KATHARINE CROWNED. -- HENRY AND HIS QUEEN MAKE A PROGRESS THROUGH A
GREAT PART OF HIS DOMINIONS. -- ARRIVAL OF THE DISASTROUS NEWS OF HIS
BROTHER'S DEATH (THE DUKE OF CLARENCE). -- HENRY MEETS HIS PARLIAMENT.
-- HASTENS TO THE SEAT OF WAR. -- BIRTH OF HIS SON, HENRY OF WINDSOR.
-- JOINS HIS QUEEN AT BOIS DE VINCENNES. -- THEIR MAGNIFICENT
RECEPTION AT PARIS. -- HENRY HASTENS IN PERSON TO SUCCOUR THE DUKE OF
BURGUNDY. -- IS SEIZED BY A FATAL MALADY. -- RETURNS TO VINCENNES. --
HIS LAST HOUR. -- HIS DEATH.
1421-1422.
Henry, now in the enjoyment of peace in England, Ireland, and France,
(except only so far as the Dauphin was yet unsubdued,) in the
enjoyment, too, of a union with the most beautiful Princess of the
age, seems to have reached the highest pinnacle of his ambition and
his hopes. The Queen was crowned with great solemnity and magnificence
in Westminster Abbey,[213] on the third Sunday in Lent. (23rd February
1421.)
[Footnote 213: Walsingham says, that she was
crowned on the first Sunday in Lent, which in that
year fell on the 9th February. But the Pell Roll
(Mich. 8 Hen. V.) contains a payment to divers
messengers sent through England, to summon the
spiritualty and laity to assist at the solemnizing
of the coronation of Katharine Queen of England, at
Westminster, on the third Sunday in Lent.]
After Henry had gratified his royal consort by proving to her how (p. 287)
deep and lively an interest the people of England took in her welfare
and happiness, he retired with her for a time to Windsor. A
combination, however, of various motives, induced him to propose to
her to join him in the execution of a design on which he seems to have
been bent, and to accompany him[214] in a progress through the
kingdom. He was most anxious to ascertain by personal inspection the
state and condition of his subjects in various parts of the realm;
more especially with the view of satisfying himself that justice (p. 288)
was impartially administered, crimes repressed, and innocence
protected. He felt also naturally a desire to present his loyal
subjects to his Queen, of whom we have many proofs that he was in no
ordinary degree proud; and, at the same time, to add to her
gratification by visiting in her society those places with which he
had early associations of pleasure, or which it would be most
interesting to a foreigner to see. He was also influenced, perhaps, in
some measure by a desire of visiting, in a sort of pilgrimage, the
shrine of the patron saint of his family, John of Bridlington; and
that of John of Beverley, the saint to whose merits the hierarchy, as
we have seen, so presumptuously ascribed the turn of the battle on the
day of Agincourt.
[Footnote 214: There is so much inconsistency in the
accounts of chroniclers as to the royal proceedings
on this occasion, that to attempt to reconcile them
all seems a hopeless task. The Author, however,
having been furnished with the following facts
ascertained from the "Teste" of several writs and
patents preserved in the Tower, is able to
recommend, with greater confidence in its accuracy,
the adoption of the journal offered in the text.
In the year 1421, King Henry V. was
January, from 1 to 31, at Rouen.
February 1, " Dover.
2 to 28, " Westminster.
March 1 to 5, " Westminster.
5 to 14, " Uncertain.
15, " Coventry.
27, " Leicester.
From March 28 to April 2, " Uncertain.
April 2 to 4, " York.
15, " Lincoln.
18, " York.
From 18 to 30, " Uncertain.
May 1 to 31, " Westminster.]
With these motives,[215] combined, it may be, with others, Henry lost
no time in carrying his intention into effect. He seems to have always
acted under a practical sense of the maxim, never to put off till
to-morrow what is to be done, and what may be done, to-day. Without
waiting for the summer, or a more advanced stage of the spring,--and,
had he delayed for longer days and more genial weather, the journey
would never have been taken,--we conclude that, about the beginning of
the second week in March, the King and Queen, attended by a large (p. 289)
retinue of friends and nobles, began their journey northward.[216] The
first place in which we are sure they rested is Coventry, which they
reached probably about the 8th of March, and where they were certainly
on the 15th of that month, the eve of Palm Sunday. Henry had a house
at Coventry, in right of the duchy of Cornwall, called Cheylesmoor;
and probably they took up their abode in that mansion during their
stay at Coventry. The greater part of the time spent in Warwickshire
was perhaps passed in the castle of Kenilworth, a favourite residence
of his grandfather, John of Gaunt, who made very great additions to
the mansion, always afterwards called the Lancaster Buildings. Henry
himself, too, had been much employed in improving this place, and
surrounding it with pleasure-grounds and arbours,[217] instead of the
thorns and brakes which had formerly been seen there. Just seven years
before this visit with his Queen, he had drained and planted the rough
land near the castle; and the local historians tells us the spot was
called "The Plesance in the Marsh."
[Footnote 215: Rapin says, but, as it should seem,
without reason, that Henry's aim was, under colour
of shewing the country to the Queen, to procure by
his presence the election of members for the
parliament who would be favourable to him.]
[Footnote 216: MS. Cott. Domit. A. 12.]
[Footnote 217: Elmham says, that, in 1414, Henry
kept his Lent in the castle of Kenilworth, and
caused an arbour to be planted in the Marsh there,
for his pleasure, amongst the thorns and bushes
where a fox before had harboured, which he killed.]
