DISGRACE AND DEATH
The expedition to Calais and Flanders was the last military enterprise
undertaken by the Duke of Gloucester, indeed the active part of his life
abruptly ends with his return to England. Hitherto there had been no
question of public policy which had not attracted his attention, his
boundless restlessness had made his biography the mirror of the English
history of his time. Henceforth, however, the habits of his life undergo
a change, the last stage of his career has been reached. With all the
limitations put upon him, and with all the opposition he had
encountered, he had always maintained a position of importance in the
kingdom, and the national policy had at all times been largely under his
influence. In spite of his inconsistency of method he had never relaxed
his attempts to dominate all who came in his way, but now his energies
in this direction seem to slacken. His character does not alter, but his
struggles, like those of a dying man, became more intermittent, and in
spite of occasional bursts of energy, his interests were not chiefly
confined to matters political. That this sudden change was entirely due
to a loss of physical power is hardly likely; it is possible that with
his usual impetuosity he had devoted himself to other pursuits, and that
politics no longer occupied the prominent place in his thoughts that
they had hitherto enjoyed.
On his return to England Gloucester rested from his labours, and
together with his Duchess went down to his house at Greenwich. They both
received New-Year's gifts from the King. To Gloucester was given 'a
tabulet of gold with an image of oure Ladye hanging by three cheynes,'
whereon were six imitation diamonds, six sapphires, and one hundred and
sixty-four pearls, whilst his wife's present consisted of a 'brouche
maad in maner of a man garnished with a fayre great ball,' set with five
large pearls, one large diamond, and three 'hangers' adorned with rubies
and pearls--by far the finest and costliest gifts among the numerous
New-Year's presents given on that occasion by the King.[895] The return
of Gloucester did not herald more dissensions in the Council. He was for
the time predominant in the country, and the death of the Queen-Mother
on January 2, 1437, removed one who might have counteracted his
influence with the King.[896] Indeed at one time Catherine had evinced a
desire to marry Edmund Beaufort, Earl of Mortain, but Gloucester,
fearing increased importance would accrue to the Beaufort party thereby,
induced the Council to forbid it. At her death, however, it transpired
that she had not been content to remain single, but had married a simple
gentleman named Owen Tudor, and by him had had three sons and daughters.
Owen was arrested by Gloucester on the strength of the Act which forbade
such a marriage without permission under the penalty of forfeiture of
life and possessions, but he succeeded in making his escape.[897]
1437-9] INACTIVITY OF GLOUCESTER
Throughout the year 1437 Gloucester's name occasionally appears in
official records as though his influence in the kingdom was
considerable, and a special room was set apart at the end of Westminster
Hall for himself and his council.[898] In Parliament, which met in
January, the Speaker, in declaring the grant of a fifteenth and a
tenth, added some words of strong commendation of his recent action with
regard to Calais, and of his campaign in Flanders,[899] and the Commons
took up the question of the payment of the soldiers at Calais, when the
Duke complained that they were not being paid in accordance with the
indentures under which he held the command of that town.[900]
The session passed without any signs of party strife, and we see little
of Gloucester during the rest of the year. In August both he and his
Duchess attended the funeral of yet another Queen of England, Joan, the
unfortunate second wife of Henry IV.,[901] to whom in the past Humphrey
had shown some courtesy in spite of her virtual imprisonment and
disgrace at Langley. In November he seems to have been at Calais
arranging some matter concerning his command there,[902] and he was
probably not in England when on the thirteenth of the month the King
assumed the government of the kingdom, and appointed his own Council to
advise him. At the head of these Councillors stood Gloucester and
Beaufort, and the former was to draw a salary of two thousand marks a
year for life, other members of the Council receiving payment on a much
lower scale.[903]
The next two years passed by without any signs of internal dissension
among the King's chief Councillors, and the name of the Duke of
Gloucester is not met with frequently during this interval. In March he
was appointed chief guardian of the Truce for nine years with
Scotland,[904] but undoubtedly most of his time was spent in the
collection and study of those rare manuscripts which about this time he
began to give to the University of Oxford.[905] Never consistently
pursuing any particular course of action for long, he had abandoned the
stormy scenes of party politics, never more to enter the lists again
save in a sudden outbreak of energy and anger, yet the one real passion
of his life, interrupted though it had been by his political ambitions,
still remained, and in his retirement he used the lull in the political
tempest to 'study in Bookys of antiquyte,'[906] and to encourage the
advancement of the new learning as it found its way feebly and slowly to
England.
In this retirement, however, Gloucester did not forget that a patron of
letters needs a long purse, and he secured several additions to his
already large possessions. His ferm of the lands of the young Duke of
Norfolk, which he had held since 1432, expired about this time,[907] but
he acquired the Hundred of Wootton and the Manors of Woodstock,
Handborough, Stonesfield, and Wootton, all in the neighbourhood of
Oxford; while in Norfolk he was given the Manor of Stanhoe, situated
near Burnham; near Tunbridge he received the Manors of 'Jevele,'
'Havendencourte,' and Penshurst,[908] at the last of which he spent some
portion of his time amongst his precious books.[909] From this period of
peace Gloucester roused himself in 1440 to protest against a policy
which he considered most injurious to the welfare of the kingdom, and to
stir up the turmoil of party warfare once more by an attack on his old
rival, Cardinal Beaufort.
1440] NEGOTIATIONS FOR PEACE
The opinions of the King's advisers had changed since the days when, in
blind fury after the defection of the Duke of Burgundy at Arras in 1435,
they had determined on war to the death, and it was realised that peace
with France was the only solution of the monetary difficulties of the
King and the universal distress throughout the kingdom. As early as
March 1438 plenipotentiaries to discuss the basis of a peace had been
appointed,[910] and during June, July, and August of the following year
an embassy under Cardinal Beaufort had treated with French envoys under
the mediating supervision of the Duchess of Burgundy. The terms demanded
by the English were ridiculously pretentious, and in spite of
considerable modifications therein, negotiations were broken off; Henry
VI. and his Council could not realise how desperate was the cause of
England in France, and that terms, which would have been humiliating in
the days of Henry V., were now almost generous.[911]
The failure of these negotiations has been unhesitatingly attributed to
Gloucester, but his share in their rejection is by no means proved, and
is chiefly suggested by the facts of his later conduct. Be this as it
may, Beaufort had entirely changed his front, and though he clamoured
with the rest for war in 1435, he now, four years later, was the most
prominent advocate for peace. Gloucester, on the other hand, was the
leader of the party which desired the war to continue, but it is unjust
to jump to the conclusion that it was merely to oppose his old rival
that he adopted this attitude. He, almost alone of those who stood at
the head of the nation, could remember the fleeting glories of the reign
of Henry V., and he naturally could not bring himself to agree to the
surrender of that which he had helped to acquire. To the day of his
death, Bedford had never favoured the withdrawal of the Lancastrian
claim to the throne of France, and his brother, born and bred in the
same school, shared his opinion. The Cardinal, though an older man, had
had no share in the military exploits of his nephew's reign, and had
contented himself with posing as a soldier of Christ in the army which
in the name of religion had fought for the restoration of Sigismund to
his Bohemian throne. He was a politician and, when he liked a
statesman, and his keen insight taught him to apprehend the situation
free from all the prejudices of the men of his own generation. In his
desire for peace he was undoubtedly justified, but this does not condemn
the morality of those who opposed him.
Though he had failed in his first attempt to negotiate, Beaufort was not
the man to despair, and his next step was to urge the release of the
Duke of Orleans, who had been a captive in England ever since the battle
of Agincourt, in the hopes that his mediation might help to bring about
the much-desired peace. There was yet a deeper intention than lay on the
face of this suggestion, for the Duke of Burgundy favoured the scheme,
hoping that Orleans might join the league of Princes which he was trying
to form with the object of limiting Charles VII.'s growing power and
that of his bourgeois officials.[912]
1440] ATTACK ON BEAUFORT
To a man who had seen half France conquered owing to the dissensions of
the French Court this method of crippling England's enemy must have
seemed a chance not to be missed. Whatever the unacknowledged motive of
the project, the question of the moment was the release of Charles of
Orleans, and it was this which brought Humphrey from the seclusion of
his books, once more to mix in the party politics which he had for the
time abandoned. However honest Gloucester's objection to the peace
policy might be, his dislike of his uncle, and the traditions of fifteen
years' faction fight, could not be forgotten; he strongly resented the
position of authority which the recent negotiations had given Beaufort
in the councils of the nation, and his first step towards asserting
himself once more in party politics was to draw up a heavy indictment of
the Cardinal, his policy, and his adherents.[913] He drew up a lengthy
document, in which--probably as a taunt to the Duke of Burgundy--he
styled himself Duke of Gloucester, Holland, Zealand, and Brabant, Earl
of Pembroke, Hainault, and Flanders, and addressed the King with a
warning that some were imposing on his youth, 'in derogation of your
noble estate.' He began his attack by a renewal of the old complaint
that Beaufort had accepted the Cardinal's hat which Henry V., well
knowing his pride and ambition when merely a Bishop, had denied him. He
took his stand on the rights of the see of Canterbury, declaring that
Henry V. would not have objected to one who was not a Bishop becoming a
Cardinal. Though the King might summon a Cardinal to his Council Board,
yet in Parliament he ought to be present merely as a Bishop and in no
other capacity; moreover, the Statute of Provisors had been infringed by
the licence to retain his bishopric obtained by Beaufort from the Pope.
