PRINCE HENRY AND PRINCE HAL[2]
He who would draw a portrait of Prince Henry finds himself anticipated
by the work of a master hand, a work done in colours so fresh
and vivid, and with outlines so firm, that rivalry is hopeless.
Shakespeare’s “Prince Hal,” the reckless, brilliant lad, now bandying
jests with bullies and sots in city taverns, now leading his troops
to victory on the field of Shrewsbury, is one of those creations of
genius which, be they true to history or untrue, never lose their hold
on the minds of men. No sober description of the actual Henry, however
accurately worked out of authentic details, can possibly supersede the
figure which the great dramatist has made immortal. If I may borrow
an illustration from literature, it is here as it is with Pope and
the rival translators of Homer. Nothing could be more unlike the real
_Iliad_ than the polished epigrammatic rhetoric of Pope’s version,
yet it is so masterly a work, so splendid in style, so magnificent in
versification that it is the despair of the most scholarly and the most
faithful translators; whatever the learned may say, the world still
reads “Pope’s Homer.” So the world will always think of Henry in his
youth as the Prince Hal who spoils Falstaff of his ill-gotten booty at
Gadshill, laughs at him and with him over his cups in Eastcheap, and
soliloquises over his prostrate bulk at Shrewsbury. Many figures in
history seem to bring up before us these curious _eidola_, which even
the best information cannot wholly banish from our minds. Who can quite
dissociate his conception of the first Cyrus from the figure which
Xenophon has pourtrayed in his philosophical romance, or forget, when
he thinks of Tiberius, the gloomy profligate and tyrant who stands out
so vividly from the pages of Tacitus?
The brilliant figure, then, of the first and second parts of _Henry
the Fourth_ is at least a literary fact. I do not propose to enter on
a connected discussion of its authenticity. There are many genuinely
historical details which we have about Henry’s real personality, and
we have at least some suggestions of the source from which the great
dramatist drew his materials.
Of course it is easy to take Shakespeare too seriously. Supreme in
genius as he was, he was also a playwright, had to do a playwright’s
work, and descend, if we must say so, to a playwright’s arts. His
audience had to be amused; and certainly no audience was ever better
amused than were the pit and the galleries of the Globe by Prince Hal
and Falstaff. The slender, graceful youth, with gay dress and plumed
and jewelled cap, was the happiest foil to the huge “man mountain,”
with his untrussed hose and wine-stained doublet. The fancy, too, of
the people was caught by the notion of this young heir to the crown
drinking sherry-sack, as might any one of themselves, in an Eastcheap
tavern. It was an excellent jest, with just a spice of romance in it,
less familiar also than the manners of some of our heir-apparents since
that time have made it. Shakespeare never could have dreamt that he was
raising a grave question for historians to quarrel over.
The fact is that the great dramatist, whose genius was never more
signally shown than in transmuting other men’s lead into gold, found a
play, dull enough in itself, which he fashioned into that masterpiece
of humour, the comedy of _Henry the Fourth_. _The Famous Victories of
Henry the Fifth_ was possibly written by William Tarleton, a comedian
who flourished in Elizabeth’s reign. It is known that he acted in
it, taking the part of Sir John Oldcastle. Of the real Oldcastle it
is sufficient here to say that he was a man of lofty morality, who
witnessed to his convictions by his death. In Tarleton’s play--if
it be his--he is a vicious buffoon and thief. He goes by the name
of “Jockey,” and he has two companions of similar character, who
are known as “Ned” and “Tom.” These are represented as the Prince’s
associates. And to mark more distinctly the true object of the play,
which certainly was to bring the Puritans into ridicule, the other and
principal character is one Dericks, a name borne by one of the Marian
martyrs. This play was first acted before 1588, Tarleton dying in that
year, and it was the play which Shakespeare adapted. But an English
audience would be far less disposed to relish jests upon Protestant
martyrs after the Armada and the Papist conspiracies of Elizabeth’s
latter days, and Shakespeare made a change to suit the altered taste
of the day. Oldcastle and Dericks disappear: they are replaced, we may
say, by Falstaff and Bardolf. Both were historical personages, and
Shakespeare does them as much injustice as his predecessor had done to
the Lollard martyr. Bardolf went more than once as ambassador to France
in Henry the Fourth’s reign, and in the time of his successor he was
Lieutenant of Calais. Sir John Falstaff was a Knight of the Garter, a
general of distinction, and a man of undoubted honour. There is not a
shadow of reason for connecting either Bardolf or Falstaff with any
disreputable proceedings. Shakespeare seems to have taken their names
absolutely at random.
In the first part of _Henry the Fourth_, then, we see the Prince
associating with boon companions, and spending his days in riot, until
he is recalled to serious thoughts by his mission to take high command
in the army which his father is sending against the rebels in the north
and west; and finally doing away with the discredit that had fastened
itself on his good name by his gallant behaviour on the field of
Shrewsbury. Now let us examine the facts.
