Henry of Monmouth, Volume 2 | Page 9

Ye Lady Spenser,
wydow to the Lord Spenser executed at Bristow, and syster to ye Duke
of York, was comytted cloase prysonner, whare she accused her brother
predict for the actor, for ye children predict; and that he sholde entend
to breake into the King's manor att Eltham ye last Crystmas by scaling
the walles in ye nighte, and there to murther ye Kinge; and, for better
proaffe hereof, that yf eyther knight or squyer of England wold combatt
for her in the quarrell, she wold endure her body to be burned yf he war
vanquished. Then W. Maydsten, one of her sqyres [undertook?] his Mrs.
quarrell with gage of his wheed [so], and was presently arrested by
Lord Thomas, ye Kyng's son, to the Tower, and his goods confyscatt.
Thomas Mowbray, Erll Marshall, accused to be privy to the same, butt
was pardoned."--Lansdown, 860 a, fol. 288 b.]
[Footnote 20: 14 Nov. 1414. MS. Donat. 4600. Reference is made there
to June 9, 1413, not three months after Henry's accession.]
[Footnote 21: 1417, July 20, at Porchester. 1418, 2 June, at Berneye.
December 1418, in the camp before Rouen. 11 June 1416.--Rymer.]
[Footnote 22: In the summer after the battle of Agincourt the King
"takes into his especial care William of Agincourt, the prisoner of his
very dear cousin Edmund Earl of March."]
These are a few among the many examples upon record of the (p. 020)
generous and noble spirit of Henry; whilst history may be challenged to
bring forward any instances of cruelty or oppression to neutralize them.
Sir Matthew Hale confessed that he could never discover any act of
public injustice and tyranny during the Lancastrian sway; and the
inquirer into Henry of Monmouth's character may be emboldened to
declare, that he can discover no act of wanton severity, or cruelty, or
unkindness in his life. The case of the prisoners in the day and on the
field of Agincourt, the fate of Lord Cobham, and the wars in France,
require each a separate examination; and in our inquiry we must not
forget the kind, and gentle, and compassionate spirit which appears to

breathe so naturally and uniformly from his heart: on the other hand,
we must not suffer ourselves to be betrayed into such a full reliance on
his character for mercy, as would lead us to give a blind implicit
sanction to all his deeds of arms. In our estimate of his character,
moreover, as indicated by his conduct previously to his first invasion of
France, and during his struggles and conquests there, it is quite as
necessary for us to bear in mind the tone, and temper, and standard of
political and moral government which prevailed in his age, as it is
essential for us, when we would estimate his religious character, to
recollect what were in that age (p. 021) throughout Christendom the
acknowledged principles of the church in communion with the see of
Rome.
On Monday, April 30, 1414, Henry met his parliament at Leicester.[23]
Why it was not held at Westminster, we have no positive reasons
assigned in history;[24] and the suggestion of some, that the
enactments there made against the Lollards were too hateful to be
passed at the metropolis, is scarcely reasonable.[25] The Bishop of
Winchester, as Chancellor, set forth in very strong language the
treasonable practices lately discovered and discomfited; and the
parliament enacted a very severe law against all disturbers of the peace
of the realm and of the unity of the church. It is generally said that the
reading of the Bible in English was forbidden in this session under very
severe penalties; but no such enactment (p. 022) seems to have been
recorded. The prelates, however, were the judges of what heresy was;
and to study the Holy Scriptures in the vernacular language might well
have seemed to them a very dangerous practice; to be checked,
therefore, with a strong hand. The judges, and other state officers, were
directed to take an oath to exert themselves for the suppression of
Lollardism.
[Footnote 23: This parliament was summoned to be at Leicester on the
29th of February, but was prorogued to the 30th of April. At this period
parliaments were by no means uniformly held at Westminster.]
[Footnote 24: In this parliament we find a petition loudly complaining
of the outrages of the Welsh.]

[Footnote 25: About this time there seems to have been entertained by
the legislature a most determined resolution to limit the salaries of
chaplains in private families. Many sumptuary laws were made on this
subject. Provisions were made repeatedly in this and other parliaments
against excessive payments to them. The origin of this feeling does not
appear to have transpired. Probably it was nothing more than a jealousy
excited by the increasing wealth