RICHARD II. AND THE POLITICAL REVOLUTION.
1382--1399.
LEADING DATES
Reign of Richard II., 1377--1399
The impeachment of Suffolk 1386
The Merciless Parliament 1388
Richard begins his constitutional government 1389
Richard's coup-d'etat 1397
Deposition of Richard 1399
1. =Progress of the War with France. 1382--1386.=--In =1382= Richard
at the early age of fifteen was married to Anne of Bohemia. Though he
was a young husband he was at all events old enough to be accused of
disasters which he could not avoid. Not only was the war with France
not prospering, but English influence was declining in Flanders. In
=1382= Philip van Arteveldt, who like his father Jacob (see p. 235)
headed the resistance of Ghent against the Count of Flanders, was
defeated and slain at Roosebeke by Charles VI., the young king of
France. In =1383= an English expedition led by Henry Spencer, Bishop
of Norwich, under the pretext of a crusade against the French as the
followers of the Pope of Avignon, ended in complete failure, and
Flanders, the great purchaser of English wool, fell under the control
of France. In =1385= Richard, indeed, invaded Scotland, ravaged the
country and burnt Edinburgh, though without producing any permanent
result. In =1386= a French fleet and army was gathered at Sluys, and
an invasion of England was threatened.
2. =Richard's growing Unpopularity. 1385--1386.=--When the king
returned from Scotland in =1385= he made a large creation of peers. He
raised his two younger uncles to the Dukedoms of York and Gloucester;
his Chancellor, Michael de la Pole, to the earldom of Suffolk, and his
favourite, Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, to the marquisate of
Dublin, making him not long afterwards Duke of Ireland. Suffolk was an
able and apparently an honest administrator, who upheld the king's
prerogative against the encroachments of Parliament. Oxford was a gay
and heedless companion of Richard's pleasures, who encouraged him in
unnecessary expense, and thereby provoked to resistance those who
might have put up with an extension of the royal authority. That
resistance, however, was to a great extent due to causes not of
Richard's own making. Though the French in =1386= abandoned their
attempt at invasion, the preparations to resist them had been costly,
and Englishmen were in an unreasonable mood. Things, they said, had
not gone so in the days of Edward III. A cry for reform and
retrenchment, for more victories and less expense, was loudly raised.
3. =The Impeachment of Suffolk and the Commission of Regency.
1386.=--The discontented found a leader in Gloucester, the youngest of
the king's uncles. Wealthy, turbulent, and ambitious, he put himself
at the head of all who had a grievance against the king. Lancaster had
just sailed for Spain to prosecute a claim in right of his second wife
to the throne of Castile, and as York was without ambition, Gloucester
had it all his own way. Under his guidance a Parliament demanded the
dismissal of Richard's ministers, and, on his refusal, impeached
Suffolk. Suffolk, though probably innocent of the charges brought
against him, was condemned and driven from power, and Commissioners of
regency were appointed for a year to regulate the realm and the king's
household, as the Lords Ordainers had done in the days of Edward II.
(see p. 226).
4. =The Lords Appellant and the Merciless Parliament. 1387--1388.=--In
one way the Commissioners of regency satisfied the desire of
Englishmen. In =1387= they sent the Earl of Arundel to sea, and
Arundel won a splendid victory over a combined fleet of French,
Flemings, and Spaniards. Richard, on the other hand, fearing that they
would prolong their power when their year of office was ended,
consulted upon the legality of the commission with the judges in the
presence of Suffolk and others of his principal supporters, amongst
whom was the Duke of Ireland. With one voice the judges declared that
Parliament might not put the king in tutelage. Richard then made
preparations to prevent by force the renewal of the commission, and to
punish as traitors those who had originated it. His intention got
abroad, and five lords, the Duke of Gloucester, the Earls of Arundel,
Nottingham, Warwick, and Derby, the latter being the son of the absent
Lancaster, appeared at the head of an overwhelming force against him.
The five lords appellant, as they were called, appealed, or accused of
treason five of Richard's councillors before a Parliament which met at
Westminster in =1388=, by flinging down their gloves as a token that
they were ready to prove the truth of their charge in single combat.
The Duke of Ireland, attempting resistance, was defeated by Derby at
Radcot Bridge, and finally escaped to Ireland. The Parliament, called
by its admirers the Wonderful, and by its opponents the Merciless
Parliament, was entirely subservient to the lords appellant, who,
instead of meeting their antagonists in single combat, accused them
before the House of Lords. The Duke of Ireland, Suffolk, Chief Justice
Tresilian, and Brember, who had been Mayor of London, were condemned
to be hanged. The two first-named had escaped to the Continent, but
the others were put to death. The fifth councillor, the Archbishop of
York, escaped with virtual deprivation by the Pope. Four other
knights, amongst them Sir Simon Burley, a veteran soldier and trusted
companion of the Black Prince, were also put to death. Richard was
allowed nominally to retain the crown, but in reality he was subjected
to a council in which Gloucester and his adherents were supreme.
5. =Richard's Restoration to Power. 1389.=--Richard's entire
submission turned the scale in his favour. England had been
dissatisfied with him, but it had never loved the rule of the great
feudal lords. Gloucester's council was no more popular than had been
the Committees named in the Provisions of Oxford in the reign of Henry
III., or the Lords Ordainers in the reign of Edward II., and it fell
more easily than any government, before or afterwards. Suddenly, on
May 3, =1389=, Richard asked his uncle in full council how old he was.
"Your highness," replied Gloucester, "is in your twenty-second year."
"Then," said Richard, "I must be old enough to manage my own affairs,
as every heir is at liberty to do when he is twenty-one." No attempt
having been made to confute this argument, Richard dismissed the
council, and ruled once more in person.
6. =Richard's Constitutional Government. 1389--1396.=--This sudden
blow was followed by seven years of constitutional government. It
seemed as if Richard had solved the problem of the relations between
Crown and Parliament, which had perplexed so many generations of
Englishmen. In =1389= he appointed ministers at his own pleasure, but
when Parliament met in =1390= he commanded them to lay down their
offices in order that no one should be deterred from bringing charges
against them; and it was only upon finding that no one had any
complaint to bring against them that he restored them to their posts.
Nor did he show any signs of irritation against those by whom he had
been outraged. Not only did he forbear to recall Suffolk and his other
exiled favourites, but after a little time he admitted Gloucester and
his supporters to sit in council alongside of his own adherents.
7. =Livery and Maintenance. 1390.=--During the fourteenth century the
importance of the House of Commons had been steadily growing, and the
king on the one hand and the great nobles on the other had been sorely
tempted to influence the elections unduly. The means of doing so had
come with a change in civil relationships, the natural result of that
change in military relationships which had given a new character to
the wars of Edward III. (see p. 236). Just as the king now fought with
paid soldiers of every rank instead of fighting with vassals bound by
feudal tenure, so the great nobles surrounded themselves with
retainers instead of vassals. The vassal had been on terms of social
equality with his lord, and was bound to follow him on fixed terms.
The retainer was an inferior, who was taken into service and professed
himself ready to fight for his lord at all times and in all causes. In
return his lord kept open house for his retainers, supplied them with
coats, known as liveries, marked with his badge, and undertook to
maintain them against all men, either by open force or by supporting
them in their quarrels in the law courts; and this maintenance, as it
was called, was seldom limited to the mere payment of expenses. The
lord, by the help of his retainers, could bully witnesses and jurors,
and wrest justice to the profit of the wrongdoer. As yet, indeed, the
practice had not attained the proportions which it afterwards assumed,
but it was sufficiently developed to draw down upon it in =1390= a
statute prohibiting maintenance and the granting of liveries. Such a
statute was not merely issued in defence of private persons against
intimidation; it also helped to protect the Crown against the violence
of the great lords. The growth of the power of the House of Commons
was a good thing as long as the House of Commons represented the
wishes of the community. It would be a bad thing if it merely
represented knots of armed retainers who either voted in their own
names according to the orders of their lords, or who frightened away
those who came to vote for candidates whom their lords opposed.
8. =Richard's Domestic Policy. 1390--1391.=--It was therefore well for
the community that there should be a strong and wise king capable of
making head against the ambition of the lords. For some years Richard
showed himself wise. Not only did he seek, by opening the council to
his opponents, to win over the lords to take part in the peaceable
government of the country instead of disturbing it, but he forwarded
legislation which carried out the general wishes of the country. The
Statute of Provisors (see p. 258) was re-enacted and strengthened in
=1390=, the Statute of Mortmain (see p. 212) in =1391=, and the
Statute of Praemunire (see p. 258) in =1393=.
9. =Richard's Foreign Policy. 1389--1396.=--Richard's foreign policy
was based upon a French alliance. In =1389= he made a truce with
France for three years. Negotiations for a permanent peace were
frustrated because the French would make no peace unless Calais were
surrendered to them, and English feeling was against the surrender of
the claims sanctioned by the Treaty of Bretigni. The truce was,
however, prolonged from time to time, and in =1396=, when Richard, who
was by that time a widower, married Isabella, the daughter of Charles
VI., a child of eight, it was prolonged for twenty-eight years. Wise
as this policy was, it was distasteful to Englishmen, and their
dissatisfaction rose when they learnt that Richard had surrendered
Brest and Cherbourg to the French. It was true that these places had
been pledged to him for money, and that he had only given them up as
he was bound to do when the money was paid, but his subjects drew no
fine distinctions, and fancied that he was equally ready to surrender
Calais and Bordeaux.
10. =Richard's Coup d'Etat. 1397.=--Richard knew that Gloucester was
ready to avail himself of any widespread dissatisfaction, and that he
had recently been allying himself with Lancaster against him. To
please Lancaster, who had married his mistress, Catherine Swynford, as
his third wife, Richard had legitimatised the Beauforts, his children
by her, for all purposes except the succession of the crown, thus
giving personal offence to Gloucester. Lancaster's son Derby, and
Nottingham, another of the lords appellant (see p. 279), were now
favourable to the king, and when rumours reached Richard that
Gloucester was plotting against him, he resolved to anticipate the
blow. He arrested the three of the lords appellant whom he still
distrusted, Gloucester, Warwick, and Arundel, and charged them before
Parliament, not with recent malpractices, of which he had probably no
sufficient proof, but with the slaughter of his ministers in the days
of the Merciless Parliament. Warwick was banished to the Isle of Man,
Arundel was executed, and Gloucester imprisoned at Calais, where he
was secretly murdered, as was generally believed by the order of the
king. Archbishop Arundel, brother of the Earl of Arundel, was also
banished. In such contradiction was this sudden outburst of violence
to the prudence of Richard's recent conduct, that it has sometimes
been supposed that, he had been dissimulating all the time. It is more
probable that, without being actually insane, his mind had to some
extent given way. He was always excitable, and in his better days his
alertness of mind carried him forward to swift decisions, as when he
met the mob at Smithfield, and when he vindicated his authority from
the restraint of his uncle. Signs had not been wanting that his native
energy was no longer balanced by the restraints of prudence. In =1394=
he had actually struck Arundel in Westminster Abbey. In =1397= there
was much to goad him to hasty and ill-considered action. The year
before complaints had been raised against the extravagance of his
household. The peace which he had given to his country was made the
subject of bitter reproach against him, and he seems to have believed
that Gloucester was plotting to bring him back into the servitude to
which he had been subjected by the Commissioners of regency.
11. =The Parliament of Shrewsbury. 1398.=--Whether Richard was mad or
not, he at all events acted like a madman. In =1398= he summoned a
packed Parliament to Shrewsbury, which declared all the acts of the
Merciless Parliament to be null and void, and announced that no
restraint could legally be put on the king. It then delegated all
parliamentary power to a committee of twelve lords and six commoners
chosen from the king's friends. Richard was thus made an absolute
ruler unbound by the necessity of gathering a Parliament again. He had
freed himself not merely from turbulent lords but also from all
constitutional restraints.
12. =The Banishment of Hereford and Norfolk. 1398.=--Richard had shown
favour to the two lords appellant who had taken his side. Derby became
Duke of Hereford, and Nottingham Duke of Norfolk. Before long Hereford
came to the king with a strange tale. Norfolk, he said, had complained
to him that the king still distrusted them, and had suggested that
they should guard themselves against him. Norfolk denied the truth of
the story, and Richard ordered the two to prove their truthfulness by
a single combat at Coventry. When the pair met in the lists in full
armour Richard stopped the fight, and to preserve peace, as he said,
banished Norfolk for life and Hereford for ten years, a term which was
soon reduced to six. There was something of the unwise cunning of a
madman in the proceeding.
13. =Richard's Despotism. 1398--1399.=--Richard, freed from all
control, was now, in every sense of the word, despotic. He extorted
money without a semblance of right, and even compelled men to put
their seals to blank promises to pay, which he could fill up with any
sum he pleased. He too, like the lords, gathered round him a vast
horde of retainers, who wore his badge and ill-treated his subjects
at their pleasure. He threatened the Percies, the Earl of
Northumberland and his son, Harry Hotspur, with exile, and sent them
off discontented to their vast possessions in the North. Early in
=1399= the Duke of Lancaster died. His son, the banished Hereford, was
now Duke of Lancaster. Richard, however, seized the lands which ought
to have descended to him from his father. Every man who had property
to lose felt that Lancaster's cause was his own. Richard at this
inopportune moment took occasion to sail to Ireland. He had been there
once before in =1394= in the vain hope of protecting the English
colonists (see p. 265). His first expedition had been a miserable
failure: his second expedition was cut short by bad news from England.
[Illustration: Meeting of Henry of Lancaster and Richard II. at Flint:
from Harl. MS. 1319.]
14. =Henry of Lancaster in England. 1399.=--Lancaster, with a small
force, landed at Ravenspur, in Yorkshire, a harbour which has now
disappeared in the sea. At first he gave out that he had come merely
to demand his own inheritance. Then he alleged that he had come to
redress the wrongs of the realm. Northumberland brought the Percies to
his help. Armed men flocked to his support in crowds. The Duke of
York, who had been left behind by Richard as regent, accepted this
statement and joined him with all his forces. When Richard heard what
had happened, he sent the Earl of Salisbury from Ireland to Wales to
summon the Welshmen to his aid. The Welshmen rallied to Salisbury, but
the king was long in following, and when Richard landed they had all
dispersed. Richard found himself almost alone in Conway Castle, whilst
Lancaster had a whole kingdom at his back.
[Illustration: Henry of Lancaster claiming the throne: from Harl. MS.
1319.]
15. =The Deposition of Richard and the Enthronement of Henry IV.
1399.=--By lying promises Lancaster induced Richard to place himself
in his power at Flint. "My lord," said Lancaster to him, "I have now
come before you have sent for me. The reason is that your people
commonly say you have ruled them very rigorously for twenty or two and
twenty years; but, if it please God, I will help you to govern
better." The pretence of helping the king to govern was soon
abandoned. Richard was carried to London and thrown into the Tower. He
consented, probably not till after he had been threatened with the
fate of Edward II., to sign his abdication. On the following morning
the act of abdication was read in Parliament. The throne was empty
Then Lancaster stepped forward. "In the name," he said, "of the
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, I, Henry of Lancaster, challenge this
realm of England, and the crown with all its members and
appurtenances, as I am descended by right line of the blood coming
from the good lord King Henry the Third,[27] and through that right
God of his grace hath sent me, with help of my kin and of my friends,
to recover it, the which realm was in point to be undone for default
of governance and undoing of the good laws." The assent of Parliament
was given, and Lancaster took his seat in Richard's throne as King
Henry IV.
[Footnote 27: Genealogy of the claimants of the throne in 1399:--
HENRY III.
1216-1272
|
---------------------------------
| |
EDWARD I. Edmund
1272-1307 |
| ----------------------
| | |
EDWARD II. Thomas, Henry,
1307-1327 Earl of Lancaster Earl of Lancaster
| |
EDWARD III |
1327-1377 |
| |
-------------------- |
| | Henry, Duke of Lancaster
Edward, Lionel, |
the Black Prince Duke of Clarence Blanche = John of Gaunt,
| | | Duke of
RICHARD II. Philippa = Edmund Mortimer, | Lancaster
1377-1399 | Earl of March |
| |
Roger Mortimer, HENRY IV.
Earl of March 1399-1413
|
Edmund Mortimer,
Earl of March]
[Illustration: Effigy of a knight at Clehonger, showing development of
plate armour. Date, about 1400.]
16. =Nature of the Claim of Henry IV.=--The claim which Henry put
forward would certainly not bear investigation. It laid stress on
right of descent, and it has since been thought that Henry intended to
refer to a popular belief that his ancestor Edmund, the second son of
Henry III., was in reality the eldest son, but had been set aside in
favour of his younger brother, Edward I., on account of a supposed
physical deformity from which he was known as Edmund Crouchback. As a
matter of fact the whole story was a fable, and the name Crouchback
had been given to Edmund not because his back was crooked, but because
he had worn a cross on his back as a crusader (see p. 197). That Henry
should have thought it necessary to allude to this story, if such was
really his meaning, shows the hold which the idea of hereditary
succession had taken on the minds of Englishmen. In no other way could
he claim hereditary right as a descendant of Henry III. Richard had
selected as his heir Roger Mortimer, the son of the daughter of
Lionel, Duke of Clarence, the next son of Edward III., after the Black
Prince, who lived to be old enough to have children. Roger Mortimer,
indeed, had recently been killed in Ireland, but he had left a boy,
Edmund Mortimer, who, on hereditary principles, was heir to the
kingdom, unless the doctrine announced by Edward III. that a claim to
the crown descended through females was to be set aside. In fact the
real importance of the change of kings lay not in what Henry said, but
in what he avoided saying. It was a reversion to the old right of
election, and to the precedent set in the deposition of Edward II.
