open though released and intrusted with the In the mean time the Black Prince was command of Paris by the popular party, wedded to his beautiful cousin Jane Planwas prepared to sacrifice them to his bro-tagenet, daughter of the earl of Kent. The ther-in-law the dauphin, who soon after king raised him to the new dignity of prince was master of Paris. The efforts of public of Aquitaine and Gascony. He established liberty, the projects of personal ambition, his magnificent court at Bordeaux. He which had agitated the states-general at reconciled many of the Gascon and PyreParis for three years, were lost in the del-nean lords to submission, who were inured uge of general misery which they had prob- to independence in their distant fastnesses, ably in some measure contributed to swell. and who could scarcely brook even the The general confusion was carried to the forms of regal superiority. A considerable utmost pitch by a revolt of peasants or serfs portion of his Gascon administration was against their lords in most of the provinces unfortunately employed in an irruption into which surrounded the capital.* They were Spain, in which he maintained his renown called La Jacquerie, from Jacques Bon as a captain, but earned neither moral honHomme,-Gaffer James,—their real or ima- or nor political advantage. Pedro IV., surginary leader. This revolt of slaves, who, named the Cruel, king of Castile, had having lost all hope, might well say, "Fare-ed his reign when a boy by the murder of well fear, farewell remorse!" was the only Leonora de Guzman, his father's mistress, disorder which on the continent disturbed to which he was prompted by his relentless the enfranchisement of peasants; the most mother. His own wife, Blanche de Bourextensive, spotless, and beneficent revolu- bon, he committed to the custody of the tion recorded in history, since the delivery uncle of his paramour Maria de Padilla, of women from perpetual imprisonment and where she was believed to have perished uncontrolled slavery by the abolition of po- by poison. The numerous exiles from his lygamy. The tumults and excesses, which tyranny, at the head of whom was Henry threw a slight shade over its progress in of Trastamare, the son of Leonora de GuzEngland, will be more fitly related in the man, first found a refuge in Arragon. They history of the next reign. were driven from their asylum by fear of Wearied with wars of disappointment to Pedro, and compelled to seek a more invioEdward, and of unspeakable mischief to lable home in France. Trastamare and the France, a treaty was concluded between celebrated Dugesclin raised an army of the contending parties at Bretigni, of which thirty thousand of "the companies" for an the principal stipulations were the cession attack on Pedro, by which they almost deof the old possessions and new conquests of livered France from these brave freebootthe English in France to them in full sove- ers. By the help of these allies, and by reignty, the renunciation by Edward of his the concurrence of the Castilians, Henry pretensions to the French crown, together deposed Pedro without a blow. That tywith the payment of a million and a half rant escaped through Portugal to Corunna, of English nobles as a ransom for John, who obtained a passage to Bayonne, and threw had continued in England. In a few months himself on his arrival at Bordeaux at the afterwards, however, some difficulties oc-feet of the renowned prince of Aquitaine. curring in the levy of so great a ransom, it Now the defects of chivalrous morality was agreed by both princes to postpone were strikingly exhibited. Justice and hutheir formal renunciations till the 30th of manity disappeared. Edward was soothed November, 1361, at Bruges. But as it be- with the pride of redressing the wrongs (for came more difficult to execute the treaty such the deposition seemed to him) of a of Bretigny, John, justly surnamed the king and a knight. And so imperfect or Good, returned to London after four years' rather impure was his system of ethics, that liberty, and again became a hostage for the in his ignorance he regarded the restoration terms which it was impossible to perform. to a convicted oppressor of the power to He died there in 1364, a remarkable, per- make a nation miserable as a legitimate haps singular, example of faith and honor. and sacred undertaking. On the 3d of About the same time the death of Edward April he defeated Henry in the battle of Baliol without issue having left David Navarete. He prevented, indeed, Pedro Bruce without a competitor for the Scottish from putting 2000 prisoners to death; though crown, the long pretensions of the Plan- he had just armed him with the power of tagenets to Scotland were closed by Ed- dooming a tenfold number to the same fate. ward III.'s recognition of his brother-in-law. He recommended lenity to a wretch whose sole guard against the hatred of mankind * Froissart, ch. clxxxii. "They set fire to the town and brenned it clean, and all the villagers of the town that they could A Jacobite writer, 400 years after the event, lets close therein."