Henry of Monmouth, Volume 2

J >> J. Endell Tyler >> Henry of Monmouth, Volume 2

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[Transcriber's note: Obvious printer's errors have been corrected.
The original spelling has been retained.

Different spelling as been kept, e.g.:
- Ruisseauville and Ruissauville
- Azincour and Azincourt, etc ...

Some words on page 94 were partly unclear / illegible.
- Page 249: ii. vol. changed to vol. ii.
- Page 412: The missing anchor for the footnote 305 has been added.]

[Illustration: Great Seal of Owen Glyndowr as Prince of Wales.
Published by R. Bentley, 1838]

HENRY OF MONMOUTH:

OR,

MEMOIRS

OF THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF

HENRY THE FIFTH,

AS

PRINCE OF WALES AND KING OF ENGLAND.

BY J. ENDELL TYLER, B.D.

RECTOR OF ST. GILES IN THE FIELDS.

"Go, call up Cheshire and Lancashire,
And Derby hills, that are so free;
But neither married man, nor widow's son;
No widow's curse shall go with me."

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. II.

LONDON:
RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET,
Publisher in Ordinary to Her Majesty.

1838.

LONDON:
PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY,
Dorset Street, Fleet Street.

CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME. (p. iii)

CHAPTER XVII.

1413-1414.

Henry of Monmouth's Accession. -- National rejoicings. -- His profound
sense of the Awfulness of the Charge devolved upon him. -- Coronation.
-- First Parliament. -- Habits of business. -- He removes the remains
of Richard to Westminster. -- Redeems the Son of Hotspur, and restores
him to his forfeited honours and estates. -- Generous conduct towards
the Earl of March. -- Parliament at Leicester. -- Enactments against
Lollards. -- Henry's Foundations at Shene and Sion. Page 1

CHAPTER XVIII.

1414-1417.

State of the Church. -- Henry a sincere Christian, but no Bigot. --
Degraded state of Religion. -- Council of Constance. -- Henry's
Representatives zealous promoters of Reform. -- Hallam, Bishop of
Salisbury, avowed enemy of the Popedom. -- Richard Ullerston:
primitive views of Clerical duties. -- Walden, his own Chaplain,
accuses Henry of remissness in the extirpation of Heresy. --
Forester's Letter to the King. -- Henry Beaufort's unhappy
interference. -- Petition from Oxford. -- Henry's personal exertions
in the business of Reform. -- Reflections on the then apparent dawn of
the Reformation. Page 32

CHAPTER XIX. (p. iv)

1414.

Wars with France. -- Causes which influenced Henry. -- Summary of the
affairs of France from the time of Edward III. -- Reflections on
Henry's Title. -- Affairs of France from Henry's resolution to claim
his "Dormant Rights," and "Rightful Heritage," to his invasion of
Normandy. -- Negociations. -- His Right denied by the French. --
Parliament votes him Supplies. Page 70

CHAPTER XX.

Modern triple charge against Henry of Falsehood, Hypocrisy, and
Impiety. -- Futility of the Charge, and utter failure of the Evidence
on which alone it is grounded. -- He is urged by his people to
vindicate the Rights of his Crown, himself having a conscientious
conviction of the Justice of his Claim. -- Story of the Tennis-Balls.
-- Preparations for invading France. -- Henry's Will made at
Southampton. -- Charge of Hypocrisy again grounded on the close of
that Testament. -- Its Futility. -- He despatches to the various
Powers of Europe the grounds of his Claim on France. Page 89

CHAPTER XXI.

1415.

Preparations for invading France. -- Reflections on the Military and
Naval State of England. -- Mode of raising and supporting an Army. --
Song of Agincourt. -- Henry of Monmouth the Founder of the English
Royal Navy. -- Custom of impressing Vessels for the transporting of
Troops. -- Henry's exertions in Ship-building. -- Gratitude due to
him. -- Conspiracy at Southampton. -- Prevalent delusion as to Richard
II. -- The Earl of March. -- Henry's Forces. -- He sails for Normandy.
Page 119

CHAPTER XXII. (p. v)

1415.

Henry crosses the Sea: lands at Clef de Caus: lays Siege to Harfleur.
-- Devoted Attendance on his dying Friend the Bishop of Norwich. --
Vast Treasure falls into his hands on the Surrender of Harfleur. -- He
challenges the Dauphin. -- Futile Modern Charge brought against him on
that ground. Page 143

CHAPTER XXIII.