Henry tacitly announced that in critical times, when the wearer of the
crown was hopelessly incompetent, the nation, represented by
Parliament, might step in and change the order of succession. The
question at issue was not merely a personal one between Richard and
Henry. It was a question between hereditary succession leading to
despotism on the one side, and to parliamentary choice, perhaps to
anarchy, on the other. That there were dangers attending the latter
solution of the constitutional problem would not be long in appearing.
_Books recommended for further study of Part III._
GREEN, J. R. History of the English People. Vol. i. pp. 189-520.
STUBBS, W. (Bishop of Oxford). Constitutional History of England. Vol.
i. chap. xii. sections 151-155; vol. ii. chaps. ix. and x.
---- The Early Plantagenets, 129-276.
NORGATE, Miss K. England under the Angevin Kings. Vol. ii. p. 390.
MICHELET, J. History of France (Middle Ages). Translated by G. H.
Smith.
LONGMAN, W. The History of the Life and Times of Edward III.
GAIRDNER, James. The Houses of Lancaster and York, pp. 1-64.
ROGERS, James E. Thorold. A History of Agriculture and Prices in
England. Vols. i. and ii.
CUNNINGHAM, W. Growth of English Industry and Commerce in the Early
and Middle Ages, pp. 172-365.
WAKEMAN, H. O. and HASSALL, A. (Editors). Essays Introductory to the
Study of English Constitutional History.
ASHLEY, W. J. An Introduction to English Economic History and Theory.
Vol. i.
JUSSERAND, J. J. English Wayfaring Life in the Middle Ages. Translated
by Lucy Toulmin Smith (Miss).
BROWNE, M. Chaucer's England.
JESSOPP, A., Dr. The Coming of the Friars, and other Historic Essays.
OMAN, C. W. C. The Art of War in the Middle Ages.
ADAMS, G. B. The Political History of England. Vol. ii. From the
Norman Conquest to the Death of John (1066-1216).
TOUT, T. F. The Political History of England. Vol. iii. From the
Accession of Henry III. to the Death of Edward III. (1216-1377).
OMAN, C. The Political History of England. Vol. iv. From the Accession
of Richard II. to the Death of Richard III. (1377-1485).
PART IV.
_LANCASTER, YORK, AND TUDOR._ =1399--1509.=
CHAPTER XIX.
HENRY IV. AND HENRY V.
HENRY IV., =1399--1413=. HENRY V., =1413--1422=.
LEADING DATES
Accession of Henry IV. 1399
Statute for the burning of heretics 1401
Battle of Shrewsbury 1403
Fight at Bramham Moor 1408
Succession of Henry V. 1413
Battle of Agincourt 1415
Treaty of Troyes 1420
Death of Henry V. 1422
1. =Henry's First Difficulties. 1399--1400.=--Henry IV. fully
understood that his only chance of maintaining himself on the throne
was to rule with due consideration for the wishes of Parliament. His
main difficulty, like that of his predecessor, was that the great
lords preferred to hold their own against him individually with the
help of their armies of retainers, instead of exercising political
power in Parliament. In his first Parliament an angry brawl arose. The
lords who in the last reign had taken the side of Gloucester flung
their gloves on the floor of the House as a challenge to those who had
supported Richard when he compassed Gloucester's death; and though
Henry succeeded in keeping the peace for the time, a rebellion broke
out early in =1400= in the name of Richard. Henry, like the kings
before him, found his support against the turbulent nobles in the
townsmen and the yeomen, and he was thus able to suppress the
rebellion. Some of the noblemen who were caught by the excited
defenders of the throne were butchered without mercy and without law.
[Illustration: Henry IV. and his queen, Joan of Navarre: from their
tomb in Canterbury Cathedral.]
2. =Death of Richard II. 1400.=--A few weeks after the suppression of
this conspiracy it was rumoured that Richard had died in prison at
Pontefract. According to Henry's account of the matter he had
voluntarily starved himself to death. Few, however, doubted that he
had been put to death by Henry's orders. To prove the untruth of this
story, Henry had the body brought to St. Paul's, where he showed to
the people only the face of the corpse, as if this could be any
evidence whatever. After Richard's death, if hereditary succession had
been regarded, the person having a claim to the crown in preference to
Henry was the young Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, the descendant of
Lionel, Duke of Clarence (see p. 287). Henry therefore took care to
keep the boy under custody during the whole of his reign.
[Illustration: Royal arms as borne by Henry IV. after about 1408, and
by successive sovereigns down to 1603.]
3. =Henry IV. and the Church.=--Besides seeking the support of the
commonalty, Henry sought the support of the Church. Since the rise of
the friars at the beginning of the thirteenth century (see p. 191) the
Church had produced no new orders of monks or friars. In the
thirteenth and fourteenth she produced the schoolmen, a succession of
great thinkers who systematised her moral and religious teaching.
Imagining that she had no more to learn, she now attempted to
strengthen herself by persecuting those who disbelieved her teaching,
and after the suppression of the revolt of the peasants, made common
cause with the landlords, who feared pecuniary loss from the
emancipation of the villeins. This conservative alliance against
social and religious change was the more easily made because many of
the bishops were now members of noble families, instead of springing,
as had usually been the case in the better days of the mediaeval
Church, from poor or middle-class parentage. In the reign of Richard
II. a Courtenay, a kinsman of the Earl of Devonshire, had become first
Bishop of London (see p. 263), and then Archbishop of Canterbury. He
was succeeded in his archbishopric by an Arundel, brother of the Earl
of Arundel who had been executed by Richard, and Archbishop Arundel
was in the days of Henry IV. the spokesman of the clergy.
[Illustration: Thomas Cranley, Archbishop of Dublin, 1397-1417: from
his brass at New College, Oxford. Showing the archiepiscopal
mass-vestments and the cross and pall. Date, about 1400.]
4. =The Statute for the Burning of Heretics. 1401.=--In =1401= the
clergy cried aloud for new powers. The ecclesiastical courts could
condemn men as heretics, but had no power to burn them. Bishops and
abbots formed the majority of the House of Lords, and though the
Commons had not lost that craving for the wealth of the Church which
had distinguished John of Gaunt's party, they had no sympathy with
heresy. Accordingly the statute for the burning of heretics (_De
haeretico comburendo_), the first English law for the suppression of
religious opinion, was passed with the ready consent of the king and
both Houses. The first victim was William Sawtre, a priest who held,
amongst other things, "that after the words of consecration in the
Eucharist the bread remains bread, and nothing more." He was burnt by
a special order from the king and council even before the new law had
been enacted.
5. =Henry IV. and Owen Glendower. 1400--1402.=--If Henry found it
difficult to maintain order in England, he found it still more
difficult to keep the peace on the borders of Wales. In =1400= an
English nobleman, Lord Grey of Ruthyn, seized on an estate belonging
to Owen Glendower, a powerful Welsh gentleman. Owen Glendower called
the Welsh to arms, ravaged Lord Grey's lands, and proclaimed himself
Prince of Wales. For some years Wales was practically independent.
English townsmen and yeomen were ready to support Henry against any
sudden attempt of the nobility to crush him with their retainers, but
they were unwilling to bear the burden of taxation needed for the
steady performance of a national task. In the meanwhile Henry was
constantly exposed to secret plots. In =1401= he found an iron with
four spikes in his bed. In the autumn of =1402= he led an expedition
into Wales, but storms of rain and snow forced him back. His English
followers attributed the disaster to the evil spirits which, as they
fully believed, were at the command of the wizard Glendower.
6. =The Rebellion of the Percies. 1402--1404.=--The Scots were not
forgetful of the advantages to be derived from the divisions of
England. They had amongst them some one--whoever he may have
been--whom they gave out to be King Richard, and when Henry marched
against Wales in =1402= they invaded England. They were met by the
Percies and defeated at Homildon Hill. The Percies had still something
of the enormous power of the feudal barons of the eleventh century.
Their family estates stretched over a great part of Northumberland,
and as they were expected to shield England against Scottish invasions
they were obliged to keep up a military retinue which might be
employed against the king as well as in his service. It was mainly
through their aid that Henry had seated himself on the throne. Their
chief, the Earl of Northumberland, and his brother, the Earl of
Worcester, were aged men, but Northumberland's son, Henry Percy--Harry
Hotspur as he was usually called--was of a fiery temper, and
disinclined to submit to insult. Hotspur's wife was a Mortimer, and
her brother, Sir Edmund Mortimer, the uncle of the young Earl of
March, had been taken prisoner by Glendower. It was noticed that
Henry, who had ransomed other prisoners, took no steps to ransom
Mortimer, and it was believed that he was in no hurry to set free one
whose hereditary claim to the crown, like that of the Earl of March,
came before his own. Other causes contributed to irritate the Percies,
and in =1403=, bringing with them as allies the Scottish prisoners
whom they had taken at Homildon Hill, they marched southwards against
Henry. Southern England might not be ready adequately to support Henry
in an invasion of Wales, but it was in no mood to allow him to be
dethroned by the Percies. It rallied to his side, and enabled him
signally to defeat the Percies at Shrewsbury. Hotspur was killed in
the fight, and his uncle, the Earl of Worcester, being captured, was
beheaded without delay. Northumberland, who was not present at the
battle, was committed to prison in =1404=, but was pardoned on promise
of submission.
[Illustration: The battle of Shrewsbury: from the "Life of Richard
Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick;" drawn by John Rous about 1485.]
7. =The Commons and the Church. 1404.=--After such a deliverance the
Commons could not but grant some supplies. In the autumn of =1404=,
however, they pleaded for the confiscation of the revenues of the
higher clergy, which were sufficient, as they alleged, to support 15
earls, 1,500 knights, 6,200 esquires, and 100 hospitals as well. The
king refused to listen to the proposal, and money was voted in the
ordinary way. It was the first deliberate attempt to meet the growing
expenditure of the Crown by the confiscation of ecclesiastical
revenue.
8. =The Capture of the Scottish Prince. 1405.=--Early in =1405= Henry
was threatened with a fresh attack. Charles VI. of France was now a
confirmed lunatic, and his authority had mainly fallen into the hands
of his brother Louis, Duke of Orleans, a profligate and unscrupulous
man who was regarded by the feudal nobility of France as their leader.
The Duke of Orleans refused to consider himself bound to Henry by the
truce which had been made with Richard, and, forming an alliance with
Owen Glendower, prepared to send a fleet to his aid. When there was
war between England and France the Scots seldom remained quiet, but
this time Henry was freed from that danger by an unexpected
occurrence. The reigning King of Scotland was Robert III., whose
father, Robert II., had been the first king of the House of Stuart,
and had ascended the throne after the death of David Bruce, as being
the son of his sister Margaret.[28] Robert III., weakly in mind and
body, had committed to the custody of his brother, the Duke of Albany,
his eldest son, the Duke of Rothesay, who had gained an evil name by
his scandalous debauchery. Rothesay died in the prison in which his
uncle had confined him, and popular rumour alleged that Albany had
murdered him to clear the way to the throne. Robert now sent young
James, his only surviving son, to be educated in France in order to
save him from Albany's machinations. On his way the prince was
captured by an English ship, and delivered to Henry, who kept him
under guard as a hostage for the peaceful behaviour of his countrymen.
The prince, he said, should have been sent to him to be educated, as
he could talk French as well as the king of France. When Robert died
soon afterwards the captive became King James I.; but he was not
allowed to return home, and Albany ruled Scotland as regent in his
name.
[Footnote 28: Genealogy of the kings of Scotland from Robert Bruce
to James I.:--
ROBERT I., Bruce
(1306-1329)
|
------------------------------
| |
DAVID II. Margaret = Walter Stewart
(1329-1370) |
ROBERT II., Stewart or Stuart
(1370-1390)
|
|--------------
| |
ROBERT III. Robert, Duke
(1390-1406) of Albany
|
--------------------|
| |
David, JAMES I.
Duke of Rothesay (1406-1437)]
9. =The Execution of Archbishop Scrope. 1405.=--The capture of such a
hostage as James was the more valuable to Henry as at that very moment
there was a fresh rising in the North, in which Scrope, the Archbishop
of York, took a leading part. The insurgents were soon dispersed, and
both Archbishop Scrope and Mowbray, the Earl Marshal, were captured.
Henry had them both beheaded, though neither were tried by their
peers, and ecclesiastics were not punishable by a secular court.
Knowing that the insurrection had been contrived by Northumberland,
Henry gave himself no rest till he had demolished the fortifications
of his castles of Alnwick, Warkworth, and Prudhoe. Northumberland
himself escaped to Scotland.
10. =France, Wales, and the North. 1405--1408.=--In =1405=, whilst
Henry was in the North, a French fleet landed a force in Wales and
seized Carmarthen. In =1406= the Duke of Orleans attacked the
possessions still held by the English in Guienne, but though he
plundered the country he could do no more. Once again fortune relieved
Henry of a dangerous enemy. The Duke of Orleans had a rival in his
cousin John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, who, in addition to his
own duchy and county of Burgundy, was ruler of Flanders through his
mother. His wise and firm government attached the manufacturing towns
of Flanders to him, and the example of his government in Flanders won
him favour in Paris and other French towns, especially in the north of
France. He was, however, personally brutal and unscrupulous, and
having entered into a competition for power with the Duke of Orleans,
he had him murdered in =1407= in the streets of Paris. At once a civil
war broke out between the Burgundian party, supported by the towns,
and the Orleans party, which rested on the feudal nobility, and was
now termed the party of the Armagnacs, from the Count of Armagnac, its
chief leader after the murder of the Duke of Orleans. Henry had no
longer to fear invasion from France. In =1408= he was freed from yet
another enemy. The old Earl of Northumberland, who had wandered from
Scotland to Wales, now wandered north again to try his fortunes in his
own country. As he passed through Yorkshire he was met by the sheriff
of the county, and defeated and slain on Bramham Moor. At the same
time South Wales fell again under the power of the king, and though
Owen Glendower still continued to hold out in the mountainous region
round Snowdon, his power rapidly declined.
[Illustration: Fight in the lists with poleaxes between Richard
Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, and Sir Pandolf Malatesta, at Verona,
_temp._ Henry IV.: from the "Life of Richard, Earl of Warwick;" drawn
by John Rous about 1485.]
11. =Henry, Prince of Wales. 1409--1410.=--No one had been more
helpful to the king in these wars than his son, Henry, Prince of
Wales. He had fought at Shrewsbury and in Wales, and had learnt to
command as well as to fight. Young as he was--in =1409= he was but
twenty-two--he was already seen to be a man born to have the mastery.
He took his place in his father's council as well as in his armies in
the field. He was skilful, resolute, always knowing his own mind,
prompt to act as each occasion arose. He was, moreover, unfeignedly
religious. It seemed as if a king as great as Edward I. was about to
ascend the throne. Yet between the character of Edward I. and the
character of Prince Henry there was a great difference. Edward I.
worked for the future as well as for the present. His constructive
legislation served his country for generations after his death. Even
his mistaken attempt to unite England and Scotland was, to some extent
at least, an anticipation of that which was done by the Act of Union
four hundred years after his death. The young Henry had no such power
of building for the future. He worked for the present alone, and his
work crumbled away almost as soon as he was in his grave. His ideas
were the ordinary ideas of his age, and he never originated any of his
own. In =1410=, when a heretic, Badby, was led to be burnt, the Prince
in vain urged him to recant. As the flames blazed up, the poor wretch,
stung by the torment, cried for mercy. The Prince bade the
executioners drag away the blazing faggots, and offered Badby support
for his lifetime if he would abandon his heresy. Badby refused, and
the Prince sternly ordered the executioners to push the faggots back
and to finish their cruel work. In that very year the House of
Commons, which was again urging the king to confiscate the revenues of
the clergy, even urged him also to soften the laws against the
Lollards. The king refused, and he had no opposition to fear from the
Prince of Wales.
[Illustration: Costume of a judge, about 1400: from the brass of Sir
John Cassy, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, at Deerhurst,
Gloucestershire.]
12. =The Last Years of Henry IV. 1411--1413.=--It was not long before
a bitter quarrel broke out between Henry IV. and his son, which lasted
till the death of the old man. In later times stories were told how
Prince Henry gave himself up to the society of low and debauched
companions, how he amused himself by robbing the receivers of his own
rents, and how, having struck Chief Justice Gascoigne for sitting in
judgment on one of his unruly followers, he was sent to prison for
contempt of court. There is no real evidence in support of these
stories; but there is good reason to believe that, though they were
certainly exaggerated, they were not altogether without foundation.
Since =1410= the Prince kept house in the heart of London, and, as a
young and active man suddenly called from service in the field to live
in the midst of the temptations of a city, he may very well have
developed a taste for boisterous amusements, even if he did not fall
into grosser forms of dissipation. It is certain that during this
period of his life he ran deeply into debt, and was no longer on good
terms with his father. Yet even the story about the Chief Justice goes
on to say that the Prince took his punishment meekly and offered no
resistance, and that his father thanked God that he had so upright a
judge and so obedient a son. Political disagreement probably widened
the breach between the King and the Prince. Henry IV. had grown
accustomed to live from hand to mouth, and had maintained himself on
the throne rather because Englishmen needed a king than because he was
himself a great ruler. In his foreign policy he was swayed by the
interests of the moment. In =1411= he helped the Burgundians against
the Armagnacs. In =1412= he helped the Armagnacs against the
Burgundians. Prince Henry already aimed at a steady alliance with the
Burgundians, with a view to a policy more thoroughgoing than that of
keeping a balance between the French parties. The king, too, was
subject to epileptic attacks, and to a cutaneous disorder which his
ill-willers branded by the name of leprosy. It has even been said that
in =1412= the Prince urged his father to abdicate in his favour. If
so, he had not long to wait for the crown. In =1413= Henry IV. died,
and Henry V. sat upon his throne.