-Froissart, ch. clxxiv. The revolters us into the secret of the prince's morality. "The were "Villains:" the victors were the duke of Or-prince of Wales was too much a man of honor to leans, the earl of Foix, and the captal de Buch. favor usurpation in any country."-Carte, ii. 516. VOL. I. 12 consisted in their fears. The ungrateful of king of Castile in right of his wife, the tyrant neither paid nor provisioned the daughter of Peter the Cruel by his concuarmy of his benefactor, and the prince re- bine Maria de Padilla. On the 8th of June, turned to Bordeaux without profit or credit. 1376, the Black Prince died at Canterbury, In the following year Pedro and Henry met in the 46th year of his age; leaving a repuat a political conference. They seized on tation as a consummate commander, a each other with the rage of unnatural ha- generous knight, a wise and vigorous tred. Pedro threw Henry on the floor; but statesman, and a model of regal dignity Henry stabbed his antagonist to death, and and magnificence, unmatched by any man was once more acknowledged as the legiti- of that age, unless his father may be exmate king of Castile. cepted. It was, perhaps, fortunate for his The Black Prince, embarrassed by the un- fame that he did not live so long as to be paid mercenaries, imposed unpopular taxes regarded as a peevish and gloomy valetufor the purpose of discharging them. The dinarian. 66 mutinous lords availed themselves of the After his return to England he embraced still unexecuted renunciations of the treaty a popular and parliamentary opposition,* of Bretigny, by appealing against the taxes which rose to vigor in the evening of the to the court of the lord paramount. In the great king's life. Whether his motives course of the hostilities which ensued, and were pure, or he was in part swayed by in the last military operation of his life, he the reluctance to resign a power which gave the strongest proof of the proud and could no longer be exercised, he appears to unfeeling character of the best chivalrous have become the life of the hostility now morality. Incensed at the revolt of the carried on by parliament against the mincity of Limoges, he gave notice to the in-isters and mistresses of his father, whose habitants, that unless they immediately ex- costly victories had often compelled him to pelled the French garrison and surrendered purchase parliamentary supply by larger the traitors, they should all be put to the concessions than were extorted from the sword-man, woman, and child. When, timidity of feebler princes. The state of after a month, the English army entered by foreign affairs was inauspicious to the mona breach, the prince, already too infirm to arch. The French conquests of the two ride, was carried into the town in a litter, greatest captains of the age were lost. accompanied by his brothers Lancaster and Calais remained alone in the north. BorCambridge. It was a miserable sight to deaux and Bayonne were the principal behold the men, women, and children on remnants of the English dominions in the their knees, and bathed in tears, beseeching south: to preserve them by truces was him for mercy. He was so inflamed with deemed fortunate. The parliament, which ire, that he took no heed of them. More assembled in spring 1376,† complained of than 3000 men, women, and children, were needless expense and oppressive taxation: slain on that day."* After witnessing this they carried their scrutiny into every branch butchery, he remained on the spot in his of administration; impeached the principal litter, to see the hard-fought defence of agents of the duke of Lancaster; declared fourscore French knights, who kept their the necessity of adapting the administraground against the English princes and tion to the demands of parliament; exnobles. However indifferent to a massacre pelled lord Latimer from the king's counof the vulgar, "heads without name no cils; and deprived lord Neville of his more remembered," yet as a veteran war- offices. Alice Perrers, a lady of the bedrior he was touched with admiration of the chamber to Philippa, to whom the doting gallantry with which the cavaliers per- fondness of the king had presented the formed their part; and he rewarded so bril- jewels of her royal mistress, was by name liant an exhibition by a grant of their lives. forbidden the court, under the pains of forThirty years of toil and peril had pre- feiture and banishment, in pursuance of an pared the robust frame of Edward for fatal ordinance made to prevent the influence impressions from a Spanish autumn. His of women in biassing the course of justice, activity in the field ceased. He returned and unduly obtaining graces from the to England in quest of bodily quiet. His king. In the end of their remonstrance mother Philippa had some years before left they pray the king to call the royal child her beloved family to a state of dissension Richard of Bordeaux to parliament, that and unexpected decay. As the prince's the lords and commons might receive the health declined, the government of Aqui- noble son of such a father with due honors. § taine, and the chief management of public Their language indicates that they had affairs, fell into the hands of John of Gaunt duke of Lancaster, who assumed the title * Froissart. * "Illi de communitate cum quibus princeps tene. bat."