1415.

Henry, with Troops much weakened, leaves Harfleur, fully purposed to
make for Calais, notwithstanding the threatened resistance of the
French. -- Passes the Field of Cressy. -- French resolved to engage.
-- Night before the Conflict. -- FIELD of AGINCOURT. -- Slaughter of
Prisoners. -- Henry, his enemies themselves being Judges, fully
exculpated from every suspicion of cruelty or unchivalrous bearing. --
He proceeds to Calais. -- Thence to London. -- Reception by his
Subjects. -- His modest and pious Demeanour. -- Superstitious
proceedings of the Ecclesiastical Authorities. -- Reflections. --
Songs of Agincourt. Page 156

CHAPTER XXIV.

1415-1417.

Reasons for delaying a Second Campaign. -- Sigismund undertakes to
mediate. -- Reception of Sigismund. -- French Ships scour the seas,
and lay siege to Harfleur. -- Henry's vigorous measures thereupon. --
The Emperor declares for "Henry and his Just Rights." -- Joins with
him in Canterbury Cathedral on a Day of Thanksgiving for Victory over
the French. -- With him meets the Duke of Burgundy at Calais. (p. vi)
-- The Duke also declares for Henry. -- Second Invasion of France. --
Siege of Caen. -- Henry's Bulletin to the Mayor of London. -- Hostile
Movement of the Scots. Page 203

CHAPTER XXV.

1418-1419.

Henry's progress in his Second Campaign. -- Siege of Rouen. --
Cardinal des Ursins. -- Supplies from London. -- Correspondence
between Henry and the Citizens. -- Negociation with the Dauphin and
with the French King. -- Henry's Irish Auxiliaries. -- Reflections on
Ireland. -- Its miserable condition. -- Wise and strong measures
adopted by Henry for its Tranquillity. -- Divisions and struggles, not
between Romanists and Protestants, but between English and Irish. --
Henry and the See of Rome. -- Thraldom of Christendom. -- The Duke of
Brittany declares for Henry. -- Spaniards join the Dauphin. --
Exhausted State of England. Page 221

CHAPTER XXVI.

1419-1420.

Bad faith of the Dauphin. -- The Duke of Burgundy brings about an
Interview between Henry and the French Authorities. -- Henry's first
Interview with the Princess Katharine of Valois. -- Her Conquest. --
The Queen's over-anxiety and indiscretion. -- Double-dealing of the
Duke of Burgundy; he joins the Dauphin; is murdered on the Bridge of
Montereau. -- The Dauphin disinherited. -- Henry's anxiety to prevent
the Escape of his Prisoners. Page 249

CHAPTER XXVII. (p. vii)

1419-1420.

Henry's extraordinary attention to the Civil and Private duties of his
station, in the midst of his career of Conquest, instanced in various
cases. -- Provost and Fellows of Oriel College. -- The Queen Dowager
is accused of Treason. -- Treaty between Henry, the French King, and
the young Duke of Burgundy. -- Henry affianced to Katharine. -- The
Dauphin is reinforced from Scotland. -- Henry, accompanied by his
Queen, returns through Normandy to England. Page 262

CHAPTER XXVIII.

1421-1422.

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. Page 286

CHAPTER XXIX.

Was Henry of Monmouth a Persecutor? -- Just principles of conducting
the Inquiry, and forming the Judgment. -- Modern charge against Henry.
-- Review of the prevalent opinions on Religious Liberty. -- True
principles of Christian Freedom. -- Duty of the State and of
Individuals to promote the prevalence of True Religion. -- Charge
against Henry, as Prince of Wales, for presenting a Petition against
the Lollards. -- The merciful intention of that Petition. -- His
Conduct at the Death of Badby. Page 319

CHAPTER XXX. (p. viii)

1413.

The Case of Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham. -- Reference to his
former Life and Character. -- Fox's Book of Martyrs. -- The
Archbishop's Statement. -- Milner. -- Hall. -- Lingard. Cobham offers
the Wager of Battle. -- Appeals peremptorily to the Pope. -- Henry's
anxiety to save him. -- He is condemned, but no Writ of Execution is
issued by the King. -- Cobham escapes from the Tower. Page 348

CHAPTER XXXI.

