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he burnt many ships belonging to the Easterlings and other merchants in Sluys harbour, and besieged the castle. It was well defended, and the earl of Pembroke was killed in an unsuccessful assault. The English deposited his body in the church of Ter Muyden, which, for that reason, they spared when they burnt Heysvliet, and Coudekerke, and wasted the Isle of Cadsant. When the duke John the Bold came against them with a great force, Ghent alone having supplied him with 7000 men, they removed the body for interment in its own burial place, and put to sea; less from any apprehension of the duke's strength, than because they believed a report that he was about to attack Calais, and thought they might be needed there for its defence. Walter Jansen, a seaman in great renown among the Flemings, followed them in his galleon; and, watching his opportunity, cut off a ship which had much booty on board, and, among other treasures, the frontispiece of the altar from Ter Muyden: the ship he carried into Dunkirk, and this was restored to its place. * On their way, the English met with three Genoese carracks, one of which, “having the wind with her," endeavoured to run down the lord Thomas's ship; but, by the good foresight of the master that ruled the stern, the violent sway of that huge vessel coming so upon them was avoided; yet the carrack struck off the nose of the English ship, and bruised her on the side. Then began the fight, very cruel, till the earl of Kent came to the rescue;" and, after a severe conflict, the three Genoese vessels were taken. The lord Thomas proceeded to the coast of Normandy, where he burnt the Hogue and other places, to the number of six-and-thirty, and laid the country waste for some thirty miles. He then carried his prizes into Rye, where one of them took fire, and was consumed, "to the loss," says the chronicler, "and no gain of either of the parties."+

66

The duke of Burgundy's intention to besiege Calais

*Sueyro, ii. 59.

+ Holinshed, iii. 36.

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was disappointed by the refusal of the French government to concur in any such measure. His preparations were complete, and upon a great scale; and his resentment at having them thus frustrated is said to have been the immediate cause of that deadly hatred against the duke of Orleans, which brought so many miseries upon France. Neither were his Flemish subjects disposed to second his intentions against England, or to submit to them. Their trade with that country was of too great importance, and the mercantile interest at that time strong enough to prevail over the privateering; so that, upon complaints being made from England to the great trading cities, they had influence enough to have the admiral Van Blanckart banished, with two bastards of count Louis de Male, and some other persons of distinction, who had taken an active part in the predatory warfare. *

The only serious attempt which was made by France in support of those who resisted Henry's usurpation, or revolted against it, was on the side of Wales, in aid of Owen Glendower. Marshal Montmorency and the master of the arbalisters were sent with 12,000 men to Milford Haven, where they landed safely, though not without losing most of their horses on the way, for want of fresh water. They came with 120 sail: lord Berkeley and Henry Paye, who commanded the fleet of the Cinque-ports, burnt fifteen of their ships as they lay in the haven, and captured a squadron of fourteen on its way to the expedition, with ammunition and stores. By land the invaders were more fortunate. They made an attempt upon Haverfordwest, where they burnt the suburbs and the town, but were repulsed by the earl of Arundel, when they attempted to take the castle. They wasted the country with fire and sword, took Caermarthen, effected a junction at Denbigh with Glendower, burnt the suburbs of Worcester, and, when the king came against them in person, with a great force, he could obtain no advantage over them. Eight days

the two armies fronted other, being posted on high ground, with a valley between them, and "each ready to abide, but not to give battle." Many skirmishes occurred, and some brave and distinguished persons fell: among them a brother of the marshal and the bastard of Bourbon. Want of provisions enforced the enemy to dislodge. The king followed them; but, "impeded with the desert ground and barren country through which he had to pass, over fells and craggy mountains, from hill to dale," says the chronicler, "from marsh to wood, from naught to worse, without victuals or succour," he was constrained to retire and make again for Worcester; and the enemy, harassing his retreat, cut off some of his stores. Finding, however, poor entertainment in Wales, and no hope of eventual success, the French returned to their own country, with some credit, but with no other advantage, from a painful expedition.* Eight ships, from a fleet of eight-and-thirty, conveying reinforcements to them, had been captured on the way; and Henry Paye brought home, from the coast of Bretagne, 120 prizes, laden with iron, salt, oil, and Rochelle wine.

Scotland and England had ever been ill neighbours to each other, nor had any approach towards a better feeling between them been made since the line of the Roman wall was traced out. The exiles and malecontents of one country were harboured, at this time, as they ever were, in the other. This led to open war; and a squadron, under sir Robert Logon, attacked an English fleet of fishers off Aberdeen. Some good ships of Lynn happened to come up in time to aid their countrymen, and Logon himself, "with the residue of his company, was taken. The English then landed upon some of the Orkneys, and spoiled them."+ Robert III. of Scotland, who had lost an excellent and dearly beloved wife, who was himself declining into old age, and sur

* Monstrelet, c. 15.
+ Holinshed, iii. 16.

