Henry of Monmouth, Volume 2

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

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The citizens of Rouen, which was well garrisoned, and had an ample
store of provisions, had declared themselves for the Duke of Burgundy;
but now, in their alarm, they supplicate aid from the Dauphin against
the common enemy. His answer was, that he was compelled to employ his
troops in defending his own towns against the Duke of Burgundy.[172]

[Footnote 172: Henry's army had received various
reinforcements. One accession is recorded by an
item in the Pell Rolls, of rather an interesting
character, showing that both the Irish and the
ecclesiastics of Ireland gave him good and
acceptable proof of the interest they took in his
success. It is the payment of 19_l._ 17_s._ on the
1st of July 1418, "to masters and mariners of
Bristol for embarking the Prior of Kilmaynham with
two hundred horsemen and three hundred
foot-soldiers from Waterford in Ireland, to go to
the King in France." An entry also occurs in the
following October: "To the Prior of Kilmaynham
coming from Ireland to Southampton, with a good
company of men, to proceed to Normandy to serve the
King in the wars, 100_l._" An order from the King
to his Chancellor, the Bishop of Durham, to
expedite ships from Bristol for the transport of
these men from Waterford to France, is preserved
among the miscellaneous records in the Tower. It is
dated June 3rd, at Ber-nay; to which a postscript
was added on the next day, urging the utmost
expedition, as the troops were tarrying only for
the means of sailing.--See Bentley's Excerpta
Historica, p. 388.]

The whole English army, with a great train of artillery, came (p. 224)
up before the city on the last day of July 1418, before another
harvest could afford new supplies of corn. To that one town the people
of Normandy had brought all their treasures; and those who were
intrusted with the safekeeping of the place seemed determined to
endure all the miseries of blockade and famine, rather than surrender.
Henry, with the resolution not to lavish the lives of his soldiers by
attempting to take this town by storm, laid close siege to it by land;
whilst some "good ships," which he had from the King of Portugal,
blockaded the mouth of the Seine.

Ten days after Henry laid siege to Rouen, he despatched a letter to
the Mayor and Aldermen of London, which, with their answer, cannot be
read without interest.

"BY THE KING.

"Right trusty and well-beloved! we greet you oft times well. And
for as much as, in the name of Almighty God, and in our right,
with his grace, we have laid the siege afore the city of Rouen,
which is the most notable place in France, save Paris; at which
siege, us nedeth [we need] greatly refreshing for us and for our
host; and we have found you, our true lieges and subjects, of
good will at all times to do all things that might do us worship
and ease, whereof we can you right heartily thank; and pray you
effectually that, in all the haste that ye may and ye will, do
arm as many small vessels as ye may goodly, with victuals, (p. 225)
and namely [especially] with drink, for to come to Harfleur, and
from thence as far as they may up the river of Seyne to Rouen ward
with the said victual, for the refreshing of us and our said host,
as our trust is to you; for the which vessels there shall be
ordained sufficient conduct, with God's grace. Witting well also
that therein ye may do us right great pleasance, and refreshing
for all our host above said; and give us cause to show therefore
to you ever the better lordship in time to come, with the help of
our Saviour, the which we pray that He have you in his
safeward.--Given under our signet, in our host afore the said city
of Rouen, the 10th day of August.
"To our right trusty and well-beloved the
Mayor, Aldermen, and all the worthy
Commoners of our city of London."

To this appeal the authorities of the city paid immediate and hearty
attention, and forwarded to Henry an answer under their common seal on
the 8th of September, (the Nativity of our Lady, the blissful maid,)
of which the following is a copy. A memorandum in Latin informs us
that the clause within brackets was for different causes kept back,
and not sent with the letters. The letter is a curious specimen of the
flattering and complimentary style of the good citizens of London when
addressing their sovereign.

