Henry of Monmouth, Volume 2

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

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[Footnote 180: It is remarkable, that among the
many names affixed to this memorial, not one
savours of Irish extraction. They all betray their
Saxon or (some) their Norman origin.]

[Footnote 181: This John Talbot, called by courtesy
Lord Talbot by right of his wife, was appointed
Lieutenant in Ireland in the first year of Henry's
reign. He had been employed in the wars of Wales,
and was the person against whom the Mayor of
Shrewsbury shut the gates. He was conspicuous also
as a warrior in the reign of Henry IV.]

[Footnote 182: Lord Furnival had petitioned in the
spring of the preceding year, 1416, for the payment
of one thousand marks disallowed by the then late
treasurer, the Earl of Arundel. Henry, who presided
himself in council, gave his decision that the
question should be submitted to the Barons of the
Exchequer, who, after examining the indenture made
between the King and the said lord, should ordain
what the justice of the case required.

The Lieutenant had also applied for a reinforcement
of men-at-arms and archers, and for a supply of
cannon. The King allows him to make such provision
with regard to additional soldiers as he thinks
best _at his own cost_, and agrees to let him have
some cannon from the royal stores.--Acts of Privy
Council, 1416.]

The complaints, to answer which, among other objects, we have already
intimated an opinion that this memorial might possibly have been
partly prepared, were taken into consideration on the 28th of the
preceding February by the King himself in council, and are by no means
devoid of interest, though only a cursory allusion to them can be made
here. Among the grievances are certain "impositions outrageously
imposed upon them;" the seizure of the wheat and cattle belonging to
churchmen by the officers and soldiers of the Lieutenant, contrary to
the liberties of Holy Church; and the non-execution and non-observance
of the laws in consequence of the insufficiency of the officers. To
these complaints the King replies that, at the expiration of Lord
Furnival's lieutenancy, he would provide a remedy by the appointment
of good and sufficient officers. The terms of indenture, by which the
King and Lieutenant were then usually bound, probably presented (p. 240)
an obstacle to any immediate interference.

But the most interesting point in these complaints is the prayer with
which they close. It proves that, in the view of the complainants,
(and probably theirs was the general opinion,) absenteeism was then
very prevalent, and was held to be one of the greatest evils under
which Ireland was at that time suffering; it informs us also that
Irishmen born (that is, however, men of English extraction born in
Ireland,) were advanced to benefices in England; and it shows that
many such natives of Ireland were in the habit of coming to England
for the purposes of studying the law, and of residing in the
Universities. The complainants "require that through the realm of
England proclamation be made that all persons born in Ireland, being
in England, except persons of the church beneficed, and students and
others engaged in the departments of the law, and scholars studying in
the Universities, betake themselves to the parts of Ireland, for
defence of the same.

To this petition the King only replies, that "he grants it according
to the form of the statute made in that case."

The statute to which Henry here refers was made in the first year of
his reign. It bears incidental testimony to his mild and merciful
disposition, as compared with the feelings and views of his
contemporaries; and shows that in legislation he took the lead (p. 241)
of his parliament in preferring mild and moderate to violent and
sanguinary measures.

The Commons pray that the penalty of absenteeism after the
proclamation should be loss of life or limb, and forfeiture of goods;
the King consents only to imprisonment, instead of death and
mutilation. "The Commons," (such are the words of the record,) "for
the quiet and peace of the realm of England, and for the increase and
welfare of the land of Ireland, pray that it may be ordained in the
present parliament, that all Irishmen, and all Irish begging clerks,
called Chaumber Deakyns [chamberdeacons], be voided the realm between
Michaelmas and All Saints, on pain of loss of life and limb; except
such as are graduates in the schools, and serjeants and students of
law, and such as have inheritance in England, and 'professed
religious;' and that all the Irish who have benefices and office in
Ireland live on their benefices and offices, on pain of losing the
profits of their benefices and offices,--for the protection of the
land of Ireland." The King grants the prayer, but modifies the
severity of the penalty proposed by the Commons, limiting the
punishment to the loss of goods, and imprisonment during the royal
pleasure; and excepting merchants born in Ireland of good fame, and
their apprentices, now being in England, and those to whom the King
may grant a dispensation.

