A. D.

fleet from the mouth of the Thames northward, with full powers of collecting and manning such ships of war as might be required, and with all other powers which former admirals had possessed. By the end of October, however, complaints poured in both from the king's liege subjects and his allies, that, owing to the neglect of those who ought to guard the seas, great depredations were committed, and great losses had been sustained: upon this, orders were issued for sequestering the duties which had been assigned to the merchants, till reparation should have been made to the parties aggrieved.*

A naval action took place this year, while the duke of Orleans was laying unsuccessful siege to Le Bourg. The French admiral, Le Clugnet, put to sea with two-andtwenty ships, manned expressly for this service, in quest of an English fleet, of what force has not been stated, nor by whom commanded. He fell in with it; an action ensued, with considerable loss of killed and wounded on both sides; and Le Clugnet, having lost one of his ships, which was carried into Bourdeaux, returned to Le Bourg.t

his

During the summer of 1407, London, with the 1407. country round about, was so infected by the plague, that the king was afraid to approach it; and being at Leeds Castle, in Kent, he determined to take ship at Queensborough, sail over to Leigh in Essex, and take up abode at Plashey till the pestilence should be stayed; and, because some French privateers, or pirates as they are called, were hovering about the mouth of the Thames, Thomas lord Camois was appointed to convoy him across with certain ships of war. It was supposed that the pirates had some intelligence of this; and when he was in the midst of the passage, "whether the wind turned, or that the lord Camois kept not a direct course, or that his ship was but a slug," the French entered among his fleet, and took four ships close to the king's,

* Rymer, viii. 439. 449. 455. It is pleasant to find that security was granted at this time to the French, Breton, and Flemish fishermen.-Ib. 451.+ Monstrelet, c. 28.

in one of which was his vice-chamberlain, sir Thomas Rampstone*, " with all his chamber stuff and apparel;" and they followed the king so near, "that if his ship had not been swift he had landed sooner in France than in Essex; but by God's provision and good hap he escaped the danger, and arrived at his appointed port." Henry was sore moved with the lord Camois ;" and in that suspicious temper, which is part of the earthly punishment of successful ambition like his, he caused him to be arrested, and indited upon a charge of having corresponded with the enemy, and plotted to betray him into their hands. He was arraigned before the earl of Kent, who was the high steward; and " were he guilty or guiltless," says Hall, "faulty or clear, culpable or innocent of that fact and doing, he was by his peers found not guilty, and dismissed at the bar, having restitution both of his lands, goods, and offices."†

The truce between France and England having been A. D. ill observed by sea, the French admiral Jacques de 1410. Chastillon was appointed on the one part, and Thomas Beaufort on the other, "the king's dear brother, admiral of England, and conservator of the said truce upon the seas," to meet, and adjust all differences which had arisen on that account. In the spring of the same year the king sent the earl of Kent with an armament to clear the seas, because the coasts were infested by rovers who had done much hurt, and upon whom Henry was no doubt desirous that vengeance should be taken for the jeopardy in which he himself had been placed by them. Hearing of the earl's coming, they made for Bretagne with all speed, whither, upon the information of his espials, he followed them, "and finding that they had laid up their ships in the havens, so as he could not fight with them by sea, he launched out his boats, and with his fierce soldiers took land, and manfully assaulted

* I know not whether this was the same sir Thomas Rampstone, con stable of the Tower, who in the same year "was drowned in coming from/ the court, as he would have shot the bridge, the stream being so big that it overturned his barge."-Holinshed.

+ Hall, 36. Holinshed, iii. 43, 44.4

Rymer, viii. 622, 623. 653.

the town of Briake*, standing by the sea-side. The
citizens threw out darts, cast stones, shot quarrels, and
manfully defended their walls; in which conflict the
earl received such a wound in his head that he departed
out of this world the fifth day after." The assailants
were exasperated by his loss, not dismayed at it; and
continuing their assaults till they had forced an entrance,
they set the town on fire, slew all who resisted, and then,
for want of a commander, returned with their prizes
and prisoners to England. The earl left a young
widow, daughter of Barnabe Galeas lord of Milan :
the king, with whom he was a favourite, had procured
for him this advantageous alliance; and, on the day of
his marriage at St. Mary Overy's church, he received
with her 100,000 ducats as her dowry. He left no
child, and Henry urged the widow to marry the earl of
Dorset, bastard-brother to her deceased husband, who
happened to be very old and ill-visaged; but the lady,
not unwisely preferring her own mind to the king's de-
sire,
" for very
love took to husband Henry Mortimer,
a goodly young esquire, and a beautiful bachelor. For
which cause, the king was not only with her displeased,
but also, for marrying without his license, he seized and
fined her at a great sum of money." This act of legal
tyranny, which would have been odious if exercised
upon a native subject, was worse in the case of a
foreigner who at his instance had been brought from her
own country; and it is among the better acts of his son
Henry V. that, upon his accession, he not only released
and pardoned her, but knighted her husband, and pro-
moted him to great offices, both in England and Nor-
mandy.+

