GLOUCESTER AS FIRST COUNCILLOR
The coronation of Henry VI. had its significance at home as well as
abroad; for Gloucester it meant the abandonment of the title which he
had held since the death of Henry V. The festivities were barely over
when Parliament declared that, since the King was now crowned, he had
taken the responsibility of the government on himself, and that
therefore the Protectorate was at an end: on November 15 Humphrey
resigned his office, stipulating that by this action he did not
prejudice the right of his brother Bedford.[749] In this premature
ending of the Protectorate we cannot fail to see the hand of Beaufort
and the jealousy of the Regency Council. To say that a child, who had
not attained the age of eight, had become capable of governing the
country simply because a ceremony, which might have been performed with
equal justice seven years earlier, had taken place, was on the face of
it absurd. It may be that Beaufort had suggested the coronation to
Bedford when he was in France with this end in view; certainly this
summary ending of the Protectorate shows that the Council were
determined to limit the power of the man who was nominally at the head
of affairs, thereby hoping to increase their own importance. The lords
had just told Gloucester that the title of Protector was nothing but a
title, and now they proceeded to take away even that, and to reduce him
to the rank of First Councillor. There was neither logic nor policy in
this action. Whilst it could not serve to help on the good government of
the kingdom, it only added another reason for the discontent and
factiousness of the man it was meant to curb.
We find Gloucester's protest against his compulsory resignation of the
Protectorate in this very same Parliament, when it was questioned
whether a cardinal had a right to be a member of the Council. Beaufort
secured another victory when the Lords decided that not only was it
allowable but very desirable that he should attend the meetings of the
Council on all occasions, except when matters connected with the Papal
See were under discussion.[750]
1430] THE FORTY SHILLING FRANCHISE
The Bishop of Winchester had now considerably more power than his rival,
and we may see traces of the antipathy to Gloucester prevalent amongst
the Lords of Parliament in a famous measure passed in the second session
of this same Parliament. The representatives of the counties in
Parliament were chosen in the County Court, and Henry IV. had taken
steps to make this representation adequately reflect the wishes of all
who had access to that court. A reaction against this wide qualification
for the franchise now set in, and it was ordained that none but those
who possessed a freehold of the value of forty shillings a year, and
resided within the county, could vote for the knights of the shire who
sat in Parliament.[751] It is to be noticed that, whilst driving the
theory of constitutional government to an extreme, Parliament was now
limiting the possibilities of its claim to represent the nation: the
reason is obvious. The more limited the franchise, the more powerful
would be the lords who desired to rule the country, and the less
powerful would be Gloucester, who numbered his supporters amongst the
rank and file of the commonalty now excluded from the franchise. The
Bill spoke of the riot and disturbance caused 'by great attendance of
people of small substance and no value whereof every of them pretended a
voice equivalent, as to such elections, with the most worthy knights and
squires resident,'[752] and the true meaning of this complaint does not
lie far below the surface. Humphrey may be indicted on many counts, but
he cannot be said to have championed the lords against the people. What
strength he had was based on his personal popularity with the 'people of
small substance,' and his opponents were the men who, working under the
pretence of desiring a stronger Parliament, were attempting to secure
absolute domination over the country. Having secured a preponderance in
the kingdom, they proceeded to quarrel among themselves, since the
inevitable result of conciliar government was at this time civil war.
Gloucester, with all his faults, stood for the rights of the people, not
perhaps from disinterested motives, but because the people were ready to
support him. Neither lords nor commons had an exclusive right to govern
the kingdom during a minority, nor had they the political capacity to do
so, but this limitation of the franchise was a measure aimed by the
nobility at Gloucester and the commons at once. Supported by Beaufort,
who thought himself able to control them, the lords shut the door on
those who alone could check their turbulence, and weakened the position
of a man, who with a less limited power might have given strength to the
kingdom and dynasty, even although he was almost entirely selfish in his
aims. Beaufort was not able to control them, and the ultimate result of
their quarrels was civil war.
1430] GLOUCESTER MADE REGENT
While these measures to prevent the ascendency of Gloucester in the
councils of the nation were being taken, preparations were being made
for the journey of the young King to France; they were pervaded by a
spirit of precaution. The articles for the regulation of the Council,
which had been made in the first Parliament of the reign, were
re-enacted and expanded so that there should be no possibility of the
conciliar government being weakened by the machinations of the First
Councillor.[753] At the same time careful arrangements were made for the
government of the kingdom in the King's absence; all were agreed that it
was impossible to leave the kingdom in the hands of any one but
Gloucester, yet his powers as Regent must be limited. Cardinal Beaufort
was induced to escort Henry VI. to France, and the Council was divided
into two parts, one to accompany the King, the other to remain in
England. These two divisions were to be independent of one another
except in matters of the greatest importance, but the Regent of England
was prevented from turning the English Council into a body composed of
his own supporters by the provision that no councillor could be
dismissed save with the consent of both Councils.[754] At the same time
the weakness of the Council as a governing body was made manifest by the
steps taken to prevent the Duke of Norfolk and the Earls of Huntingdon
and Warwick from attacking one another whilst accompanying the King.
Humphrey took his own precautions to prevent armed dissensions in this
Council, and exacted an oath from these three lords that they would not
in person resent any injury done them, but bring any dispute among
themselves before the Council.[755]
In spite of the proceedings of his opponents, it is evident that the
abolition of the Protectorate had not shorn Gloucester of all his power.
In this quarrel of the lords he had successfully asserted his right to
impose order and to keep the peace, and on December 23 of the previous
year he had secured a handsome allowance for his exertions as First
Councillor. For his attendance at the Council whilst the King was still
in England, he was paid at the rate of two thousand marks a year, and as
Regent in the King's absence he was to receive double that sum. A
proviso was also added that if he should be put to extra expense or
trouble in some matter in which he had the consent of the Council, he
was to have an extra grant, and if, by reason of the urgency of the
matter, he should be compelled to act without the consent of that body,
he was to be paid therefor at their next meeting.[756]
Whilst the last preparations for the journey were being made, Gloucester
had accompanied his nephew as far as Canterbury on his way to the coast.
There Easter had been kept, and it was there also that Gloucester took
the steps already recorded towards securing peace amongst the lords who
were to accompany their young sovereign to France.[757] There, too, in
his capacity of Warden of the Cinque Ports, he had prepared for the
transhipment of the expedition by ordering ships to be in readiness to
carry the King across the Channel.[758] On April 23 his commission as
Regent during the King's absence was signed. By it he was authorised to
hold Parliaments and Councils, and with their assent to ordain such
things as were necessary for the welfare of the King and the realm. He
might also exercise the royal authority in all matters pertaining to
ecclesiastical elections, but he was to do everything by the advice of
the Council and not otherwise.[759] Next day the little King set sail on
his way to secure the empty honour of the crown of France, whilst his
uncle turned back to undertake the cares of that other kingdom, which
was in the end to prove an almost equally illusory possession.[760]
The first year of Gloucester's regency passed without any incident of
interest. The government was quietly conducted, and the discussions
which continually arose when Beaufort was in the country were for the
time forgotten. Negotiations were carried on with Scotland, in which
Lord Scrope, a supporter of Gloucester, seems to have acted with energy
and ability.[761] But despite several journeys to the north, and a
seeming readiness on both sides to come to an understanding,[762] no
definite settlement was made, and he was again sent to Scotland in
November.[763] Thus the year passed quickly away, and there was found to
be no need for the summoning of Parliament till early in 1431.[764]
1431] MEETING OF PARLIAMENT
The session which then began was even more uneventful than that of the
preceding year, though Beaufort came over to attend it,[765] and the
lack of political quarrels speaks for the good government of the Regent
and the powerlessness of the Cardinal when his turbulent supporters were
absent in France. Only one event in Parliament is worthy of record, and
this points to the financial distress of the country and to the waning
affection for the war. In response to the Pope's efforts in the
direction of peace, the Lords and Commons joined with hearty goodwill in
an attempt to further his wishes by appointing the King's three uncles,
Bedford, Gloucester, and Beaufort, to treat of peace with the envoys of
France and of Rome, and by instructing them to agree to any terms they
might think reasonable, saving the liberties of the King's
subjects.[766] According to a later chronicler the powers thus conferred
were the occasion of an amicable meeting between the Regent and the
Cardinal on matters of foreign policy.[767] At any rate, Beaufort
returned to France without any fresh cause of dispute having arisen
between him and his nephew.