From Kenilworth the royal party went (probably about the 20th of
March) to their house at Leicester, where they kept the festival (p. 290)
of Easter.[218] Easter Sunday fell that year on the 23rd of March.
Could Henry have known of the sad calamity which befel him that very
Easter, his rejoicings would have been turned into mourning. It was at
that very time that the disastrous conflict took place, in which the
English were routed, and the Duke of Clarence, whom Henry had left his
representative on the Continent, was slain. Where the King was when
the melancholy tidings reached him, and which induced him to cut short
his progress, does not appear. We know that the joyful news of
Agincourt reached London on the fourth morning after the battle; and
probably the sad report of his brother's death, and of the
discomfiture of his troops, was posted on to Henry whilst he was at
York. Towards this, his northern capital, we conclude that he
proceeded from Leicester, about the last day of March. The inhabitants
of York had made most costly preparations for the reception of their
royal visitors; and on their arrival they welcomed their conquering
sovereign, and the partner of his joys and cares, with every
demonstration of loyalty and devotedness. The most princely presents
were offered to Henry in the most dutiful and cordial spirit of loving
and admiring subjects. How many days they remained together (p. 291)
amidst the festivities and rejoicings of the province of York, is not
recorded; perhaps the limit to this festival was the hour when the
gloom which spread over the kingdom on the death of Clarence reached
the royal party. It is not improbable that the news of his loss gave a
turn to Henry's mind, and induced him with sentiments of piety and
mourning to leave the splendour of his court for a while, and, laying
aside the feelings of the triumphant monarch, to give himself up to
exercises of devotion, and to a preparation for the same awful change
which had so unexpectedly stopped the career of his younger brother.
Leaving his Queen among his friends and faithful lieges of York, he
proceeded on a kind of pilgrimage to Bridlington, Beverley, and
Lincoln;[219] but in what order he visited those places it does not
appear. He was at York on the 4th of April, and again on the 18th;
whilst it is equally certain that on the 15th he was at Lincoln. (p. 292)
The author of the manuscript which tells us that his object in going
to Lincoln was to be present at the installation of Richard Flemming,
then lately elected Bishop, seems to be in error when he adds, that
the King rejoined the Queen at Pontefract, and thence proceeded to
Lincoln, and thence to London; unless, indeed, the King visited
Lincoln once by himself, and once with Katharine; a supposition in the
last degree improbable. He certainly returned to York after his
sojourn at Lincoln on the 15th. It is very probable that, when he left
York, he proceeded first to Bridlington, thence to Beverley, and so,
crossing the Humber at Hull, reached Lincoln about the 13th of April,
and, having passed two or three days there, returned to York on the
17th. The only other town mentioned by chroniclers is Pontefract.
Documents may, perhaps, be hereafter discovered to account for him
between the 18th of April, when he was certainly at York, and the 1st
of May, when he had returned to Westminster. At present we are left to
conjecture: but it cannot be thought improbable if we suppose that,
from his castle of Pontefract, (where he would have seen the Duke of
Orleans[220], then a prisoner there, whom he always treated with (p. 293)
respect and kindness, and whom he indulged with as much relaxation of
his confinement as was compatible with his safe custody,) he took the
route for Chester, the place where he had formerly landed on his
return from Trym Castle. Thence pointing out to his bride the country
of Glyndowrdy, in which he passed his noviciate in arms; and the whole
line of the Welsh borders, with which he had been long familiar, he
would probably have passed on to Shrewsbury, where he might have taken
Katharine to the spot in the battle-field on which Hotspur fell. From
Shrewsbury, his line would be through Worcester, in which city he had
often been stationed during the Welsh rebellion; and so onwards
through Oxford, (a place he probably had visited on his journey
northward, and where he would have been delighted to show Katharine
the "narrow chamber" assigned to him when he studied there,) thus
finishing his circuit where it began, at Windsor.
[Footnote 218: Walsingham says, that Henry put off
the celebration of the feast of St. George, (which,
being the 23rd of April, must have fallen on a day
after he had left York,) and directed it to be
celebrated at Windsor on the Sunday after
Ascension-day.]
[Footnote 219: His visits to the hallowed
resting-places of these saints are not at all
inconsistent with the opinion which we have
ventured already to give, that he was never heard
to address in the language of prayer or
thanksgiving any other being than the one true God.
A similar feeling of love for the holy men of God,
whether he could testify that love to the living,
or merely record it for the memory of the dead,
might have led him to the installation of the
Bishop of Lincoln, and to the tomb of John of
Bridlington and John of Beverley. Henry was not a
Protestant by profession; but, compared with the
hierarchy by whom he was surrounded, he approached
almost, if not altogether, this fundamental point
of difference between the two churches, the
rejection of the adoration of any being, save the
one only God.]
[Footnote 220: Henry's prisoners of war were
dispersed among various castles and strong places
throughout the kingdom in England and Wales.
Payment is recorded, July 10, 1422, to John
Salghall, Constable of Harlech, of 30_l._ for the
safe custody of thirty prisoners, conveyed by him
from London.--Pell Rolls, 9 Henry V.]