The Cardinal had manoeuvred to get the crown-jewels into his
possession by encouraging the war, and he had secured rights in
Southampton in such a way as to constitute a standing danger and
disgrace to the kingdom. He had procured the release of James of
Scotland without the consent of Parliament, and had turned this to his
advantage by marrying his niece to the Scotch King; he had wrongfully
recovered his jewels when forfeited to the Crown; he had evaded paying
the dues of his cathedral church at Winchester, and by securing grants
of land he was rapidly stripping the King of his possessions. From
whence came all this wealth, which could not be drawn from his see, nor
from an inherited patrimony which he did not possess? He had become
wealthy from the sale of offices in France and in England, and, grown
arrogant by these ill-gotten gains, he had assumed the pomp and
magnificence of royalty, though he neither had nor could have any
interest in the Crown.
Together with Beaufort in this indictment was included the Archbishop of
York, who also had recently received a Cardinal's hat. It was generally
accepted in the country, so Humphrey maintained, that together they were
practically governing the kingdom, and had estranged the King from
himself, the Duke of York, the Earl of Huntingdon, and the Archbishop of
Canterbury, the last of whom by his position ought to be counted amongst
the King's chief advisers. The policy of these two men was injurious to
the kingdom, for had they not procured the sending of ambassadors to
Arras, where the only results had been an enormous expense to the nation
and the reconciliation of the Duke of Burgundy with Charles of France?
More recently other envoys had been sent to Calais, without his
knowledge or sanction, where Burgundy and Orleans had been allowed to
make up their differences. Had not also the Archbishop with the
connivance of Beaufort encouraged the King to renounce all his claims on
France, when the French ambassadors were lately at Windsor, and what but
evil results could come from the forthcoming negotiations in March, for
it was rumoured that these two prelates intended to release the Duke of
Orleans, whom Henry V. had ordered in his will to be kept in confinement
till the conquest of France was complete? The whole foreign policy of
the King's advisers was unwise and corrupt, for, though he himself had
frequently offered his services for the defence of France, Beaufort had
always secured the refusal of the offer, sending in his stead favourites
of his own with unfortunate results. This long 'complaynte' concluded
with an urgent appeal for the dismissal of the two Cardinals from the
Council.[914]
No stronger evidence than is afforded in this indictment could be found
to prove Beaufort's complete ascendency over the policy of the nation,
and though we may hesitate to acquit the Cardinal of many of the charges
off-hand, the whole document betrays the hopeless incapacity of its
composer to take a broad and statesmanlike view of affairs, and shows
him to be the mere politician which he had already proved himself. The
inquiry as to whence came the Cardinal's wealth is pertinent, and has
never been adequately answered; in his contention that the Bishop had
been despoiling the King of his possessions, Humphrey was supported by
that eminent observer, Sir John Fortescue,[915] but the question of the
cardinalate had been discussed and settled, and no useful end could be
reached by its resuscitation, and the attempt--if attempt it was--on the
part of the Cardinal to increase the power of his house by the marriage
of Joan Beaufort to the unhappy King of Scotland had ended in such
dismal failure that it might well be left out of the reckoning. It was,
however, in the matter of foreign policy that Gloucester so patently
showed his lack of insight. Without touching on the question of the
release of Orleans, to which reference will be made later, it cannot be
denied that the Cardinal's peace policy was wise, and if so far it had
not met with success, it was owing to misfortune rather than to any
inherent defect, whilst Gloucester's opposition to it was based on a
blind misreading of the lessons taught by past events. Nevertheless the
inference to be drawn from the language of the indictment is that
hitherto the Duke had had but little part in the rejection of the French
terms, though he acknowledged that he had refused his consent to the
suggestion that Henry should surrender his title of King of France. The
complaint as to the waste of money at the Congress of Arras was amply
justified, for the fabulous sum of £22,000 was spent on the
Conference.[916] Still it must be confessed that the document as a whole
is violent beyond the limits of judiciousness, and it seems to be the
appeal of an angry man to a larger audience than that to which it was
addressed.[917] In view of Gloucester's recent retirement from active
life it is inexplicable, unless that retirement was the result of
compulsion and not of choice, and together with his protest against the
release of Orleans, which quickly followed, it stands as the last cry of
a disappointed and helpless man.
1440] RELEASE OF ORLEANS
No answer was vouchsafed to this ebullition of wrath, but more attention
was paid to the protest which followed it. The release of the Duke of
Orleans was already decided upon, and in June Humphrey demanded that his
objections to such an act should be registered under the Great Seal, for
he declared that, were it not officially made quite clear, no one would
believe that a step of such importance would be taken without his
consent. 'I protest'--so runs this document--'for myn Excuse and my
Discharge, that I never was, am, nor never shall be Consentyng,
Conseiling, nor Agreyng to his Deliverance or Enlargissement, nor be
noon other manere of Meen, which shuld take effect, otherwise than is
expressed in my seid Lord my Brother's Last Will (whom God assoille), or
els suerte of so grete good whereby my Lorde's both Realmes and Subyetts
shuld be encresed and easid.' Clearly and succinctly he detailed the
reasons which compelled him to oppose the policy of the King's advisers
at a time when Charles of France wanted men of 'discretion and judgment
to order his affairs.' The advent of Orleans to his councils would give
the necessary stability to the government, and help to reconcile those
factions at the French Court which so greatly aided the English cause.
Moreover, when once released, Orleans would be confronted with the
alternative of breaking either his oaths to Henry, or his oaths to the
man whom he considered to be his own sovereign, and if the articles of
agreement between the two Kings were not observed, what remedy had Henry
got? The English were defenceless, for it was more than probable that
the men of Normandy, who had been put to great expense in carrying on
the war, would revolt when the news of Orleans' release reached them,
whilst the recall of Huntingdon left Guienne, 'his Majesties ancient
heritage,' defenceless. Besides this, the King had no alliance with any
Christian prince save the youthful King of Portugal, a fact which
emphasised the folly of releasing one who was likely to prove a 'capital
enemy' to the crown of England. The project was not only contrary to the
expressed wish of the late King, but was inimical to all the best
interests of the kingdom, and if release was necessary, at least there
might be an exchange of English prisoners for this prince of the blood
royal of France. In any case such a step should not be taken without
some kind of consultation with the French and Norman subjects of the
King.[918]
Such were the arguments Gloucester brought against the release of
Orleans from his confinement in England. It is easy to feel pity for the
prisoner of war, who through no fault of his own had been kept in bonds
in a strange country for the last twenty-five years, but it was no
humanitarian spirit which suggested to the King's advisers the project
of his release. The war had become both a failure and a burden, and most
men were agreed that some means of ending the long struggle must be
found. The people had long since ceased to pine for those military
glories which the sanctimonious ambition of the late King had taught
Englishmen to regard as their birthright, and Humphrey could not be
expected to be heard by willing ears if he preached a policy of mere
aggression. In this second manifesto, therefore, there are no signs of
that cry against all movement towards peace, which had characterised the
indictment against Beaufort. On the contrary, the need for peace is
treated almost as though it were a necessity, and objection is taken
only to the method employed to reach that end; the success of the French
forces is so far recognised that Charles is alluded to as the King of
France. Humphrey has changed his ground; the Jingo policy of war to the
bitter end has been abandoned, and the attack is levelled at the
methods, not at the aims of his opponents. Viewed in this light it would
be hard to deny that Gloucester was right; though the most disastrous
result which he predicted would follow the release did not come to pass,
none of the advantages urged by the other party resulted. The Duke of
Orleans patched up his old quarrel with the House of Burgundy, and
cemented it with a marriage; he received as a result the cold shoulder
at the Court of his royal master, and he then retired to the quiet of a
country retreat, and became famous as the centre of one of the most
literary and polite societies of his age. His release did no good to
England, whilst his retention might have been a strong card in the hands
of English negotiators, and though we may rejoice that a simple soul
found freedom, we must not, with modern sentimentality, condemn the man
who did his best to spoil the idyll of the Court of Charles of Orleans.
Though Gloucester's indictment of Beaufort and his opposition to the
policy of peace had left the country cold, his arguments against the
release of the Duke of Orleans had produced an effect, which the men who
controlled the King hastened to counteract.[919] The King drew up a
manifesto, impelled thereto, so he said, by the report that his people
were complaining that so important a prisoner had been set at liberty.
