of his truce, and his subsequent offer to make a distinct peace with the
king of France, despatched a great favourite of his, named sir Thomas
Mountgomery, to king Louis at Vervins, and he arrived whilst the
negociation was proceeding with the duke of Burgundy's envoys. Sir Thomas
desired, on the behalf of the king his master, that the king of France
would not consent to any other truce with the {xlvii} duke than what was
already made.[69] He also pressed Louis not to deliver St. Quentin into the
duke's hands; and, as further encouragement, Edward offered to repass the
seas in the following spring with a powerful army to assist him, provided
his majesty would continue in war against the duke of Burgundy, and
compensate him for the prejudice he should sustain in his duties upon wool
at Calais, which would be worth little or nothing in war time, though at
other times they were valued at 50,000 crowns. He proposed likewise that
the king of France should pay one-half of his army, and he would pay the
other himself. Louis returned Edward abundance of thanks, and made sir
Thomas a present of plate: but as to the continuation of the war, he begged
to be excused, for the truce with Burgundy was already concluded, and upon
the same terms as those which had been already agreed to between them; only
the duke of Burgundy had pressed urgently to have a separate truce for
himself; which circumstance Louis excused as well as he could, in order to
satisfy the English ambassador, who with this answer returned home,
accompanied by the hostages. "The king (adds Commines) felt extremely
surprised at king Edward's offers, which were delivered before me only, and
he conceived it would be very dangerous to bring the king of England into
France again, for between those two nations, when brought into contact, any
trifling accident might raise some new quarrel, and the English might
easily make friends again with the duke of Burgundy." These considerations
greatly forwarded the conclusion of the king of France's treaty with the
Burgundians.
In fact, the duke of Burgundy at last overreached his brother-in-law king
Edward, for he concluded a truce with France for nine years, whilst that of
England with France was for seven years only. The duke's ambassadors
requested king Louis that this truce might not be proclaimed immediately by
sound of trumpet, as the usual custom was, for they were anxious to save
the duke's oath to king Edward (when he swore in his passion that he would
not accept of the benefit of the truce until the king had been in England
three months), lest Edward should think their master had spoken otherwise
than he designed.
As for Edward himself, whatever selfish satisfaction he may have derived
from the result of the campaign,--such as Commines has already
suggested--it must have weakened his popularity both with his nobles and
with his people, whilst it terminated the former cordiality that had
existed with his brother of Burgundy. The king of England had now become
the pensioner of France, the great {xlviii} absorbing power of that age,
which was soon to swallow up England's nearest and best allies, the duchies
of Burgundy and Britany.
The French pension of 50,000 crowns was, as Commines relates, punctually
paid every half-year in the Tower of London; and by a treaty made in Feb.
1478-9 it was renewed for the lives of Edward and Louis, and extended for a
hundred years after the death of both princes: which seemed to give it more
directly the character of a tribute, a term that Commines says the English
applied to it, but which the French indignantly repelled. However, after
little more than four years longer, it had answered its purpose, and its
payment ceased. The English voluptuary then found himself entirely
outwitted by the wily Frenchman. After the duke of Burgundy's death (in
1477) and that of his only daughter the wife of the archduke Maximilian (in
1482) his grand-daughter Margaret of Austria was suddenly betrothed to the
Dauphin, in the place of the lady Elizabeth of England. Louis caught at
this alliance in order to detach the counties of Burgundy and Artois from
the territory of the Netherlands, and annex them to the crown of France;
and the turbulent citizens of Ghent, in whose keeping the children[70] of
their late sovereign lady were, were ready to make this concession, without
the concurrence of the children's father, in order to reduce the power of
their princes. This infant bride was then only three years and a half old;
and had consequently made her appearance on the stage of life subsequently
to the Dauphin's former contract with the English princess.[71]
Commines describes at some length the mortification experienced by king
Edward when he heard of this alliance,--"finding himself deluded in the
hopes he had entertained of marrying his daughter to the Dauphin, of which
marriage both himself and his queen were more ambitious than of any other
in the world, and never would give credit to any man, whether subject or
foreigner, that endeavoured to persuade them that our king's intentions
were not sincere and honourable. For the parliament (or council) of England
had remonstrated to king Edward several times, when our king was in
Picardy, that after he had conquered {xlix} that province he would
certainly fall upon Calais and Guines, which are not far off. The
ambassadors from the duke and duchess of Austria, as also those from the
duke of Bretagne, who were continually in England at that time, represented
the same thing to him; but to no purpose, for he would believe nothing of
it, and he suffered greatly for his incredulity. Yet I am entirely of
opinion that his conduct proceeded not so much from ignorance as avarice;
for he was afraid to lose his pension of fifty thousand crowns, which our
master paid him very punctually, and besides he was unwilling to leave his
ease and pleasures, to which he was extremely devoted."
