Part 1
Transcriber's Notes All obvious spelling errors have been corrected. The Greek word Ὠθεὰ has been corrected to Ὠ θεὰ.
BELL'S ENGLISH HISTORY SOURCE BOOKS _General Editors_: +S. E. Winbolt+, M.A., and +Kenneth Bell+, M.A.
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YORK AND LANCASTER
1399-1485
COMPILED BY
W. GARMON JONES, M.A.
ASSISTANT LECTURER IN HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL
LONDON G. BELL AND SONS, LTD. 1914
INTRODUCTION
This series of English History Source Books is intended for use with any ordinary textbook of English History. Experience has conclusively shown that such apparatus is a valuable--nay, an indispensable--adjunct to the history lesson. It is capable of two main uses: either by way of lively illustration at the close of a lesson, or by way of inference-drawing, before the textbook is read, at the beginning of the lesson. The kind of problems and exercises that may be based on the documents are legion, and are admirably illustrated in a _History of England for Schools_, Part I., by Keatinge and Frazer, pp. 377-381. However, we have no wish to prescribe for the teacher the manner in which he shall exercise his craft, but simply to provide him and his pupils with materials hitherto not readily accessible for school purposes. The very moderate price of the books in this series should bring them within the reach of every secondary school. Source books enable the pupil to take a more active part than hitherto in the history lesson. Here is the apparatus, the raw material: its use we leave to teacher and taught.
Our belief is that the books may profitably be used by all grades of historical students between the standards of fourth-form boys in secondary schools and undergraduates at Universities. What differentiates students at one extreme from those at the other is not so much the kind of subject-matter dealt with, as the amount they can read into or extract from it.
In regard to choice of subject-matter, while trying to satisfy the natural demand for certain "stock" documents of vital importance, we hope to introduce much fresh and novel matter. It is our intention that the majority of the extracts should be lively in style--that is, personal, or descriptive, or rhetorical, or even strongly partisan--and should not so much profess to give the truth as supply data for inference. We aim at the greatest possible variety, and lay under contribution letters, biographies, ballads and poems, diaries, debates, and newspaper accounts. Economics, London, municipal, and social life generally, and local history, are represented in these pages.
The order of the extracts is strictly chronological, each being numbered, titled, and dated, and its authority given. The text is modernised, where necessary, to the extent of leaving no difficulties in reading.
We shall be most grateful to teachers and students who may send us suggestions for improvements.
S. E. WINBOLT. KENNETH BELL.
NOTE TO THIS VOLUME
I have to thank Sir E. Maunde Thompson and the Council of the Royal Society of Literature for so readily permitting me to quote from Sir E. Maunde Thompson's edition of Adam of Usk's _Chronicle_. With three exceptions, the sources quoted in this volume are contemporary, and, where I have employed non-contemporary material, I have endeavoured to justify its use in a prefatory note to the extract.
