Henry of Monmouth, Volume 1

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

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Still, beyond tradition, there is no evidence at all to fix the young
lord either at Courtfield, or indeed at Monmouth, for any period
subsequently to his birth. On the contrary, several items of expense
in the "Wardrobe account of Henry, Earl of Derby," would induce us to
infer either that the tradition is unfounded, or that at the utmost
the infant lord was nursed at Courtfield only for a few months. In
that account[11] we find an entry of a charge for a "_long gown_" for
the young lord Henry; and also the payment of 2_l._ to a midwife for
her attendance on the Countess during her confinement at the birth of
the young lord Thomas, the gift of the Earl, "_at London_". By this
document it is proved that Henry's younger brother, the future Duke of
Clarence, was born before October 1388, and that some time in the
preceding year Henry was himself still in the long robes of an infant;
and that the family had removed from Monmouth to London. In the
Wardrobe expenses of the Countess for the same year, we find several
items of sums defrayed for the clothes of the young lords Henry and
Thomas together, but no allusion whatever to the brothers being
separate: one entry,[12] fixing Thomas and his nurse at Kenilworth
soon after his birth, leaves no ground for supposing that his (p. 014)
elder brother was either at Monmouth or at Courtfield. It may be
matter of disappointment and of surprise that Henry's name does not
occur in connexion with the place of his birth in any single
contemporary document now known. The fact, however, is so. But whilst
the place of Henry's nursing is thus left in uncertainty, the name of
his nurse--in itself a matter not of the slightest importance--is made
known to us not only in the Wardrobe account of his mother, but also
by a gratifying circumstance, which bears direct testimony to his own
kind and grateful, and considerate and liberal mind. Her name was
Johanna Waring; on whom, very shortly after he ascended the throne, he
settled an annuity of 20_l._ "in consideration of good service done to
him in former days."[13]

[Footnote 11: Between 30th Sept. 1387 and 1st Oct.
1388.]

[Footnote 12: An item of five yards of cloth for
the bed of the nurse of Thomas at Kenilworth; and
an ell of canvass for his cradle.]

[Footnote 13: This is one of those incidents,
occurring now and then, the discovery of which
repays the antiquary or the biographer for wading,
with toilsome search, through a confused mass of
uninteresting details, and often encourages him to
persevere when he begins to feel weary and
disappointed.]

Very few incidents are recorded which can throw light upon Henry's
childhood, and for those few we are indebted chiefly to the dry
details of account-books. In these many particular items of expense
occur relative as well to Henry as to his brothers; which, probably,
would differ very little from those of other young noblemen of England
at that period of her history. The records of the Duchy of Lancaster
provide us with a very scanty supply of such particulars as convey (p. 015)
any interesting information on the circumstances and occupations and
amusements of Henry of Monmouth. From these records, however, we learn
that he was attacked by some complaint, probably both sudden and
dangerous, in the spring of 1395; for among the receiver's accounts is
found the charge of "6_s._ 8_d._ for Thomas Pye, and a horse hired at
London, March 18th, to carry him to Leicester with all speed, on
account of the illness of the young lord Henry." In the year 1397,
when he was just ten years old, a few entries occur, somewhat
interesting, as intimations of his boyish pursuits. Such are the
charge of "8_d._ paid by the hands of Adam Garston for harpstrings
purchased for the harp of the young lord Henry," and "12_d._ to
Stephen Furbour for a new scabbard of a sword for young lord Henry,"
and "1_s._ 6_d._ for three-fourths of an ounce of tissue of black silk
bought at London of Margaret Stranson for a sword of young lord
Henry." Whilst we cannot but be sometimes amused by the minuteness
with which the expenditure of the smallest sum in so large an
establishment as John of Gaunt's is detailed, these little incidents
prepare us for the statement given of Henry's early youth by the
chroniclers,--that he was fond both of minstrelsy and of military
exercises.