The enervated temper of Edward's latter years is faithfully depicted in the
opening lines of one of the best-known works of our great Dramatic Poet:
Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths,
Our bruised arms hung up for monuments;
Our stern alarums chang'd to merry meetings,
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.
Grim-visaged War hath smooth'd his wrinkled front,
And now, instead of mounting barbed steeds,
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber,
To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.
_Shakspeare's Richard the Third, act i. sc. 1._
In another place Commines attributes the death of Edward the Fourth to the
vexation he conceived at the great reverse in his political prospects,
which disclosed itself on his loss of the French alliance. This conclusion
is probably imaginary, though Edward's death certainly occurred whilst the
Dauphin's new betrothal was in progress. The treaty of Arras, by which the
arrangement was made, was signed on the 23d Dec. 1482, and the lady
Margaret was delivered to the French, and met the Dauphin at Amboise, on
the 22d of June following. King Edward died on the intervening 9th of
April, a victim, as is generally thought, to his long course of intemperate
living. It is obvious, however, that the failure of the French alliance
must have been a very serious loss to Edward's family, who were left
defenceless on his death, although he had previously contracted his
daughters to the heirs of France, Scotland, Spain, and Burgundy.
Altogether, the ruin of the house of York, if we may credit Commines, was
the eventual result of the fatal compromise made in the campaign of 1475,
and of {l} the enervating and corrupting influences exercised by the French
pensions which were then accepted by king Edward and his ministers.
Thenceforward, any hope of recovering the English provinces of France was
indefinitely deferred; the very echoes of those martial glories which had
once made the English name so dreadful in that country were allowed to die
away; the dreams of conquest were dissipated; and the hands of Englishmen
again turned to internecine contests, which resulted in the total
destruction of the royal house of Plantagenet, and the ruin of a large
proportion of the ancient nobility.
THE BOKE OF NOBLESSE, after the total failure of those more generous
sentiments and aspirations which it was intended to propagate, at once
became, what it is now, a mere mirror of by-gone days; and, considering
these circumstances, we cannot be surprised that it was never again
transcribed, nor found its way to the press.
It is with regret that I relinquish to some future more fortunate inquirer
the discovery of the author of this composition. The manuscript from which
it is printed is certainly not his autograph original; for its great
inaccuracy occasionally renders the meaning almost unintelligible. And yet
the corrections and insertions, which I have indicated as coming _a secunda
manu_, would seem to belong to the author.
I have already, in the first page of this Introduction, intimated the
possibility of the work having been composed in the lifetime of sir John
Fastolfe, and merely re-edited, if we may use the term, upon occasion of
the projected invasion of France in 1475. There are three circumstances
which decidedly connect the book with some dependent of sir John
Fastolfe:--
1. That the writer quotes sir John as "mine autour," or informant, in pp.
16 and 64, as well as tells other anecdotes which were probably received
from his relation.
2. His having access to sir John's papers or books of account (p. 68); and
3. There being still preserved in the volume, bound up with its fly-leaves,
the two letters, probably both addressed to Fastolfe, and one of them
certainly so, which are printed hereafter, as an Appendix to these remarks.
Sir John Fastolfe is not commemorated as having been a patron of
literature. In the inventory of his property which is printed in the
twentieth volume of the Archaeologia, no books occur except a few missals,
&c. belonging to his chapel. Though William of Worcestre, now famous for
his historical collections, (which have been edited by Hearne, Nasmith, and
Dallaway,) was Fastolfe's secretary, he was kept in a subordinate position,
and valued for his merely clerical, {li} not his literary, services. Sir
John Fastolfe's passion was the acquisition of property; whilst William of
Worcestre, on his part, followed (as far as he could) the bent of his own
taste, and not that of his master; being (as his comrade Henry Windsore
declared) as glad to obtain a good book of French or of Poetry as his
master Fastolfe was to purchase a fair manor.[72]
The translation of Cicero de Senectute, which was printed by Caxton in
1481, is indeed in the preface stated to have been translated by the
ordinance and desire of the noble ancient knight sir John Fastolfe;[73]
and, though Worcestre's name is not mentioned by Caxton, we may conclude
that it was the same translation which from Worcestre's own memoranda we
know was made by him.[74] Still, it was but a very slight deference to
literature, if the ancient knight approved of his secretary's translating
"Tully on Old Age," and did not make any further contribution towards its
publication.
