English Politics.
The England to which the Black Prince returned was in many ways
different from the England which he had left. The country had suffered
one great loss; the good Queen Philippa, so long the faithful wife of
Edward III., had died in 1369. By her wisdom and virtue she had been of
great use to the King, and had been beloved through all the kingdom.
Deprived of her counsel, Edward fell under the influence of one of the
ladies of her bedchamber, Alice Perrers, a woman of great wit and
beauty, who ruled him at her will, and who was used as a tool by the
different political parties.
It was a melancholy end for the bright, vigorous King to come to. The
external splendour and glory of his reign was gone. His court had lost
its brilliancy. He himself seemed almost to have sunk into a premature
dotage. But though the last years of his reign were not as brilliant as
the former years, they are perhaps more important for the history of our
country; for in them we see the beginning of a great political
struggle, which left most important traces upon the development of our
constitution; and we are also able to trace the remarkable increase of
the power and influence of Parliament. In these struggles the Black
Prince, for the first time in his life, appeared as a politician; and
the part which he took in them earned for him as much glory as his
victories of Poitiers or Najarez.
All through Edward's reign Parliament had been increasing in power; but
we shall not be able to understand the way in which it had developed,
unless we go back and try to find out what it was at the beginning of
Edward's reign.
There had always been under the Norman kings a Great Council, composed
of the chief men of the kingdom, by whose assent and consent the Crown
acted. But besides the advice of their nobles, the kings felt the need
of the money of their people; and to obtain this the more easily, they
summoned some of them to sit side by side with their advisers in the
Great Council. The old arrangement of the shires and the shire courts
gave a means of getting representatives. First, knights, to be chosen
from every shire, were summoned to the meetings of the Great Council;
and finally, Simon de Montfort, in 1264, summoned also burgesses from
the chief cities.
Edward I.'s pressing need for money drove him to follow the example of
Simon de Montfort, and summon these representatives to Parliament for
the purpose of obtaining from them more easily grants of money.
This privilege, however, of sending representatives to Parliament was
not one which the towns were eager to grasp. The burgesses did not care
to leave their business, and undertake an expensive and dangerous
journey to attend the Parliament. It was an arrangement more for the
King's convenience than for theirs. When they got there they had nothing
to do but vote grants of money. It was only slowly, and without any
outward struggle, that the knights, who represented the shires, and the
burgesses, who represented the cities, came to take any part in
legislation. It was in this respect that the reign of Edward III. saw a
great change.
In the Parliaments of Edward I. each order had deliberated separately.
The clergy, the barons, the knights, and the burgesses made their grants
separately. At first the barons and the knights, whose interests were
very similar, tended to combine. The importance of the burgesses,
however, increased during the reign of Edward II., as the barons needed
their aid in the struggle against the Crown. As they increased in
importance the knights of the shire seem to have broken off their
connexion with the barons, and joined with the burgesses. We do not know
how this change was brought about; but in the beginning of the reign of
Edward III. we find the knights and burgesses combined together under
the name of _the Commons_.
That the knights of the shire united with the burgesses, and not with
the barons, is a fact of immense importance in our constitutional
history. Had they united with the barons, the aristocratic party would
have been the strongest in the State. As it was, the Commons, the
people, were to be the strongest.
In the reign of Edward III., therefore, we find Parliament divided very
much as it now is, into the Upper and Lower Houses. The clergy still sat
apart, and formed what is now called the House of Convocation. Only the
spiritual peers, that is, the members of the higher clergy, who by
holding land directly from the Crown were in the same position as the
barons, sat in the Upper House of Parliament.
It was during the reign of Edward III. that the Commons first began to
feel their power and importance, and really to desire the privilege of
sitting in Parliament. This is one of the signs of the progress they
made at this time. They were eager to make laws, and the King himself
shared their eagerness, and in consequence this reign is marked by fussy
legislation on many different points.
Trade and manufactures were the great interests of the age, and they
were represented by the men of the commons, whose minds were entirely
occupied by such matters, and whose desire was to benefit them, as they
thought, by making laws for their regulation. They had not learnt the
great lesson, that trade prospers best when it is left alone by
law-makers. They were inexperienced in making laws, and charmed with
their new power, thought it would be easy to make the world go rightly
by making laws about everything. Continually the laws when made were
found to have quite different results to what the law-makers had
expected, and had to be repealed the next year.
This restless desire to interfere in everything was very harmful to
trade and industry. There were so many changes that people found it
difficult to know what the law really was. Many of the laws were not
attended to at all, as it was impossible to watch over the people
narrowly enough to see that they were obeyed. We have seen how
Parliament tried to fix the price of labour. In the same way it tried to
fix the price of everything else. It fixed the price at which tailors
should make clothes, at which poultry, meat, bread, and all other
articles of ordinary consumption were to be sold. Even the number of
dishes which a man might have for dinner was fixed by law.