1431] SEDITION OF 'JACK SHARPE'
When Parliament had been dissolved Gloucester went down to Greenwich to
spend Easter, and on St. George's Day he presided at a Chapter of the
Order of the Garter at Windsor.[768] He was suddenly called away by
disturbances in the Midland Counties. A certain William Perkyns,
otherwise known as William Maundyvyll, who for the purposes of his
agitation called himself 'Jack Sharpe of Wygmoreland,' had lately been
distributing pamphlets in London, Coventry, and Oxford, which took the
form of a petition to the King and Lords of Parliament, showing the
waste which ensued from the possession of temporalities by the bishops,
abbots, and priors of the Church, and praying for their resumption by
the Crown. It was suggested that the proceeds of this confiscation
should be devoted to the endowment of a hundred almshouses and the
financing of a certain number of earls, knights, and squires, but that
the confiscations themselves should only affect the high dignitaries of
the Church.[769] The mention of 'Wygmoreland' savoured too much of the
House of Mortimer for the Regent to ignore the movement, while the
prelates were in a frenzy at this attack on their coveted possessions.
The idea thus propounded was no new one, for in the Parliament of 1410
this resumption of ecclesiastical temporalities had been suggested, and
the future Henry V. had opposed it,[770] while at a later date Oldcastle
had circulated pamphlets recommending such a course.[771] In remembrance
of this incident the cry of heresy and Lollardy was raised, and it was
declared that Jack Sharpe with his 'fals feleshipp' wished to destroy
the Church.[772] Thus political security and religious orthodoxy both
summoned Gloucester from his ease, and he hastened to Abingdon, in which
neighbourhood the malcontents were said to be assembled. By the help of
one William Warberton, Jack Sharpe with many of his associates was
found in hiding at Oxford, where the Chancellor and bailiffs arrested
him on the Thursday before Whitsunday.[773] Brought before the Regent,
he was condemned to death and executed at Abingdon, and his head was
placed on London Bridge.[774]
In the part he took in the suppression of 'Jack Sharpe' Gloucester was
actuated as much by a desire to enforce the arm of the law on all
disturbers of the peace, and on all who might be thought to threaten the
House of Lancaster, as by the claims of the higher clergy to be
protected. About this time, however, he further countenanced the
extinction of heresy by being present at the burning at Smithfield of an
old priest who denied the validity of the sacraments of the Church.[775]
In this he was merely carrying out the general policy of the Government,
for instances of the execution of Lollards and other heretics were of
comparatively frequent occurrence.
The danger to Church and State was over, and the movement of the man of
'Wygmoreland' had been suppressed by the Regent's quick and decided
action, yet the very assumption of this name showed that the House of
Lancaster was not free from the danger which had threatened in the
Southampton conspiracy of 1415, and in the later pretensions of the Earl
of March. The inevitable dynastic struggle was only postponed till a
time when a weak and vacillating king in the hands of unintelligent
advisers should find himself unable to cope with a movement which this
time had been nipped in the bud.
After the execution of 'Jack Sharpe' Gloucester visited several other
places in the kingdom, making inquisitions concerning certain heretics,
traitors, and rebels, and punishing them according to their
demerits.[776] Indeed during the Regency executions for illegal acts and
Lollardy were frequent; now it was a courtier punished for the misuse of
a patent seal, now a Lollard who by his faith threatened the House of
Lancaster. All through Humphrey's justice seems to have been firm and
true, and during the time of his government of the kingdom one
chronicler at least appears to hint at a more drastic and organised
government by the number of executions that he records.[777] At the same
time there is no record of any serious disturbance in the kingdom, and
the rising of Jack Sharpe is peculiar, not because of its existence, but
because of the summary justice meted out to it. By November Humphrey was
back again to London and in attendance at the Council. The days of the
Regency were now drawing to a close. The King was now, after many
delays, on the eve of his coronation in Paris,[778] and his return to
England at the beginning of the New Year was certain. With him would
come Beaufort and his supporters in the Council, and Gloucester feared
that fresh attacks would be made on his position. He therefore prepared
to meet them by a counter-movement, to be made whilst he was still
governing the country and had a complete ascendency over the Council,
and it was to this end that the question of Beaufort's cardinalate was
again raised.
1431] INTRIGUE AGAINST BEAUFORT
At a meeting of the Council on November 6 the King's Serjeant and
Attorney presented a petition which requested that Beaufort should be
deprived of his see of Winchester on the ground of his having accepted a
cardinal's hat. In support of this petition it was argued that
Archbishops Langham and Kilwardby had been deprived for this reason, and
that the good of the kingdom demanded compliance with these precedents.
The Regent, who evidently inspired this action on the part of the legal
officials of the Crown, asked the Bishop of Worcester whether it was
true that the Cardinal had procured from Rome an exemption for himself,
his city, and his see from the jurisdiction of the Primate. After much
hesitation the Bishop was compelled to acknowledge that the Bishop of
Lichfield had told him that he had acted for Beaufort in the purchase of
such an exemption from the Pope. After debate the matter was referred to
the judges, who were instructed to search the records and give their
decision on the legal point. Meanwhile nothing further was to be done
till the Cardinal returned to justify his action.[779]
Though to us this attack may seem trivial, and its occurrence, at a time
when its object was not in the country to defend himself, unfair, we
must not forget that the Cardinal had laid himself open to the gravest
suspicion by invoking the interference of Rome in a matter of purely
English importance. It is also to be noticed that Beaufort had realised
the probability of losing his English benefices when created cardinal,
as at the time of his appointment he had procured a papal Bull which
enacted that 'he schuld have an reioyse all the benefyces spirituell and
temporell that he hadde had in Englond.'[780] Thus he had laid himself
open to the pains and penalties of the statute of Provisors, which
forbade the acceptance of letters from the Pope appointing people to
benefices in England, and showed that Gloucester's suspicion that he was
using the papal alliance for furtherance of his ambitions at home was
fully justified. Jealousy of papal power had ever been one of the chief
tenets of the Englishman's creed, and had a less powerfully connected
ecclesiastic than Beaufort ventured on such a step, his punishment
would have been swift and sure. Indeed the only voice raised in protest
against the action of the Council in this matter was that of the Bishop
of Carlisle,[781] a man well known to be a minion of the Beaufort party,
and one to whose appointment to his present see both Gloucester and Lord
Scrope had objected strongly only a few years before.[782] The decision
of the judges seems to have been hostile to the Cardinal, for on
November 20 the Council ordered writs of Præmunire and attachment upon
the Statute to be sealed against him, though they were not to be
executed till the King came back.[783]
Thus Gloucester thought that he had successfully clipped the wings of
his rival, and his ascendency in the Council was still further
emphasised by a movement to increase his salary as Regent. According to
the existing arrangement he received two thousand marks per annum as
First Councillor, and four thousand marks whilst he was Regent in the
King's absence. It was the Treasurer, Lord Hungerford, who now proposed
in the Great Council, on the same day as the writ of Præmunire was
issued, that in consideration of the great expenses that Gloucester had
incurred in the past, both in preserving the kingdom from the malice of
rebels and traitors, and 'especially of late concerning the taking and
execution of the most horrible heretic and impious traitor to God and
the said Lord King, who called himself John Sharp, and of many other
heretical malefactors his accomplices,' he should receive an increase of
two thousand marks per annum for his services as Regent, returning to
his usual salary when the King came back.[784]
1431] GLOUCESTER'S SALARY INCREASED
That this was an evasion of a demand for increased pay by Gloucester
seems to be evident, as the Regency was drawing to a close, and
therefore no material benefit would accrue to the Regent by this motion.
Moreover, the excuse of the expense of putting down the rising of John
Sharp was merely a formal plea, as a payment of five hundred marks had
already been made in this respect on July 17.[785] It was not to be
expected that Hungerford should propose any measure of great advantage
to the Regent, for he had sided throughout with the Chancellor in
opposing Gloucester, even as he had been intended to do when appointed
to office by the influence of the Beaufort faction. Now he evidently
wished to conciliate Humphrey at small expense. Lord Scrope, however,
who was a steady supporter of the Regent, proposed an amendment to the
effect that Gloucester should have five thousand marks a year in his
capacity of First Councillor after the King's return, as well as the six
thousand marks of his proposed salary as Regent. After considerable
discussion this last suggestion was agreed to, though it was strongly
opposed by Chancellor Kemp, the Bishop of Carlisle, and Lords
Harrington, De la Warr, Lovell, and Botreaux. The Treasurer accepted the
amendment, probably in the hope of conciliating one who proved to have
such strong supporters. One qualification, however, was secured by
Gloucester's opponents, when it was arranged that the salary now voted
should cover all expenses he might incur in the King's service.[786]
The result of all this was a decided victory for the Regent, and he was
made secure of an exceedingly handsome allowance, which he felt to be
necessary owing to his expensive and luxurious habits, and the charges
which he incurred as a patron of letters. The sum was not excessive, for
in the past both Bedford and himself had received annual salaries of
four to eight thousand marks as First Councillors.[787] Nevertheless
this was not a time to wring money from an already depleted exchequer.
