HENRY'S PROGRESS IN HIS SECOND CAMPAIGN. -- SIEGE OF ROUEN. --
CARDINAL DES URSINS. -- SUPPLIES FROM LONDON. -- CORRESPONDENCE
BETWEEN HENRY AND THE CITIZENS. -- NEGOCIATION WITH THE DAUPHIN AND
WITH THE FRENCH KING. -- HENRY'S IRISH AUXILIARIES. -- REFLECTIONS ON
IRELAND. -- ITS MISERABLE CONDITION. -- WISE AND STRONG MEASURES
ADOPTED BY HENRY FOR ITS TRANQUILLITY. -- DIVISIONS AND STRUGGLES, NOT
BETWEEN ROMANISTS AND PROTESTANTS, BUT BETWEEN ENGLISH AND IRISH. --
HENRY AND THE SEE OF ROME. -- THRALDOM OF CHRISTENDOM. -- THE DUKE OF
BRITTANY DECLARES FOR HENRY. -- SPANIARDS JOIN THE DAUPHIN. --
EXHAUSTED STATE OF ENGLAND.
1418-1419.
Henry[170] meanwhile was making rapid progress in subduing Normandy;
and to induce the inhabitants to return to their homes, which they had
abandoned, he issued a proclamation promising protection and favour to
all who would acknowledge his sovereignty. He also pledged himself to
relieve his subjects from all injustice and oppression.
[Footnote 170: On the 12th of February 1418, an
order is issued to press horses, carts, and other
means of conveyance, to carry the jewels,
ornaments, and other furniture of the King's chapel
to Southampton.]
Whilst he was lying before the town of Louviers, the Cardinal (p. 222)
des Ursins arrived in his camp with letters from the Pope, urging
Henry to make peace; the Cardinal of St. Mark having been sent to the
French King for the same purpose.
These offers of mediation were unavailing; and Henry, encouraged by
the distracted state of France, resolved to push his conquests to the
utmost; and, after some severe skirmishing at Pont de Larche,[171] he
proceeded to lay siege to Rouen. Did the plan of these Memoirs admit
of a fuller inquiry into the affairs of France, we might here (p. 223)
with benefit review the proceedings of the different parties in that
country since the field of Agincourt. The result of such a review
would probably be the conviction that the divisions by which that
country was distracted not only facilitated Henry's conquests, but
alone admitted of them. His victories, even if they had ever been won,
would scarcely have followed each other so rapidly, had the King of
France, the Dauphin, and the Duke of Burgundy opposed him with united
forces.
[Footnote 171: Henry's own words, in a letter, 21
July 1418, sent from Pont de Larche to the Mayor of
London, are: "Since our last departing from Caen,
we came before our town of Louviers, and won it by
siege; to which place came to us the Cardinal of
Ursin from our holy father the Pope, for to treat
for the good of peace betwixt both realms, and is
gone again to Paris to diligence there in this same
matter; but what end it shall draw to we wot not as
yet." In this letter he informs us that the attack
on Pont de Larche was on the 4th of July; and that,
though the enemy had "assembled in great power to
resist us, yet God of his mercy showed so for us
and for our right, that it was withouten the death
of any man's person of ours." He adds that he had
just heard of the decidedly hostile intentions of
the Duke of Burgundy towards him; so "we hold him
our full enemy. He is now at Paris." The King then
tells them that he needs not to refer to the death
of the Earl of Armagnac, and the slaughter that
hath been at Paris; for he was assured that they
had full knowledge thereof. He alludes to the
massacre of the Armagnac faction by the partisans
of the Duke of Burgundy, June 12, 1418. Two
thousand persons were murdered in a very brief
space of time. The mob dragged the bodies of the
Constable and Chancellor through the streets (as
Monstrelet tells us) for two or three days.]
The citizens of Rouen, which was well garrisoned, and had an ample
store of provisions, had declared themselves for the Duke of Burgundy;
but now, in their alarm, they supplicate aid from the Dauphin against
the common enemy. His answer was, that he was compelled to employ his
troops in defending his own towns against the Duke of Burgundy.[172]
[Footnote 172: Henry's army had received various
reinforcements. One accession is recorded by an
item in the Pell Rolls, of rather an interesting
character, showing that both the Irish and the
ecclesiastics of Ireland gave him good and
acceptable proof of the interest they took in his
success. It is the payment of 19_l._ 17_s._ on the
1st of July 1418, "to masters and mariners of
Bristol for embarking the Prior of Kilmaynham with
two hundred horsemen and three hundred
foot-soldiers from Waterford in Ireland, to go to
the King in France." An entry also occurs in the
following October: "To the Prior of Kilmaynham
coming from Ireland to Southampton, with a good
company of men, to proceed to Normandy to serve the
King in the wars, 100_l._" An order from the King
to his Chancellor, the Bishop of Durham, to
expedite ships from Bristol for the transport of
these men from Waterford to France, is preserved
among the miscellaneous records in the Tower. It is
dated June 3rd, at Ber-nay; to which a postscript
was added on the next day, urging the utmost
expedition, as the troops were tarrying only for
the means of sailing.--See Bentley's Excerpta
Historica, p. 388.]
