Henrik Ibsen - "La kolonoj de la socio"

Thomas Babington Macaulay - "The History of England from the Accession of James II, Vol. 2"

Anon - "The Diary of a U boat Commander"

Maud Diver - "The Great Amulet"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

Henry of Monmouth, Volume 1

J >> J. Endell Tyler >> Henry of Monmouth, Volume 1




[Footnote 170: Sir Harris Nicolas, in his very
valuable preface to the first volume of the Acts of
the Privy Council, has fallen into the most
extraordinary mistake of stating that the King,
after the battle of Shrewsbury, "remained in or
near Wales until November." He was certainly absent
through six full weeks on his northern expedition.
The same Editor more than once affirms that the
battle of Shrewsbury was fought on the 23rd of
July.]

[Footnote 171: MS. Donat. 4597.]

[Footnote 172: Mr. Morritt of Rokeby, in a letter
to Sir Walter Scott, (Life of Scott, vol. ii. p.
387,) says, "In the time of Henry IV. the High
Sheriff of Yorkshire who overthrew Northumberland,
and drove him to Scotland after the battle of
Shrewsbury, was a Rokeby. Tradition says that this
Sheriff was before an adherent of the Percies, and
was the identical knight who dissuaded Hotspur from
the enterprise, on whose letter the angry warrior
comments so freely in Shakspeare."]

[Footnote 173: His friends and retainers spread
strange reports throughout the north, of the King's
death; and, assembling in great force, held the
castles of Berwick, Alnwick, and Warkworth against
the royal authority. The Earl of Westmoreland,
Warden of the West March, therefore requested to be
supplied with cannon and other means of assault to
reduce these fortresses. The proceedings are given
in detail among the Acts of the Privy Council, but
do not call for a minute examination here.]

[Footnote 174: Walsingham says expressly, it was on
the morrow of St. Lawrence, August 11th.]

[Footnote 175: On the 15th, he issues a
proclamation for an array, to meet him at
Worcester, on the 3rd of September at the latest,
to proceed against Owyn.]

[Footnote 176: It was on his return towards Wales
that the military recommended Henry (then much in
need of money) to take from the bishops their
horses and gold, and send the prelates home on
foot. The Archbishop resisted the outrage in a
manly speech; and the King prayed a benevolence,
which the clergy granted.]

After these acts of grace and pardon to Lord Douglas, Northumberland,
and all others who were joined to Sir Henry Percy, we should not expect
to find a charge substantiated of wanton and brutal cruelty and vengeance
on the part of the King against the corpse of that gallant knight.
Such a charge, however, is brought in the most severe terms which
language can supply in the manifesto said to have been made by the
Archbishop of York. The fact of Hotspur's exhumation may be granted,
and yet the King's memory may remain free from such a charge.[177]
That the body was buried, and afterwards disinterred and exposed to
public view, seems not to admit of a doubt. As it appears from the
Chronicle of London, "Persons reported that Percy was yet alive. He
was therefore taken up out of the grave, and bound upright between two
mill-stones, that all men might see that he was dead." "The cause of
Hotspur's exhumation is therefore satisfactorily explained; and, (p. 183)
since it must have been very desirable to remove all doubt as to the
fact of his death, the charge of needless barbarity which has been
brought against the King for disinterring him is without foundation."[178]

[Footnote 177: The King, speaking of the death of
Hotspur, merely says, "He hath gone the way of all
flesh."--Rot. Pat. 4 Hen. IV. p. 2.]

[Footnote 178: Sir Harris Nicolas.]