The Lancastrians had always been poor, and now especially the constant
sinking of money into the bottomless morass of the French wars had
reduced the dynasty and kingdom to a very low financial state. Once more
Gloucester showed that personal gratification was more to him than
patriotic considerations. Throughout his regency he had shown the same
traits of character we have found in other parts of his career.
Administrative power, good government, a determination to punish
sedition and violence speedily and efficiently, all may be seen in this
brief tenure of office. Criminals were brought to justice; in the face
of seething discontent and the growing violence of the barons, peace
reigned. Yet, despite all this, the government was subordinate in
Humphrey's eyes to his own personal aggrandisement. He had used his
spell of power to strengthen his position in the kingdom irrespective of
his executive duties, which were treated more as isolated incidents than
as part of a constructive policy. He had taken advantage of the
Cardinal's absence to direct an attack on his position in the kingdom;
he had struck at the very foundation of Beaufort's power when he had
tried to deprive him of some of his possessions; he had levelled against
him a charge which, if successful, would entail his banishment from the
kingdom. At the same time he had taken steps to strengthen his own
position by increasing his income, and these monetary considerations
remind us of the new era that was dawning, the approach of that time
when no longer birth or hereditary position were to define a man's
power, but the length of his purse and his capacity to command the
services of others by purchase. Humphrey's Regency, therefore, is
important partly for the added indications of his power of
administration, but more so for the stage it marks in his attempt to
undermine the power of his great enemy.
1432] RETURN OF HENRY VI.
The increase of his income was the last important event for Gloucester
before the return of the King, who landed at Dover on February 9,[788]
and on Thursday 21 entered London in triumph. The Lord Mayor, Sheriffs,
and Aldermen, clad in their fur-lined scarlet cloaks, were there to
receive him, and amid song and pageant, in which champions with drawn
swords and 'maidens very celestialle' took part, Gloucester escorted his
nephew to St. Paul's and thence to Westminster.[789] A bright interlude
this in the struggles for ascendency which surrounded the boy-king's
throne, struggles which, dating from Henry V.'s untimely death, were to
continue with varied success, now to this side, now to that, for so long
a period. The rivalry of Gloucester and Beaufort had been the central
thread of the tangled web of the King's minority, and now that Henry was
a crowned King and claimed personal obedience in two countries, this
rivalry did not lose its importance. The internal history of England is
still the history of the faction fight which had marred the peace of the
first nine years of the reign.
The struggle between, the two uncles enters at this period on a new
phase. Hitherto it had been chiefly confined to the sphere of Parliament
and the Council Chamber, now the interest centres more in the King's
person. Henry VI., though only ten years old, was beginning to assert
his position, for he was 'growen in yeares, in stature ... and also in
conceyte of his hiegh and royale auctoritee,' as his tutor, Warwick,
complained to the Council,[790] and under these circumstances it became
every year more necessary for each party to gain the King's ear.
Beaufort had not come back with the royal escort, so Gloucester had an
opportunity to use the King's return for his own ends. He was not at
all satisfied with the officers of state whom his opponents had placed
in office. Chancellor Kemp had opposed the increase of his salary, and
Hungerford, the Treasurer, had only assented to the measure at the last
moment; the first step, therefore, was to secure their dismissal, which
he had been unable to procure before under the terms of his regency
patent. No time was lost; on February 28, only four days after Henry's
arrival in London, Archbishop Kemp resigned the Seals to Gloucester, who
for the moment became Lord Keeper. On March 1 they were delivered to the
King, who handed them forthwith to the Bishop of Bath and Wells.[791]
Lord Scrope, the ardent supporter of Gloucester, succeeded Lord
Hungerford as Treasurer, while care was taken to displace men of
Beaufort sympathies from positions which entailed personal attendance on
the King. Accordingly Lord Cromwell was dismissed from the post of
Chamberlain in favour of Sir William Philip, and Lord Tiptoft, the
Steward of the Household, made way for Sir Robert Babthorp, who had
instructions to make all haste to take up his office at once.[792] Thus
with the greatest expedition possible the _personnel_ around the King was
changed, and the new officers were chosen, as far as possible, from
amongst those who would support Gloucester's claim to a preponderance in
the politics of the kingdom.
These changes in the crown officials were safely effected before
Parliament met on May 12, by which date Beaufort had arrived in England.
The turbulence of the great nobles is illustrated by the fact that writs
were issued to the Duke of Norfolk, the Earls of Suffolk, Huntingdon,
Stafford, Northumberland, and Salisbury, together with Lord Cromwell,
enjoining them not to come to Parliament with more than their usual
number of retainers.[793] To say that this 'intimation under the
circumstances must have sounded very like a declaration of war' on the
part of Gloucester[794] is a total misreading of the matter. Precautions
of much the same nature had been taken by Bedford at the Parliament of
Leicester without provoking comment, and it was well known that at least
two of those to whom the writs were addressed were at enmity with one
another, and that Lord Cromwell was enraged at his loss of office. Added
to all this, Huntingdon was certainly not of the Beaufort faction, as he
subsequently appears as the supporter of Duke Humphrey.[795] It was
merely a precautionary measure, and serves to prove the unreliability of
those by whom the government of the kingdom was supposed to be
dominated, for these lords, with the exception of Salisbury, were all
Councillors.
1432] DISCUSSIONS IN PARLIAMENT
When Parliament did meet, Beaufort was there to look after his own
interests. On the second day Gloucester addressed the Lords, saying that
it was desirable that the Commons should know that the Lords spiritual
and temporal were in agreement, and that, therefore, a declaration to
this effect should be made. So far as he himself was concerned, though
by right of birth and by Act of Parliament he was First Councillor to
the King whilst Bedford was absent yet he would never do any state
business except with the consent of the Lords, or of a majority of them.
He therefore called upon his hearers to give their best advice, and he
would abide by it. To this suggested declaration the Lords assented,
promising their advice, and praying Gloucester 'for the reverence of God
and the good of the King and the realm to observe his part of the
agreement to the best of his ability.' The Commons were accordingly
solemnly informed of the state of absolute concord existing amongst
those whom they knew to be turbulent and divided.[796] The object that
Humphrey had in view was to secure an acknowledgment of his position,
and an acceptance of the state of things as they then stood. His
position was one of greater importance than he had enjoyed for some
years, and he wished it to be clearly understood that he would not
abandon that position without a determined struggle. At the same time,
if his power was not assailed, he would not ignore the opinions of
others. He could point to his recent successful regency as evidence of
the good results of his rule, yet he definitely promised not to go
outside his powers so long as his preponderance in the councils of the
nation was accepted. He had warned the turbulent nobles in the writ
addressed to them with respect to their retinues, and he now wished to
impress upon them collectively, that he stood for good government
against the divided rule of the Council. Whether this declaration was
entirely disinterested may well be doubted, and that his government
would be good in our sense of the word was hardly probable, but he was
choosing the least turbulent way of asserting himself, and his
administration could not well be worse than that of the faction that
opposed him.
1432] BEAUFORT'S COMPLAINTS
This warning Beaufort took as a challenge, and retorted in Parliament by
an assumption of injured innocence. He rose in his place and explained
that whilst on his way to Rome, a journey undertaken by the permission
of the King, he had been told that he had been accused of treachery to
his royal nephew. He now demanded that he should be confronted with his
accuser, and declared himself ready to meet him, however exalted his
rank might be--a broad hint at his rival, for no one but Gloucester in
England at that time was of superior rank to the Cardinal. The matter
was discussed in the King's presence, and finally Gloucester, as
representing the Councillors there present, declared the King's entire
belief in Beaufort's loyalty, and emphatically announced that no one had
accused him of anything, nor to the best of their knowledge did any one
desire to do so.[797] Whether there was any truth in the Cardinal's
statement, or whether he was referring to the writ of Præmunire issued
against him, must remain uncertain. At all events his attempt to make a
scene failed, and with it his first attack on Gloucester's new position.