Change in Henry's behaviour towards the Lollards after the affair of
St. Giles' Field. -- Examination of that affair often conducted with
great Partiality and Prejudice. -- Hume and the Old Chroniclers. --
Fox, Milner, Le Bas. -- Public Documents. -- Lord Cobham, taken in
Wales, is brought to London in a Whirlicole; condemned to be hanged as
a Traitor, and burned as a Heretic. -- Henry, then in France,
ignorant, probably, of Cobham's Capture till after his Execution. --
Concluding Reflections. Page 376

CHAPTER XXXII.

The Case of John Clayton, Richard Gurmyn, and William Taylor, burnt
for Heresy, examined. -- Result of the Investigation. -- Henry not a
Persecutor. -- Reflections. Page 393

APPENDIX.

No. I. Ballad of Agincourt. 417
No. II. Siege of Rouen. 422
No. III. Authenticity of the Manuscripts--Sloane 1776, and
Reg. 13, c. 1. 425

MEMOIRS OF HENRY OF MONMOUTH (p. 001)

CHAPTER XVII.

HENRY OF MONMOUTH'S ACCESSION. -- NATIONAL REJOICINGS. -- HIS PROFOUND
SENSE OF THE AWFULNESS OF THE CHARGE DEVOLVED UPON HIM. -- CORONATION.
-- FIRST PARLIAMENT. -- HABITS OF BUSINESS. -- HE REMOVES THE REMAINS
OF RICHARD TO WESTMINSTER. -- REDEEMS THE SON OF HOTSPUR, AND RESTORES
HIM TO HIS FORFEITED HONOURS AND ESTATES. -- GENEROUS CONDUCT TOWARDS
THE EARL OF MARCH. -- PARLIAMENT AT LEICESTER. -- ENACTMENTS AGAINST
LOLLARDS. -- HENRY'S FOUNDATIONS AT SHENE AND SION.

1413-1414.

HENRY, KING.

Henry IV. died at Westminster on Monday, March 20, 1413, and Henry of
Monmouth's proclamation bears date on the morrow, March 21.[1] Never
perhaps was the accession of any prince to the throne of a kingdom
hailed with a more general or enthusiastic welcome. If serious minds
had entertained forebodings of evil from his reign, (as we (p. 002)
believe they had not,) all feelings seem to have been absorbed in one
burst of gladness. Both houses of parliament offered to swear
allegiance to him before he was crowned: a testimony of confidence and
affection never (it is said) before tendered to any English
monarch.[2] This prevalence of joyous anticipations from the accession
of their young King could not have sprung from any change of conduct
or of principle then first made known. Those who charge Henry most
unsparingly represent his conversion as having begun only at his
father's hour of dissolution. But, before that father breathed his
last, the people of England were ready to welcome most heartily his
son, such as he was then, without, as it should seem, either (p. 003)
hearing of, or wishing for, any change. His principles and his conduct
as a ruler had been put to the test during the time he had presided at
the council-board; and the people only desired in their new King a
continuance of the same wisdom, valour, justice, integrity, and
kind-heartedness, which had so much endeared him to the nation as
their Prince. In his subjects there appears to have been room for
nothing but exultation; in the new King himself widely different
feelings prevailed. Ever, as it should seem, under an awful practical
sense, as well of the Almighty's presence and providence and majesty,
as of his own responsibility and unworthiness, Henry seems to have
been suddenly oppressed by the increased solemnity and weight of the
new duties which he found himself now called upon to discharge. The
scene of his father's death-bed, (carried off, as that monarch was, in
the very meridian of life, by a lingering loathsome disease,) and the
dying injunctions of that father, may doubtless have added much to the
acuteness and the depth of his feelings at that time. And whether he
be deemed to have been the licentious, reckless rioter which some
writers have been anxious to describe, or whether we regard him as a
sincere believer, comparing his past life (though neither licentious
nor reckless) with the perfectness of the divine law, the retrospect
might well depress him with a consciousness of his own unworthiness,
and of his total inability to perform the work which he saw (p. 004)
before him, without the strength and guidance of divine grace. For
that strength and that guidance, we are assured, he prayed, and
laboured, and watched with all the intenseness and perseverance of an
humble faithful Christian. Those who are familiar with the expressions
of a contrite soul, will fully understand the sentiments recorded of
Henry of Monmouth at this season of his self-humiliation, and the
dedication of himself to God, and may yet be far from discovering in
them conclusive arguments in proof of his having passed his youth in
habits of gross violation of religious and moral principle. We have
already quoted the assertions of his biographer, that day and night he
sought pardon for the past, and grace for the future, to enable him to
bend his heart in faith and obedience to the Sovereign of all. And
even during the splendour and rejoicings of his coronation he appeared
to withdraw his mind entirely from the greatness of his worldly state,
thus forced upon him, and to fix his thoughts on the King of kings.[3]

