66 does not appear; perhaps from the fear of Paris, attended by archbishop Arundel and both parties that each of them might anti- the lords Arundel and Cobham, and being cipate the discovery. Henry complained kindly received by the duke of Britany, to the king against Mowbray, who had he travelled through that prince's dominfalsely charged Henry with having uttered ions to the shore, and landed on the 4th of these scandalous words. This appeal was July, 1399, at Ravenspur, in Holderness, before the parliament at Shrewsbury in where he was immediately joined by the January, 1398.* In a few days afterwards martial lords of the northern border, the Norfolk retorted the charge at Oswestry. earls of Northumberland and WestmoreThe decision was referred to the judgment land, with such bands of followers as within of God. Wager of battle was joined, and a a few days swelled the numbers of his army magnificent theatre was erected near Cov- to 60,000 men. The duke of York, regent entry, where the truth of these accusations of the kingdom in the absence of the king, was to be tried by single combat. Some of was obliged to abandon the capital. NeiRichard's friends expostulated with him on ther he nor his council were able to bring the danger of such contests between his or hold together a royal army. The solgreat lords and the princes of his family. diers refused to draw their swords against Why should they not fight?" said Richard. a prince who sought not the crown, but the "Some of my blood have made treaties to- restoration of his inheritance. The regent gether against me, and the most principal himself, despairing of the king's fortunes, of them was the duke of Gloucester; for in and probably not without resentment all England there was not a worse head against the murderers of Gloucester, went against me than he. Now I shall have over to the side of Henry, who still appearpeace from henceforwards." On the day ed only a champion for public liberty and a of battle, however, he declared against ex- just suitor for his legitimate patrimony. posing two lords so near to him in blood to Henry was received everywhere with loud the perils of the duel; and as the natural acclamations of joy. His march from Lonsovereign of both, by special grace took the don against the few advisers of Richard battle into his own hands. He then de- who had forfeited the hope of mercy was a clared it to be his royal pleasure, for the triumphant procession. They surrendered peace of the king and kingdom, that Henry the castle of Bristol, where they had taken of Lancaster should avoid the realm for refuge; but the cries of the populace for ten years, under pain of death in case of vengeance incited or tempted Henry to disobedience or unlicensed return; and that bring lord Scroop, Bussy, and Green, who Thomas Mowbray, having confessed some were the most hated among them, to an charges at Windsor which he afterwards immediate trial before the court military. denied at Oswestry, should avoid the king- In consequence of the slight and summary dom for the term of his natural life; that proceedings of that unceremonious tribunal, he should dwell in Allmayne, Bohemia, or they were put to death as traitors. As soon Hungary, or go on an expedition to the as the duke of York had thus imbrued his Holy Land, but should not come to nearer hands in the blood of his late colleagues, he parts of Christendom under pain of treason. cut off his own retreat, and was fast bound The king had now obtained the object of to the fortune of his ambitious and polidestroying those whom he feared. His tic nephew. Thus an universal defection power was more nearly absolute than that broke out, in the midst of that general subof any prince who had governed England. mission and even professed attachment On the death of John of Gaunt, which soon which often lull bad rulers into a supinefollowed the banishment of Hereford, the ness fatal to them, till the moment when crown claimed his immense estates, which the shock of some successful resistance or the court lawyers represented him as inca- of some unwonted excess reveals each man's pable of inheriting after the judgment pro- feelings to his neighbors, and melts into nounced against him in parliament.‡ one mass of revolution all the various and At this period Richard undertook one of jarring emotions of contempt and hatred, his splendid expeditions against Ireland, of discontent from a thousand sources of inwhich were more remarkable for the cour- dignation against past wrong, and hope of tiers who followed in his train, than for the being secured against its repetition, which valor and discipline of his soldiery. Henry, at different times and in divers forms a bad now duke of Lancaster, took advantage of government implants and fosters in the Richard's absence. Solicited by the dis- hearts of the people. contented lords-well informed of the alienation of the nation from the king-he left *Rot. Parl. iii. 382. † Bern. Froiss. ii. c. 228. Rot. Parl. iii. 383. For three critical weeks Richard remained in Ireland, ignorant of the extraordinary revolution which had destroyed his authority over England. The tidings overwhelmed him. But it was resolved that lord Salisbury should repair forthwith to rigorously for twenty years. If it please North Wales with as many soldiers as he, God, I will help you to govern them better." while the king should make the necessary "Fair cousin," replied the king, for the preparations for disembarking at Milford last time performing the part of king, Haven; which, perhaps, from trust in the "since it pleaseth you, it pleaseth me well.' lingering remains of national spirit among He was brought prisoner to Chester, where the Britons, has been more than once cho- he was made to issue a proclamation for sen as a spot on which an invader might try preserving the peace, and writs for calling the disposition of the people to espouse his together a parliament.