Read Ebook: York and Lancaster 1399-1485 by Jones William Garmon Compiler Bell Kenneth Kenneth Norman Editor Winbolt S E Samuel Edward Editor

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PAGE +Introduction+ v

DATE

YORK AND LANCASTER

On the eve of his coronation, in the Tower of London and in the presence of Richard late King, King Henry made forty-six new knights, amongst whom were his three sons, and also the earls of Arundel and Stafford, and the son and heir of the earl of Warwick; and with them and other nobles of the land he passed in great state to Westminster. And when the day of Coronation was come , all the peers of the realm, robed finely in red and scarlet and ermine, came with great joy to the ceremony, my lord of Canterbury ordering all the service and duties thereof. In the presence were borne four swords, whereof one was sheathed as a token of the augmentation of military honour, two were wrapped in red and bound round with golden bands to represent twofold mercy, and the fourth was naked and without a point, the emblem of the executioner of justice without rancour. The first sword the earl of Northumberland carried, the two covered ones the earls of Somerset and Warwick, and the sword of justice the King's eldest son, the prince of Wales; and the lord Latimer bore the sceptre, and the earl of Westmoreland the rod. And this they did as well in the coronation as at the banquet, always standing around the King. Before the King received the crown from my lord of Canterbury, I heard him swear to take heed to rule his people altogether in mercy and in truth. These were the officers in the Coronation feast: The earl of Arundel was butler, the earl of Oxford held the ewer, and the lord Grey of Ruthin spread the cloths.

While the King was in the midst of the banquet, sir Thomas Dymock, knight, mounted in full armour on his destrier, and having his sword sheathed in black with a golden hilt, entered the hall, two others, likewise mounted on chargers, bearing before him a naked sword and a lance. And he caused proclamation to be made by a herald at the four sides of the hall that, if any man should say that his liege lord here present and King of England was not of right crowned King of England, he was ready to prove the contrary with his body, then and there, or when and wheresoever it might please the King. And the King said: "If need be, sir Thomas, I will in mine own person ease thee of this office."

CONSPIRACY OF THE EARLS .

In the second year of this King the earls of Kent, Salisbury and Huntingdon, unkind to the King, rose against him. Unkind were they, for the people would have them dead and the King spared them. These men, thus gathered, purposed to fall on the King suddenly at Windsor, under the colour of mummeries in Christmas time. The King was warned of this and fled to London. These men knew not that, but came to Windsor with four hundred armed men, purposing to kill the King and his progeny, and restore Richard again unto the crown. When they came to Windsor, and thus were deceived, they fled to a town where the queen lay, fast by Reading, and there, before the queen's household, he blessed him this earl of Kent. "O benedicite," he said, "who may this be that Harry of Lancaster hath taken the Tower at London, and our very King Richard hath broken prison, and hath gathered a hundred thousand fighting men." So gladded he the queen with lies, and rode forth to Wallingford, and from Wallingford to Abingdon, warning all men by the way that they should make them ready to help King Richard. Thus came he to Cirencester, late at even. The men of the town had suspicion that their tidings were lies, rose and kept the entries of the inns, that none of them might pass. There fought they in the town from midnight unto nine of the clock in the morrow. But the town drove them out of the Abbey and smote off many of their heads. The earl of Salisbury was dead there; and worthy, for he was a great favourite of the Lollards, and a despiser of the sacraments, for he would not confess when he should die.

The earl of Huntingdon heard of this and fled unto Essex. And as often as he assayed to take the sea, so often was he born off with the wind. Then was he taken by the Commons and led to Chelmsford and then to Pleshy, and his head smote off in the same place where he arrested the Duke of Gloucester.

DE HERETICO COMBURENDO .

Item, Whereas it is shewed to our Sovereign Lord the King on behalf of the Prelates and Clergy of his realm of England in this present Parliament, That although the Catholic Faith builded upon Christ and by his Apostles and the Holy Church sufficiently determined, declared and approved, hath hitherto by good and holy and most Noble Progenitors of our Sovereign Lord the King ... most devoutly observed, and the Church of England most laudably endowed and in her Rights and Liberties sustained.... Yet divers false and perverse People of a certain New Sect of the Faith ... do perversely preach and teach these days, openly and privily, divers new Doctrines, and wicked, heretical and erroneous Opinions contrary to the same faith.... They make unlawful Conventicles and Confederacies, they hold and exercise Schools, they make and write Books, they do wickedly instruct and inform People, and, as much as they may, incite and stir them to Sedition and Insurrection, and maketh great Strife and Division among the people, and other Enormities horrible to be heard daily do perpetrate and commit, in subversion of the said Catholic Faith and Doctrine of the Holy Church.