First, the situation may be briefly described. Henry the Fourth was
far from being safe on his newly won throne. Early in 1400 he had
discovered a plot against his life. The Kings of France and Scotland
had refused to recognise his title to the crown, and were even making
preparations for an invasion of England. A more immediate danger
also threatened him; Wales was in revolt. Here Owen Glendower, lineal
descendant of the Llewellyn who had been defeated and slain by Edward
the First, had been roused by private wrongs to assert the independence
of his nation. And it was here that we find the young Henry employed by
his father. That a boy so young--in the early part of 1400–1 he still
wanted some months of completing his fourteenth year--should be put in
a position of authority is remarkable; that the boy so trusted should
have been a profligate simply exceeds belief.
The young Prince was apparently taking an active part in the conduct of
affairs; in any case, he must have been on the spot, and not wasting
his time in London. He was summoned to attend a Council to be held
in London on August 15th, 1401. A month afterwards the rebellion in
Wales broke out afresh, and the Prince was probably again engaged in
active service. At least we find him in November with a small force
of twenty men-at-arms and forty archers, in respect of which he
received, by order of Council, the sum of one thousand pounds. In the
following year we find him acting on his own account. He addresses
(under date May 15th) a letter to the Privy Council, in which he gives
an account of his doings in Wales. Owen Glendower, it seems, had sent
him something like a challenge. He had gone, accordingly, to Owen’s
principal mansion, but had found no one there. Thence he had proceeded
to the Welshman’s seat at Glendourdy, and had burnt it, capturing at
the same time one of Owen’s chief men. The prisoner had offered five
hundred pounds for his ransom, but this was not accepted, and he was
put to death. Henry had afterwards marched into Merionethshire and
Powysland. This letter was written from Shrewsbury, and was followed by
another about a fortnight later, in which he describes himself as being
in great straits. His soldiers wanted to know when they would be paid;
unless he had some money sent, he could not remain where he was; he had
already pawned his jewels (_nos petitz joualx_). The castles of Harlech
and Lampadern must be relieved without delay. But if help were given,
things promised well for a suppression of the rebellion.
What reply the Prince received to these representations we do not
know. The rebellion was not suppressed then, nor for many years to
come. On June 25th something like a general levy was ordered, the
King addressing precepts to the Lieutenants of many English counties
by which it was enjoined that all persons liable to military service
should meet him at Lichfield and march with him against the Welsh
rebels. Similar documents were issued later in the year, in one
of which all persons liable to serve in the counties of Derby and
Shropshire were enjoined to meet “our very dear son, Henry, Prince of
Wales” at Chester on August 27th.
It is needless to follow the King’s proceedings in detail. His
resources were not equal to the demands made upon them. New dangers
started up in unexpected places, and he had to change his plans to
meet them. But on March 7th, 1403, we come to an important document.
It is an ordinance of the King in Council, given at Westminster. The
beginning of it runs thus:
“The King to all whom it may concern, greeting. Know that, wishing
to provide for the good government of the region of Wales, and
of the Marches and parts adjacent thereto, and for resistance
to the rebels who have contrary to their allegiance treasonably
risen against us, and having full confidence in the fidelity and
energy of our dearly beloved eldest son, Henry, Prince of Wales,
we constitute the said Prince our Lieutenant in the said region of
Wales.”
Here then we find Henry, who was now about half-way through his
sixteenth year, appointed to the civil and military command of the most
disturbed part of the King’s dominions. About six weeks later the men
of Shropshire write to the Council complaining of the ravages of the
Welsh rebels, and praying that some men-at-arms and archers should be
sent to protect them till the Prince himself should come.
The King had now to meet a more formidable combination of enemies
than he had yet encountered. Henry Percy, eldest son of the Earl of
Northumberland, the Harry Hotspur of Shakespeare, had been a trusted
lieutenant of Henry. He had served in Wales against Glendower, and had
been employed both in negotiations with the Scotch and in military
action against them. He conceived himself to have been unjustly
treated, for reasons which do not concern our present purpose, and
to avenge his wrongs he formed an alliance with Owen Glendower and
with the Earl of Douglas on behalf of the King of Scotland. Glendower
was to invade Gloucestershire. To meet this danger the King issued
briefs, under date of June 16th, to the Lieutenants of Gloucestershire,
Shropshire, Worcestershire, and Herefordshire, directing that all
persons liable to serve should put themselves at the command of
his son, Henry, Prince of Wales. At the same time an attack on the
northern borders was threatened from Scotland, and the Percies, whose
disaffection was not yet known at Court, were commissioned to repel it.
