Part 7

The Duke [of Lancaster] spewed out the venom of serpents which was in him and directed the sting of his malice against the Bishop of Winchester, Lord William Wykeham, seeking a knot in a bulrush and an occasion for condemning him in every way and manner that he could. At length, among the many things which, as it is said, he falsely deposed against him, he declared that he had been false to the lord King at the time when he was discharging the office of Chancellor. And although the said Bishop would have been prepared to bring forward sufficient honest witnesses and accounts to prove his innocence,[42] nevertheless, William Skipworth unjustly sitting as justiciar, he [the duke] caused him to be condemned without answer, and the temporalities of his bishopric to be taken from him by royal authority. And, in order that he might gain popular favour, he demanded, in the power of the King, that the same goods should be given to the aid of the son of the [Black] Prince, Richard de Bordeaux, Earl of Chester, who had lately received by gift of the King the principality and name of his father. Moreover, he prohibited the same bishop, in place of the King, from taking it on himself to come within twenty miles of the royal presence. Thus was he avenged against the said bishop.

Now the cause of all this malice was, as it is said, that the same Bishop had said that he [John of Gaunt] was not the son of the King or Queen; but in the time when the Queen was delivered at Gaunt, she had given birth not to a boy, but to a girl, whom she had overlaid; and, fearing the royal indignation, she had ordered the son of a certain Flemish woman, born at the same time, to be put in its place; thus she had fostered one to whom she had not given birth, namely, this man, the notorious Duke of Lancaster. These things the Queen, in her last hours, had related to the bishop under seal of confession; and had prayed him steadfastly that, if at any time it should happen that he [John of Gaunt] should either have designs on the kingdom, or if the said kingdom should in any way whatever devolve on him, he, the said bishop, should make known his birth, lest he, a false heir, should inherit the kingdom of England.

FOOTNOTES:

[42] In Harleian MS. 247, fol. 170_b_, we read of the Council of July, 1377, wherein the lords did "greatly debate upon the suppressing of the Duke of Lancaster and the Lord Latimer by Sir William Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, of sundry trespasses and misprisons by him committed, and charged him with sundry grievous articles and forfeits, which the King himself had certainly understood and by divers evidences were known, as also by the common voice of the people; for he had sundry charges and offices under the King from the xxxv. year of his reign and had by his writings made sundry defaults to the prejudice, hurt and reproach of the King and of his realm, and to the oppression of his people."

MASTER JOHN WICLIF (1377).

SOURCE.--Harleian MS. 2261, fols. 399, 399_b_.

Master John Wiclif, doctor of divinity in the University of Oxford, began to sustain openly in the said University erroneous conclusions contrary to the state of the universal Church and conclusions of heresy, and especially against canons, monks, and religious men possessionate, which drew to him in this time divers fellows of the same sect dwelling in Oxford, going barefoot with long gowns of russet, that they might publish and fortify their errors against men contrarious to them, preaching openly the said errors. Among whom they said that the sacrament in the altar after the sacrament or consecration is not the very body of Christ. Also he said that temporal lords and men might take away meritoriously the goods [of] men of the Church sinning or trespassing. Nevertheless, the Pope with his council damned xxiii conclusions as vain, erroneous and full of heresy, and sent bulls direct to the Metropolitan of England and to the Bishop of London that they should cause the said Master John to be arrested and to examine him of the said conclusions. That inquisition done, and a declaration made, the Archbishop of Canterbury commanded and prohibited the said Master John and his co-disciples to use the said conclusions, and so they were still for a season. But soon after, by supportation of lords and other noble men, they took to them more wicked opinions, and had great continuation in their malice.

A TORCHLIGHT PROCESSION (1377).

SOURCE.--Harleian MS. (British Museum) 247, fol. 172_b_.

At the same time the commons of London made great sport and solemnity to the young prince. For upon the Monday next before the Purification of our Lady at night and in the night, were 130 men disguisedly apparelled and well mounted on horseback to go on mumming to the said prince, riding from Newgate through Cheap[side], where many people see them, with great noise of minstrelsy trumpets,----,[43] cornets and shaumes and great plenty of wax and torches lighted. And in the beginning they rid 48, after the manner of esquires, two and two together, clothed in coats and cloaks of red say or sendall and their faces covered with vizards well and handsomely made; after these esquires came 48 like knights well arrayed after the same manner; after the knights came one excellently arrayed and well mounted as he had been an Emperor; after him some 100 paces came one nobly arrayed as a pope; and after him came 24 arrayed like cardinals; and after the cardinals came 8 or 10 arrayed and with black vizards like devils nothing amiable, seeming like legates; riding through London and over London bridge towards Kenyton (Kennington) where the young prince made his abode with his mother. And the duke of Lancaster, and the earls of Cambridge, Hertford, Warwick and Suffolk and many other lords were there with him to behold the solemnity. And when they were come before the manor, they alighted on foot and entered into the hall; and soon after the prince with his mother and the other lords came out of the chambers into the hall and the said mummers saluted them, showing a pair of dice upon a table to play with the prince, which dice were subtly made, so that when the prince should cast he should win. And the said players and mummers set before the prince three jewels each after other, the first a ball of gold, then a cup of gold, then a gold ring, the which the said prince won at three casts, as before it was appointed; and after that they set before the prince's mother, the duke of Lancaster and the other earls every one a gold ring and the mother and the lords won them; and then the prince caused to bring the wine and they drank with great joy, commanding the minstrels to play; and the trumpets began to sound and other instruments to pipe etc. and the prince and the lords danced on the one side and the mummers on the other a great while. And then they drank and took their leave and so departed towards London.