But on the particular subject of the loss of the English provinces in
France, and the causes thereof, there can be no question that sir John
Fastolfe, the "baron {lii} of Sillie le Guillem," once governor of Anjou
and Maine, and lord of Piron and Beaumont, took the deepest interest;
considering that he had spent his best days in their acquisition,
administration, and defence, and that he was one of the principal sufferers
by their loss. He may, therefore, well have promoted the composition of the
work now before us.
William of Worcestre has the reputation of having written a memoir[75] of
the exploits of sir John Fastolfe; but this is not traceable beyond the
bare assertion of Bale, and a more recent misapprehension of the meaning of
one of the Paston letters.
{liii}
Another person whose name has occurred as having been employed in a
literary capacity for sir John Fastolfe[76] is Peter Basset[77]; who is
commemorated with some parade by Bale as an historical writer, but whose
writings, though quoted by Hall the chronicler, have either disappeared or
are no longer to be identified.
I have, however, mentioned the names of William of Worcestre and Peter
Basset only from the circumstance of their being connected with that of sir
John {liv} Fastolfe; and not from there being any other presumptive proof
that either of them wrote "The Boke of Noblesse." We have no known
production of Basset with which to compare it; and as to Worcestre his
"Collectanea" and private Memoranda can scarcely assist us in determining
what his style might have been had he attempted any such work as the
present.
Altogether, The Boke of Noblesse is more of a compilation than an original
essay. It has apparently largely borrowed from the French; and I have
already shown that it was partly derived from former works, though I cannot
undertake to say to what extent that was the case. In its general character
our book resembles one which was popular in the middle ages, as the
_Secretum Secretorum_, falsely attributed to Aristotle,[78] and which was
also known under the title _De Regimine Principum_. The popularity of this
work was so great that MS. copies occur in most of our public libraries,
and not less than nine English translations and six French translations are
known.[79] A Scots translation by sir Gilbert de Hay, entitled "_The Buke
of the Governaunce of Princis_," is contained in a MS. at Abbotsford,
accompanying a version of _The Tree of Batailes_, already noticed in pp.
iii. vi.
Another work of the same class is that of which Caxton published (about the
year 1484) a translation entitled _The booke of the ordre of Chevalrye or
Knyghthode_, and of which the Scots translation by sir Gilbert de Hay was
printed for the Abbotsford Club by Beriah Botfield, esq. in 1847.
To his translations of the treatises of Cicero on Old Age and Friendship,
which Caxton printed in 1481, he also appended two "declaracyons," or
orations, supposed to be spoken by two noble Roman knights before the
senate, in order "to know wherein Noblesse restith," or, as otherwise
expressed in the title-page, "shewing wherin Honoure should reste." These
imaginary orations were the work of an Italian, who styled himself, in
Latin, Banatusius Magnomontanus.
After a time, the term Noblesse, which we here find synonymous with Honour,
and (in p. xv. _ante_) with Chivalry, in the sense of a class or order of
society, {lv} became obsolete as an English word. In the former sense, at
least, it was changed into our English "Nobleness;" and about the year 1530
we find published a "Book of Noblenes," printed by Robert Wyer, without
date.[80] This work had been translated from Latin into French, and "now
into English by John Larke." I have not seen it, but I imagine it was a far
smaller and slighter composition than the present.[81]
Ames[82] mentioned our "Boke of Noblesse" as a printed work, on the
authority of Tanner's MSS., but this was evidently a misapprehension.
It only now remains that I should describe the Manuscript, which is
preserved in the Royal Collection at the British Museum, and marked 18 B.
XXII.
It is written in a paper book, which is formed of four quires of paper,
each consisting of six sheets, and is of the size of a modern quarto
volume. The quires are marked in the lower margin with the signatures of
the scribe: the first quire consisting of six sheets, placed within one
another, and marked j. ij. iij. iiij. v. vj.; the second also of six
sheets, marked .a.i. .a.ij. .a.iij. .a.iiij. .a.v. and .a.vj.; the third,
b.1. .b.3. .b.4. .b.5. .b.6.; the fourth .c.1. c.2. c.3. c.4. c.5. c.6.
Thus it is seen that the sheet containing the leaf b.2. and the attached
leaf (b.11. as it might be called) is lost: and this loss occasions the
defects which will be found in the present volume at p. 50 and p. 68.
