well calculated to cherish and ripen feelings of
+friendship, yet if unkind sentiments are lurking in the breast, only
+provoke their expression, and cherish the heartburnings, and fan the
+embers of discord into a flame.
+
+In a college the first spark of unkindness, unbrotherly, anti-social
+feelings, should especially be extinguished: disunion there is more
+fatal to comfort and ease, and peace of mind, and the enjoyment    (p. 272)
+of whatever blessings might otherwise be in store, than in any other
+community except that of husband and wife, parent and child, brother
+and brother. To no combination of Christians would the Apostle with
+greater earnestness repeat his injunction, "Love one another."
+
+What was the immediate subject of dispute at the time when Henry
+interfered with Oriel College, the Author has never been able to
+discover. There is no auxiliary evidence, and the only source of
+reasonable conjecture must be the internal testimony of the King's
+letter itself. The epistle is an original, preserved in the Tower of
+London; its date is 7th of July, and in the town of Mante. This fixes
+it (with as much certainty as we can ever expect in such matters) to
+the year 1419; when Henry seems to have made Mante his chief residence
+for some time, and was certainly there both before and after the 7th
+of July in that year.
+
+This letter is very interesting, particularly to Oriel men, for other
+reasons, and especially because it contains indisputable proof of the
+position maintained by them, that not the Chancellor, nor the King by
+his Chancellor, but the King himself in person, is the visitor. May
+his interference on a similar occasion be never again needed! May
+discord between the Head and the Fellows, or between the Fellows among
+themselves, be for ever banished! But should the voice and the hand of
+the visitor be ever required "to stint the controversy," the       (p. 273)
+visitor of this "ancient and royal house"--is the King of England
+only. The letter is in itself characteristic of Henry, and affords,
+probably, a fair specimen of the style of an English gentleman of that
+day.
+
+     "BY THE KING.[202]
+
+     "Worshipful father in God, our right trusty and well-beloved, we
+     greet you well. And for as much as we lately sent for Master
+     Richard Garsedale, one of the contendents of the Provost of the
+     Oriell, to that end that for his party should nothing be pursued,
+     neither at the court of Rome nor elsewhere, but that that
+     controversy should be put in respite unto our coming home with
+     God's grace: for our occupation is such that we may not well
+     intend to such matters here. Wherefore we will that ye make both
+     the said Garsdale, which cometh now home by our leave, and
+     sufficient of both the parties that neither of them shall     (p. 274)
+     make further pursuit of appeal at court of Rome, nor no manner of
+     pursuit there, or elsewhere, as touching the said controversy,
+     unto our coming as before; at which time our intent is to put the
+     same controversy to a good and righteous conclusion, and the said
+     party in rest. And if any of them have the said pursuit of appeal
+     hanging in court, that they abate it, and send to revoke it in all
+     haste: and that they make all such as been their attornies or
+     doers in court spiritual and temporal to surcease. And we will
+     furthermore, as touching our said College of the Oriell, that ye
+     put it in such governance as seemeth to your discretion for to do,
+     unto our coming. And God have you in his keeping!--Given under our
+     signet, in our town of Mante, the 7th day of July.
+        "To the worshipful father in God, our right
+        trusty and well-beloved, the Bishop
+        of Durham, our Chancellor of England."
+
+                   [Footnote 202: It is thought right to subjoin the
+                   following transcript of this epistle in its
+                   primitive garb, except the abbreviations.
+
+                   "BY THE KYNG.
+
+                   "Worshipful fader yn God oure right trusty and
+                   welbeloved, we grete yow wel. And forasmuche as we
+                   lete sende for Maistre Richard Garsedale oon of the
+                   contendentes of the prevoste of the Oriell to that
+                   ende that for his partie shulde no thyng be
+                   poursuyd neither at the courte of Rome ne
+                   elleswhere, but that that contraversie shulde be
+                   put in respit unto oure comyng hoom with Goddes
+                   grace, for oure occupacion is such that we mow nat
+                   wel entende to suche also Lentwardyn, come afore
+                   you, and that ye take surety matteres here.
+                   Wherefore we wol that ye make boothe the said
+                   Garsdale whiche cometh now hoom be oure leve, and
+                   also Lentwardyn com afore you, and that ye take
+                   seurte soufficeant of bothe the partiees, that
+                   neither of hem shal make ferther poursuyt of
+                   appelle at courte of Rome ner no manere of poursuyt
+                   there or elleswhere as touching the said
+                   contraversee unto oure comynge as before, at whiche
+                   tyme oure entent ys to put the same contraversie to
+                   a goode and rightwyse conclusion, and the said
+                   partie yn rest. And yf any of hem have ye saide
+                   poursuyt of apelle hangyng yn courte that they
+                   abate hit and sende to revoke hit yn al haste, and
+                   that thay make al suche as been thaire attornes or
+                   doeres yn court spirituel or temporel to surcesse.
+                   And we wol ferthermore as touching oure said
+                   college of the Orielle that ye put hit yn suche
+                   governance as semeth to yowre discrecion for to doo
+                   unto oure comyng. And God have you yn his keping.
+                   Yeven under oure signet in oure town of Mante, ye
+                   vii. day of Juyll.
+                       "To ye worshipful fader yn God our right
+                       trusty and welbeloved ye Bisshop of
+                       Duresme oure Chaunceller of England."]
+
+Whilst Henry was occupied by his campaign in France, a             (p. 275)
+parliament met October 16th, 1419, and voted one-fifteenth, and
+one-tenth, and one-half part of them both. In this parliament that
+enactment was made on which our authority chiefly rests for believing
+the Queen-Dowager, Bolinbroke's widow, to have been guilty of
+conspiring her son-in-law's death. The act, after declaring that she
+was accused by friar John Randolf, and other credible witnesses, of
+having compassed the King's death in the most horrible manner; and
+that Roger Colles of Shrewsbury, and Peronell Brocart, lately living
+with the Queen, were violently suspected of having been partners in
+her guilt; enacted that all the lands, and castles, and possessions,
+as well of the Queen as of her accomplices, should be seized for the
+King's use, provision being made for the maintenance of the Queen and
+her servants.
+
+Meanwhile, much progress was made in France towards a peace between
+Henry, the French King, and the young Duke of Burgundy. An armistice
+was signed between Henry and Charles at Mante, November 20, but only
+for the Isle of France; and, at the close of the month, the        (p. 276)
+Duke of Burgundy, then at Arras, signed his consent to the articles
+which Henry had commissioned his ambassadors to lay before him, which
+were these:
+
+First, that he should have the Princess of France in marriage.
+Secondly, that he should not disturb the King of France in the
+possession of the crown; but suffer him peaceably to enjoy it, and
+receive its revenues as long as he lived. Thirdly, that the Queen also
+should during her life retain her title and dignity, with such a part
+of the revenues of the crown as would be suitable to maintain the
+royal honour. Moreover, that the crown of France, with all its
+dominions, should, after the death of the King, descend to Henry and
+his heirs for ever; that, in consequence of the incapacity of the
+King's mind, Henry should as Regent administer the affairs of
+government, with a council of the nobles of France; with other
+stipulations subservient to these grand fundamental points.
+
+The Duke of Burgundy also agreed on certain articles[203] of amity
+between himself and Henry, stipulating to give his own support of
+Henry's authority and rights as Regent and King; in return for Henry's
+protection of him in all his rights, and against all his enemies,
+especially against the murderers of his father.
+
+                   [Footnote 203: These articles were signed on the
+                   following January during the armistice.]
+
+To effect these great ends, a general armistice was concluded at   (p. 277)
+Rouen, December 24th, to continue to the 1st of March, from which it
+was provided that the Dauphin should be excluded. This truce was
+afterwards prolonged to March 24th. Meanwhile, the war was vigorously
+carried on by the English and Burgundian forces against the Dauphin;
+whilst on the confines of Normandy, where the English at that time
+were stationed, every thing was conducted by the people of the two
+nations in as amicable and familiar a manner as though the peace had
+absolutely been concluded, and the English King were Regent of France;
+an object, as they professed, most devoutly desired by the people of
+Paris, who sent their deputies to bespeak the good offices of Henry
+for the preservation of their rights and liberties.[204] Henry's
+ambassadors made many objections to the terms of the proposed treaty,
+chiefly on the ground that, by accepting them, Henry would injure his
+then title to the throne of France. But he saw himself that all
+essentials were provided for; and desirous of terminating the war, and
+more anxious (we may believe) to make the beloved Princess his own
+wife, left Rouen on his journey to Troyes, where the French court and
+the Duke of Burgundy were. Henry passed so near to the walls of Paris,
+that the people hastened out of the city to see him; and they      (p. 278)
+greeted him with joyous and welcoming acclamations.
+
+                   [Footnote 204: About this time, John, Duke of
+                   Bedford, the King's brother, had an offer of the
+                   reversion of the crown of Naples; but the
+                   negociations ended in no successful issue.]
+
+Henry, arriving at Troyes, made an immediate visit to the King, the
+Queen, and the Princess. How far the love of Henry towards Katharine
+expedited the negociations we cannot tell. Every difficulty, however,
+vanished; and a final agreement and perpetual peace was made and sworn
+to "by Charles, King of France, and his dearest and most beloved son,
+Henry, King of England, constituted heir of the crown and Regent of
+France." Henry having consented during Charles's life not to assume
+the title of King of France, Charles promised always to style Henry
+"our most illustrious son, Henry, King of England, heir of France."
+After Charles's death, the two kingdoms of England and France were to
+be for ever united under one King. Many other articles swell this
+solemn league, which are all subservient to these leading provisions.
+
+This treaty was signed at Troyes, May 21, 1420, in the presence of the
+Emperor Sigismund and many of the Continental princes, all of whom
+became parties thereto. On the same day Katharine and Henry were
+affianced before the high altar of St. Peter's Church, in Troyes; in
+which city proclamation of the peace[205] was made both in the French
+and the English tongue. It was afterwards proclaimed at Paris,     (p. 279)
+and the principal cities of France; and, on June 24, it was proclaimed
+in London, after a solemn procession and a sermon at St. Paul's Cross:
+and an ordinance was made for breaking the great seal of England, and
+making another, on which to the King's title should be added, "Regent
+and heir-apparent of France;" and a corresponding order was given to
+the officers of his mint at Rouen for a change of the inscription on
+the coinage there."[206]
+
+                   [Footnote 205: The heartfelt satisfaction and joy
+                   with which this peace between the two countries was
+                   generally hailed as a new and unexpected blessing,
+                   is conveyed to us in a most lively manner by the
+                   letter which Sir Hugh Luttrell wrote to the King on
+                   the occasion, and which bears at the same time
+                   incidental testimony to Henry's condescending and
+                   kind attention to his old comrade in arms. Sir Hugh
+                   was the Lieutenant of Harfleur, and Henry had
+                   himself sent him an account of the happy issue of
+                   his struggle.... He ascribes it to the providence
+                   of the Creator that Henry had concluded a perpetual
+                   peace between two realms which ever, out of mind of
+                   any chroniclers, had been at dissension; and had
+                   brought to an end what no man had hitherto wrought;
+                   "thanking God," he continues, "with meek heart,
+                   that he hath sent me that grace to abide the time
+                   for to see it, as for the greatest gladness and
+                   consolation that ever came into my heart; not
+                   dreading in myself that He who hath sent you that
+                   grace in so short a time, shall send you much more
+                   in time coming."--Ellis's Original Letters,
+                   xxviii.]
+
+                   [Footnote 206: On this subject, T.D. Hardy, Esq. in
+                   his Introduction to the Charter Rolls, just
+                   published by the Record Commission, gives the
+                   following clear and satisfactory
+                   information:--Until the 9th of April 1420, Henry V.
+                   styled himself in his charters and on his great
+                   seal, "Henricus Dei gratia Rex Angliae et Franciae et
+                   Dominus Hiberniae" And on the Norman Roll of the
+                   fifth year of his reign he is sometimes styled Duke
+                   of Normandy, in conjunction with his other titles,
+                   as "Henry par le grace de Dieu, Roy de Fraunce et
+                   d'Engleterre, Seigneur de Irlande, et Duc de
+                   Normandie." On the above 9th of April he
+                   relinquished the title of King of France during the
+                   life-time of his father-in-law, Charles,
+                   preliminary to the treaty of Troyes, which was
+                   signed the 21st of May, 1420; and during the
+                   remainder of his life he styled himself, "Henricus
+                   Dei gratia Rex Angliae, Heres et Regens Franciae, et
+                   Dominus Hiberniae."
+
+                   Notwithstanding an article in the agreement of the
+                   9th of April, that during the life of Charles,
+                   Henry V. should not assume the title of King of
+                   France; yet within ten days he issued a precept
+                   from Rouen relative to the Norman coinage, upon one
+                   side of which was to be inscribed, "Henricus
+                   Francorum Rex." As Henry had not then signed the
+                   article of peace at Troyes, it did not perhaps
+                   occur to him that he was thus breaking his
+                   agreement with France.--Rot. Chart. p. xxi.]
+
+The marriage of Henry with Katharine[207] was celebrated with      (p. 280)
+great magnificence by the Archbishop of Sens, on the 30th of May, in
+the presence of the principal nobility of Burgundy and France. The
+Duke of Burgundy first, and then all the other assembled nobles, swore
+allegiance to Henry, as Regent of France. "For," (as the
+historians[208] say,) "the fame of his heroic actions in war, when his
+person was unknown to them, had acquired him a universal esteem; and
+they knew not what most to admire, his courage, conduct, or success.
+But now his noble presence, in which there was a due mixture of    (p. 281)
+majesty with affable deportment, procured a greater veneration. They
+knew him to be prudent in councils, experienced in war, of an
+undaunted courage in dangers, and prosperous in all his enterprises;
+and therefore they persuaded themselves that their country would be
+happy under the influences of his government." It is said that they
+were confirmed in these anticipations of good, as well as exceedingly
+delighted, by the speech which he addressed to them in full assembly,
+showing the moderation and temper of his soul. At the close of his
+address they unanimously expressed their confidence in his honour, and
+the highest regard for his interests.
+
+                   [Footnote 207: It is said, but whether on good
+                   authority does not appear, that Henry placed
+                   English attendants about the Queen's person;
+                   allowing only five French to wait on her, of whom
+                   three were matrons and the other two young ladies.
+                   Her confessor was John Boyery (query Bouverie?),
+                   doctor in theology.--Pell Rolls, 18th June 1421.]
+
+                   [Footnote 208: See Goodwin.]
+
+The Dauphin, however, continued to prevent the establishment of peace;
+and, having obtained from the Scotch parliament a reinforcement of
+seven thousand men, under the command of the Earl of Buchan, still
+proved a formidable enemy to Henry. But, never relaxing his exertion
+whilst any thing remained to be done, Henry prepared most vigorously
+to meet the forces thus united against him.[209]
+
+                   [Footnote 209: Among the forces which he had drawn
+                   together, were a body of chosen men and archers
+                   from the parts of Wales; but whether they were
+                   natives of the Principality, or English soldiers
+                   drawn from the garrisons there, does not
+                   appear.--Pell Rolls, 3rd June, 8 Henry V. i.e.
+                   1420.]
+
+He retained still in his camp the King of Scotland, by whose       (p. 282)
+influence he had hoped to draw the Scots from the service of the
+Dauphin; but they would not listen to their monarch whilst he was the
+King of England's prisoner. The English army, however, was recruited
+by a considerable reinforcement, which the Duke of Bedford had brought
+over with him. He had governed England as Regent, during the King's
+absence, with great zeal and wisdom; and he now left the Duke of
+Gloucester to rule the kingdom in his stead.
+
+Many cities and garrisons attached to the Dauphin held out with much
+resolution and fidelity to his cause, and the English had full
+employment in reducing them. The town of Melun was defended with most
+determined obstinacy. During the protracted siege of this place, Henry
+was surrounded by all the magnificence and state of a royal court
+amidst the noise and disorders of war. His Queen, also, "with a
+shining train of ladies," came to the camp; for whom "a fair house was
+built, at such a distance as secured them from any danger of shot from
+the town." The royal bride and bridegroom had been allowed a very
+brief interval for that enjoyment of each other's society in
+retirement and privacy which is denied to few in any rank of life
+immediately on their union. Their marriage was solemnized on the 30th
+of May at Paris, and for one short week only from that day are the
+records silent as to Henry's residence. On the 7th of June he was at
+Villeneuf, engaged again (if, indeed, there had been any           (p. 283)
+interruption of his public duties,) in the business of the state. From
+July the 9th to the end of September he passed, with very few
+exceptions, his day alternately at Paris, and in the camp before
+Melun, which was about ten leagues from the capital. It was, we may
+reasonably conjecture, to make this new life of war as little irksome
+to Katharine as the circumstances would allow, and to provide an
+additional source of amusement and gratification, that Henry sent to
+England for those new harps for himself and his Queen, to the purchase
+of which at that time we have already referred.
+
+At the surrender of Melun, a circumstance took place characteristic of
+Henry's firmness and justice, mingled at the same time with feelings
+of friendship and kindheartedness. A gentleman of his household, who
+had fought with him at Agincourt, and was high in his esteem, was
+convicted on clear evidence of having received a bribe during the
+treaty for the surrender of the town, which tempted him to favour the
+escape of one suspected of being an accomplice in the Duke of
+Burgundy's murder. The young Duke of Burgundy and the Duke of Clarence
+petitioned for his pardon; but Henry gave orders for his execution,
+saying he would have no traitors in his army. At the same time he was
+heard to declare he would have given fifty thousand nobles that
+Bertrand de Chaumont had not been guilty of such a crime.
+
+Shortly after the surrender of Melun, Charles and Henry went       (p. 284)
+together to Paris, accompanied by their Queens. The royal party were
+met by the citizens with every demonstration of joy and devotedness;
+and, in honour of Henry, most persons of quality dressed themselves in
+red.[210] The first solemn act performed at Paris after the rejoicings
+were ended, was the attainder of the Dauphin and his accomplices for
+the murder of the Duke of Burgundy. He was denounced as unworthy of
+succeeding to any inheritance, and sentenced to perpetual banishment;
+judgment of death being pronounced against all his accomplices. A
+knowledge of these proceedings only stimulated him to further acts of
+violence.
+
+                   [Footnote 210: "The English colour." See Goodwin.]
+
+Henry's court was at the Louvre, whilst Charles' was at the Hotel de
+St. Paul. The two courts were marked by a wide difference in splendour
+and attendance. The palace of Charles was deserted, whilst Henry's was
+crowded by almost all the great men of France.
+
+Having now established the government of France, and provided for its
+maintenance during his absence, Henry proceeded with his royal bride
+towards England. In Normandy he was well received by the estates, who
+were assembled at Rouen, and who voted him a subsidy of 400,000
+livres. On leaving this place, he constituted the Duke of Clarence his
+Lieutenant of Normandy, and gave commission to the Duke of Exeter  (p. 285)
+to administer the government in Paris.[211] With his Queen and the
+Duke of Bedford he reached his native land in safety on the last day
+of January, or the first of February 1421; and he immediately
+communicated to the Archbishop his wish for him to appoint a day of
+public thanksgiving.[212]
+
+                   [Footnote 211: In the parliament (2nd December
+                   1420), Humfrey, Duke of Gloucester, being
+                   Lieutenant of the kingdom, provision was made that,
+                   should the King arrive, the parliament should
+                   continue to sit without any new summons: the reason
+                   also is given; because the King, being heir and
+                   Regent of France during the life-time of his
+                   father-in-law, and King after his death, would
+                   often be in England and often also in France. In
+                   this parliament a prayer is preferred against the
+                   Oxford scholars, who in vast numbers and armed
+                   attacked gentlemen in the counties of Oxford,
+                   Bucks, and Berks, and robbed them.]
+
+                   [Footnote 212: On 30th January, the Pell Rolls
+                   record payment of 20 _l._ for bows, arrows, and
+                   bowstrings, a present from Henry to his
+                   father-in-law, the King of France.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.                                                    (p. 286)
+
+KATHARINE CROWNED. -- HENRY AND HIS QUEEN MAKE A PROGRESS THROUGH A
+GREAT PART OF HIS DOMINIONS. -- ARRIVAL OF THE DISASTROUS NEWS OF HIS
+BROTHER'S DEATH (THE DUKE OF CLARENCE). -- HENRY MEETS HIS PARLIAMENT.
+-- HASTENS TO THE SEAT OF WAR. -- BIRTH OF HIS SON, HENRY OF WINDSOR.
+-- JOINS HIS QUEEN AT BOIS DE VINCENNES. -- THEIR MAGNIFICENT
+RECEPTION AT PARIS. -- HENRY HASTENS IN PERSON TO SUCCOUR THE DUKE OF
+BURGUNDY. -- IS SEIZED BY A FATAL MALADY. -- RETURNS TO VINCENNES. --
+HIS LAST HOUR. -- HIS DEATH.
+
+1421-1422.
+
+
+Henry, now in the enjoyment of peace in England, Ireland, and France,
+(except only so far as the Dauphin was yet unsubdued,) in the
+enjoyment, too, of a union with the most beautiful Princess of the
+age, seems to have reached the highest pinnacle of his ambition and
+his hopes. The Queen was crowned with great solemnity and magnificence
+in Westminster Abbey,[213] on the third Sunday in Lent. (23rd February
+1421.)
+
+                   [Footnote 213: Walsingham says, that she was
+                   crowned on the first Sunday in Lent, which in that
+                   year fell on the 9th February. But the Pell Roll
+                   (Mich. 8 Hen. V.) contains a payment to divers
+                   messengers sent through England, to summon the
+                   spiritualty and laity to assist at the solemnizing
+                   of the coronation of Katharine Queen of England, at
+                   Westminster, on the third Sunday in Lent.]
+
+After Henry had gratified his royal consort by proving to her how  (p. 287)
+deep and lively an interest the people of England took in her welfare
+and happiness, he retired with her for a time to Windsor. A
+combination, however, of various motives, induced him to propose to
+her to join him in the execution of a design on which he seems to have
+been bent, and to accompany him[214] in a progress through the
+kingdom. He was most anxious to ascertain by personal inspection the
+state and condition of his subjects in various parts of the realm;
+more especially with the view of satisfying himself that justice   (p. 288)
+was impartially administered, crimes repressed, and innocence
+protected. He felt also naturally a desire to present his loyal
+subjects to his Queen, of whom we have many proofs that he was in no
+ordinary degree proud; and, at the same time, to add to her
+gratification by visiting in her society those places with which he
+had early associations of pleasure, or which it would be most
+interesting to a foreigner to see. He was also influenced, perhaps, in
+some measure by a desire of visiting, in a sort of pilgrimage, the
+shrine of the patron saint of his family, John of Bridlington; and
+that of John of Beverley, the saint to whose merits the hierarchy, as
+we have seen, so presumptuously ascribed the turn of the battle on the
+day of Agincourt.
+
+                   [Footnote 214: There is so much inconsistency in the
+                   accounts of chroniclers as to the royal proceedings
+                   on this occasion, that to attempt to reconcile them
+                   all seems a hopeless task. The Author, however,
+                   having been furnished with the following facts
+                   ascertained from the "Teste" of several writs and
+                   patents preserved in the Tower, is able to
+                   recommend, with greater confidence in its accuracy,
+                   the adoption of the journal offered in the text.
+
+                   In the year 1421, King Henry V. was
+                         January, from 1 to 31, at Rouen.
+                               February 1,       "  Dover.
+                                       2 to 28,  "  Westminster.
+                                 March 1 to  5,  "  Westminster.
+                                       5 to 14,  "  Uncertain.
+                                            15,  "  Coventry.
+                                            27,  "  Leicester.
+                      From March 28 to April 2,  "  Uncertain.
+                                 April 2 to  4,  "  York.
+                                            15,  "  Lincoln.
+                                            18,  "  York.
+                                 From 18 to 30,  "  Uncertain.
+                                   May 1 to 31,  "  Westminster.]
+
+With these motives,[215] combined, it may be, with others, Henry lost
+no time in carrying his intention into effect. He seems to have always
+acted under a practical sense of the maxim, never to put off till
+to-morrow what is to be done, and what may be done, to-day. Without
+waiting for the summer, or a more advanced stage of the spring,--and,
+had he delayed for longer days and more genial weather, the journey
+would never have been taken,--we conclude that, about the beginning of
+the second week in March, the King and Queen, attended by a large  (p. 289)
+retinue of friends and nobles, began their journey northward.[216] The
+first place in which we are sure they rested is Coventry, which they
+reached probably about the 8th of March, and where they were certainly
+on the 15th of that month, the eve of Palm Sunday. Henry had a house
+at Coventry, in right of the duchy of Cornwall, called Cheylesmoor;
+and probably they took up their abode in that mansion during their
+stay at Coventry. The greater part of the time spent in Warwickshire
+was perhaps passed in the castle of Kenilworth, a favourite residence
+of his grandfather, John of Gaunt, who made very great additions to
+the mansion, always afterwards called the Lancaster Buildings. Henry
+himself, too, had been much employed in improving this place, and
+surrounding it with pleasure-grounds and arbours,[217] instead of the
+thorns and brakes which had formerly been seen there. Just seven years
+before this visit with his Queen, he had drained and planted the rough
+land near the castle; and the local historians tells us the spot was
+called "The Plesance in the Marsh."
+
+                   [Footnote 215: Rapin says, but, as it should seem,
+                   without reason, that Henry's aim was, under colour
+                   of shewing the country to the Queen, to procure by
+                   his presence the election of members for the
+                   parliament who would be favourable to him.]
+
+                   [Footnote 216: MS. Cott. Domit. A. 12.]
+
+                   [Footnote 217: Elmham says, that, in 1414, Henry
+                   kept his Lent in the castle of Kenilworth, and
+                   caused an arbour to be planted in the Marsh there,
+                   for his pleasure, amongst the thorns and bushes
+                   where a fox before had harboured, which he killed.]
+
+From Kenilworth the royal party went (probably about the 20th of
+March) to their house at Leicester, where they kept the festival   (p. 290)
+of Easter.[218] Easter Sunday fell that year on the 23rd of March.
+Could Henry have known of the sad calamity which befel him that very
+Easter, his rejoicings would have been turned into mourning. It was at
+that very time that the disastrous conflict took place, in which the
+English were routed, and the Duke of Clarence, whom Henry had left his
+representative on the Continent, was slain. Where the King was when
+the melancholy tidings reached him, and which induced him to cut short
+his progress, does not appear. We know that the joyful news of
+Agincourt reached London on the fourth morning after the battle; and
+probably the sad report of his brother's death, and of the
+discomfiture of his troops, was posted on to Henry whilst he was at
+York. Towards this, his northern capital, we conclude that he
+proceeded from Leicester, about the last day of March. The inhabitants
+of York had made most costly preparations for the reception of their
+royal visitors; and on their arrival they welcomed their conquering
+sovereign, and the partner of his joys and cares, with every
+demonstration of loyalty and devotedness. The most princely presents
+were offered to Henry in the most dutiful and cordial spirit of loving
+and admiring subjects. How many days they remained together        (p. 291)
+amidst the festivities and rejoicings of the province of York, is not
+recorded; perhaps the limit to this festival was the hour when the
+gloom which spread over the kingdom on the death of Clarence reached
+the royal party. It is not improbable that the news of his loss gave a
+turn to Henry's mind, and induced him with sentiments of piety and
+mourning to leave the splendour of his court for a while, and, laying
+aside the feelings of the triumphant monarch, to give himself up to
+exercises of devotion, and to a preparation for the same awful change
+which had so unexpectedly stopped the career of his younger brother.
+Leaving his Queen among his friends and faithful lieges of York, he
+proceeded on a kind of pilgrimage to Bridlington, Beverley, and
+Lincoln;[219] but in what order he visited those places it does not
+appear. He was at York on the 4th of April, and again on the 18th;
+whilst it is equally certain that on the 15th he was at Lincoln.   (p. 292)
+The author of the manuscript which tells us that his object in going
+to Lincoln was to be present at the installation of Richard Flemming,
+then lately elected Bishop, seems to be in error when he adds, that
+the King rejoined the Queen at Pontefract, and thence proceeded to
+Lincoln, and thence to London; unless, indeed, the King visited
+Lincoln once by himself, and once with Katharine; a supposition in the
+last degree improbable. He certainly returned to York after his
+sojourn at Lincoln on the 15th. It is very probable that, when he left
+York, he proceeded first to Bridlington, thence to Beverley, and so,
+crossing the Humber at Hull, reached Lincoln about the 13th of April,
+and, having passed two or three days there, returned to York on the
+17th. The only other town mentioned by chroniclers is Pontefract.
+Documents may, perhaps, be hereafter discovered to account for him
+between the 18th of April, when he was certainly at York, and the 1st
+of May, when he had returned to Westminster. At present we are left to
+conjecture: but it cannot be thought improbable if we suppose that,
+from his castle of Pontefract, (where he would have seen the Duke of
+Orleans[220], then a prisoner there, whom he always treated with   (p. 293)
+respect and kindness, and whom he indulged with as much relaxation of
+his confinement as was compatible with his safe custody,) he took the
+route for Chester, the place where he had formerly landed on his
+return from Trym Castle. Thence pointing out to his bride the country
+of Glyndowrdy, in which he passed his noviciate in arms; and the whole
+line of the Welsh borders, with which he had been long familiar, he
+would probably have passed on to Shrewsbury, where he might have taken
+Katharine to the spot in the battle-field on which Hotspur fell. From
+Shrewsbury, his line would be through Worcester, in which city he had
+often been stationed during the Welsh rebellion; and so onwards
+through Oxford, (a place he probably had visited on his journey
+northward, and where he would have been delighted to show Katharine
+the "narrow chamber" assigned to him when he studied there,) thus
+finishing his circuit where it began, at Windsor.
+
+                   [Footnote 218: Walsingham says, that Henry put off
+                   the celebration of the feast of St. George, (which,
+                   being the 23rd of April, must have fallen on a day
+                   after he had left York,) and directed it to be
+                   celebrated at Windsor on the Sunday after
+                   Ascension-day.]