He desired it to be understood quite clearly that what had been done had
been done at his own initiative, and that no one else was responsible
for it, an assertion so emphatic and so contrary to his character, as to
raise our doubts as to its veracity. His one object, he asserted, was to
bring to an end this war, 'that longe hath contyned and endured, that is
to saye, an hundreth yeeres and more,' and his arguments in favour of
peace were obvious and convincing. Edward III. had failed, his father
had been checked before he died, and his own efforts had met with but
poor success. The best way to secure peace was to release Orleans, who
would use his influence in the French councils to this end, and would
remove the desire for a continuance of war amongst those in power in
France, who only looked on the prolongation of the struggle as a means
of keeping Orleans safely out of the way as a prisoner abroad. He argued
that Orleans knew nothing of English plans, and therefore could not
betray them even if he so desired, and he concluded with a pious
declaration about the immorality of keeping a prisoner of war in
perpetual confinement, probably the only sentiment uninspired by others
in the whole manifesto.[920]
The fact that this refutation was considered necessary points to a
strong public opinion in support of Gloucester, but the advocates of
release had their way, and on All-Saints' Day a solemn service was
held, whereat Orleans swore on the Sacrament never to bear arms against
England, in the presence of the King and the assembled Lords. Gloucester
was there too, but to mark his disapproval of the whole proceedings,
'qwan the Masse began he toke his barge,' and left the scene of what he
considered to be an act which could only assist the undoing of his
country.[921] On November 3 the indentures were signed, and the Duke of
Orleans was ready to return to his native land.[922]
1441] DECLINING IMPORTANCE
Though defeated in the matter of foreign policy, Gloucester was still a
power to be considered, for he was an active member of the King's
Council,[923] and possessed no inconsiderable following in the country.
To pacify his anger at his reverse he had been made Chief-Justice of
South Wales in February,[924] a post which was no sinecure owing to the
disturbed state of that district, and which necessitated a visit thither
in August and September, when assizes were held in Cardigan and
Carmarthen. Even when most in disfavour at Court, use was made of
Humphrey's well-known ability in the suppressing of disturbances, and a
special grant of two hundred marks for his exertions in this direction
was given him.[925] At this time, too, his influence was instrumental in
procuring the renewal of the charter to St. Albans Abbey,[926] and there
was even some idea of employing him in the French wars. At any rate, the
Council of Rouen was informed that he was shortly to be sent over to
France, and his non-appearance created great discontent in the Duchy of
Normandy.[927] That the Council ever seriously contemplated such a step
must remain very doubtful, especially when we find that in the beginning
of the next year he was superseded in his Calais command by his namesake
Humphrey, Earl of Stafford.[928] Nevertheless his influence was
sufficient to secure the appointment of his friend the Duke of York to
be Lieutenant-General of France and Normandy for five years, though no
steps were taken to enable him to take up his command immediately.[929]
Humphrey therefore, in spite of his decreased importance, had some share
in the management of the kingdom, but his lack of perseverance and his
impetuous nature had caused him to throw away the natural advantages of
his position. His power had appreciably diminished in the four years
which had passed since his invasion of Flanders. The fire had gone out
of his life, and he was now to receive the most severe check he had ever
experienced. His wife Eleanor had never been a help to him in his
political ambitions, now she was to expose him to the barbed shafts of
his enemies.
The old order was passing away in fifteenth-century England, yet there
was very little of the modern spirit in the mental attitude of the
majority of Englishmen. It came, therefore, as no surprise when it was
rumoured abroad that proceedings were to be taken against certain
practisers of the Black Art, who had been conspiring to kill the young
King by means of incantations and witchcraft. The age was superstitious,
and only a year earlier than this crowds had surrounded the scene of a
Lollard burning, and the people had offered money and waxen images
before the ashes of the victim, Richard Wyche, whom they considered to
be a saint.[930] The monkish chronicler Walsingham, writing a few years
later, gravely describes the appearance of the Devil in a church in
Essex, and the thunderbolt which struck the building while the evil
spirit was there,[931] whilst still more circumstantial is a story told
by the St. Albans chronicler. A Lollard tiler was burnt at Waldon in
1430, and afterwards a neighbour picked up one of his bones, which had
not been consumed by the flames. With this bone he accidentally pricked
his finger; his hand and arm immediately swelled up, and his life was
only saved by the prompt removal of the limb--a sign of remarkable
vindictiveness on the part of that Lollard, says our chronicler.[932]
Public opinion was therefore quite prepared to turn the full force of
its indignation on those who had invoked the powers of darkness to
procure the death of the young King, who had won his way to the hearts
of his subjects, though he was never able to command their respect.
The accused were two clerks, Roger Bolingbroke, an Oxford priest, and
Thomas Southwell, canon of St. Stephen's, Westminster. The accusation of
using the 'crafte of egremauncey' against the life of the King was
prepared against Roger as the principal, and Thomas as the assister and
abettor. Both men were cast into the Tower, and on Sunday, July 16,[933]
the former was brought out, and placed in the midst of his instruments
of magic on a platform erected in St. Paul's Churchyard, where, after
the sermon, he abjured the Black Art. Such a public penance drew men's
attention to the matter, but the real interest in the case was not
revealed till three days later the news got abroad that Roger, under
examination before the King's Council, had confessed that he had been
instigated to the course of action in which he had been discovered by no
less a person than the Duchess of Gloucester, who that same day had fled
to sanctuary at Westminster.[934] At once the matter assumed a political
importance it would never have reached had the accusation been confined
to two insignificant priests. Roger was known to have some connection
with the household of Gloucester, and his statement that the Duchess had
instructed him to find by divination 'to what estate in life she should
come,' together with the consequent implication that she had sought to
procure the death of the King by witchcraft, and thus procure for her
husband the crown which she desired to share with him, gained ready
credence.
1441] DISGRACE OF DUCHESS OF GLOUCESTER
Steps were immediately taken to bring Eleanor to justice, for sanctuary
was no protection for the crimes of heresy and witchcraft of which she
was now accused. On July 22 she was cited to appear before the
Archbishops of Canterbury and York and the Bishops of Winchester and
Salisbury, and though she essayed to find safety in flight down the
river, she was captured while making the attempt, and brought before her
judges on the 25th in the Chapel of St. Stephen at Westminster. Many
charges of heresy and witchcraft were laid against her, and Roger,
brought from the Tower for the purpose, gave evidence. The charges were
considered so serious that a remand was ordered till October 21, when
she was to appear again before the Archbishop of Canterbury. In the
meanwhile she was committed to the Castle of Leeds in Kent under the
care of Sir John Stiward and Sir John Stanley, whither she was removed
on August 11.[935]
While active proceedings were thus postponed, a special commission, on
which the Earls of Stafford, Suffolk, and Huntingdon, together with
Lords Cromwell, Fanhope, and Hungerford, and certain judges of both
benches served, was appointed to inquire into all matters of sorcery;
and before them Bolingbroke and Southwell were arraigned together with
Eleanor as an accomplice. Herein we may trace an effort on the part of
Gloucester's enemies to bring his wife into the clutches of a secular
court.
At this trial yet another accomplice was produced in the person of the
'Witch of Eye,' whose sorceries Eleanor had long used, and from whom, it
was said, she had procured love-potions wherewith to ensnare the
affections of Humphrey. Before this court had come to any decision,
interest shifted to the Ecclesiastical Court, before which Eleanor was
brought to stand an independent trial on October 21. Her judges here
were the Bishops of London, Lincoln, and Norwich, commissioned thereto
by Archbishop Chichele, who excused himself from further participation
in the trial; the prosecution was in the hands of Adam Moleyns, the
clerk of the King's Council. Moleyns read out an exhaustive list of
accusations, to the gravest of which the Duchess returned an
uncompromising denial, without, however, denying her guilt on all the
counts, that is, she acknowledged recourse to the Black Art, but denied
the treasonable encompassing of the King's death. The trial was
prorogued to the 23rd, when witnesses were heard and the verdict of
guilty returned, since she refused to contradict the evidence brought
against her, and 'submitted only to the correction of the Bishops.' Four
days later she abjured her heresies and witchcraft before the Bishops,
who ordered her to appear before them on November 9, when sentence would
be passed.[936]
The punishment that was ordered was no light one, and consisted of
public penances through London on three different days. On Monday,
November 13, she came down the river on her barge to Temple Stairs, and
thence, by way of Temple Bar, she walked on foot to St. Paul's, 'openly
barehede with a Keverchef on her hede beryng,' and 'with a meke and a
demure countenance'--so the Bishops ordained--bearing in her hand a
taper of two pounds in weight, which she offered at the High Altar. On
two subsequent days similar pilgrimages were made to different churches.
