his father gave him; also a bed of red camate which is quite new, and all that belongs to it; also a great bed embroidered with angels, with the cushions, etc. Equal attention is bestowed on the disposal of several sets of hangings. His friends and followers are carefully provided for; and a malison is in voked upon his son in case of hindrance or neglect in the carrying out of his good in tention on their behalf. The widow of the Black Prince and mother of Richard II. was Joan, daughter of Kdmund of Woodstock, commonly called the Fair Maid of Kent. Her will, dated 1385, the year of her death, is in Latin, and, like her deceased husband's, much of it is occupied with beds, only she particularizes the precise dimensions of each, including the curtains and counterpanes. In the sixteenth year of Richard II. a statute was passed enacting that " Our Lord the King, his heirs and successors, Kings of England, may freely make their wills, and that these shall be duly executed." John of Gaunt's will fills fifteen quarto pages, and the codicil, six. His wardrobe, furniture, plate, and jewels are distributed piece by piece, or in small lots, amongst his relatives and followers, and liberal alms are set apart for the avowed purpose of inducing various religious bodies and the destitute poor to pray for him. He directs that his bodyshall be kept above ground for forty days, and that on each of these forty days forty marks of silver shall be distributed amongst the poor, on the eve of the burial three hun dred, and on the day of the burial " if it seem to my executors that this can be done, considering the quantity of my goods and my other ordinances and devises. — Item, I devise to be burnt round my body on the day of my burial, first ten great tapers, in the name of the Ten Commandments of our Lord, which I have too wickedly trangressed; and, besides these ten, that there be placed seven great tapers in the memory of the seven works of charity which I have neglect ed, and for the seven mortal sins; and, be
sides these seven, I will that there be five great tapers in honor of the five principal wounds of our Lord Jesus, and for my five senses, which I have very negligently wasted, for which I pray God's mercy; and, in ad dition to all the aforesaid tapers, I will that there be three in honor of the Blessed Trin ity." Henry IV. 's will is principally remarkable •by being the first written throughout in English. As it is dated January, 1408, eight years after the death of Chaucer, the lan guage was only just beginning to be fixed, and Norman-French or Latin was still in use in the courts of law. The will of Edward, Duke of York, was made the day after the taking of Harflcur. " Imprimis, I devise my soul to the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who created it and formed it of nothing, as that which is the most guilty and disnaturall creature He ever formed, consid ering the great indulgence and sufferance He has shown to me from day to day, not withstanding my foolish life and the vileness of my sins." Thus runs the exordium of his will. Henry V.'s will is also in English, and directs that certain castles and lordships, al ready conveyed in trust, be made over to his brothers, John and Humphrey, in suc cession. The will of Henry VI. was made in the twenty-sixth of his reign, more than twenty-three years before his death. His father prophesied of him at his birth that he would be more a monk than a monarch; and his will justifies the prediction, for, though very long, it is almost exclusively occupied with provisions (which, however, were very wise and liberal) for the founda tion and endowment of Eton and King's Colleges. The castles, lordships, manors, lands, tenements, etc., granted to feoffees for this purpose, are described as £3395 iis. 7d. yearly. Towards the end of the fifteenth century the promotion of learning began to be con sidered a higher order of good work than