+
+                   [Footnote 219: His visits to the hallowed
+                   resting-places of these saints are not at all
+                   inconsistent with the opinion which we have
+                   ventured already to give, that he was never heard
+                   to address in the language of prayer or
+                   thanksgiving any other being than the one true God.
+                   A similar feeling of love for the holy men of God,
+                   whether he could testify that love to the living,
+                   or merely record it for the memory of the dead,
+                   might have led him to the installation of the
+                   Bishop of Lincoln, and to the tomb of John of
+                   Bridlington and John of Beverley. Henry was not a
+                   Protestant by profession; but, compared with the
+                   hierarchy by whom he was surrounded, he approached
+                   almost, if not altogether, this fundamental point
+                   of difference between the two churches, the
+                   rejection of the adoration of any being, save the
+                   one only God.]
+
+                   [Footnote 220: Henry's prisoners of war were
+                   dispersed among various castles and strong places
+                   throughout the kingdom in England and Wales.
+                   Payment is recorded, July 10, 1422, to John
+                   Salghall, Constable of Harlech, of 30_l._ for the
+                   safe custody of thirty prisoners, conveyed by him
+                   from London.--Pell Rolls, 9 Henry V.]
+
+There are difficulties attending this supposition, to the existence of
+which the Author is fully alive; but in the whole affair there is only
+a choice of difficulties. He is aware that the journey from York
+through Chester and Shrewsbury to Windsor would have required the
+royal party to travel for fourteen days at the rate of twenty miles on
+the average each day consecutively. But, on the other hand, without
+such a supposition, the old chroniclers[221] must be altogether    (p. 294)
+laid aside, (though there is no other evidence to make their statement
+improbable,) when they assure us that Henry took Katharine to visit
+his principality, as well as the distant parts of his kingdom.[222] It
+must, moreover, be borne in mind that although he might have felt a
+reluctance (notwithstanding the melancholy event which hastened his
+return to the capital) to break off his intended progress without
+visiting at least the borders of Wales, yet he was pressed for time,
+and would therefore not willingly lose a day on the road. Be this as
+it may, we are assured[223] that, wherever he went, his ears were in
+all places open to the complaints of the injured and oppressed; he
+redressed their wrongs, punished the perverters of public trusts,  (p. 295)
+reformed many abuses in the local governments, and established such
+ordinances as should secure for the future the impartial
+administration of justice to high and low alike.
+
+                   [Footnote 221: Holinshed and others.]
+
+                   [Footnote 222: The Author has invariably discarded
+                   the assertions of the chroniclers, however
+                   positively affirmed, or frequently reiterated,
+                   whenever they have appeared to be incompatible with
+                   ascertained facts, or inconsistent with what would
+                   otherwise be probable. In the present instance,
+                   after a review of all the circumstances, and an
+                   examination of all the documents with which he is
+                   acquainted, though the supposition here adopted may
+                   be deemed ideal and fanciful, he is inclined to
+                   think that the acquiescence in that view will be
+                   attended with fewer difficulties than the adoption
+                   of any other.]
+
+                   [Footnote 223: But whilst Henry was thus actively
+                   employed in visiting his subjects, and spreading
+                   the blessing which a good King can never fail to
+                   dispense wherever his influence can be felt, his
+                   ministers of state sought his directions on all
+                   important matters for the management of his affairs
+                   on the Continent. Thus a despatch addressed to the
+                   Treasurer by William Bardolf, Lieutenant of Calais,
+                   is forwarded with all speed to the King in
+                   Yorkshire, that his especial pleasure might be
+                   taken thereon. Payment of the messenger appears in
+                   the Pell Rolls, April 1, 9 Hen. V.]
+
+If, as we are led to believe, Henry returned by the way of Chester,
+his ardent imagination and pious turn of thought would have reverted
+with mingled feelings of wonder and gratitude to his journey along the
+same road two-and-twenty years before; when, returning from his own
+captivity in Ireland, he accompanied the captive Richard towards his
+metropolis, to resign his throne there, and soon afterwards to lay
+down his life. To Henry, indeed, mementos presented themselves on
+every side of the frailty of all sublunary possessions, the precarious
+tenure by which king or peasant alike holds any earthly thing; whilst
+he was himself destined, in the revolution of the next year, to become
+in his own person a marked example of the same uncertainty. His spirit
+might seem to address us from the grave, in the words of a reflecting
+man.[224] "A day, an hour, a moment is sufficient for the overthrow of
+dominions which are thought to be grounded on foundations of adamant."
+
+                   [Footnote 224: Casaubon, quoted by Sir Walter
+                   Raleigh.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Where Henry was when the unexpected news arrested his progress is not
+known. The certainty is, that whilst he was anxiously engaged in
+reforming abuses, and preparing good laws at home; after he had    (p. 296)
+also just concluded a peace with Genoa, and, by generously releasing
+the King of Scotland, had bound him by the strongest ties of gratitude
+and affection; his exertions were suddenly arrested by the sad news of
+the defeat of his forces at Baugy in Anjou, and the death, in battle,
+of his brother, the Duke of Clarence.[225] These tidings caused him to
+shorten his progress, and to return to his capital, where he arrived
+at furthest on the 1st of May.
+
+                   [Footnote 225: Monstrelet says, that the flower of
+                   the English chivalry, who were with the Duke, fell
+                   in that field, and, besides knights and esquires,
+                   from two to three thousand men; and that, with the
+                   Earl of Somerset and others of noble and gentle
+                   blood, about two hundred were taken prisoners.
+                   There was also, he says, a dreadful slaughter of
+                   the French. The English, under the Earl of
+                   Salisbury, recovered the body of the Duke from the
+                   enemy, and it was carried with much ceremony to
+                   England, and there buried.]
+
+The Bishop of Durham, Chancellor of England, was charged to open the
+Parliament, which met on the second of that month, Henry himself being
+present, in the Painted Chamber. The Chancellor's address, though in
+many points strange, and well-nigh ridiculous, is too interesting to
+be passed by unnoticed. He began by uttering eulogies on the King,
+specifying, among other topics of praise, this merit in
+particular,--that, whilst God had granted him victories and conquests
+as the fruits of his labour, he never assumed the least merit to
+himself, but ascribed all the glory to God only, "_following in    (p. 297)
+a manner the example of the very valiant Emperor Julius Caesar_;"
+and also because as Job, when news was brought to him of the death of
+all his children as they were feasting in their eldest brother's
+house, praised God, saying, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken
+away, the will of the Lord be done; blessed be the name of the Lord!"
+so our sovereign Lord the King, when he first heard of the death of
+the noble prince, the Duke of Clarence, his own dear brother, and of
+the gallant knights and others slain with him, praised and blessed God
+for the visitation of that calamity, as he had before had cause to
+praise Him for all his prosperity. In declaring the cause of summoning
+this Parliament, he mentions the desire the King had of rectifying,
+according to right and justice, all abuses and wrongs which had
+prevailed through the realm since his last passage to foreign lands,
+especially to the injury of those who had been with him there; and
+also his wish that all the laws of the realm should be maintained and
+enforced, and that further provision should be made for the
+[226]better governance, and peace, and universal good of the realm.
+The Parliament, it is said, cheerfully voted him a fifteenth,[227] (p. 298)
+though many persons petitioned against further taxation, and gave
+utterance to sad complaints of their poverty. The Convocation also met
+on May 5th, and on the 12th; they voted him a tenth from the revenues
+of the clergy: and his uncle, the Bishop of Winchester, advanced to
+him by way of loan twenty thousand pounds. The Parliament guaranteed
+payment of the loans to all who should advance money to the King for
+this expedition.
+
+                   [Footnote 226: In this Parliament a statute was
+                   passed, the enactment, but more especially the
+                   preamble of which presents a very formidable view
+                   of the drain which Henry's continental campaigns
+                   had made upon the English gentry.
+
+                   "Whereas by the statute made at Westminster, the
+                   14th year of King Edward III, it was ordained and
+                   established, that no Sheriff should abide in his
+                   bailiwick above one year, and that then another
+                   convenient should be set in his place, which should
+                   have lands sufficient within his bailiwick, and
+                   that no Escheator should tarry in his office above
+                   a year; and whereas also, at the time of making the
+                   said statute, divers valiant and sufficient persons
+                   were in every county of England, to occupy and
+                   govern the same offices well towards the King and
+                   all his liege people; forasmuch that as well by
+                   divers petilences within the realm of England, as
+                   by the wars without the realm, there is now not
+                   such sufficiency; it is ordained and stablished
+                   that the King by authority of this Parliament may
+                   make the Sheriffs and Escheators through the realm
+                   at his will until the end of four years."--9 Hen.
+                   V. stat. 1, c. v.]
+
+                   [Footnote 227: This vote does not appear on the
+                   Rolls of Parliament. Walsingham asserts that a
+                   fifteenth was voted. Holinshed distinctly says,
+                   that the "commonaltie gladly granted a fifteenth."
+                   But he is no authority in such a case. The
+                   Parliament, in the following December, granted a
+                   tenth, and a fifteenth.]
+
+Henry, impatient to repair the dishonour of the defeat which his
+forces had sustained, and to reduce his foreign dominions to peace,
+issued his writ, on the 27th of May, to the sheriffs of the several
+counties to publish his proclamation that all persons should       (p. 299)
+hasten with the utmost speed to join the King, and accompany him in
+his voyage. And now possessing under his command a larger force than
+he had ever yet raised; after procuring by subsidies and loans as
+large a sum as the power or inclination of his people supplied; having
+also appointed his brother, the Duke of Bedford, Regent; he left
+London (never to return to it alive), on the last day of May, or the
+1st of June. From the 1st to the 10th of that month he seems to have
+passed his days alternately at Canterbury and Dover; though the cause
+of this delay does not appear to have been recorded. To whatever the
+postponement of his departure is attributable, though he left the
+metropolis not later than the 1st, he did not finally quit the English
+shores till the 10th of June. On the 12th he was at Rouen.[228]
+
+                   [Footnote 228: Three days after landing his forces,
+                   he despatched the Earl of Dorset with twelve
+                   hundred men to relieve his uncle, the Duke of
+                   Exeter, who was closely blockaded in Paris.]
+
+The Dauphin himself with a large army was at this time besieging
+Chartres, and Henry having passed by Abbeville, Beauvais, Gisors, and
+Mante, marched himself with strong hand to raise that siege. On
+Henry's approach the Dauphin withdrew.
+
+Some of these facts, with others, are contained in a letter which was
+forwarded from Henry to the mayor and citizens of London, (it is the
+last we shall have occasion to transcribe,) and which is chiefly
+remarkable for his language when speaking of the Dauphin. He       (p. 300)
+will not acknowledge him to have any right to the title, and calls him
+a pretender. Another point of considerable interest is the unqualified
+manner in which he speaks of the cordial co-operation and sincere
+attachment of the young Duke of Burgundy.
+
+     BY THE KING.
+
+     "Trusty and well-beloved, we greet you well. And for as much as
+     we be certain that ye will be joyful to hear good tiding of our
+     estate and welfare, we signifie unto you that we be in good
+     health and prosperity of our person; and so be our brother of
+     Gloucester, and bel-uncle of Exeter, and all the remnant of lords
+     and other persons of our host, blessed be our Lord, which grant
+     you so for to be! Witting, moreover, that in our coming by
+     Picardy we had disposed us for to have tarried somewhat in the
+     country, for to have set it, with God's help, in better
+     governance; and, while we were busy to intend therto, come
+     tidings unto us that he that clepeth him [calleth himself]
+     Dauphin was coming down with a great puissance unto Chartres.
+     Wherefore we drove us in all haste to Paris, as well for to set
+     our father of France, as the said good town of Paris, in sure
+     governance, and from thence unto this our town of Mante, at which
+     place we arrived on Wednesday last, to the intent for to have
+     given succours, with God's grace, unto the said town of Chartres;
+     and hither come unto us our brother of Burgundy with a fair
+     fellowship, for to have gone with us to the said succours; the
+     which our brother of Burgundy we find right a trusty, loving, and
+     faithful brother unto us in all things. But, in our coming from
+     Paris unto this our town of Mante, we were certified upon the
+     way, by certain letters that were sent unto us, that the said
+     pretense Dauphin, for certain causes that moved him, hath raised
+     the said siege, and is gone into the country of Touraine      (p. 301)
+     in great haste, as it is said. And we trust fully unto our Lord
+     that, through his grace and mercy, all things here, that we shall
+     have to do with, shall go well from henceforth, to his plesance
+     and worship; who we beseech devoutly that it so may be, and to
+     have you in his keeping!--Given under our signet, in our host, at
+     our town of Mante, the 12th day of July."
+
+Though the Dauphin avoided Henry altogether, he was forced to engage
+with the Duke of Burgundy's army, and he suffered a most decided
+defeat near Blanche Tache. Henry, meanwhile, was engaged in reducing
+Dreux and other towns, still garrisoned for the Dauphin.
+
+The town of Meaux was so strong, and so well manned, that the siege of
+that one place occupied Henry from the 6th of October through the
+whole winter, and to the very end of the next April. During this
+protracted siege, in which the Earls of Dorset, and of Worcester, and
+Lord Clifford were killed, Henry sent ambassadors to the Emperor
+Sigismund for succours. He had the satisfaction, meanwhile, to hear
+that his Queen was delivered of a son, at Windsor, on St. Nicholas'
+day (December 6th). Whether the common report has any foundation in
+truth, cannot now be certainly known: his father, however, is said to
+have omened ill of the young prince when he heard of the place of his
+birth, and to have spoken thus to Lord Fitz-Hugh, his chamberlain: "My
+lord, I Henry, born at Monmouth, shall small time reign and get much;
+and Henry, born at Windsor, shall long reign and lose all: but     (p. 302)
+God's will be done!" Probably this was a prophecy forged after the
+event, and ascribed to Henry without any foundation in truth.
+
+In the session of Parliament held December 1st, 1421, under the Duke
+of Bedford as Regent, one fifteenth was voted for prosecuting the war,
+with this condition appended, that the first half of it should be paid
+in the money then current. The gold coin had been much lessened in
+value by clipping and washing; consequently the Parliament, to relieve
+the people, ordained that the receivers of the tax should take all
+light pieces, not wanting in weight more than 12_d._ in the noble. The
+people, therefore, got rid of their gold as fast as they could, and
+hoarded up their silver.[229] The Convocation also, which met at York,
+September 22nd, granted a tenth.
+
+                   [Footnote 229: Rot. Pat. ix. Henry V.]
+
+After reducing many towns and castles, Henry proceeded to the Chateau
+Bois de Vincennes, near Paris, to meet his Queen,[230] who had landed
+at Harfleur, on the 21st of May, with a noble retinue, and under
+convoy of the Regent himself. Henry and Katharine entered Paris
+together, where they were magnificently received; the same painful
+contrast still being felt by Charles between his court and that    (p. 303)
+of his heir-apparent. The young King had put the spirit of the
+Parisians to the test by a strong measure, in levying a most unpopular
+tax; but the discontent did not break out into any open tumult. Indeed
+(as the chroniclers record) their resentments were abated, or rather
+turned into affection, when they felt the kind influences of King
+Henry's just and moderate government, and observed his exact
+administration of justice in redressing wrongs, and punishing without
+partiality or favour the authors of them. By this just conduct he
+gained especially the love of the people, who regarded him as their
+father and protector.
+
+                   [Footnote 230: Preparations had been made as early
+                   as January 26th, 1422, for the Queen to leave
+                   England, and meet the King at Rouen, but she did
+                   not start till April.]
+
+The Dauphin in the mean time was anxiously bent on recovering a crown
+from which the victories of Henry, and the displeasure of the King his
+father, had excluded him. His army was comparatively small, and he
+therefore, whilst Henry was with an army in the neighbourhood, avoided
+a battle, keeping always two days' march distant from him. Finding,
+however, that Henry was now, at length, far away, he laid siege to
+Cone, a town on the Loire, the garrison of which agreed to surrender
+on the 16th of August, if they were not by that time relieved by the
+Duke of Burgundy. The Duke not only sent into Flanders and Picardy to
+levy troops to raise this siege, but importuned Henry also to
+strengthen him with English soldiers and officers. The King's answer
+was that he would come himself at the head of his whole army to    (p. 304)
+the Duke's relief. This was his resolution; but God decreed otherwise.
+
+Very shortly after this resolution, Henry was seized by a disorder, on
+the exact nature of which historians are not agreed, which proved
+fatal to him. Yet, though much weakened, he resolved to join his army,
+which, at the first approach of his disorder, he had commanded the
+Duke of Bedford to lead on to raise the siege of Cone. With this
+intention he left the King[231] and Queen of France, and his own
+beloved Katharine, at Senlis, and proceeded to Melun. His complaint
+was then making rapid and deadly progress; and, after having been
+carried in a litter with the intention of passing through his troops,
+he was compelled to return to Vincennes.[232] The Duke of Bedford, who
+had raised the siege of Cone without striking a blow, hearing now of
+the state of danger in which his brother was, left the army, and,
+accompanied by a few friends, rode full speed towards the castle,
+where the King lay.
+
+                   [Footnote 231: The King, his father-in-law,
+                   survived Henry not quite two months: he died
+                   October 21st, 1422.]
+
+                   [Footnote 232: A description and history of this
+                   castle will be found in a work entitled, "Histoire
+                   du Donjon et du Chateau de Vincennes, par L. B.,"
+                   published at Paris in 1807. The Author refers to
+                   the sojourn made in this castle by Henry's son
+                   (King Henry VI.) at the close of the year 1431,
+                   when he visited France for the purpose of being
+                   crowned.]
+
+Henry, sensible that his end was fast approaching, desired the Duke of
+Bedford, the Duke of Exeter, the Earl of Warwick, Sir Lewis        (p. 305)
+Robessart, and some others, to stand round his bed; to whom we are
+told he spoke to this effect: "I am come," said he, "to the end of a
+life which, though short, has yet been glorious, and employed to
+advance the good and honour of my people. I confess it has been spent
+in war and blood; yet, since the only motive of that war was to
+vindicate my rights after I had ineffectually tried milder methods,
+the guilt of all the miseries it occasioned belongs not to me, but to
+my enemies. As death never appeared formidable to me in so many
+battles and sieges, so now, without horror, I regard it making its
+gradual approach. And since it is the will of my Creator now to put a
+period to my day, I cheerfully submit myself to his will." He then
+mentioned two circumstances which tended to make him anxious on
+leaving the world: the one, that the war was not brought to a close;
+the other, that his son was an infant. But he was comforted on both
+these points by the tried friendship and sound principles of the Duke
+of Bedford, his brother; to whom he gave in charge both his kingdom
+and his boy. He then desired the Earl of Warwick to undertake the
+office of preceptor and guide to the young prince in learning and in
+arms. Henry next left a charge for his brother Humfrey to be careful
+that no division of affection and interests should take place between
+them; he conjured them also not to quarrel with the Duke of Burgundy,
+and enjoined them not to release the Duke of Orleans, and some     (p. 306)
+other prisoners, till his son was arrived at years of discretion.
+
+This was a mournful hour for those noblemen and friends and relatives
+who surrounded his bed. At length, having given all necessary
+directions for the government of his kingdom and his family,[233] he
+fixed his thoughts wholly on another world. He urged the physicians to
+tell him the real state of his disease; but they evaded any direct
+answer. Very soon he required them to tell him how long, in all human
+probability, he had to live. After some consultation, one of them,
+speaking for the rest, knelt down and said, "Sir, think of your soul;
+for, without a miracle, in our judgment you cannot survive two hours."
+His confessor and other ministers of religion then surrounded his bed,
+and administered the parting rite of the Roman church, as it was at
+that time and is still practised. He next desired them to join in the
+seven penitential psalms; and when in the 51st psalm they read, "Build
+thou the walls of Jerusalem," caught by the words, Henry bade them
+stop awhile; and with a loud voice declared to them, on the faith of a
+dying person, that it verily had been his fixed purpose, after
+settling peace in France, to proceed against the infidels, and rescue
+Jerusalem from their tyranny, if it had pleased his Creator to     (p. 307)
+lengthen out his days. He then requested them to proceed; and when
+they had finished their devotions, between two and three o'clock in
+the morning, he breathed his last.
+
+                   [Footnote 233: Elmham says, Henry added several
+                   codicils to his Will, leaving large sums to
+                   discharge the debts not only of himself, but also
+                   of his father, and also to reward many of his
+                   faithful servants.]
+
+Henry of Monmouth died 31st August 1422; and when he resigned his soul
+into the hands of his Redeemer, he seemed to fall asleep rather than
+to expire.[234]
+
+                   [Footnote 234: Elmham.]
+
+Such a Christian end of his mortal existence is not surprising when we
+remember (a point on which his own chaplain will not suffer us to
+doubt,) that every day of his life he read and meditated upon the word
+of God, for the express purpose of learning how best to fear and serve
+him; a daily exercise (says the chaplain) from which, when he was
+engaged in it, no one even of his chief nobles and the great men of
+his state[235] could withdraw him.[236]
+
+                   [Footnote 235: Sloane, 64.]
+
+                   [Footnote 236: It is satisfactory to find, even
+                   among the mere details of expenditure, testimony
+                   borne to his love of the Holy Scriptures. Among his
+                   last domestic expenses is this interesting item:
+                   "To John Heth 3_l._ 6_s._ for sixty-six quarterns
+                   of calfskins, purchased and provided by the said
+                   John, to write a Bible thereon for the use of the
+                   King."--Pell Rolls, February 23, 1422, just six
+                   months before his death.]
+
+     The bowels of Henry were buried in the monastery of St. Maur; and
+     his body embalmed, being put into a leaden coffin, was drawn to
+     St. Denis. Before and behind the corpse were two lamps burning;
+     and two hundred and fifty torches gave light to the procession.
+     The Abbot and Monks of St. Denis came out to meet it, and
+     solemnly preceded it to their church, where they performed    (p. 308)
+     the office for the dead, the Archbishop of Paris singing the
+     requiem. From St. Denis the procession advanced to Paris, where
+     the body was deposited for a while in Notre Dame; and thence,
+     with great and solemn pomp, it was carried to Rouen. The Queen,
+     from whom the death of her husband had been before concealed,
+     here met the Duke of Bedford; and made preparations for the
+     conveyance of the body to England. In a bed, in the same carriage
+     with the body, was laid the figure of the King, with a crown of
+     gold on his head, a sceptre in his right hand, and a ball in his
+     left. The covering of the bed was vermilion silk embroidered with
+     gold, and over the chariot was a rich silk canopy. The chariot
+     was drawn by six horses in rich harness. The first bore the arms
+     of St. George, the second, the arms of Normandy; the third, those
+     of King Arthur; the fourth, those of St. Edward; the fifth, the
+     arms of France; the sixth, the arms of England and France. James,
+     King of Scots, followed it as principal mourner. The banners of
+     the saints were borne by four lords. The hatchments were carried
+     by twelve captains; and around the carriage rode five hundred
+     men-at-arms, all in black armour,--their horses barbed black, and
+     their lances held with the points downwards. A great company
+     clothed in white, and bearing lighted torches, "encompassed the
+     hearse." Those of the King's household followed, and after them
+     the royal family; the Queen, with a great retinue, followed at a
+     league's distance. Whenever the corpse rested masses were sung
+     from the first dawn of the morning till nine o'clock. The
+     procession passed through Abbeville to Calais; and crossing to
+     Dover, proceeded with the same solemnities towards London. When
+     they approached the capital, they were met by fifteen bishops in
+     their pontifical habits, and many abbots in their mitres and
+     vestments, with a great company of priests and people. The
+     princes of the royal family went mourning next to the hearse. The
+     corpse was buried in Westminster Abbey, among its most valued
+     treasures.
+
+Among the public acts[237] of the realm his death is thus          (p. 309)
+recorded:
+
+                   [Footnote 237: Acts of Privy Council. Cleopatra, F.
+                   iv. f. I. a.]
+
+     "DEPARTED THIS LIFE, AT THE CASTLE OF BOIS DE VINCENNES, NEAR
+     PARIS, ON THE LAST DAY OF AUGUST, IN THE YEAR 1422, AND THE TENTH
+     OF HIS REIGN, THE MOST CHRISTIAN CHAMPION OF THE CHURCH, THE
+     BRIGHT BEAM OF WISDOM, THE MIRROR OF JUSTICE, THE UNCONQUERED
+     KING, THE FLOWER AND PRIDE OF ALL CHIVALRY--*HENRY THE FIFTH*, KING
+     OF ENGLAND, HEIR AND REGENT OF FRANCE, AND LORD OF IRELAND."
+
+Here we would have drawn the curtain round the bed of Henry of
+Monmouth; but truth and justice compel us to tarry somewhat longer in
+the chamber of death. The tongue and pen of calumny have not suffered
+the dying hero to pour out his soul with his last breath in prayer and
+pious ejaculations unmolested; and the accuser's name is too widely
+known, and has unhappily gained too much influence in the world, for
+his calumnies to be passed over as harmless. Henry, having "set his
+house in order," and being certified how short a time he had to live,
+declares, on the faith of a dying man, that he had been fully resolved
+(had the Almighty granted him length of days to put his resolve into
+effect) to proceed in person to the Holy Land, and rescue the city of
+God from the pollutions and abominations of the infidels. In recording
+this declaration of the expiring monarch, Hume adds a comment as full
+of bitter sarcasm as it is tinctured with his characteristic       (p. 310)
+spirit of scepticism. "So ingenious are men in deceiving themselves,
+that Henry forgot in these moments all the blood spilt by his
+ambition, and received comfort from this late and feeble resolve;
+which, as the mode of those enterprises was now past, he certainly
+would never have carried into execution." Had Hume been as faithful
+and painstaking in the search of truth, as he was ready to adopt the
+account of any transaction which was nearest at hand, and unscrupulous
+in substituting his own hasty remarks in the place of well-weighed
+reflections on ascertained facts, he never would have suffered so
+ignorant and ill-founded a comment to disgrace his pages. Hume[238]
+charges Henry with having left the world, forgetful of the
+bloodguiltiness by which his soul was stained, and with a sentence of
+hypocrisy and falsehood on his lips. To the first charge,--that Henry,
+at the awful moment of his dissolution, deceived himself into a
+forgetfulness "of all the blood spilt by his ambition,"--needs only to
+be replied, that so far from his having forgotten the loss of human
+life attendant upon his wars, the very page on which the historian is
+so severely commenting, records that Henry spoke of that subject
+openly and unreservedly to those who stood around his bed, expressing
+his sure trust that the guilt of that blood did not stain his soul,
+who sought only his just inheritance; but rested on the heads of   (p. 311)
+those who, by their obstinate perseverance in injustice, compelled
+him to appeal to the God of battle in vindication of his own rights.
+
+                   [Footnote 238: Hume's Hist. vol. iii. ch. xix.]
+
+Again, Henry declares, on the faith of a dying Christian Prince, that
+it had verily been his fixed resolution, as soon as his wars in France
+had been brought to a favourable issue, to proceed to the Holy Land.
+Hume says that this was a late and feeble resolve; and the ground on
+which he rests this charge of falsehood is, that the mode of those
+enterprises was then past. Hume ought to have known, as an ordinary
+historian, that the mode of those enterprises was not then past; and
+Hume might have known that Henry's was not a death-bed resolve, to
+which the expiring self-deceiver clung for comfort when the world was
+receding from his sight; but that in his health and strength, and in
+the mid-career of his victories, he had actually taken preliminary
+measures for facilitating the execution of that very design.
+
+With regard to the first position asserted by Hume, that "the mode of
+these enterprises was gone by," the facts of history are so far from
+authorizing him to make such an assertion, that they combine to expose
+its rashness and unsoundness. When Henry succeeded to the throne, he
+found a large naval and military force actually prepared by his father
+for the proclaimed purpose of executing such an enterprise, the
+undertaking of which was only prevented by his death.[239] And     (p. 312)
+even a century after, the mode of those enterprises had not yet
+passed; for Pope Leo X. successfully negociated a league between the
+chief powers of Christendom, engaging them to unite against the
+infidel dominion of the Turk. Not only were such crusades subjects of
+serious and practical consideration in Europe just before Henry's
+accession to the throne, and a full century after it, but, during the
+last years of Henry's life, most vigorous and persevering exertions
+were made by the Sovereign Pontiff to effect an immediate expedition
+of the confederated powers of Christendom to Palestine, with the
+avowed purpose of crushing the power of the infidels. The histories of
+those times bear varied evidence to the same points: we must here,
+however, confine our attention to some facts more immediately
+connected with the case before us. In the year 1420,[240] July 12,
+Pope Martin V, conceiving that Sigismund would very shortly bring the
+war which he was then waging against the Hussites in Bohemia to an
+end, in a bull dated Florence calls upon all Kings, Prelates, Lords,
+and people, adjuring them most solemnly, by the shedding of Christ's
+blood, to join Sigismund, and under his standard to invade the     (p. 313)
+lands of the Turks, and to exterminate them. He urges the formation of
+one grand general army, and for all true men to take the cross; with
+his apostolic promise to all who should so assume the cross, and join
+the army in their own persons and at their own charges, and also to
+all who should take up arms with the _bona fide_ intention of joining
+the army, should they die on their journey, a full remission of all
+sins of which they should have repented from the heart, and confessed
+with the mouth; and, "in the retribution of the just, we promise them
+(says the Pontiff) an increase of eternal salvation."[241]
+
+                   [Footnote 239: Fabyan, 388.]
+
+                   [Footnote 240: Annales Ecclesiastici, vol. xii.
+                   Ann. 1517. See much interesting matter relating to
+                   the whole of this subject in these Annales
+                   Ecclesiastici of Baronius, continued by Raynaldus.]
+
+                   [Footnote 241: Florentiae, iv. idus Julii, anno 3.
+                   Annales Eccles. v. viii.]