* On his arrival in interest. He lingered in Ireland eighteen London, he was for one night lodged in his days longer. During this interval Salis palace, but on the next his body was rebury was deserted by his disheartened and moved to the Tower, there to continue a impatient followers. Richard, on his land- close prisoner until parliament should proing, went in disguise to Conway, to concert nounce judgment in his case. measures with Salisbury, whom, however, The revolution which followed, though he found with a few faithful followers only, accomplished by a national revolt against who had thrown themselves into the noble misrule, becomes, nevertheless, a memoracastle of Conway, a strong-hold in the wars ble event in our constitutional history; and of that age, almost impregnable, and a po- a satisfactory proof of the opinion of our ansition where he could maintain his commu-cestors respecting their government, from nications with Ireland. Meanwhile the the elaborate care which they employed in leaders of the army at Milford Haven, in- clothing every part of it in constitutional fluenced by despondency, and probably by forms, and in regulating, by the principles some disaffection, disbanded their troops. of law, those acts which are the least subThomas Piercy, earl of Worcester, the lord ject to its ordinary jurisdiction. steward, broke his white staff, as a token On Monday the 29th of September, 1399, that all authority derived from Richard's a deputation of lords and commons, consistcommission was expired. At the same ing of an archbishop, the earls of Northtime, the king, learning the decisive events umberland and Westmoreland, Thyrning at Bristol, and the surrender of all the for- and Markham, justices, Stowe and Burbage, tresses on the Scottish frontier to Henry, doctors of laws, with many other ecclesiasresolved to take refuge in Conway castle, tics and laymen, waited on the king; and from which, in case of need, he might es- having reminded him of his declarations in cape to Gascony. It became Henry's poli- Conway castle of his unfitness for governcy to show a semblance of negotiation, to ment and readiness to resign, he read aloud, lure Richard from his fastness. The earl say the reporters," with a cheerful counteof Northumberland was dispatched with a nance," a renunciation of the crown, abthousand men, secretly posted at some dis- solving all his subjects from homage and tance, that their appearance might not fealty-"I confess, recognize, and from alarm the king into an escape. Northum- certain knowledge conscientiously declare, berland represented that Henry would be that I consider myself to have been, and to content with a free parliament, pardon, and be, insufficient for the government of this restoration of inheritance, together with the kingdom, and for my notorious demerits hereditary office of chief justiciary for him- not undeserving of deposition.”† He added, self, and condign punishment on the mur- that if he had the power to nominate a sucderers of Gloucester, and all their aiders cessor, he should have placed his cousin and abettors. After solemn assurances of Henry duke of Lancaster on the throne. safety, ratified by Northumberland's oath, Not willing, however, to rest the legitimaRichard consented to accompany that no- cy of the revolution upon a compulsory bleman to an interview with Lancaster. resignation, the estates of parliament, on In his journey he suddenly caught a glance Tuesday the 30th of September, assembled of the soldiers placed in ambush on the in Westminster-hall, where the acknowroad. He expostulated. Northumberland ledgments and renunciations of the late king, told him it was only a guard of honor. The being read over in English and in Latin, king claimed his liberty. Piercy, trans- were once more ratified by the lords and formed into a jailer, avowed that the king commons, amidst the applauses of the great was his prisoner. At the interview Henry multitude assembled in that great hallentered the apartment uncovered, and bent the scene of so many memorable and awful his knee for the last time to his royal cap- events. Still farther to show them the tive. "Fair cousin of Lancaster," said Richard, uncovering himself, "you are welcome!"