between De Montfort and Charles de Blois might be continued, though
it was added, that whichever party conquered was bound to swear
fealty to France. Du Guesclin, a soldier of a different class from
the ordinary feudal leaders who had risen to eminence during the
late wars, was sent to support the claims of Charles. The news of
his arrival was at once followed by a similar step on the part of
the English. Chandos, an English general, marched from Guienne to
support De Montfort. A battle was fought at Auray, in which De
Montfort’s party were successful, and Charles de Blois killed. The
Free Companies too, of which the best known are those of Calverley
and Knowles, still ravaged France, and were a constant cause of
complaint. The English themselves had to take part against them,
but at length the means taken by King Charles to rid his kingdom
of this burden again brought the French and English into contact.
The provinces of the south-west of France had been erected into
the independent duchy of Aquitaine, and given to the Black Prince,
who held his court at Bordeaux. Thither, when driven from his
country, Pedro the Cruel, of Castile, betook himself. This king had
secured his throne by a series of murders. His natural brother,
Henry of Trastamare, had fled and taken refuge with the French
King. When Pedro carried his cruelty to the pitch of putting to
death his wife, Blanche de Bourbon, a French princess, the court
of France had determined to assist Henry to dethrone his brother,
and had intrusted Du Guesclin with the duty of enlisting the Free
Companies for this purpose. His attempt had been successful; Pedro
had taken flight, Henry had ascended the throne. But Pedro, as
a fugitive king, found ready support at the hands of the Black
Prince, thoroughly imbued with the false chivalry of the day. It
was whispered to the Free Companies that their loved commander had
an expedition on foot. In numbers they deserted from the French
army, and gathered round the Black Prince, who was thus enabled to
cross the Pyrenees at Roncesvalles at the head of 30,000 men. The
rival armies met at Navarette. The French were completely beaten,
Du Guesclin taken prisoner.
[Sidenote: Taxation in Aquitaine.]
[Sidenote: Barons appeal to Charles. 1368.]
[Sidenote: Renewal of war.]
[Sidenote: Gradual defeat of the English.]
[Sidenote: Black Prince takes Limoges.]
[Sidenote: His final return to England.]
[Sidenote: Loss of Aquitaine. 1374.]
But Pedro, again upon the throne, forgot his engagements to his
protector, and the Black Prince returned to his duchy, broken
in health by the hardships of the campaign, and ruined by its
expenses. It became necessary to lay heavy taxes upon his subjects.
Those subjects were already discontented; the barons of Poitou
objected to the English supremacy, and had applied to Charles as
their suzerain. Charles had been fomenting their discontent, and
had sent secret envoys to raise a similar feeling among the barons
of Ponthieu in the north. To these malcontents were now added the
Counts of Armagnac, and other barons of the northern slope of the
Pyrenees, who regarded the infliction of the tax as a breach of
their privileges; and after keeping the matter in abeyance for a
year, till he was ready to strike, King Charles, taking advantage
of the non-completion of the renunciations, proceeded to treat the
Black Prince as a vassal, and summoned him before his court. The
Prince answered he would appear at the head of 60,000 men-at-arms.
The threat was idle. Before, in his distressed position, he could
make any vigorous preparation, the French troops had begun to
conquer the outlying parts of his province, and a declaration of
war was at once issued. But several years of peace, during which
the exhausted country had begun to recover itself, had disinclined
the English to renew the war. The King appears to have grown old
before his time, and to have thought only of enjoying in pleasure
the fruits of his successful youth. Preparations went on but
slowly, while insurrections among the nobles, and the pressure of
the French army, continually increased around Guienne. There the
Black Prince was so ill that he could not himself take the field.
His brother Edmund of Cambridge, Chandos and Knowles, were indeed
with him, but could scarcely make head against the insurgents. An
attack upon Poitou failed, and Chandos lost his life. None of the
English plans met with success. Knowles indeed, placed in command
of Calais, marched again successfully to Paris, but the long wars
had given birth to a new race of French generals, and Du Guesclin,
now Constable, prevented any great success. At length the Black
Prince roused himself, and took the field. At his mere name the
French armies began to dissolve, and he advanced triumphantly to
Limoges, a town he had much favoured, and on which he intended
to wreak his vengeance. The wall was mined, and the town taken.
