Public School History of England and Canada/England/Chapter 10
CHAPTER X.
THE HOUSE OF LANCASTER.
1. Henry IV.—Henry, son of John of Gaunt, was the first king of the House of Lancaster, so-called from the duchy of Lancaster which he held through his father. Henry's title to the crown was a parliamentary one, for the Earl of March, a grandson of the Duke of Clarence, Edward III.'s second son, had a better claim by birth. Parliament, however, still claimed the right to say who should rule, although it was fast becoming the custom for the eldest son to succeed his father on the throne.
The early years of Henry's reign were full of plots and rebellions. The great nobles, who made Henry king, were not very obedient, and if Henry displeased them, they took up arms against him. First there was a plot to restore Richard, and then Owen Glendower rebelled in Wales. While Henry IV. with the aid of his brave son Henry, Prince of Wales, was trying to subdue Glendower, the two Percies (the Duke of Northumberland and his fiery son, Harry Hotspur), angered because the king had not treated them well in the matter of some prisoners taken from the Scotch, joined the Scots and Glendower against him. A great battle was fought at Shrewsbury, in 1403, in which the king defeated his enemies, and Harry Hotspur was killed. Two years later, Northumberland was killed in battle. Glendower, too, was subdued by the Prince of Wales, and peace once more came to England.
2. Important Measures.—Henry knew that he could not depend on his nobles, and therefore tried to keep on good terms with his parliaments, and with the church. This led to some very important measures being passed. So much money had been spent on the French wars, that the people were now unwilling to give large grants, and Parliament took advantage of the weakness of the king's hold on the throne, to make him do much as they wished. They also forced the House of Lords to give them the sole right to make grants of money to the crown.
This was a step in advance. Not so, however, were the cruel laws against heresy passed to please the church and the great landowners. The church feared the teaching of the Lollards, and the landowners blamed them for stirring up the peasants and villeins to revolt. Both church and landowners were afraid of the people rising and taking away their property, So, in 1401, a law was passed that any one continuing a heretic after due warning should be burnt alive. In February of that year, William Sawtre, a rector of Norfolk, was taken to the stake, and there gave up his life for his belief.
3. Henry V.—Henry's reign was a short one. He died in 1413, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Henry, Prince of Wales. He had other sons, all able men, the ablest being John, Duke of Bedford.
Henry V. was but twenty-five when he came to the throne, and had already earned the reputation of a great general. He is also said to have been notorious for his wild and reckless doings. Once, we are told, he was sent to prison by Judge Gascoigne, because he behaved insolently to the judge in court. Whatever faults he may have had as a prince, we know that he was on the whole a good king, and much loved by his people. He was too fond of war, and he persecuted the Lollards; these were his chief faults. But he was exceedingly brave, true to his word, and put the good of his people foremost in all his acts.
One very important change he permitted Parliament to make. Henceforth the petitions of the Commons to the king were not to be altered by him before he gave his assent to them. After a petition or bill had received the king's assent, it became a statute or law.
4. State of the People.—There was but one feeble plot against Henry, so strong was he in the good-will of his people. The nation had recovered somewhat from the Black Death, which again visited itin 1407. Serfs and labourers were gradually gaining their freedom, and the yeoman could now pay rent for his farm instead of giving labour to his lord. That the condition of the labouring class had greatly improved is shown by the laws against extravagance in dress. Trade with other countries was extending, and this led to an increase in shipbuilding. The coal trade of Newcastle was growing, and many merchants were becoming rich.
Against this bright side of the picture we must place the restlessness among the people, the blame of which the Church and the nobles: put upon the Lollards. The result was that Henry put in force the laws against heresy, and, among others, Sir John Oldcastle, 2 leading Lollard, was hanged in chains and burnt.
5. The French War Renewed.—To keep his nobles quiet, and to call away the attention of the people from their grievances, Henry renewed the war with France. There was no good reason for attacking France; but Henry loved war, and his nobles loved plunder. The King of France was insane, and his unhappy country was torn. by strife among the great French nobles. The opportunity to recover the lost territory was too good to be neglected, so Henry revived Edward III's claim to the French crown.
In August, 1415, Henry landed in Normandy and laid siege to Harfleur. It was a terrible siege, and the English lost many men through sickness in the army. Having taken Harfleur, Henry marched toward Calais, and in Oct. 1415, on the plains of Agincourt, with nine thousand men he defeated sixty thousand Frenchmen. It was the battle of Crecy over again; the English archers overthrowing with dreadful slaughter the French knights and nobles. More than one hundred princes and nobles were slain, and eleven thousand men were left dead or dying on the field.
Henry's army was strong enough to win a victory, but not strong enough to conquer and hold the country. So Henry returned to England, and after two years spent in preparation, once more invaded France. He now conquered Normandy, and took Rouen after a siege of six months, in which many women and children died through starvation. Everything at this time favored Henry's designs. The Duke of Burgundy, a French prince who ruled over a large territory, was treacherously murdered by some friends of Charles VI., the French king; and his followers and subjects, in revenge, joined Henry. It was not possible for the French to hold out any longer, and by the Treaty of Troyes, in 1420, Henry married Catharine, the daughter of Charles, and was appointed Regent of France. On the death of Charles, Henry was to become king.' Henry now returned to England full of honors, and his people were proud of his victories. But he did not live long to enjoy his conquests, for in 1422, at the early age of thirty-four, he died, leaving a young son, Henry, only ten months old, to succeed him.