-"My lord," answered Henry, "I am come before my time; but your people complain that they have been governed too 66 Rymer, viii. 84. The first proclamation is dated at Chester, on the 20th of August; the second at HENRY IV. 1399-1413. deep foundations of national right, they re- generally shake society to its centre withceived thirty-two articles of impeachment out the likelihood of their being ever conagainst the king; and having unanimously ducted with the calmness and impartiality convicted him of these charges, which con- necessary to justice, it cannot be imagined tain a recital of the principal acts of his that an inferior criminality in the acts of reign, they then proceeded, "out of super-kings against their people forms any part abundant caution,” to add a formal deposi- of the motive for exempting them from tion to the apparently voluntary abdication animadversion. A king's conspiracy against which they treated as valid. In all these the liberty of his people is at least as heibold measures they rigorously observed the nous an offence as a conspiracy of subjects usage of parliament and the formalities of against the authority of their sovereign: the law. On the second day the duke of of such a conspiracy there is no pretence Lancaster was placed in his seat at the head for acquitting Richard; nor can it be doubtof the nobility, but the throne was vacant. ed, that he united an irascible temper with At the moment, however, of the sentence deep, lasting, and watchful revenge. These of deposition, the duke of Lancaster claimed black qualities are very odiously blended in the throne, that no violence might be done his character with the lighter defects and to the startling metaphor of an immortal better-humored vices which were spread king; by which our laws express the very over his manners, and served in ordinary simple fact, that when the supreme author- times to hide the infernal dispositions which ity, which may constantly be required, is broke out as soon as those opportunities of extinguished by the death of one man, the revenge presented themselves, for which law makes sufficient provision for its in- he could lie in wait for half a life. stantaneous revival in the person of some other. The claim of Henry was singularly framed to include a false statement of hereditary right, without surrendering the misgovernment, which was the true and THE contests for the crown which agisole foundation of the right of parliament. tated England during the fifteenth century "In the name of God the Father, Son, cannot be easily rendered intelligible, withand Holy Ghost, I Henry of Lancaster out premising a short sketch of the state challenge this realm of England, because I of the royal family at the deposition of am descended by right line of blood from Richard II. That prince left no issue by the good lord king Henry Third.* The his first queen, Anne of Luxemburgh, and which realm was on the point to be undone the extreme childhood of the infant prinfor default of government, and undoing of cess of France to whom he was affianced the good laws." Henry was then seated had not allowed him to complete his nupon the throne.t tials. Had the crown followed the course It seems unaccountable that in a country of hereditary succession, it would have dewhere the government was established on volved on the posterity of Lionel duke of the basis of such a deposition, it should ever Clarence, the second son of Edward IIL be thought doubtful whether political power By the decease of that prince without issue was held in trust or as property. No con- male, his possessions and pretensions fell to fusion could well have arisen if the moral his daughter Philippa, who by a singular character of this revolution had been care- combination of circumstances had married fully distinguished from its constitutional Roger Mortimer earl of March, the male principles. To try the latter, we must sup- representative of the powerful baron who pose, for the sake of argument, the truth was attainted and executed for the murder of the matters of fact which were charged of Edward II., the grandfather of the duke against the king; it is only thus that we of Clarence. The son of that potent decan try its legitimacy, or ascertain from it linquent had been restored to his honors and the constitutional opinion of the fourteenth estates at an advanced period in the reign century. If it had been unsuspected of of Edward III., long after the violences ambition-if no crime had subsequently tar- both of his father and of his brother's enenished its fame-its justice at least must mies had subsided. Edmund, his grandson, have been unanimously owned. However had espoused Philippa of Clarence. Roger wise or convenient it may be to exempt Mortimer, the fourth in descent from the kings from criminal proceedings, which regicide, was lord-lieutenant of Ireland, and was considered, or, according to some wri* Edmund, earl of Lancaster, the maternal ancestor of Henry, is represented by that prince, without ters, declared, to be heir of the crown in even a pretence of proof, as in truth the elder brother the early part of Richard's reign. Edmund Mortimer earl of March, in whom the he of Edward I. †The speech of Merks bishop of Carlisle against the revolution is considered by historical critics as a fabrication. 28 Ed. III. Dugdale, i. 147. T reditary claim to the crown was vested at of Monmouth, the king's eldest son, was the deposition of Richard, was then only created prince of Wales, as an indirect an infant of ten years of age.