13. =Henry V. and the Lollards. 1413--1414.=--Henry V. was steadied by
the duties which now devolved upon him. He indeed dismissed from the
chancellorship Archbishop Arundel, who had supported his father
against himself, and gave it to his half-uncle, Henry Beaufort, Bishop
of Winchester, one of the legitimated sons of John of Gaunt and
Catherine Swynford (see p. 282), but he allowed no plans of vengeance
to take possession of his mind. His first thought was to show that he
had confidence in his own title to the crown. He liberated the Earl of
March, and transferred the body of Richard II. to a splendid tomb at
Westminster, as if he had nothing to fear from any competitor. If
there was one thing on which, as far as England was concerned, his
heart was set, it was on strengthening the religion of his ancestors.
He founded three friaries and he set himself to crush the Lollards.
Sir John Oldcastle, who bore the title of Lord Cobham in right of his
wife, was looked up to by the Lollards as their chief supporter.
Oldcastle was brought before Archbishop Arundel. Both judge and
accused played their several parts with dignity. Arundel without angry
reviling asserted the necessity of accepting the teaching of the
Church. Oldcastle with modest firmness maintained the falsity of many
of its doctrines. In the end he was excommunicated, but before any
further action could be taken he escaped, and was nowhere to be found.
His followers were so exasperated as to form a plot against the king's
life. Early in =1414= Henry fell upon a crowd of them in St. Giles's
Fields. Most escaped, but of those who were taken the greater part
were hanged or burnt. The result was a statute giving fresh powers to
the king for the punishment of the Lollards. Every book written by
them was to be confiscated. Three years later (=1417=) Oldcastle was
seized and burnt. He was the last of the Lollards to play an
historical part. The Lollards continued to exist in secret, especially
in the towns, but there was never again any one amongst them who
combined religious fervour with cultivated intelligence.
[Illustration: Henry V.: from an original painting belonging to the
Society of Antiquaries.]
14. =Henry's Claim to the Throne of France. 1414.=--Henry V. was
resolved to uphold the old foreign policy of the days of Edward III.
as well as the old religion. In =1414=, whilst he amused the French
court by offers of friendship, he was in reality preparing to demand
the crown of France as the right of the king of England, leaving out
of sight the consideration that if the claim of Edward III. had been
worth anything at all, it would have descended to the Earl of March
and not to himself. Everything seemed to combine to make easy an
attack on France. Burgundians and Armagnacs were engaged in a
death-struggle. In =1413= a riotous Burgundian mob had made itself
master of Paris and the Government. Then the Armagnacs had got the
upper hand, and the Duke of Burgundy was driven back to his own
dominions. Henry now made an alliance with the Duke of Burgundy
against the ruling powers, and prepared to invade the distracted land.
Thus far he proceeded in imitation of Edward III., who had attacked
Philip VI. in alliance with the Flemings. With Edward III., however,
the claim to the French crown had always been a secondary
consideration. He went to war because French sailors plundered English
ports and the French king assisted the Scots. Henry had no such reason
to urge. He went to war because he was young and warlike, because the
enterprise was easy, and because foreign conquest would unite all
Englishmen round his throne. When once the war was begun he was
certain to carry it on in a different spirit from that of Edward III.
Edward had gone to weaken the plunderers by plundering in return, and
to fight battles only when they happened to come in his way. Henry
went with the distinct resolution to conquer France and to place the
French crown on his own head. Every step which he took was calculated
with skill for the attainment of this end. Of immediate, perhaps of
lifelong, success Henry was as nearly certain as it was possible to
be. Yet, if he had remembered what had been the end of campaigns
adorned by the brilliant victories of Crecy and Poitiers, he might
have known that all that he could do would end in ultimate failure,
and that the day must come when divided France would unite to cast
out, if not himself, at least his heirs. It was significant that when
his Chancellor, Beaufort, announced to Parliament the king's
intention, he took for his text, after the manner of political
speakers in those days, 'Let us work while it is called to-day.' Henry
was not inclined, as Edward I. had been, to take thought for a distant
morrow.
15. =The Invasion of France. 1415.=--In =1415= Henry openly made his
claim and gathered his army at Southampton. He there detected a
conspiracy to place the Earl of March on the throne, which had been
formed by Lord Scrope and Sir Thomas Grey, in combination with March's
brother-in-law, the Earl of Cambridge, a son of the Duke of York (see
genealogy at p. 327), the son of Edward III. All three were executed,
and then Henry sailed for France. He landed at the mouth of the Seine
and besieged Harfleur. Harfleur fell after an heroic defence, and the
Seine valley lay open to Henry.[29] Over two-thirds of his army,
however, had perished from dysentery and fever, and with no more, even
at the highest calculation, than 15,000 men, he was unable to take
advantage of the opportunity to march upon Paris. His brother the Duke
of Clarence, urged him to return to England, but Henry knew that if he
went back with baffled hopes his throne would hardly stand the shock.
He resolved to march to Calais. It might be that he would find a Crecy
on the way.
[Footnote 29: Havre de Grace was not yet in existence.]
16. =The March to Agincourt. 1415.=--Not a Frenchman could be found
who would take seriously Henry's claim to be the true king of France.
When he reached the Somme he found the bridges over the river broken,
and he was only able to cross it by ascending it almost to its source.
Then, bending to the left, he pushed on towards Calais. His own army
was by this time scarcely more than 10,000 strong, and he soon learnt
that a mighty French host of at least 50,000 men blocked the way at
Agincourt. Though his little band was worn with hunger, he joyfully
prepared for battle. He knew that the Duke of Burgundy had kept aloof,
and that the Armagnac army opposed to him was a feudal host of the
same character as that which had been defeated at Crecy. There were no
recognised commanders, no subordination, no notion of the superior
military power of the English archers.
17. =The Battle of Agincourt, October 25, 1415.=--In the early
morning, mass was said in the English army, and Henry's scanty
followers prayed earnestly that their king's right, as they believed
it to be, might be shown on that day. Henry's own prayers were long
and fervid. He was told that it was the hour of prime, the first hour
of prayer. "Now," he said, "is good time, for all England prayeth for
us, and, therefore, be of good cheer." He then went forth to marshal
his army. To a knight who wished that every brave Englishman now at
home were there, he replied that he would not have one man more. Few
as they were, they were in the hands of God, who could give them the
victory. Henry's tactics were those of Crecy. He drew up his archers
between thick woods which defended their flanks, and with sharp stakes
planted in the ground to defend them in front, placing his dismounted
horsemen at intervals between the bodies of archers. The French,
however, showed no signs of attacking, and Henry, knowing that unless
he cut his way through his soldiers would starve, threw tactics to
the winds and ordered his archers to advance. He had judged wisely.
The French horsemen were on ploughed ground soaked with rain, and when
at last they charged, the legs of their horses stuck fast in the
clinging mud. The English arrows played thickly on them. Immovable and
helpless, they were slaughtered as they stood. In vain their
dismounted horsemen pushed forward in three columns upon the English
knights. Their charge was vigorously resisted, and the archers,
overlapping each column, drew forth the heavy leaden mallets which
each man carried, and fell upon the helpless rout with blows which
crashed through the iron headpieces of the Frenchmen. Such as could
escape fled hastily to the rear, throwing into wild confusion the
masses of their countrymen who had not as yet been engaged. The battle
was won, but unfortunately the victory was stained by a cruel deed.
Some French plunderers had got into the rear to seize upon the
baggage, and Henry, believing that a fresh enemy was upon him, gave
orders, which were promptly carried out, to slay the prisoners. The
loss of the French was enormous, and fell heavily on their nobility,
always eager to be foremost in fight. Amongst the prisoners who were
spared was the young Duke of Orleans.
18. =Henry's Diplomacy. 1416--1417.=--If Henry had not yet secured the
crown of France, he had at least made sure of the crown of England.
When he landed at Dover he was borne to land on the shoulders of the
multitude. He entered London amidst wild enthusiasm. There was no fear
of any fresh conspiracy to place the Earl of March on the throne. In
=1416= he sent his brother, the Duke of Bedford, to secure Harfleur
against a French attack, whilst he himself was diplomatically active
in an attempt to win over to his side the Duke of Burgundy and
Sigismund, King of the Romans, who actually visited him in England.
Sigismund promised much, but had little power to fulfil his promises,
whilst the Duke shifted backwards and forwards, looking out for his
own advantage and giving no real help to either side. In =1417= the
quarrels in France reached a head. The Count of Armagnac, getting into
his possession the Dauphin Charles, a boy of fourteen, established a
reign of terror in Paris, and the Duke of Burgundy, summoned by the
frightened citizens to their help, levied war against the Armagnacs
and marched to Paris.
19. =Henry's Conquest of Normandy. 1417--1419.=--Henry seized the
opportunity and landed in Normandy. Caen was taken by storm, and in a
few weeks all Normandy except Rouen had submitted to Henry. There had
been a terrible butchery when Caen was stormed, but when once
submission was secured Henry took care that justice and order should
be enforced, and that his soldiers should abstain from plunder and
outrage. In Paris affairs were growing worse. The citizens rose
against the Armagnacs and imprisoned all of them on whom they could
lay hands. Then the mob burst into the prisons and massacred the
prisoners, the Count of Armagnac himself being one of the number.
Henry's army in the meanwhile closed round Rouen. The magistrates, to
prolong the defence, thrust out the poorer inhabitants. Henry, who
knew not pity when there was a practical object to be gained, thrust
them back. During five months the poor wretches wandered about half
starved, dying off day by day. On Christmas Day, in honour of Christ's
nativity, Henry sent some food to the few who were left. Famine did
its work within as well as without the walls, and on January 19,
=1419=, Rouen, the old ducal capital of the Norman kings, surrendered
to Henry.
[Illustration: Effigy of William Phelip, Lord Bardolf (died 1441),
with the Garter and Lancastrian collar of SS.: from his tomb at
Dennington, Suffolk. The type of armour here shown prevailed from
about 1415 to 1435.]
[Illustration: Marriage of Henry V. and Catherine of France: from the
'Life of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick,' drawn by John Rous about
1485.]
20. =The Murder of the Duke of Burgundy and the Treaty of Troyes.
1419--1420.=--In the summer of =1419= English troops swept the country
even up to the walls of Paris. Henry, however, gained more by the
follies and crimes of his enemies than by his own skill. Terrified at
the prospect of losing all, Burgundians and Armagnacs seemed for a
moment to forget their quarrel and to be ready to join together in
defence of their common country; but the hatred in their hearts could
not be rooted out. At a conference between the Duke of Burgundy and
the Dauphin on the bridge of Montereau, angry words sprang easily to
the lips of both. The Duke put his hand on the pommel of his sword,
and some of the Dauphin's attendants, believing their master's life in
danger, fell on the Duke and slew him. After this an agreement between
the factions was no longer possible. The new Duke of Burgundy, Philip
the Good, at once joined the English against the Dauphin, whom he
regarded as an accomplice of his father's murderers. Even Queen
Isabella, the mother of the Dauphin, shared in the outcry against her
own son, and in =1420= was signed the Treaty of Troyes, by which the
Dauphin was disinherited in favour of Henry, who was to be king of
France on the death of Charles VI. In accordance with its terms, Henry
married Charles's daughter Catherine, and ruled France as regent till
the time came when he was to rule it as king.
21. =The Close of the Reign of Henry V. 1420--1422.=--The Treaty of
Troyes was very similar in its stipulations to that which Henry II.
had made with Stephen at Wallingford (see p. 137). The result was, as
might have been expected, totally different. Henry II. had the English
nation behind his back. Henry V. presumed to rule over a foreign
nation, the leaders of which had only accepted him in a momentary fit
of passion. He never got the whole of France into his power. He held
Paris and the North, whilst the Duke of Burgundy held the East. South
of the Loire the Armagnacs were strong, and that part of France stood
by the Dauphin, though even here the English possessed a strip of land
along the sea-coast in Guienne and Gascony, and at one time drew over
some of the lords to admit Henry's feudal supremacy. In =1420= Henry
fancied it safe for him to return to England, but, in his absence, in
the spring of =1421= his brother, the Duke of Clarence, was defeated
and slain at Bauge by a force of Frenchmen and of Scottish
auxiliaries. Clarence had forgotten that English victories had been
due to English archery. He had plunged into the fight with his
horsemen, and had paid the penalty for his rashness with his life.
Henry hurried to the rescue of his followers, and drove the French
over the Loire; though Orleans, on the north bank of that river,
remained unconquered. Instead of laying siege to it Henry turned
sharply round northwards to besiege Meaux, the garrison of which was
plundering the country round Paris in the name of the Dauphin, and
seemed likely to shake the fidelity to Henry even of Paris itself.
Meaux held out for many months. When at last it fell, in =1422=, Henry
was already suffering from a disease which carried him off before the
end of the year at the age of thirty-five. Henry V. had given his life
to the restoration of the authority of the Church in England, and to
the establishment of his dynasty at home by means of the glory of
foreign conquest. What man could do he did, but he could not achieve
the impossible.
CHAPTER XX.
HENRY VI. AND THE LOSS OF FRANCE. =1422--1451=.
LEADING DATES
Reign of Henry VI., 1422-1461
The accession of Henry VI. 1422
The relief of Orleans 1429
End of the alliance with the Duke of Burgundy 1435
Marriage of Henry VI. with Margaret of Anjou 1445
Murder of the Duke of Suffolk and Jack Cade's rebellion 1450
Loss of the last French possessions except Calais 1451
1. =Bedford and Gloucester. 1422.=--In England Henry V. was succeeded
in =1422= by his son, Henry VI., a child of nine months. In the same
year, in consequence of the death of Charles VI., the infant was
acknowledged as king of France in the north and east of that country.
The Dauphin, holding the lands south of the Loire, and some territory
even to the north of it, claimed to reign over the whole of France by
hereditary right as Charles VII. Henry V. had appointed his eldest
surviving brother, John, Duke of Bedford, regent in France, and his
youngest brother, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, regent in England. In
England there were no longer any parties banded against the Crown, and
the title of the Earl of March had not a single supporter; but both
the Privy Council and the Parliament agreed that the late king could
not dispose of the regency by will. Holding that Bedford as the elder
brother had the better claim, they nevertheless, in consequence of his
absence in France, appointed Gloucester Protector, with the proviso
that he should give up his authority to Bedford if the latter were to
return to England. They also imposed limitations upon the authority of
the Protector, requiring him to act by the advice of the Council.
2. =Bedford's Success in France. 1423--1424.=--The English nation was
bent upon maintaining its supremacy in France. Bedford was a good
warrior and an able statesman. In =1423= he prudently married the
sister of Philip of Burgundy, hoping thereby to secure permanently the
all-important fidelity of the Duke. His next step was to place
difficulties in the way of the Scottish auxiliaries who poured into
France to the help of Charles. Through his influence the captive James
I. (see p. 295) was liberated and sent home to Scotland, on the
understanding that he would prevent his subjects from aiding the
enemies of England. Bedford needed all the support he could find, as
the French had lately been gaining ground. In =1424=, however, Bedford
defeated them at Verneuil. In England it was believed that Verneuil
was a second Agincourt, and that the French resistance would soon be
at an end.
3. =Gloucester's Invasion of Hainault. 1424.=--Bedford's progress in
France was checked by the folly of his brother Gloucester, who was as
unwise and capricious as he was greedy of power. Gloucester had lately
married Jacqueline, the heiress of Holland and Hainault, though her
husband, the Duke of Brabant, was still living, on the plea that her
first marriage was null on the ground of nearness of kin. In =1424=
Gloucester overran Hainault, which was under the government of the
Duke of Brabant, thereby giving offence to the Duke of Burgundy, who
was a cousin and ally of the Duke of Brabant, and who had no wish to
see the English holding a territory so near to his own county of
Flanders. The Duke of Brabant recovered Hainault and captured
Jacqueline, who had already been abandoned by Gloucester. A coolness
arose between the Duke of Burgundy and the English which was never
completely removed.
[Illustration: Henry VI.: from an original picture in the National
Portrait Gallery.]
4. =Gloucester and Beaufort. 1425--1428.=--In England as well as on
the Continent Gloucester's self-willed restlessness roused enemies,
the most powerful of them being his uncle, the Chancellor, Henry
Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester (see pp. 301, 335), a wealthy and
ambitious prelate not without those statesmanlike qualities which were
sadly lacking to Gloucester. If Beaufort ruled the Council, Gloucester
had the art of making himself popular with the multitude, whose
sympathies were not likely to be given to a bishop of the type of
Beaufort, who practised no austerities and who had nothing in him to
appeal to the popular imagination. So bitter was the feud between
Gloucester and Beaufort that in =1426= Bedford was obliged to visit
England to keep the peace between them. Before he returned to France
he persuaded Beaufort to surrender the chancellorship to Kemp, the
Bishop of London, and to leave England for a time. Moreover, in =1427=
he himself swore that as long as the king was under age the Council
and not the Protector was to govern. When Gloucester was asked to take
the same oath, he signed it, but refused to swear. In =1428=, after
Bedford had returned to France, Beaufort came back, bringing with him
from Rome the title of Cardinal, and authority to raise soldiers for a
crusade against heretics in Bohemia. A storm was at once raised
against him. A Cardinal, it was said, was a servant of the Roman See,
and as no man could serve two masters, he ought not to hold an English
bishopric or to sit in the English Council, far less to send to
Bohemia English troops which were needed in France. Gloucester fancied
that the opportunity of overthrowing his rival had come. Beaufort,
however, was too prudent to press his claims. He absented himself from
the Council and allowed the men whom he had raised for Bohemia to be
sent to France instead. Before the end of the year the outcry against
him died away, and, Cardinal as he was, he resumed his old place in
the Council.