FOOTNOTES:

[43] A blank in the manuscript.

THE KING OF FRANCE EQUIPS A FLEET (1377).

SOURCE.--Froissart's _Chronicle_ (Hafod Press, 1803), ii. 181.

During the negotiations for peace, the King of France had been very active in providing ships and galleys; the King of Spain had sent him his admiral, Sir Fernando Sausse, who, with Sir John de Vienne, Admiral of France, had sailed for the Port of Rye, which they burnt, five days after the decease of King Edward, the vigil of St. Peter, in June, and put to death the inhabitants, without sparing man or woman.

Upon news of this coming to London, the Earls of Cambridge and Buckingham were ordered to Dover with a large body of men-at-arms. The Earl of Salisbury and Sir John Montague, on the other hand, were sent to the country near Southampton.

After this exploit the French landed in the Isle of Wight. They afterwards burnt the following towns: Portsmouth, Dartmouth, Plymouth, and several others. When they had pillaged and burnt all in the Isle of Wight, they embarked and put to sea, coasting the shores until they came to a port called Poq (? Pool). The Earl of Salisbury and Sir John Montague defended the passage, but they burnt a part of the town of Poq. They again embarked and coasted towards Southampton, attempting every day to land; but the Earl of Salisbury and his forces, who followed them along the shore, prevented them from so doing.

The fleet then came before Southampton; but Sir John Arundel, with a large body of men-at-arms and archers, guarded well the town, otherwise it would have been taken. The French made sail from thence towards Dover, and landed near to the Abbey of Lewes, where there were great numbers of the people of the country assembled. They appointed the Abbot of Lewes, Sir Thomas Cheney, and Sir John Fuselée their leaders, who drew up in good array to dispute their landing, and to defend the country. The French had not the advantage, but lost several of their men, as well might happen. However, the better to maintain the fight, they made the land, when a great skirmish ensued, and the English, being forced to retreat, were finally put to flight. Two hundred at least were slain, and the two knights with the Abbot of Lewes made prisoners.

The French re-embarked and remained at anchor before the abbey all that night. They then heard for the first time, from their prisoners, the death of King Edward [June 20] and the coronation of King Richard, and also a part of the regulation of the kingdom, and that great numbers of men-at-arms were under orders to march to the coast.

CHARACTER OF EDWARD III.

SOURCE.--Harleian MS. 2261, fol. 400_a_.

This noble and mighty King Edward, among all other men of nobility in the world, was a man of great goodness called gracious, excelling all his predecessors by virtue and grace given to him of God, a bold man in heart, dreading not sinister fortune in battles, having great fortune in them both by sea and land. Also he was meek, benign, and familiar to all manner of people, devout to God, honouring the church of God, and having his ministers in great reverence. Also he was moderate in cures temporal, provide in council, affable and eloquent, meek in behaviour, having compassion on men in tribulation. Also he was elegant and beauteous of body, having a comfortable and pleasant countenance, like to the sight of an angel, for God had endued him with such excellence of grace that a man would have thought as for a surety that he should have sped well in the day following after that he had dreamed of the said King. This noble King governed his reign gloriously unto his later days, large in gifts, excessive in expenses, endued with all honesty of manners. Whereof his fame was so increased among people of Barbary, insomuch that they said there was no land in the world that had so noble a prince, and that England should never have so noble again after his death. But the inordinate lust of the flesh used in his old age helped him much unto death. Also it is to be attended, as the acts afore express, that like as in his beginning all things enjoyed to him, and in the midst of his age glorious and fortunate, so the said King drawing to age and towards death, all things were as unfortunate to him, for his sins and many incommodities began to spring, having after him long continuation, which thing was to be sorrowed.

THE PEASANTS' REVOLT (1381).

