Chapter XIX: Introduction (18)

His personal beauty, his success in war, the familiarity of his manners, his splendid household, and the share which he allowed himself to take in the commercial enterprise of the day, endeared Edward to the burgher class, and rendered him on the whole a popular monarch. But beneath this splendid exterior there existed a pitiless cruelty, a selfishness which sought its gratification in unbounded license, and which was ready to crush relentlessly any, however nearly related to himself, who crossed his path. The mixture of sensuality, love of the new state of society, mingled with political selfishness and cruelty, remind us rather of the character of an Italian tyrant than of an English king. The character of the monarchy which he established was also different from that which had hitherto been seen in England. It has been usual to name the reign of Henry VII. as that in which this change began. It is true that that Prince and his successors completed it; but already there are visible all the elements of that peculiar despotic government resting upon popular favour, which is the characteristic of the Tudor rule. In all respects Edward is the popular King. The old nobility had for the most part been destroyed. As around the Buonapartes of modern time, a new nobility of relatives or personal friends of the King had begun to be called into existence. The balance of the Constitution had been changed by the removal of the Baronage, the great check on the royal power, which now stood, as it were, face to face with the Commons, who were as yet unfitted to make head against it. The practice of tampering with the elections had ruined the independence of Parliament. The Church, no longer in sympathy with the nation, sought to secure their wealth by devotion to the Crown. The King thus found no class sufficiently strong to check his prerogative. For a time, therefore, the constitutional advance of the preceding century was lost, and the government of England was practically despotism. At the same time, as the disturbances caused by the Wars of the Roses were not yet wholly over, and a short period of rapid revolutions intervenes before the final establishment of the constitutional change now begun, it is more convenient to adopt the old division, and to place the epoch of the new monarchy at the Battle of Bosworth.

EDWARD V.

1483.

RICHARD III.

1483-1485.

Born, 1450 = Anne of Warwick.
|
Edward. Died 1484.

CONTEMPORARY PRINCES.

_Scotland._ | _France._ | _Germany._ | _Spain._
| | |
James III., | Charles VIII., | Frederick III., | Ferdinand, } 1479.
1460. | 1483. | 1440. | Isabella, }

POPES.--Sixtus IV., 1471. Innocent VIII., 1484.

_Archbishop._ | _Chancellor._
|
Thomas Bouchier, 1454. | John Russell, 1483.

[Sidenote: Edward’s reign a revolution.]

[Sidenote: State of parties.]

Edward V. was between twelve and thirteen when he came to the throne. His reign, which lasted from the 9th of April to the 26th of June, was entirely occupied by a short and not very intelligible revolution, which terminated in the accession of his uncle, Richard of Gloucester. On the death of Edward IV., the state of parties was rather complicated. In the period of success which followed his restoration in 1471, he had collected round him counsellors from all parties, although chiefly inclined to the new nobility. His friends were thus divided into three sections--the Queen and her family, the most prominent members of which were Anthony, Lord Rivers; Grey, Earl of Dorset; his brother Sir Richard Grey, and Lord Lisle, who seem to have worked in unison with the Chancellor, Cardinal Rotheram, Archbishop of York, and Morton, Bishop of Ely: there were, secondly, the new nobility, of whom Hastings and Stanley were the representatives: and, thirdly, a certain number of the older nobles led by Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, and Sir John Howard. The two latter sections were full of jealousy of the Queen’s party, in which feeling Richard joined. But his real connection was with Buckingham and the old nobles. His first step was, by a union of the other two parties, to overthrow the influence of the Queen. This he immediately proceeded to do.

[Sidenote: Richard first overthrows Queen’s party.]

As the young King was being brought to London for his coronation, under the care of Rivers and Grey, to whom his education had been intrusted, and under whose charge he had lived at Ludlow, Richard and Buckingham, with 900 men, appeared upon their line of march at Northampton. Rivers and Grey, conscious of the advantage which the appearance of the King in London would give them, were unwilling to come to an open quarrel, and sent Edward forward to Stony Stratford, while they went to pay their respects to Gloucester, who had taken the oath of allegiance, and hitherto put on all the appearance of loyalty. The two Lords were taken prisoners at Northampton, and Richard and Buckingham suddenly advancing to Stratford, by the rapidity of their movements dispersed 2000 men who accompanied Edward, and took possession of him. The news spread dismay in London. The Queen, her son Richard and her daughters, with Lord Lisle and the other Grey, took sanctuary at Westminster; while Hastings calmed men’s minds by assuring them of Richard’s loyalty, that he had only withdrawn the King from the pernicious influence of his relations, and that he would speedily appear with him to crown him. Upon Richard’s appearance, therefore, everything at first went on in the regular order.

[Sidenote: Is made Protector.]

According to precedent, Richard was appointed Protector or President of the Council. With the exception of the removal of Rotheram, and the appointment of Russell, Bishop of Lincoln, in his place, no important changes were made, and the Parliament was summoned, and the coronation appointed for midsummer.

[Sidenote: Quarrels with the new nobles.]

[Sidenote: Hastings’ death and fall of his party.]

Having thus vanquished one party, Richard determined to get rid of his other rivals also, and to rest exclusively upon Buckingham and the old nobles. The coronation was settled for the 22nd of June, when suddenly Richard despatched a messenger, Sir Richard Ratcliffe, to the North, where he was much beloved, bidding the people hasten to his aid, as the Queen was aiming at the life of himself and Buckingham. There is no proof of any such conspiracy. But the quarrel between the two sections of the Council is marked by the fact that they met apart, Hastings and his followers at St. Paul’s, Richard, Buckingham, and their friends, at Crosby Place. They were however all joined on the 13th of June in the Tower, when Richard suddenly appeared with angry and suspicious countenance, charged the Queen and Jane Shore, the King’s mistress, who now lived with Hastings, with aiming at his life by sorcery, in proof of which he exhibited one of his arms, which was smaller than the other, and included Hastings in the charge. At a given signal armed men entered the chamber, and Hastings, Stanley, and the Bishops of York and Ely, were apprehended. Hastings was beheaded without trial on the spot.

[Sidenote: Richard, with Buckingham’s help, secures the crown.]