W. G. J.
_Postscript._--Mr. C. L. Kingsford, in his valuable critical account, _English Historical Literature in the Fifteenth Century_, recently published, argues strongly against the accepted authorship of the _Vita et gesta Henrici Quinti_ (quoted on pp. 15-19). Hearne erroneously attributes it to Thomas Elmham. Mr. Kingsford shows that the date of its composition lies between 1446 and 1449, and that its anonymous author was, in all probability, a foreigner.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE +Introduction+ v
DATE
1399. +The Coronation of Henry IV.+ _Chronicle of Adam of Usk_ 1
1400. +Conspiracy of the Earls+ _Capgrave's Chronicle_ 2
1401. +De Heretico Comburendo+ _Statutes of the Realm_ 3
1401-2. +The Glendower War+ _Chronicle of Adam of Usk_ 4
1403. +The Peril of Henry+ _Ellis's "Original Letters"_ 6
+The Battle of Shrewsbury+ _Chronicle of Adam of Usk_ 7
1404. +French Aid for Glendower+ _Ellis's "Original Letters"_ 8
1406. +Election of Knights of the Shire+ _Statutes of the Realm_ 8
1407. +Money-Grants to Initiate in the Commons+ _Rotuli Parliamentorum_ 9
1410. +Prince Henry and the Heretic+ _Gregory's Chronicle_ 11
1413. +The Death of Henry IV.+ _Fabyan's "Chronicle"_ 12
+Electors and Elected to Parliament to be Resident+ _Statutes of the Realm_ 13
1414. +The Dauphin's Reply to Henry+ _Chronicle of Henry V._ 13
+The Commons and Legislation+ _Rotuli Parliamentorum_ 14
1415. +The Conspiracy of Cambridge+ _Nicolas's "Agincourt"_ 15
+The Battle of Agincourt+ _Elmham's "Vita et gesta Henrici Quinti"_ 15
1416. +Borough Customs+ _Customs of Hereford_ 19
1417. +The Execution of Sir John _Brief Chronicle of Sir John Oldcastle+ Oldcastle_ 22
1418. +The Siege of Rouen+ _Collections of a London Citizen_ (_Camden Soc._) 23
1420. +The Treaty of Troyes+ _Rymer's "Fœdera"_ 24
1422. +The Death of Henry V.+ _Monstrelet's "Chronicles"_ 26
+A Begging Letter to Henry VI.+ _Ellis's "Original Letters"_ 27
1424. +The Battle of Verneuil+ _Waurin's "Chronicles"_ 28
1429. +To King Henry VI.+ _Wright's "Political Poems"_ 30
+The Battle of Herrings+ _Monstrelet's "Chronicles"_ 31
+Joan of Arc Raises the Siege of Orleans+ _Waurin's "Chronicles"_ 32
1430. +The Forty-Shilling Franchise+ _Statutes of the Realm_ 35
1431. +The Condemnation of the Maid+ _Waurin's "Chronicles"_ 36
1432. +The Education of Henry VI.+ _Paston Letters_ 40
1439. +Precautions to Protect the King against Infection+ _Rotuli Parliamentorum_ 43
1445. +A Nobleman requests a Licence for a Ship+ _Ellis's "Original Letters"_ 44
+Discomforts of Pilgrims at Sea+ _Early Naval Ballads_ 44
+Parliamentary Elections+ _Statutes of the Realm_ 46
1446. +Henry VI. Reforms the Grammar Schools+ _Excerpta Historica_ 47
1449. +The French Recover Fougères+ _Reductio Normannie_ 48
+Capture of Verneuil+ _Reductio Normannie_ 49
1450. +The Battle of Formigny+ _Reductio Normannie_ 51
+A Father's Counsel+ _Paston Letters_ 52
1450. +Murder of Duke of Suffolk+ _Paston Letters_ 54
+Cade's Rebellion+ _Three 15th-Cent. Chronicles_ 55
1451. +Packing a Jury+ _Paston Letters_ 58
+Partial Judges+ _Paston Letters_ 58
1454. +Lawlessness+ _Paston Letters_ 59
+The Condition of Ireland+ _Ellis's "Original Letters"_ 62
+Beginnings of Civil Strife+ _Ingulph's "Chronicles"_ 63
+The King's Madness+ _Paston Letters_ 64
1455. +The Battle of St. Albans+ _Archæologia_ 65
+An Unruly Noble+ _Rotuli Parliamentorum_ 69
+The Litigiousness of the Age+ _Gascoigne's "Loci e Libro Veritatum"_ 70
1457. +The Trial of Bishop Pecock+ _An English Chronicle_ 70
1458. +A Sea Fight+ _Paston Letters_ 72
+The Evils in the Church+ _Gascoigne's "Loci e Libro Veritatum"_ 73