A. D. Two bold mariners, about this time, by name sir John 1411. Prendergest and William Long, scoured the seas, so

that no pirate durst appear, and merchants and passengers might pass to and fro in safety: yet they were açcused, through the malice, it is said, of some who envied

*St. Brieux ?

Hall, 40. Holinshed, iii. 45, 46.

+ Hall, 40.

their success, of helping themselves from such ships as they met with, against the owner's will; and these complaints were urged with so much apparent, if not actual truth, that Prendergest, being in London, took sanctuary at Westminster. The king forbade all persons to harbour him; and the fear of any way appearing to disregard this prohibition was so great, that even the church afforded him little protection, and but cold shelter; so that he was fain to set up a tent within the abbey porch, and have his servants keep nightly watch, lest he should there be put to death by his enemies. Long, the while, kept the sea, thinking that there he should always have the means of escape. The lord admiral went in person to pursue and seize him. Long, however, kept at safe distance, till he had obtained from him not only a promise of pardon, but an assurance, upon his pledged faith, that he should receive no harm; yet, "notwithstanding all promises, upon his coming in, he was shut up fast in the Tower, and so for a time remained in durance." Probably he was released when Prendergest either made his peace with the king or exculpated himself, and, being restored to favour, was sent out with a fleet of thirty sail. He made a successful expedition, and "took good prizes of wine and victuals," which are said to have "relieved the commons greatly." By this expression, it should seem as if the value of the prizes were carried to the public account, and the naval charges thereby diminished in an equal amount; yet no facts are known that support such an inference, and the only apparent benefit that any part of the commons could have derived from such captures must have been a reduction in the price of wine, and some few other things, in the ports into which the prizes were taken. Among other enterprises, Prendergest landed at a place which the English chronicler calls Craal, on the fair day, "took the town," it is recorded, and robbed the fair; so as they that were come thither to sell their wares had quick utterance and slow payment." How little such warfare differed from robbery,

A.D.

- how little moral improvement since the time of the Danes had been effected in this respect, - was not perceived by the chronicler, nor, indeed, acknowledged in the days of queen Elizabeth. Yet it must be borne in mind, that the usages of the age warranted it; and that practices which would now, deservedly, be deemed infamous, were then sanctioned by the common consent of nations.*

66

Towards the end of this reign †, three floods are said 1413. to have followed, one upon the other, in the Thames, and no ebb between, the 'like of which no man living could remember. Henry Bolingbroke had reigned thirteen years, "in great perplexity and little pleasure." He had reaped as he had sown -care, insecurity, suspicion, enmity, and treason, and curses not loud but deep"-" for," says Holinshed, "by his proceedings, after he had attained to the crown, what with such taxes, tallages, subsidies, and exactions as he was constrained to charge the people with; and what by punishing such as, moved with disdain to see him usurp the crown, (contrary to the oath taken at his entering into the land, upon his return from exile,) did at sundry times rebel against him, he won himself more hatred than in all his lifetime (if it had been longer by many years than it was) had been possible for him to have weeded out and removed. And yet, doubtless, worthy were his subjects to taste of that bitter cup,—sithence they were so ready to join and clap hands with him, for the deposing of their rightful and natural prince, king * Holinshed, iii. 50. 55. † October 12. 1413. Fabyan, 576.

O very God! what torment had this king!
To remember in brief and short entent:
Some in his shirt put oft time venoming,
And some in meat and drink great poisonment;
Some in his hose, by great imagenement,
Some in bed-straw, irons sharp ground and whet,
Envenomed sore to slay him, if he had on them set.

Some made for him divers enchantement,
To waste him out and utterly destroy :
And some gave him battle full felonement,

In field within his realm, him for to noy;
And on themselves the hurt and all the annoy
Aye fell, at end that hang'd were and headed,
As traitors ought to bene in every stede.