The whole English army, with a great train of artillery, came (p. 224)
up before the city on the last day of July 1418, before another
harvest could afford new supplies of corn. To that one town the people
of Normandy had brought all their treasures; and those who were
intrusted with the safekeeping of the place seemed determined to
endure all the miseries of blockade and famine, rather than surrender.
Henry, with the resolution not to lavish the lives of his soldiers by
attempting to take this town by storm, laid close siege to it by land;
whilst some "good ships," which he had from the King of Portugal,
blockaded the mouth of the Seine.
Ten days after Henry laid siege to Rouen, he despatched a letter to
the Mayor and Aldermen of London, which, with their answer, cannot be
read without interest.
"BY THE KING.
"Right trusty and well-beloved! we greet you oft times well. And
for as much as, in the name of Almighty God, and in our right,
with his grace, we have laid the siege afore the city of Rouen,
which is the most notable place in France, save Paris; at which
siege, us nedeth [we need] greatly refreshing for us and for our
host; and we have found you, our true lieges and subjects, of
good will at all times to do all things that might do us worship
and ease, whereof we can you right heartily thank; and pray you
effectually that, in all the haste that ye may and ye will, do
arm as many small vessels as ye may goodly, with victuals, (p. 225)
and namely [especially] with drink, for to come to Harfleur, and
from thence as far as they may up the river of Seyne to Rouen ward
with the said victual, for the refreshing of us and our said host,
as our trust is to you; for the which vessels there shall be
ordained sufficient conduct, with God's grace. Witting well also
that therein ye may do us right great pleasance, and refreshing
for all our host above said; and give us cause to show therefore
to you ever the better lordship in time to come, with the help of
our Saviour, the which we pray that He have you in his
safeward.--Given under our signet, in our host afore the said city
of Rouen, the 10th day of August.
"To our right trusty and well-beloved the
Mayor, Aldermen, and all the worthy
Commoners of our city of London."
To this appeal the authorities of the city paid immediate and hearty
attention, and forwarded to Henry an answer under their common seal on
the 8th of September, (the Nativity of our Lady, the blissful maid,)
of which the following is a copy. A memorandum in Latin informs us
that the clause within brackets was for different causes kept back,
and not sent with the letters. The letter is a curious specimen of the
flattering and complimentary style of the good citizens of London when
addressing their sovereign.
"Our most dread, most sovereign Lord, and noblest King, to the
sovereign highness of your kingly majesty, with all manner of
lowness and reverence, meekly we recommend us, not only as we
ought and should, but as we best can and may; with all our
hearts, thanking your sovereign excellence of your gracious (p. 226)
letters in making [us] gladsome in understanding, and passing
comfortable in favouring our poor degrees, which ye liked late
to send us from your host afore the city of Rouen. In which
letters, after declaration of your most noble intent for the
refreshing of your host, ye record so highly the readiness of our
will and power at all times to your pleasance, and thanking us
thereof so heartily, that truly, save only our prayer to Him that
all good quiteth [requiteth], never was it nor might it half be
deserved. And after seeing in your foresaid gracious letters ye
pray us effectually to enarme as many small vessels as we may
with victual, and specially with drink, for to come as far as
they may in the river Seyne. And not only this, but in the
conclusion of your sovereign letters foresaid, ye fed us so
bounteously with the best showing of your good lordship to us in
time coming as ye have ever done, that now and ever we shall be
the joyfuller in this life when we remember us on so noble a
grace. [O how may the simpless of poor lieges better or more
clearly conceive the gracious love and favourable tendress of the
King, their sovereign Lord, than to hear how your most excellent
and noble person, more worth to us than all worldly riches or
plenty, in so thin abundance of victual heavily disposed, so
graciously and goodly declare and utter unto us, that are your
liege men and subjects, your plain lust and pleasance, as it is
in your said noble letters worthily contained. Certain, true
liege man is there none, ne faithful subject could there non ne
durst tarry or be lachesse [backward] in any wise to the
effectual prayer and commandment of so sovereign and high a lord,
which his noble body paineth and knightly adventureth for the
right and welfare of us.] Our most dread, most sovereign Lord,
and noblest King, may it please your sovereign highness to
understand, how that your foresaid kingly prayer, as most strait
charge and commandment, we willing in all points obey and execute
anon, from the receipt of your said gracious letter, which (p. 227)
was the 19th day of August nigh noon, unto the making of these
simple letters. What in getting and enarming of as many small
vessels as we might, doing brew both ale and beer, purveying
