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Humphrey
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Humphrey

articles, but denied others. Finally, after witnesses had been examined, she 'submitted her only to the correction of the bishops.' On 13 Nov. she appeared again to receive the sentence of penance and imprisonment. For three days she perambulated London streets bareheaded and with a burning taper in her hand, which she offered at various churches. She was then committed to the ward of Sir Thomas Stanley, one hundred marks a year being assigned for her maintenance, and was at first imprisoned in Chester Castle (Devon, Issue Rolls of the Exchequer, p. 441; Ellis, Original Letters, 2nd ser. i. 105; but cf. Wyrcester, p. 763). In October 1443 she was transferred to Kenilworth (Fœdera, xi. 45; cf. Devon, pp. 447-8). In July 1446 she was imprisoned in the Isle of Man (Ord. P. C. vi. 51). She is said to have been imprisoned in Peel Castle until her death. Bolingbroke was hung and quartered, the witch of Eye, another of Eleanor's allies, was burnt, and Southwell died in the Tower. Humphrey, daring not to intervene, 'took all things patiently and said little' (Grafton, p.588, ed. 1569).

A trace of Gloucester's influence may be found in the petition of the parliament of 1442 that noble ladies should be tried by their peers in the spirit of Magna Carta (Rot. Parl. v. 26). Gloucester, although chiefly occupied with literature, still urged his old policy, and seems to have pressed the Armagnac marriage as a counter-scheme to the plan of Beaufort to marry Henry VI to Margaret of Anjou. But he reconciled himself to the triumph of his enemies, welcomed Margaret on her arrival in England, and even proposed in the House of Lords a vote of thanks to Suffolk for his exertions in concluding the match (ib. v. 73). He made, however, a long oration in the parliament of 1445 urging the violation of the truce (Polydore Vergil, pp. 69-70, Camden Soc.) But Henry VI was now thoroughly prejudiced against him, and Suffolk was a more active and less scrupulous enemy than the aged cardinal. In giving audience to the great French embassy in 1445, the young king publicly rejoiced over Gloucester's discomfiture (Stevenson, i. 111), and Suffolk informed the envoys privately that if Gloucester had the wish to hinder the establishment of peace he no longer had the power (ib. i. 123). Henry gradually grew to fear that Gloucester had some designs against his person. He denied his uncle his presence and strengthened his body-guards (Giles, Chron. p.33; Whethamstead, i. 179). Some efforts were made to call Humphrey to account for his protectorship. Hall believed that he actually was accused, but made a clever defence, and was acquitted (Chronicle, p. 209). Waurin says that he was driven from the council (Chron. 1431-7, p. 353).

Affairs came to a crisis in 1447. Parliament met at Bury on 10 Feb., but Humphrey was not present. The king was carefully guarded. It was reported that Gloucester was in Wales stirring up revolt (Engl. Chron. p.62). But he was really on his way to the parliament, suspecting no evil, and hoping to secure a pardon for Eleanor Cobham (Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles, p. 150). He was attended by fourscore horsemen, mostly Welsh. On 18 Feb. he rode by Lavenham to Bury. About half a mile from the town he was met by a royal messenger, who ordered him to go straight to his lodgings. The duke entered the Southgate at about eleven o'clock, and rode through the ill-omened Dead Lane to his lodgings in the North Spital of St. Saviour's on the Thetford Road. After he had dined, the Duke of Buckingham and other lords came to him, one of whom, Lord Beaumont, put him under arrest. In the evening some of his followers were also arrested, and most of the rest during the next few days. The duke was kept in strict custody and fell sick. On Thursday, 23 Feb., at about three in the afternoon, he died. Next day his body was exposed to the lords and knights of the parliament and to the public. The corpse was then enclosed in a leaden coffin and taken with scanty attendance by slow stages to St. Albans, where a `fair vault' had already been made for him during his life. On 4 March he was buried on the south side of the shrine of St. Albans. A 'stately arched monument of freestone, adorned with figures of his royal ancestors,' was erected by Abbot Whethamstead. It is figured in Sandford's `Genealogical History,' p. 318, and Gough's `Sepulchral Monuments,' iii. 142. In 1703 the tomb was opened, and the body discovered 'lying in pickle in a leaden coffin' (Gough, iii. 142).

Gloucester's servants were accused of conspiracy to make their master king, and of raising an armed force to kill Henry at Bury (Fœdera, xi. 178). Five were condemned, one of whom was his illegitimate son Arthur (Gregory, p. 188), but at the last moment they were pardoned by the king's personal act. The suddenness of the duke's death naturally gave rise to suspicions of foul play; but friends of the duke, like Abbot Whethamstead (Reg. i. 179) were convinced that his death was natural. His health, ruined by debauchery, had long been weak. His portraits depict him as a worn and prematurely old man. He had already been threatened with palsy (Hardyng, p. 400), and the sudden