Men, women, and children, to the number of 3000, were pitilessly
murdered. In the midst of this cruel slaughter, the Prince could
show his knighthood by sparing and honouring some French gentlemen
who made an unusually gallant resistance. It was his last triumph.
Early in 1371 he returned to England, broken and dying. There is no
need to trace the progress of the war further. The gradual advance
of the French could not be checked. The English armies might march
far into the country, as one under Lancaster did in 1373, but the
French invariably avoided a general action; and thus, by 1374,
England had lost all her possessions in France, with the exception
of Calais, Bordeaux and Bayonne, and a few towns upon the Dordogne.
[Sidenote: Naval victory of the Spaniards. 1372.]
The sequel of the Black Prince’s friendship for Pedro of Castile
deserves to be noticed. Upon the withdrawal of the English, Henry
of Trastamare again conquered Pedro, and the brothers having met in
Henry’s tent, a quarrel ensued, terminating in a personal struggle
and the death of Pedro. Henry thus regained the throne; and
subsequently two daughters of Pedro married two of Edward’s sons,
Lancaster and Cambridge. Upon the Duke of Lancaster’s assuming the
title of King of Castile, Henry entered actively into the war,
and at a great naval battle off Rochelle in June 1372, completely
destroyed the English fleet under the Earl of Pembroke. At length a
truce was agreed on, which, though it never ripened into a peace,
continued from time to time during the rest of the reign.
[Sidenote: Discontent in England.]
A strange change of fortune thus clouded the end of what promised
to be a glorious reign. Edward, making war in the spirit of a
knight-errant, and trusting completely to the courage of his troops
on the day of battle, had neglected all the precautions which the
conquest of a country requires. He had been successful neither as
a strategist nor as a statesman, and his war with France, adorned
with splendid victories, and for one moment promising to establish
on a firm footing the English power in the South of France, had
ended in a more complete overthrow of that power than had been seen
since the time of King John. It was natural that the close of such
a reign should be marked by some expressions of discontent among
the people. Old before his time, in the hands of a woman of the
name of Alice Perrers, whose ostentation was constantly shocking
the public eye, Edward had fallen under the influence of bad
advisers, and had let the reins of government slip into the hands
of John of Gaunt, his third son.
[Sidenote: Politics of the time.]
To understand the politics of this time, we have to rid ourselves
of both the names and ideas of the present day. The lines which
divided classes were much more distinctly marked. Political life
was confined entirely to the upper ranks. The House of Commons,
which we are in the habit of regarding as a popular assembly,
and which was, in fact, the most popular assembly of that time,
was in part entirely aristocratic, in part representative of the
moneyed interests of the country. Below this no class could make
its voice heard at all, and this moneyed and aristocratic House
of Commons was only beginning by slow degrees to force itself
into political power. It had, in fact, consisted at first of two
separate orders,--the knights of the shire, who represented the
lesser nobility, and the burgesses. The knights had naturally
joined without difficulty in the deliberations of a baronage who
were socially their equals; the burgesses had busied themselves
almost exclusively with financial questions touching their own
order. Various causes had gradually tended to draw the two lower
orders together, and by the beginning of the reign of Edward III.,
the division of Parliament into two Houses, of which the lower
consisted of knights and burgesses, had been completed. Indeed,
the Act of 1321, passed when Edward II. was victorious over the
barons, had acknowledged the claims of the burgesses to share in
the proceedings of Parliament. The practical government of the
country had hitherto been in the hands of the House of Lords.