5. =The Siege of Orleans. 1428--1429.=--The time had arrived when the
presence of every English soldier was needed in France. Bedford had
made himself master of almost the whole country north of the Loire
except Orleans. If he could gain that city it would be easy for him to
overpower Charles, who kept court at Chinon. In =1428=, therefore, he
laid siege to Orleans. The city, however, defended itself gallantly,
though all that the French outside could hope to do was to cut off the
supplies of the besiegers. In February =1429= they attempted to
intercept a convoy of herrings coming from Paris for the English
troops, but were beaten off in what was jocosely styled the Battle of
the Herrings, and it seemed as though Orleans, and with it France
itself, were doomed. Frenchmen were indeed weary of the foreign yoke
and of the arrogant insolence of the rough island soldiers. Yet in
France all military and civil organisation had hitherto come from the
kings, and unfortunately for his subjects Charles was easy-tempered
and entirely incapable either of carrying on war successfully or of
inspiring that enthusiasm without which the most careful organisation
is as the twining of ropes of sand. It would need a miracle to inspire
Frenchmen with the belief that it was possible for them to defeat the
victors of Agincourt and Verneuil, and yet without such a miracle
irretrievable ruin was at hand.
6. =Jeanne Darc and the Relief of Orleans. 1429.=--The miracle was
wrought by a young maiden of seventeen, Jeanne Darc, the daughter of a
peasant of Domremi, in the duchy of Bar. Her home was at a distance
from the actual scenes of war, but whilst she was still little more
than a child, tales of horror, reaching her from afar, had filled her
with 'pity for the realm of France' and for its young king, whom she
idealised into the pattern of every virtue. As she brooded over the
thought of possible deliverance, her warm imagination summoned up
before her bright and saintly forms, St. Michael, St. Catherine, and
St. Margaret, who bade her, the chosen of God, to go forth and save
the king, and conduct him to Reims to be crowned and anointed with the
holy oil from the vessel which, as men believed, had been brought down
from heaven in days of old. At last in =1428= her native hamlet was
burnt down by a Burgundian band. Then the voices of the saints bade
her go to Vaucouleurs, where she would find a knight, Robert de
Baudricourt, who would conduct her to Charles. Months passed before
Baudricourt would do aught but scorn her message, and it was not till
February =1429=, when the news from Orleans was most depressing, that
he consented to take her in his train. She found Charles at Chinon,
and, as the story goes, convinced him of her Divine mission by
recognising him in disguise in the midst of his courtiers. Soldiers
and theologians alike distrusted her, but her native good sense, her
simple and earnest faith, and above all her purity of heart and life
disarmed all opposition, and she was sent forth to lead an army to the
relief of Orleans. She rode on horseback clothed in armour as a man,
with a sword which she had taken from behind the altar of St.
Catherine by her side, and a consecrated banner in her hand. She
brought with her hope of victory, enthusiasm built on confidence in
Divine protection, and wide-reaching patriotism. 'Pity for the realm
of France' inspired her, and even the rough soldiers who followed her
forsook for a time their debaucheries that they might be fit to follow
God's holy maid. Such an army was invincible; but whilst to the French
the maid was an instrument of the mercy of God, to the English she was
an emissary of hell and the forerunner of defeat. On May 7 she led the
storm of one of the English fortified posts by which the town was
hemmed in. After a sharp attack she planted her standard on the wall.
The English garrison was slain to a man. The line of the besiegers was
broken through, and Orleans was saved. On the 12th the English army
was in full retreat.
[Illustration: Fotheringhay Church, Northamptonshire. The contract for
building it, between Edward Duke of York, and William Horwod,
freemason, is dated September 24, 1434.]
7. =The Coronation of Charles VII. and the Capture of the Maid.
1429--1430.=--The Maid followed up her victory. She had at her side
brave and skilful warriors, such as La Hire and the Bastard of
Orleans, the illegitimate son of the murdered Louis of Orleans, and
with their help she pressed the English hard, driving them northwards
and defeating them at Patay. She insisted on conducting Charles to
Reims, and he, indolently resisting at first, was carried away by her
persistent urgency. Hostile towns opened their gates to her on the
way, and on July 17 she saw with chastened joy the man whom she had
saved from destruction crowned in the great cathedral of Reims. For
her part, she was eager to push on the war, but Charles was slothful,
and in a hurry to be back to the pleasures of his court. When she led
the troops to the attack of Paris, she was ordered back by the king,
and the army sent into winter quarters. In the spring of =1430= the
Maid was allowed again to attack the English, but she had no longer
the support which she had once had. Many of the French soldiers were
meanly jealous of her, and were vexed when they were told that they
owed their victories to a woman. On the other side the Duke of
Burgundy was frightened by the French successes into giving real aid
to Bedford, and on May 23, in a skirmish before Compiegne, her
countrymen doing nothing to save or to rescue her, the Maid was taken
by Burgundian soldiers. Before the end of the year her captors sold
her to the English, who firmly believed her to be a witch.
8. =The Martyrdom at Rouen. 1431.=--The English had no difficulty in
finding an ecclesiastical court to judge their prisoner. Even the
French clergy detested the Maid as having appealed to supernatural
voices which had not been recognised by the Church; and in spite of an
intelligent and noble defence she was condemned to be burnt. At the
stake she behaved with heroic simplicity. When the flames curled round
her she called upon the saints who had befriended her. Her last
utterance was a cry of "Jesus!" An Englishman who had come to triumph
hung his head for shame. "We are lost," he said; "we have burnt a
saint!"
9. =The Last Years of the Duke of Bedford. 1431--1435.=--The English
gained nothing by their unworthy vengeance. Though the personal
presence of the Maid was no longer there to encourage her countrymen,
they had learnt from her to cherish that 'pity for the realm of
France' which had glowed so brightly in her own bosom. It was in vain
that towards the end of =1431= Bedford carried the young Henry, now a
boy of ten years, who had already been crowned in England the year
before, to be crowned at Notre Dame, the cathedral of Paris. The
Parisians were disgusted by the troop of foreigners which accompanied
him, and their confidence was shaken when Bedford sent the king back
to England as not venturing to trust him amongst his French subjects.
In =1432= the armies of Charles VII. stole forwards step by step, and
Bedford, who had no money to pay his troops, could do nothing to
resist them. The English Parliament, which had cheerfully voted
supplies as long as there seemed a prospect of conquering France, hung
back from granting them when victories were no longer won. In =1433=
Bedford was again forced to return to England to oppose the intrigues
of Gloucester, who, though he had lost the title of Protector when the
young king was crowned, had thrown the government into confusion by
his intrigues. When Bedford went back to France in =1434= he found the
tide running strongly against him. Little more than Paris and Normandy
were held by the English, and the Duke of Burgundy was inclining more
and more towards the French. In =1435= a congress was held at Arras,
under the Duke of Burgundy's presidency, in the hope that peace might
be made. The congress, however, failed to accomplish anything, and
soon after the English ambassadors were withdrawn Bedford died at
Rouen. If so wise a statesman and so skilful a warrior had failed to
hold down France, no other Englishman was likely to achieve the task.
10. =The Defection of Burgundy. 1435.=--After Bedford's death the Duke
of Burgundy renounced his alliance with the English and entered into a
league with Charles VII. In =1430=, by the death of the Duke of
Brabant, he inherited Brabant, and in =1436= he inherited from the
faithless Jacqueline Hainault, Holland, Zealand, and Friesland (see p.
308). He thus, being already Count of Flanders, became ruler over
well-nigh the whole of the Netherlands in addition to his own
territories in Burgundy. The vassal of the king of France was now a
European potentate. England had therefore to count on the enmity of a
ruler whose power of injuring her was indeed serious.
11. =The Duke of York in France. 1436--1437.=--Bedford's successor was
the young Richard, Duke of York, whose father was that Earl of
Cambridge who had been executed at Southampton (see p. 301); whilst
his mother was Anne Mortimer, the sister of the Earl of March. As the
Earl of March had died in =1425=, the Duke of York was now, through
his mother, the heir of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, and thus, if
hereditary right was to be regarded, heir to the throne. That a man
with such claims should have been entrusted with such an office shows
how firmly the victories of Henry V. had established the House of
Lancaster in England. Disputes in the English Council, however,
delayed his departure, and in April =1436=, before he could arrive in
France, Paris was lost, whilst the Duke of Burgundy besieged Calais.
England, stung by the defection of Burgundy, made an unusual effort.
One army drove the Burgundians away from before Calais, whilst another
under the Duke of York himself regained several fortresses in
Normandy, and in =1437= Lord Talbot drove the Burgundians behind the
Somme.
12. =The English Lose Ground. 1437--1443.=--Gallant as the Duke of
York was, he was soon recalled, and in =1437= was succeeded by Richard
Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. Warwick, however, failed to do more than
to hold what his predecessor had gained, and he died in =1439=. Both
in England and France the suffering was terrible, and England would
find neither men nor money to support a falling cause. In =1439= a
peace conference was held at Calais, but the English continued
arrogantly to claim the crown of France, and peace was not to be had.
In =1440= York was sent back, and fighting went on till =1443=, in
which the English lost ground both in Normandy and in Guienne.
[Illustration: Gilt-latten effigy (front view) of Richard Beauchamp,
Earl of Warwick, died 1439: from his tomb at Warwick. Made by William
Austen, of London, founder, 1453.]
[Illustration: Gilt-latten effigy (back view) of Richard Beauchamp,
Earl of Warwick, died 1439: from his tomb at Warwick. Made by William
Austen, of London, founder, 1453.]
13. =Continued Rivalry of Beaufort and Gloucester. 1439--1441.=--The
chief advocate in England of the attempt to make peace at Calais in
=1439= had been Cardinal Beaufort, whose immense wealth gave him
authority over a Council which was always at its wits' end for money.
Beaufort was wise enough to see that the attempt to reconquer the lost
territory, or even to hold Normandy, was hopeless. Such a view,
however, was not likely to be popular. Nations, like men, often
refuse openly to acknowledge failure long after they cease to take
adequate means to avert it. Of the popular feeling Gloucester made
himself the mouthpiece, and it was by his influence that exorbitant
pretensions had been put forward at Calais. In =1440= he accused
Beaufort of using his authority for his own private interests, and
though Beaufort gave over to the public service a large sum of money
which he received as the ransom of the Duke of Orleans from a
captivity which had lasted twenty-four years (see p. 303), Gloucester
virulently charged him with an unpatriotic concession to the enemy.
Gloucester's domestic relations, on the other hand, offered an easy
object of attack. When he deserted Jacqueline he took a mistress,
Eleanor Cobham, and subsequently married her, which he was able to do
without difficulty, as his union with Jacqueline was, in the eyes of
the Church, no marriage at all. The new Duchess of Gloucester being
aware that if the king should die her husband would be next in order
of succession to the throne, was anxious to hasten that event. It was
a superstitious age, and the Duchess consulted an astrologer as to the
time of the king's death, and employed a reputed witch to make a waxen
image of the king under the belief that as the wax melted before the
fire the king's life would waste away. In =1441= these proceedings
were detected. The astrologer was hanged, the witch was burnt, whilst
the Duchess escaped with doing public penance and with imprisonment
for life. Gloucester could not save her, but he did not lose his
place in the Council, where he continued to advocate a war policy,
though with less success than before.
[Illustration: Tattershall Castle, Lincolnshire: built of brick by
Ralph, Lord Cromwell, between 1433 and 1455.]
14. =Beaufort and Somerset. 1442--1443.=--In =1442= Henry was in his
twenty-first year. Unfeignedly religious and anxious to be at peace
with all men, his character was far too weak and gentle to fit him for
governing in those rough times. He had attached himself to Beaufort
because Beaufort's policy was pacific, and because Gloucester's life
was scandalous. Beaufort's position was secured at court, but the
situation was not one in which a pacific statesman could hope for
success. The French would not consent to make peace till all that they
had lost had been recovered; yet, hardly bested as the English in
France were, it was impossible in the teeth of English public opinion
for any statesman, however pacific, to abandon lands still commanded
by English garrisons. Every year, however, brought the problem nearer
to the inevitable solution. In =1442= the French attacked the strip of
land which was all that the English now held in Guienne and Gascony,
and with the exception of Bordeaux and Bayonne captured almost every
fortified town. The command in France was given to Cardinal Beaufort's
nephew, John Beaufort, Duke of Somerset. Somerset, who was thoroughly
incompetent, did not even leave England till the autumn of =1443=, and
when he arrived in France accomplished nothing worthy of his office.
15. =The Angevin Marriage Treaty. 1444--1445.=--Henry now fell under
the influence of William de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, a descendant of
the favourite of Richard II. Suffolk had fought bravely in France, and
had learnt by sad experience the hopelessness of the English cause. In
=1444=, with the consent of the king and the Parliament, he negotiated
at Tours a truce for ten months. In order to make it more lasting
there was to be a marriage between Henry and Margaret of Anjou. Her
father, Rene, the Duke of Anjou, was titular king of Jerusalem and
Sicily, in neither of which did he possess a foot of ground, whilst
his duchy of Anjou was almost valueless to him in consequence of the
forays of the English, who still held posts in Maine. Charles had the
more readily consented to the truce, because it was understood that
the surrender of Maine would be a condition of the marriage. In =1445=
Suffolk led Margaret to England, where her marriage to Henry was
solemnised. A French queen who brought with her no portion except a
truce bought by the surrender of territory could hardly fail to be
unpopular in England.
[Illustration: Part of Wingfield manor-house, Derbyshire: built by
Ralph, Lord Cromwell, about 1440.]
16. =Deaths of Gloucester and Beaufort. 1447.=--The truce was renewed
from time to time, and Suffolk's authority seemed firmly established.
In =1447= Gloucester was charged with high treason in a Parliament
held at Bury St. Edmunds, but before he had time to answer he was
found dead in his bed. His death may, with strong probability, be
ascribed to natural causes, but it was widely believed that he had
been murdered and that Suffolk was the murderer. A few weeks later
Gloucester's old rival, Cardinal Beaufort, the last real statesman who
supported the throne of Henry VI., followed him to the grave, and
Suffolk was left alone to bear the responsibility of government and
the disgrace of failure.
[Illustration: The Divinity School, Oxford: built between 1445 and
1454.]
17. =The Loss of the French Provinces. 1448--1449.=--Suffolk had
undertaken more than he was able to fulfil. Somerset had died in
=1444=, and Suffolk being jealous of all authority but his own, he
sent York to govern Ireland. He could not secure the fulfilment of the
conditions which he had made with the king of France. The English
commanders refused to evacuate Maine, and in =1448= a French army
entered the province and drove out the English. Edmund, the new Duke
of Somerset, was sent to take the command in Normandy, which had
formerly been held by his brother. In =1449= an Aragonese captain in
the English service, who had no pay for his troops, having seized
Fougeres, a place on the frontier of Brittany, for the sake of the
booty to be gained, Charles made the attack an excuse for the renewal
of the war. So destitute was the condition in which the English forces
were left that neither Somerset nor the warlike Talbot (see p. 313),
who had recently been created Earl of Shrewsbury, was able to resist
him. Rouen fell in =1450=, and in =1450= the whole of Normandy was
lost. In =1451= the French attacked Bordeaux and Bayonne, two
port-towns which, in consequence of their close commercial intercourse
with England, had no wish to transfer their allegiance to Charles.
England, however, sent them no succour, and before the end of the year
they were forced to capitulate. The relics of Guienne and Gascony thus
passed into the hands of the French, and of all the possessions which
the kings of England had once held on the Continent Calais alone
remained.
CHAPTER XXI.
THE LATER YEARS OF HENRY VI. =1450--1461=.
LEADING DATES
Reign of Henry VI., 1422--1461
Murder of the Duke of Suffolk and Jack Cade's rebellion 1450
First Protectorate of the Duke of York 1453
First Battle of St. Albans and second Protectorate of the
Duke of York 1455
Battle of Blore Heath and the discomfiture of the Yorkists 1459
After a Yorkist victory at Northampton the Duke of York
is declared heir to the crown, but is defeated and slain
at Wakefield 1460
Battles of Mortimer's Cross, St. Albans, and Towton 1461
Coronation of Edward IV. 1461
1. =The Growth of Inclosures.=--Since the insurrection of the peasants
in =1381= (see p. 268) villeinage had to a great extent been dying
out, in consequence of the difficulty felt by the lords in enforcing
their claims. Yet the condition of the classes connected with the land
was by no means prosperous. The lords of manors indeed abandoned the
old system of cultivating their own lands by the labour of villeins,
or by labourers hired with money paid by villeins in commutation for
bodily service. They began to let out their land to tenants who paid
rent for it; but even the new system did not bring in anything like
the old profit. The soil had been exhausted for want of a proper
system of manuring, and arable land scarcely repaid the expenses of
its cultivation. For this evil a remedy was found in the inclosure of
lands for pasturage. This change, which in itself was beneficial by
increasing the productiveness of the country, and by giving rest to
the exhausted soil, became oppressive because all the benefit went to
the lords of the manors, whilst the tenants of the manors were left to
struggle on as best they might. Not only had they no share in the
increase of wealth which was brought about by the inclosure of what
had formerly been the common land of the manors, but the poorer
amongst them had less employment than before, as it required fewer men
to look after sheep than to grow corn.
2. =Increasing Power of the Nobility.=--The disproportionate increase
of the wealth of the landowners threw into their hands a
disproportionate amount of power. The great landowner especially was
able to gather bands of retainers and to spread terror around him. The
evil of liveries and maintenance, which had become prominent in the
reign of Richard II. (see p. 281), had increased since his deposition.
It was an evil which the kings were powerless to control. Again and
again complaints were raised of 'want of governance.' Henry V. had
abated the mischief for a time by employing the unruly elements in his
wars in France, but it was a remedy which, when defeat succeeded
victory, only increased the disease which it was meant to cure. When
France was lost bands of unruly men accustomed to deeds of violence
poured back into England, where they became retainers of the great
landowners, who with their help set king and laws at defiance.