The same dry pages, however, assure us that his more severe studies
were not neglected. In the accounts for the year ending February 1396,
we find a charge of "4_s._ for seven books of Grammar contained (p. 016)
in one volume, and bought at London for the young Lord Henry." The
receiver-general's record informs us of the name of the lord Humfrey's
tutor;[14] but who was appointed to instruct the young lord Henry does
not appear; nor can we tell how soon he was put under the guidance of
Henry Beaufort. If, as we have reason to believe, he had that
celebrated man as his instructor, or at least the superintendent of
his studies, in Oxford so early as 1399, we may not, perhaps, be
mistaken in conjecturing, that even this volume of Grammar was first
learned under the direction of the future Cardinal.

[Footnote 14: "Thomae Rothwell informanti Humfridum
filium Domini Regis pro salario suo de termino
Paschae, 13_s._ 4_d._"--1 Hen. IV.]

Scanty as are the materials from which we must weave our opinion with
regard to the first years of Henry of Monmouth, they are sufficient to
suggest many reflections upon the advantages as well as the
unfavourable circumstances which attended him: We must first, however,
revert to a few more particulars relative to his family and its chief
members.

His father, who was then about twenty-four years of age, certainly
left England[15] between the 6th of May 1390 and the 30th of April (p. 017)
1391, and proceeded to Barbary. During his absence his Countess was
delivered of Humfrey, his fourth son. Between the summers of 1392 and
1393 he undertook a journey to Prussia, and to the Holy Sepulchre.

[Footnote 15: The treasurer's account, during the
Earl's absence, contains some items which remove
all doubt from this statement: among others, 20_l._
to Lancaster the herald, on Nov. 5, going toward
England; and in the same month, to three
"persuivantes," being with the Earl, eight nobles;
and to a certain English sailor, carrying the news
of the birth of Humfrey, son of my lord, 13_s._
4_d._]

The next year visited Henry with one of the most severe losses which
can befall a youth of his age. His mother,[16] then only twenty-four
years old, having given birth to four sons and two daughters, was
taken away from the anxious cares and comforts of her earthly career,
in the very prime of life.[17] Nor was this the only bereavement which
befell the family at this time. Constance, the second wife of John of
Gaunt, a lady to whose religious and moral worth the strongest and
warmest testimony is borne by the chroniclers of the time; and who
might (had it so pleased the Disposer of all things) have watched (p. 018)
over the education of her husband's grandchildren, was also this same
year removed from them to her rest: they were both buried at
Leicester, then one of the chief residences of the family.

[Footnote 16: King Richard II, the Duke of
Lancaster, and his son, Henry of Bolinbroke, became
widowers in the same year.]

[Footnote 17: That Henry cherished the memory of
his mother with filial tenderness, may be inferred
from the circumstance that only two months after he
succeeded to the throne, and had the means and the
opportunity of testifying his grateful remembrance
of her, we find money paid "in advance to William
Goodyere for newly devising and making an image in
likeness of the Mother of the present lord the
King, ornamented with diverse arms of the kings of
England, and placed over the tomb of the said
king's mother, within the King's College at
Leicester, where she is buried and entombed."--Pell
Rolls, May 20, 1413.]

The mind cannot contemplate the case of either of these ladies without
feelings of pity rather than of envy. They were both nobly born, and
nobly married; and yet the elder was joined to a man, who, to say the
very least, shared his love for her with another; and the younger,
though requiring, every year of her married state, all the attention
and comfort and support of an affectionate husband, yet was more than
once left to experience a temporary widowhood. And if we withdraw our
thoughts from those of whom this family was then deprived, there is
little to lessen our estimate of their loss, when we think of those
whom they left behind. Henry's maternal grandmother, indeed, the
Countess of Hereford, survived her daughter many years; and we are not
without an intimation that she at least interested herself in her
grandson's welfare. In his will, dated 1415, he bequeaths to Thomas,
Bishop of Durham, "the missal and portiphorium[18] which we had of the
gift of our dear grandmother, the Countess of Hereford."[19] We may
fairly infer from this circumstance that Henry had at least one (p. 019)
near relation both able and willing to guide him in the right way. How
far opportunities were afforded her of exercising her maternal
feelings towards him, cannot now be ascertained; and with the
exception of this noble lady, there is no other to whom we can turn
with entire satisfaction, when we contemplate the salutary effects
either of precept or example in the case of Henry of Monmouth.