+
+In the following year the Pope wrote a most urgent letter to
+Sigismund, pressing upon him, before and above all things, the duty of
+extirpating the heresy in Bohemia; assuring him that, however
+brilliant might be his career in other respects, yet by no means could
+he so well secure the favour of God, renown among men, and the
+stability of his throne. The Pontiff, in the same year, wrote
+repeatedly to Henry, King of England, urging him to consent to terms
+of peace between his country and France. We should have been glad had
+we been able to contemplate the Pontiff of Rome, in the character of a
+Christian mediator, urging two contending nations to be reconciled,
+solely with the Christian desire of stopping the dominion of war and
+blood, reconciling those who were at variance, checking the        (p. 314)
+violent passions of mankind, and restoring to Europe the blessing of
+peace. But his desire was to reconcile France and England, in order
+that the concentrated powers of the faithful in Europe might be turned
+against the heretics in the north; and, when they were exterminated,
+then that the same forces might proceed to crush the infidel, and
+rescue the lands of the faithful from his grasp. The ecclesiastical
+historian,[242] who records the letters of the Sovereign Pontiff,
+assures us that Henry, King of England, had been repeatedly admonished
+by "the vicar of Christ to make peace with the French, and to dedicate
+to Christ his skill in war against the Turks, those savage enemies of
+the Gospel; adding (what the facts of the case did not justify him in
+saying,) that, in the agonies of his last illness, Henry confessed
+that he was dreadfully tormented with remorse because he had not
+consecrated his martial powers by waging war against the
+Mahometans."[243] Surely this testimony is of itself sufficient to
+rescue Henry's memory from having vowed that he had resolved to do
+what he knew he never could have done. "The mode of those          (p. 315)
+enterprises was" not "past."
+
+                   [Footnote 242: Raynaldus, Annales Ecclesiastici,
+                   vol. viii. p. 556.]
+
+                   [Footnote 243: It is not to be forgotten that Henry
+                   of Monmouth had from his very childhood been
+                   interested by accounts of the state of Palestine.
+                   His father, as we have seen, went himself to the
+                   Holy Sepulchre; and, even during Henry's wars in
+                   France, his uncle, the Bishop of Winchester,
+                   visited Constance as he was proceeding in the guise
+                   of a pilgrim to the Holy Land.]
+
+But Hume would have it believed that this was a late and feeble
+resolve of Henry, formed on his death-bed, when he was acting the part
+of a self-deceiver, forgetful of the lamentable effects of his
+ambition, and seeking comfort from his self-deception in the last
+moments of his life. There is strong and clear evidence that he not
+only had contemplated such a measure, but had actually taken important
+preliminary steps to facilitate the execution of his design, whenever
+he might be happily released from his present engagements. "This
+vindicatory evidence" (to use the words of Mr. Granville Penn)[244]
+"of the veracity and sincerity of Henry, is a manuscript discovered at
+Lille, in Flanders, in the autumn of 1819, which proves to positive
+demonstration, that at the moment when Henry was suddenly arrested in
+his victorious progress by the hand of death, his mind was actually,
+though secretly, engaged in projecting an attack on the infidel power
+in Egypt and Syria, as soon as he should have pacified the internal
+agitations of France; and that a confidential military agent of high
+character and distinguished rank had been despatched by him to survey
+the maritime frontier of those two countries, and to procure, upon the
+spot, the information necessary towards embarking in so vast an    (p. 316)
+enterprise.
+
+                   [Footnote 244: Mr. Granville Penn's interesting
+                   paper was read before the Royal Society of
+                   Literature at their first meeting in the year 1825,
+                   and is recorded in the first volume of their
+                   Transactions.]
+
+"The manuscript is a small quarto in vellum, in old French, finely
+written in black character, and richly illuminated; consisting of
+fifty-four pages, and comprising a succinct military survey of the
+coasts and defences of Egypt and Syria, from Alexandria round to
+Gallipoli, made by the command of Henry within the three last years of
+his life, and completed and reported immediately after his unexpected
+death, by which death it was rendered unavailing. The confidential
+author of this survey was Gilbert de Lannoi, counsellor and
+chamberlain to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, and that Duke's
+ambassador to Henry."
+
+The same writer thus expresses himself in conclusion. "His declaration
+was not the prompting of a sickly conscience striving to procure
+delusive comfort from 'the late and feeble' resolves of a death-bed,
+as Hume unworthily asserts; it was the composed and deliberate
+communication of a dying captain and sovereign, disclosing to those
+around him, under a strong sentiment of devotion, a secret of that
+kingly office which he was then on the point of relinquishing for
+ever. To enter upon an appreciation of the moral value of the
+enterprise which Henry had then in prospect, would be as much out of
+place here, as it would be absurd to estimate it by the rule of the
+present age. In those ages, when all the higher orders of society
+were either clerical or martial, much real piety of sentiment      (p. 317)
+must, in innumerable instances, have been compounded with the
+widely-extended romantic spirit which was ardent to hazard life on
+sacred ground of Judea, rather than to suffer the continuance of its
+profanation by the avowed enemy of the Christian name.
+
+"The establishment of this point, certifying, as it does an
+interesting fact hitherto unknown, and effectually repelling and
+exposing an unjustifiable sarcasm directed against one of the most
+illustrious princes that have graced the English crown, may acquire in
+the history of truth the importance to which it might not be able to
+lay claim in the political history of a people."[245]
+
+                   [Footnote 245: This same interesting subject is far
+                   more elaborately discussed by that excellent
+                   antiquary the Rev. John Webb; whose Introductory
+                   Dissertation and Illustrative Notes, (in the
+                   Archaeologia, vol. xxi. p. 281,) abound with most
+                   valuable information. The title prefixed to
+                   Lannoi's work is this:
+
+                   "The Report made by Sir Gilbert de Lannoy, Knight,
+                   upon surveys of several cities, ports, and rivers,
+                   taken by him in Egypt and Syria, in the year of
+                   grace of our Lord 1422, by order of the most high,
+                   most puissant, and most excellent prince, King
+                   Henry of England, heir and Regent of France, whom
+                   God assoil." The whole of Mr. Webb's paper well
+                   deserves perusal.]
+
+In dismissing the immediate subject of this inquiry, the Author of
+these Memoirs feels himself under the painful necessity of recording
+his deliberate judgment on the inaccuracies of that celebrated writer,
+whose reflections upon Henry's dying declaration have been         (p. 318)
+animadverted upon here. Through the whole series of years to the
+events of which these Memoirs are chiefly limited, he has been able to
+find very few transactions in recording or commenting upon which Hume
+has not been guilty of error; whilst the mistakes into which he has
+fallen (some more, some less, gravely affecting the character of an
+historian,) are generally such as an examination of the best evidence,
+conducted with ordinary care, would have enabled him successfully to
+avoid. Hume, unfortunately, supplied himself without stint from the
+stream after it had mingled with many turbid and discolouring waters.
+To draw, in each case of doubt and difficulty, from the well-head of
+historical truth, would have exacted more time and labour than he was
+ready to bestow. Had he prescribed to himself a system of research the
+very opposite to that in which he unhappily indulged, instead of
+representing Henry of Monmouth to have left the world with the
+falsehood of a self-deceiver on his tongue, he would have been
+compelled to record him as a man of piety, mercy, and truth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.                                                      (p. 319)
+
+WAS HENRY OF MONMOUTH A PERSECUTOR? -- JUST PRINCIPLES OF CONDUCTING
+THE INQUIRY, AND FORMING THE JUDGMENT. -- MODERN CHARGE AGAINST HENRY.
+-- REVIEW OF THE PREVALENT OPINIONS ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. -- TRUE
+PRINCIPLES OF CHRISTIAN FREEDOM. -- DUTY OF THE STATE AND OF
+INDIVIDUALS TO PROMOTE THE PREVALENCE OF TRUE RELIGION. -- CHARGE
+AGAINST HENRY, AS PRINCE OF WALES, FOR PRESENTING A PETITION AGAINST
+THE LOLLARDS. -- THE MERCIFUL INTENTION OF THAT PETITION. -- HIS
+CONDUCT AT THE DEATH OF BADBY.
+
+WAS HENRY OF MONMOUTH A PERSECUTOR?
+
+
+In estimating the character of an individual, nothing is more
+calculated to mislead ourselves, or to subject him to injustice at our
+hands, than a disregard of the time, and country, and circumstances in
+which he lived. It is equally unwise, and unfair, and deceitful, for a
+human judge to establish one fixed standard[246] of excellence in any
+department whatever of scientific or practical knowledge, and      (p. 320)
+then to try the merits of all persons alike with reference to that
+one test. The injustice and absurdity of estimating the talents for
+investigation and acumen, the skill, and industry, and perseverance of
+a chemical student, many centuries ago, by the knowledge of the most
+celebrated men of the present day, and to pronounce all who fell below
+that standard to have been deficient in natural talents, or in a
+faithful exercise of them, would be seen and acknowledged by all. At
+this time, errors in navigation would be unpardonable, which would
+have implicated a pilot in no culpability at all, who lived before the
+invention of the mariner's compass, and when half our globe was as yet
+unknown. The same observations are applicable when we would estimate
+the moral excellence of an individual, his worth in a private or a
+public capacity, his character as a subject or a governor,--as the
+framer, or the guardian, or the administrator of the laws. Many a
+practice in ordinary social intercourse, which would not be tolerated,
+and would fix a stigma on those who were examples of it as persons to
+be shunned and excluded from society in one age or country, might in
+another not only be endured, but be even countenanced and encouraged
+by those who would take the lead in the improvement and refinement (p. 321)
+of civilized life. The grand broad fundamental principles of right and
+wrong must abstractedly be acknowledged always and in every place; but
+in the interpretation[247] of them, and in their practical
+application, we shall find in the records of successive ages every
+conceivable diversity. If, in these days, we are tempted to brand with
+the mark of ignorance, and superstition, and cruelty, those among our
+predecessors who enacted laws against witchcraft, and condemned to
+death those who were found guilty of dealings with the spirit of
+wickedness, we must at the same time remember that persons who are
+examples of every Christian excellence, of reverence for God's law, of
+justice and charity, are now engaged in occupations which those men
+held in abhorrence. They believed in the reality of witchcraft, and
+condemned those who were pronounced guilty of the crime; we believe
+that the crime cannot be committed, that it is merely a creature of
+the imagination, and we denominate those who pretend to the power of
+committing it impostors: just as by the Mosaic law they were condemned
+as deceivers, pretending to possess a power and knowledge independently
+of the Almighty. Our predecessors considered the lending of        (p. 322)
+money upon interest as an offence against the law of God, and
+reprobated those who so employed their capital as usurers, who had
+forfeited all title to the name of merciful Christians;--whilst in the
+present day the most scrupulous person does not hesitate, as in a
+matter of conscience, to depend for the means of subsistence on such a
+source of income. Assuming that in each of these two cases our views
+are formed on a sounder principle of moral and religious philosophy,
+we have no more right to disparage the character of any individual,
+who did his best in the midst of less favourable circumstances, than
+we should have to reprobate the helmsman of former days, because in
+the darkness of a starless night he had no compass wherewith to save
+his ship from wreck.
+
+                   [Footnote 246: The Bible is always and everywhere
+                   the standard of divine truth; but to condemn an
+                   individual for wilful ignorance of its heavenly
+                   doctrines, to whom no opportunity has been afforded
+                   of learning them, would be unreasonable and unjust.
+                   A corresponding principle applies to the
+                   interpretation of the Bible. Our responsibility in
+                   every case increases with our privileges and
+                   opportunities.]
+
+                   [Footnote 247: It will be borne in mind, that the
+                   question here is not whether there be not one
+                   immutable principle, nor whether there ought not to
+                   be one uniform interpretation of that principle; we
+                   are inquiring only into the nature of that rule by
+                   which we may equitably judge of the moral and
+                   religious characters of men.]
+
+These principles must be borne in mind, and acted upon whenever we
+would examine the spirit and character of any individual on the charge
+of superstition, bigotry, cruelty, and unchristian persecution. Had
+not these principles unhappily been laid aside for a time and
+forgotten, we should scarcely have been pained by so severe a portrait
+of Henry of Monmouth, as a writer who ought to have known better has
+drawn, not in the warmth of debate and the hurry of controversy, but
+in the hour of reflection and quietude. "In the midst of these
+tragedies died Henry V, whose military greatness is known to most
+readers. His vast capacity and talents for government have been    (p. 323)
+also justly celebrated. But what is man without the genuine fear
+of God? This monarch, in the former part of his life, was remarkable
+for dissipation and extravagance of conduct; in the latter he became
+the slave of the popedom,[248] and for that reason was called the
+Prince of Priests. Voluptuousness, ambition, superstition, each in
+their turn, had the ascendant in this extraordinary character. Such,
+however, is the dazzling nature of personal bravery and of prosperity,
+that even the ignorance and folly of the bigot, and the barbarities of
+the persecutor, are lost or forgotten amidst the enterprises of the
+hero and the successes of the conqueror. Reason and justice lift   (p. 324)
+up their voice in vain. The great and substantial defects of Henry V.
+must hardly be touched on by Englishmen. The battle of Agincourt
+throws a delusive splendour around the name of this victorious
+King."[249]
+
+                   [Footnote 248: The attachment of Henry to the See
+                   of Rome, and the countenance given by him to the
+                   encroachments of the Pope, have been greatly
+                   exaggerated. Rapin took a different view of his
+                   measures. "The proclamation" (he says) "made by
+                   Henry, prohibiting the Pope's provisions, was a
+                   death-blow to the court of Rome." On the death of
+                   Henry, the Pope wrote a letter of condolence to the
+                   council, in which he says, "We loved our son of
+                   famous memory, Henry King of England, for there
+                   were many and royal virtues in that Prince for
+                   which he ought to be loved;" and then adds a strong
+                   appeal to the council to abrogate the obnoxious
+                   statutes which had so materially entrenched upon
+                   his assumed prerogative. In a letter to Henry
+                   himself (Kal. Nov. xiv. An. iv.) nearly two years
+                   before his death, the Pope refers to a promise made
+                   by Henry that he had no desire to curtail the
+                   authority of the Roman See in his new dominions;
+                   and also to an undertaking that he would bring the
+                   obnoxious statutes under the notice of his
+                   parliament; and that, "_if they could not be
+                   supported on honest and lawful grounds_," he would
+                   satisfy the Pope in that particular. Surely these
+                   are not the expressions of one who was "the slave
+                   of the Popedom."--See "Annales Ecclesiastici."]
+
+                   [Footnote 249: Milner's Church History, vol. iv. p.
+                   196.]
+
+It is very painful to read this sentence; but the historian and
+biographer must not be driven by such sweeping condemnation into the
+opposite extreme; nor be deterred by the apprehension of unpopularity
+from laying open his views both of the moral and religious question in
+the abstract, and also of the acts, and character, and spirit of the
+individual subject of inquiry.
+
+The principles of religious liberty were ill understood through many
+years before, and subsequently to, the time of Henry V. The sentiments
+of persons in every rank of life in those days seem to have been built
+upon an understanding, that the authorities, ecclesiastical and civil,
+were bound in duty to expel heresy by force. It was not the case of a
+dominant party enacting penalties abhorrent from the sympathies of the
+mass of the people; "the people themselves wished to have it so, and
+the priests bore rule by their means." So thorough a triumph had the
+gigantic policy of Rome achieved over the freedom, and the wills, and
+the judgments of the inhabitants of Europe! Like her other victories,
+this too was the work of progressive inroads on the liberties      (p. 325)
+of Christians. Never at rest, ever active, the arch-conqueror fastened
+to her chariot-wheels, one by one, the most valued rights and most
+solemn duties of responsible agents. The right of private judgment in
+matters of religion had been resigned by the vast majority of the
+people of Christendom, and the duty and responsibility in each
+individual of searching for the truth himself had been laid aside long
+before Henry V. was called to take a part in the affairs of this
+world. Bold and noble spirits, indeed, were found in successive
+periods to assert their own rights and to declare the privileges and
+the duties of their fellow-creatures, and to think for themselves in a
+matter which so deeply involved their own individual and eternal
+welfare; whilst the bulk of mankind in Christendom not only resigned
+their faith to the absolute control of the priesthood, but exacted
+also from their fellow-citizens a similar surrender, on pain of losing
+their share in the protection and advantages of the state. Thus had
+heresy, in various nations of Europe, become synonymous with rebellion
+and treason; a rejection of the determinations of the church in
+matters of doctrine was identified in most men's minds with rejection
+of the authority of the civil magistrate;[250] and every one who dared
+to dispute the jurisdiction of Rome was regarded as a dangerous    (p. 326)
+innovator, and an enemy to his own country.
+
+                   [Footnote 250: This view of heresy we find to have
+                   been at a very early date propagated and encouraged
+                   by the Pope and the See of Rome. Walsingham
+                   records, that, three years before Richard II.'s
+                   deposition from the throne, "the Pope wrote to him
+                   with a prayer (orans) that he would assist the
+                   prelates of the church in the cause of God, and of
+                   the King himself, and of the kingdom, against the
+                   Lollards; whom he declared to be traitors, not only
+                   of the church, but of the throne. And he besought
+                   him with the greatest urgency (obnixius) to condemn
+                   those whom the prelates should have declared
+                   heretics.--Ypod. Neust. 1396.]
+
+That this was a state of things to be deplored by every friend of
+liberty and lover of truth, is not questioned; that domination over
+the consciences of men has ever been the object of the church of Rome,
+and that the spirit of persecution will ever be characteristic of her
+principles, is not here denied; nor are these observations made for
+the purpose of softening the feelings of abhorrence with which any
+persons may be disposed to view the proceedings of a persecuting
+spirit in those things which concern our most momentous interests so
+awfully. We refer to these historical reminiscences solely for the
+purpose of forming a more correct estimate of the individual character
+of one who lived in those times, and was born, and cradled, and
+educated in that atmosphere. It is easy to charge Henry V. with "the
+ignorance and folly of the bigot, and the barbarities of the
+persecutor;" but it were more worthy of a historian (his eye bent
+singly on the truth) to substitute inquiry for assumption, and     (p. 327)
+careful weighing of the evidence for indiscriminate condemnation.
+There is such a thing as persecution, though the dungeon and the stake
+be not employed for its instruments; and true charity will be tender
+of the character of a fellow-mortal, though he is removed from this
+scene of trouble and trial, and has no longer the power of answering
+the accusations with which his good name is assailed. We may be as
+honest as those who write most bitterly, in our abhorrence of
+persecution; and yet think the individual who put its most rigid laws
+into effect, deserving of compassion and pity that his lot had fallen
+in such days of bigotry and ignorance, rather than of reprobation for
+not having discovered for himself a more enlightened path of duty.
+
+It is not because we are obliged to confess that even the outward acts
+of Henry V. have been those of a persecutor, that these preliminary
+remarks are offered; it is rather to prepare our minds for a fair
+examination of his conduct, with reference to the only just and equal
+standard; for a candid and searching analysis of the evidence drawn
+from original sources, before it has become turbid and coloured by the
+channel through which it is often forced to flow; and for an
+unprejudiced judgment on his character,--a judgment perverted neither,
+on the one hand, by the dazzling splendour of his victories, nor, on
+the other, by that very common but most iniquitous principle of    (p. 328)
+adjudication condemns the accused from hatred of the crime laid to
+his charge. The Author's sentiments on the character of religious
+persecution in general, and of the persecuting spirit of the church of
+Rome in particular, need not be disguised. He would never be disposed
+to acquit Henry V, or any other person, from a feeling of sympathy
+with the spirit of persecution.
+
+The religion of the Gospel abhors all persecution. The faith of Christ
+must be maintained and propagated by more holy and heavenly weapons
+than those which can be forged by human authority and power.
+Persecution prevails in a Christian community only so far as the
+genuine spirit of the Gospel is quenched or checked among its members.
+The church has a power of compelling men to come to Christ, and to
+embrace the true faith, but its instruments of compulsion must be
+spiritual only: its sword must be supplied from God's own armoury. The
+sentence, "Having the terrors of the Lord, we persuade men," conveys
+an idea of tremendous consequences in store for those who refuse to
+obey the truth; but the consequences are reserved for the immediate
+dispensation of Him "who knoweth the thoughts." That believers, when
+possessed of temporal power, should have recourse to bodily restraint,
+and torture, and death, as the earthly punishment of those who
+entertain unsound doctrine, is a monstrous invention, which can    (p. 329)
+derive no countenance from "the Word," and must be supported only
+by a worldly sword, and the arm of man wielding it. If, indeed,
+Christians are so far forgetful of the spirit of the Gospel as, on the
+plea of defending and spreading its genuine doctrines, to disturb the
+peace, and shake the foundations, and threaten the overthrow of
+society, the civil magistrate, whether Christian or heathen, will
+interpose. But neither has he, more than the church, any authority
+whatever for interfering by violence with the faith of any one. It is
+the duty of a Christian magistrate to provide for his people the means
+of religious instruction, and worship, and consolation; but, on the
+principles which alone can be justified, he must leave them at liberty
+to reject or to avail themselves of the benefit. Their neglect, or
+their abuse of it, will form a subject of inquiry at another tribunal;
+and the final, irreversible judgment to be pronounced there, man has
+no right to anticipate by pain and punishment on earth. These are the
+true principles of Christianity, and a church departs from the Gospel
+whenever these principles are neglected.
+
+In adopting, however, these principles, and making them practically
+one's own, it must never be forgotten that there is a danger of
+confounding them, as they are unhappily too often confounded, with the
+results of a philosophy, falsely so called, which would teach
+governments to be indifferent to the religion of their people,     (p. 330)
+and would encourage individuals to take no interest in the
+dissemination of religious truth. East is not more opposed to west,
+than the spirit of persecution, which would compel others by secular
+punishments to make profession of whatever doctrines the government of
+a country may adopt, is opposed to that Christian wisdom which
+maintains it to be equally the bounden duty of the state to provide
+for the religious instruction and comfort of its members, as it is the
+duty of a father to train up his own children in the faith and fear of
+God. The poles are not further asunder, than that holy anxiety for the
+salvation of our fellow-creatures which would impel Christians, to the
+very utmost bound of the sphere of their influence, to promote as well
+unity in the faith as the bond of peace and righteousness of life, is
+removed from that narrow bigotry which fixes on those who differ from
+ourselves the charge of wilful blindness, and obstinate hatred of the
+truth, to be visited by man's rebuke here, and God's displeasure for
+ever.[251] A wise and pious writer of our own has said,[252]       (p. 331)
+"Show me the man who would desire to travel to heaven alone,
+regardless of his fellow-creature's progress thitherward, and in that
+same person I will show you one who will never be admitted there." The
+principle applies equally to an individual and a commonwealth. Show me
+a State which neglects to provide for the spiritual edification and
+comfort of its members, and in its institutions proves itself
+unconcerned as to the advancement of religious truth, and in that
+State you see a commonwealth whose counsels are not guided by the
+spirit of the Gospel, and therefore on which, however for a time it
+may shine and dazzle men's eyes with the splendour of conquest, and be
+making gigantic strides in secular aggrandizement, the blessing    (p. 332)
+of the God of Truth and Love cannot be expected to descend.
+
+                   [Footnote 251: For Christians of the present age,
+                   and in our country, to pass through life without
+                   partaking in any persecution, such as once
+                   disgraced our legislature and the executive
+                   government, does not necessarily imply a freedom of
+                   the conscience from a persecuting spirit. The
+                   Christian can now evince the real tone and temper
+                   of his mind only in his behaviour towards his
+                   fellow-creatures, and by the sentiments to which he
+                   gives utterance. The Author hopes he may be
+                   pardoned, if he ventures, in further illustration
+                   of his principles on this subject, to make an
+                   extract from his sermon lately preached at the
+                   consecration of the Bishop of Salisbury. "In his
+                   intercourse with those Christians whose sentiments
+                   do not coincide with our own, the Christian
+                   minister will never by laxity of expression or
+                   conduct encourage in any an indifference to truth
+                   and error, nor countenance the insidious workings
+                   of latitudinarian principles. He will ever maintain
+                   the truth, but never with acrimony; and, whilst his
+                   duty compels him to banish and drive away all false
+                   doctrine, he will feel and show towards the persons
+                   of such as are in error compassionate indulgence
+                   and forbearing tenderness. He knows that truth can
+                   be only on one side, but he acknowledges that
+                   sincerity may be on both; and he will set his mind
+                   on winning back again by mild argument and
+                   conciliatory conduct those who have gone astray,
+                   rather than by severity in exposing their faults,
+                   and a cold, forbidding, and hostile bearing,
+                   indispose them to examine their mistaken views, and
+                   confirm them in their spirit of alienation."]
+
+                   [Footnote 252: Owen Feltham.]
+
+A Christian legislature is bound by the most solemn of all
+obligations to supply with parental care the means which, in the
+honest exercise of its wisdom, it deems best fitted for converting the
+community into a people serving God; each obedient to his law here,
+each personally preparing for the awful change from time to eternity.
+But with each individual member of the community, from those who make
+its laws or administer them to the humblest labourer for his daily
+bread, it must ultimately be left to accept or to reject, to cultivate
+or neglect, the offered blessing. The moment compulsion interferes
+with the free choice of the individual, the religion of the heart and
+the outward observance cease to coincide, and hypocrisy, not faith
+working by love, is the result. "Persecution[253] either punishes a
+man for keeping a good conscience, or forces him into a bad
+conscience; it either punishes sincerity, or persuades hypocrisy; it
+persecutes a truth, or drives into error; and it teaches a man to
+dissemble and to be safe, but never to be honest."
+
+                   [Footnote 253: Bishop Taylor's "Liberty of
+                   Prophesying," 13.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+With these observations we would proceed to inquire historically into
+the personal character of Henry V. with regard to religious
+persecution; a prince who lived when all Christendom was full of   (p. 333)
+the darkness of bigotry and superstition, and when persecution had
+established its "cruel habitations" in every corner of the land.
+
+The first occasion on which Henry of Monmouth's name is in any way
+connected with religious intolerance and persecution, is recorded in
+the Rolls of Parliament, 7 and 8 Henry IV. The circumstance is thus
+stated by Prynne,[254] or whoever was the author of the passage which
+is now found in the "Abridgment of Records in the Tower." "At this
+time the clergy suborned Henry, Prince, for and in the name of the
+clergy, and Sir John Tibetott the Speaker, for and in behalf of the
+Commons, to exhibit a long and _bloody_ bill against certain men
+called Lollards,--namely, against them that taught or preached
+anything against the temporal livings of the clergy. Other points
+touching Lollardy I read none; only this is to be marked, for the
+better expedition in this exploit, they joined prophecies touching the
+King's estate, and such as whispered and bruited that King Richard (p. 334)
+should be living; the which they inserted, to the end that by the same
+subtlety they might the better achieve against the poor Lollards
+aforesaid. Wherein note a most unlawful and monstrous tyranny; for the
+request of the same bill was, that every officer, or other minister
+whatever might apprehend and inquire of such Lollards without any
+other commission, and that no sanctuary should hold them."
+
+                   [Footnote 254: This work, "published by William
+                   Prynne, Esq. a Bencher of Lincoln's Inn, 1657," is
+                   ascribed by him to Cotton; but it proves not to
+                   have been written by Cotton, but by the two
+                   brothers William and Robert Bowyer. See manuscript
+                   note, by Francis Hargrave, at the commencement of
+                   his copy in the British Museum. What notes and
+                   observations came from the author, whether Cotton
+                   or one of the Bowyers, and what were added and
+                   interwoven by Prynne, it seems impossible to
+                   determine. This passage (p. 456) apparently carries
+                   with it internal evidence that it was penned by
+                   Prynne.]
+
+The Biographer of Henry V. needs not be very anxious as to the real
+intention of this petition. The allegation that Prince Henry and the
+Speaker of the House of Commons were suborned by the clergy, is a pure
+invention; no proof, or probable confirmation of any part of the
+charge, is afforded by history. The Speaker is named as the chief
+member of the House of Commons; the Prince is named as President of
+the Council, and chief member of the House of Lords; each acting in
+his official rather than in his individual character.
+
+The petition was presented on Wednesday, December 22, in the
+parliament 7 and 8 Henry IV. which was dissolved that same day. The
+Roll records that "The Commons came before the King and Lords, and
+prayed an interview with the Lords by John Tybetot the Speaker."
+Different petitions were presented; one touching the succession of the
+crown, and the petition in question. The petition is not drawn up in
+the name of the Commons and Lords; it purports to be addressed     (p. 335)
+to the King by "his humble son Henry the Prince, and the Lords
+Spiritual and Temporal in this present parliament assembled;" and the
+Speaker, in the name of the Commons, prays the King that the petition
+might be made the law of the land until the next parliament: and the
+King "graciously assents." Whatever were the real object of this law,
+if its aim were merciful, the Prince ought to have no additional share
+of the praise; if it were adding to the severity of the existing law,
+he deserves no additional blame, from the fact of his name appearing
+in the petition. In either case it appears there just as the Speaker's
+does, officially. But what was the real drift of this petition?
+Suppose it to have been on the side of severity, will it deserve the
+character assigned to it by the author of the "Abridgment?" Can it be
+called a "bloody" petition? It prayed that after the feast of Epiphany
+next ensuing, without any other commission, "Lollards, and other
+speakers and contrivers of news and lies, _might be apprehended_ and
+_kept in safe custody till the next parliament_, and _there to answer
+to the charges against them_." Suppose this to have been an extension
+of a former persecuting law, it gave no power of life or death, or any
+further severity against the person, than merely safe custody, a power
+now given to any magistrate against persons accused of any one of a
+large class of offences usually treated as light and trifling. But we
+may suppose that the real bearing of this petition were altogether (p. 336)
+the other way,--that it was intended to mitigate the severity of the
+existing law,--to deprive the real persecutors of the power, which
+they would undoubtedly have had, "of citing the suspected heretic,
+punishing him by fine and imprisonment, and, in the case of a relapsed
+or obstinate heretic, consigning him to the civil power for death."