1459. +The Evils of Misgovernment+ _An English Chronicle_ 75
1460. +York's Popularity+ _An English Chronicle_ 75
+The Battle of Northampton+ _An English Chronicle_ 76
+The Wanderings of Margaret+ _Gregory's Chronicle_ 78
+The Battle of Wakefield+ _Hall's "Chronicle"_ 79
+Ravages of the Lancastrians+ _Ingulph's "Chronicles"_ 80
1461. +Battle of Mortimer's Cross+ _Collections of London Citizen_ 81
+The Battle of Towton+ _Ingulph's "Chronicles"_ 81
+Accession of Edward IV.+ _Archæologia_ 83
1463. +Mayor of London's Dignity+ _Collections of London Citizen_ 83
1464. +Marriage of Edward IV.+ _Collections of London Citizen_ 84
1465 (_circa_). +A Dinner of Flesh+ _Russell's "Boke of Nurture"_ 85
1469. +Private Wars+ _Paston Letters_ 86
1470. +Restoration of Henry VI.+ _Chronicles of the White Rose_ 88
1471. +The Arrival of Edward IV.+ _Chronicles of the White Rose_ 88
+The Battle of Barnet+ _Chronicles of the White Rose_ 90
+The Plague+ _Paston Letters_ 92
+The Death of Henry VI.+ _Chronicles of the White Rose_ 92
1472. +King Edward's Court+ _Archæologia_ 93
1475. +An Englishman's Library+ _Paston Letters_ 96
1478. +The Death of Clarence+ _Ingulph's "Chronicles"_ 97
1479. +An Eton Boy's Letter+ _Paston Letters_ 100
+The University+ _Paston Letters_ 101
1483. +Richard Usurps the Throne+ _Ingulph's "Chronicles"_ 102
+The Murder of the Princes+ _More's "History of King Richard III."_ 106
+Character of King Richard III+ _Harding's "Chronicle"_ 108
1484. +An Act against Benevolences+ _Statutes of the Realm_ 109
1485. +Henry Tudor and the Welsh+ _MSS. Sources_ 110
+Proclamation against Tudors+ _Ellis's "Original Letters"_ 111
+Henry's Landing+ _Cambrian Biography_ 113
+Henry Summons Welsh Chiefs+ _Wynne's "Gwydir Family"_ 115
+The Journey to Bosworth+ _Cambrian Biography_ 116
+The Eve of Bosworth+ _Paston Letters_ 117
+The Battle of Bosworth Field+ _Ingulph's "Chronicles"_ 118
+The Last of the Plantagenets+ _Percy Folio MS._ 120
YORK AND LANCASTER
1399-1485
THE CORONATION OF HENRY IV. (1399).
=Source.=--_The Chronicle of Adam of Usk_, edited by Sir E. Maunde Thompson, pp. 187, 188. (Royal Society of Literature, 1904.)
On the eve of his coronation, in the Tower of London and in the presence of Richard late King, King Henry made forty-six new knights, amongst whom were his three sons, and also the earls of Arundel and Stafford, and the son and heir of the earl of Warwick; and with them and other nobles of the land he passed in great state to Westminster. And when the day of Coronation was come (13th October), all the peers of the realm, robed finely in red and scarlet and ermine, came with great joy to the ceremony, my lord of Canterbury ordering all the service and duties thereof. In the presence were borne four swords, whereof one was sheathed as a token of the augmentation of military honour, two were wrapped in red and bound round with golden bands to represent twofold mercy, and the fourth was naked and without a point, the emblem of the executioner of justice without rancour. The first sword the earl of Northumberland carried, the two covered ones the earls of Somerset and Warwick, and the sword of justice the King's eldest son, the prince of Wales; and the lord Latimer bore the sceptre, and the earl of Westmoreland the rod. And this they did as well in the coronation as at the banquet, always standing around the King. Before the King received the crown from my lord of Canterbury, I heard him swear to take heed to rule his people altogether in mercy and in truth. These were the officers in the Coronation feast: The earl of Arundel was butler, the earl of Oxford held the ewer, and the lord Grey of Ruthin spread the cloths.