On the following Wednesday she landed at Swan Stairs in Upper Thames
Street, and by way of Bridge Street, Gracechurch Street, and Leadenhall
she came to Christchurch, Aldgate, whilst on the Friday she landed at
Queenhithe, 'and so forth she went unto Chepe, and so to Seynt Mighell
in Cornhull.' On each occasion the Mayor of London with the Sheriffs and
craftes of the City met her at the place of landing, and escorted her
along the road of penance.[937] Of her companions in misfortune,
'Margery Jourdemain,' known as the 'Witch of Eye,' was burnt at
Smithfield; Bolingbroke underwent the full sentence of hanging,
beheading, and quartering; whilst Southwell found a mercifully early
death in prison.[938] On the completion of her penance, Eleanor was
committed to prison for life under the care of Sir Thomas Stanley[939]
and Sir John Stiward. At first she was confined in her original place of
detention, Leeds Castle in Kent,[940] but early in the New Year she was
removed to Chester,[941] whence she was taken in October or December
1443 to Kenilworth.[942] In July 1446 Sir Thomas Stanley was directed to
take her to the Isle of Man,[943] and in the following year we find her
a prisoner somewhere in Wales,[944] probably in Flint Castle, where she
died after eighteen long years' imprisonment.[945] Her confinement was
probably no more than honourable detention, for she was provided with a
large number of personal servants, and with a private allowance of one
hundred marks a year.[946] Her relations with her jailers seem to have
been quite cordial, and to at least one of them she made a present of
one of her trinkets,[947] but as a personality she had passed from
history, and as an individual her rank was not recognised, for she is
described in all official documents as 'Eleanor, lately called Duchess
of Gloucester.'[948]
The disgrace of Gloucester's wife is a strange story, and in spite of
the ample evidence to be found in contemporary chroniclers, it must be
accepted with some reserve. It was the _cause célèbre_, of the period,
and even chroniclers who pass over the years with the scantiest summary
of events pause awhile to tell of the fall of a great lady. Yet not once
is Humphrey mentioned, and it is only a sixteenth-century historian who
tells us that 'the Duke of Gloucester toke all these thyngs paciently
and said little.'[949] Nevertheless there is a strong presumption that
Humphrey did make some efforts to save his second wife, in spite of his
base desertion of Jacqueline, a presumption which is fortified by an
edict forbidding interference with the proceedings against Eleanor,[950]
and by the abstention of Chichele--Gloucester's friend and ally--from
taking part in the later proceedings. Moreover, the greatest care was
taken to guard the prisoner on her way to the scene of her confinement,
as though some effort at rescue was feared.[951]
Any defence of the Duchess was hampered by her own confession to the
truth of some of the charges, and by the strong evidence against her.
That she was guilty of dabbling in the Black Art can hardly be doubted,
and it is more than probable that she had used the sciences to foretell
the future, an act which, though not in itself treasonable, might
nevertheless be regarded with strong suspicion in one who was only
divided by one frail life from the position of Queen. There still exists
one of her books, a semi-medical, semi-astrological work translated from
the original Arabic,[952] and it is undoubtedly established that
Humphrey himself was interested in those sciences which bordered on the
heretical. Roger Bolingbroke had a great reputation for knowledge of the
Black Art, and his connection with Eleanor was known long before any
suspicion of treason arose.[953] One of the accusations, too, seems
probable in the light of Humphrey's knowledge of the ancient classics,
for it was said that the time-worn system of roasting a waxen image of
the doomed King before a fire had been one of the treasonable
witchcrafts employed,[954] a system which is to be found described in
all its details in the classical authors which Duke Humphrey studied.
Behind Dame Eleanor stood her husband, and his character and reputation
could not but have their influence on public opinion. It is to be
remembered that both husband and wife had been friends with Queen Joan,
who had been accused on a similar charge, and those who could cast their
memories back to the early years of Henry VI.'s reign might remember
another incident which might suggest that Humphrey took an interest in
witchcraft and sorcery. When in 1425 he had almost come to blows with
the Bishop of Winchester, one of the causes of quarrel was that he had
removed from custody a certain 'Ffrere Randolff,' who had been in prison
for treason. Friar Randolph was the man who had played the part of
Bolingbroke in the Queen Joan scandal, the practiser of the Black Art,
who was accused of casting spells to encompass the late King's
death.[955] Is it surprising, then, that men were ready to believe that
the Duke of Gloucester was indeed guilty of practising witchcraft, when
he had in the past championed one of its votaries in so autocratic a
manner? It is more than probable that Humphrey devoted himself to a
study of the art from a purely scientific point of view. All branches of
learning--if, indeed, we may so call it--appealed to his inquiring mind,
but he most likely approached it from the same standpoint as many at the
present day approach spiritualism. His wife, being of a lower mental
calibre, interested herself in the study of her husband, but treated it
in a practical and not in a theoretical spirit. With this dangerous
weapon in her hands it would be in no way surprising if she used it for
concrete ends, and little by little came to try its efficacy in
restoring some of the lost power of her husband. There is no evidence or
suggestion that Humphrey himself knew of these treasonable practices,
or that, had he known, he would have taken them seriously.
Evidence and probability therefore both speak for the guilt of the
Duchess, who increased the appearances against her by her flight to
sanctuary instead of bravely facing the charges; and though the people
sympathised with her in her trouble,[956] they do not seem to have
doubted for a moment that she was guilty. Her pride and ambition were
well known, and were dwelt on in the poem entitled 'The Lament of the
Duchess of Gloucester,'[957] whilst another contemporary rhymer writes:
'Thy ladye was so proud and highe of harte
that she hur selffe thought pereless of estate
and yet higher faynd she wold have starte
butt sodenlye she ffell as was hur fate.'[958]
Whatever we may think of Eleanor's guilt, it is obvious that the whole
case was exploited by Gloucester's enemies to injure the man who had so
lately opposed their plans. The Duchess was known to have considerable
influence over the King,[959] who at the time of her trial showed a
great desire to save her life,[960] and we have seen how the object of
both parties was to secure the royal ear. To strike Eleanor was to
strike her husband, for in spite of the inauspicious beginning of her
connection with Gloucester, she had succeeded in establishing her
position as the first lady of the kingdom. Of late grants to Humphrey
had been made to himself and his wife;[961] she had been permitted to
wear the robes of the Garter; she was petitioned as one who held a
position of importance, and had interfered in matters of state
administration;[962] the Pope had acknowledged her position and had
issued a Bull in her favour;[963] the Monastery of St. Albans had
admitted her into its fraternity;[964] she had been singled out for
particular favours by the King when distributing his New-Year's gifts.
She was indeed no weakling whose insecure position might be safely
attacked, but a woman who had claimed, and had justified her claim, to
be accounted of in the kingdom.
To convict Eleanor of treason, then, was to injure her husband in no
small degree, and the whole history of the case points to the fact that
it was engineered by his enemies. Unusual publicity was given to the
charges against Bolingbroke; he was publicly paraded before the citizens
of London; and then, when the ground had been carefully prepared, the
charge was extended to the first lady in the land. Special commissioners
were organised, and every effort made to bring her under the secular
arm, and if she escaped with her life, it was not through any fault of
her accusers. To strengthen this contention it is well to take the
striking parallel of Queen Joan. The charge of sorcery was often used in
the fifteenth century as a means to remove political opponents; the
trumped-up charge against the Maid of Orleans is an obvious
instance;[965] but the fate of Henry IV.'s unhappy Queen bears too
striking a likeness to the disgrace of Eleanor Cobham to be lightly
passed over. She, too, was accused on the confession of her chaplain,
Father Randolph, of having 'compassed and imagined the King's death in
the most horrible manner that could be devised,'[966] and to this end
she was said by the chroniclers to have used sorcery, which Randolph
practised at her suggestion.[967] She, too, was imprisoned for life,
but the more ignominious part of Eleanor's punishment was spared her,
and she was later released from confinement.
It was the public penance, perhaps, more than anything else, which
betrayed the political animus which lay behind the condemnation of
Gloucester's wife, and which justifies the assertion of Fabyan, that the
attack on the Duchess was part of an organised plan to overthrow the
Duke.[968] Eleanor had doubtless made many personal enemies. Born of a
family of no great standing, she had not by her early conduct improved
her position. Since her marriage to a Prince of the blood royal, her
pride, fanned by the success of her ambitions, had increased, and had
given offence to many who regarded her as an upstart. But this was not
enough to account for the degrading details of her fall. It was her
husband at whom the blow was aimed, and it was he that suffered as well
as his wife.
'Now thou dost penance. Look! how they gaze.
See! how the giddy multitude do point,
And nod their heads, and throw their eyes on thee.'[969]
The loss of prestige to Humphrey was very great,[970] and it came at a
time when his power in the kingdom was beginning to wane. Never again
does he appear as a man of influence in the councils of the King; all
the old fire of the days of the Protectorate is gone, and it is probable
that he leaned far more on his wife than has ever been suspected. Till
her disgrace young Henry seems to have had a strong affection for his
uncle, but thereafter the simple-minded King, separated from the woman
who had influenced him, turned from his uncle to other advisers, who had
fewer claims to his regard, and no wiser heads than the discredited
Humphrey. Indeed this incident is a definite milestone on the road to
complete disgrace which the Duke was now treading. Ever since the time
when he began to drop out of public life his influence in the kingdom
had been slowly passing away. He had tried to reinstate himself in the
popular favour, and thus strengthen his hands against his enemies, by
his attack on Beaufort and on the policy of releasing Orleans, but the
attempt missed its mark, and had only provoked this act of retaliation
from his opponents. Hitherto the cry against him had been merely one of
mismanagement and factiousness, but here we find the first signs of the
charge of treason, with which he was ultimately assailed. It would seem
that the Beaufort faction had now decided not only on his humiliation,
but on his ultimate removal, for if he were to succeed to the throne,
their power would be gone. Humphrey had not the determination nor the
strength to meet this new attack, and he gradually gave way before the
organised assault he had now to face. He had come to the critical time
of his life, and his weak character, still further weakened by his moral
failings, was unable to cope with the situation. His face was set
towards the shadows, he knew it, and yet he had no strength to fight his
way back to light and power. Though his physical capacities were
unimpaired, all signs of moral force had disappeared from his character.