This _coup d’état_ was immediately followed up. The people were summoned to the Tower, where Buckingham and Richard appeared in rusty armour, as though in their extreme necessity they had taken it from the armoury. Jane Shore was compelled to do penance through the streets of London. The Queen was persuaded by the Archbishop of Canterbury to surrender the young Prince Richard. And news arrived that, both in the North and in Wales, the people had risen for Richard. At the same time Grey and Rivers, hitherto kept prisoners in Northampton, were beheaded. It only remained for Richard to find some pretext for assuming the crown. He felt the necessity of forestalling the coronation, which would probably have withdrawn from him the protectorate, and have brought a commission of regency into power. On the very day that the coronation was to have been held, Dr. Shaw, brother of the Mayor of London, was put up to preach at Paul’s Cross. He took for his text, “The imperfect branches shall be broken off, their fruit unprofitable,”[100] and proceeded to expatiate upon the lax life of the late King; and moreover, to renew the charge which Clarence had once made, that that King was himself illegitimate. As for the present Princes, he asserted that they too were bastards. According to him, before Edward’s marriage with Elizabeth Woodville, he had been engaged to Lady Eleanor Talbot; by the laws of the Church, therefore, his subsequent marriage was void, and the King and his brothers illegitimate. He drew attention to the want of resemblance between Richard of York and Edward IV., and the close likeness which existed, on the other hand, between Richard and the Protector. At this moment the Protector made his appearance, expecting that the crowd would cry, “Long live, King Richard!” But the charges were too new and surprising; he was received in perfect silence. The failure of this attempt induced him to repeat it; and two days after, Buckingham came to Guildhall, and there addressed the people in a similar strain. He was determined to take no refusal, and upon a few cries of approbation, commanded the people to follow him to Baynard’s Castle, where Richard then was. The Parliament was just assembling, a number of Lords and representatives from the Commons joined the crowd, and enabled him with some show of truth to draw up a petition called “The choice and prayer of the Lords spiritual and temporal and the Commons of England,” in which, after recapitulating his story, he requested Richard to accept the crown. After some show of resistance, Richard accepted the petition, and took solemn possession of the throne at Westminster Abbey on the 26th. That this choice was by no means unanimous is plain from the order issued, commanding the inhabitants of London to keep within their houses after ten o’clock, and forbidding the wearing of arms.

[Sidenote: Richard’s policy of conciliation.]

[Sidenote: His strong position.]

Having once secured the throne, the object of Richard seems to have been to heal, as far as possible, the wounds that the war had made. John Lord Howard was the one of his followers whose reward was the most striking. His mother having been a Mowbray, he was made Duke of Norfolk and hereditary Marshal of England. The prisoners the King had taken, in company with Hastings, were released, and with strange and rash magnanimity, Stanley was given the office of Constable of England, while Morton of Ely, an old Lancastrian, whose influence he seems to have underrated, was sent to reside in a castle in the West of England. He even caused the body of Henry VI. to be removed from Chertsey Abbey to Windsor, as though the breach between the families was healed. The King was crowned in London, and then proceeded to make a progress through England. He had every reason to think his position was a good one. The people everywhere received him with a fair show of good-will. In York, where he was a second time crowned, his reception was enthusiastic. His foreign relations were also promising. It is true that the recognition of France was somewhat brief and grudging; but with the young Philip of Burgundy there was an amicable correspondence; while Queen Isabella of Castile congratulated him heartily on having removed the stain of his brother’s degrading marriage, and desired a close alliance with him against France, the chief reason perhaps of her show of affection.

[Sidenote: Weak points in it.]

[Sidenote: Disaffection in the South.]

But, though all at first seemed so promising, Richard soon learnt that it was not for him to pass unopposed into the position of a peaceful governor of a united England. The injury he had done the memory of his late brother, the cold-heartedness with which he had pushed aside the nephew of whom he was the guardian, and who with his brother was kept in secret confinement in the Tower, revived the old affection with which the South of England had regarded Edward IV. Moreover, the Queen’s party was not destroyed, while Richard’s own generosity had left at liberty supporters of the old state of affairs. Consequently the whole South of England, from Kent to Devonshire, showed signs of an intended insurrection.

[Sidenote: Death of the Princes.]

It was just at this moment, and perhaps in the hope of removing those around whom disaffection might centre, that the King caused the report to be spread that the young Princes had disappeared from the Tower. It is needless to enter into a discussion as to their fate. The picturesque story which represents them as smothered beneath their bedclothes is the creation of the next age. Indeed, the popular view of the events of this reign and of the character of Richard is derived almost wholly from Sir Thomas More’s life of him. All that contemporary writers mention is that the Princes disappeared, and were probably killed. Comines, the French historian, an excellent observer, says simply that Richard had the Princes killed in the Tower. And the fact that all those who had the charge of them, even down to Forest, the warden, were rewarded, makes it almost impossible that this should not have been the case.

[Sidenote: Projected marriage of Elizabeth and Richmond.]

[Sidenote: Defection of Buckingham.]

The effect was not what Richard expected. The friends of his late brother and of the Queen became still more anxious to preserve the old stock, and, probably at the suggestion of Morton, a Lancastrian who had found favour in Richard’s sight, the project of a marriage between Edward’s daughter Elizabeth and the young Richmond began to be discussed. The conspiracy soon proved to be very widespread, and it must have been a terrible surprise to Richard to hear that his chief friend and accomplice, Buckingham, had declared for the house of Lancaster. That nobleman’s motives are not clear, but he probably found that the party of the old nobility, of which he was the leader, was no better off under Richard than it had been under Edward. Like other men of a tyrannical turn of mind, Richard had found his chief support in obsequious followers, and Ratcliffe, Catesby, and Lovel were his real advisers and friends. The Duke, therefore, an unprincipled and very ambitious man, thought he saw his advantage in becoming a principal agent in the restoration of the exiled house. It is probable, also, that the influence and skill of Morton, with whom he had been in communication, may have had something to do with it.

[Sidenote: Richmond’s first invasion.]

[Sidenote: Death of Buckingham and failure of the conspiracy.]