There are difficulties attending this supposition, to the existence of
which the Author is fully alive; but in the whole affair there is only
a choice of difficulties. He is aware that the journey from York
through Chester and Shrewsbury to Windsor would have required the
royal party to travel for fourteen days at the rate of twenty miles on
the average each day consecutively. But, on the other hand, without
such a supposition, the old chroniclers[221] must be altogether (p. 294)
laid aside, (though there is no other evidence to make their statement
improbable,) when they assure us that Henry took Katharine to visit
his principality, as well as the distant parts of his kingdom.[222] It
must, moreover, be borne in mind that although he might have felt a
reluctance (notwithstanding the melancholy event which hastened his
return to the capital) to break off his intended progress without
visiting at least the borders of Wales, yet he was pressed for time,
and would therefore not willingly lose a day on the road. Be this as
it may, we are assured[223] that, wherever he went, his ears were in
all places open to the complaints of the injured and oppressed; he
redressed their wrongs, punished the perverters of public trusts, (p. 295)
reformed many abuses in the local governments, and established such
ordinances as should secure for the future the impartial
administration of justice to high and low alike.
[Footnote 221: Holinshed and others.]
[Footnote 222: The Author has invariably discarded
the assertions of the chroniclers, however
positively affirmed, or frequently reiterated,
whenever they have appeared to be incompatible with
ascertained facts, or inconsistent with what would
otherwise be probable. In the present instance,
after a review of all the circumstances, and an
examination of all the documents with which he is
acquainted, though the supposition here adopted may
be deemed ideal and fanciful, he is inclined to
think that the acquiescence in that view will be
attended with fewer difficulties than the adoption
of any other.]
[Footnote 223: But whilst Henry was thus actively
employed in visiting his subjects, and spreading
the blessing which a good King can never fail to
dispense wherever his influence can be felt, his
ministers of state sought his directions on all
important matters for the management of his affairs
on the Continent. Thus a despatch addressed to the
Treasurer by William Bardolf, Lieutenant of Calais,
is forwarded with all speed to the King in
Yorkshire, that his especial pleasure might be
taken thereon. Payment of the messenger appears in
the Pell Rolls, April 1, 9 Hen. V.]
If, as we are led to believe, Henry returned by the way of Chester,
his ardent imagination and pious turn of thought would have reverted
with mingled feelings of wonder and gratitude to his journey along the
same road two-and-twenty years before; when, returning from his own
captivity in Ireland, he accompanied the captive Richard towards his
metropolis, to resign his throne there, and soon afterwards to lay
down his life. To Henry, indeed, mementos presented themselves on
every side of the frailty of all sublunary possessions, the precarious
tenure by which king or peasant alike holds any earthly thing; whilst
he was himself destined, in the revolution of the next year, to become
in his own person a marked example of the same uncertainty. His spirit
might seem to address us from the grave, in the words of a reflecting
man.[224] "A day, an hour, a moment is sufficient for the overthrow of
dominions which are thought to be grounded on foundations of adamant."
[Footnote 224: Casaubon, quoted by Sir Walter
Raleigh.]
* * * * *
Where Henry was when the unexpected news arrested his progress is not
known. The certainty is, that whilst he was anxiously engaged in
reforming abuses, and preparing good laws at home; after he had (p. 296)
also just concluded a peace with Genoa, and, by generously releasing
the King of Scotland, had bound him by the strongest ties of gratitude
and affection; his exertions were suddenly arrested by the sad news of
the defeat of his forces at Baugy in Anjou, and the death, in battle,
of his brother, the Duke of Clarence.[225] These tidings caused him to
shorten his progress, and to return to his capital, where he arrived
at furthest on the 1st of May.
[Footnote 225: Monstrelet says, that the flower of
the English chivalry, who were with the Duke, fell
in that field, and, besides knights and esquires,
from two to three thousand men; and that, with the
Earl of Somerset and others of noble and gentle
blood, about two hundred were taken prisoners.
There was also, he says, a dreadful slaughter of
the French. The English, under the Earl of
Salisbury, recovered the body of the Duke from the
enemy, and it was carried with much ceremony to
England, and there buried.]
The Bishop of Durham, Chancellor of England, was charged to open the
Parliament, which met on the second of that month, Henry himself being
present, in the Painted Chamber. The Chancellor's address, though in
many points strange, and well-nigh ridiculous, is too interesting to
be passed by unnoticed. He began by uttering eulogies on the King,
specifying, among other topics of praise, this merit in
particular,--that, whilst God had granted him victories and conquests
as the fruits of his labour, he never assumed the least merit to
himself, but ascribed all the glory to God only, "_following in (p. 297)
a manner the example of the very valiant Emperor Julius Cæsar_;"
and also because as Job, when news was brought to him of the death of
all his children as they were feasting in their eldest brother's
house, praised God, saying, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken
away, the will of the Lord be done; blessed be the name of the Lord!"
so our sovereign Lord the King, when he first heard of the death of
the noble prince, the Duke of Clarence, his own dear brother, and of
the gallant knights and others slain with him, praised and blessed God
for the visitation of that calamity, as he had before had cause to
praise Him for all his prosperity. In declaring the cause of summoning
this Parliament, he mentions the desire the King had of rectifying,
according to right and justice, all abuses and wrongs which had
prevailed through the realm since his last passage to foreign lands,
especially to the injury of those who had been with him there; and
also his wish that all the laws of the realm should be maintained and
enforced, and that further provision should be made for the
[226]better governance, and peace, and universal good of the realm.
The Parliament, it is said, cheerfully voted him a fifteenth,[227] (p. 298)
though many persons petitioned against further taxation, and gave
utterance to sad complaints of their poverty. The Convocation also met
on May 5th, and on the 12th; they voted him a tenth from the revenues
of the clergy: and his uncle, the Bishop of Winchester, advanced to
him by way of loan twenty thousand pounds. The Parliament guaranteed
payment of the loans to all who should advance money to the King for
this expedition.
[Footnote 226: In this Parliament a statute was
passed, the enactment, but more especially the
preamble of which presents a very formidable view
of the drain which Henry's continental campaigns
had made upon the English gentry.