1442-4] LOSS OF INFLUENCE
Gloucester continued to attend the Council, but we see very little
recorded beyond his mere presence; occasionally he would act as a
guarantor for a loan from that prince of money-lenders, Cardinal
Beaufort,[971] or throw in sarcastic comment when the same cardinal used
his position to exact special conditions under which the loans were
made.[972] Most of his time was probably spent at his manor of
'Plaisance' at Greenwich, in the house on which he had spent so much
money, and surrounded by the park which he had himself enclosed. It was
here, at any rate, that in September 1442 he dated his decision in the
matter of a dispute which had arisen at the Monastery of St.
Albans.[973] For the rest, he seems to have devoted his attention to the
care of his soul. He was already assured that masses would be said for
him in perpetuity at Oxford, and in 1442 we find him in the rather
strange company of the Archbishop of York and others, securing by the
gift of certain manors a perpetual chaplain to pray for the souls of the
donors themselves and of their children at the Church of St. Katharine
at Gosfield.[974] The bitterness of strife was over, the political game
was passing into other and younger hands, and these two old rivals made
up their differences in a united hope for eternal salvation.[975] A year
later Humphrey determined to devote the alien Priory of Pembroke, which
had been given him by Henry V., to the same purpose of masses for his
soul, but there seems to have been some doubt as to where he should
place the gift. Adam Moleyne, Dean of Salisbury--he who had acted for
the Council in accusing Eleanor--had the intention of securing the
Priory of Pembroke for the Dean and Chapter of Salisbury, and went so
far as to request and obtain from the Council a licence for this
transfer.[976] Humphrey, however, refused to be driven to alienate his
property in any way of which he did not approve, and three months later
we find a charter assigning the alien Priory of Pembroke to the Abbey of
St. Albans in accordance with a Royal Licence obtained as far back as
1441.[977] In spite of his inactivity, Gloucester did not entirely
retire from public life, but his influence was gone, and the petition of
the Parliament of 1442 that ladies of rank should have the same
privilege as their husbands, and be tried by the peers for indictable
offences,[978] shows his weakness, for this petition, which became a
statute, is by way of a censure on the judicial system that had allowed
the Duchess of Gloucester to escape with her life.
1442-4] MARRIAGE OF HENRY VI.
But if Gloucester was passing into the background, so were also the
chief actors who had flourished with him on the political stage, though
no cloud hung over them as over the late Protector. Archbishop Kemp, as
we have seen, was beginning to think more of the next world than of
this; Lord Cromwell's day was passing, and the great Cardinal himself
was now content to direct others in scenes where he had been formerly
the chief actor. The Beaufort party was now represented in the forefront
of the battle by the Duke of Somerset and the Marquis of Dorset, both
nephews of the Bishop of Winchester, and in close alliance with them was
William de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk. This last had served in the French
wars ever since the death of his brother at Agincourt, but of late he
had been turning his attention to home politics. He had steadily
increased the importance of his position, and by his connection with the
House of Beaufort he now found himself one of the chief of those who so
jealously surrounded the King. He it was, therefore, who was chosen to
be head of an embassy to France,[979] which was to carry through a piece
of Beaufort manoeuvring. The King had reached a marriageable age, and
it was considered advisable that he should look to France for a bride.
The question remained, to whom should overtures be made? The embassy to
France was to pave the way for the carrying out of a scheme proposed by
the Duke of Orleans, that Henry should marry Margaret of Anjou,
daughter of René, Duke of Lorraine and titular King of Sicily and
Jerusalem. Though a man of no personal possessions, René was in the
innermost circle of the French Court, owing to the fact that his sister
was Queen of France, and his brother, Charles of Anjou, one of the
King's chief advisers. Such a marriage, therefore, presupposed some kind
of agreement between the nations at war, and Suffolk was chosen to
procure such an agreement.
The idea of the marriage was unpopular in England, as Suffolk himself
acknowledged,[980] and it is probable that this unpopularity was based
on the resistance to the match made by Gloucester. This time it was no
factiousness in Gloucester that led him to oppose the plans of his
opponents, for he was adhering to a policy which he had favoured from
the first, when he warmly supported the project of a marriage with one
of the daughters of the Count of Armagnac. This match, as well as the
Anjou alliance, had been proposed by Orleans at a time when he was in
alliance with the discontented Princes of the Praguerie, and was
intended to draw Armagnac into an alliance with the English, part of a
large scheme for uniting the discordant elements of the French kingdom
with the English invaders. This idea was the product of the Beaufort
policy which had released the Duke of Orleans, a reversion, in fact, to
the methods of Henry V., who had won France with the help of Burgundy.
Steps had been taken to open negotiations, and in 1442 an embassy, of
which Thomas Beckington, formerly Gloucester's Chancellor and now the
King's Private Secretary, and Sir Robert Roos, one of the Duke's
literary friends, were the heads, was despatched to Bordeaux for this
purpose.[981] The French forces had invaded Gascony, and John of
Armagnac, with the enemies of England encamped on his borders, had to
tread warily in the matter of an English alliance. Delay was inevitable,
and in spite of the best intentions on the Armagnac side, the
negotiations were for the time abandoned.[982]
Gloucester had heartily supported the whole idea, since it was conceived
in the same spirit as that alliance with Burgundy which had helped to
bring half France under the dominion of Henry V. Though we may well
doubt the wisdom of this plan, we must acknowledge that it was
consistent with Gloucester's past policy, and that in this instance he
did not sacrifice what he thought to be right to his desire to oppose
his rivals. It may be that he had learnt wisdom; it may be that recent
events had taught him his increasing weakness, and had led him to a less
narrow view of party politics. He certainly espoused this plan put
forward by the party he had opposed so long, and took a personal
interest in details of the embassy, for he was kept informed of the
progress of affairs by Beckington, who, as soon as he returned, went
down to Greenwich to tell him what had been done and what had been left
undone.[983]
Humphrey, therefore, had chosen the better part, and had concurred in a
policy of which he was not the originator, but the Beaufort party showed
no signs of following this good example. They knew that Henry's marriage
would have an immense bearing on home politics, and that his wife would
probably be able to influence him as she liked. They must therefore
provide him with a bride entirely of their own choosing, and one who
would not be acceptable to Gloucester, whose influence was to be
counteracted by their nominee to the position of Queen of England. It
was for this reason that they had changed their policy, and now were
advising the marriage with Margaret of Anjou. Notwithstanding the
popular opposition, Suffolk carried out his instructions; the marriage
was arranged, and a truce was signed with France,[984] but it was no
good augury for the usefulness of this marriage alliance that it could
not be brought to form the basis of a final peace. To the last Humphrey
urged that it was dishonourable to abandon the negotiations begun with
the Count of Armagnac,[985] but when matters were finally settled, he
determined to accept the situation, and was the most prominent of those
lords and gentlemen who escorted Margaret to London after her marriage
at Titchfield Abbey.[986] On this occasion he had with him a guard of
honour consisting of five hundred men, dressed in his livery.[987]
Later, too, when Suffolk was thanked in Parliament for his recent
labours in negotiating this marriage, Humphrey delivered a speech in
favour of the man who had brought to England one who was to prove a
firebrand in the country, and to be numbered amongst his own chief
opponents.[988]
This sweet reasonableness is not a trait hitherto found in any of Duke
Humphrey's actions, and it suggests that more and more he was coming to
realise that he was playing a losing game. He thought it best to bow
before the storm, for we cannot believe that, had he thought it to his
own personal advantage, he would have abandoned a plan merely for the
sake of the internal peace of the kingdom. We have here yet another
indication that he was unable to summon to his aid even one of those
fitful bursts of energy which earlier he had commanded, but if we are to
believe the report of an historian who wrote in the early part of the
sixteenth century, his natural impetuosity led him to give the lie to
his weak behaviour, and to show that he still held by the principles
with regard to English policy on the Continent that he had always
voiced. We are told that he delivered a speech in Parliament, urging
that it was necessary to defy all conventions and break the truce agreed
to, which was, he declared, a mere subterfuge on the part of France to
gain a breathing space, an interval during which to recoup her
strength.[989]
1445] MARRIAGE OF HENRY VI.
There is, however, no absolute inconsistency between his recent actions
and this speech. He had accepted the state of affairs when he welcomed
Margaret to her new English home, but that did not necessarily imply a
cessation of the war; marriage, which the historian generally accepts as
the final confirmation of the treaty of peace, was in this case regarded
as a mere preliminary to a possible, but rather improbable pacification.
The truce was short, and the end of the war was not to be yet. The
marriage of Margaret to Henry was an isolated incident, not part of a
policy, in its effect at least, though it might be in its intention.