3. =Case of Lord Molynes and John Paston.=--The difficulty of
obtaining justice may be illustrated by a case which occurred in
Norfolk. The manor of Gresham belonged to John Paston, a gentleman of
moderate fortune. It was coveted by Lord Molynes, who had no legal
claim to it whatever. Lord Molynes, however, took possession of it in
=1448= with the strong hand. If such a thing had happened at present
Paston would have gone to law; but to go to law implies the submitting
of a case to a jury, and in those days a jury was not to be trusted to
do justice. In the first place it was selected by the sheriff, and the
sheriff took care to choose such men as would give a verdict pleasing
to the great men whom he wished to serve, and in the second place,
supposing that the sheriff did not do this, a juryman who offended
great men by giving a verdict according to his conscience, but
contrary to their desire, ran the risk of being knocked on the head
before he reached home. Paston accordingly, instead of going to law,
begged Lord Molynes to behave more reasonably. Finding his entreaties
of no avail, he took possession of a house on the manor. Lord Molynes
merely waited till Paston was away from home, and then sent a thousand
men, who drove out Paston's wife and pillaged and wrecked the house.
Paston ultimately recovered the manor, but redress for the injury done
him was not to be had.
4. =Suffolk's Impeachment and Murder. 1450.=--A government which was
too weak to redress injuries was certain to be unpopular. The loss of
the French possessions made it still more unpopular. The brunt of the
public displeasure fell on Suffolk, who had just been made a duke, and
who, through the queen's favour, was all-powerful at court. It was
believed that he had sold himself to France, and it was known that
whilst the country was impoverished large grants had been made to
court favourites. An outcry was raised that the king 'should live of
his own,' and ask for no more grants from his people. In =1450=
Suffolk was impeached. Though the charge brought against him was a
tissue of falsehoods, Henry did not dare to shield him entirely, and
ordered him into banishment for five years. Suffolk, indeed, embarked
for the Continent, but a large ship ranged up alongside of the vessel
in which he was. Having been dragged on board amidst cries of
"Welcome, traitor!" he was, two days afterwards, transferred to a
boat, where his head was chopped off with six strokes of a rusty
sword. His body was flung on the beach at Dover.
5. =Jack Cade's Rebellion. 1450.=--Suffolk's supporters remained in
office after his death. The men of Kent rose against them, and found a
leader in an Irish adventurer, Jack Cade, who called himself Mortimer,
and gave out that he was an illegitimate son of the late Earl of
March. He established himself on Blackheath at the head of 30,000 men,
asking that the burdens of the people should be diminished, the Crown
estates recovered, and the Duke of York recalled from Ireland to take
the place of the present councillors. Jack Cade's rebellion, in short,
unlike that of Wat Tyler, was a political, not a social movement. In
demanding that the government should be placed in the hands of the
Duke of York, Jack Cade virtually asked that the Duke should step into
the place, not of the Council, but of the King--that is to say, that a
ruler who could govern should be substituted for one who could not,
and in whose name the great families plundered England. It was this
demand which opened the long struggle which was soon to devastate the
country. At first it seemed as if Jack Cade would carry all before
him. London, which had the most to gain by the establishment of a
strong government, opened its gates to him. When, however, he was
tested by success, he was found wanting. Striking with his sword the
old Roman milestone known as London Stone, he cried out, "Now is
Mortimer lord of this city." His followers gave themselves up to wild
excesses. They beheaded Lord Say and his son-in-law, the Sheriff of
Kent, and carried about their heads on pikes. They plundered houses
and shops. The citizens who had invited them to enter now turned
against them. After a fight on London Bridge the insurgents agreed to
go home on the promise of a pardon. Jack Cade himself, attempting to
gather fresh forces, was chased into Sussex and slain.
6. =Rivalry of York and Somerset. 1450--1453.=--In the summer of
=1450=, Richard, Duke of York, the real leader of the opposition, came
back from Ireland. He found that Somerset, who had just returned from
Normandy after the final loss of that province (see p. 320), had
succeeded Suffolk in the king's confidence. Somerset, however, was not
merely the favourite of Henry and the queen. The bulk of the nobility
was on his side, whilst York was supported by the force of popular
discontent and by such of the nobility as cherished a personal grudge
against Somerset and his friends. In =1451= the loss of Guienne and
Gascony increased the weight of Somerset's unpopularity. In =1452=
both parties took arms; but, this time, civil war was averted by a
promise from the king that York should be admitted to the Council, and
that Somerset should be placed in confinement till he answered the
charges against him. On this York dismissed his army. Henry, however,
was not allowed to keep his promise, and Somerset remained in power,
whilst York was glad to be allowed to retire unhurt. Somerset
attempted to recover his credit by fresh victories in France, and sent
the old Earl of Shrewsbury to Bordeaux to reconquer Gascony.
Shrewsbury was successful for a while, but in =1453= he was defeated
and slain at Castillon, and the whole enterprise came to nothing.
7. =The First Protectorate of the Duke of York. 1453--1454.=--Henry's
mind had never been strong, and in =1453= it entirely gave way. His
insanity was probably inherited from his maternal grandfather, Charles
VI. The queen bore him a son, named Edward, but though the infant was
brought to his father, Henry gave no sign of recognising his
presence. It was necessary to place the government in other hands, and
in =1454= the Duke of York was named Protector by the House of Lords,
which, as the majority of its members were at that time ecclesiastics,
did not always re-echo the sentiments of the great families. If only
the king had remained permanently insane York might have established
an orderly government. Henry, however, soon recovered as much sense as
he ever had, and York's protectorate came to an end.
8. =The First Battle of St. Albans and the Duke of York's Second
Protectorate.=--The restoration of Henry was in reality the
restoration of Somerset. In =1455= York, fearing destruction, took
arms against his rival. A battle was fought at St. Albans, in which
Somerset was defeated and slain. This was the first battle in the wars
known as the Wars of the Roses, because a red rose was the badge of
the House of Lancaster, to which Henry belonged, and a white rose the
badge of the House of York. After the victory York accompanied the
king to London. Though the bulk of the nobility was against him, he
had on his side the powerful family of the Nevills, as he had married
Cicely Nevill, the sister of the head of that family, the Earl of
Salisbury. Still more powerful was Salisbury's eldest son, who had
married the heiress of the Beauchamps, Earls of Warwick, and who held
the earldom of Warwick in right of his wife.[30] In June =1455= the
king was again insane, and York was for the second time named
Protector. This Protectorate, however, did not last long, as early in
=1456= the king recovered his senses, and York had to resign his post.
[Footnote 30: Genealogy of the Nevills:--
John of Gaunt
|
Ralph Nevill, = Joan
Thomas Montague, Earl of |
Earl of Salisbury Westmoreland |
| |
| ---------------------
Richard Beauchamp, | | |
Earl of Warwick Alice = Richard, Cicely = Richard,
| | Earl of Duke of
| | Salisbury, York,
| | beheaded at killed at
| | Pontefract, Wakefield,
| | 1460 1460
| |
| -------------------------------------
| | | |
Anne = Richard, John, George,
Earl of Warwick, Marquess of Archbishop
the king-maker, Montague of York
killed at Barnet,
1471]
[Illustration: A sea-fight: from the 'Life of Richard Beauchamp, Earl
of Warwick:' drawn by John Rous about 1485.]
9. =Discomfiture of the Yorkists. 1456--1459.=--For two years Henry
exercised such authority as he was capable of exercising. In =1458= he
tried his hand at effecting a reconciliation. The chiefs of the two
parties walked hand in hand in procession to St. Paul's, York himself
leading the queen. The Yorkists founded masses for the repose of the
souls of their enemies slain at St. Albans, and paid money to their
widows. It seemed as if the old practice of the weregild (see p. 32)
had been unexpectedly revived. The spirit which had made weregild
possible was, however, no longer to be found. Warwick retired to
Calais, of which he was governor, and sent out vessels to plunder the
merchant ships of all nations. When he was summoned to Westminster to
give account of his actions, a quarrel broke out there between his
servants and those of the king. Believing his own life to be in
danger, he made his way back to Calais. The Yorkists spent the winter
in preparing for war. In the summer of =1459= Lord Audley, sent by the
queen to seize the Earl of Salisbury, was defeated by him at Blore
Heath, in Staffordshire. Later in the year the two parties with their
whole forces prepared for a battle near Ludlow, but the Yorkists found
themselves no match for their enemies, and, without fighting, York,
with his second son, the Earl of Rutland, took refuge in Ireland. His
eldest son Edward, Earl of March, with Salisbury and Warwick, made his
way to Calais.
[Illustration: Effigy of Sir Robert Harcourt, K.G. (died 1471): from
his tomb at Stanton Harcourt, Oxon; showing armour worn from about
1445 to 1480.]
10. =The Battle of Northampton and the Duke of York's Claim to the
Throne. 1460.=--In =1460= the Yorkist Earls of Salisbury, Warwick, and
March were once more in England. They defeated the royal army at
Northampton and captured the king. York returned from Ireland, and,
as soon as Parliament met, took an unexpected step. If hereditary
descent was to count for anything, his claim to the throne was
superior to that of Henry himself, as he was the heir of Edward III.
through his mother Anne, the sister of the last Earl of March.[31] The
Duke of York now placed his hand on the throne, claiming it in right
of birth. The Lords decided that Henry, to whom they had sworn oaths
of fealty, should retain the crown, but that York should succeed him,
to the exclusion of Henry's son, Edward, Prince of Wales.
[Footnote 31: Genealogy of the Houses of Lancaster and York:--
EDWARD III.
(1307-1377)
|
------------------------------------------------
| | | |
Edward, Lionel, Duke John of Edmund, Duke of
the Black Prince of Clarence Gaunt of York
| | | |
| ------- | ----------------
| | | |
RICHARD II. Philippa = Edmund HENRY IV. |
(1377-1399) | Mortimer, (1399-1413) |
| Earl of | |
| March ----------------- |
| | | |
| (1) HENRY V. (2) John, Duke |
| (1413-1422) of Bedford |
| | (3) Thomas, Duke |
Roger Mortimer, HENRY VI. of Clarence |
Earl of March (1422-1461) (4) Humphrey, |
| Duke of |
| Gloucester |
| |
--------------------- ----------------------------
| | |
Edmund Mortimer, Anne = Richard, Earl of Cambridge
Earl of March |
Richard, Duke of York
|
Edward, Earl of March,
afterwards EDWARD IV.]
11. =The Battle of Wakefield. 1460.=--The struggle, which had at first
been one between two unequal sections of the nobility, each nominally
acknowledging Henry VI. as their king, thus came to be one between the
Houses of Lancaster and York. The queen, savage at the wrong done to
her son, refused to accept the compromise. Withdrawing to the North,
she summoned to her aid the Earl of Northumberland and the Lancastrian
lords. The North was always exposed to Scottish invasions, and the
constant danger kept the inhabitants ready for war, and strengthened
the authority of the great lords who led them. For the same reason the
people of the North were ruder and less civilised than their
fellow-countrymen in the South. Plunder and outrage did not come amiss
to men who were frequently subjected to plunder and outrage. An army
composed of 18,000 of these rough warriors placed itself at the
queen's disposal. With these she routed her enemies at Wakefield. York
himself was slain. His son, Rutland, was stabbed to death by Lord
Clifford, whose father had been slain at St. Albans. Salisbury was
subsequently beheaded by the populace at Pontefract. By command of
Margaret, York's head was cut off, and, adorned in mockery with a
paper crown, was fixed with those of Salisbury and Rutland above one
of the gates of York.
12. =The Battle of Mortimer's Cross and the Second Battle of St.
Albans. 1461.=--The battle of Wakefield differed in character from the
earlier battles of the war. They had been but conflicts between bands
of noblemen and their armed retainers, in which the general population
took little part, whilst the ordinary business of the country went on
much as usual. At Wakefield not only were cruel passions developed,
but a new danger appeared. When Margaret attempted to gain her ends
with the help of her rude northern followers, she roused against her
the fears of the wealthier and more prosperous South. The South found
a leader in York's son, Edward. Though only in his nineteenth year,
Edward showed that he had the qualities of a commander. Rapid in his
movements, he fell upon some Lancastrian forces and defeated them on
February 2, =1461=, at Mortimer's Cross. In the meanwhile Margaret was
marching with her northern host upon London, plundering and destroying
as she went. Warwick, carrying the king with him, met her on the way,
but in the second battle of St. Albans--fought on February 17--was
driven back, leaving the king behind him.
13. =The Battle of Towton and the Coronation of Edward IV.
1461.=--With a civilised army at her back, Margaret might have won her
way into London, and established her authority, at least for a time.
Her unbridled supporters celebrated their victory by robbery and rape,
and Margaret was unable to lead them forward. The Londoners steeled
their hearts against her. Edward was marching to their help, and on
February 25 he entered London. The men of the neighbouring counties
flocked in to his support. On March 2 the crown was offered to him at
Clerkenwell by such lords as happened to be in London. On his
presenting himself to the multitude in Westminster Hall, he was
greeted with shouts of "Long live the king!" Edward IV. represented to
peace-loving England the order which had to be upheld against the
barbarous host which Margaret and the Lancastrian lords had called to
their aid. He had yet to justify the choice. The northern host had
retreated to its own country, and Edward swiftly followed it up. His
advanced guard was surprised and driven back at Ferry Bridge; but his
main army pressed on, and on March 29 gained a decisive victory at
Towton. The slaughter of the defeated side was enormous. Margaret
escaped with Henry to Scotland, and Edward, returning southwards, was
crowned at Westminster on June 29.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE YORKIST KINGS.
EDWARD IV., =1461--1483=. EDWARD V., =1483=. RICHARD III.,
=1483--1485=.
LEADING DATES
Coronation of Edward IV. 1461
Restoration of Henry VI. 1470
Edward IV. recovers the crown--Battles of Barnet and
Tewkesbury 1471
Edward V. 1483
Richard III. deposes Edward V. 1483
Richard III. killed at Bosworth 1485
1. =Edward IV. and the House of Commons. 1461.=--On June 29, =1461=,
Edward IV. was crowned, and created his two brothers, George and
Richard, Dukes of Clarence and Gloucester. His first Parliament
declared the three Lancastrian kings to have been usurpers, and Henry
VI., his wife, his son, and his chief supporters, to be traitors. At
the end of the session Edward thanked the Commons for their support,
and assured them of his resolution to protect them at the hazard of
his own life. It was the first time that a king had addressed the
Commons, and his doing so was a sign that a new era had begun, in
which the wishes of the middle class in town and country were to
prevail over those of the great nobles. It did not follow that the
House of Commons would take the control of the government into its own
hands, as it does at the present day. For a long time the election of
the members had been carried out under pressure from the local
nobility. If the great men in a county resolved that certain persons
should be returned as members, those who came to the place of election
in support of others would be driven off, and perhaps beaten or
wounded. Consequently each House of Commons had hitherto represented
the dominant party, Lancastrian or Yorkist, as the case might be.
Before there could be a House of Commons capable of governing, the
interference of the nobles with elections would have to be brought to
an end, and it was only by a strong king that their power could be
overthrown. The strengthening of the kingship was the only road to
future constitutional progress.
[Illustration: Edward IV.: from an original painting belonging to the
Society of Antiquaries.]
2. =Loss of the Mediaeval Ideals.=--Before the end of the 15th century
the English people had lost all the ideals of the middle ages. The
attempt of Henry V. to revive the old ecclesiastical feeling had
broken down through the race for material power opened by his French
wars, and through the savagery of the wars of the Roses. The new
religious feeling of Wycliffe and the nobler Lollards had perished
with Sir John Oldcastle from the same causes. Neither the Church nor
the opponents of the Church had any longer a sway over men's hearts.
The clergy continued to perform their part in the services of the
Church not indeed without belief, but without the spiritual fervour
which influences the lives of men. The chivalry of the middle ages was
as dead as its religion. Men spoke of women as coarsely as they spoke
of their cattle. Human nature indeed could not be entirely crushed.
John Paston's wife (see p. 321), for instance, was quaintly
affectionate. "I would," she once wrote to her husband, "ye were at
home, if it were for your ease ... now liever than a gown, though it
were of scarlet." But the system of wardship (see p. 116) made
marriages a matter of bargain and sale. "For very need," wrote a
certain Stephen Scrope, "I was fain to sell a little daughter I have
for much less than I should." When Scrope was old he wished to marry
Paston's young sister, and the girl was willing to take him if she
were sure that his land was not burdened with debt. She would be glad
enough to escape from home. Her mother kept her in close confinement
and beat her once or twice every week, and sometimes twice a day, so
that her head was broken in two or three places. This low and material
view of domestic life had led to an equally low and material view of
political life, and the cruelty which stained the wars of the Roses
was but the outcome of a state of society in which no man cared much
for anything except his own greatness and enjoyment. The ideal which
shaped itself in the minds of the men of the middle class was a king
acting as a kind of chief constable, who, by keeping great men in
order, would allow their inferiors to make money in peace.
3. =Fresh Efforts of the Lancastrians. 1462--1465.=--Edward IV. only
very partially responded to this demand. He was swift in action when a
crisis came, and was cruel in his revenge, but he was lustful and
indolent when the crisis was passed, and he had no statesmanlike
abilities to lay the foundations of a powerful government. The wars
were not ended by his victory at Towton. In =1462= Queen Margaret
reappeared in the North, and it was not till =1464= that Warwick's
brother, Lord Montague, thoroughly defeated her forces at Hedgeley
Moor and Hexham; for which victories he was rewarded by Edward with
the earldom of Northumberland, which had been forfeited by the
Lancastrian head of the House of Percy. Montague's victory was marked
by the usual butcheries; the Duke of Somerset, a son of the duke who
had been slain at St. Albans, being amongst those who perished on the
scaffold. In =1465= Henry himself was taken prisoner and lodged in the
Tower.