There were thus three distinct classes, the baronage, the upper
or represented commonalty, consisting of knights and burgesses,
and the lower commonalty. Power was as yet in the hands of the
baronage. When, therefore, no common cause was driving the baronage
to united action, as among all governing classes, there was certain
to be a difference of view, and the baronage would be divided
into parties. On the other hand, the upper Commons, just forcing
their way upwards, were inclined to be sometimes subservient to
the wishes of the Barons, sometimes ready to join that one of the
baronial parties which seemed to give them the greatest promise
of political assistance. The lower, or unrepresented Commons,
unable to make themselves heard, had been of no political account;
although a series of events had lately contributed to put them in
such a position that their friendship was worth having, and to
enable them soon to speak with arms in their hands, in a way which
was very terrible. Each of these classes had its own particular
interests, and made their combinations with the other classes to
suit the advance of those interests. The Barons desired power, the
higher Commons good administration, especially of the finances;
the lower Commons such improvements in their position as they
afterwards claimed under Wat Tyler. Hitherto, in the main, the
interest of the baronage had been the restriction within fixed
limits of the royal authority; they had hitherto been the guardians
of the constitutional growth of the country, and their rebellions
and opposition, whatever selfish leaven may have been mixed with
them, deserve to be regarded as efforts towards popular liberty.
About the period which we have now reached, this guardianship
of the Constitution passed into the hands of the upper Commons.
The Barons themselves having now acquired a preponderance in the
government, it was their encroachments rather than the King’s which
had to be guarded against. In principle, the safeguards of the
Constitution had been established by Edward I., and were therefore
no longer the subject of contention. The baronage was no longer
interested to secure power, but to enjoy a power already secured.
They thus fell into parties whose real object was to appropriate
that power. For that purpose, like other political parties, the
rival Barons would seek to attach to themselves any of the other
sections of society, and would therefore adopt those principles and
those party cries which seemed to promise them the most success. It
becomes, therefore, impossible to say that this or that baronial
insurrection was popular or constitutional. For their own objects,
the most disorderly Barons might attach themselves to the Commons,
to the lower classes, or to the King. Their divisions had, in fact,
become party struggles for power.
Now the chief questions at that time exciting England were the
position of the Church, the continuation of the war with France,
and the management of the finances. On any of these questions
the baronage might form itself into parties, which might seek
their own advantage by adopting the interests of other sections
of society. It is in this way that must be explained the apparent
contradictions in the conduct of the Parliament at the close of
Edward’s reign. For many years there had been growing a strong
dislike to the Church in England. The oppressions of the Popes,
the selfish character of their government at Avignon, the loss of
spirituality on the part of the higher clergy, from whose ranks the
statesmen of the time were largely drawn, and the deterioration of
the mendicant orders, together with the idea always prevalent in
England of the supremacy of the state, had given birth to a party
who desired the pre-eminence in all matters of the laity,--a party
which is of course connected with the doctrinal views at this time
brought forward by Wicliffe. The existence of this lay party is
clearly shown by the proceedings of the year 1340, when for the
first time a lay Chancellor, Sir Robert Bouchier, was appointed
in the place of Stratford. When the baronage were divided, the
natural leaders of the parties were the royal princes. Thus, when
circumstances had put the reins of power into the hands of John
of Gaunt, he fortified himself by assuming the leadership of the
lay party, which found its adherents in all sections of society,
but no doubt mainly among the barons, jealous of the great part
played in the government by the clergy, the vast wealth which the
Church held, and which is calculated at more than a third of the
land, and rendered self-confident by their successes in the French
war. Already schemes for the confiscation of Church property had
been publicly mentioned, and the Commons, with the approbation of
John of Gaunt, had in 1371 petitioned for the removal of all the
clergy from the higher offices of state. The Bishop of Winchester,
William of Wykeham, had surrendered the great seal, which, together
with the offices of the exchequer, had been put into the hands of
laymen. There are many proofs that the class which was represented
in the Commons partook strongly of the dislike to the Church. But
any claim to popularity which Lancaster’s administration might
have advanced on this ground was destroyed by their mismanagement
of the finances and the disasters of the foreign war. In fact,
there is little doubt that the ecclesiastics he had displaced
were far better governors than the partisans he had put in their
places. Another party was therefore formed, at the head of which
was the Black Prince, a party consisting of those who preferred
the old system of government, and which included the higher clergy
and the financial reformers. It has been pointed out that the
disastrous government of John of Gaunt had found its partisans
chiefly among the Barons. On the whole, therefore, the Commons
attached themselves to the party of the Black Prince. For the
time a restoration of good government and well-managed finance
seemed to them of more importance than the overthrow of the
Church, especially as their interests as a class seemed to lead
in the same direction. The struggle came to an issue in the Good
Parliament, which met in April 1376. The Commons presented a
remonstrance, which, after enumerating their financial grievances,
and asserting the mismanagement of the Government, demanded a
change in the council; in other words, a change of ministry. The
clergy, and William of Wykeham among them, again came into office.