+This power the statute[255] 2 Hen. IV. c. 15, conferred on the
+diocesans; and the petition in question might have been virtually a
+suspension of that sanguinary law till the next session. If this be
+so, we have precluded ourselves from ascribing any individual merit to
+Henry of Monmouth above the rest of the peers who drew up the
+petition; but he must share it equally with them; at all events, the
+charge of his having been suborned by the clergy to present "a long
+and bloody petition" falls to the ground. On this question, however,
+it were better to cite the opinion of an author certainly able     (p. 337)
+to take a correct view of such subjects; and who, not having Henry the
+Fifth's character before him at the time, but only the historical
+fact, must be regarded as an unprejudiced authority. Mr. Hallam,[256]
+in his History of the Middle Ages, makes this comment upon the
+proceeding in question. "We find a remarkable petition[257] in 8 Henry
+IV. professedly aimed against the Lollards, but intended, as I
+strongly suspect, in their favour. It condemns persons preaching
+against the Catholic faith or sacraments to imprisonment against the
+next parliament, where they were to abide such judgment as should be
+rendered by _the King and peers of the realm_. This seems to supersede
+the burning statute of 2 Henry IV, and the spiritual cognizance of
+heresy. Rot. Parl. p. 583; see too p. 626. The petition was expressly
+granted; but the clergy, I suppose, prevented its appearing in the
+Roll."[258] Certain it is, that, unless the statute framed upon this
+petition suspended the power of the existing law, the hierarchy had
+full authority, without the intervention of the civil magistrate,  (p. 338)
+to apprehend any one suspected of heresy, to try him, to sentence him,
+and to deliver him over to the secular power for death, upon receipt
+of the King's writ.[259] Certain it also is, that, on those who might
+be apprehended in consequence of this petition, none of those rigours
+could be visited: on the contrary, they would be placed beyond reach
+of the ecclesiastical arm. Surely to talk of Prince Henry being
+suborned by the priests to present a bloody petition, savours rather
+of blind prejudice than of upright judgment.
+
+                   [Footnote 255: Much doubt and many mistakes seem to
+                   have prevailed as to the real state of the law in
+                   England before the statute 2 Hen. IV. cap. 15. It
+                   is said by the annotator on Fitzherbert that,
+                   "before the time of Henry IV. no person had been
+                   put to death for opinions in religion in England;"
+                   but the same author himself tells us that, among
+                   the crimes to be punished by burning by the common
+                   law, heresy is enumerated. "No Bishop, indeed, by
+                   the common law, could convict of heresy, as to loss
+                   of life, but only as to penance, and for the health
+                   of the soul, 'pro salute animae.' In the case of
+                   life, the conviction by the common law ought to
+                   have been before the Archbishop in convocation."
+                   Much information is found on this subject in
+                   Fitzherbert's Book, De Natura Brevium.]
+
+                   [Footnote 256: Hallam, Middle Ages, vol. iii. p.
+                   134.]
+
+                   [Footnote 257: An antiquary well versed in such
+                   matters says, that for many years previous to this
+                   petition there are several mandates upon the Patent
+                   Rolls, ordering the apprehension of heretics, (who
+                   appeared to have been all monks,) in consequence of
+                   complaints made to the King in council by the
+                   various monasteries. He had never met with any
+                   entry affecting the parochial clergy.]
+
+                   [Footnote 258: The clergy could not have prevented
+                   its appearance on the Roll, but the judges (it is
+                   said) might have done so.]
+
+                   [Footnote 259: See, however, Fitzherbert, De Natura
+                   Brevium, p. 601.]
+
+The only other occasion which places Henry of Monmouth, whilst Prince
+of Wales, before us in conjunction with bigotry, intolerance, and
+persecution, is the martyrdom of a condemned heretic, executed in
+Smithfield. Fox, and those who follow him, say, that the martyr was
+John Badby, an artificer of Worcester, condemned first in his own
+county, and then definitively sentenced by the Archbishop, the Duke of
+York, the Chancellor, and others in London; the Chronicle of London
+records the same transaction, but speaks of the individual as a
+"_clerk_, who believed nought of the sacrament of the altar!" There is
+no doubt, however, that the two accounts, as well as the Archbishop's
+record, refer to the same individual, though the Chronicle of London
+is mistaken as to the sphere of life in which he moved. It will be
+borne in mind that the question is not, whether John Badby ended his
+life gloriously in defence and in testimony of the truth, nor      (p. 339)
+whether those who charged, and tried, and condemned him, were
+merciless persecutors; the only point of inquiry immediately before us
+is, Whether, at the death of John Badby, Henry of Monmouth showed
+himself to be a persecutor. The circumstances, however, of this
+martyr's charge and condemnation, independently of that question, are
+by no means void of interest; though our plan precludes us from
+detailing them further than they may throw more or less direct light
+upon the subject of our investigation. The following statement is
+taken from Archbishop Arundel's record.[260]
+
+                   [Footnote 260: Wilkins' Concilia, Ex reg. Arundel,
+                   i. fol. 15.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+John Badby was an inhabitant of Evesham, in the diocese of Worcester,
+and by trade a tailor. He was charged before the bishop with heresy,
+and was condemned in the diocesan court. The point on which alone his
+persecutors charged him, was his denial of transubstantiation. His
+trial took place on the 2nd of January, 1409, and he was subsequently
+brought before the Archbishop and his court in London, as a heretic
+convict. His examination began on Saturday, the 1st of March 1410, at
+the close of which the court resolved that he should be kept a close
+prisoner till the next Wednesday, in the house of the Preaching
+Friars, where the proceedings were carried on. The Archbishop, for
+greater caution, said that he would himself keep possession of     (p. 340)
+the key. When the Wednesday arrived, the Archbishop took, as his
+advisers and assistants, so great a number of the bishops and nobles
+of the land, that (in the words of his own record) it would be a task
+to enumerate them: among others, however, the names of Edmund Duke of
+York, John Earl of Westmoreland, Thomas Beaufort Chancellor of
+England, and Lord Beaumond, are recorded.[261] Prince Henry, though
+present in London, and actively engaged with some of the same noblemen
+as members of the council, was not present at Badby's examination,
+either on the Saturday or on the Wednesday.[262] In all his
+examinations Badby seems to have conducted himself throughout with
+great firmness and self-possession, and, at the same time, with much
+respect towards those who were then his judges. Looking to the
+circumstances in which he was placed, it is almost impossible for any
+one not to be struck by the weight and pointedness of his answers. He
+openly professed his belief in the ever blessed Trinity, "one
+omnipotent God in Trinity;" and when pressed as to his belief in the
+sacrament of the altar, he declared that, after consecration,      (p. 341)
+the elements were signs of Christ's body, but he could not believe
+that they were changed into the substance of his flesh and blood.
+"If," he said, "a priest can by his word make God, there will be
+twenty thousand Gods in England at one time. Moreover, I cannot
+conceive how, when Christ at his last supper broke one piece of bread,
+and gave a portion to each of his disciples, the piece of bread could
+remain whole and entire as before, or that he then held his own body
+in his hand." At his last appearance before the large assemblage of
+the hierarchy and the temporality, when asked as to the nature of the
+elements, he said, that "in the sight of God, the Duke of York, or any
+child of Adam, was of higher value than the sacrament of the altar."
+The Archbishop declared openly to the accused that, if he would live
+according to the doctrine of Christ, he would pledge his soul for him
+at the last judgment day.
+
+                   [Footnote 261: De Roos, Master of the Rolls, was at
+                   the first meeting, and a large number (multitudo
+                   copiosa) of the laity and clergy.]
+
+                   [Footnote 262: The house (the Friars' Preachers)
+                   where they met, was a place in which the Prince at
+                   this time often presided at the council. On the
+                   10th of the following June, for example, he met the
+                   Chancellor, and the Bishops of Durham, Winchester,
+                   and Bath, with others, at this house.]
+
+The registrar, in recording these proceedings, employs expressions
+which too plainly indicate the frame of mind with which this poor man
+was viewed by his persecutors. Had the words been attributed either to
+the Archbishop himself, or to his remembrancer, by an enemy, they
+might have excited a suspicion of misrepresentation or misunderstanding.
+"Whilst he was under examination the poison of asps appeared about his
+lips; for a very large spider, which no one saw enter, suddenly and
+unexpectedly, in the sight of all, ran about his face." To this    (p. 342)
+absurd statement, however, the registrar adds a sentence abounding with
+painful and dreadful associations. "The Archbishop, weighing in his mind
+that the Holy Spirit was not in the man at all, and seeing by his
+unsubdued countenance that he had a heart hardened like Pharaoh's,
+freeing themselves from him altogether, delivered him to the secular
+arm; praying the noblemen who were present, not to put him to death for
+his offence, nor deliver him to be punished." Whatever force this prayer
+of the hierarchy was expected to have, the King's writ was ready. The
+Archbishop condemned him before their early dinner, and forthwith on the
+same day, after dinner, he was taken to Smithfield, and burnt in a sort
+of tub to ashes. The Lambeth Register[263] mentions the mode of his
+death, and affirms that he persevered in his obstinacy to the last, but
+says nothing whatever about the Prince of Wales. The further proceedings
+with regard to this martyr, and which connect him with the subject of
+these Memoirs, are thus stated by Fox, in his Book of Martyrs.
+
+                   [Footnote 263: Dictoque die, immediate post
+                   prandium, ex decreto regio, apud Smythfield,
+                   praefatus Joh. Badby, in sua obstinacia perseverans
+                   usque ad mortem, catenis ferreis stipiti ligatus,
+                   ac quodam vase concavo circumplexus, injectis
+                   fasciculis et appositis ignibus, incineratus
+                   extitit et consumptus.]
+
+     "This thing[264] [the condemnation by the Archbishop, and     (p. 343)
+     the delivery of Badby to the secular power,] being done and
+     concluded in the forenoon, in the afternoon the King's writ was
+     not far behind; by the force whereof John Badby was brought into
+     Smithfield, and there, being put into an empty barrel, was bound
+     with iron chains, fastened to a stake, having dry wood put about
+     him. And as he was thus standing in the pipe or tun, (for as yet
+     Perilous' bull was not in use among the bishops,) it happened
+     that the Prince, the King's eldest son, was there present; who,
+     showing some part of the good Samaritan, _began to endeavour and
+     assay how to save the life of him_ whom the hypocritical Levites
+     and Pharisees sought to put to death. _He admonished and
+     counselled him that, having respect unto himself he should
+     speedily withdraw himself out of these labyrinths of opinions_;
+     adding oftentimes threatenings, the which would have daunted any
+     man's stomach. Also Courtney, at that time Chancellor of Oxford,
+     preached unto him, and informed him of the faith of holy church.
+     In this mean season, the Prior of St. Bartlemew's in Smithfield,
+     brought, with all solemnity, the sacrament of God's body, with
+     twelve torches borne before, and so shewed the sacrament to the
+     poor man being at the stake: and then they demanded of him    (p. 344)
+     how he believed in it; he answered, that he well knew it was
+     hallowed bread, and not God's body. And then was the tunne put
+     over him, and fire put unto him. And when he felt the fire he
+     cried, 'Mercy!' (calling belike upon the Lord,) and so the Prince
+     immediately commanded to take away the tun and quench the fire.
+     The Prince, his commandment being done, asked him if he would
+     forsake heresy and take him to the faith of holy church; which
+     thing if he would do, he should have goods enough: promising also
+     unto him a yearly stipend out of the King's treasury, so much as
+     would suffice his contentation. But this valiant champion of
+     Christ rejected the Prince's fair words, as also contemned all
+     men's devices, and refused the offer of worldly promises, no
+     doubt but being more vehemently inflamed with the spirit of God
+     than with earthly desire. Wherefore, when as yet he continued
+     unmoveable in his former mind, the Prince commanded him straight
+     to be put again into the pipe or tun, and that he should not
+     afterwards look for any grace or favour."
+
+                   [Footnote 264: Fox makes a curious mistake here. He
+                   says, the examination in London began on _Sunday_,
+                   the 1st of March. But the 1st of March was not on a
+                   Sunday, but on a Saturday, in that year, 1410. Fox
+                   derives his information chiefly from the Latin
+                   record (_v._ Wilkins' Concilia) preserved in
+                   Lambeth; and there we find that the date is Die
+                   _Sabbati_, _i.e._ Saturday, not, as Fox mistakenly
+                   renders it, Sunday. The computation in these
+                   Memoirs is made of the historical, not the
+                   ecclesiastical year.
+
+                   The King's writ is dated March 5th, and informs us
+                   that Badby was of Evesham in Worcestershire.]
+
+Milner having told us, that "the memory of Henry is by no means free
+from the imputation of cruelty," gives an unfavourable turn to the
+whole affair, and ascribes a state of mind to the Prince, which Fox's
+account will scarcely justify. Milner's zeal against popery and its
+persecutions, often betrays him into expressions which a calm review
+of all the circumstances of the case would, probably, have suggested
+to his own mind the necessity of modifying and softening. Fox
+attributes to Henry "some part of the good Samaritan," and puts most
+prominently forward his desire and endeavour to save the poor      (p. 345)
+man's life. Milner ascribes to him a violence of temper, altogether
+unbecoming the melancholy circumstances of that hour of death, and
+directs our thoughts chiefly to his attempt to force a conscientious
+man to recant.
+
+The account of Milner is this: "After he, Badby, had been delivered to
+the secular power by the Bishops, he was by the King's writ condemned
+to be burned. The Prince of Wales, happening to be present, very
+earnestly exhorted him to recant, adding the most terrible menaces of
+the vengeance that would overtake him if he should continue in his
+obstinacy. Badby, however, was inflexible. As soon as he felt the
+fire, he cried 'Mercy!' The Prince, supposing he was entreating the
+mercy of his judges, ordered the fire to be quenched. 'Will you
+forsake heresy,' said young Henry, 'and will you conform to the faith
+of the holy church? If you will, you shall have a yearly stipend out
+of the King's treasury?' The martyr was unmoved, and Henry IN A RAGE
+declared that he might now look for no favour. Badby gloriously
+finished his course in the flames."
+
+The Chronicle of London, from which, in all probability, Fox drew the
+materials for his description, makes one shudder at the reckless,
+cold-blooded acquiescence of its author in the excruciating tortures
+of a fellow-creature suffering for his faith's sake. In his eyes,
+heretics were detestable pests; and an abhorrence of heresy seems  (p. 346)
+to have quenched every feeling of humanity in his heart. It must be
+observed, that this contemporary document speaks not a word of Henry
+having been "in a rage," nor of his having commanded the sufferer to
+be "straight put into the ton," nor of his having used "horrible
+menaces of vengeance," nor, even in the milder expression of Fox,
+"threatenings which would have daunted any man's stomach."
+
+     "A clerk," (says the Chronicle,) "that believed nought of the
+     sacrament of the altar, that is to say, God's body, was condemned
+     and brought to Smithfield to be burnt. And Henry, Prince of
+     Wales, then the King's eldest son, counselled him to forsake his
+     heresy and hold the right way of holy church. And the Prior of
+     St. Bartholomew's brought the holy sacrament of God's body with
+     twelve torches lighted before, and in this wise came to this
+     cursed heretic; and it was asked him how he believed, and he
+     answered that he believed well that it was hallowed bread, and
+     nought God's body. And then was the tonne put over him, and fire
+     kindled therein; and when the wretch felt the fire he cried
+     mercy, and anon the Prince commanded to take away the ton and to
+     quench the fire. And then the Prince asked him if he would
+     forsake his heresy, and take him to the faith of holy church;
+     which if he would have done, he should have his life, and goods
+     enough to live by; and the cursed shrew would not, but continued
+     forth in his heresy: wherefore he was burnt."[265]
+
+                   [Footnote 265: The chronicler adds, "A versifier
+                   made of him in metre these two verses:
+
+                       "Hereticus credat, ve perustus ab orbe recedat,
+                       Ne fidem laedat: Sathan hunc baratro sibi praedat."]
+
+There probably will not be great diversity of opinion as to the    (p. 347)
+conduct of Henry, and the spirit which influenced him on this
+occasion. He was present at the execution of a fellow-creature, who
+was condemned to an excruciating death by the blind and cruel, but
+still by the undoubted law of his country. Acting the "part of the
+good Samaritan," he earnestly endeavoured to withdraw him from those
+sentiments the publication of which had made him obnoxious to the law;
+and he employed the means which his high station afforded him of
+suspending the King's writ even at the very moment of its execution,
+promising the offender pardon on his princely word, and a full
+maintenance for his life. He could do no more: his humanity had
+carried him even then beyond his authority, and, considering all the
+circumstances, even beyond the line of discretion; and, when he found
+that all his efforts were in vain, he left the law to take its own
+course,--a law which had been passed and put in execution before he
+had anything whatever to do with legislation and government.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.                                                       (p. 348)
+
+THE CASE OF SIR JOHN OLDCASTLE, LORD COBHAM. -- REFERENCE TO HIS
+FORMER LIFE AND CHARACTER. -- FOX'S BOOK OF MARTYRS. -- THE
+ARCHBISHOP'S STATEMENT. -- MILNER. -- HALL. -- LINGARD. -- COBHAM
+OFFERS THE WAGER OF BATTLE. -- APPEALS PEREMPTORILY TO THE POPE. --
+HENRY'S ANXIETY TO SAVE HIM. -- HE IS CONDEMNED, BUT NO WRIT OF
+EXECUTION IS ISSUED BY THE KING. -- COBHAM ESCAPES FROM THE TOWER.
+
+1413.
+
+
+The death of Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, and the circumstances
+which preceded it, require a more patient and a more impartial
+examination than they have often met with. But it must be borne in
+mind throughout that our inquiry has for its object, neither the
+condemnation of religious persecution, nor the palliation of the
+spirit of Romanism,--neither the canonization of the Protestant
+martyr, nor the indiscriminate inculpation of all concerned in the sad
+tragedy of his condemnation and death,--but the real estimate of
+Henry's character. The pursuit of this inquiry of necessity leads  (p. 349)
+us through passages in the history of our country, and of our church,
+which must be of deep and lively interest to every Englishman and
+every Christian. It is impossible, as we proceed, not to fix our eyes
+upon objects somewhat removed from the direct road along which we are
+passing, and, contemplating the state of things as they were in those
+days, contrast them fairly and thankfully with what is our own lot
+now.
+
+It were a far easier work to assume that all who were engaged in
+prosecuting Sir John Oldcastle were men of heartless bigotry,
+unrelenting enemies to true religion, devoid of every principle of
+Gospel charity, men of Belial, delighting in deeds of violence and
+blood; and that the victim of their cruelty, persecuted even to the
+death solely for his religious sentiments, was a pattern of every
+Christian excellence, the undaunted champion of Gospel truth, the
+sainted martyr of the Protestant faith. This were the more easy task,
+for little further would need to be done in its accomplishment than to
+select from former writers passages of indiscriminate panegyric on the
+one hand, and equally indiscriminate vituperation on the other. The
+investigation of doubtful and disputed facts, to the generality of
+minds, is irksome and disagreeable; and its results, for the most part
+removed, as they are, from extreme opinions on either side, are
+received with a far less keen relish than the glowing eulogy of a
+partisan, and the unsparing invective of an enemy. Truth,          (p. 350)
+nevertheless, must be our object. Truth is a treasure of intrinsic
+value, and will retain its worth after the adventitious and forced
+estimate put upon party views and popular representations shall have
+passed away.
+
+Sir John Oldcastle, who derived the title of Lord Cobham from his
+wife, was a man of great military talents and prowess, and at the same
+time a man of piety and zeal for the general good. He was one of the
+chief benefactors towards the new bridge at Rochester, a work then
+considered of great public importance; and he founded a chantry for
+the maintenance of three chaplains. Oldcastle was by no means free
+from trouble during the reign of Richard II. Indeed, so unsettled was
+the government, and so violent were the measures adopted against
+political opponents, and so cheap and vile was human life held, that
+few could reckon upon security of property or person for an hour. One
+day a man was seen in a high civil or military station; the next
+arrested, imprisoned, banished, or put to death. Oldcastle was very
+nearly made an early victim of these violent proceedings. Among the
+strong measures to which parliament had recourse about the year 1386,
+they appointed fourteen lords to conduct the administration, among
+whom was Lord Cobham. Just ten years afterwards he was arrested, and
+adjudged to death by the parliament;[266] but his punishment, at the
+earnest request of certain lords, was commuted for perpetual       (p. 351)
+imprisonment,[267] a sentence from which the lords of parliament
+revolted,--and he was exiled.[268] From this banishment he returned
+with Henry of Lancaster, and was restored to all his possessions which
+had been forfeited. Through the whole reign of Henry IV. we find him
+in the King's service in Wales and on the Continent. In a summons for
+a general council of prelates, lords, and knights, dated July 21,
+1401, occurs the name of John Lord Cobham.[269] In the Minutes of
+Council about the end of August 1404, John Oldcastle is appointed to
+keep the castles and towns of the Hay and Brecknock; and when English
+auxiliaries were sent to aid the Duke of Burgundy, Oldcastle was among
+the officers selected for that successful enterprise. Between the
+Prince of Wales and this gallant brother in arms an intimacy was
+formed, which existed till the melancholy tissue of events interrupted
+their friendship, and ultimately separated them for ever.
+
+                   [Footnote 266: Monk of St. Alban's.]
+
+                   [Footnote 267: Monk of Evesham.]
+
+                   [Footnote 268: The Pell Rolls (22d May 1398)
+                   contain an item of 20_l._ paid to Thomas Duke of
+                   Surrey on account of Lord Cobham, then his
+                   prisoner.]
+
+                   [Footnote 269: Records of Privy Council.]
+
+We have already seen that Lord Cobham had given proof of a pious as
+well as a liberal mind; and his piety showed itself in acts which the
+Roman church sanctioned and fostered. He built and endowed a       (p. 352)
+chantry for the maintenance of three chaplains. But he had imbibed a
+portion of that spirit which Wickliffe's doctrines had diffused far
+and wide through the land; and he not only boldly professed his
+principles, but actively engaged in disseminating them. It is very
+difficult to ascertain the exact truth as to the tenour and extent of
+the religious opinions of the rising sect, and the degree in which
+they were political dissenters, aiming at the overthrow of the
+existing order of things in the state as well as in the church. Their
+enemies, doubtless, have exaggerated their intentions, and have
+endeavoured to rob them of all claim to the character of sincere
+religious reformers; probably misrepresenting their objects, and
+confounding their designs with the plots of those turbulent
+spirits[270] who then agitated several countries in Europe; whilst
+their friends have denied, perhaps injudiciously, any participation on
+their part in seditious and treasonable practices. By the one they
+have been condemned as reckless enemies to truth, and order, and
+peace; by the other they are exalted into self-devoted confessors and
+martyrs; in soundness of faith, integrity of life, and constancy unto
+death for the truth's sake, equalling those servants and soldiers of
+Christ who in the first ages sealed their belief with their blood. The
+truth lies between these extremes: their enemies were bigoted      (p. 353)
+or self-interested persecutors; but many among themselves, as a body,
+in their language, their actions, and their professed principles, were
+very far removed from that quiet, patient, peaceable demeanour which
+becomes the disciples of the Cross. Doubtless there were numbers at
+that time in England possessing their souls in patience, bewailing the
+gloom and superstition and tyranny which through that long night of
+error overspread their country, and anxiously but resignedly expecting
+the dawn of a holier and brighter day. It is, however, impossible to
+read the documents of the time without being convinced, not only that
+the temporal establishment of the Church was threatened, but that the
+civil government had good grounds for watching with a jealous eye, and
+repressing with a strong hand, the violent though ill-digested schemes
+of change then prevailing in England. Undoubtedly the hierarchy set
+all the engines in motion for the extirpation of Lollardism, as the
+principles of the rising sect were called. They felt that their
+dominion over the minds of men must cease as soon as the right of
+private judgment was generally acknowledged; and they resolved, at
+whatever cost of charity and of blood, to maintain the hold over the
+consciences, the minds, and the property of their fellow-creatures,
+which the Church had devoted so many years of steady, unwearied,
+undeviating policy to secure. The real question, the point on      (p. 354)
+which every other question between the Protestant communions and the
+Church of Rome must depend, is this: "Have individual Christians a
+right to test the doctrines of the Church by the written word of God;
+or must they receive with implicit credence whatever the church in
+communion with the See of Rome, the only authorized and infallible
+guardian and propagator of Gospel truth, decrees and propounds?" All
+the other differences, however important in themselves, and
+practically essential, must follow the fate of this question. The
+Romanists are still aware of this, and are as much alive to it as ever
+were the most uncompromising vindicators of their church in the days
+of Lollardism. They took their resolution, and it was this: "Come what
+will come, this heresy must be put down; the very existence of the
+Church is incompatible with this rivalry: either Lollardism must be
+extinguished, or it will shake the very foundations of Rome." And,
+having taken this resolution, they lost no favourable opportunity of
+carrying it into full effect.
+
+                   [Footnote 270: The states of Europe were much
+                   convulsed about this time by an apprehension of
+                   political revolutions.]
+
+Some writers seem to have fixed their thoughts so much on the bold and
+ruthless measures adopted, or compassed, by the Church under the house
+of Lancaster, as to have left unnoticed their proceedings previously
+to Henry IV.'s accession. In 1394, when Richard II. made his first
+expedition to Ireland, though he had been absent a very short time, so
+alarmed were the heads of the Church at the progress of the new    (p. 355)
+opinions, that the Archbishop of York[271] and the Bishop of London
+went over in person to implore him to return forthwith and put down
+the Lollards,[272] his own and the Church's formidable enemies. Many
+strong measures were resorted to on that King's return, but all short
+of those deeds of guilt and blood which disgraced our country through
+the next reigns. The Pope, the King, and the hierarchy put forth their
+united exertions, and for a season the growing danger seemed to be
+repressed; but it was still silently and widely spreading. In the year
+1400, before Henry IV. was settled in his throne, and whilst he was
+naturally alive to every report of danger, the several estates of the
+realm "pray the King to pass such a law as may effectually rid the
+kingdom of those plotters against all rule and right and liberty, (for
+so are the Lollards described,) whose aim is to dispossess the clergy
+of their benefices, the King of his throne, and the whole realm of
+tranquillity and order, exciting to the utmost of their power sedition
+and insurrection." And in that year was passed the statute De      (p. 356)
+haeretico comburendo, which enacted that a suspected heretic should be
+cited by his diocesan, be fined, and imprisoned; and, if pronounced a
+relapsed or obstinate heretic, be given over by the Church to the
+secular power, to be burnt, in an elevated spot, before the people, to
+strike terror the more. It was under this statute that Sir John
+Oldcastle was summoned, tried, adjudged, and delivered to the secular
+power.
+
+                   [Footnote 271: King Richard seems to have employed
+                   the Irish prelates on many occasions in his
+                   intercourse with Rome. Thomas Crawley, Archbishop
+                   of Dublin, was sent to Pope Urban (1398, May 22nd,)
+                   "for the safe estate and prosperity of the most
+                   holy English church;" and John Cotton, Archbishop
+                   of Armagh, was sent to Rome, (31st of August,) in
+                   the same year, "on the King's secret
+                   affairs."--Pell Rolls.]
+
+                   [Footnote 272: Otterbourne.]
+
+How long he had entertained the new opinions, or, by openly
+encouraging their propagators, had incurred the anger, and drawn down
+upon himself the concentrated violence of the hierarchy, does not
+appear. From one circumstance we may fairly infer, that, whilst he was
+aiding the Prince in the war against Owyn Glyndowr, he had not been
+silent or idle in the dissemination of these principles. In the synod
+held in St. Paul's, his offence of sending emissaries and preachers is
+said to have been especially committed (beside the dioceses of London
+and Rochester) in the diocese of Hereford; and, as we have seen, in
+1404 he was especially charged with the safeguard of the town and
+castle of Hay, in Herefordshire: he was also sheriff of that county in
+1407. Whether he had ever communicated his sentiments to the Prince,
+or not, must remain a matter only of conjecture: be this as it may, no
+sooner was the first parliament of Henry V. assembled,--and they met
+soon after Easter,--than Arundel convened a full assembly[273]     (p. 357)
+of prelates and clergy in St. Paul's Cathedral.[274] It was there
+speedily determined that the breaches in the Church could not be
+repaired, nor peace and security restored, unless certain noblemen and
+gentry, favourers of Lollardism, were removed, or effectually
+silenced, and brought back to their allegiance. Especially, and by
+name, was this decree passed against Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham;
+and a resolution was taken to proceed against him forthwith. But he
+was then in high favour with the King; and the Archbishop thought it
+discreet to endeavour first to withdraw from him the royal favour,
+before proceeding openly to put the law in force against him. And at
+this point our interest in the transactions, and our desire to
+ascertain the accuracy of the accounts in every particular begin to
+increase; for our estimate of the tone and temper of Henry's mind, and
+the real nature of his conduct, will be affected by a very slight
+change of expression and turn of thought. Was Henry V. a persecutor
+for religious opinions?
+
+                   [Footnote 273: The Chronicle of London states that
+                   the convocation assembled on the day of St. Edmund
+                   the King, and continued until December; and "that
+                   the archbishop and bishops, at St. Paul's Cross,
+                   accursed Sir John Oldcastle on the Sunday, after
+                   the dirge was performed royally at Westminster for
+                   Richard II., on the removal of his remains."]
+
+                   [Footnote 274: Archbishop Arundel (says Anthony a
+                   Wood), who never proceeded beyond the degree of
+                   bachelor of arts in this University [Oxford] or any
+                   other, decreed by a provincial council, 1404, that
+                   none should preach except privileged or licensed.]
+
+Perhaps the more satisfactory course will be, first to give the    (p. 358)
+statements of Fox, and one or two others, who have taken the view
+of the case least favourable to Henry, and then to add the account of
+the transaction as it is recorded by the Archbishop, on whose record
+Fox informs us that the ground and certainty of his own history of
+Lord Cobham depended. Almost all subsequent writers copy the
+martyrologist exclusively and implicitly, though often with much
+additional colouring.