4. =Edward's Marriage. 1464.=--Whilst these battles were being fought
Edward was lingering in the South courting the young widow of Sir John
Grey, usually known by her maiden name as Elizabeth Woodville. His
marriage to her gave offence to his noble supporters, who disdained to
acknowledge a queen of birth so undistinguished; and their ill-will
was increased when they found that Edward distributed amongst his
wife's kindred estates and preferments which they had hoped to gain
for themselves. The queen's father became Earl Rivers and Lord
Constable, and her brothers and sisters were enriched by marriages
with noble wards of the Crown. One of her brothers, a youth of twenty,
was married to the old Duchess of Norfolk, who was over eighty.
5. =Estrangement of Warwick. 1465--1468.=--No doubt there was as much
of policy as of affection in the slight shown by Edward to the Yorkist
nobility. Warwick--the King-maker, as he was called--had special cause
for ill-humour. He had expected to be a King-ruler as well as a
King-maker, and he took grave offence when he found Edward slipping
away from his control. It seemed as if Edward had the settled purpose
of raising up a new nobility to counterbalance the old. In =1467=
Warwick's brother, the Archbishop of York, was deprived of the
chancellorship. In foreign politics, too, Edward and Warwick
disagreed. Warwick had taken up the old policy of the Beauforts, and
was anxious for an alliance with the astute Louis XI., who had in
=1461= succeeded his father, Charles VII., as king of France. Edward,
perhaps with some thought passing through his head of establishing his
throne by following in the steps of Henry V., declared for an alliance
with Burgundy. In =1467= Warwick was allowed to go to France as an
ambassador, whilst Edward was entertaining Burgundian ambassadors in
England. In the same year Charles the Rash succeeded his father,
Philip the Good (see p. 306), as Duke of Burgundy, and in =1468=
married Edward's sister, Margaret. The Duke of Burgundy, the rival of
the king of France, was the lord of the seventeen provinces of the
Netherlands, and his friendship brought with it that peaceful
intercourse with the manufacturing towns of Flanders which it was
always the object of English policy to secure.
6. =Warwick's Alliance with Clarence. 1469--1470.=--Warwick, disgusted
with Edward, found an ally in Edward's brother, Clarence, who, like
Warwick, was jealous of the Woodvilles. Warwick had no son, and his
two daughters, Isabel and Anne, would one day share his vast estates
between them. Warwick gave Isabel in marriage to Clarence, and
encouraged him to think that it might be possible to seat him--in days
when everything seemed possible to the strong--on Edward's throne.
Edward had by this time lost much of his popularity. His extravagant
and luxurious life made men doubt whether anything had been gained by
substituting him for Henry, and in =1469= and =1470= there were
risings fomented by Warwick. In the latter year Edward, with the help
of his cannon, the importance of which in battles was now great,
struck such a panic into his enemies at a battle near Stamford that
the place of action came to be known as Lose-coat Field, from the
haste with which the fugitives stripped themselves of their armour to
make their flight the easier. Warwick and Clarence fled across the
sea. Warwick was governor of Calais, but his own officer there refused
to admit him, and he was forced to take refuge in France.
[Illustration: A fifteenth-century ship: from Harl. MS. 2278.]
7. =The Restoration of Henry VI. 1470.=--Warwick knew that he had no
chance of recovering power without the support of the Lancastrian
party, and, disagreeable as it was to him, he allowed Louis XI. to
reconcile him to Queen Margaret, the wife of that Henry VI., of whom
he had been the bitterest enemy. Louis, who dreaded Edward's alliance
with the Duke of Burgundy, did everything to support Edward's foes,
and sent Warwick off to England, where he was subsequently to be
joined by the queen. Edward, who was in his most careless mood, was
foolish enough to trust Warwick's brother, Montague, from whom he had
taken away, not only his new earldom of Northumberland to restore it
to the head of the Percies (see p. 331), but all the lands connected
with it, and had thought to compensate him with the mere marquisate
of Montague, unaccompanied by any estate wherewith to support the
dignity of his rank. Montague turned against him, and Edward, fearing
for his life, fled to Holland. Warwick became master of England, and
this time the King-maker drew Henry from the Tower and placed him once
more on the throne, imbecile as he now was.
8. =Edward IV. recovers the Throne. 1471.=--In the spring of =1471=
Edward was back in England, landing at Ravenspur, where Henry IV. had
landed in =1399=. Like Henry IV., he lyingly declared that he had come
merely to claim his duchy and estates. Like Henry IV., too, he found a
supporter in an Earl of Northumberland, who was this time the Percy
who, Lancastrian as he was, had been restored by Edward to his earldom
at the expense of Montague. Clarence, too--false, fleeting, perjured
Clarence, as Shakspere truly calls him--had offered to betray Warwick.
Edward gathered a sufficient force to march unassailed to London,
where he was enthusiastically received. Taking with him the
unfortunate Henry he won a complete victory at Barnet. The battle was
fought in a dense fog, and was decided by a panic caused amongst
Warwick's men through the firing of one of their divisions into
another. Warwick and Montague were among the slain. By this time
Margaret had landed with a fresh army at Weymouth. Edward caught her
and her army at Tewkesbury, where he inflicted on her a crushing
defeat. Her son, Edward Prince of Wales, was either slain in the
battle, or more probably murdered after the fight was over; and the
Duke of Somerset, the brother of the duke who had been executed after
the battle of Hexham (see p. 331), the last male heir of the House of
Beaufort, as well as others, who had taken refuge in the abbey, were
afterwards put to death, though Edward had solemnly promised them
their lives. On the night after Edward's return to London Henry VI.
ended his life in the Tower. There can be no reasonable doubt that he
was murdered, and that, too, by Edward's directions.
9. =Edward IV. prepares for War with France. 1471--1474.=--Edward IV.
was now all powerful. He had no competitor to fear. No descendant of
Henry IV. remained alive. Of the Beauforts, the descendants of John of
Gaunt by Catherine Swynford (see p. 282), the male line had perished,
and the only representative was young Henry, Earl of Richmond, whose
mother, the Lady Margaret, was the daughter of the first Duke of
Somerset, and the cousin of the two dukes who had been executed after
the battles of Hexham and Tewkesbury.[32] His father, Edmund Tudor,
Earl of Richmond, who died before his birth, was the son of a Welsh
gentleman of no great mark, who had had the luck to marry Catherine of
France, the widow of Henry V. The young Richmond was, however, an
exile, and, as he was only fourteen years of age when Edward was
restored, no serious danger was as yet to be apprehended from that
side. Moreover, the slaughter amongst both the Yorkist and the
Lancastrian nobility had, for the time, put an end to all danger of a
rising. Edward was, therefore, at liberty to carry out his own foreign
policy. He obtained grants from Parliament to enable him, in alliance
with Charles of Burgundy, to make war against Louis XI. The grants
were insufficient, and he supplemented them by a newly invented system
of benevolences, which were nominally free gifts made to him by the
well-to-do, but which were in reality exactions, because those from
whom they were required dared not refuse to pay. The system raised
little general ill will, partly because the small owners of property
who were relieved from taxation were not touched by the benevolences,
and partly because the end which Edward had put to the civil war made
his government welcome. In some cases his personal charm counted for
something. One old lady whom he asked for ten pounds replied that for
the sake of his handsome face she would give him twenty. He kissed her
and she at once made it forty.
[Footnote 32: Genealogy of the Beauforts and the Tudors:--
John of Gaunt = Catherine Swynford
----------+------------
| |
John Beaufort, Cardinal Beaufort,
Earl of Somerset, legitimated by Act
legitimated by Act of of Parliament
Owen Tudor = Catherine, Parliament
| widow of |
| Henry V. |----------------------
| | |
| John, 1st Duke of Somerset Edmund,
| | 2nd Duke of
| | Somerset,
| | killed at
| | St. Albans,
| | 1455
| | ------------+----
| | | |
Edmund Tudor = Margaret Henry, Edmund,
Earl of Richmond, | 3rd Duke of 4th Duke of
d. 1456 | Somerset, Somerset,
HENRY VII. executed after executed after
(1485-1509) the battle of the battle of
Hexham, 1464 Tewkesbury, 1471]
10. =The Invasion of France. 1475.=--In =1475= Edward invaded France.
If he could have secured the steady support of the Duke of Burgundy he
might have accomplished something, but the Duke's dominions were too
scattered to enable him to have a settled policy. He was sometimes led
to attack the king of France, because he had interests as a French
vassal; whilst at other times he threw all his strength into projects
for encroachments in Germany, because he had also interests as a
vassal of the Emperor. When Edward landed Charles was anxious to carry
on war in Germany, and would give no help to Edward in France. Louis
XI., who preferred a victory of diplomacy to one of force, wheedled
Edward into a seven years' truce by a grant of 75,000 crowns, together
with a yearly pension of 50,000, and by a promise to marry the Dauphin
Charles to Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of the king of England.
Louis also made presents to Edward's chief followers, and was
delighted when the English army turned its back on France. In
consequence of this understanding Queen Margaret recovered her
liberty.
11. =Fall and Death of Clarence. 1476--1478.=--Soon after Edward's
return he became suspicious of his brother Clarence, who took upon
himself to interfere with the course of justice. In =1477= the Duke of
Burgundy, Charles the Rash, was slain at Nancy by the Swiss, leaving
only a daughter, Mary. Ducal Burgundy was at once seized by Louis, as
forfeited for want of male heirs, but Franche Comte, or the county of
Burgundy, was a part of the Empire, and therefore beyond his reach;
and this latter district, together with the provinces of the
Netherlands, formed a dower splendid enough to attract suitors for
Mary's hand. Amongst these was Clarence,[33] now a widower. Edward,
who had no wish to see his brother an independent sovereign, forbade
him to proceed with his wooing. Other actions of Clarence were
displeasing to the king, and when Parliament met, =1478=, Edward with
his own mouth accused his brother of treason. Clarence was condemned
to death, and perished secretly in the Tower, being, according to
rumour, drowned in a butt of malmsey.
[Footnote 33: Mary was the child of an earlier wife of Charles the
Bold than Margaret the sister of Edward IV. and Clarence, and the
latter was therefore not related to her.]
12. =The Last Years of Edward IV. 1478--1483.=--The remainder of
Edward's life was spent in quiet, as far as domestic affairs were
concerned. In foreign affairs he met with a grave disappointment.
Mary of Burgundy had found a husband in Maximilian, archduke of
Austria, the son of the Emperor Frederick III. In =1482= she died,
leaving two children, Philip and Margaret. The men of Ghent set
Maximilian at naught, and, combining with Louis, forced Maximilian in
the treaty of Arras to promise the hand of Margaret to the Dauphin,
and the cession of some Netherlandish territory to France. Edward died
on April 9, =1483=, and it has been said that the treaty of Arras,
which extended French influence in the Netherlands, brought about his
death. It is more reasonable to attribute it to the dissoluteness of
his life.
13. =Edward V. and the Duke of Gloucester. 1483.=--Edward IV. left two
sons. The elder, a boy of twelve, was now Edward V., and his younger
brother, Richard, was Duke of York.[34] The only grown-up man of the
family was the youngest brother of Edward IV., Richard, Duke of
Gloucester. Gloucester had shown himself during his brother's reign to
be possessed of the qualities which fit a man to fulfil the duties of
a high position. He was not only a good soldier and an able commander,
but, unlike his brother Clarence, was entirely faithful to Edward,
though he showed his independence by refusing to take part in Edward's
treaty with Louis of France. He had a rare power of winning popular
sympathy, and was most liked in Yorkshire, where he was best known. He
had, however, grown up in a cruel and unscrupulous age, and had no
more hesitation in clearing his way by slaughter than had Edward IV.
or Margaret of Anjou. Though absolute proof is wanting, there is
strong reason to believe that he took part in cutting down Prince
Edward after the battle of Tewkesbury, and that he executed his
brother's orders in providing for the murder of Henry VI. in the
Tower. He made no remonstrance against, though he took no part in, the
death of Clarence, with whom he was on bad terms, because Clarence
claimed the whole of the estates of the King-maker, whose eldest
daughter Isabel he had married; whereas Gloucester, having married the
younger daughter Anne, the widow of the slaughtered son of Henry VI.
put in a claim to half. Gloucester was now to be tried as he had never
been tried before, his brother having appointed him by will to be the
guardian of his young nephew and of the kingdom. If the authority thus
conferred upon him met with general acceptance, he would probably make
an excellent ruler. If it were questioned he would strike out, and
show no mercy. In those hard days every man of high position must be
either hammer or anvil, and Richard was resolved that he would not be
the anvil.
[Footnote 34: Genealogy of the Yorkist Kings:--
Richard, Duke of York,
killed at Wakefield, 1460
|
----------------------------------------------------
| | | |
Elizabeth = EDWARD IV. Margaret = Charles, George = Isabel RICHARD
Woodville | (1461-1483) the Rash, Duke of | Nevil III.,
| Duke of Clarence,| Duke of
| Burgundy d. 1478| Gloucester,
| | afterwards
| | king, m. to
| | Anne Nevill
| | (1483-1485)
--------------------------- | |
| | | | |
Elizabeth, m. EDWARD V., Richard, Edward, |
to Henry VII. murdered Duke of York, Earl of Edward,
1483 murdered 1483 Warwick, d. 1484
executed 1499]
14. =Fall of the Queen's Relations. 1483.=--The young king was at
Ludlow, and rode up towards London, guarded by Earl Rivers, his uncle
on his mother's side, and by his half-brother, Sir Richard Grey.
Another half-brother, the Marquis of Dorset, was lieutenant of the
Tower.[35] Gloucester had strong reasons for believing that the Greys
intended to keep the young king in their hands and, having him crowned
at once, so as to put an end to his own guardianship, to make
themselves masters of the kingdom. He therefore struck the first blow.
Accompanied by his friend and supporter, the Duke of Buckingham, he
overtook the cavalcade, and sent Rivers and Grey prisoners to
Pontefract. The queen-mother at once took refuge in the sanctuary at
Westminster, whence no one could remove her without violating the
privileges of the Church.
[Footnote 35: Genealogy of the Woodvilles and Greys:--
Richard, Earl Rivers
|
+--------------------------------+
| |
Anthony (1) Sir John Grey = Elizabeth Woodville = (2) EDWARD IV.
Woodville, | |
Earl Rivers, +----------+---------+ +-----+
executed | | |
1483 Thomas Grey, Sir Richard Grey, EDWARD V.,
Marquis of Dorset executed 1483 murdered 1483]
[Illustration: Large ship and boat of the fifteenth century. The
mainsail of the ship has the Beauchamp arms, and the streamer the bear
and ragged staff. From the 'Life of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of
Warwick,' by John Rous; drawn about 1485.]
15. =Execution of Lord Hastings.=--The young king arrived in London on
May 4. The Council acknowledged Gloucester as Protector, and removed
Edward to the Tower, which in those days was a place of safety rather
than a prison. Dorset, however, had equipped a fleet, and Gloucester
was afraid lest a fresh attempt might be made by the queen's party to
overthrow him. His fears were increased because Lord Hastings, the
leading member of the Council, who had taken his part against the
Woodvilles, now turned against him and began to intrigue with the
queen's supporters. Coming into the council chamber on June 13, he
laid bare his left arm, which had been withered from his birth, and
declared that the mischief was the effect of witchcraft, and that the
witches were the queen and Jane Shore, who had been one of the many
mistresses of Edward IV., and was now the mistress of Hastings.
Hastings admitted that the queen and Jane Shore were worthy of
punishment if they were guilty. "What!" cried Gloucester, "dost thou
serve me with ifs and with ands? I tell thee they have done it, and
that I will make good on thy body, traitor." Gloucester struck his
fist on the table. Armed men rushed in, dragged Hastings out, and cut
off his head on a log of wood. Jane Shore was compelled to do public
penance in a white sheet. Of the causes of Hastings' desertion of
Gloucester it is impossible to speak with certainty. It is a probable
conjecture that he had discovered that Gloucester entertained the
thought of making himself more than Protector. Young Edward's
coronation would make the boy capable, formally at least, of
exercising royal power, and as it was known that the boy loved his
mother's relations, it was almost certain that he would place the
Woodvilles in power. Now that Gloucester had imprisoned Rivers and
Grey, it was certain that the first thing done by the Woodvilles, if
they got a chance, would be to send Gloucester to the scaffold, and
Gloucester was not the man patiently to allow himself to be crushed.
It is ridiculous to speak of Gloucester as an accomplished dissembler.
The story of witchcraft served its purpose, but it was the stupid lie
of a man who had not hitherto been accustomed to lying.
16. =Deposition of Edward V. 1483.=--The execution of Hastings was
promptly followed by the execution of Rivers and Grey. Dorset saved
himself by escaping beyond sea. By threats Gloucester got the Duke of
York into his hands, and lodged him with his brother in the Tower. He
was now in a temper which would stop at no atrocity. He put up a Dr.