6. Henry VI.—John, Duke of Bedford, was left as guardian of his baby nephew, and was also appointed Regent of France and Protector of England. He was a brave man, and an able general and ruler. He did his work well, and continued his brother's conquests in France. The Duke of Gloucester, Bedford's brother, was left to rule in England, while Bedford was fighting in France. Gloucester quarrelled at home with his uncle Beaufort, the chancellor, and abroad with the Duke of Burgundy, England's best and strongest ally. _Bedford, with much difficulty, managed to keep for a time Burgundy on England's side, but after Bedford's death, in 1433, he returned to his allegiance to the French king.
7. Jeanne Darc.—We must now tell the story of the romantic rescue of France through the efforts of a poor village girl. All France, north of the Loire, was in the hands of the English, and Bedford was closely besieging Orleans. The French people were nearly hopeless, and it seemed but a matter of a few days when Orleans must yield, and with its surrender all hope of saving France from complete conquest would vanish. In a little village in Lorraine lived a young girl of eighteen, Jeanne Darc, the daughter of a labourer. She was very ignorant, and knowing little of courts and camps, but pure and pious. She saw the misery of the land and was filled with a great pity for her country. In visions, she seemed to be told to go to Charles, the son of the French king, and to offer to crown him at Rheims. Her parents and friends tried to prevent her from going; but her ‘‘voices” left her no choice. Guided by a knight, she made her way to the French camp, and told Charles her mission. It was his last hope and he gave her her way. Clad in white armour, and mounted astride of her horse like a man, with the French banner waving over her, she led the rude French soldiery to the relief of Orleans, now on the point of surrendering. The effect was magical. Once more hope burned in the hearts of the French; and the English soldiers looked on in surprise and awe while Jeanne led her troops through their ranks, and entered Orleans. Soon the siege was raised. The English thought her a witch, who put fear in the hearts of their soldiers; while the French hailed her as a messenger from God come to deliver them from their enemies. Jeanne led her soldiers from victory to victory, until her mission was accomplished, and Charles was crowned at Rheims. Then she asked permission to go home; her “voices” had left her, and her work was done. But Charles would not let her go; he feared his soldiers would not fight well under any other leader. Some of the French generals were jealous of her, and at the siege of Compiégne, in 1430, let her fall into the hands of the English. Charles made no effort to save her, and she was taken to Rouen, where she was tried for witchcraft. Condemned in 1431 to be burnt alive, her courage and faith never forsook her. Her last word at the stake, while the flames raged fiercely around her, was ‘‘Jesus.” Her name yet lives green in the memory of the French people.
8. End of Hundred Years’ War.—The war lasted some time after Jeanne’s death, but the English steadily lost ground. Bedford died, and Burgundy went over to the side of Charles VII. Year after year saw new conquests by the French until, in 1453, the war came to an end, and of all Henry V’s possessions in France nothing remained to the English but Calais.
9. Weak Rule of Henry VI.—Henry was a feeble king; kind, merciful, and generous; but so weak in intellect that he was wholly unfitted to rule. In the early years of his reign England was distracted by the quarrels of his uncles, of whom Gloucester was the most mischievous and troublesome. Parliament, too, had not so much power as in the days of the Plantagenets, and the right to vote for members was now taken away from many people. Unseemly quarrels often broke out in Parliament; so much so that the members of one Parliament brought cudgels up their sleeves. Later on, when Henry began to rule for himself, he was much influenced by his wife, Margaret of Anjou, a strong-minded woman, who loved power and brought her foreign friends with her. The people cared little who ruled so long as their money was not wasted. This, however, Henry’s friends did, and the heavy taxes caused a rebellion.
10. Jack Cade’s Rebellion, 1450.—The men of Kent, always among the first to resist, led by Jack Cade, and aided by the men of Surrey and Sussex, came down in large numbers to London, and demanded that their grievances should be righted. We hear nothing of serfdom, or of wages, in their complaints, and this shows what a change for the better had taken place since the days of Wat Tyler. Cade’s followers asked for free elections, for a change in the king’s advisers, and that the king’s foreign favourites should be sent out of England. The rising was soon at an end, and Jack Cade was killed shortly afterwards.
11. Wars of the Roses.—People began now to look to Richard, Duke of York, to right the affairs of the country. Richard was descended on his mother’s side from Lionel, Duke of Clarence, second son of Edward III., and on his father’s side from Edward, Duke of York, fourth son of the same king. He thus had as good a claim to the crown as Henry VI. When Henry, in 1454, became insane, Richard was made Protector. Henry, however, partially recovered, and then he drove the Duke away from his court. This was too much for York to endure, and he took up arms, claiming the crown as his by right of birth. Then followed a dreadful struggle, which lasted for many years. It is known in history as the Wars of the Roses, because the Lancastrians wore a red rose, while the Yorkists chose a white rose. Battle followed battle, sometimes one side being victorous, and sometimes the other. Margaret had to do battle for the rights of her son and husband, for Henry was often insane and always feeble and helpless. In 1454, at St. Albans, the queen’s party was defeated by York; and he was again victorious, in 1460, at Northampton. But at a great battle at Wakefield, in December 1460, the Duke of York was killed, and Margaret, in mockery of his claims, had his head, decked with a paper crown, placed on the walls of York city. Then Edward, son of the Duke of York, took up his father’s cause. At Mortimer’s Cross, in 1461, he defeated the Earl of Pembroke, and marching down to London, was made king. In the same year the rival forces once more met, this time on Towton Field. In this bloody battle 20,000 Lancastrians, and nearly as many Yorkists, were killed, but victory rested with Edward IV. Henry and Margaret found a refuge in Scotland, and for a time Edward reigned undisturbed.