Part 2

But the most important portion of the whole work, in an historical point of view, is the chapter commencing at p. 71, intended to inforce the wisdom and necessity of making just pay to soldiers, for eschewing of great inconveniences that may otherwise insue. It is here admitted that in this respect there had been more neglect in the English possessions in France than was elsewhere known[17]: {xiii} that in consequence the people had suffered great oppression from the soldiers taking their vitail without payment, and that such abuses had continued unchecked for ten or twelve years previously to the country being lost. Our author advises that the chieftains and captains should be duly paid their wages, either monthly, as had been usual during the time of the regent Bedford, or quarterly, and that without any reward of courtesy, bribe, defalcation, or abridgment, or any undue assignation; and that such payments be made content without delay, or long and great pursuit. It appears from the writer's statements, that the royal officers, deputies, and commissioners had not only been guilty of the practices thus denounced, but that those officers themselves had been needlessly numerous, living as they did upon bribery and extortion, and neglecting the exercise of arms necessary for the defence and protection of the territory. Oftentimes they had wasted of the subjects'[18] livelode more than was necessary, and oftentimes had suffered them to be menaced and beaten, and mischieved their beasts with their weapons, so that they were nigh out of their wits for sorrow, and thus enforced "for duresse" to forsake the title and laws of their English sovereign. Moreover, they had been so often grievously surcharged with paying of tasques, tails (or tolls), subsidies, and impositions, besides their rents paid either to the crown or their landlords, and many of them dwelling upon the marches having also patised (or compounded?) to the adverse party in order to dwell in rest, that these innumerable charges and divers torments had effected their uttermost undoing. The author cannot quit these reflections without this passionate appeal to the Almighty: "Oh God! which art most mercifulle and highest juge, soverein and just, how maist thou long suffre this (misery) regnyng without the stroke of vengeaunce and ponisshement commyng upon the depryvyng or yelding up of that Dukedom?"

The next chapter (p. 74) appears to intimate that the writer personally sympathised in the degradation of the clergy. "Moreover, (he exclaims,) in way of gret pitee, and in the worship of God, suffre ye not the prelates of the Chirche of that lande, as archebisshoppis, bisshoppis, abbatis, priours, denes, archedenes, and their ministrours, to be oppressid, revaled, ne vileyned, as in your predecessour's {xiv} daies they have been accepted in fulle litelle reverence or obedience;" having as he alleges been privily coerced to give to the rulers, governors, and masters of the marches and countries great fees, wages, and rewards, for permission to live at rest upon their livelodes. And oftentimes they were visited by strangers of great estate, both spiritual and temporal, and particularly by those intrusted with the administration of the laws, besides other needless people that wasted and surcharged them, an exaction beyond the intent of their foundation, which was merely to maintain their appointed numbers, praying for their founders, and to feed the poor and needy in case of necessity.

The following chapter (p. 76) is a remarkable one in respect to ancient chivalric usages. It sets forth "How lordis sonnes and noble men of birthe, for the defense of her londe, shulde exercise hem in armes lernyng." It is urged that "the sonnes of princes, of lordis, and for the most part of alle tho that ben comen and descendid of noble bloode, as of auncien knightis, esquiers, and other auncient gentille men, while they ben of grene age, (should be) drawen forthe, norisshed, and excercised in disciplines, doctrine, and usage of scole of armes, as using justis, to renne with speer, handle withe ax, sworde, dagger, and alle othir defensible wepyn, to wrestling, to skeping, leping, and rennyng, to make hem hardie, deliver, and wele brethed;" ... "and not to be unkonnyng, abashed, ne astonied for to take entrepresis, to answer or deliver a gentilman that desires in worship to doo armes in liestis, (either) to the utteraunce or to certein pointis, or in a quarelle rightful to fight," or in time of war to defend their sovereign and his realm. Such was the ancient custom of the kings both of France and of England: as especially of king Edward the Third, and of Henry duke of Lancaster. That chivalrous knight, who was accounted "a chief auctour and foundour in law of armes," had (as the writer was told by sir John Fastolfe) sent to him from princes and lords of strange regions, as out of Spain, Aragon, Portugal, Navarre, and France, their children, young knights, "to be doctrined, lerned, and brought up in his noble court, in scole of armes, and for to see noblesse, curtesie, and worship."