The King now adopted prompt and vigorous measures for the suppression
of the rebellion in Wales; and with that view issued from Worcester an
ordinance to several persons by name, to keep their castles in good
repair, well provided also with men and arms. Among others, the Bishop
of St. David's is strictly charged as to his castle of Laghadyn;
Nevill de Furnivale, for Goodrich; Edward Charleton of Powis, for
Caerleon and Usk; John Chandos, for Snowdon. On the 10th of September,
the King, still at Worcester, created his son, John of Lancaster,
Constable of England. On the 14th he was at Hereford,[179] when he
gave a warrant to William Beauchamp, (to whom was intrusted the care
of Abergavenny and Ewias Harold,) to receive into their allegiance the
Welsh rebels of those lordships. A similar warrant for the rebels of
Brecknock, Builth, Haye, with others, is given, on the 15th, to Sir
John Oldcastle, John ap Herry, and John Fairford, clerk, dated
Devennock. The King was then on his route towards Caermarthen,[180]
where he stayed only a short time; and left the Earl of Somerset, (p. 184)
Sir Thomas Beaufort, the Bishop of Bath, and Lord Grey to keep the
castle and town for one month. He shortly afterwards commissioned
Prince Henry to negociate with those persons for their pardon who had
been excepted from the act of oblivion after the battle of
Shrewsbury.[181]

[Footnote 179: On the 12th, he had issued a
proclamation from Hereford for his lieges to meet
him there forthwith.]

[Footnote 180: Caermarthen suffered very seriously
in this war: the Pell Rolls, June 26, 1406, record
the payment of a sum to the Burgesses and Goodmen
of Caermarthen, in mitigation of the losses they
had sustained. On this occasion the King arrived
there on the 25th and stayed till the 29th.]

[Footnote 181: On the 2nd of October, the King
issued a proclamation against Owyn. He seems to
have returned through Gloucester to London,
immediately after the 17th October; on which day a
warrant to Robert Waterton, to arrest Elizabeth
wife of the late Henry Percy, is dated Gloucester.

On the 8th of October, those four persons whom
Henry had left in charge of Caermarthen, implore
the council by letter to send the Duke of York, or
some other general, to take charge of the King's
interests in that district, and to furnish troops
to succeed those whom the King had left in trust
there, since they had expressed their determined
resolution not to remain beyond their month.]

The Welsh, though driven probably from Caermarthenshire[182] in the
early part of this autumn, seem to have carried on their hostilities
in other districts with much vigour into the very middle of winter.[183]
On the 8th of November, the King, being then at Cirencester, (p. 185)
issued strict orders for the payment of 100_l._ to Lord Berkeley, for
the succour of the garrison of Llanpadarn Castle, then straitly besieged
by the rebels, and in great danger of falling into their hands. Lord
Berkeley was appointed Admiral of the Fleet to the westward of the
Thames, on the 5th of November 1403.

[Footnote 182: On the 1st of December the King
acknowledges that the people of Kedwelly had
repaired their walls which Owyn had injured; and,
on the 19th, the castle of Llanstaffan is given to
the custody of David Howell, who undertook to
defend it with ten men-at-arms and twenty archers
at his own expense, the late captain having been
taken by Owyn.]

[Footnote 183: On the 26th of October, the King
commissions the Earl of Devon, with the Courtenays
and others, to press as many men as might be
necessary wherever they were to be found, and to
proceed forthwith by sea to rescue the castle of
Caerdiff, then in great peril.]

On the 22d of November the King issued a proclamation for all rebels
to apply for an amnesty before the Feast of the Epiphany next ensuing,
or in default thereof to expect nothing but the strict course of the
law.

It is matter of doubt whether Prince Henry remained in Wales and the
borders through the winter, or returned to his charge in the spring.
On the opening of the campaign, however, in 1404, we find the Welsh
chieftain aided by a power which must have made his rebellion far more
formidable than it had hitherto been. A truce between England and
France had been concluded just before the battle of Shrewsbury, but it
was of very short duration. Early in the spring, the French appeared
off the shores of Wales in armed vessels, and in conjunction with
Glyndowr's forces, laid siege to several castles along the coast. As
early as April 23rd, a sum of 300_l._ is assigned by the council for
equipping with men and arms, provisions and stores, five vessels (p. 186)
in the port of Bristol, to relieve the castles of Aberystwith and
Cardigan, and to compel the French to raise the siege of Caernarvon
and Harlech.[184] Not only were the castles on the coast brought into
increased jeopardy by this accession of a continental force to Owyn's
army of native rebels, but the inhabitants of the interior, already
miserably plundered, and in numberless cases utterly ruined, by the
ravages of the Welsh, now began to give themselves up to despair. A
letter from the King's loyal subjects of Shropshire (which we must
refer to this spring), praying for immediate succour against the
confederate forces of Wales and France, furnishes a most deplorable
view of the state of those districts. One-third part of that county,
they say, had been already destroyed, whilst the inhabitants were
compelled to leave their homes, in order to obtain their living in
other more favoured parts of the realm. The petition prays for the
protection of men-at-arms and archers, till the Prince[185] himself
should come.