1445] GLOUCESTER'S WAR POLICY
Humphrey had all along argued for the continuance of the war; he
believed in its righteousness and in its advantages at home as well as
abroad. Even as it was rumoured that Henry V. had embarked on foreign
conquest as an antidote to internal dissension, so Humphrey, feeling the
spirit of strife which was abroad--a spirit, be it confessed, that he
had fostered--looked to the war to distract the nobles from conflict at
home, and a French chronicler of the time was the first to realise this
aspect of the Duke's policy.[990] It was not a new idea. It had been
Henry V.'s, as we have seen; more important still, it was mentioned as a
maxim of government in one of those books which it was Gloucester's joy
to study. Ægidius, in his _De Regimine Principium_, writes: 'Guerra enim
exterior tollit seditiones, et reddit cives magis unanimes et concordes.
Exemplum hujus habemus in Romanis quibus postquam defecerunt exteriora
bella intra se ipsos bellare coeperunt,'[991] and a copy of this book
was among Humphrey's gifts to the University of Oxford. It is a wrong
principle; to us it is even absurd; but the absurdity was not then
obvious. It contains the too common fallacy of confounding cause and
effect, for though the war for a time might distract the turbulent
noble's attention, it made him all the more turbulent when his new
employment, the cause of his distraction, was removed. But
contemporaries did not see this. Basin, the historian, who divined the
motives of Gloucester's war policy, has nothing but praise for the
underlying principle.[992] Suffolk was no enthusiastic advocate for
peace, and the Beaufort faction had espoused a peace policy in the past
merely because it suited their private plans--plans, too, which were not
to increase the internal peace of the kingdom--and because their
nominees were totally incapable of carrying on the war, as had been
lately proved by the failure of the incompetent Somerset.[993] If
Gloucester followed the wrong policy in advocating war, we could not
expect it to be otherwise when we remember his early training. It is a
truism--like so many truisms, too often forgotten in practice--to say
that a man must not be judged by the standards of an age that is not his
own, and it is absurd to condemn Humphrey's war policy when we look at
the attitude of his contemporaries to the same subject. Advantage there
was none for him to be reaped from the continuance of the war;
factiousness is no longer a possible explanation of his motive; his
attitude therefore may be attributed to a desire for the good of the
kingdom, for the good of the House of which he himself and his poor,
weak nephew were the last representatives.
Whether Gloucester had really delivered himself of these opinions on the
war with France or no, he had succeeded in making his enemies
desperate. Queen Margaret was not long in grasping the situation of
parties in England, and she naturally leaned on Suffolk, the man who had
brought her to the position she held, the man who from the first had
declared himself her friend and servant. Together they scanned the
political horizon, and only one obstacle could they see to the success
of their plans, and that obstacle was Duke Humphrey. Though discredited
at Court, and bereft of the influence he had once held in the councils
of the nation, he had still a definite position in the kingdom as heir
to the throne, and did not lack supporters among certain classes.
Moreover, the Duke of York, a firm opponent of Beaufort influence,
gained what little power he had from the support of Gloucester. Together
these two had to be considered as the leaders of a party of some
importance. It was the old story of Gloucester and Beaufort still, for
the new party headed by the Queen and Suffolk was but a new version of
that formerly led by the Cardinal Bishop of Winchester, and had the
support of the Beaufort interest, that is, of the Earl of Somerset, Lord
Say de Sele and Adam Moleyns.[994] Margaret, the centre of the
confederacy, was an ambitious woman, with more ingenuity than
common-sense. Young and inexperienced, she had alighted suddenly on a
hotbed of intrigue and party strife. At once her mind was made up: she
would be the predominant influence in English politics, and this by
means of her ascendency over the weak mind of her husband, an ascendency
so easy to procure. Suffolk was bound by every call of self-interest to
play the game of the Queen; his claim to regard must be based on the
Queen's success; and with the impetuosity and cunning inherited from his
mercantile ancestors, he drew the whole Beaufort faction with him. In
opposition to this strong combination, whose various private interests
impelled them to act together, stood Gloucester, almost alone, but with
one very strong card in his hand. Suffolk whilst in France had been
inveigled into agreeing to the cession of Maine to that country,[995]
but that this was generally known at the time is very doubtful. At any
rate, when it should become known, as known it must be sooner or later,
there would be a very stiff storm to be weathered by Margaret and her
friends, and if Gloucester were still to the fore, this storm might well
cause shipwreck to her party.[996] Possibly the knowledge of this fact
had produced Gloucester's speech against the truce, but it is more
likely that as yet it was a danger which lay concealed in the womb of
the future. If this were so, Gloucester must be humiliated, perhaps
removed, before the truth became known. Every effort was made,
therefore, to alienate the King from his uncle;[997] suspicions as to
his intentions were hazarded, and by degrees suggestions developed into
direct accusations. The mind of Henry, already bordering on the brink of
madness--a state in which suspicion is quick to arise--yielded readily
to the treatment to which it was submitted. Gloucester, he came to
believe, was plotting against his life from fear that an heir to the
throne would be born; his preparations were being made. Everything, so
Henry was told, pointed to this, for the deeds of Eleanor Cobham could
not be disassociated from her husband. The one menace to the peace of
the kingdom was Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester.[998]
1445-6] PARTY HOSTILE TO GLOUCESTER
The drama of Gloucester's life is drawing to a close, and the tragedy of
its end is in sight. Any lingering regard for his uncle in the mind of
the King had passed, and his attitude during the visit of the French
embassy which came to England in 1445 illustrates the success of the
tactics employed by Margaret. It was on July 15 that the ambassadors
came before the King, whom they found supported by Suffolk, Dorset, the
Cardinal of York, the Chancellor, Adam Moleyns, Gloucester, Chester, and
Warwick. Henry greeted them most warmly, and assured them of his great
desire for peace, shooting glances of defiance all the time at
Gloucester, and when he had finished his greeting he turned to Suffolk,
and exchanged a smile of understanding with him. It was also reported
that he had pressed the Chancellor's hand, and had said that he was very
glad that some present had heard his words, and that they seemed so
little at their ease.[999] Margaret had been successful indeed. The King
was entirely alienated from his uncle, and he delighted to show his
contempt for his former adviser's counsel, even as all small minds
delight to show a contempt they have no right to indulge. Suffolk was
even more outspoken than his royal master. He openly and loudly declared
that he cared not what the Duke of Gloucester thought, or whether he
opposed him or not, for his power was gone, and the King no longer
regarded him.[1000]
1448] PARLIAMENT OF BURY
Humphrey's career was over. The King denied him access to the Court, and
he was removed from the Privy Council.[1001] Indeed in the later
chroniclers we read of an attempt to bring him to justice, and of an
indictment before the Council. He was accused, it is said, of
malpractices during his Protectorate, especially of having caused men
adjudged to die to be put to other execution than the law of the land
allowed. A brilliant speech, if we are to believe the report, refuted
the charges so successfully, that they were allowed to drop.[1002] This
partial success, however, availed the Duke nothing, as his enemies had
decided to remove him from their path, and for this purpose it was
proposed to call a Parliament to which he was summoned, 'the which
parliament was maad only for to sle the noble Duke of Gloucester.'[1003]
Suffolk, it seems, had laid certain accusations against him,[1004] and
he had induced the King to summon this assembly, to crush the only man
that stood in his way. At first Parliament was summoned to meet at
Cambridge, but it was ultimately transferred to Bury St. Edmunds, a
place where Suffolk was strong,[1005] and Gloucester weak, apart from a
certain support from the Abbey there.[1006] Gloucester's fate was
sealed. With cunning ingenuity Suffolk spread a report that a rising led
by Duke Humphrey might be expected any day, and he made elaborate
preparations for guarding the King at each stopping-place on the way to
Bury. Besides this, the almost incredible number of forty or sixty
thousand men was collected and stationed round the town.[1007]
Gloucester was ordered to attend the Parliament, and all waited to see
whether he would come.[1008] Totally ignorant of the elaborate
preparations for his reception, yet knowing the dangers which beset his
path, Humphrey set out for Bury.[1009] Far from making any show of
resistance,[1010] or coming to Parliament in a spirit of bravado, and
followed by an overwhelming retinue, he came all unsuspicious that a
trap had been laid for him, like an innocent lamb--so the chronicler
quaintly puts it[1011]--hoping that he might be able to procure pardon
for his imprisoned wife.[1012] The same chronicler, who was not one of
those who sang the praises of Duke Humphrey, says that he was conscious
of no evil in himself, and suspected nothing as he rode out on his last
ride,[1013] accompanied by some eighty horsemen,[1014] no extraordinary
retinue for a prince of the blood royal on a long, and possibly
dangerous journey.
1448] DEATH OF GLOUCESTER
Parliament had been opened on February 10 with a speech from the
Chancellor, Archbishop Stafford, who declared with suspicious unction,
that 'blessed was the man who walked not in the counsel of the
ungodly,'[1015] but it was not until the 18th that the Duke of
Gloucester arrived. When within half a mile of the gates of the town, he
was met by two officers of the King's household, who told him that the
King wished him to go straight to his lodgings, and not visit the Court,
since the weather was so cold for travelling; at least so was the
message reported subsequently by some of the Duke's retinue. It was
eleven o'clock in the morning when Gloucester rode into the city by the
south gate, and passing through the 'horsemarket,' turned to his left
into the Northgate Ward. Here he passed through a mean street, and as he
rode along, he asked a passer-by, by what name the alley was known.