Shaw to preach a sermon against Edward's claim to the throne. In those
days if a man and woman made a contract of marriage neither of the
contracting parties could marry another, though no actual marriage had
taken place. Shaw declared that Edward IV. had promised marriage to
one of his mistresses before he met Elizabeth Woodville, and that
therefore, his marriage with Elizabeth being invalid, all his children
by her were illegitimate, and Gloucester was the true heir to the
throne. Further, Shaw declared that Gloucester was the only legitimate
son of the Duke of York, both Edward IV. and Clarence being the sons
of their mother by some other man. That Richard should have authorised
so base an attack upon his mother's honour shows the depth of infamy
to which he had now sunk. At first it seemed as if he had lowered
himself to no purpose. The hearers of the sermon, instead of shouting,
"God save King Richard!" held their peace. At a meeting in the City
the Duke of Buckingham told the same story as had been told by Shaw,
and there the servants of the two dukes shouted for 'King Richard,'
and their voice was taken as the voice of the City. On June 25
Parliament declared Gloucester to be the lawful heir, and on July 6 he
was crowned as Richard III. The Woodvilles were not popular, and the
bloodshed with which Richard had maintained himself against them was
readily condoned.
[Illustration: Richard III.: from an original painting belonging to
the Society of Antiquaries.]
17. =Buckingham's Rebellion. 1483.=--Richard's enemies were chiefly to
be found amongst the nobility. No nobleman could feel his life secure
if he crossed Richard's path. The first to revolt was Buckingham, who
had played the part of a king-maker, and who was disappointed because
Richard did not reward him by conceding his claim to estates so vast
that if he possessed them he would have been master of England.
Buckingham, who was descended from Edward III. through his youngest
son, the Duke of Gloucester, at first thought of challenging a right
to the throne for himself, but afterwards determined to support the
claim of the Earl of Richmond, the Tudor heir of the House of
Lancaster (see p. 334). He was skilfully led from one step to another
by John Morton, Bishop of Ely, one of the ablest statesmen of the
day. Richmond was to sail from Brittany, where he was in exile, and
Buckingham was to raise forces in Wales, where the Welsh Tudors were
popular, whilst other counties were to rise simultaneously. The
rebellion came to nothing. Heavy rains caused a flood of the Severn,
and Buckingham, in Shropshire, was cut off from his army in Wales.
Buckingham was betrayed to Richard, and on November 2 was beheaded at
Salisbury.
18. =Murder of the Princes. 1483.=--At some time in the summer or
autumn the princes in the Tower ceased to live. There had been
movements in their favour in some counties, and there can be no
reasonable doubt that Richard had them secretly killed. It was only by
degrees that the truth leaked out. Wherever it was believed it roused
indignation. Murders there had been in plenty, but the murdered as yet
had been grown men. To butcher children was reserved for Richard
alone.
19. =Richard's Government. 1484--1485.=--As long as the last tale of
murder was still regarded as doubtful, Richard retained his
popularity. In a Parliament which met in January =1484= he enacted
good laws, amongst which was one declaring benevolences illegal. In
the summer he was welcomed as he moved about, yet he knew that danger
threatened. Richmond was preparing invasion and the hollow friendship
of the English nobility was not to be trusted. In vain Richard
scattered gifts in profusion amongst them. They took the gifts and
hoped for deliverance. The popular goodwill grew cooler, and in the
winter Richard, needing money, and not venturing to summon another
Parliament, raised a forced loan. A loan not being a gift, he did not
technically break the statute against benevolences though practically
he set it at naught. Domestic misfortunes came to add to Richard's
political troubles. His only son, Edward, died in =1484=. His wife,
Anne, died in =1485=. Richard was now eager, if he had not been eager
before, to marry his niece, Elizabeth of York, the daughter of Edward
IV. This monstrous proposal was scouted by his own supporters, and he
had reluctantly to abandon the scheme. If there could be queens in
England, Elizabeth was on hereditary principles the heiress of the
throne, unless, indeed, Richard's argument against her mother's
marriage (see p. 340) was to be accepted. Richmond was naturally as
anxious as Richard could be to win her hand, and his promise to marry
her was the condition on which he obtained the support of those
Yorkists who were Richard's enemies.
20. =Richard Defeated and Slain at Bosworth. 1485.=--In August =1485=
Richmond landed at Milford Haven. As he marched on he was joined by
considerable numbers, but on August 22 he found Richard waiting for
him near Bosworth, with a host far larger than his own. Richard,
however, could not count on the fidelity of his own commanders. Lord
Stanley, who had married Richmond's widowed mother, the Lady Margaret
(see p. 334), together with his brother, Sir William Stanley, were
secretly in accord with Richmond, though they had placed themselves on
Richard's side. When the battle began Stanley openly joined Richmond,
whilst the Earl of Northumberland who was also nominally on Richard's
side withdrew his forces and stood aloof. Knowing that defeat was
certain, Richard, with the crown on his head, rushed into the thick of
the fight and met a soldier's death. After the battle the fallen crown
was discovered on a bush, and placed by Stanley, amidst shouts of
'King Henry!' on Richmond's head.
CHAPTER XXIII.
HENRY VII. 1485--1509.
LEADING DATES
Accession of Henry VII. 1485
The Battle of Stoke 1487
Poynings' Acts 1494
Capture of Perkin Warbeck 1497
Alliance with Scotland 1503
Death of Henry VII. 1509
[Illustration: Henry VII.: from an original picture in the National
Portrait Gallery.]
1. =The First Measures of Henry VII. 1485--1486.=--Henry VII. owed his
success not to a general uprising against Richard, but to a
combination of the nobles who had hitherto taken opposite sides. To
secure this combination he had promised to marry Elizabeth, the
heiress of the Yorkist family. Lest an attempt should be made to
challenge her title, Henry imprisoned in the Tower the Earl of
Warwick, the son of Clarence, who might possibly maintain that a
female was incapable of inheriting. He was indeed unwilling to have it
thought that he derived his title from a wife, and when Parliament met
on November 7 he obtained from it a recognition of his own right to
the throne, though it would have puzzled the most acute
controversialist to discover in what that right consisted. Parliament,
therefore, contented itself with declaring that the inheritance of the
crown was to 'be, rest, and abide in King Henry VII. and his heirs,'
without giving any reasons why it was to be so.[36] As far as the
House of Lords was concerned the attendance when this declaration was
made was scanty. Only twenty-nine lay peers were present, not because
many of the great houses had become extinct, but because some of the
principal Yorkist peers had been attainted, and others had been left
without a summons. In the quieter times which followed this slur upon
them was removed, and the House of Lords was again filled. On January
18, =1486=, Henry married Elizabeth. This marriage and the blending of
the white and red rose in the Tudor badge was Henry's way of
announcing that he intended to be the king of both parties.
[Footnote 36: Abbreviated genealogy of Henry VII. and his
competitors:--
EDWARD III.
|
+----------------+----------------+
| |
Lionel, Duke of Clarence John of Gaunt,
: Duke of Lancaster
: :
+-----+-----------+ :
| | :
| George :
| Duke of Clarence :
| | :
EDWARD IV. Edward, :
| Earl of Warwick :
Elizabeth HENRY VII.]
[Illustration: Elizabeth of York, queen of Henry VII.: from an
original picture in the National Portrait Gallery.]
2. =Maintenance and Livery.=--Henry could not maintain himself on the
throne merely by the support of the nobility. The middle classes, as
in the days of Edward IV., called out for a strong king, and were
ready to overlook violence and cruelty if only order could be secured.
Henry was shrewd enough to know that their aid was indispensable, and,
Lancastrian as he was, he adopted the policy of the Yorkist kings.
Economical and patient, he might succeed where Edward IV. had
partially failed. He had no injuries to avenge, no cruelties to repay.
He clearly saw that both the throne and the lives and properties of
the middle classes were rendered insecure by maintenance and
livery--the support given by the great landowners to their retainers,
and the granting of badges by which the retainers might recognise one
another, and thus become as it were a uniformed army ready to serve
their lords in the field. Against these abuses Richard II. had
directed a statute, (see p. 281) and that statute had been confirmed
by Edward IV. These laws had, however, been inoperative; and Henry, in
his first Parliament, did not venture to do more than to make the
peers swear to abandon their evil courses.
3. =Lovel's Rising. 1486.=--In =1486= Lord Lovel, who had been one of
Richard's ministers, rose in arms and seized Worcester. Henry found
warm support even in Yorkshire, where Richard had been more popular
than elsewhere. At short warning a 'marvellous great number of
esquires, gentlemen, and yeomen' gathered round him, and the rebellion
was easily put down. Lovel escaped to Flanders, where he found a
protector in Margaret, the dowager Duchess of Burgundy, the sister of
Edward IV. and Richard III. Before long a new attack upon Henry was
developed. For the first time an English king had to ward off danger
from Ireland.
[Illustration: Tudor rose (white and red): from the gates of the
Chapel of Henry VII.]
4. =Lancaster and York in Ireland. 1399--1485.=--Since the expedition
of Richard II. no king had visited Ireland, and the English colonists
were left to defend themselves against the Celtic tribes as best they
might. In =1449= Richard, Duke of York, who had not at that time
entered on his rivalry with Henry VI., was sent to Dublin as Lord
Lieutenant (see p. 319) where he remained till =1450=, and gained
friends amongst both races by his conciliatory firmness. In =1459=,
after the break-up of his party at Ludlow (see p. 326), he appeared in
Ireland in the character of a fugitive seeking for allies. Between him
and the English colony a bargain was soon struck. They gave him troops
which fought gallantly for him at Wakefield, and he, claiming to be
Lord Lieutenant, assented to an act in which they asserted the
complete legislative independence of the Parliament of the colony. The
colony, therefore, became distinctly Yorkist. Its leader was the Earl
of Kildare, the chief of the eastern Fitzgeralds or Geraldines, the
Earl of Desmond being the chief of the Geraldines of the West. Between
them was the Earl of Ormond, the chief of the Butlers, the hereditary
foe of the Geraldines, who, probably merely because his rivals were
Yorkist, had attached himself to the Lancastrian party. All three were
of English descent, but all three exercised the tribal authority of an
Irish chief, and were practically independent of English control.
Ormond fought at Towton on the Lancastrian side, and was executed
after the battle. Family quarrels broke out amongst his kindred, and
for the time Kildare was supreme in the English Pale (see p. 265).
5. =Insurrection of Lambert Simnel. 1487.=--Kildare and the colonists
had every reason to distrust Henry, but to oppose him they needed a
pretender. They found one in the son of an Oxford tradesman, a boy of
ten, named Lambert Simnel, who had been persuaded to give himself out
as the Earl of Warwick, who, as it was said, had escaped from the
Tower. In =1487= Simnel landed in Ireland, where he was soon joined by
Lord Lovel from Flanders, and by the Earl of Lincoln, of the family of
Pole or De la Pole,[37] whose mother, Elizabeth, was the eldest sister
of Edward IV., and who had been named by Richard III. as his heir
after the death of his son (see p. 342). Lincoln and Lovel, after
crowning Simnel at Dublin, crossed to Lancashire, taking with them the
pretender, and 2,000 trained German soldiers under Martin Schwarz; as
well as an Irish force furnished by Kildare. Scarcely an Englishman
would join them, and on June 16 they were utterly defeated by Henry at
Stoke, a village between Nottingham and Newark. Lincoln and Schwarz
were slain. Lovel was either drowned in the Trent or, according to
legend, was hidden in an underground vault, where he was at last
starved to death through the neglect of the man whose duty it was to
provide him with food. Simnel was pardoned, and employed by Henry as
a turnspit in his kitchen.
[Footnote 37: Genealogy of the De la Poles and Poles:--
Richard, Duke of York
|
+------------------------+--------------------------+
| |
Elizabeth= John de la Pole, George, Duke
| Duke of Suffolk of Clarence,
| died 1477
+--+--------------+----------------------+ |
| | | |
John de la Pole, Edmund de la Pole, Sir Richard Margaret, = Sir Richard
Earl of Lincoln, Earl of Suffolk, de la Pole, Countess | Pole
killed at Stoke, beheaded 1513 killed at of |
1487 Pavia, 1525 Salisbury |
|
+-------------------------------+--------------------+
| |
Henry, Lord Montague, Reginald Pole,
beheaded 1538 Cardinal and Archbishop
of Canterbury, died 1558]
6. =The Court of Star Chamber. 1487.=--Nothing could serve Henry
better than this abortive rising. At Bosworth he had been the leader
of one party against the other. At Stoke he was the leader of the
nation against Irishmen and Germans. He felt himself strong enough in
his second Parliament to secure the passing of an act to ensure the
execution of the engagements to which the lords had sworn two years
before (see p. 345). A court was to be erected, consisting of certain
specified members of the Privy Council and of two judges, empowered to
punish with fine and imprisonment all who were guilty of interfering
with justice by force or intrigue. The new court, reviving, to some
extent, the disused criminal authority of the king's Council, sat in
the Star Chamber[38] at Westminster. The results of its establishment
were excellent. Wealthy landowners, the terror of their neighbours,
who had bribed or bullied juries at their pleasure, and had sent their
retainers to inflict punishment on those who had displeased them, were
brought to Westminster to be tried before a court in which neither
fear nor favour could avail them. It was the greatest merit of the new
court that it was not dependent on a jury, because in those days
juries were unable or unwilling to give verdicts according to their
conscience.
[Footnote 38: So called either because the roof was decorated with
stars or because it was the room in which had formerly been kept
Jewish bonds or 'starres.']
7. =Henry VII. and Brittany. 1488--1492.=--Henry VII. was a lover of
peace by calculation, and would gladly have let France alone if it had
been possible to do so. France, however, was no longer the divided
power which it had been in the days of Henry V. When Louis XI. died in
=1483=, he left to his young son, Charles VIII., a territory the whole
of which, with the exception of Brittany, was directly governed by the
king. Charles's sister, Anne of Beaujeu, who governed in his name,
made it the object of her policy to secure Brittany. She waged war
successfully against its duke, Francis II., and after he died, in
=1488=, she continued to wage war against his daughter, the Duchess
Anne. In England there was a strong feeling against allowing the
Duchess to be overwhelmed. At the beginning of =1489= Henry, having
received from Parliament large supplies, sent 6,000 Englishmen to
Anne's assistance. Maximilian--whose hold on the Netherlands, where he
ruled in the name of his young son, Philip (see p. 337), was always
slight--proposed marriage to the young duchess, and in =1490= was
wedded to her by proxy. He was a restless adventurer, always aiming at
more than he had the means of accomplishing. Though he could not find
time to go at once to Brittany to make good his claim, yet in =1491=
he called on Henry to assist him in asserting it.
8. =Cardinal Morton's Fork. 1491.=--Henry, who knew how unpopular a
general taxation was, fell back on the system of benevolences (see p.
335), excusing his conduct on the plea that the statute of Richard
III. abolishing benevolences (see p. 342) was invalid, because Richard
himself was a usurper. In gathering the benevolence the Chancellor,
Cardinal Morton, who had been helpful to Henry in the days of his
exile (see p. 341), invented a new mode of putting pressure on the
wealthy, which became known as Cardinal Morton's fork. If he addressed
himself to one who lived in good style, he told him that his mode of
living showed that he could afford to give money to the king. If he
had to do with one who appeared to be economical, he told him that he
must have saved and could therefore afford to give money to the king.
Before Henry could put the money thus gained to much use, Anne,
pressed hard by the French, repudiated her formal marriage with
Maximilian, who had never taken the trouble to visit her, and gave her
hand to Charles VIII., who on his part refused to carry out his
contract to marry Maximilian's daughter Margaret (see p. 337). From
that time Brittany, the last of the great fiefs to maintain its
independence, passed under the power of the king of France. Feudality
was everywhere breaking down, and in France, as in England, a strong
monarchy was being erected on its ruins.
9. =The Invasion of France. 1492.=--Maximilian's alliance had proved
but a broken reed, but there was now arising a formidable power in the
south of Europe, which might possibly give valuable support to the
enemies of France. The peninsula to the south of the Pyrenees had
hitherto been divided amongst various states, but in =1469= a marriage
between Ferdinand, king of Aragon, and Isabella, the heiress of
Castile, united the greater part under one dominion. Ferdinand and
Isabella were, for the present, fully occupied with the conquest of
Granada, the last remnant of the possessions of the Moors in Spain,
and that city did not surrender till early in =1492=. In the meanwhile
all England was indignant with the king of France on account of his
marriage with the heiress of Brittany. Money was voted and men were
raised, and on October 2, =1492=, Henry crossed to Calais to invade
France. He was, however, cool enough to discover that both Ferdinand
and Maximilian wanted to play their own game at his expense, and as
Anne of Beaujeu was ready to meet him half-way, he concluded a treaty
with the French king on November 3 at Etaples, receiving large sums of
money for abandoning a war in which he had nothing to gain. In =1493=
the Spaniards followed Henry's example, and made a peace with France
to their own advantage.[39]
[Footnote 39: Genealogy of the Houses of Spain and Burgundy:--
Charles the Rash, Duke of Burgundy Frederick III., Emperor
| |
| +---------------+
| |
Mary = Maximilian I. Ferdinand V. = Isabella,
| Emperor King of Aragon | Queen of
| | Castile
| |
+-----+--+ +----------+--------+
| | | |
Margaret Philip = Juana Catharine = HENRY VIII.,
| | King
| | of England
+-----------------+---+ |
| | MARY,
Charles V., Ferdinand I., Queen of England
Emperor Emperor]
10. =Perkin Warbeck. 1491--1494.=--Henry's prudent relinquishment of a
war of conquest was not likely to bring him popularity in England, and
his enemies were now on the watch for another pretender to support
against him. Such a pretender was found in Perkin Warbeck, a Fleming
of Tournay, who had landed at Cork in the end of =1491= or the
beginning of =1492=, and who had been pressed by the townsmen to give
himself some name which would attach him to the Yorkist family. He
allowed them to call him Richard, Duke of York, the younger of the
princes who had been murdered in the Tower. He received support from
Desmond, and probably from Kildare, upon which Henry deprived Kildare
of the office of Lord Deputy. Perkin crossed to France, and ultimately
made his way to Flanders, where he was supported by Margaret of
Burgundy. In =1493= Henry demanded his surrender, and on receiving a
refusal broke off commercial intercourse between England and Flanders.