"Whereas by the statute made at Westminster, the
14th year of King Edward III, it was ordained and
established, that no Sheriff should abide in his
bailiwick above one year, and that then another
convenient should be set in his place, which should
have lands sufficient within his bailiwick, and
that no Escheator should tarry in his office above
a year; and whereas also, at the time of making the
said statute, divers valiant and sufficient persons
were in every county of England, to occupy and
govern the same offices well towards the King and
all his liege people; forasmuch that as well by
divers petilences within the realm of England, as
by the wars without the realm, there is now not
such sufficiency; it is ordained and stablished
that the King by authority of this Parliament may
make the Sheriffs and Escheators through the realm
at his will until the end of four years."--9 Hen.
V. stat. 1, c. v.]
[Footnote 227: This vote does not appear on the
Rolls of Parliament. Walsingham asserts that a
fifteenth was voted. Holinshed distinctly says,
that the "commonaltie gladly granted a fifteenth."
But he is no authority in such a case. The
Parliament, in the following December, granted a
tenth, and a fifteenth.]
Henry, impatient to repair the dishonour of the defeat which his
forces had sustained, and to reduce his foreign dominions to peace,
issued his writ, on the 27th of May, to the sheriffs of the several
counties to publish his proclamation that all persons should (p. 299)
hasten with the utmost speed to join the King, and accompany him in
his voyage. And now possessing under his command a larger force than
he had ever yet raised; after procuring by subsidies and loans as
large a sum as the power or inclination of his people supplied; having
also appointed his brother, the Duke of Bedford, Regent; he left
London (never to return to it alive), on the last day of May, or the
1st of June. From the 1st to the 10th of that month he seems to have
passed his days alternately at Canterbury and Dover; though the cause
of this delay does not appear to have been recorded. To whatever the
postponement of his departure is attributable, though he left the
metropolis not later than the 1st, he did not finally quit the English
shores till the 10th of June. On the 12th he was at Rouen.[228]
[Footnote 228: Three days after landing his forces,
he despatched the Earl of Dorset with twelve
hundred men to relieve his uncle, the Duke of
Exeter, who was closely blockaded in Paris.]
The Dauphin himself with a large army was at this time besieging
Chartres, and Henry having passed by Abbeville, Beauvais, Gisors, and
Mante, marched himself with strong hand to raise that siege. On
Henry's approach the Dauphin withdrew.
Some of these facts, with others, are contained in a letter which was
forwarded from Henry to the mayor and citizens of London, (it is the
last we shall have occasion to transcribe,) and which is chiefly
remarkable for his language when speaking of the Dauphin. He (p. 300)
will not acknowledge him to have any right to the title, and calls him
a pretender. Another point of considerable interest is the unqualified
manner in which he speaks of the cordial co-operation and sincere
attachment of the young Duke of Burgundy.
BY THE KING.
"Trusty and well-beloved, we greet you well. And for as much as
we be certain that ye will be joyful to hear good tiding of our
estate and welfare, we signifie unto you that we be in good
health and prosperity of our person; and so be our brother of
Gloucester, and bel-uncle of Exeter, and all the remnant of lords
and other persons of our host, blessed be our Lord, which grant
you so for to be! Witting, moreover, that in our coming by
Picardy we had disposed us for to have tarried somewhat in the
country, for to have set it, with God's help, in better
governance; and, while we were busy to intend therto, come
tidings unto us that he that clepeth him [calleth himself]
Dauphin was coming down with a great puissance unto Chartres.
Wherefore we drove us in all haste to Paris, as well for to set
our father of France, as the said good town of Paris, in sure
governance, and from thence unto this our town of Mante, at which
place we arrived on Wednesday last, to the intent for to have
given succours, with God's grace, unto the said town of Chartres;
and hither come unto us our brother of Burgundy with a fair
fellowship, for to have gone with us to the said succours; the
which our brother of Burgundy we find right a trusty, loving, and
faithful brother unto us in all things. But, in our coming from
Paris unto this our town of Mante, we were certified upon the
way, by certain letters that were sent unto us, that the said
pretense Dauphin, for certain causes that moved him, hath raised
the said siege, and is gone into the country of Touraine (p. 301)
in great haste, as it is said. And we trust fully unto our Lord
that, through his grace and mercy, all things here, that we shall
have to do with, shall go well from henceforth, to his plesance
and worship; who we beseech devoutly that it so may be, and to
have you in his keeping!--Given under our signet, in our host, at
our town of Mante, the 12th day of July."
Though the Dauphin avoided Henry altogether, he was forced to engage
with the Duke of Burgundy's army, and he suffered a most decided
defeat near Blanche Tache. Henry, meanwhile, was engaged in reducing
Dreux and other towns, still garrisoned for the Dauphin.
The town of Meaux was so strong, and so well manned, that the siege of
that one place occupied Henry from the 6th of October through the
whole winter, and to the very end of the next April. During this
protracted siege, in which the Earls of Dorset, and of Worcester, and
Lord Clifford were killed, Henry sent ambassadors to the Emperor
Sigismund for succours. He had the satisfaction, meanwhile, to hear
that his Queen was delivered of a son, at Windsor, on St. Nicholas'
day (December 6th). Whether the common report has any foundation in
truth, cannot now be certainly known: his father, however, is said to
have omened ill of the young prince when he heard of the place of his
birth, and to have spoken thus to Lord Fitz-Hugh, his chamberlain: "My
lord, I Henry, born at Monmouth, shall small time reign and get much;
and Henry, born at Windsor, shall long reign and lose all: but (p. 302)
God's will be done!" Probably this was a prophecy forged after the
event, and ascribed to Henry without any foundation in truth.