In front of the volume are bound three leaves of vellum, on the last of
which is fastened a slip of the like material, inscribed, apparently
Edwarde w [iiij?]
wych ys
bold
On the back of the same leaf is the name of
_Symond'_
_Samson._
At the foot of the first paper leaf is the autograph name of
_Lumley._
_i. e._ John lord Lumley, the son-in-law of the last Earl of Arundel, into
whose {lvi} possession the volume probably came by purchase in the reign of
Elizabeth or James the First.
On the leaf .c.2. is the autograph name of _Robert Savylle_.
On the last leaf are many scribblings, and attempts in drawing grotesque
heads and figures, apparently done about the time of queen Mary. Among them
occurs again the name of
_Symeon Sampson p._
Also those of _Richarde Dyconson_ and _Edward Jones of Clemente in the Jor
of_ ---- and these sentences,
John Twychener ys booke he that stellys thys booke
he shall be hangid a pon a hooke and that wylle macke
ys necke to brake & that wyll macke ys neck awrye
A nyes wiffe & a backe dore makythe }
outon tymys a Ryche man pore. }
In the name of the father of the Sonne and the holey Gost. So be itt.
Jhesus nazerinus Rex iudior[=u] fillij dei miserere mei.
Jhesus.) God save the king o^r souu'ain lorde.
Jhesus Nazarinus. God save king p. & mary.
O gloryous Jesu o mekest Jesu o moost sweteste Jesu have m'cye on us.
Quite at the bottom of the page is the name of
_Edward Banyster._
* * * * *
LETTERS ADDRESSED TO SIR JOHN FASTOLFE.
(Royal MS. 18 B. XXII. f. 44.)
From JOHN APPULTON, captain of Pontdonne and the Haye de Puis.
Mon treshonnoure et Redoubte Sr., toute humble Recommendacion primier mise,
plaise vous savoir que Jay entendu que piecha vous aviez quittie et
transporte afin de heritaige a Degory Gamel vostre terre et seignourie de
Piron pour le prix de deux mille francs lesquelx il devoit paier a chinq
annees enssuit du dit transport, cest assavoir pour la premir ann six cens
francs, et le demourant es autres quatres anns ensuit, a chacun par egalle
porcion; de la quelle chose J'entens que le dit Degory na pas acompli ces
termes ne ses {lvii} paiemens, car il nest pas tousjours prest de paier, et
est de tel gouvernement que p..... que navez eu que peu de chose de vostre
ditte s'rie dempuis quil en a eu le gouvernement. Et pour ce, mon
treshonnoure et Redoubte, Janvois grant desir davoir icelle terre afin de
heritaige si c'estoit vostre plaisir et volente. Car elle est pres de mes
et bien a mon aise. Sy vous prie et requier tant humblement comme Je puis
et comme vostre petit et humble serviteur, qu'il vous pla[ira] que J'aie
icelle terre et seigneurie de Piron par les prix et condicions dessus
descleres et que l'aviez accordee au dit Degory en cas que [sera] vostre
plaisir de vous en des faire, et que Je la puisse avoir aussi tost que ung
autre, et J'en seay a tousjours mais tenu ... car vous estes le seigneur
qui vive en monde a qui Je suis plus tenu et a qui Jay greigno' service, et
que elle me soit confe[rme?] par le Roy nostre seigneur tellement que Je ny
puisse avoir empeschement. Et je vous promet que Je vous paieray loyalment
es termes qui seront assignes sans aucune faulte, et se faulte y avez per
moy que le marchie ne fust nul, et sur paine de perdre s ... que Jen avoie
paie. Et sy est ce grant chose pour le present de deux mille Francs
attendans la guerre qui est a present ou ... a l'occasion de la prinse et
perte de la place de Grantville. Car se remede ny est mis de brief tout le
bailliage de Costentin est en voie destre destruit, et estre comme le pais
de Caulx, que Dieu ne vueille. Car se seroit grant dommaige et grant pitie.