If any Person within the said Realm and Dominions, upon the said wicked Preachings, Doctrines, Opinions, Schools and heretical and erroneous Information ... be before the Diocesan, and do refuse duly to abjure, or by the Diocesan of the same place or his commission, after the abjuration made by the same person, fall into relapse so that according to the Holy Canons he ought to be left to the secular Court, whereupon credence shall be given to the Diocesan of the same place, or to his Commissionaries in this behalf; then the Sheriff of the County of the same place, and Mayor and Sheriffs or Sheriff, or Mayor and Bailiffs of the City, Town and Borough of the same County shall be personally present in preferring of such sentences; and they, the same persons and every one of them, after such a sentence promulgate, shall receive them, and before the People in an high place do them to be burnt; that such punishment may strike in fear to the minds of others, whereby no such wicked doctrines and heretical and erroneous opinions ... against the Catholic Faith, Christian Law and Determination of Holy Church, which God forbid, be sustained or in any wise suffered.

THE GLENDOWER WAR .

In this autumn , Owen Glendower, all North Wales and Cardigan and Powis siding with him, sorely harried with fire and sword the English who dwelt in those parts, and their towns, and specially the town of Pool. Wherefore the English, invading those parts with a strong power, and utterly laying them waste and ravaging them with fire, famine, and sword, left them a desert, not even sparing children or churches, nor the monastery of Strata-Florida, wherein the King himself was being lodged, and the church of which and its choir, even up to the high altar, they used as a stable, and pillaged even the patens; and they carried away into England more than a thousand children of both sexes to be their servants. Yet did the same Owen do no small hurt to the English, slaying many of them, and carrying off the arms, horses and tents of the King's eldest son, the prince of Wales, and of other lords, which he bare away for his own behoof to the mountain fastnesses of Snowden.

In these days, southern Wales, and in particular all the diocese of Llandaff, was at peace from every kind of trouble of invasion or inroad.... The commons of Cardigan, being pardoned their lives, deserted Owen, and returned, though in sore wretchedness, to their homes, being allowed to use the Welsh tongue, although its destruction had been determined on by the English, Almighty God, the King of Kings, the unerring Judge of all, having mercifully ordained the recall of this decree at the prayer and cry of the oppressed....

... On the day of St. Alban near to Knighton in Wales, was a hard battle fought between the English under sir Edmund Mortimer and the Welsh under Owen Glendower, with woeful slaughter even to eight thousand souls, the victory being with Owen. And alas! my lord, the said sir Edmund ... was by the fortune of war carried away captive. And, being by his enemies in England stripped of all his goods and hindered from paying ransom, in order to escape more easily the pains of captivity, he is known by common report to have wedded the daughter of the same Owen; by whom he had a son Lionel, and three daughters, all of whom, except one daughter, along with their mother are now dead. At last, being by the English host beleagured in the castle of Harlech, he brought his days of sorrow to an end, his wonderful deeds being to this day told at the feast in song.

In this year also the lord Grey of Ruthin, being taken captive by Owen, with the slaughter of two thousand of his men, was shut up in prison; but he was set free on payment of ransom of sixteen thousand pounds in gold. Concerning such an ill-starred blow given by Owen to the English rule, when I think thereon, my heart trembles. For, backed by a following of thirty thousand men issuing from their lairs throughout Wales and its marches, he overthrew castles, among which were Usk, Caerleon, and Newport, and fired the towns. In short, like a second Assyrian, the rod of God's anger, he did deeds of unheard-of cruelty with fire and sword.

Glendower's revolt arose out of a quarrel with Lord Grey of Ruthin.

THE PERIL OF HENRY .

--Our most redoubted and sovereign Lord the King, I recommend myself humbly to your Highness as your lowly creature and continual orator. And our most redoubted and sovereign Lord, please you to know that from day to day letters are arriving from Wales, containing intelligence by which you may learn that the whole country is lost, if you do not go there as quick as possible. For which reason may it please you to prepare to set out with all power you can muster, and march day and night for the salvation of these parts.... Written in great haste at Hereford, the 8th July.

Your lowly creature

+Richard Kingeston,+

--And for God's love, my liege Lord, think on yourself and your estate, or, by my troth, all is lost else; but and you come yourself with haste, all other will follow after. And note on Friday last Carmarthen town is taken and burnt, and the castle yielded by Roger Wigmore, and the castle Emlyn is yielded; and slain of the town of Carmarthen more than fifty persons. Written in right great haste on Sunday; and I cry you mercy and put me in your high grace that I write so shortly; for, by my troth that I owe to you, it is needfull.