The King himself marched northwards to assist them, and seems to have
been ignorant as late as July 10th of their real intentions. These,
however, became known to him a day or so after, for he issued briefs
to the Lieutenants of the counties, dated from Burton-on-Trent on July
16th, Lichfield on the 17th, and Westminster on the 18th, requiring
military assistance to repel the invasion of Henry Percy with the Welsh
rebels and “certain enemies of ours from Scotland” in his company.
Six days later than the date of the Westminster brief the battle of
Shrewsbury was fought. Prince Henry was on the field and bore himself
bravely, though we must not credit him with the great achievement which
Shakespeare attributes to him, of having slain Henry Percy in single
combat. A lad, still wanting some months of sixteen, could hardly have
vanquished a man of thirty, one of the bravest and most expert soldiers
of his time. Hotspur seems to have been killed by a chance arrow as
he was charging with characteristic impetuosity the royal forces. The
young Prince was himself wounded in the forehead by an arrow.
His father’s confidence in him was continued. Two days after the battle
he expresses his trust in the loyalty and prudent caution of his son,
Henry, Prince of Wales, and gives him full power to amnesty at his
discretion such persons concerned in the late rebellion as he might
think fit, in the county of Chester and in other places named.
Owen Glendower, who had not shared the defeat of the Percies at
Shrewsbury, still held out. In 1404 he assumed the title of Prince
of Wales. In the June of that year the Sheriff of Hereford, with
various gentlemen of the county, represented to the King that they
were suffering greatly from the ravages of the Welsh rebels. The
Prince was directed to go to their help, and on the 20th of the month
wrote to his father from Worcester, to which city he had removed his
headquarters. He thanks him for his kind letter written from Pontefract
five days before, and rejoices in the news it brought of his health and
prosperity, which are, he says, the greatest pleasure that can come
to him in the world. He had been taking measures for the defence of
the county of Hereford, which the Welsh rebels had been ravaging with
fire and sword, and he would do all he could to resist them and to
save England from their attacks. Another letter to the same effect was
addressed by him to the Council, and a second four days afterwards.
On August 30th the Council granted him three thousand marks for the
expenses of holding the castle of Denbigh and other strongholds in
North Wales, and suggested that he should remain for a certain time
on the borders of Herefordshire, and afterwards invade Wales. In a
document apparently belonging to the same time there is a list of
castles in North Wales which the Prince had kept at his own cost since
the commencement of the rebellion.
In March 1405 the Prince wrote to the King relating a victory which he
had won over the Welsh:
“On Wednesday, the 11th day of this present month of March, the
rebels in parties from Glamorgan, Morganoe, Usk, Netherwart, and
Overwart were assembled to the number of eleven thousand by their
own account. On the said 11th of March they burnt part of your
town of Grosmont. Thereupon I sent my dear cousin Lord Talbot and
others. To them there joined themselves your faithful and valiant
knights, William Newport and John Greindel. And though they were
but a small number, yet was it well seen that the victory is not
in the multitude of the people but in the power of God.... By the
aid of the Blessed Trinity your people held the field of battle
and vanquished the said rebels, and slew of them, by one account
eight hundred, since said one thousand.... No prisoners were taken
save one, a great knight, whom I would have sent to you but that he
cannot yet comfortably ride.... I pray God to keep you always in
joy and honour, and to grant me that I may soon comfort you with
other good news.”
In this year by prompt action, and still more by skilful diplomacy, the
King crushed a formidable insurrection that threatened his power in the
north. After executing the chiefs of the rising--Scrope, Archbishop of
York, and Mowbray, Earl Marshall--he turned his attention to Wales. If
he could crush Glendower he had practically rid himself of his enemies,
for he held in his power the heir to the Scottish throne. With his
father’s action in the north the Prince could have had nothing to do;
but we may be sure that he took a part in the Welsh campaign. Large as
was the force which Henry brought into the field, little or nothing was
accomplished. The Welshmen were driven from the plain country; but they
could not be touched in their mountain fastnesses. Indeed the weather
was so exceptionally bad that Glendower was believed to have secured
the aid of this powerful ally by his magical arts. Early in the autumn
the King returned to London, disbanding at the same time the greater
part of his forces, and leaving the command of operations, as before,
in the hands of the Prince of Wales.
It would be tedious to give all the details of Henry’s proceedings
that may be found in the public documents of the time. On the whole,
we get from these sources the picture of a vigorous young prince, who
must of course have been assisted by older counsellors, but who was
not a mere puppet in their hands. He is making head to the best of his
abilities and means against a formidable rebellion. He is much hampered
by want of money, and the King and the Council try to help him. As
time goes on, more means and more power are put into his hands. King,
Privy Council, and Parliament seem to be agreed in trusting him. The
King does not think it necessary to visit in person the region which he
had put into his son’s charge. More than once, after proclaiming his
purpose to take the field himself against the Welsh rebels, he changes
his mind, and goes elsewhere. The Council accept without hesitation
his recommendation of the Prince and his affairs to their care. When
Parliament is sitting, it votes him money for the purposes of his
campaigns.
