III. book of our Bishop's, because it gives us so good a view CHAP. of the state of the controversy at that time betwixt the then Church of England and the Wiclifists who dissented from it. I now proceed to give what further account I can meet with of our Bishop. CHAP. IV. Bishop Pecock is translated from St. Asaph to Chichester. 1. ABOUT this time the Duke of York's friends, taking advantage of the popular discontents, which were now growing to a very great height, were for preparing the way for the Duke's accession to the throne. Among other steps taken by them for this purpose, one was the removing out of the way those whom they thought best affected to the King, and most capable of serving him. Accordingly Dr. Adam Molinsa, Bishop of Chichester, and Lord Privy Seal, was by a parcel of rude sailors, hired by them on purpose, murdered at Portsmouth, January 9, 1449; who being thus removed, Bishop Pecock was thought by the Duke of Suffolk to be the most proper person to succeed him. A licence to the Dean and Chapter of Chichester, to proceed to the election of a Bishop, was, we are told, granted January 30, 1449. But whether they did not proceed to an election, or chose another person, and not our Bishop, who was recommended to them; Bishop Pecock, it is certain, was by the Pope's bulls of provision translated to this see March 23. Accordingly he made his profession at Leicester the last day of this month, and had the temporalities of the bishopric restored to him the A. D. 1450. 8th of June following. Nich. V. Reg. Stafford, p. 35. 2. Gascoigne b assures us, that "he knew this promo The ninth of January, Adam Molins, Bishop of Chichester, Keeper of the King's Privy Seal, was by shipmen slain at Portsmouth. Summary of English Chronicles, p. 370. b Ego Thomas Gascoigne novi, quod iste Pecock provisus tunc in Episcopum Cicestrensem per media Willielmi Ducis Suffolciæ, et Walteri Hart Episcopi Norwicensis. Dict. Theol. MS. -Instantia duorum virorum factus est ibidem Episcopus, quamvis antea ab eisdem multum oditus est. Idem. IV. ❝tion of our Bishop was owing to the Duke of Suffolk, CHAP. "and the Bishop of Norwich, though before he was very "much hated by them both." If this was so, it is not improbable, that the reason of it was, our Bishop's being so attached to the interest of the Duke of Gloucester, and so much favoured by him. But however this be, it seems very true, that hitherto every thing went well and succeeded on our Bishop's side; though the latter end was no way answerable to the beginning, as we shall have soon occasion to shew. Dict. Theol. 3. An universal discontent seems now to have spread itself all over the kingdom, on account of the King's late dishonourable match with Marget, daughter of the titularKing of Sicily, and Duke of Lorrain, and the ill successes in France, which accompanied that unhappy marriage. By this contract the King granted, under his great seal to Tho. Gasc. the Queen's father, and his heirs, the dukedom of Anjou, MS. and the city of Le Mans, in the county of Le Mans. To this, we are told, the King was forced by the French, who declared, that the Earl of Suffolk, the King's proxy on this occasion, should not carry the young lady out of the kingdom of France, till their friend and ally, the King of Sicily, had granted to him and his heirs, by the King of England, the dominions above mentioned. Soon after this all Normandy and all France, even Gascony and Burgundy, withdrew from their obedience to the King of England. Thus unhappily were matters carried in France, where we lost our reputation before we lost the country. The Duke of Somerset very dishonourably surprised a town while the truce continued, and refused to make restitution; and the French, provoked by this example, surprised town after town, till they gained all Normandy, and within a few years extorted the dutchy of Gascony out of the English possession. Gascoigne tells us, it was reported, that a herald of arms, belonging to Charles King of France, swore by God and the said King, to a Somersetshire esquire named St. Barbe, that he heard the said King K IV. Guisnes. CHAP. say, that the King of England, with the consent of divers lords of his council, had given and granted to the King and crown of France all the lands out of England, which the said King of England had, or pretended to have, excepting three places, viz. the town of Calais, and the castles of Kamys and Kyme, just by Calais. The same person tells us, that the King was said to have granted from himself and his heirs, almost all the lands and castles belonging to the crown, to certain lords in England, and to the servants of his household; insomuch that his Majesty could scarce spend out of the lands and tenements remaining to himself to the value of 400l. a year. And that on this the Parliament, which sat at Leicester, A. D. 28 Hen. VI. 1450, came to a resolution, that they would never grant any tax to the King, till he had first, by authority of Parliament, actually resumed all that pertained to the crown of England, which he had alienated from it. Westmo nas. Nov. 6. Hall's Hen. VI. fol. 1. a. 4. A good deal, if not all, of this misconduct was im1. year of K. puted to the late murder of the Duke of Gloucester, who was generally esteemed by the people, as one who provided for and ordained all things which either redounded to the honour of the realm, or seemed profitable to the public wealth of the same; and to there being none at the helm, but such who were unable and unfit to advise in state affairs; all things being managed at the will and pleasure of the Queen, and her favourite the Duke of Suffolk, and the King but a mere cypher, or an engine moved by their hands. The impolitic Queen, too much transported with a passionate desire of government, and of being without any restraint, overlooked the ill consequence of laying the foundation of this her absolute rule, in the murder of this honest Duke, and excellent patriot; since had his life been preserved, the decay or weakening of the • Prædictum Parliamentum indies vexatum laboribus et expensis palam dixit, quod nunquam concederet taxam Regi, nisi prius ille auctoritate Parliamenti resumeret actualiter omnia pertinentia coronæ Angliæ, quæ idem Rex alienarat. Gascoigne, Dict. Theol. MS. IV. house of Lancaster was very unlikely to have happened. CHAP. His primogeniture would have kept back and stifled the Duke of York's pretensions to the crown, this Richard Duke of York's father being but the fifth son of Edward the Third; whereas Humphrey Plantagenet Duke of Gloucester was the fourth, which would have put an end to the former claim. But because he, who was careful in all things that related to the public good, delivered his mind against the King's match with the Queen, which he thought very prejudicial to it; therefore was he given up a sacrifice to the Queen's violent resentments, and the hatred of her ambitious favourite, and accordingly he was murdered 1447. This, together with the loss of Anjou and Mayne, the surrendery of which was imputed to the Duke of Suffolk, so inflamed the Commons, that in the Parliament, which met A. D. 1450, he was accused of being the chief promoter of the Duke of Gloucester's death, and of traitorously revealing to the French King all the secrets of state. Upon which, and many other accusations laid against him by the House of Commons, he was committed to the Tower; but the Parliament was no sooner dissolved, but the Queen set him at liberty; which so much Hall. enraged the multitude, who looked upon him as an abhorred toad, and the common nuisance of the realm of England, that they made an insurrection, under the leading of a desperate fellow, who called himself Blue-beard; but by the diligence of the country gentlemen, he and the other leaders were apprehended, before they had attempted any enterprise, or done any mischief. 5. After this little rage was over, the Parliament was Hall. adjourned to Leicester, whither the King and Queen came in great state, attended with the Duke of Suffolk, as prime minister. But the Commons had not forgot their former complaint against the Duke, and therefore finding him in as high favour as ever, they renewed their address to the King, that such counsellors, as assented to the surrendery and giving up of Anjou and Mayne, might be punished with the utmost severity; and in particular accused the |