It was in the year following these proceedings that Henry received
succours from Ireland, just before he laid siege to Rouen. The (p. 242)
Pell Rolls state that they were two hundred horse and three hundred
foot, under the command of the Prior of Kilmaynham,[183] transported
by Bristol vessels from Waterford to France. Others, doubtless, might
have joined him also from the same quarter; but it seems very probable
that Hall, or those whom he followed, exaggerated this statement, and
substituted the Lord of Kylmaine for the Prior of Kilmaynham, when
they tell us "that a band of one thousand six hundred native Irish,
armed with their own weapons of war, in mail, with darts and skaynes,
under the Lord of Kylmaine, were with Henry V. at the siege of Rouen,
and kept the way from the forest of Lyons; and so did their devoir
that none were more praised, nor did more damage to their enemies."
Still the account given of these wild Irish, by Monstrelet, would seem
to countenance the idea of a much greater number than were transported
over with the warlike Prior. "The King of England" (says that author)
"had with him in his company a vast number of Irish, of whom far the
greatest part went on foot. One of their feet was covered, the other
was naked, without having clouts, and poorly clad. Each had a target
and little javelins, with large knives of a strange fashion. And (p. 243)
those who were mounted had no saddles, but they rode very adroitly
on their little mountain horses: and they rode upon cloths, very
nearly of the same fashion with those which the Blatiers of the French
country carry. They were, however, a very poor and slight defence,
compared with the English: besides, they were not so accoutred as to
do much damage to the French when they met. These Irish would often,
during the siege, together with the English, scour the country of
Normandy, and do infinite mischief, beyond calculation; carrying back
to their host great booty. Moreover, the said Irish on foot would
seize little children, and leap on the backs of cows with them,
carrying the children before them on the cows, and very often they
were found in that condition by the French."[184]

[Footnote 183: This Prior seems to have been Thomas
Botiller, the brother of the Earl of Ormond. He is
said to have died during the siege. He and his men
are reported to have been sent over by Lord
Furnival, the Lord Lieutenant. See Excerpta
Historica above referred to.]

[Footnote 184: Mons. vol. i. c. 95.]

The only other document relating to Ireland at this time, which it is
purposed to transfer into these pages, is chiefly interesting as
affording one of the many instances upon record of the personal
attention which Henry paid to the business necessary to be transacted
at home, whilst he was engaged in battles and sieges and victories
abroad. It is a petition, (in itself also of some importance in regard
to Irish history,) from Donald Macmurough, (Macmore or Macmurcoo,)
addressed to "the most high and excellent redoubted Lord the King of
England," and is dated July 24, 1421.

"Most humbly supplicates, Donaal Macmurcoo, a prisoner in (p. 244)
your Tower of London, that as above all things in the world,
(most gracious Lord,) with entire intent of his heart, he desires
to be your liege man, and to behave towards you from this day
forward in good faith, as is his right; and to do that loyally he
offers to be bound by the faith of his body [his corporal oath],
and all the sacraments of Holy Church, in any manner which you
please graciously to ordain and appoint; and all his friends who
are at his will, under his subjection, or at his command under
his lordships, will promise the same by word of mouth. And for
greater security for the time to come, as well to your most noble
and sovereign Lordship as to your heirs and the crown of England,
during his life loyally to hold and accomplish the same, he
offers you his son and heir in pledge. May it please your most
high and gracious excellence, according to his promises
aforesaid, graciously to receive and accept him to your most
noble and abundant grace, for God's sake and in a work of
charity."

The petition is in French.--The answer in English is this: "Ye
King will that he come before his counsel, and find surety as it
may be found reasonable."