[Footnote 184: Measures had been taken, in
expectation, as it should appear, of these sieges.
January 31, 1404, money is paid to the Prince to
purchase sixty-six pipes of honey (to make mead),
twelve casks of wine, four casks of sour wine,
fifty casks of wheat-flour, and eighty quarters of
salt, for victualling Caernarvon, Harlech,
Llanpadarn, and Cardigan.]

[Footnote 185: From this expression, Sir Harris
Nicolas is induced to refer the letter (which is
dated April 21st) to the year 1403, the Prince
having been appointed Lieutenant of Wales on the
7th of March preceding. But the mention of the
_French_ auxiliaries, who appear not to have
visited those parts till the year following, seems
to fix the date of this document to the year 1404.]

Soon after the French had carried on these hostile movements, (p. 187)
their King made a solemn league with Owyn Glyndowr, as an independent
sovereign, acknowledging him to be Prince of Wales. Owyn dated his
princedom from the year 1400, and assumed the full title and authority
of a monarch.[186] In this year he commissioned Griffin Young his
chancellor, and John Hangmer, both "his beloved relatives," to treat
with the King of France, in consideration of the affection and sincere
love which that illustrious monarch had shown _towards him_ and _his
subjects_.[187] This commission is dated "Doleguelli, 10th May, A. D.
1404, and in the fourth year of our principality." In conformity with
its tenour, a league was made and sworn to between the ambassadors of
"_our illustrious and most dread lord, Owyn, Prince of Wales_," and
those of the King of France. That sovereign signed the commission (p. 188)
on the 14th of June; and the league was sealed in the chancellor's house
at Paris, on the 14th July. Its provisions are chiefly directed against
"Henry of Lancaster."

[Footnote 186: Owyn does not, however, seem to have
exercised the princely prerogative of coining
money. Indeed, no Welsh coin of any date is known
to have been ever in existence. Thomas Thomas, the
Welsh antiquary, says that a coin (or Dr.
Stukeley's impression from a coin) of King Bleiddyd
is now in the Cotton museum, of a date above nine
hundred years before Christ; and that there are
others of Monagan about the year one hundred and
thirty before the Christian era. A search for them,
it is presumed, would be fruitless.]

[Footnote 187: The words in italics are in the
original "erga nos et _subditos_ nostros."
"Illustris et metuendissimi domini nostri Owini
Principis Walliarum."--See Rymer.]

The reinforcements which Owyn Glyndowr received from France at the
opening of the campaign in the spring of 1404, enabled him not only to
lay siege to the castles in North and West Wales (as it was called),
but to make desperate inroads into England, as well about Shropshire
as in Herefordshire. A letter addressed to the council, June 10th, by
the sheriff, the receiver, and other gentlemen of the latter county,
conveys a most desponding representation of the state of those parts;
especially through the district of Archenfield. The bearer of this letter
was the Archdeacon of Hereford, Dean of Windsor, the same person who
wrote in such "haste and dread" to the King the year before. Some
parts of this letter deserve to be transcribed, they afford so lively
a description of the frightful calamities of a civil war. "The Welsh
rebels in great numbers have entered Irchonfeld,[188] which is a
division of the county of Hereford, and there they have burnt houses,
killed the inhabitants, taken prisoners, and ravaged the country, (p. 189)
to the great dishonour of our King, and the insupportable damage of
the county. We have often advertised the King that such mischiefs
would befal us. We have also now certain information that within the
next eight days the rebels are resolved to make an attack in the March
of Wales, to its utter ruin if speedy succour be not sent. True it is,
indeed, that we have no power to shelter us, except that of Lord
Richard of York and his men, far too little to defend us. We implore
you to consider this very perilous and pitiable case, and to pray our
sovereign lord that he will come in his royal person, or send some
person with sufficient power to rescue us from the invasion of the
aforesaid rebels; otherwise we shall be utterly destroyed,--which God
forbid! Whoever comes will, as we are led to believe from the report
of our spies, have to engage in battle, or will have a very severe
struggle, with the rebels. And, for God's sake, remember that
honourable and valiant man the Lord Abergavenny,[189] who is on the
very point of destruction if he be not rescued. Written in haste at
Hereford, June 10th."