wine and other victual, for to charge with the same vessels, we
have done our busy diligence and care, as God wot. In which vessels,
without [besides] great plenty of other victuals, that men of
your city of London aventuren for refreshing of your host to the
coasts where your sovereign presence is in, we lowly send with
gladdest will unto your sovereign excellence and kingly majesty
by John Credy and John Combe, your officers of your said city,
bringers of these letters, tritty botes [thirty butts] of sweet
wine, that is to say, ten of Tyre, ten of Romeney, ten of
Malmesey, and a thousand pipes of ale, with two thousand and five
hundred cups for your host to drink of, which we beseech your
high excellence and noble grace for our alder comfort and
gladness benignly to receive and accept; not having reward
[regard] to the little head or small value of the gift itself,
which is simple; but to the good will and high desire that your
poor givers thereof have to the good speed, worship, and welfare
of your most sovereign and excellent person, of which speed and
welfare, and all your other kingly lusts [desires] and
pleasances, we desire highly by the said bearers of these
letters, and other whom your sovereign highness shall like, fully
to be learned and informed. Our most dread, most sovereign Lord,
and noblest King, we lowly beseech the King of Heaven, whose body
refused not for our salvation worldly pain guiltless to endure,
that ye, your gracious person, which for our alder good and
profit so knightly laboureth, little or nought charging bodily
ease, in all worship and honour evermore to keep and
preserve.--Written at Gravesend, under the seal of Mayoralty of
your said city of London, on the day of the Nativity of our Lady,
the blissful maid.
"To the King, our most dread and most sovereign Lord."
After every deduction is made from this singular epistle on the (p. 228)
ground of flattery and words of course, it proves that in expression,
at least, the Mayor and good citizens of London not only heartily
seconded Henry in his present undertakings, but identified his cause
with their own, and regarded him as fighting their battles, and
exposing himself to the dangers and privations of war in vindication
of their own rights; and probably we are fully justified in regarding
their sentiments as fairly representing the prevalent feelings of the
people of England. There were, doubtless, many exceptions, as there
ever must be in such a case, to the general unanimity; and we are not
without evidence that, during this siege of Rouen, Henry's proceedings
were commented upon unfavourably by some of his subjects at home.[173]
[Footnote 173: One Glomyng was charged with having
said, "What doth the King of England at siege
before Rouen? An I were there with three thousand
men, I would break his siege and make them of Rouen
dock his tail." He said, moreover, that "he were
not able to abide there, were it [not] that the
Duke of Burgundy kept his enemies from
him."--Donat. MS. 4601.]
During this siege negociations were set on foot by the Dauphin for an
alliance with Henry, who seemed to enter into the views of the
ambassadors heartily;[174] but at the same time similar negociations
were carried on between Henry and the King of France. In the (p. 229)
management of these a curious dispute arose as to the language in
which the conference should be carried on: the French required that
their own should be the medium of communication; the English
remonstrating, and requiring the Latin to be employed, that the Pope
and other potentates might understand their proceedings. It was
proposed that all writings should be in duplicate, one copy in French,
the other in Latin; but Henry insisted that his ambassadors should
sign only an English or a Latin copy. During these negociations the
French ambassadors presented to the King the portrait of the Princess
Katharine,[175] which he received with great satisfaction. The treaty,
however, was broken off, and the Cardinal Des Ursins returned to Pope
Martin at Avignon. It is painful to read the account of the siege of
Rouen; misery in all its shapes is painted there.[176] Indeed, if the
accounts we have received be true, so complicated a tale of
wretchedness is scarcely upon record. But the details can give no
satisfaction; they would only harrow up the feelings, without
supplying any facts essential to the history of those months of (p. 230)
human suffering. Henry was resolved neither to burn the town, nor
to take it by storm; but to reduce it by starvation. At length his
feelings overpowered this resolution, and he received the town upon
conditions, on the 19th January 1419.[177] Thus was Rouen subdued to
the Crown of England, two hundred and fifteen years after the conquest
of it by Philip of France in the reign of King John. Stowe tells us,
that to relieve this oppressed city Henry ordained it to be the chief
chamber of all Normandy; and directed his exchequer, his treasury, and
his coinage to be kept there. We have already seen that he caused his
vast treasures before kept in Harfleur to be brought to Rouen.
[Footnote 174: In a very long minute of the Privy
Council, the reasons assigned by Henry for wishing
to negociate an alliance with the Dauphin are given
at length; and ambassadors were appointed to treat
with that prince on the 26th of October
1418.--Foed. ix. p. 626.]