News was also brought to Richard that the young Richmond, who after Tewkesbury had fled with his uncle to Brittany, and had there become the centre of the Lancastrian party, was meditating a descent on England. Richard displayed his usual energy. He called on the men of York, on whom he could rely, to meet him at Leicester; hastily wrote to the Archbishop of York to send him the Great Seal, an unconstitutional act which Russell did not resist; put a price on the head of Buckingham; and appointed, as though sure of victory, a vice-constable to superintend any summary executions that might be necessary. Meanwhile, Kent, Surrey, Berkshire, Wiltshire, and Devon had risen, and Grey, Lord Dorset, had declared for Henry Tudor in Exeter. It was the intention of Buckingham, who was in Wales, to form a junction with the Southern leaders. For this purpose it was necessary to cross the Severn. But Sir Humphrey Stafford had broken the bridges, the floods were out, and the river impassable. His Welsh followers deserted, and Buckingham was obliged to fly. He sought a refuge with a dependant of his own in Shropshire, of the name of Banister, by whom he was betrayed. After vain entreaties for a personal interview with Richard, and for a legal trial, he was summarily executed. Richmond’s part of the conspiracy had been an equal failure. His fleet had been scattered by a storm. He himself reached Plymouth, but the news of the failure of Buckingham, and the appearance of the King in the South, before whose approach all the gatherings of the rebels dissolved, induced him to return to Brittany.

[Sidenote: Parliament and great confiscation. 1484.]

Again undisputed master of England, Richard summoned a Parliament to meet him in January. As was usual when one party was predominant, it proved to be devoted to the Government. Richard’s special favourite, Catesby, was chosen for speaker, and all Richard’s claims to the throne were declared to be just. Nor was this all: the oath of allegiance was demanded from all the adult population of England; and a huge bill of attainder and confiscation, mentioning more than 500 names, was passed. As the King was allowed to regrant the confiscated property, he was enabled to fill the southern counties with northern proprietors devoted to his cause; while with questionable wisdom, as it afterwards appeared, he sought to purchase the fidelity of the Stanleys, by giving to Lord Stanley, her present husband, the property of the Countess Margaret of Richmond, who was included in the bill of attainder.

[Sidenote: Continued schemes of Richmond.]

[Sidenote: Richard’s efforts to oppose him.]

[Sidenote: Attempts to win the Queen.]

[Sidenote: Death of the Prince of Wales. Lincoln declared heir.]

But though defeated in his first efforts, her son, Henry Tudor, continued his preparations abroad. It was in vain that Richard, by promising Francis of Brittany his assistance against France, and by bribing the all-powerful minister Pierre Landais, succeeded in procuring Henry’s dismissal from Brittany. He fled to the Court of Charles VIII. of France, where he was well received, and where the Lancastrian exiles gathered round him. Richard felt that all his efforts were necessary to oppose this Prince. He collected troops, demanded ships from the Cinque Ports, attempted a reconciliation with the Queen Dowager, by allowing her with her daughters to leave the sanctuary at Westminster, and contemplated a marriage between his own son Edward and her eldest daughter Elizabeth, a marriage which would have been the death blow to the Lancastrian party. He succeeded moreover in procuring a three years’ truce with Scotland, and the promise of a marriage between the Duke of Rothesay, the heir to the Scotch crown, and his niece.[101] The most important part of his plan was frustrated by the untimely death of his son, which plunged him in the deepest grief. But he strove to supply his place by nominating his nephew John de la Pole, the Earl of Lincoln, his heir.

[Sidenote: General uneasiness in England. 1485.]

[Sidenote: His recourse to benevolences.]

Meanwhile the feeling of uneasiness increased. Lancastrian emissaries moved to and fro through the country. Clifford and some others of them were apprehended and put to death. But the evil was too great to admit of a speedy remedy. Libels were freely scattered through the country; among others the well-known couplet, “The rat, the cat, and Lovel the dog, rule all England under the Hog,” a plain allusion to his chief friends, Ratcliffe, Catesby and Lovel. William Collingbourne, its author, was captured and put to death. But libels increased in number, especially when there seemed to be grounds for asserting that, though his wife was still living, he was himself thinking of a subsequent marriage with the Princess Elizabeth of York. The opportune illness and death of his wife, and, it may be, the love[102] felt for him by the Princess, added such an air of truth to the story, that, at the instigation of his best friends, he was induced to make a public contradiction of it before the Common Council in London. His finances, too, were in disorder. Free-handed and ostentatious, he had speedily spent the wealth which his brother’s avarice had accumulated; and though he had himself caused a bill to be passed to put an end to benevolences, he was reduced to have recourse to that illegal method of taxation which the people in bitter jest termed the raising of malevolences.

[Sidenote: Richmond lands at Milford.]

[Sidenote: Conduct of the Stanleys.]

[Sidenote: Battle of Bosworth. Aug. 22.]

He was however prepared, when Richmond, supported by the French, made his second attempt upon England. But unfortunately for Richard, treason was at work among his own followers, and the Stanleys, without principle, without gratitude, and with a constant eye to their own aggrandizement, were in secret alliance with their young kinsman the Lancastrian Prince. At length the invasion came. The place of landing, which had been kept a profound secret, was Milford Haven: for the Tudor thought it prudent to enlist the national prejudices of the Welsh in his favour. The Leopard of England and the Dragon of Wales floated side by the side on his standards. He advanced in safety to Shropshire; and the Welsh leaders joined him, as well as the Talbots of Shrewsbury. Richard had assembled his forces in the centre of England. Northumberland brought him troops from the North, Howard from the South, Brackenbury from London, Norfolk from the East. But it was very doubtful what part the Stanleys would take; and it was through the county where they were powerful, both as proprietors and as the King’s governors, that Richmond had to pass. Lord Stanley demanded leave to go to his county; but the King, whose suspicions had been raised, insisted on his leaving his son Lord Strange as a hostage. Pleading illness, Lord Stanley had refused to join Richard, and with 5000 men retired before the invader, whom his brother Sir William had now openly joined. In August the armies approached one another in the neighbourhood of Atherstone. Richard then threw aside all doubts. He ordered Lord Strange to be beheaded, and felt that the struggle must be a final one. Lord Strange’s keepers, however, thought it well to await the issue of the battle before carrying out the command: and in the middle of the struggle, Lord Stanley, who, afraid for his son’s life, had kept aloof with his troops, suddenly joined Richmond. This turned the fortunes of the day; and in spite of the greatest personal bravery, Richard’s army was completely beaten, and himself killed.

