History of England, Part I For the use of Middle Forms of Schools
Tout, T. F. --Powell, F. York
1898
CHAPTER I: Henry IV of Bolingbroke 1399-1413
1. [1] THE new king was crowned with great pomp 13th October . Forty-six young squires were made Knights of the Bath, and walked to church with green silken shoulder-knots on their mantles. Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmoreland, who had married 's half-sister, Joan Beaufort, was made Marshal; , the Earl of Northum- ` berland, was made Constable and Lord of Man; his son Harry, Lord of Anglesey and Lieutenant of North Wales; and his brother Thomas, Earl of Worcester, named Admiral and Lieutenant of South Wales. Arundel was again acknowledged as archbishop. Parliament met on the 15th, and ordered the Acts of last Parliament to be cancelled, and those of restored; the blank charters were to be destroyed. , the king's son, was made Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall, and Earl of Chester, and the king promised that the power of the Estates should not again be given to a small Board. On the 16th, Sir William Bagot, 's former minister, charged Aumale with the murder of Gloucester. But Aumale, , and challenged him to wager of battle. All the parties were arrested. On the 23d, the Lords condemned King to perpetual prison, the Commons saying that they would not be parties to any judgments given in parliament. On the 3d November, those of the appellants of who were still alive were judged: Aumale, , were to lose their dukedoms and | |
287 | remain Earls of Rutland, , and Huntingdon; Marquis Dorset and the Earl of Gloucester to come back to their old titles of Earl of Somerset and Lord Despenser; the Earl of Salisbury was to prove his guiltlessness by battle with Lord Morley, his challenger. Later, the Earls of Suffolk, Arundel, and Warwick were restored to their former rights, and the earldoms of Aquitaine and Lancaster given to the Prince of Wales. Yet the outlook was not very bright. Many in England disliked or feared . France, and Scotland, and Flanders were openly unfriendly to him, and Wales staunch to . The king's help came chiefly from Arundel (who led the stronger half of the English Church) and those great northern barons to whom he was largely beholden for his crown. His aims were peace and cheap government at home, the reconquest of his heritage abroad, and the upholding of the Church by the crushing of heresy. But he was not able to carry out one of these plans fully, for he could never gain the love of his people, his nobles would only help him for their own ends, and he was so crippled all his life for want of money that the pay of Calais garrison was left years in arrear, and the wages of his ambassadors abroad were only doled out to them when they threatened to throw up their thankless task. had, moreover, to face the danger which every English king, for more than a hundred years after 's dethronement had to meet-the bitter and relentless feud which rent the royal house, and destroyed nearly all the descendants of , only ceasing for a while during a cruel and unprofitable foreign war. |
2. The first plot of the many which mark this reign was planned early in by the Earls of , Huntingdon, and Salisbury, and Lord Despenser at . Under colour of holding a tournament, they were to gather at Windsor on Twelfth Night, seize and put to death the king and his sons, and put back King . But Rutland, whose share in the plot was discovered by his father, rode in haste to tell all, and so save himself. The king at once stole off to the Tower to gather troops. The earls, disappointed of their prey, went past Windsor to Sunning, where Isabel, 's young queen, was living. Here , putting a good face on the matter, boasted that , for all his soldiership and renown, had fled before them, and declaring that had escaped from prison, and was waiting at Radcot Bridge with 100,000 men ready to win back his own, called upon true men to follow him. | |