These laws have left no permanent impression on English history, and are
interesting only as giving indications of the manners and customs of the
times. They serve also to show how greatly the energy of Parliament
increased in this reign, even though it was misdirected. There are other
and more important things which show us the great increase of its
power.
It had always been the theory of the English Constitution, that the King
could not raise money without the consent of the Great Council of the
Realm; but this had often been little more than a theory. In this reign
it became a clearly recognized fact, that no money could be raised
except with the consent of Parliament, and we find Edward III. always
appealing to Parliament in his necessities. Parliament also established
its right to petition against grievances, and so insisted upon the
necessity of both Houses agreeing before any change could be made in the
laws.
Edward III. held frequent Parliaments, and made it his practice to
consult them on all matters, even on what had been always supposed to
belong entirely to the King, the making of war and peace. He seemed to
wish to throw upon Parliament the responsibility of his expensive wars.
Probably he hoped that if the war was ostensibly carried on by the
advice of Parliament, it would be easier to obtain grants of money for
its expenses. The Commons, however, were not very eager to advise on
these difficult points, saying that they were too simple and ignorant to
be able to do so, and promising to agree to anything which the King and
his council might decide upon.
In raising money for his wars, Edward III. drew largely from the clergy,
whose wealth made them very tempting subjects for taxation. The clergy
had long claimed immunity from taxation, and from all the burdens of the
State, but in this age they could not hope to enforce such a claim.
They were the wealthiest class in the land. When the French wars
increased the necessities of the Crown, and obliged Edward to demand
large subsidies from Parliament, all eyes were turned to the clergy as
the body who, though not touched by the general taxes, was yet most able
to contribute money. The clergy could not refuse the King's demands; but
when they had to pay money to the King, they became more unwilling to
send the Pope the subsidies which he demanded.
The Popes at this time were both poorer and more avaricious than they
had been before. They regarded England as their great source of wealth,
and demanded large sums of money from the clergy. The effect of this was
to put the English clergy as a body in opposition to the Pope, and to
make them more national in their feelings than they had been before.
They placed the interests of their country far before the interests of
the Papacy.
This was a time of great degradation for the Papacy, which had sunk so
low as almost to lose men's reverence. The cause of this degradation lay
in the struggle which had taken place some time before between Philip
the Fair, King of France, and Pope Boniface VIII. Boniface's ambition
had led him to try and set up the power of the Papacy over the affairs
of every country of Europe. But Philip the Fair would not brook his
interference in France. He quarrelled with him, and sent men to seize
and illtreat him in his own palace. Boniface died through rage and
despair at this insult. Philip, after trying in vain to get complete
submission out of the next Pope, at last succeeded in getting a Pope of
his own choosing in Clement V. He promised obedience to Philip, and
fixed his abode at Avignon instead of Rome, that he might be nearer the
French King.
Avignon was in Provence, just outside the French border, in the
dominions of the King of Naples. For seventy years the seat of the
Papacy remained there, and this has been called the time of the
Babylonish captivity. The Popes during this period acted in the
interests of the French king. Most of them were French by birth; all of
them were French in their sympathies. Their European position seemed
lost, and with it the awe and reverence with which they had been
regarded. The English, at war with France, were not likely to bear the
encroachments made by a French Pope, and clergy, laity, and King joined
together to repel them.
The first great statute directed against the interference of the Pope
was the Statute against Provisors, passed in 1351. The Pope was in the
habit of making _provisions_ for vacant benefices by appointing to them
men of his own choice, and it was against this custom that the statute
was directed. It naturally seemed very unjust to Englishmen, that
English benefices should be given away to cardinals and other members of
the Papal court, who drew the revenues from their benefices without
ever coming near them; but we must remember that at this time great
benefices were not bestowed upon men as rewards for spiritual eminence.
They were the prizes which were given to great statesmen, to courtiers,
and royal favourites. The ecclesiastics appointed by the King of England
had no more intention of residing on their benefices than the
ecclesiastics appointed by the Pope. The Pope only claimed the right to
reward his servants in the same way as the King did. This arrangement,
by which Pope and King alike used the Church revenues for their own
purposes, was too convenient for Edward III. to make him really eager
for any reformation. The Statute of Provisors might forbid Papal
provisions, but it was never strictly kept; nor did the Statute which
followed it, called from its first word in the original Latin, the
Statute of Præmunire, prove more successful.
This statute forbade any appeals being made from the King's courts to
the Papal court, and forbade the introduction of Papal bulls into
England without royal permission.