[Sidenote: Richard’s character and laws.]

His character has been the subject of much discussion, nor is this strange. Had he lived in times of greater security, he would have been an able and admirable governor. Several of the enactments of his reign attest his wisdom and his love of justice. He recognized the evil of benevolences, and forbad them, although necessity drove him to have recourse to them. His efforts were much directed to the re-establishment of justice, to support which he had caused a bill to be passed, to secure the respectability of jurymen, by forbidding any but freeholders to the amount of 40s. from serving in that capacity. He restrained the lawlessness of the barons by the suppression of liveries; and while promising to uphold the liberties of the Church, had shown that he would not allow any interference with the civil power. He had also fostered the trade of England by opening fresh markets for English wool both in Spain and in Iceland. His personal character, too, was attractive. With beautiful though peculiar features, he was liberal and at times forgiving to the verge of folly. He had pardoned and extended constant favour to the wives and families of his political victims. In spite of his strange charge of adultery against her, he had been always a dutiful and affectionate son to his mother. The gentle side of his disposition is perhaps shown by his passionate love of music. But the troublous times in which he lived called out all his worst characteristics; and for political ends he had shown himself scheming, cold, and cruel; while the tyrannical temperament, which could brook no opposition, hurried him into deeds of violence which were the proximate cause of his downfall.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: Political condition of the nation.]

It is necessary, as the border-land is thus reached between modern civilization and that of the middle ages, to say a few words on the political condition of the nation, which allowed of the establishment of the personal monarchy of the Tudors, and of the social state of the people from which modern forms of civilization were to spring.

During the earlier part of the Lancastrian rule, Parliament, and especially the House of Commons, had apparently continued to rise in power. The Constitutional growth of the fourteenth century had been continued. The Commons had secured the unquestioned right of originating money bills, not to be altered by the House of Lords, nor discussed in the presence of the King. They had secured the right not only of recommending in petitions, but also of joining as an equal estate of the realm in the passing of laws. They had succeeded during the reign of Henry VI. in preventing any changes in the form of their petitions (which had not unfrequently been introduced when, after the session, the petition was enrolled), by bringing in complete Statutes, called Bills, to be rejected or accepted as a whole, instead of their old petitions. They had, in several instances, practised unquestioned the right of impeachment, and claimed, with some degree of success, the freedom of their members from arrest, even during the recess of Parliament. But in spite of this apparent advance, the real power of the Parliament before the close of the Wars of the Roses had almost disappeared. A statute in the eighth year of Henry VI. limited the franchise, with regard to the election of knights of the shire, to freeholders of lands or tenements to the value of forty shillings. This at once gave an aristocratic tone to the House. In addition to this it had become the fashion both of the nobility and of the Crown to tamper with the elections. With the new restricted franchise, the power of local magnates in the county elections was predominant, while, as regards the boroughs, the sheriffs exercised a power of summoning burgesses from such towns only as they pleased, and it was not difficult for the Crown or ruling party to bring the sheriffs under their influence. While the House of Commons thus lost its independence, the old Upper House had been virtually destroyed, and the new nobility was by its very nature dependent on the Crown. Another most important element of freedom had likewise disappeared. The great Churchmen, to whom the liberties of England owe so much, had been victorious over their enemies the Lollards. In the struggle they had lost their sympathy with the people. Their desire for the spiritual welfare of the country had shrivelled to a selfish eagerness for the preservation of orthodoxy. They had been drawn into closer communication with Rome, and had begun to share its interests. Cardinal Beaufort, in spite of all opposition, had succeeded in retaining his Roman rank, and it had become habitual that the Archbishop of Canterbury at least should bear the title of Cardinal. Wealthy, worldly and self-seeking, the leaders of the clergy were inclined to devote themselves to political life; and, conscious of the alienation of the lower orders, and fearing for their property, which had already excited the envy of the laity, and which, while confiscation was reducing the nobles to beggary, had remained almost untouched, they sought employment and safety in becoming the devoted servants of the King.

At the same time that the practical efficiency of the Parliament had been decreasing, the power of the King’s Council had been on the increase. The limits of its rights, springing as it did from the Concilium Ordinarium of the Plantagenet kings, had always been questionable, and its encroachments, in meddling with the petitions of the Lower House, and in issuing ordinances without the consent of Parliament, which had yet the authority of temporary laws, had been constantly objected to by the Commons. The long minority of Henry VI., during which the chief direction of the Government had been almost unavoidably in the hands of the Council, had tended greatly to increase its power.

[Sidenote: Effects of the Wars of the Roses.]

Nevertheless, though constitutional growth had been checked, and the Commons had politically lost ground, the Wars of the Roses did not produce that complete exhaustion and depopulation of the country which might have been expected. The population appears to have been little, if at all, decreased, the number of inhabitants was still between three and four millions. In fact, it must be remembered that the broken hostilities of these wars did not on the whole amount to much more than three years of actual warfare; that the armies were in the field only for short consecutive periods, were usually few in number, and composed of untrained men, who returned, immediately their short service was over, to the cultivation of the fields. Thus the destruction and turbulence seemed to pass over the head of the great bulk of the population. Nor is this all. During the whole continuance of the war, the ordinary apparatus of justice was uninterrupted; courts were held, and judges went their circuit as usual. Indeed, it would seem to have been a period of unusual litigation, attended no doubt often with violence. For as property rapidly changed hands the titles to it became insecure, and the process therefore by which a title was questioned was frequently the violent dispossession of the present holder. But still it was to the courts of law that the ultimate appeal was made. Again, although the loss of France and the exclusive attention to home politics greatly diminished the national strength upon the sea, trade does not appear to have been seriously damaged. At all events, it was so kept alive, that upon the establishment of peace it revived with fresh vigour; and we are told that Edward IV. himself engaged in the pursuit. This trait is characteristic not only of the man but of the time. The pursuit of trade had risen greatly in estimation; great traders had become nobles, and Suffolk, the prime minister, was an example of the height to which such families might rise. From the decay of noble families, and other more permanent causes, land had been necessarily brought into the market. Wealthy traders had purchased it, set up for landowners, and aimed at the dignity of knighthood. At the same time, the secondary gentry of the country, taking advantage of the decline of the nobility, found means in the midst of the disturbances to increase their property and influence. In spite therefore of the apparent insignificance of Parliament, the middle classes were in a vigorous and improving condition.

