Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

enforced a much more strict discipline upon the present occasion that by degrees the alarm subsided. Nor was his constant policy of gaining over the clergy neglected. All Church property, of whatever description, was spared, and even protected.' Nay, when it was found at Caen that a chapel stood against the part of the walls where a breach could with the greatest ease be made, he declined taking advantage of that weak point, lest the sacred edifice might be injured. The priests are said to have repaid this forbearance by rendering him important services against their countrymen.

2

As Henry had now beyond expectation the prospect of possessing Normandy permanently, he issued a proclamation, giving all the choice of either freely leaving the conquered places, or remaining with the full enjoyment of their property and exercise of their trade, provided they swore allegiance to him as their sovereign. But land and houses seem to have been the property chiefly secured by such declarations; for personal effects, though sometimes mentioned in the articles of capitulation, were generally subjected to the prevailing rule of pillage when no defence had been made by the troops; and the act of generosity for which Henry is praised by contemporary historians is his allowing each soldier to keep what he had taken.

The progress of the English arms was now steady, if not rapid; and before the end of the year, Bayeux,

'T. Elm., 102. Rym., ix. 491.

2 T. Liv., 37. T. Elm., 105.

Domfront, and Alençon had fallen. The important town of Falaise, too, had, with its citadel, surrendered after considerable resistance.

Oct. 1417.

The Dauphin and the Constable, upon the capture of Caen, had taken the alarm, and made some attempts to obtain peace. They sent an embassy to Henry, and offered a safe-conduct to any envoys he might send. Their proposition was that he should restore all the conquests made in Normandy, and should consent to hold under the French King as Sovereign Lord whatever districts they might cede to him. But Henry absolutely refused to give up any place which he had taken, or to yield his rights to any which he claimed. The negotiation therefore was speedily broken off; it had not interrupted the hostile operations; and these went on favourably to the English.'

While Henry was thus engaged in Normandy, the Scots made an inroad on his northern border. Reckoning that the expedition to France had left the country without troops, they marched one army under Douglas to besiege Roxburgh Castle, while another under the Regent Albany attacked Berwick. The Duke of Bedford, however, hastily collected a considerable force; and Exeter, who was in England, levying recruits for the King's service, marched as many as he had raised. Even the aged Archbishop of York collected a large body of men to repulse the barbarous invaders, and, being unable

1 Note XLIII.

himself to take the field, was borne on a litter, attended by his clergy, and exhorted the people to pray for the Duke's success. So that a powerful army hastened to the Scottish border-some 100,000 men, as the contemporary historians state with their usual exaggeration when they give no particulars. But it is certain that the number was sufficient to terrify the invaders, who made a sudden and disgraceful retreat, were pursued into their own country, and lost no time in dispersing.

This expedition, on which sanguine men had fondly built their hopes, imagining probably that, beside raising their national character at the expense of their rivals, it might lead to the liberation of their captive prince, only sank the reputation of the Scottish arms, and was long after known by the name of "The foul raid."1 There is no authority for the notion taken up by some writers, that it originated in any English intrigues, or that its promoters had been in communication with the chiefs of the Lollards. 2 But the Scots, beside the discredit, suffered severely for their aggression. As soon as their army was disbanded, the Regent Albany asked for a truce; but all offers of accommodation, or even of respite, were indignantly rejected by Umfraville, Warden of the East Marches. The Scots, he said, were the first to break the peace, in the hope that they should find England unprepared; on them, therefore, must fall the evils of the war. Accordingly, during two years, the

Fordun, Scot. Chron., ii. 449.

• Note XLIV.

East Border, Tweeddale, Lauderdale, Selkirk, and the country as far as Dunbar, were laid waste with fire and sword, until Henry granted a truce at the pressing instance of Douglas and Dunbar, who repaired to him with the view of staying this severe military execution. It may further be noted, that not only the Archbishop of York, but the Earl of Northumberland also, actively assisted the King's troops in these vindictive proceedings, moved probably to sink his personal grudge in his feelings of national hatred towards the Scottish borderers.1

After Henry's progress in Normandy had been successful for above three months, a Parliament was called by the Regent Bedford in order to grant further supplies. The Bishop of Durham was now Chancellor, having succeeded the Bishop of Winchester, absent in Italy, and he delivered a speech or sermon, exhorting his hearers to manful courses and to ply the sword against the enemy, the French and Scotch especially. Choosing for his text "Comfortamini milites; agite, et gloriosi eritis," he took occasion to commemorate all the King's successes both in the former and in the present campaign; and his practical improvement, as the preachers term it, was that the Parliament ought to grant the means of "continuing the Sovereign's gracious expedition into foreign parts, as well as to provide for the security of the realm, both on the northern frontier and on the sea-bord."

T. Liv., 56. T. Wals., 446. T. Elm., 163. Hard., 380; but he makes the "foul raid" happen in 1419.

The Parliament did as they were desired, and granted a subsidy of two tenths and two fifteenths, to be paid in equal moieties at Candlemas next and at the Candlemas after that, but with express prohibition of advancing in any way the terms of payment.' There was a parliamentary recognition also made of the security by way of mortgage which the King had given to the Bishop of Winton for the loan of 1400%. The subsidy formerly granted of tonnage and poundage had been pledged to the Bishop, and the Parliament ratified this security. It appears that he had also pledged the Crown with his uncle, and had gone to the illegal extremity of alienating it to the lender in case of his own decease before the money was repaid. An important law was at the same time made prohibiting the clergy from appointing as collectors of their tenths persons not belonging to the several archdeaconries in which the money was gathered. This was necessary in order to make the transit of the money safe. But a more important provision was added giving the aid of common law process to enforce the spiritual authority of those collectors.

This Parliament it was that had the grievous discredit of ordering Lord Cobham to execution on the old sentence for heresy, as we have already seen. An act of some violence, though incomparably less important and sanctioned by the practice of the age, received at the same time a parliamentary recog

Rot. Parl., 5 Hen. V., 2. 9. (iv. 106). 2 Rot. Parl., iv. 111 (id. 115).

« ZurückWeiter »