* Educated mode of recognizing his father's just pos from childhood in a mild and honorable session, which was not deemed sufficiently prison at Windsor, he faithfully served the questionable to require a more positive acLancastrian princes till his death, which knowledgment. The lords, who by appealtook place in the third year of Henry VI. ing Gloucester had really facilitated his Dying without issue, the pretensions to the murder, were moderately punished by the crown, which he inherited through the forfeiture of that part of their dignities and duke of Clarence, devolved on his sister estates which had been granted to them as Anne Mortimer, who espoused Richard of the price of blood. York earl of Cambridge, the grandson of The political character of the permanent Edward III. by his fourth son Edmund of laws passed in Henry's first parliament is Langley duke of York. But it is obvious praiseworthy. They prohibit the distribufrom the above brief pedigree, that during tion of liveries, by which the barons covthe life of Mortimer, who died in 1425, no ered the country with the badges of their pretension to the crown had accrued to any adherents, and exposed the public peace to branch of the house of York. constant disturbance. They annul the grants Henry IV., the grandson of Edward III. of land by the king's letter patent, without by his third son, could have no such pre- title legally found in the crown, by which tensions, and he betrays his consciousness landholders were dispossessed of their esof the infirmity of his alleged title by the tates; a monstrous practice, sufficient of bare and certainly false assertion on which itself to characterize the deposed governhe labored to engraft his claim. But he ment, which rendered the king the absowas a man of capacity and vigor at the lute master of the lands of his subjects. head of an unresisted army, the chief of " And whereas," says that parliament, “dithe baronial party, and the heir of the fame vers pains of treason were ordained by and possessions of John of Gaunt. He statute in the twenty-first year of king was the idol of the populace, and the mas- Richard, insomuch that no man did know ter of the parliament. Thus circumstanced, how he ought to behave himself, to do, who could have ventured to dispute his speak, or say, for doubt of such pains; it is legitimate accession, even if the earl of March had then the power, or the house of York had at that time acquired the right, of being allowed to contest his title. accorded that in time to come no treason shall be judged otherwise than as it was ordained by the statute in the time of his noble grandfather king Edward the Third,† The first acts of Henry manifested the whom God absolve." So much had expepolicy with which he linked his own ac- rience already begun to endear that famous cession with the resistance to misgovern- statute to the nation. Appeals in parliament in the late reign, and gave some ear-ment,-the murderous weapons used by nest of that popular and parliamentary spirit both parties against each other in the last which, if it did not always distinguish the reign,-were prohibited; an act which dried measures of the house of Lancaster, was up an abundant source of disorder and ingenerally their avowed principle, and form- justice. This assembly also manifested ed indeed their only tenable ground against knowledge and judgment beyond their age, the doctrines of unalterable succession and in confirming a statute of Richard for the divine right, which afterwards encouraged protection of aliens bringing provisions into the Yorkists to style the three Henries of the kingdom, with which the fishmongers Lancaster "actually but not rightfully kings of London, to secure their own monopoly of England." in the markets of the capital, had bribed The first parliament reversed the attain- that needy and short-sighted prince to disder of those who had revolted against Rich-pense.‡ ard, confirmed and renewed the severities It has seldom happened that the same adopted against that monarch's ministers preference of the consumers of provisions, and judges, and condemned, as subversive who are the community, over the producers of the constitution, all the maxims on which of provisions, who can only be a part of it, his encroachments were vindicated. Henry has guided the deliberation of the legislature; to say nothing of the superiority to "In the parliament holden in the 9 Rich. II., prejudices, vulgar but still prevalent, which by reason of his descent from Lionel duke of Clar is shown in liberal justice towards foreignence, declared heir apparent to the crown."