[Sidenote: Changes in the lower classes.]

Lower down in the social scale the case was somewhat different. Serfdom had indeed almost disappeared, and existed only here and there in isolated cases. Free labour for wages had become general, and land was largely held by payment of money rents. Thus far there was improvement. But the change from slavery to personal freedom is always purchased at a somewhat heavy price--that price is the existence of poverty; it is no longer incumbent on employers to look after the wellbeing of free labourers; in time of want they are thrown upon their own resources. The new possessors of the soil too were inclined to work it to better profit than their predecessors had done; grazing became more common and employment proportionately scarcer. The unemployed labourer had two courses open to him: he might betake himself to the towns, or join the ranks of the rapidly increasing class of beggars. He there found himself in company of numbers of idle and needy men who took advantage of the disturbed state of the country. Discharged soldiers and sailors, and vagabonds who called themselves travelling scholars, were so plentiful, that as there was as yet no poor law in existence, stringent enactments were made against them. The number of those punished for crimes of lawlessness and violence was enormous. Fortescue describes with pride how the poor Englishman, seeing others possess what he wanted, would never scruple to take it by violence rather than be without it. Those of the unemployed labourers who preferred to seek the towns went to increase the crowd of journeymen, whose position could not have been very enviable. For the guild system was breaking down and giving place to the more modern arrangements of unlimited competition. The craft guilds, which in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries had triumphed over the merchant guilds and aristocratic citizens of the towns, had speedily begun to deteriorate. The object for which they were founded was to secure for all members of the craft a fair chance of livelihood, without the danger of destructive competition. This object implied that the guild was co-extensive with the trade, and that its members were themselves craftsmen, carrying on their work with their own hands, with the assistance of apprentices. But a crowd of enfranchised villeins and unemployed labourers had gathered in the towns, and formed a class of journeymen or day-labourers, and the guild, originally a corporation of working men, changed gradually into an exclusive body of capitalists. Moreover, even within their own limits, their principles had failed as early as the reign of Edward III. We hear, for instance, of certain pepperers, who, separating themselves from their guild, became grocers [grossers] or general dealers. In other words, as individuals accumulated capital, they refused to have their enterprise limited by the guild laws; and thus setting up as independent capitalists, began to introduce the same relations between employer and employed which exist at present. Under these circumstances the unincorporated journeymen found the restrictions of the guild an obstacle in the way of advance, and were exposed to all the evils of an eager competition.

[Sidenote: Influence of the Renaissance.]

While thus the political position of the different orders was giving room for a temporary establishment of almost absolute monarchy, but at the same time allowing the formation of that middle class which was to overthrow it, and while the exclusive system of the middle ages was giving way to the modern relations of labour, the new culture, the existence of which more than anything else separates the middle ages from modern times, was beginning to make its way. As the leader in this direction Humphrey of Gloucester may be mentioned. In spite of his turbulent and disorderly character, he was a sincere lover of literature. He was in communication with several of the greater Italian scholars. More than one classical translation was dedicated to him. He carried his love of inquiry so far that he is believed to have dabbled in magical arts; and it is generally reported that his books, which he left to Oxford, were the nucleus of the present great library there. He did not stand alone in his literary tastes. Tiptoft the Earl of Worcester was likewise impregnated with Italian learning, and, among the newer nobles, Lord Rivers gave distinguished patronage to the art of printing, which Caxton introduced into England in the year 1469. Altogether, it would seem that among the upper classes the rudiments of learning were beginning to be widely spread, and that the laity were gradually becoming sufficiently cultivated to rival the Churchmen, and to take their proper part in the government of the country. It may be observed as an indication of this that Henry VI.’s reign was marked by the foundation of Eton, and that several considerable colleges were founded both in Oxford and Cambridge during the century. It is probable that these were chiefly intended as defences for orthodoxy, the teaching being as yet confined to the worst form of scholasticism.

[Sidenote: Change in the military system.]

It is strange, immediately after the great civil war, and before the outbreak of nautical energy under the reign of Queen Elizabeth, to meet with constant complaints of the degeneracy of the English as soldiers. But it seems as if changes in the military system, and the love of money and luxury which accompanied the Renaissance, were really producing their effects. Archery was giving way to the use of gunpowder; and we meet with statutes fixing the price of bows, and enacting general practice of archery, which clearly show that the use of the national weapon had to be artificially fostered. There was considerable difficulty in collecting a sufficiency of troops before the Battle of Bosworth, and Caxton writes to Richard III. a deplorable account of the decay of knighthood, to be cured, as he thinks, by the reintroduction of tournaments and the perusal of chivalrous romances. A change in warfare was, in fact, going on in Europe, which called into existence abroad standing armies, and the effect of which was felt in England, though circumstances postponed the establishment of a regular army some time longer. It was thus amid the general weakness in all classes except the Crown, and during the development of great social changes, that the Tudor sovereigns found it possible to establish that peculiar personal monarchy which occupies the transition period between mediæval and modern times, and under the shadow of which the various classes regained strength for the subsequent re-establishment of the Constitution.

ENGLAND UP TO
1066.

_Oxford & Cambridge._]

INDEX

Acre, siege of, 119;
taken by Richard I., 120

Adela, daughter of Robert of Flanders, marries Cnut, 54

Ælfgar, son of Leofric, given Harold’s earldom of the East Angles, 22;
succeeds his father as Earl of Mercia, 23

Ælfgyfu, wife of King Edwy, 12, 13

Ælfric, Ealdorman of the Mercians, deserts Wiltshire and Salisbury, 17

Æthelbald, son of Æthelwulf, marries Judith, 6;
conspires against his father, 6

Æthelberht, Bretwalda, King of Kent, first Christian king, 3

Æthelberht, King of Wessex and Kent, 6

Æthelflæd, daughter of Alfred, Lady of the Mercians, 9;
her castles, 10

Æthelfrith, King of Northumbria, 2

Ætheling, legitimate son of the royal family, 34

Æthelmær, brother of Stigand, Bishop of the East Angles, 49

Æthelred, King of Wessex and Kent, repels the Danes, 7

Æthelred the Unready, his enmity to Dunstan, 15;
his weak rule, quarrels with Cumberland and Normandy, 16;
marries Emma, massacres the Danes, 17;
flies to Normandy, is recalled and restored, 18;
dies, 19