But the Cardinal had another cause of complaint, and he proceeded to
ventilate this second grievance. Certain of the King's jewels pledged to
him for a loan had been seized by the royal officials when he landed at
Sandwich, and he now demanded their restoration.[798] On what plea these
jewels were confiscated we cannot discover, but that the Regent had some
just cause for his action may be argued from the fact that Parliament
only agreed to this restoration on condition that £6000 more were
deposited for them, and a promise made by the Cardinal to lend the King
thirteen thousand marks in addition.[799] Beaufort had undoubtedly not
suffered any loss from the sums he had lent to the King in the past, and
it is possible that he had overreached himself in his desire for
increased profit; moreover, Gloucester himself seems to have had some
personal claim on the jewels,[800] which had probably been pledged to
him at some former time, but not fully redeemed, as had been the case
when four years earlier he had received a belated payment for the
campaign of 1415. If there was any insinuation that the Regent had been
robbing under the shadow of the law, it failed to reach the mark, and
the jewels were only secured by a heavy payment, though ultimately the
Cardinal managed to creep out of the engagements he had made.[801]
Taking all this into consideration, it is hard to deduce from these
proceedings in Parliament that Beaufort gained a victory over his
rival,[802] though he did secure an exemption from all liabilities
incurred by him under the Acts of Provisors and Præmunire.[803]
Yet another attack on Gloucester was made in this Parliament by his
opponents, when on June 10 Lord Cromwell complained before the Lords
that he had been dismissed from his office of Chamberlain contrary to
the Ordinances of 1429. He declared that it was a slight on his honour,
as no reason had been assigned for this action,[804] and he demanded to
be told for what fault he had been dismissed. It was not likely that,
where the Cardinal had failed, his follower would succeed, and Cromwell
was politely told by Gloucester that he had done no wrong, but was
removed merely because he himself and the Council wished it.[805] Thus
Gloucester had been successful all along the line. The various, scarcely
veiled, attacks made upon him in this Parliament had been repulsed, and
his power had been in no way lessened by the return of the King. His
position was recognised, and in October of the same year we even find
him described as 'Custode Angliæ' in an official document,[806] a title
of considerably greater importance than that of 'First Councillor.'
* * * * *
1433] NEGOTIATIONS FOR PEACE
Gloucester had so far asserted his strength that no open attempt to
challenge his authority was made for some time, and in this interval of
security he spent what time he could spare from public affairs in
rebuilding his house at Greenwich in magnificent style, and making a
park around it of some two hundred acres.[807] From this pursuit he was
called away at the beginning of 1433 by the negotiations for peace which
were going on between England and France under the care of the Pope's
representative, the Cardinal of St. Croix. The French had requested
that the prisoners in England might be sent over to confer with their
fellow-countrymen on the question of peace, and the Council at length
agreed to send them as far as Dover, where every facility of
communication with their friends across the Channel would be given
them.[808] At the same time it was arranged that several important
councillors should proceed to Calais, there to discuss the matter with
accredited representatives of Charles of France. At their head went
Gloucester accompanied by the Chancellor, who deposited the Great Seal
with the Clerk of the Rolls on April 15th preparatory to his
departure.[809] Humphrey had been making his preparations to cross the
Channel ever since February,[810] and on the 22nd of April he started
out for Calais.[811] There he was met by Beaufort and Bedford, the
latter having brought with him his newly married wife. Anne of Burgundy
had died in November,[812] and her husband had delayed but these few
months before marrying Jacquetta of Luxemburg, sister of the Count of
St. Pol and niece of John of Luxemburg, the Duke of Burgundy's chief
captain. The Duke was much displeased at the action of the Regent of
France, not merely for the slight that it cast on his sister's memory,
but also because the marriage with his vassal's daughter had been
contracted without his leave.[813] Among the many influences that tended
to alienate Burgundy from England it must be remembered that the
marriage of John of Bedford played its part, though it was inferior in
importance to the earlier marriage of his brother Humphrey.
At Calais Gloucester remained for a month, though no envoys came from
the French King, and consequently the business he had gone there to
perform could not be undertaken. Together with his brother he induced
Beaufort to lend another five thousand marks to the King,[814] and at
this time he seems to have been at peace with his uncle, a curious
interlude in the bitter rivalry. So far did this good feeling extend at
this time, that Humphrey issued a manifesto declaring his readiness to
submit his still outstanding differences with the Duke of Burgundy to
the arbitrament of Beaufort and Bedford.[815] This declaration is of
interest in itself, since it is possible that it was meant as an act of
conciliation towards Burgundy, who was obviously wavering in his English
alliance. If this interpretation be correct, it shows a strange turning
of the tables. Humphrey was now to try to undo the mischief caused by
John of Bedford's rash marriage. On May 23 Gloucester returned to
England,[816] to be followed in June by the Duke and Duchess of Bedford,
who crossed on Midsummer's Eve.[817]
1433] BEDFORD IN ENGLAND
The meeting of Parliament had been postponed owing to the absence of
Gloucester and the Chancellor in France, but on their return it was
summoned to meet in July. The session opened on the 8th of that month,
and on the same day Gloucester, who had surrendered his existing
life-peerage to the King, received it back entailed to the heirs male of
his body.[818] Bedford and the Cardinal both took their places in
Parliament, and on the 13th the former addressed the House, saying that
he had learnt that he had been falsely accused of treachery, and that
the English reverses in France were attributed to his neglect. As
Beaufort had done before him, he asked that he might be confronted with
his accusers.[819] On what authority Bedford made this statement we
cannot tell, whether he really had reason to suspect treachery on the
part of his brother, or whether it was merely the machinations of the
Cardinal, who had poured into his nephew's ear some invention of his
own, that induced him to make this protest, it is impossible to say. The
striking similarity of the method to that which Beaufort had adopted
would support the second supposition. It was not the first time that the
Bishop of Winchester had implanted distrust of Humphrey in Bedford's
mind to serve his own purposes.
Whatever prompted the protest, it had no further effect than to satisfy
Bedford's honour, for he was assured by the Chancellor that no report
such as he spoke of had reached the ears of the Duke of Gloucester, the
Council, or even the King himself, who regarded his uncle as his
faithful and true liege.[820] Bedford was not satisfied, and, prompted
by Beaufort, he brought his influence to bear on the officials of the
Crown. Lord Scrope was compelled to yield his place to Lord Cromwell,
whilst the Earl of Suffolk supplanted Sir Robert Babthorp as Steward of
the Household;[821] changes which implied the substitution of men of the
Beaufort faction, who had been warned against turbulence only a year
ago, for men who were known supporters of Gloucester and his policy.
Under Bedford's guidance, however, Cromwell threw himself with energy
into the work of his new office, and proceeded to collect statistics
concerning the finances of the kingdom, which were in a very bad
condition. Meanwhile Parliament was prorogued through fear of an attack
of the plague till October 13.[822]
Once again Bedford had come over to England to check his brother's
power, and it is more than probable that he had been instigated to take
this course by Beaufort, who however was this time too cunning to commit
to paper his appeal for help to the Regent of France. There was no
obvious excuse for this interference. The country was not suffering from
the rule of Gloucester, and therefore it is the more likely that it was
only the Bishop of Winchester's diminished power that caused this
intervention. Beaufort had been much abroad of late, and had had ample
opportunity to poison Bedford's mind against his brother, and the
latter's complaint in Parliament, coupled with the removal of all
Gloucester's friends from office, seems to show that some underhand
influence was at work. Strong man though he was, Bedford was unable to
grasp all the varied aspects of English politics. He knew his brother to
be ambitious and unsteady, but he did not realise that to curb his power
was to make him far more dangerous than when in a position of trust.
Beaufort was his banker and the source of the money with which he
conducted the French war; Beaufort had the gilded tongue of the wily
ecclesiastic, and so his suggestion that Gloucester in power spelt
anarchy at home and disaster abroad found a ready listener. Defeated in
his aims, the Bishop of Winchester reverted to his old policy of sowing
discord between the two Lancastrian brothers so as to advance himself,
and he continued this policy as long as Bedford was in England.
When Parliament met again, the Commons insisted that the Lords should
sign a declaration against the maintenance of criminals. Bedford and
Gloucester both appended their signatures to this declaration,[823] but
there was a prevalent opinion that there was a still better method of
ensuring peace and quietness in the kingdom. The presence of Bedford in
England was felt as a quieting influence, and the turbulence of the
nobles was kept in check by the one strong man of his age.[824] He
alone of the great men of the time stood aloof from the party strife
which surrounded the throne of Henry VI. In all her troubles England
looked to the one man who would not play for his own hand, and who put
the safety, honour, and welfare of the country before any personal
advantage.