288 | He then tore off the collars of gold had given to some of those present, and made the yeomen cast under foot the silver crescent badge of Lancaster. With a small following, and Salisbury rode on to Cirencester, but there being attacked by the townsfolk who favoured , were obliged to give themselves up. Next day a priest of their train secretly set fire to certain thatched houses in the town, hoping that in the turmoil his masters the earls might get away. [2] But the townsfolk were so angry at this breach of faith, that they haled the prisoners out of the Abbey, where they lay, and cut off their heads forthwith, before they went back to put out the fire. Huntingdon had gone to Essex to take ship, to seek help from 's French friends, but he was stopped by contrary winds, made prisoner by the levy of Essex, and taken to Plashy, the house of Joan of Arundel, Countess of Hereford, 's mother-in-law. Joan would have saved him, but the young Earl of Arundel met him. And he bade the Essex yeomen slay him. Huntingdon pleaded hard for his life. and none of them would lift hand against him. Then Arundel bade a squire of his own kill him. said Huntingdon, But Arundel's threats frightened the squire, and he butchered the prisoner on the very spot where Gloucester had been arrested by King . The townsfolk beheaded Despenser (with whose house they had a standing feud), and sent his head by Rutland to London, though the king had ordered that he should be spared to speak with him. Others were tried, and put to death at London and . The poor plan of this rising, and the ill-feeling of the people of the south of England towards the young courtiers of , had more to do with its failure than a love for . The king thanked the Londoners for their readiness in arming for him, promised the men and women of Cirencester two butts of wine and ten fallow deer every year in return for their zeal, and threatened that he would uproot traitors like evil weeds from his garden, and plant in their stead good and wholesome herbs. A few days after this, it was made known that was dead at Pomfret, whither he had |
289 | been taken from the Tower 29th October . His body was shown at Cheapside, with bared face, for two hours to the people. Whether he died of grief (as did the banished Norfolk at Venice when he heard the news of 's fall and 's success), or whether, like , he was secretly murdered, as most men believed, is not known for certain. Some even held that the body shown was that of one Maudlin the chaplain, who was very like , and that had really broken out of Pomfret, and, when the rising failed, fled to Scotland, mad with the disappointment. And it is true that a madman was long kept at the Scottish Court, and cared for as King , though maintained that he was only a runaway priest called Thomas Ward of Trumpington. |
3. [3] King of France was shocked at the death of his friend and son-in-law, and feared as a claimant to the French crown; he therefore asked for the little Isabel to be sent back to France with her dower. For some time would not let her go, wishing to marry her to his son, the Prince of Wales; but would hear of no match till she was back to France ; so she was returned safely, though her dower was kept as part payment for the ransom of King John, which had never been received in full. suffered from disease of the brain, which made him helpless for months together; and while he was ill, his brother Louis, Duke of Orleans, and his cousin John, Duke of Burgundy, quarrelled for power. Duke Louis had made a bond of friendship with while they were together in Paris, but he now tore it up, and twice challenged his old friend to wager of battle, accusing him of 's murder. refused to fight, but denied the charge by oath. Waleran, Earl of St. Pol, 's brother-in-law, also declared war against , and hanged a figure, made to be like Rutland, upon a gibbet by Calais gate, to show his hate of the traitor. So, though there was no open war with France, he and other French nobles fitted up fleets of privateers and began to plunder English ships, and made raids on the English coast, year after year, causing much annoyance and damage. | |
In order to strengthen himself against his foes in France, took care to keep friendly with Portugal and Castile, of which lands his sisters were queens. Moreover, he gave one of his daughters, Blanche, in marriage to Louis, son of Rupert, king of the Romans, and the other, Philippa, with a great portion, to Eric XIII. of Denmark. He himself | |
290 | married, in , Joan of Navarre, dowager Duchess of Brittany, a match which gave him little comfort. |
Both and the archbishop disliked and feared the Lollards as friends of and enemies of the bishops. And when Parliament was called in , Arundel and his friends got the Commons to petition And it was made law (a) that every one found guilty of heresy in the bishop's court, and persisting therein, should be given over to the sheriff to be burnt on a high place before the people; (b) that search should be made for all books of heresy, that they might be burnt. One of the first put to death at this time was William Sawtree, priest of S. Osyth's Church. | |