Æthelstan, son of Eadward, incorporates Bernicia, his supremacy
acknowledged by Scotland, 11

Æthelwine, Bishop of Durham, receives Robert de Comines, 46;
deprived and outlawed, 49;
at Hereward’s camp, 50;
made prisoner, 51

Æthelwulf, King of Wessex, fights against the Danes, forms a
connection with Rome, divides his kingdom, 6

Agriculture, the early system, 28;
ignorance of, causes famine, 72;
neglected, 87;
effect of the Black Death on, 229;
sheep farms, 256;
improvement in, 267
Aldan, missionary from Iona, 4

Alan Fergant of Brittany joins Philip of France against William I.,
marries William’s daughter Constance, 53;
his son joins Matilda, 82

Alexander II. of Scotland, swears fealty to John, 132

Alexander III. of Scotland, swears fealty to Edward 1., 172;
dies, 181

Alexander II., Pope, sends a ring and banner to William I., 25

Alexander III., Pope, acknowledged by France and England, lives at
Sens, 94;
anxious to secure Henry II.’s friendship, gives Becket slight
support, 96;
receives him on his flight from England, returns to Italy,
Frederick of Germany still refuses to acknowledge him,
intercourse forbidden by Henry II. between him and England, 98;
appoints legates to examine Becket’s case, 99;
removes the excommunications, 100;
he suspends Becket, 100;
sends a commission, 100;
after Becket’s death sends legates for a formal inquiry, 101;
Henry II. promises adhesion to, 103

Alfred the Great, anointed at Rome, 6;
conquers the Danes at Ashdown, 7;
makes peace, 7;
improves the fleet, 8;
flies from the Danes, 8;
defeats them at Edington, 8;
makes the Treaty of Wedmore, 8;
establishes supremacy over Northumbria, 9;
his character, 9

Alfred, son of Æthelred, retires to Normandy, 19;
returns to Essex and is murdered, 21

Alice, sister of Philip II., quarrel concerning, 112;
repudiated by Richard I., 118

Allodial proprietor, or freeman, 33

Alphege, Archbishop of Canterbury, killed by the Danes, 18;
reburied with honour by Cnut at Canterbury, 20

Amiens, award of, 162

Angles, come from Sleswig, 1;
settle in England, 2

Anjou [see Fulk and Geoffrey], Henry II. conquers, 91

Anselm, Fitz-Arthur, delays the funeral of William I., 55

Anselm, Abbot of Bec, made Archbishop of Canterbury, 61;
reforms the Church, opposes William II., William accuses him of
remissness in an expedition against Wales, 62;
he retires to Rome, 62;
recalled by Henry I., 63;
threatens to excommunicate Robert’s friends, 65;
swears fealty to Matilda, 69;
asserts the independence of the Church, goes to Rome, submits to a
compromise at Bec, holds a synod at Westminster, 71

Appellants, impeach the friends of Richard II., 248

Appellants against Gloucester promoted, 252;
deprived, 276;
conspire against Henry IV., 277

Armagnacs, quarrel with Burgundians, 284-290;
have charge of the war, 292

Army, house-carls, 20;
militia, 25;
javelins and axes the national weapons at Battle of Hastings, 26;
arrows at Battle of the Standard, 80;
change in character of, 225, 227;
raised by contract, 268

Arras, congress of, 314

Artevelt, alliance with Edward III., 219;
offers to make Prince of Wales Count of Flanders, murdered, 224

Arthur, son of Geoffrey of Brittany, guardianship claimed by
Philip II., 111;
supported by Longchamp, 121;
Richard I.’s recognition of, not renewed, supported by Philip, 126;
does homage to him, deserted by him, 127;
besieges Queen Eleanor, 128;
his death, 129

Arundel, Bishop of Ely, Chancellor, 247;
deposed, 249;
Archbishop of Canterbury, banished, 252;
supports Henry IV., 254;
deprived of his chancellorship, 288

Arundel, Lord, one of the Lords Appellants, 248;
arrested, 251;
executed, 252

Ascough, minister under Suffolk, 318;
executed, 320

Assize of Clarendon and of Northampton, 106, 108

Augustine, the Missionary, comes to England, 3

Auxerre, Treaty of, 284;
its effect, 290

Badby; burnt, 288

Bagsecg, a Danish leader, 7

Baldwin of Flanders takes Philip II. prisoner, 124

Baldwin of Redvers rebels against Stephen, 79

Balliol, John, claims the Scotch throne, 182;
decided by Edward I., 183;
his position, 183;
his rebellion, 185

Balliol, Edward, first invasion of Scotland, 216;
second invasion, 217

Bamborough, founded by Ida, 2;
Mowbray besieged in, 59

Banking-houses of Italy, 179;
of Bardi, 224

Bari, Council of, 62

Barons of the Exchequer, 75, 106;
assessed the taxes, 114

Battles--
Agincourt, 295
Arsouf, 120
Assandun, 19
Auray, 234
Aylesford, 2
Bannockburn, 203
Basing, 7
Beaugé, 301
Blore Heath, 325
Boroughbridge, 207
Bouvines, 136
Bramham, 282
Brenneville, 68
Brentford, 19
Brunanburh, 11
Châlons, 172
Cressy, 225, 227
Cricklade, 10
Deorham, 2
Dol, 104
Dunbar, 185
Edington, 8
Ellandune, 5
Englefield, 7
Evesham, 167
Ferrybridge, 328
Formigny, 319
Halidon Hill, 217
Hastings, 26
Heathfield, 3
Hedgeley Moor, 329
Hengestesdun, 5
Herrings, the, 308
Hettin, 111
Hexham, 329
Ipswich, 18
Lewes, 163
Lincoln, 83, 142
Maldon, 16
Maserfield, 4
Merton, 7
Mortimer’s Cross, 327
Mount Badon, 2
Navarette, 235
Neville’s Cross, 228
Northampton, 325
Ockley, 6
Orford, 19
Otterbourne, 249
Pataye, 310
Pen Selwood, 19
Poitiers, 231
Puysac, 67
Radcot, 248
Reading, 7
Rochelle, 236
Sherstone, 19
Shrewsbury, 280
Stamford Bridge, 26
Sluys, 220
St. Albans, 323, 327
St. Cloud, 284
Swanage, 8
Tenchebray, 66
Tewkesbury, 335
The Standard, 80
Thetford, 7
Towton, 328
Verneuil, 305
Wakefield, 327
Wilton, 7, 84