1433] BEDFORD'S ATTITUDE
It was because they realised this fact that the Commons declared in a
petition presented to the King on November 24, that the Duke of Bedford
was too precious to the kingdom to be allowed to return to France. The
country had been so well governed and so quiet since his return, that in
the hope of continued peace they desired above all things that he should
remain at the head of affairs. To this petition the King replied by
ordering the Chancellor to summon Gloucester, Beaufort, the Archbishops
of Canterbury and York, and certain other Lords to discuss the matter,
and their report induced the King to request Bedford to remain in
England.[825] This request and the action of the Commons must have been
gratifying to Bedford, and he was too great a statesman not to realise
the significance of the position thus offered to him. He saw that
England was divided into two camps, that on one side stood the Beaufort
interest, and on the other those who supported Gloucester; he saw that
it was impossible for either of these two parties to govern the kingdom
quietly and well, for the most honest intentions would be thwarted by
the factious opposition of the party not in power, and hampered by the
necessity of guarding against attack. Looking back over the eleven years
of the reign, short periods of comparative peace might certainly be
found, but they were times when the preponderance of Gloucester in the
affairs of the kingdom was undisputed, and when the Cardinal was posing
as a soldier-priest in the Hussite crusade, or devoting his energies to
one of his many other interests. No prolonged quiet was possible whilst
all political England was divided into two distinct and militant
parties, and it was evident to a man of Bedford's clear understanding,
that some one uninfluenced by these storms must guide the ship of state
through the troubled waters in which she found herself. So to the
petition of the Commons and the request of the King Bedford gave answer,
that he was the King's servant in all things, and entirely at his
disposal.[826]
On the following day Bedford, in view of the low state of the finances
of the kingdom, agreed to accept an income of £l000 a year as Chief
Councillor, with a provision of £500 for every journey to and from
France,[827] and Gloucester hastened to follow suit, accepting £1000 in
lieu of the five thousand marks (£3333, 6s. 8d.) which he was then
receiving.[828] The lead thus given was followed by others who
voluntarily resigned their incomes, for the detailed report that Lord
Cromwell had presented to Parliament had shown a heavy deficit.[829]
These financial straits cannot be ascribed to maladministration, but
rather to the parsimony of Parliament, which by an annual grant of a
fifteenth could have placed the finances of the kingdom on a sure
footing.[830] Some attempt at organisation was made by appointing a
commission of revenue, whereby Bedford, Gloucester, and certain other
lords, including Beaufort and others named, were to examine the books of
the King's revenue, and to arrange how the yearly charges were to be
borne and the debts paid, and to whom preference in payment was to be
given.[831]
1434] BEDFORD AND THE COUNCIL
Having arranged his salary as Chief Councillor, Bedford proceeded to lay
down the conditions under which he would consent to carry on the
government of the kingdom. They were agreed to by Parliament, and it is
interesting to note the degree of power which he thought necessary for
himself, if he were to be able to govern the kingdom successfully. He
desired to know the names of those who would be chosen to serve on the
standing council, and stipulated that without his consent and that of
the Council none of them should be removed, thereby demonstrating that
he would not be content to be merely one of the Councillors with prior
rank, a position which when taken up by Humphrey was regarded with
suspicion by his contemporaries, and decried as self-seeking by later
historians. By insisting that he should be consulted, wherever he might
chance to be, on such matters as the calling of Parliament and the
appointment of bishoprics,[832] he showed that he desired a hold on the
government, which in Humphrey's case would have been dismissed as an
attempt to influence the elections, and to pack the episcopal Bench with
his supporters. Bedford saw that conciliar government was not what the
country needed, and while respecting the feelings of Councillors, he
insisted on a preponderance for himself in the councils of the nation.
We have no evidence beyond the well-known ambition of his character that
Gloucester desired more than this, though owing to the opposition he
encountered he had to invoke more questionable means of gaining his ends
than a mere demand laid before Parliament.
* * * * *
When Parliament was dissolved, the King went to spend Christmas at the
Abbey of St. Edmund at Bury, and probably Gloucester accompanied him. At
all events, when Henry returned thither for the Feast of the
Purification, and spent the whole of the Lenten season at the Abbey, we
find that Humphrey was there during the Easter celebrations, and that
when the time came to return to London, he and other nobles asked to be
admitted into the Fraternity. The request was gladly granted, and before
he left the monastery the King was induced by his uncle to repay the
Abbot for the expenses incurred in entertaining him and his suite.[833]
1434] BEDFORD AND GLOUCESTER QUARREL
Through all this time Gloucester had had no outlet for his energies, for
with his brother in possession of the government he had neither the
cares of office nor the excitement of opposition, so he turned his
attention to matters outside England, and began to evolve theories on
the conduct of the war in France. In a great Council held in the
Parliament Chamber at Westminster on a Saturday in April[834] he made
some observations on this subject, and Bedford, taking offence at what
his brother had said, demanded that it should be put into writing. This
accordingly was done, and on the following Monday it was read in full
Council, and provoked Bedford to demand a copy for himself, as he
considered that certain statements therein affected his honour; he added
that at a fit time he would declare his sentiments before the King and
the whole Council.[835] Gloucester's remarks seem to have contained an
offer, which he had also committed to writing, to serve the King in
France under certain unrecorded conditions, and the Council considered
the proposition. On May 5, however, they decided on the impracticability
of the suggestion, adding, however, that had it been possible, it would
have been most desirable. After great discussion the lords, knights, and
squires of the great Council had decided that the forty-eight or fifty
thousand pounds necessary for the undertaking could not be raised in so
short a time, especially as the commissioners lately appointed to raise
a loan in the shires had reported that no one was ready to lend, and as
the Treasurer, who of course would favour no scheme of Humphrey's,
declared the finances to be in a very bad state. They went on to say
that a rumour was abroad that Bedford and Gloucester had offered to
carry out the proposed expedition in such a way that neither 'taille nor
talliage' would have to be raised for many years, and that the great
Council had ignored this offer. If such a procedure were possible, they
would be only too pleased to consider it, if Gloucester would lay it
before them, and they concluded with a request that the King should
order the Chancellor to consult with Gloucester as to whether the people
of the land should be called 'in form accustomed to discuss the
matter.'[836]
It would seem from this that Humphrey, with his large ideas and his
imperfect grasp of the details that alone make a scheme possible, had
propounded a plan which it was impossible to carry out, though we must
not therefore suppose that he had not an honest intention of serving the
King in France whilst his brother governed at home. The impracticability
of the idea does not, in Humphrey's case, prove a lack of genuine
intention, for he was a man who lived with great ideas, the essentials
of which he was incapable of understanding or of carrying out. Quite
unwittingly, in all probability, he had offended his brother by his
suggestion, and it is not unlikely that in view of the disastrous course
of the war Bedford was rather sore on the question of its conduct, and
looked on every suggestion of the new procedure as a slight on himself.
It is, of course, also possible that Humphrey was deliberately trying to
annoy his brother, and to discredit his policy. There is, however,
nothing to support this theory, save the Duke's known factiousness. It
is quite likely that he desired some new outlet for his energies, now
that the government was in the hands of a man whose prior claims he had
never denied, and there is nothing in the past relations of the two to
suggest that bad blood had ever before risen between them.
The quarrel which originated in the scheme was not laid to rest by the
latter's rejection by the Council, and Humphrey probably considered the
refusal to accept it as instigated by his brother. On May 7, therefore,
he appeared in Council at a meeting held in the palace of the Bishop of
Durham, and desired that the observations that he had committed to
writing might be returned to him, a request which was granted, and the
next day Bedford sent in a written reply to Gloucester's remarks. These
were read in full Council by the Chancellor, and provoked a reply from
Gloucester, who in his turn asked for a copy of Bedford's answer, and
for a day to be appointed for his retort. On the advice of the Council,
however, the King declared that the matter must not proceed further, and
taking the statements of both parties in his hands, he declared them
null and void, saying, that in neither was there anything prejudicial to
the honour of either Duke, and that he considered them both to be his
affectionate uncles. The incident was thus closed, both Bedford and
Gloucester agreeing to sign the decision.[837]
1435] DEATH OF BEDFORD
This unfortunate misunderstanding came almost at the end of Bedford's
stay in England. He had already made up his mind to return to the scenes
of his former labours, for he could not stand by and see the kingdom
that Henry V. had won pass out of English hands, without doing his
utmost to prevent it. On June 20 he took leave of the Council,[838] and
shortly after left England for the last time.[839] His life's work was
done. Burgundy, who had been an unsatisfactory ally for many years past,
was drawing closer and closer to the French King, and the Pope, having
brought his influence to bear on the contending parties, induced them to
hold a European Congress at Arras in August 1435.[840] In spite of the
conciliatory offers of the French, Beaufort and the other English
delegates based their demands on the Treaty of Troyes--at this stage of
the war an absurdly impossible attitude--and, perceiving that a
Burgundian alliance with France was inevitable, they left the Congress
on September 5.[841] This alliance was completed by the end of the
month,[842] but not before Bedford's death on September 14.[843]
With the death of Bedford and the defection of Burgundy, even the most
shadowy hope of retaining his hold on France passed from the King of
England, and the claims, first raised by Edward III., and resuscitated
by Henry V., were to end in the disaster which had been inevitable from
the first. Of all the men to whom Henry of Monmouth had confided the
care of his son and of his kingdom, Bedford alone was worthy of his
implicit trust. He had fought an uphill and impossible fight in France,
and on two occasions he had turned his attention to the internal affairs
of England. He had played a difficult rôle with as much success as was
to be expected, and we can only guess at what might have been the
destiny of England had it secured his undivided attention. Had he been
settled in England as Protector, his power would doubtless have been
less than on the occasions when he came to readjust the balance of
parties in 1426 and 1433, for he would not then have received the
support of the Beaufort faction, which only looked on him as a useful
tool to use when Gloucester's ascendency became too secure. At his death
the one steadying and exterior influence in English politics was gone,
and the party strife, which had been the curse of England for the last
thirteen years, pursued its course unhindered.