Et pour ceste cause Jenvoie Jehan Dotton devers vous, qui est vostre
serviteur, porteur de ces presentes, auquel Jay donne pouvoir et puissance
den composer et appointier avecque vous ainsi quil vous plaira, et que
regarderez quil sera bon a faire, tout aussi comme se Je y estoie present,
et lequel vous parlera plus a plain de lestate et gouvernement de vostre
ditte seigneurie de Piron et comme elle a este gouvernee. Et pour ce que
autrefois Je vous avoie rescript de vostre terre et seigneurie de Beaumont,
que Jeusse volentiers eue se ceust este vostre plaisir et volente, pour ce
que ma terre d'Asineres est parmys la vostre et joingnent ensemble, Et en
cas que se ne seroit vostre plaisir que Jeusse vostre ditte seigneurie de
Piron, jentend' encores volentiers a icelle de Beaumont, et quil vous
pleust la mettre a prix de raison, car Je ne scay pas bien que elle peult
valloir, mes vous le savez bien, car vous en avez fait fe presn(?) et en
avez eu la desclaracion, non obstant que les terres depar de cha sy sen
vont en tres grant diminucion pour la cause dessus dict. Sy vous plaise de
vostre grace a y avoir sur le tout advis, et den faire tant que Jen puisse
estre tous jours vostre petit et humble serviteur, et comme Jay tousjours
este et seray tant que je vivray. Et se il vous plaist faire quelque
appointe des choses dessus dictes, quil vous plaise a le faire vous mesmes,
et que ne menvoiez a Raouen ne ailleurs, car les chemins sont trop
dangereux, et ne voudroie pas aler a Rouen voulentiers pour gaignier deux
cens frans. Mon treshonnoure et redoubte seigneur, Je me recommande a vous
tant humblement comme Je puis et comme vostre petit et humble serviteur, et
se il est chose que faire puisse pour vous, mandez le moy et Je
l'acompliray de tout mon cuer et volentiers, en priant le Saint Esprit
qu'il soit garde de vous et vous donne bonne vie et longue et
acomplisse(ment) de vous nobles desirs. Escript a la Haie du Puis, le
derrain jour de May. {lviii}
Mon treshonnoure et redoubte seigneur, Je vous recommande ma fille qui est
demour' veufue, et quil vous plaist qelle soit (en) vostre bonne grace et
service, et la conseiller et conforter en tous ses afaires.
Letout vostre humble serviteur Jhon 'Appulton, cap(itaine)
du Pont donne et de la Haie du Puis.
(_Directed on the back_,)
A mon treshonnoure et tresredoubte sire
Messire Jehan Fastouf, chevalier,
seigneur de Piron et de Beaumont
en Normendie.
From the BAILIFFS of WINCHESTER.[83]
Right Worshipfulle Sire,--We recommande ws unto you, latyng you wete of
howre taryng that we brynge nat hoppe (up) howre money for howre ferme ys
for be cawse that we wholde receyve of howre dewte of the Cete, and of the
awnage sum of xiij. li.; the wheche money we cannat receyve in to the time
that we have a wrette to the mayre and to ws Ballys, for the Cete scholde
have of the awnage as Easter terme xx. marcs, for that the Cete grant(ed)
us to howre eryste ferme, and here a pon we tryst; and now the fermeris of
the awnage sey it pleynli that the Cete schale nat have a peny in to
Mighelmas terme but zyffe so be that ye sende us a wrytt that we mowe
brynge the fermers in to the Cheker, and ther to pay ws thys xx. marcs, for
we lacke no money but that, for the fermers makit hyrr a skowsce apon the
refuson that was thys tyme thre zere, for they fere laste they schold pay
agen, and there for they sey it they whole nat pay us no peni but in the
Cheker, also howre Mayre takyt no hede of ws, nother howe whe schal be
servyd of the mony, theirefore we pray you sende a wrett down to the Mayre
and to ws for to brynge ho(ppe, _i.e._ up) howre ferme for the halfe zere,
for dowt hyt nat ze schale be as wel payd of ws as zevr (ever) ye w(ere) of
zeny men, for in trowyf we pay of howre money more than xiiij. li. No more,
but God kepe you. I-wretyn at Wynchester the viij. day of May.
By the baillifes of Wynchester.
(To this letter no address is preserved.)
* * * * *
{lix}
ADDITIONAL NOTES.
Page liv. _De Regimine Principum._--Sir John Paston (temp. Edw. IV.) had a
copy of this work, which formed part of a volume which he thus described in
the catalogue of his library:--
"M^d. my _Boke of Knyghthode_ and the maner off makyng off knyghts, off
justs, off tornaments, ffyghtyng in lystys, paces holden by soldiers and
chalenges, statutes off weere, and _de Regimine Principum_." (Paston
Letters, vol. iii p. 302.)
It is more fully described by William Ebesham, the scribe who had written
the book, in his bill of accompt, which is also preserved in the same
volume, p. 14:--
"Item as to _the Grete Booke_.
"First for wrytyng of the _Coronacion_ and other _tretys of Knyghthode_
in that quaire, which conteyneth a xiij. levis and more, ij^d. a lefe
ij^s. ij^d.