-Murimuth. † Rot. Parl. ii. 321-330. + Ibid. 329 lost their protector, and that the duke of grievances were redressed as soon as felt, Lancaster was not acceptable to them. The that parliamentary authority was yearly duke of Lancaster resumed his ascendant. strengthened by exercise, and that the Sir Thomas de la Mare, the speaker of the minds of the turbulent barons were excluindependent house of commons in the par- sively turned towards a share in their soveliament called "good," was committed to reign's glory. Quiet at home was partly prison. In the last year of Edward's reign the fruit of fame abroad. An age of vica parliament held by the young prince of tory is productive of those triumphs and Wales threw itself into the arms of Lan- monuments which soothe national pride, caster; and his steward, Sir Thomas Hun- and contribute to foster all the feelings of gerford, was chosen speaker. Even in the nationality. Windsor was probably the former year, it appears from the rolls of noblest architectural pile destined for civil parliament, that the two houses repaired to purposes then erected to the north and west the king at Eltham, he being unable to of the Alps. The hall of Edward's palace perform the short journey to Westminster. at Westminster still stands a lasting exDuring the remaining months of his life ample of the massy magnificence which he lived in gloomy solitude, either at that commands admiration for centuries. The place, or, for the last fortnight of his life, at chapel of the same regal mansion is now the beautiful manor of Shene, with no con- the room in which a representative assemfidential attendant but Alice Perrers, who, bly sit, who concur in making laws for anif we may believe an old chronicler,* de- cient and renowned nations, to whom the serted him on the morning of his death, name of Plantagenet was unknown. Civil and carried with her the royal ring, which architecture then began to revive-as she had drawn from his finger. It is added, castles were used for solemnities and festhat the servants had disbanded after pil- tivities, which were before limited to selaging the palace, before his death; and curity. The architecture of churches had that the only office of piety which attended almost reached its highest perfection;-a his dying moments was performed by a soli- new and singular art, which, though it tary priest, who put into the king's hands spread magnificence from Seville to Scota crucifix, after kissing which he wept and land and Norway, has left scarce any acexpired. count of the names of its professors. The Though his victories left few lasting ac- contrast of vastness with minute finish; quisitions, yet they surrounded the name the power of its structure suddenly to exof his country with a lustre which produced hibit masses and changes of light and strength and safety; which, perhaps, also shadow; its transitions from awful gloom gave a loftier tone to the feelings of Eng- to splendid radiance; the variety and inland, and a more vigorous activity to her tricacy of its parts which yet appear a faculties. The pride of valor may belong whole to the fancy, from their likeness and to barbarians; but victories no longer to be from their common object;—have formed a gained without mental power over nations strong mental connexion between it and emerging from barbarism, though they religious worship, which acquires additional beget many evils and really degrading pas- solidity from age to age. Most of the sions, may on the whole elevate the heart European cities may boast of their sacred and rouse the understanding of mankind. edifices. Why Gothic churches (for so During a reign of fifty years, Edward they are called) of singular beauty are III. issued writs of summons, which are more abundant in the central counties of extant to this day, to assemble seventy par- England than in any other equal part of liaments or great councils: he thus en- the country of Europe which the writer gaged the pride and passions of the par- of this volume has seen, is an unexplained liament and the people so deeply in sup- fact in the history of an art which is dim port of his projects of aggrandizement, that and mysterious in its origin and progress as they became his zealous and enthusiastic well as in its fabrics. The foundation of followers. His ambition was caught by the order of the Garter, with its shows and the nation, and men of the humblest station legends, its martial and religious parades, became proud of his brilliant victories. To convinces us that we have at length reachform and keep up this state of public tem- ed an age which, undisturbed by the coarse per was the mainspring of his domestic ad- chivalry of barbarous reality, had formed ministration, and satisfactorily explains the out of its traditions an ideal web of love internal tranquillity of England during the and war, of valor and devotion, which has forty years of his effective reign. It was since spread over the cradle of modern the natural consequence of so long