"Our most dread, most sovereign Lord, and noblest King, to the
sovereign highness of your kingly majesty, with all manner of
lowness and reverence, meekly we recommend us, not only as we
ought and should, but as we best can and may; with all our
hearts, thanking your sovereign excellence of your gracious (p. 226)
letters in making [us] gladsome in understanding, and passing
comfortable in favouring our poor degrees, which ye liked late
to send us from your host afore the city of Rouen. In which
letters, after declaration of your most noble intent for the
refreshing of your host, ye record so highly the readiness of our
will and power at all times to your pleasance, and thanking us
thereof so heartily, that truly, save only our prayer to Him that
all good quiteth [requiteth], never was it nor might it half be
deserved. And after seeing in your foresaid gracious letters ye
pray us effectually to enarme as many small vessels as we may
with victual, and specially with drink, for to come as far as
they may in the river Seyne. And not only this, but in the
conclusion of your sovereign letters foresaid, ye fed us so
bounteously with the best showing of your good lordship to us in
time coming as ye have ever done, that now and ever we shall be
the joyfuller in this life when we remember us on so noble a
grace. [O how may the simpless of poor lieges better or more
clearly conceive the gracious love and favourable tendress of the
King, their sovereign Lord, than to hear how your most excellent
and noble person, more worth to us than all worldly riches or
plenty, in so thin abundance of victual heavily disposed, so
graciously and goodly declare and utter unto us, that are your
liege men and subjects, your plain lust and pleasance, as it is
in your said noble letters worthily contained. Certain, true
liege man is there none, ne faithful subject could there non ne
durst tarry or be lachesse [backward] in any wise to the
effectual prayer and commandment of so sovereign and high a lord,
which his noble body paineth and knightly adventureth for the
right and welfare of us.] Our most dread, most sovereign Lord,
and noblest King, may it please your sovereign highness to
understand, how that your foresaid kingly prayer, as most strait
charge and commandment, we willing in all points obey and execute
anon, from the receipt of your said gracious letter, which (p. 227)
was the 19th day of August nigh noon, unto the making of these
simple letters. What in getting and enarming of as many small
vessels as we might, doing brew both ale and beer, purveying
wine and other victual, for to charge with the same vessels, we
have done our busy diligence and care, as God wot. In which vessels,
without [besides] great plenty of other victuals, that men of
your city of London aventuren for refreshing of your host to the
coasts where your sovereign presence is in, we lowly send with
gladdest will unto your sovereign excellence and kingly majesty
by John Credy and John Combe, your officers of your said city,
bringers of these letters, tritty botes [thirty butts] of sweet
wine, that is to say, ten of Tyre, ten of Romeney, ten of
Malmesey, and a thousand pipes of ale, with two thousand and five
hundred cups for your host to drink of, which we beseech your
high excellence and noble grace for our alder comfort and
gladness benignly to receive and accept; not having reward
[regard] to the little head or small value of the gift itself,
which is simple; but to the good will and high desire that your
poor givers thereof have to the good speed, worship, and welfare
of your most sovereign and excellent person, of which speed and
welfare, and all your other kingly lusts [desires] and
pleasances, we desire highly by the said bearers of these
letters, and other whom your sovereign highness shall like, fully
to be learned and informed. Our most dread, most sovereign Lord,
and noblest King, we lowly beseech the King of Heaven, whose body
refused not for our salvation worldly pain guiltless to endure,
that ye, your gracious person, which for our alder good and
profit so knightly laboureth, little or nought charging bodily
ease, in all worship and honour evermore to keep and
preserve.--Written at Gravesend, under the seal of Mayoralty of
your said city of London, on the day of the Nativity of our Lady,
the blissful maid.
"To the King, our most dread and most sovereign Lord."

After every deduction is made from this singular epistle on the (p. 228)
ground of flattery and words of course, it proves that in expression,
at least, the Mayor and good citizens of London not only heartily
seconded Henry in his present undertakings, but identified his cause
with their own, and regarded him as fighting their battles, and
exposing himself to the dangers and privations of war in vindication
of their own rights; and probably we are fully justified in regarding
their sentiments as fairly representing the prevalent feelings of the
people of England. There were, doubtless, many exceptions, as there
ever must be in such a case, to the general unanimity; and we are not
without evidence that, during this siege of Rouen, Henry's proceedings
were commented upon unfavourably by some of his subjects at home.[173]

[Footnote 173: One Glomyng was charged with having
said, "What doth the King of England at siege
before Rouen? An I were there with three thousand
men, I would break his siege and make them of Rouen
dock his tail." He said, moreover, that "he were
not able to abide there, were it [not] that the
Duke of Burgundy kept his enemies from
him."--Donat. MS. 4601.]