+
+Fox, who certainly follows the original statement in Archbishop
+Arundel's register much more faithfully, than those who have taken
+their facts from him, and heightened them by their own exaggerated
+colouring, gives an unfavourable and an unfair turn to the whole
+proceeding by one or two strokes of his pencil. His version of the
+affair is this: "The King _gently_ heard those bloodthirsty prelates,
+and _far otherwise than became his princely dignity_; notwithstanding
+requiring, and instantly desiring them, that in respect of his noble
+stock and knighthood, they would deal favourably with him, and that
+they would, if possible, without all rigour or extreme handling,
+reduce him to the Church's unity. He promised them also, that, in case
+they were content to take some deliberation, himself would seriously
+commune the matter with him. Anon after, the King sent for Lord
+Cobham, and, as he was come, he called him, secretly admonishing him,
+betwixt him and him, to submit himself to his mother the holy      (p. 359)
+Church, and as an obedient child to acknowledge himself culpable. Unto
+whom the Christian knight made this answer: 'You, most worthy prince,
+I am always most ready to obey. Unto you, next my eternal God, I owe
+whole obedience, and submit thereto, as I have ever done. But as
+touching the Pope and his spirituality, I owe them neither suit nor
+service; forasmuch as I know him by the Scriptures to be the great
+Antichrist, the son of perdition, the open adversary of God, and the
+abomination standing in the holy place!' When the King had heard this,
+and such like sentences more, he would talk no longer with him, but
+left him so utterly. And as the Archbishop resorted again unto him for
+an answer, he gave him his full authority to cite him, examine him,
+and punish him according to their devilish decrees, which they called
+the laws of holy church."
+
+In his comment on the answer said to have been made by Lord Cobham to
+the King, Milner's zeal in favour of the accused, betrays him into
+expressions against Henry which cannot be justified: "The _extreme
+ignorance of Henry_ in matters of religion by no means disposed him to
+relish such an answer as this; _he immediately turned away from him in
+visible displeasure_, and gave up the disciple of Wickliff to the
+malice of his enemies."
+
+Hall's version is this: "The King, first having compassion on the  (p. 360)
+nobleman, required the prelates, if he were a strayed sheep,[275]
+rather by gentleness than by rigour to bring him back again to his old
+flock: after that, he, sending for him, godly exhorted and lovingly
+admonished him to reconcile himself to God and his laws. The Lord
+Cobham thanked the King for his most favourable clemency, affirming
+his grace to be his supreme head and competent judge, and no other."
+
+                   [Footnote 275: Carte suggests that Lord Cobham
+                   might have been one of Henry's [supposed] rakish
+                   companions. But such a supposition as would stain
+                   his memory with debauchery, is altogether at
+                   variance with his character. Carte has no doubt of
+                   the reality of Cobham's conspiracy in St. Giles'
+                   Field.]
+
+The record, as it is found in the Archbishop's Memoirs, is as follows.
+Having stated that, of the tracts which had been condemned to the
+flames for their heretical contents, one consisting of many smaller
+tracts full of more dangerous doctrine, tending to the subversion of
+the faith and the church, was found at an illuminator's in Paternoster
+Row, who confessed that it was Lord Cobham's, and another was brought
+from Coventry, full of poison against the Church of God, the
+Archbishop's record thus proceeds: "The day on which the said tracts
+were condemned and burnt, certain tracts, containing more important
+and more dangerous errors of the said Lord John Oldcastle, were read
+before the King, and almost all the prelates and nobles of England, in
+the closet of the King at Kennington; the said Lord John Oldcastle (p. 361)
+being present and hearing it, having been especially summoned for this
+purpose. Then our King himself expressed his abhorrence of those
+conclusions, as the worst against the faith and the church he had ever
+heard. And the said Lord John Oldcastle, being asked by the King
+whether he thought the said tract was justly and deservedly condemned,
+said that it was so. On being asked how he could use or possess a
+tract of this sort, he said that he had never read more than two
+leaves.
+
+"And be it remembered that in the said convocation the said Lord John
+Oldcastle was convicted by the whole clergy of the province of
+Canterbury, upon his ill-fame for errors and heretical wickedness, and
+how in various dioceses he had held, assumed, and defended erroneous
+and heretical conclusions; and that he had received to his house,
+favoured, refreshed, and defended, chaplains suspected and even
+convicted of such errors and heresies, and had sent them off to
+different parts of the province to preach and sow this evil seed, to
+the subversion of the faith and the state of the church.[276] And
+supplication was made on the part of the same clergy to the Lord
+Archbishop and the prelates, that the said John Oldcastle should   (p. 362)
+be summoned to answer in person to these points. And because it seemed
+right to the Lord Archbishop and the prelates, that the King ought
+first to be consulted on this point, because he had been his intimate
+friend, they waited upon the King at Kennington, and with all due
+reverence consulted with him upon the matter. And the King returned
+thanks for their obliging kindness, and prayed them, [regratiabatur
+benevolentiis eorundem, et eis supplicabat,] for respect to the King
+himself, because he had been his intimate friend, and also from
+respect to the military order, they would defer process and execution
+of every kind against him; promising them that he would labour, with
+regard to him, to bring him back with all mildness and lenity from the
+error of his way to the right path of truth. And if he could not
+succeed in this endeavour, he would deliver him to them according to
+the canonical obligations to be punished, and would assist them in
+this with all his aid and with the secular arm. And the said
+Archbishop and prelates acquiesced in the King's desire, but not
+without the dissatisfaction and murmurs of the clergy. Then, after the
+lapse of some time, when our said Lord the King had laboured long and
+in various ways in the endeavour to bring back the said knight to the
+sheepfold of Christ, and had reaped no fruit of his toil, but the
+knight continually relapsed into a worse state than before, at length
+the King, in the following month of August, being at Windsor,      (p. 363)
+without further lenity sharply chided the said Lord John for his
+obstinacy. And the said Lord, full of the Devil, not enduring such
+chiding, withdrew without leave to his castle of Cowling in Kent; and
+there fortified himself in the castle, as was publicly reported. After
+that, the King sent for the Lord Archbishop, who was then at
+Chichester, celebrating the Assumption of the blessed Virgin; and, on
+his coming to the King at his house in Windsor Park, the King, after
+rehearsing the pains he had taken, enjoined on the Archbishop, and
+required him on the part of God and the Church, to proceed with all
+expedition against the said Lord John Oldcastle according to the
+canonical rules; and then the Archbishop proceeded against him as the
+law required."[277]
+
+                   [Footnote 276: Henry V.'s own chaplain declares,
+                   "that Oldcastle attempted to infect the King's
+                   highness himself with his deadly poison by his
+                   crafty wiles of argument." If the King argued the
+                   points with Oldcastle, how could that confessor
+                   have done otherwise than strenuously endeavour to
+                   bring his liege Lord to the same views of doctrine
+                   which he entertained himself?]
+
+                   [Footnote 277: Lingard speaks of "a mandate to the
+                   Archbishop of Canterbury to proceed against the
+                   fugitive according to law. The spiritual powers of
+                   that prelate were soon exhausted. Oldcastle
+                   disobeyed the summons, and laughed at his
+                   excommunication; but was compelled to surrender to
+                   a military force sent by the King, and was
+                   conducted a prisoner to the Tower." The same author
+                   (but on what authority it does not appear) tells us
+                   that Oldcastle was at St. Alban's, and prophesied
+                   that he should rise on the third day; which is in
+                   itself most improbable.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+After attentively perusing this authentic statement, comparing it with
+subsequent representations, and recollecting that the utmost which
+Henry did was to direct the ecclesiastical authorities to proceed
+according to the laws of the land, where he had interrupted their  (p. 364)
+proceedings with a view of averting the extremities on which those
+authorities seemed bent--and when we learn that even that temporary
+delay had called forth the decided disapprobation and remonstrance of
+the clergy,--few probably among unprejudiced minds will be disposed to
+view this incident in any other light than as a proof that Henry, who
+was a sincere believer, was yet anxious to bring all to unity in faith
+and discipline by reason and gentle means, by the force of argument
+and persuasion only; and that he earnestly endeavoured to blunt the
+edge of the sword with which the law had supplied the hierarchy, and
+to avert the horrors of persecution. Undoubtedly, when he failed, he
+directed the authorities to proceed according to law, and assisted
+them in securing Cobham's person when he set them at defiance. But it
+is necessary to take a comprehensive view of all the circumstances
+before we pronounce judgment as to his principles or motives.
+
+The account of Henry's own chaplain, who was prejudiced in the extreme
+against the rising sect, seems undoubtedly to imply that in one stage
+of the melancholy transaction Henry was more than passive, and
+encouraged rather than checked the ecclesiastical authorities to
+proceed; but he at the same time adds, what is of course of equal
+credit, that the piety of the King deferred the extremity of
+punishment and his death. He adds, "that Henry had Oldcastle
+committed to the Tower, influenced by the hope that he might bring (p. 365)
+him back to the true faith; and that when, towards the end of October,
+the straitness of his confinement was softened, and he was, under
+promise of renouncing his errors, released from his bond, he broke
+prison and escaped." This was written between Oldcastle's escape and
+his subsequent capture and death. If we take one part of such
+evidence, we must in fairness take the other; and certainly, in that
+contemporary's view, Henry was fully determined to do all he could to
+save Cobham from the extreme penalty of the law.
+
+He solicited the hierarchy, as a favour to himself, to suspend their
+operations for a while; they consented to grant the suspension as a
+favour to the King, upon his royal word being pledged that, should he
+fail in his endeavours, he would interfere with their proceedings no
+further, but on the contrary would assist them. Consistently with his
+promise, and with his duty as the chief magistrate of the realm, he
+could scarcely have done otherwise than he appears to have done.
+
+After he had put forth his very utmost endeavours to rescue his
+subject and friend from the ruin to which the hierarchy had destined
+him, he made up his mind that the law should take its course, and that
+the accused should be tried as the statute directed. Lord Cobham wrote
+a confession of his faith, and, carrying it with him to the court,
+presented it to the King; who, having resolved to interpose no     (p. 366)
+further between the accused and the process of the law, directed him
+to present it to his judges: and probably few will be disposed to
+think that Henry could act otherwise, consistently with his high
+station. The case was now most materially altered; Lord Cobham was in
+a very different position, and so was the King. As long as his kind
+offices could prevent a public prosecution, Henry spared no personal
+labour or time, but zealously devoted himself to this object, though
+unsuccessfully. But now the proceedings had advanced almost to their
+consummation, and interference at this point could scarcely have been
+consistent with the royal duty; especially when we consider what those
+proceedings were. Lord Cobham had been summoned to appear before the
+spiritual court, had disobeyed the citation, had been pronounced
+"guilty of most deep contumacy," and had been excommunicated. Henry
+could not interfere in this stage of the business with any show of
+regard to the laws, agreeably to which (blind, and cruel, and
+bloodthirsty, and wicked, as we may deem them,) the proceedings
+undoubtedly had been conducted; he therefore, as it should seem, could
+not do otherwise than direct the schedule, then presented to him by
+Lord Cobham, to be referred to the tribunal which the law had
+appointed to hear and determine the charges. On this turn of his
+affairs, the valiant knight and sincere Christian had recourse to
+various pleas and measures, for which were we to condemn him, as   (p. 367)
+he has been condemned, we should act most unjustly. We must not judge
+him by the standard of our own times, nor with reference to principles
+on which we might justly be arraigned ourselves. But let the same
+measure of justice be dealt to all alike; and whilst the eulogist of
+Lord Cobham pleads in excuse the "wretched state of society" then
+existing,[278] let all the circumstances of time and society and law
+be taken into calm consideration before we condemn Henry, or rather
+before we withhold from him the praise of moderation, liberality, and
+true Christian kindness. The result of this visit to the King (to
+which the Archbishop's record does not allude) is thus stated by Fox.
+"Then desired Lord Cobham in the King's presence that a hundred
+knights and esquires might be suffered to come in upon his purgation,
+which he knew would clear him of all heresies. Moreover, he offered
+himself after the law of arms to fight for life or death with any man
+living, Christian or heathen, in the quarrel of his faith; the King
+and the Lords of his council excepted. Finally, with all gentleness he
+protested before all that were present, that he would refuse no manner
+of correction that should, after the laws of God, be ministered unto
+him; but that he would at all times with all meekness obey it.
+Notwithstanding all this, the King suffered him to be summoned
+personally in his own privy chamber." There is one circumstance of
+very great importance, omitted by Milner, Turner, and others;      (p. 368)
+but which cannot be neglected if we would deal fairly by Henry. Fox
+gives a circumstantial statement of it; and it is of itself sufficient
+to account for whatever of "strait handling" may have been shown by
+the King to his unhappy friend at that hour. Lord Cobham, though he
+had repeatedly professed that the King was his supreme head, and liege
+Lord, and competent judge, and no other; and that he owed neither suit
+nor service to the Pope, whom he denounced as Antichrist; yet now
+appealed in the presence of the King peremptorily to the Pope, not on
+the heat of the moment, but by a written document which he showed to
+the King. The King overruled this appeal;[279] at least, he informed
+the accused that he should remain in custody until it was allowed by
+the Pope, and that at all events the Archbishop should be his judge.
+He was then arrested again at the King's command, and taken to the
+Tower of London, "to keep his day," the time appointed for his trial.
+But the reader will judge more satisfactorily of the proceeding after
+reading the statement of Fox himself. "Then said the Lord Cobham to
+the King that he had appealed from the Archbishop to the Pope of   (p. 369)
+Rome, and therefore he ought, he said, in no cause to be his judge;
+and, having his appeal there at hand ready written, he showed it with
+all reverence to the King. Wherewith the King was then much more
+displeased than afore, and said angerly unto him that he should not
+pursue his appeal; but rather he should tarry in hold till such time
+as it were of the Pope allowed, and then, would he or nild he, the
+Archbishop should be his judge."[280]
+
+                   [Footnote 278: Milner.]
+
+                   [Footnote 279: Mr. Southey builds upon this
+                   circumstance a very unfavourable and unmerited
+                   reflection on Henry in comparison with other
+                   monarchs of England. "The Edwards' would have
+                   rejoiced in so high-minded a subject as Lord
+                   Cobham. But Henry V. had given his heart and
+                   understanding into the keeping of the prelates, and
+                   he refused to receive the paper, ordering it to be
+                   delivered to them who should be his judges."]
+
+                   [Footnote 280: It is painful to read the marginal
+                   notes of Fox here. "Lord Cobham would not obey the
+                   beast." Thomas Arundell, "Caiaphas sitteth in
+                   consistory. The wolf was hungry; he must needs be
+                   fed with blood. Bloody murderers." With many
+                   others, yet more ungentle. The justice of the
+                   judgment cannot but be questioned when the feelings
+                   of the historian give themselves vent in such
+                   language as this. Still we must make great
+                   allowances for the times.
+
+                   There are many other points in which Fox, who, be
+                   it remembered, refers us to the Archbishop's Memoir
+                   for evidence of the truth of his narrative, gives a
+                   turn and colour to minor circumstances calculated
+                   to prejudice the reader, but by no means sanctioned
+                   by that Memoir. Thus Fox says, the Archbishop swore
+                   all on the _Mass Book_: the Archbishop says, he
+                   caused them all to be sworn on the Holy
+                   Evangelists.]
+
+How far at this juncture the King was competent to take upon himself
+the responsibility of forbidding any further proceedings against the
+individual on whose head the church had resolved to pour the full vial
+of its wrath and vengeance; and, if he had by law the power, how far
+he could consistently with the safety of his throne and the peace of
+his kingdom have done so, are questions not hastily to be          (p. 370)
+determined. Certain it is, that, not two years after Lord Cobham's
+first citation, Henry seems to have been thought by the council[281]
+to be so far from forward in the work of persecution, as to need from
+them a memorial to be more vigilant and energetic in his measures
+"against the malice of the Lollards;" and to require the Archbishops
+and Bishops to do their duty in that respect. Henry, though sincerely
+attached to the religion of Rome, yet, whether at the stake in
+Smithfield, or in his own palace at Kennington, appears to have
+endeavoured "to do the work of the good Samaritan," and to the very
+verge of prudence to interpose between the execution of a cruel law,
+and the sufferings of a fellow-creature for conscience sake; not by
+setting himself up against the law of the kingdom over which he
+reigned, but by gentleness and persuasion, and promises and threats,
+to induce his subjects not to defy the law. Our inquiry does not
+require or allow us to follow the steps of the devoted Lord Cobham
+through his examinations before the ecclesiastical judges, nor to
+pronounce upon the conduct and language either of Arundel[282] or his
+prisoner. Henry seems to have taken no part in the proceedings
+whatever. But after the definitive sentence had been passed, and   (p. 371)
+he had been left to the secular power, and remanded in custody of  (p. 372)
+Sir Robert Morley to the Tower, we must observe that though according
+to Fox himself, the Archbishop had compelled the lay power by most
+terrible menacings of cursings and interdictions to assist him against
+that seditious apostate, schismatic, and heretic, and troubler of the
+public peace, that enemy of the realm and great adversary of holy
+church, (for all these hateful names did he give him,") yet the King's
+writ for his execution was not forthcoming, and, as far as we have any
+means of knowing, never was it issued. In the case of Sautre, the
+sentence of his degradation and delivery to the secular power was
+passed, and the King's writ for execution is tested on the very same
+day, February 26th, 1401.[283] In the case of Badby, the sentence, the
+King's writ, and the execution of the persecuted victim, followed in
+one and the same day hard upon each other.[284] But though Lord Cobham
+was sentenced on Monday, September 25, 1413, yet he remained in the
+Tower some time,--Fox says, "a certain space;" Milner says, "some
+weeks,"--and no warrant of execution was forthcoming. Indeed, as far
+as the record speaks, no such writ was ever issued by the King. The
+Tower was no ordinary prison, and yet Lord Cobham escaped[285] by  (p. 373)
+night, no one knew how. Whether by connivance or not, and, if by
+connivance, whether from any intimation of the King's wishes or not,
+was never stated.[286] Many conjectures and surmises were afloat, but
+no satisfactory account of his escape was ever made known to the
+public. Certain it is that, had the King been a "cruel persecutor,"
+had he been as ready to meet the desires of the hierarchy as his
+father was in the case of Sautre or Badby, a few hours only after the
+ecclesiastical sentence was passed would have borne Lord Cobham from
+the power of his persecutors to the place where the wicked cease from
+troubling, and where the weary are at rest. Walsingham says that both
+Henry and the Archbishop were desirous of saving Oldcastle's life, and
+that the Archbishop requested the King to give him a respite of forty
+days.[287] But, adds Walsingham, he escaped, and spent the time in
+preparing soldiers for revenge.
+
+                   [Footnote 281: Minutes of Council, 27th May 1415.
+                   Item, touching Commission "to the Archbishops and
+                   Bishops to take measures each in his own diocese to
+                   resist the malice of the Lollards." "The King has
+                   given it in charge to his Chancellor."]
+
+                   [Footnote 282: It is impossible not to observe upon
+                   the great inaccuracy of Fox's translation of the
+                   Archbishop's words, for he professes it to be a
+                   translation, and the unfair turn and tone given to
+                   his sentiments, together with the unjustifiable
+                   addition which he has made to his definitive
+                   sentence.
+
+                         FOX'S TRANSLATION.
+
+                         "We sententially and definitively,
+                         by this present writing,
+                         judge, declare, and condemn
+                         him for a most pernicious
+                         and detestable heretic,
+                         convicted upon the same, and
+                         refusing utterly to obey the
+                         church: again committing him
+                         here from henceforth to the
+                         secular jurisdiction, power, and
+                         judgment, to _do him thereupon
+                         to_ DEATH."
+
+                         ARUNDEL'S WORDS.
+
+                         "Him, convicted of and
+                         upon such a detestable offence,
+                         and unwilling to return penitently
+                         to the unity of the
+                         church, we sententially and
+                         definitively have judged, declared,
+                         and condemned for a
+                         heretic, and to be in error in
+                         those things which the holy
+                         church of Rome and the universal
+                         church teaches, hath determined,
+                         and preacheth, and
+                         especially in the Articles above
+                         written; leaving the same as
+                         a heretic henceforth to the
+                         secular power."
+
+                   "To do him unto death," may be the horrible
+                   implication; but it is not, as Fox unwarrantably
+                   represents it to be, part of the sentence.
+
+                   Another instance occurs in the translation of the
+                   passage in which the Archbishop gives his reasons
+                   for making this public and authoritative statement
+                   of the transaction.
+
+                         FOX.
+
+                         "That, _upon the fear of this
+                         declaration_, also the people
+                         may fall from _their evil_ opinions
+                         conceived _now of late_ by
+                         _seditious preachers_."
+
+                         ARUNDEL.
+
+                         "That the erroneous opinions
+                         of the people, who perhaps
+                         have conceived on this
+                         subject otherwise than as the
+                         truth of the fact stands, may
+                         by this public declaration be
+                         reversed."
+
+                   The Archbishop declares his object to be the
+                   substitution of the true statement of the affair of
+                   Lord Cobham's condemnation, in place of the false
+                   opinions which were abroad; not a word about
+                   "fear," or "evil opinions from seditious
+                   preachers."]
+
+                   [Footnote 283: In the Lambeth account Sautre's
+                   condemnation is dated, according to the
+                   ecclesiastical reckoning, February 1400; but that,
+                   according to our reckoning, is 1401.]
+
+                   [Footnote 284: The writ is dated March 5,
+                   1410.--Rymer.]
+
+                   [Footnote 285: His escape must have been, at the
+                   furthest, within fifteen days of his sentence; for,
+                   on the 10th October, messengers were sent about,
+                   forbidding any one to harbour "John Oldcastle, a
+                   proved and convicted heretic."--Pell Rolls.]
+
+                   [Footnote 286: If Cobham's escape was winked at by
+                   the King, and _he knew_ of the King's kindness, it
+                   is very improbable that he would immediately after
+                   have been so basely ungrateful as to imagine the
+                   death of his sovereign and benefactor. It is,
+                   however, most probable that, had the King favoured
+                   his escape, the royal interference would have been
+                   kept a profound secret, as well from the prisoner,
+                   as from the people at large.]
+
+                   [Footnote 287: Walsingham (as quoted by Milner)
+                   says that the Archbishop applied to the King for a
+                   respite for fifty days for Lord Cobham. "If this be
+                   so," Milner says, "the motives of Arundel can be no
+                   great mystery. It was thought expedient to employ a
+                   few weeks in lessening his credit among the people
+                   by a variety of scandalous aspersions;" Milner then
+                   quotes the forged recantation, of which we speak in
+                   a subsequent note. It did not occur to that writer,
+                   that the space of fifty days might be required to
+                   forward his appeal to Rome, and receive the Pope's
+                   judgment upon it.]
+
+Had Henry been merely indifferent on this point, the writ would    (p. 374)
+have issued as a matter of course. We have seen that, before any
+proceedings were instituted against him, Henry used his utmost
+endeavours and personal exertions to prevent the gallant knight from
+falling into the dangers which threatened; and now, when nothing but
+his own writ to the sheriff was wanted to bring the last scene of the
+sad tragedy to a close, the King withheld it. The Archbishop, we are
+told by Fox, compelled the lay power, by most terrible menacings of
+cursing and interdictions, to assist him against Lord Cobham; and we
+may be satisfied, the clergy, after denouncing him in convocation, and
+after such vast pains had been undergone to subject him to the penalty
+of death, would not have failed to press their sovereign to
+extremities against this ringleader of their enemies: and yet the writ
+of execution is withheld, and the condemned prisoner escapes. Whatever
+inference may be drawn from these proceedings, at all events they give
+no colour to the charge of persecution; on the contrary, the conduct
+of Henry of Monmouth shews throughout indications of a             (p. 375)
+kind-hearted good man, averse from violence, anxious to avoid
+extremities, withholding his hand from shedding of blood; and that not
+from a carelessness or ignorance in the matter, for he was sincerely
+attached to the Roman communion, believing it to be the true religion
+of Christ, and had also made proficiency in the learning of the time.
+Compared with the knowledge of those who have lived in more favoured
+times, and whilst the true light has shone from the sanctuary of the
+Gospel on the inhabitants of our land, Henry's acquaintance with
+divine things may appear scanty. But he certainly had possessed
+himself of a large share of Christian verity, and he was earnestly
+bent on maintaining the faith which he had espoused. The system,
+however, of the law of terror found no willing supporter in him. His
+forbearance from persecution sprang from a genuine feeling of
+humanity, the spirit of philanthropy and kindness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.                                                      (p. 376)
+
+CHANGE IN HENRY'S BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS THE LOLLARDS AFTER THE AFFAIR OF
+ST. GILES' FIELD. -- EXAMINATION OF THAT AFFAIR OFTEN CONDUCTED WITH
+GREAT PARTIALITY AND PREJUDICE. -- HUME AND THE OLD CHRONICLERS. --
+FOX, MILNER, LE BAS. -- PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. -- LORD COBHAM, TAKEN IN
+WALES, IS BROUGHT TO LONDON IN A WHIRLICOLE, CONDEMNED TO BE HANGED AS
+A TRAITOR, AND BURNT AS A HERETIC. -- HENRY, THEN IN FRANCE, IGNORANT,
+PROBABLY, OF COBHAM'S CAPTURE TILL AFTER HIS EXECUTION. -- CONCLUDING
+REFLECTIONS.
+
+
+From the escape of Lord Cobham, or perhaps from the extraordinary
+affair of St. Giles' Field, which must now engage our attention, we
+perceive a most evident change in the sentiments and conduct of King
+Henry towards the Lollards, and especially towards Lord Cobham. Up to
+that time he seems to have considered their only crime to have been
+heresy, and he anxiously employed his good offices to rescue and save
+them: after that time he appears to have regarded them as his own
+personal enemies, subverters of order, traitors to the throne and the
+kingdom; and their heresy and schism were identified in his mind   (p. 377)
+with the crimes of sedition and treason.[288] How far this view of
+their principles and designs was just, has been disputed. Both sides
+of the question have been strongly maintained. The inquiry is by no
+means devoid of interest in itself; and, as far as Henry's conduct and
+character are involved in the transactions of that time, is
+indispensable; and throughout the inquiry it must be remembered that
+the elucidation of his character, not the acquittal or conviction  (p. 378)
+of Oldcastle and the Lollards, is the object we have in view.
+
+                   [Footnote 288: Soon after the affair of St. Giles'
+                   Field much pains seem to have been taken to
+                   discover the retreat of Cobham. The Pell Rolls,
+                   February 19, 1414, record payments to constables
+                   and others for their careful watch and endeavours
+                   to take him; and "chiefly for having found and
+                   seized certain books of the Lollards in the house
+                   of a parchment-maker;" and one hundred shillings as
+                   an especial reward "for the great pains and
+                   diligence exercised by Thomas Burton, (the King's
+                   spy,) for his attentive watchfulness to the
+                   operations of the Lollards now _lately rebellious_;
+                   also because he fully certified _their intentions_
+                   to the King for his advantage." This document (for
+                   ignorance of which no former historian may deserve
+                   blame, though its existence should caution every
+                   one against drawing hasty conclusions from negative
+                   evidence,) proves that at the Exchequer the
+                   Lollards were considered as having been lately
+                   rebellious, and as having had designs against the
+                   King. In a deed too, signed and sealed by the
+                   tenants of Lord Powis, who themselves took Lord
+                   Cobham, both heresy and treason are specified as
+                   the crimes of which he had been convicted "that was
+                   miscreant and unbuxom to the law of God, and
+                   _traitor convict_ to our most gracious sovereign
+                   and his." The Patent Rolls record grants of ten
+                   pounds per annum to John de Burgh, carpenter,
+                   because he had discovered and delivered up certain
+                   Lollards. There are other similar grants. Pat. p.
+                   5. 1 Hen. V.]
+
+Hume, depending implicitly on the old chroniclers, pronounces Cobham
+as the ringleader, and his followers guilty of treason. Fox, in his
+Book of Martyrs, has supplied Milner and many others with a very
+different view. Even Le Bas, in his "Life of Wiclif," though he is
+compelled to acknowledge that, "with every allowance for the
+exaggerations of malice, of bigotry, and of terror, it is scarcely
+possible to believe that imputations so dark could have been _wholly_
+fictitious and unfounded," yet is unfortunately contented with the
+statements and arguments of later compilers, instead of satisfying
+himself from the original documents. He could scarcely have read the
+terms which Henry V. used in the different documents of his pardon to
+the offenders, or even in his proclamation of a reward for the capture
+of Sir John Oldcastle, when he tells us, "it should never be forgotten
+that the records of their persecution are wholly silent on the subject
+of sedition or conspiracy."
+
+It is curious to read the opposite accounts given of the affair of St.
+Giles' Field by two modern historians, both having access to precisely
+the same documents. Hume thus summarily disposes of the
+case:--"Cobham, who was confined in the Tower, made his escape before
+the day appointed for his execution.[289] The bold spirit of the man,
+provoked by persecution and stimulated by zeal, was urged to       (p. 379)
+attempt the most criminal enterprises; and his unlimited authority
+over the new sect proved that he well merited the attention of the
+civil magistrate. He formed, in his retreat, very violent designs
+against his enemies; and, despatching his emissaries to all quarters,
+appointed a general rendezvous of the party in order to seize the
+person of the King at Eltham, and put their persecutors to the sword.
+Henry, apprised of their intention, removed to Westminster: Cobham was
+not discouraged by this disappointment, but changed the place of
+rendezvous to the field near St. Giles's. The King, having shut the
+gates of the city to prevent any reinforcement to the Lollards from
+that quarter, came into the field in the night-time, seized such of
+the conspirators as appeared, and afterwards laid hold of the several
+parties who were hastening to the place appointed. It appeared that a
+few only were in the secret of the conspiracy; the rest implicitly
+followed their leaders: but, upon the trial of the prisoners, the
+treasonable designs of the sect were rendered certain, both from
+evidence and from the confession of the criminals themselves. Some
+were executed, the greater number pardoned. Cobham himself, who made
+his escape by flight, was not brought to justice till four years
+after; when he was hanged as a traitor, and his body was burnt on the
+gibbet, in execution of the sentence pronounced against him as     (p. 380)
+a heretic. This criminal design, which was perhaps aggravated by the
+clergy, brought discredit upon the party, and checked the progress
+of that sect, which had embraced the speculative doctrines of
+Wickliffe, and at the same time aspired to a reformation of
+ecclesiastical abuses."
+
+                   [Footnote 289: No day ever was appointed.]