They were not content with this, but impeached--and this is the
first instance of parliamentary impeachment--Lord Latimer, the
Chamberlain. A considerable number of the other officers were
arrested and thrown into prison, and Alice Perrers was forbidden
to use her influence under pain of banishment. They were still
discussing further reforms, when the death of the Black Prince
deprived them of their chief support. Afraid that John of Gaunt had
views on the succession, they insisted on the immediate recognition
of the Black Prince’s son; and a deputation waited on the old King
at Eltham to receive an answer to their complaints and petitions.
These, as might be expected, were chiefly directed against the
encroachments of the Papacy, in hatred to which all parties in
England joined. Still the King’s reply shows the influence of the
newly restored clerical counsellors. Enough, he said, had been done
in the way of legislation, he would continue his personal appeals
to the Pope. Parliament then separated.
[Sidenote: Death of Black Prince. Lancaster regains power.]
[Sidenote: Lancastrian Parliament. 1377.]
[Sidenote: Trial of Wicliffe.]
[Sidenote: Uproar in London.]
[Sidenote: Death of the King.]
It at once became plain that the Black Prince’s death had again
thrown the power into the hands of John of Gaunt. The power of
the new Privy Council disappeared, Lord Latimer was pardoned,
Peter de la Mare, the speaker of the Good Parliament, was thrown
into prison, William of Wykeham was again driven from the court.
The Parliament which assembled next year was thoroughly in the
Lancastrian interest. Sir Thomas Hungerford, the Duke’s steward,
was elected Speaker, the proceedings against Alice Perrers
withdrawn, and a new form of tax--a poll-tax of 4d.--granted. But
the clergy did not thus easily yield their ground. They attacked
the apostle of the lay party, Wicliffe. He had to appear before
Courtenay, Bishop of London, in St. Paul’s. He came, supported
by Lancaster and by the Marshall, Henry Percy, a close adherent
of that party of which Lancaster was the head. An unseemly brawl
arose in the church. Lancaster threatened to drag Courtenay out of
the church by the hair. The Londoners were already so ill disposed
to Lancaster, that measures were in preparation to remove their
mayor, and put the government of the town in the hands of a royal
commission. The insult to their Bishop roused them to fury. It
was only by Courtenay’s intervention that Lancaster’s house was
saved from demolition; and a wretched man was killed under the
supposition that he was Henry Percy. Lancaster escaped, and the
city had to make some sort of reparation; but the quarrel was
scarcely quieted when the King died. Deserted by his mistress, who
is said to have torn the rings from his dying hand, and by his
servants, the wretched old man died, tended only by a single poor
priest.
RICHARD II.
1377-1399.
Born 1397 = 1. Anne of Bohemia, 1382.
= 2. Isabella of France, 1396.
CONTEMPORARY PRINCES.
_Scotland._ | _France._ | _Germany._ | _Spain._
| | |
Robert II., | Charles V., | Charles IV., | Henry II., 1368.
1370. | 1364. | 1347. | John I., 1379.
Robert III., | Charles VI., | Wenceslaus, | Henry III., 1390.
1390. | 1380. | 1378. |
POPES.--Gregory XI., 1370. Urban VI., 1378. Boniface IX., 1389.
[Also Clement VII., 1378. Benedict XII., 1394.]
_Archbishops._
Simon Sudbury, 1375.
William Courtenay, 1381.
Thomas Arundel, 1397.
_Chancellors._
Sir Richard le Scrope, 1378. Michael de la Pole, 1383.
Simon Sudbury, 1379. Thomas Arundel, 1386.
William Courtenay, 1381. William of Wykeham, 1389.
Lord Scrope, 1381. Thomas Arundel, 1391.
Robert de Braybroke, 1382. Edmund Stafford, 1396.
[Sidenote: Difficulties of the new reign.]
[Sidenote: Regency.]
[Sidenote: Patriotic government.]