During this siege negociations were set on foot by the Dauphin for an
alliance with Henry, who seemed to enter into the views of the
ambassadors heartily;[174] but at the same time similar negociations
were carried on between Henry and the King of France. In the (p. 229)
management of these a curious dispute arose as to the language in
which the conference should be carried on: the French required that
their own should be the medium of communication; the English
remonstrating, and requiring the Latin to be employed, that the Pope
and other potentates might understand their proceedings. It was
proposed that all writings should be in duplicate, one copy in French,
the other in Latin; but Henry insisted that his ambassadors should
sign only an English or a Latin copy. During these negociations the
French ambassadors presented to the King the portrait of the Princess
Katharine,[175] which he received with great satisfaction. The treaty,
however, was broken off, and the Cardinal Des Ursins returned to Pope
Martin at Avignon. It is painful to read the account of the siege of
Rouen; misery in all its shapes is painted there.[176] Indeed, if the
accounts we have received be true, so complicated a tale of
wretchedness is scarcely upon record. But the details can give no
satisfaction; they would only harrow up the feelings, without
supplying any facts essential to the history of those months of (p. 230)
human suffering. Henry was resolved neither to burn the town, nor
to take it by storm; but to reduce it by starvation. At length his
feelings overpowered this resolution, and he received the town upon
conditions, on the 19th January 1419.[177] Thus was Rouen subdued to
the Crown of England, two hundred and fifteen years after the conquest
of it by Philip of France in the reign of King John. Stowe tells us,
that to relieve this oppressed city Henry ordained it to be the chief
chamber of all Normandy; and directed his exchequer, his treasury, and
his coinage to be kept there. We have already seen that he caused his
vast treasures before kept in Harfleur to be brought to Rouen.

[Footnote 174: In a very long minute of the Privy
Council, the reasons assigned by Henry for wishing
to negociate an alliance with the Dauphin are given
at length; and ambassadors were appointed to treat
with that prince on the 26th of October
1418.--Foed. ix. p. 626.]

[Footnote 175: The Author, assisted by his friends,
has made diligent inquiry, both in England and on
the Continent, for a portrait of Katharine, with a
copy of which he was desirous of enriching this
volume; but his inquiries have ended in an
assurance that no portrait of her is in existence.]

[Footnote 176: Large cargoes of provisions of every
kind were forwarded from England; among others,
"stock fish and salmon" are enumerated in the Pell
Rolls, 3rd July 1419.]

[Footnote 177: Monstrelet says, that when Henry
made his entry into Rouen, he was followed by a
page mounted on a black horse, bearing a lance, at
the end of which near the point was fastened a
fox's brush by way of streamer, which afforded
great matter of remark. Elmham and Stowe give the
explanation of this. In 1414, he kept his Lent in
the castle of Kenilworth, and caused an arbour to
be planted there in the marsh for his pleasure,
among the thorns and bushes, where a fox before had
harboured; which fox he killed, being a thing then
thought to prognosticate that he should expel the
crafty deceit of the French King.--See Ellis,
Original Letters.]

* * * * *

It is confessedly beyond the province of these Memoirs even to glance
at the affairs of Ireland, except so far as a reference to them may
bear upon the character and conduct of Henry of Monmouth. Not only,
however, does the presence of a body of native Irish, headed by (p. 231)
one of the regular clergy of Ireland, aiding Henry at the siege of
Rouen, seem to draw our thoughts thitherward; but some documents also,
relative to our sister-land, of that date, may be thought to require a
few words in this place. During the reign of Richard II. the warlike
movements of the native Irish, who had never been conquered or
civilized, compelled that monarch to proceed to Ireland in person, and
to take the field against those wild rebels. They had formerly been
kept in comparative awe by a strong hand; but the continental wars of
Edward III. had much slackened the wonted vigilance and activity of
his government at home in checking their outbreakings against the
English settlers. They had, consequently, grown bold, and threatened
to extirpate the English altogether. Vigorous measures became
necessary, and the King twice headed an army himself to restore peace.
On his first visit he was summoned home by the prelates, to put down
the spreading sect of the Lollards; in his second, his delay, after
the landing of Bolinbroke at Ravenspurg, cost him his crown. In this
latter expedition Henry of Monmouth (as we have seen) accompanied him,
and had personal experience of the uncivilized state of the country,
and the savage character of the warfare carried on by the inhabitants.
It is curious to remark, that on several occasions Richard II.
employed the Irish prelates as his ambassadors to Rome, "for the safe
estate and prosperity of the most holy English church." The fact, (p. 232)
however, is too evident, that all Irish dignities were bestowed
on Englishmen; and except by some assumed privilege of the Pope, or by
other proceedings equally unacceptable to the English settlers, no
native Irishman was ever in those times advanced to any high station
in the church, or even promoted to an ordinary benefice. Indeed the
law forbade such promotions.