This useful custom had been maintained by other noble princes and lords of great birth; but now of late days, (continues our author,) the greater pity is! many that be descended of noble blood and born to arms, as the sons of knights and esquires and of other gentle blood, set themselves to "singuler practik" and to "straunge facultees," as to learn "the practique of law or custom of lands, or of civil matier," and so waste greatly their time in such needless business, as to undertake the holding of manorial courts, to keep and bear out a proud {xv} countenance at the holding of sessions and shire-motes,[19] and "there to embrace[20] and rule among youre pore and symple comyns of bestialle contenaunce that lust to lyve in rest." And it is added, that whoever could put himself forward as a ruler in such matters, was, "as the worlde goithe now," more esteemed among all estates than he who had expended thirty or forty years of his life in great jeopardies in the conquests and wars of his sovereign. The author pursues the argument at greater length, as the reader will find, and expresses his decided opinion that the high-born personages in question should rather learn to be good men of arms, chieftains, or captains in the field, than to be a captain or ruler at a sessions or shire-day; leaving such matters to the king's justices and officers,[21] and that "suche singuler practik shulde not be accustumed and occupied undewly with suche men that be come of noble birthe,"--except (it is added on second thoughts) he be the younger brother, having not whereof to live honestly.

The following chapter (p. 78) discusses "How officers of the law shulde be {xvi} chosen, welle disposid and temperate men, vertuous in condicion, and they to be protectid by lordis and noble men of birthe." There is nothing however in this chapter so remarkable as in that which has preceded.

The author next shows (p. 79) "How over gret cost and pomp in clothing shulde be eschewed;" in which respect he asserts that in France "alle costius arraiementis of clothing, garmentis, and bobauncees, and the usaige of pellure and furres they have expresselie put away:" whilst in England the like "costues arraymentis and disguising of clothing, of so many divers facion," had caused impoverishing of the land, and excited great pride, envy, and wrath amongst the people.

Whether this was truly a national grievance may be doubted. It is, however, more probable that the "pore comyns" of England had really suffered, as set forth in the succeeding chapter (p. 80), "gret hurt and inconvenientis because the creditours have not been duelie paid of here lonys and prestis made to high sovereins." This, it is stated, had been oftentimes the case in the reign of Henry the Sixth. They had advanced loans, "prests of vitails and other merchandise," of which the payment was so long delayed that great part of their property was previously expended, and they were sometimes fain to defalke and release part of their dues, in order to recover the rest. As an alternative for this inconvenience the writer recommends a course that would scarcely have proved more efficacious. "Let your riche tresours (he advises the king) be spradde and put abrode, both juellis (and) vesselle of golde and silver, among youre true subgettis, and inespecialle to the helpe and avauncement of youre conquest, and to the relief of your indigent and nedie peple, and inespecialle to tho that have lost theire londis, livelode, and goode in the werres, so that the saide tresoure may be put forthe, and late it be set in money to the remedie and socoure of this gret importunyte and necessite, and to the defens of youre roiaume from your adversaries."

In another chapter (p. 81), having recommended the king, "after the blessed counceile of Saint Louis," to cherish and favour the good cities and towns, the author pursues the former argument of raising supplies, urgently exhorting all classes to strain their utmost for that object. "Youre saide citesins and burgeis and good comyns if they be tendred shalbe of power and of good courage, and wille withe here bodies and goodes largelie depart to be yoven for to resist the adversaries." Those who had not able bodies nor usage in arms, were yet to come forth with a good courage, spiritual men as well as temporal, and, as true Englishmen should do, "every man put forthe of his goodes after that his power is."

With this strain the Epistle terminates, its last chapter (p. 83) being an illustration of the same argument from the _Punica bella_ of Titus Livius, consisting of {xvii} "A noble history of the largesse of Romaynys, how amplye they departed ther godes yn a tym of urgent necessite, to make an armee yn to the contree of Auffrique."

These final passages of the book, which so urgently recommend a voluntary contribution in aid of the intended war, were certainly written in the year 1475, with which date the whole composition concludes: for it is recorded by the historians of the day that it was on this occasion that king Edward the Fourth, after he had already raised all the supplies he could obtain by the ordinary methods of taxation, adopted the new device of a contribution nominally voluntary and its amount optional, and therefore termed a Benevolence,[22] but which eventually, when repeated, was regarded with peculiar repugnance and discontent.

After this review of the contents of the Work, we will proceed to notice the circumstances of the occasion for which it was professedly composed.

The English invasion of France in the year 1475 originated in the events of 1470 and 1471. The temporary deposition of Edward the Fourth from his throne had been abetted by the aid which the King-making earl of Warwick derived from that forger of all mischief Louis the Eleventh of France. At that time Edward took refuge with his brother-in-law the duke of Burgundy, a man as ambitious of aggrandisement as king Louis, but whose disposition instigated him to pursue it by the more ordinary path of martial enterprise. His enmity to the king of France was bitter and inveterate; and it doubtless formed the topic of much of his discourse with the exiled English monarch. Edward, on his part, vowed an ample revenge when the forces of England should be again at his command: and the result was a mutual understanding between these princes to prosecute their common quarrel at the earliest opportunity.

