334 CHAPTER X. HENRY V.* 1413-1422, Sir John Oldcastle.-Henry claims the crown of France.-Conspiracy.-Invasion of France.-Battle of Agincourt.-State of France.-Conference of Meulant. The Perpetual Peace.-Death of Henry. THE joy of the nation at the accession of Henry V. was extreme. It was indeed slightly shaded by the recollections of his youthful follies, but all apprehensions were dispelled by the conduct of the young monarch. He dismissed his former companions with suitable presents, assuring them of further favour when they should show that they were reformed. He continued his father's honest servants and ministers in their offices. He set the earl of March at liberty; he restored the Percy family to their estates and honours; and he removed the remains of Richard II. (by whom he had once been favoured †) from Langley and deposited them in Westminster abbey, himself attending as chief mourner. One cloud alone overcast this propitious dawn. The sect of the Lollards was represented to the king as holding opinions alike subversive of church and state, and he was induced to allow the zealous primate Arundel to put the laws in force against them. Sir John Oldcastle (baron of Cobham in right of his wife), a man of distinguished military talents and high in the favour of the late king, was regarded as the head of the sect, and the primate deeming * Authorities: Walsingham, Elmham, Titus Livius, Monstrelet. † He attended Richard on his last unfortunate expedition to Ireland, at which time he received knighthood from his hand. Richard, though expressing himself satisfied of young Henry's innocence of his father's designs, left him, when departing from Ireland, a prisoner in the castle of Trim. him the fittest person to commence with applied to the king for permission to indict him. Henry advised moderation and undertook himself to reason with the accused, but the zealous soldier was not to be moved by the royal arguments. The primate was then allowed to proceed; he was aided by his suffragans of London, Winchester and St. Davids. The knight was brought before them, and after a noble defence of his opinions, in which he clearly confuted his adversaries, and at the same time so explained his sentiments as to leave abundant room for conciliation if his judges desired it, he was declared guilty of heresy and was delivered over to the tender mercies of the secular arm*. He however made his escape from the Tower, in which he was confined. He and his followers are now said to have formed the atrocious design of surprising the king at Eltham, where he kept his Christmas, putting him, his brothers and the principal clergy and nobility to death, and forming the realm into a federal republic with Oldcastle for its president. This scheme, it is added, was frustrated by the sudden return of the king to Westminster, and the insurgents then were directed to assemble at an appointed time in St. Giles's fields; but the night before the king occupied the ground with some troops, having previously closed the city-gates to keep in the Lollards of the city. The first parties that arrived were made prisoners, and the rest, who were coming when they heard this ill news, dispersed and fled (1414). This account, which is given by the bitter enemies of the Lollards, has a most improbable air, yet we know not what violent projects men driven to desperation may have formed. At all events the prisons in and about London were filled, and thirty-nine persons, among whom was sir Roger Acton, a man of good property, were suspended by chains * Read his trial in Foxe, or in Southey's Book of the Church, i. 359-379. "His conduct," says Lingard, “ was as arrogant and insulting as that of his judge was mild and dignified." from a gallows in Ficket Field, and then burnt alive as heretics and traitors. A reward of 1000 marks was offered for lord Cobham dead or alive, but he escaped into Wales, where during four years he eluded his persecutors. At length he was discovered by lord Powis. He defended himself valiantly, and would probably not have been taken alive if a woman had not broken his legs with a blow of a stool. He was carried to London in a horse-litter, where he was hung by a chain and burnt alive as a heretic*. It is said that the late king had when dying charged his son, if he wished for domestic quiet, never to let the nation remain long at rest; it is also said that the primate, fearing an attack on the property of the church, to which parliament was urging the king, to divert his thoughts and those of the nation to other objects, advised him to assert his claim to the crown of France. Whether these counsels were given or not the present distracted state of France offered a fair field for ambition. The king, Charles VI., after some years of the fairest promise became subject to fits of mental derangement. The conduct of affairs was