+
+Of the same affair Milner's version is this:--"The royal proclamation
+did not put an end to the assemblies of the Lollards. Like the
+primitive Christians, they met in smaller companies and more
+privately, and often in the dead of the night. St. Giles' Fields, then
+a thicket, was a place of frequent resort on these occasions; and here
+a number of them assembled on the evening of January the 6th,
+1414,[290] with the intention, as was usual, of continuing together to
+a very late hour. The King was then at Eltham, a few miles from
+London. He received intelligence that Lord Cobham, at the head of
+twenty thousand of his party, was stationed in St. Giles' Fields for
+the purpose of seizing the person of the King, putting their
+persecutors to the sword, and making himself the regent of the realm.
+Henry suddenly armed the few soldiers he could muster, put himself at
+their head, and marched to the place. He attacked the Lollards, and
+soon put them into confusion. About twenty were killed, and sixty  (p. 381)
+taken: among these was one Beverley, their preacher; who, with two
+others, Sir Roger Acton and John Brown, was afterwards put to death.
+The King marched on, but found no more bodies of men. He thought he
+had surprised only the advanced guard, whereas he had routed the whole
+army. This extraordinary affair is represented by the popish writers
+as a real conspiracy; and it has given them occasion to talk loudly
+against the tenets of the reformers, which could encourage such
+crimes. Mr. Hume also has enlisted himself on the same side of the
+question, and in the most peremptory and decisive manner pronounced
+Lord Cobham guilty of high treason."
+
+                   [Footnote 290: The day was not January 6th, but
+                   Wednesday the 10th.--"Die mercurii proximo post
+                   Festum Epiphaniae."--Pat. 2 Hen. V. p. 3. m. 23.]
+
+Milner[291] depends upon "the able and satisfactory vindication of
+Lord Cobham by Fox, the martyrologist," whom he affirms to have
+examined with great diligence and judgment _all_ the authentic
+documents. It is very dangerous to place implicit reliance on any one,
+however impartial he may be; especially ought we to seek evidence for
+ourselves, when an author professes, as Fox does, his object to be the
+vindication of one party and the conviction of another. On this point
+there are two or three unquestionably original documents, neither of
+which does Fox examine, and on which probably the large majority   (p. 382)
+of readers will be disposed to rest, as the safest ground for their
+opinion on Henry's conduct. In the course of the very day, on the
+early morning of which, and during the night preceding, the affair in
+St. Giles' Field took place, the King offers a reward of five hundred
+marks to any by whose counsel Lord Cobham should be taken, one
+thousand marks to any who should take him, and immunities and
+privileges to any city or town whose burgesses should bring him before
+the King. This proclamation, dated Westminster, 11th of January 1414,
+assigns these reasons for the offer of such rewards for his capture:
+"Since, by his abetting, very many of our subjects called Lollards
+have maintained diverse opinions against the Catholic faith; and
+contrary to their duty of allegiance, and falsely and traitorously,
+have imagined our death, because we have taken part against them and
+their opinions as a true Christian prince, and as we are bound by the
+obligation of an oath; and because they have plotted very many
+designs, as well for the destruction of the Catholic faith, as of the
+state of the lords and great men of our realm, as well spiritual as
+temporal; and, to fulfil their wicked purpose, have designed to make
+diverse unlawful assemblies, to the probable destruction of our own
+person, and of the states of the lords and nobles aforesaid."
+
+                   [Footnote 291: Milner's statement, "that it is
+                   extremely probable that popish emissaries mixed
+                   themselves among the Lollards for the express
+                   purpose of being brought to confession," is mere
+                   surmise.]
+
+In the same proclamation we find these words, which most persons   (p. 383)
+will probably interpret as a proof of Henry's desire to mingle mercy
+with justice: "We, observing how some of these Lollards and others,
+who have designed our death and other crimes and evils, have been
+taken on the past occasion, and are condemned to death; and wishing
+hereafter, in a better and more gentle manner, as far as we can, to
+avoid the shedding of the blood of Christians, especially of our
+subjects, whom, for the tender and especial regard we have towards
+them, we desire with all anxiety of mind to preserve from
+blood-shedding and personal punishment," &c.
+
+Another offer of pardon was made in a proclamation dated March 28,
+1414. It seems that many vexatious prosecutions had taken place, and
+great disquietude and alarm had in consequence prevailed, and there
+was danger lest the good and sound members of the community might be
+condemned with the wicked and reckless disturbers of the public peace.
+The King therefore offers a free pardon[292] to all who will apply for
+letters of pardon before the Feast of St. John the Baptist: there are,
+however, ten or twelve exceptions; among others, Sir John Oldcastle,
+Thomas Talbot, Thomas Drayton, rector of Drayton Beauchamp. In the
+body of this act of grace we read this pious sentiment of Henry:   (p. 384)
+"We, from reverence to HIM who hath suddenly granted to us protection
+and victory against many of our said enemies, and in his own holy and
+good time desires to give pardon and peace to all who offend against
+himself, lest he destroy them in their iniquities and sins,--we, for
+the tranquillity, security, and peace of our lieges and subjects,
+decree this pardon."
+
+                   [Footnote 292: The Patent Rolls of this year shew
+                   that the King's offer was gladly and gratefully
+                   accepted by numbers who applied for his pardon.]
+
+In the December of the same year was the following pardon proclaimed,
+which, among other things, fixes the precise date of the affair in St.
+Giles' Field, and supplies, what has been triumphantly demanded by
+those who will pronounce the whole to have been a mere invention, _the
+conviction of an accused party_. "Whereas John Longacre of Wykeham,
+formerly of London, mercer, was indicted before William Roos of
+Hamelak, and others our justices, assigned to try treasons, felonies,
+&c. in our county of Middlesex, for plotting to put us and our
+brothers to death, and to make Sir John Oldcastle regent of this
+kingdom; and had resolved, with twenty thousand men, to execute their
+wicked purpose; and on the Wednesday after the Epiphany, in the first
+year of our reign, there Sir John Oldcastle and others, traitorously
+persevering in such purpose, traitorously met together in St. Giles'
+Great Field, and compassed our death; and the said Longacre pleaded
+'not guilty,' and put himself on his country; and he was by the
+inquiry [inquest] found guilty, and condemned to be drawn from     (p. 385)
+the Tower of London to St. Giles' Field, and there to be hanged; we,
+of our special grace, have pardoned the said John Longacre."
+
+It is impossible for any candid mind to read these documents without
+being convinced that Henry was fully and reasonably assured of the
+treasonable practices of Oldcastle and his adherents, and that he was
+anxious to deal as mercifully with his enemies as would be consistent
+with a due regard to the peace and safety of the realm; and his
+biographer considers this as all which legitimately falls within his
+province. Whether Oldcastle himself were on that night in St. Giles'
+Field, is now a question probably beyond the reach of certain
+conclusion. The King's pardon to Longacre declares that he was
+present, and there is no evidence on record against it. These are the
+documents on which we must form our opinion. They are not traditionary
+stories, written many years after the event; they are not manifestos
+published in a foreign land; they are State-documents published on the
+very spot, all in the same year, one on the very day after the
+transaction, one in the March, and the last in the December following.
+With reference to Fox's arguments,--whilst every one would, on many
+accounts, do well to read them,--it will be immediately obvious, that
+"though twenty thousand were said to be expected, and a few hundreds
+only were found," yet that the large body of adherents who were to
+rendezvous in St. Giles' Field were to come from the city, and     (p. 386)
+that on the first news of the meeting of the Lollards Henry sent to
+order the city gates to be shut.[293] Fox also says that any
+conspiracy is incredible in which only three names could be fixed
+upon; but this only argues in him an ignorance of the documents above
+referred to, in which many persons are by name excepted from the
+pardon, and reference is made to many others accused in different
+parts of the country. It can no longer be doubted that Lord Cobham was
+believed by Henry to have entered into a treasonable conspiracy
+against the government and the person of the King; though, after he
+escaped from the Tower, there is no evidence yet discovered        (p. 387)
+(except the King's own declaration) to prove that he was in Fickett's
+Field, as the place of meeting near St. Giles' church was called.
+
+                   [Footnote 293: Any reference to the opinions of
+                   past writers would be imperfect which should omit
+                   Fuller's; he had access, it should seem, to little
+                   if any other data than Fox supplied him with, and
+                   yet the conclusion to which he came is this: "For
+                   mine own part, I must confess myself so lost in the
+                   intricacies of these relations, that I know not
+                   what to assent to. On the one side, I am loath to
+                   load the Lord Cobham's memory with causeless
+                   crimes, knowing the perfect hatred the clergy in
+                   that age bare unto him, and all that looked towards
+                   the reformation in religion. Besides, that twenty
+                   thousand men should be brought into the field, and
+                   no place assigned whence they should have been
+                   raised,[293-a] or where mustered, is clogged with
+                   much improbability, the rather because only the
+                   three persons as is aforesaid are mentioned by name
+                   of so vast a number.
+
+                   "On the other side (continues Fuller), I am much
+                   startled with the evidence which appeareth against
+                   him. Indeed I am little moved with what T.
+                   Walsingham writes, (whom all later authors follow,
+                   as a flock the bell-wether,) knowing him a
+                   Benedictine monk of St. Alban's, bowed by interest
+                   to partiality; but the records in the Tower, and
+                   acts of parliament therein, wherein he was solemnly
+                   condemned for a traitor as well as a heretic,
+                   challenge belief. For with what confidence can any
+                   private person promise credit from posterity to his
+                   own writings if such public documents be not
+                   entertained by him for authentical? Let Mr. Fox
+                   therefore be Lord Cobham's compurgator; I dare not.
+                   And, if my hand were put on the Bible, I should
+                   take it back again; yet so that, as I will not
+                   acquit, I will not condemn him, but leave all to
+                   the last day of the revelation of the righteous
+                   judgment of God."--Fuller's Church History, An.
+                   1414.]
+
+                       [Footnote 293-a: Fuller either had not read, or had
+                       forgotten, that the twenty thousand men were to be
+                       raised in the city, and to be mustered in St.
+                       Giles' Field; but that the timely closing of the
+                       city gates is said to have prevented their junction
+                       with the party beyond the walls: and he was not
+                       aware of the many persons mentioned by name in
+                       indictments, proclamations, and pardons.]
+
+Of the seditious and treasonable conduct of Oldcastle, no one seems to
+have entertained any doubt before the time of Fox, who wrote more than
+a century and a half after the event. The Chronicle of London, written
+about 1442, not thirty years after the transaction, after stating the
+capture and execution of "diverse men," "much folk," among the rest "a
+squire of Sir John Oldcastle," adds these words: "And certainly the
+said Sir John, with great multitude of Lollards and heretics, were
+purposed with full will and might to have destroyed the King and his
+brethren, which be protectors of holy church, and them also that   (p. 388)
+be in degree of holy order in the service of God and his church; the
+which will and purpose, as God would, was let, and Sir John fled and
+escaped."[294] Fox quotes the Monk of St. Alban's, whose testimony in
+the book entitled "Chronicles of England, and the Fruit of Time,"
+speaks in this strong language: "And in the same year (1 Henry V.)
+were certain of Lolleis taken, and false heretics, that had purpose of
+false treason for to have slain our King, and for to have destroyed
+all the clergy of the realm, and they might have had their false
+purpose. But our Lord God would not suffer it, for in haste our King
+had warning thereof, and of all their false ordinance and working; and
+came suddenly with his power to St. John without Smithfield: and anon
+they took a captain of the Lolleis and false heretics, and brought
+them unto the King's presence, and they told all their false purpose
+and ordinance; and then the King commanded them to the Tower, and then
+took more of them both within the city and without, and sent them to
+Newgate and both Counters; and then they were brought for examination
+before the clergy and the King's justices, and there they were
+convicted before the clergy for their false heresy, and condemned  (p. 389)
+before the justices for their false treason."
+
+                   [Footnote 294: The "Ecclesiastical Annals"
+                   attributing the respite of fifty days to the
+                   interposition of the Archbishop, add, "And in the
+                   course of that period Oldcastle escaped from
+                   prison, and excited all the followers of Wickliffe
+                   to arms, for the purpose of destroying the King and
+                   the clergy."--Annales Ecclesiastici, vol. viii. p.
+                   362.]
+
+Walsingham says, referring to the time of Henry's first expedition,
+that the Lollards, probably hearing of the treason of Grey, Scroop,
+and Cambridge, at Southampton, came out of their lurking-places, and
+spoke and wrote on the church-doors treason. And Oldcastle, who was in
+concealment near Malvern, having heard, though by a mistake, that the
+King had sailed, sent threats to Lord Burgoyne, who forthwith
+collected at his castle of Haneley, near Worcester, five thousand men.
+Cobham returned to his concealment; but a chaplain of his, and other
+partisans, being taken, were so closely questioned that they
+discovered the place in which he kept his arms concealed between two
+walls.
+
+The author published under the name of Otterbourne, refers to a
+document which, if authentic, would establish Oldcastle's treasonable
+practices beyond further question. "The Lollards," he says, "meanwhile
+were sadly grieved by the discovery of certain schedules and
+indentures between John Oldcastle and the Duke of Albany, in which the
+Scots are invited to besiege Roxburgh and Berwise [Berwick]. And on
+this the Duke laid siege to Berwise by sea and land." Whether all
+these testimonies and original documents establish Lord Cobham's guilt
+or not, it is impossible to read them without inferring that, at all
+events, there was abundant reason for Henry's own conduct with     (p. 390)
+regard to him.[295]
+
+                   [Footnote 295: How far these accounts of Walsingham
+                   and Otterbourne are confirmed by the authority of
+                   the Pell Rolls, the reader will weigh carefully. In
+                   the October and November of this year, payment is
+                   made "to the serjeant of the sheriff of Southampton
+                   for taking Wyche and W^m. Browne, chaplains, and
+                   bringing them to make disclosures about certain
+                   sums belonging to Sir John Oldcastle. Also to the
+                   escheator of the county of Kent, riding sometimes
+                   with twenty, sometimes with thirty horsemen, for
+                   fear of the soldiers and other malefactors
+                   obstinately favouring Sir John Oldcastle."]
+
+After his escape to Wales, however, and the exception of his name from
+the bill of pardon, and the offer of a reward for his capture, Henry
+does not appear to have had anything whatever to do with Lord Cobham
+in life or in death. There is something strange and affecting in the
+circumstances of his capture and execution. It was towards the close
+of the year 1417, whilst parliament was sitting, that news arrived of
+the Lord Cobham having been discovered and taken in Wales. After
+voting a subsidy to Henry, who was then pursuing his victories with
+all his energy in France, "as soon as they heard that the public enemy
+was taken, they all agreed not to dissolve parliament until he were
+examined and heard." The Lord Powis was sent to bring him to London,
+his men having taken him after a desperate struggle.[296] "He stood,"
+says the Monk of Croyland, "at great defence long time, and was    (p. 391)
+sore wounded or he would be taken. And so the Lord Powis' men brought
+him out of Wales to London in a whirlicole." He was forthwith carried
+before the parliament as an outlaw, on the charge of treason, and, as
+an excommunicated heretic, given over to the secular power. He heard
+the several convictions, and made no answer to the charges; and was
+then instantly condemned to be taken to the Tower, and thence to the
+new gallows in St. Giles' Field, and there to be hanged for his
+treason, and to be burnt hanging for his heresy. There was,
+undoubtedly, great irregularity and hurry in this proceeding. But
+probably the statement of the Monk of St. Alban's is not far from the
+truth. "So he was brought to Westminster, and there was examined on
+certain points, and he said not nay; and so he was convicted of the
+clergy for his heresy, and dampned before the justices to the death
+for treason: and he was led to the Tower again, and there he was laid
+on a hurdle, and drawn through the city to St. Giles' Field. And   (p. 392)
+there was made a new pair of gallows, and a strong chain, and a
+collar of iron for him; and there he was hanged, and burnt on the
+gallows, and all for his lewdness and false opinions."
+
+                   [Footnote 296: The warrant by the council, dated
+                   December 1, 1417, authorized Edward Charleton to
+                   bring the body of John Oldcastle, then in Pole
+                   Castle. On February 3, 1422, the wife and executor
+                   of the said Edward Charleton received part payment
+                   of one thousand marks for the capture of Sir John
+                   Oldcastle. There is also payment for the capture of
+                   certain of his clerks and servants. He was taken
+                   near Broniarth in Montgomeryshire, on a property
+                   now belonging to Mr. Ormsby Gore, among whose
+                   muniments there is said to be traditionary evidence
+                   that the manor of Broniarth was granted to one of
+                   its former possessors as a reward for securing Sir
+                   John Oldcastle. The place in which he is said to
+                   have been taken, is called "Lord Cobham's Field" to
+                   this day.
+
+                   There are, we are told, in the Welsh language
+                   original verses referring unquestionably to Lord
+                   Cobham's residence in Wales, among persons who
+                   entertained the same religious views with himself,
+                   and also to his return to England. The religion of
+                   Rome is called in these verses "the Faith of the
+                   Pharaohs."]
+
+And here we must close this sad tragedy, in the last scene of which
+King Henry took no part. He was spared the pain of either sanctioning
+or witnessing these transactions. The first information he received of
+his unhappy friend's capture, probably certified him also of his
+death; and whatever we may suppose to have been his sentiments on the
+removal from this world of one whom he certainly believed guilty of
+treason, and the enemy of his throne; his kindness of heart, and
+sympathy with the brave and the good, must have made him, even in the
+midst of the din of war and the flush of victory, lament the fate of
+one whom for so many years he had held in affection and esteem. Henry
+probably felt a melancholy satisfaction that he was spared the sad
+duty, for so he must have deemed it, of sanctioning the last sentence
+on his friend. They are now both in the hands of Him to whom all
+hearts are open, and from whom no secret is hid; and there we leave
+them to his just but merciful disposal.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.                                                     (p. 393)
+
+THE CASE OF JOHN CLAYTON, OF GEORGE GURMYN, AND OF WILLIAM TAYLOR,
+EXAMINED. -- RESULTS OF THE INVESTIGATION. -- HENRY'S KINDNESS AND
+LIBERALITY TO THE WIDOWS AND ORPHANS OF CONVICTED HERETICS. --
+REFLECTIONS.
+
+
+Henry of Monmouth's name seems never to have been associated by our
+historians with the death of any one condemned to the flames as a
+heretic, except in the case of those two persons the circumstances of
+whose last hours have been examined at length in this inquiry,--Badby,
+whom he endeavoured to save even at the stake, and Oldcastle, whose
+execution he respited, and for whose death he never issued the
+warrant. There are, however, three prosecutions for heresy, which,
+though hitherto unconnected with the question discussed in these
+chapters, seem to claim a patient consideration before this inquiry is
+closed, and the final answer be returned to the question, Was Henry a
+persecutor for religious opinions? The names of the three persecuted
+for maintaining opinions different from the dogmas of the church   (p. 394)
+of Rome, to whose convictions and deaths our attention is here drawn,
+are John Clayton, or Claydon, George Gurmyn,[297] and William Taylor.
+
+                   [Footnote 297: There can be no doubt that George
+                   Gurmyn, a baker, was burnt for heresy this year,
+                   1415, and probably in the same fire with John
+                   Claydon. Fox mentions the name as Turming; but, not
+                   having been able to ascertain the truth of the
+                   tradition, he leaves the whole matter in
+                   uncertainty. In the Pipe Rolls, 3 Henry V, the
+                   sheriffs state they had expended twenty shillings
+                   about the burning of John Claydon, skinner, and
+                   George Gurmyn, baker, Lollards convicted of heresy.
+                   The Author has searched the records in St. Paul's
+                   Cathedral, but without success, for any account of
+                   the proceedings against Gurmyn. He is said to have
+                   been convicted before the Bishop of London.]
+
+The case of John Clayton, whether we look to it merely as a
+well-authenticated fact of history, or seek from it ancillary evidence
+as to the principles and conduct of Henry in the matter of religious
+persecution, involves subjects of deep interest. The satisfaction with
+which it is believed many may view it, as one of the incidents which
+seem to imply that Henry was an unwilling, reluctant executor of the
+penal laws of his kingdom, and took the lead of his people in
+liberality and toleration, must be mingled with pain sincerely felt on
+witnessing the stewards of the word of life becoming the zealous and
+relentless exactors of a cruel and iniquitous law, straining to the
+very utmost its enactments to cover their deeds of blood, and
+sacrificing their fellow-creatures to the image they had set up. The
+case of Clayton puts the excessive enormities of the hierarchy     (p. 395)
+of that day in a more striking point of view than many others of the
+more generally cited instances of persecution. Clayton's was not the
+case of a powerful man like Cobham, whose very character and station,
+and rank and influence, made him formidable: Clayton's was not the
+case of a learned man, or an eloquent preacher, or an active, zealous
+propagator of those new doctrines from which the see of Rome
+anticipated so much evil to her cause. His was the case of a
+tradesman, unable to read himself, and engaging another to read to him
+out of a book which seemed to give him pleasure; the place of reading
+being a private room in a private house, the time of reading being the
+Lord's day, and other festivals of the church; and the witnesses
+against him being his own servant and his own apprentice. Had the
+record of this sad persecution been written by an enemy to the
+priesthood, we should have suspected that the whole case was
+misrepresented, that a colouring had been unfairly given to the
+proceedings, to make them more odious in our sight; and though, at the
+best, such proceedings must be detestable, we should have deemed that
+in this case the facts had been distorted to meet the prejudiced views
+of the writer. But the proceedings are registered in the authentic
+records of the Archbishop of Canterbury,[298] and are minutely     (p. 396)
+detailed in all the circumstances of time, and place, and person.
+
+                   [Footnote 298: Printed in "Wilkins' Concilia."]
+
+John Clayton was a currier, or skinner, living in the parish of St.
+Anne's, "Aldrychgate." In those days few tradesmen could read, and he
+was not an exception. But he had at an early period formed a very
+favourable opinion of the new doctrines; the preaching of Wickliffe's
+followers, or, it may be, of Wickliffe himself, had made so deep an
+impression on his mind, that nothing could shake the firmness and
+constancy of his belief to the day of his death. His predilection for
+"Lollardy," as the profession of the new doctrines was called, became
+known to the ecclesiastical rulers long before the statute for burning
+heretics was passed in England; and his religious opinions exposed him
+to great troubles and hardships, even in the reign of Richard II. He
+was arrested on suspicion of heresy, and carried before Braybrook,
+Bishop of London. The consequence of his conviction was imprisonment,
+first in Conway Castle for two years, and subsequently in the Fleet
+for the term of three years more. He then renounced the errors alleged
+against him, and abjured them at the time when "Lord John Searle" was
+chancellor of England, about the year 1400. Through the reign of Henry
+IV, and the two first years of Henry V, Clayton seems to have remained
+unmolested. No sooner, however, had Henry left England on his first
+expedition to France, than Clayton was seized, tried, and          (p. 397)
+condemned. There seems to have been unusual despatch evinced in every
+stage of the proceedings. Clayton was not cited by regular process.
+The Mayor of London arrested him, and brought him before the
+Archbishop's consistory, on Saturday, August 17th, when he was
+examined, and remanded till the next Monday, August 19th. On which day
+he was brought up again, and finally condemned as a wilful relapsed
+heretic.
+
+At that very time, Henry, having dismissed his ships, was first
+commencing the siege of Harfleur; he had left England only the
+preceding Sunday. Whether the time selected for Clayton's arrest and
+trial was merely accidental, or whether the civil and ecclesiastical
+authorities (for both were equally eager for the blood of their
+victim) seized upon the opportunity of Henry's first absence from
+England, is a question which ought not to be decided before all the
+circumstances attending both Clayton's execution and the proceedings
+against Taylor (which will be next examined) shall have been carefully
+weighed. One of the witnesses, who testified to overt acts of heresy
+(such as those on which he was condemned) having been seen in
+Clayton's conduct a year before the time of trial, was living in the
+house of the Mayor of London; and that functionary seems to have
+hurried on the prosecution with more zeal than considerateness, and to
+have kept the young man in readiness to give his testimony whenever a
+favourable opportunity offered. Such circumstances cannot be       (p. 398)
+contemplated without suspicion. At all events, the plain fact is,
+that, on the very Saturday after Henry sailed from England, Clayton
+was brought under arrest, not under process of citation, before the
+ecclesiastical judges by the Mayor of London, who was ready with his
+witnesses.
+
+The charges brought against Clayton were, that, having renounced
+heresy, he had again been guilty of the same crime, by associating
+with persons suspected of heresy, and by having heretical books in his
+possession. To establish these facts, in addition to his own
+confession that he "had been imprisoned in the time of Bishop
+Braybrooke on a charge of heresy, and had subsequently renounced in
+the time of Chancellor Searle, and had heard read about one quarter of
+the book then produced," they proceeded to examine two witnesses who
+had been inmates in Clayton's family.
+
+The first witness swore that he had been, some time past, a servant
+and apprentice of John Clayton; that he had seen one John Fuller, a
+fellow-servant of his, reading the book, which he then identified, to
+his master, in St. Martin's Lane, on certain festival days since
+Easter; that in the book were the ten commandments in English, but
+what else it contained he knew not; that John Clayton seemed to be
+delighted with the book, and to regard it as sound and Catholic.
+
+Another witness, Saunder Philip, a lad fifteen years old, a        (p. 399)
+servant of Clayton's, but living at the time of the trial in the house
+of the Mayor of London, testified that he saw the book brought into
+Clayton's house about the middle of the preceding Lent; that he heard
+Clayton, his master, say that he would rather pay three times the
+price of the book than be without it; and that, on several occasions,
+through the year before, he saw and heard persons suspected of heresy
+conversing with Clayton.
+
+To what miserable, degrading expedients were these persecutors obliged
+to condescend in compassing their designs! compelling those who ate of
+the bread of the accused, and drank of his cup, and were his own
+domestic servants, and confidential inmates of his home, to bear the
+testimony of death against him: verifying among Christians what the
+Lord of Christians prophesied as the result of pagan opposition to the
+Gospel itself, "A man's foes shall be those of his own household."
+
+The poor man himself confessed that he believed he had heard about
+one-fourth part of the book read. The book produced, and identified by
+the witnesses, was called "The Lantern of Light;" in which the
+ecclesiastical judges pronounced many gross and wicked heresies to be
+contained. Among other articles objected to, some of which were
+doubtless in a more palpable manner adverse to the favourite doctrines
+of Romanism, we find the following criterion of the lawfulness and
+virtue of alms-giving. The author maintained that alms were        (p. 400)
+neither lawful nor virtuous, unless four conditions were observed in
+the distribution of them.
+
+  1.--Unless they be given to the honour of God.
+
+  2.--Unless they be given from goods justly gotten.
+
+  3.--Unless they be given to one whom the donor believed to be in a
+  state of Christian charity.
+
+  4.--Unless they be given to such as in very deed, without dissembling
+  or pretence, are in need.
+
+That the parts of the book which contained the heretical doctrines
+were ever read to Clayton, does not seem to have been elicited at the
+examination. The witnesses could only depose to having heard the
+Decalogue read in English, but nothing more; and the poor man's own
+confession acknowledged only that he had heard about one quarter of
+the work read. Still, on this confession and this evidence, and for
+this offence, John Clayton was convicted of heresy, was condemned as a
+relapsed heretic, and left without mercy to the secular power. Fox,
+who quotes no authority, adds only, that he "was by the temporal
+magistrates not long after had to Smithfield and burnt."
+
+The ecclesiastical record contains no information after the sentence
+passed on Monday the 19th of August, and our historians seem not to
+have made any inquiries as to the fate of this man. Recent researches,
+however, into original documents have been made by the Author,     (p. 401)
+with the view of facilitating the present inquiry, and rendering it
+more satisfactory; and the successful result of those researches
+enables him to throw some additional light on the subject under
+investigation. The following facts deserve especial attention. Shortly
+after the above sentence was passed by the ecclesiastical authorities,
+the Mayor and citizens of London wrote a letter to King Henry,
+rehearsing the judgment of the ecclesiastical court on John Clayton,
+and expressing their intention to make an example of the convict by
+carrying the sentence into execution. But they desired the King to
+send them his especial directions on the subject, as they were
+desirous to avoid giving offence in this as well as in all other
+affairs. The answer of Henry to this request, if it was ever made, is
+certainly not recorded. The strong probability is that the execution
+took place before there had been time for the King's answer, if he
+ever sent one, to reach London. The sheriffs of London state in this
+same year that "they had expended 20_s._ about the burning of John
+Claydon, skinner, and George Gurmyn, baker, Lollards convicted of
+heresy," though the day of the execution is not recorded.
+
+It must here be remembered, that the Mayor himself arrested Clayton,
+and produced the witnesses against him; that the King's writ[299] was
+not necessary to authorize execution after judgment passed by      (p. 402)
+the ecclesiastical authority in convocation; and that, even if it had
+been necessary to procure the royal sanction, the Duke of Clarence was
+left in England with full powers, as Henry's representative. Yet, in
+order to avoid giving offence, though they were determined to make an
+example of Clayton, they were afraid to proceed to the extreme penalty
+of the law without first taking the instructions of the King. This
+would scarcely have been necessary, nor would any hesitation, or   (p. 403)
+scruple, or misgiving have arisen in their minds, had they not been
+under a strong practical persuasion that the execution of this man
+would have given their King displeasure. And when we know what
+employment awaited Henry from the very day of Clayton's conviction
+till his return home,--the siege of Harfleur, the harassing march
+through France, the battle of Agincourt,--we cannot wonder at no
+answer being recorded. Perhaps he made no answer; perhaps the      (p. 404)
+letter never reached him in the midst of his struggles and dangers;
+probably he did not interfere, but allowed the law to take its course.
+Whatever took place between the condemnation and the death of Clayton,
+every stage of the transaction, from the first arrest of the accused
+on the very Saturday after Henry sailed for France, makes it quite
+clear that, in the opinion of the magistrates of London, Henry would
+be no willing abettor of persecution.
+
+                   [Footnote 299: "The person who shall be burnt for
+                   heresy ought to be first convict thereof by the
+                   Bishop who is his diocesan, and abjured thereof;
+                   and afterwards, if he relapse into that heresy, or
+                   any other, then he shall be sent from the clergy to
+                   the secular power, to do with him as it shall
+                   please the King. And then it seemeth, the King, if
+                   he will, may pardon him the same; and the form of
+                   the writ is such.
