A.D. 1875. Earl of Salisbury, and others, were appointed to Truce to last till June 30, 1376. negotiate for its prolongation. They first met at Ghent, in order to be present at the great festivities and tournaments given by the Duke of Burgundy, which lasted for four days. When these were concluded, they all went to Bruges to consider the terms of peace. The demands made on either side were impracticable. The English demanded the restitution of all the territories they had ever conquered froin France; the payment of the money due to England according to the treaty of Bretigni; and the release of the Captal. France demanded the destruction of the castle of Calais, and the repayment of the money already paid to the English." It was not to be expected that these conditions could be agreed to on either side: the idea of a permanent peace was, therefore, postponed; and all that could be settled on June 27, 1375, was, that the truce should be prolonged to the last day of June in the following year.3 1 Rymer, vol. iii. p. 1024. 2 Buchon's Froissart, vol. i. p. 704. 3 Rymer, vol. iii. p. 1031. CHAP. XIII. MEETING OF THE GOOD PARLIAMENT." 243 CHAPTER XIII. PROCEEDINGS OF THE "GOOD PARLIAMENT AND DEATH OF ment. tance. THE war was now suspended, and nothing of impor- A.D. 1376. tance took place in England, until the meeting of ParMeeting liament in the spring of 1376, after an extraordinary of Parliaintermission of three years. Matters of such moment then occupied its attention, and so bold a course was taken for the promotion of the welfare of the nation, that it obtained the name of the "Good Parliament."1 No Parliament previously held in England spoke out so boldly, or treated of such important matters, Its imporas this Parliament of the fiftieth year of Edward's reign. But its courage and its earnestness need excite no wonder. For nearly a century the nation had been by law admitted to a voice in the government of England; and so necessary did Edward deem it to ask those over whom he reigned to advise him how they should be governed, that he constantly summoned councils of special classes of persons from all parts of England, and consulted with them as to the laws relative to their particular calling. The nation thus began to feel its power, and at last the time had come for action. There was defeat and 1 Walsingham, p. 324. "Most of our general historians have slurred over this important session."-Hallam's Middle Ages, vol. ii. p. 187 (edition 1841). A.D. 1376. disgrace abroad, with vast expenditure and without results; at home there was social dissatisfaction increased by an attempted interference with wages; a King enfeebled by premature age,1 and degraded by infatuated love for a worthless woman; the heir apparent dying; the heir presumptive an infant; and treachery suspected. These circumstances were enough to rouse Parliament, and make the nation call for its interference; and Parliament responded to the call. Lancaster's misgovernment the Black Prince. In consequence of the age and feebleness of the King, and the illness of the Black Prince, the Duke opposed by of Lancaster had now for some time past taken a prominent part in the government of the country. He had appointed to high offices, men who were devoted to him, but whose conduct, as well as his own, had become the object of grave suspicion. The Black Prince, although grievously ill, exerted himself as well as he could to oppose the Duke, and to head the popular party in demanding a reformation of State abuses. That he was the head of this party is evident from the statements of contemporary writers, and from the reversal of State policy which took place after the Prince's death. Lancaster's object was to aggrandise 1 "Concerning the old age' of the King, so repeatedly noted in the text, it should be observed that he had at this time scarcely completed his sixty-fourth year, a period of life which would not at the present day call forth such an epithet. It may further be remarked that, on reference to Dugdale's Baronage, it will appear that in the middle ages the deaths of a great proportion of the English nobility, even when occasioned by natural causes (for war and pestilence had their full share), occurred under the age of forty; and that their eldest sons, though commonly the offspring of very early marriages, very frequently became wards of the Crown by reason of their minority"-i.e. when they came into possession of their family estate.-Note by Thomas Amyot, F.R.S., to the Contemporary Chronicle, Archæol. vol. xxii. p. 241. |