In the session of Parliament held December 1st, 1421, under the Duke
of Bedford as Regent, one fifteenth was voted for prosecuting the war,
with this condition appended, that the first half of it should be paid
in the money then current. The gold coin had been much lessened in
value by clipping and washing; consequently the Parliament, to relieve
the people, ordained that the receivers of the tax should take all
light pieces, not wanting in weight more than 12_d._ in the noble. The
people, therefore, got rid of their gold as fast as they could, and
hoarded up their silver.[229] The Convocation also, which met at York,
September 22nd, granted a tenth.
[Footnote 229: Rot. Pat. ix. Henry V.]
After reducing many towns and castles, Henry proceeded to the Château
Bois de Vincennes, near Paris, to meet his Queen,[230] who had landed
at Harfleur, on the 21st of May, with a noble retinue, and under
convoy of the Regent himself. Henry and Katharine entered Paris
together, where they were magnificently received; the same painful
contrast still being felt by Charles between his court and that (p. 303)
of his heir-apparent. The young King had put the spirit of the
Parisians to the test by a strong measure, in levying a most unpopular
tax; but the discontent did not break out into any open tumult. Indeed
(as the chroniclers record) their resentments were abated, or rather
turned into affection, when they felt the kind influences of King
Henry's just and moderate government, and observed his exact
administration of justice in redressing wrongs, and punishing without
partiality or favour the authors of them. By this just conduct he
gained especially the love of the people, who regarded him as their
father and protector.
[Footnote 230: Preparations had been made as early
as January 26th, 1422, for the Queen to leave
England, and meet the King at Rouen, but she did
not start till April.]
The Dauphin in the mean time was anxiously bent on recovering a crown
from which the victories of Henry, and the displeasure of the King his
father, had excluded him. His army was comparatively small, and he
therefore, whilst Henry was with an army in the neighbourhood, avoided
a battle, keeping always two days' march distant from him. Finding,
however, that Henry was now, at length, far away, he laid siege to
Cone, a town on the Loire, the garrison of which agreed to surrender
on the 16th of August, if they were not by that time relieved by the
Duke of Burgundy. The Duke not only sent into Flanders and Picardy to
levy troops to raise this siege, but importuned Henry also to
strengthen him with English soldiers and officers. The King's answer
was that he would come himself at the head of his whole army to (p. 304)
the Duke's relief. This was his resolution; but God decreed otherwise.
Very shortly after this resolution, Henry was seized by a disorder, on
the exact nature of which historians are not agreed, which proved
fatal to him. Yet, though much weakened, he resolved to join his army,
which, at the first approach of his disorder, he had commanded the
Duke of Bedford to lead on to raise the siege of Cone. With this
intention he left the King[231] and Queen of France, and his own
beloved Katharine, at Senlis, and proceeded to Melun. His complaint
was then making rapid and deadly progress; and, after having been
carried in a litter with the intention of passing through his troops,
he was compelled to return to Vincennes.[232] The Duke of Bedford, who
had raised the siege of Cone without striking a blow, hearing now of
the state of danger in which his brother was, left the army, and,
accompanied by a few friends, rode full speed towards the castle,
where the King lay.
[Footnote 231: The King, his father-in-law,
survived Henry not quite two months: he died
October 21st, 1422.]
[Footnote 232: A description and history of this
castle will be found in a work entitled, "Histoire
du Donjon et du Chateau de Vincennes, par L. B.,"
published at Paris in 1807. The Author refers to
the sojourn made in this castle by Henry's son
(King Henry VI.) at the close of the year 1431,
when he visited France for the purpose of being
crowned.]
Henry, sensible that his end was fast approaching, desired the Duke of
Bedford, the Duke of Exeter, the Earl of Warwick, Sir Lewis (p. 305)
Robessart, and some others, to stand round his bed; to whom we are
told he spoke to this effect: "I am come," said he, "to the end of a
life which, though short, has yet been glorious, and employed to
advance the good and honour of my people. I confess it has been spent
in war and blood; yet, since the only motive of that war was to
vindicate my rights after I had ineffectually tried milder methods,
the guilt of all the miseries it occasioned belongs not to me, but to
my enemies. As death never appeared formidable to me in so many
battles and sieges, so now, without horror, I regard it making its
gradual approach. And since it is the will of my Creator now to put a
period to my day, I cheerfully submit myself to his will." He then
mentioned two circumstances which tended to make him anxious on
leaving the world: the one, that the war was not brought to a close;
the other, that his son was an infant. But he was comforted on both
these points by the tried friendship and sound principles of the Duke
of Bedford, his brother; to whom he gave in charge both his kingdom
and his boy. He then desired the Earl of Warwick to undertake the
office of preceptor and guide to the young prince in learning and in
arms. Henry next left a charge for his brother Humfrey to be careful
that no division of affection and interests should take place between
them; he conjured them also not to quarrel with the Duke of Burgundy,
and enjoined them not to release the Duke of Orleans, and some (p. 306)
other prisoners, till his son was arrived at years of discretion.
This was a mournful hour for those noblemen and friends and relatives
who surrounded his bed. At length, having given all necessary
directions for the government of his kingdom and his family,[233] he
fixed his thoughts wholly on another world. He urged the physicians to
tell him the real state of his disease; but they evaded any direct
answer. Very soon he required them to tell him how long, in all human
probability, he had to live. After some consultation, one of them,
speaking for the rest, knelt down and said, "Sir, think of your soul;
for, without a miracle, in our judgment you cannot survive two hours."
