Part 5

Item, forasmuch as the said Earl hath knowledge that in speech that hath been had unto the King at part and in privy, not in the hearing of the said Earl nor any of the knights set about his person, nor assigned by the said Earl, he hath been stirred by some from his learning, and spoken to of divers matters not behoveful, the said Earl doubting the harm that might fall to the King, and the inconvenience that might ensue of such speech at part as if it were suffered; desireth that in all speech to be had with the King, he or one of the four knights, or some person to be assigned by the said Earl, be present and privy to it.

_Responsio._--This article is agreed, excepting such persons as for nighness of blood, and for their estate, owe of reason to be suffered to speak with the King.

Item, to the intent that it may be known to the King that it proceedeth of the assent, advice and agreement of my Lord of Gloucester, and all my Lords of the King's Council, that the King be chastised for his defaults or trespasses, and that for awe thereof he forbear the more to do amiss, and intend the more busily to virtue and to learning, the said Earl desireth that my Lord of Gloucester, and my said other Lords of the Council, or great part of them, that is to say, the Chancellor and Treasurer, and of every estate in the Council, spiritual and temporal, some come to the King's presence, and there to make to be declared to him their agreement in that behalf.

_Responsio._--When the King cometh next to London, all his Council shall come to his presence, and there this shall be declared to him.

Item, the said Earl, that all his days hath, above all other earthy things, desired, and ever shall to keep his truth and worship unblemished and unhurt, and may not for all that let [prevent] malicious and untrue men to make informations of his person, such as they may not, nor dare not, stand by, nor be not true, beseecheth therefore my Lord of Gloucester and all my said Lords of the Council, that if they, or any of them, have been informed of anything that may be laid to his charge or default, and namely in his occupation and rule about the King's person, that the said Earl may have knowledge thereof, to the intent that he may answer thereto, and not dwell in heavy or sinister conceit or opinion, without his desert and without answer.

_Responsio._--It is agreed.

+Cromwell.+ +J. Ebor.+ +W. Lincoln+ +Suffolk.+ +J. Huntington.+ +H. Gloucester.+ +P. Elien.+ +J. Bathon. Canc.+ +J. Roffen.+ +H. Stafford.+

PRECAUTIONS TO PROTECT THE KING AGAINST INFECTION (1439).

=Source.=--_Rotuli Parliamentorum_, vol. v., p. 31. (Record Commission.)

To the King our Sovereign Lord; Shewen meekly your true liege people, here by your authority royal in this present Parliament for the Commons of this your noble realm assembled; how that a sickness called the Pestilence, universally through this your realm runneth more commonly than hath been usual before this time, the which is an infirmity most infective; and the presence of such so infect most to be eschewed, as by noble physicians and wise philosophers before this time plainly it hath been determined and as experience daily sheweth. Wherefore we your poor liege people, above all earthly thing tendering and desiring the health and welfare of your most noble person, beseech your most noble grace, in conserving of your most noble person and in comfort of us all, in eschewing of any such infection to you to fall, which God defend, graciously to conceive how where that any of your said Commons, holding of you by Knight's service, oweth in doing you homage, by your gracious sufferance, to kiss you, to ordain and grant by the authority of this present Parliament, that every of your said lieges, in doing of their said homage, may omit the said kissing of you....

A NOBLEMAN REQUESTS A LICENCE FOR A SHIP TO CARRY PILGRIMS (1445).

=Source.=--Ellis's _Original Letters_, Second Series, vol. i., pp. 110, 111.

+To the King our Sovereign Lord.+

Please it unto your Royal Majesty of your grace especially to grant unto John Earl of Oxford, owner under God of a ship called the _Jesus of Orwell_, that the said ship, without any fine or fee to be paid unto you, may have licence, in the worship of God and of St. James, to make the first voyage unto St. James[12] with as many persons as therein would thitherward take their passage. Considering that by cause of the loss of another ship ... the said Earl hath done upon the said ship great cost to make it the more able to do you service and to withstand your enemies in time of need.