Holinshed, iii. 40.

Speed, 620.

PRINCE JAMES OF SCOTLAND.

17

rounded by nobles distinguished for their ferocity and factious spirit, even in factious and ferocious times, wished, by advice of the bishop of St. Andrews, Henry Wardlaw, to send his only remaining son to France, ostensibly for education, but rather, in truth, for safety. There was then a negotiation going on, as it appears, between Henry's agents and some of those nobles who were the curse of their country, for the deliverance of certain great fugitives into the king of England's hand,

which was to certain death. A kinsman of king Robert, sir David Fleming, discovered these practices, and gave the persons, whose lives were aimed at, timely warning, so that they made their way into Wales. This sir David was charged to conduct the young prince James to the place of embarkation; and as the prince would not have been safe from treason on the main land, sir David lodged him in the castle on the Bass Rock, till the ship which was to carry him to France should arrive from Leith, and take him on board. Having left him there, sir David was presently afterwards murdered by some of the party whose designs against the exiles he had frustrated. In consequence of the more open troubles that ensued, a year's truce with England is said to have been obtained; and during that time, according to writers whom there is no reason to distrust, young James embarked from the Bass. Coasting along, the A.D ship was detained off Flamborough Head, by some cruisers belonging to Cley, in Norfolk, and carried into an English port*; and though the child (for James was but in his eleventh year) was provided with letters from his father, requesting the king of England that

Hall says that Hotspur's son, Henry, was with him, and that "by rigour of tempest they were driven on the coast of Holderness, called Flamborough Head, where the young prince, to refresh himself, took land, and he wrought not so privily but that he was known, and taken, with all his company."-P. 39. The statement in the text rests, however, not only on other authorities, but on his own :

"Upon the wavis weltering to and fro,

So infortunate was we that fremyt day,
That maugre plainly quether we wold or no,
With strong hand by force schortly to say
Of inymyes taken and led away

We weren all, and brought in thair contrie."

1405.

favour might be shown him, if by any chance he should land within any of his dominions, reasons of policy prevailed over rectitude and honour; and, conformably to the advice of the privy council, the prince was treated as a prisoner. But this injustice provided better for him than his father's careful foresight would have done*: even confinement, perhaps, at first came in aid of a studious and gentle disposition, which was improved by the best education that the English court could supply. Boethius was his consolation in prison, and Chaucer his model. He became a most accomplished and amiable prince: he formed an attachment which ended in a marriage every way suitable, and produced his immediate enlargement; and when, after twelve years of as much happiness as could be enjoyed He says himself,

"Blissit mot be the Goddis all

So fair, that glateren in the firmament;
And blissit be thair myght celestiall,
That have convoyit hale with one assent
My lufe, and to so glad a consequent :

And thankit be Fortuny's exil tre

And whele that thus so well has whirlit me."

When Henry "assembled his council to know what should be done with this noble infant, some," says Hall, "to whom the continual wars and daily battle was both displeasant and odious, affirmed that there could not happen a better or a more surer occasion of peace and amity between both the realms; which being so offered, they would in no wise should be rejected, but taken, considering that this prince was sent thither in trust of safeguard, in hope of refuge, and in request of aid and comfort against his evil willers and malicious enemies: others (whose opinion took place) affirmed him to be a prisoner, and so to be ordered, forasmuch as he was taken, the war being open, and that his father did not only maintain the earl of Northumberland and other rebels within his country, and give them great honours, but also sent a great number of his nobility against the king, at the battle of Shrewsbury. Wherefore it was agreed that he should be detained as a prisoner, lawfully taken and duly apprehended. When tidings of this definitive sentence was showed to his father, he took such an inward conceit, and so sore a pensiveness, that he ended his natural life within a few months after. Although the taking of this young prince was at the first time displeasant to the realm of Scotland, yet surely after, he and all his region had great cause to rejoice, and thank God of their fortunate chance and good luck that ensued. For where before that time the people of Scotland were rude, rustical, without any urbanity, having little learning, and less good manners, and good qualities least of all, this prince, being eighteen year prisoner within this realm, was so instructed and taught by his schoolmasters and pedagogues, appointed to him by the only clemency of the king, that he not only flourished in good learning, and fresh literature (as the time then served), but also excelled in all points of martial feats, musical instruments, poetical arts, and liberal sciences. Insomuch, that at his return from captivity he furnished his realm both with good learning and civil policy, which before was barbarous, savage, rude, and without all good nurture."-P. 39.

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