Having this object in view, Edward summoned a parliament[23] in the autumn {xviii} of 1472, in order to obtain the requisite supplies; and on the last day of November an act was passed whereby the commons granted to the king a force of 13,000 archers (the like number which had been granted to his predecessor in the 31st year of his reign[24]), assigning as their motives for so doing, that "for the wele and suerte of this your reame inward, and the defence of the same outeward, to assiste youre roiall astate, ye verraily entendyng, in youre princely and knightly corage, with all diligence to youre highnes possible, all your bodely ease leyde apart, to resiste the seid confedered malice of youre and oure seide ennemyes, in setting outeward a myghty armee, able by the helpe of God to resiste the seid ennemyes." The archers were to abide in the king's service by the space of a year, each receiving the pay of six pence a day; and the commons granted for their support a disme, or tenth part of the income from lands, tenements, and possessions of every temporal person, not being a lord of parliament: but, if the said army held not before the feast of Saint Michael in 1473, the grant was to be void, and the money repaid. [25]

The lords spiritual and temporal made a similar grant, on the consideration "that the kyng oure soverayn lord is disposed by the grace of God in his owne persone to passe forth of this his seid reame with an armee roiall, for the saufegarde of the same reame, and the subduyng of the auncien ennemyes of hym and of his seid reame."[26] In the next session, on the 8th April 1473, the commons granted to the king a fifteenth and a tenth, because, among other causes, "that ye verraily entend, as we understond, to aredye youre self, by all measnes to you possible, in youre moost noble persone to goo, departe, and passe with an arme roiall to the parties outward, to subdue by the myght of God youre and oure auncien enemyes, to the weele of you and prosperite of this youre reame."[27]

Notwithstanding these earnest intentions and costly preparations, the season of 1473 wore away without any embarkation for France; and, at the close of the session on the 1st of February 1473-4, the chancellor, by the king's command, informed the commons that the parliament was prorogued to the 9th of May following,[28] "because in the matter of foreign war the king was not certainly {xix} informed of the disposition of his brother of Burgundy, and on that account he had lately sent his ambassadors to his said brother."

The treaty with Burgundy was concluded in July 1474. The principal documents[29] respecting it bear date on the 25th of that month, on which day they were ratified both by king Edward and duke Charles. The former undertook to land in Normandy, or in other parts of France, with more than ten thousand men, before the 1st of July following (_i.e._ 1475); and the latter agreed to support the king's part in person and with his forces, in order to accomplish the recovery of the duchies of Normandy and Aquitaine, and the kingdom and crown of France, from Louis, then unjustly occupying them. The king engaged not to treat with Louis, without the consent of the duke of Burgundy; and the duke in like manner covenanted not to treat with him without the consent of king Edward. Henceforth Louis was to be deemed and proclaimed their common enemy.

By further articles, dated on the next following day, the contracting parties agreed that, when either of them waged war, they should have liberty to demand from the other aid to the amount of six thousand armed men; which were to be paid at the expense of the party requiring them, unless the war were in his own defence, in which case he was to pay only three fifths, and the other party two fifths of the soldiers' wages. By a further treaty, also dated on the 26th July 1474, king Edward ceded to the duke of Burgundy the duchy of Barr, the counties of Champagne, Nevers, Rethelle, Eu, and Guise, the barony of Douzi, the cities of Tournay and Lingon, with their dependencies, the castle and town of Picquigny, all the towns and lordships on either side the Somme before pledged to him, and further all the lands and lordships then possessed by Louis de {xx} Luxemburgh count of St. Paul: retaining no feudal sovereignty over the same, but conceding that the duke and his successors should in future be esteemed as the sovereign princes thereof. It was further agreed that Edward should be crowned and anointed king of France at Rheims, notwithstanding that the county of Champagne was ceded to the duke of Burgundy.

From this time the whole military population of England made constant and earnest preparation for hostilities. They were retained by indenture to serve the king for a whole year in his duchy of Normandy and realm of France, each receiving the wages assigned to their respective ranks. These were,--to a Duke xiij s. iiij d. by the day, to an Earl vj s. viij d., to a Baron or Banneret iiij s., to a Knight ij s., to a Man at Arms xij d. by the day and vj d. more as of reward, and to an Archer vj d. by the day.[30]

{xxi}

In December proclamations were made throughout England for all bowyers and fletchers to pursue their labours with the utmost haste and diligence, the latter to make only "shefe arrowes;" and purveyors were sent into several circuits to superintend the delivery of their supplies.[31] Other commissions were issued for impressing into the king's service carpenters, wheelers, cartwrights, masons, smiths, plumbers, and other artificers; and also for taking all ships of the burden of sixteen tons and upwards, for the transport of the army.[32]