-Dugers, and in a clear discernment of the redale, i. 150. Dugdale quotes Leland's Collectanea for his au- ciprocal advantages of commercial interthority, and I find no intimation of such a transac-course. But in the perusal of our ancient tion in the printed rolls. To declare any man "heir apparent" must be an improper expression, especially under a young unmarried king. † Stat. 25 Ed. III. 1 Hen. IV. c. 17. history, it is our painful lot to see the That so important and dangerous a prisblackest spots often tarnishing those periods oner, thus so confined that it was impossiin which the public principles and mea- ble for any, but by the permission of those sures of our forefathers shine forth with a who had an interest in his destruction, even lustre which might not unfrequently shame to know where he was imprisoned, should their descendants. In competitions for the soon after disappear, and be believed to die, crown, no deed which they deemed neces- without any inquiry into his death, or even sary was regarded by them as unjust. It relation of its circumstances by the governrequired, perhaps, a longer experience than ment which dispossessed him, might of ittheirs, more reflecting minds, more mode- self, with little direct testimony, be regardrated passions, to see that crimes cannot be ed as sufficient proof of his murder. " Every useful, and that the example of one mur- man," says Froissart, "might well consider dered competitor, though for a moment it that he should never come out of prison removes an enemy, may open a thousand alive." The same lively writer informs sources of disorder and mischief for ages. us, that "how Richard died, and by what On the 23d of October, 1399, the parlia-means, I could not tell when I wrote this ment, in consequence of a message from Chronicle.” the king desiring their advice how to pre- His fate seems, however, to have been serve the life of Richard with safety to the hastened and insured by a conspiracy of his quiet of the nation, delivered by the arch- adherents for restoration. The lords who bishop of Canterbury, formed themselves had appealed Gloucester of treason, at the into a secret committee, in which the earl head of whom were the earl of Rutland, of Northumberland proposed, and the com- eldest son of the duke of York, and the mittee agreed to advise Henry, "that the earls of Huntingdon and Kent, maternal late king should be placed in sure ward, brothers of Richard, subscribed an indenin a place not resorted to by any con- ture, by which they bound themselves to course of people; that he should there be each other for co-operation and secrecy. watched by trustworthy guardians; that Huntingdon and Kent invited Henry to a none of his familiar friends should be ad- joust at Oxford, where, in the midst of the mitted to his person; and that the whole sport, they were to place soldiers in amof this transaction should be conducted with bush, ready at a signal to rush on the king all attainable secrecy." and put him to death. Rutland, in the To this mysterious and ambiguous in- mean time, waited on his father, who, by strument, which proscribed a degree of some accidental glance, spied a paper of secret imprisonment incompatible with suspicious appearance ill-concealed in the watchfulness for the safety of the prisoner, possession of his son. He desired to see it. were affixed the names of fifteen bishops, Rutland's earnest refusal stimulated his seven mitred abbots, eight who might be father's curiosity. The old prince tore it called magnates, twenty-six barons, and by violence from his son's breast, and nine who might perhaps be termed gentry. threatened to lay it before the king. The Among them was the name of the duke of son, smitten by fear, or, as he said, by conYork, the uncle of Richard, who had been science, hastened to Windsor to betray the regent for him two years before; and plot. The king not arriving at Oxford, Henry was not ashamed to place the name and there being no tidings of Rutland havof the prince of Wales at the head of a ing reached his confederates, they precipiband who had thus intrusted his predeces- tately brought together such troops as could sor to his mere humanity, without the pos- be found, and marched northward, with the sibility of any effectual precaution against declared purpose of delivering Richard, the worst purpose which he might harbor. who had been removed from Leeds castle 'On Monday the 27th of the same Oc- in Kent to Pomfret castle in Yorkshire. tober, the king being present in parliament At Cirencester they were overtaken and in the great hall of Westminster, it was completely defeated in a nocturnal attack determined by the lords spiritual and tem- by the inhabitants of the town, who beporal, that Richard late king of England headed the earls of Kent and Salisbury, be adjudged to perpetual imprisonment, Lords Lumley and Le de Spencer met the there to remain in safe ward secretly, in same fate from the people of Bristol. The the manner above mentioned."+ earl of Huntingdon was put to death by Gloucester's tenants, at Plashy, in re 66 *Rot. Parl. iii. Rot. Parl. iii. 426. It is observable that these venge of the murder of their lord. The being considered as judicial proceedings, the com- death of Richard seems to have immedimons were held not to be parties to them. But at the very moment of this partial exclusion, nothing can be more ample than the acknowledgment by grants et subsides, ou tiels choses à faires per com, the king and lords that the commons possessed equal mun profit du royaume, le roi voet avoir especialę, rights of taxation, in legislation, and of counsel to ment leur davis et assent."-427. the crown." Sauve qu'en estatuts à faires, ou en Bern. Froiss. ii, ch. 249. |