The great interest of these statutes lies in the fact that they express
the growing hostility aroused in the laity by the ambition and wealth of
the clergy. The writings of the times are filled with complaints of the
abuses among the clergy. Langland tells us in a fine passage in the
_Vision of Piers Plowman_ the miserable pass that religion had come to
in those days--
"And now is religion a rider, a roamer by streets;
A leader of love-days, and a land-buyer;
A pricker on a palfrey from manor to manor;
An heap of houndes at his ears, as he a lord were,
And but if his knave knele that shal his cap bringe,
He loureth[2] on him, and asketh him who taught him courtesy."
The whole poem is full of allusions to the manner of life of the clergy,
their ill-gotten wealth, and the neglect of their duties. In another
place he says--
"Bishopes and bachelers, both masters and doctors,
That have cure under Christ, and crowning[3] in token
And signe that they should shrive their parishioners,
Preach and pray for them and the poor faith,
Live in London in Lent and other times;
Some serve the Kinge, and his silver tellen
In chequer and in chancery."
In an extravagant age the clergy were especially marked by their wild
and foolish extravagance, their love for fine clothes, for the chase,
for show and pageantry of all kinds. Even the mendicant orders partook
of this, and the Franciscan Friars, who had pledged themselves to the
most absolute poverty, amassed wealth, and only obeyed the dictates of
their order by abstaining from all labour. As a political ballad of the
time says--
"Full wisely do they preche and say,
But as they preche nothing do they."
And even of their preaching Langland says--
"I find these friars, all the four orders,
Preach to the people for profit of themselven,
Glosed the gospel as them good liked."
The Church seemed to have lost all its early simplicity, and to have
departed entirely from the teaching of the apostles.
The clergy absorbed all the chief offices of state. This had come about
naturally, from the fact that till now they had been the only educated
body in the state, and so they only had been fit to transact its
business. But now learning had become more general. A new class, that of
the lawyers, was springing up, and men were no longer willing to see
everything in the hands of the clergy. The great opponent of their power
was John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the King's third son. He was an
ambitious and unscrupulous man, and his aim was to get the entire
control of affairs during the last years of Edward III.'s reign. His
opposition to the clergy sprung only from his own personal ambition; he
wished to exclude the clergy from the offices of the state that he might
fill them with his own creatures. The power of the Commons was as
hateful in his eyes as the power of the clergy. He put himself at the
head of a reactionary body of great barons, who wished to bring back the
old order of things, and restore the power of their own order.
With John of Gaunt was united a man of a very different stamp. This was
John Wiclif, who by his learning had risen into importance in the
University of Oxford. He had shown himself an eager student, well versed
in logic and metaphysics, deeply learned in theology, and delighting in
the mathematical and natural sciences. The university had not been slow
to recognise his distinction. He had been made fellow of Merton, then
the leading college; afterwards he was master of Balliol Hall; and
lastly, he had been made warden of Canterbury Hall, the new college
founded by Simon Islip, Archbishop of Canterbury. He was first called
into political prominence in 1366, when Edward III. called upon him to
answer the demand made by Pope Urban VI. for the homage of England, and
the tribute promised by King John. In his answer, whilst calling himself
the humble and obedient son of the Roman Church, he clearly showed how
determined he was to take the national side, and resist papal
encroachments. He was equally opposed to the ambition and wealth of the
clergy, and this was the cause of his connexion with John of Gaunt. It
is impossible to believe that there can have been any real sympathy
between the two men,--Wiclif, the zealous student and austere reformer;
and John of Gaunt, the complete man of the world, corrupt in his life,
narrow and unscrupulous in his policy, absorbed in selfish ambition.
They had, however, this in common--that each wished to destroy the power
of the clergy, though from very different motives. John of Gaunt wished
to humiliate the Church; Wiclif wished to purify it. John of Gaunt
resented the official arrogance of the bishops, and their large share of
temporal power; Wiclif hoped to restore the long lost apostolical
purity of the Church.
It was in the Parliament of 1371 that the first great blow at the power
of the clergy was struck. The Duke of Lancaster was away in Aquitaine;
but we cannot doubt that Parliament was inspired by his influence, when
it petitioned the King that only secular men might be employed in his
court and household. Chief amongst the clergy in high office at that
time was William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, the Lord High
Chancellor.
He had first become important as the King's surveyor and architect at
Windsor. Here the King had undertaken important and extensive works for
the improvement and extension of the castle. Wykeham had a strong
natural taste for architecture, and seems moreover to have been a wise
and practical man of business. He became the King's chaplain, his
principal secretary, and the keeper of the Privy Seal. In 1367 he was
elevated to the see of Winchester, and appointed Lord Chancellor.
He was a most liberal man, and had the interests of the people sincerely
at heart. To posterity he is chiefly known by his munificence in
founding Winchester School, and New College at Oxford, two foundations
which have greatly promoted the cause of learning. He seems in all cases
to have used his power and his wealth for the public good. But John of
Gaunt and his party hated him on account of his wealth and position;
whilst in Wiclif's eyes he was not spiritual enough for a bishop. Wiclif
thought that no ecclesiastic ought to hold office, or busy himself in
secular affairs. He no doubt alludes to Wykeham when he says bitterly,
"Benefices, instead of being bestowed on poor clerks, are heaped ... on
one wise in building castles, or in worldly business."