His confessor and other ministers of religion then surrounded his bed,
and administered the parting rite of the Roman church, as it was at
that time and is still practised. He next desired them to join in the
seven penitential psalms; and when in the 51st psalm they read, "Build
thou the walls of Jerusalem," caught by the words, Henry bade them
stop awhile; and with a loud voice declared to them, on the faith of a
dying person, that it verily had been his fixed purpose, after
settling peace in France, to proceed against the infidels, and rescue
Jerusalem from their tyranny, if it had pleased his Creator to (p. 307)
lengthen out his days. He then requested them to proceed; and when
they had finished their devotions, between two and three o'clock in
the morning, he breathed his last.
[Footnote 233: Elmham says, Henry added several
codicils to his Will, leaving large sums to
discharge the debts not only of himself, but also
of his father, and also to reward many of his
faithful servants.]
Henry of Monmouth died 31st August 1422; and when he resigned his soul
into the hands of his Redeemer, he seemed to fall asleep rather than
to expire.[234]
[Footnote 234: Elmham.]
Such a Christian end of his mortal existence is not surprising when we
remember (a point on which his own chaplain will not suffer us to
doubt,) that every day of his life he read and meditated upon the word
of God, for the express purpose of learning how best to fear and serve
him; a daily exercise (says the chaplain) from which, when he was
engaged in it, no one even of his chief nobles and the great men of
his state[235] could withdraw him.[236]
[Footnote 235: Sloane, 64.]
[Footnote 236: It is satisfactory to find, even
among the mere details of expenditure, testimony
borne to his love of the Holy Scriptures. Among his
last domestic expenses is this interesting item:
"To John Heth 3_l._ 6_s._ for sixty-six quarterns
of calfskins, purchased and provided by the said
John, to write a Bible thereon for the use of the
King."--Pell Rolls, February 23, 1422, just six
months before his death.]
The bowels of Henry were buried in the monastery of St. Maur; and
his body embalmed, being put into a leaden coffin, was drawn to
St. Denis. Before and behind the corpse were two lamps burning;
and two hundred and fifty torches gave light to the procession.
The Abbot and Monks of St. Denis came out to meet it, and
solemnly preceded it to their church, where they performed (p. 308)
the office for the dead, the Archbishop of Paris singing the
requiem. From St. Denis the procession advanced to Paris, where
the body was deposited for a while in Notre Dame; and thence,
with great and solemn pomp, it was carried to Rouen. The Queen,
from whom the death of her husband had been before concealed,
here met the Duke of Bedford; and made preparations for the
conveyance of the body to England. In a bed, in the same carriage
with the body, was laid the figure of the King, with a crown of
gold on his head, a sceptre in his right hand, and a ball in his
left. The covering of the bed was vermilion silk embroidered with
gold, and over the chariot was a rich silk canopy. The chariot
was drawn by six horses in rich harness. The first bore the arms
of St. George, the second, the arms of Normandy; the third, those
of King Arthur; the fourth, those of St. Edward; the fifth, the
arms of France; the sixth, the arms of England and France. James,
King of Scots, followed it as principal mourner. The banners of
the saints were borne by four lords. The hatchments were carried
by twelve captains; and around the carriage rode five hundred
men-at-arms, all in black armour,--their horses barbed black, and
their lances held with the points downwards. A great company
clothed in white, and bearing lighted torches, "encompassed the
hearse." Those of the King's household followed, and after them
the royal family; the Queen, with a great retinue, followed at a
league's distance. Whenever the corpse rested masses were sung
from the first dawn of the morning till nine o'clock. The
procession passed through Abbeville to Calais; and crossing to
Dover, proceeded with the same solemnities towards London. When
they approached the capital, they were met by fifteen bishops in
their pontifical habits, and many abbots in their mitres and
vestments, with a great company of priests and people. The
princes of the royal family went mourning next to the hearse. The
corpse was buried in Westminster Abbey, among its most valued
treasures.
Among the public acts[237] of the realm his death is thus (p. 309)
recorded:
[Footnote 237: Acts of Privy Council. Cleopatra, F.
iv. f. I. a.]
"DEPARTED THIS LIFE, AT THE CASTLE OF BOIS DE VINCENNES, NEAR
PARIS, ON THE LAST DAY OF AUGUST, IN THE YEAR 1422, AND THE TENTH
OF HIS REIGN, THE MOST CHRISTIAN CHAMPION OF THE CHURCH, THE
BRIGHT BEAM OF WISDOM, THE MIRROR OF JUSTICE, THE UNCONQUERED
KING, THE FLOWER AND PRIDE OF ALL CHIVALRY--*HENRY THE FIFTH*, KING
OF ENGLAND, HEIR AND REGENT OF FRANCE, AND LORD OF IRELAND."