Basset, the Justiciary, hangs forty-four thieves at one Court, 74

Beauchamp, Guy, second Earl of Warwick, opposes Gaveston, 200;
beheads him, 202

Beauchamp, Thomas, fourth Earl, one of the Lords Appellant, 248;
arrested, 251;
exiled, 252

Beauchamp, Richard, fifth Earl, succeeds York in France, 315

Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, quarrels with Gloucester, 306;
lends troops to Bedford, 311;
legate, attacked by Gloucester, 312;
at Arras, 314;
visits Edinburgh, 315;
head of peace party, 316;
dies, 318

Beaumont, Robert, Count of Mellent, good adviser of William I.
and II., 62;
supports Henry I., his large property, 65;
dies, 68

Beaumont, Waleram, Count of Mellent (son of Robert), opposes the
Church, 81, 82;
offers the crown to Theobald, 83

Beaumont, Robert, Earl of Leicester (second son of Robert), offers
the crown to Theobald, 83;
joins Henry of Anjou, 85;
left in charge of England, 91;
ordered to pronounce sentence against Becket, 98;
joins the Great Rebellion, 104

Beaumont, Henry de (no relation to Counts of Mellent), favourite of
Edward II., 201, 204

Bec, compromise at, 71

Beck, Anthony, Bishop of Durham, agent of Edward I., 172;
sent to Scotland, 181

Becket, first employed by Archbishop Theobald, 91;
made Chancellor, 92;
his magnificence, arranges Prince Henry’s marriage, 92;
joins in Henry II.’s war with France, 93;
made Archbishop, 95;
changes his life, resigns his temporal offices, 95;
upholds the encroachments of the Church, case of Philip Brois, 95;
accepts the Constitutions of Clarendon, then retracts, 95;
his reason for objecting, summoned to a council at Northampton, 96;
charges against him, 97;
his courage, leaves the court before judgment is given, and escapes
to Gravelines, 98;
puts himself under the protection of Louis VII., 98;
favourably received by the Pope, 98;
he excommunicates his enemies, retires to Sens, 99;
meets the legates, but refuses to retract, suspended by the Pope,
repeats his excommunications, 100;
Henry yields, but refuses the kiss of peace, 100;
at Fretheval he receives the kiss and a safe-conduct to England,
returns, and continues his excommunications, his death, 101;
Henry does penance at his shrine, 105;
his bones removed to Canterbury Cathedral, 143

Bedford. [See John.]

Belesme, Robert de, son of Roger of Montgomery, opposes
William II., 57;
quarrels with Grantmesnil, 58;
succeeds his brother Hugh as Earl of Shrewsbury, 59;
constant opponent of Henry I., his great possessions, 65;
Henry takes four castles from him, 66;
he retires to Normandy, 66;
taken prisoner by Henry at Bonneville, 67;
his cruelties, 73

Benedictine rule, introduced into England by Dunstan, 15;
abbey established at Chester by Anselm, 61

Bercta, Christian wife of Æthelberht, 3

Berengaria, daughter of Raymond of Barcelona, betrothed to
Richard I., 93;
marries him, 118

Bernicia, a division of Northumbria, 2;
conquered by Æthelstan, 11;
made an earldom by Dunstan, 15

Bigod, Roger, supports Henry I. against Robert, 65

Bigod, Hugh (son of Roger), takes the Earldom of East Anglia
(Norfolk), 79;
declares for Henry II., 86;
surrenders castles, 91;
joins the Great Rebellion, 104

Bigod, Roger, fourth Earl of Norfolk, one of the council, 159

Bigod, Hugh (his brother), escapes, 164

Birinus, converts Wessex, 4

Black Death, 229;
its effect on labour, 267

Black Prince, at Cressy, 227;
his expedition, 229;
at Poitiers, 231;
in Aquitaine, 234, 285;
illness, 236;
his political party, 239;
dies, 240

Blanche of Castile, engaged to Louis, 127;
rules France, 145;
defeats Henry, 148

Blanchelande, Treaty of, 52

Blanchetaque, ford of, 225, 293

Bocland, explained, 31

Bohun, third Earl of Hereford, refuses to command the army for
Guienne, 187

Bohun, fourth Earl, marries daughter of Edward I., chief of the
baronial party, 202;
killed, 207

Boniface of Savoy, Archbishop of Canterbury, 151;
wastes his see, 154;
lives abroad, 158;
collects an army, 164

Borough, origin of, 32

Bouchier, Robt., 1st lay chancellor, 221, 239

Bouchier, Thomas, archbishop and chancellor, 322

Breakspear, the only English Pope, Adrian IV., 90;
grants Ireland to Henry I., 91

Brember, Sir Nicholas, impeached, 248;
executed, 249

Brétigny, Peace of, 233

Bretwalda, title of the dominant chief, 2

Brian Fitz-Count, grandson of William I., holds Wallingford for
Matilda, 82;
attests her oath, 83;
defends Wallingford against Stephen, 85

Brihtnoth, fights the Battle of Maldon, 16

Brihtric, brother of Eadric Streona, 17

Britons expel the Romans, 1;
invite the Saxons, 1;
their possessions in the West, 3;
independent north of the Dee, 5

Brittany, suzerainty of, given up by Louis VI. to Henry I., 67;
Henry II. gets a hold upon it by securing Nantes, 92;
Earl Conan grants it to Henry II, 99;
does homage to France, 127;
alliance with England, 145;
disputed succession in, 222;
war in, 243;
alliance with Henry V., 298;
with France, 307;
with England, 307;
with France, 313;
receives the Tudors; 336;
banishes them, 347

Bruce, claim to the Scotch throne, 182;
an English judge, 191

Bruce, Robert, grandson of the claimant, 191;
murders Comyn, crowned, 192;
reconquers Scotland, 199;
wins Battle of Bannockburn, 203;
his offer of peace rejected, 204;
excommunicated, 205;
truce with, 206;
promises help to the rebel barons, 207;
title acknowledged by Edward II., 208;
war with Edward III., marriage treaty, 214;
dies, 216;
his use of infantry, 227

Bruce, Edward, accepts the throne of Ireland, 204;
killed, 205

Buckingham. [See Stafford.]