4. [4] Wales had never agreed to the unkinging of , and ere long the most part of that country was in open revolt against , who could never, as long as he lived, get his title acknowledged there. The Welsh war was begun by a knight of Mid-Wales, named or Glyndwr. He was born in , brought up at one of the English Inns of Court, and served as squire to the late Earl of Arundel, and as it is said afterwards to King , who knighted him in . When his master was arrested at Flint, Sir went home to his Welsh estates. Near him dwelt Lord Grey of Rufhin, a Lancastrian partisan, from whom he had once won certain lands by a lawsuit. Lord Grey now, by force of arms, took back these lands, insulting 's daughter to boot. Sir complained to the House of Lords, but they would not listen to and gave Grey more of the plaintiff's lands. Whereupon took the law into his own hands, and, being desperate, resolved to rouse his countrymen by setting up his standard as Prince of Wales, calling upon all good Welshmen to gather to him, and fight for their own prince and the true King against the traitor and the false prince, his son. Welsh knights and squires who had once followed , and knew 's wisdom and bravery, soon joined him, Welsh scholars hurried away from London and to fight in his service, and the country-folk of North and Mid-Wales flocked to his host. On September 30, , he broke into Ruthin at fair-time, and burnt it; | |
291 | later on he made a raid to Oswestry, and burnt that town also. The strong castles of Hawarden, Flint, Conway, and Radnor, he took and held, thus making himself master of all North Wales. He took prisoner his foe, Lord Grey, on the Virnwy, and Sir Edmund Mortimer, uncle to the young Earl of March, at Brynglas. He burnt the minsters of St. Asaph, Llandaff, Bangor, and Cwmhir, putting Welsh clergy in place of the Lancastrian priests he drove out. In he was crowned Prince of Wales at Machynlledd. and his son marched against him in vain; they were beaten back by the bad weather before they could force to a battle. Nor could the jealous hate of some of his own countrymen harm him. His brother-in-law, David, son of , surnamed Gam [crooked eye], plotted to kill him, but was found out and put in prison. And Hoel Sele of Nannau, who basely shot at him while they were hunting together, was slain on the spot. These successes and escapes were put down by the English to witchcraft, and great fear fell on 's foes. tried to keep the war to Wales by laws forbidding Welshmen, or Englishmen married to Welsh women, from holding lands or office in any part of England or in the English boroughs of Wales. |
5. As to Ireland, which had not had time to pacify, the greater part of the English Pale was in the hands of the Irish chiefs and the old settler families of 's day. Only the towns were under royal government. The king was anxious to keep the country as quiet as he could, as he had little money to spare in case of war or rebellion. He therefore sent his second son, Thomas, over as his lieutenant, with a yearly grant. He brought in fresh settlers from England, got back much of the crown land that had fallen into the nobles' hands, encouraged the citizens of Dublin to use their ships against the Welsh and Scots sea-rovers, who were in league with the Irish clans. But all was of little use, the Geraldines and Butlers were stronger than the Lieutenant, and throughout this reign there are constant complaints from the Pale of the bad, weak, and starved government of Ireland. | |
Scotland was a greater danger to . Its king, Robert III., was weak of mind, and all power was in the hands of his eldest son, David, Earl of Rothesay, and his brother, Robert, Earl of Albany, who were bad friends. When homage was refused, marched into Scotland, but though Rothesay challenged him to single combat, neither he nor Albany, the regent, would risk a pitched | |
292 | battle; so , who carefully refrained from rousing the Scots by burning or plundering their land, was soon starved back into England. [5] The Earl of Northumberland and his son Harry, whom the Scots called , were left Wardens of the East and West Marches. They were helped there by George Dunbar, Earl of March, who, in anger at Rothesay not marrying his daughter, as he had promised, came over to the English court, and was taken into 's service, with a yearly pension of 500 marks. However, Albany made himself sole ruler in April , by putting Rothesay to death, and it was bruited about in that he was to lead an army into England, to put back King , whom he declared to have escaped to Scotland. For spreading this news and forwarding this enterprise, Sir Roger Clarendon, 's chamberlain Serle, and a number of Grey Brothers were afterwards punished as traitors in England. However, in July the Scots really came. March had defeated a body of Scottish raiders at , killing