THE BATTLE OF SHREWSBURY .

In the next year, on behalf of the crown of England claimed for the earl of March, a deadly quarrel arose between the King and the house of Percy of Northumberland, as kin to the same earl, to the great agitation of the realm...; and a field being pitched for the morrow of Saint Mary Magdalene , the King, by the advice of the earl of Dunbar of Scotland, because the father of the lord Henry Percy and Owen Glendower were then about to come against the King with a great host, anticipating the appointed day, brought on a most fearful battle against the said lord Henry and the lord Thomas Percy, then earl of Worcester. And after that there had fallen on either side in most bloody slaughter to the number of sixteen thousand men, in the field of Berwick two miles from Shrewsbury, on the eve of the said feast, victory declared for the king who had thus made the onslaught. In this battle the said lord Percy, the flower and glory of Christendom, fell, alas! and with him his uncle.... There fell also two noble knights in the King's armour, each made conspicuous as though a second King, having been placed for the King's safety in the rear line of battle. Whereat the earl of Douglas of Scotland, then being in the field with the said lord Henry, as his captive, when he heard victory shouted for King Henry, cried in wonder: "Have I not slain two King Henries with mine own hand? 'Tis an evil hour for us that a third yet lives to be our victor."

FRENCH AID FOR GLENDOWER .

+William Venables and Roger Brescy to the King.+

Most puissant and redoubted liege Lord, we recommend us to your sovereign Lord in all ways respectful and revered. May it please your Royal Majesty to understand that Robert Parys, the deputy constable of Carnarvon Castle, has apprized us through a woman, because there was no man who dared to come--for neither man nor woman dare carry letters on account of the rebels of Wales,--that "Oweyn de Glyndour," with the French and all his other power, is preparing to assault the town and castle of Carnarvon, and to begin this enterprize with engines, sowes and ladders of great length; and in the town and castle there are not in all more than twenty-eight fighting men, which is too small a force; for eleven of the more able men who were there at the last siege of the place are dead; some of the wounds they received at the time of the assault, and others of the plague; so that the said castle and town are in imminent danger, as the bearer of this will inform you by word of mouth, to whom your Highness will be pleased to give full faith and credence, as he can inform you most accurately of the truth.... Written at Chester the 16th day of January.

Your poor lieges

+William Venables of Kinnerton+

and +Roger Brescy+.

A machine for mining the walls.

THE MANNER OF ELECTION OF KNIGHTS OF THE SHIRE .

And thy election in thy full county made, distinctly and openly under thy seal and the seals of those present at that election, certify without delay, to us in our chancery, at the day and place contained in the writ.

MONEY-GRANTS TO INITIATE IN THE COMMONS .

Be it remembered that on Monday the 21st day of November, the King our sovereign lord being in the Council Chamber in the Abbey of Gloucester, there being in his presence the lords spiritual and temporal at this present Parliament assembled, there was a discussion among them concerning the state of the realm and the defence of the same to resist the malice of the enemies, who on every coast appeared to be harassing the said realm and the faithful subjects of the same.... And thereon it was demanded of the said lords, what aid would be sufficient and necessary in this case. To which demand and question the lords replied severally, that considering the necessity of the King on the one part, and the poverty of his people on the other part, a less aid could not suffice than to have a tenth and a half from the cities and boroughs, and a fifteenth and a half from other laymen. Further, to grant an extension of the subsidy on wool, leather and woolfels, and three shillings on the ton, and twelve pence in the pound, from Michaelmas next until Michaelmas in two years next ensuing. Thereon, by command of the King our said lord, it was conveyed to the Commons of this present Parliament that they should send to our said lord the King and the said lords a certain number of persons of their company to hear and to report to their colleagues what they should have as a command of our said lord the King. And thereupon the said Commons sent to the presence of the King our said lord, and the said lords, twelve of their number: to whom, by command of our said lord the King, was declared the question above-mentioned and the reply of the aforesaid lords to it. This reply it was the will of our said lord the King that they should convey to the rest of their colleagues ; finally that they should conform as near as possible to the purpose of the aforesaid lords. This report thus conveyed to the said Commons, they were greatly perturbed by it, saying and affirming this to be in great prejudice and derogation of their liberties; and when our said lord the King heard this, not wishing that anything should be done at present nor in the future, which could turn in any wise against the liberty of the estate for which they were come to Parliament, nor against the liberties of the lords aforesaid, willed and granted and declared, with the advice of the said lords, in the following manner: That is to say, that it is lawful for the lords to debate among themselves in this present Parliament, and in every other in time to come, in the absence of the King, touching the state of the realm and the remedy necessary for it. And that, in like manner, it is lawful for the Commons, on their part, to debate together touching the state and remedy aforesaid. Provided always that the lords on their part and the Commons on theirs, make no report to our said lord the King of any grant granted by the Commons and assented to by the lords, nor of the communications concerning the said grant, before the said lords and Commons shall be of one assent and of one accord in this matter, and then in the manner and form that is customary, that is to say by the mouth of the Speaker of the said Commons for the time being, so that the said lords and Commons should have the agreement of our said lord the King. Also our said lord the King wills, also with the assent of the aforesaid lords, that the communications held in this present Parliament as aforesaid shall not be treated as an example for the future, nor be turned to the prejudice or derogation of the liberty of the estate for which the Commons are now come together, neither in the present Parliament nor in any other in the future. But he wills that the said, and all the other estates, be as free as they had been before.