The young King was but a child, and there was a prospect of a long
minority, affording an ample field for the intrigues of party.
The position of the kingdom too was such as to promise a time of
considerable difficulty. The war with France had been put off by a
succession of truces, but was still threatening, and England was in
no condition to meet it. An invasion actually took place. French
troops landed in the Isle of Wight, and laid waste the country.
Moreover, the last reign had closed amidst domestic difficulties.
The Lords therefore thought it right to take the settlement of the
kingdom into their own hands. At a great council it was determined
to form a Council of Regency, drawn from all orders represented in
Parliament, to assist the great officers of the crown. The dangers
which beset the country induced all parties for a time to rally
honestly round the throne. The royal princes, who might become
party leaders, were on that account excluded from the Council. The
national party again gained the majority in the Commons, and again
elected De la Mare as their Speaker. But the Commons had no wish
to drive matters to extremity, or to change the existing balance
of power. They fell back into their old position, which they had
temporarily felt themselves obliged to desert, declined to have
anything to do with matters of state; and when told to consider
the best means for the defence of the kingdom, they pleaded their
inability to answer, named a council of peers whom they thought
qualified for the purpose, and made overtures of friendship by
placing Lancaster’s name at the head of the list. Lancaster, who
desired power and had no fixed principles, accepted the position,
first making a solemn denial of all the calumnious reports which
were afloat about him, and thus again became practically Prime
Minister. But the Commons showed that they intended to keep
their own great object, economical management of the finances,
steadfastly in view, by insisting that the subsidy, which was
granted at once upon this reconciliation, should be paid into the
hands of two treasurers named by themselves. They also demanded, as
a further guarantee of good government, that the great officers of
state and the judges should be chosen by the Lords, and publicly
named to the Commons. The King was left unrestrained in the choice
of those who should be about his person. At the next Parliament,
held at Gloucester in 1378, they still pursued the same policy,
and refused to grant a new subsidy till the accounts of that last
granted had been exhibited to them. It was plain that the constant
repetition of subsidies was much disliked.
[Sidenote: Money wanted for war in Brittany. 1380.]
[Sidenote: Poll-tax.]
But the continuation of war in Brittany soon made fresh demands
for money necessary. This war had closed by a sudden revulsion of
feeling on the part of the Bretons, who had been roused to extreme
anger by the annexation of the province by the French King. But on
his death they became equally hostile to their late friends the
English, and drove them from the country. To supply this want of
money, new methods of taxation were devised. A poll-tax, graduated
from £6, 13s. 4d. on the Duke of Lancaster, to 4d. on the ordinary
labourer and his family, was granted, but produced not half the sum
required. Further demands were made, and the consent of the Commons
purchased by reforms of the household, and by the establishment
of a Parliamentary finance committee. Even the new grants thus
purchased did not suffice, and at the end of the year 1380, a poll
tax graduated from £1 to 1s. per head was imposed on every male and
female.
[Sidenote: Insurrection of the Villeins. 1381.]
The exaction of this tax, which fell proportionately with much
greater weight on the lower, unrepresented orders, produced the
great insurrection known as Wat Tyler’s insurrection. Many causes
had been at work, not in England only, but throughout Europe,
to excite discontent among the labouring classes. The severity
and rough inquisitorial spirit with which the present impost was
collected was beyond what they could bear. In Essex, under Jack
Straw, at Dartford, under Wat Tyler, whose daughter had been
subjected to insult, and at Gravesend, where Sir Simon Burley had
laid claim to a labourer as his villein, insurrections broke out.
Wat Tyler was chosen for the general leader, accompanied by John
Ball, the popular itinerant preacher. But the insurrection was
not confined to these counties only, it extended from Winchester
to Scarborough. It was in all respects a revolutionary movement.
Manor-houses were pillaged and destroyed, and the court rolls,
where the villeins’ names were written, were burnt. Officials,
those who had served on juries, justices, and even lawyers, were
put to death. The rebels were particularly embittered against
John of Gaunt, swearing to admit no king of the name of John, and
refused all taxes except the customary tenth and fifteenth.
[Sidenote: Death of Wat Tyler.]
[Sidenote: Insurrection suppressed.]