[Footnote 18: The portiphorium was a breviary,
containing directions as to the services of the
church.]

[Footnote 19: He bequeaths also, in the same will,
"to Joan, Countess of Hereford, our dear
grandmother, a gold cyphus." This lady, however,
died before Henry. In the Pell Rolls we find the
payment of "442_l._ 17_s._ 5_d._ to Robert Darcy
and others, executors of Joan de Bohun, late
Countess of Hereford, on account of live and dead
stock belonging to her, February 27, 1421."]

His father indeed was a gallant young knight, often distinguishing
himself at justs and tournaments;[20] of an active, ardent and
enterprising spirit; nor is any imputation against his moral character
found recorded. But we have no ground for believing, that he devoted
much of his time and thoughts to the education of his children.

[Footnote 20: Soon after Henry IV's accession, the
Pell Rolls, May 8, 1401, record the payment of
"10_l._ to Bertolf Vander Eure, who fenced with the
present lord the King with the long sword, and was
hurt in the neck by the said lord the King." The
Chronicle of London for 1386 says "there were
joustes at Smithfield. There bare him well Sir
Harry of Derby, the Duke's son of Lancaster."]

Henry Beaufort, the natural son of John of Gaunt, a person of
commanding talent, and of considerable attainments for that age,
whilst there is no reason to believe him to have been that abandoned
worldling whose eyes finally closed in black despair without a (p. 020)
hope of Heaven, yet was not the individual to whose training a
Christian parent would willingly intrust the education of his child.
And in John of Gaunt[21] himself, little perhaps can be discovered
either in principle, or judgment, or conduct, which his grandson could
imitate with religious and moral profit. Thus we find Henry of
Monmouth in his childhood labouring under many disadvantages. Still
our knowledge of the domestic arrangements and private circumstances
of his family is confessedly very limited; and it would be unwise to
conclude that there were no mitigating causes in operation, nor any
advantages to put as a counterpoise into the opposite scale. He may
have been under the guidance and tuition of a good Christian and (p. 021)
well-informed man; he may have been surrounded by companions whose
acquaintance would be a blessing. But this is all conjecture; and
probably the question is now beyond the reach of any satisfactory
solution.

[Footnote 21: The Author would gladly have
presented to the reader a different portrait of the
religious and moral character of "Old John of
Gaunt, time-honoured Lancaster;" but a careful
examination of the testimony of his enemies and of
his eulogists, as well as of the authentic
documents of his own household, seems to leave no
other alternative, short of the sacrifice of truth.
Godwin, in his Life of Chaucer, has undertaken his
defence, but on such unsound principles of morality
as must be reprobated by every true lover of
Religion and Virtue. The same domestic register of
the Duchy which records the wages paid to the
adulteress, and the duke's losses by gambling,
proves (as many other family accounts would prove)
that no fortune however princely can supply the
unbounded demands of profligacy and dissipation.
Even John of Gaunt, with his immense possessions,
was driven to borrow money. This fact is
accompanied in the record by the curious
circumstance, that an order is given for the
employment of three or four stout yeomen, because
of the danger of the road, to guard the bearers of
a loan made by the Earl of Arundel to the Duke, and
sent from Shrewsbury to London.]

With regard to the next step also in young Henry's progress towards
manhood, we equally depend upon tradition for the views which we may
be induced to take: still it is a tradition in which we shall probably
acquiesce without great danger of error. He is said to have been sent
to Oxford, and to have studied in "The Queen's College" under the
tuition of Henry Beaufort, his paternal uncle, then Chancellor of the
University. No document is known to exist among the archives of the
College or of the University, which can throw any light on this point;
except that the fact has been established of Henry Beaufort having
been admitted a member of Queen's College, and of his having been
chancellor of the university only for the year 1398.