"For Macmourgh.--Offer to be sworn to the King, and to give
hostage thereupon."

The order of the council consequent upon this, in Latin, refers the
matter to the Lieutenant and council in Ireland.

* * * * *

Henry at this time appears to have had considerable intercourse with
the see of Rome. In a letter written to his resident ambassador in
that city, John Keterich, Bishop of Lichfield, he requires, in very
humble language, that his Holiness would not invade the rights of the
crown of England as settled by a concordat between Edward III. (p. 245)
and Gregory XI; that he would provide for the admission of Englishmen
only into the priories in England which the Conqueror had annexed to
Norman abbeys; and that he would send strict injunctions to the
bishops of Ireland that the people should be taught the English
tongue, and that none should be capable of any ecclesiastical
preferment who should be ignorant of it, since the best and greatest
part of that nation understood it, and experience had shown what
disorders and confusions arose from a diversity of languages.

It is impossible to read the documents of this time without being
struck by the evidence as well of the thraldom under which the Pope
held the sovereigns and people of Christendom, as of the spirit of
piety which habitually influenced Henry.

His confessor had died, and he had applied to the Archbishop of
Canterbury to select another for him. That primate's answer is full of
interest. The Archbishop gives the King all the authority which he
himself possessed; and yet Henry is obliged to seek permission at the
court of Rome to have a confessor of his own, and to celebrate divine
service at convenient times and in convenient places. He had sent for
a chapel, with altars, vestments, and ministers, from England; and the
warrant is in existence to press carriages and horses to carry them to
the sea, to be transported to him in Normandy. This instrument is
dated February 5th, 1418, and it should seem that all these (p. 246)
preparations were insufficient till he could obtain the Pope's licence
and dispensation in the following August.[185]

[Footnote 185: Archbishop Chicheley's letter to
Henry is preserved among the manuscripts of the
British Museum. MS. Cotton, Vesp. F. xiii. fol.
29.]

The Pope then gives Henry permission to have a confessor of his own
choice, who should once a year during his life, and once also at the
hour of death, give him full pardon for all the sins of which he
repented from the heart, and which he confessed with the mouth;
provided that the confessor take care to have satisfaction given to
those to whom it is due. The Pope adds an earnest hope that this
indulgence would not tempt Henry to commit unlawful acts at all more
freely than before.[186]

[Footnote 186: Gebennis, xv. kal. Sept. Pontif.
nost. ann. I. (August 18, 1418.) Rymer.]

By another act of grace, dated only ten days after the former, King
Henry is permitted to have one or more portable altars, and to have
mass at uncanonical times, and even in prohibited places, provided he
were not himself the cause of the interdict. This grant has also some
curious stipulations annexed: among others it is directed that the
doors shall be shut at such masses, the excommunicated excluded, the
service being conducted without sound of bell and with a low voice.
Especially is it enjoined that liberty to have mass before day (p. 247)
should be used very sparingly, because since our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, is offered as a sacrifice on that altar,--and he is
the brightness of eternal light,--it is right for that to be done, not
in the darkness of night, but in the light of day.

Henry remained for some time at Rouen, and wore the ducal robes as
Duke of Normandy. A conspiracy to surrender the town to the French
King was defeated by the honourable conduct of De Bouteiller, who, on
being requested to join the conspirators, on the contrary discovered
their designs to Henry.

Early in the year 1419, the Duke of Brittany, distrusting the power of
France to defend him, were the English to turn their arms against his
territory, sought and obtained an alliance with Henry; of whose just
and honourable principles he had experienced practical proofs.

At this time the Spaniards added much to Henry's difficulties. Having
engaged to succour the Dauphin, they are said to have sent ships to
Scotland for men, part of whom they probably landed at Rochelle.
Henry's forces, however, were victorious in the south, no less than in
the north.