SOURCE.--_Chronicle of Adam of Usk_ (translated and edited by Sir E. Maunde Thompson, 1904), 13.

During this King Richard's reign great things were looked for. But he, being of tender years, others, who had the care of him and his kingdom, did not cease to inflict on the land acts of wantonness, extortions, and unbearable wrongs. Whence sprang that unnatural deed, when the commons of the land and especially those of Kent and Essex, under their wretched leader Jack Straw, declaring that they could no longer bear such wrongs, and above all wrongs of taxes and subsidies, rose in overwhelming numbers against the lords and the King's officers, and, marching to London on the eve of Corpus Christi [June 12], in the year of our Lord 1381, struck off the heads of Simon Sudbury, Archbishop of Canterbury, then the King's Chancellor, Sir Robert Hales the treasurer, and many others, hard by the Tower of London. And on the places where these lords were beheaded there are set up to this day two marble crosses, a lasting memorial of so monstrous a deed.

In this rising of the commons were many great men of the land in many places beheaded. The Savoy, the palace of the Duke of Lancaster and the fairest in the kingdom, standing near London, on the bank of Thames, was, from the commons' hatred of the duke, utterly destroyed by them with fire; and the duke himself, for fear of them, fled into Scotland. To appease them and to quiet their fury, the King granted that the state of villeinage, as well in their persons as in their labour, should be henceforth done away, freedom fully given, and all prisoners set at large. And this he commanded and made to be openly proclaimed throughout the counties of the kingdom. And then what a throe of grief passed through the desolated land! For they boasted that they would slay all those of higher birth, would raise up King and lords from among themselves, would stablish new laws, and, in a word, would make new, or rather disfigure, the face and estate of the whole island. Then every man struck off the head of his enemy, and despoiled his richer neighbour. But, by the mercy of God, when their leader, being in Smithfield near London, doffed not his hood before the King nor in anything did reverence to the King's Majesty, his head was deftly struck off, in the very midst of his flock of kites, by Sir William Walworth, knight and citizen of London: and straightway, being raised on the point of a sword, it was shown before them. Then the commons, in sore dread, sought flight by stealth, and there and then casting away their rebellious weapons, as though unguilty of such riot and wickedness, like foxes into their holes, they pitifully crept home. But the King and the lords pursued them, and some they made to be dragged behind horses, some they slew with the sword, some they hanged on the gallows, some they quartered; and they destroyed thousands.

WONDROUS AND UNHEARD-OF PRODIGIES (1381).

SOURCE.--H.T. Riley's _Memorials of London_ (London, 1868), 449-451.

Among the most wondrous and hitherto unheard-of prodigies that have ever happened in the City of London, that which took place there on the Feast of Corpus Christi, the 18th day of June, in the 4th year of the reign of King Richard the Second, seems deserving to be committed to writing, that it may be not unknown to those to come.

For on that day, while the King was holding his Council in the Tower of London, countless companies of the commoners and persons of the lowest grade from Kent and Essex suddenly approached the said City, the one body coming to the town of Southwark, and the other to the place called "Mileende," without Algate. By the aid also of perfidious commoners within the City, of their own condition, who rose in countless numbers there, they suddenly entered the City together, and, passing straight through it, went to the mansion of Sir John, Duke of Lancaster, called "Le Savoye," and completely levelled the same with the ground and burned it. From thence they turned to the Church of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, without Smithfield, and burnt and levelled nearly all the houses there, the church excepted.

On the next morning, all the men from Kent and Essex met at the said place called "Mileende," together with some of the perfidious persons of the City aforesaid; whose numbers in all were past reckoning. And there the King came to them from the Tower, accompanied by many knights and esquires, and citizens on horseback, the lady his mother following him also in a chariot. Where, at the prayer of the infuriated rout, our Lord the King granted that they might take those who were traitors against him, and slay them, wheresoever they might be found. And from thence the King rode to his wardrobe, which is situated near to Castle Baynard; while the whole of the infuriated rout took its way towards the Tower of London; entering which by force, they dragged forth from it Sir Simon, Archbishop of Canterbury, Chancellor of our Lord the King, and Brother Robert Hales, Prior of the said Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, the King's Treasurer; and together with them, Brother William Appeltone, of the Order of Friars Minor, and John Leg, Serjeant-at-Arms to the King, and also, one Richard Somenour, of the Parish of Stebenhuthe; all of whom they beheaded in the place called "Tourhille," without the said Tower; and then carrying their heads through the City upon lances, they set them up on London Bridge, fixing them there on stakes.