The proceedings, however, in the first half of 1406 are so important
as bearing on the position of the Prince that they must be specially
mentioned. At some time in March or April the Privy Council held a
meeting, at which the succession of the Prince of Wales to the throne
was considered, as was also the subject of his lieutenancy in Wales,
and of his power to amnesty rebels who might give in their submission.
About the same time the House of Commons sent up an address to the
King, praying him to thank the Prince for his diligence in the
government of Wales, to which, it will be remembered, he had been
appointed three years before. This address is dated April 3rd. Two days
afterwards the King renewed the appointment of the Prince as Lieutenant
of Wales till November 11th. Special authority was conferred upon him
to admit rebels to grace on such terms as might approve themselves
to him and his counsellors. Before the period thus specified had
expired--_i.e._, on September 27th--provision was made for a further
tenure of his office.
In the interval between April and September the King’s health had begun
to fail so seriously that the question of settling the succession
became urgent. On April 26th he addressed two letters from Windsor to
the Council. In the first--written, it would seem, early in the day--he
tells them that he should not be able to fulfil his purpose of being
at Westminster on that day. Some ailment had attacked his leg, and he
was also suffering seriously from ague. Consequently his physicians
considered that it would be dangerous for him to travel on horseback.
However, he intended to be at Staines that night; from Staines he
would journey by water to London, where he hoped to be in the course
of three or four days. The second letter was written later in the day.
By that time his illness had so much increased that he had to give up
altogether the idea of travelling. The Council would have to go on with
public business without him. On June 7th the House of Commons voted an
address of thanks to the Prince, which was to be forwarded to him in
Wales. At the same time Parliament passed an Act declaring that the
succession to the throne was in the Prince of Wales and the heirs-male
of his body lawfully begotten; and failing these, to the other sons
of the King and their heirs in succession. Six months later this was
amended by another Act, which abolished the restriction to heirs-male.
This was done, of course, from considerations of general policy, but it
indicates a feeling of confidence in the Prince.
The proclamation of this Act bears date December 22nd. Before this
time the Prince had come to London, and this is positively the first
time that we have an intimation of his presence in the capital. His
name appears on the list of the persons attending the meeting of the
Privy Council in the afternoon of December 8th; but it is absent from
a list dated November 27th, and the Prince must therefore have been
sworn in between the two dates. He was present again at a meeting
held on January 30th, when the Great Seal was resigned by Thomas
Langley, Bishop of Durham, and handed to Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of
Canterbury. How much longer his visit to London lasted, we cannot say.
Probably he returned to the scene of his government when the season
for action in the field came on. At any rate by the early autumn of
the year he had gained considerable successes, having received the
submission of three chiefs, an event which was evidently thought to be
of considerable importance.
In a brief session of Parliament during the same year (October 20th
to November 21st) the Prince again received public thanks. A little
later in the year the King granted him certain property which had been
forfeited by the outlawry of sundry persons; and also reappointed him,
for the fourth time, his Lieutenant in Wales. He had now, it will be
remembered, completed his twentieth year. The Welsh appointment was
twice more renewed--on December 27th, 1407, and again on January 19th,
1409–10. Probably there would have been an impropriety, now that the
Prince had attained years of maturity, in handing over to any one else
the chief command in the principality from which he took his title.
But he seems to have had personally little to do with Welsh affairs
during the latter part of his father’s reign. The last record of his
presence in the country is a document, executed at Carmarthen Castle,
and bearing date September 23rd, 1408. At that time he had been five
years and a half in command. He had been so far unsuccessful in dealing
with the Welsh insurrection that Owen Glendower still held out, as
indeed he continued to do up to the day of his death. But the rebels
or patriots, according as we may choose to call them, were certainly
confined within narrow limits. The Welsh difficulty was no longer,
as it had been in the days before the battle of Shrewsbury, a danger
that threatened the throne of the Lancastrian princes; it had ceased
to be even a serious annoyance. Glendower still remained unsubdued
in his mountain fastnesses; but the rich plains of Herefordshire
and Worcestershire were no longer in fear of his incursions. So the
Prince’s Welsh campaigns were a success rather than, as is commonly
stated by historians, a failure. How much of this success was due
to his personal initiative it is, of course, impossible to say.
When he was first formally appointed to his office he was just nine
months younger than was the Black Prince at Crecy. Lads between
fifteen and sixteen are now-a-days considered too young even for the
responsibilities of a sixth form in a public school. In the England of
Edward and Henry’s time men came much earlier to their maturity. The
royal caste especially, accustomed from the very first to the realities
of power, learnt very soon to act for themselves. The young Prince is
probably entitled to a very considerable share of whatever credit may
attach during the time of his active lieutenancy to the management of
Welsh affairs.