their leader, Hepburn of Hales. Douglas, March's old foe, thereupon asked Albany to send him with a large force into England. They reached the Tyne, when March and the Percies got behind them, and cut off their retreat at Homildon Hill, September 14, . On that day Otterburn was avenged, for the English archers galled their foes sorely, and when the Scottish knights charged, poured such thick volleys into them that they turned and fled, many being drowned in the Tweed, as they tried to cross it in their flight. So the day was won by the long-bow alone, no Englishman having drawn his sword. The Earls of Douglas, Angus, Moray, and Orkney were taken prisoners; but the best prizes were held to be Murdac, Earl of Fife, Albany's eldest son, and Robert Logan the privateer, who had sworn to sweep English fishermen and merchants from the North Sea. |
6. Yet this victory well-nigh proved 's overthrow. The Percies got but little thanks for their deeds, while the £ 2000 they spent in the king's service was but slowly repaid; and though ransomed Lord Grey from , he would not purchase the freedom of 's brother-in-law, Sir Edmund Mortimer. In their anger they sent secretly to treat with the cunning Welsh prince. He readily listened to them, set Mortimer free, and married him to his own daughter. The Percies, on their side, forgave Douglas his ransom, on his promise to join them with a band of Scottish knights. Help was sent for from France. | |
293 |
Many northern lords favoured the plotters, who were to crown the true heir, , or, if he were really dead, the young Earl of March. Pretending that they had settled to fight a pitched battle with the Scots on the 1st August, the
Percies boldly sent to for men and money, whereon he promised to join them himself, with George of Dunbar and other brave knights. When he reached Burton-on-Trent, he heard that and Douglas had made friends with Glyndwr, and raised 's standard in the west.
Calling out the levies of the shires, turned, and threw himself into Shrewsbury. The earls now defied him, as false and forsworn, for dethroning and murdering his king, and keeping the crown from the heir, for packing parliaments, for raising income-taxes against law, for ill-treating his nobles. [6] sent the Abbot of Shrewsbury to offer the Percies terms, but
Thomas of Worcester played the traitor, and altered the words of the offer, so that refused it. The king had chosen his place of battle well, and a field of beans, with knotted stems, covered part of his array. He did not stay by his banner himself, nor wear his own coat of arms, by the advice of Dunbar, who warned him that the earls would chiefly seek to kill or take him, and that if this attack failed, he must win the day. In a headlong charge
and Douglas reached the royal standard, seeking their foe in vain. But as they fought their way back, ringed round by the king's men, was shot dead by an arrow, and Douglas fell badly hurt. The shouts of were now drowned by the Lancastrian cries of and the earl's troops turned and fled, save the Cheshire men, who stood till they were nearly all slain. The traitor Thomas was soon after taken, and beheaded, with other rebel barons. When Northumberland, who was hurrying south to join his son, heard of his death, and found that his shrewd brother-in-law, Ralf,
Earl of Westmoreland, was in arms for and barring his road, he laid down his arms and went to beg the king's forgiveness at . wisely listened to his excuses, and promised him
|
had too little money to follow up his victory by falling upon Glyndwr, and when at the Parliament of January he called for supplies to meet an attack from abroad, the Commons said he had enough revenue, were it but well spent. So in order to get help, had to give way to all their wishes A privy council of | |
294 | twenty-one was appointed by their approval, the king's confessor and others were dismissed, with all the aliens at court (save a few personal servants of the new queen, Joan of Navarre), an ordinance was made for the rule of the royal household, and £12,100 set apart to maintain it. This done, they granted a shilling on every pound's worth of land in
England, to be spent only by the advice of four Treasurers of War named by themselves. The crown was settled on the Prince of Wales and his heirs, and after them, to his brothers, one by one, in order. was tried by the Peers, found guilty of trespass, and pardoned. Still the king needed money, and in October the Lay or