PRINCE HENRY AND THE HERETIC .

And that year there was an heretic, that was called John of Badby, that believed not in the Sacrament of the Altar, and he was brought into Smithfield for to be burnt, and bound unto a stake; and Sir Harry Prince of Wales counselled him to hold the very right belief of Holy Church, and he should fail neither lack no good. Also the Chancellor of Oxford, one Master Courteney, informed him in the faith of Holy Church, and the Prior of Saint Bartholomew brought the Holy Sacrament with twelve torches and brought it before him. And it was asked him how that he believed. And he answered and said that he wist well that it was holy bread, and not God's own blessed body. And then was the tonne put over him and fire put unto him; and when he felt the fire he cried mercy. And anon the prince commanded to take away the fire, and it was done so anon. And then the prince asked him if that he would forsake his heresy and believe on the faith of all Holy Church, and he would give him his life and goods enough while he lived; but he would not, but continued forth in his heresy. And then the prince commanded him up to be burnt at once, and so he was. And John Gylott, vynter, he made two weavers to be taken, the which followed the same way of heresy.

In this year and 20th day of November, was a great council holden at the White Friars in London, by the which it was among other things concluded, that, for the King's great journey that he intended to make in visiting of the holy sepulchre of our Lord, certain galleys of war should be made, and other purveyance concerning the same journey. Whereupon all hasty and possible speed was made; but after the feast of Christmas, while he was making his prayers at Saint Edward's shrine, to take there his leave, and so speed him upon his journey, he became so sick that such as were about him feared that he would have died right there, wherefore they for his comfort bore him into the Abbot's place and lodged him in a chamber, and there upon a pallet laid him before the fire, where he lay in great agony a certain of time. At length when he was come to himself, not knowing where he was, he enquired, of such as there were about him, what place that was; the which showed to him that it belonged to the Abbot of Westminster, and for he felt himself so sick, he commanded to ask if that chamber had any special name, whereunto it was answered that it was named Jerusalem. Then said the King: "Loving be to the Father of Heaven, for now I know that I shall die in this chamber, according to the prophecy of me before said, that I should die at Jerusalem"; and so after he made himself ready and died shortly after.

ELECTORS AND ELECTED TO PARLIAMENT TO BE RESIDENT .

... That the Knights and Esquires and others which shall be choosers of those knights of the shires be also resident within the same shires in manner and form as is aforesaid. And moreover it is ordained and established, That the citizens and burgesses of the cities and boroughs be chosen men, citizens and burgesses resident, dwelling and free in the same cities and boroughs, and no other in any wise.

THE DAUPHIN'S REPLY TO HENRY .

And his lords gave him counsel, to send ambassadors unto the King of France and his council, and that he should give up to him his right heritage, that is to say Normandy, Gascony, and Guienne, the which his predecessors had held before him, or else he would it win with dint of sword, in short time, with the help of Almighty God. And then the Dauphin of France answered our ambassadors, and said in this manner, that the King was over young and too tender of age to make war against him, and was not like yet to be no good warrior to do and to make such a conquest there upon him; and somewhat in scorn and despite he sent to him a tonne full of tennis balls because he would have somewhat for to play withal for him and for his lords, and that became him better than to maintain any war; and then anon our lords that was ambassadors took their leave and came to England again, and told the King and his Council of the ungoodly answer that they had of the Dauphin, and of the present the which he had sent unto the King; and when the King had heard their words and the answer of the Dauphin, he was wondrous sore aggrieved ... and thought to avenge him upon them as soon as God would send him grace and might, and anon made tennis balls for the Dauphin, in all haste; and they were great gun-stones for the Dauphin to play withal.

THE COMMONS AND LEGISLATION .

Item be it remembered, that the Commons presented to our sovereign lord the King in this present Parliament a petition, the tenor of which follows word for word.