[Footnote 188: Irchonfeld, now called Archenfield,
contains some of the most fertile land in
Herefordshire. The inhabitants of Whitchurch, in
that district, used to say, before modern luxury
had taught us to reckon foreign productions among
the necessaries of life, that, excepting salt,
their parish supplied whatever was needed for their
subsistence in comfort.]

[Footnote 189: This was William Beauchamp, to whom
the King had given, in the first year of his reign,
the castles[189-a] of Pembroke, Tenby, Kilgarran, with
others, by patent, 29th November, 1 Henry IV; and
who was very closely besieged in the spring of
1401, and the summer of 1404, in the castle of
Abergavenny.]

[Footnote 189-a: MS. Donat. 4596.]

The King had in some measure anticipated this strong memorial, (p. 190)
by signing, on the very day preceding its date,[190] a commission of
array to the sheriffs of Hereford, Worcester, Gloucester, and Warwick
to raise their counties and proceed forthwith to join Richard of York,
and to advance in one body with him for the rescue of William Beauchamp,
who was then straitly besieged in his castle of Abergavenny, and entirely
destitute. Though no mention is here made of the Prince, nor any
allusion to him, we have the best evidence that he was personally
engaged during this summer in endeavouring to resist the violence and
excesses of the rebels. He was crippled by want of means; he was
forced to pawn his few jewels for the present support of himself and
his retinue; and, when the money raised on them was exhausted, he was
compelled to assure the council in the most direct terms, of his utter
inability to remain on his post, if they did not forthwith provide him
with adequate supplies. He seems to have acted both with vigour and
discretion; and the council placed throughout the fullest confidence
in his judgment and integrity.

[Footnote 190: At Doncaster, June 9th.]

Three documents at this point of time deserve especial attention. The
first is a letter, in French, from the Prince, addressed to his father,
and dated Worcester, 25th of June 1404; the second is another letter
of the same date, written by the Prince to the council; the third (p. 191)
contains the resolutions adopted by them in consequence of this
communication.

[Footnote 191: The Author leaves this sentence as
he wrote it, before he had read the late account of
the Field of Agincourt: in that work Henry of
Monmouth is in these days, for the first time,
accused of hypocrisy; with what justice the reader
will decide after reading the charge, and the
arguments by which it is now presumed to have been
destroyed root and branch. They will be found in
the second volume.]

It is very true that letters afford no infallible proof of the writer's
real sentiments and feelings; and it has been said, that expressions
of piety or affection in epistles of past ages are not to be interpreted
as indices of the mind and state of him who utters them, any more than
the ordinary close of a note in the present day proves that it came
from a humble-minded and gratefully obliged person. Nevertheless, with
these general suggestions before us, and not impugned, there does seem
to pervade the following letter from Henry to his father, somewhat
more than words of course, or matter-of-form expressions, indicative
(unless the writer be a hypocrite,--and hypocrisy has never been laid
to Henry of Monmouth's charge[191]) of filial dutifulness and affection,
as well as of a pious and devout trust in Providence. At all events, it
is incumbent on those who forbid our inference in favour of any one from
such testimony to show some act, or to quote some words, or direct us to
some implied sentiments in the individual, whose letters we are (p. 192)
discussing, which would give presumptive evidence against our decision
in his favour. But history has assigned no act, no sentiment, no word
of an irreligious or immoral tendency, to Henry of Monmouth up to the
date of this letter. It is not here implied, or conceded, that history
possesses facts of another character subsequently to this date; that
point must be the subject of our further inquiry. When this letter was
written, as far as we can ascertain, fame had not begun to breathe a
whisper against the religious and moral character of the Prince of
Wales.