+
+                   "The King to the Mayor and Sheriffs of London,
+                   greeting. Whereas the venerable father, Thomas,
+                   Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of all England,
+                   and Legate of the Apostolic See, with the consent
+                   and assent of the Bishop and his brothers, the
+                   suffragans, and also of the whole clergy of his
+                   province in his provincial council assembled, the
+                   orders of law in this behalf requisite being in all
+                   things observed, by his definitive sentence
+                   pronounced and declared W. Sautre (some time
+                   chaplain, condemned for heresy, by him the said W.
+                   heretofore in form of law abjured, and him the said
+                   W. relapsed again into the said heresy) a manifest
+                   heretic, and decreed him to be degraded; and hath
+                   for that cause really degraded him from all
+                   clerical prerogative and privilege; and hath
+                   decreed him the said W. to be left, and hath really
+                   left him, to the secular court, according to the
+                   laws and canonical sanctions set forth in this
+                   behalf; and holy mother, the church, hath nothing
+                   further to do in the premises. We, therefore, being
+                   zealous for justice, and a lover of the Catholic
+                   faith, willing to maintain and defend holy church,
+                   and the rights and liberties thereof; and, as much
+                   as in us lies, to extirpate by the roots such
+                   heresies and errors out of our kingdom of England,
+                   and to punish heretics so convicted with condign
+                   punishment; and being mindful that such heretics,
+                   convicted in form aforesaid, and condemned
+                   according to law, divine and human, by canonical
+                   institutes on and in this behalf accustomed, ought
+                   to be burnt with a burning flame of fire; we
+                   command you most strictly as we can, firmly
+                   enjoining, that you commit to the fire the
+                   aforesaid W. being in your custody, in some public
+                   and open place within the liberties of the city
+                   aforesaid, before the people publicly, by reason of
+                   the premises, and cause him really to be burnt in
+                   the same fire in detestation of this crime, and to
+                   the manifest example of other Christians. And this
+                   you are by no means to omit under the peril falling
+                   thereon. Witness," &c.
+
+                   But by the statute of Henry IV. c. 15, it is
+                   enacted that every Bishop in his diocese may
+                   convict a man of heresy, and abjure him, and
+                   afterwards convict him anew thereof, and condemn
+                   him, and warn the sheriff or other officer to
+                   apprehend him and burn him; and that the sheriff or
+                   other officer ought to do the same by the precept
+                   of the Bishop, and _without any writ from the King
+                   to do the same_.
+
+                   And note by 29 Car. II., c. 9, this writ de
+                   heretico comburendo is abolished. "LAUS DEO!"--This
+                   last note is by an Editor. Fitzherbert, de Natura
+                   Brevium, p. 601.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A case, however, of no ordinary character as a matter of historical
+record, and doubly important to those who take an interest in the
+result of the present investigation, requires to be examined in all
+its bearings (especially with reference to the dates of its several
+stages) with greater care than has hitherto been bestowed upon it.
+
+In the July of 1416, whilst the Emperor Sigismund and Henry were both
+in England, Archbishop Chicheley gave evidence of his zeal by issuing
+most stringent mandates, directing his suffragan bishops to make
+diligent search for heretics, to report the names and circumstances of
+all who were suspected of heresy under seal to the metropolitan, and
+to institute process against them according to law. On the publication
+of these injunctions, a most strict and searching inquisition took
+place through the country. Still no one suffered the extreme penalty
+of the law as a heretic convict. In the next year, no sooner       (p. 405)
+was Pope Martin V. elected at Constance, than, complaining bitterly of
+the neglect and apathy of the ecclesiastical and civil authorities,
+the new Pontiff addressed every argument, both of encouragement and of
+intimidation, to the laity and the clergy alike, urging them to unite
+as one man in the work of extirpating heresy. He even applied to the
+English church, that, in their overflowing zeal for the Apostolic See,
+they would raise a subsidy in aid of the war then being carried on
+against the heretics in Bohemia. Among those who had fallen under
+suspicion of heresy, and who were watched with jealous vigilance by
+the ecclesiastical authorities, was one William Taylor, who had
+proceeded to his degree of Master of Arts in one of the Universities,
+and had been admitted into the order of priest in the church. Taylor
+was cited to appear before the consistory; and on Monday, February 12,
+1420, he confessed before Archbishop Chicheley that in the time of his
+predecessor (Arundel) he had been suspected of heresy; and for not
+appearing, or for not answering to the charge brought against him, he
+had been excommunicated, and had remained under that sentence for
+fourteen years.[300] Upon his expression of sorrow and repentance, he
+was commanded to appear on the following Wednesday at Lambeth, where,
+in the great chapel, he received the pardon of the church on       (p. 406)
+certain stipulated conditions. He was bound by solemn promises, and by
+an oath on the Gospels (thrice repeated), not to offend again; and he
+promised to appear in person or by his proctor at the next
+convocation, there to confess his penitence. He was then set at
+liberty.
+
+                   [Footnote 300: William Taylor had been cited March
+                   9th, 1409, when he treated the citation with
+                   contempt.--Archbishop's Register.]
+
+Taylor, however, was not long allowed to remain unmolested. Agreeably
+to the call of the sovereign Pontiff at Rome, and the peremptory
+injunctions of his metropolitan, agreeably also (as it too evidently
+appears by the sequel) to his own views of duty, Philip Morgan, Bishop
+of Worcester, denounced the same William Taylor in full convocation,
+May 5, 1421, as a person vehemently suspected of heresy. The King was
+then in London, but was on the eve of leaving the kingdom; and fully
+occupied in preparing to proceed forthwith to wipe off the disgrace
+which had fallen on the English arms, and to restore confidence to his
+troops, then much depressed by the unexpected discomfiture of their
+countrymen, and the death of the Duke of Clarence in battle. On
+Saturday, May 24, Taylor was put upon his trial, being produced before
+the court as the Bishop of Worcester's prisoner, who had caused him to
+be arrested. Of the three opinions savouring of heresy, (errorem et
+haeresin sapientes,) he pleaded guilty to having entertained the two
+last, but of the first he seems to have had no knowledge; indeed,  (p. 407)
+it is very difficult to say what meaning could have been attached
+to it.
+
+He was charged with having maintained at Bristol.
+
+First, That whosoever suspends on his neck any writing, by that act
+takes away the honour due to God only, and renders it to the
+Devil.[301]
+
+                   [Footnote 301: Quisquis suspenderit ad collum suum
+                   aliquod scriptum, ipso facto tollit honorem soli
+                   Deo debitum, et praebet Diabolo.]
+
+Secondly, That Christ was not to be prayed to in his character of man,
+but only as God.
+
+Thirdly, That the saints of heaven were not to be addressed in prayer.
+
+On the next Monday, May 26th, he was pronounced guilty of heresy, and
+condemned to perpetual imprisonment for the term of his life. So
+dreadful a punishment (to which, whatever it might be, he had on his
+previous release sworn to submit,) suddenly struck him to the very
+heart, and caused him to show some signs of a subdued mind. On which
+the Archbishop mitigated that sentence by adding to it an alternative,
+"Unless he shall be able to give bail, to the satisfaction of the
+Chancellor of England."
+
+We have already intimated that Henry's thoughts were at this time
+fully and anxiously occupied in preparing for an immediate expedition
+to France; and it is to be observed that, on the very day after
+Taylor's condemnation, the King issued his writ to the sheriffs,
+commanding them to publish his proclamation for all persons to hasten
+with the greatest speed to join the King in his voyage. Taylor     (p. 408)
+left the court in custody, as the prisoner of the Bishop of Worcester,
+to end his days in a dungeon, unless he should be able to produce the
+required bail; in which case the Bishop was authorized by the court to
+release him.
+
+When Henry left London, on the Monday after Taylor's condemnation, he
+left it never to return. His death, as we have seen, took place on the
+last day of August 1422. That Henry knew anything of the prosecution
+of this person, does not appear; and, if he had been made acquainted
+with the intended proceedings, whether he expressed any opinion upon
+them in favour of maintaining the faith by the secular arm, or in
+favour of the gentle and mild means of persuasion,--is a matter lost
+to history, and all inquiry into any of those points must be
+fruitless. Nor are we informed whether the poor man could produce the
+required bail, or whether he remained a prisoner till his death. Some
+expressions in the record of the subsequent transactions would induce
+us to infer that he had, after his condemnation, been at large and was
+again taken into custody (sub custodia carcerali iterum arrestatus).
+The striking fact, however, is this,--that Henry had not been dead six
+months before this same priest was brought up a prisoner in the
+custody of a jailor, and tried before the same court for a repetition
+of the very same offence; or rather, perhaps, for the very same    (p. 409)
+individual act for which, a year and three quarters before, he had
+been condemned to perpetual imprisonment. The same accuser, the Bishop
+of Worcester, charged him with having, _since his abjuration
+aforesaid_, written, maintained, and communicated with a certain
+priest, named Thomas Smyth, living at Bristol, on paper in his own
+hand-writing, the alleged heretical opinions. Here it must be
+observed, that the charge was made by the same accuser, the Bishop of
+Worcester, before the same Judge Chicheley; that the place in which he
+was said to have held these doctrines was in each case the same,
+Bristol; that in each case the doctrines were said to have been
+conveyed by writing; and that, as to the time of the offence, the
+Bishop did not say it was after his previous condemnation, but only
+after his recantation, which took place in February 1420, just a year
+and a quarter before his sentence of imprisonment. And if we examine
+the four heretical opinions which were extracted, in 1423, by the
+Canonists out of his written communication to Thomas Smyth, we shall
+find them in substance nothing more or less than two of the opinions
+on which he was before condemned to imprisonment in 1421.
+
+  1.--All prayer which is a petition for any supernatural or gratuitous
+  gift, is to be offered to God alone.
+
+  2.--Prayer is to be addressed only to God.[302]                  (p. 410)
+
+                   [Footnote 302: The Canonists seem to have made some
+                   distinction between the first and the second of
+                   these sentences.]
+
+  3.--To pray to any creature is to commit idolatry.
+
+  4.--The faithful ought to address their prayers to God, not in
+  reference to his humanity, but only with regard to his Deity.
+
+This was the sum of his offence, involving precisely the identical
+opinions of which he had been pronounced guilty in 1421, after his
+recantation in 1420.[303]
+
+                   [Footnote 303: Consequently he was then, in 1421,
+                   as much, as afterwards in 1423, a relapsed heretic,
+                   subject to the punishment of death.]
+
+After Lynewood had given his opinion that a relapsed heretic was to be
+left to the secular court, without hope of pardon, and without being
+heard as to the corporal punishment, his judges proceeded to the
+extreme execution of the law. Taylor was degraded on Monday the 1st of
+March, 1423, in the first year of Henry VI; and, the writ for his
+burning being issued on the same day, he suffered death in Smithfield.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+How far these circumstances may be pronounced to bear on the subject,
+and to conspire in acquitting Henry of Monmouth of the charge with
+which his name has been unsparingly assailed, of having been in spirit
+and conduct a persecutor for religious opinions, deserves serious
+consideration. When it is borne in mind that the Lollards were     (p. 411)
+certainly represented to Henry as the enemies of his throne and of the
+peace of the realm; that the Pope and the hierarchy of England were
+loud and incessant in their appeals to the authorities to extirpate
+such poisonous weeds from the garden of the Lord's heritage; that the
+Emperor Sigismund was most zealous in obeying such calls of the
+church, and caused his own land to flow with blood; that Henry's
+prelates made a direct personal appeal to him to prosecute heretics;
+that his council deemed it necessary to remind him of his duty in that
+point;[304] that his own chaplain openly charged him with want of zeal
+and with apathy in that good cause; that no single warrant for the
+execution of any one condemned for heresy alone was ever signed, or,
+as far as we can ascertain, was ever sanctioned, by him; that the only
+victims of the priesthood actually burnt for heresy alone during his
+reign were condemned and executed in Henry's absence from the kingdom;
+and that one person sentenced to imprisonment during Henry's life was,
+within a few months after his death, condemned to the flames, and
+actually burnt for the same offence; when all these points are fairly
+weighed, probably few will not feel satisfied that the judgment    (p. 412)
+passed upon Henry, on the charge of persecution, is inconsistent with
+the soundest principles of historical investigation.
+
+                   [Footnote 304: The Minutes of Council, 27th May,
+                   1415, record that the King should be advised, as to
+                   issuing a commission to the Archbishops and
+                   Bishops, to take measures, each in his own diocese,
+                   to resist the malice of the Lollards. The King
+                   replied, that he had committed the subject to the
+                   charge of the chancellor.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Author, however, is induced to confess that a comparison of the
+events of Henry's reign with those which preceded his accession, and
+followed his death, has compelled him to form more than a merely
+negative opinion on Henry of Monmouth's principles and conduct and
+influence. In addition to the circumstances detailed in these
+chapters, he would solicit attention to one fact, which no historical
+writer seems to have noticed. During the last years of Henry IV. a
+greater number of persons appear to have suffered in the fires of
+martyrdom than the accounts of our chroniclers would lead us to
+suppose.[305] By the cruel operation of the law, the goods and
+chattels of convicted heretics were escheated to the crown; and when
+Henry came to the throne, several widows and orphans were suffering
+severely from the effects of that ruthless enactment. No sooner had he
+the power of relieving their distress, than, in the exercise of the
+most divine prerogative of the kingly office, he restored to many
+their confiscated property. The most correct notion of the motives
+which influenced him will be conveyed by the language itself of    (p. 413)
+the several grants: "We, compassionating the poverty of Isabella,
+widow of Richard Turner, who was convicted and put to death for
+heresy, of our especial grace have granted to the said Isabella all
+the goods and chattels to us forfeited, for the maintenance of herself
+and of her children."[306] Similar grants are recorded, and all in the
+first year of his reign, to Alice widow of Walter Yonge, Isabella
+widow of John Horewood, and Matilda widow of John Fynche; their
+several husbands having suffered for maintaining opinions then
+pronounced heretical. This fact seems to be not only confirmatory of
+the views we have taken of Henry's tender-heartedness and sympathy
+with the afflicted and helpless, but indicative also of the absence of
+whatever approaches a persecuting and vindictive spirit towards those
+who had incurred the extreme penalty of the law for conscience-sake.
+The Author cannot but infer that Henry's dislike of persecution placed
+a considerable check on the fierceness with which it raged, both
+before and after his reign; that the sanguinary intentions of the
+priesthood were, to a very considerable degree, frustrated by his
+known love of gentler means; and that in England a greater portion of
+religious liberty was enjoyed during the years through which he sat on
+the throne, than had been tolerated under the government of his
+father, or was afterwards allowed through the minority of his son.
+
+                   [Footnote 305: It will be remembered, that those
+                   who were put to death in 1414, after the affair of
+                   St. Giles' Field, were sentenced by the civil
+                   courts on a charge of treason.]
+
+                   [Footnote 306: Pat. p. 5, 1 Henry V.]
+
+The Author entered upon the subject of the three last chapters     (p. 414)
+with the view of ascertaining, on the best original evidence, the
+validity or the unsoundness of the charge of persecution for religion
+brought against Henry of Monmouth. Independently of the result of that
+investigation, he confesses himself to have risen from the inquiry
+impressed with mingled feelings of apprehension and of
+gratitude:--gratitude for the blessings of the Reformation; and
+apprehension lest, in our use of those blessings, and in the return
+made to their Almighty Donor, we may be found wanting. For no maxim
+can be more firmly established by the sound deductions of human
+wisdom, or more unequivocally sanctioned by the express words of
+revelation, than the principle that to whom much is given, of them
+will much be required. And on this principle how awfully has our
+increase of privileges enhanced our responsibility! By the
+Reformation, Providence has rescued us from those dangers which once
+attended an honest avowal of a Christian's faith; has freed us from
+those gross superstitions which once darkened the whole of
+Christendom; and has released us from that galling yoke under which
+the disciples of the Cross were long held in bondage. The bestowal of
+these blessings exacts at our hands many duties of indispensable
+obligation. The Author hopes he may be pardoned, if, in closing this
+subject, he refers to some of those points which press upon his    (p. 415)
+own mind most seriously.
+
+Those who are intrusted with a brighter and a more pure light of
+spiritual truth, are, first of all, bound to prove by their lives that
+religion is not in them a dead and inoperative letter; but a vivifying
+principle, productive of practical holiness and virtue. Enlightened
+Christians are bound to show forth their principles by the exercise of
+every Christian excellence, and so to prove to the world that God is
+with them of a truth.
+
+Another indispensable duty is, that those who possess the truth should
+individually and by combined exertions labour to spread its heavenly
+influence throughout the whole mass of their fellow-creatures, not
+only in every corner of their own land, but to the utmost coasts of
+the civilized world, and through the still numberless regions of
+barbarism and idolatry. "Freely ye have received, freely give."
+
+Again, it were a narrow view of our duty were we to feel an anxiety
+for the preservation, through the period only of our own existence
+upon earth, of the benefits which we now enjoy. To be satisfied with
+the assurance that provision is made for our own times, is a principle
+altogether unworthy a philanthropic and a Christian mind: and the more
+valuable and essential the blessing, the more steady and vigorous
+should be our labour in providing for its permanency and its future
+increase. If we are honest in our own choice, we believe that      (p. 416)
+by delivering down to posterity, in its integrity and pureness, the
+blessing which has been committed to us in especial trust, we are
+transmitting not a state-device (as its enemies delight to call it),
+but an institution founded on the surest principles of true philosophy
+and of revelation, with a view to the best interests of the whole
+human race. If, aided by the Divine Founder of the church, we resign
+to those who come after us the fostering and mild, but firm and
+well-grounded establishment of the Protestant faith, removed equally
+from latitudinarian indifference and from the intolerance of bigotry,
+with an ungrudging spirit sharing with others the liberty of
+conscience we claim for ourselves, we shall transmit an inheritance
+which may be to future ages what it has proved itself to be towards
+many among ourselves, and of those who have gone before us,--the
+instructor and guide of their youth, the strength and stay of their
+manhood, the support and comfort of their declining years;--an
+institution which is the faithful depository of Christian truth; the
+surest guardian of civil and religious liberty; the parent of whatever
+is just, and generous, and charitable, and holy. ESTO PERPETUA!
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX. No. I.                                                   (p. 417)
+
+
+To those, as we are led to believe, contemporary poems, which appear
+in the body of the work, the Author is induced to subjoin a "Ballad of
+Agincourt," of much later date indeed, but which, for the noble
+national spirit which it breathes throughout, and the vigour of its
+description, cannot easily be exceeded: it is not so generally known
+as it deserves to be; though some of its expressions may sound
+strangely and quaintly to our ears. It will be found in Drayton's
+Works, p. 424.
+
+  "Fair stood the wind for France,
+  When we our sails advance;
+  Nor now to prove our chance,
+    Longer will tarry;
+  But, putting to the main,
+  At Kaux, the mouth of Seine,
+  With all his martial train,
+    Landed King Harry.
+
+  And taking many a fort,
+  Furnished in warlike sort,
+  Marcheth towards Agincourt,
+    In happy hour.
+  Skirmishing day by day,                                          (p. 418)
+  With those that stopped his way;
+  Where the French general lay
+    With all his power.
+
+  Who, in the height of pride,
+  King Henry to deride,
+  His ransom to provide,
+    To the King sending:
+  Which he neglects the while,
+  As from a nation vile;
+  Yet with an angry smile
+    Their fall portending.
+
+  And turning to his men,
+  Quoth our brave Henry then,
+  Though they to one be ten,
+    Be not amazed.
+  Yet have we well begun,
+  Battles so bravely won
+  Have ever to the sun
+    By fame been raised.
+
+  And for myself, quoth he,
+  This my full rest shall be:
+  England ne'er mourn for me,
+    Nor more esteem me.
+  Victor I will remain,
+  Or on this earth be slain;--
+  Never shall she sustain
+    Loss to redeem me.[307]
+
+  Poitiers and Cressy tell,                                        (p. 419)
+  Where most their pride did swell;
+  Under our swords they fell;--
+    No less our skill is,
+  Than when our grandsire great,
+  Claiming the regal seat,
+  By many a warlike feat
+    Lopped the French lilies.
+
+  The Duke of York so dread,
+  The eager vaward led;
+  With the main Henry sped
+    Amongst his henchmen.
+  Exeter had the rear,
+  A braver man not there!
+  How fierce and hot they were[308]
+    On the false Frenchmen!
+
+  They now to fight are gone,
+  Armour on armour shone;
+  Drum now to drum did groan--
+    To hear was wonder;
+  That with the cries they make,
+  The very earth did shake;
+  Trumpet to trumpet spake,
+    Thunder to thunder.
+
+  Well it thine age became,
+  O noble Erpingham!
+  Who didst the signal aim
+    To our hid forces;
+  When, from a meadow by,
+  Like a storm suddenly,
+  The English archery
+    Stuck the French horses.
+
+  With Spanish yew so strong,                                      (p. 420)
+  Arrows a cloth-yard long,
+  That like to serpent stung,
+    Piercing the weather.
+  None from his fellow starts,
+  But playing manly parts,
+  And, like true English hearts,
+    Stuck close together.
+
+  When down their bows they threw,
+  And forth their bilbows drew,
+  And on the French they flew;--
+    Not one was tardy;
+  Arms were from shoulders sent,
+  Scalps to the teeth were rent;
+  Down the French peasants went:--
+    Our men were hardy.
+
+  This while our noble King,
+  His broad sword brandishing,
+  Down the French host did ding,
+    As to o'erwhelm it.
+  And many a deep wound lent,
+  His arms with blood besprent;
+  And many a cruel dent
+    Bruised his helmet.
+
+  Gloucester, that Duke so good,
+  Next of the royal blood,
+  For famous England stood
+    With his brave brother;
+  Clarence, in steel so bright,
+  Though but a maiden knight,
+  Yet in that famous fight
+    Scarce such another.
+
+  Warwick in blood did wade,
+  Oxford the foe invade,
+  And cruel slaughter made,--
+    Still as they ran up;
+  Suffolk his axe did ply;                                         (p. 421)
+  Beaumont and Willoughby
+  Bare them right doughtily;
+    Ferrers and Fanhope.
+
+  Upon St. Crispin's day,
+  Fought was this noble fray;
+  Which fame did not delay
+    To England to carry;
+  Oh! when shall English men
+  With such acts fill a pen,
+  Or England breed again
+    Such a King Harry!"
+
+                   [Footnote 307: This refers to the resolution which
+                   Henry is said to have made, and to have declared to
+                   his men immediately before the battle: That, as he
+                   was a true King and knight, England should never be
+                   charged with the payment of his ransom on that day,
+                   for he had rather be slain.--MS. Cott. Cleop. C.
+                   iv.]
+
+                   [Footnote 308: The two first words of this line are
+                   different in the original.]
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX, No. II.                                                  (p. 422)
+
+
+To the miseries which fell upon the inhabitants of Rouen during the
+siege, a brief reference has been made in the body of this work. The
+following lines, by an eye-witness, record a very pleasing
+circumstance indicative of Henry's piety and benevolence. The wretched
+inhabitants, who could contribute no aid in the defence of the town,
+were driven by the garrison beyond the gates with the most unmerciful
+hardheartedness. On Christmas-day Henry offered, in honour of the
+festival, to supply all the inhabitants, great and small [meste and
+least], with meat and drink. His offer was met very uncourteously by
+the garrison, and his benevolent intentions were in a great degree
+frustrated. The poem called "The Siege of Rouen" may now be read in
+the Archaeologia, vol. xxi, with an interesting introduction by the
+Reverend William Conybeare.
+
+
+SIEGE OF ROUEN.
+
+  "But then, within a little space,
+  The poor people of that same place
+  At every gate they were put out,
+  Many a hundred on a rout.
+  It was great pity them for to see,
+  How women came kneeling on their knee;
+  And their children also in their arms,
+  For to save them from harms.
+  And old men came kneeling them by,                               (p. 423)
+  And there they made a doleful cry;
+  And all they cried at once then,
+  'Have mercy on us, ye English men!'
+  Our men gave them some of their bread,
+  Though they to us were now so quede.[309]
+  Harm to them we did none,
+  But made them again to the ditch gone:
+  And there we kept them all abache,
+  Because they should not see our watch:
+  Many one said they would liefer be slain,
+  Than turn to the city of Rouen again.
+  They went forth with a strong murmuration,
+  And ever they cursed their own nation;
+  For the city would not let them in,
+  Therefore they did full great sin;
+  For many one died there for cold,
+  That might full well their life have hold.
+  This was at the time of Christmas:
+  I may you tell of a full fair case,
+  As of great meekness of our good King;
+  And also of meekness a great tokening.
+  Our King sent into Rouen on Christmas day,
+  His heralds in a rich array;
+  And said, because of this high feast,
+  Both to the meste and to the least
+  Within the city, and also without,
+  To tell, that be scanty of victuals all about,
+  All they to have meat and drink thereto,
+  And again safe-conduct to come and to go.
+  They said, 'Gramercy!' all lightly,
+  As they had set little prize thereby;
+  And unnese [scarcely] they would grant any grace
+  To the poor people that out put was,
+  Save to two priests, and no more them with,
+  For to bring meat they granted therewith;
+  'But an there come with you and mo [more],                       (p. 424)
+  Truly we will shoot you too.'
+  All on a row the poor people were set,
+  The priests come and brought them meat;
+  They ate and drank, and were full fain,
+  And thanked our King with all their main;
+  And as they sate, their meat to fong,
+  Thus they talked them among:
+  'O Mightiful Jesu!' they said then,
+  'Of tender heart is the Englishmen;
+  For see how this excellent King,
+  That we have been ever again standing;
+  And never would we obey him to,
+  Nor no homage to him would we never do;
+  And yet he hath on us more compassion,
+  Than hath our own countrymen;
+  And therefore, Lord Jesu, as Thou art full of mercy,
+  Grant him grace to win his right in hey.'[310]
+  And thus the poor people that time spake,
+  And full good tent thereto was take;
+  But when they had eaten and went their way,
+  The truce adrew, and war took his way."
+
+                   [Footnote 309: _Quede_, or quade,--evil, bad.--See
+                   Glossary to Chaucer.]
+
+                   [Footnote 310: _In hey_,--in haste, speedily.]
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX, No. III.                                                 (p. 425)
+
+AUTHENTICITY OF THE MANUSCRIPTS
+
+Sloane 1776, and Reg. 13, c. 1.
+
+
+It will be borne in mind that the only document which contains the
+charge brought against Henry of Monmouth of unfilial conduct and cruel
+behaviour towards his afflicted father is a manuscript, two copies of
+which are preserved in the British Museum; and that a thorough
+examination of the authenticity of that manuscript was reserved for
+the Appendix. Every right-minded person will agree that the magnitude
+and dark character of a charge, so far from justifying a prejudice
+against the accused, should induce us to sift with more scrutinizing
+jealousy the evidence alleged in support of the accusation.
+
+It will require but a very brief inspection of the two MSS., Sloane
+1776, and Reg. 13, c. 1.,[311] to be assured that they are either both
+transcripts from one document in that part of the volume which
+contains the history of Henry IV, or that one of these is copied from
+the other.[312] Unless, therefore, an intimation be given to the
+contrary, it will be understood that reference is made to the Sloane
+MS., which, though not copied with equal correctness in point of   (p. 426)
+orthography and grammar, is still far superior to the King's in the
+clearness of the writing.
+
+                   [Footnote 311: See Sloane, p. 27. King's, p. 11, b.
+                   The same gap between "nominati" and "fratris," &c.]
+
+                   [Footnote 312: The volume in the King's Library is
+                   made up of a great variety of documents independent
+                   of that history and of each other.]
+
+The Sloane MS. 1776,[313] appears to consist of four portions, though
+the same hand copied the whole.
+
+                   [Footnote 313: The Sloane MS. is assigned in the
+                   Catalogue to Higden. By Sir H. Ellis, it is
+                   attributed, though not correctly, to a Chaplain of
+                   Henry V; a small portion only having been the work
+                   of that eye-witness of the field of Agincourt. By
+                   Mr. Sharon Turner, it is attributed, without a
+                   shadow of reason, to Walsingham. Mr. Turner,
+                   however, has, though in a very inadequate manner,
+                   attempted in one part of his new edition to rectify
+                   the error, leaving it altogether unacknowledged
+                   where the correction is most needed, in the passage
+                   where he grounds upon its testimony his severe
+                   charge against Henry's character. See Turner, third
+                   ed. vol. ii. p. 373 and p. 398.]
+
+The first portion extends from the commencement to page 40.
+
+The second from page 40 to the end of the account of Henry IV. at page
+49.
+
+The third from the commencement of the reign of Henry V. page 50, to
+his second expedition to France, mentioned in page 72.
+
+The fourth from that point to the end, at page 94, b.
+
+1. The first portion embraces that part of the reigns of Richard II.
+and Henry IV. which falls within the range of the chronicle of the
+Monk of Evesham; ending with an account of the marriage of Edmund
+Mortimer with a daughter of Owyn Glyndowr, and two cases of sacrilege.
+
+2. The second carries on the history of Henry IV. to the beginning of
+his thirteenth year, and contains the passage which charges Henry V.
+with the unfilial attempt to supplant his father on the throne. These
+first two parts must be examined together, and in detail; the last (p. 427)
+two will require only a few remarks, and may then be dismissed.
+
+That the history which commences at p. 50 of the Sloane MS. was the
+work of an ecclesiastic who attended Henry V. in his first expedition
+to France, is made evident at a much earlier point of the narrative
+than the translation of it by Sir Harris Nicolas, in the Appendix to
+his "Battle of Agincourt," would enable us to infer. The passage
+"After having passed the Isle of Wight, swans were seen," should have
+been rendered, "After _we_ left the shores of the Isle of Wight
+behind, swans appeared." The writer was at the battle of Agincourt,
+stationed with the baggage, and with his clerical associates praying
+for God's mercy to spare themselves and their countrymen.
+
+That he was not the same person who wrote the history of Richard II.