_Endorsed_--Donné à n're Palais de Westm. le xxviij jour de Feverer, l'an etc xxiij. [February 28, 1445.]

[12] The shrine of St. James of Compostella.

THE DISCOMFORTS OF PILGRIMS AT SEA (_circa_ 1445).

=Source.=--_Early Naval Ballads_, vol. ii., pp. 1-4. (Percy Society.)

Man may leve all gamys, That saylen to Seynt Jamys; For many a man hit gramys,[13] When they begyn to sayle. For when they have take the sea, At Sandwyche or at Wynchylsee, At Brystow,[14] or where that hit bee, Theyr herts begyn to fayle.

Anone the mastyr commaundeth fast To hys shyp-men in all the hast, To dresse hem soon about the mast Theyr takeling to make. With "howe! hissa!" then they cry, "What, howte! mate, thou stondyst too ny, Thy fellow may not hale the by;" Thus they begyn to crake.

* * * * *

Thus menewhyle the pylgryms ly, And have theyr bowls fast theym by, And cry after hot malvesy, "Thow helpe for to restore."

And some wold have a saltyd tost, For they myght ete neyther sode ne rost; A man myght soon pay for theyr cost, As for one day or twayne. Some layde theyr bookys on theyr knee, And read so long they myght nat see, "Allas! myne head woll cleve in three!" Thus seyth another certayne.

Then commeth owre owner lyke a lorde, And speketh many a royall worde, And dresseth hym to the hygh borde, To see all things be well Anone he calleth a carpentere And biddeth hym bryng his gere, To make cabans here and there With many a fabyl cell.

A sak of straw were there ryght good, For some must lyg them in theyr hood; I had as lefe be in the wood, Without mete or drynk, For when that we shall go to bedde, The pump was nygh our bedde hede, A man were as good to be dede, As smell thereof the stynk.

[13] Troubles.

[14] Bristol.

CONCERNING PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS (1445).

=Source.=--_Statutes of the Realm_, 23 Henry VI., c. 14.

_The statute recites 1 Henry V. c. 1 (see p. 13), and 8 Henry VI. c. 7 (see p. 35), then proceeds_:

... By force of which statutes elections of knights to come to Parliament sometimes have been duly made and lawfully returned until now of late that divers sheriffs, for their singular avail and lucre, have not made due elections of knights, nor in convenient time, nor good men and true returned, and sometime no return of the knights, citizens and burgesses lawfully chosen to come to the Parliaments; but such knights, citizens, and burgesses have been returned which were never duly chosen, and other citizens and burgesses than those which by the mayors and bailiffs were to the said sheriffs returned; and sometimes the sheriffs have not returned the writs which they had to make elections of knights to come to the Parliaments, but the said writs have imbesiled, and moreover made no precept to the mayor and bailiffs, or to the bailiffs or bailiff, where no mayor is, of cities and boroughs, for the elections of citizens and burgesses to come to the Parliaments, by colour of these words contained in the same writs--"_Quod in pleno comitatu tuo eligi facias pro comitatu tuo duos milites, et pro qualibet civitate in comitatu tuo duos cives et pro quolibet burgo in comitatu tuo duos burgenses_;" and also because sufficient penalty and convenient remedy for the party in such case grieved is not ordained in the said statutes against the sheriffs, mayors, and bailiffs, which do contrary to the form of the said statutes: The King considering the premises hath ordained by Authority aforesaid, that the said statutes shall be duly kept in all points: and moreover that every sheriff, after the delivery of any such writs to him made, shall make and deliver without fraud a sufficient Precept under his seal to every mayor and bailiff, or to bailiffs or bailiff where no mayor is, of the cities and boroughs within his county, reciting the said writ, commanding them by the same precept, if it be a city, to choose by citizens of the same city, citizens; and in the same manner and form, if it be a borough, by burgesses of the same to come to the Parliament. And that the same mayor and bailiffs, or bailiffs or bailiff where no mayor is, shall return lawfully the precept to the same sheriffs by indenture betwixt the same sheriffs, and them to be made of the said elections, and of the names of the said citizens and burgesses by them so chosen; and thereupon every sheriff shall make a good and rightful return of every such writ, and of every return by the mayors and bailiffs, or bailiffs or bailiff where no mayor is, to him made.