While the King was in the midst of the banquet, sir Thomas Dymock, knight, mounted in full armour on his destrier,[1] and having his sword sheathed in black with a golden hilt, entered the hall, two others, likewise mounted on chargers, bearing before him a naked sword and a lance. And he caused proclamation to be made by a herald at the four sides of the hall that, if any man should say that his liege lord here present and King of England was not of right crowned King of England, he was ready to prove the contrary with his body, then and there, or when and wheresoever it might please the King. And the King said: "If need be, sir Thomas, I will in mine own person ease thee of this office."
[1] Destrier = a charger, a war-horse.
CONSPIRACY OF THE EARLS (1400).
=Source.=--Capgrave's _Chronicle of England_, pp. 275, 276 (Rolls Series).
In the second year of this King the earls of Kent, Salisbury and Huntingdon, unkind to the King, rose against him. Unkind were they, for the people would have them dead and the King spared them. These men, thus gathered, purposed to fall on the King suddenly at Windsor, under the colour of mummeries in Christmas time. The King was warned of this and fled to London. These men knew not that, but came to Windsor with four hundred armed men, purposing to kill the King and his progeny, and restore Richard again unto the crown. When they came to Windsor, and thus were deceived, they fled to a town where the queen lay, fast by Reading, and there, before the queen's household, he blessed him this earl of Kent. "O benedicite," he said, "who may this be that Harry of Lancaster hath taken the Tower at London, and our very King Richard hath broken prison, and hath gathered a hundred thousand fighting men." So gladded he the queen with lies, and rode forth to Wallingford, and from Wallingford to Abingdon, warning all men by the way that they should make them ready to help King Richard. Thus came he to Cirencester, late at even. The men of the town had suspicion that their tidings were lies, (as it was indeed,) rose and kept the entries of the inns, that none of them might pass. There fought they in the town from midnight unto nine of the clock in the morrow. But the town drove them out of the Abbey and smote off many of their heads. The earl of Salisbury was dead there; and worthy, for he was a great favourite of the Lollards, and a despiser of the sacraments, for he would not confess when he should die.
The earl of Huntingdon heard of this and fled unto Essex. And as often as he assayed to take the sea, so often was he born off with the wind. Then was he taken by the Commons and led to Chelmsford and then to Pleshy, and his head smote off in the same place where he arrested the Duke of Gloucester.
DE HERETICO COMBURENDO (January, 1401).
=Source.=--_Statutes of the Realm_, 2 Henry IV., c. xv.
Item, Whereas it is shewed to our Sovereign Lord the King on behalf of the Prelates and Clergy of his realm of England in this present Parliament, That although the Catholic Faith builded upon Christ and by his Apostles and the Holy Church sufficiently determined, declared and approved, hath hitherto by good and holy and most Noble Progenitors of our Sovereign Lord the King ... [been] most devoutly observed, and the Church of England most laudably endowed and in her Rights and Liberties sustained.... Yet divers false and perverse People of a certain New Sect of the Faith ... do perversely preach and teach these days, openly and privily, divers new Doctrines, and wicked, heretical and erroneous Opinions contrary to the same faith.... They make unlawful Conventicles and Confederacies, they hold and exercise Schools, they make and write Books, they do wickedly instruct and inform People, and, as much as they may, incite and stir them to Sedition and Insurrection, and maketh great Strife and Division among the people, and other Enormities horrible to be heard daily do perpetrate and commit, in subversion of the said Catholic Faith and Doctrine of the Holy Church.
_Then follow clauses forbidding the Lollards to preach without license, or to hold Schools for teaching the new doctrines, and a clause punishing by fine and imprisonment all offenders who abjure their heresy; finally_:--
If any Person within the said Realm and Dominions, upon the said wicked Preachings, Doctrines, Opinions, Schools and heretical and erroneous Information ... be before the Diocesan, and do refuse duly to abjure, or by the Diocesan of the same place or his commission, after the abjuration made by the same person, fall into relapse so that according to the Holy Canons he ought to be left to the secular Court, whereupon credence shall be given to the Diocesan of the same place, or to his Commissionaries in this behalf; then the Sheriff of the County of the same place, and Mayor and Sheriffs or Sheriff, or Mayor and Bailiffs of the City, Town and Borough of the same County shall be personally present in preferring of such sentences; and they, the same persons and every one of them, after such a sentence promulgate, shall receive them, and before the People in an high place do them to be burnt; that such punishment may strike in fear to the minds of others, whereby no such wicked doctrines and heretical and erroneous opinions ... against the Catholic Faith, Christian Law and Determination of Holy Church, which God forbid, be sustained or in any wise suffered.