From the time of the death of Bedford and the Treaty of Arras onwards a
change comes over the internal politics of England. Hitherto the war in
France had been carried on by the French Regent almost without reference
to the authorities at home, and questions of foreign policy had not made
their way into the bickerings of Beaufort and Gloucester. But now that
the strong hand in France was removed, and the defection of the Duke of
Burgundy had at last become definite, it was impossible for the Council,
in the face of both occurrences, to ignore any longer the fact that the
country was at war. This was emphasised by the appearance of Burgundian
envoys in London, who came to announce the peace made between the Duke
of Burgundy and Charles of France, and to seek to procure peace with
England also.[844] The country in general was too angry with the Duke to
realise the advantages of his neutrality. His envoys therefore were
denied the privileges of their position, their peace propositions were
scouted by the Council, and they were not even vouchsafed a definite
answer.[845] Both Beaufort and Gloucester emphasised their objections to
peace with Burgundy, and the Treasurer pointed out what he considered to
be the insulting omission of the title 'souverain seigneur' in
addressing the King.[846] In Parliament, which met on October 10, the
Chancellor, John Stafford, delivered a virulent attack on Burgundian
policy, and the assembly was induced to agree readily enough to the
continued prosecution of the war, and to the inclusion of the Duke of
Burgundy among the King's enemies.[847] Council and Parliament
therefore, led by both Beaufort and Gloucester as well as by the rest of
the royal officers, threw down the gauntlet to Burgundy, and it is well
to remember this when in the light of subsequent events we find
Gloucester attacked for leading the nation to war at this time.[848]
1435] GLOUCESTER LIEUTENANT OF CALAIS
The death of Bedford naturally increased Humphrey's strength in the
kingdom. He now stood next in succession to the throne as
heir-presumptive to his young nephew, and he was freed from the
domination of a superior authority, to which in time of need his enemies
could appeal. His influence may be traced in the appointment of the Duke
of York to the command in France. Hitherto this Duke had not been seen
in English politics, being at this time only twenty-four years old, but
he had been brought into close contact with Humphrey, who had been
granted the administration of his land during his minority, and whose
good name he championed later in life. At this time men looked to the
Duke of Gloucester as the chief man in England, and it was to him that
the Bishop of Bayeux addressed himself when begging for help for the
distressed Duchy of Normandy.[849]
Such being Gloucester's position, it was natural that he should receive
some of the offices and responsibilities vacated by his brother. His
former idea of taking the command in France was not resuscitated, as he
doubtless wished to guard his interests at home, but on November 1 he
succeeded Bedford as Lieutenant of the King in the town, marches, and
castle of Calais, to which were added the regions of Picardy, Flanders,
and Artois. The appointment bore civil as well as military obligations,
and was a challenge to the Duke of Burgundy in that certain of his
territories were included in the grant.[850] Calais itself was an
important command quite apart from strategic reasons. It was the town
where the wool staple was established, though this was a fact of
declining importance; more than this, it was regarded as the safeguard
of English trade, for so long as England kept the command of the narrow
seas between Dover and Calais, she might rule the world's commerce, as
all trade from north to south had to pass that way.[851] Besides the
government of Calais, Gloucester received another of Bedford's
possessions when on November 23 the Council presented him with the
islands of Jersey and Guernsey, in exchange for which Humphrey resigned
the annuity of five hundred marks, given to him by Henry V. for himself
and his heirs until lands of an equal value should be given him.[852]
1436] RELIEF OF CALAIS
For a time the political quarrels of the two factions were silenced by
their common anger at the desertion of Burgundy and by the pre-eminence
of Gloucester in the kingdom. Two instances of his preponderance
appeared in the following year, when his wife Eleanor received her first
public recognition as Duchess of Gloucester by being provided with robes
of the Order of the Garter wherewith to keep the Feast of St. George at
Windsor,[853] and when in the May following the Duke of Orleans was
transferred from the custody of the Earl of Suffolk, who had been
ordered to France, to that of Sir Reginald de Cobham, Gloucester's
father-in-law.[854] Matters other than those of home politics, however,
were to occupy Gloucester in the near future. Early in June it was known
in London that Burgundy had begun hostilities, and was advancing against
Calais, and preparations were hurriedly made to save the city which
Englishmen cherished above all their other possessions in France. Orders
were given for the preparation of supplies and munitions of war for the
garrison, and provisions for an army which was being mustered to serve
under Gloucester.[855] The Earl of Huntingdon was commissioned to raise
men to accompany the expedition,[856] the Cardinal was induced to lend
nine thousand marks to defray the costs, armourers and victuallers were
forbidden to raise their prices in view of the demand on their wares,
and all men who wished to serve under Gloucester were ordered to be at
Sandwich by the 22nd of July.[857] Delays, however, were inevitable, and
it was not till the 27th that Gloucester received his special commission
as Lieutenant-General of the army going to the defence of Calais,
followed three days later by a writ conferring on him the County of
Flanders.[858] By the 2nd of August all things were ready, and on that
day he transported his army in five hundred ships from Winchester to
Calais.[859]
Humphrey had been retained to serve the King, with one Duke besides
himself, two Earls, eleven Barons, twenty-three Knights, four hundred
and fifteen men-at-arms, and four thousand and forty-five archers,[860]
but the full number of his army when joined by the retinue of the Duke
of Norfolk and the Earls of Huntingdon, Devon, Stafford, and
Warwick[861] who accompanied him, is uncertain. The chroniclers estimate
the strength of the army variously between ten thousand and sixty
thousand men,[862] of which the lowest figure is probably nearer the
truth, since it was given by one who himself saw the army,[863] and at
such short notice it would have been impossible to raise a force in any
way approaching the larger estimate.
When Gloucester reached Calais he found the siege already raised.
Burgundy with thirty thousand men[864] had invested the place on July
9,[865] but from the first the valiant defenders, under their captain,
Sir John Radcliffe,[866] had had the best of the encounter. An attempt
to obstruct the harbour failed, and a blockade was out of the
question,[867] so the besieged were able to supply themselves with every
necessity from the sea,[868] a state of affairs which encouraged them to
make several sorties, and to capture a bastion raised against them and
held by the men of Ghent.[869] The majority of Burgundy's army consisted
of raw Flemish levies, who were constantly in a state of
insubordination,[870] and their discontent increased when the Earl of
Huntingdon and Lord Camoys relieved the garrison with troops levied for
the French war.[871] Moreover, the further reinforcements with
Gloucester were expected, for the Duke had sent a challenge to his old
enemy, calling on him to do battle before Calais, though excusing
himself from fixing a date as wind and weather could not be reckoned
on.[872] However, when news came that their approach was imminent, the
Flemings incontinently broke up their camp and fled leaving stores and
guns as prizes for the enemy.[873]
'For they had very knowyng
Off the duk off Gloceters cumyng,
Caleys to rescue.'[874]
And another rhymer tells how
'Ffor fere they turned backe and hyede feste;
Mi lorde of Gloucestre made hem so agaste
Wyth his commynge.'[875]
[Illustration: THE SIEGE OF CALAIS IN 1436.
_From a Drawing._]
It was a bitter pill for Duke Philip to be compelled to follow his
disorderly troops, fleeing as he did before the man whom above all
others he had learned to hate, and whom he had boldly promised to meet
in arms before the city.[876]
1436] RAID ON FLANDERS
Gloucester had declared through his herald that, if Burgundy were not
before Calais to meet him, he would pursue him,[877] and on hearing that
the Duke had retired to Lille, and had fortified the border
fortresses,[878] he prepared to fulfil his word. Leaving Calais on
August 3,[879] he advanced to Merck in the neighbourhood of Oge, and
there spent the night in the fields, passing on the next day to the
neighbourhood of Gravelines.[880] On August 6 he crossed over into
Flanders, even as he had done nearly twenty years before to meet John
the Fearless in midstream, and led his army to Mardyke, which was
pillaged and burned. The reason for thus making for the coast may have
been to open communications with the fleet, which had been ordered to
cruise off the coast of Flanders and to co-operate with the invading
army, but the sailors, unsupported by men-at-arms on board, feared to
encounter a hostile fleet, and put back into the harbour of Calais.[881]
Unable, therefore, to draw supplies from the fleet, Gloucester turned
due south, and marched inland, meeting with no resistance,[882] but
followed by a detachment from Gravelines, which sought to pick off
stragglers and to take the invaders unawares. The excellent order kept
by the invaders thwarted their plans, and the detachment returned to
Gravelines.