Still, though victorious and feared on every side, Henry found that
war and disease had so reduced his army as to compel him to apply to
his subjects at home for reinforcement. The reasons sent from (p. 248)
Norfolk, which are probably only specimens of the returns from other
counties, would lead us to infer that most of his subjects, who were
both willing and able to join his standard, had already been drained
off. The Bishop of Norwich, and others, return that "the stoutest and
strongest of their countrymen were already in the army, and others
pleaded poverty and infirmities." Robert Waterton, to whom the King
had made an especial appeal, assured him that at the approaching
assizes at York he would urge the gentlemen of those parts to tender
their services. There seems also to have been a growing disinclination
or disability among the clergy to provide a supply of money; probably
both their means and their zeal for the cause had diminished. In the
diocese of York they complained loudly of the impoverished state of
the church, but at last voted one-half of a tenth.

CHAPTER XXVI. (p. 249)

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.

1419-1420.

About the month of March in the year 1419, the Dauphin proposed to
meet Henry with a view to the formation of an alliance, to which Henry
was at this time by no means averse. The Dauphin, however, acted with
very bad faith on the occasion; and, by neglecting to come according
to his solemn engagement,[187] gave unintentionally another opening to
the Duke of Burgundy to advocate a treaty between France and England.
So utterly, indeed, had the Dauphin thrown aside all thoughts of an
interview with Henry, on which he had appeared very anxiously (p. 250)
bent, that he even made a vigorous attack on the English ambassadors
and their escort when on their road to the King of France.

[Footnote 187: A letter from T.F., dated Evreux,
(March 27th, 1419,) addressed to his friends in
England, tells us that "the Dauphin made great
instance sundry times to have personal speech with
the King, for the good of peace between both
realms;" and, on obtaining the King's consent, "he
fixed on the third Sunday in Lent (March 19th), at
his own desire and instance, making surety by his
oath and his letters sealed to keep that day. The
foresaid Rule Regent hath broke the surety
aforesaid, and made the King a Beau Nient [made a
fool of him]; so that there may be no hope had yet
of peace.... And so now men suppose that the King
will henceforth war on France; for Normandy is all
his, except Gysors, Euere, the Castle Gaylard, and
the Roche."

This writer gives us to understand that he and his
friends were heartily tired of the Continental
warfare, which had so long kept them from the
comforts of their home, and they longed to revisit
the white cliffs of Britain. "Pray for us, that we
may come soon out of this unlusty [unpleasant]
soldier's life, unto the life of England."--MS.
Donat. 4001. Sir H. Ellis assigns this to the year
1420; but it must have been written March 27th (the
Monday before Passion Sunday), 1419, just eight
days after the Dauphin had broken his word.

The same writer speaks in no very measured terms of
the intrigue and duplicity of foreign courts. "And
certes, all the ambassadors that we deal with are
incongrue, that is to say, in old manner of speech
in England, 'they be double and false;' with which
manner of men, I pray God, let never no true men be
coupled with."

The reasons which had induced Henry some time
previously to wish for an alliance with the Dauphin
are found in the Cot. MS.--See "Acts of Privy
Council," vol. ii. p. 350.]