THE GLENDOWER WAR (1401-1402).
=Source.=--_Chronicle of Adam of Usk_, edited by Sir E. Maunde Thompson, pp. 237, 238, 246, 247.
In this autumn (1401), Owen Glendower, all North Wales and Cardigan and Powis siding with him, sorely harried with fire and sword the English who dwelt in those parts, and their towns, and specially the town of Pool. Wherefore the English, invading those parts with a strong power, and utterly laying them waste and ravaging them with fire, famine, and sword, left them a desert, not even sparing children or churches, nor the monastery of Strata-Florida, wherein the King himself was being lodged, and the church of which and its choir, even up to the high altar, they used as a stable, and pillaged even the patens; and they carried away into England more than a thousand children of both sexes to be their servants. Yet did the same Owen do no small hurt to the English, slaying many of them, and carrying off the arms, horses and tents of the King's eldest son, the prince of Wales, and of other lords, which he bare away for his own behoof to the mountain fastnesses of Snowden.
In these days, southern Wales, and in particular all the diocese of Llandaff, was at peace from every kind of trouble of invasion or inroad.... The commons of Cardigan, being pardoned their lives, deserted Owen, and returned, though in sore wretchedness, to their homes, being allowed to use the Welsh tongue, although its destruction had been determined on by the English, Almighty God, the King of Kings, the unerring Judge of all, having mercifully ordained the recall of this decree at the prayer and cry of the oppressed....
... On the day of St. Alban (22nd June, 1402) near to Knighton in Wales, was a hard battle fought between the English under sir Edmund Mortimer and the Welsh under Owen Glendower, with woeful slaughter even to eight thousand souls, the victory being with Owen. And alas! my lord, the said sir Edmund ... was by the fortune of war carried away captive. And, being by his enemies in England stripped of all his goods and hindered from paying ransom, in order to escape more easily the pains of captivity, he is known by common report to have wedded the daughter of the same Owen; by whom he had a son Lionel, and three daughters, all of whom, except one daughter, along with their mother are now dead. At last, being by the English host beleagured in the castle of Harlech, he brought his days of sorrow to an end, his wonderful deeds being to this day told at the feast in song.
In this year also the lord Grey of Ruthin,[2] being taken captive by Owen, with the slaughter of two thousand of his men, was shut up in prison; but he was set free on payment of ransom of sixteen thousand pounds in gold. Concerning such an ill-starred blow given by Owen to the English rule, when I think thereon, my heart trembles. For, backed by a following of thirty thousand men issuing from their lairs throughout Wales and its marches, he overthrew castles, among which were Usk, Caerleon, and Newport, and fired the towns. In short, like a second Assyrian, the rod of God's anger, he did deeds of unheard-of cruelty with fire and sword.
[2] Glendower's revolt arose out of a quarrel with Lord Grey of Ruthin.
THE PERIL OF HENRY (1403).
=Source.=--Ellis's _Original Letters_, second series, vol. i., pp. 17-19. (London: 1827.)
[_French._]--Our most redoubted and sovereign Lord the King, I recommend myself humbly to your Highness as your lowly creature and continual orator. And our most redoubted and sovereign Lord, please you to know that from day to day letters are arriving from Wales, containing intelligence by which you may learn that the whole country is lost, if you do not go there as quick as possible. For which reason may it please you to prepare to set out with all power you can muster, and march day and night for the salvation of these parts.... Written in great haste at Hereford, the 8th July.
Your lowly creature