[Footnote 175: The Author, assisted by his friends,
has made diligent inquiry, both in England and on
the Continent, for a portrait of Katharine, with a
copy of which he was desirous of enriching this
volume; but his inquiries have ended in an
assurance that no portrait of her is in existence.]
[Footnote 176: Large cargoes of provisions of every
kind were forwarded from England; among others,
"stock fish and salmon" are enumerated in the Pell
Rolls, 3rd July 1419.]
[Footnote 177: Monstrelet says, that when Henry
made his entry into Rouen, he was followed by a
page mounted on a black horse, bearing a lance, at
the end of which near the point was fastened a
fox's brush by way of streamer, which afforded
great matter of remark. Elmham and Stowe give the
explanation of this. In 1414, he kept his Lent in
the castle of Kenilworth, and caused an arbour to
be planted there in the marsh for his pleasure,
among the thorns and bushes, where a fox before had
harboured; which fox he killed, being a thing then
thought to prognosticate that he should expel the
crafty deceit of the French King.--See Ellis,
Original Letters.]
* * * * *
It is confessedly beyond the province of these Memoirs even to glance
at the affairs of Ireland, except so far as a reference to them may
bear upon the character and conduct of Henry of Monmouth. Not only,
however, does the presence of a body of native Irish, headed by (p. 231)
one of the regular clergy of Ireland, aiding Henry at the siege of
Rouen, seem to draw our thoughts thitherward; but some documents also,
relative to our sister-land, of that date, may be thought to require a
few words in this place. During the reign of Richard II. the warlike
movements of the native Irish, who had never been conquered or
civilized, compelled that monarch to proceed to Ireland in person, and
to take the field against those wild rebels. They had formerly been
kept in comparative awe by a strong hand; but the continental wars of
Edward III. had much slackened the wonted vigilance and activity of
his government at home in checking their outbreakings against the
English settlers. They had, consequently, grown bold, and threatened
to extirpate the English altogether. Vigorous measures became
necessary, and the King twice headed an army himself to restore peace.
On his first visit he was summoned home by the prelates, to put down
the spreading sect of the Lollards; in his second, his delay, after
the landing of Bolinbroke at Ravenspurg, cost him his crown. In this
latter expedition Henry of Monmouth (as we have seen) accompanied him,
and had personal experience of the uncivilized state of the country,
and the savage character of the warfare carried on by the inhabitants.
It is curious to remark, that on several occasions Richard II.
employed the Irish prelates as his ambassadors to Rome, "for the safe
estate and prosperity of the most holy English church." The fact, (p. 232)
however, is too evident, that all Irish dignities were bestowed
on Englishmen; and except by some assumed privilege of the Pope, or by
other proceedings equally unacceptable to the English settlers, no
native Irishman was ever in those times advanced to any high station
in the church, or even promoted to an ordinary benefice. Indeed the
law forbade such promotions.
On the principle observed throughout these Memoirs, of avoiding all
reference to the political struggles and controversies of the passing
hour, the Author will make no reflections on the past, the present, or
the future policy of England towards a country whose destinies seem so
indissolubly bound up with her own. He humbly prays that HE, who says
to the tempest "Peace, be still!" and is obeyed, may so guide and
govern the religious and moral storms by which our age is shaken on
the subject of Ireland, that in His own good time the troubled
elements may be calmed; and that truth, peace, and charity may
prevail, and bless both countries, then at length become like "a city
that is at unity in itself."
By most of those who take a wide and comprehensive range of its
history, the dissensions which have distracted Ireland, and from time
to time torn it in pieces, and caused it to flow with the blood of its
neighbours and of its own children, will probably be ascribed, not
more to the difference of religion among its inhabitants, than (p. 233)
to the difference of origin. The struggles have been, not more
between Protestants and Romanists, not more between Catholics of the
church of England and Ireland, and Catholics in communion with the
sovereign pontiff, than between English and Irish, between those who
have regarded themselves as the aboriginal sons of the soil, and those
of Saxon or Norman descent, whom they have hated and abhorred as
intruders and invaders. The conflicts between these classes in
Ireland, as they may be traced in its chronicles, were just as
dreadful and as sanguinary before the Reformation, as ever they have
been since the separation of the reformed church from the see of Rome.
At all events, whatever may be the nature of the unhappy causes of
disunion in the present day, till within comparatively modern times
the struggles have been not more of a religious than of a national, or
perhaps of a predial, character. Authentic history teems with evidence
bearing directly on this point; and even the original documents,
references to which are interspersed through this volume, are quite
sufficient to establish it.
Among other documents confirmatory of the view here taken, which it
would be beyond the province of these Memoirs to recite, the statute
of 4 Hen. V. (1416), referring as it does to similar enactments of
previous reigns, and strongly expressive of the bitter jealousies
which existed between the two nations, seems to claim a place here.