Meanwhile Gloucester pursued his way to Bailleul, burning everything as
he went,[883] and throwing out a part of his troops under the Earl of
Huntingdon to take and sack Poperinghes on his left.[884] Arrived at
Bailleul, he lodged outside the walls, at the Abbey of St. Anthony,
which was spared, though the town where his men lay and the surrounding
country were utterly devastated. Retracing his steps from this point, he
picked up the detachment under Huntingdon at Poperinghes, where much
booty had been secured, and passing by Neu-Châtel, he burnt Rimesture
and Valon-Chapelle, then entering Artois he met with some slight
resistance. Skirmishes were fought round Arques and Blandesques, till
the army reached St. Omer, burning and harrying all that came in its
way, so that Duke Philip from his refuge at Lille could see the light of
the fires on the horizon, though he was quite powerless to help those
who cried to him for aid, as the soldiers he had summoned had not yet
arrived.[885]
The English did not penetrate into the town of St. Omer, as it was
securely held, but Gloucester lodged at the Abbey of Blandesques
outside the walls, whilst his men were encamped along the banks of the
river Aa, where Waurin himself saw them, when he stole out from
Gravelines on the night of August 15.[886] Some attempt was made to
harass the invaders as they lay here, and the captains both of St. Omer
and Arques tried to pick off the stragglers, but with little success,
for Gloucester was so careful that he could not be taken by surprise. On
the morning of August 15 the English moved on with care for fear of
ambushes,[887] and having met with somewhat more determined resistance
than they had hitherto experienced from the captains of Tournehem,
Espreleques, and Bredenaide, they found their way to Guisnes somewhat
distressed by a sickness caused by a lack of bread.[888] Everywhere the
supporters of Burgundy had been pillaged, and large herds of cattle and
other booty had fallen into the hands of the soldiers, but so distressed
were the latter for the lack of bread, that to some women, who presented
them with a little, they gave large herds of cattle, which, by reason of
the bands of the enemy that followed behind them, were more an
encumbrance than an advantage.[889] At Calais Gloucester was received
with joy, and, having rested his men a while, about August 24 he
recrossed the Channel with much booty, leaving his prisoners behind in
safe keeping.
On landing the troops were dismissed, and Humphrey proceeded to London,
where he was given a great reception,[890] for he had struck a heavy
blow at the prosperity of the Burgundian territories, and the anger felt
by the English against their recent ally was appeased when they thought
of Gloucester's expedition, and how
'In Flanders he soght hem fer and ner,
That ever they may yt rew.'[891]
Though, we cannot look on this devastating campaign of Gloucester's as a
great military achievement, yet it is not necessary to dismiss it with
the contempt it has received on the authority of the rhyming chronicler:
'The protectour with his flete at Calys then
Did lande, and rode in Flaunders a little waye,
And little did to counte a manly man.'[892]
We have the evidence of an eye-witness to prove the skill with which he
protected his men from falling victims to the enemy's bands, and the
strict discipline which he kept in his ranks. Even if it was but for a
short time that he defied the Duke of Burgundy, we must not forget that
his men were only enlisted for a month's service,[893] and that they
were probably raw recruits, since the experienced soldiers had all gone
to make up the contingents of York and Mortain. Nay more, as it is
unfair to blame Gloucester for the nature of this campaign, so it is
equally unfair to blame him for allowing the Earl of Mortain to relieve
Calais before him.[894] His preparations had only been begun after the
news of the investment of Calais had reached England. His commission was
signed on July 27, and he was in Calais on August 3. On the other hand,
the Earl had been preparing his troops as far back as the previous
October, and was naturally quite ready to take the offensive after so
long a period of preparation. Humphrey was not a great general, but,
within the restricted limits of such a commission as this, there was no
other captain in England who could have excelled him.
FOOTNOTES:
[749] _Rot. Parl._, iv. 337; Rymer, IV. iv. 151.
[750] _Rot. Parl._, iv. 338.
[751] _Ibid._, iv. 350.
[752] 8 _Henry VI._, c. 7; _Statutes_, ii. 243.
[753] _Rot. Parl._, iv. 343, 344.
[754] _Ordinances_, iv. 35-38; _Rot. Parl._, v. 416-418.
[755] _Rot. Parl._, v. 415.
[756] _Ordinances_, iv. 12; Devon, _Issue Roll_, p. 44.
[757] _St. Albans Chron._, i. 48-50; _Rot. Parl._, v. 415.
[758] Rymer, IV. iv. 159.
[759] _Ibid._, IV. iv. 160. The commission was approved in Council
on April 21. Ordinances, iv. 40, 41.
[760] _Eng. Chron._, 54; _Cal. of French Rolls_, Rep. 48, App. 273.
[761] _Ordinances_, iv. 16.
[762] _Ibid._, iv. 53, 73-75.
[763] _Ibid._, iv. 68; see also Polydore Vergil, 46.
[764] _Rot. Parl._, iv. 367.
[765] _Ordinances_, iv. 79.
[766] _Rot. Parl._, iv. 371.
[767] Polydore Vergil, 45.
[768] Devon, _Issue Roll_, 413.
[769] _St. Albans Chron._, i. 63. The petition is printed in the
Appendix to _St. Albans Chron._, i. 453-457.
[770] Cotton MS., Julius, B. ii. ff. 61-63vo; Walsingham, _Hist.
Angl._, ii. 282, 283; Redmayne, 24, 25.
[771] Capgrave, _De Illustribus Henricis_, 121.
[772] _Eng. Chron._, 54.
[773] May 17.
[774] Cotton MS., Cleopatra, C. iv. f. 37; _St. Albans Chron._, i.
63, 64; _Ordinances_, iv. 107; Devon, _Issue Roll_, 415;
Ellis, _Original Letters_, 2nd Series, i. 104, 105; William
of Worcester, 455, 456; Cotton MS., Vitellius, A. xvi. f.
93vo.
[775] _St. Albans Chron._, i. 61.
[776] Devon, _Issue Roll_, 412; _Ordinances_, iv. 91. Gloucester
also sent one of the judges to put an end to the rebels round
Kenilworth and Coventry; _ibid._, iv. 89.
[777] Cotton MS., Cleopatra, C. iv. ff. 36vo, 37vo.
[778] Henry was crowned at Paris on December 11, 1431; _Chron. Henry
VI._, 13.
[779] _Ordinances_, iv. 100, 101; Rymer, IV. iv. 174, 175.
[780] Cotton MS., Cleopatra, C. iv. f. 35.
[781] _Ordinances_, iv. 101; Rymer, IV. iv. 175.
[782] _Ordinances_, iv. 8.
[783] _Ibid._, iv. 105.
[784] _Ibid._, iv. 104; Devon, _Issue Roll_, 414, 415.
[785] Devon, _Issue Roll_, 412.
[786] _Ordinances_, iv. 104-106; Devon, _Issue Roll_, 414, 415.
[787] _Rot. Parl._ iv. 424.
[788] _Chron. Henry VI._, 13.
[789] _Chron. Henry VI._, 13. The entry into London is described in
a poem by Lydgate printed at the end of the _London
Chronicle_, 235-248. A prose account is to be found in
Delpit, _Doc. Fr._, pp. 244-248, No. CCCLXXXII., giving the
date as February 20. Cf. Fabyan, 603-607.
[790] _Rot. Parl._, v. 433.
[791] Rymer, IV. iv. 176.
[792] _Ibid._, IV. iv. 177.
[793] _Ordinances_, iv. 112.
[794] Ramsay, i. 439.
[795] See Gloucester's indictment of Cardinal Beaufort below, p.
262.
[796] _Rot. Parl._, iv. 389.
[797] _Rot. Parl._, iv. 390, 391.
[798] _Ibid._, iv. 391.
[799] _Ibid._, iv. 391.
[800] _Ibid._, iv. 392.
[801] See _Ordinances_, iv. 238.
[802] So Stubbs, iii. 115, copied by Ramsay, i. 441.
[803] _Rot. Parl._, iv. 392.
