Chapter II: Preface

The tract on the Personality of King Henry VI (as I may perhaps be allowed to call it), which is here reprinted, has hitherto been almost inaccessible to ordinary students. It is not known to exist at all in manuscript. We depend ultimately for our knowledge of it upon a printed edition issued by Robert Coplande of London, of which the date is said to be 1510. Of this there may be two copies in existence. This text was reprinted by Thomas Hearne in 1732, in his edition of the Chronicles of Thomas Otterbourne and John Whethamstede, of which 150 copies were issued.

I have here reprinted Hearne's text, and have collated it with Coplande's. This I was enabled to do through the great kindness of the authorities of St Cuthbert's College at Ushaw, who most generously lent me a copy of the tract preserved in their Library. This copy I will endeavour to describe.

It is in a modern binding lettered: _Hylton's Lives of British Saints. Blackman's Life of Henry VI_. The pressmark is

XVIII
C 4
7

The size is 185 × 130 mm. There are 32 lines to a full page.

_Collation_: A6 B4.

_Signatures_: A I (2 not signed): A III (4-6 not signed).

B I (2 not signed): B III (4 not signed). Ab I _a_ has the title at top:

¶Collectarium Mansuetudinum et bono-
rum morum regis Henrici. VI. ex col-
lecti[=o]e magistri Joannis blak
man bacchalaurei theo
logie / et post Car
tusie monachi
Londini.

Below this is a woodcut measuring 99 × 76, and representing a bearded king in hat with crown about it, clad in ermine tippet, and dalmatic over long robe. He holds a closed book in his _R._ hand, a sceptre in his _L._: on the _L._ wrist is a maniple. His head is turned towards _R._ On _R._ a tree, plants across the foreground: a mound on _L._ with two trees seen over it.

I feel confident that the woodcut is not intended for a portrait of Henry VI, and that it really represents some Old Testament personage: but I have not attempted to trace it in other books.

It has a border in three pieces. Those on _R._ and _L._ are 115 mm. in height and contain small figures of prophets standing on tall shafts: that at bottom was designed to be placed vertically, and contains a half-length figure of a prophet springing out of foliage, and with foliage above.

On A I _b_ the woodcut is repeated without the border.

Then follows the text as given by me. After it, on B IV _a_, is Robert Coplande's device, measuring 80 × 95; a wreath of roses and leaves, comprised within two concentric circles: within it the printer's mark.

Outside in the upper _L._ corner a rose slipped and leaved: in the upper _R._ corner, a pomegranate.

Below, a scroll inscribed: Robert (_rose_) Coplande.

On B IV _b_ the woodcut of the king, without border.

Below it, in a neat hand:

R. Johnson. prec. 1d.
1523.

For the rest, the volume contains:

Capgrave's _New Legende_, beginning imperfectly in the Table

De S. Esterwino abbate. fo. xxxviii.

This is preceded by two inserted leaves of paper: on the first are the missing items of the Table, supplied in a rough hand of cent. XVI. On the second, in a hand of cent. XVIII, is:

Printed at London by Richard Pynson
Printer to the Kings Noble Grace the 20th
day of February 1516. Vid. Page 133.

Newcastle upon Tyne.

This book was found in the Town Clerk's
Office about the latter end (of) the year 1765.

(?) A P G.

At the end of the Table (before A I) is written in a hand of cent. XVI:

The abbridgement of henry the syxthes lyfe ys fastned to the ende
of this booke.

At top of A I (cent. XVI) is: T. T. Collected by Caxton.

On A VIII _b_, B II _a_ is the name (cent. XVI):

Alexander Ridley of ye brom hills.

He has written a good many marginal notes in the book.

_Collation_: Table 2 ff. A8 B4 C8 D4 E8 F4 G8 H4 I8 K4 L8 (i-iii signed) M4 N8 (as L) O4 (i-iii signed) P8 (as L) Q4 R8 (as L) S4 (i-iii signed: ii, iii both numbered i) T8 (+ 1: 4 leaves CIX-CXII on the 11000 Virgins inserted after CVII* instead of after CVIII) U6 (6 blank unnumbered) X8 (Life of S. Byrgette) Y6.

Followed by tract of Walter Hylton: 'to a deuoute man in temperall estate howe he shulde rule hym' etc. A8 B8 (leaves not numbered).