"Whereas it was ordained in the times of the progenitors (p. 234)
of our Lord the King, by statute made in the land of Ireland,
that no one of the Irish nation be elected archbishop, bishop,
abbot, prior, nor in any manner be received or accepted to any
dignity or benefice within the said land; and whereas many such
Irish, by the power of certain letters of licence to them made by
the Lieutenants of the King there to accept and receive such
dignities and benefices, are promoted and advanced to
archbishoprics and bishoprics within the said land, who also have
made their collations to Irish clerks of dignities and benefices
there, contrary to the form and effect of the said statute; and
consequently, since they are peers of parliament in that land,
they bring with them to the parliaments and councils held in that
land servants by whom the secrets of the English in that land
have been and are from day to day discovered to the Irish people
who are rebels against the King, to the great peril and mischief
of the King's loyal subjects in that land: our said Lord the
King, willing to provide remedy for his faithful subjects, with
the consent of the Lords, and at the request of the Commons,
wills and grants that the said statute shall be in full force,
and be well and duly guarded, and fully executed, on pain of his
grievous indignation."
The statute then provides, that if any bishops act against this law,
their temporalities shall be seized for the King till they have given
satisfaction; that the Lieutenants shall be prohibited from granting
such licences to Irishmen; and that all such licences, if made, shall
be null and void.
Perhaps, however, the words of the petition to the Commons, on which
this enactment was founded, are still more striking and convincing on
the subject.
"To the honourable and wise Sires, the Commons of this (p. 235)
present Parliament, the poor loyal liegemen of our Sovereign Lord
the King in Ireland. Whereas the said land is divided between two
nations, that is to say, the said petitioners, English and of the
English nation, and the Irish nation, those enemies to our Lord
the King, who by crafty designs secretly, and by open destruction
making war, are continually purposed to destroy the said lieges,
and to conquer the land, the petitioners pray that remedy thereof
be made."[178]
[Footnote 178: See Sir H. Ellis, Orig. Let. xix.]
When Henry of Monmouth succeeded to the throne, Ireland was as
wild[179] in its country, and as rude in its inhabitants, as it was in
the reign of Henry II. The English pale (as it has been correctly
said) was little more than a garrison of territory; and it was
absolutely necessary either for the English inhabitants to leave their
possessions and abandon Ireland altogether, or for the English
government to keep the aboriginal Irish in check with a strong hand,
and compel them by military force to abstain from outrage. What would
have been at the present day the state of Ireland, had Henry directed
his concentrated energies to subdue the island, and then to (p. 236)
civilize and improve it, (measures by no means improbable had not the
conquest of France occupied him instead,) it would be profitless to
speculate. Even with his thoughts distracted by his foreign
expeditions, or rather, perhaps, almost absorbed by them, and whilst
he had but a very scanty contingent of officers and men at his
disposal for home-service, we have evidence that Ireland had not been
in so peaceable a condition for very many years as it had become under
his government. Whilst pursuing his victories on the Continent, he
laboured (and his labours were in an astonishing degree successful) to
provide for the effective administration of his own dominions with a
view to peace and justice.
[Footnote 179: Moryson, in his Travels, book iv. c.
3, gives a most extraordinary and disgusting
account of the habits of the Irish. The story of a
Bohemian Baron, who visited Morane, one of the
native princes, represents the Irish from the
highest to the lowest to have continued in the most
degraded state of barbarism. In their food, their
dwellings, their clothing, (those who had any to
wear,) and their general habits, if the accounts in
Moryson are not exaggerated, the Irish were not
removed many degrees from the wildest savages on
earth.]
