1920 DATE OF EMPEROR HENRY VIPS BIRTH 227 de tant com a lui apertenra et puet apertenir, en boene foi, toutes ces convenances et ke jamais ne venra encontre ne par lui ne par autrui et qu'il donra de ce ses letres pendans.^ If, then, Henry VI was not of age in 1264, it is clearly impossible that he should have had a son in 1262. M. van Werveke then proceeds to give various proofs showing why for different reasons Henry could not have been born in the intervening period 1262-76. Finally, he brings forward conclusive evidence in the shape of a Papal bull granting a licence for marriage within the prohibited degrees, which is dated 13 December 1274.^ That this applies to Henry VI and not to his father is proved by the fact that Henry V's wife, Margaret of Bar, did not die till November 1275. Henry VI and Beatrice of Avesnes were no doubt married some time in 1275. Hence he concludes that Henry VII was born in 1276. M. van Werveke next sets out to prove that for the first few years of Henry's reign the government was in the hands of a regency. He first quotes a letter written by Henry VII to John of Avesnes in the year 1288 or 1289, in which he says, ' Je vous prie et requier . . . que vous me voellies tenir pour excuset de 90U que je ne sui aleis a vous, pour faire hommage de ce que je doi tenir de vous, car vous saves, sire, que je ne suis mie ore en point de men cors conduire a me volentei '.^ This he considers shows clearly that at this time Henry was in tutelage. There are two characteristics of the documents of the early part of the reign which, in his opinion, establish the fact of the regency — the use of the title damoisel, and the association of Beatrice with her son. Ducange * notes
- St. Genois, Monuments anciens, torn, i, p. 602, quoted by M. van Werveke,
op. cit, p. 148. The italics are mine. ^ Quoted by M. van Werveke, p. 150, note 2, from Kaltenbrunner, Actenstucke zur Gesch. des Deutschen Reiches unter den Konigen Rvdolf I und Albrecht I (Wien, 1889), p. 77. ' Nobili viro Henrico comiti Lucceburgen. Cum summus pontifex collatis sibi in persona beati Petri ab eo, qui etema providentia celestia simul et terrena disponit, clavibus regni celestis, ligandi obtineat pontificium et solvendi, nonnunquam supra ius de iure dispensans, necessitatis vinculum, quo ad ipsius iuris observantiam cuncti tenentur, laxat provide de sue potestatis plenitudine circa quosdam. Sane pe[titio] tua nobis exhibita continebat, quod licet tu, ad bona nuptiarum aspirans, legitimo uti desideres consortio coniugali, quia tamen in illis partibus aliqua te gradu afifinitatis ad contrahendum cum ea matrimonium prohibito non contingens nequit comode inveniri, que status tui ac originis nobilitate pensata tuis convenire sponsalibus videatur, nobis humiliter supplicasti, ut circa id de oportune dispensationis gratia providere misericorditer dignaremur. Nos itaque tuis supplicationibus inclinati, tibi, quod cum aliqua nobili, etiam si tibi sit quarto et tertio afiinitatis gradu coniuncta, matrimonium contrahere valeas et in contracto etiam remanere, devotioni tue auctori- tate presentium duximus concedendum. Nulli ergo nostre concessionis, etc. Dat. Lugdun(i), Id. Decembris, anno tertio ' (Rom., Vat. Registr. 37, fo. 160 b, epist. 77 tertii anni, copia membr. coaeva). ^ M. van Werveke gives as reference for this (p. 151, n. 2) the original in the Lille archives, BttU. des Seances de la Comm. de VHist. de Belgique, 4® serie, xii. 345.
- Glossarium mediae et infimae Latinitatis, s. v.
Q2