'Forsoothe, my Lord, hit is called the Dede Lane,' came the answer. Then
the inborn superstition of 'the Good Duke' asserted itself; so with an
old prophecy he had read ringing in his ears, and a word of pious
resignation on his lips, he rode on to the 'North Spytyll' outside the
Northgate, otherwise called 'Seynt Salvatoures,'[1016] where he was to
lodge. Having eaten his dinner, a deputation came to wait upon him,
consisting of the Duke of Buckingham, the Marquis of Dorset, the Earl of
Salisbury, Lord Sudley, and Viscount Beaumont. This last in his capacity
of High Constable placed the Duke under arrest by the King's command.
Two yeomen of the guard and a sergeant were appointed to take charge of
the prisoner, who was removed from the care of his own immediate
servants, some of whom, including Sir Roger Chamberlain, were arrested
the same evening between eight and nine o'clock. The arrest passed off
quietly, but three days later about twenty-eight more of Gloucester's
retainers, including his natural son 'Arteys,' were arrested and sent to
divers places of confinement. This was on Shrove Tuesday, but it was
unknown to their master, who was lying in a state of coma, so that for
three days he neither moved nor had any feeling. Towards the end of this
time, however, he recovered sufficiently to confess his sins, and to
receive the last rites of the Church, and then sinking again he died, so
it is related, about three o'clock in the afternoon of Tuesday, February
23, 1447.[1017]
Next day the news of his death was proclaimed, and his body was exposed,
so that all might see that no mark of violence was upon him.[1018] His
corpse was visited by many during the day, and towards evening he was
disembowelled, placed in a 'seryd cloth, and layd in a lead chest,'
encased in a coffin of poplar-wood. On the Saturday, just a week after
his arrival in the town, Humphrey's body was carried to the Grey
Friars' Monastery at Babwell,[1019] escorted thither by twenty torches
borne by members of his own entourage; indeed, apart from the three
crown officials who had been his gaolers, none but his personal
retainers accompanied the cortège. On the Sunday the Abbot of St. Albans
'dede his dirge,' and the next day, after a mass had been said for the
repose of his soul, his earthly remains were carried out on their last
journey. By slow stages the coffin was carried to St. Albans, resting by
night at Newmarket, Berkway, and Ware, and arriving at its destination
on Friday the 21st. Here again was a dirge said for him, followed by
Mass, and on the Saturday the body was placed in the 'Feyre vout,'
prepared for him in his lifetime, amidst the lamentations of many of his
faithful servants, and in the presence of the crown officials, who were
the only outward evidences that a king's son was being laid to
rest.[1020] The whole ceremony of interment was that of a private
individual, not that of a prince;[1021] the outward glamour of the pomp
and circumstance which had accompanied his three brothers to the grave
was absent. Humphrey died a prisoner, a disgraced politician, but he was
followed to the grave by a band of genuine mourners. All the artificial
adjuncts of his life, all the pride of power and position which had
conspired to make him a great prince, had vanished, and he was laid in
his last resting-place by loving hands, who took a mournful pleasure in
thus honouring their dead master without any of that formal and unlovely
ceremonial which disguises death as a pageant.
FOOTNOTES:
[895] _Excerpta Historica_, 148-150.
[896] Cotton MS., Cleopatra, C. iv. f. 54. There is no evidence that
Catherine did oppose Gloucester. She appointed him a
supervisor of her will. _Rot. Parl._, iv. 506.
[897] _Chron. Henry VI._, 17; _Polychronicon_, f. 336; cf. Stow,
377.
[898] Devon, _Issue Roll_, 431; _Ordinances_, v. 15.
[899] _Rot. Parl._, iv. 502.
[900] _Ibid._, iv. 496-499.
[901] _Ordinances_, v. 56.
[902] _Ibid._, v. 80.
[903] _Rot. Parl._, v. 438, 439: _Cal. Rot. Pat._, 280.
[904] _Rot. Scot._, ii. 303. Rymer, V. i. 17, gives date as 1437.
[905] There is a hint of a gift in 1435; _Epist. Acad._, 114. The
first important gift of one hundred and twenty vols. is in
1439; _Epist. Acad._, 117-119.
[906] Lydgate's Prologue to _The Falls of Princes_.
[907] _Ordinances_, iv. 132.
[908] _Cal. Rot. Pat._, 280; Dugdale, ii. 199.
[909] See the autograph inscription at the end of Oriel MS., xxxii.
[910] _Cal. of French Rolls_, Rep. 48, App. 322.
[911] See the 'Diary of Beckington' printed in _Ordinances_, v.
335-407.
[912] See Beaucourt, iii. 149-151.
[913] This document is printed by Stevenson, and is called 'A
protest against the enlargement of Orleans'; Stevenson,
_Letters and Papers_, ii. 440. He copies the title and
document from Ashmole MS., 856, ff. 392-405, but the title is
a mistake. This is an indictment of Beaufort and the
Archbishop of York, his ally, and the reasons against the
release of Orleans are to be found on ff. 405-412 of the same
MS. In Arnold's _Chron._, pp. 279-286, where this same
document is printed, the title runs more correctly 'A
complaynte made to Kynge Henry VI. by the Duke of Gloster
upon the Cardinal of Winchester.'
[914] Ashmole MS., 856, ff. 392-405, printed in Stevenson, _Letters
and Papers_, ii. 440-451; Arnold's _Chron._, 279-286. The
indictment must have been written in January or February
1440, as the month of March is referred to in the future.
[915] Plummer's _Fortescue_, p. 134.
[916] Plummer's _Fortescue_, notes, p. 318.
[917] Cotton MS., Vitellius, A. xvi. f. 102, says that these
articles were laid to the charge of Beaufort in the
Parliament which met on January 14, 1440.
[918] Ashmole MS., 856, ff. 405-412: Speed, 660, printed from a copy
in the chronicler's possession; Rymer, V. i. 76, 77. Cf.
_Hist. MSS. Commission_, App. to Report iii., 279.
[919] Stubbs, iii. 126, and Ramsay, ii. 25, both regard the first
manifesto by Gloucester as the one that influenced public
opinion, but the opening words of the King's reply to his
uncle confute this theory. These two historians also fail to
distinguish clearly between Gloucester's two manifestoes, and
imply that the second followed on the King's indication of
his policy.
[920] Ashmole MS., 856 ff. 417-423; Stevenson, _Letters and Papers_,
ii. 451-460.
[921] _Paston Letters_, i. 40.
[922] Rymer, V. i. 97.
[923] _Rot. Parl._, v. 311.
[924] February 19, 1440; _Rot. Pat._, 18 _Henry VI._, Part ii. m. 25.
[925] _Ordinances_, v. 138, 139.
[926] Amundesham, _Annales_, ii. App. D. 295.
[927] Stevenson, _Letters and Papers_, ii. 604. Cf. de Beaucourt,
iii. 179, 180. When the Duke of York was appointed
Captain-General in France in 1440, he was given the same
powers as the Duke of Bedford used to have 'or as my Lord of
Gloucester, or shulde have had now late.' So it seems that
the plan of commissioning Gloucester to undertake the French
war had gone some way.--Stevenson, _Letters and Papers_
(William of Worcester collections), ii. [586].
[928] _Cal. of French Rolls_, Rep. 48, App. 347. This appointment
was not finally confirmed until August 28, 1442. Thomas Kyrel
acted as Lieutenant of Calais in the interval, _Ordinances_,
v. 205.
[929] Stevenson, _Letters and Papers_, ii. [586].
[930] _Eng. Chron._, 56.
[931] Walsingham, _Hist. Angl._, ii. 249, 250.
[932] _St. Albans Chron._, i. 50.
[933] _Eng. Chron._, 57, gives Sunday July 25, but in 1441 Sundays
fell on July 16 and 23, and the former seems the more likely
day in view of subsequent dates. Moreover, the same
chronicler gives July 22 as the date of Eleanor's subsequent
summons before the ecclesiastical commissioners.
[934] The Eve of St. Margaret, July 19; William of Worcester, 460.
_Eng. Chron._, 58, gives July 25.
[935] _Eng. Chron._, 58; _Chron. Henry VI._, 30; Rymer, V. i. 110;
Gregory 183, 184; William of Worcester, 468; Cotton MS.,
Cleopatra, C. iv. f. 58vo, _Political Songs_, ii. 207; Stow,
381. There is considerable doubt as to who Stanley was. In
the various chronicles and official documents there is
mention of a Sir Thomas Stanley, a Sir John Stanley, and a
John Stanley, Esquire. Probably these were two men bearing
the same surname, and were both concerned in the matter.
[936] _Eng. Chron._, 58, 59; Cotton MS., Cleopatra, C. iv. f. 59;
_Lond. Chron._, 129; Stow, 381.
[937] _Lond. Chron._, 129; Cotton MS., Cleopatra, C. iv. f. 59,
59vo; Gregory, 184; William of Worcester, 460, 461; Stow,
182.
[938] _Lond. Chron._, 129; _Eng. Chron._, 59, 60; William of
Worcester, 461; Gregory, 184; Fabyan, 614; Stow, 581.