On CXIX _b_ is Pynson's device: no date.

On CXXXIII _a_ (Life of S. Byrgette) the date M.CCCCCXVI. XX Feb. On the verso Pynson's device with break in lower border.

At the end of Hylton's tract B VIII _a_ the date MCCCCCXVI last daye of Feb.

On the verso Pynson's device with break in lower border.

Hearne's preface to _Otterbourne_ (I, p. xliv) contains some interesting matter bearing on the tract, which I summarize here.

No one, he says, except John Blakman has yet written a special
life of Henry VI, and Blakman's is not an _opus absolutum_ but a
"fragmentum duntaxat operis longe majoris alicubi forte nunc etiam
latentis."

Vita haecce qualiscunque in lucem prodiit Londini A.D. M.D.X. a
Roberto Coplandio ... excusus. Eiusdem exemplaria adeo rara sunt ut
vix reperias in bibliothecis etiam instructissimis. Penes se autem
habet amicus excultissimus Jacobus Westus, qui pro necessitudine
illa quae inter nos intercedit, non tantum mutuo dedit, sed et
licentiam concessit exscribendi. Id quod feci.

West had acquired his copy by purchase, among a number of printed books formerly the property of Archbishop Sancroft.

On p. xlix Hearne tells us that Sancroft had written the following note in his copy of the tract:

Hunc libellum conscribendum curavit Henricus VIIus, cum Julio papa
II agens de Henrico VI in Sanctorum numerum referendo. De quo vide
Jac. Waraei annales H. 7. Aº 1504.

Ware (and Hearne) print the Bull of Julius, directing an inquiry into Henry's sanctity and miracles. I may add that some part of the results of this negotiation may be seen in the manuscript collection of Henry VIth's miracles preserved in the Royal MS. 13. C. VIII and in the MS. Harley 423 (a partial copy of the other), both in the British Museum.[1]

Furthermore Hearne reprints what is properly called a _Memoria_ of King Henry VI such as is to be found in a fairly large number of Books of Hours or Primers both manuscript and printed. Hearne's text is taken from _Horae_ printed by Wynkyn de Worde 1510, f. cli _a_, and is as follows.

_A prayer to holy kynge Henry._
Rex Henricus sis amicus nobis in angustia
Cuius prece nos a nece saluemur perpetua
Lampas morum spes egrorum ferens medicamina
Sis tuorum famulorum ductor ad celestia.
Pax in terra non sit guerra orbis per confinia
Virtus crescat et feruescat charitas per omnia
Non sudore uel dolore moriamur subito
Sed viuamus et plaudamus celis sine termino.
_Ver._ Ora pro nobis deuote rex Henrice.
_Resp._ Ut per te cuncti superati sint inimici.
Oremus. Presta, quesumus, omnipotens et misericors deus, ut qui
deuotissimi regis Henrici merita miraculis fulgentia pie mentis
affectu recolimus in terris, eius et omnium sanctorum tuorum
intercessionibus ab omni per te febre, morbo, ac improuisa morte
ceterisque eruamur malis, et gaudia sempiterna adipisci mereamur.
Per Christum dominum nostrum. Amen.

Here is another form, which occurs in the Fitzwilliam MS. 55 (a Norfolk book of about 1480):

_Antiphon_. Rex Henricus pauper(um?) et ecclesie defensor ad
misericordiam semper pronus in caritate feruidus pietati deditus
clerum decorauit, quem deus sic beatificauit.
_Vers._ Ora pro nobis deuote Henrice.
_Resp._ Ut digni efficiamur promissionibus Christi.
Oremus. Deus sub cuius ineffabili maiestate vniuersi reges
regnant et imperant, qui deuotissimum Henricum Anglorum regem
caritate feruidum, miseris et afflictis semper compassum, omni
bonitate clemenciaque conspicuum, ut pio (pie) creditur inter
angelos connumerare dignatus es: concede propicius ut eo cum
omnibus sanctis interuenientibus hostium nostrorum superbia
conteratur, morbus et quod malum est procul pellatur, palma
donetur et gratia sancti spiritus nobis misericordiam tuam
poscentibus ubique adesse dignetur. Qui uiuis, etc.

Yet another form is seen in a manuscript (V. III. 7) in Bishop Cosin's Library at Durham, of cent. XV late: it is written, with a good many other miscellaneous verses, at the end of the book.

