music, and fired with the torches of Venus herself’ (Vita, pp. 12, 15). Another fifteenth-century account says: ‘In his youth he had been wild and reckless, and spared nothing of his lusts or desires, but as soon as he was crowned suddenly he was changed into a new man, and all his intent was to live virtuously’ (Cotton. MS. Claud. A. viii. f. 11; see also Walsingham, u. s.; Livius, p. 4; Capgrave, Chr. p. 303; Hardyng, p. 372; Fabyan, p. 577). It is clear that Henry's conduct as prince was marked by some youthful follies; ‘they were, however, the frolics of a high-spirited young man, indulged in the open air of the town and camp; not the deliberate pursuit of vicious excitement in the fetid atmosphere of a court’ (Stubbs, Const. Hist. iii. 77). His youth was spent in the battle-field and council chamber, and the popular tradition (immortalised by Shakespeare) of his riotous and dissolute conduct is not supported by any contemporary authority. The most striking incident in the tradition, his defiance of Gascoigne and his committal by the judge to prison, first appears in Sir Thomas Elyot's ‘Governour,’ 1531, whence it was borrowed in its main outlines by Hall (Chronicle, p. 46; Holinshed, p. 543, where it is made the occasion of the prince's dismissal from the council). Shakespeare obtained his knowledge of it from Hall. It is impossible that such a story should have escaped notice for over a century, and the addition supplied by Shakespeare (Second Part of Henry IV, act v. sc. 2), that the prince on becoming king bade the chief justice ‘still bear the balance and the sword,’ is contrary to fact, for shortly after Henry's accession to the throne on 29 March Sir William Hankford [q. v.] was appointed to succeed Gascoigne, who naturally vacated his office on the accession of a new king [see under Gascoigne, Sir William].
So far at least as regards his public life, Henry's career was consistent throughout. In the administration of state affairs he had always identified himself with the policy of the Beauforts, as opposed to his father's favourite adviser, Archbishop Arundel. On the day after his accession (21 March) he made Henry Beaufort chancellor; the Earl of Arundel was at the same time appointed treasurer, no doubt with the intention of conciliating his powerful family.
The parliament which had been summoned previous to the death of Henry IV became the first parliament of his successor, but did not meet till 15 May. Supplies were promised to meet the expenses of government, and complaint was made of the weakness of the late reign (Rot. Parl. iv. 3–14). Henry on his part granted a general pardon; negotiations were opened for ransoming the young heir of the Percies from the Scots; the Earl of March was given his liberty, and taken into the royal confidence; while the remains of Richard II, Henry's earliest benefactor, were given honourable burial at Westminster in December. These judicious acts showed that the enmities of the past reign were to be forgotten. The first year of the new reign was chiefly remarkable for the movement among the lollards. The lollard leader, Sir John Oldcastle, on refusing to accept Archbishop Arundel's citation, was arrested by the king, and brought before the archbishop on 23 Sept. His condemnation, after a long discussion, and a fruitless interview with the king himself, was almost immediately followed by his escape from the Tower (Walsingham, Hist. Angl. ii. 291–7; see Pauli, Geschichte von England, v. 81–7). All efforts to recapture him were unavailing, the threatened lollard rising began to take a practical shape, and a conspiracy was formed to seize Henry and his brothers while spending Christmas at Eltham. This was frustrated by the king's hasty removal to Westminster. The lollards then called a great meeting, to be held in St. Giles's Fields on 7 Jan. 1414, but Henry averted the danger by his resolute vigour. The gates of London were closed to prevent any disaffected citizens passing out, while the king in person occupied the fields with a strong force. Some minor actors in the movement were arrested and punished. Oldcastle himself escaped for the time, but was captured and executed during the king's absence in France in 1418 [see under John, Duke of Bedford, and Oldcastle, Sir John].
The parliament of 1414 met at Leicester on 30 April; its chief measures were a new statute against the lollards, and the confiscation of the alien priories. According to one account, Chichele, who had succeeded Arundel as archbishop in February, advocated a war with France as a means of foiling the lollards in their attacks on the church (Hall, Chron. p. 49; a similar statement appears in Cott. MS. Claud. A. viii. f. 11 b, where, however, no date is given, and Chichele's name is not mentioned, but the bishops are alleged to have urged the war as a means of diverting Henry from an intended reform of the church). Hall's statement is undoubtedly inaccurate [see under Chichele, Henry], but it is probable that the king's claims on France were broached, for on 31 May the bishops of Durham and Norwich, with Richard, lord Grey of Codnor, were accredited as ambassadors to negotiate for a peace with France (Fœdera, ix. 131). Negotiations had