Here we would have drawn the curtain round the bed of Henry of
Monmouth; but truth and justice compel us to tarry somewhat longer in
the chamber of death. The tongue and pen of calumny have not suffered
the dying hero to pour out his soul with his last breath in prayer and
pious ejaculations unmolested; and the accuser's name is too widely
known, and has unhappily gained too much influence in the world, for
his calumnies to be passed over as harmless. Henry, having "set his
house in order," and being certified how short a time he had to live,
declares, on the faith of a dying man, that he had been fully resolved
(had the Almighty granted him length of days to put his resolve into
effect) to proceed in person to the Holy Land, and rescue the city of
God from the pollutions and abominations of the infidels. In recording
this declaration of the expiring monarch, Hume adds a comment as full
of bitter sarcasm as it is tinctured with his characteristic (p. 310)
spirit of scepticism. "So ingenious are men in deceiving themselves,
that Henry forgot in these moments all the blood spilt by his
ambition, and received comfort from this late and feeble resolve;
which, as the mode of those enterprises was now past, he certainly
would never have carried into execution." Had Hume been as faithful
and painstaking in the search of truth, as he was ready to adopt the
account of any transaction which was nearest at hand, and unscrupulous
in substituting his own hasty remarks in the place of well-weighed
reflections on ascertained facts, he never would have suffered so
ignorant and ill-founded a comment to disgrace his pages. Hume[238]
charges Henry with having left the world, forgetful of the
bloodguiltiness by which his soul was stained, and with a sentence of
hypocrisy and falsehood on his lips. To the first charge,--that Henry,
at the awful moment of his dissolution, deceived himself into a
forgetfulness "of all the blood spilt by his ambition,"--needs only to
be replied, that so far from his having forgotten the loss of human
life attendant upon his wars, the very page on which the historian is
so severely commenting, records that Henry spoke of that subject
openly and unreservedly to those who stood around his bed, expressing
his sure trust that the guilt of that blood did not stain his soul,
who sought only his just inheritance; but rested on the heads of (p. 311)
those who, by their obstinate perseverance in injustice, compelled
him to appeal to the God of battle in vindication of his own rights.
[Footnote 238: Hume's Hist. vol. iii. ch. xix.]
Again, Henry declares, on the faith of a dying Christian Prince, that
it had verily been his fixed resolution, as soon as his wars in France
had been brought to a favourable issue, to proceed to the Holy Land.
Hume says that this was a late and feeble resolve; and the ground on
which he rests this charge of falsehood is, that the mode of those
enterprises was then past. Hume ought to have known, as an ordinary
historian, that the mode of those enterprises was not then past; and
Hume might have known that Henry's was not a death-bed resolve, to
which the expiring self-deceiver clung for comfort when the world was
receding from his sight; but that in his health and strength, and in
the mid-career of his victories, he had actually taken preliminary
measures for facilitating the execution of that very design.
With regard to the first position asserted by Hume, that "the mode of
these enterprises was gone by," the facts of history are so far from
authorizing him to make such an assertion, that they combine to expose
its rashness and unsoundness. When Henry succeeded to the throne, he
found a large naval and military force actually prepared by his father
for the proclaimed purpose of executing such an enterprise, the
undertaking of which was only prevented by his death.[239] And (p. 312)
even a century after, the mode of those enterprises had not yet
passed; for Pope Leo X. successfully negociated a league between the
chief powers of Christendom, engaging them to unite against the
infidel dominion of the Turk. Not only were such crusades subjects of
serious and practical consideration in Europe just before Henry's
accession to the throne, and a full century after it, but, during the
last years of Henry's life, most vigorous and persevering exertions
were made by the Sovereign Pontiff to effect an immediate expedition
of the confederated powers of Christendom to Palestine, with the
avowed purpose of crushing the power of the infidels. The histories of
those times bear varied evidence to the same points: we must here,
however, confine our attention to some facts more immediately
connected with the case before us. In the year 1420,[240] July 12,
Pope Martin V, conceiving that Sigismund would very shortly bring the
war which he was then waging against the Hussites in Bohemia to an
end, in a bull dated Florence calls upon all Kings, Prelates, Lords,
and people, adjuring them most solemnly, by the shedding of Christ's
blood, to join Sigismund, and under his standard to invade the (p. 313)
lands of the Turks, and to exterminate them. He urges the formation of
one grand general army, and for all true men to take the cross; with
his apostolic promise to all who should so assume the cross, and join
the army in their own persons and at their own charges, and also to
all who should take up arms with the _bonâ fide_ intention of joining
the army, should they die on their journey, a full remission of all
sins of which they should have repented from the heart, and confessed
with the mouth; and, "in the retribution of the just, we promise them
(says the Pontiff) an increase of eternal salvation."[241]
[Footnote 239: Fabyan, 388.]
[Footnote 240: Annales Ecclesiastici, vol. xii.
Ann. 1517. See much interesting matter relating to
the whole of this subject in these Annales
Ecclesiastici of Baronius, continued by Raynaldus.]
[Footnote 241: Florentiæ, iv. idus Julii, anno 3.
Annales Eccles. v. viii.]
In the following year the Pope wrote a most urgent letter to
Sigismund, pressing upon him, before and above all things, the duty of
extirpating the heresy in Bohemia; assuring him that, however
brilliant might be his career in other respects, yet by no means could
he so well secure the favour of God, renown among men, and the
stability of his throne. The Pontiff, in the same year, wrote
repeatedly to Henry, King of England, urging him to consent to terms
of peace between his country and France. We should have been glad had
we been able to contemplate the Pontiff of Rome, in the character of a
Christian mediator, urging two contending nations to be reconciled,
solely with the Christian desire of stopping the dominion of war and
blood, reconciling those who were at variance, checking the (p. 314)
violent passions of mankind, and restoring to Europe the blessing of
peace. But his desire was to reconcile France and England, in order
that the concentrated powers of the faithful in Europe might be turned
against the heretics in the north; and, when they were exterminated,
then that the same forces might proceed to crush the infidel, and
rescue the lands of the faithful from his grasp. The ecclesiastical
historian,[242] who records the letters of the Sovereign Pontiff,
assures us that Henry, King of England, had been repeatedly admonished
by "the vicar of Christ to make peace with the French, and to dedicate
to Christ his skill in war against the Turks, those savage enemies of
the Gospel; adding (what the facts of the case did not justify him in
saying,) that, in the agonies of his last illness, Henry confessed
that he was dreadfully tormented with remorse because he had not
consecrated his martial powers by waging war against the
Mahometans."[243] Surely this testimony is of itself sufficient to
rescue Henry's memory from having vowed that he had resolved to do
what he knew he never could have done. "The mode of those (p. 315)
enterprises was" not "past."