Unlearned Parliament was called by writs, forbidding lawyers to be chosen members thereof, for it was thought that they wasted time in The Commons gave large taxes, and proposed that the king should take one year's income of the clergy for his wars. But the angry bishops declaring that this would be a breach of the Great Charter, it was settled that all pensions and grants of crown land since should be looked into, and enough taken back to enable the king
|
7. In , James, the young heir of Scotland, was taken off Flamboro' Head, as he was on his way to the French court. said , and he put him in safe keeping with careful masters. Next year, when King Robert died, found the worth of the hostage he held; for Albany, the regent, who loved to rule, saw that it would be wiser not to cause to send back the heir, and thus the English king was rid of one danger. | |
But the northern lords were not yet sure that they might not get their will by force, and made a fresh revolt. The Lady Despenser tried to carry off young March and his brother to Wales, but they were retaken on the way, whereupon she accused the Duke of , her brother, and Thomas Mowbray, the earl marshal, son of 's old foe, of a plot against the king's life. They were imprisoned, but soon pardoned; and then Mowbray went off to Northumberland, who, with the Archbishop of and other northern lords, now took up arms. As , they asked for a free Parliament, which should consider the reform of the government, find a better way to try lords accused of treason, stop | |
295 | the lavish expenses of the royal household, and crush the revolt in Wales. Westmoreland, with Thomas Beaufort and John the king's son, went to meet the " reformers," and after defeating them, brought about a parley with the leaders, Lord Scrope and Mowbray, near Shipton, promising to lay their complaints before the king. [7] On this the northern army went home; but Westmoreland arrested the archbishop and the marshal, who were brought to trial as traitors. Sir William Gascoyne, the chief-justice, refused to sentence them, because he thought they ought to have been tried before their peers; but Sir William Fulthorpe and another judge gave judgment against them, and they were beheaded on the 8th June. When they were led out to death in a field of green barley, poor Mowbray's heart failed him, but the archbishop bade him be of good cheer, and met his end so meekly and piously that many men held him for a martyr, and made pilgrimages to his tomb. Archbishop Arundel spoke warmly against the judgment, but John and Thomas Beaufort would not hear of mercy, and told that he must no longer spare his foes. and Lord Bardolf fled to Scotland, and lay there for two years, till, fearing Albany might yield them up, they hardened their hearts in to make another attack on with 's help. Sir Thomas Rokeby let them reach shire, but there fell upon them, at Bramham Moor, with deadly success. was killed, Bardolf wounded to death, and their friend, the Abbot of Hales, taken and hanged. Thus was freed at last of his most dangerous foes, though ill-health and want of money still tied his hands. |
8. Meanwhile the king had been, year by year, forced by his needs to give way to the just claims of the two Houses of Parliament. In , the Speaker claimed of the Crown and advised that the Prince of Wales should carry on war against Glendwr, while the care of the seas should be given to a company of merchants, money being granted for both purposes. The Commons claimed to have the royal accounts audited, and got the king to name a fresh privy council of seventeen, whom they compelled to swear to a set of thirty-one articles, fixing their powers and duties. They further passed laws to secure the freedom of election of knights of the shire, and in made good their claim that the final ordering of money grants lay with them, not with the Lords. The king had | |
296 [8] | been ailing since , but at the end of was too ill for business, so that till his son, the Prince of Wales, and his brothers, the Beauforts, ruled for him, John being Earl of Somerset, Henry Bishop of , and Thomas Chancellor, for Arundel (whose harsh treatment of the Lollards had brought the dislike of many) had resigned. The chief business was the Welsh war, and the danger from France. For Burgundy had made up his mind to win Calais back, if possible, and this he might have accomplished but for the greed and spite of Orleans, who, for his part, had designs on Guienne. Disgusted with Orleans's treachery, jealous of his rule, and maddened by his mocking, in John stirred one of his gentlemen, Rollet of Actonville, who had his own quarrel with Louis, to take that prince's life. On the evening of the 23d November , as Orleans sat at supper with Queen Isabel, his brother's wife, he was told that the king wished to speak with him. [9] Rising straight from table, he