It was against Wykeham that the petition of Parliament against giving
office to ecclesiastics was chiefly directed. He was forced to resign
the seals. The other ecclesiastics in office had to give up their posts,
and laymen, creatures of John of Gaunt, were appointed to fill them. Sir
Richard le Scrope was appointed Treasurer, and Sir Robert Thorpe Lord
Chancellor. The same Parliament also petitioned the King about the
unsatisfactory state of the navy, and granted a subsidy for putting it
into a proper condition; but no great expedition was planned to
reconquer the lost possessions in France. The war went on in a desultory
way, and nothing particular was gained on either side. The Commons were
growing tired of paying for it. They further showed their animosity to
the clergy by decreeing that the tax which was to be levied to provide
the subsidy voted for the King, was to be raised also from all those
lands which had passed into the hands of the clergy before the twentieth
year of Edward I.
The clergy met together in Convocation in 1373 to consider what course
they should take under these circumstances. They met in St. Paul's,
where Whittlesey, Archbishop of Canterbury, presided. He was too weak,
both in body and mind, to take an important part in the proceedings. He
summoned all his strength to preach the opening sermon, after which he
sunk down exhausted. Simon Sudbury, Bishop of London, a man of the Duke
of Lancaster's party, succeeded him as president of Convocation. The
conduct of the clergy was marked by moderation. They had no wish to
resist obstinately the demands of the Commons; but they complained that
they already had to tax themselves heavily to provide subsidies for the
King, and to meet the demands of the Pope. They said that they would
willingly give more to the King, if he would free them from the
exactions of the Pope. The King caused an embassy to be sent to the
Pope, stating the grievances of the clergy; but the Pope would do
nothing but promise to send ambassadors to a congress to be held at some
future time.
The Duke of Lancaster's party was now in complete possession of all
power in the kingdom. It remained to be seen how far they would be able
to win the confidence of the people. In the conduct of the war they had
been by no means successful. The Duke himself had not mended matters by
marrying Constance, daughter of Pedro the Cruel, and assuming in her
right the title of King of Castile. This only threw Henry of Trastamare
more than ever on the side of France. In 1372 the Earl of Pembroke was
sent with an English fleet to assist the Duke of Lancaster. But now the
folly of having turned Spain into a bitter enemy became apparent. The
English fleet was intercepted by a Spanish fleet, and completely
defeated. Pembroke himself was taken prisoner, and the English naval
power received a blow from which it took long to recover.
Disaster followed disaster in Aquitaine. Rochelle was seized by the
French. Thouars, one of the last places of importance remaining to the
English, was besieged and hard pressed. When news of all these
misfortunes reached Edward III. he was roused from his lethargy, and
determined to make one last effort to recover what he had lost. A fleet
was equipped, in which Edward himself, and even the Black Prince, whose
health was now somewhat better, embarked. But the fleet never reached
France. It was beaten about by contrary winds for some weeks, and at
last was obliged to return to England. There was now nothing to be done
except to ask for a truce. In 1374 the Duke of Lancaster returned to
England, leaving all the English possessions, except Bordeaux and
Bayonne, in the hands of the French.
It was determined that a general congress should be held at Bruges to
discuss terms of peace with France. To this congress the Pope and Edward
III. were also to send commissioners, to discuss the points at issue
between England and the Papacy.
John of Gaunt was chief amongst the English Ambassadors, who went to
Bruges to try and arrange a peace. John Wiclif went as one of the
ecclesiastical commissioners, of whom the Bishop of Bangor was head.
There were great difficulties in the way of any peace between England
and France. The French wished Edward to give up Calais, but the English
would not hear of this. It was only the earnest endeavours of the Pope,
Gregory XI., a sincere lover of peace, which finally brought about a
truce, to last till June, 1376.
Meanwhile the ecclesiastical commissioners were also very busy, and all
waited eagerly to see the result of this conference. If Wiclif had
allowed himself to hope that it would lead to any reform in the Church,
he must have been bitterly disappointed. We do not know what part he
took in it, but he must have soon seen with disgust that his
fellow-commissioners had no desire for reform, and that the King himself
was not more zealous than they. In September six lengthy bulls arrived
in England from the Pope, stating the conclusions arrived at by the
conference. These bulls showed that nothing really had been agreed upon.
The Pope made no promises for the future, but only arranged some
informalities in the past. It seemed as if the King and the Pope had
come to an agreement, purely for their own personal advantage. Each was
really to do pretty much as he liked, and the great questions which
involved the interests of the Church and the nation were left untouched.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] Scowls.
[3] The tonsure or shaven crown on the Priest's head.