This extraordinary man was consecrated Bishop of Lincoln, July 14,
1398, as appears by the Episcopal Register of that See; after which he
did not reside in Oxford. If therefore Henry of Monmouth studied under
him in that university, it must have been through the spring and
summer of that year, the eleventh of his age. And on this we may rely
as the most probable fact. Certainly in the old buildings of Queen's
College, a chamber used to be pointed out by successive generations as
Henry the Fifth's. It stood over the gateway opposite to St. (p. 022)
Edmund's Hall. A portrait of him in painted glass, commemorative of
the circumstance, was seen in the window, with an inscription (as it
should seem of comparatively recent date) in Latin:

To record the fact for ever.
The Emperor of Britain,
The Triumphant Lord of France,
The Conqueror of his enemies and of himself,
Henry V.
Of this little chamber,
Once the great Inhabitant.[22]

[Footnote 22: Fuller in his Church History, having
informed us that Henry's chamber over the College
gate was then inhabited by the historian's friend
Thomas Barlow, adds "His picture remaineth there to
this day in _brass_".]

It may be observed that in the tender age of Henry involved in this
supposition, there is nothing in the least calculated to throw a shade
of improbability on this uniform tradition. Many in those days became
members of the university at the time of life when they would now be
sent to school.[23] And possibly we shall be most right in supposing
that Henry (though perhaps without himself being enrolled among the
regular academics) lived with his uncle, then chancellor, and studied
under his superintendence. There is nothing on record (hitherto (p. 023)
discovered) in the slightest degree inconsistent with this view;
whereas if we were inclined to adopt the representation of some (on
what authority it does not appear) that Henry was sent to Oxford soon
after his father ascended the throne, many and serious difficulties
would present themselves. In the first place his uncle, who was
legitimated only the year before, was prematurely made Bishop of
Lincoln by the Pope, through the interest of John of Gaunt, in the
year 1398, and never resided in Oxford afterwards. How old he was at
his consecration, has not yet been satisfactorily established;
conjecture would lead us to regard him as a few years only (perhaps
ten or twelve) older than his nephew. Otterbourne tells us that he was
made Bishop[24] when yet a boy.

[Footnote 23: Those who were designed for the
military profession were compelled to bear arms,
and go to the field at the age of fifteen:
consequently the little education they received was
confined to their boyhood.]

[Footnote 24: "Admodum parvo."]

In the next place we can scarcely discover six months in Henry's life
after his uncle's consecration, through which we can with equal
probability suppose him to have passed his time in Oxford. It is next
to certain that before the following October term, he had been removed
into King Richard's palace, carefully watched (as we shall see
hereafter); whilst in the spring of the following year, 1399, he was
unquestionably obliged to accompany that monarch in his expedition to
Ireland. Shortly after his return, in the autumn of that year, on his
father's accession to the throne, he was created Prince of Wales; and
through the following spring the probability is strong that his father
was too anxiously engaged in negotiating a marriage between him (p. 024)
and a daughter of the French King, and too deeply interested in
providing for him an adequate establishment in the metropolis, to take
any measures for improving and cultivating his mind in the university.
Independently of which we may be fully assured that had he become a
student of the University of Oxford as Prince of Wales, it would not
have been left to chance, to deliver his name down to after-ages: the
archives of the University would have furnished direct and
contemporary evidence of so remarkable a fact; and the College would
have with pride enrolled him at the time among its members: as the boy
of the Earl of Derby, or the Duke of Hereford, living with his uncle,
there is nothing[25] in the omission of his name inconsistent with our
hypothesis. At all events, whatever evidence exists of Henry having
resided under any circumstances in Oxford, fixes him there under the
tuition of the future Cardinal; and that well-known personage is
proved not to have resided there subsequently to his appointment to
the see[26] of Lincoln, in the summer of 1398.[27]

[Footnote 25: On the 29th of the preceding
September 1397, Richard II. "with the consent of
the prelates, lords and commons in parliament
assembled," created Bolinbroke, then Earl of Derby,
Duke of Hereford, with a royal gift of forty marks
by the year, to him and his heirs for ever. Pell
Rolls. Pasc. 22 R. II. April 15.]

[Footnote 26: The Lincoln register (for a copy of
which the Author is indebted to the present Bishop)
dates the commencement of the year of Henry
Beaufort's consecration from July 14, 1398.]

[Footnote 27: It is a curious fact, not generally
known, that Henry IV. in the _first_ year of his
reign took possession of all the property of the
Provost and Fellows of Queen's College (on the
ground of mismanagement), and appointed the
Chancellor, the Chief Justice, the Master of the
Rolls, and others, guardians of the College. This
is scarcely consistent with the supposition of his
son being resident there at the time, or of his
selecting that college for him afterwards.]