On the principle observed throughout these Memoirs, of avoiding all
reference to the political struggles and controversies of the passing
hour, the Author will make no reflections on the past, the present, or
the future policy of England towards a country whose destinies seem so
indissolubly bound up with her own. He humbly prays that HE, who says
to the tempest "Peace, be still!" and is obeyed, may so guide and
govern the religious and moral storms by which our age is shaken on
the subject of Ireland, that in His own good time the troubled
elements may be calmed; and that truth, peace, and charity may
prevail, and bless both countries, then at length become like "a city
that is at unity in itself."

By most of those who take a wide and comprehensive range of its
history, the dissensions which have distracted Ireland, and from time
to time torn it in pieces, and caused it to flow with the blood of its
neighbours and of its own children, will probably be ascribed, not
more to the difference of religion among its inhabitants, than (p. 233)
to the difference of origin. The struggles have been, not more
between Protestants and Romanists, not more between Catholics of the
church of England and Ireland, and Catholics in communion with the
sovereign pontiff, than between English and Irish, between those who
have regarded themselves as the aboriginal sons of the soil, and those
of Saxon or Norman descent, whom they have hated and abhorred as
intruders and invaders. The conflicts between these classes in
Ireland, as they may be traced in its chronicles, were just as
dreadful and as sanguinary before the Reformation, as ever they have
been since the separation of the reformed church from the see of Rome.
At all events, whatever may be the nature of the unhappy causes of
disunion in the present day, till within comparatively modern times
the struggles have been not more of a religious than of a national, or
perhaps of a predial, character. Authentic history teems with evidence
bearing directly on this point; and even the original documents,
references to which are interspersed through this volume, are quite
sufficient to establish it.

Among other documents confirmatory of the view here taken, which it
would be beyond the province of these Memoirs to recite, the statute
of 4 Hen. V. (1416), referring as it does to similar enactments of
previous reigns, and strongly expressive of the bitter jealousies
which existed between the two nations, seems to claim a place here.

"Whereas it was ordained in the times of the progenitors (p. 234)
of our Lord the King, by statute made in the land of Ireland,
that no one of the Irish nation be elected archbishop, bishop,
abbot, prior, nor in any manner be received or accepted to any
dignity or benefice within the said land; and whereas many such
Irish, by the power of certain letters of licence to them made by
the Lieutenants of the King there to accept and receive such
dignities and benefices, are promoted and advanced to
archbishoprics and bishoprics within the said land, who also have
made their collations to Irish clerks of dignities and benefices
there, contrary to the form and effect of the said statute; and
consequently, since they are peers of parliament in that land,
they bring with them to the parliaments and councils held in that
land servants by whom the secrets of the English in that land
have been and are from day to day discovered to the Irish people
who are rebels against the King, to the great peril and mischief
of the King's loyal subjects in that land: our said Lord the
King, willing to provide remedy for his faithful subjects, with
the consent of the Lords, and at the request of the Commons,
wills and grants that the said statute shall be in full force,
and be well and duly guarded, and fully executed, on pain of his
grievous indignation."

The statute then provides, that if any bishops act against this law,
their temporalities shall be seized for the King till they have given
satisfaction; that the Lieutenants shall be prohibited from granting
such licences to Irishmen; and that all such licences, if made, shall
be null and void.

Perhaps, however, the words of the petition to the Commons, on which
this enactment was founded, are still more striking and convincing on
the subject.

"To the honourable and wise Sires, the Commons of this (p. 235)
present Parliament, the poor loyal liegemen of our Sovereign Lord
the King in Ireland. Whereas the said land is divided between two
nations, that is to say, the said petitioners, English and of the
English nation, and the Irish nation, those enemies to our Lord
the King, who by crafty designs secretly, and by open destruction
making war, are continually purposed to destroy the said lieges,
and to conquer the land, the petitioners pray that remedy thereof
be made."[178]

[Footnote 178: See Sir H. Ellis, Orig. Let. xix.]