and manners. watchful a pursuit of popularity, that most * Walsingham. The reign of Edward was distinguished by Chaucer, the greatest poetical genius, if not the greatest poet, with the single exception of Dante, whom Europe had pro-Nor can ignorance and prejudice, however duced, probably, from the death of Lu- formidable, produce so much mischief in cretius, and who undoubtedly surpasses other times by restrictive law as that which every English poet, except Shakspeare, in naturally sprung from the utter absence of the variety and fertility of his faculties. It traffic. The pestilential fevers which raged is no wonder, that after the appearance of with such malignity, may, in part, be assuch a writer, the language which he had cribed to want of food, fuel, air, and ennobled should be legally declared to be clothing, to towns crowded and filthy, as that of legislation.* well as to the low state of medical knowThe statute of treasonst has, in its ope- ledge. Roger Bacon had discovered his ration, weakened the power of oppression knowledge of a composition like more in England than in most countries, powder, for a fulminating powder and fireand on this account has justly become the works. It was disclosed to the public by darling of the nation. It limits the offence Swartz, a German monk, soon after the of political treason to three cases: 1. Com- commencement of the fourteenth century. passing the death of the king; 2. Levying war against him; and 3. Abetting his foreign enemies within his kingdom. It was granted rather to the rapacity of the barons than to the safety of the sub gun RICHARD II. 1377-1399. ject. All the other acts formerly held to throne in the eleventh year of his age, be treason being reduced to felony, the amidst the acclamations of the multitude, escheat fell to the immediate lord instead readily bestowed on the beauty and innoof accruing to the crown, to which forfeit- cence of the boy, the martial and popular ures for high treason pertained. The glories of his father, and the jealousy stirred whole character of the statute is indeed up by the overshadowing power of John of feudal, and adapted only to the treasons Gaunt, now the undisputed chief of the prevalent in feudal times, which were house of Plantagenet. The melancholy of either secret assassination or open rebellion. Edward's latter days was not unsuitable to A conspiracy to revolt was then an un- the gloom which hung over public affairs. known offence. The barons were the only Though the great dominion of Aquitaine revolters, and their preparations, incapable had rather crumbled down under the unof secrecy, were commonly as notorious as nerved hand of his age than fallen by the those of a foreign prince. The judges in vigorous blow of an enemy, yet the twenty process of time enlarged the scope of this years of languid contest and gradual decay statute to cases for which it certainly was which followed the battle of Poitiers, formed not intended, but which it was probably fit a disheartening contrast with the early trito punish by the only reasonable remedy of umphs of a victorious reign. Vexatious a new law. Our ancestors, and we our- inroads were the only fruit of the needless selves, have been fearful of repairing a contest with Scotland. The renewal of rude statute, lest the established powers hostility between the English and French should seize on the reform as an opportunity parties in Britany added the important stafor making the law more tyrannical, under tions of Brest and Cherburg to Calais, Borthe specious pretext of rendering it more deaux, and Bayonne. The first parliament methodical and complete. of Richard showed a disposition to adopt "Under the reign of Edward III.," says the spirit of opposition encouraged by the Sir Matthew Hale, "the law was improved Black Prince. Peter de la Mare was again to its greatest height. The judges and chosen speaker of the house of commons. pleaders were very learned. The plead- The judgment against Alice Perrers was ings are more polished than those in the renewed, with no indulgence even towards time of Edw. II.; yet they have neither the memory of her royal lover. In the uncertainty, prolixity, nor obscurity. So proposals for a regency some circumstances that at the latter part of this king's reign occurred which illustrate the state of parthe law seemed to be near its meridian." ties, and throw a strong light on those luThe frequency of famines, and the ex- dicrous positions in which the accidents and cessive fluctuation of the prices of the neces- infirmities of human nature sometimes place saries of life, were among the most wide- hereditary monarchy. The regal boy was wasting evils which afflicted the middle gravely spoken of by primates and chancelage. In a period without commerce, the lors, as already a sage and a hero, endowed scarcity of one district could not be reliev-with all the wondrous attributes which the ed by the redundant produce of another. priests of Thibet discover in a newly-found lama. Both houses of parliament on their knees besought him that he would be graciously pleased to name the king of Castile, * 36 Ed. III. † 25 