LETTER FROM PRINCE HENRY TO THE KING HIS FATHER.

"My very dread and sovereign lord and father.--In the most humble
and obedient manner that I know or am able, I commend myself to
your high Majesty, desiring every day your gracious blessing, and
sincerely thanking your noble Highness for your honourable
letters, which you were lately pleased to send to me, written at
your Castle of Pontefract, the 21st day of this present month of
June [1404]; by which letters I have been made acquainted with
the great prosperity of your high and royal estate, which is to
me the greatest joy that can fall to my lot in this world. And I
have taken the very highest pleasure and entire delight at the
news, of which you were pleased to certify me; first, of the
speedy arrival of my very dear cousin, the Earl of Westmoreland,
and William Clifford, to your Highness; and secondly, the arrival
of the despatches from your adversary of Scotland, and other
great men of his kingdom, by virtue of your safe conduct, for the
good of both the kingdoms, which God of his mercy grant; and that
you may accomplish all your honourable designs, to his (p. 193)
pleasure, to your honour, and the welfare of your kingdom, as I
have firm reliance in Him who is omnipotent, that you will do. My
most dread and sovereign lord and father, at your high command in
other your gracious letters, I have removed with my small
household to the city of Worcester; and at my request there is
come to me, with a truly good heart, my very dear and beloved
cousin, the Earl of Warwick, with a fine retinue at his own very
heavy expenses; so he well deserves thanks from you for his
goodwill at all times.

"And whether the news from the Welsh be true, and what measures I
purpose to adopt on my arrival, as you desire to be informed, may
it please your Highness to know that the Welsh have made a
descent on Herefordshire, burning and destroying also the county,
with very great force, and with a supply of provisions for
fifteen days. And true it is that they have burnt and made very
great havoc on the borders of the said county. But, since my
arrival in these parts, I have heard of no further damage from
them, God be thanked! But I am informed for certain that they are
assembled with all their power, and keep themselves together for
some important object, and, as it is said, to burn the said
county. For this reason I have sent for my beloved cousins, my
Lord Richard of York and the Earl Marshal, and others the most
considerable persons of the counties of that march, to be with me
at Worcester on the Tuesday next after the date of this letter,
to inform me plainly of the government of their districts; and
how many men they will be able to bring, if need be; and to give
me their advice as to what may seem to them best to be done for
the safeguard of the aforesaid parts. And, agreeably to their
advice, I will do all I possibly can to resist the rebels and
save the English country, to the utmost of my little power, as
God shall give me grace: ever trusting in your high Majesty to
remember my poor estate; and that I have not the means of (p. 194)
continuing here without the adoption of some other measures
for my maintenance; and that the expenses are insupportable to
me. And may you thus make an ordinance for me with speed, that I
may do good service, to your honour and the preservation of my
humble state. My dread sovereign lord and father, may the
allpowerful Lord of heaven and earth grant you a blessed and long
life in all good prosperity, to your satisfaction! Written at
Worcester the 26th day of June.
"Your humble and obedient Son, HENRY."

The second letter, written at the same time and place, but addressed
to the council, is nearly word for word identical with this till
towards its close, when it gives the following strong view of the
straits and difficulties to which the Prince and the government were
then driven by want of money;[192] and the personal sacrifice which he
was himself compelled to make. "We implore you to make some ordinance
for us in time, assured that we have nothing from which we can support
ourselves here, except that we have pawned our little plate and
jewels, and raised money from them, and with that we shall be able to
remain only a short time. And after that, unless you make provision
for us, we shall be compelled to depart with disgrace and (p. 195)
mischief: and the country will be utterly destroyed; which God forbid!
And now, since we have shown you the perils and mischiefs [which must
ensue], for God's sake make your ordinance in time, for the salvation
of the honour of our sovereign lord the King our father, of ourselves,
and of the whole realm. And may our Lord protect you, and give you
grace to do right!"

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