A memorial forwarded this year to Henry, probably in consequence of
certain complaints of maladministration which had been sent to the
council the preceding winter, is very interesting. It is signed by a
large number of persons, lay and ecclesiastical: bishops, abbots,
priors, archdeacons, barons, knights, and esquires joined in the
petition.[180] The prayer of the memorial was professedly to procure a
fuller remuneration to the then Lord Lieutenant,[181] John Talbot,
Lord Furnival, for his indefatigable and successful exertions (p. 237)
in subduing "the English rebels and the Irish enemies;" it was,
however, evidently intended to obtain a still greater share of the
King's attention, and of the public expenditure in that island. The
memorial commences by expressions of loyalty to Henry's person, the
petitioners desiring above all earthly things to hear and to know of
the gracious prosperity and noble health of his renowned person, to
the principal comfort of all his subjects, but "especially of us who
are continuing in a land of war, environed by your Irish enemies and
English rebels, in point to be destroyed, if it were not that the
sovereign aid and comfort of God, and of you our gracious Lord, do
deliver us." It then states that they had prevailed upon the
Lieutenant[182] not to persevere in his intention to leave Ireland for
the purpose of applying to Henry in person for payment and relief, (p. 238)
expressing their great alarm should his presence be withdrawn from
them. The memorialists then dwell at great length upon the vast
labours, travails, and endeavours of Lord Furnival for the good of all
Henry's lieges; but those labours were only military proceedings:
every sentence of the memorial breathes of war, and slaughter, and
destruction. One of the chief topics in his praise is that he remained
many days and nights ("the which was not done before in our time") in
the lands of various of the strongest Irish enemies (specifying them
by name), taking their chief places and goods, burning, foraging, and
destroying all the country, and in many places causing the Irish
rebels to turn their weapons against each other. The document then
shows the precarious tenure of goods and of life among the English at
that time in Ireland; how they were "preyed upon and killed," and what
a wonderful change had just been effected by the vigorous measures of
Lord Furnival. "Now your lieges may suffer their goods and cattle to
remain in the fields day and night, without being stolen or sustaining
any loss, _which hath not been seen here by the space of these thirty
years past_, God be thanked, and your gracious provision!" It also
states that Maurice O'Keating, chieftain of his nation, traitor and
rebel, did on the Monday in Whitsun-week, (_i.e._ May 31st, not a
month before the date of the memorial,) "for the great fear which he
had of the Lieutenant, for himself and his nation, yield himself (p. 239)
without any condition, with his breast against his sword's point, and
a cord about his neck, delivering without ransom the English prisoners
which he had taken before; to whom grace was granted by indenture, and
his eldest son given in pledge to be loyal lieges from henceforward to
you our sovereign Lord." This memorial, dated June 26th, "in the fifth
year of your gracious reign," 1417, must have reached Henry on the
very eve of his setting out on his second expedition to Normandy.
[Footnote 180: It is remarkable, that among the
many names affixed to this memorial, not one
savours of Irish extraction. They all betray their
Saxon or (some) their Norman origin.]
[Footnote 181: This John Talbot, called by courtesy
Lord Talbot by right of his wife, was appointed
Lieutenant in Ireland in the first year of Henry's
reign. He had been employed in the wars of Wales,
and was the person against whom the Mayor of
Shrewsbury shut the gates. He was conspicuous also
as a warrior in the reign of Henry IV.]
[Footnote 182: Lord Furnival had petitioned in the
spring of the preceding year, 1416, for the payment
of one thousand marks disallowed by the then late
treasurer, the Earl of Arundel. Henry, who presided
himself in council, gave his decision that the
question should be submitted to the Barons of the
Exchequer, who, after examining the indenture made
between the King and the said lord, should ordain
what the justice of the case required.
The Lieutenant had also applied for a reinforcement
of men-at-arms and archers, and for a supply of
cannon. The King allows him to make such provision
with regard to additional soldiers as he thinks
best _at his own cost_, and agrees to let him have
some cannon from the royal stores.--Acts of Privy
Council, 1416.]
The complaints, to answer which, among other objects, we have already
intimated an opinion that this memorial might possibly have been
partly prepared, were taken into consideration on the 28th of the
preceding February by the King himself in council, and are by no means
devoid of interest, though only a cursory allusion to them can be made
here. Among the grievances are certain "impositions outrageously
imposed upon them;" the seizure of the wheat and cattle belonging to
churchmen by the officers and soldiers of the Lieutenant, contrary to
the liberties of Holy Church; and the non-execution and non-observance
of the laws in consequence of the insufficiency of the officers. To
these complaints the King replies that, at the expiration of Lord
Furnival's lieutenancy, he would provide a remedy by the appointment
of good and sufficient officers. The terms of indenture, by which the
King and Lieutenant were then usually bound, probably presented (p. 240)
an obstacle to any immediate interference.
But the most interesting point in these complaints is the prayer with
which they close. It proves that, in the view of the complainants,
(and probably theirs was the general opinion,) absenteeism was then
very prevalent, and was held to be one of the greatest evils under
which Ireland was at that time suffering; it informs us also that
Irishmen born (that is, however, men of English extraction born in
Ireland,) were advanced to benefices in England; and it shows that
many such natives of Ireland were in the habit of coming to England
for the purposes of studying the law, and of residing in the
Universities. The complainants "require that through the realm of
England proclamation be made that all persons born in Ireland, being
in England, except persons of the church beneficed, and students and
others engaged in the departments of the law, and scholars studying in
the Universities, betake themselves to the parts of Ireland, for
defence of the same.
To this petition the King only replies, that "he grants it according
to the form of the statute made in that case."