disputed between his brother the duke of Orleans and his cousin the duke of Burgundy. The latter having caused the former to be assassinated, the kingdom was filled with bloodshed and ruin by the two contending parties; for the princes of the blood all sided with the young duke of Orleans, whose party was named the Armagnacs, from his father-in-law the count of that name. The late king of England had fomented the quarrel by giving alternate aid to each party; the ardent spirit of the present young monarch urged him to renew his claim to the crown. This demand being at once rejected, Henry offered to be content with the full sovereignty of Normandy, Maine and *"Judgement," says Lingard," was instantly pronounced that he should be hanged as a traitor and burnt as a heretic. St. Giles's fields, which had been the theatre of his rebellion, witnessed also his punishment." This is not a fair statement, as the reader is led to think that he was first hanged, and then his body burnt, instead of being roasted to death as he was. Anjou, and the places named in the Peace of Bretigni and one half of Provence*; he required that the arrears of king John's ransom should be paid, and the princess Catherine be given in marriage to him with a portion of two millions of gold crowns. These terms were too extravagant to be entertained, but he was offered the whole of the ancient duchy of Aquitaine and the princess with a dower of 600,000 crowns. Henry recalled his ambassadors and began to prepare for war, his parliament cheerfully granting him two tenths and two fifteenths. He however sent again (1415), giving up his claim to Normandy, Maine and Anjou, offering to take the princess with one million of crowns, but insisting on all the other terms. The French court offered to raise the princess's portion to 800,000 crowns, but would yield on no other point. Henry forthwith prepared for war; by pawning his jewels and by loans he raised a sum of 500,000 nobles, while his barons and knights were busily engaged in levying troops. When the army had assembled at Southampton the king proceeded thither. Visions of glory floated before his imagination as he viewed the embarcation of his gallant troops; but these visions were overcast with gloom, by information of a conspiracy among those of his own family and household to rob him of life and fame. The objects of the conspirators, the earl of Cambridge, brother to the duke of York, sir Thomas Grey and lord Scroop of Masham, are obscure; their plan is said to have been to conduct the earl of March to the frontiers of Wales, and there proclaim him king in case that Richard II. were really dead. They were condemned and executed as traitors; the innocence of the earl of March would seem to be proved by the circumstance of his sitting as one of their judges. Yet such was the insecurity of life and honour in those days that he * Henry III. and his brother had married two of the four co-heiresses of Berenger count of Provence. deemed it prudent soon after to obtain from the king a pardon for all treasons and offences*. King Henry soon embarked, and a speedy voyage carried his fleet of fifteen hundred sail to the mouth of the Seine, where (Aug. 14) he landed a gallant army of six thousand men-at-arms and twenty-four thousand archers, and immediately invested the town of Harfleur by sea and land. After a valiant resistance for nearly five weeks the town capitulated (Sept 22); the inhabitants were expelled, being only permitted to take a part of their clothes and fivepence each; the remainder of the property was divided among the victorious army. But this army was soon sadly thinned by dysentery, and when the sick and wounded had been sent home to England and a garrison had been placed in Harfleur, the king found his troops reduced to one half their original number, and no longer adequate to any enterprise of moment. Still his chivalrous spirit would not suffer him to re-embark without giving some further proof of his knightly daring, and in spite of the remonstrances of his council he resolved (Oct. 8) to lead his diminished forces to Calais. The army marched in three divisions (the usual English mode); supplies were hardly procured from the villages on the way; the enemy hung on them and cut off the stragglers. At length they approached Blanchetaque, where Edward III. had crossed the Somme, but the ford was now secured with lines of palisades with troops stationed behind them. The king retired and moved up the river; but all the bridges were broken and all the fords secured, and the enemy moved as he moved along the opposite bank. At length, finding a ford near Bethencourt unguarded, the English crossed and established themselves on the right bank. D'Albret, constable of France, who commanded the French army, fell * Hallam (iii. 288) says "he had certainly connived for a while at the conspiracy." |