mounted his mule, and set out for 's lodging, followed by his two squires on one horse, and a few footmen, with torches. As he rode through the Temple Street, at seven o'clock, singing to himself, and beating time with his glove on his thigh, Rollet, with seventeen armed followers, ran out from under the dark eaves of a house, and struck fiercely at him, with shouts of One sharp blow cut off his left hand. he cried, ; they answered, and stabbed him again and again as he lay helpless on the ground, killing also the faithful German squire who tried to cover him from their weapons. Then John of Burgundy, who had stood by, stepped forward, and, looking carefully at his dead cousin's face by the light of a link, cried, and, leaving the corpses there in the kennel, hurried off with his men. When the news of the murder got about, the proofs were strong against John, who at first denied it, but afterwards, when he was in safety, dared to boast of the deed as the lawful taking-off of a tyrant. Orleans' party (called Armagnacs, because the Earl of Armagnac, father-in-law of Duke Charles, Louis' son, was their leader for the time) resolved upon revenge, and open civil war broke out in France. Burgundy, in , begged help from England, and the Prince of Wales, who disliked the house of Orleans, sent the Earl of Arundel and Kyme and Sir to help him. They beat the |
297 | Armagnacs at St. Cloud, November , and helped Duke John to take Paris before they came home. The defeat of Glyndwr's great raid in , and the execution of its leaders, Rhys ddu and Philpot Scudamour, led to the submission of most of Mid-Wales. The Lollards now began to stir in England again; a scheme was brought forward by the Commons to take a third of the Church lands, £110,000, for keeping a regular standing army, and another third for the king's other needs, leaving a third to the clergy, besides the lands of the friars, cathedrals and colleges. However, the prince would not hear of this, though he withstood Arundel's attempt to force Courtenay, the chancellor of the university of , into severities against the Lollards. |
9. In the king grew better, and in his anger at the Beauforts, who had moved him to give up his crown to the Prince of Wales, turned them out of office to make way for his second son, Thomas (whom he made Duke of Clarence), and Archbishop Arundel. Clarence heard that the French princes were likely to make up their quarrel for a time, so he offered help to Orleans, and led an army into Normandy in . [10] But after laying waste that dukedom, and Maine and Anjou, he was bought off and marched into Guienne. Before more was done the king fell ill agaih. After a fit, which seized him while he was praying at S. Edmund's chapel in Westminster, he sank rapidly, and died on March 20, , in the Jerusalem Chamber. His body is buried in minster. In his last illness his confessor begged him to repent for three great sins-the murder of , the execution of the archbishop, and the wrongful seizure of the crown-and the dying king answered him, It is said that he called the prince to him and warned him that he had won his crown ill, and that he that should wear it must render a strict account therefor. He also spoke of his great desire to go on a crusade, saying that he had laid money aside to take an army to win back the Lord's sepulchre, and thus atone for his sins. was a strong and handsome man, of grave face and staid speech, a trained knight, a persevering and shrewd party leader, yet he found the burden he had taken upon himself almost too heavy for him. He had been bold and ambitious in his youth, but as king he was slow to do anything that might endanger his crown, and took great pains to please those | |
298 | upon whose goodwill his power rested, though he was never popular. He had not scrupled to shed blood to gain his own ends, yet he was merciful by nature, and could never altogether shake off the feeling that he had sinned heavily. The continual resistance he met even in his family aged him before his time, and his mistrust of his own son is but a single proof of his uneasy mind. |
Footnotes: [1] Henry IV. and the nobles, 1399. [] 1400.] [2] Huntingdon's plot and Richard's death 1400. [3] Henry's fears of the French and the Lollards, 1401-6. [] [1413. [4] Sir Owain of Glyndwr, Prince of Wales, 1402. [] 1402.] [5] Troubles with the Irish and Scots. [] 1403.] [6] The Battle of Shrewsbury, July 23,1403. [] [1405. [] 1406.] [7] The end of Henry's English enemies, 1404-8. [] [1411. [8] The power of the Commons acknowledged by King Henry. [9] Beginning of the Civil War in France, 1407. [] 1413.] [10] Henry's death and character. [] [1413. |