Upon the same day there was also no little slaughter within the City, as well of natives as of aliens. Richard Lions, citizen and vintner of the said City, and many others, were beheaded in Chepe. In the Vintry also, there was a very great massacre of Flemings, and in one heap there were lying about forty headless bodies of persons who had been dragged forth from the churches and their houses; and hardly was there a street in the City in which there were not bodies lying of those who had been slain. Some of the houses also in the said City were pulled down, and others in the suburbs destroyed, and some, too, burnt.

Such tribulation as this, greater and more horrible than could be believed by those who had not seen it, lasted down to the hour of Vespers on the following day, which was Saturday, the 15th of June; on which day God sent remedy for the same, and His own gracious aid, by the hand of the most renowned man Sir William Walworthe, the then Mayor; who in Smithfield, in presence of our Lord the King and those standing by him, lords, knights, esquires, and citizens on horseback, on the one side, and the whole of this infuriated rout on the other, most manfully, by himself, rushed upon the captain of the said multitude, "Walter Tylere" by name, and, as he was altercating with the King and the nobles, first wounded him in the neck with his sword, and then hurled him from his horse, mortally pierced in the breast; and further, by favour of the divine grace, so defended himself from those who had come with him, both on foot and horseback, that he departed from thence unhurt, and rode with our Lord the King and his people towards a field near to the spring that is called "Whittewell-beche"; in which place, while the whole of the infuriated multitude in warlike manner was making ready against our Lord the King and his people, refusing to treat of peace except on condition that they should first have the head of the said Mayor, the Mayor himself, who had gone into the City at the instance of our Lord the King, in the space of half an hour, sent and led forth therefrom so great a force of citizen warriors in aid of his Lord the King, that the whole multitude of madmen was surrounded and hemmed in, and not one of them would have escaped if our Lord the King had not commanded them to be gone.

Therefore our Lord the King returned into the City of London with the greatest of glory and honour, and the whole of this profane multitude in confusion fled forthwith for concealment in their affright.

HERETICAL AND ERRONEOUS CONCLUSIONS OF WICLIF (CONDEMNED AT LONDON, 1382).

SOURCE.--_Fasciculi Zizaniorum_ (Rolls Series), 277-282.

Heretical conclusions, contrary to the determination of the Church:....

I. That the material substance of bread and wine remains after consecration in the sacrament of the altar.

II. That accidents do not remain without a subject in the same sacrament.

III. That Christ is not in the sacrament of the altar inherently, truly, and really, in His own corporal presence.

IV. That if a bishop or priest be in mortal sin he may neither ordain, consecrate, nor baptize.

V. That if a man be duly penitent all outward confession is superfluous or useless to him.

VI. To tenaciously affirm that it is not stated in the Gospels that Christ ordained the Mass.

VII. That God should obey the Devil.

VIII. That if the Pope be a worthless and evil man and so a member of the Devil, he has no power over the faithful of Christ granted to him by any, except perchance by Cæsar.

IX. That after Urban VI. no one is to be received as Pope, but it is necessary for us to live, like the Greeks, under our own laws.

X. To assert that it is contrary to Scripture that ecclesiastical men should have temporal possessions.

Erroneous conclusions contrary to the determination of the Church: ...

XI. That no prelate should excommunicate anyone unless he first knows he is excommunicated by God.

XII. That if he excommunicates he is thereby a heretic or excommunicate.

XIII. That a prelate excommunicating a clerk who has appealed to the King and the Council of the realm is thereby a traitor to God, King, and realm.

XIV. That those who abstain from preaching or hearing the Word of God or the Gospel, preached, on account of the excommunication of men, are themselves excommunicate, and in the day of judgment shall be held to be traitors to God.

XV. To assert that it is lawful to anyone, either deacon or priest, to preach the Word of God without the authority of the Apostolic See, or a Catholic bishop, or some other sufficiently authorized.

XVI. To assert that no one is a civil lord, bishop, or prelate while he is in mortal sin.

XVII. That temporal lords can at their will take away temporal goods from ecclesiastics habitually sinful, or that the public may at their will correct sinful lords.

XVIII. That tithes are pure alms, and that the parishioners may detain them on account of the sins of their curates and confer them at pleasure on others.

XIX. That special prayers restricted to one person by prelates or religious do no more avail the same person, other things being equal, than general prayers.

XX. That the fact of anyone entering into any private religion makes him more unfit and unable to perform God's commandment.

XXI. That holy men who endow private religions either of possessioners or mendicants had sinned in so endowing.

XXII. That the religious living in private religions are not of the Christian religion.

XXIII. That friars are bound to get their living by the labour of their hands and not by begging.

XXIV. That anyone conferring alms on friars or preaching friars is excommunicate; as is the one who receives.

THE FOLLOWERS OF THIS MASTER JOHN (1382).

SOURCE.--_Chronicle of Adam of Usk_ (translated and edited by Sir E. Maunde Thompson, 1904), 140, 141.