For all these expenses the large sums already voted by the lords and commons in parliament, together with those granted by the clergy in their convocation, were not sufficient. It was then that recourse was had to the collections called Benevolences, to which allusion has been already made, from their being so strongly advocated by the author of The Boke of Noblesse. The process by which they were first brought into operation is thus described by Fabyan the London chronicler:

"He sent for the mayer of London and his brethren the aldermen, and them severally examined and exorted to ayde and assyst hym towarde the sayd great journaye; of whiche the maier (Robert Drope, draper,) for his parte granted xxxli. and the aldermen some xx marke, and the leest xli. And that done he sent for all the thryfty commoners within the sayd cytie, and theym exortyd in lyke maner, whiche for the more partye granted to hym the wages of halfe a man for a yere, the whiche amounted to iiijli. xjs. iijd. And after that he rode about the more part of the lande, and used the people in suche fayre maner, that he reysed therby notable summes of money, the whiche way of the levyinge of this money was after named a Benevolence."

"But here (adds the chronicler Hall on this subject) I wil not let passe a prety conceyt that happened in this gathering, in the which you shall not onely note the humilitie of a kyng, but more the fantasie of a woman. Kyng Edward had called before hym a wydow, muche aboundynge in substance, and no lesse grown in yeres, of whome he merely demaunded what she gladly woulde geve him towarde his greate charges. By my treuth, (quod she,) for thy lovely countenance thou shalt have even xxl. The kyng, lokyng scarce for the halfe of that summe, {xxii} thanked her, and lovingly kyst her. Whether the flavor of his brethe did so comfort her stommacke, or she estemed the kysse of a kynge so precious a juell, she swore incontinently that he should have xxl. more, which she with the same will payed that she offered it.

"The kynge, willing to shew that this benefite was to hym much acceptable, and not worthy to be put in oblivion, called this graunt of money a Benevolence, notwithstanding that many with grudge and malevolence gave great summes toward that new-founde Benevolence. But the using of such gentill fashions toward them, wyth frendly prayer of their assistance in his necessitie, so tempted theim, that they could not otherwise do, but frankely and frely yelde and geve hym a reasonable reward."

In the spring of 1475 the season for the campaign had at length arrived; and on the 1st of May proclamation was made that all "the lordes and capitaignes" who were retained for the army should muster at Portsdown in the county of Southampton on the 26th of the same month.[33] John lord Dynham, by letters patent dated the 15th of April, was appointed to conduct the army across the sea.[34]

The transport of the army to Calais occupied the greater part of the month of June. The king, having left London on the 4th of that month,[35] proceeded towards the coast through the county of Kent. On the 6th and 10th he was at Canterbury, and on the 20th at Sandwich, where on that day he made his will,[36] and executed the instruments by which he constituted his son Edward prince of Wales to be Custos and Lieutenant of the kingdom during his absence.[37] There was still some further delay, and the king appears not to have crossed the channel until the 4th of July,[38] just one month after his quitting London.

The king was accompanied in this expedition by his two brothers, the dukes of Clarence and Gloucester, by the dukes of Suffolk and Norfolk, the marquess of {xxiii} Dorset, the earls of Northumberland, Rivers, and Pembroke, the earl of Ormond, the earl of Douglas, and lord Boyd, the barons Grey of Ruthyn, Scrope, Grey of Codnor, Stanley, Hastings, Ferrers, Howard, Lisle, and probably others[39]; together with a long train of knights, among whom were sir Thomas Mountgomery and sir Ralph Hastings bannerets and knights for the king's body, sir John Astley a banneret, sir John Parre a knight for the body, sir William Parre, and sir Richard Tunstall.

When the king had landed at Calais his sister the duchess of Burgundy came thither to welcome him, on the 6th of July. She was followed by the duke her husband on the 14th; at which time the duchess was at St. Omer's with her brothers the dukes of Clarence and Gloucester. On the 18th the sovereigns of England and Burgundy went together to the castle of Guisnes, where the duke was entertained at king Edward's expense, as he had been at Calais.[40]

{xxiv}

Meanwhile, (relates Molinet,) "the army spread itself through the neighbouring countries, numbering about twenty-two thousand men in the king's pay, of which the archers were badly mounted, and little used to go on horseback. The English were then inflated with high expectations, and thought that France might well tremble before them. They brought a new engine of artillery in the form of a carriage, which required, to put it in action, more than fifty horses, and it was calculated to make at every stroke breaches both deep and wide. Many of the English, who were natives of the duchies of Guienne and Normandy, brought with them the deeds of purchase, and registrations duly sealed, of the inheritances and rents that they used to possess in those duchies before their expulsion, looking forward to recover their title and enjoyment thereof.