HENRY VI. REFORMS THE GRAMMAR SCHOOLS OF LONDON (1446).

=Source.=--_Excerpta Historica_, p. 5. (London: 1833.)

Henry by the grace of God King of England and of France and Lord of Ireland: To our Chancellor of England greeting. Forasmuch as the right reverend father in God the Archbishop of Canterbury and the reverend father in God the bishop of London, considering the great abuses that have been of long time within our city of London that many and divers persons, not sufficiently instructed in grammar, presuming to hold common grammar schools in great deceit as well unto their scholars as unto the friends that find them to school, have of their great wisdom set and ordained five schools of grammar, and no more, within our said city. One within the churchyard of St. Paul's, another within the collegiate church of St. Martin, the third in Bow church, the fourth in the church of St. Dunstan in the East, the fifth in our hospital of St. Anthony within our said city; the which they have openly declared sufficient, as by their letters patent thereupon made it appeareth more at large. We, in consideration of the premises, have thereunto granted our royal will and assent. Wherefore we will and charge you that hereupon ye do make our letters patent under our great seal in due form, declaring in the same our said will and assent, giving furthermore in commandment by the same our letters unto all our subjects of our said city that they nor none of them trouble nor hinder the masters of the said schools in any wise, but rather help and assist them inasmuch as in them is. Given under our privy seal at Guildford the 3rd day of May, the year of our reign xxiiij.

THE FRENCH RECOVER FOUGÈRES (1449).

=Source.=--"Le recouvrement de Normendie," par Berry, Herault du Roy, printed in _Reductio Normannie, pp. 245 et seq._ (Rolls Series, 1863.)

[+Note.+--The author of this and other extracts relating to the loss of Normandy was Jacques le Bouvier, surnamed Berry, the first King-of-Arms of Charles VII. of France.]

The duke of Bretagne everywhere sent to all his subjects, well-wishers, friends and allies, asking them to be so good as to help him to avenge himself upon the English, and to help him to recover his town of Fougères. And on this occasion to please the said duke of Bretagne, M. Jehan de Bressay, knight, a native of the country of Anjou, Robert de Flocques, esquire of the country of Normandy, bailly of Evreux, Jacques de Clermont, esquire of the country of Dauphiné and lord of Mannay, and Guillaume le Vigars, esquire, made the attempt to take the town and castle of Pont de l'Arche, on the river Seine, by means of a merchant of Louviers who often took a cart by the said Pont de l'Arche to go to Rouen, which is about four short leagues above it.... And the said merchant, with two others, upon a day in the month of May, being the Thursday before the Ascension of our Lord, set out from Louviers and went to take his cart, as he had often done, through the town of Pont de l'Arche, pretending that he was taking merchandize to Rouen; and in passing he asked the porter of the castle to be so good as to open the gate of the castle for him very early next morning, and he would give him a good gratuity, for he made him believe that he wished to return speedily to Louviers for some merchandize. And so the merchant passed through the town; and he returned about the hour of midnight, accompanied by many of the said ambuscade on foot; and they lodged at an inn in the country, adjoining the castle. They entered into the said inn secretly, where they found the wife in bed alone, (who was exceedingly terrified), for her husband was absent on his business. And when it drew near daybreak, the said merchant went all alone to call the said porter, who came to open the gate of the castle and the bulwark for him, as he had promised the day before; and immediately two persons came out of the inn to come to the bulwark along with the merchant, of whom the said porter was apprehensive when he saw them approach. But the said merchant told him that they were people of Louviers, and then he was satisfied. Then the merchant entered with all his wares, leaving the cart upon the bridge until such time as he had thrown upon the ground for his (the porter's) reward, two bretons and a placque; and as he was stooping to gather them, the merchant killed him with a dagger.... The men of the castle heard the noise, and an Englishman came down in his night-shirt, (a handsome fellow, young and brave), who attempted to raise the bridge of the said castle, because he saw that the said bulwark was already lost; but the said merchant hastened to go to him, and killed him before he could raise the bridge, which was a pity, for he was one of the bravest and most active young men of his party. And thus the castle was won.