Our sovereign Lord, your humble and true lieges that have come for the Commune of your land beseech your right righteousness, That so it hath ever been their liberty and freedom that there should no statute nor law be made unless they give thereto their assent: Considering that the Commune of your land, the which that is, and ever hath been, a member of your Parliament, be as well assenters as petitioners, that from this time forward, by complaint of the Commune of any mischief asking remedy by the mouth of their Speaker or else by petition written, that there never be no law made thereupon and engrossed as statute and law, neither by addition, neither by diminutions, by no manner of term or terms the which that should change the sentence and the intent asked by the Speaker's mouth, or the petitions beforesaid given up in writing by the manner aforesaid, without assent of the aforesaid Commune. Considering our sovereign Lord, that it is not in no wise the intent of your Communes, that it be so that they ask you, by speaking or by writing, two things or three or as many as them lust: But that ever it stand in the freedom of your high regality to grant which of those that you lust, and to refuse the remnant.

The King of his grace especially granteth that from henceforth no thing be enacted to the petitions of his Commune that be contrary to their asking, whereby they should be bound without their assent. Saving always to our liege Lord his real prerogative to grant and deny what him lust of their petitions and askings aforesaid.

THE CONSPIRACY OF CAMBRIDGE .

And then fell there a great disease and a foul mischief, for there were three lords which the King trusted much on and through false covetousness they had purposed and imagined the King's death and thought to have slain him and all his brethren or that he had taken the sea, which were named thus--Sir Richard, earl of Cambridge brother to the duke of York, the second was the lord Scrope Treasurer of England, the third was Sir Thomas Gray knight of the north country, and these lords aforesaid, for lucre of money, had made promise to the Frenchmen for to have slain King Henry and all his worthy brethren by a false train suddenly or they had beware. But Almighty God of his great grace held his holy hand over them and saved them from this perilous mien. And for to have done this they received of the Frenchmen a million of gold and that there was proved openly. And for their false treason they were all judged unto the death. And this was the judgement, that they should be led through Hampton and without Northgate there to be beheaded, and thus they ended their life for their false covetousness and treason.

THE BATTLE OF AGINCOURT .

The night being spent but Titan not yet risen above the horizon, scarce had Friday dawned than the King neglected not to lead out his troops into the field, having first said matins and heard mass, and thinking that his enemies would be more engaged in fighting than in plundering, he ordered the horses of his men and whatever other things his army had brought with them except their arms, to be left in the village in which they had been quartered in the night, and assigned to the care of a few soldiers.... But in order that his army, which was very small in comparison to the French, might be able to fight without a wide separation, he arrayed it for battle in this wise: to the middle battalion, which he himself led, and in which under the mercy of God he proposed to fight, he assigned and chose a likely place about the middle of the field, so that it might meet the middle battalion of the enemy. On his right, at scarcely any distance, he placed the vanguard of his army and joined it to the wing at his right hand. But on the King's left was the rearward of the army, to which the left wing was likewise joined. These being so placed the providence of the divine grace was manifestly displayed, which provided for so small an army so apt a field enclosed within hedges and bushes ... to protect them from being surrounded by the ambuscades of the enemy. Now the King was clad in strong and very glittering armour; on his head he bore a helmet with a large resplendent crest and a crown of gold glistening with precious stones; his body begirt with a surcoat with the arms of England and France, from which heavenly splendour there sprang forth, on the one side, three golden flowers in a field of azure, on the other side three golden leopards sporting in a ruby field.... , seated on a noble horse of snowy whiteness, having also horses following bedecked in kingly fashion with the richest trappings, wondrously incited his army to deeds of valour. The nobles also, by the King's side, were arrayed with coats of arms as became those about to engage in conflict. And when the King heard someone wishing that whatever nobles of the realm of England, who were well-disposed thereto, were present at this affair, with kingly steadfastness he thus replied, "Truly I would not that by one single person the number of this army should be increased. For if in the number of fighting men, we were equal to, or perhaps, stronger than, our enemies, and they were delivered into our hands by the hazards of war, our indiscreet judgement would attribute the victory to the greatness of our strength, and so due praise would by no means be accorded. But if, after God's own manifold chastisement for our sins, the divine judgement should determine to deliver us into the hands of the enemy,... certainly then our army would be too great to be exposed to so great a calamity. But if the divine mercy should deign to deliver so many adversaries to so trifling a force of fighting men, we should deem so great a victory certainly bestowed by God upon us and return thanks to Him and not to our own numbers. Lo! he who is splendidly and safely defended and armed in body is fortified in mind much more gloriously by stern hope and unbroken fortitude."

Engines for hurling stones.

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