[Footnote 1: Close Roll.]

[Footnote 2: "The high esteem which the nation had
of Henry's person produced such an entire
confidence in him, that both houses of parliament
in an address offered to swear allegiance to him
before he was crowned, or had taken the customary
oath to govern according to the laws. The King
thanked them for their good affections, and
exhorted them in their several places and stations
to employ all their power for the good of the
nation. He told them that he began his reign in
pardoning all that had offended him, and with such
a desire for his people's happiness, that he would
be crowned on no other condition than to make use
of all his authority to promote it; and prayed God
that, if he foresaw he was like to be any other
than a just and good king, he would please to take
him immediately out of the world, rather than seat
him on the throne, to live a public calamity to his
country."--Goodwin. See Stowe. Polyd. Verg.
Elmham.]

[Footnote 3: Elmham.]

But he never seems for a day to have been drawn aside by his private
devotions from the full discharge of the practical duties of his new
station. On the Wednesday he issued summonses for a parliament to meet
within three weeks of Easter. On Friday the 7th of April, he was
conducted to the Tower by a large body of men of London, who (p. 005)
went on horseback to attend him. The next day he was accompanied back
to Westminster, with every demonstration of loyalty and devotedness to
his person, by a great concourse of lords and knights, many of whom he
had created on the preceding evening. On the following morning, being
Passion Sunday, April 9th,[4] he was crowned with much[5] magnificence
in Westminster Abbey.[6]

[Footnote 4: Not Palm Sunday, but the fifth Sunday
in Lent, was called Passion Sunday.]

[Footnote 5: "With mickle royalty."--Chron. Lond.]

[Footnote 6: Chroniclers record that the day of his
coronation was a day of storm and tempest, frost
and snow, and that various omens of ill portent
arose from the circumstance.]

One of the first acts of a sovereign in England at that time was to
re-appoint the judges who were in office at the demise of his
predecessor, or to constitute new ones in their stead. Among other
changes, we find Hankford appointed as Chief Justice in the room of
Gascoyne, at least within ten days of the King's accession. For any
observation which this fact may suggest, so contrary to those
histories which repeat tales instead of seeking for the truth in
ancient records, we must refer to the chapter in which we have already
examined the credibility of the alleged insult offered by Prince Henry
to a Judge on the bench of justice.[7]

[Footnote 7: Henry had excited feelings of
confidence and admiration in the minds of foreign
potentates, as well as in his subjects at home.
Among the embassies, with offers and pledges of
friendship and amity, which hastened to his court
on his accession, are numbered those of John of
Portugal, Robert Duke of Albany, Regent of
Scotland, John King of Castile, John Duke of
Brittany, Charles King of France, and Pope John
XXIII.]

The first parliament of Henry V. met in the Painted Chamber (p. 006)
at Westminster, on Monday, 15th of May. The King was on his throne;
but the Bishop of Winchester, his uncle, then Chancellor of England,
opened the business of the session. On this, as on many similar
occasions, the chancellor, generally a prelate, addressed the
assembled states in an oration, half speech and half sermon, upon a
passage of Scripture selected as a text. On the opening of this
parliament, the chancellor informed the peers and the commons that the
King's purpose in calling them together as the Great Council of the
nation was threefold:--First, he was desirous of supporting the
throne,--"his high and royal estate;" secondly, he was bent on
maintaining the law and good government within his realm; and thirdly,
he desired to cherish the friends and to resist the enemies of his
kingdom. It is remarkable that no mention is made in this parliament
at all on the part of the King, or his chancellor, of either heresy or
Lollardism. The speaker refers to some tumults, especially at
Cirencester, where the populace appear to have attacked the abbey;
complaints also were made against the conduct of ordinaries, and some
strong enactments were passed against the usurpations of Rome, (p. 007)
to which reference will again be made: but not a word in answer
to these complaints would lead to the inference that the spirit of
persecution was then in the ascendant. It was not till the last day of
April 1414, after the affair of St. Giles' Field, that the statute
against the Lollards was passed at Leicester.[8] The chancellor at
that subsequent period speaks of their treasonable designs to destroy
the King having been lately discovered and discomfited; and the record
expressly declares that the ordinance was made with the consent and at
the prayer of the commons.