And then all the foot-soldiers went along the bridge making great shouts, to enter the town which they took; for the greater part of the inhabitants were still in their beds, excepting one Englishman, who valiantly and for a long time defended the gate of the bridge, to hinder them from entering; but in the end he was killed and the town taken.

HOW THE KING OF FRANCE DECLARED WAR AGAINST THE ENGLISH, AND WHY; AND OF THE CAPTURE OF VERNEUIL (1449).

=Source.=--"Le recouvrement de Normandie," printed in _Reductio Normannie, pp. 254 et seq._ (Rolls Series, 1863.)

The King of France was duly informed of the war which the English made upon the realm of Scotland, which was comprehended in the truce; and also of the war which they made by sea upon the King of Spain, his ally, who was also in the said truce; and in like manner upon his subjects of La Rochelle and Dieppe, and elsewhere.... For as long as the truce had continued, the English came from Mantes, Verneuil and Loigny upon the roads from Paris and Orleans, robbing and murdering the merchants and the honest people who were travelling along the roads ... and they went by night to their houses in the open country, and took prisoners in their beds the gentlemen who were of the party of the King of France, cut their throats and murdered them vilely in their beds. And it was their custom to cut the throats of these gentlemen during the said truce. And these malefactors were called _False-Faces_, because, when they did these things, they disguised themselves with disorderly and frightful dresses and headpieces, painted with various colours, and other clothes, so that they should not be known....

At this time a miller of the town of Verneuil who had his mill opposite the walls of the town, was beaten by an Englishman who was going the rounds, because he was asleep at his post. And for revenge he went to the bailly of Evreux, and, after a certain treaty made between them, he promised that he would admit him within the said town. Hereupon assembled messire Pierre de Bressay, seneschal of Poitou, the said bailly of Evreux, Jacques de Clermont and others. They came on horseback and found themselves on Sunday 19th July in this year, at break of day, near the walls of the said town. The said miller (who had been on watch that night) made the others who kept watch with him go down from the wall sooner than usual, because (in order to accomplish his purpose) he made them believe that, as it was Sunday, they should hasten to go, the bell having rung for Mass. By the help of the miller the French placed their ladders to the right of the wall, and entered the town without anyone noticing them. Six score Englishmen were within, of whom some were slain and taken prisoners, and the others betook themselves in great haste to the keep of the castle.

THE BATTLE OF FORMIGNY (1450).

=Source.=--"Le recouvrement de Normendie," in _Reductio Normannie_, pp. 333 _et seq._ (Rolls Series.)

... On the fifteenth of April they (the French) came up with the English in a field near a village named Formigny, between Carentan [Triviers] and Bayeux. And when the said English saw and perceived them, they put themselves in order of battle, and sent very hastily for the said Matthew Gough, who had left them that morning to go to Bayeux, and he immediately returned. And then the French and the English were one in the presence of the other, for the space of three hours, skirmishing. And in the meantime the English made large holes and trenches with their daggers and swords before them, in order that the French and their horses should stumble if they attacked them. And at the distance of a long bowshot behind the English there was a little river between them, with a great abundance of gardens full of various trees, as apples, pears, elms, and other trees; and they encamped in this place because they could not be attacked in the rear.

And in the meantime the lord of Richmond, Constable of France, the lord of Laval, the lord of Loheac, marshal of France, the lord of Orval, the marshal of Bretaigne, the lord of Saint-Severe, and many others set out from Triviers, where they had slept that night, and joined them, to the number of three hundred lances, and the archers. And when the said English saw them come, they left the field, and the troops marched and came to the river to place it behind them; for they were afraid of the Constable's company, who had slept the night at a village named Triviers, and had put himself in order of battle upon the arrival of the said English at a wind-mill above the said Formigny. And then marched the troops of the said lord of Clermont and his company, in which were from five to six hundred lances and the archers, and they charged the said English, as did also those of the said Constable, who crossed the river by a ford and a little bridge of stone. And there they attacked the English on both sides very bravely, so that in the end they discomfited them close by the said river.