Burgundy, Duke of (uncle of Charles VI.), disputes power with
Orleans, 280

Burgundy, John, murders Orleans, 282;
negotiates with Henry V., 291;
holds aloof from the war, 292;
joins the Queen’s party, 298;
deserts Rouen, 299;
murdered, 300

Burgundy, Philip, son of John, negotiates with Henry V., 300;
alliance with Bedford, 304;
alliance weakened by Gloucester, 305;
obtains the Netherlands, 306;
renewed alliance, 307;
quarrel with Bedford, 312;
alliance with France, 314

Burgundy, Charles the Bold, marries Margaret, sister of
Edward IV., 331;
alliance with Edward against France, 337;
death of, 336

Burgundy, Mary of, proposals of marriage for, 336;
marries Maximilian, dies, 339

Burhred, King of Mercia, 7, 8

Burnell, Chancellor, 172;
his advice, 179

Cade, Jack, his rebellion, 320

Calais, siege of, 228

Calne, Dunstan’s synod at, 15

Calverley, general of the Free Companies, 234

Castles, built by Eadward, the nucleus of towns, 10;
built by William I. as garrisons, 43, 45-47;
set up in Wales, 59;
Wales kept in subjection by, 70;
multiplied in Stephen’s reign, a sign of anarchy, 80;
tortures perpetrated in them, 87;
number of, 90;
put down by Henry II., 90

Catesby, favourite of Richard III., 345;
speaker of his Parliament, 346;
couplet on him, 347

Catherine of France, marries Henry V., 300

Caxton, introduces printing, 353

Ceawlin, a Bretwalda, 2

Cenwulf, Christian king of Mercia, 4

Ceolwulf, a Danish agent, king of Mercia, 8

Ceorl, or freeman, 29

Cerdic, a Saxon leader, 2

Chancellor of the Exchequer, his duties, 75;
head of the secretaries, 106

Chandos, English general in France, 234, 235

Charlemagne corresponds with Offa, 5;
checks the Danes, 5

Charles d’Albret, Constable of France, 292;
his character, 293

Charles IV. demands homage of Edward II., 209

Charles VI., accession, 234;
foments rebellion in Aquitaine, 235;
his daughter marries Richard II., 251;
his madness, 290;
dies, 302

Charles VII., becomes Dauphin, 298;
rescued by Duchâtel, 299;
succeeds to the throne, 302;
character of, 304:
crowned at Rheims, 310;
enters Paris, 315

Charter, the Great. [See Magna.]

Charter of Henry I., 64;
of Stephen, 78

Chartres, treaty of, 189

Chateau-Gaillard, taken by Philip, 129

Chaucer, 271, 273, 274

Chester, conquered by Ecgberht, 5;
a Danish burgh, 8;
taken by William, 48;
made a Palatine county, 51;
constant fighting with Wales, 58

Chicheley, Archbishop of Canterbury, persecutes the Lollards, 289;
grants money for the French War, 291

Chinon, peace of, 136;
renewed, 143

Church, organized by Theodore of Tarsus, 4;
increased importance of, 14;
Dunstan’s reforms, 15;
its important position at the time of the Conquest, 36;
marriage of the clergy permitted, 36;
ecclesiastical and secular jurisdiction separated, 38, 49;
its national character, 48;
William I. tries to Romanize it, 38, 48;
marriage of the clergy forbidden by Lanfranc, 49;
William I. head of, 49;
general improvement of, 50;
oppressed by William II., his bad appointments, 60;
archbishopric vacant four years after Lanfranc’s death, 61;
want of discipline in, 61;
Anselm defends ecclesiastical rights, 62;
his reforms, 62;
Irish and Scotch bishops acknowledge the supremacy of
Canterbury, 62;
laymen forbidden to confer investitures, 62;
dispute between Anselm and Henry I. as to the supremacy of the
Church or State, 71;
ends in a compromise at Bec, 71;
decrees against abuses in the Church at a synod at Westminster, 71;
its civilizing power, 71;
continued bad appointments in, 72;
its influence secures Stephen the throne, 77;
its great power, 78;
offended by Stephen, espouses Matilda’s cause, 81, 82, 83;
mediates a compromise between Stephen and Prince Henry, 86;
gives scutage in Henry II.’s wars with Wales, 91;
and with France, 93;
abuses arising from the clergy not being amenable to the secular
courts, 94;
claims upheld by Becket, 95, 96;
Richard I.’s ransom chiefly paid by, 123;
dispute as to the election of archbishops, 130;
interdict in John’s reign, 131;
money extorted from, 133;
rights secured by Magna Charta, 138;
supports De Burgh, 143;
Langton resists Papal tyranny, 144, 146, 147;
society formed against foreign priests, 148;
opposes Des Roches, 150;
joins the lay opposition, 152;
revival in, 153;
foreign priests, 155;
Papal extortions, 158;
Statute of Mortmain, 175, 196;
half their property demanded by Edward I., 185;
refuses further grants, 186;
outlawed, 187;
represented in Parliament, 194;
quarrel with Edward II., 209;
Edward III. attempts to exclude the Bishops from Parliament, 221;
begins to be disliked by the people, 238, 239;
attacked by Wicliffe, 245, 267;
Statute of Provisors, 250;
hated by the people, 266;
supported by Henry IV., 284;
persecutes the Lollards, 289;
urges Henry V. to the French war, 290;
grants him the incomes of priories held by foreigners, 291;
remains prosperous during the war, 318;
retains its property during the Wars of the Roses, 340;
loses spirituality and sympathy with the people, 350

Cistercian order, Henry II. threatens to expel it for receiving
Becket, 99

Clare, Richard de, Earl of Gloucester, head of the Barons, 159;
quarrels with De Montfort, 161;
commands the baronial party, dies, 162