When Henry of Monmouth succeeded to the throne, Ireland was as
wild[179] in its country, and as rude in its inhabitants, as it was in
the reign of Henry II. The English pale (as it has been correctly
said) was little more than a garrison of territory; and it was
absolutely necessary either for the English inhabitants to leave their
possessions and abandon Ireland altogether, or for the English
government to keep the aboriginal Irish in check with a strong hand,
and compel them by military force to abstain from outrage. What would
have been at the present day the state of Ireland, had Henry directed
his concentrated energies to subdue the island, and then to (p. 236)
civilize and improve it, (measures by no means improbable had not the
conquest of France occupied him instead,) it would be profitless to
speculate. Even with his thoughts distracted by his foreign
expeditions, or rather, perhaps, almost absorbed by them, and whilst
he had but a very scanty contingent of officers and men at his
disposal for home-service, we have evidence that Ireland had not been
in so peaceable a condition for very many years as it had become under
his government. Whilst pursuing his victories on the Continent, he
laboured (and his labours were in an astonishing degree successful) to
provide for the effective administration of his own dominions with a
view to peace and justice.

[Footnote 179: Moryson, in his Travels, book iv. c.
3, gives a most extraordinary and disgusting
account of the habits of the Irish. The story of a
Bohemian Baron, who visited Morane, one of the
native princes, represents the Irish from the
highest to the lowest to have continued in the most
degraded state of barbarism. In their food, their
dwellings, their clothing, (those who had any to
wear,) and their general habits, if the accounts in
Moryson are not exaggerated, the Irish were not
removed many degrees from the wildest savages on
earth.]

A memorial forwarded this year to Henry, probably in consequence of
certain complaints of maladministration which had been sent to the
council the preceding winter, is very interesting. It is signed by a
large number of persons, lay and ecclesiastical: bishops, abbots,
priors, archdeacons, barons, knights, and esquires joined in the
petition.[180] The prayer of the memorial was professedly to procure a
fuller remuneration to the then Lord Lieutenant,[181] John Talbot,
Lord Furnival, for his indefatigable and successful exertions (p. 237)
in subduing "the English rebels and the Irish enemies;" it was,
however, evidently intended to obtain a still greater share of the
King's attention, and of the public expenditure in that island. The
memorial commences by expressions of loyalty to Henry's person, the
petitioners desiring above all earthly things to hear and to know of
the gracious prosperity and noble health of his renowned person, to
the principal comfort of all his subjects, but "especially of us who
are continuing in a land of war, environed by your Irish enemies and
English rebels, in point to be destroyed, if it were not that the
sovereign aid and comfort of God, and of you our gracious Lord, do
deliver us." It then states that they had prevailed upon the
Lieutenant[182] not to persevere in his intention to leave Ireland for
the purpose of applying to Henry in person for payment and relief, (p. 238)
expressing their great alarm should his presence be withdrawn from
them. The memorialists then dwell at great length upon the vast
labours, travails, and endeavours of Lord Furnival for the good of all
Henry's lieges; but those labours were only military proceedings:
every sentence of the memorial breathes of war, and slaughter, and
destruction. One of the chief topics in his praise is that he remained
many days and nights ("the which was not done before in our time") in
the lands of various of the strongest Irish enemies (specifying them
by name), taking their chief places and goods, burning, foraging, and
destroying all the country, and in many places causing the Irish
rebels to turn their weapons against each other. The document then
shows the precarious tenure of goods and of life among the English at
that time in Ireland; how they were "preyed upon and killed," and what
a wonderful change had just been effected by the vigorous measures of
Lord Furnival. "Now your lieges may suffer their goods and cattle to
remain in the fields day and night, without being stolen or sustaining
any loss, _which hath not been seen here by the space of these thirty
years past_, God be thanked, and your gracious provision!" It also
states that Maurice O'Keating, chieftain of his nation, traitor and
rebel, did on the Monday in Whitsun-week, (_i.e._ May 31st, not a
month before the date of the memorial,) "for the great fear which he
had of the Lieutenant, for himself and his nation, yield himself (p. 239)
without any condition, with his breast against his sword's point, and
a cord about his neck, delivering without ransom the English prisoners
which he had taken before; to whom grace was granted by indenture, and
his eldest son given in pledge to be loyal lieges from henceforward to
you our sovereign Lord." This memorial, dated June 26th, "in the fifth
year of your gracious reign," 1417, must have reached Henry on the
very eve of his setting out on his second expedition to Normandy.

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