[804] He had been dismissed for 'certain reasons' not specified. See
Rymer, IV. iv. 177.
[805] _Rot. Parl._, iv. 392. See also _Miscellaneous Rolls_, Bundle
xix. No. 3.
[806] _Rot. Parl._, iv. 396.
[807] _Ordinances_, iv. 136-138.
[808] De Beaucourt, ii. 462.
[809] _Ordinances_, iv. 158.
[810] _Cal. of French Rolls_, Rep. 48, App. 290.
[811] Rymer, IV. iv. 194; Gregory, 176.
[812] Monstrelet, 666.
[813] _Ibid._, 673; _Lond. Chron._, 120; Leland, _Collectanea_, i.
491; Polydore Vergil, 47.
[814] Devon, _Issue Roll_, 425.
[815] Stevenson, _Letters and Papers_, ii. 417, 418. This document,
which is undated, is put under the year 1428 by the editor,
though no reason is assigned for so doing. The fact that
Beaufort is alluded to as a cardinal, and the mention of
Bedford, confines the possible date of the manifesto within
1427 and 1435. This was the only occasion between these two
dates that Gloucester set foot in Calais, where this document
was signed.
[816] Rymer, IV. iv. 194.
[817] _Lond. Chron._, 120.
[818] _Cal. Rot. Pat._, 277; G. E. C., _Peerage_, iv. 44.
[819] _Rot. Parl._, iv. 420.
[820] _Ibid._, iv. 420.
[821] _Ordinances_, iv. 175.
[822] _Rot. Parl._, iv. 420.
[823] _Rot. Parl._, vi. 422.
[824] See the evidence of a contemporary; _Chron. Henry VI._, 14.
[825] _Rot. Parl._, iv. 423.
[826] _Rot. Parl._, iv. 423.
[827] _Ibid._, iv. 424.
[828] _Ordinances_, iv. 186.
[829] _Rot. Parl._, iv. 132-139.
[830] See Stubbs, iii. 117, 118.
[831] _Rot. Parl._, iv. 439.
[832] _Rot. Parl._, iv. 424.
[833] _Register of Abbot Curteys_, part of which is printed in
_Archæologia_ for the year 1806, vol. xv. pp. 66-71.
[834] Probably April 24, the last Saturday in the month.
[835] _Ordinances_, iv. 210, 211.
[836] _Ordinances_, iv. 213-215.
[837] _Ordinances_, iv. 211-213.
[838] _Ibid._, iv. 243-247.
[839] His quarrel with Gloucester never seems to have been made up,
for in his will, made in 1435, the name of his brother does
not once appear, and the chief executors were the Archbishop
of York and Beaufort--two of Gloucester's most determined
opponents. _Testamenta Vetusta_, i. 242.
[840] English envoys were appointed July 20, 1435; _Cal. of French
Rolls_, Rep. 43, App. 306.
[841] Waurin, iv. 69-84.
[842] _Ibid._, iv. 84, 85.
[843] _Chron. Henry VI._, 15.
[844] Waurin, iv. 94, 95.
[845] _Ibid._, iv. 96-101.
[846] _Ibid._, iv. 97, 98.
[847] _Rot. Parl._, iv. 481.
[848] Ramsay, i. 475.
[849] _Beckington Correspondence_, i. 209-294.
[850] Rymer, IV. i. 23; Carte, ii. 285; _Cal. of French Rolls_, Rep.
48, App. 306, 307. Parliament agreed to Gloucester's
indentures for the command on October 29; _Rot. Parl._, iv.
483, 484.
[851] 'Libel of English Policy,' _Political Songs_, ii. 157-205.
[852] _Ordinances_, v. 5.
[853] Beltz, p. ccxxiii.
[854] Rymer, V. i. 36.
[855] _Cal. of French Rolls_, Rep. 48, App. 313.
[856] Rymer, V. i. 31. _Cal. of French Rolls_, Rep. 48, App. 322,
calls it 1438.
[857] Rymer, V. i. 32.
[858] _Cal. of French Rolls_, Rep. 48, App. 134; Carte, ii. 289;
Rymer, V. i. 34; _Lords' Reports_, v. 234.
[859] _London Chron._, 122, 172; _Short English Chron._, 62; Fabyan,
610. Gregory, 179, gives July 26, and is followed by Holkham
MS., p. 37--obviously the mistake of a week. Cotton MS.,
Cleopatra, C. iv. f. 53vo, gives July 27.
[860] Stevenson, _Letters and Papers_, ii. xlix.
[861] _Brief English Chron._, 63; _Chron. Henry VI._, 16. The Earl
of Devonshire is included only in _Lond. Chron._, 122, but
his indenture survives.
[862] Ten thousand, Waurin, iv. 200; Monstrelet, 473: fifteen
thousand, Basin, i. 130: forty thousand, Gregory, 179: sixty
thousand, Rede's _Chron._, Rawlinson MS., C. 398; _Brief
Latin Chron._, 165: fifty thousand, William of Worcester,
458. The payments in the Issue Roll printed in Stevenson,
_Letters and Papers_, ii. pp. xlix _seq._, give Gloucester's
retinue as 4497 men, and those of the lords who accompanied
him as 4132, in all 8629 men. This approximates to the 10,000
estimate.
[863] Waurin. See his _Chronicle_, iv. 185, 201.
[864] Waurin, iv. 160. Fourteen thousand exclusive of camp-followers
and two or three thousand Picards, etc., Basin, i. 126, 127.
Fifty thousand men, _Chron. Henry VI._, 15.
[865] _Lond. Chron._, 121.
[866] _Engl. Chron._, 55.
[867] Waurin, iv. 176-178.
[868] _Ibid._, iv. 171.
[869] _Ibid._, iv. 175-180; Basin, i. 128.
[870] Waurin, iv. 172, 173; Monstrelet, 740.
[871] Rede's _Chron._, Rawlinson MS., C. 398; _Brief Latin Chron._,
165; _Chron. Henry VI._, 16; _Engl. Chron._, 55; Hardyng,
396.
[872] Waurin, iv. 173, 174.
[873] _Ibid._, iv. 186-188; Basin, i. 128, 129; Gregory, 179;
Fabyan, 610, 611.
[874] Contemporary ballad on Siege of Calais; _Political Songs_, ii.
156.
[875] 'The Libel of English Policy,' written before 1437; _Political
Songs_, ii. 170.
[876] Waurin, iv. 174; Monstrelet, 738. A good account of the siege
by an eye-witness is found in a poem entitled 'The Siege of
Calais,' _Political Songs_, ii. 151-156.
[877] Monstrelet, 738; Waurin, iv. 173.
[878] Basin, i. 130; Waurin, iv. 192.
[879] Monstrelet, 743, says next day to landing, _i.e._ August 3.
Gregory, 179, and Cotton MS., Cleopatra, C. iv. f. 53vo, say
he rested Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at Calais, and started
on the Monday, _i.e._ the fourth day after landing. _London
Chron._, 122, however, says that Gloucester crossed the river
at Gravelines on the fourth day after coming over, which
would not prevent his having left Calais on August 3, and
that he only entered Flanders on August 6. William of
Worcester, 458, also gives August 6 as the day of entry into
Flanders. The confusion arises from the divergence of the
chroniclers as to where the campaign started, and this is
obvious as William of Worcester gives the campaign as lasting
nine days (Gloucester was back at Guisnes on August 15),
whereas others compute it at eleven or twelve days, counting
in the time spent between Calais and Gravelines. _Brief Latin
Chron._, 165; _Chron. Henry VI._, 16; _London Chron._, 122.
_Short Engl. Chron._, 62, gives August 13 as the day of
leaving Calais.
[880] _Short English Chron._, 62.
[881] Waurin, iv. 201; _Short Engl. Chron._, 62.
[882] Monstrelet, 743.
[883] Waurin, iv. 201, 202. Waurin himself marched out from
Gravelines.
[884] _Brief Latin Chron._, 165.
[885] Waurin, iv. 203; Monstrelet, 743.
[886] Waurin, iv. 204. He gives the day as 'Nostre Dame de
Septembre,' _i.e._ the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, September
8. It is obviously a mistake for the Assumption in August.
Gloucester was back in England in September; _Brief Latin
Chron._, 165.
[887] Waurin, iv. 204, 205.
[888] Monstrelet, 743.
[889] _Ibid._
[890] Waurin, iv. 205, 206; _Brief Latin Chron._, 165.
[891] Contemporary ballad; _Political Songs_, ii. 156.
[892] Hardyng, 396. Cf. Ramsay, i. 488.
[893] See Issue Roll printed in Stevenson's _Letters and Papers_,
ii. p. xlix.
[894] Cf. Stubbs, iii. 123.