Ed. III. Hale, History of the Common Law. with eleven other lords, to be a council of either in England or France, for manumisregency. They were informed that the king sion. But the barons, influenced by the in parliament had wisely consented to this same necessity or convenience, followed mode of supplying his own defect of under- the example introduced by both kings in standing. But the duke of Lancaster an- the royal domains. The judges, who were grily and fiercely rejected this expedient ecclesiastics, multiplied presumptions and for diluting his power by so much mixture rules of evidence consonant to the equitable with others, which he treated with scorn and humane spirit which breathes throughas a new stratagem of his enemies and ca- out the morality of the Gospels. A resilumniators in the house of commons. Nine dence of three years in an incorporated counsellors of regency were chosen, among town protected a villain from all claims by whom he appears to have had little influ- his former owner. Of the two proofs of ence. They were chosen only for a year; servitude, one by prescription was loaded and the supplies were strictly appropriated with as many difficulties as the humane to military defence, and for that purpose in- contrivance of judges could devise; while trusted to Walworth and Philpot, the par- of the other, that by recognition or juliamentary treasurers of war.* dicial confession,-though instances from 6 In the year 1381, broke out the famous extreme poverty are not wanting in early revolt of the lower classes in England, very times, there is no example in our books similar to the insurrection of the French more recent than the time of Richard. peasants which raged in 1350. Both these It has already been observed that Chrisevents mark the period when the slaves tianity promoted manumission, though the who advanced from the condition of beasts rules of her pacific morality disturbed no began to feel an ambition to become men. civil institution. The plebeian extraction Their masters in some places pulled them of the clergy disposed them to favor the just back too violently: they were themselves cause of their brethren and neighbors; and impatient of the time which such an opera- the rise of many of them to the highest station requires. Accidental provocations, tions of the law supplied them with many malignant incendiaries, frequently excited means of infusing into law some portion of them to violence; but in general the com- that exact knowledge of right and wrong, of motions of that age will be found to be near that Christian charity and republican equalthat point in the progress of slaves towards ity, which education had not yet disclosed emancipation, when their hopes are roused, to their lay contemporaries. and their wrongs not yet redressed. In "A foolish priest of Kent, called John 1315 Louis Hutin issued an ordinance "set- Ball, had preached to the peasants, that in ting free all the serfs of his domains," on the beginning of the world there were no condition of composition; and, in 1318, his bondmen, wherefore none ought to be bond son Philip le Long confirmed that edict, without he did treason to his lord, as Ludeclaring, that "as our kingdom is called cifer did to God:-but they were neither the kingdom of the Franks, or freemen, angels nor spirits, but men formed to the and desirous that the thing may correspond similitude of their lords;-why then should to the name, we grant, &c. liberty to all they be kept under like wild beasts? and the serfs of our domains on good condition." why, if they labored, should they have no In 1339 we find a commission from Edward wages? III. to the same effect. Probably the rise of wages, ascribed then to the mortality of the pestilence, which vain attempts were This priest," says Froissart," was three made in several statutes to lower, was times thrown into the archbishop's prison partly attributable to the rapid enfranchise- at Canterbury for his foolish words." But ment of villains before the wages of free the generous sentiments of natural equality labor had been gradually determined by are so deeply engraven on the human heart, competition. Other statutest regulating the and so inseparably blended with the dicproof and proceedings in suits respecting tates of reason and of conscience, that no liberty, indicate the activity of emancipation appeal to them can be wholly vain: their at this period. All owners of extensive power over those who grievously suffer estates naturally discovered that they must from their violation never can cease to be be continually defrauded by distant villains, great. An accident kindled the flame. The respecting the share of produce allowed to collector of a poll-tax had levied it with the proprietor. To fix a certain sum to be insolence in the house of a tiler of Dartpaid yearly, instead of a portion of produce, ford; and in order to ascertain the age of afterwards called rent, was a better bargain the tiler's beautiful daughter, on which her for both parties. No general law had passed, liability to the tax depended, offered intol 'When Adam delved, and Eve span, Berner's Froissart, c. 381. |