[Footnote 8: Sir Edward Coke, in his 4th Inst. ch.
i. declares that this act was disavowed in the next
parliament by the Commons, for that they never
assented. The Author has searched the Parliament
Rolls in vain for the authority on which that
assertion was founded.]

But though neither the King nor his council gave any indication, in
his first parliament, of a desire to interfere with men's consciences
in matters of religion, the churchmen were by no means slumbering at
their post. Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, convened a council of
the bishops and clergy, who met by adjournment, in full numbers, at
St. Paul's, on the 26th of June 1413;[9] and adopted most rigorous
measures for the extirpation of heresy, levelled professedly with a
more especial aim against the ringleader of Lollardism, as he (p. 008)
was called, the valiant and unfortunate Lord Cobham. On these
proceedings we purpose to dwell separately in another part of this
work; and, in addition to what we shall there allege, little needs be
observed here by way of anticipation. In leaving the subject, however,
as far as Henry V.'s character is concerned, it may not be out of
place to remark, that historical facts, so far from stamping on him
the mark of a religious persecutor, prove that it required all the
united efforts of the clergy and laity to induce him to put the
existing laws in force against those who were bold enough to dissent
from the Romish faith. So far from his "having watched the Lollards as
his greatest enemies," so far from "having listened to every calumny
which the zeal and hatred of the hierarchy could invent or propagate
against the unfortunate followers of Wickliff," (the conduct and
disposition ascribed to him by Milner,) we have sufficient proof of
the dissatisfaction of the church with him in this respect; and their
repeated attempts to excite him to more vigorous measures against the
rising and spreading sect. By a minute of council, May 27, 1415, we
find that, whilst preparing for his expedition to France, he is
reminded to instruct the archbishops and bishops to take measures,
each within his respective diocese, to resist the malice of the
Lollards. The King merely answered, that he had given the subject in
charge to his chancellor; and we are assured that Dr. Thomas (p. 009)
Walden,[10] one of the most learned and powerful divines of the day,
but very violent in his opposition to the new doctrines, openly
inveighed against Henry _for his great negligence in regard to the
duty of punishing heretics_.[11] To his religious sentiments we must
again refer in the sequel, and also as the course of events may
successively suggest any observations on that head.

[Footnote 9: The Monday after Corpus Christi day;
which feast, being the Thursday after Trinity
Sunday, fell in the year 1413 on June 22.]

[Footnote 10: This Dr. Walden (so called from the
place of his birth in Essex) was so able a
disputant that he was called the Netter. He seems
to have written many works, which are either
totally lost, or are buried in temporary oblivion.]

[Footnote 11: Goodwin. Appendix, p. 361.]

When Henry IV. ascended the throne, parliament prayed that the Prince
might not leave the realm, but remain in England as the anchor of the
people's hopes; and, soon after his own accession,[12] Henry V. is
advised by his council to remain near London, that he might receive
prompt intelligence of whatever might arise in any quarter, and be
able to take immediate steps for the safety of the commonweal. He
seems to have carried with him even from his earliest youth, wherever
he went, a peculiar talent of exciting confidence in every one.
Whether in the field of battle, or the chamber of council,--whether as
the young Prince, just initiated in affairs of war and government, or
as the experienced captain and statesman,--his contemporaries looked
to him as a kind of guardian spirit, to protect them from (p. 010)
harm, and lead them onward to good success. No despondency, nor even
misgivings, show themselves in the agents of any enterprise in which
he was personally engaged. The prodigious effects of these feelings in
the English towards their prince were displayed in their full
strength, perhaps, at the battle of Agincourt; but similar results are
equally, though not so strikingly, visible in many other passages of
his life.

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