+and Henry IV, now found in the same fasciculus, seems to be placed
+beyond doubt; his style is very different, and his tone of sentiment
+directly at variance with what is found in the preceding portion. He
+is a devoted admirer of Henry V, a characteristic which no one will
+ascribe to the writer of the preceding page.[314]
+
+                   [Footnote 314: In p. 48, b, the writer speaks of
+                   "Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham," being sent as a
+                   military commander to aid the Duke of Burgundy. In
+                   p. 50 the same person is spoken of as Johannes _de
+                   Veteri Castro_. In the former parts the word used
+                   for the _enemy_ is "_aemuli_;" the Chaplain employs
+                   "_adversarii_."]
+
+This writer had composed his history before the year 1418; for of Sir
+John Oldcastle he says, "that he broke prison after his condemnation,
+and lurked in caves and hiding-places, _and is still lurking_."[315]
+This portion of the MS. offers evidence in almost every page that its
+author was an eye-witness of what he describes. Probably no        (p. 428)
+doubt will be entertained that it is the genuine production of an
+ecclesiastic in attendance on the King. But his work evidently ceases
+at page 72, where he offers a prayer that the Almighty "would give
+good success to his master, then going on his second expedition, and
+grant him victory as he had twice before; and fill him with the spirit
+of wisdom, and heavenly strength, and holy fear."
+
+                   [Footnote 315: Latitavit et latitat.]
+
+After the close of the Chaplain's narrative, the MS. loses almost all
+its interest: it carries on the history through the first years of the
+reign of Henry VI, and is evidently only part of what the volume once
+contained.[316]
+
+                   [Footnote 316: From this point the manuscript
+                   proceeds, in the very words of Elmham, to describe
+                   Henry's second expedition.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The two former portions of the volume now claim our careful
+examination; and, of these two, especially the second.
+
+It has been already intimated, that the first part of the MS. contains
+that portion of the history of Richard II. and Henry IV. which is
+embraced by the memoirs of the Monk of Evesham. A careful examination
+of both, and a comparison of each with the other, have induced the
+Author to conclude (with what degree of probability he must leave
+others to decide) that the writer had the work of the Monk before him,
+and copied from it very largely, but made such alterations as we
+should expect to find made by a _foreigner_, and one whose feelings
+were _opposed to the Lancastrian party_; a supporter rather of the
+cause of Richard, and the French, and the other enemies of
+Bolinbroke's house. The Monk's work bears every mark of being the
+genuine production of one who witnessed Henry IV.'s expeditions to
+Wales, and who was in all his sentiments and prejudices an Englishman
+and a Lancastrian. The Author fears he may be considered too minute
+and tedious on this point; but, since the circumstance of the      (p. 429)
+writer of the manuscript bear immediately upon the authenticity of
+the charge, he trusts he shall be excused a detail which, except for
+that consideration, would be superfluous.
+
+1. They both record the execution of a Welshman, who preferred death
+to treachery. The Monk adds this comment: "_We English_ too [possumus
+et _nos Angli_] may derive an example here; to preserve our fidelity,
+&c. even to death." The MS. thus expresses its comment: "_All English
+servants_ may contemplate an example of fidelity towards their own
+masters from the conduct of that Welshman."
+
+2. Thus too, in mentioning the introduction of the fashion into
+England of wearing long sleeves like a _bagpipe_, the two MSS. of the
+Monk most clearly write "Bagpipe." Of the MSS. in question, the Sloane
+writes Bagebyte, the Reg. "Babepipae;"--evidently the writer in neither
+case knowing the meaning of the English word which he attempted so
+unsuccessfully to copy.
+
+3. In relating the capture of Lord Grey, the Monk adds, "which we
+grieve to say." The MS., without any such, expression of sympathy or
+sorrow, says that "he fell into the snare which he had prepared for
+others."[317]
+
+                   [Footnote 317: In the MS. the word is "lacum,"
+                   probably a mistake for "laqueum."]
+
+4. The Monk merely records the return of Isabel to France; the MS.
+reflects strongly on her return _without her dower_, and her feelings
+of repugnance against receiving any boon from Henry, whom she regarded
+as _Richard's enemy_.
+
+5. Speaking of the battle of Homildon, the Monk says, "Of _our
+countrymen_ only five were slain;" and adds, "We praise thee, O God,
+because thou hast been mindful of us." The MS. says, "_And of the
+English_ scarcely five were slain;" but adds no word of praise.
+
+6. The Monk says, "From this time Owyn's cause seemed to grow      (p. 430)
+and prosper, _ours_ to decrease." This is omitted in the MS.
+
+7. Whereas the Monk (describing the character of Richard in the very
+words--and many are unusual words--adopted by the MS.) records that
+Richard was in the habit of sitting throughout the night till the
+morning in drinking, and "other occupations not to be named:" the MS.
+omits the latter phrase. The Monk says there were _two_ points of
+excellence in Richard's character; the MS., though confining itself to
+the two specified by the Monk, calls them "very many," "_plura_."
+
+8. In recording the commencement of Owyn Glyndowr's rebellion, the
+Monk, speaking of it as "an execrable revolt," says that the Welsh
+elected Owyn against the principles of peace [contra pacem elegerunt].
+The MS. says that the Welsh elected a respectable and venerable
+gentleman to be their leader and prince.
+
+Our attention is now especially called to some points in which the MS.
+seems to be so full of historical mistakes and improbabilities as to
+render any statement of a fact, especially of an improbable fact, not
+supported by other evidence, suspicious.[318]
+
+                   [Footnote 318: The Author on the whole is rather
+                   disposed to think that, whilst the Monk records
+                   accurately what fell within his own knowledge, both
+                   he and the author of the Sloane MS. in this part
+                   borrowed from some common document, probably more
+                   than one; for in some points they vary from each
+                   other in a way best reconciled by that supposition.
+                   Thus, whilst the Sloane MS. tells us that Richard
+                   II. on his landing came to a place _called
+                   Cardech_, from which he started for Conway, the
+                   Monk (not differing from him in other points) says
+                   that he came to the castle of Hertlowli. They both
+                   have fallen into the error of making the Earl of
+                   Salisbury accompany Richard, whereas he had
+                   undoubtedly been sent on before from Dublin to
+                   Conway. They are both equally wrong about the
+                   relative positions of Flint and Conway, and make
+                   the parties all cross and recross _the bridge_ at
+                   the castle of Conway, where a noble suspension
+                   bridge is now thrown over the arm of the sea. After
+                   the period, however, at which the Monk's narrative
+                   closes, the writer of the manuscript seems to be
+                   seldom free from error.]
+
+1. Froissart (who appears to be well acquainted with the           (p. 431)
+proceedings of Bolinbroke till he left the coast of France, but to
+have been altogether mistaken as to his proceedings from that hour,)
+states, with the greatest probability, that Bolinbroke left Paris
+under plea of visiting his friend the Duke of Brittany, and having
+been well received and assisted by him, set sail from some port of
+Brittany [intimating that his embarkation was (as was natural) carried
+on in secret, for he "_had only been informed_" that it was from
+Vennes].[319] The MS., on the contrary, with the greatest
+improbability, roundly asserts that Bolinbroke went to Calais,
+obtained money from the treasurer, though against his will, and seized
+all the ships which he could find in the port. The improbability that
+Bolinbroke should have excited the suspicions of the authorities of
+Calais not in his interest, from which a single boat in a few hours
+could have carried the news of his hostile attempts to Richard's
+friends in England, and the absurdity of making him seize all the
+ships in the port of Calais to carry over his handful of friends, can
+impress the reader with no favourable idea of this writer's accuracy.
+
+                   [Footnote 319: The Monk of Evesham makes no mention
+                   of Bolinbroke's proceedings before he landed in
+                   England.]
+
+2. No fact is more undeniably certain than that Henry IV. made his
+eldest son (our Henry V.) Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall in the
+parliament held immediately upon his accession; whereas the MS.
+declares that Henry V. was so created in the year of the Emperor of
+Constantinople's visit to England, and in the parliament which     (p. 432)
+began at the feast of St. Hilary, during which Sautre was burned for a
+heretic;--that is, a year and a quarter later.
+
+3. The MS. account of Hotspur's rebellion is quite inconsistent with
+facts, and altogether, in other respects, as improbable as it is
+singular. The MS. says that Hotspur,[320] about Candlemas, was
+commissioned to go against the Welsh rebels; but when he reached the
+country with his forces, and found it to be mountainous, and fit
+neither for horse nor infantry, he made a truce with Owyn, and went to
+London to take the King's pleasure upon it. The reception he met with
+at court drove him to his own country; and the King, as soon as he
+heard of Percy gathering his people, collected those whom he believed
+to be faithful to him, and hastened to meet him near Shrewsbury.
+Whereas the fact is, that Henry Percy had been resident as Chief
+Justice in North Wales, Constable of Caernarvon, &c. at least three
+years; had besieged Conway with his own men; had routed the rebels at
+Cader Idris, and most zealously persevered in his attempts to suppress
+the rebellion; and had returned from the Principality at least a year
+and a half before the Candlemas (1403), at which the MS. says that he
+was first commissioned to go there.
+
+                   [Footnote 320: This account of Hotspur's mission to
+                   Wales is the first circumstance mentioned by the
+                   manuscript after the chronicle of the Monk of
+                   Evesham ends.]
+
+The next point to which the attention of the reader is solicited will
+perhaps be considered by many to involve a greater improbability than
+the Author may himself attach to it. Every one who has ever read, or
+heard, or written about the "Tripartite Indenture of Division" made
+between Glyndowr, Mortimer, and Northumberland, fixes it, as       (p. 433)
+Shakspeare does, before the battle of Shrewsbury.[321] The scene in
+the house of the Archdeacon of Bangor is too exquisite for any one to
+desire it to be proved a fable. But (as the Author believes) this MS.
+is the only document extant which professes to record the words of
+that treaty; and yet this document fixes it to a date long after the
+Percies lost that "sorry field." It is represented to have been made
+in the February of the year of Pope Innocent's election: if before
+that election, it was made in 1404; if after it, in 1405. And
+certainly the tradition is general that Northumberland, after his
+flight to Scotland, visited Wales.
+
+                   [Footnote 321: The Sloane MS. says that it was on
+                   the 28th day of February; the King's MS. assigns it
+                   to the 18th.]
+
+Another point deserving consideration is the account of the conspiracy
+of Mowbray and the Archbishop of York. That account is drawn up in a
+manner most unfavourable to Henry IV. The MS. boldly also records the
+miracle wrought in the field of the Archbishop's execution, and states
+that various miracles attracted multitudes to his tomb daily. It also
+affirms that, on the very day and hour of the Archbishop's execution,
+Henry IV. was struck with the leprosy.[322]
+
+                   [Footnote 322: There are similar statements in
+                   Maydstone, Ang. Sac. vii. 371.]
+
+Perhaps too it may appear strange to others, as the Author confesses
+it has appeared to himself, that, up to the very last chapter of this
+history of Richard II. and Henry IV, no mention whatever is made of
+Henry of Monmouth, except in the unaccountable anachronism of his
+creation as Prince of Wales. It is curious that an historian should
+state that the young Duke of Gloucester was sent for from Ireland, and
+not allude to the circumstance of the Prince being in prison with him,
+and being sent for back at the same time.[323]
+
+                   [Footnote 323: The MS. and Monk here agree.]
+
+We are now arrived at the very last chapter, the chapter           (p. 434)
+containing the charge on which Henry of Monmouth's character has been
+so severely, and, if that charge be true, so justly arraigned. The
+chapter professes to record the transactions of the thirteenth year of
+Henry IV. The question is one of such essential importance as far as
+Henry's good name is at stake, and (as the Author cannot but think) in
+point too of the philosophy of history, involving principles of such
+deep interest to the genuine pursuer of truth, that he would not feel
+himself justified were he to abstain from transcribing the whole
+chapter.
+
+"In the thirteenth year there was a great disturbance between the Duke
+of Burgundy and the Duke of Orleans. Wherefore the Duke of Burgundy
+sent to the Lord Henry, Prince of England,[324] for aid to oppose the
+Duke of Orleans: who sent to his succour the Earl Arundell, John
+Oldcastle the Lord of Cobham, the Lord Gilbert Umfravill, the Lord of
+Kyme, and with them a great army; by whose prowess at Senlow [Reg.
+'Senlowe'], near Paris, the Duke of Orleans was vanquished, and
+cruelly routed from the field, and his followers crushed, routed, and
+slain. And the same Duke of Orleans thought how he could avenge
+himself against the Duke of Burgundy; and immediately he sent to King
+Henry of England a great sum of gold, together with William Count
+Anglam [Reg. "de Anglam"], his brother, as a hostage or surety for a
+greater sum, to obtain succour from the King of England himself. And
+the King did not put off sending him succour; and he appointed Lord
+Thomas, his second son, Duke of Clarence, and conferred on him the
+dukedom (or, as it was of old time, the earldom) of Albemarle; and
+Edmund, who before was Duke of Albemarle, then, after the death    (p. 435)
+of his father, he advanced to be Duke of York. And Lord John Cornwall,
+who married his sister, the Duchess of Exeter, and whom the King
+appointed Captain of Calais, he sent towards the parts of France with
+a great power of men. And when they landed in Normandy, near Hogges,
+forthwith the Lord de Hambe, with seven thousand armed men, went up
+against the English to oppose them, and thus on that day there was a
+great slaughter of men; for on the part of the Duke of Burgundy eight
+hundred men were taken, and four hundred slain: and thus at length
+victory was on the side of the English. After which the Duke, with his
+army, turned off towards the country of Bourdeaux,[325] [               ]
+destroying [               ] of the countrymen, collecting great sums
+of money, at length arrived at Bourdeaux, and from thence they
+returned to England about the vintage."
+
+                   [Footnote 324: This is another sign that it was
+                   written by a foreigner. No Englishman would have
+                   been likely to call Henry the Prince of England. He
+                   was either called Prince of Wales, or more
+                   frequently the Prince.]
+
+                   [Footnote 325: The Author confesses his inability
+                   to discover the meaning of the words which fill up
+                   the gaps left in this translation of the passage
+                   "Per suas patenas de patriotis," &c. The passage
+                   seems to him altogether corrupt.]
+
+The reader's especial attention is here called to the confusion of
+facts and dates, the mistakes historical, geographical, chronological,
+biographical, with which this short section abounds to the overflow.
+It will perhaps be difficult to find a page in any author, ancient or
+modern, more full of such blunders as tend to destroy confidence in
+him, when he records as a fact what is not found in any other writer,
+nor is supported by ancillary evidence. The MS. states that all these
+events took place in the thirteenth year of Henry IV: the MS. writes
+it at length, "Anno decimo tertio," which began on the 20th September
+1411. Now, allowing to the writer every latitude not involving
+positive confusion, it is impossible for us to suppose, when he    (p. 436)
+crowds all these events within one year, that he had any such
+information on the affairs of England as would predispose us to regard
+him as an authority.
+
+1. The first application by the Duke of Burgundy for English
+auxiliaries was in August 1411; and the battle of St. Cloud (the place
+which the MS., evidently ignorant of its situation and name, calls
+Senlow) was fought on the 10th of November 1411. The Duke of Orleans,
+at the beginning of the following year, 1412, made his application to
+the English court for aid against the Duke of Burgundy, but it was not
+till the 18th of May 1412 that the final treaty was concluded between
+Henry IV. and the Duke of Orleans; and it was not till the middle, or
+the latter end of August 1412, that the Duke of Clarence was
+despatched to aid the Duke of Orleans; and he remained in France till
+he received news of his father's death, in April 1413; when, and not
+before, he returned to England after his expedition to aid the Duke of
+Orleans.[326] Yet all these events are stated in the MS. to have
+fallen within the same year.[327]
+
+                   [Footnote 326: The Duke of Clarence was at
+                   Bourdeaux, February 5, 1413, and signed an
+                   acquittance there, April 14, 1413. (See Rymer; and
+                   Additional Charters.)]
+
+                   [Footnote 327: The words are written in one MS. at
+                   length, "decimo tertio."]
+
+2. The MS. says that the English, after their victory over the Duke of
+Burgundy's forces, returned to England at the time of vintage. The
+English returned to England at the end of autumn; not after their
+struggle against the Duke of Burgundy, but after their victory over
+the Duke of Orleans at the bridge of St. Cloud, a year and a quarter
+at least before their return from the expedition against the Duke of
+Burgundy.
+
+3. Again, the MS. says that the Duke of Orleans sent, immediately
+after the battle of St. Cloud (the Senlow of the MS.), a large     (p. 437)
+sum of money to the King of England, together with his brother, the
+Earl of Angouleme, as a hostage or pledge for the payment of a greater
+sum, to induce the King to comply with his request. This is utter
+confusion. The Earl was sent as an hostage,--not beforehand, to induce
+Henry IV. to send auxiliaries,--but afterwards, to insure the payment
+of large sums which the Duke of Orleans stipulated to pay to the
+English after they had been some time in France, on condition of their
+quitting it. The Earl of Angouleme was sent as an hostage to England
+somewhat before January 25, 1413; the MS. says, at the end of 1411.
+
+4. Again, the MS. having dated the death of John, Earl of Somerset,
+Captain of Calais, in the preceding year, says that the King then made
+John Cornwall Captain of Calais. Whereas the fact is, that John
+Beaufort, Captain of Calais, died on Palm Sunday, 1410, and Prince
+Henry was appointed to succeed him on the following Tuesday. His
+appointment, by writ of privy seal, bears date March 18, 1410; and he
+continued to be Captain of Calais till he succeeded to the throne.
+
+The MS. having recorded the marriage of the Duke of Clarence with the
+Countess of Somerset, and the dispute between him and the Bishop of
+Winchester, in which Prince Henry took the Bishop's part against his
+brother, as having taken place in this same year, proceeds with the
+passage, for the purpose of ascertaining the accuracy and authenticity
+of which we have been led to make so many prefatory observations.
+
+"In the same year,[328] on the morrow of All Souls, began a parliament
+at Westminster; and because the King, by reason of his infirmity,
+could not in his own person be present, he appointed and ordained  (p. 438)
+in his name his brother, Thomas Beaufort, then Chancellor of England,
+to open, continue, and prorogue it. In which parliament Prince Henry
+desired from his father the resignation of his kingdom and crown,
+because that his father, by reason of his malady, could not labour for
+the honour and advantage of the kingdom any longer; but in this he was
+altogether unwilling to consent to him,--nay, he wished to govern the
+kingdom, together with the crown and its appurtenances, as long as he
+retained his vital breath. Whence the Prince, in a manner, with his
+counsellors retired aggrieved; and afterwards, as it were through the
+greater part of England, he joined all the nobles under his authority
+in homage and pay. In the same parliament the money, as well in gold
+as in silver, was somewhat lessened in weight in consequence of the
+exchange of foreigners, &c."
+
+                   [Footnote 328: Bibl. Reg. 13, C. I. 10. An. 13 Hen.
+                   IV. "Eodem anno in Crastino Animarum incepit
+                   parliamentum apud Westmonasterium. Et quia Rex
+                   ratione suae infirmitatis non poterat in persona
+                   propria interesse, assignavit et ordinavit in
+                   nomine suo fratrem suum Thomam Beuforde,
+                   Cancellarium tunc Angliae, ad inchoandum,
+                   continuandum, et prorogandum; in quo parliamento
+                   Henricus Princeps desidevavit a patre suo regni et
+                   coronae resignacionem, eo quod pater ratione
+                   aegritudinis non poterat circa honorem et utilitatem
+                   regni ulterius laborare; sed sibi in hoc noluit
+                   penitus assentire; ymmo regnum una cum corona et
+                   pertinenciis, dummodo haberet spiritus vitales,
+                   voluit gubernare: unde Princeps quodammodo cum suis
+                   consiliariis aggravatus recessit; et posterius
+                   quasi pro majori parte Angliae omnes proceres suo
+                   dominio in humagio et stipendio copulavit. In eodem
+                   parliamento moneta tam in auro quam in argento
+                   fuerat aliqualiter in pondere minorata ex causa
+                   permutationis extraneorum, qui in suis partibus
+                   ratione cambii magnum sibi cumulabant emolumentum,
+                   et Regi et suis mercatoribus Angligenis in magnum
+                   dispendium et detrimentum, &c."]
+
+Now, there can be no doubt (1) that a parliament was held on the   (p. 439)
+morrow of All Souls, in the thirteenth year of Henry IV. (1411);
+(2) that it was _opened_, _continued_, and _prorogued_ by Thomas
+Beaufort, the Chancellor, by commission from the King, in his absence;
+(3) that an alteration in the coin was agreed upon in that parliament;
+and (4), moreover, that the King declared in that parliament his
+determination to allow of no innovations, nor of any encroachments on
+his prerogative, but to maintain the rights and privileges of his
+crown in full enjoyment, as his royal predecessors had delivered them
+down.
+
+A superficial glance at these facts would doubtless suggest a strong
+confirmation of the details of the MS. in other points, and thus
+predispose us to receive the statement with regard to Prince Henry's
+unfilial conduct on the authority of this document alone. But, on
+close examination, these very facts, which the records of the realm
+place beyond doubt, coupled with others equally indisputable, to which
+we shall presently refer, demonstrate to the Author's mind that no
+dependence whatever can be placed on this MS., and that the statement
+is altogether apocryphal, and founded on palpable confusion.
+
+The parliament met on the morrow of All Souls, Tuesday, November 3,
+1411, (13th Henry IV,) and was opened, continued, and prorogued by the
+Chancellor; but not on account of the King's indisposition, or
+inability to be present. The Rolls of Parliament are most explicit on
+this point. They state that the King, having been informed that very
+many lords, spiritual and temporal, knights of the shire, and
+burgesses, who ought to attend that parliament, had not assembled on
+the appointed day, commissions the Chancellor to open the parliament,
+and to prorogue it _till the following day_. And on the following day,
+Wednesday, (the Lords and Commons then being in the presence of    (p. 440)
+the King,) the Chancellor, by the King's command, recited the reasons
+for convening the parliament, and charged the Commons to retire and
+elect their Speaker.
+
+Not only so. On the Thursday (Nov. 5), the Commons came before the
+King and the Lords, and presented Thomas Chaucer as their Speaker. And
+the Speaker prayed liberty of speech, &c.: and the King granted the
+request, but declared that he would admit of no innovation nor
+encroachment on his prerogative, but resolved to maintain his rights
+as fully as his predecessors had done. On this the Speaker prayed him
+to grant to the Commons, till the day following, time for putting
+their protest, &c. in writing. To this the King agreed. But, forasmuch
+as the King could not attend on the Friday in consequence of diverse
+great and pressing matters, the time was postponed to the following
+day, Saturday; when the Commons came before the King, and presented
+their prayer, &c.
+
+The fact is, that the King was repeatedly present at this parliament,
+from the day before the Speaker was chosen to the very last day. On a
+subsequent occasion, the Prince of Wales also, as well as the King, is
+recorded to have been present, (as doubtless he was on various
+occasions throughout,--probably an habitual attendant,) in what
+character, and under what circumstances, whether as the supplanter of
+his father or not, perhaps the words of the record may, to a certain
+extent at least, enable us to pronounce.
+
+"On Monday, the last day of November, the Speaker, in the name of the
+Commons, prayed the King to thank my Lord the Prince, the Bishops of
+Winchester and Durham, &c. who were assigned to be of council to the
+King in the last parliament, for their great labour and diligence;
+for, as it appears to the said Commons, my said Lord the Prince, and
+the other Lords, have well and loyally done their duty according to
+their promise in that parliament. And upon that, kneeling, my Lord the
+Prince, and the other Lords, declared, by the mouth of my Lord     (p. 441)
+the Prince, how they had taken pains, and labour, and diligence,
+according to their promise, and the charge given them in parliament,
+to their skill and knowledge. This the King remembered well [or made
+good mention of], and thanked them most graciously. And he said
+besides, that he was well assured, if they had had more than they had,
+in the manner it had been spoken by the mouth of my Lord the Prince,
+at the time the King charged them to be of his council in the said
+parliament, they would have done their duty to effect more good than
+was done in diverse parts for the defence, honour, good, and profit of
+him and his kingdom. And our Lord the King also said, that he felt
+very contented with their good and loyal diligence, counsel, and duty,
+for the time they had been of his council."
+
+This took place on the 30th of November, a month (saving two days)
+after the parliament had assembled, and within less than three weeks
+of its termination. It would scarcely be credible, even had the report
+come through a less questionable channel, that Henry of Monmouth up to
+that time had been guilty of the unfilial delinquency with which the
+MS. charges him. Nor could he have made the "unnatural attempt to
+dethrone his diseased father" at any period through the remaining
+three weeks of the session of that parliament. At all events, such a
+proceeding appears altogether irreconcilable with the conduct both of
+the parliament and of the King on the very last day of their sitting.
+"On Saturday, December 20th, (say the Rolls,) being the last day of
+parliament, the Speaker, recommending the persons of the Queen, of the
+Prince, and of other the King's sons, prayeth the advancement of their
+estates; for the which the King giveth hearty thanks."
+
+Had any such transaction taken place during this parliament as the MS.
+records, would the King, on the last day of the session, without any
+allusion to it, have given hearty thanks to the Commons for their
+recommendation of the Prince's person (coupled with the name of    (p. 442)
+his Queen and his other sons), and their prayer for further provision
+for his dignity and comfort?
+
+There are, however, two or three more circumstances upon which it may
+appear material to make some observations; or even, should these
+closing observations not seem altogether indispensable, yet, since
+this is all new and untrodden ground, it may yet be thought safer to
+anticipate conjectures, than to leave any questions unopened and
+unexamined on this point--a point which the Author trusts may be set
+at rest at once, and for ever.
+
+The Author then is ready to confess his belief that both the MS. and
+its commentator, the modern historian, have confounded this parliament
+of November 1411 with the parliament of February 3, 1413, which was
+opened in the illness of the King, and which he never was able to
+attend. But if it be attempted to engraft on this fact the surmise
+that it might have been in the latter parliament that the Prince
+demanded the surrender of the throne, and that it is after all a mere
+mistake of dates, the material fact being unshaken and unaffected,--to
+this suggestion he replies, that there is no evidence, directly or
+indirectly bearing on the subject, in support of such a surmise. The
+only statement in printed book or manuscript known, is that which we
+have now been sifting; and which with a precision, as though of set
+purpose, minute and pointed, fixes the alleged transaction to the year
+1411.[329] Not only so. We have, on the contrary, reason to believe
+that before the meeting of the next parliament, February 1413, _all
+differences had been made up between the King and his son_; and that
+from the day of their reconciliation they lived in the full
+interchange of paternal and filial kindness to the end. For that   (p. 443)
+jealousies and alienations of confidence, fostered by the malevolence
+of others,[330] had taken place between them in the course of the
+preceding year, the very mention of the "ridings of gentils and huge
+people with the Prince," twice recurring in the Chronicle of London,
+seems of itself to force upon us. The accounts, at all events, such as
+they are, which chroniclers give of their reconciliation, fix the date
+of that happy issue of their estrangement to a period antecedent to
+the last parliament of Henry IV. February 3.--Cras. Purif. 1413.
+
+                   [Footnote 329: It cannot, however, be supposed that
+                   this anonymous writer fabricated the story; he must
+                   have copied it from some other writer, or put down
+                   what he had learned by hearsay.]
+
+                   [Footnote 330: The Author confesses his own opinion
+                   to be that a party was formed at court (headed
+                   probably by the Queen), jealous of the Prince's
+                   influence, and determined to destroy his power with
+                   his father. That, to oppose this party, the Prince
+                   summoned his friends, and made a demonstration of
+                   his power; (it is possible that he might have
+                   expressed his readiness to act again in the
+                   government for his father, as he had undoubtedly
+                   done before:) and that, after much coldness and
+                   alienation, father and son were fully reconciled.]
+
+Although the life and reign of Henry IV. continued more than a year
+and four months after the passing of the ordinance respecting the
+coin, with an account of which this MS. abruptly closes, yet
+(excepting what is involved in the extract above cited) not one single
+word is said of the foreign and domestic affairs of the kingdom, or of
+the life of the King, or of his death; though much of interesting
+matter was at hand, and though a parliament was summoned, and actually
+met fourteen months after the alteration of the coin. And such is the
+close of a document, not like a yearly chronicle, or general register
+of events, satisfied with giving a summary of the most remarkable
+casualties in the briefest form; but a narrative which transcribes,
+with unusual minuteness, the very words (at full, and with all their
+technicalities,) of some of the most unimportant and prolix statutes
+of Henry IV.'s reign.[331] It is not that the MS. is mechanically  (p. 444)
+cut short by loss of leaves, or other accident; the Sloane ends with
+an "etc." in the very middle of a page, and the King's at the foot of
+the first column.
+
+                   [Footnote 331: Sloane, p. 42. The statute for
+                   assigning certain imposts for the King's household
+                   is transcribed at full length, word for word. So,
+                   too, in the seventh year, the statute relative to
+                   the succession is copied verbatim. Of the same
+                   character is the copy of the Tripartite Indenture
+                   of Division.]
+
+We need not encumber this inquiry (already too long) by any
+reflections on the avidity with which this passage of the MS. has been
+seized, and made the groundwork of charges against Henry of "unfilial
+conduct," "unnatural rebellion" towards his father, and "the
+unprincipled ambition of a Catilinarian temper," with other hard words
+and harder surmises; because we are trying the value of testimony. If
+that testimony is sound, modern historians may doubtless build upon it
+what comments seem to them good; if we utterly destroy the validity of
+the evidence, their foundation sinks from under their superstructure.
+
+The reader, however, has probably already determined that, unless
+there be in reserve some other independent, or at least auxiliary
+source of evidence, the palpable contradiction and manifest confusion
+reigning through this part of the MS., together with the high degree
+of improbability thrown over the whole statement by the undoubted
+records of the very parliament in question, justify the rejection of
+the passage altogether from the pale of authentic history. The Author
+confesses that he has step by step come to that conclusion.
+
+THE END.
+
+LONDON
+PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY,
+Dorset Street, Fleet Street.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Henry of Monmouth, Volume 2, by J. Endell Tyler
+
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