And there there were killed, by the report of the heralds who were there, and of the priests and good people who buried them, three thousand seven hundred and seventy-four English.

A FATHER'S COUNSEL (+April 30, 1450+).

=Source.=--_Paston Letters_, vol. i., No. 91.

["Whoever has read this affecting composition will find it difficult to persuade himself that the writer could have been either a false subject or a bad man."--+Lingard.+]

_The Duke of Suffolk to his Son._

+My dear and only well-beloved Son+,

I beseech our Lord in Heaven, the maker of all the world, to bless you, and to send you ever grace to love him, and to dread him; to the which, as far as a father may charge his child, I both charge you, and pray you to set all spirits and wits to do, and to know his holy laws and commandments, by the which ye shall with his great mercy pass all the great tempests and troubles of this wretched world. And that also, wittingly, ye do nothing for love or dread of any earthly creature that should displease him. And there as any frailty maketh you to fall, beseech his mercy soon to call you to him again with repentance, satisfaction, and contrition of your heart never more in will to offend him.

Secondly, next him, above all earthly thing, to be true liege man in heart, in will, in thought, in deed unto the King our most high and dread Sovereign Lord, to whom both ye and I be so much bound to; charging you, as father can and may, rather to die than be the contrary, or to know any thing that were against the welfare or prosperity of his most royal person, but that as far as your body and life may stretch, ye live and die to defend it, and to let his highness have knowledge thereof in all the haste ye can.

Thirdly, in the same wise, I charge you, my dear son, as ye be bound by the commandment of God to do, to love, to worship your lady and mother, and also that ye obey always her commandments, and to believe her counsels and advices in all your works, the which dread not but shall be best and truest to you. And if any other body would stir you to the contrary, to flee the counsel in any wise, for ye shall find it nought and evil.

Furthermore, as far as father may and can, I charge you in any wise to flee the company and counsel of proud men, of covetous men, and of flattering men, the more especially and mightily to withstand them, and not to draw, nor to meddle with them, with all your might and power. And to draw to you and to your company good and virtuous men, and such as be of good conversation, and of truth, and by them shall ye never be deceived, nor repent you of. Moreover, never follow your own wit in no wise, but in all your works, of such folks as I write of above, ask your advice and counsel; and doing thus, with the mercy of God, ye shall do right well, and live in right much worship, and great heart's rest and ease. And I will be to you as good lord and father as my heart can think.

And last of all, as heartily and as lovingly as ever father blessed his child in earth, I give you the blessing of our Lord and of me, which of his infinite mercy increase you in all virtue and good living. And that your blood may by his grace from kindred to kindred multiply in this earth to his service, in such wise as after the departing from this wretched world here, ye and they may glorify him eternally among his angels in heaven.

Written of mine own hand

The day of my departing from this land

Your true and loving father +Suffolk+.

THE MURDER OF THE DUKE OF SUFFOLK (+May 5, 1450+).

=Source.=--_Paston Letters_, vol. i., No. 93.

+Right worshipful Sir+,

I recommend me to you, and am right sorry of that I shall say, and so washed this little bill with sorrowful tears, that on these ye shall read it.

As on Monday next after May day there come tidings to London that on Thursday before the Duke of Suffolk come unto the coast of Kent full near Dover with his two ships and a little spinner; the which spinner he sent with certain letters to certain of his trusted men unto Calais wards, to know how he should be received; and with him met a ship called _Nicolas of the Tower_, with other ships waiting on him, and by them that were in the spinner the master of the _Nicolas_ had knowledge of the duke's coming. And when he espied the duke's ships, he sent forth his boat to know what they were, and the duke himself spake to them, and said, he was by the King's commandment sent to Calais wards, etc.