The Duke of Burgundy, taking advantage of this juncture, succeeded,
not only in persuading the two Kings to interchange ambassadors, but
in effecting a personal conference between the royal parties. (p. 251)
Henry agreed to come to Mante, on condition that Charles and the Duke
of Burgundy would come to Ponthoise. A large field on the banks of the
Seine, near to the gate of Melun, was selected for the meeting. The
preparations for the interview are described with great minuteness by
historians. A pavilion at an equal distance from the tents of both
nations was erected by the Queen of France, and presented to Henry;
adjoining to it were two withdrawing apartments. The King of France
was detained by indisposition at Ponthoise on the day appointed, May
30, 1419; but the Queen, the Princess, the Duke of Burgundy, and the
Count de St. Pol, on the one side, with their council and guards, and,
on the other, Henry, his two brothers, Clarence and Gloucester, his
two uncles, the Duke of Exeter and the Bishop of Winchester, the Earls
of March and Salisbury, with his council and his guard, met in this
"fair and wide mead of Melun." The Queen's tent was "a fair pavilion
of blue velvet richly embroidered with flower-de-luces; and on the top
was the figure of a flying hart, in silver, with wings enamelled."
Henry's tent was of blue and green velvet, with the figures of two
antelopes embroidered; one drawing in a mill, the other seated on high
with a branch of olive in his mouth, with this motto wrought in
several places, "After busy labour, comes victorious rest." A great
eagle of gold, with eyes of diamond, was placed above. At three (p. 252)
in the afternoon the royal parties, having entered within the
barriers, approached each other, the Queen led by the Duke of
Burgundy, the Princess by the Count de St. Pol. Henry with a solemn
bow took the Queen by the hand and saluted her, and afterwards the
Princess; as did also his brothers, bending one knee almost to the
ground. The Duke of Burgundy paid his respects to Henry, and was
honourably received by him. Henry led the Queen into the pavilion,
taking the upper hand of her after a long dispute about this ceremony;
and having placed her in one chair of state, of cloth of gold, himself
occupied the other. Nothing further than ceremony was the apparent
object of that day's conference, though the fate of Henry perhaps
turned upon it. The Earl of Warwick, "the father of courtesy,"
addressed the Queen, and the parties separated,--the Queen's for
Ponthoise, Henry's for Mante; having first engaged to meet each other
again on the following Thursday. These conferences were carried on at
intervals till June 30th, without any satisfactory progress being made
towards peace; on that day they agreed to meet on the 3rd July, and
Henry kept his engagement, but the French disappointed him; and then,
convinced of their insincerity, and the total absence of all real
intentions on their part to bring the proceedings to a favourable
issue, he dissolved the conference, complaining loudly of the unfair
dealings of his enemies. He was chiefly, however, angry with the Duke
of Burgundy, to whom he ascribed all the blame; and who is said (p. 253)
to have been guilty of such double-dealing as to have had frequent
interviews with the Dauphin in the neighbourhood of Paris, even during
the conference.

A circumstance connected with this meeting is too closely interwoven
with Henry's character, and conduct, and destiny, to be passed over in
silence. In preparing for the interview, the Queen had shown much
courteous attention to secure Henry's gratification; and she looked
forward to it as the hour of her daughter Katharine's[188] conquest
over his heart. That Princess was a lovely young person, and in the
very prime and bloom of her beauty; and her mother had flattered
herself that her charms would prevail over the young conqueror more
than the arms or the statesmen of France. Nor had the designing lady
altogether miscalculated the power of her daughter's charms, or the
extent of Henry's susceptibility. His heart was touched at the first
sight of Katharine, and the practised eyes of her mother saw that the
victory was won. Her daughter (she observed) had overcome a prince who
appeared till then invincible. But the wily Queen outwitted (p. 254)
herself; and, for the present, by her own act disengaged the toils in
which Henry had been unquestionably taken. With a view of inflaming
his love for her daughter the more by her absence, and of compelling
him to comply with any conditions of a treaty, one of which would be
Katharine's hand and heart, she would not suffer the Princess to be
present at any of the following interviews: the first sight of so much
beauty had so triumphant an effect, that she would not permit a
second. But her scheme, however finely drawn, was observed by Henry;
and, indignant at the artifice, he became more inflexible than ever,
and insisted more firmly than before on his first proposals; assuring
the Duke of Burgundy that he was resolved to have the Princess with
all his other demands, or force the King of France from his throne,
and drive the Duke from the kingdom.

[Footnote 188: Katharine of Valois, the youngest
child of Charles VI. of France, (he had twelve
children,) was born on the 27th of October 1401;
just two months subsequently to her elder sister
Isabel's return from England after the death of her
husband, the unfortunate King Richard.
Consequently, at the date of this interview, May
30th, 1419, she was only in her eighteenth year;
Henry himself was in his thirty-second year.]

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