The statute to which Henry here refers was made in the first year of
his reign. It bears incidental testimony to his mild and merciful
disposition, as compared with the feelings and views of his
contemporaries; and shows that in legislation he took the lead (p. 241)
of his parliament in preferring mild and moderate to violent and
sanguinary measures.
The Commons pray that the penalty of absenteeism after the
proclamation should be loss of life or limb, and forfeiture of goods;
the King consents only to imprisonment, instead of death and
mutilation. "The Commons," (such are the words of the record,) "for
the quiet and peace of the realm of England, and for the increase and
welfare of the land of Ireland, pray that it may be ordained in the
present parliament, that all Irishmen, and all Irish begging clerks,
called Chaumber Deakyns [chamberdeacons], be voided the realm between
Michaelmas and All Saints, on pain of loss of life and limb; except
such as are graduates in the schools, and serjeants and students of
law, and such as have inheritance in England, and 'professed
religious;' and that all the Irish who have benefices and office in
Ireland live on their benefices and offices, on pain of losing the
profits of their benefices and offices,--for the protection of the
land of Ireland." The King grants the prayer, but modifies the
severity of the penalty proposed by the Commons, limiting the
punishment to the loss of goods, and imprisonment during the royal
pleasure; and excepting merchants born in Ireland of good fame, and
their apprentices, now being in England, and those to whom the King
may grant a dispensation.
It was in the year following these proceedings that Henry received
succours from Ireland, just before he laid siege to Rouen. The (p. 242)
Pell Rolls state that they were two hundred horse and three hundred
foot, under the command of the Prior of Kilmaynham,[183] transported
by Bristol vessels from Waterford to France. Others, doubtless, might
have joined him also from the same quarter; but it seems very probable
that Hall, or those whom he followed, exaggerated this statement, and
substituted the Lord of Kylmaine for the Prior of Kilmaynham, when
they tell us "that a band of one thousand six hundred native Irish,
armed with their own weapons of war, in mail, with darts and skaynes,
under the Lord of Kylmaine, were with Henry V. at the siege of Rouen,
and kept the way from the forest of Lyons; and so did their devoir
that none were more praised, nor did more damage to their enemies."
Still the account given of these wild Irish, by Monstrelet, would seem
to countenance the idea of a much greater number than were transported
over with the warlike Prior. "The King of England" (says that author)
"had with him in his company a vast number of Irish, of whom far the
greatest part went on foot. One of their feet was covered, the other
was naked, without having clouts, and poorly clad. Each had a target
and little javelins, with large knives of a strange fashion. And (p. 243)
those who were mounted had no saddles, but they rode very adroitly
on their little mountain horses: and they rode upon cloths, very
nearly of the same fashion with those which the Blatiers of the French
country carry. They were, however, a very poor and slight defence,
compared with the English: besides, they were not so accoutred as to
do much damage to the French when they met. These Irish would often,
during the siege, together with the English, scour the country of
Normandy, and do infinite mischief, beyond calculation; carrying back
to their host great booty. Moreover, the said Irish on foot would
seize little children, and leap on the backs of cows with them,
carrying the children before them on the cows, and very often they
were found in that condition by the French."[184]
[Footnote 183: This Prior seems to have been Thomas
Botiller, the brother of the Earl of Ormond. He is
said to have died during the siege. He and his men
are reported to have been sent over by Lord
Furnival, the Lord Lieutenant. See Excerpta
Historica above referred to.]
[Footnote 184: Mons. vol. i. c. 95.]
The only other document relating to Ireland at this time, which it is
purposed to transfer into these pages, is chiefly interesting as
affording one of the many instances upon record of the personal
attention which Henry paid to the business necessary to be transacted
at home, whilst he was engaged in battles and sieges and victories
abroad. It is a petition, (in itself also of some importance in regard
to Irish history,) from Donald Macmurough, (Macmore or Macmurcoo,)
addressed to "the most high and excellent redoubted Lord the King of
England," and is dated July 24, 1421.
"Most humbly supplicates, Donaal Macmurcoo, a prisoner in (p. 244)
your Tower of London, that as above all things in the world,
(most gracious Lord,) with entire intent of his heart, he desires
to be your liege man, and to behave towards you from this day
forward in good faith, as is his right; and to do that loyally he
offers to be bound by the faith of his body [his corporal oath],
and all the sacraments of Holy Church, in any manner which you
please graciously to ordain and appoint; and all his friends who
are at his will, under his subjection, or at his command under
his lordships, will promise the same by word of mouth. And for
greater security for the time to come, as well to your most noble
and sovereign Lordship as to your heirs and the crown of England,
during his life loyally to hold and accomplish the same, he
offers you his son and heir in pledge. May it please your most
high and gracious excellence, according to his promises
aforesaid, graciously to receive and accept him to your most
noble and abundant grace, for God's sake and in a work of
charity."