[Footnote 242: Raynaldus, Annales Ecclesiastici,
vol. viii. p. 556.]
[Footnote 243: It is not to be forgotten that Henry
of Monmouth had from his very childhood been
interested by accounts of the state of Palestine.
His father, as we have seen, went himself to the
Holy Sepulchre; and, even during Henry's wars in
France, his uncle, the Bishop of Winchester,
visited Constance as he was proceeding in the guise
of a pilgrim to the Holy Land.]
But Hume would have it believed that this was a late and feeble
resolve of Henry, formed on his death-bed, when he was acting the part
of a self-deceiver, forgetful of the lamentable effects of his
ambition, and seeking comfort from his self-deception in the last
moments of his life. There is strong and clear evidence that he not
only had contemplated such a measure, but had actually taken important
preliminary steps to facilitate the execution of his design, whenever
he might be happily released from his present engagements. "This
vindicatory evidence" (to use the words of Mr. Granville Penn)[244]
"of the veracity and sincerity of Henry, is a manuscript discovered at
Lille, in Flanders, in the autumn of 1819, which proves to positive
demonstration, that at the moment when Henry was suddenly arrested in
his victorious progress by the hand of death, his mind was actually,
though secretly, engaged in projecting an attack on the infidel power
in Egypt and Syria, as soon as he should have pacified the internal
agitations of France; and that a confidential military agent of high
character and distinguished rank had been despatched by him to survey
the maritime frontier of those two countries, and to procure, upon the
spot, the information necessary towards embarking in so vast an (p. 316)
enterprise.
[Footnote 244: Mr. Granville Penn's interesting
paper was read before the Royal Society of
Literature at their first meeting in the year 1825,
and is recorded in the first volume of their
Transactions.]
"The manuscript is a small quarto in vellum, in old French, finely
written in black character, and richly illuminated; consisting of
fifty-four pages, and comprising a succinct military survey of the
coasts and defences of Egypt and Syria, from Alexandria round to
Gallipoli, made by the command of Henry within the three last years of
his life, and completed and reported immediately after his unexpected
death, by which death it was rendered unavailing. The confidential
author of this survey was Gilbert de Lannoi, counsellor and
chamberlain to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, and that Duke's
ambassador to Henry."
The same writer thus expresses himself in conclusion. "His declaration
was not the prompting of a sickly conscience striving to procure
delusive comfort from 'the late and feeble' resolves of a death-bed,
as Hume unworthily asserts; it was the composed and deliberate
communication of a dying captain and sovereign, disclosing to those
around him, under a strong sentiment of devotion, a secret of that
kingly office which he was then on the point of relinquishing for
ever. To enter upon an appreciation of the moral value of the
enterprise which Henry had then in prospect, would be as much out of
place here, as it would be absurd to estimate it by the rule of the
present age. In those ages, when all the higher orders of society
were either clerical or martial, much real piety of sentiment (p. 317)
must, in innumerable instances, have been compounded with the
widely-extended romantic spirit which was ardent to hazard life on
sacred ground of Judea, rather than to suffer the continuance of its
profanation by the avowed enemy of the Christian name.
"The establishment of this point, certifying, as it does an
interesting fact hitherto unknown, and effectually repelling and
exposing an unjustifiable sarcasm directed against one of the most
illustrious princes that have graced the English crown, may acquire in
the history of truth the importance to which it might not be able to
lay claim in the political history of a people."[245]
[Footnote 245: This same interesting subject is far
more elaborately discussed by that excellent
antiquary the Rev. John Webb; whose Introductory
Dissertation and Illustrative Notes, (in the
Archæologia, vol. xxi. p. 281,) abound with most
valuable information. The title prefixed to
Lannoi's work is this:
"The Report made by Sir Gilbert de Lannoy, Knight,
upon surveys of several cities, ports, and rivers,
taken by him in Egypt and Syria, in the year of
grace of our Lord 1422, by order of the most high,
most puissant, and most excellent prince, King
Henry of England, heir and Regent of France, whom
God assoil." The whole of Mr. Webb's paper well
deserves perusal.]
In dismissing the immediate subject of this inquiry, the Author of
these Memoirs feels himself under the painful necessity of recording
his deliberate judgment on the inaccuracies of that celebrated writer,
whose reflections upon Henry's dying declaration have been (p. 318)
animadverted upon here. Through the whole series of years to the
events of which these Memoirs are chiefly limited, he has been able to
find very few transactions in recording or commenting upon which Hume
has not been guilty of error; whilst the mistakes into which he has
fallen (some more, some less, gravely affecting the character of an
historian,) are generally such as an examination of the best evidence,
conducted with ordinary care, would have enabled him successfully to
avoid. Hume, unfortunately, supplied himself without stint from the
stream after it had mingled with many turbid and discolouring waters.
To draw, in each case of doubt and difficulty, from the well-head of
historical truth, would have exacted more time and labour than he was
ready to bestow. Had he prescribed to himself a system of research the
very opposite to that in which he unhappily indulged, instead of
representing Henry of Monmouth to have left the world with the
falsehood of a self-deceiver on his tongue, he would have been
compelled to record him as a man of piety, mercy, and truth.