The interruption of trade did more harm to England than to Flanders,
and gave hopes to the Yorkist party that it might give rise to
ill-will between the nation and the king. For some time, however, no
one gave assistance to Perkin, and in =1494= Charles VIII. crossed the
Alps to invade Italy, and drew the attention of the Continental powers
away from the affairs of England.
11. =Poynings' Acts. 1494.=--Henry seized the opportunity to bring
into obedience the English colony in Ireland. He sent over as Lord
Deputy Sir Edward Poynings, a resolute and able man. At a Parliament
held by him at Drogheda two acts were passed. By the one it was
enacted that all English laws in force at that time should be obeyed
in Ireland; by the other, known for many generations afterwards as
Poynings' Law, no bill was to be laid before the Irish Parliament
which had not been previously approved by the king and his Council in
England. At the same time the greater part of the Statute of Kilkenny
(see p. 265) was re-enacted; and restricted the authority of the
Government at Dublin to the English Pale.
12. =Perkin's First Attempt on England. 1495.=--Henry's firm
government in England had given offence even to men who were not
Yorkists. Early in =1495= he discovered that Sir William Stanley, who
had helped him to victory at Bosworth, had turned against him.
Stanley, who was probably involved in a design for sending Perkin to
invade England, was tried and executed. In the summer of =1495= Perkin
actually arrived off Deal. Being no warrior, he sent a party of his
followers on shore, though he remained himself on shipboard to see
what would happen. The countrymen fell upon the invaders, who were all
slain or captured. Then Perkin sailed to Ireland, was repulsed at
Waterford, and ultimately took refuge in Scotland, where King James
IV., anxious to distinguish himself in a war with England,
acknowledged him as the Duke of York, and found him a wife of noble
birth, Lady Catherine Gordon. It was probably in order to rally even
the most timid around him, in face of such a danger, that Henry
obtained the consent of Parliament to an act declaring that no one
supporting a king in actual possession of the crown could be subjected
to the penalty of treason in the event of that king's dethronement.
13. =The Intercursus Magnus. 1496.=--The danger of a Scottish invasion
made Henry anxious to be on good terms with his neighbours. Maximilian
had become Emperor in =1493= upon his father's death. In the
Netherlands, however, his influence had declined, as his son, the
young Archduke Philip, was now growing up, and claimed actually to
rule the country which he had inherited from his mother, Mary of
Burgundy (see p. 337), his father having merely the right of
administering the government of it till he himself came of age. It was
therefore with Philip, and not with Maximilian, that Henry concluded,
in =1496=, a treaty known as the _Intercursus Magnus_, for the
encouragement of trade between England and the Netherlands, each
party engaging at the same time to give no shelter to each other's
rebels.
14. =Kildare Restored to the Deputyship. 1496.=--In Ireland also Henry
was careful to avert danger. The government of Poynings had not been
entirely successful, and the Geraldines had taken good care to show
that they could be troublesome in spite of the establishment of
English government. The Earl of Kildare was at the time in England,
and a story is told of some one who, having brought a long string of
charges against him, wound up by saying that all Ireland could not
govern the Earl, whereupon the king replied that then the Earl should
govern all Ireland. The story is untrue, but it well represents the
real situation. In =1496= Henry sent Kildare back as Lord Deputy. A
bargain seems to have been struck between them. Henry abandoned his
attempt to govern Ireland from England, and Kildare was allowed to use
the king's name in any enterprise upon which his heart was set,
provided that he did not support any more pretenders to the English
throne.
15. =Perkin's Overthrow. 1496--1497.=--In the autumn of =1496= James
IV. made an attack on England in Perkin's name, but it was no more
than a plundering foray. Henry, however, early in =1497=, obtained
from Parliament a grant of money, to enable him to resist any attempt
to repeat it. This grant had unexpected consequences. The Cornishmen,
refusing payment, marched up to Blackheath, where on June 18 they were
overpowered by the king's troops. James IV., thinking it time to be
quit of Perkin, sent him off by sea. In July Perkin arrived at Cork,
but there was no shelter for him there now that Kildare was Lord
Deputy, and in September he made his way to Cornwall. Followed by
6,000 Cornishmen he reached Taunton, but the news of the defeat of the
Cornish at Blackheath depressed him, and the poor coward ran away from
his army and took sanctuary in Beaulieu Abbey. He was brought to
London, where he publicly acknowledged himself to be an impostor.
Henry was too humane to do more than place him in confinement.
[Illustration: Tower of St. Mary's Church, Taunton: built about 1500.]
16. =European Changes. 1494--1499.=--In =1494= Charles VIII. had
passed through Italy as a conqueror to make good his claims to the
kingdom of Naples. In =1495= he had returned to France, and in =1496=
the French army left behind had been entirely destroyed. Yet the
danger of a renewed attack from France made the other Continental
powers anxious to unite, and in =1496= the Archduke Philip married
Juana, the eldest daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, whilst his
sister was sent to Spain to be married to their only son, Juan. In
=1497= the death of the young prince led to consequences unexpected
when the two marriages were arranged. Philip, who held Franche Comte
and the Netherlands, and who was through his father Maximilian heir to
the German dominions of the House of Austria, would now, that his wife
had become the heiress of Spain, be able to transmit to his
descendants the whole of the Spanish monarchy as well. That monarchy
was no longer confined to Europe. Portugal at the end of the
fourteenth century had led the way in maritime adventure, and
Portuguese navigators discovered a way to India round the Cape of Good
Hope. Spain was anxious to do as much, and in =1492= Columbus had
discovered the West Indies, and the kings of Spain became masters of
the untold wealth produced by the gold and silver mines of the New
World. It was impossible but that the huge power thus brought into
existence would one day arouse the jealousy of Europe. For the
present, however, the danger was less than it would be after the
deaths of Ferdinand and Isabella, as the actual combination of their
territories with those which Philip was to inherit from Maximilian had
not been effected. In =1499= France gave a fresh shock to her
neighbours. Charles VIII. had died the year before, and his successor,
Louis XII., invaded Italy and subdued the duchy of Milan, to which he
had set up a claim. Naturally the powers jealous of France sought to
have Henry on their side. There had been for some time a negotiation
for a marriage between Henry's eldest son, Arthur, Prince of Wales,
and Catherine of Aragon, the youngest daughter of Ferdinand and
Isabella, but hitherto nothing had been concluded.
17. =Execution of the Earl of Warwick. 1499.=--Perkin had long been
eager to free himself from prison. In =1498= he was caught attempting
to escape, but Henry contented himself with putting him in the stocks.
He was then removed to the Tower, where he persuaded the unhappy Earl
of Warwick (see p. 343) to join him in flight. It is almost certain
that Warwick was guilty of no more, but Henry, soured by the repeated
attempts to dethrone him, resolved to remove him from his path. On
trumped-up evidence Warwick was convicted and executed, and Perkin
shared his fate.
[Illustration: King's College Chapel, Cambridge (looking east). Begun
by Henry VI. in 1441, completed by Henry VII. The screen built between
1531 and 1535.]
18. =Prince Arthur's Marriage and Death. 1501--1502.=--Warwick's death
was the one judicial murder of Henry's reign. To the Spaniards it
appeared to be a prudent action which had cleared away the last of
Henry's serious competitors. The negotiations for the Spanish
marriage were pushed on, and in =1501= Catherine, a bride of fifteen,
gave her hand to Arthur, a bridegroom of fourteen. In =1502= the
prince died, and the attempt to bind England and Spain together seemed
to have come to an end.
19. =The Scottish Marriage. 1503.=--Another marriage treaty proved
ultimately to be of far greater importance. Henry was sufficiently
above the prejudices of his time to be anxious to be on good terms
with Scotland. For some time a negotiation had been in progress for a
marriage between James IV. and Henry's daughter, Margaret. The
marriage took place in =1503=. To the counsellors who urged that in
the case of failure of Henry's heirs in the male line England would
become subject to Scotland Henry shrewdly replied that there was no
fear of that, as 'the greater would draw the less.'
20. =Maritime Enterprise.=--Henry's chief merit was that he had
re-established order. Commercial prosperity followed, though the
commerce was as yet on a small scale. It is probable that the
population of England was no more than 2,500,000. London contained but
130,000 inhabitants, whilst Paris contained 400,000. There was no
royal navy, as there was no royal army, but merchant vessels were
armed to protect themselves. The company of Merchant Adventurers made
voyages to the Baltic, and the men of Bristol sent out fleets to the
Iceland fishery. Henry did what he could to encourage maritime
enterprise. He had offered to take Columbus into his service before
the great navigator closed with Spain, and in =1497= he sent the
Venetian, John Cabot, and his sons across the Atlantic, where they
landed in Labrador before any Spaniards had set foot on the American
continent. England however, was as yet too poor to push these
discoveries farther, and the lands beyond the sea were for the present
left to Spain.
21. =Growth of the Royal Power.=--The improvement in the general
well-being of the country had been rendered possible by the extension
of the royal power, and the price paid for order was the falling into
abeyance of the constitutional authority of Parliaments. The loss
indeed was greater in appearance than in reality. In the fifteenth
century the election of members of the House of Commons depended more
upon the will of the great lords than upon the political sentiments of
the community. In the first half of the sixteenth century they
depended on the will of the king. The peculiarity of the Tudor rule
was that its growing despotism was exercised without the support of
the army. It rested on the goodwill of the middle classes. Treading
cautiously in the steps of Edward IV., Henry VII. recognised that in
order to have a full treasury it was less dangerous to exact payments
illegally from the few than to exact them legally from the many. Hence
his recourse in times of trouble to benevolences. Hence, too, the
eagerness with which he gathered in fines. The Cornish rebels were
fined individually. The great lords who persisted in keeping retainers
were fined. On one occasion the king visited the Earl of Oxford, and
found, when he went away, a band of retainers drawn up to do him
honour. "My lord," he said, "I thank you for your entertainment, but
my attorney must speak with you." If there was a man in England who
had deserved well of Henry it was Oxford, but Oxford had to pay
15,000_l._, a sum worth perhaps 180,000_l._ at the present day, to
atone for his offence. No services rendered to Henry were to excuse
from obedience to the law.
22. =Empson and Dudley.=--As Henry grew older the gathering of money
became a passion. His chief instruments were Empson and Dudley, who
under pretence of enforcing the law established the worst of
tyrannies. Even false charges were brought for the sake of extracting
money. At the end of his reign Henry had accumulated a hoard of
1,800,000_l._, mainly gathered by injustice and oppression. The
despotism of one man was no doubt better than the despotism of many,
but the price paid for the change was a heavy one.
23. =Henry and his Daughter-in-law. 1502--1505.=--On the death of
Prince Arthur in =1502=, Ferdinand and Isabella proposed that their
daughter Catharine should marry her brother-in-law, Henry, the only
surviving son of the king of England, though the boy was six years
younger than herself. They had already paid half their daughter's
marriage portion, and they believed, probably with truth, that they
had little chance of recovering it from Henry VII., and that it would
therefore be more economical to re-marry their daughter where they
would get off with no more expense than the payment of the other half.
Henry on the other hand feared lest the repayment of the first half
might be demanded of him, and consequently welcomed the proposal. In
=1503= a dispensation for the marriage was obtained from Pope Julius
II., but in =1505=, when the time for the betrothal arrived, the young
Henry protested, no doubt at his father's instigation, that he would
proceed no farther.
24. =The Last Years of Henry VII. 1505--1509.=--Circumstances were
changed by the death of Isabella in =1504=, when her son-in-law, the
Archduke Philip, claimed to be sovereign of Castile in right of his
wife Juana. Philip, sailing from the Netherlands to Spain in =1506=,
was driven into Weymouth by a storm, and Henry seized the opportunity
of wringing from him commercial concessions as well as the surrender
of Edmund de la Pole, a brother of the Earl of Lincoln who perished at
Stoke, and a nephew of Edward IV. Henry was himself now a widower on
the look-out for a rich wife, and Philip promised him the hand of his
sister, Margaret, who had formerly been betrothed to Charles VIII.
(see p. 337). Once more, however, the conditions of the game changed.
Philip died a few months after his arrival in Spain, leaving a mad
widow, and as Ferdinand then regained his authority Catharine's
marriage was again discussed. Other schemes were also proposed,
amongst them one for marrying Catharine, not to the young prince, but
to her old father-in-law, the king. In =1509=, before any of these
plans could take effect, Henry VII. died. He deserves to be reckoned
amongst the kings who have accomplished much for England. If he was
not chivalrous or imaginative, neither was the age in which he lived.
His contemporaries needed a chief constable to keep order, and he gave
them what they needed.
25. =Architectural Changes and the Printing Press.=--Architecture,
which in England, as upon the Continent, had been the one great art of
the Middle Ages, was already, though still instinct with beauty,
giving signs in its over-elaboration of approaching decadence. To the
tower of Fotheringhay Church (see p. 311) had succeeded the tower of
St. Mary's, Taunton. To the roof of the nave of Winchester Cathedral
(see p. 276) had succeeded the roof of the Divinity School at Oxford
(see p. 319), and of the chapel of King's College, Cambridge (see p.
355). Art in this direction could go no farther. The new conditions in
which the following age was to move were indicated by the discovery of
America and the invention of printing. New objects of knowledge
presented themselves, and a new mode of spreading knowledge was at
hand. In the reign of Edward IV., Caxton, the earliest English
printer, set up his press at Westminster, and the king and his nobles
came to gaze at it as at some new toy, little knowing how profoundly
it was to modify their methods of government. Henry VII. had enough to
do without troubling himself with such matters. It was his part to
close an epoch of English history, not to open a fresh one.
_Books recommended for further study of Part IV._
GREEN, J. R. History of the English People. Vol. i. p. 521-Vol. ii. p.
77.
STUBBS, W. (Bishop of Oxford). Constitutional History of England. Vol.
ii. from p. 441, and Vol. iii.
HALLAM, H. Constitutional History of England. Vol. i. pp. 1-15.
ROGERS, J. E. THOROLD. History of Agriculture and Prices. Vols. iii.
and iv.
CUNNINGHAM, W. The Growth of English Industry and Commerce. Vol. i.
pp. 335-449.
WYLIE, J. H. History of England under Henry IV.
GAIRDNER, JAMES. Lancaster and York.
-------- Richard III.
-------- Henry VII.
RAMSAY, SIR JAMES. Lancaster and York.
OMAN, C. The Political History of England. Vol. iv. From the Accession
of Richard II. to the Death of Richard III. (1377-1485).
FISHER, H. A. L. The Political History of England. Vol. v. From the
Accession of Henry VII. to the Death of Henry VIII. (1485-1547).
INDEX
TO
THE FIRST VOLUME
Aaron, martyrdom of, 23.
Aclea, battle of, 57.
Acre, captured by the Crusaders, 161;
Edward I. at, 204.
Adrian IV. grants Ireland to Henry II., 152.
Adulterine castles, 137.
Aedan, king of the Scots, is defeated at Degsastan, 42.
AElfgar, earl of the Mercians, 90.
AElfgifu, wife of Eadwig, 65, 66.
AElfheah, Archbishop, murdered by the Danes, 82.
AElfred, his struggle with the Danes, 58;
his position after the Treaty of Wedmore, 59;
gains London, _ib._;
character of his work, 60.
AElfred the AEtheling, murder of, 85, 86.
AElfthryth, wife of Eadgar, 78.
AElla, king of Deira, slave-boys from his kingdom found at Rome, 38.
AEscesdun, battle of, 58.
AEthelbald, king of the Mercians, 53.
AEthelbald, king of the West Saxons, 57.
AEthelberht, king of Kent, his supremacy, 38;
becomes a Christian, 39;
helps Augustine to set up bishoprics, 40;
death of, 41.
AEthelberht, king of the West Saxons, 57.
AEthelflaed, the Lady of the Mercians, 62.
AEthelfrith, king of North-humberland, his struggle with the northern
Welsh, 41;
defeats the Scots at Degsastan, 42;
and the Kymry near Chester, 43;
is defeated and slain by Eadwine, _ib._
AEthelred, ealdorman of Mercia, 60.
AEthelred, king of the West Saxons, his struggle with the
Danes, 58, 62.
AEthelred the Unready, his relations with the Danes, 79;
and with the Normans, 80;
orders a massacre of the Danes, 81;
flies to Normandy, 82;
returns and dies, 83.
AEthelric unites North-humberland, 41.
AEthelstan, reign of, 63.
AEthelstan, the Half-King, 73.
AEthelwold drives secular canons from Winchester, 68.
AEthelwulf defeats the Northmen, 57.
Aetius refuses help to the Britons, 26.
Agincourt, battle of, 302.
Agricola, campaigns of, 16;
forts built by, 17.
Agriculture in Eadgar's time, 75.
Aidan establishes himself in Holy Island, 47;
his relations with Oswald, _ib._;
and with Oswine, _ib._
Alban, martyrdom of, 23.
Albany, the Duke of, suspected of the murder of the Duke of
Rothesay, 295;
is regent of Scotland, 296.
Albigeois, the, crusade against, 193.
Albin, probable Iberian derivation of the name, 6.
Albion, _see_ Albin.
Alcluyd (Dumbarton), the capital of Strathclyde, 43.
Alexander, bishop of Lincoln, 134.
Alexander III., king of Scotland, death of, 214.
Alexander III., Pope, shrinks from supporting Archbishop
Thomas, 145.
Alexander IV., Pope, confirms a grant of Sicily to Edmund
Crouchback, 197.
Allectus asserts a claim to the Empire, 22.
Alnwick, Malcolm Canmore slain at, 119;
William the Lion captured at, 154;
dismantled, 296.
Ambresbyrig (Amesbury) named from Ambrosius, 34.
Ambrosius fights with the West Saxons, 34.