The petition is in French.--The answer in English is this: "Ye
King will that he come before his counsel, and find surety as it
may be found reasonable."
"For Macmourgh.--Offer to be sworn to the King, and to give
hostage thereupon."
The order of the council consequent upon this, in Latin, refers the
matter to the Lieutenant and council in Ireland.
* * * * *
Henry at this time appears to have had considerable intercourse with
the see of Rome. In a letter written to his resident ambassador in
that city, John Keterich, Bishop of Lichfield, he requires, in very
humble language, that his Holiness would not invade the rights of the
crown of England as settled by a concordat between Edward III. (p. 245)
and Gregory XI; that he would provide for the admission of Englishmen
only into the priories in England which the Conqueror had annexed to
Norman abbeys; and that he would send strict injunctions to the
bishops of Ireland that the people should be taught the English
tongue, and that none should be capable of any ecclesiastical
preferment who should be ignorant of it, since the best and greatest
part of that nation understood it, and experience had shown what
disorders and confusions arose from a diversity of languages.
It is impossible to read the documents of this time without being
struck by the evidence as well of the thraldom under which the Pope
held the sovereigns and people of Christendom, as of the spirit of
piety which habitually influenced Henry.
His confessor had died, and he had applied to the Archbishop of
Canterbury to select another for him. That primate's answer is full of
interest. The Archbishop gives the King all the authority which he
himself possessed; and yet Henry is obliged to seek permission at the
court of Rome to have a confessor of his own, and to celebrate divine
service at convenient times and in convenient places. He had sent for
a chapel, with altars, vestments, and ministers, from England; and the
warrant is in existence to press carriages and horses to carry them to
the sea, to be transported to him in Normandy. This instrument is
dated February 5th, 1418, and it should seem that all these (p. 246)
preparations were insufficient till he could obtain the Pope's licence
and dispensation in the following August.[185]
[Footnote 185: Archbishop Chicheley's letter to
Henry is preserved among the manuscripts of the
British Museum. MS. Cotton, Vesp. F. xiii. fol.
29.]
The Pope then gives Henry permission to have a confessor of his own
choice, who should once a year during his life, and once also at the
hour of death, give him full pardon for all the sins of which he
repented from the heart, and which he confessed with the mouth;
provided that the confessor take care to have satisfaction given to
those to whom it is due. The Pope adds an earnest hope that this
indulgence would not tempt Henry to commit unlawful acts at all more
freely than before.[186]
[Footnote 186: Gebennis, xv. kal. Sept. Pontif.
nost. ann. I. (August 18, 1418.) Rymer.]
By another act of grace, dated only ten days after the former, King
Henry is permitted to have one or more portable altars, and to have
mass at uncanonical times, and even in prohibited places, provided he
were not himself the cause of the interdict. This grant has also some
curious stipulations annexed: among others it is directed that the
doors shall be shut at such masses, the excommunicated excluded, the
service being conducted without sound of bell and with a low voice.
Especially is it enjoined that liberty to have mass before day (p. 247)
should be used very sparingly, because since our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, is offered as a sacrifice on that altar,--and he is
the brightness of eternal light,--it is right for that to be done, not
in the darkness of night, but in the light of day.
Henry remained for some time at Rouen, and wore the ducal robes as
Duke of Normandy. A conspiracy to surrender the town to the French
King was defeated by the honourable conduct of De Bouteiller, who, on
being requested to join the conspirators, on the contrary discovered
their designs to Henry.
Early in the year 1419, the Duke of Brittany, distrusting the power of
France to defend him, were the English to turn their arms against his
territory, sought and obtained an alliance with Henry; of whose just
and honourable principles he had experienced practical proofs.
At this time the Spaniards added much to Henry's difficulties. Having
engaged to succour the Dauphin, they are said to have sent ships to
Scotland for men, part of whom they probably landed at Rochelle.
Henry's forces, however, were victorious in the south, no less than in
the north.
Still, though victorious and feared on every side, Henry found that
war and disease had so reduced his army as to compel him to apply to
his subjects at home for reinforcement. The reasons sent from (p. 248)
Norfolk, which are probably only specimens of the returns from other
counties, would lead us to infer that most of his subjects, who were
both willing and able to join his standard, had already been drained
off. The Bishop of Norwich, and others, return that "the stoutest and
strongest of their countrymen were already in the army, and others
pleaded poverty and infirmities." Robert Waterton, to whom the King
had made an especial appeal, assured him that at the approaching
assizes at York he would urge the gentlemen of those parts to tender
their services. There seems also to have been a growing disinclination
or disability among the clergy to provide a supply of money; probably
both their means and their zeal for the cause had diminished. In the
diocese of York they complained loudly of the impoverished state of
the church, but at last voted one-half of a tenth.