[939] Sir Thomas Stanley was an officer of the King's household and
King of the Isle of Man (Cotton MS., Vitellius, A. xvi. f.
102vo). Later he played a subordinate part in the arrest of
Gloucester at Bury.
[940] William of Worcester, 461; _Eng. Chron._, 60.
[941] Ellis, _Letters_, 2nd Series, i. 107; _Lond. Chron._, 130;
Devon, _Issue Roll_, 441.
[942] Rymer, V. i. 127; Devon, _Issue Roll_, 448.
[943] _Ordinances_, vi. 51; Fabyan, 614; Holkham MS., p. 10.
[944] _Brief Notes_, 154.
[945] _Chron. Henry VI._, 31.
[946] Devon, _Issue Roll_, 448.
[947] _Excerpta Historica_, 278, Will of Sir John Steward. This,
however, does not prove that Eleanor was confined at Calais,
as the editor of this will thinks, for Steward or Stiward was
one of the two gentlemen appointed to take care of her at
Leeds Castle, and in her later confinement.
[948] See Ellis, _Letters_, 2nd Series, i. 107; Devon, _Issue Roll_,
441.
[949] Hall, 202. See also 'Lament of the Duchess of Gloucester,' a
contemporary ballad, 'A word for me durst no man say,'
_Political Songs_, ii. 206.
[950] Rymer, V. i. 110.
[951] Lansdowne MS., i. f. 79.
[952] Sloane MS., 248. See App. A.
[953] William of Worcester, 461.
[954] Fabyan, 614.
[955] Cotton MS., Julius, B. ii. ff. 68vo, 75. Randolph seems to
have had considerable connection with Gloucester, and to have
been one of his literary followers. There still exists
amongst a collection of astrological tables certain 'Canones
pro tabulis ejus (_i.e._ Humphrey) astronomicis secundum
Fratrem Randolfe'; Sloane MS., 407, ff. 224-227.
[956] _Eng. Chron._, 60.
[957] _Political Songs_, ii. 205.
[958] Rawlinson MS., Classis, C. 813, ff. llvo, 12, a
sixteenth-century collection of songs, but this one by
internal evidence was evidently written by a contemporary.
[959] _Chron. Henry VI._, 30.
[960] See _Political Songs_, ii. 207.
[961] See _e.g. Cal. Rot. Pat._, 277.
[962] _Ancient Correspondence_, vol. lvii. No. 97.
[963] _Add. Charters_, 44, 531.
[964] Cotton MS., Nero, D. vii. f. 154 (June 25, 1431).
[965] Bedford described Joan of Arc as 'a disciple and Lyme of the
Feend called the Pucelle that used fals enchantements and
Sorcerie'; Rymer, IV. iv. 141.
[966] _Rot. Parl._, iv. 118.
[967] _Lond. Chron._, 107; Walsingham, _Hist. Angl._, ii. 331. See
also Harleian MS., 2256, f. 193vo.
[968] Fabyan, 614; Holkham MS., p. 10.
[969] Shakespeare, second part of _King Henry VI._, Act II. Scene
iv.
[970] 'But then he fell into a foul error, Moved by his wife Eleanor
Cobham, To truste her so men thought he was to blame.'
This is how the incident struck the rhyming chronicler Hardyng, 400.
[971] _Ordinances_, v. 199.
[972] _Ibid._, v. 280.
[973] Amundesham, _Annales_, ii. App. B. 289. We find him at
Greenwich in the following year also (Dugdale, _Monasticon_,
ii. 245), and again on another occasion (_Beckington
Correspondence_, ii. 244). See also _Rot. Pat._, 25 _Henry
VI._, Part i. m. 16.
[974] _Inquisitiones_, A.Q.D. File 449, No. 1 (June 13, 1442).
[975] We find Gloucester and Kemp adopting the same attitude with
regard to the prosecution of the war in 1443; _Ordinances_,
v. 224. Kemp was alienated from the Beaufort counsels by the
advent of Suffolk, with whom he could not agree (see Ramsay,
ii. 115).
[976] _Ordinances_, v. 266.
[977] Charter printed in Dugdale, _Monasticon_, ii. 244, 245. The
transfer was completed, for reference is made to it in 1454;
_Rot. Parl._, v. 253.
[978] _Rot. Parl._, v. 56.
[979] Rymer, V. i. 130.
[980] _Ordinances_, vi. 32; cf. Rymer, V. i. 130.
[981] Rymer, V. i. 112.
[982] _Beckington Correspondence_, ii. 177-248.
[983] _Ibid._, ii. 212-215, 244.
[984] _Eng. Chron._, 61. The writ to Gloucester as Warden of the
Cinque Ports to observe and proclaim the truce is dated
January 2, 1445; Rymer, V. i. 153.
[985] Stevenson, _Letters and Papers_, i. 123. See also
_Polychronicon_, f. 337; Fabyan, 618; Grafton, i. 624;
Holinshed, iii. 207.
[986] Cotton MS., Vitellius, A. xvi. f. 104.
[987] _Polychronicon_, f. 337vo; Fabyan, 617; Holinshed, iii. 207;
Stow, 384; cf. _Chronicles of London Bridge_, 275; Carte,
_Hist. of England_, ii. 727.
[988] _Rot. Parl._, v. 73.
[989] Polydore Vergil, 69.
[990] Basin, i. 189.
[991] Ægidius, _De Regimine Principium_, III. ii. 15.
[992] Basin, i. 150, says that the subsequent events justified
Gloucester's wish to continue the war.
[993] Basin, i. 150, says that Somerset's secrecy was so great, that
it is doubtful whether at the end of his campaign his
intentions were known even to himself.
[994] Waurin, iv. 351, 352. He says the Bishop of Salisbury was one
of this party, but he probably means Moleyns, who was Dean of
Salisbury.
[995] For an account of this see T. Gascoigne, _Loci e Libro
Veritatum_, edited by J. E. Thorold Rogers (Oxford, 1881), p.
190.
[996] This is the fear ascribed to Gloucester's enemies in Fabyan,
619, and Leland, _Collectanea_, I. ii. 494. _Eng. Chron._,
63, hints at some plan which the common people did not know
of as yet, and which Suffolk and his party could not carry
out until Gloucester should be out of the way. Basin, i. 189,
also suggests that Gloucester's known hostility to the
cession of Maine had something to do with his suspicious
death.
[997] Mathieu de Coussy, 30; Hall, 209; Polydore Vergil, 71.
[998] _Chron. Henry VI._, 33; Mathieu de Coussy, 30; Whethamstede,
i. 179. Cf. Hardyng, 400.
[999] Stevenson, _Letters and Papers_, i. 110, 111.
[1000] _Ibid._, i. 116, 123.
[1001] _Chron. Henry VI._, 33; Waurin, iv. 353.
[1002] Polydore Vergil, 72; Hall, 209; Holinshed, iii. 210, 211;
Holkham MS., p. 58.
[1003] _Eng. Chron._, 62.
[1004] _Hist. Croyland. Contin._, i. 521.
[1005] Stubbs, iii. 135. Cf. Carte, _Hist. of England_, ii. 727.
[1006] Gloucester was a member of the Fraternity.
[1007] _Brief Notes_, 150; Richard Fox, 116.
[1008] _Eng. Chron._, 62; _Chron. Henry VI._, 33; _Short Eng.
Chron._, 65; _Lond. Chron._, 135.
[1009] From a pardon to one of Gloucester's servants of a later date
it seems that the Duke came to Bury straight from Greenwich
(Rymer, V. i. 179). Stow, 386, followed by Holkham MS., p.
59, says he came from 'his Castle of Devizes in Wiltshire.'
_Brief Notes_, 150, says he came from Wales.
[1010] Ramsay, ii. 73, says, 'Gloucester made a show of resistance,
a crowning act of folly, of which his adversaries made the
most.' I can find no authority to justify this statement.
[1011] _Chron. Henry VI._, 33; _Lond. Chron._, 135, says 'he mekely
obeied' when put under arrest.
[1012] _Brief Notes_, 150.
[1013] _Chron. Henry VI._, 33.
[1014] Richard Fox, 116.
[1015] _Rot. Parl._, v. 128.
[1016] The ruins of St. Saviour's Hospital can still be seen on the
road leading from Bury to Thetford.
[1017] Richard Fox, 116, 117; _Eng. Chron._, 62, 63; Gregory, 188;
_Chron. Henry VI._, 33, 34; Hardyng, 400; William of
Worcester, 464; _Lond. Chron._, 135; _Brief Notes_, 150;
Stow, 386; _Hist. Croyland. Contin._, i. 521; _Short Eng.
Chron._, 65. An entry on the verso of the last folio of
Lincoln MS., 106, records the death of Gloucester. Holinshed,
iii. 211.
[1018] _Brief Notes_, 150; Fabyan, 619.
[1019] _Brief Notes_, 150, erroneously states that he was buried
here. The site of this Franciscan monastery can still be
traced about half a mile outside Bury St. Edmunds on the
Thetford road. Lewis, _Topographical Dictionary_, i. 659.
[1020] Richard Fox, 117, 118.
[1021] Mathieu de Coussy, 31, is the only contemporary writer to lay
stress on this.