What were Henry's studies in Oxford, whether, like Ingulphus some (p. 025)
centuries before, he drank to his fill of "Aristotle's[28] Philosophy
and Cicero's Rhetoric," or whether his mind was chiefly directed to
the scholastic theology so prevalent in his day, it were fruitless (p. 026)
to inquire. His uncle (as we have already intimated) seems to have
been a person of some learning, an excellent man of business, and in
the command of a ready eloquence. In establishing his positions (p. 027)
before the parliament, we find him not only quoting from the Bible,
(often, it must be acknowledged, without any strict propriety of
application,) but also citing facts from ancient Grecian history. We
may, however, safely conclude that the Chancellor of Oxford confined
himself to the general superintendence of his nephew's education,
intrusting the details to others more competent to instruct him in the
various branches of literature. It is very probable that to some
arrangement of that kind Henry was indebted for his acquaintance with
such excellent men as his friends John Carpenter of Oriel, and Thomas
Rodman, or Rodburn, of Merton.[29]

[Footnote 28: The Author trusts to be pardoned, if
he suffers these conjectures on Henry's studies in
Oxford to tempt him to digress in this note further
than the strict rules of unity might approve. They
brought a lively image to his mind of the
occupations and confessions of one of the earliest
known sons of Alma Mater. Perhaps Ingulphus is the
first upon record who, having laid the foundation
of his learning at Westminster, proceeded for its
further cultivation to Oxford. From the
biographical sketch of his own life, we learn that
he was born of English parents and a native of the
fair city of London. Whilst a schoolboy at
Westminster, he was so happy as to have interested
in his behalf Egitha, daughter of Earl Godwin, and
queen of Edward the Confessor. He describes his
patroness as a lady of great beauty, well versed in
literature, of most pure chastity and exalted moral
feeling, together with pious humbleness of mind,
tainted by no spot of her father's or her brother's
barbarism, but mild and modest, honest and
faithful, and the enemy of no human being. In
confirmation of his estimate of her excellence, he
quotes a Latin verse current in his day, not very
complimentary to her sire: "As a thorn is the
parent of the rose, so was Godwin of Egitha." I
have often seen her (he continues) when I have been
visiting my father in the palace. Many a time, as
she met me on my return from school, would she
examine me in my scholarship and verses; and
turning with the most perfect familiarity from the
solidity of grammar to the playfulness of logic, in
which she was well skilled, when she had caught me
and held me fast by some subtle chain, she would
always direct her maid to give me three or four
pieces of money, and sending me off to the royal
refectory would dismiss me after my refreshment."
It is possible that many of our fair countrywomen
in the highest ranks now, are not aware that, more
than eight hundred years ago, their fair and noble
predecessors could play with a Westminster scholar
in grammar, verses, and logic. Egitha left behind
her an example of high religious, moral, and
literary worth, by imitating which, not perhaps in
its literal application, but certainly in its
spirit, the noble born among us will best uphold
and adorn their high station. Ingulphus (in the
very front of whose work the Author thinks he sees
the stamp of raciness and originality, though he
cannot here enter into the question of its
genuineness) tells us then, how he made proficiency
beyond many of his equals in mastering the
doctrines of Aristotle, and covered himself to the
very ankles in Cicero's Rhetoric. But, alas, for
the vanity of human nature! His confession here
might well suggest reflections of practical wisdom
to many a young man who may be tempted, as was
Ingulphus, in the university or the wide world, to
neglect and despise his father's roof and his
father's person, after success in the world may
have raised him in society above the humble station
of his birth,--a station from which perhaps the
very struggles and privations of that parent
himself may have enabled him to emerge. "Growing up
a young man (he says) I felt a sort of disdainful
loathing at the straitened and lowly circumstances
of my parents, and desired to leave my paternal
hearth, hankering after the halls of kings and of
the great, and daily longing more and more to array
myself in the gayest and most luxurious costume."
Ingulphus lived to repent, and to be ashamed of his
weakness and folly.]

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