O rex Henrice vincas virtute pudice
Anglorum vere cum recto nomine sexte
[Es] wynsorie natus et ibi de fonte leuatus
Atque coronatus in Westm(ynster) veneratus
Et post ffrancorum rex es de iure creatus
Post mortem carnis miracula plurima pandis
Confirmante deo qui te preelegit ab euo
Et tibi concessit plures sanare per illum
Cecos et claudos cum debilitate retentos
Atque paraliticos egrotos spasmaticosque
In neruis plures contracti te mediante
In te sperantes sanantur et auxiliantur
Et laudes domino per te semper tribuantur.
Ora pro nobis dei electe rex Anglie Henrice sexte.
Ut digni, etc.
Oremus. Omnipotens eterne deus qui electis tuis multa mirabilia
operaris: concede quaesumus ut electi tui Anglorum regis Henrici
sexti meritis et precibus mediantibus et intercedentibus mereamur
ab omnibus angustiis anime et doloribus membrorum liberemur(-ari).
Et cum illo in vita perpetua gloriari. Per, etc.

These three forms of _Memoriae_ are probably not all that exist; but they will suffice as representative specimens of the popular devotions used in honour of our Founder.

Besides the _Memoria_ Hearne gives two prayers, attributed to the King himself, and largely identical in language with that which is prefixed to Blakman's tract. He takes them from the same printed _Horae_ of 1510 whence the _Memoria_ comes. They are on p. lv _a_ and run thus:

_Two lytell prayers whiche King Henry the syxte made._

Domine Ihesu Christe, qui me creasti, redemisti, et preordinasti
ad hoc quod sum: tu scis quid de me facere vis: fac de me secundum
voluntatem tuam cum misericordia.

Domine Ihesu Christe, qui solus es sapientia: tu scis que michi
peccatori expediunt: prout tibi placere[2] et sicut in oculis tue
maiestatis videtur, de me ita fiat cum misericordia tua. Amen.
Pater noster. Aue Maria.

Of John Blacman or Blakman, the author of our tract, not a great deal is known. He was admitted Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, in 1436, and of Eton in 1447: he was Cantor of Eton College, and, as we read in the title of his book, a bachelor of Divinity, and later a Carthusian monk. But before he 'entered religion' he held an important post in University circles, for, in 1452, on the death of Nicholas Close, he was appointed by the Provosts of Eton and King's (who at that time owned this piece of patronage) Warden of King's Hall at Cambridge, that royal foundation which was eventually absorbed into Trinity College. As Warden (I quote from Mr W. W. Rouse Ball's privately printed account of King's Hall) he introduced into the College "some scheme of reorganization, which involved a division of the Society into four classes, fellows, scholars, commoners, and servi-commoners.... The scheme, whatever it was, was abandoned on Blacman's resignation" which took effect on 11 July 1457. Blacman then entered the Carthusian house of Witham in Somerset, and subsequently that of London, where he probably died. When, and for how long, he held the post of spiritual director or confessor to Henry VI, I have no evidence to show.

Of one thing about him, namely, his literary possessions, we know more. The Bodleian manuscript Laud. Misc. 154 contains two lists, one short, and one long and elaborate, of books given by him to the Witham Charterhouse. Several of these exist in the Bodleian and other libraries, and one, a notable copy of the Polychronicon, which contains the earliest known picture of Windsor Castle (and of Eton), very probably drawn by Blacman himself, has in recent years been acquired by the library of Eton College. The full list of Blacman's books is given in a separate note.

In reprinting Hearne's text I have retained his spelling, which does not correspond completely with that of Coplande's print. Hearne gives _æ_ for _e_ throughout, and expands contractions without notice. Had I had access to the original tract before Hearne's text was put into type, I should have retained the medieval spelling; but I did not think it worth while to make the change _après coup_. The actual words of the text represent Blacman as faithfully as possible; and that is the chief matter.

I need not, I think, say much by way of commending this little memorial of our Founder to the _pietas_ of the many who have owed and still owe to his bounty such pleasant and peaceful years, and such opportunities for the gaining of knowledge and the forming of friendships, as he himself never enjoyed. The evils which his weak rule brought upon England have faded out of being: the good which in his boyhood he devised for coming generations lives after him. _Pro eo quod laborauit anima eius, uidebit et saturabitur._